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"Murphy was an optimist!"

Which prizes are left? October 7, 2007 3:29 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Contest, Of Interest
, 25comments

Are you following Darren Rowse’s Problogger Birthday Bash $54,000 giveaway? Here are the prizes with the ones already offered up scratched out.

25comments

Content Theft Worsens October 7, 2007 10:43 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Daily Life, Publishing, Security, Technology
, 14comments

If you follow my comment feed, then you may have noticed that I am getting huge amounts of trackback spam. Why not just turn off trackbacks? Because these people are stealing my content, and likely your content, for their own personal gain and the trackback is the easiest way to find them. Yes, they generate a link back to Reality Me which in theory should help my page rank but not when it is with duplicate content. I have installed the Antileech WordPress plugin but I am still figuring out how to use it without cutting off my feeds to legitimate readers. If you do end up getting a "this content is stolen" message instead of the actual post, please email juggler at gmail.com and I will fix it. That said, can you confirm which feedreader you use based upon the following:

I am assuming that Blogdigger, Gregarius, and Wasabot are used by content thieves.

14comments

Is $1000 for someone else not worth YOUR time? October 7, 2007 10:15 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Activism, Blog, Love, Philanthropy, Philosophy, Publishing, Touchy Subjects
, 2comments

I am really enjoying participating in The Problogger Birthday Bash Darren Rowse and Lara Kulpa have put together. I do find it a little troubling that when they offered a prize of $1000 to your favorite charity it only generated 24 qualifying entries! Now turn it around. Instead of offering a decent sum of money for someone else, offer a $20 gift certificate for yourself and they got 724 comments! (not all of those would have been qualifying but I’m not going to count). Granted, there was a prize in that post which could have gotten you $500 for yourself but winning any other prize did not disqualify you from entering the charity giveaway. Every single Problogger reader should have entered the charity giveaway!

Ok. Let me get off my soap box and add in a little rationality.

  1. The money for self contest required no effort, just a comment under the post itself with as little as one word in it, so it makes sense that the number participants would be far greater.
  2. We assume that every reader of Problogger, due to its subject matter, has a blog BUT that could be a false assumption; ergo, the participation in the money for self would be higher.
  3. Not everyone is into charities. And that’s ok. So the participation in the money for self would be higher.
  4. The charity post required a little substance and effort. Unfortunately, effort and substance do knock a lot of people out of the game. Therefore, the money for self would be naturally higher.

All that said, it does make sense that some of the other contest posts would generate more comments. But only 24 valid entries for giving $1000 away to a meaningful cause?! Surely we should have done better than that! Karthik shares my sentiment.

Life is a participation sport. Get up! Participate! Be active in your community. Vote! Go to school board meetings. Pick up trash. Bring a shopping cart into the grocery with you instead of leaving it in the parking lot. Say hi to your neighbor. Hug someone daily! Volunteer your time. Leave a legacy. Make a difference!

2comments

I want Problogger to give STAR $1000 October 7, 2007 8:44 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Contest, Cool Sites, Of Interest, Philanthropy, Touchy Subjects
, 7comments

Darren Rowse of Problogger fame and Lara Kulpa are busy giving away $54,000 for the Problogger Birthday Bash. FreeMoneyFinanace.Com has agreed to help them by giving $1000 to the favorite (US tax deductible) charity of a person who blogs about it and has their post linked by from Problogger by 9am Sunday Oct 7, 2007 (50 minutes from now).

I would like Problogger and FreeMoneyFinance.com to give $1000 to Shangri-la Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR). $1000 will cover more than half the cost of a class of 4 riders for 1 session.

STAR’s mission is to foster personal growth and achievement by providing educational, recreational, and physically challenging therapeutic experiences using horse related activities for persons with disabilities.

Our oldest son, Tommy, has Asperger’s Syndrome. We blog about it at Asperger Teen. Tommy has lived a life of being told "never." He did not speak until about age 3. At age 6, we were told he would never read. At age 10, we were told he will never function in society and to lock him away in a home. The nevers go on. Tommy has surprised the world today is a well-rounded, good natured, polite 17 year old. If I never announced his Asperger’s, no one would ever guess. He has succeeded were many expected him to fail. We have STAR to thank in part for that.

Tommy rode with confidence!Tommy’s success comes from the incredible support system that surrounds him. Shangri-la Therapeutic Academy of Riding is an important part of this support system. STAR has nurtured his love of animals, given Tommy confidence, and really helped his social skills. Tommy is now hoping to go to college to study in vet school!

As an independent consultant, I have broken many of the rules required for success. As such, we live with constant cash flow problems. Without STAR’s Rider Sponsorship Program we would not be able to participate. Whenever possible, I try to encourage donations to STAR because I believe in the program and by encouraging donations I feel I have giving back where they have helped me. I do not have the means to give directly. Whenever possible, I give my time to help STAR through efforts like our Blogathon blog. I have seen many more than just my son touched by their love. It is difficult to drive through Knoxville and not see a license plate with a reference to STAR or see someone wearing a STAR t-shirt. Their success and growth can only continue through the generous donations by people like Darren Rowse, Lara Kulpa, and FreeMoneyFinanace.Com.

Please consider STAR for the $1000 charity giveaway. Thank you!

7comments

So good! October 6, 2007 10:28 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cool Sites, Of Interest, Philosophy
, add a comment

Artistry! Neon Bible is the type of work I awe. (thanks GoldenFiddle!)

Make sure you click around a lot! (particularly the hands)

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Today’s Manly Lessons October 6, 2007 5:53 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Of Being Dad, Transportation, Travel
, 1 comment so far

Today I replaced the brake pads on the van and, seeing that the front tires look like racing slicks, I rotated the tires. A few reminders to those DIYer auto mechanics out there.

  1. When working on a vehicle on asphalt, place metal plates under your jack stands because unlike concrete, asphalt is soft. That’s why the vehicle keeps getting lower while you work on it. Also makes it a little difficult to get the jack stands out from under the vehicle when you are done but it does leave some neat looking marks in the road.
  2. When spinning the spider (lug nut tool) around because it looks cool and is fun, make sure you move your leg because nothing is funnier than a grown man trying to explain to the pre-schoolers that he’s crying because he loves working on his "land ship." That’s right! You heard me yell "land ship."
  3. The lung cancer you got came from changing the brakes without wearing a mask; not Oak Ridge.
  4. Test the brakes before you move the vehicle not once you have it coasting at 10 miles per hour even if you are "just pulling it ten feet out of the driveway into the road" particularly if you didn’t really tight the lug nuts.
  5. And, of course, when you break into irrational yelling at the wife and oldest child, just stop. Stop mid-sentence. Apologize and leave the room. That would have been nice.
1 comment so far

Why do I blog? October 6, 2007 1:24 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Daily Life, Publishing, Transportation, Travel
, add a comment

Because now I don’t need to look up the torque settings. I’ll be in the driveway for the next hour or two.

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From the mouths of babes October 6, 2007 12:39 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, From the mouths of babes
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"Drive faster Daddy. I can’t hold my potty stuff in."

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Is xmlrpc working? October 6, 2007 11:12 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Uncategorized
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Test post from phone.

—
==================================================================
This mobile text message is brought to you by AT&T

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Can’t fight the force October 6, 2007 11:06 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life
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Looks like it will be a struggle just to wade through today. My arms feel heavy. My head feels like it is in a vice. Light seems brighter. I’m going to do those things I have to do. I think I am subconsciously struggling between what needs to be done and what I want to do. Coffee might help fix this.

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Van wants shoes October 5, 2007 8:56 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Transportation, Travel
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I just noticed how ridiculously bald the tires on the van have become. I was hoping for one more month but I fear we are in danger of a blowout or simply sliding off the road. I sure don’t want this vehicle being driven in the rain! This is not the best time for this type of maintenance but when is it a good time.

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Anyone want to do a group project? October 5, 2007 10:26 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Programming, Software, Technology, WordPress
, 2comments

I’ve never done an open source project before. Here’s my proposal. We write a WordPress plugin that helps create a blacklist of known content thieving IPs. When an IP from the blacklist requests the RSS feed or direct link from the WordPress blog, we deliver an anti-theft of content notice instead of the actual content. The plugin will have the ability to deliver a custom message allowing people the personal choice of making the payload as obscene or marketable as they like. I have some thoughts on implementation since the splog delivering the content might have a different IP than the scavenger. For instance, the plug could alter the comment interface to include a check to mark a comment or trackback as potential content theft. The plugin would then have to examine the server logs to try to draw a correlation between when the real content was posted, the IPs that requested the RSS or post, and the time the stolen content was posted. With large samplings to a single database I think we could be very effective at blocking the thieves. Now, what’s the abuse potential here?

After getting this working on WordPress, I think we could extend it to other platforms.

Update: Looks like Owen Winkler (Antileech) has already written this! Kudos! Lorelle gives an overview and also recommends Digital Fingerprint Detecting Content Theft WordPress Plugin.

2comments

I do not like Flash sites October 5, 2007 8:30 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Programming, Technology
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As a developer, I steer clients away from relying upon Flash for anything on their site. Adobe would love Flash to be the medium of choice for everyone but the truth is Flash doesn’t bode well for deep linking, navigation is often slow and clumsy, and it is not as portable as straight HTML to mobile devices and other non-traditional browsers. Granted, Opera mini, other tools, and Adobe are trying to make Flash more readily usable on all platforms.

I do like Flash! I think it should be used to enhance the overall user experience on a website. Perhaps certain navigation elements could be done in Flash but if the browser cannot detect the Flash plugin then it shows a regular HTML navigation. Keep it small and light. Now, all that aside, the Sony Bravia Flash site is cool! And just when I was getting comfortable with the 2D web, someone had to go and add depth.

Ah! I put my finger on it as I was commenting at ProfessorFalken:

It adds the z-axis to browsing to bring us closer to that 3 dimensional hokeyness we see in computer movies like Hackers and Johnny Mnemonic. [Source]

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Women’s legs sure do look sexy when they wear high heels October 5, 2007 8:09 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Of Interest
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Want to see why high heels hurt women’s feet? Is it worth it?

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My Entry to the Problogger iPod giveaway October 5, 2007 7:50 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Contest, Of Interest, Poetry
, 1 comment so far

My entry for Problogger’s 6th giveaway is:

iBlog for iMust

I met a guy from Oz
Tim Miller his name
Of SpyJournal fame
We have never met in person
But are friends all the same

See I was trying out
This fad call blogging
Tim said its more than a game
Blogging is not a fad
It’s here to stay

People make a living
In this digital world
Publishing their own word
Tim advise, “Check out problogger
A site by Darren Rowse.”

Problogger showed the way
Follow these rules
And you can make your pay
In the comfort of pajamas
Sitting at your computer all day

I have yet to make a dime
But Darren must be doing ok
For it’s Problogger’s birthday
And good ol’ Darren
Is giving $54,000 away

Remember, they just needed a poem with the word "problogger" or "Darren" in it. The poem did not have to be a literary masterpiece although there are a couple of gems! At the time of this post, Darren Rowse and Lara Kulpa had 416 entries for their iPod giveaway which includes 4 iPods and 1 iPod makeover. You still have 4 hours to enter.

1 comment so far