Well actually… it isn’t really broken - but it is getting close to going *snap*. We got 2 inches of sleet on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I shoveled a bunch of that heavy junk, then we got a ton of snow and had to shovel again. Then I had to help get snow off of the roof. Oh yes, and did I mention the 7 inches of snow we got last night? Yeah…. my back can’t take any more of this for a few days - so it is time to crawl back into my little cave and get back to what matters more than being able to get out of the driveway - blogging!

Oh yeah, and pictures of the snow mounds are coming soon - it ain’t even winter yet the piles are already over 5.5 feet high!

Anyway… I’ll admit I really haven’t checked my RSS reader in over a week, so I am clueless as to what is going on in the blogosphere these days (chances are it is the same ol’ kill the RIAA/MPAA, global warming will kill us all, Microsoft is evil, Linux and Apple are great, etc). However, today I finally dusted off the RSS reader and opened it up and one Digg post popped up right away, “My ISP gave NBC my packet history, and they’re abusing it.”

Basically the post claims his ISP shared access data with NBC - who is abusing the data and trying to scare him for downloading 2 seconds of a movie.

Thankfully the Digg users are smart enough to realize the poster is either maliciously trying to make their ISP and NBC look bad, or that they are simply foolish. Regardless, the story got marked as inaccurate and all is well. This does make me a bit curious though, and it does bring up a common point of criticism of user-gen content - how do you know something is true? How do you know a post on your favorite blog is truthful? How do you know this chunk of news on Digg or Slashdot isn’t completely false?

Over the next one or two weeks this will be the topic of the posts. It isn’t going to be a formal blog series - but it will have a similar feel. I am hoping when all is said and done you begin to think twice before believing something you hear about online - or anywhere for that matter.

Even the smartest Internet users sometimes forget that anyone can post anything online - regardless of whether it is true or false.

For the past month or two I’ve received e-mails from a new organization called The Internet Protectors. Basically it’s a site dedicated to teaching people about Internet safety. It isn’t up and running yet - but hopefully it will be very soon.

Internet security (and computer security in general) has always been an interest of mine. In fact, a little hobby of mine is disassembling new viruses and figuring out how they work and act. Because I am so interested in it I support the goal of The Internet Protectors 100%.

So how can you help them? It’s simple - if you know a bit about Internet safety (or are interested in it at all) sign up and check it out. Even if you aren’t interested in it you can still help out by simply keeping yourself safe and teaching others good Internet habits like using multiple passwords and rotating them, not looking at porn (if an 18 year old male like me can live life without looking at it - I’m sure everyone can!), being careful what they download, and so on.

One of the more interesting subjects that has popped up in recent years is the explosion of Internet bullying. In fact, I feel this subject is more important to me than any other internet safety topics. I’ve only been the victim of cyber bullying a few times, but back during middle and early high school I went through a really tough time with some assholes in school - so I know how bad bullying in general can get (I thought about stuffing their heads up their butts quite a few times - and eventually I did kick their asses [don’t mess with nerds!]).

Internet bullying is a real thing - and it does happen. In fact, one of the local schools claimed quite a few fights this year were linked to cyber-bullying on MySpace. Now that is scary - but it isn’t a surprise. Heck, there’s even little pathetic nerds who are threatening each other over HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. That’s how pitiful some people are. Really, I think the thing that will kill humanity is the fact that the majority of people are becoming overly offended, violent, and they don’t understand how educated debates work (instead they threaten to kill each other all because of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray).

So there is a lot to be concerned about - viruses, trojans, privacy invasion, bullying (and possibly, cyber-bullying that becomes real-life bullying), scams, theft, and so on. Hopefully The Internet Protectors does some good. I’ve actually thought about starting a blog dedicated to writing about security in a way that even idiots can understand it, and it still is a thought.

What Everybody Ought to Know About Link Building

A bunch of theories and ideas behind link building, with the main idea being links take a long time to get, and those who have lots of links have an easier time at getting more links.

Billboard Showdown: Google 411 Takes On Ask’s Algorithm

Funny pictures of Google and Ask.com billboards.

CSS Float Tutorials

A huge collection of float tutorials for CSS. It shows you how to make image galleries, align images, format captions, etc.

FeedSmith Plugin Security Bug Found and Fixed

Some security researchers found a vulnerability with the FeedSmith plugin that can potentially allow people to change your plugin settings while you are logged into WordPress. An updated plugin has been released.

One of the biggest issues currently facing bloggers is the spam epidemic. Not only are spammers stealing our content, but they are also spamming us via blog comments.

Traditional Spam

Some comments are obviously spam. These are sent all over the place in massive quantities. They are the main threat - but luckily they are almost always caught by Akismet.

Less Spammy Comments

Several new programs and services have come out recently that let people advertise their blogs via comments. Essentially they spam you, but not nearly as badly as massively sent spam comments. Here’s one I got the other day:

The program they use simply copies your title, tosses it in with some text, and makes it seem friendly. One look at the URL should make anyone think it is spam.

Paid-For Comments

Another way you may get comment spam is from “paid-for comment” services. Basically they pay people advertise someone’s product or website. This form of spam is much less dangerous (it doesn’t hurt your blog’s appearance as much), but it should still be dealt with.

The best way to figure out if a comment was paid-for is to look at a few things:

E-mail Address - If it is a yahoo address (or gmail, hotmail, etc) but the URL is some product page - be aware. Usually they are from paid-comment services.

URL - If the URL points to a product page instead of the homepage for a blog or website, you might also be dealing with a spam comment. Often times the product being advertised will be similar to auto-blog software or “get rich quick” books.

Do they talk like a robot? - If the commentator sounds like this: “This water purifier is the greatest water purifier on the planet… blah blah”, then it is most likely someone getting paid to comment.

Be Strict

Put a zero tolerance policy in place that says spam and paid-for comments are not allowed. Be strict about it as well - delete any comments that seem a bit too spammy. However, do take note that sometimes public relations people from big companies might leave comments talking about their product if you talked about it on your post. Those are alright. What you want to look out for are people who are attempting to get a bunch of free advertising and to hype up a product.

While a comment like “Cool, I run a SEO blog of my own also” may be acceptable depending on where it links to (check the website), comments like “Our service is the best service and it can make you money” are usually considered a bit spammy. Good companies won’t go around trying to hype the heck out of their product in blog comments. That is what press releases and ReviewMe/PayPerPost are for.

Stay tuned for more Back To The Basics posts.

I just popped open Google reader and saw a post on StevePavlina.com about a fellow named David Schirmer. Now, the name sounded familiar but I couldn’t quite place it, until I saw these videos:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

All I can say is wow.

The sad thing is there are people like that all over the place, and to be honest I think the % of people doing unethical things like that is actually increasing, especially on the Internet.