Tech News

• 29Jan

  This headline is none of your business

  Culture, News, Technology, Uncategorized, Web No Comments

  

  It was International Data Privacy Day yesterday. That’s doesn’t appear to have led to any restaurant or bar discounts or formed the basis of an awesome themed party, but it did produce a series of events and speeches to promote the issue.

  The day is promoted by The Privacy Projects, an organization which researches and debates the issue of online privacy. Last year the date was officially recognized by both the US House of Representatives and the Senate. It also has some degree of recognition in Canada and 27 European Countries.

  Microsoft marked the day by releasing a report into the way your online reputation affects your employment prospects. It showed a major disparity in the US: 7% of the public believe online data could affect their job search, while 70% of recruitment professionals say they have rejected candidates based on information they’ve found online.

  The study also showed that just 16% of German recruiters and 14% of French recruiters had rejected candidates on this basis, though if it’s not clear if this is a cultural difference.

  Back in the US, the study showed that 75% of companies now have a formal requirement for human resources staff to check online when considering a candidate, with another 4% doing so on their own initiative. The most common reasons for rejecting a candidate from the resulting data are concerns about a candidate’s lifestyle, inappropriate comments written by the candidate and unsuitable photographs or videos.

  For its part, Facebook marked the day by publishing comments from seven data experts and politicians about their views on privacy. The most striking comment came from Ontario’s information commissioner Ann Cavoukian who said “Our right to control the collection, use and disclosure of information about ourselves is the right upon which our other freedoms rest.”

  In the world of politics, the European Commission’s information chief Viviane Reding gave a speech noting “we cannot expect citizens to trust Europe if we are not serious in defending the right to privacy.” She detailed some of the Commission’s work on the issue, including persuading social network sites to set all profiles for users aged under 18 to be private and excluded from search engines, taking legal action over Phorm (a company which takes internet use data direct from an ISP to deliver ultra-targeted advertising to users), and investigating how the use of RFID chips could impact upon privacy.

  [Picture courtesy of http://www.freedom-not-fear.eu/ via Flickr]

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  3. Is Google making us smarter, or stupider?

  
  

  

  
• 29Jan

  Test Your Pronunciation Abilities with this Wild Poem!

  Culture, Humor, Uncategorized No Comments

  By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
  Contributing Writer, [GAS]

  Need a little mental booster to wake you up  today?  Here’s a linguistic challenge for you!

  In 1920, Dutchman Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870-1946) published the following poem in one of his textbooks about accents.  It’s called “The Chaos”* and it demonstrates how difficult it is to pronounce all of the strangely-spelled words in the English language.  Here is a small excerpt of the fairly lengthy poem, try to read it OUT LOUD to yourself (italicized words are either spelled or pronounced differently):

  “Dearest creature in creation
  Studying English pronunciation,

  I will teach you in my verse
  Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

  I will keep you, Susy, busy,
  Make your head with heat grow dizzy;

  Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear;
  Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

  Pray, console your loving poet,
  Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!…”

  There’s a GREAT DEAL MORE, so head on over to The Spelling Society’s full text of the poem.  The further you get the harder the words get to pronounce.  I found my brain and my tongue beginning to tire about half way through!

  After reading the whole thing OUT LOUD, how well did you do?  What words did you stumble over or not recognize?  Post ‘um below in the comments!

  *note: this is an updated version, edited and corrected by The Spelling Society

  Related posts:

  1. Me, Myself, and My
  2. Academic wants us all to talk like an AOL chatroom
  3. Wednesday Geeky Pics: Emoticons in the Wild

  
  

  

  
• 29Jan

  Deal of the Day: $89 Blu-Ray Disc Player

  Gadgets, Uncategorized No Comments

  Are you low on budget but still wish you could get a Blu-Ray player to grace your HD display with crisp, bright pictures? Then you’ll definitely want to check this out. Amazon.com has a great deal on the Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray disc player. Originally priced at $199.99, the NB530SLX is now going for only $89.99, shipping included! But if you’re interested, you better hurry up, because the deal is valid today only. Oh, and if you’re worried about the quality of the player, over 33 customers gave it an average rating of 4.5 / 5 stars, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

  [Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) - $89.99, Shipping included]

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  3. Cheapest Blu-Ray Player Deal EVER!

  
  

  

  
• 29Jan

  Five Things You Should Never Say to Your DM

  Culture, D&D, Games, RPG, Uncategorized, dungeons and dragons, gaming, tabletop RPGs No Comments

  

  DMs are the unsung heroes of tabletop RPGs. They get a bad reputation (sometimes deservingly) for being a little power hungry, often times controlling, and frequently heartless when it comes to playing games. But the truth is that every DM has their own style of DMing and their own approach to the game. Some like the whole edge-of-your-seat-omg-you’re-all-gonna-die approach; others want the game to be fun first and foremost.

  However, regardless of personality or style, DMs are truly the center of any tabletop RPG. They’re the creative force behind adventures and the grand master orchestrators of the game. As such, they do deserve the respect of their players (so long as they deserve it; I’ve heard of instances where DMs go far beyond the realm of decency). With my last two DMs as models I though I’d put together a few tips that, hopefully, lead toward peace, respect, and fun at the gaming table.

  1) “Tolkien called, he wants his plot back.” Don’t criticize the world. I have the fortune of being married to one of my DMs, and I know how much work he puts into each and every encounter, not to mention the mountains of research behind every setting (and we’re talking almost as much time as a part-time job would require). Saying stuff like, “Ooooh, a tavern scene. I’m soooo surprised” might be funny to say once or twice, but it’s important to remember that—especially with some DMs—work on a given session takes hours and hours. Sometimes they do have to rely on convention (as is expected). If you’ve got issues with the storytelling, it’s better brought up in private and not in front of the rest of the company.

  2) “Man, I’m sick of healing.” Don’t complain about your own character and how it functions in the game. If you’re a cleric, don’t bitch about healing. If you’re a cloth-wearer, don’t gripe that the monsters keep hitting your AC. If you’re two good mace bashes from death, don’t mention how unattached you are to your character. Consequently, don’t in-your-face dare the DM to kill off your character. A successful DM plays a balancing act throughout the entire campaign, and as I once said to my husband, it’s basically a matter of losing every single time you play (unless you really are trying to kill the characters) but losing really well. Sometimes that makes for a very tense atmosphere. But don’t be the tipping point; antagonizing doesn’t make the game fun for anyone.

  

  3) “But I don’t want to die! Stop attacking me. Jeez.” Don’t voice your constant fears that the DM is going to kill your character. I am guilty of this on occasion. Our current D&D 4e campaign is very low on healing. Essentially it’s up to one very conniving gnome bard (ahem, me) to provide what paltry healing he can. Considering Cullin (my gnome) has the lowest AC in the group, he can essentially fall unconscious with about four good hits if he gets on the bad side of an orc (which I try to avoid, what with all the going invisible). Still, I’m constantly anxious about dying, especially in situations where I can’t get all stealthy. As our current DM Christian has pointed out to me, over and over again, he’s not trying to destroy me. Sometimes the rolls are high (or low) and the game mechanics take over. It’s about fun, ultimately, and if your DM is a good person like mine, chances are even if the worst thing happens, they’ll figure out a creative way around it.

  4) “We totally wiped within five minutes, and the healer went down…” Don’t leave the DM out of conversation, and don’t wander too far from the game. Sure out of game banter is fun, and certainly part of the social aspect of RPGs. But if you’re going on and on about your WoW guild’s last raid, and you look over and spot the DM glaring at your from behind their screen, chances are you’ve let the conversation go a little too long. While it’s part of the DM’s responsibility to keep the game going, they can be easily outnumbered by chatty players. That slows down the game, and can lead to DM frustration. And a frustrated DM might do some rather unkind things to get attention. Like unleash a displacer beast on you. Not that that’s ever happened to us *cough*.

  5) “…” Don’t forget to thank them. While I’ve not encountered it in any recent groups, there have been times when it’s abundantly clear at the end of each session that the players are grumpy and/or rushed and then simply forget to be courteous. Remember that time investment thing I talked about earlier? DMs often spend a heck of a lot of time–not just world building–but creating dungeons, crafting monsters, and developing overall atmosphere for the campaign. It takes a special kind of person to dedicate the time and creative energy to a campaign, and an even rarer sort to make it entertaining, surprising, exciting, and fun. Don’t feel like you have to go overboard with this; sometimes a heartfelt thanks, a handshake, or a job-well-done is all you have to do. In the end, a happy, appreciated DM can make all the difference in the world.

  Anyone have any other suggestions to share? Any disgruntled DMs with stories to share? Let us know!

  [Photo CC via Johnathan! at Flickr]

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• 29Jan

  Who Do You Trust for Online Business Advice?

  Blogging, Content Marketing, Copywriting, Internet Marketing No Comments

  

  Do you know this story?

  A scorpion needs to cross the river. He asks a friendly-looking frog to carry him across.

  “Do you think I’m stupid?” asks the frog. “You’re a scorpion. You’ll sting and kill me.”

  “No I won’t,” says the scorpion. “That would be completely against my self interest. If I sting you, I’ll fall in the river and drown.”

  The frog sees the sense in this and agrees to carry the scorpion across the river. Halfway across, the scorpion stings him.

  “Why did you do that?” asks the dying frog.

  “I’m a scorpion,” answers the drowning scorpion. “It’s my nature.”

  Who are you asking to take you across the river?

  This painful little story illustrates something we’ve all seen, but sometimes forget.

  Lie down with dogs and you’ll get fleas. Do business with scorpions, and you’ll get stung.

  For some reason, until recently, most practical information about how to succeed in online business has come from scorpions.

  People who see prospective customers as prey to be hunted. People who teach unethical shortcuts. People who preach games and systems, not value and relationships.

  Some of the scorpions have interesting things to say. Some of them are even brilliant. And many of them can teach you good techniques.

  But they’re scorpions. And you don’t want to find yourself at their mercy when you’re halfway across the river.

  Things are changing . . . fast

  Have you noticed? Something fascinating is happening in the world of Internet marketing.

  Maybe it’s the widespread adoption of social media that’s made the difference. When everyone can Facebook, Twitter, and blog, all of a sudden it’s very hard for the scorpions to pretend to be good guys. The shortcuts get revealed. The light gets turned on to show the little (and large) deceptions.

  The flip side is, now it’s easier than ever for great stuff to get found. If you’re glorious, people start talking about you. Word of mouth becomes “word of click.” And the good guys start finishing first.

  Copyblogger was an outlier from the beginning. Brian taught his readers how to combine direct response marketing (a tool that was too good to leave to the scorpions) with content and social media to deliver amazing value to potential customers.

  And there were certainly others. Chris Brogan devoting himself to his audience for 11 years to create his “overnight success,” built on integrity and connection. Darren Rowse, unofficial Nicest Fellow in the Blogosphere, showing up tirelessly to create value for his readers and help them become “probloggers” in their own right.

  The ranks started to swell. We’ve been lucky enough to have many of them write for us in the past year or two. Naomi Dunford. Dave Navarro. Chris Garrett. Johnny B. Truant. Laura Roeder. James Chartrand.

  These are people who don’t choose to be (or hang out with) scorpions. People who went back to just offering real solutions, developing fantastic relationships with their customers, and building solid businesses around that.

  The Third Tribe is coming

  Almost a year ago, this “new” (actually old) way of doing business started to be known as the Third Tribe. We had no use for the scorpions, but we didn’t want to be the clueless frog, either. We wanted to make a good living and be decent people. And we rejected (ok, I’ll be honest, mocked) anyone who tried to tell us we couldn’t.

  We knew better. We were doing it. And it was working – third tribe marketing is effective.

  Brian and I instantly saw that this intersection was the future of Copyblogger. And, in fact, that it was the future for the smartest online entrepreneurs — the ones who wanted to build the most interesting, most profitable businesses.

  So for the past few months, Brian and I, along with some clever co-conspirators, have been building something for you. A place for the Third Tribe to come together. To share ideas and inspiration. To educate ourselves about marketing and business techniques — effective techniques that respect our audiences and preserve our relationships. To grow farther and faster than any of us could alone.

  If you’re already subscribed to the free Copyblogger newsletter, Internet Marketing for Smart People, you can relax. You’re going to be getting all of the details in the next few days.

  If not, you may want to fix that now. Our newsletter readers will be the very first to hear about the new project, and have a chance to take advantage of a ludicrous sweet offer.

  If you’re curious about it (or frankly, if you’d just like to take advantage of a free 20-lesson course on what smart Internet marketers are doing in 2010), click here to sign up for the newsletter. It’s free, it’s got good stuff, and it’s where you’ll be able to find out all about the new Third Tribe project.

  About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and a co-founder of Inside the Third Tribe.

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• 29Jan

  State of the iPad Address

  Apple, Gadgets, Humor, Uncategorized 1 Comment

  This is what you get if you take Obama’s state of the union address and mix it up with the iPad presentation:

  Brilliant isn’t it?

  [Via Gizmodo]

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• 29Jan

  PETA Wants Groundhog Replaced with Robot

  Culture, Humor, Technology, Uncategorized No Comments

  

  File this under “strange but true.” Apparently one of PETA’s latest projects is an attempt to save Punxsutawney Phil from the cruel and unusual treatment of being forced to see his shadow (or not) every February 2. They believe that the ceremony is “traumatizing and stressful” for the groundhog, and that he should be replaced by a robot.

  So is there any truth in this? The president of the Groundhog Club of Western Pennsylvania says that Phil is treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania. And no one finds that troubling?

  As far as PETA’s proposed solution… with the economy the way it is, probably not a great idea to be putting anyone out of work to be replaced with robots. Even if a robot groundhog would be totally awesome.

  [Via Popcrunch]

  [Image Source: vickispix (CC)]

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• 29Jan

  Strangers, Critics, Friends or Fans

  Uncategorized No Comments

  The work you do when you spread the word or run an ad or invent a policy is likely aimed at one of these four groups.

  • Strangers are customers to be, but not yet
  • Critics are those that would speak ill of you, or need to be converted
  • Friends are those that might have given permission, or even buy now and then
  • Fans are members of your tribe, supporters and insiders

  You already know the truth: can't please all these groups at once. And you also probably realize that each of us with an idea to spread has a knee jerk default, the one we lean to without thinking. Many marketers are evangelical, focused on strangers at all costs... they'd rather convert a new customer than revisit an old one. A cubicle worker, on the other hand, might focus on no one but the boss, at the expense of broadening her platform.

  Before you launch anything, run down the list. How can you optimize for the group you truly care about? How much is that optimization worth? (Hint: a new true fan is worth a thousand times as much as a slightly mollified critic).

• 29Jan

  WordPress Plugin For E-Commerce: GetShopped

  E-Commerce, Extras, Other License, PayPal, Wordpress No Comments

  GetShopped is a free WordPress plugin for adding e-commerce capabilities into WordPress-powered websites.

  It is a very easy-to-setup plugin which can work with any standards compliant WordPress theme (and WordPress MU).

  

  The plugin offers a flexible pricing structure for products with features like:

  • flexible coupon/discount pricing rules
  • product specific sales
  • quantity discounts
  • free shipping options
  • multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts

  and supports multiple payment providers like Google Checkout, Paypal & Payment Express.

  GetShopped makes it possible to complete the shopping process quickly with a one-page-checkout & optionally, guest checkouts is supported.

  It is easy to manage orders with the help of a powerful admin interface, print invoices, packing slips & more.

  The plugin also offers lots of other features from comments to new/featured product widgets.

  Special Downloads:
  Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
  Free Admin Template For Web Applications
  jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
  ScheduledTweets

  Advertisements:
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  Tags: PayPal, Wordpress
  

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• 29Jan

  Why Settle for Best Practices?

  Uncategorized No Comments
  There are differences between best practices and using SEO as a means to achieve the goals of your search marketing strategy. Do you know which method your agency is using? ...

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