Looking Around

Friendster’s blogging platform is disappointing: too much of a watered down tool. I have many gripes about it, but one of them is that whenever an entry is posted, blog trackers are not pinged.  hence, you don’t see friendster blogs when searching in technorati, etc.  Even www.blogger.com (blogspot) has an option to ping such sites. and www.blogger.com is no technology leader - it doesn’t even support proper trackbacks.  Check out wordpress, e.g., Warung Karipuf � Tech Niblets. for the best in blogging technology.  disclaimer: I am not affiliated with wordpress.

The contents of a bucket of crabs forms an excellent analogy for the behavior of people in a competitive environment (see the original article here: Crab Bucket.)  For those who are lazy to click on the link, here is an excerpt:

One day I was walking along the Washington Beach, the black beach in
    Washington, North Carolina with my father. I was about eight years old. I
    noticed a man with a bucket of crabs. The crab bucket did not have a top on
    it. I asked my father why the crabs were not able to escape. My father’s
    explanation taught me a valuable lesson.

My father said, “If there was only one crab in the bucket it would
    certainly escape. However, when there is more than one crab in the bucket,
    if one tries to crawl out, the other crabs would grab hold and pull it back
    down so that it would share the same fate as the rest of them.”

This is true with people. If one person attempts to better himself, other
    people will attempt to drag him back down to share their fate. My father
    said, “ You must ignore the crabs if you want to be a success in life.

Burnham’s Beat: A Unified Theory of Search, Social Networking, Structured Blogging, RSS and the Active Web is a great read for social theorists among us, or those of us who don’t like to go through life blindly going through the motions without thinking about the motions.