Driver 8, the blog that allows its readers to create the content. As I said, no one will buy a refrigerator with Internet capabilities...

Except for those NYC marketing guys who are sub-letting the kitchen in someone's apartment overlooking Central Park.

It's all about knowing your demographic.

Kat Donohue • 10/14/02; 7:04:50 PM

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I don't know... I spend a good deal of time on my laptop (I have a wireless) LAN in my kitchen. And yes, there are quite a few people in NYC whose kitchen is indistinguishable from the living room/bedroom/study.

Daniel Dolinov • 10/15/02; 7:20:51 AM

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Usually, you can count on your friendly neighborhood Raven to offer speculation and futurist insights, but I haven't been able to visualize the market for LG's PC Fridge. If it were integrated in some way with its contents, you know, so you could check to see if you need to pick something up on the way home, check the expiration date on the milk from your work computer, something like that, OK. But this thing... What, exactly, are you supposed to do with it? Stand in front of the refrigerator and check stock quotes?

Now, a mini-fridge built into a PC so you could grab a cold one whilst mid-blog, that I could see.

Regards, - R.

The Raven • 10/15/02; 12:58:34 PM

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Raven: I know a lot of people who would do exactly that, may god have mercy on my soul.

Kat Donohue • 10/15/02; 1:22:56 PM

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I mean, stand in front of the fridge and read stock quotes. That wasn't clear.

Kat Donohue • 10/15/02; 1:23:28 PM

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Hook it up to a web cam inside the fridge, so you can see what's in it without opening it - whilst simultaneously discovering if the light *does* go off when you close the door.

giles • 10/15/02; 2:33:50 PM

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Giles: I'll bet people still open it and just stare. I've seen people stand at those glass-doored soda refrigerators at convenience stores with the door open, even though the DOOR IS GLASS! YOU CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH IT!

Kat Donohue • 10/16/02; 2:36:50 PM

Driver 8, the blog that allows its readers to create the content. It seems there's still some life left on that discussion about waitresses.

15% is NOT stingy. I reserve the right to tip higher than that if the service is GOOD. If the barrista doesn't know what a pint is -- they get nothing.

Is this over-tipping thing coastal? When my parents come to visit from MN, I always have to carry singles around with me so I can augment their tips.

sillydog • 10/25/02; 7:51:42 AM

The Raven posted an intriguing entry on slash fiction (you know, the kind that revels on Kirk/Spock homosexual pairings) where he observes how "as with all things teen and Net, an insider's argot fences off casual inquiry... You hit... abbreviations all over Slashland."

Which reminded me of that article from the NY Times about teenagers using Net shorthand at school. Back then, I commented how such abbreviations and acronyms are "necessary for quick communication thru instant messaging and e-mail," but as the Raven observes, there's also an esoteric component involved in it. Is as if the kiddies were telling the old-timers with their correct grammar and fancy-word vocabulary, "Screw you, people! We can be as obscure and exclusive as you. You want to keep us down through language? Fine, we'll pay in kind!"

Alas, this seems an obvious conclusion, a tautological statement to the Raven's ("...fences off casual inquiry"). I feel like I should "duh!" myself on the comments.