Recently in Web Sites & Blog's Category

Ok folks, the comment spam over here has just gotten to be amazingly thick, to the point that I am not even sure if any real person has commented since Lumpy about a month ago. Therefore, I am moving to a new site for my blog. The Geeks Blog is to be found by combining the bold words and adding a dot com, and it will be the new location for my blog. It's using the new Movable Type 3.33, and will have more restrictive commenting. If you want to comment, and have your comment show up within 3 months, I recommend TypeKey.

This install will no longer accept any comments unless you use that. I will not be going through comment spam any more over there, than I do now, which is to say once every 3 months. I know a few of you do use that, and I thank you. For those that do not, and you know who you are, I would recommend that step. It's not hard, and does give you access to a not insignificant portion of the blogging community.

For those of you who are listeners to my podcasts, I plan, in the new year, to bring both of them back. The WoW podcast will have a new name, All Things Azeroth, and be at that corresponding dot com site. Canadian Geek Podcast will remain at it's current location. However, there is a slight issue that needs to be taken care of before both of those can get back into full time production as they were before, or however they will be when they reach full production.

I need to have surgery in the month of January, and also need to see about rectifying the unemployed situation I am currently in. I will be going in for a relatively minor surgery to remove my Gall Bladder. I have had several attacks so far, and 2 of which I believe ended me in the hospital in a great deal of pain. It's time for it to go, and for my eating habits to change. I am not sure when at this point, but the meeting with the surgeon in mid December gave me the impression that it will be over and done with by the end of January. No need to be concerned, but my blogging may take a hit around then, or it may have a spurt during my recovery. I guess it depends on pain levels and my doctors orders regarding how I can position my body. We'll have to see. Either way, this is your Geek blog update, see you on the flip blog.

Mike McBride linked to this post about blog lies. I figured I would give my own answers. You will need to go there to read the points.

1. I don't, cause I am not.
2. Only as far as paying the bills goes, but see #6 for more.
3. I don't even read my closest friends blogs on a regular basis.
4. Nope, 2001. God. over 4 years I have been at this...
5. Only so far as promoting my writing and technology skills.
6. Nope, I use it to try and pay the bills.
7. Doesn't matter to me what terms people use.
8. I think I would probably be in the later part of the alphabet, x, y, or maybe z...
9. Nah, I just respect his work.
10. Geek chick? Awesome!

The sky is falling. Hell hath frozen over. The world is at it's end. The reason I know this? John C. Dvorak is getting a blog. That is right. The eternal doubter, the official naysayer of technology, the one who can be counted on to doubt everything, the grumpy old man of tech, is getting a blog, and one hosted by none other than the Lockergnome himself, Chris Pirillo. I have no doubt we will soon see Michael Jackson admit he is a pedophile, Rush Limbaugh decide to leave media, and CNN will go to one hour a day. Microsoft will soon, I am sure, open source Windows and start being a fair and just company. The predictions right now are that the first post he makes, though, will be how bogus this whole blog thing is. Any bets? Thanks to Aine for the tip.

You will note that below is a link to MORE, which I rarely use. The text there is the content of an email I sent to CNet/News.com.com's link error address due to the link from an article posted there on October 31st that was on the idea of Microsoft buying, or wanting to buy Google. Yes, it is in draft right now, but I was planning to catch up a bit tonight. I still have a few articles on the topic, but I am really frustrated that both the site on that day, and their search feature shows the article as well, but this code: meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://news.search.com/search?q=Microsoft+or+and+or+MSFT&message=expired" causes me to only get sent to a search page, even though the page is still on the site. Not a happy person today am I.

I have never been a fan of Yahoo, finding their site to be far too full of crap and crowded with junk, but I am finding myself in the need to access the Yahoo Groups section of the site, and find them utterly inaccessible to me. I have tried several groups.yahoo.com links, and none work, but I can still access Yahoo.com itself. I have searched for news, and found some really recent articles that mention Yahoo Groups, but nothing about a closure of the section of the site. Even the Groups link from the Yahoo front page gets me a 404. I am not sure if it is Shaw's screwy DND system, maybe they are blocking the whole URL or a specific server, but it is beginning to be really annoying. Even a web based proxy like SafeWeb has brought me nothing in the search engines. Help?

While Evan Williams seems to have shrunken into the shadows of the blogging world, the tool that he and three others created such a short time ago is still one of the most used blogging tools. CNet talked to Evan, and he has a lot of interesting things to say. I am not sure if I agree to his comparison to GeoCities pages, as most bloggers I read are highly technical and far beyond the dull witted pages made on the GeoCities service. GeoCities never created something new, it just brought the software tools to a web interface. Evan does make a good point in that media interest in blogs does increase when a heavily blogged event happens, the flash-point of blogging being, in my opinion, September 11th. It is a good article, and shows that Evan still know the community well.

I am deeply saddened to note I will soon need to remove a blogger from my roll on the side. I found out about many things from Darci, and she has been a conduit to so much info on Kevin Mitnick, and the true hacker lifestyle. Her blog showed me the way to the Free Lamo folks, many of whom are good friends of hers, and even a person who has come back here and let me know her thoughts on my comments on topics she knows far more than me about. In her blog closure post on the Labmistress.com boards she explained why, and she has good reasons, as well as where former blog readers can go for updates and such, if they still choose to. Sadly, my participation will be minimal, as I already moderate on 2 boards, as well as my many other duties, but I will be sure to check in.

I wanted to point to a post made by another #lockergnome regular on his blog, this time the user Lumpy. He wrote what I thought was an amazing opinion piece on his blog Lump's Lunantic Rants and Rabid Ravings about the RIAA, and their recent and possible future moves against the consumers. They say the true test of a man is how much he agrees with you, and while Lumpy and I disagree on many things, this is one where we agree entirely. I doubt the RIAA will go after Apple, as they do have licenses to the songs they sell, but he does make good points of why the RIAA should become a great deal more progressive, and not nearly as hostile to progress and innovation, as well as how they will shrivel and die if they do not.

I was just reading the BlogShares press releases that were put out by blog owners today, and I must say one idea posted about is really making me think. The post is from the owner of the Aboutitall.com blog dedicated to the idea. The idea is this: "I propose a blogwide Photoblog your Life day on September 11th. Take your camera with you. Take pictures. Show the world your life. Show the world your daily delights. Show the world that we choose life, happiness and freedom." This seems to be meant for American's to show the world they want peace, happiness, freedom and the rest of the amazing things this world has to offer.

Maybe it's just me getting over re-watching the West Wing season finale of this past spring, but I propose an amendment. I think everyone should, to show the reason they love their world. Photoblog, or Fotolog your life, and post it. I am taking part of this weekend, three days of it at least between the post catch up, to put up some of my pictures of the city I get on my walks around, and I will also spend time with Cody while he is in town visiting me and my parent's just walking around, and getting cool pictures. Those who read my Fotolog(view? read?) regularly will know I have posted pics of places for the most part, but I am going to try to get decent pictures of people this weekend. Sadly, I am working Tuesday, which is Canada Day, but I don't start until like 2, so I have plenty of time to get in on the fun, and hopefully will be off in time for Canada Fireworks, which will I hope cap off round one of this.

I plan to amend/extend/alter this to the following: Blog your life [i]everyday[/i]. I know, many of us do this already, after all blogging life is the whole idea of blog maintenance, but I want to extend this beyond photo's as many do not own camera's, and I want to push it over the edge of a seeming pro American message. I want to hear and view the works of bloggers from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, and more. I propose a Group blog, or something like it, that will be dedicated to pointing to those blogging life, blogging the bad and the good, and showing it for the world to see. I want to see pictures of real life, and I plan to take my upcoming 3 day weekend to begin this in force. My 9 year old nephew Cody is in town and I want to show him how to treasure life, admire the mundane and enjoy life. Whew. Ok, thoughts?

This week there have been two stories about bloggers in foreign lands making big waves. The first story is of Raed, a blogger from Iraq whose blog was one of the most read as the run up to war began, and whose silence had many of his readers worried for his safety and security. Raed this wee returned to his blog with two months worth of posts that were offline created and just updated. Good to see he is ok. The second story is a little more complicated, one of an Irish blogger who used his blog and his opinions to bring the Irish domain registry out into the light from the secrecy and hidden practices it once practiced. Antoin O'Lachtnain is the blogger, and his fight has been rewarded by bringing to light how the company that runs the registry there into the light, but the company, IEDR, has 8 weeks to appeal the decision in court.

In a long and winding tale, a blogger who calls herself Isabella V. has chronicled on the Flight Risk blog the adventure of being a wealthy socialite on the run to avoid an arranged marriage, and claims to be pursued by private investigators and the long arm of her families reach. The story is one connected to The Agonist's Sean-Paul Kelley, which was recently found to have plagiarized much of his war time content from another site, which has led to many suspicions he is trying to find an angle to garner more readers and publicity for himself, and the case made is not unbelievable. The blog is highly linked(can I get some?) and much discussion is ongoing as to the veracity of the blog, but it is a good read none the less.

In what many consider to be proof that blogs have true power and their power is inescapable even in the middle east. "Iranian Sina Motallebi has been held by the authorities on, so far, unspecified charges and now fellow web users are banding together to press for his release. An online petition has been set up calling for the release of Mr Motallebi and for a halt to harassment of journalists by the Iranian Government." The fact that the blogging world could get together and speak out against this injustice is a good sign that it is possible to unite such a group, and that it is over this particular problem is an even better one. When one blogger is effectively shut up, the rest of us cannot be far behind.

Over fears that blogging will adversely affect his writing, famed author William Gibson, author of Neuromancer, Johnny Neumonic and many other books popular to cyberpunks and geeks alike, has announced he will be quitting the blogging world in order to spare the creativity for his next book, Pattern Recognition. I know I have several times found I had little creativity left for writing articles after I had done significant amounts of blogging. His blog was well read and often quoted amongst many in my blog sphere, and I just hope that the new book is worth giving up his many readers and fans online who have looked forward to his many ramblings and thoughts.

About a month ago, I reported a story from The Register who said that the San Francisco Chronicle reporter Harry Norr had been suspended for participating in and getting arrested at a peace march in the streets o SF. Well, yesterday the paper fired Norr. The reasons seem linked to the protest, for which he took a sick day, but the article on The Reg made suggestions it may be related to long standing disagreements with the paper's management over a variety of things like his pro palestinian views and thoughts on Intel's arab based fabrication facility. The paper, in a Reuters interview, refused to give a reason for the firing.

So, I was just reading Mike's blog, and he posted this, in reference to Scoble's revelation(by link to this at Scripting.com) that he is going from NEC to work at The Beast. While his position seems to be up in the air though described by Winer as 'technical evangelist for a new product in development' while Robert says this about his new job 'I'm part of the team that's responsible for building Windows'. Either way, I will congratulate him on the new position, and hope and pray the evil it seems is contagious there does not spread. I may be over stating this, but the actions of Microsoft since I became a close watcher have shown it is not wholly unjustified.

Mike mentioned yesterday that a blogger I enjoyed reading from, Beth Goza, who works at Microsoft, and had removed her blog because of some heavy duty mocking and shameful treatment, has brought her blog back up at a new location, same look and the same kind of content as before. This is good to hear, and it is nice to know she was unwilling to let the losers win and keep her down. I have no doubt the same people will do the same thing again, but I hope this time Beth is able to overcome them and ignore their actions and immaturity.

The blog world was rocked by of it's first scandals when the owner of war blog site The Agonist, Sean-Paul Kelley, admitted that the majority of content he has provided about the war on his blog is stolen directly by him from the U.S.-Iraq War.com a paid news service put out by Austin, Texas, commercial intelligence company Stratfor. The dishonesty was revealed by a blogger called General Roy, also a subscriber to the service, and Dan Petty, a Stratfor newsletter subscriber and undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Champaign, also added to it with pointing out how Kelley does not attribute the material correctly. Wired's article on the deception mentions that Stratfor has agreed to allow Kelley to post only 2 items form the service per day, and it seems The Agonist has far less content than one would have seen a few weeks ago, and all of it is attributed.

So, what does this mean for bloggers? Well, our credibility in the mainstream media, like CNN, MSNBC and other networks both TV and radio, is hurt. This person was asked onto many TV and radio shows for his knowledge of how the war was going, and all he was doing was copying someone else's paid service, taking cash from their company by making that many fewer visitors. Personally I am not surprised, this was bound to happen as the demand on bloggers increased and grew to the point of people having to remain on the cutting edge any way they can. Now the community has to recover. I am certain that many people who have blogged about this guy's site have removed such links, and Kelley will really need to work hard to regain the trust of his readers. We will make it, I know the community can do it.

So, as I wait for my laundry to be done, I figured I'd go through the news from the blogosphere, just as a way to see who's doing what. Matt has recently quit one of 2 jobs, and has assured me it will allow for more time to write for :gm:. :gnome: is getting used to the new lack of daily workspace, and describing the dressing down that seems to be a gradual process that should result in nothing left by the end of this week. :jim: is just getting the snow we received the other day, and I am currently negotiating to have him stick with :gm: while I try to get another site up for more inflammatory content like my antiwar article.

:brad: is still MIA, and did mention another location when his blog was back up, but it has been lost in OS stuff on Zeus. :mike: is good, being a great info source as always, while Mary Beth and Sits are AFB(Away from Blog), and it seems MB is not going to be back to hers. Darci is ranting about Asian crooks and hugging her Titanium iBook(I would too), Leo is asking for antispam assistance, and Megan is blogging about the upcoming baby, and the experience of pregnancy. I haven;t read Evan or Doc since the Google buyout of Blogger, but I hope to catch up on those on Tuesday. Oh, I almost forgot, Mike is leaving as a Gnome writer as of this weekend's issue.

A week or so Wired reported that independent war correspondent Christopher Allbritton, a former New York Daily News reporter, had decided to take his blog, Back to Iraq 2.0, to Iraq with him, not having any doubt war would happen. I felt this story worthwhile of mention today. "Allbritton says he wants to cover the humanitarian effects the likely U.S.-Iraq war will have on civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is protected by a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone over northern Iraq." II have not had a chance to read it much, but it will be a good place to check out as things progress over there.

Well, just days after I upgraded his install of Movable Type, Brad has decided that he is unable to blog for the time being, I assume because school, fatherhood and life are getting in the way. I can only assume the same departure goes for the attempt to get him on as a writer for GeekMeltdown. I will sorely miss Brad, and hope that school and life go well for him in the time when he is not blogging to let us all know what's up. Good luck bud.

The news was good for CNN which has looked really bad when this site became popular and began to be used by people to anonymously slander and spread lies about others. The site was shut down the other day with the simple message 'Note: Please head over to http://www.spo0fed.com/ for more information...'. The link goes to site that has a lot of pop up's, so I will spare you be telling you it shows a press release that essentially says that they apologize the CNN for the bad PR it got, and to anyone who felt they were hurt by stories others had posted.

Ok, so the voting has opened for the 2003 Bloggies, and something has come to my attention. I have not read a lot foe those blogs. I was only able to honestly vote for about 45% of the categories, and some of those were hard to recall what the blog I was aware of was like and whether it deserved an award. Not surprisingly, and I might and quite thankfully, I am not nominated, but then again I am not a meme spreader, and I refuse to suck up to those who read this. That said, now that I am a 'professional blogger' in some people's eyes, I wouldn't mind the kind of recognition that goes with the title. Maybe next year I will get a mention or something. I just think I need to get my name out.

Ok, so our friend Sitsofe has been noticeably post free, so I emailed him and he is good, just does not have his computer at his new working location yet. He assures me we should see something new soon. In other news, Matty G has moved his blog. He has a cool tribute to his host(:jim:) and the installer(Me) on the old location, and while I thought Mattsblog.com was a good url, you can now find the Mind of Matty G at lampostmedia.com/blog. Best advised to update your blog links and so forth. Meanwhile, Marybeth, over at Life After Borg, is talking about shutting it down for an anonymous one. Tres mysterious. I have found the other one, but due to her not wanting to post the link, I won't either. Either way, I hope that she enjoys blogging, wherever it is.

Well, I see my friend from over the pond, Sitsofe, had not only found a job, but had an offer for another while visiting his alma matter in Swansea. I know he has been looking for awhile, and it has been rough on him not having work for so long, as I have been in the same situation. I am happy to see he is back on his feet, and as Dodi would say, back in his element. I just hope this improves his online time, not worsens it. I mean if he moves closer to the school, theoretically he should be able to hook into some fatter pipes, right? Either way, Sitsofe, congrats.

Well, if you use GoDaddy, or essentially any other registrar, you will likely get a warning soon letting you know that there is another registration scam going on, this time run by a company called Internet Support Group, who, like Network Solutions, is sending out deceptive domain expiration notices. These are worded to give the impression that not responding will somehow break the law, or lose their domain, and when you renew with them you will pay a high price, $70 for two years of a .biz for instance. If you receive one of these, you should contact your registrar immediately, and forward them a copy of the notice you receive. Under no circumstances should you use this service to renew your domain name.