Posting on the Demoxi Blog

Just a quick update to let people know that I’m also writing articles on the Demoxi.com blog as well. My topics there will be about Identity Theft, Privacy, Security, Voting, and general company news.

If you’ve missed my past posts there, you might want to check some out. Here’s some links:

Choosing Good Security Questions

Keeping Your Accounts Secure

What Are Privacy and Security

FYI, new posts I make will also show up in my “Thought Blog” feed (Twitter) - found on the sidebar of this site.

February 4th, 2008

Do We Really Need .post ?

I was reading on slashdot earlier about a plan for the .post internet address. It would be open only to actual post offices - attempting to build trust.

But why?

Is this really the best approach? Should we count on every post office to make their own website and then make it work? That sounds like a great plan for failure to me.

The post office is owned by the government. What’s wrong with using .gov? Why not have 1 website where everybody can go to. Let the website figure out where you’re at and what city you need to do it for. That way, all the customers see the same thing no matter where they are. If a new rate hike or policy goes into effect, it’s 1 file to update.

Keeping the user experience the same seems like a good idea to me. Besides, having to learn a new URL depending on what city you live in just seems like a great way to cause confusion to me.

How about instead we come up with some new extensions that would actually be useful. Here’s my suggestions:

.lame for all the stupid websites out there. This way, when somebody emails me a “funny” site, I’ll be able to decide not to visit it based on the URL.

.fail - This should be mandatory for most of the current web2.0 startups. Perhaps any company not making money after a set time period gets moved to the .fail domain so that somebody can do something useful with their name.

.wiki - for no other reason than the fact that I own dotwiki.com and would like to make some money.

.porn - critics say this will make porn easier to find. Well, yeah, that’s my point too.

.valley - should be required for all the A-list blogger never leave the valley crowd. You know the people I’m talking about. The ones who think Facebook banning Scoble is national news when in reality nobody east of the Rockies even knows who Scoble is.

February 4th, 2008

My Thought Blog (ok it’s just a twitter feed)

If you talk to me on AIM or MSN you’ll know that I’m constantly saying little things like “wow, look at this news article” or “heh, check out this quote.”

I’m sure I annoy a lot of you, but if you’re somebody who actually likes my tidbits of information you’re in luck!

Starting today, I posted on the right side of my blog something I call my “Thought Blog.” You know, all those little things that aren’t significant enough to justify a whole blog post. I’m basically just using Twitter, mashed up with the Google AJAX feed API. I’ve let Google cache my Twitter RSS feed, and then used some clever AJAX to show it on the right. If you want to do the same, it’s basically just a modified version of this script.

It seems that I’ve finally found a use for Twitter - the web2.0 app that ScoobyScoble seems to love so much.

If you want to subscribe directly to my Twitter RSS feed, please do so. Here’s the URL:
http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/806623.rss You’ll notice that it will also include an entry for every blog post that I do here (as well as on shoutwire.) It’s like 1 feed you can use to see links to everything I’m writing!!

To do that, I’m actually using a wordpress plugin called Twitter updater.

So check it out, and let me know what you think. I hope it makes reading my ramblings a little easier.

February 3rd, 2008

Thoughts On The Writers Strike

The following is my views only, and is in no way related to those of my employer or company, or any websites I run:

Am I the only one who thinks the writers strike is ridiculous? My stance on unions is now pretty well known, but I still don’t see any merit here.

IF they felt they weren’t being paid enough, ok that’s fine.

IF they felt that their hours were too long, or too much was being demanded of them, ok fine.

IF they had a problem with working conditions, ok fine.

But those aren’t the issues. The issues is wanting to get paid residual income for DVDs, online sales, downloaded shows, etc.

To that, I say: Bullshit. You were paid a fee to write a show. That’s it. That’s your contract. Every show you write is expected to be good, so you shouldn’t be paid based on how well the show is.

If you feel you’re not getting enough money, don’t ask for residuals, ask for a raise. If you purely must have residuals, then you shouldn’t get a contract at all. You should be paid solely on how well your stuff sells. You shouldn’t have both.

To me, I compare the television writers to software engineers like myself. We write code for a living. Look at the typical Microsoft employee. He doesn’t get paid based on how well Vista sells. And it’s a good thing too, as they still have employees left over who worked on Microsoft Bob.

We’re paid to write code, and that’s it. Once we write it, it’s no longer ours. The television industry should still be the same way. Get over yourselves and get back to work.

February 3rd, 2008