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You Are 70% Indie |
You’re a very indie person, and admit it, you look down a little on people who strive to be normal.
You’ll indulge in a little mainstream pop culture every now and then. But for you, anything not indie is a guilty pleasure! |
Actually, I like lots of different types of music (OK, no, I like lots of different types of rock and roll with selected other songs from other genres in the mix). I only look down on people who listen to Justin Timberlake music. That’s just odd and wrong.
Wired just posted a fascinating article about spam blogs or “splogs.” If you look up this blog in Technorati or other blog search engines, you’ll see a lot of nonsense blogs link to me, like a discount mattress blog with text that has nothing to do with discount mattresses, but which does have ads linking to them. (And the same goes for the Technorati hit for Santa Barbara swingers. I’ve never been to Santa Barbara — although I’m told it’s great — and I’ve certainly never swinged there. “Swinged?” “Swung?” “Swang?”)
Like email spam, splogs use the most wonderful features of networked communication – its flexibility, easy access, and low cost – in the service of sleazy get-rich-quick schemes. But whereas email spammers try to induce recipients to buy products, sploggers and other Web spammers make most of their money by getting viewers to click on ads that run adjacent to their nonsensical text. Web page owners – the spammer, in this case – get paid by the advertiser every time someone clicks on an ad.
Run my name through Google and you’ll see even more such splogs because, between CBR and my newspaper writing, my name is out there on a lot of articles for spambots to harvest and reprint.
But many researchers also fear that an eventual solution will reduce the openness, ease, and accessibility that is at the heart of the blog world and Web 2.0. They note that one method by which the blog-search firms weed out spam is by not trying to include comments and trackback in their searches. The result is to strip out bloggy interactivity – getting rid of spam by treating Web 2.0 as if it were Web 1.0.
“The whole purpose of Web 2.0 is user-generated content,” Mullenweg says. “To make that happen, you want the system as easy and transparent as possible. But that just lets the spammers in. So you put in hurdles for them to jump over. They jump over them, so you put in more hurdles. And at the end of the day, you have a system that’s not nearly as easy and open and transparent.”
Which is exactly what I had to do when the tidal wave of trackback spam happened earlier this year.
When I upgrade this blog in the next few months, I’ll likely have to add some mods that specifically go after spammers, like Akismet. In the meantime, I’m ruthless with the blacklisted terms list in WordPress’ built-in spam filters, which means that if someone wanted to leave a legitimate comment about Internet gambling or Viagra on my blog, they’d be out of luck. (Not that, as far as I can tell, anyone’s ever wanted to, but you never know.)
Here’s a good thing about being married: I just came home and found an opened bag of corn chips* in the refrigerator. Now, if I were single, I would have to admit that I was either very scatterbrained, drunk, sleepy or all of the above when I put them in there.
Since I’m married, I can just blame Jenn.
* The chips were Tostitos Scoops, which I wholeheartedly recommend without any sort of free bags of them from Frito-Lay, although I am certainly open to them showing up on my doorstep.
In honor of my brother …
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You Belong in Brooklyn |
Down to earth and hard working, you’re a true New Yorker.
And although you may be turning into a yuppie, you never forget your roots. |
I’ve always considered myself the fourth Beastie Boy, it’s true. You know, the non-rapping Goyim one.
Happy birthday, baby brother.
