A Web log moment

Remember when Web logs were Web logs? As in, they were logs, with links, of things found around the Web? Some blogs are still like that (Stony Curtis, for example, does it brilliantly) but most have devolved into annoying whingings about pet peeves (stupid hipsters) or what we ate for dinner (pizza).

So allow me a nostalgic moment while I play Web log and link to some interesting things I’ve found on the Web recently.

What to do when someone steals your content. This toothsome article on Lorelle on WordPress describes blog content theft and what to if you are a victim of it. It happened to me last year – after I closed my Typepad account, someone re-opened the account (re-activating the URL) and pasted in a bunch of my old posts, peppered with spammy links. The idea being that Google searches that should lead to me would instead lead to that person’s link farm. Fortunately I spotted it (after a tip from Frank) and I alerted the good people at Typepad. They acted quickly and shut the account down. But as Lorelle’s article points out, it’s not always that easy. (It’s part one of a three-part series.)

Microsoft loses in class-action suit – but only in Iowa. Whenever I find myself losing time or sanity to one or another of Microsoft’s flaws, I ball up my fists and shout to the heavens “Microsoft should pay!” Well, in the state of Iowa, they will – to the tune of $180 million. Microsoft has settled a class action suit filed by a group of people in Iowa in which they charged that Microsoft’s “anticompetitive and monopolistic practices” cost them money by “forcing” them to buy only Microsoft products. The settlement applies to anyone in that state who bought certain Microsoft products between 1994 and 2006. Specifically, Iowans can claim $16 per copy of MS-DOS or Windows, $25 per copy of Excel, $10 per copy of Word, and $29 per copy of Office. For claims up to $200 they don’t even have to provide proof of purchase – they just have to give their word by signing a document. Here at Chez Blork, I’d be in for a $109 cheque, if only I lived in Iowa.

Researchers find ceiling height can affect how a person thinks, feels and acts. That’s right. According to Innovations Report,  people think more freely in rooms that have high ceilings, and think more “inside the box” when the ceilings are low. I guess that explains the situation at LesterCorp in “Being John Malkovitch“.