Well, so far I’ve been doing pretty good. I started a modified version of a boxing HOC training, as well as I’ve started running alternating days. I also invested in some vitamins and other supplements to help me, and maybe, with some determination, I will stay focused and motivated on this plan. I’m going to try to post updates at 5 day intervals on here just to track my progress. What started this new attempt and increased motivation? I saw an ad in FHM promoting this article, I read it, and decided it was time to do this right. Now I just need some good running shoes.
Blog
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Celebrity Wallpapers
I’ve uploaded a few celebrity wallpapers that were not uploaded yet, and I also put them in a gallery. I’m going to start work on basically seperating the wallpapers into categories and doing a gallery style preview for each sub category. This will allow me to just have one size wallpaper up and then you guys can downsize as you need. Enjoy!
P.S. Jessica Alba is the image I’m currently using on my desktop. Yummmy.
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Update to Thoughts on digg.com
It has been brought to my attention that stories are no longer promoted at a static +15 diggs. This helps on the “click-through” spam, but I still suggest my opinion of first promoting a story to a sub-category page, then to the front page after more diggs are added to ensure only the top stories are given front page space.
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My Thoughts on digg.com
Ever since Kevin Rose mentioned digg.com on his blog, I’ve found myself using the site more on a daily basis. I eventually started submitting news articles, but I’ve noticed a peculiar trend. Some of the points I will cover more in depth:
- Digg’s scoring system needs to be revamped. Front page stories are duplicates of category page stories. Utilizing a teired approach would ensure only the cream of the crop makes it to the front page.
- There needs to be a more prominent way for users to find stories in the submission queue. I am not convinced users digg the submission queue to help promote content due to the rapid increase in a stories “diggs” once promoted to the front page.
- Meta-moderation of reported stories. This would help ensure that the reporting system is not abused.
- The ability to mob-promote a story to the front page.
- The abuse of submitting stories that “click-through” the users blog.
Digg requires 15 diggs for an article to be promoted to the frontpage, and I feel this is a fair amount of interest that should be generated before promoting an article. However, I am not completely sure people realize that there is content beneath the front page stories. I feel most stories slowly get to 15 in score (with the exception of Kevin Rose’s submissions, but more on that later) only to see an exponential increase in the diggs once the story is promoted to the frontpage. Since every page on digg contains an RSS link (which by the way I think is a great feature) why not have have tiered approaches to story promotion. The frontpage is basically a repeat of what can be found on the category pages. When a story reaches 15 diggs it should not immediately be promoted to the front page. However, it should be promoted to the category front page, much like kuro5shin operates, and not every story should go to the front page. k5 works by 50% of the votes must have been to put it on the front page, since digg only has a “digg this story” way of voting, one possible solution would be at 15 the story goes to the section pages, then at some other number, we’ll say 30, the story is then promoted to the front page. This would put only the cream of the crop and the most important stories on the front page. People could still drill down into each individual section and find more stories that are interesting, but maybe not front page material. This would also help in defining who is submitting quality content on the Top Users page a bit easier.
One of the best features and at the same time the biggest drawback is the submission queue. Stories need to be “dug” to be promoted as we previously covered. However, I feel, most users do not participate in digging stories to promote them. They digg stories after they have been promoted and such most front page stories get a tremendous surge of diggs after it hits the front page. Digg should find some method of involving the users more actively in the processing of the submitted stories. This could be done by a click-through page as you go to the next page of links or even change categories. The system could bring up a screen of 5 or 10 stories and kindly ask the user to “please read over these submitted stories and digg any you feel are worthy of promotion before continuing to the page you requested”. Obviously there would be a “No thanks, just take me to my page” link at the bottom which would allow the user to continue without adding a single digg. Likewise the vast amount of content that doesn’t get submitted allows users to see what did make it, and what didn’t, and ensure there is no bias or agenda being pushed on digg.
Slashdot gives frequent users at random the power to moderate comments, and even meta-moderate other users moderation of comments. This keeps the community moving and makes sure quality comments are posted. We need a system on digg to help ensure quality content is making it to the front pages, and when a post is removed that it was removed for a good reason.
That brings me to my next complaint, the reporting system. Basically digg’s reporting system is somewhat of a mystery. No one knows at what level a story is removed and at the same time, no one knows if a story was removed for the right reasons. Perhaps, like Slashdot, meta-moderation of this type is on an opt-in/out basis, and only the regular users are allowed to participate. If it is determined a user is reporting lots of links for the wrong reasons, maybe that user is not allowed to report links for a few days/weeks/months by the system. This would allow everyone to feel the reporting system has someone watching the watchers.
I mentioned Kevin Rose’s submissions earlier, and while I feel Kevin posts quality content, at the same time he helps show an easy way to exploit the way digg operates. Since Kevin has a highly trafficked blog of his own, he’s taken the step of adding a link to his digg user page at the bottom of every post he makes. This is great publicity for digg, but also for Kevin’s own submissions. People can then immediately digg everything Kevin has dug. This may not be the best way to rate quality content. I’m not entirely sure, but I feel Kevin could submit a story about dog shit and it would probably get promoted. Don’t get me wrong, I feel I posted uber-quality content when Kevin dugg one of my stories. His opinion is highly respected. However, I think this shows us a potential point of exploit for pushing agendas on digg.
In closing, I would also like to address the point of people posting links to their own website as a “click-through” page to the actual article. While this could expose you to a new blog, in reality as Dan Huard said, “Although this method may be good for the specific site admins, it is a blatant abuse of Digg. As always, there is a report feature that can help combat this, but it is not a solution. A good workaround is to have someone repost a direct link.” We do need a way to edit this, and maybe the users that have been meta-moderated as fair and contributed the most quality content could then be selected by the system to help combat this problem. All of the suggestions I’ve presented here would greatly increase the quality of content found on digg and help the site continue to grow as a source for tech and other content.
Dan Huard also wrote a great article about the problems with digg over at Scopetech.net.
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It came in
My copy of Whatever and Ever Amen (Re-Issue) came in yesterday, and I must say I’m in love with the She Don’t Use Jelly lounge version. I also pre-ordered Songs for Silverman Deluxe Edition Bundle which also includes the limited edition Songs for Goldfish cd. Now, only if he’d come closer on tour.
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The Big Picture: Dynamic Pricing: DVD versus CD Strategies
Consumers have very quickly figured out that CDs are a peculiarly weak value propostion. Is it any surpise that CD sales have slid while DVDs have grown explosively? How is it that the widespread availability of films on Bit Torrent haven?t dented their sales? A simple possible explanation is pricing structure.
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Essay part thrice: Krugman’s The Great Unraveling
While I just recently started reading this book, and it was a late addition to my readings essay list of books I wanted to use, this is a very good book. A collection of essays from Paul Krugman’s years at the New York Times, and some before he started there, give insight into the “revolutionary power” we face in the current administration. The third and final installment of my PolySci readings essay can be found below. Be sure to read part 1 and part 2 as well.
When Paul Krugman finished the introduction to the hardback edition of The Great Unraveling, US forces had just taken Baghdad. Krugman had went out on a limb, and as he states, ?I went beyond criticism of specific policies to argue that the Bush administration poses a challenge to America as we know it, that Bush represents a ?revolutionary power? that aims at a transformation of American politics? (Krugman, xv). Krugman goes on to explain how the current administration is the first to ever cut taxes in the face of a war. The Bush administrations strategy of ?starve the beast? has cut the revenue and pushed us into the largest deficit ever. This is now being used as an excuse to cut, or reform, social programs that are popular with the public, but not with conservatives on the right. This can be seen in the current push to reform social security with private accounts.
Krugman attempts to explain how it was possible for our country, a country with so much going for it, to go downhill so fast, and why leaders in the private sector and government made such incredibly bad decisions. The book is a collection of columns that Krugman wrote for The New York Times between January 2000 and January 2003. He promises that taken as a whole these columns tell a coherent story.
Between 1992 and 2000, 32 million workers were added to U.S. companies and unemployment fell to a 30-year low. Poverty also sharply fell for the first time since 1960s.
Krugman asks the question, what went wrong? ?The Onion, a satirical weekly, published the mock news story for January 18, 2001, reporting President-elect George W. Bush declaring, ?Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over.? And so it has turned out.? (Krugman, xxxiii). Krugman suggests the turning point for many people was September 11, 2001, but he states for him, the turn was much slower and broader than that. He states we knew people were out to attack us in our own country; it wasn?t that big of a surprise when they finally managed to do that. ?The real surprise was the failure of leadership, private and public, right here at home? (Krugman, xxxiii).
Krugman calls the Bush administration a ?revolutionary power?, that is, they are a power that does not accept the current political system?s legitimacy. He discovered a book that describes this situation almost perfectly. ?It?s not a new book by a liberal, writing about contemporary America; it?s an old book by, of all people, Henry Kissinger, about nineteenth-century diplomacy? (Krugman, 5). Krugman claims Kissinger had it right: ?people who have been accustomed to stability can?t bring themselves to believe what is happening when faced with a revolutionary power, and are therefore ineffective in opposing it.? (Krugman, 12)
Krugmans columns read like a snapshot in time, from the soaring stock market uneasiness of 1997 to the post September 11th environment we live in now. Accounting scandals, hidden agendas and revolutionary powers, Krugman paints the bleak picture of how we got here, and why no one has noticed until it was too late.
Hitchens and Krugman both point out failings in our current political leaders, and even hint at the much bigger problem of a failing of the media. As the people we entrust with delivering us with the truth, the current administration has used the media?s old standing tradition of pointing out both-sides of an opinion while never really calling any government proposal a flat-out lie. This has enabled the current administration to hide its ultimate motives behind falsehoods and phony numbers that don?t add up to their stated purpose. If there was a reporter brave enough to stand out from the crowd, the right-wing media would quickly label them as conspiracy theorists or unpatriotic to question the current administrations handling of a particular problem. We have lost our way in this new era that has been swept in underneath us. Hopefully we can find our way once again before it is too late.
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One year older, again
Today I turned 25. Woo, I guess. I also added album art to my complete mp3 collection. W00 again. Tomorrow: a night full of drunken drinking fun, HOORAY!
