You just know Twitter will be all over this

Once you hear news like this developing, the first five to ten minutes are exciting. Then you realize nobody can tell you more than you already know about what you see and hear already. Couple this to the fact that people are absolutely stunned, and you're better off going away and coming back to the news some hours later. 

But you just absolutely know that people with Twitter accounts will be all over this.

Does that work?

Hmm... does that really work? Mouth caps against swine flu? 

Damn, I was just getting adjusted to the state of the economy, and now they come up with yet another way to influence the way we dress on the street.

Now, if they also stop stuff like handshaking, hugging, kissing we can pretty much move all our interactions to Facebook anyway. Then the only virus we need to be afraid of, is Conflicker.

Degrees of separation

According to my latest information, I am just three degrees removed from: 

• the president of the United States
  
• Bill Gates
• HRH Prince van Oranje

...or at least three degrees removed from the caretaker whom these people told to make their entries in the various networking sites...

Deauthorization Blues

I'm one of those people who jumped at the opportunity to get all the deauthorization software I can get. I mean, if you have Spore and Sims 2 and Red Alert 3 that installation limit is a huge inconvenience if you keep buying new equipment for your rig. 

However, how am I going to deauthorize a game's installation if THE ENTIRE HARD DISK WHICH THE GAME IS ON, IS INACCESSIBLE BY THE OS?! Can't run it, if I can't even get Vista to run, do I?

So not only does EA demand 50 bucks for the bloody privilege of playing their title... a handful of times. You can't ever upgrade the computer, which according to EA shouldn't be necessary for most people... right... 

EA fallaciously gives people the opportunity to regain these privileges with a small tool, which assumes you actually have the chance to run it in the first place. This doesn't help if your computer craps out on you. Just about the only reason to legitimately reinstall a piece of software, and EA gives you a feather duster to open a bottle of wine.

STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.

Something impractical

I understand why major motor racing competitions want to have night races on their schedule. It makes for beautiful pictures, adds to the uniqueness of the circuit and the venue itself, and generally brings a lot of headlines to the front page.

But as the MotoGP race of Qatar has proven, these races are hideously impractical. First they take place late at night, so you can't really move up the race one or two hours. Also you can't really move the race up to the Monday, since people have to go to work. Fans will want their money back.

To a lesser extent the start of the Formula One race in Malaysia was moved up to late in the afternoon to accommodate television channels in Europe, who could then show the race live at a more convenient time. The weather forecast however showed rain, and predictably the race was halted not even midway through. Because of the late hour, it was not possible to move up the remainder of the race. 

I'm quite sure, especially with all the economic difficulties even the premier race teams are experiencing, that these race postponements completely negate all the regulations the competitions have made to make them economically and financially viable.

Adaptability

I've always taken great pride in being able to relate to a great number of people on an individual level. Not just relate actually... also adapt to someone's personality. It does make me very easy to approach, but also very hard to understand. See, you can't really know how my demeanor is going to turn out. Some basic mannerisms will be the same, but beyond that it's going to be a crapshoot. How I will act around a person, or a group, depends on the social context, the relationships, the hierarchy, the topic, the time of day, my mood, whether or not Ajax won last weekend... the list goes on and on.

So in a sense, adaptable behaviour is not the best desirable trait. Could be good for actors, profilers, mentalists and hustlers; but for someone in a seat of power or reponsibility it may not work out as well.