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08 January 2010
Did you know about the "Find" bar in Google Chrome? I just discovered it today, it's what I've always wanted in a browser.
You know. This is what I hate about the internet, and people, and stuff. I was pretty excited about this since it's something I could have used, but didn't know existed until now. So, what do I get for my excitement? A bunch of wankers who say it's been around forever, what the fuck is wrong with me?
I'm tired of this shit. Carry on, carry out, Harry Carey.
Ouch. I understand how the chorus must have stung, eekacat, especially if you're hearing it with a harsh tone. (I heard it with a playful tone, but I cheerfully admit that the tone is in my head.)
But I hope you come back, and I hope that you see that no one called you stupid or made fun of you. People were just briefly chiming in to remark that the feature you just learned about and found useful also exist in other browsers.
Man, do I love that feature. Lately when I'm reading a book, I find myself trying to "find" with, uh, my brain. It doesn't work.
(And maybe you're kidding and I'm just missing the tone. Tone! It's tricky!)
You know. This is what I hate about the internet, and people, and stuff.
Dude, I agree. The problem with rapid-fire culture is that any cool thing you find, there's somebody right next to you to say "Pah! You just saw that? That is SO OLD." It makes me sad, too, because it keeps people from finding and sharing cool stuff. This, for example, which I didn't know about.
My favorite-ever conversation in that vein occurred about 10 or 12 years ago between me and my brother, who was briefly visiting from his home in Argentina.
Brother: [puts a CD into his laptop] Hey, you're going to love this band!
Elsa: [listening] Oh, hey, Magnetic Fields! Yeah, I love them, I have this box set!
Brother: There's a BOX SET? ... You FUCKER, why didn't you ever tell me about them?
And there's the thing: it's almost impossible to know what people do and don't know about, it's often presumptuous to inform people of stuff they would love (which, to some people, presupposes that you know the subject better than they do), and many people openly resent unsolicited advice. Also, I always used to think that, by the time I've figured out some little tip or technique or band or style flourish or whatever, it's gone pretty mainstream. I've been recently considering that I may be wrong about that.
I'll say this: eekacat and BoringPostcards may have talked me into trying Chrome.
And, you know, the kicker is that I didn't tell him about them because he lived thousands of miles away and we had only contact only occasionally, by email, and neither on of us did file-swapping or uploading in those dim days of widespread dial-up. It would have been downright presumptuous, not to mention out-of-the-blue, to sudden email and say "Hey, you'd like this band. Check them out."
But still. I smile when I remember the loving, exasperated bile with which he said "You FUCKER!"
A friend of mine once told me that it would be a good idea to use my dishwasher as a drying rack. I started doing that, and it worked great. After a few months, I told my then-girlfriend about it, and she looked irritated at me and said "I suggested you do that a year ago".
I'm not sure why I'm sharing this, but it seems marginally relevant, and good to confess.
I long ago accepted that there will always be people who know more about the internets and the cool new stuff than I do. That's fine; I can (and do) directly benefit from someone else's foresight and knowledge.
Just don't tell me that my favorite band sucks .. them's fightin' words. :-D
Hey, eekacat. I hope you didn't check out for good because of this thread. I can definitely see how it might have seemed like folks were attacking you, especially if you were having a bad day or week or whatever. But I don't think anyone meant any offense.
Anyway, I hope you join us again soon. If you didn't, your contributions here would be greatly missed.
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