OddBlog

Blogger Blogs and PageRank

2008-10-08T19:31:00.005-06:00

I'm curious about something. I've seen a lot of blogger blogs lately and I've noticed that for some reason very few, in fact hardly any, have any pagerank at all.

I've taken time to look at a lot of them and most are actually unranked... They're not even a zero. This in spite of the fact that many of them have a good number of inbound links and most of them are coming from ranked pages (values anywhere from 0 to 5, with the average being about 3)

I'm wondering, approximately how many links are required from sites with PR1 and above for a blogger site to gain a PR1 rank of it's own?

Comment Policy Revisited

2008-09-20T12:46:00.006-06:00

I got a couple of comment notifications in my email today and they're a prime example of why I have full comment moderation turned on. Somebody who signed themselves as "warhammer gold" and left comments on a couple of posts. Those comments were nothing but links for various domains involved in selling gold in a game called "Warhammer".

Needless to say I nuked 'em. I have zero patience for this crap and any comment that isn't somehow relevant to the post it's on will be deleted without a second thought.

I welcome comments. I even welcome comments that have urls in them as long as both the comments and the urls are relevant. Though if it gets really bad I'll just turn the things off entirely and not bother. It's not like *this* blog is making me any money.

Good Stories and Blogs

2008-07-16T17:56:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted here in entirely too long so I thought I'd drop in and write **something**...

The best thing I can think of to put here right now is a few good blog recommendations.

A Short Tail is a fairly new blog that's got some really good short stories in it. I expect some really great things to show up there in the future.

On Two Ton Tilly You'll find all sorts of things from editorial opinions to cute cat stories.

A good stop on your search for interesting blogs to read is Blog Hunting where the author is doing just that, hunting for interesting and, dare I say it, "good" blogs.

All of these are very much worth the reading and their value should do nothing but increase over time.

A Collection of anonymity tutorials

2008-04-02T10:35:00.005-06:00

A while back I started a series of posts on my main blog that aim to show how to write an anonymous blog that, as long as you're careful with the details that you post, cannot be traced back to you.

I will take a second to give fair warning that while I don't believe this to be at all complicated, it's also not something I would expect anyone to accomplish in a single afternoon. Give yourself some time to become familiar with the stuff in each step before going on to the next. It'll save a lot of confusion later on.

This series begins with how to surf the web anonymously:

Anonymous Web Surfing

How to browse the web without leaving a trail that identifies you.

I'm going to have to do an update on that topic but this post has still got useful information in it. Hint, stick with TOR.

Because the process that I worked out for blogging anonymously uses email to submit posts, the next several posts involve details about how to send anonymous email. That part of the series begins with installing PGP because you need encryption for that to work.

Anonymous Email - Step one: You need PGP

One of the topics that I’ve been planning to cover here involves how to send anonymous email because I want to talk about how to blog anonymously and in order to do that, you need to be able to send email that cannot be traced back to you.

Once PGP is installed and you've had a chance to become familiar with how it works, it's time to start getting set up with the software needed for anonymous email. For that, you need a great little program called "Jack B. Nymble" (JBN)

Anonymous Email - Step Two: Jack B. Nymble

At this point I’m assuming that you have PGP 6.5.8 installed and have taken some time to become familiar with how to create keys and sign and/or encrypt text messages.

Once JBN is set up, it's a good idea to expand it's capability by installing Mixmaster. The next article in the series covers doing that.

Anonymous Email - Step Three: Adding Mixmaster

Adding mixmaster capability to Jack B. Nymble
By adding Mixmaster, you get the ability to use Type II remailers as well. Type II remailers are designed with higher security in mind and to be resistant to things like replay attacks (where messages are captured by an attacker and resent lots of times to create a large trail of traffic in an attempt to follow the message)

Now that you've gotten this far, it's time to send that first anonymous message just to see if you've got it right.

Anonymous Email - Step Four: Sending Your First Msg

Now that you've got the pieces in place this is a quick tutorial that walks through sending anonymous email messages with Jack B. Nymble.

That's as far as it's gotten so far. Next up will be coverage of mail2news gateways and posting anonymously to UseNet (which too many people confuse with 'google groups', no, they're NOT the same!) After that I'll go over the process of creating a "Nym", which is a pseudonymous email address. It has the advantage of being completely anonymous, since it uses anonymous remailers but it has special features which make it possible to receive email while staying anonymous.

After all that, I'll tie it all together in a procedure that allows you to create and post in a blog that is as anonymous as whatever you write in it. (well, if you post something that only you could know, or reveal identifying information in your posts, then you've just blown the privacy you built with doing things anonymously)

Links for a pair of new blogs

2008-03-10T21:22:00.002-06:00

Here's a couple of new blogs that I want to recommend. DollieKay and TwoTon Tilly. Both are written by people new to blogging and need all the links, traffic and stumbles etc that they can get.

Two more great blogs

2008-03-02T18:16:00.004-06:00

It's been a bit longer than I'd wanted since the last post but stuff happens.

In the meantime, I'm going to get right to the point here with a bit about a couple more blogs that I think readers will appreciate.

This time I'll start off with Off The Cuff (http://offthecuff.lurasbookcase.com) Off The Cuff's author writes in exactly that style... quite literally "Off The Cuff". The subtitle on the page is "An Arkansas view of the news, politics, entertainment, you name it." and that is exactly what you get. Don't let the part about "Arkansas view" fool you, There's plenty of Arkansans that have a good grip on current events and what is right (or wrong) with a lot of things going on in the world and Off The Cuff underscores this fact. Just because you live in the sticks doesn't mean you're ignorant or without a voice.

There are some entries there that are guaranteed to get you thinking about our world today and some of the really unfortunate trends that are growing in it such as this post "History Repeats Itself...If We Do Not Learn" that makes a very good point about the fact that most, if not all of the problems we're dealing with today have been around before and if we take the trouble to pay attention to history we can learn from past mistakes and have a shot at avoiding them. Then on the lighter side there's this really hilarious video that features "Three Clowns Of Late Night" in a mock brawl that does a great job of poking fun at policitians.

Another blog that is certain to be one you'll add to your "must read" list is Window Shopper (http://shopper.purrfectdomains.com). Window shopper is all about shopping in general and shopping online in particular. There are a lot of useful and informative entries such as "Tips For Saving on Ebay" with a bunch of good advice for anyone buying online, particularly on eBay. There's plenty more money saving advice such as this article "More Savings At Home And At The Store". Last but not least, lets not forget having a bit of fun with a Wierd Al video: "I Bought It On Ebay".

All in all, Off The Cuff and Window Shopper are both sites that will make fine additions to anyone's list of "I gotta keep up with that one". That's all for now. I'll be posting again in a day or ??? with more shameless promotion of a couple more blogs.

Time For A Bit Of Shameless Promotion

2008-02-15T22:37:00.003-06:00

That's right. I'm going to do a bit of shameless promotion of some other blogs and just to keep it from looking like a long spammy list of links in one post, I'm going to spread it out over a series of entries. I figure that ought to set me up for at least the next thirty (or more!) entries.

The first Blog I'm going to mention is God's Topshelf (http://godstopshelf.com). This is a Christian blog with a message based in the word of God and His love for all of us. It's entries range from favorite Christian music videos to thought provoking articles and Bible based lessons that aim to help the reader grow spiritually.

The second one is called "Blog Hunting" (http://bloghunting.com). It's a site that's sharing reviews of blogs and other things that the author has discovered. This is a new blog just getting started so don't be surprised to find that there's not a whole lot of stuff on there now. That is going to change and I'm certain that there's going to be some interesting blogs talked about here.

Stop Telecom Immunity

2008-02-14T21:15:00.003-06:00

Here's something from the EFF action alert I just got.

The Senate has passed their version of the surveillance bill. This one grants immunity to telecoms that have taken part in illegal domestic spying and illegal wiretaps & so on.

It needs to be stopped.

The House version of this bill does NOT grant this immunity, this way the telecoms can be held responsible for taking part in illegal activities.

Don't waste any time. Take one minute and use this link to contact your representatives and ask them to support the house version of the surveillance bill.

Freenet 0.5 lives

2007-12-28T00:20:00.000-06:00

it seems that in spite of what the devs have decided, Freenet 0.5 is alive and well. In fact, a new build (5108) has been created and 5109 is expected to show up soon.

Now that it's being developed again, perhaps it can go the direction that 0.5 die-hard types believe it should have gone in the first place. It also means that I've got to do some rewrites on my "Un-official Freenet 0.5 alternative download" site so that it reflects the new freenet builds.

While I'm at it, I also need to update my Frost tutorial to reflect the newest Frost build as well.

Wow! Updates!

2007-12-23T21:17:00.000-06:00

Imagine that! I actually took some time to do a bit of updating.

Nothing much yet. Just divided the links into two lists and put all of the blog links in one and websites in another.

Perhaps I'll get into at least a semi-regular posting habit. (seems a shame to let a perfectly good blog go to waste) I'm already doing better though.. two posts in less than four days... what'll happen next?

yes, I'm still here

2007-12-20T23:36:00.000-06:00

Amazingly enough, I actually DO still have the password for this blog. Sometime soon I'm going to get to the business of posting more often.

2007-08-14T15:26:00.000-06:00

yet another in a long line of test posts

A quick test

2007-07-09T19:20:00.000-06:00

Just doing a quick test. the image below should NOT be the Mona Lisa

[There WAS an image here but it's served it's purpose and has now been removed]

What's a blogger to do?

2007-05-29T15:32:00.000-06:00

So many blog for $$ sites, so littel time.

Well, you'd think so anyway. Things aren't actually as rosy as they look. First there's payperpost... which up until recently has been great, but their latest modifications are killing them.. It's gotten nearly impossible to take an opp if your timing isn't JUST so. This means you can click "take opportunity" all day long and not earn a cent because after to do this you find out that all of the slots for that opp have been taken.. combine that with the reservation time that you can hold the opp going from 1 hour to *six* hours and you can pretty much forget it if you're not VERY blessed and manage to click into an opp just as it becomes available. wait one second too long and you're out in the cold

Blogitive is pretty good, easy to work with, they usually have enough opps to keep you busy, but sometimes the longer ones don't seem worth it at $5.00 for 300 words.

Blogsvertize is turning out to be ok, though if I *NEVER* see another "just say hi" opp again it'll be too soon.

There's some others that we're checking into and the jurr's still out on them.

In other news, A Peculiar Blog has been moved from Thingamablog to Wordpress 2.2 and I'm toying with the thought of moving I Am Not A Hamster to wordpress as well. I just wish I had found out about wordpress BEFORE I had gotten started with Thingamablog... Or that TAMB's authors had put in the ability to use some of the features that Wordpress does... like trackbacks and pingbacks and any of dozens of WP plugins

New Security Scanner Can See -=>ALL<=-

2007-02-24T01:07:00.000-06:00

I just saw a story about this new security system being used in a trial run at the Phoenix airport and in spite of what the story says, I don't think most people are going to like the idea of a scanner that can see through their clothing.

Another thing about this is that they went out of their way to mention that it does not have any way to save or transmit the images, but I'll just bet where there's a will, there's a way. Look for images from this thing to show up online within a year.

In the meantime, if this thing gets used at more airports, there might just be a market for lead lined underwear.

Utility Belts Anyone?

2007-02-19T23:28:00.000-06:00

You know the gadget filled, compartmentalized belt made famous by Batman? Well, one of the tools it had was something that allowed the caped crusader to climb the side of a building at a pretty good pace. Up until now it's just been one of many parts of science fiction and comic book stories.

MIT student Nate Ball, and three other MIT students worked together on the "Powered Rope Ascender". It was an award winning entry in an MIT sponsored design competition. Apparently this little gem can climb at 10 feet per second.

While I don't doub't that would-be superheroes will be all over the thing, it's going to be marketed as a tool for firefighters, rescue workers, police and so forth.

Technorati Tags: technology, design+competition, rescue

Green Lights?

2007-02-18T00:05:00.000-06:00

I just saw a headling on ABC News, "Legislator Wants Green Lights in California" and right away I wondered why green lights? Wouldn't that cause eyestrain? As it turns out, these days when somebody calls something "green" they may not be talking about the color. In this case it's another way to say 'environmentally friendly' or somesuch. Wouldn't it be nice if people would just speak plainly?

In any event, the 'green' lights being talked about are those curly little 'Compact fluorescent lights'. This legislator wants to ban the use of traditional incandesent light bulbs by 2012. This may even be worth doing. The things are said to last ten times longer and put out the same amount of light, generate 70% less heat and save $30 or more in energy costs over the bulb's ten year lifetime.

In the end however, the only thing on my mind is the fact that I cannot resist asking:

How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb?

Folks in California may be among the first to find out.

Bionic Eyes?

2007-02-16T23:55:00.000-06:00

Steve Austin, where are you?

I'm sure that a lot of people in my generation remember him from 1970's television. The victim of a horrific crash, he lost both legs, one arm and one eye. All of which were replaced by nuclear powered Bionic replacement parts.

Well, technology is catching up with the science fiction of yesteryear. I just saw a story about the development of a new bionic eye it's a far cry from the techno wonder Austin had, his had 20 to 1 zoom, this one is far less than that, but it's a start, who knows what'll be available ten years from now?

Time Change 'Baby Y2k'?

2007-02-14T13:50:00.000-06:00

Microsoft is now warning people who use it's various calendar programs that they need to double check any appointments, schedules etc. because of a possible problem with the time change this spring.

While it's a far cry from all the rumors and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) that went with the anticipation of midnight 12/31/00, it's still a possible problem. Not only that, but it isn't even Microsoft's fault. It's Congress' fault.

This is happening because Congress decided that it would be better to have an more early evening daylight. Apparently they think that this will translate into more energy savings.

So, as a result, calendar software written before this 2005 law was passed that changed daylight-saving time so that it would start three weeks earlier and end one week later starting this year.

This is going to have people being an hour late for a good three weeks this spring and an hour early for a week next fall. Myself, I just wish they'd pick a way to have time and quit changing it. The changeovers from standard time to daylight-savings and back have always been a pain that I'd just as soon not have.

VT College says wikipedia is not authoritative source

2007-02-13T10:28:00.000-06:00

I ran across this because somebody decided that it belonged in the Technology News section on iwon.com, probably because it used the word 'online' or some sillyness.

Anywho, it seems that this college in Vermont has decided that Wikipedia cannot be used as an authoritative source in papers written by students. Next thing you know they'll decide that the only way to find information is in their brick and mortar library.

Teraflops? Cool!

2007-02-12T23:54:00.000-06:00

I just saw something interesting. It seems that Intel has come up with a chip that can actually do a shade over 1 teraflop. The chip that does it runs at 3.16 ghz and only used 62 watts of power in the process.

The first thing I can't help wondering is how much this thing cost and secondly, when (if ever) will we see home desktop pc's with teraflop cpu's?

Somehow I think we shouln't be running down to Circuit City just yet.

Anna Nicole Tech?!??

2007-02-11T16:37:00.000-06:00

I have to say right of the bat that without reservation or doubt, there has been and continues to be entirely too much press and public attention on Anna Nicole Smith, her death, the death of her son, and anything else to do with her life.

But I think somebody has gone over the edge when they put one of this never ending flood of Anna Nicole stories in the Technology News section on iwon.com

Ok, granted, that's not exactly what I'd call a "mainstream media" news outlet, but still somebody there decided that just because the headline of the AP story they scraped had the word "online" in it, that it belonged in Technology news. Sorry folks, that's assinine. It's like putting a story in the 'plumbing daily' just because it contains the word 'toilet'.

Not only is it not Technology news, It shouldn't even be news at this point. When does that woman's family get to be done with all this crap and go on with ther lives??

Freenet, An Anonymous P2P Network

2007-01-27T13:16:00.001-06:00

Freenet is exactly what it claims to be. It's anonymous to a level that would be very difficult to crack without a level of computing that wont even really be remotely feasable for several hundred years (if ever). Granted, there are some statistical forms of attack, but as I understant it, applying them involves creating a LOT of nodes and snooping ALL of the traffic to and from ALL of the nodes under your control. Something that I rather doubt even the NSA or an evil multi-national corporation is up to doing.

So, with all that, as long as a user practices a certain amount of sensible precautions, Freenet can be considered easily anonymous enough for almost anyone's needs. There is, of course, a price paid for that anonymity. Freenet is nowhere near as fast as Bittorrent and other traditional P2P networks. Being anonymous involves strong encryption in a lot of places, and this takes time to process.

Ok, given that you want to be anonymous, and also given that you at least are able and willing to read some documentation and a readme file or six, you're ready to get freenet.

Which version to get? That's right, there are currently two versions of freenet. The latest version is called 0.7, and is currently in the alpha stage of development. It is a 'darknet' design which means that you must manually do some of the work aquireing and tending the connections to other nodes. I've run it, and it does work, but as I said, it does require more attention on a regular basis.

The other version of freenet is 0.5, it's stable and has quite a bit more content. Because of the anonymous nature of it, it's not possible to know exactly how many nodes there are, but as of this writing an estimated 2000 or more nodes compared to roughly 900 or so for 0.7. With anonymity networks, the more nodes you have, the stronger the anonymity and 'plausible deniability' of the system. Another thing is that the more nodes there are, the more content the network is capable of holding. Most users on 0.5 dedicate 5 to 10 gigabytes of space on their HD to freenet's data store, some give freenet as much as 30 gigs or more.

To get freenet 0.5, you can get it from http://peculiarplace.com/freenet, where I have set up an unofficial freenet alternative download site. On my alternative download page, I also provide a brief guide to getting freenet started.

That was quick

2007-01-24T15:19:00.000-06:00

Ok, the mail2post function seems to work pretty quickly, although the conversion to a post managed to mangle the PGP signature really bad. I'll have to remember to turn signing off for future email posts.

A Test of Posting by Email

2007-01-24T15:17:00.000-06:00

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

I like this idea. Write a post up and post it by email. Very handy when web
pages get stubborn and don't load like they should.

It adds the option to work offline or to just not be dependant on the web
interface. It's not the same as using an offline program like <a
href="http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net">Thingamablog</a> to do the work,
but it's handy enough.

Now to hit "send" and see how long this takes to show up on the blog.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (MingW32)

iQEVAwUBRbfNC3V+YnyE1GYEAQjASAgAtV6fnBxNDuPeGSRJKY90gCDCIxLLJXFb
TahAxIPqWfVGWUl0LKJEA/2omUWAskG1dC4A80ynfDwMpzShugUrKO1vr/pNUiBI
PY9nDTcQTyoKCZkx49QJ9ZWh73Q5+ZbhgeA7+BH41EQUL1/YW5HzAKNYLd40H/PU
SZhuTu/Xs2/moe7AN5DIzFLKiPscYH2fLx0cI6hrFuHUpQkl65nhcyrW2QaCYP6f
XqgpBm8aFWlwfVDUvjXfRmzYKNDjnaZWF3H5l9FbbS1O1xsthJ+Czic4G25Z0gsQ
avHHNuRKqWdVEPSNl0WWtW7Wo/IaGQYoGxs9KuNKkymdUgO3vGo6dQ==
=fLGq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

RSS?

2007-01-23T00:39:00.000-06:00

Ok, maybe I just missed it, but I was assuming that these blogs had an rss feed option.

Episode One

2007-01-23T00:33:00.000-06:00

In this (exciting??) adventure a new blog was created and one nonsensical test-post-wannabe was posted so that it would look like it has *some* content at least.

Presumably, there will be more posts.