Facebook Privacy

I think it's time that I weigh in on this whole debacle.

This whole thing started around the beginning of the year, when Facebook decided to roll out new privacy settings. Not a bad thing in itself, except that they also decided to reset all of your privacy settings also. Whether this was an accident or intentional I don't know, but it started one hell of a fire storm.

Recently, Facebook rolled out simplified privacy settings in order to placate all the naysayers. It works pretty well and things seemed to have quieted down somewhat.

However, as usual, people have started acting stupid.

The biggest thing that gets me is people complaining how Facebook's privacy pages are longer than the Constitution and that they're difficult to navigate. And this isn't casual web users. This is the TECH industry. It simply boggled my mind how much people were whining. Especially since I was able to change my settings to my satisfaction in less than five minutes.

Another thing people have said was that back when it started, Facebook was THE place for privacy. True. Back then, you had to have a college address to use Facebook. It then opened up to allow everyone, but it was still rather closed down. That was four years ago. In the last two years, Facebook has taken a more Myspace approach. With all the games, notifications and the like, you'd have to be a TOTAL MORON to claim this was the same Facebook of old.

I understand that people have an expectation of privacy, and Facebook DID fuck up royally, but people are also being a little unfair. So what if it might take you a little longer to have your privacy settings the way you want them. If you're that concerned about it, you'll do it.

Even better. If you're extremely paranoid about certain information becoming public, then DON'T FUCKING PUT IT ON THE INTERNET! Facebook has fields for your address and phone number. Is it required? Hell no! It's a general rule of the net. It applies to EVERY social network and not just Facebook.

It seems like people are using "Expectation of Privacy" as an excuse to be stupid. I agree that people should have privacy, however I also believe that people should take an active role in maintaining that privacy instead of complaining so damn much.

Epic Fail!

So as I a gamer I, like most gamers, have been following E3. A lot of interesting things have been revealed. Project Natel, Social networking on Xbox Live, things like that.

Like most gamers, I was waiting for news on the new PSP. It was the worst kept secret in gaming after all. Unlike most gamers, however, I really didn't care much for it. No UMD Slot seemed like a stupid idea and , like the DSi, I figured it would be a minor upgrade.

So it comes out. The design was anticipated...the extras were anticipated, with the exception of a touch screen...or lack thereof.  Still, it seemed like an interesting little machine. Until you get to the price.

Now the DSi is $40 more than the DS Lite. It's a modest little upgrade, so that seems pretty reasonable. If you're in the market for a DS, you can spend some extra money and get a DSi if you so desire. So everyone though this would be the same. Probably around $200 since the PSP is $170 brand new.

Not a chance.

In a move that showed everyone that they don't know what the HELL they're doing, Sony announced the PSPgo (terrible name) at 249 bucks.

$249 dollars for a machine that DOESN'T have a UMD slow and is indeed SMALLER than a PSP. Granted it has internal storage, but for that much, I can get a regular PSP and an 8gig memory card, which is all I would probably need. Plus I can play old UMD games and it just looks a lot better all around.

So it seems Sony hasn't learned from the PS3 debacle. They're number three for a reason. The PS3 would be a contender if it would only drop in price, but Sony's need to push propietary storage on us is their downfall. The main reason the PS3 is so expensive is because of the Blu-Ray Drive. Meanwhile the Xbox 360 is $199, 299 if you want a hard drive, though you can easily find a Hard Drive for cheap. The Wii is $250. If this were a console, maybe it wouldn't be an issue, but it's a handheld that is, in some cases, inferior to the current model.

I bet you anything that Sony will wonder why these aren't flying off the shelves.  Perhaps this will stimulate the demand for the original PSP like the PS3 seems to be stimulating demand for the PS2. Perhaps that was sony's plan all along.