Washington, D.C. attacks Twitter? Nah, just spammers.

Several months too late, the spirits of primaries past have come to haunt us on Twitter.

When I opened up my inbox, I had quite a list of followers waiting to be checked out.

Did Mike Gravel, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Chris Dodd suddenly decide it would be a great idea to add us all as Twitter friends once again? Nah. It's just some crafty spam-artists trying to take advantage of the "follow you, follow me" culture of Twitter.

This is part of a growing trend on Twitter, one that Adam Ostrow over at Mashable pointed out last week. Spammers are creating accounts on Twitter for the sake of following thousands of users and hoping they'll follow back. How do they follow so many users so quickly? Automated following bots allow them to follow thousands of users in record time.

I completely agree with Adam Ostrow's solution: require a CAPTCHA to be filled out for each new follower on Twitter. Let's cut down on the spammers (or at least make it much more difficult to be a spammer) on Twitter before it's too late.

Shorted Change: How do you handle it?

Image: Mike at the pub.

Over the weekend my brother and I visited our favorite local pub to sing some karaoke and visit with some friends.

During the course of the evening, we had an awkward situation with our server: we gave her a twenty dollar bill and she brought back change for a ten.

My brother and I politely told her that I gave her a twenty, to which she swore we gave her a ten. We had just started drinking, so there was no lapse in judgment. I explained to her that I had all twenties and a ten when we walked in. I used the ten to pay for a pitcher of beer when we first got there, so there was no way I could have given her anything but a twenty when we paid the second time. I even reminded her that when I paid earlier with the ten, she handed me back the three dollars in change, of which I gave her back two of it as a tip.

Nobody was yelling, nobody was trying to be a jerk about it. It was pretty busy that night, and it was an understandable mistake. She could have gotten a manager, if she felt we were wrong. Instead, she walked up to the bar, grabbed ten dollars, came back to the table and threw the ten dollar bill on our table in disgust and walked away.

From that point forward she didn't so much as make eye contact with us. That didn't make us feel comfortable about staying there, that's for sure. So we finished up our beer and went to another pub.

Have you ever faced a dispute over being shorted change, where the person you gave the money to claims you gave them a smaller bill than what you actually did? What happened and how did it get resolved?

From Wired: Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer

Photo courtesy of Flickr user gutter

Last weekend hackers used JavaScript and flashing animation graphics to trigger seizures and headaches among people who suffer from epilepsy on a popular epilepsy online support forum.

Click here for the article from Wired Magazine.

It just goes to show that evil knows no bounds.

When the individuals behind these attacks are caught, I wonder if they will be indicted for more than just computer crime related charges. Obviously these hackers intended to cause physical harm to the individuals viewing the images.

Wouldn't that constitute assault?

Poll: Are you happy with the way your US tax dollars are being spent?

The tax filing deadline is quickly approaching next month which means we get to be excited over the fact that the government will soon be graciously repaying the money it borrowed from us, interest free. In other words, tax refunds!

Before we click that e-file button or staple that W-2 to our 1040 and mail it off to Uncle Sam's count room, I thought it would be appropriate to get your response to this question: "Are you happy with the way your US tax dollars are being spent?"




My answer is no. Wasteful domestic spending is my primary concern. Earmarks and the "$400 hammer" stories make me wonder, "who is running the store down in Washington, D.C.?"

I also have concerns over how the U.S. Government spends our money abroad when we have so much domestic disarray such as inadequate border security, homelessness, individuals without health insurance, a social security system headed for collapse and poverty at large.

How do you look a man living in the streets of Atlanta in the eye and tell him we're building housing for refugees overseas when he's standing in line for free soup and dreading another chilly spring night with only cardboard separating him from the elements?

I am not suggesting that we turn our back on the global community. But we've been so busy running around raising everyone else's barn that maybe it's time to finally finish raising our own.

Modern Robotics at Work

My first impression: If this thing came at me in the woods looking like that, and sounding like that, I would definitely be scared as hell.

My next thought: Where to begin with all the great possibilities for this technology?

A few uses that I can think of right off the bat:

• A pack mule that never gets tired and can be programmed to complete regular tasks unsupervised would be a God send for a small farm operator.
• A device that can climb small terrain, compensate for sudden changes in friction, as well as quickly recover from a sudden shift in balance would open the doors to advanced exploration on other planets.
• Camouflaged to look like a horse, people could ride around on one of these babies on their vacation property without the cost and effort of maintaining a living horse.

What do you think would be a possible application of this amazing technology?

(Thanks to @funkatron and @sevenzark for "tweeting" this video!)

She blinded me with science... or became my girlfriend because of it.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Nad Renrel

There's an classic song from the late 60's by Zager and Evans called "In the Year 2525", in which there's the verse:

"In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long black tube"

Well, we're not exactly close to that point yet, but this website helps bring us one step closer by allowing science to select our mates based on our DNA compatibility.

People often talk about the chemistry between lovers, but that's always been a figurative term. Thanks to the marvel of modern day science, by being matched by your DNA to your potential mate you'll find the following benefits according to ScientificMatch.com:

• Chances are increased you'll find the natural body fragrances of your match to be pleasing
• The odds of a good sex life go up
• Women tend to experience more orgasms with their DNA matched partners
• Odds of the woman cheating in the relationship decrease
• DNA matched couples tend to have a higher rate of fertility
• "All other things being equal, couples have a greater chance of having healthier children with more robust immune systems"

Now I didn't see any scientific research on their site to back up these claims. For a one-time $995 price tag you'd think they'd be right up front about the accuracy of these claims.

But, rest assured, in addition to being matched by DNA, you'll also find out if they've been in a bankruptcy in the last 7 years, or they are a convicted felon. And if you're one of those people who have been processed through our legal system and now have a criminal record, you have an opportunity to post an explanation of stated offenses. Better tell the truth about it though, as the site claims their detectives will investigate and verify it.

Ready or not, here comes the future of dating. I suppose this technology introduces us to "Dating 3.0", or would it be 2.5? I've lost track. What I do know is I won't be coughing up any DNA to find my "perfect" match anytime soon. There's just something about this service that feels like a gimmick to me.

Besides, the one guarantee the service doesn't make (I couldn't find it anywhere on the site) is to make sure your potential match is not a blood relative. I don't think I could overcome the shock and horror if the site claimed I'd find the natural scent of one of my own relatives to be most pleasing.

"In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, or say
Is in the pill you took today"

Nebraska and the Nintendo 64 had a baby...

The New Nebraska Network Logo

The New Nebraska Network (NNN) needed a logo. So while cruising the Internet they found one that was too good to be true: three N's connected together in 3-D.

Unfortunately that "3 N" design is the trademarked property of Nintendo, a video game console manufacturer, and is the logo for their "Nintendo 64" video game system. (Don't believe me? Look at this Google Images search for "N64 logo")

Was this done to attract the N64 generation into politics? Or simply a way to make a cool logo out of something that fit their organization's name perfectly? Maybe it's a statement that politics are a game?

I'm certain it's not that deep. The logo just jumped out at me and I had to share this.

Nebraska... brought to you today by the Nintendo 64. Get N or get out!

Profanity habits: Twitter style

5 days ago Download Squad posted a great article, "17 ways to visualize Twitter and its Tweets", which outlined some great sites for looking at various Twitter statistics.

One of the sites mentioned was TweetVolume.com where you can enter up to five keywords and see how they stack up against each other on the Twitter network.

I played around with keyword groupings like "Obama vs Clinton vs McCain" (Obama has over double the tweets of Clinton and McCain combined) and "PC vs MAC" (Mac has over triple the tweets of PC) but then an odd one struck me. How much profanity is used on Twitter?

So I decided to pit 5 of the big bad words head to head and see where the chips fell. My money was on "sh**" for sure, and I was completely surprised when "damn" took the prize.

Results:
Damn - 35,100
Sh** - 20,100
Ass - 19,200
F*** - 15,300
Bi*** - 6,380

In hindsight I should have known "damn" would be the most widely used profane word simply based on my own Twitter habits. Out of these 5 words "damn" is the only one I have ever used in a tweet (to the best of my knowledge).

Twitter feels like shouting in a public place to me, as you never know who will come across your messages. With that in mind, I try to keep my language civil. I'm sure many Twitter users feel something similar, and based on that conjecture I should have guessed "damn" would be the overwhelming favorite.

Damn.

Are the Number of Social Networking Sites Making Your Head Spin?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user SideLong

While going through my RSS feed reading list on Google Reader tonight I came across a review on Mashable! for a new site called shouldi. (As in "Should I?")

The idea is pretty cool: submit a question and the public responds with advice. Check out Mashable's review if you want to know more about the site.

What this got me thinking about is how much we're inundated with all of these new social networking sites all offering their own special twist on connecting with other people around the world.

You've already got MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo! 360, Friendster and LinkedIn... oh and there's Digg, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon... Bebo, Jaiku, Twitter... you get the point.

What really hammered it all home for me is when I signed up for a MyBlogLog.com profile and there's a place to fill in your IDs for all of these different services for people to see what you're doing across all of these networks. This list contains over 30+ services that you could theoretically have accounts on all of them and somehow you're supposed to keep all of this straight.

My online world used to be simple. I set up a free Yahoo e-mail address and it was good enough for me. Friends would boast how great Hotmail was and I would tell them I was doing just fine with what I had.

Yahoo! 360 came out and since I already had a Yahoo ID, it made logical sense to set up a 360 profile. Friends would boast how great MySpace was, and I would tell them I was doing just fine with what I had.

Then the blog bug bit. Suddenly self-promotion became important and all the advice echoed the same message: you must have an account on all networks on the radar.

Now I have a Facebook profile and a LinkedIn profile, I've got friends writing on my wall and old co-workers looking for references. I've "dugg" more articles than I have dirt in my life, I've been "pownced" by more strangers than I care to admit, and I've been "flickd off" (if that's even a new 'hip' term) by more people's photos than when I used to do commercial photography.
What makes it so tough to keep up with is the fact there is a social networking service designed around every niche and interest out there it seems. Real estate agents have their own network, artists have theirs, athletes have one, librarians have theirs... the list goes on. Hell, there's so many that a Wikipedia entry had to be created just to keep up with the more notable ones.

Part of me wants to Twitter in all capital letters "ENOUGH! I BIT OFF MORE THAN I CAN CHEW!" but in the Web 2.0 world we now live in, I know better.

People had to learn to use the telephone, people had to learn how to send an e-mail, and I will learn how to keep up with all my gazillion online contacts across 50 social networking sites... eventually.

Stroller? Check. Diapers? Check. Pistol? Surprise!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Melting Mama

A young couple in Germany were shocked to find a loaded gun in the side pocket of a stroller they had just received from a seller on the Internet.

When police arrived to search the home of the seller he could not explain how the loaded handgun ended up in the stroller and denied owning the weapon.

The article does not reveal the following:

• Did anything turn up in the search of the seller's home?
• Was the item picked up in person or shipped?
• The article eludes to "nearby Hamburg" but is not specific.
• How did the seller acquire the stroller originally?
• Did he use the stroller for his own child?

If the seller truly has nothing to do with the handgun being in the stroller, what an intriguing mystery this is. Was this a murder weapon? Did someone who lived in a bad neighborhood forget to take out the gun before they donated it to a thrift store?

What is your theory on how this gun ended up in the stroller?

And if you come across any links to follow-up articles on this bizarre story, be sure to post those in comments as well. All the articles I could find today were just regurgitations of this Reuters feed.

My son turned 4 today...

Hard to believe that about this time four years ago I was laying in the hospital bed my (now ex-) wife had temporarily vacated and holding my newborn son and giving him his first taste of hockey as the Habs and the Devils skated to a 1-1 tie.

In four short years he's gone from not being able to sit up to not being able to sit still. Oh baby, does time fly by.

Last night before bed he was playing in his room and working on his latest "invention". I walked into his bedroom to tell him it was time to get ready for bed and I nearly tripped over a contraption connected by shoe lace and a belt and two Fisher Price buildings.

"Whoa, what is this?" I asked Collin as I regained my balance.
"It's the Hydromatic Looker 3000!" Collin answered without hesitation.
"Sounds interesting Collin... but what does it do?" This I had to hear.
"It looks for things you lost!" Collin responded in a tone that implied I should have already known the function of this machine just by the name. And in hindsight a Hydromatic Looker does seem pretty self explanatory.

Why would he invent such a machine? Flashback two hours prior, and Collin was playing with my video camera. In the process of filming a documentary on how stuffed animals won't move without assistance, he misplaced the lens cap to my camera.

After he and I had a short discussion about how important it is to take care of things you borrow from other people, and unable to remember where he put the lens cap, he decided he would let science work on his behalf apparently.

I thought I was a smart kid at his age because I could read and operate an Atari 2600. My boy reads, laughed when I tried showing him an Atari 2600 game, sends e-mail on our Nintendo Wii, and now apparently is dabbling in simple machines.

Did the "Hydromatic Looker 3000" find my lens cap? Not directly. I told Collin to dismantle his creation and put everything back where it goes. While putting the pieces of his hard work back in drawers and his closet he ended up finding my lens cap. I love how things like that work out.

When I laid him down for bed tonight and bent over to kiss him good night, he says, "shhhhhh, do you hear that? My brain is growing!"

It sure is, buddy. And your brain has many years of growing still ahead of it. I'm looking forward to being a part of every moment of it.

Winning Back Your Sanity: The Creative Mind vs The Not-So Creative Job

Photo courtesy of Flickr user gotplaid?

You're sitting in the morning rush hour traffic and instead of thinking about the wonderful day ahead and all of the great things you're going to accomplish that day you've got some or all of the following bouncing around your head:

• Look at this traffic, I could be getting more done if I telecommuted from home. My boss just doesn't get it.
• There's no reason I need to be there at 9 o'clock to do what I do. The owners just don't get it.
• Bet we're going to have another meeting to discuss the meeting about setting up a meeting about the meeting. They could do all this online. My team just doesn't get it.
• Instead of wasting my time blabbering at my desk and calling me on the phone every couple of minutes, they could just e-mail me. My co-workers just don't get it.
• They just don't get it...
• ...they just don't get it!

The truth is: you're right. They just don't get it. And if you're in a job that doesn't benefit from creativity, I've got bad news for you: you're screwed. But you already knew that.

I know there are plenty of articles on the Internet about how to convince your employer to let you telecommute by laying out the "what's in it for them" benefits.

I also know there are plenty of articles out there that help you get the dialog started with your employer about changing your working hours with the promise of your increased productivity.

We live in the real world, folks. Unless you work with absolutely amazing and open minded people, the only discussion you typically have with your employer regarding your employment is the one where you state how you will improve your performance by the time your next review rolls around.

All of those articles you find on the Internet about switching to the telecommuting life, changing your schedule or getting your co-workers to communicate on a more efficient level are nothing more than successful self-employed individuals subtly rubbing your nose in their own success.

See, the creative mind is such a blessing, but it comes at a price. Think of the creative mind as a bird. When you cage it with protocol and confine it with a schedule, it rarely sings. What's worse, when it does sing, the song is melancholy and never lifts the spirits. Add another creative mind to that cage and the two birds will sing more often, but mostly about how much they hate being caged.

So what is the trick to getting the most out of the creative mind? The trick to keep it nourished enough so that it doesn't start to chew on its own sanity? Convince it into thinking its not caged at all. Change your perception of the situation.

Ask yourself: "Why do I keep this job and not just walk away and do what it is I really want to do for a living?" The answer is going to be something along the lines of, "I have bills to pay and a family to take care of." You're damned right.

But what if instead of looking at where you are as being trapped without options, you were to look at it as a stepping stone to where you're supposed to be? Sort of like the "someday lawyer" waiting tables at the Friday's near campus to help pay for school. Bump into Joe and ask him what he's doing these days and he'll tell you: "Just started my second year of law school," and then he might mention his waiter gig as, "waiting tables off-campus to get by."

And there's the key phrase: "to get by." There's a plan in place. Working at Friday's isn't the final destination, it's just a means to keep money in the pocket while he attends law school to become a lawyer.

But what about those of us who aren't pursuing a career through higher education?

Bill works as an office assistant at a company that employs roughly 50 workers. He would love to be doing custom desktop publishing work for his own clients and making a markup on the printing, but if you ask Bill what he does and you'll probably get, "I'm an office assistant over at XYZ, Inc. I handle scheduling and sales material fulfillment for the Director of Sales." Pretty cut and dry. Save that answer for the owner who doesn't know your name at the company Christmas party.

You need to incorporate your long term goal into the perception of your job! If Bill thought it was even remotely possible to run his own desktop publishing business, his answer would have been: "Right now I'm working as an office assistant for the Director of Sales over at XYZ, Inc. to get by while I learn the ins and outs of the printing industry. I'm trying to get a clear understanding of what publishing needs are of today's businesses before breaking into the desktop publishing market."

Think about what you do for a living and what you'd rather be doing for a living, and try spinning your job description into a statement of plan rather than just a dry statement of fact. Easier said than done? You bet. Since you're not where you want to be as of yet (walking the walk), it feels like you're lying.

That's why I strongly suggest you print yourself business cards. I'm talking about your name, your career choice right there in black and white on a little 2" x 3 1/2" card. There is no point in trying to change your perception of your current situation if you're not able to explain it to someone else.

It's amazing how much confidence you gain by being able to reach into your coat pocket (or purse) and pull out a little printed card that just confirmed everything you just said out loud.

Think of the last time someone handed you a business card. I bet you didn't look at it and think, "I bet this guy isn't really a mobile phone salesman."

Be reasonable with your job title. If your plan is to someday be President of the United States and that's what you have printed on your card, you might as well write "Come see me on stage Thursday at the Comedy Shack" on the back. (I'm not here to dash your dreams, so if being President is your true goal, perhaps "Candidate for President 2012" is the appropriate title.)

Now don't expect fortune to befall you overnight by changing your perception of where you are and where you are going in your career. What you're accomplishing here is a gradual return to sanity while putting yourself on the path of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You're building confidence while gaining contacts. What started as a handshake and an exchanging of cards at the coffee shop turns into an e-mail asking for some quick advice in your area of expertise, then eventually a referral for a side job for extra money and a reference in your portfolio. Before you know it you're building a client base, forming a business plan, securing financing, and starting your own business.

Thanks to the new found success, when you hand out business cards you're telling people what you're doing now instead of what you're planning to do.

Funny how things come full circle.

Do you remember to eat breakfast?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Lex in the City

Do you remember to start your day with a healthy meal? Or do you skip breakfast all together? Maybe you choose not to eat breakfast.

It's hit or miss for me. When I have my son during the week I'm great about eating breakfast since I'm serving him breakfast as well. During the weekends, I'm not so good with keeping up the routine for myself.

If I have something quick and easy that I can just grab off the shelf and go, my breakfast batting average probably goes up about 10%.

Speaking of quick and easy, if you're into granola you can get a free sample of "Quaker Simple Harvest" by clicking here. I selected the dark chocolate chunk myself.

Thanks to The Bargainist for this free sample tip!

Wal-Mart Customers: Linux ain't our bag

Wal-Mart hatched a bold campaign to make the computer affordable for John Q. Public by selling a discount brand with nothing but good ol' free Linux installed on it.

But after just four short months the retail giant is pulling the plug on in-store sales of these rock bottom priced $200 Everex gOS Linux machines.

This news does not shock me one bit, as I had the privilege of seeing one such rejection first hand.

When my mother's computer finally died after nearly 5 years under the strain of never seeing an air duster, I got the call to find an affordable replacement. As a part-time Linux user myself, I figured it'd be easy to teach my mother to accomplish what she needed to do with the computer under the Linux OS.

In theory, I would have been able to. But the operating system that comes with the system, "gOS", is a cumbersome and ugly looking monster that teases you with an "easy-to-use" quick-launch bar for items such as "YouTube" or "GMail" but the system immediately bites you when you start customizing things such as the display resolution.

In my opinion this operating system was not well thought through. For example, if you click on the YouTube quick launch icon, it takes you to the YouTube website, but none of the videos will play since the system does not come with the Flash Player plug-in for the Firefox browser. And for any of you who have played with Linux, installing the Flash Player plug-in for Firefox varies from Linux distribution to distribution. It was no cake walk on this "gOS" system, that's for sure. Any average computer user would not have gone through the trouble.

If you adjusted the screen resolution, this "quick launch" bar did not adjust properly to your new resolution. What an eye sore.

Problems like this are inexcusable. Didn't someone sit down and put the operating system through its paces before selling this model to customers? This had all the makings of a "rush to market" product and the fact that it took as long as four months to figure this out makes me scratch my head.

The Linux OS is absolutely free but comes with an intimidating learning curve to life-long Windows users. When Ubuntu's distribution of Linux hit the Internet, that curve has rapidly started to deteriorate. Since Ubuntu, the hardest part of the learning curve for Windows users is the installation process, as any hiccups between Linux and your hardware can be difficult to solve for a beginning Linux user.

If a company was to craft a computer with 100% Ubuntu compatible hardware and strike a deal for commercial use of their distribution on their computers, then you'd have a real rock-bottom priced computing solution that people could sink their teeth into. Include a DVD instruction video on how to run many common Windows program via the included Windows Emulator (WINE) and it'd be absolute dynamite.

Here's where Wal-Mart could see success in selling these PCs while reaching out to the community at the same time. If they were to donate 15-20 of these new Ubuntu PCs to a local continuing education center in exchange for being able to use the classroom for one or two nights a week over the course of one or two years, Wal-Mart could offer beginning computer classes to the community and get folks trained on the basics of the Ubuntu system. Finding instructors for such a class is easy and inexpensive (I used to teach basic computer classes at local continuing education centers myself).

After a solid crash course in Ubuntu computing, what are many people going to want to do with all this new found computer knowledge? Use it, of course. And for $200 they can take home a computer of their very own from Wal-Mart. Class participants will either love the price or simply feel obligated to buy a system from Wal-Mart since they offered the class for free.

If you don't think that model of business works, try asking Baby Tenda how crib sales were after their "safety seminars" they invited parents to.

After seeing success in one market it becomes a case of "rinse and repeat" across the country. Before you know it, "Wal-Mart computer seminars" could become a household concept.

So when your elderly mother is running 4 desktops, checking e-mail, instant messaging and surfing the web all at once on a $200 value computer she got after a computer seminar from Wal-Mart, you can thank me (or hate me depending on how much you like prying e-mail and IMs from your mother) and hopefully by then I've got my feet up on a desk somewhere warm and living off of good Wal-Mart money.

I can dream, can't I?

1 in 4 teenage girls have an STD, report says

Photo courtesy of Flickr user greenmelinda

Now that's a fact that's hard to chew on: One out of every four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. When 25% of any group is effected by preventable disease, it's time to re-examine what's been done to prevent this from happening.

Are there enough sexual education classes available? And I'm not talking about the "sex before marriage is immoral and will get you pregnant so you had better abstain" stump speech. I mean real heart to heart "these are the facts" talks about the risks of sexual intercourse and how individuals can protect themselves.

Are condoms readily available to teenage students? Whenever the media comes out with a story about a certain school issuing condoms out to its students there is always a public outcry about the morality of our youth and how its being corrupted with stunts like this. Many people believe that the simple act of passing out a condom condones and even promotes sexual promiscuity among teenagers.

Come on people, wake up! As teenagers once ourselves we all know that any obstacles put in our way of engaging in sexual activity were just that: obstacles, not deterrents. We always found the opportunity behind a movie theater, at our partner's house while parents were away, etc. Today's teenagers are no different. Teenage sex is going to happen regardless of our wishes and instructions to our children, so common sense should dictate that we as a society should prefer it to be in a safe environment with safety precautions taken such as using a condom.

As a citizen of the United States of America the fact that 1 out of 4 teenage girls have a sexually transmitted disease is as appalling as it is shocking. With the access and reach we have with education and the resources to distribute STD preventing contraceptives such as condoms, there is no way this number should be that high.

Either we're not doing enough or we're not teaching the right message. The re-examination of what we are doing to prevent sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers needs to begin now.

Making anonymous posting on the Internet illegal

Photo courtesy of Flickr user exfordy

WTVQ in Kentucky reports that the Kentucky state legislature is moving to make posting anonymously on the Internet illegal. While it is virtually impossible to track an individual behind such an anonymous post this legislation is attempting to force website owners to be compliant with the law by threatening a $500 fine to the site owner per infraction by the contributors to his or her site.

This is backlash from a story aired on Good Morning America in which a 13-year-old girl committed suicide after being contacted through MySpace by whom she thought was a 16-year-old boy who had an interest in her. What started out as friendly conversation and a promising online relationship quickly turned into an insult and hate-fest, and ultimately lead to her suicide.

The bizarre twist of this story is this was a hoax orchestrated and carried out by the mother of one of the girl's former friends. Absolutely despicable.

While my heart goes out to anyone who has ever been a victim of cyber bullying, do we really need this type of legislation?

At the moment this legislation is only being worked on in Kentucky, and even if it were to pass and become law, it would be largely unenforceable. But, as public opinion and response is gauged, other states will surely follow suit if the results are favorable.

Proponents of this legislation argue that they are merely trying to get site owners to force all contributors to their site to reveal themselves and that would be a big deterrent to online cyber bullying.

While their intent is a noble one, the truth is anyone who wants to post anonymously will still do so. From what I understand the legislation simply asks for the contributor to reveal their name, address and e-mail address but there is no requirement for this information to actually be verified by the website operator. Even if you were to set up some type of e-mail verification system, how hard is it to create an anonymous e-mail address on Yahoo or Hotmail?

If someone still wanted to commit a case of cyber bullying, they would simply create an account with fake user information just as the woman did in the hoax that caused the 13-year-old girl to kill herself.

Legislation such as what Kentucky is proposing accomplishes nothing but forcing sites like mine to fingerprint every law abiding good natured person who wishes to contribute to the discussion, while those with bad intent continue to harass others anonymously. And let's be real: who will want to give away their address to every personal blog they come across? If legislation like this was ever made enforceable, you would see the conversations die on millions of blogs.

So I ask you: Do you think this legislation is a good idea? Or did it not go far enough?

"Haters" on the Internet

I was revisiting some of my older videos on YouTube and came across this video about all of the "haters" on YouTube. It seems if you have any degree of success with one of your videos on that popular video sharing site, you inevitably come in contact with people who want to tear you down out of jealousy.

This was my short take on the situation.

How deep into the rainbow do you see?

Today's blog post idea comes courtesy of the blog Pensieve who in turn got it from the blog "Rocks in my Dryer."

29

I am shocked that I couldn't name more than 29 colors in 5 minutes. I really racked my brain and that truly is the best I could do. All those years of coloring with the Crayola 120+ deluxe crayon set and I can barely remember 20% of them?

Am I losing my memory and am I just blissfully unobservant of the trivial?

Give it a whirl and see how you do! Click here or on my results badge to take the test. Post the results on your own blog and share them with us here in comments.

Free tip: the five minute timer starts as soon as you click begin and the page loads! Be ready!

Duck Hunt: The Game, The Tattoo

From nintendowiifanboy.com

How much can you love a video game? Enough to get a tattoo of it on your back?

Duck Hunt was a great classic, but I didn't love it enough to have it permanently etched in my flesh, especially in a place that will be given a lot of visual attention in certain compromising positions while engaged in intimacy with your significant other.

Then again, to each their own.

I ask you: Is a video game the most foolish thing to get tattooed with? If not, what is?

Kicking the Warcrack habit; Back to Ubuntu

I hadn't booted my Ubuntu partition in a couple of months, so after a sleepless night this morning seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

I stopped using Ubuntu for a foolish reason: World of Warcraft was consuming a horrendous amount of my time and I couldn't get it to run properly in Linux.

That's right, I said it. I was addicted to World of Warcraft. It has stolen over three months of my recent life and I let it. I fell into a terrible funk at the end of October and Warcraft came along and fed on my vulnerability.

Every day for the last three months I have faithfully logged into my account, slayed monsters and fought in battlegrounds all in a futile attempt to elevate myself above "noob" status. What do I have to show for it? One lost friendship, ten extra pounds and a hefty feeling of regret.

I woke up yesterday and finally realized for myself that my Warcrack habit was stupid. Halle-freakin-lujah. Just wish I would have woke up to that fact at least two days earlier so I didn't have to shell out another $15. Better late then never.

I am a fantastic procrastinator. Some of my best work has been done in the waning moments of a deadline. It's so much easier to play a couple more rounds of Freecell than to stop and brainstorm or pick up the phone and make that first dreaded call of the day. To combat my natural tendency to slack, I installed a Ubuntu partition on my hard drive.

Ubuntu is so business-like. Fewer games available to play and free productivity applications around every corner. When I boot up my computer to that plain brown wallpaper I actually want to get things done.

So I have affirmations for myself now that I'm freed from the clutches of Azeroth. I'm going to start wearing my bluetooth ear piece and take calls. I'm going to read my e-mail, and better yet, I will respond in a timely manner. I will use Instant Messaging again.

I will pull my eBay box out of my closet and start selling my junk again for bar money.

I will write every day. I will engage in conversation on current events. I will read blogs and comment on thought provoking entries.

I will reconnect with friends and family I have neglected over these past few months.

I will be Michael Beck once again.

Now it's your turn: What's an addiction or habit that you've had to kick and how did you kick it?

Blogs and political views: Keep it to myself?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user JeremyRyan

I wrote in to the Cafferty File today regarding the stripping of delegates from Michigan and Florida, and whether or not those delegates should be in fact seated at the Democratic National Convention later this year.

Don't hold your breath for me to post that response here, as a good civil discussion on politics is hard to find on the Internet.

Instead, I'd like to pose the question: Should political views be kept to one's self on a personal blog, or should those views be posted for all to see?

When I read personal blogs of other folks, I typically don't see political viewpoints expressed. Now I haven't really browsed a whole lot of blogs as these Democratic primaries have heated up, so that could be a different situation now.

But for those blogs where I've found political commentary in a perso