One thing that really annoys me on Twitter is when spammy people quickly follow & unfollow me.  Thanks to TwUnfollow.com it’s easy to keep track of this. And in order to save you some headaches I’m going to list all of the people I’ve caught doing this.  Call it mean. Call it juvenile. But I’m sick & tired of a handful of fools ruining Twitter for everyone else. Police the tweets and the world will be a better place.

Here we go…

1. NateFowler
2. Mzs_Goof_Troop
3. sboselya
4. MichelleBerezan
5. lottsoftraffic
6. BusMatchMkr
7. No1_webmarketer
8. SEOFollowers
9. homebizmom2
10. iGrOOps
11. ByBox
12. adriana_a1ka
13. dimetr83

Last updated: Friday, August 27, 2010

Note: these are not linked as we don’t want to encourage this behavior or give them any link love.

Via CNNMoney.com:

IPhone users can now legally hack their phones to download applications that aren’t in Apple’s App Store.

The U.S. Copyright Office, a division of the Library of Congress, has authorized several new exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), one of which will allow mobile phone users to “jailbreak” — or hack into — their devices to use apps not authorized by the phone’s manufacturer. The new rules will be published on Tuesday in the Federal Register.

Jailbreaking iPhones in order to download apps that are unavailable in Apple’s App Store had been a legal gray area: Apple technically had the right to request a $2,500 government fine for damages every time a user violated the law that bans “circumvention of technological measures” controlling access to copyrighted works — in this case, the iPhone’s iOS software.

I’m glad that the government made the correct decision.  Sure, the warranty is void if you do so, and they’ll continue to try to prevent it (and spend a lot of money doing so in a losing effort), but that’s a public step in the right direction.  In my opinion, you should be allowed to do whatever you want to with any device that you purchase.

Via the WSJ:

Consumer Reports said its tests show a hardware defect causes the iPhone 4 to lose reception when held a certain way, challenging Apple Inc.’s claims that the problem is rooted in software that can be easily fixed.

The product-quality watchdog said Monday it can’t recommend the newest iPhone despite otherwise high marks, dinging a company that for many shoppers can do no wrong. It was the first time Consumer Reports has failed to give the thumbs up for an Apple phone.

…

Consumer Reports took some of the heat away from AT&T Inc.’s network, which has been criticized for dropped calls and not being able to adequately handle the load of data-guzzling iPhones.

Full story

The iPhone isn’t perfect? Really?  Well, I’m glad that we can now add it to the list of every other piece of hardware.

While the iPhone may have its software issues, I can say without a doubt that AT&T’s cell coverage is horrible.  I can’t count the times that I’m somewhere around Indy, even in my downtown office late at night, and either the phone drops out or I can’t get data to come through at all (I have a Blackberry Bold). And forget about trying to get a decent & consistent connection at a major event or an amusement park.  It’s not happening.

I can vouch that back when I had my non-3G Palm the service was better.  When I switched to my BlackBerry service was decent as well.  But by the time the iPhone market began to overwhelm AT&T it was really bad (they claim NYC is ready for the iPhone now…I wouldn’t hold my breath).

All of that to say, once my contract is up I’m planning on heading elsewhere. Someone that has decent service & isn’t going to start charging me outrageous fees for data usage (on top of an already expensive plan).  I don’t have time to worry about how much data I’m using and I’m sure not going to pay for data that only half way transferred because the network is choking on the data that’s trying to flow through it.

On Monday Barnes & Noble cut the price of its Nook e-reader to $199 and Amazon.com cut the price of its standard Kindle to $189. Both models had been $259.

While I still don’t see myself buying one of these at this price, I’d lean towards the Nook since it does have removable storage. BUT, and this is a huge but, there are major issues across the board as far as format standards go (I believe it was the WSJ that had a great explanation of this) & the whole DRM nonsense must go.

Personally I’d really like a full color screen option, but for multiple reasons there’s no way I’d purchase an iPad (at least not as it stands now).  But I am glad to see technology moving along and hope everyone can get on the same page in the next 5 years or so.

I am constantly inundated with spam from supposed “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) companies that go something like this:

We are interested to get your website on first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing. Please get back to us for more details.

These are always the same, normally someone sitting in India using a Gmail account, not disclosing their website and claiming to be named “Bob”, “Anna” or any other American sounding name.  (On occasion it’s some bored college kid, trying to not get a real job, which I can respect, but I still am not going for it.)

To be fair, there probably are legit “White Hat” SEO companies out there, but the “Black Hat” crowd has muddied the waters so bad that it’d be hard to spot them.

Without going into all of that, I’ve came up with my own canned response that just as full of crap:

We have all the SEO we can handle AND are already on the 1st page of every site. We own half of the Internet.

But hey, if you want to sponsor us to help you get on the 1st page too, feel free to do so.

All joking aside, if you’re really interested in hiring someone for SEO, here’s one main fact that you need to know:

No one can guarantee you the #1 spot in any search engine.

Now with enough money, you can purchase the top spot for an ad for a specific keyword in the search engines, but that’s a different animal which has absolutely nothing to do with the SEO company/individual. Money talks & why pay someone else to spend your money for you?

Anyway, if you want to talk general “SEO” practices, I’ll leave that for Watershed Studio.  And before you ask, no, SEO isn’t an official service that we provide, mainly as a business choice due to the nonsense mentioned above.

A few days into really using Windows 7 I’d say it’s not as bad as most people say, though it will take a little getting used to.  So as questions come up in Windows 7, I’ll be adding links to useful tips.  Feel free to submit your own or ask your own question.

• Add the Quick Launch Bar to the Taskbar in Windows 7
• How to Manage Windows 7 Power Settings
• Make the Windows 7 Taskbar Work More Like Windows XP or Vista

Related Blogs

• Windows 7 Version Comparison – Home, Professional, Ultimate
• Clewis T&T – Windows 7 tips & Tricks – Taskbar & menubar Customization *HD* | DLB-Network
• Tips: Adjust volume levels between programs

While people drool over the glorified netbook/tablet PC  known as the Apple iPad, a.k.a. the overgrown iTouch, I think Shania Twain sums it up best. “That Don’t Impress Me Much”.

Via ABC, there are millions of dollars of jobs ‘saved or created’ in Congressional Districts that don’t exist, using Stimulus funds.  While I don’t know if this money has legitimately used elsewhere, this is just crazy.

And the most ludicrious part:

The Recovery.gov Web site was established as part of the stimulus bill “to foster greater accountability and transparency” in the use of the money spent through the stimulus program. The site is a well-funded enterprise; the General Services Administration updated it earlier this year with an $18 million grant.

It does not take $18 MILLION dollars to create a website like that, no matter how you cut it. Creating websites and programs is my business, so I know that first hand what something like that should run on the high end! What a bunch of buffoons that continue to squander away OUR money while taking everything else away from us and asking us to fill up the coffers.

GeoCities Is Closing On October 26th, 2009.

Am I the only one with the thought being that the bigger shock that GeoCities was still around?  I honestly thought it went the way of the dinosaur years ago.

Only a few weeks ago my wife & I were recalling the GeoCities days back in the mid to late 1990′s and wondering if it was still around.  Now we have our answer.

While it’s a little sad to see it go, it was clearly time.  In it’s day it was a good option and blazed the trail for things to come.

Similar posts around the web:

• End of an Era: GeoCities to Close This Month

This time last year most of us tech-savvy types were on Twitter and the “mainstream” was just starting to pick up on it.  Prior to that the main thing I always heard other bloggers talking about was that you you needed to have people “Digg” your posts in order to gain readership.

Today it appears to me that having your post retweeted is more important and I’ve noticed more and more people ditching the “Digg This” buttons for the “Tweet This” ones (myself included, though I always use Share This as well to make all options available).  For me, one big push for the change is that Twitter is much less involved to post to than Digg with the main drawback being that I don’t have a nice clean link list from my tweets, but that can happen via other tools.

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