Empire Avenue Inconsistencies

There is a general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament going around EA lately. Most of the top stocks are on the decline over a period of time and some are getting angry (not I).

There are probably many reasons for the decline, but the most obvious ones don't make economic sense, check out Social Media Economics 101 for that perspective.

I think somebody is just fiddling with the knobs and levers in an attempt to push people towards a certain agenda. This is understandable, but I feel like I'm playing a game of monopoly with the rules changing, not only on ever round, but with every turn.

RFID Payment Cards

I'm using Pasmo in Japan... and really wish it was integrated into my iPhone.. Funny article about a DIY solution:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/06/howto-graft-the-rfid.html

PayPal App

Deposited my first check via iPhone. Snapped pics with the PayPal app and should see the funds in my account in six days, hopefully.

Chrome Bloat

Now we're getting "PDF Goodness" in Chrome. How can I turn this stuff off without resorting to an extension?

Driving In Japan

Got four hours of sleep and hopped in the car to navigate the narrow streets in Kawagoe. I've never driven on the left side of the road and with the steering wheel on the right. I use the windshield wipers a couple times when I meant to use a turn signal. I also drove on the wrong side of the road once or twice (this happened when nobody was around and there were no lines on the road).

Driving on the other side of the road is no big deal. It's the people on bicycles that seem to be EVERYWHERE. I mean EVERYWHERE. Always in the way. I wanted to start screaming at them.

Empire Avenue Design Changes

People rebel when familiarity is messed with. EA has made many design changes in the past six months that I wasn't at all happy with, but they grew on me.

Lately, a few changes were made that baffle me and add extra clicks to get at info. I thought I'd find a work around or learn to like it somehow, but this just isn't the case. Design flaws are being introduced and making the site even more opaque than it was. If I was coming to the site as a new user, I'd be so confused, I'd leave.

Someone put it perfectly, "'Endorsed my blog?' I don't even know what that means". And this isn't even the area I find confusing (yes, I find some parts of the site confusing).

Google IDs Suck

Once something becomes too inconvenient or confusing, I'll take a couple hours to sit down and master it or script it.

Two things that continue to baffle are Google IDs and Facebook privacy (I'm on top of FB at the moment unless their announcement today derails that).

I once mastered the Google ID and even consolidated accounts. But again, it's screwed to all hell. I log into Blogger with my personal email address, but at the top of the page it shows I'm here under a gmail account. So I have an alias set up for this. Fine. My GA and Adsense require a different account that I'm unable to alias... This has me logging in/out of each service constantly.

A frikkin's mess and it's only getting worse.