Monkey Notions
AOL LOL
Among the many places that you probably should admit to having worked, Aol (oh yeah, they haven’t been America Online since…well, since about the time that everyone realized AOL stood for Almost Completely Useless (yeah, I know those aren’t the right letters…).
Seriously, you’d get more respect if you used to work for McDonalds. Sure, you’d be responsible for crappy food and the kind of top-notch customer service that only a sullen junior-high dropout with bad skin can offer, but at least McDonalds doesn’t cover the planet with non-biodegradable trial burgers. They also don’t keep billing you for more burgers when you’ve told them like twelve times that you’re full and their food tastes like crap and is making your stomach run way too slow…if it doesn’t unexpectedly stop digesting food altogether.
Okay, we’re comparing apples to oranges here. Let’s examine the reputation that AOL has in the tech world…but nah, that won’t really support my point, because most tech executives don’t really care who you worked for, as long as you use the same meaningless buzzwords that they use, and spend your time proactively shifting paradigms and making sure that everything is scalable when you’re mind-mapping outside of the box. So AOL is just as good on your resume as any other pretend tech company.
However, most of the people that actually KNOW something will recognize that you’ve worked for one of the lamest jokes of the Internet Age (rickrolling your resume, so to speak) and will probably drive you insane by constantly asking if you have a coaster for their drink. Even Yahoo employees are allowed to make fun of AOL employees, and that’s saying something. You lost your last buffer between you and the bottom of the web when Geocities went out of business.
Aol is less fun than a casino for US players, and less convenient than online gambling Webmoney. Did you work with Jason Smathers? Did you work under the CEO that was George Bush’s choice for Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (and what a good job HE must have done, right? Perhaps it was AOL know-how that located those WMDs). Did you work under Al Haig or Colin Powell?
Do you not even care or realize how lame AOL is?
A Walk Down Memory Lane at AOL
August 14th, 2007
Last Wednesday (08 Aug) I went to Lunch 2.0 at AOL. What a difference a year makes =). Lunch 2.0 was first held at AOL in March of 2006. Mark Jen had asked me to host at AOL back when we were sneaking in cafeterias. I mentioned to Mark that we might have to pay for our own lunch and go to the cafeteria where we jaywalk across the street. Mark was gracious enough to say that was completely fine — little did I know that was their M.O. so it really was no big deal. The folks that came all fit in one picture frame:
Photo Credit: Terry Chay
It was nice and intimate and we were able to take them around and show them the office. I was most excited to show them the UX Cafe where we post designs and everyone can look and comment on them. I told some of my designer friends to take down anything “confidential”. When we got to the area, everything was taken down and all the boards were flipped hahaha I guess everything was confidential.
Today, designs may still be confidential but AOL is showing more signs of embracing the Silicon Valley Tech “Web 2.0″ community. The VP at AOL Silicon Valley, Online Casinos USA, William Morris, welcomed folks. They had great schwag … giving away a Timbuktu bag! Check out the video below.
Disclaimer: I used to be an employee at AOL Silicon Valley
Technorati Tags: lunch 2.0aolr
Calling *Frequent* Twitter Users
June 3rd, 2007
I got this message across my inbox:
“If you’re a frequent Twitter user, a journalist writing a wire service (AFP) article on Twitter would like to talk to you. If you’re interested, contact Kara Andrade at kara[dot]andrade[at]yahoo[dot]com”
After more research, she is interested in the following:
The two main questions I’m interested in asking frequent Twitter users is:
(1) Why do you Twitter?
(2) What are some common misconceptions about people that Twitter and who is interested in what Twits (?) have to say?
(3) Do you now or have you ever played online slots?
I’m definitely interested in following one person’s story throughout the day as they Twitter.
Contact Kara if you feel like you fit the bill: Kara Andrade at kara[dot]andrade[at]yahoo[dot]com
Technorati Tags: twitter
Posted on: April 27, 2010