A Bloy and his Blog

• Introducing Google TiSP – a free internet service provider we can all get behind. Not convinced? Make sure you read how it works, and the FAQ.
• Tired of dealing with electronic mail? Gmail Paper is now available. (The folks at Google Labs certainly have been busy lately.)
• From NPR’s Weekend Edition, a New York City councilman has proposed a bill to regulate obnoxious and distracting ringtones.
• President Bush calls up civil war reenactors for duty in Iraq, from the Onion News Network.

Look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see… a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Sure, it’s a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom… But that’s what makes all this interesting.

Bravo. Excellent choice. It really is amazing how the power of the collaborative web has changed things. Here’s the article and links to related coverage.

Several months ago I discovered the website Lifehacker. Here’s their own description:

Computers make us more productive. Yeah, right. Lifehacker recommends the software downloads and web sites that actually save time. Don’t live to geek; geek to live.

Lifehacker has become one of my favorite websites to visit. Although the things they recommend might save time, the websites and software they talk about are almost always interesting and make it a VERY worthwhile site. Here are a few of the recent entries I found appealing.

• Macro photography how-to’s
• Ecoliving: The best of TreeHugger
• MacGyver Tip: Turn a CD spindle into a TP dispenser
• How to erase tourists from photos
• Ten bad things that are good for you
• The top 30 free Windows software apps

Sorry about the downtime folks. Last week there was a DNS issue with my hosting company, which I thought was fixed. But I discovered it was happening again today. Basically this site wasn’t working if you went to ‘www.bloy.net’, but it was loading fine if you went to ‘bloy.net’ (without the www).

Anyway, the support technician promised me the problem has been resolved.

Yesterday was Blog Day. A day that was designated so people can get to know other bloggers and other areas of interest. To celebrate, bloggers are suppose to post a recommendation of fives blogs, so their readers can discover previously unknown blogs. I thought it would be a good idea to participate, even if I am a day late. So without further ado…

Mixed Signals: an NPR Blog – The tagline for this is “News breaks, music plays, technology advances, art happens, people think.” A good summary for a blog that has the quality you would expect from the people at National Public Radio.

Sierra Club Compass – Explore, enjoy, and protect the planet.

My last three blogs are written by people who can be very inspiring to me in my job (as a Web Services Librarian). All three write about the library technology field.

• What I Learned Today… by Nicole Engard
• Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology by Michael Stephens
• Information Wants To Be Free by Meredith Farkas

Keep up the good work folks!

I do all of my bill-paying online. The one downside of accessing your online accounts are passwords. Passwords should be strong, and also unique for each account you have. I keep mine fairly strong and unique with a system — basically I use a series of letters and numbers that is different for each website. I don’t want to go into details (for obvious reasons), but as long as I know the sequence, it’s a pretty easy system to use.

This morning I was reading an article about identity theft, and a specific case involving a stolen laptop. As I was reading the article, it occurred to me: even though I have that password system, I keep a file with that information my computer. That file has links to the websites, login names, and passwords for ALL of my accounts (including bank and credit card accounts). If someone were to break in and steal my computer…

I just finished removing all password information from that file.

How secure are your passwords?

Good Idea: Getting a domain name for your company.
Bad Idea: Not realizing the domain name can mean something else…

Leave the kids at home when you buy flowers or trees at the Mole Station Native Nursery. www.molestationnursery.com

Who Represents is a website where you can find the agent that represents your favorite celebrity. Just don’t forget the gifts when you visit. www.whorepresents.com

Get a custom-made pen from Pen Island. www.penisland.net

And last but not least, the website for an Italian Power Generator company. www.powergenitalia.com

Yes, these are actual domain names. Visit the Top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs for the full list.