Mr. Diggles & You » web 2.0

matt mullenweg: the creator of wordpress

mr. diggles — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:16:05 +0000

this weekend webtrends hosted wordcamp which is a conference that focuses on everything wordpress.

well, since i work at webtrends and i am slut for wordpress i had to stop in. especially because the creator of wordpress was speaking at the event.

his name is matt mullenweg and he is 25. i chatted with him for a few minutes and i was impressed by his demeanor. all smiles and all positive. i shook his hand violently thanking him for what he has done for the open source community but also my person journey in web development. i asked him to make out and he declined so i requested some gang signs instead. what a sport.

check matt out on wikipedia

check out matt’s blog

and a special shout out to justin kistner for lining up the webtrends hosting piece and being such an advocate for wordpress in general.

katu news snap

mr. diggles — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:00:25 +0000

so a while back i signed up for an account at intense debate so i could comment on the news. and as you can see from my -1p i haven’t been well received.

here are the rules on katu’s site:

Keep it clean – This is a public forum, open to civilized people who do not appreciate obscene, vulgar or sexually-oriented language, no matter how creatively spelled.
Keep it civil – Don’t defame, threaten, abuse or invade the privacy of other readers or the subjects of stories. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person will be tolerated.
Keep it truthful and legal – Don’t lie, impersonate another individual or post comments that advocate illegal activity.
Keep on topic – Stay focused on the subject at hand. Do not post advertisements or solicitations for funds, goods, or services.
Be responsible – Comments are the sole responsibility of those who post them.
Share your knowledge – Give us your eyewitness accounts, background and observations. If you see a factual error in a story or think there are issues we should follow up on, please e-mail us at webstaff@katu.com or call 503-235-8510.
Exercise your authority – Police these comments and suggest removal of those that violate the house rules.
And remember – Rules violators may be permanently banned from commenting.

well, i am currently in the red and in the negative. there was a story about how a guy got caught having sex with his dog and i made the comment hey we have all been there right? – and the readers did not find it funny.

what i have noticed is that the first 2-4 comments usually set the tone. so if someone is like this is a bunch of crap then everyone else seems to agree. i remember once reading about this katu study that 1 in 5 adults have admitted to peeing in a public pool and everyone was like well i can’t believe this! – and i was like really? don’t invite me over to your place cause i rarely hit the toilet. do you have a pool?

oh internets you had me at login.

unsure of your status? me too.

mr. diggles — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:45:26 +0000

generatus is a website that helps you come up with better status quotes for your facebook account or twitter feed. you put in your name, your sex and a tag (topic) and it spits out a status that is most likely more creative than what you could come up with on your own. a dumb, yet useful tool.

a nice clean little website that will travel through your brain and will be lost forever.

the daily show twitter frenzy

mr. diggles — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:58:57 +0000

my friend julie showed this to me and i thought it was great. well, really most things that come out of the daily show are great.

this is yet another great example of how social media is seeping into everything even if most people don’t understand it. my favorite part is when jon stewart says i have no idea how it works – at least he is honest. i have tried to explain how twitter works to many people and every person seems to have the same response… uh, so what’s so great about that?

twitter is one of those things that seems to lack a major overlaying purpose but since it has no absolute purpose it has spawned multiple purposes, which in turn makes me wonder how many times one can use the word purpose in a sentence. t minus 140 characters people. the purpose of this post isn’t to talk about how twitter works.

a good example of a worthless yet entertaining purpose is cursebird – a real-time feed of people swearing on twitter.

i was actually shocked when saw that i have never used a bad word on twitter. so shocked i literally stood up and said fuk! – i lvoe how the site shows you when the average numbers are up or down. i would like to hear a news reporter report on that – the dow dropped 80 points today but the good news is that shit is up by 4% and bitch also is on a steady climb.

one of many reasons why i don’t use facebook…

mr. diggles — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:29:42 +0000

this isn’t a surprise since i think like pretty much every free service has this built into their contract. here, i will use my pretty blockquote to make simplify the rhetoric:

we own all of your submitted content… forever…

so next time you start flirting with someone your are not supposed to or you post a picture of your friend that makes her look fat to get back at her… it doesn’t go away. ever. and not to sound evil but if i was facebook i would do the exact same thing.

now most people would say gee whiz diggles… why the hell should i care?!? – great question. because really you shouldn’t care. the majority of people who participate in facebook lead very uninteresting and linear lives and would gladly hand over their content in exchange for the service of connecting with others. i love it and i can’t blame you. who the hell cares. but to all those that are creatives that are trying to leverage facebook for marketing or potential business leads beware. especially if your content is your leverage.

i am not a good example because as you can see on my blog there is virtually no way of me generating cash. shit, i have no social icons, text ads, or ploys… but i do sleep at night knowing that all of my images are hosted on my site, etc. however, a great example: i was recently approached by a creative agency that wanted to license the mrdiggles theme song. yes, i had a theme song i wrote for my blog a while back and this agency only wanted to use it for a commercial they were pitching to client. they offered me cold hard cash (well a business check) and all i had to say was sure. so cast your mind – let’s say that this agency was buddies with facebook through past business and they had created a way to comb facebook for content before going to the individual. so facebook (or myspace, they are evil too) would say here is access to some of the more popular songs in that genre and wham bam they find the mrdiggles theme song and pluck it away paying facebook for your content. the next thing you know you see a super bowl commercial screaming your ditty. and you say darn it to heck! pass the chips please.

think i am nuts? this shit happens all the time. you just don’t hear about it.

here is just a taste of their terms of use agreement:

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

you can read the story here

my suggestion? start your own blog. regain all the time you are wasting connecting with friends you haven’t spoken to since the 2nd grade. in that environment every question is a loaded one – what have you been up to? – uh how do you answer that to someone you haven’t seen since the 2nd grade?

i guess it is your time and you can waste it anyway you want. i have no room to speak – have you even seen my trinkets section?!? who does that?

oh yeah and here is the mrdiggles theme song if you haven’t heard it. it is perfect for a commercial.

update! there is a video on this!

i’m not driving all the way out there

mr. diggles — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:05:40 +0000

this is pretty cool. yet another cool application using open source code. this application gives you great ideas on places to meet in the middle. so, most of my family lives in canby, now all i have to do is put in their address and my address and we will have a list of spots that we can hook up without wondering did i drive further? not that anyone ever thinks that.

i decided to put in my address (i live in portland) and my friend graeme’s address (he lives in new york city) and sure as shit the thing popped out some coffee shops in south dakota.

props to whoever made this super cool app. check it out here

hookup maps: get yer creep on

mr. diggles — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:55:22 +0000

hookupmaps brings together craigslist personals and google maps to make it easier and quicker than ever to find a local date..

when i first saw this idea i didn’t really think much of it. however, it got my attention when i opened it for the first time and the opening splash screen was one hell of a heavy disclaimer…

which then proceeds to a site dedicated to finding missing children. whoa… buzz kill. so this isn’t like e-harmony?

it is only for select cities. i decided to check out nyc. and no graeme, i am not suggesting you use this service. it combines the google maps api and the craigslist api – allowing a love seeker the ability to place craigslist personals on the map.

and judging from the results listed on the right – these are not people looking for a pure person to start a family with in salt lake city. these results are grim. i promise i did not make any of these up – i just grabbed a random group. the aggressive fat guy one is pretty funny.

i guess that is where the missing children variable comes in? they probably figured the people using this service must be the kind of people who would know where missing kids are. so the banner kinda states look… just give us one back… just one.

well, since this post has officially gotten dark… i figure i would end on a high note.
a public service announcement.

ok maybe just a smile will do –

toilet 2.0

mr. diggles — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:48:43 +0000

yes, another random find. the description: mizpee finds the closest, cleanest toilets in your area. you can add and review toilets, get some cool deals in your area and challenge your knowledge of toilet trivia.

wtf is toilet trivia?

this is a cool idea i guess. it had to have been developed by someone who really appreciates the need for taking a whiz on the go. i grew up on a farm… so i pretty much am comfortable peeing everywhere. well, not my pants. i had to include some random picture.

note to self: do not to a google image search for the word pee if your safe filter is off. wow.

check out the goofy mizpee site here

don’t mess with myspace?

mr. diggles — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:35:50 +0000

this is the cover of the september issue of fast company. the moment i saw it, i instantly thought of blades of glory. i mean right?

they suckered me into reading the article based off of the ridiculous statement on the front cover – which i put a focus on below.

at first i translated it wrong thinking they were boasting that they were going to be bigger than google, apple and facebook. later realizing that they are simply claiming that they are more innovative. hmmm, that seems a little far fetched – so i wondered if it was a publicity stunt to make the public think they were scheming something up for their tits + abs social network. or maybe they have been drinking the kool-aid.

next time you decide to search for a restaurant… don’t use google, use myspace. and if you are looking at doing some video editing… don’t use your mac, use myspace. and instead of using your ipod to listen to music while you work out… use myspace.

the key phrase in the article isn’t social networking it’s social portal. which i can be on board with but the harsh reality is that since myspace grew so fast it will forever be stuck with the same young sexual stigma. i doubt next time your uncle is looking for lawnmower he is going to rely on myspace in order to find some good leads. unless he wants an hj with it.

this is just my opinion… naturally.

oh shit, the news has gone 2.0

mr. diggles — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:55:20 +0000

not sure if anyone has noticed lately but the news/media is starting to allow for comments and other social outlets. not just local either. bbc has social bookmarking icons while cnn has twitter support.

naturally most of them you have to either sign up an account to participate or you have to be moderated in which case they may alter your interaction. no real surprise there though. i am surprised however about the twitter support and social icons. i know i may be going out on a limb here but i think it is a little early for the media to attach themselves to these 3rd party services (especially with twitters down time track record). personally i think they are rolling the dice – but it is a risk that may not leave them behind if social networking standards do set in.

the comments are cool i guess. it gives even the pawns a soapbox which is something society has never experienced in the past. to them though it is all raw data… the bigger the reaction a story gets the more you will hear about like minded stories. love that traffic!

anything is better than the cnn t-shirts. man, that is a whole other topic.

on a separate yet related note: it is hot as hell this weekend in pdx. tracy and i just got back from europe (i will post a few pics soon) and we went from 70 degree weather to 102 degree weather. wtf?!? well, i was on good old katu and i saw the 7 day forecast and monday had a question mark on it. i remember when they started to implement the icons on the days. umbrellas n shit? who in portland uses an umbrella? especially when there is no rain? i personally think it allows them to further escape accountability. the umbrella says: no rain will fall but just in case you may want to invest in a peppermint umbrella while the question mark says: we have absolutley no idea what is going to happen. every man, woman and child is on their own.

why is there an umbrella on the days it isn’t raining but no umbrella on the day it is?

god if they read this they are going to think i am jerk face. thus why i am linking to them here – feel free to click it a few times so they get some traffic from good old mr. diggles. together we can change their antics.

UPDATE!

i stared using the comments! scroll to the bottom. i am a darsh.