Jesus H. Christ, it's cold. I've got a huge window overlooking my bachelor suite, and it's been leaking heat all day. I had to don longjohns indoors, which is sort of silly when you think about it.
At any rate, there isn't much to do except hole up indoors, surf the net and wait for it to get warmer. So I've noticed a few trends out there on the Interweb that bear mention...
For one thing, the blogerati seem to have gone into the "rejection" state in regards to social networking software like Friendster and Tribe. (Full disclosure: I joined Tribe to participate in the BoingBoing discussion list when their comment forums got hacked, but I got bored pretty quick.) At first they were all ga-ga about it, but now they're quite contempuous. I'm not too sure why. It reminds me of that delightful wag The Green Goblin, who at one point says to Spiderman "the one thing they love more than a hero is to watch him fall, fail, die trying." One blogger raises the good point that you'll talk to your friends via email and IM anyway, so these sites are more or less irrelevant. I'd agree with that. I keep up with what's going on in Vancouver, Edmonton and amongst my far-flung j-school buddies every day, and I don't need Friendster to do it.
The other trend is the rise and rise of VOIP. It seems that phone-over-net is finally catching on. I've only had my Primus box for less than a week, but can do nothing but heap praise on it. It doesn't get much simpler than picking up the phone and dailing.
A final trend that I was really late to the table for is selling stuff over the Net. Amazon now lets you sell your books using them as an intermediary, and I've been a happy user of the service for a while now. I used to hoard books (and to an extent I still do) but I have to say I don't mind making a few bucks and spreading booky joy to people across North America. It also helps keep the amount of crap I have to move down, which is double plus good.