Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

Things I’d like to see from Google’s URL shortener

Google Overlords

Not long ago I made a post about the top ten reasons I liked this service, so consider this as my follow up. To see that article CLICK HERE. Ever since Google launched their own URL shotener I have been pretty loyal to it. But there are a few things that it is missing to really squash the competition and not let this become another Google Wave.  Some of these are very serious, some of them are pipe dreams, and one is just me being a smart ass. You guess which is which.

1. A Search
Let me search for a url I’ve already shortened in case I need to use it again.

2. Public Stats
Let me post my stats on my site in case I want to brag.

3. Custom URL
This is the one thing all their competitors have and they don’t. Let me make up my own shortened URL ending.

4. Deep Analytics
With a click of a button I should be able to see the top links within the month, week, day, or hour. I should be able to see what source gave me the most traffic as well.

5. Some Google Live Love
Imagine if there was integration with Google’s live search results. It would be nice if we could see a live feed of when our shortned url’s were sent out on services like Twitter as they do with regular Google search.

6. Per Website Separation
So currently everything is in one big messy bucket of puke. It would be nice if it could be separated by the website. Otherwise any analytics are pretty much useless.

7. Share
Just like I can share a Google Doc or Google analytics I would like to share the Google url shortener accounts, especially if they can be specific to one website.

8.  Share Widget
Give me some code I can put onto every page of my site (side menu or footer) that gives people the shortned url they can use to share the article.

9.  Make It A Game
Everything on the web is a game now it seems, so why shouldn’t a URL shortening service? Imagine having a chart on the side of your site that shows who has spread around your shortened urls?

10. Breakfast
Yes, Google. I would like my eggs over easy, my toast dark brown (but not burnt), my juice freshly squeezed, and a slice of ham on the side. Thanks. I figure Google seems to be able to pull off everything else so why not my damn breakfast? Come on Google, get on it!

Are Search Engines A Dying Service?

Socia lMedia

So this last week I was looking at my search analytics and saw something interesting. Facebook had sent me about 300 unique visits over the past week. Google had sent me about 100 unique visits. Are people no longer finding things through the traditional search engine? Or is that more of a difference between things being tossed up in front of you by people you connect to on social networks as opposed to having a specific item you are searching for? Let’s face it, most people only add a “friend” on Facebook if they have the same interests. So if they follow me there is a really good chance that the content I post on my Facebook is going to be something they will be interested in.

Many people in social media discount Stumble Upon, but many times they send my site way more traffic than even Facebook does. Facebook sends my site traffic on a more dependable basis, but when Stumble Upon kicks in I get a pretty good day long spike. So why do so many in social media dismiss it? Maybe the experts are full of crap? Maybe we should try everything and see what connects with our target audience the best and damn what works for everyone else?

So maybe this is a question of “Which Is Better For Driving Traffic” instead of “Are Search Engines Dying”? One is clearly better for driving traffic than the other, but is this a true threat to search engines? I know it used to be that if you didn’t exist on Google that your site pretty much didn’t exist. Now it seems that if you work hard enough on Social Networking it could mean 10 times more traffic than a search engine will ever bring you.

So what does this mean for SEO? Why should you care about your search engine optimization if search engines are only bringing in ten percent of your traffic? Or maybe this is just my experience? I want to know what other people are experiencing. What brings you in the most traffic? Is it networking, search engines, or just your regular readers coming back? Facebook was around 300, but all of my networking brought me in about 1,000 unique visitors within the past week. Is this an anomaly or is this a pattern?

Consider this post more about asking questions. I want to know if others have experienced the same thing. Where does your traffic come from?

In defense of the TSA Staff

Security Theater

Please notice that I do not say I support the TSA, I do however feel sorry for the TSA staff that is being forced to put up with not only a horrid thankless job, but also horrid uneducated attitudes from very arrogant and ignorant people. Let’s get some facts straight right away. I am pretty sure they know that this is more about the theater of security than keeping anyone safe. Anyone with half a brain knows how to by pass those security check points. Got a private plane? Move on through. This does not make you any more safe and the people about to feel you up know this. They also know there are better ways that will actually make you more safe than this (CLICK HERE).

Wearing clothes made to hide your “naughty bits” will not hide your naughty bits. This is the area they now are forced to check, so why would you think for a second that wearing clothes that hide those parts will keep those parts hidden? What it will do is get you a nice cavity search or at least a full strip search. You just made both your life and the life of the TSA staff member worse. Good job dumb ass!

I have heard some say, “If they didn’t like doing this they would quit their jobs.” Really? You think so eh? They have solid jobs in an era of extremely high unemployment. These jobs give them great health care, retirement, paid vacation, sick leave, and more. Many of them have put years into these jobs and have gained very valuable seniority. Yet you think they will just quit the job and go flip burgers for half the pay and none of those benefits eh? Wow, you are dumb. People will put up with all kinds of hell for a good paying job with great benefits. If it was up to them they wouldn’t be doing this either. Ever hear of “Don’t kill the messenger?” The people at the airports are not who you should focus your anger at. They are just the puppets being forced to do a horrid job by the people that hide behind a desk.

If we are going to stop this insanity we need to focus our anger where it belongs. We need to direct it to our senators, our congressmen, the suits of the TSA that actually make the decisions. Abusing the TSA people at the airports just gets you bent over in a back room with a hand up your ass and makes everyone involved less happy. Unless you enjoy getting that cavity search for being a jackass?

So I was listening to the latest episode of one of my favorite Tech News podcast Social Blend and they were doing their latest music focused special they call Craniumelody. The theme was “Soundtrack of your life“. Well, I work on Thursday nights when they record so I couldn’t force them into letting me on. So instead I will post the songs that would make up the soundtrack of my life here instead.

To start it all out there should be a song about birth. Since it’s me it should be at least a little fucked up.

1. Acid Bath – Venus Blue:

In third grade I already knew I hated school. So when this band called Pink Floyd came out with their new hit single I was made into a hard rock fan the second I heard the words “We don’t need no education” and “Hey, teacher! Leave them kids alone”. I blame Pink Floyd for my life long obsession with music. This song truly changed my life.

2. Pink Floyd-Another Brick In The Wall Part 2:

My teenage years were full of insanity. As in I was pretty much clinically depressed the entire time. I felt like the outcast amongst misfits. It was bands like Scaterbrain that helped me get over my teenage years and find out that life could include happy moments too. Music in general is the only reason I survived. Yes, I know this is not the original. Since I’ve never smoked pot I didn’t get into Cheech And Chong until much later.

3. Scatterbrain-Earache My Eye:

A few years ago I lost my little brother to drug addiction. When he was five I turned him onto this band. He walked around the house for days saying “The brain, the brain.” When my step-mom asked why he was saying that I of course told her I had no idea. When he started stage diving of the couch cushions my dad figured it out. I was no longer allowed to watch Headbangers Ball in front of him. So whenever I hear this song it reminds me of the good times me and my little brother spent together.

4. Suicidal Tendencies:Trip At The Brain:

Currently I am always looking for anything that makes me laugh. There is nothing I take more seriously than comedy. The reason is that there is nothing better to get you through a tough day than a good laugh. So bands like White Wizard are played often. This soundtrack only has 7 songs on it, but the full soundtrack would be songs in this more traditional Metal style.

5. White Wizzard-Over The Top:

As I am dying I will do everything I can to hold on to my last breath. If there was a movie made this is the song that would play as I am fighting for the last few seconds of life.

6. Overkill – Elimination:

When I die I will be cremated. As I am placed into the fire this is the song that should play. The lyrics are just too fitting.

7. Sentenced-Luxury Of A Grave:

So there it is. In the extremely unlikely event that a movie is ever made of my life, this should be the framework of the musical score as well as the soundtrack. Please feel free to post an article like this on your personal blog and link it here. If you use a real blog system like Word Press or Squarespace it should automatically link back to you here in the comments if you link to this post. If it doesn’t feel free to just post a link in the comments.

If you do not have a blog, just post the links to the videos in the comments. I don’t mind. In fact it would make my day. Oh yeah, and please go listen to Social Blend. They are lonely over there and nothing is more sad than an ex-marine and an Aussie pouting like two little girls after getting their dollies stolen.

The problem with iMobsters app

imobsters

So I decided to start playing the iMobsters game on my Droid phone. I am quickly noticing a problem. Somehow people are able to attack me even when I can get the app to navigate. I had enough money to upgrade my protection gear, but since I have been trying to get to the place on the app to purchase it for the past several hours I have been attacked enough so that I no longer can purchase this protection upgrade. My question is, why can others navigate around to attack me when I can’t navigate around to do a damn thing on the game?

I have a theory. I am willing to bet that those people that are attacking me have iPhones. The iPhone app is probably better designed. The Android app obviously has bugs. There are way more Android phones than iPhones. The reason for this is that Android is an operating system that goes across several phones and several providers. Iphone is just one specific phone on one provider (AT&T). Despite Android having a much wider customer base, it is still treated as the redheaded step child by developers.

Imobsters obviously doesn’t care as much about their Android users as they do for their precious iPhone users. What is the problem here Storm8? Why so buggy? Does a bigger customer base not motivate you to get your shit in gear? I will give your app a little longer, but I am growing very tired of being attacked and not being able to do anything about it because my app crashes after just one button push.

Plain and simple, you owe your Android users a major apology. Stop treating us like crap or another game developer will steal us away and you will be hard pressed to win us back. Android is the new king. Get with the program or be left behind.

There is no such thing as bad music

BadMusic

I know what you are thinking, “Mark slams more bands than anyone, so what the hell is he talking about?” Well, a few weeks ago I saw the band Suicidal Tendencies in concert. They started the set off with “You Can’t Bring Me Down”. One of the lines from that song goes “Just cause you don’t understand what’s going on
…don’t mean it don’t make no sense And just cause you don’t like it,…don’t mean it aint no good.” Meaning just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean it isn’t good. The worst band in the world has fans and Justin Bieber has more fans than my favorite band by far.

I remember when I first started hearing the true “bear on the mic” Metalcore bands and I was thinking, “Wow, these guys are not ready for prime time.” Turns out I was wrong. Flat, monotone ,bear on the mic impressions are now the hottest style of vocal in Metal. Just because I don’t have any respect or interest in it doesn’t mean it isn’t music or any good. I think the brutality race in Metal is ruining everything I love about this musical style. The craft of song writing is taking a backseat to just trying to make as much noise as possible. But does that make it bad music? No, because it has a ton of fans that relate to and enjoy it. This music helps millions of people a day get through the drudgery of work and school. That makes it legit no matter what I think.

When I talk smack about the more extreme forms of Metal I try to never say that it all sucks. I try as much as possible to never say that an entire band sucks. Instead I try to pinpoint exactly what is missing. Most of the time it is that the vocals need more work. More times than not the music is down right amazing. A lot of the guitar work in the higher ranking Death Metal bands is some of the best guitar work around. There are some song structures that are as impressive as it gets. Hell, many times the vocalist has a great tone, but maybe is a one trick pony. Instead of beating the dead horse of the “Beauty And The Beast” thing and getting a hot female to inject massively contrasting vocal styles, how about just using several harsh vocal styles? Keep things interesting. It’s not the harsh vocal I have a problem with. It’s the lack of creativity. However, just because I don’t like it, tons of people do. So it not “bad music”. The issues I have with it are my issues alone.

I love to make fun of how pathetic Justin Bieber is as much as anyone, but an insane amount of pre-teen little girls make it through their day because of him. I honestly think Justin Bieber is a good thing for music because it makes us all question what makes music good. What makes an artist legit. We all know he is a product. He is what they used to call in accounting class a “widget”. Sure it makes us question his artistic integrity, but does it make it “bad music” in the true definition? No, because of all the people who are enjoying what the people behind him are forcing him to put out. Music does not take artistic integrity. Justin Bieber is proof of that. He is also proof that music with zero artistic integrity still isn’t bad music. It just has zero artistic integrity.

This is the reason I really hate the term “wigger” when it comes to white guys who listen to rap. People in the Metal scene would call white Rapcore bands “wigger music” and I think that helped Rapcore stick around longer.  It turned the argument into a racial thing and that made most people dismiss it as nothing else. The reason is that it ignored what was really wrong with it. Instead it just let people dismiss the questionable elements of Rapcore. Rapcore had some legit things we could have been questioning. It had nothing to do with it being a race thing. I think some of the insults that are thrown at disposable pop widgets like Justin Bieber help fuel their careers. When we throw insults at music make sure you have solid and factual reasons to hate it. Otherwise you are making your opposition of that music look like it has no real argument. Don’t help the enemy, have your facts straight. There is no such thing as bad music. One man’s garbage is another man’s favorite band in the world. If you are going to bash it, make sure you know what you are talking about. They know more about that artist than you do and you are going to look like an idiot if you attack their music just because you don’t like it.

Talk about the artistic integrity of the band. Is the artist a creation of a corporate entity or a producer? Do they write and record their own music from start to finish? How many “Handlers” does the artist need to make an album happen? Talk about the production value of the album, talk about how much was put into the craft of song writing, the about the talent level of the musicians, talk about the motives of the musical style, but try not to call it bad music. It may both suck and blow to you, but it is the greatest thing ever to someone. I could fart on a snare drum, sell the recording online, and find fans. So there is no such thing as bad music.

Witch Hunts Never Get Their Facts Straight

Witch Hunt

When I was a hardcore bible thumper I went to many anti-rock seminars. Guys would travel around talking to us kids about why rock music was evil. The problem was that they never got their facts straight. The kids knew the facts and when they would catch the guys getting their facts wrong a few times, it allowed the crowd of kids to dismiss everything else they said. They would tell us that this band called Metallica was trying to convince kids that they wanted Satan to control them and be their master. The truth was that “Master Of Puppets” was a song talking about the evils of drugs. More specifically it was about how cocaine would become your master and you would become it’s puppet. These preachers just had to pick the song with the most positive message to pick on? After that they would go after Ozzy Osbourne and his song “Suicide Solution”. They would talk about how the song was telling kids that suicide was a solution. Did they even read the lyrics? The song is very clearly speaking about the evils of drinking. Again, they just had to pick one of the most positive songs he had. The only thing shocking about these seminars was the lack of research these idiots did. They would loose all credibility with the kids they were trying to reach, so the message fell on deaf ears. This is only one way the religious right really screws up when they are trying to form a witch hunt.

When it comes to the extreme left things get just as retarded though. I once did a music video show at the local public access channel. The staff there hated my show because I played mostly Metal. So they would hear about the bands and assume things with zero research. There was a band called Forced Entry that I played often and one of the staff members was convinced that their name was encouraging rape. When I tried to tell her that the name was a reference to breaking an entering. It is when someone breaks into a place. Watch any cop show and they will ask if the murder scene had signs of a forced entry. Did someone break into the house before they killed the person? How she got the connection to rape and why she held so strong to that line of thinking is beyond me. This same person ended up watching the video for Denis Leary‘s hit song “Asshole” he released in the early 90′s. A big part of what makes the video (and song) so funny is that it is so extremely over the top obnoxious. It is beyond sexist, misogynistic, and not at all politically correct. That is the whole point. He is about as far from trying to hide the sexist message of the song as it gets. Well, she loved the video and song and wanted a copy of it.  She was absolutely convinced that it was making fun of sexism and not celebrating it.  She was an instant fan and I could not convince her what the real message was. She was otherwise a very intelligent woman, but when it came to getting a witch hunt together she just didn’t get her facts straight.

I follow someone on my Google reader that loves the wild conspiracy websites. These sources many times contradict each other and themselves. They sometimes contradict themselves within the same article! They are so crazy with their witch hunts that they can’t even focus on what the focus of their witch hunt is. They just want “the truth” even if they are not sure what that means.  Follow enough Tea Party blogs and you will see that these people getting into office (and they are) means that the mental patients are starting to run the asylum. It used to be that these people were kept busy with their wild conspiracies that they never took time to vote or do anything that was the least bit of a threat. But now they are getting people into office. The problem is that they still don’t have their facts straight. They can’t even agree with what exactly is the focus of their witch hunt. They know they want smaller government, but they can’t agree on what services should be cut. You start cornering them into specific things that should be cut and they start stammering like that girl in 4th grade we all used to make fun of (and later made pathetic attempts to get a date with). Witch hunts never get their facts straight. The problem is they can still do a ton of damage if we don’t fact check them. Knowledge is power people. Now go read a book!

Did Tech Crunch Pull A Story?

So I’m looking through my RSS feed this morning and I come to a very interesting story titled “Googler Accuses Twitter Engineer Of Sexual Assault, Trial By Twitter Commences” from TechCrunch by their writer Alexia Tsotsis. I click to open up the story and I get a 404. So I do a search for the term “ApacheCon” and find a link in their own search. When I click that link I get another 404. They story has been pulled? For what reason they have not said, but since I never remember this ever happening before I figured it was worth a little post here. The url to the post was at http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/05/trial-by-twitter/ if this was a technical thing. Was it a favor to a friend? TC just doesn’t do that. Was it due to a legal threat? I doubt that since Michael Arrington graduated from Standford Law School, he eats legal threats for breakfast. Could it be because of the recent purchase of Tech Crunch by AOL? Did the AOL gods step in here? Is this just a hint of the editorial control AOL will show over TC in the future? Am I over reacting? All I am asking for is that Tech Crunch explain why they would pull this story.

Here is the story as it appeared in my Google RSS:

Google technical writer Noirin Shirley wrote a post on her personal blog earlier this evening entitled “A hell of a time,” purportedly detailing her experiences last night at ApacheCon in Atlanta. Shirley recounts a drunken post-conference party she organized in her hotel room and describes a rather disturbing (if true) interaction with Twitter engineer Florian Leibert:

“He brought me in to the snug, and sat up on a stool. He grabbed me, pulled me in to him, and kissed me. I tried to push him off, and told him I wasn’t interested (I may have been less eloquent, but I don’t think I was less clear). He responded by jamming his hand into my underwear and fumbling.”

With such incendiary subject matter it is no surprise that the post rose to the top of Hacker News in a matter of hours. What’s even more interesting is that the accusations have reverberated on Quora and Twitter with people @ replying both Leibert and Shirley with Shirley’s post.

“It’s not the first time something like this has happened to me, at all. It’s not the first time it’s happened to me at a tech conference. But it is the first time I’ve spoken out about it in this way, because I’m tired of the sense that some idiot can ruin my day and never have to answer for it.”

It is notable that the allegations of wrongdoing now have a realtime venue to play out, primarily because the players in the drama have tech community prominence and are both on Twitter. Neither Leibert or Shirley have tweeted anything since Shirley sent out her blog post about the incident.

I have contacted Leibert for his side of the story and will update this post when he responds. Shirley makes no indication she has filed any formal complaint.

Now as I guy I feel I can only say this is kind of messed up. Why would Tech Crunch pull this story?  That’s all I want to know. To get this story out though I ask that you vote for my friends story and not mine. Vote for her story on Digg, Mixx, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and of course promote it on Twitter, and Facebook. Let’s get the word out on this!  Her story on this can be found HERE

FOLLOW UP:

Tech Crunch has responded to the pressure of the pulled story, but it still leaves a few questions I think. CLICK HERE to read their response. To be clear, I in no way mean to imply that TC would respond to this tiny little humble blog. My feeling is that it was pressure from many slightly bigger bloggers that got even bigger bloggers to respond. The questions that remain for me however are simple. Why did it take so long to respond? Did they think their tech savvy readers would not notice the pulled story? Did they think that no one would be left wondering when they got the 404 error? Paul Carr is a great writer and wrote a really great response. It was very diplomatic and he did a great job at not picking a side in any way. However, I will always feel that it was just plain bad journalism to pull the story with no explanation. I expect better from Tech Crunch and it was this behavior from them that is truly to blame for lighting the fire of the exact same wild speculations that Paul Carr shakes his finger at in THIS ARTICLE. But they left this Pandora’s Box open and will have to suck it up and deal with the ramifications. Don’t complain for that which you are guilty of. You fueled the wild expectations when you pulled the story without an explanation.