The USS Quad Damage

Note: If you are looking for the video, before you do anything read the Urban Dictionary description of the video. OK, now you’re probably not looking for it anymore. Read this article instead, it’s really good.

That bit was initially supposed to go at the end of the article. It was supposed to be a “reveal” but considering I consider myself saved by Urban Dictionary on this one, I thought it should be more a public service announcement. This post is about Morbid curiosity.

So… morbid curiosity. It’s really fucked. I mean, curiosity in itself is a funny thing. I remember back in High School, I was younger than most my classmates, and most got cars long before I did. When they talked about cars, it was like something I couldn’t really understand. It was bullshit talk, like “how you hold the steering wheel” but my mind blew it up out of proportion. Of course, after ordinary cars it was manuals. People talk about the clutches and gear shifts and whatever, and it’s really just an ordinary mundane conversation for people who drive manuals, but for people who do not, it’s like they’re talking about magic. You end up asking way too many questions and looking like a toolbox.

So it was with two girls one cup. After all, when you start seeing a lot of blog-talk about it, and start seeing youtube videos of people reacting to the video, people throwing up and what-not, you start asking questions…

“After all, what can two girls do with one cup that’s so gross?”

I’m an engineer. I think that puts me firmly in the “curious” category. I always think that finding more stuff is better than not knowing. The first thing I thought after reading the Urban DIctionary description of “2G1C” was “why on earth would anyone turn this thing into an internet meme”? I can understand now. The meme asks the question: “Is there such a thing as knowing too much.” The answer, clearly, is ‘yes’. It leaves me at shaken at the core, and at odds with the universe. And that’s me counting myself lucky that I haven’t actually seen the video…

So you know those mobile phone ads on tv that you can seemingly get a single ring tone, a horoscope, match your name with someone elses, etc, but it turns out that it’s a subscription service for anywhere from $10 to $30 a week requiring multiple messages for anywhere from $3 to $6 per single sms?

Ofcourse you do. Well guess what. Now they exist on the web.

Look for any sort of flash ad which has a tiny barely ledgible text saying “subscription required” and you can bet your bottom dollar that you need to use your mobile phone to get what ever it is they are selling.

I suppose on the plus side it gives almost everyone access to micro payments over the web. On the downside most of these things give you basically nothing, or atleast nothing better than you could get for free somewhere else on the net, and charge you an arm and a leg for it. In essence your getting fleeced.

So sadly while mobile phones make a semi awesome micropayment system for values between $2 to $6 anyone who asks you for payment via your mobile phone isn’t worth buying from.

I ofcourse have no idea what your mobile phone providers cut is for these premium priced smss. Perhaps thats the problem in that they charge way too much. Thus any legitimate business would be handing over way too much of their revenue forcing them out of business. It would also explain why they haven’t clamped down on them.