|
|
Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
RSS feed coming soon!
Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
|
|
|
|
|
Daily Blah for... Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Pina Coladas and Milkshakes
Another week, another tech column. This is one of the most lightly edited pieces I've done in a while, with only one exception: the song quote at the end of paragraph four. My original version was "faster than you can say 'pina coladas and getting caught in the rain,'" in homage to that cheesy 70's classic, "Escape (the Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes, and as a private nod to P, who loves the song. When my editor substituted "my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard," I had, I'm afraid to admit, no idea what he was talking about. One Google search and an iTunes download later, I was listening to "Milkshake," by some songstress called Kelis. It is a maddeningly addictive track. Almost as addictive as the Pina Colada song, in fact. Anyway, here's the column.
Can You Hurry Love?
Here's what you get when you marry online dating and instant messaging
By CHRIS TAYLOR
Online romance may have shed its stigma over the past couple of years, but until now the electronic process has been only a little bit faster than its off-line counterpart. Finding out whether your latest suitor is a loser could take days, if not weeks, when you're merely bouncing e-mail back and forth. What if you want to sort the wheat from the chaff right this minute? Isn't the Internet supposed to be about instant gratification?
Enter Love.com, a new service launched last week by America Online (which, like this magazine, is owned by Time Warner). Not to be confused with love@aol.com, which is run by Match.com for AOL subscribers only, Love.com is the first dating site to use the free software known as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). More than 50 million people use AIM regularly to chat with friends and co-workers. Many have it open on their desktop the entire time they're online.
Like Salon.com, the New York Times and a lot of other popular websites, Love.com uses a personal-ad system created by a company called Spring Street Networks. Spring Street ads tend to be more cerebral than their equivalents on Match.com or Yahoo Personals because they ask questions like "What was the last book you read?" and "What was the worst lie you ever told?"
When you've located a personal ad you like, Love.com tells you whether its creator is online and using AIM at the moment. Click once, and the object of your attention will be sent a request for an instant message (which he or she can safely refuse, since Love.com masks your real AIM user name). The two of you could be virtual-speed-dating faster than you can say, "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard."
Love.com is free only through Valentine's Day. After that, AOL says, posting an ad will still be free, but if you want to IM someone, you'll be asked to pay a monthly subscription fee. The amount hasn't been determined yet, but it's likely to be comparable to Match.com's $25 a month or $100 a year. Regular Spring Street sites charge you just $1 anytime you want to initiate an e-mail correspondence. Since Love.com trusts users to verify that they are 18 or older and AIM is officially available to anyone 13 or older, parents of teenagers may want to be extra vigilant.
Whether the additional cost is worth it depends on your view of dating. If you prefer to go slowly with one potential paramour at a time, you're probably better off on another Spring Street Networks website. But if you like playing the numbers game — and if the idea of being instant-messaged by strangers at random moments in your workday doesn't put you off — then it might make sense to take advantage of Cupid's AIM.
From the Dec. 22, 2003 issue of TIME magazine
|
|
|
|
