Slashdot Mirror

I didn't even catch this story until I read a post from George Lambert (owner of PodKey). I've read exactly what went on (http://www.unsignedpodcast.blogspot.com/): Erik Marcus signed up for a service. The service is a podcast feed keyword. Basically, you choose the keywords for your podcast, and someone can type them in and get podcasts for that keyword. Then, Erik goes apeshit: OMFG, d00d, vegan.com pwns mah rss copyright!!!1!

Little does this idiot realize at the time... he was the one that signed up for this service, which authorized PodKey to do exactly what it did, help him out: "I went to their website with the understanding that it was one of a large number of sites containing directories of podcasts. If podkeyword.com boosted my traffic, fantastic. ( http://vegan.com/issues/2005/podjacking.htm )"

But, George goes ahead an honors his request, and removes the guys podcast. Then, Erik goes apeshit again: OMMFG WTF, not k00l, I lost 75% of my peeps cause j00 delisted meh! YOU HAVE TO FIX THIS! Put it all back, but on top of that, you can't let anyone else but Yahoo and iTunes look at the feed! Then, I'll make them change to my feed, and you have to again drop your lists! YOU MUST DO THIS BECAUSE... uh... YOU OWE ME FOR ... errr... uh... BEING A MEAT EATER!

George replies simply: You can re-register yourself like you did the first time. You will get the same service. If you want terms other than what I'm willing to offer, I'll have to recode my website. I will not do that without compensation. If you aren't willing to do that, then you have the two choices of any podcaster: list with my free service and I'll ensure you are easily found by those looking for your type of podcast, or... don't.

Erik goes apeshit one last time: OMFG, d00d, I'm getting a lawyer, and a reporter, and Jesse Jackson, and a legion of bloggers and podcasters that will ignore the facts for me, and we're going to sue and slander your ass all over the net for this unjustificationation of podjacking!

So, it's all relatively simple. Erik wants his RSS feed copyrighted against, who? *!suprise!* His own actions! While at the same time, wanting the benefits and popularity of PodKey, while demanding that PodKey (a free service) bow to his personal demands... but only for as long as it takes him to ditch the PodKey service. He isn't getting his way, so he's making a big PR thing out of it.

Or, to summarize. Erik (aka the author of this article, Schlemphfer) is being a dick (an all veggie one, of course*), and a rather childish one at that. George, on the other hand, is a programmer just trying to run VOLUNTARY service to benefit podcasters. God forbid he doesn't let every disgruntled podcaster tell him how to rewrite his website code.

I've got a new word for all of you. SlashdotJacking - Passing off the jerking off of your own egotistic sob story as a legitimate Slashdot Story.

* Erik would never be a meaty dick, not being the author of Meat Market - "Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money is a quick read, but a valuable one. I can't remember the last time I read an animal rights book that excited me so much." -- Herbivore Magazine. Yes, rivveting!

"According the blog, AdWords was written in Java, not C++. I didn't find the author said it's caused by race condition."

I guess you missed this:

Ron sez... oh wait, don't need that any more.

OK, time to wrap up this little soap opera.

The problem turned out to be something called a race condition, which is one of the most pernicious and difficult kinds of bugs to find. (Those of you who are technically savvy can skip to the end.)

Most modern server code is multi-threaded, which means that it does more than one computation at once. This is important because computers do more than just compute. They also store and retrieve information from hard disks, which are much, much slower than the computers. Every time the computer has to access the disk things come to a screeching halt. To give you some idea, most modern computers run at clock speed measured in gigahertz, or billions of cycles per second. The fastest hard disks have seek times (that is, the time it takes the drive to move the read/write head into the proper position) of several milliseconds. So a computer can perform tens of millions of computations in the time it takes a hard disk just to get into position to read or write data.

In order to keep things from bogging down, when one computation has to access the disk, it suspends itself, and another computation takes over. This way, one computer sort of "pretends" that it is really multiple computers all running at the same time, even though in reality what is happening is that one computer is just time-slicing lots of simultaneous computations.

The ad server, the machine that actually served up ads in response to search terms, ran multi-threaded code written in C++, which is more or less the industry standard nowadays for high-performance applications. C++ is byzantine, one of the most complex programming languages ever invented. I've been studying C++ off and on for ten years and I'm still far from being an expert. Its designers didn't really set out to make it that complicated, it just sort of accreted more and more cruft over the years until it turned into this hulking behemoth.

C++ has a lot of features, but one feature that it lacks that Lisp and Java have is automatic memory management. Lisp and Java (and most other modern programming langauges) use a technique called garbage collection to automatically figure out when a piece of memory is no longer being used and put it back in the pool of available memory. In C++ you have to do this manually.

Memory management in multi-threaded applications is one of the biggest challenges C++ programmers face. It's a nightmare. All kinds of techniques and protocols have been developed to help make the task easier, but none of them work very well. At the very least they all require a certain discipline on the part of the programmer that is very difficult to maintain. And for complex pieces of code that are being worked on by more than one person it is very, very hard to get it right.

What happened, it turned out, was this: the ad server kept a count of all the ads that it served, which it periodically wrote out to the database. (For those of you wondering what database we were using, it was MySQL, which leads to another story, but that will have to wait for another post.) It also had a feature where, if it was shut down for any reason, it would write out the final served ads count before it actually quit. The ad counts were stored in a block of memory that was stack allocated by one thread. The final ad counts were written out by code running in a different thread. So when the ad server was shut down, the first thread would exit and free up the memory holding the ad counts, which would then be reused by some other process, which would write essentially random data there. In the meantime, the thread writing out the final ad counts would still be reading that memory.

From the blog (Ron's first post [blogspot.com])

I guess the #1 FAQ for people who have left Google is why did you leave. My main reason for leaving was that I was commuting from Los Angeles. I'd fly up on Southwest early Monday morning, fly back on Thursday evening, and telecommute on Fridays and weekends. That regimen was pretty stressful even under the best of circumstances, but when 9/11 happened it became completely untenable. I had already given my notice before 9/11, but I don't think I could have stayed on after that even if I had wanted to. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So that's why Ron left, I'm pretty sure Doug hasn't said why he left yet. So no, Ron wasn't fired.

From the blog (Ron's first post)

I guess the #1 FAQ for people who have left Google is why did you leave. My main reason for leaving was that I was commuting from Los Angeles. I'd fly up on Southwest early Monday morning, fly back on Thursday evening, and telecommute on Fridays and weekends. That regimen was pretty stressful even under the best of circumstances, but when 9/11 happened it became completely untenable. I had already given my notice before 9/11, but I don't think I could have stayed on after that even if I had wanted to. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So that's why Ron left, I'm not sure if Doug's said why he left yet.

Sometimes I wonder why people like Ikue Mori even try. Then I remember that it's because they like making music.

My friend's teen has recently gotten herself into Ikue Mori, a terrific Japanese avant garde drummer. She introduced her friends to it at a party, and now they're combing the Tzadik website looking for more music to explore.

Podkeyword.net ( not podcasting.com ) already did plently to help this guy. They provided keywords to his podcast, *at his request* and got him listed on iTunes ( something he admits he didn't know how to do ) which is how he got 75% of his listeners. I don't know how well they described the service they provide when he signed up, as podkeyword.net has changed their front page because of this story, but just given the name, it sounds pretty obvious to me what they were doing.

Check out the complete email exchange between the two. http://unsignedpodcast.blogspot.com/2005/12/was-th is-case-of-rss-hijacking.html

Noing to see here, just another whiney vegan using /. to promote their silliness and complain that someone out there in the big bad world didn't treat them right by not meeting their exact demands. Poor baby.

--Pat my blog

ALL third party and more importantly operating system based DRM puts the user at greater risk. If the DRM code itself is not exploited then there are always new vulnerabilities being discovered in the media players and browsers used to play and display encoded content.

August 02, 2005 "Remote Attestation" and content access monopolies

Remote Attestation" and content access monopolies

The Trusted Platform Module provides the hardware functionality for digital rights software to provide effective remote attestation and digital key withholding.

Both Microsoft and Apple have plans for media-digital-content-viewers that, at the request of a digital content provider, will not allow the user to view or access specific digital content if the operating system has been modified in certain ways.

Because, for the foreseeable future, it is impossible for the digital rights management software to detect if an individual modification to a particular subsystem is hostile to the goals of the demanded digital rights, all software and subsystems relating to the operating system with storage and input to display will have to be digitally signed by Microsoft or Apple before it can be accepted by the DRM subsystem. Microsoft and Apple are effectively locking the user out from changing parts of the operating environment.

Because it is possible for hackers to read digital keys used to encrypt content direct from the computer's memory, the operating system has to be built with the ability to lock the user from being able to access pages of memory used by the mediaplayer and digital rights management system.

OS based Digital Right Management systems are based on the principle of locking the owner of the computer out of the ability to access sections of memory and disk space used by the DRM mediaplayer systems.

Locking the owner out of parts of the computer has become a major security issue.

Microsoft's Mediaplayer, Active-X ( still used with some DRM ), Real's realplayer, Adobe's PDF viewers, Apple's Quicktime and even Microsoft's and Sun's Java JVMs, have in the past had remotely exploitable vulnerabilities.

OS based DRM combined with TPM based encryption along with enviable future vulnerability holes in media access offers the malware/virus/worm creator the ability to hide a virus from any antivirus tool or live forensic analysis. Existing stealth viruses already have ability to hide the modifications it has made to files, going undetected by antivirus programs. DRM encryption offers the ability for the malware to store content, and without the keys to decode the content, keep it hidden from any forensic analysis.

Crackers and hackers always find ways to exploit the code to access or share protected content. There is not a DRM system that has not been cracked within months of widespread release. The focus on the code use d in such systems also comes to the attention of malware/virus creators. The same holes discovered by those who just want to freely access content may possibly also be abused by those wanting to crack into your computer. Similar holes in other types media viewers, the webbrowser and email programs, are increasingly being used for criminal gain by phishers and spyware makers.

Some vendors reportedly have in the past purposely left backdoors in the source code to allow access by US intelligence agencies. This has not only become a major issue for other countries who fear spying, since discovered backdoors quickly become the criminal's frontdoor i

The responsible party attempted ritual suicide, but instead of one cut 50mm in length, they instead made 50 cuts of 1mm each.

--Pat / my blog

I wrote about that famous page in my blog -

http://uberbrady.blogspot.com/2005/09/xhtml-10-vs- html-401.html

I really should have called my blog entry -

The Phrase "Considered Harmful" Should be Considered Harmful -

In short, I believe, Hixie's use of plain text, that ancient phrase, and other cues tries (avoiding the first person, reading like a standards document) to lend more weight to his statements than they deserve. Even I fell victim to it. But I believe he's wrong.

Unfortunately, I didn't say it very well. Well, too bad, at least I said it.

AFCERT (Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team) is an AF group that Taosecurity has made references to for a number of years. Besides, AFCERT is not the only organization of its kind, there is also an Army (ACERT) and Navy (NCIRT) version as well, all of which have similar MO's. Of course, there is also the DOD-CERT, Joint Task Force for Computer. Network Defense (JTF-CND) and other alphebet soup network security forces for the US Govt. This isn't anything really interesting, just a new "phrase" that probably took them the better part of the last 20 years to officially approve for organizations they have had for years.

If you're looking for low cost Phone2Phone calls from your mobile or other phone using VOIP. Look into a long distance calling card. You should be able to pic up a card that gives you a toll free number to call and deep discounts on the LD rate tons of them out there but local call +$0.05/min to europe from NA is a good deal compared to regular rates.

If you analyze the output:

Cost: $1.80 (vs. $4.07 driving!) details

Hidden in there is a liberal agenda of using public transportation vs. driving. Look at how much you can save, folks! Very crafty, google, very crafty.

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

Societies don't have rights. Individuals have rights.

What you do have, as a natural right, is the right to create. That right is pre-society, pre-government, pre-law. It is only when government comes into play that patents can exist, otherwise who will prevent all but the patent holder from excercising their right to create?

Some of the first "patents were granted on manufacturing salt, soap, glass, knives, sailcloth -- things that people had first created many centuries (or even millenia) before, and that until the time of grant, could be made by anyone with the resources and knowledge to make them" (from this post).

Societies don't have rights. Individuals have rights.

What you do have, as a natural right, is the right to create. That right is pre-society, pre-government, pre-law. It is only when government comes into play that patents can exist, otherwise who will prevent all but the patent holder from excercising their right to create?

Some of the first "patents were granted on manufacturing salt, soap, glass, knives, sailcloth -- things that people had first created many centuries (or even millenia) before, and that until the time of grant, could be made by anyone with the resources and knowledge to make them" (from this post).

One further thing that should be mentioned for those who don't know: links in slashdot comments have the rel attribute set to "no-follow"; google won't take into account such links when ranking pages. The links in the article summary are not treated this way, including the username link. (I didn't realise this until I looked at the page source.)

The biggest reason Blogs have become so very popular, and why they are here to stay in growing numbers is because they made publishing online easy for everyone. Blogs don't require you to know HTML before you can publish your ideas online. Just type your thoughts into a form, and the software builds the code automatically.

So, Blogs dramatically reduced the "friction" to publishing online. Millions of non-geeks now have their say.

If you mentally replace the word "Blog" with "Home Page" in any article you read online, it'll seem like you've stepped back in time to the dawn of the Web. That's how people talked about the web a few years ago.

Blogs have accelerated grass roots democracy, leaching the "Mass" from Media, splintering it into untold numbers of demassified niches. The impact is very big and will deepen.

I recently finished a piece on the impact of new digital media upon the mass media called: " Mass Media, By And For The Masses. It makes the case that the london transit bombings represent the birth of emergent mass media and will force mass media in all forms, to take it's rightful place as another niche.

In a nutshell, Mass media will be good for mass events. But Blogs represent the birth of grass roots media. Aggregated through RSS, they'll soon out-perform mainstream.

Are you refering to the idea that 4000 years of recorded history provides evidence that people with inherited wealth and power are more destructive to society than the average Joe?

Acording to www.gnu.org:
"The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete UNIX like operating system which is free software: the GNU system"

    GNU/Linux is only the OS part of the system, you still need the hardware part.

  Nowadays, thanks to OpenSolaris + OpenSPARC + GNU we have a mainstream 100% Open Source system (Oerating System + software + hardware).

Thanks Richard, but your service is not longer required ;-)

-- http://maitas.blogspot.com/ --

Acording to www.gnu.org:
"The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete UNIX like operating system which is free software: the GNU system"

  Of course we have GNU/Linux, but that's only the OS part of the system, you still need the hardware part.

  Nowadays, thanks to OpenSolaris + OpenSPARC + GNU we have a mainstream 100% Open Source system (Oerating System + software + hardware).

Thanks Richard, but your service is not longer required ;-)

-- http://maitas.blogspot.com/ --

From the Journal of Studies on Alcohol (1998):

        Binge drinking describes an extended period of time (typically at least two days) during which a time a person repeatedly becomes intoxicated and gives up his or her usual activities and obligations in order to become intoxicated. It is the combination of prolonged use and the giving up of usual activities that forms the core of the clinical definition of binge drinking.

cited in http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2005/12/marquette-d ental-student-suspended.html, the first blog linked above.

Now, if the open source patent pools could be used offensively, or the Independent Invention Defense were allowed, we'd probably see some action.

Now, if the open source patent pools could be used offensively, or the Independent Invention Defense were allowed, we'd probably see some action.

First, whose character, precisely, did he defame?

RTFA for yourself. http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2005/12/marquette-d ental-student-suspended.html

Second, what makes you think his comments weren't justified?

I didn't say they weren't justified. I said he should have made a more mature argument than using profanities. Had he made a mature argument using words that you could use in a business meeting he might have made his point and he might have made a difference. Instead he's on the street and kicked out of school. Don't get me wrong, I've had many a disagreement with profs- but you don't get the best of them by calling them a "cockmaster", among other things...

-everphilski-

It was originally here:
http://99zeros.blogspot.com/
but now that just redirects to here:
http://blog.plaxoed.com/
Read more about the posts he made here:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050126-0839 16

The problem was that he revealed details about his compensation. Details that he then retracted(to me, indicating potential legal trouble if he didn't retract them).

For what it's worth, I had some contact with him IRL(in college) and found him to be a bit of a jackass. Egotistical, arrogant, self-centered, all that stuff.

As much as I find what Marquette is doing disgusting, it is NOT illegal.

My personal understanding is that he blogged confidential information.

Google has nothing against bloggers. They even have links to Googlers' blogs on the Google Blog.

This company is spooky in it's rate of innovation. Even, as the article points out, in it's management strategy as well.

Google, being the most popular search engine on the planet is privilege to the tiniest emerging trends, harvested by our searches. Our collective secrets. So they know quite a bit about what we want.

Rumors are that Google is considering Riya another spookily intelligent beta photo service that will probably put Flickr to shame while spark spin-off revolutions impossible to predict.

Oh, yeah, and aren't they supposed to come out with Google Calendar today?

Technology commoditizes everything and Google leverages IT extremely well.

Starting with the commoditization of information, Google's stated mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Perhaps next we will see the commoditization of the world's knowledge, followed by our collective intelligence.

I don't know if Google will be the entity to do that, but the trajectory seems clear to me with Google setting the pace.

I recently finished an article called: Technology, Computers and Innovation: Why Everything is Speeding Up exploring what's behind the accelerating rate of innovation in technology. Even though the rate of worldwide technological acceleration is astounding, it seems Google is still strides ahead. ~ted

This company is spooky in it's rate of innovation. Even, as the article points out, in it's management strategy as well.

Google, being the most popular search engine on the planet is privilege to the tiniest emerging trends, harvested by our searches. Our collective secrets. So they know quite a bit about what we want.

Rumors are that Google is considering Riya another spookily intelligent beta photo service that will probably put Flickr to shame while spark spin-off revolutions impossible to predict.

Oh, yeah, and aren't they supposed to come out with Google Calendar today?

Technology commoditizes everything and Google leverages IT extremely well.

Starting with the commoditization of information, Google's stated mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Perhaps next we will see the commoditization of the world's knowledge, followed by our collective intelligence.

I don't know if Google will be the entity to do that, but the trajectory seems clear to me with Google setting the pace.

I recently finished an article called: Technology, Computers and Innovation: Why Everything is Speeding Up exploring what's behind the accelerating rate of innovation in technology. Even though the rate of worldwide technological acceleration is astounding, it seems Google is still strides ahead. ~ted

Public Patent foundation knocked out the Pfizer patent Look at the guy who is taking on the Amazon "One Click" for example http://www.infoanarchy.org/section/features http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20051130/1243250_ F.shtml http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/12/4/45354/8981 http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/ etc

Right--just that *highways* were first thought of by Hitler!
Speaking of foolsmate--does this sound familiar? :

Remember what Hihgways are (Score:2, Insightful)by lawpoop (604919) on Sunday December 04, @04:42PM (#14180240) (http://lawpoop.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday May 28, @06:51PM)
"Highways were first thought up by Hitler..."

If all I had had to go on was my own memory, I would not have pushed the point, but I did link to video of my demonstration in the footnote. See my blog for more detail on my recollections.

The ad told the story of a guy who collected a $500,000 jury verdict after he was injured using a lawnmower as a hedge clipper. The agency later conceded that it had no factual basis for the story, but that didn't keep it from circulating widely in the media and in conservative political speeches.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/041 0.mencimer.html

(Think about that for a minute - even if you were to try to cut a hedge with a lawn mower, how could you hold it such that it would be your thumbs which were injured?) A quick Nexis search confirmed the story to have been a fabrication.
http://thestoppedclock.blogspot.com/2004_10_10_the stoppedclock_archive.html

like: Qwyjibo"
According to "The Simpsons," a qwyjibo is a fat, dumb, balding North American ape with no chin. They're very dangerous when angered. The only way to stop them is by throwing a pork chop in the other direction. This word is very usefull while playing scrabble too.

I got so sick of LARTing this one that I wrote a whole general-purpose Linux mythbuster http://techn0manc3r.blogspot.com/2005/12/eight-lin ux-myths-that-are-ready-to-be.htmlhere

Digg The Slashdot Killer

Digg Might Just Bury Slashdot

Slashdot, Digg.com, and the True Meaning of Design

My Slashdot Replacement

Goodbye, Slashdot, Hello Digg

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_detail s?&range=1y&size= large&compare_sites=slashdot.org&y=t&url=digg.com

How Digg Uncovers The News

Why Slashdot Will Die

See what others are saying...

Digg is actually better. Slashdot is old and ugly. Its content is decided by editors, the layout looks like it was made in windows95's heyday and its a dinosaur. Digg on the other hand is new and "growing", they use a flashier, better looking layout, yet the site is still simpler then Slashdot. The content is decided by the submitters and you can get that content via audio and video podcasts.

I never could stand slashdot. The layout and just overall feel of that site was/is bad.

I don't like slashdot's layout. It's ugly and cluttered. The colors make me wanna puke.

Slashdot users agree that Digg.com's entries are a lot more current that the ones posted at Slashdot.

99% of slashdot users have self-diagnosed themselves as suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. Most slashdot users consider themselves "smart" when in fact they are simply of average intelligence, but have more free time and a higher sense of ego. This can be seen in the forums where spelling and usage errors are prevalent in condescending, arrogant rants, identified by containing the phrase "people are stupid" at some point in the post.

I prefer Digg for my tech news and I've found some really nice sites that way.

I prefer Digg. I used to check /. but I didn't like it as much

I like Digg better anyway, much more and more interesting news.

What I can't stand, even less that the site and the proseltyzing editors, are Slashdot's users- overweight, effeminate cubicle shit. At least I don't have to wear a goatee and suck linux dick to participate on Digg I cant stand Slashdot, I will only Read it when its linked from somewhere else

Learn More

About.com did a copy-paste of a blog entry from Digital Inspiration verbatim.

About.com did a copy-paste of a blog entry from Digital Inspiration verbatim.

But then if you think about it, is the ratio of bad blogs to good blogs any worse than the ratio of bad to good books or magazines or tv shows or newspapers?

http://rachelstock.blogspot.com/2005/11/quick-guid e-to-myspacecom-sorry-rees.html

The article also reminded me of this blogI read sometimes ago. Its author (a kde dev) works for a company who provides linux solutions for - among other things - schools. The idea of an Office Suite aimed specifically at kids is very interesting, and you can see nice mockups of such a possibilities. Seeing the pictures commented Forget the children. Make this for my 58 year-old mother - and there is a part two where the developer further elaborates on the idea. Actually they are looking for volunteers to implement it:

And finally some words about the implementation. If you want this to become a reality, please volunteer your time and skill. The current engines of KWord and Karbon are great starting points, and both of these programs will probably be little more than new shells (skins if you like) on top of them.

If you volunteer to help with Kids Office, I can almost guarantee you your 15 minutes of fame. I have been approached by magazine editors who wondered if I was implementing it already and when it would be finished. So don't hesitate or be shy. You can mail me or Danny, and you could go into #koffice on irc where we hang out sometimes.

The article also reminded me of this blogI read sometimes ago. Its author (a kde dev) works for a company who provides linux solutions for - among other things - schools. The idea of an Office Suite aimed specifically at kids is very interesting, and you can see nice mockups of such a possibilities. Seeing the pictures commented Forget the children. Make this for my 58 year-old mother - and there is a part two where the developer further elaborates on the idea. Actually they are looking for volunteers to implement it:

And finally some words about the implementation. If you want this to become a reality, please volunteer your time and skill. The current engines of KWord and Karbon are great starting points, and both of these programs will probably be little more than new shells (skins if you like) on top of them.

If you volunteer to help with Kids Office, I can almost guarantee you your 15 minutes of fame. I have been approached by magazine editors who wondered if I was implementing it already and when it would be finished. So don't hesitate or be shy. You can mail me or Danny, and you could go into #koffice on irc where we hang out sometimes.

A lot of websites steal stories and ideas from blogs (A LOT) ...

I have managed to carve out a small niche with my website ... my readership has grown high enough that I have people that report "story lifts" from my site.

I recently caught two MacMerc.com & Macsimum News ... one of which I reported on my site and the other I see do it all the time, but I can't prove it.

In a lot of ways, the time has come where few if ANY ideas are original ... so many ideas out there are being claimed ... but who can claim original thought? Do people not think the same things? Often?

A lot of websites steal stories and ideas from blogs (A LOT) ...

I have managed to carve out a small niche with my website ... my readership has grown high enough that I have people that report "story lifts" from my site.

I recently caught two MacMerc.com & Macsimum News ... one of which I reported on my site and the other I see do it all the time, but I can't prove it.

In a lot of ways, the time has come where few if ANY ideas are original ... so many ideas out there are being claimed ... but who can claim original thought? Do people not think the same things? Often?

Peter Wright, the Editor - Mail on Sunday took first place.
Marina Hyde the former "Gaurdian" diarist to second honors.

The results are here.

The results are here .

Honestly--check my blogg on it at: http://intellygentz.blogspot.com/

I have been working on a paper for publication little by little for a long while now. Most recently, I am calling it "The Homeostatic Homunculus".

Really, it's a modal for the fundamentals of mammalian brain function.

Matthew C. Tedder

How sad. I read the artical, and I understand. Fundie cavemen took a strong willed confident person, and subjugated and brainwashed her into another sheep. "So say the shepherd, so say the flock!"

What I fail to understand, is why religeous throwbacks use the internet at all, after all it was born of science and technology, which are clearly sinful in the eyes of fundamentalism. Why dont they all just go and live on lo-tec farms like the ahmish - who clearly have a much greater claim to religeous good than any TV or media-whoring evangelist could every have.

That way, they can be sidelined, while the rest of civilised society wall them away and get on with the rest of our bright future without them. We dont need them! Not at all! (no really - I dont, seriously - unless you are actually religeous yourself, what have the church ever done for you? Tortured your ancestors under the inquisition(if you are white)? Stole you tax money during your lifetime? Taught us that morality only comes from religeon- thus giving license for monstrous right wing extemism in the guise of religeon? Talked people out of trying to improve their surroundings on the grounds that we shouldnt create heaven on earth? Seriously - you people get away from me - you are evil, you are holding back the world, and you have most definately overstayed your welcome.

People matter, the future matters, life, love and happiness matters. Bearded imaginary friends who drive nations psychotic enough to massacre whole swathes of the globe and torture their own sisters should not matter. Perverted ideals which make people thing blowing up[ airliners and crashing them into the sides of landmarks shouldnt matter. I dont object to someone having a god, spiritualism or a beleif. But I object to organised dogma, religeous extremism and fundamentalism.

I am The Humanist - Toast The Future. http://toastthefuture.blogspot.com/
--
Love, Live and Learn! 3Ls for happiness, respect and a fulfilled life.

Perhaps a link to the winner would be more appropriate than to the list of nominations?

Here it is, in all its glory: http://5thnovember.blogspot.com/2005/12/and-winner -is.html