2008 June | Ted's Game

Monthly Archive for June, 2008

The social media black market

digg mod caseJust remember: top diggers do not game the site. Digg rocks and continues to be entirely user powered. Digg relies on such things as sheer quality and honesty. Gotta love digg and the top users.

That is how I concluded the post I was talking about yesterday, kindly published by Garry Conn. Essentially it’s about this little oddity from oddee.com that I have noticed while faithfully following the submission of a well known superdigger. I just can’t stress enough that current internet users must understand once and for all that the hippie days are over, no one does anything without aiming for financial gain of some sort, no one really cares about the “user powered content” concept that was praised and hailed as a revolution in the early days of web 2.0. People, get a clue.

cheaterIn this particular case (and I’m sure there’s many more that just pass around unnoticed), the aforementioned site (otherwise quite interesting and trustworthy) went on with a dirty little trick and redirected some ip classes from the article that landed up on digg to a page with deceiving similarly titled ads, in the absolutely ridiculous attempt to scoop a few dirty bucks, probably to cover up for some submission costs. (Yeah, I am being an asshole, we all know submissions from top users of digg are free, right?)

On a side note, I must have got someone really mad, because now my blog is presenting every sign of digg cancer: no submission from here, though it hit 30+ natural, non-mutual, non-shared diggs and landed on the “hot news in [topic]” sidebar in the upcoming section in the first hour ever made it past that. My latest video was naturally growing, but it was only on the sidebar for aprox. 45 minutes, while other videos were there for about 19-20 hours. Sure enough, it got buried by the digg auto bury system that doesn’t exist. I am not complaining, this is just a sample of how things work. I don’t need digg and I still love it as a leisure site. I will dare to quote Brian Clark: “But all you social media utopians out there, pay heed. Social media is a reflection of society. Dorks like Mark Zuckerberg and Kevin Rose are not about openness and idealism, no matter what load they shovel to the masses. They’re just like anyone else—susceptible to the corrupting influence of quick and unchecked power.” Enough said.

Anyways, long story short, go ahead and read the whole article, with an introduction from Garry that somewhat separates bloggers from diggers and if you want, spread the word by stumbling and sharing.

Talk to me about something important

Sweet lazy Sundays. I got to do so much on-line work this weekend, I should be awarded at least the “try-and-fail” prize.
First of all, I made this guy happy by redesigning his poor excuse for a blog. After he threatened to hump my design (without wearing a condom), I decided he needs that simplicity and sexiness applied to his own rather interesting page so I took time of my busy life to make him happy. Check it out and let me or him know what you hate about his page, as I for sure didn’t apply my full limitless knowledge in coding.
After I warmed up doing that, I proceeded to give my own blog a make over and I ended up with what you see up there as a header, along with some invisible structural tweaks. My friend Garry Conn called my new header fat, but then again we all know that Garry Conn is a fat-hater from the South. I personally find fat cute.
Then catching up with my vast social media network, I was blessed to find the following two pages that made my afternoon even more exciting: the chick that cuts herself while her cat is watching and the guy that didn’t know that porn roams the internet freely and there’s no need to jeopardize one’s life to get some footage of naked women.
Also I had some fun with the online face morpher. I love that site because if you register you can upload your own photos and make your boss look like an inbred combination of a chimp and an elephant. Meanwhile, I got my revenge on Brad Pitt for hogging Angelina and I made him jedi master material:

On a more serious approach, I was officially asked by Garry to write a guest post on his blog. I am thinking I should make it about digg corruption again, this time with screenshots that prove some incredible facts.
Stay tuned and have a great week.

One priceless Mastercard spoof commercial

This video comes as a part of my personal top 10 funniest commercials ever as my number 7
Out of the countless banned commercials and spoofs that the legendary “priceless” original commercial has generated, I find this one ranking as one of my personal favorites. Bonus: this sister looks kinda cute, the guy should have re-aimed in the midst of the moment.

watch number 8 here

watch number 9 here

watch number 10 here

The craziest five Canadian laws

Looks like some of these oddities come to complete the set of weird things that Canada has tossed towards the world. Can someone please revise some law books yet? Yeah, it’s almost as embarrassing as Celine Dion…

5. In Nova Scotia

It is illegal for a person to water their lawn when it’s raining.

I was not able to research the punishment for breaking this one, but if the fine is any amount lower than $10.000 then it’s even stupider, since a citizen that waters his lawn on a rainy day is not only breaking the law, but all other laws of common sense and elementary intelligence.

flood

Perhaps they’re just trying to stay out of trouble

4. In Toronto

You can’t drag a dead horse down Yonge St. on a Sunday.

I can understand this one very well. Yonge street was one of the world’s longest urban streets. Once again, this law is made to prevent plain stupidity evidently: why drag the horse all the way on Yonge street when nowadays it’s so easy to take the subway and two stops later dump the carcass in the Moore Park? So let’s not abolish this law, manual dead horse dragging needs to be stopped.

Dead Horse

Drag me outta here Godfather!

3. All of Canada

At least one out of five songs played on the radio must be performed by a Canadian born artist.

Let us reflect here: Neil Young, Bryan Adams, Céline Dion, Shania Twain. Need I say more? The radio producers in Canada are sticking on the safe side and make sure they don’t even get close to breaking this law, because they seem to be playing that “Hey, Hey I don’t like your girlfriend” crap like 1000 times a day. I am not sure, but I can bet that’s a Canadian song.

Celine Dion

Play my songs on the radio and make sure you don’t drag me around Toronto

2. In British Columbia

It is illegal to kill a Sasquatch or a BigFoot if encountered.

What about ManBearPig? or Succubus?

Zombie

What’s the policy on zombies? We demand to be played on the radio with the other rotten guys

1. Anywhere in Canada

It is illegal to pay for a 26 cent item in all pennies. The limit is 25 cents (50 cents in some provinces). If you are paying for your item in nickels, then its illegal to pay for it in nickels if it’s over $5. It’s also illegal to pay for something over $10 dollars in all dimes.

I really need to get to the convenience store and tell my friend Mr. Don not to turn me in. I don’t think he likes me much anyways, because I only go to his store when I break the penny basket. Traitor.