Why Google is a Big Jerk

I have always been a fan of Google. They have provided the internet with countless useful tools, and have acquired and improved upon many more (such as Picasa and Youtube). However, I have lately discovered just how frustrating it can be trying to work more seriously with the services they provide.

About a month ago, I helped to found (and now preside over) the Japanese Animation & Culture Club at my college. As we were only able to secure a club room one day a week, the club officers agreed that a weekly newsletter would help us to be more involved, discuss a greater range of topics and most importantly, organize club outings. Further, it would allow club members whose schedules conflicted with the weekly meeting to stay up-to-date.

I set up a Gmail account specifically for the purpose of sending out said newsletters, and spent many hours collecting information and designing the perfect layout. When all was said and done, I pasted our enormous roster of over 60 members into the BCC field, attached the newsletter, and clicked send.

Immediately, two or three emails were bounced. Okay, I expected some typos, I'll just have to get those emails again later. But then, with every moment, more and more came pouring back into my inbox until finally I had 65 replies of "message rejected." Google had marked my carefully-crafted letter as spam.

In frustration, I tried to send it again, this time with only 10 recipients. Surely that will be fine. All ten returned within moments. There is no way I am sending out 65 individual newsletters; there has to be a better solution.

Google's FAQ provided a few solutions to the query "Why aren't my messages being sent?", including using Google Groups for sending mass emails, as in the case of invitations or newsletters. Fine, that shouldn't take too long. I went through the sign-up process and created a group, inviting all 65 emails on our roster to join.

With the same distrustful attitude, I am told on the next screen that Google will manually review the invite requests to this group, and that I need to "provide an explanation for where these new members come from and why they would want to be part of your group. Note that Google takes a very dim view of Spam." I can't even think of a less-polite way to word that. "If they complain, you will be banned from our service and your group will be deleted."

I know that "guilty until proven innocent" is the norm in some countries, but I didn't expect "don't be evil" Google to operate under such a principle.

LAYTON

Yes yes yes yes YES! I was just bitching about this last night! Oh man, oh man!

http://kotaku.com/5186033/a-clue-level-5-lets-layton-sequel-hints-drop

I gotta start working on a Luke cosplay right now!

Master Troll

A little quote from our favorite notorious analyst, Michael Pachter:

The Wii audience isn't sophisticated enough to know whether the game they're buying compares favorably to, say Gears of War or LittleBigPlanet, because they probably don't own an Xbox 360 or a PS3.

They buy the Wii games that they buy for the same reason that people go to McDonald's. McDonald's doesn't win a lot of restaurant critic awards but they are approachable, they're consistent, and you know what they're going to serve you.

Oh, yes he did. I want to write an article about this one.

Sucky Professor

I really, really hate my Eastern Religions professor. This is another rant about his crappy testing methods.

So, I just finished my first exam in the course, covering Hinduism. 25 questions, multiple choice, one hour. I painfully answered each question, knowing I was going to get a poor grade and hate myself at the end of it. Without double-checking my answers (wouldn't have changed my mind on any of them), I finished and checked my results.

One of a very small handful of questions I felt I had gotten right for sure... was wrong. That one question tipped the balance from an A to a stupid, shameful B+. The question asked, basically, which option meant a caste in Hindu tradition. In Hinduism, social classes (CASTES) are divided into Varna. We even had an assignment analyzing how castes are connected to Hindu creation - each Varna is a group of people designated by the body part they represent (that sounds silly, but it's pretty interesting).

One of the options was Varna. The others were Sanskrit terms that had nothing to do with social standing. The last option, of course, was the ominous "none of the above." Guess which one he expected. What really irks me about it is that in the preface to the exam, he specifically instructs you to "choose the best answer."

"None of the above" should be banned from multiple-choice tests unless it is obvious that the answer is nowhere near the options given. It lets idiot teachers put their feet up and say "well, TECHNICALLY..." when an answer you choose is only mostly correct, or "x was the BEST answer..." if you do choose "none." It's unfair either way; it's like a free pass for penalization if you didn't call a coin flip.

At the beginning of the semester, I was really looking forward to this course. Moreso, even, than my girly sewing class where I get to make pretty dresses. I regret taking it now, but I have no choice but to stick it out until the end of the semester. More than anything, I think, I resent the fact that this professor is going to unfairly cripple my GPA, and my chances of sorely-needed scholarships. :(

On Roommates

Many students choose to continue living with their parents while at college. Unfortunately, 3000 miles is a bit of a trek to go to school every day, so I rent an apartment. It's my first apartment, which was kind of scary before moving in. Living on your own is an enormous amount of responsibility, not to mention a distressing flurry of paperwork. Before you can actually live in an apartment, you find yourself tethered to a behemoth of culpability, signing towering legal documents as though you're planning to juggle Molotov cocktails in the kitchen.

So maybe it's understandable that I'm not looking forward to the end of June, when one of my roommates moves out. This guy is the ideal co-signer: he's only here about half the time, and when he is, you'd never be able to tell without a trained forensics team. I actually managed to catch him leaving his room one time, and was surprised to learn he had grown a beard since I had last seen him. You'd think he attended Milford or something.

Now, I might not be so worried if this was a peaceful little town, but Chico has a bit of a reputation (see "Other"). I've made some great friends here, but it's embarrassing what goes on Friday nights, and certainly more than a little frightening. Finding a new roommate who would rather spend their weekend on quieter, more sober entertainment is going to prove challenging.

There's a lot more to it than the impending threat of boozing frat boys, though. Living with someone is a very intimate undertaking, and involves a great deal of trust. When you have literally invited a stranger into your house, it's impossible to know right away what kind of person they are. The most visible concern, of course, is theft. With numerous consoles in our living room and about 250 games in the apartment, I may be feeling just a tiny bit of anxiety with someone new here. But that, actually, isn't even my biggest concern.

What I'm more worried about is that our new roomy will just be plain sucky. I'm more worried that he will leave garbage around, forget to flush the toilet, or use my things without permission, because those are tiny things that are silly to get really worked up about. It's much easier to kick someone out after they've pawned your TV for drink money, but you can hardly end a lease because "dude sometimes plays his music kinda loud and one time he picked his nose."

I've only got one shot at this. Wish me luck, folks!