Christine Cavalier

"Why can't this Clay Shirky write like this? He is perfectly understandable in this video, unlike his book "Here Comes Everybody," where he used overwrought, pedantic and esoteric language (yes I used haughty words to describe Clay's haughty words, the irony isn't lost on me). I really actually like Clay Shirky, I think he's smart. But I wish he would write for a more general audience; now his writing just comes across as elitist. Anyway: I like how he is approaching the emotional impact of false media and connections. Thanks for posting!" - Christine Cavalier

"w00t! I'm a big fan of moving the language forward at a bit of a faster pace than normally (which is about the speed of a turtle with a bad cold)." - Christine Cavalier

Asking for passwords ... that's not just risky it's stupid. - Stephen Baugh

I know, it is more trouble than the information gathered would be worth. - Christine Cavalier

"This is the first dropped comment I've run into myself, but I have no way of knowing who else may have run into it here. I also have a hard time with the spam filter. I send an email to delete the spam, but it remains on my blog's admin page and I have to manually delete it there. *sigh* Thanks for telling me that, I think if Marina Martin, internetz queen, ditched disqus, maybe I should too. -PC" - Christine Cavalier

"Thanks for commenting! I think we should note that the commas separating address parts are for paragraphs only. I had a little contention with the 3rd grade curriculum this year, as they were teaching the old convention for snail mail addressing. I sent a link to the Post Office website to the teacher. No punctuation and all caps are preferred by the Post Office now. Personally I find that adding the 4 digit code onto the end of the Zip Code helps speed delivery too. Yes I know I didn't put a comma after the first word of the last sentence or the first word of this one. If I wanted more dramatic effect, I would've placed the commas there. I'd say tell him to read whatever he writes out loud. That is an old novelist's technique and it truly does help with style and flow. By the way, when did we have the same English teacher? Who are we talking about? Miss Martin? Sister-what's-her-name? -PC ________________________________" - Christine Cavalier

"Thanks for commenting! I think we should note that the commas separating address parts are for paragraphs only. I had a little contention with the 3rd grade curriculum this year, as they were teaching the old convention for snail mail addressing. I sent a link to the Post Office website to the teacher. No punctuation and all caps are preferred by the Post Office now. Personally I find... more... - Christine Cavalier

"Sarah, There isn't any hacking risk to accepting a friend request on Facebook. You can accept any requests you like. Accepting friend requests from the people listed in this note (or any new ones that come along) won't do any harm, to you or your computer. It's just not how hacking works. A hacker needs your password, for any site that has password protection on the internet (like Facebook). Even friends on Facebook don't get to view your password, nor could they hack their way to it just because of the friend connection. Believe me, if there were a way to hack friend connections, the hackers would have already done it by now. How would Facebook survive if they didn't code this basic security into the platform? These types of emails are just hogswash, meant as a joke or denial-of-service attack on others. They also spread TRULY unnecessary fear. So yes, friend Adam Slaney and the others. They'll be able to see everything you haven't marked private, but they will never be able to..." - Christine Cavalier

"I LOVE that link, all of those charts and graphs! (you know I love me the statistics!) I'll have to look up Sysomos more often." - Christine Cavalier

"Thanks for sharing. I think he's deluding himself and us about the blogging jobs on craigslist and other sites. Firstly, many of them are scams, Secondly, many of them and other blogging jobs are offered at slave-labor rates, not at all worth the effort and risk of harming your reputation when the news leaks that you will blog for pennies. So, it kind of enrages me, actually, that he would put out this kind of "advice." It isn't good advice for writers who live in the real world. It's for lay people who want to see their name somewhere and they would do it for free." - Christine Cavalier

"UPDATE: My friend Bill Cammack talked about this over on his awesome blog. As is usually the case, we tend to clarify our points in comments better than we do if we just post on our own. Go over and read his post (it's short). Here's my comment over there. It goes into a bit more of my thought process on why I chose my real name instead of my username on Facebook: "Hey man, I posted on this too. I was wondering about this myself. Facebook.com/christine.cavalier is my vanity URL but I almost took /purplecar. My reasoning was this: every other web app I take the "username" purplecar and "real name" christine cavalier. Why should facebook be different? But then I thought about the search behaviors of people on Facebook. People search Facebook in a unique manner, compared to other sites. They search for people, mostly, by just name, forgoing drilling down into networks or groups until after their initial search has turned up fruitless (yet abundant) search results. (We all are acutely..." - Christine Cavalier

"Michelle, Exactly. Thanks for commenting! Come back and link me to your post when you are done. I forgot to add the child-marriage aspect. My friend pointed out that the "imprinting" on babies thing is basically a child-marriage arrangement. We've all seen spin-offs of the Mormon church do this very thing, probably due to a fundamental belief in fate and pre-ordained couplings. With Jacob imprinting on Nessie and his other friend imprinting on the two year old girl, it supports that very fate-controlled life, especially for girls. Yuck. I totally agree that Bella and Edward are pathetic. It was quite annoying. -PC ________________________________" - Christine Cavalier

Hey all. Don't forget I have a newbie Twitter primer on purplecar: http://tr.im/mv0T Send it on, ok? We like newbies. :) - Christine Cavalier

"Hi Monkey Chick! Well, first let me say Congratulations on starting your new life. Divorce can be a beginning, too. I usually keep my advice to online etiquette and computing issues, as I'm not a counselor, but I felt compelled to answer you. I think you should treat this man as only a little more than a stranger. He's involved with a woman who is about to have his child. You do *not* want to get in the middle of that. Honestly, the guy sounds like he is looking for any way out of the ridiculous yet serious situation his irresponsible behavior has gotten him into. Don't give him that excuse. Ask yourself if it is really this man that you want or is it the comforting idea that you *do* have good taste in men. By getting back together with an ex, it's as if you are proving to yourself that you had it right but just got off the path somehow. After divorce, that crushing sense of failure can put false hope in unhealthy places. Keep your FB and MySpace relations strictly to girlfriends and..." - Christine Cavalier

like this is insane: "RT http://ReTwtr.com RT @PurpleCar: I've been won over by the anti "RT" or "ReTweet" argumen.. http://bit.ly/185heP" - Christine Cavalier

like this is insane: "RT http://ReTwtr.com RT @PurpleCar: I've been won over by the anti "RT" or "ReTweet" argumen.. http://bit.ly/185heP" - Christine Cavalier

Oh, look! http://friendorfollow.com lets you import a CSV file of all your fans, friends or follows. How handy! Following back ppl now. - Christine Cavalier

"Calla, that's what really got to me about the Twilight series: the abusive relationship and how no-one is talking about it. I really should have put that subject up at the top and put the religious aspect down at the bottom. But I guess the treating of women as second-class citizens is pretty rampant in conservative religions, so it's all relevant... I'm glad you're finally done! I hope some parents do in fact read the books to make the decision for themselves what ages are appropriate. I'm shocked to find that some 10 year old girls are reading this stuff. My 9 year old girl is diving into Harry Potter now and I know I'll have some interesting conversations with her throughout the series. There's no way she'll be ready for Twilight until she's at least 14, and she'll have to be a pretty savvy 14 year old at that. I'd rather girls under 18 not read it at all, actually. Anyway, the facts that the series is escaping scrutiny and is gathering momentum in the mom set are baffling to me. I..." - Christine Cavalier