What the Hell?

About Me

Keen for some rants? General misadventure?
Excellent! I'm from Mosgiel, which is in Dunedin, which also happens to be in the South Island of New Zealand. I simultaneously love and loath social media. I enjoy the ability to connect easily, but I hate losing the ability to socialize in person. I also enjoy a wide variety of odd interests. I'm pretty down with Metal music(and some of it's various sub-genres). I play the drums(want to laugh at how bad I may be? Check out my YouTube profile http://www.youtube.com/user/psychobattery) Also, I enjoy a bit of everyday computer use. Currently, I'm attempting a double major in English and Computer Science. It's pretty rad, but learning about Twitter, the Java programming language and Shakespeare, can be a bit much at times. Anyway, stick around, grab a cold beverage and watch for some entertaining(and maybe thought-provoking) blogs!

Blogs I follow:

1. Orkut…or cut?

   

   So, if you didn’t quite get that cryptic title, basically, this blog is going to discuss the usability of Orkut. Which “is an online community designed to make your social life more active and stimulating.” -Source

   Now, don’t misunderstand my intention here, I will not be going deep into this website. I, like most people, am fairly content with a Facebook, a Twitter, and an untended MySpace profile. This will simply be a slight dip into the metaphorical bog that is Orkut.

   Let’s start with the nice features. Orkut is owned and operated by Google. That’s always nice, everyone likes(or at least uses regularly) one or more of Google’s services. Because of this, sign-up is relatively stress free. Orkut is directly linked to your G-Mail account. Also, because it is owned by the fairly omnipotent Google, Orkut easily links in to a myriad of other Google owned services such as YouTube, Google Videos and GTalk. And if there is one thing that is often complained about with Social Networking sites, it is their lack of syndication with other services.

   

   ^ As you can see, it links in well with Google(see the top left) and with your G-Mail account and Google search on the right.

   Unfortunately, here endeth the easily discernible good features. Henceforth, it is rather OrKrap(see what I did there?) For some reason, Orkut has decided that capital letters are “uncool” and that they don’t feel the need to use them very often(See below.) Personally, this just seems a little unprofessional and perhaps a weak attempt at a gimmick, but hey, maybe I’m just old-fashioned(at 19.)

   

   ^Showcasing the lack of capital letters

   Also, despite being released in January 2004, it is still considered to be in beta edition. Orkut is not the Avatar movie, it is not allowed an excessive amount of time to become fully functional. On top of this, a quick search through the communities available to join came up with an impressive/depressing amount of racist groups. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is generally frowned upon.

   Just to sum up, Orkut kind of does the job, and if you are Brazilian(stats) Orkut seems to be fairly popular. However, it sure as hell ain’t no Facebook and my overall impression was that Google woke up one day and thought, “Oh no, we iz not having a finger in all da piez anymore! We must makez a Social Networkz site!”

   Keep it real,

   Psychobattery.

   P.S. I’m a self confessed genius, which is not the real type and you should check Orkut out for yourselves and let me know what you think.