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“.

10 thoughts on “A Web log moment

  1. wow: i am seriously honoured to be name-checked here, especially as i have been considering ‘what are the limits of reference and copyright’?
    i mean, if i credit someone else, put it in double quotes, and italicize, it would be enough for someone to realize i was attributing it to them, right?
    and i really enjoyed your pizza and hipster posts, btw. :-)
    but i am really new to netiquette and may make a faux pas–it’s hard to navigate this stuff.
    but yeah, thanks for the name-check, blork!

  2. Having a bad day, Ed? Talk about retarded whingings about pet peeves . . . you just posted one. Can you say “redundant?”

    As usual, you know I’M JUST KIDDING!!! but I personally LOVE posting retarded whingings about pet peeves. Half my brain is constantly whinging retardedly about pet peeves. That’s why they’re called pets: we love them.

  3. if my comment above sounds… guarded, it’s because i was read the riot act this week by a music blogger for ‘ganking’ [his word] a portion of his post, *even though* it was attributed & linked, in italics, and in double quotes.

    i also learned this week about the existence of ‘splogs’= ‘spam blogs’, and if you didn’t know that i was a flesh-and-blood person posting this stuff, you might think that–because of the frequency of my posting–that i was a splog…

    is there some online repository of what is kosher and what’s not? far be it from me to be transgressive if i can avoid it… :-)

  4. Nick, I love them too. :-)

    StonY_Curtis, my advice is to completely ignore gank boy and everyone like him. This is the Web for Pete’s sake, and these are blogs. Linking and referencing is what it’s all about. It’s not ganking if you attribute, or post a link to, the source. Particularly if you just used a portion of the post. That guy clearly doesn’t get it.

    To Hell with him. Don’t let him cramp your style. The best thing you can do is keep doing what you’re doing but NEVER LINK TO HIM AGAIN. That is a tasty and chilly revenge.

  5. thanks for the ‘pep talk’, blork–and pleeease do not stop posting about pasta, pizza, pommodori, dumb-*ss hipsters, etc., because that’s the shizz that keeps me, for one, a loyal reader… :-)

  6. Ahh, the fuckin’ fucksters will always find a way to ruin a good time, won’t they? Spam, fraud, phishing . . . if there’s a will there’s an asshole willing to exploit it. Speaking of whinging, why is there a fuckwad for every decent person on the planet?

    Blog me this.

  7. Nick, I think you’re being rather generous with that 1:1 ratio. Who knew you were such an optimist? ;-)

  8. Hee hee, you caught me on a good day.

  9. whine : To complain or protest in a childish fashion.

    whinge : To complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.

    At the risk of being guilty of one or both, is there really enough of a difference between whining and whinging for us all to jump on the bandwagon of adding the G? I never heard of whinging until it started popping up in Blogs.

    As far as I know, back in the day, I was being chastised by my parents for my actions and words “G-free”. Then again, I suppose my pre-teen complaints or protests were childish by default; therefore whining.

    Nowadays (or is that now-a-days), my adult senses dictate that if someone is going on and on about something in an annoying or persistant manner, they are kinda, sorta acting childish…

Comments are closed.