Surely this convenience entices you! February 16, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Humor, Life.Tags: annoyances, internet, pop-ups
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The pop-up ad is one of the ancient institutions of the internet. Sure, everyone hates them, but they've been around for so long that they've just become a sort of fact of life. Firefox's generally adequate pop-up blocker takes care of most of them for me, but they do occasionally slip by, usually while I'm at my most productive.
But let's shift gears just for a second. People more technically minded than myself are probably already well-aware of the wonderful onbeforeunload event. For those who are not, what this does is, essentially, pop-up a message saying, “Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?” whenever you try to, well, navigate away from or close the page. This type of behavior can be quite useful. If you are filling out some important/long form, and accidentally close the tab it's in, having it ask you if you're sure you want to close it is nice.
I think you can see where I'm going with this. Today I was treated to a pop-up ad offering both a free love tester service and, somewhat amusingly, the Yahoo! Toolbar, a product designed to block pop-up ads. I suppose advertising with pop-up ads does reach out to their target demographic. Anyway, as I attempted to close this window, I received a message saying, “Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?” It just goes to show you, anything that can be used to annoy people on the internet, will be used to do so. I guess it's some sort of take on Murphy's law. I can't wait until they start putting custom messages in: “Are you sure you want to close that? Fine, but remember, you could have won a Porsche!“
Of hot dogs, hechshers and hexakosioihexekontahexaphobes December 3, 2007
Posted by argotnavis in Food, Life.Tags: annoyances, Boston, dogs, hot dogs
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Many people are, I'm sure, aware of the problems of quantity that sometimes face purchasers of hot dogs. Eaters of Hebrew National hot dogs, for example, get seven dogs, but in order to match most other brands of hot dog, the buns are only sold in packages of eight. Or so I thought. Last time I bought hot dogs, I decided to go with New England-style buns, since I'm in New England and all. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, picture a cross between a normal hot dog bun and a folded slice of white bread, and you've pretty much got it. Unlike a normal hot dog bun, these are also quite likely to contain lobster rather than a hot dog, but lobster isn't usually in my price range, even here. Back to the point. When I purchased said buns, I didn't check to see exactly how many of them the package contained, probably because I assumed there would be eight. Well, I've made an ass of the both of us. Apparently, Shaw's New England hot dog buns come in packages of six. Why wouldn't they? Luckily, you only have to buy four packages of buns and three packages of dogs to wind up with an equal number of both. Of course, that's still more hot dogs than I tend to eat. Oh well, at least it isn't three six-packs of buns.
They really are hard, you know October 9, 2007
Posted by argotnavis in Language, News.Tags: annoyances, science, writing
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Having pretended to be a journalist for a year, I know that headlines are hard to write. I don't, however, think this is an excuse for writing bad headlines. The most enjoyable of the bad headlines are, of course, the ones which (sometimes) unintentionally contain a bad pun. I'd add to this category the perfectly good BBC news stories which use actual quotes in their headlines. I'm pretty sure these are generally not meant as scare quotes, but the effect really becomes more hilarious when someone sneaks a pun in there.
The really bad headlines, though, aren't the unintentionally hilarious ones, but the ones which are just misleading. Generally, it is considered good form in any discipline to have a title which accurately reflects the content of the work. For instance, it would probably be bad form to call your paper on particle physics, “Disillusionment in American Modernist Literature.” Of course, titles clearly unrelated to the work they're supposed to describe would be caught and changed. Unless, of course, it was intentional. The ones that actually do slip by, then, are usually pretty much right, but a little fuzzy on the details.
One in particular caught my eye tonight. The headline, in itself, isn't bad, except for the fact that there's nothing in the article to suggest that the assertion made in the headline is correct. Really, the scientists they quote (including one who is apparently a generic “scientist” at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee) seem to be doing an adequate job of explaining that the algae outbreak is a result of phosphorus and invasive mussels — although, of course, more research is needed to determine the amount of influence each factor has. They don't have a solution yet, but I'd hardly equate that to an inability to explain the outbreak. I have a sneaking suspicion that whoever wrote this headline read the first two or three paragraphs, skipped over some of the rest and then figured that nobody would read an article about algae and wrote that headline just to add some drama to it. Or maybe I'm wrong and, despite the explanations they give in the article, scientists are simply unable to explain this.
Seriously. March 16, 2007
Posted by argotnavis in Life.Tags: annoyances, elevators
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Maybe I'm just getting irritable in my old age, but I think it's silly to take the elevator to the 2nd floor of a 26 story building. Or maybe it's just that the extra stop on my way up to floor 14 is annoying.
I almost fell for it. . . January 14, 2007
Posted by argotnavis in Humor, Language, Life.Tags: annoyances, internet, spam
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You know, I'm not one to tell other people how to do their jobs, but I think some people could genuinely use some guidance. For example, I just got a spam e-mail from a person named “Pirate.” Seriously. Their display name was just “Pirate.” Now, as fitting a description as that might be, that's probably not the best way to get someone to open your spam message. Hell, I'm more likely to open those sixteen identical e-mails from “Sven O'Malley” and “Hurealite K. Cohobation” than one from a guy calling himself “Pirate.”
I love the radio August 10, 2006
Posted by argotnavis in Language, Music.Tags: annoyances, Panic! at the Disco, radio
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I've been listening to the radio in the car this week, and because of that have been treated to hearing that Panic! at the Disco song three times in two days. Every time I hear it, I make a list of things that I really don't like about it. So. . . here that is.
1) It's by Panic! at the Disco, who may annoy me more for their name than anything else.
2) Much obvious borrowing from Fall Out Boy, who really don't seem like they've got much worth borrowing in the first place.
3) Even more obvious borrowing from fucking Peter Schilling of all people. Actually, that might be a positive point.
4) Horrible, 6th-wave emo song title. Although “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” does pale in comparison to “There's A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet.” Dig the grammar.
5) Awful lyrics.
6) Mildly sexist, although I suppose it's better than “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off.”
7) Las Vegas gave us the Killers, then this? Thanks.
Generic “heavy, but not too heavy” overproduced guitar tone.
So why don't I totally hate this song? I really have no idea, but for some reason I continue to listen to it every time it comes on. . . 30 times a day.
