I haven’t posted in a few months because I am very conflicted about this blog. I know what I have to do to get a good number of hits: write about current tech trends (things likely to take water from the Google river) and, especially, Twitter. There’s only one problem with this model: I don’t enjoy it. I don’t really care if Twitter just signed a deal with Google (they did) or if Microsoft’s Bing is growing faster than any other search engine (it is). Okay, so I guess it’s not that I don’t care. I just don’t care enough to write about it. If I – uninformed, internet-dwelling college student – know about it, then it’s already been written about. Extensively.
So this blog is getting a makeover. Maybe not in appearance (at least for now), but in content. I’m sick of uploading these little blurbs about tech industry news so that I can be another outlet for the same information. No, that’s being done (and much better than I can do it) already. So from now on, this is – both literally and figuratively – my domain. I’ll write about whatever I want in whatever format I want. I don’t need your hits, not here. I’m sick of selling my soul for hits that won’t ever even translate into any monetary gain. So for now, and on The Dobbs Method, forever, I’m writing what I want to because I want to.
If you don’t like the direction I’m taking, then don’t visit my blog. My feelings won’t be hurt, it’s okay. I’m not sure I would want to be lectured by another geek about his geekery either. But for those of you out there who want to see into the mind of a gamer/blogger/boyfriend/son/student/slob/college boy (not in that order), then stick around.
Later,
Taylor
P.S. Why am I not starting over in a new blog? Because the stuff that I have posted here still gets hits, so someone finds it useful on a daily basis. It’s not lost, it’s just not what I want to do now. The Dobbs Method is whatever I want it to be, and more than anything else I want it to be dynamic. That’s why this post is just above one that is exactly what I was saying that I don’t want to do.
AT&T recently expanded its coverage into Vermont, where I live. Being a complete geek, I quickly got myself an iPhone. Of couse, I was excited. Over time, the splendor has faded. Here’s why:
On Thursday August 6th 2009 at 9:45 AM, some hackers somewhere claimed victory; Twitter and Facebook were down. At the same time. The victory was rare and short lived, as Facebook came back up (though showing some problems) within minutes. However, as of 11:35 AM, Twitter was still down. Those who gather news on Twitter (and send it out) are obviously paralyzed for a solution.
According to a PC Magazine article, Twitter confirms this outage in their status blog, updating that they “are defending against a denial-of-service attack.”
The site is likely to return to working status before the end of the day. It seems as though such a large and clearly coordinated attack on large social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter would have been noticed and prepared for. Clearly, Facebook was more ready than Twitter for this. They’ve been around longer, have more hardware and more staff to deal with such problems, and have likely faced them before.
Whatever the case, this has been a clear reminder to Twitter of its vulnerability (They shouldn’t need one – they get hacked almost weekly).
The social news site Digg (mentioned in my last post) has recently accounced that they are developing an Application Programming Interface, which will make it easy for programmers and web designers to create anything from desktop apps to online bots that automatically digg or submit stories.
This move by the site comes after it’s fallen somewhat to the background in the world of social media. Though it has a very large user-base, the average user does not use digg, whereas an average user has an account on either Facebook or Twitter. It appears as though digg is hoping to become an everyday part of the internet experience, with widgets on sites and maybe even a desktop application for heavy users.
As with any API, the effect of this decision will not be seen until developers get their hands on it. If digg is trying to catch up in the social media world, they’ve taken a step in the right direction.
In my never-ending quest to have a strong and enjoyable presence on the internet, I’ve created a tumblr page to compliment my blog as well as Twitter. There are so many thoughts I have that are worth more than a tweet, but that I don’t have time or energy to put into a blog post. I’m hoping tumblr will help me fill these gaps and help me get my two cents in.
You can find my page here. Tumblr is simply a mini-blogging site. I can make a quick post of a cool video I’ve found, an article I liked, or a quick story from my day. We’ll see how it goes. Enjoy!
For my birthday this past week, I got a Flip video camera. I already had a Mini DV Sony, but the Flip has the added bonus of being extremely lightweight and small, making its portability a huge benefit. Since I’ve had it, I’ve uploaded two YouTube videos and recorded about an hour of footage as I’m out and about with my friends.
My extra time on YouTube has also made me aware of a profession that I had no idea existed. People like Philip DeFranco make their living on YouTube. It’s a very, very simple business model: Record a 3-4 minute video three times a week of yourself stating your own opinions on news that already broke, put the video on youtube, have an ad pop up along the bottom, make lots of money. What? I, and the rest of America, has been stating our opinions about Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, and all of the other breaking news this week, but I don’t get paid. I suppose it’s DeFranco’s unique editing style and his great sense of humor that make his opinion so popular.
One of my first posts on this blog was a post about stretching your ideas about what is possible. If the post didn’t help, this clip will. Short post, I know, but I feel obligated to show something like this to as many people as I can.
