I’ve been posting trip reports of my adventures on my hiking blog.
Month: May 2010
things getting worse – phone service
I’ve added a new “category”, things getting worse.
When I was a kid, phone calls worked. Almost every time. Yet in 2010 we’ve dropped calls, no service, minimum 3yr mobile phone contracts (Canada). Monthly bills more expensive than expected.
Customers more unhappy than ever before.
Smart phones lure with wonderful apps. But make crappy phone calls.
And have you recently tried to call a company? They obviously don’t want your business.
Sure VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the future. But have you tried Skype? It’s very unreliable.
Fact is … phone service is getting worse.
I don’t have a phone right now, in protest. That has it’s downsides, too.
Facebook is EVIL … alternatives?
I love Facebook. Check it several times a day.
Wherever I travel, most laptops and netbooks are opened to Facebook.
Women, in particular, can’t resist.
But the company is evil. Facebook watchers pretty much all agree on this:
… “the act of creating deliberately confusing jargon and user-interfaces which trick your users into sharing more info about themselves than they really want to?” …
MSNBC – Facebook: The ‘Evil Interface?’
10. Facebook’s Terms Of Service are completely one-sided
9. Facebook’s CEO has a documented history of unethical behavior
8. Facebook has flat out declared war on privacy
7. Facebook is pulling a classic bait-and-swit
6. Facebook is a bully
5. Even your private data is shared with applications
4. Facebook is not technically competent enough to be trusted
3. Facebook makes it incredibly difficult to truly delete your account
2. Facebook doesn’t (really) support the Open Web
1. The Facebook application itself sucksGizmodo – Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook
EFF – Facebook’s Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline
Matt McKeon – The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook
The Consumerist – Facebook’s Privacy Settings Are Actually “Evil Interfaces”
NYT – Facebook Exodus
CNET News – Understanding Facebook’s privacy aftershocks
If you are as tech savvy as Luke Appleby, and tweak your privacy settings every time Facebook rolls out a change, then it’s no problem. He’s one of the very few defenders.
If you don’t like Facebook, wait. It will be as popular as MySpace in 5 years. My feed is already so bloated I’m tempted to start over with a new account.
Something will replace Facebook.
But what?
I want a service:
• open source
• non-profit
• privacy ON by default (only “friends” can see anything)
• no ads
That service would operate something like Wikipedia.
The business model, on a very small budget, would be to charge companies a tiny fee when users voluntarily friend them. For example, I would “friend” MEC, REI, and International Gymnast magazine … Each time one of those companies posts to my feed, they would have to pay a tiny fee.
The closest we’ve yet seen to what I want is Friendfeed. Here’s my feed, as a sample. (I only have 30 friends there, so don’t use the service.)
Unfortunately Facebook bought Friendfeed, and stopped adding new features.
Google is the company you’d think could quickly lure 50 million or so Facebook users over to a better competitor. They recently tried with Buzz, but that’s been a big FAIL, so far.
If I was to join a start-up tech company, it would be to launch a Facebook competitor. Optimized for smart phone / iPod updates.
_____
Update: The brilliant Jeff Jarvis linked to a Facebook alternative called Diaspora.
It’s only a proposal at this stage, but it’s certain I’d stop posting to Facebook. And switch to the Anti-Facebook, Diaspora, should it come to be.
Navajo National Monument
I laughed aloud at the incredulous poor management of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.
Signage says that 40% of the Navajo Nation lives under the poverty line. What do the entrance fees for that park go to? Not road improvement. Not campground improvement. Not signage … aside from the poverty sign.
The same day I traveled to camp at Navajo National Monument.
… it preserves three of the most intact cliff dwellings of the ancestral puebloan people (Hisatsinom).
The Navajo people who live here today call these ancient ones Anasazi. The monument is high on the Shonto plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system in the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. …
Rangers guide visitors on free tours of the Keet Seel and Betatakin (Bitátʼahkin in Navajo) cliff dwellings. …
Superb. That attraction is perfectly managed. Congratulations.
It’s run by the National Park Service, but with mostly Navajo employees, by the looks of things.
One example of the government doing a better job than non-government managers.
in Monument Valley
Gorgeous.
I’d been to Monument Valley before. But the Valley itself was closed for the (very cool) Red Bull Air Race: Photo by Timothy K. Hamilton
This time I did the only independent hike allowed in the Park, the Wildcat Trail (3.2mi). I had low expectations, but it turned out to be superb. I felt like a Mormon trailblazer.
At dusk I tried finding a mountain bike trail just outside the Park. That was a FAIL.
It’s amazing how all this flat desert is mostly impassable.
… moseying off in the general direction of the Grand Canyon.
freezing in Utah
Kelley Durbin told me …
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.” — Lao Tzu
LauTzy is right.
That’s why I’m holed up in a “camping cabin” at The Thousand Lakes RV Park, Torrey, Utah. Instead of being huddled up in my tent. (As I was the night before.)
Forecast tonight is for 29° F, 60% chance of precipitation (rain or snow). Actually it was the howling wind that finally drove me indoors.
Hmm. … May is considered the best hiking month here.
Tomorrow hiking Navajo Knobs. And driving on to the Muley Twist Canyon tomorrow night. Wish me luck.
… now, where did I pack my snowshoes?
Rick McCharles 