Social Media will KILL your brand!
Loren Feldman knocks it out of the park AGAIN! Check him out at 1938media.com
BAD IE! Go sit in the corner!
If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Over the past few years it has been a roller coaster ride for developers in Redmond. From the boat load of “FAIL” known as Windows Vista, to the security vulnerabilities that plague Internet Explorer, they just can’t seem to get it right.
So what’s the problem? (Comments section is located below for all Mac users.) Microsoft dominates the browser market, they have released Windows 7 to make up for Vista, and now they have focused efforts on Bing. So I guess they tend to lose focus, or Steve Ballmer suffers from ADD, take your pick.
It’s time for Microsoft to really focus on their existing products and FIX THEM! If something doesn’t change soon, cyber terrorism is just going to get worse. Let’s face it, it’s no secret that many government agencies run Windows machines. With the announcement of an existing flaw in all 32 bit Windows OS’s last week, and now the vulnerability in all versions of IE Microsoft has made it damn near impossible for anyone buying a new PC to not be vulnerable.
Your standard PC buyer doesn’t know or hasn’t had any type of training on how to protect themselves online. I can walk into a public area, and ask random people what browser they use, and most are going to say: “Whatever came on my PC.” Most people have no clue what Chrome, FireFox, Safari, or Opera even are. Which is sad in this day and age, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
Now we can’t just blame the average Joe for not knowing anything about safe browsing or how to protect themselves, we also need to look at Enterprise Level Developers. Quit developing apps only for IE! You are killing your security by doing so.
It’s time for everyone to really start thinking outside the box, and talk to your friends, family member, and co-workers (if you like them) about using a more secure means of browsing. Not only in a work environment, but at home as well.
breaking down the box
Today I noticed in my facebook suggestions that a good friend of mine IRL had finally created an account. After trying to add him, though, he wrote me a message revealing how he mainly intended to use FB for family and very close friends. This of course I was totally cool with, and wrote back as such, but it got me thinking about all the people who become a steaming pile of butthurtedness when others don’t use social media the way they want everyone to use it.
This is what burnt me out about twitter. Back in the day, twitter was actually used to talk about yourself and your life. Now twitter is more of a link sharing service, which I would be fine with if I didn’t have to deal with a bunch of assholes telling me I can’t tweet about my breakfast. Cream of wheat is delicious and nutritious, to hell with you if you don’t find that fascinating; someone on the internet will.
Social media is built with an unparalleled level of versatility and customization. I think that intimidates people who lack intrapersonal strength and security in their identity. So, instead of having the balls to just do what they want regardless of external feedback they seek to control the actions of others so their actions are justified. This makes for a very uncreative echo chamber rather than a social atmosphere of authenticity. That’s why we end up with jackoffs on twitter who complain about my cream of wheat; underneath their bitching and shallow attempts to control is the hollow, bromidic shell of a truly uninspired soul.
So rock on, my antisocial FB friend; you are doing the word a great service by doing your own thing.
Net Rouges and White Knights
As Anonymous and 4Chan go, they are a force to be reckoned with. Members of 4Chan and Anonymous have pulled off some of the most daring raids in Internet history. From changing the Time magazine “Most Influential” poll to reflect the founder of 4Chan Chris Poole, as being the top pick, to numerous raids against Disney Stars and other high profile individuals.
Members of 4Chan and Anonymous have brought people to justice, mostly animal abusers and the occasional pedophile. They have supplied Iranian Government Proxy info during the Iranian protests. Also, who could ever forget their on going war against the Church of Scientology?
4Chan and Anonymous have their own set of rules they live by. These are the coveted Rules of the Internet. They have no leader, no set hierarchy, and no membership fees. Some content does require a 4chan Gold Account to see, but we’ll get into that later.
4Chan and Anonymous does have some members who leak info and destroy plots and schemes. The people are called Internet White Knights. 4Chan can’t stand them most of the time. A lot of times White Knights will step in and ruin a perfectly good raid, they will leak the story or plans to a news source, then everything goes downhill from there.
The latest such issue happened with the popular Tech blog known as TechCrunch. YouTube account Lukeywes1234 had been banned. Now there usually isn’t a big deal about an account being banned on YouTube, however the account belonged to a kid that 4Chan had labeled a God. The user Lukeywes1234 as it turns out, was to young to have a YouTube account so, in accordance with their Terms of Service, YouTube banned the kids account. 4Chan didn’t care for excuses, in their minds, they had been wronged, deprived of LULZ, they set up their master plan.
So today is officially YouTube Porn day. The plan was to flood YouTube with a ton of porn submissions. Starting around 6 o’clock GMT. 4Chan has pulled this off in the past, and had a good laugh doing it. What makes it different this time is, a White Knight had stepped in and leaked the story to TechCrunch. The jig was up, 4Chan’s plans were blown. Now YouTube had time to get admins in place to respond to the porn flood.
While TechCrunch is a very popular Tech blog and the writer if the article MG Siegler, I am sure is a professional writer, I do have some advice. If TechCrunch could have done more investigating, and let the drama unfold, they would have had a bigger story. One of the rules of the Internet according to Anonymous is Rule# 32. “Lurk Moar, it’s never enough.” Had the TechCrunch writer lurked, he could have taken screen grabs, had more links to the hilarity and seen first hand how both sides handled the issue. But hey it’s TechCrunch. They are known for jumping on a story without ALL the facts and throwing caution to the wind.
Kanye Rage
TRIFORCE FAIL! FFFFFFFUUUUUUU
Loren Feldman Defends Steven Frischling
Loren brings a “No BS” look into the TSA / Blogger issue regarding Steven Frischling, and calls out Mike Arrington from Tech Crunch. Steven Frischling is a blogger who received an anonymous tip from a GMail contact about the new TSA Screening Procedures according to Wired Magazine. Not to long after he blogged about it, the Department of Homeland Security was knocking at his door. He cooperated fully and handed over his laptop, under threat of going to jail. However, Mike Arrington thinks Mr. Frischling displayed no back bone.
Loren has a great point and I had to re-post this. The original is found on 1938media. Loren has given permission to Social Media Rage for reposts, and I gotta say this is one of his most powerful points.
Check out Loren and his crew at 1938media.com
Win / Fail <—This
Facebook F***s up!
Photo (Savagechickens.com)
It’s everywhere from CNET to GAWKER. Facebook has yet again released the “stupid” in the biggest screw up since Beacon. So why is anyone surprised by this? I have said it before and I’ll say it again, once Social Networks open the gates and are no longer a gated community they also let the stupid pour in, in both mind, users, and application development.
I am so close to just killing my Facebook account. Not only am I tired of the stupid apps status updates, now I have no way of setting my own privacy levels. Facebook, you know who you sound like right now? Microsoft when they released Vista (crap). You have taken the stupid road, the short bus if you will. You have gone down the “We know what is best for you” path. Guess what, I know what is best for me and what I want. Setting my own degree of privacy should be an option PERIOD!
I’ll give it to you that Facebook is worth millions, they have a ton of money. I am also really beginning to understand something. When companies get big and all they see is the bottom dollar, they get dumber. It all becomes more about their advertisers and who they can please. Well you seem to have forgotten something Facebook. WE are the ones who made YOU. YOUR USERS! NOT your advertisers. Not the morons who created the stupid apps. WE did.
So Facebook enjoy the revenue you are going to get out of the less technically educated. The ones who will play the stupid apps and the crap ads in your sidebar. One day you’ll wake up and realize, you’ve become Myspace.
I think we should go back to the drawing board on Friendmenow.com. What do you think Brian? You game?
UPDATE! Gawker has released a Restore your privacy on Facebook Manual
Bush White House Generated 234,042 Emails Per Day? – An Explanation
Roughly 22 million missing e-mail messages from the Bush administration’s tenure in the White House over a period of 94 days were recently recovered. Gawker Editor Adrian Chen did the math, which translates to an estimated 1,000 messages per staffer, per day.
Insane? For anyone who gets their news online this will probably seem quite insane at first glance. But upon further reflection, 1,000 messages by a group of barely computer literate people is more than achievable.
It comes down to one very simple principle: E-mail is their primary form of communication. It’s their preferred form of communication and it replaces all other useful methods that others might use to better suit a situation.
No Instant Messaging
Instead of Instant Messaging, they use e-mail. A 15-minute conversation can multiply into 30 to 40 back and forth e-mails that aren’t grouped very well in Outlook and duplicate the text from the previous message every single time.
No Twitter or Yammer Use
The Bush administration, or hell, any Government we’ve ever had (including the current one) has yet to truly experience the micro-messaging tools like Twitter and Yammer. So E-mail has to be used in this way too. How many times on a busy day do you update your Twitter feed? Well each of those would be an additional email.
That Damn ‘Reply To All’ Button
Then there’s the notorious “Reply to All” button. I have no sympathy for the sons of bitches who chose to use this method of mass e-mail anarchy to inform all parties involved of every portion of the disjointed conversation. It seems to happen quite a bit in the office world and even outside of that to be completely honest. People aren’t too keen on chat rooms and so they don’t allow this to become a possibility when they need to communicate an entire message to a whole group of people.
Unfortunately, our government has the burden of having to keep all communication both archived and secure at all times. Right now the only form of communication that any government or business will even consider using to do this is E-mail. If 22-million messages can get lost, something isn’t working. We need a better communication tool that caters to both security and record-keeping and we don’t have one. More than that, we have plenty of people who don’t want to budge from their preferred form of communication, even if it bombards them with over 1.000 per day.
