some context for yahoo’s excellent product management that not a lot of people know about:
remember yahoo instant messenger? i’m guessing basically everyone stopped using that after like the early 2000s. but until about two years ago, almostall of the world’s oil trading was conducted through yahoo instant messenger. every day hundreds of millions of barrels, billions of dollars in equity, was traded by a bunch of dudes through yahoo instant messenger. traders and brokers loved that they could be speaking with tons of people at once, and their compliance officers loved that there was a transcript of conversations and deals left behind for auditing and regulatory purposes.
but yahoo decided, perhaps reasonably on the surface, that they did not want to support this service anymore. they wanted to migrate the messaging platform onto something a bit more integrated and 21st century. except their new service was not compatible with any kind of conversation-recording capability, so traders would not be allowed to use it anymore for compliance purposes.
chaos. billion dollar companies all around the world were scrambling. how would they conduct their business? i know this sounds silly, but traders talk to hundreds of people a day, brokers are showing them markets all day long. phones are inefficient and not all are set to record. they explained to yahoo what the compliance issue was. they offered to pay – these companies can afford any kind of subscription necessary. they assured yahoo that a massive pillar of the world’s economy, as fucking insane as it sounds, is actually conducted through their service. just let us use it. (here’s a reuters article about it, and here’s a financial times article on it)
yahoo didn’t change its plans.
now everyone uses something else to trade the world’s oil.
If God never existed, then whose heavenly staircase did I march up, whose heavenly host did I best in battle, and whose severed head do I keep stowed in my basement?
Lobelia: I’m Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and I want to see Frodo!
Sam: never heard of you *slams door*
Sam, to Frodo: I panicked 😦
*
Merry: do you have an appointment?
Lobelia: what no
Merry: ahh. bad luck then.
*
Fatty: Frodo who?
Lobelia: Frodo Baggins!
Fatty: never heard of him
*
Merry: sudden onset smallpox
Lobelia: I don’t believe you
Merry: bet your life?
Lobelia: …….
Lobelia: *hastens down garden path*
Merry, calling after her: I’m immune! 🙂
*
Pippin: Fatty sat on him by accident and squashed him flat and now he’s dead
Lobelia: I can see him through the parlour window.
Pippin: ….DAMN IT
*
Fatty: yes hello I am Frodo
Lobelia: no you’re not, you’re Mr Bolger
Fatty: ………………no I am Frodo Baggins and this is my hole
*
Sam: he’s having a nap
Lobelia: well wake him up this is important
Sam: absolutely not
*
Pippin: he’s dead again
Lobelia: no he isn’t
Pippin: one of these days it’s going to be true and then you’ll be sorry
*
Fatty, holding out a fistful of teaspoons: p-please……. just take them…… take them and go….
Lobelia: I’ve never been so insulted in all my life!!
Lobelia: *snatches teaspoons and power walks away*
*
Frodo, deadpan: oh I’m sorry Frodo isn’t in, can I take a message? 🙂
Lobelia: I-
*
Lobelia: Can I speak to Frodo
Merry: no. *shuts door*
Lobelia: is Frodo in?
Sam: you know what….
*Frodo jumps out a window and runs to Buckland*
he just left.
When Frodo first started telling them to ‘get rid of Lobelia’ he meant like, politely but when he realised they were doing this instead he kept asking them to get rid of her to see what they’d come up with next
In which the spouse and I both realize we’re vindictive southern belles.
Oh I do this all the time in academia.
“we’ve met” is, as stated, usually acknowledgement of a one-sided grudge. The aggressor isn’t actually very likely to dignify this with a response stronger than the kind of willful amnesia that leaves god and everyone wondering what she’s playing at and what the victim did to deserve it.
“we’re acquainted”, on the other hand, means that these two Southern Ladies know each other for three generations and actively maintain open hostilities along multiple vectors. There is about to be blood shed in this O’Charleys at 2pm on a Sunday. The actual victim of gossip will be whoever did that introduction, because everyone knows that Mary and Louise have hated each other since 1951, and how did that person not know? You fool.
Site Title 