David’s Random Thoughts

Have you noticed how more and more channels are popping up advertisements and general information at the bottom of the screen?  I don’t know about you but it’s getting more than a little annoying.  I feel like a need a pop-up blocker for my TV.

Lately, it seems these ads are getting bigger.  One channel even plays sound effects during the pop-up which completely mask the sound of the show I’m trying to watch.  It’s bad enough that our hour long shows are really only 42 minutes because of commericals.  Soon they’ll just run a continous stream of ads at the bottom of the screen.  If and when it comes to that I’ll invest large amounts of money to develop a blocking device for them.  Anyone else want in?

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I know I’ve complained about spam emails and the idiots that forward them before but I just can’t help but do it again.

Today I recieved an email telling me how I could possibly save my life by coughing during a heart attack. As I always do, I went to snopes.com to check it out. It turns out that coughing could possibly help during a heart attack but only if done correctly and preferably under the supervision of a doctor. Without proper training and/or supervision it could actually make the heart attack more fatal. (ready the full snopes info here)

This just really irks me. There are people out there endangering the lives of other people simply because they fail to engage their brains and think for themselves. I realize I might be taking it to the extreme but I think doing so really helps illistrate the point. Which, if you don’t know, is STOP FORWARDING EVERY PIECE OF SPAM AS IF IT WERE HAND WRITTEN BY GOD HIMSELF AND GIVEN TO US TO BLESS THE WORLD!

Ah, I feel better. 

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So this morning I’m minding my own business when a friend forwards me one of the standard “EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW THE INFORMATION IN THIS EMAIL SO IT’S WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS” messages. Now I have most of my email comrades trained to not send me such things as they are almost all utter nonsense and easily disproved. Though every now and then someone braves the waters and sends it to me anyway. This is okay and I don’t begrudge them because they respect my wishes most of time and only send me a forward when they think it will actually apply to me.

Today however it was an email saying we shouldn’t microwave foods in plastic containers because it will give you cancer. I quickly jumped over to snopes.com to authenticate the story. Naturally within seconds I found that it was completely false. So I kindly replied to my friend and said, “Sorry but not true” and included a link to the article.

What gets me upset is that when I actually research the emails that are sent to me and find they are false I feel it’s only right to let others know they are being misled. Though all too often I’m criticized and yelled at for it. Why is it okay for these people send mass amounts of unverified data to everyone they know but wrong for one person to respond, only to the sender not the whole list, and say I’m sorry but you are wrong. How does that make me the bad guy? I didn’t ask to be sent the information. In fact quite the opposite.

I just don’t understand the mentality behind, “Oooh, I’m going to send out mass amounts of spam to all my friends and relatives and hope they don’t mind.” Much less to them get mad when one of the unsuspecting people respond with, “Hey do you know this isn’t true?”

Oh well, I guess it’s just the burden some of us responsible netizens will have to live with in our digital information age.

The preceding rant was brought to you by Campbell’s Soup. It’s Mmmmm Mmmmm Good.

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