The Home Of ob81

I downloaded this blogging software on my iPhone. It seems pretty easy to write on it. I am currently seeing how this will work out with pictures and links.

This chromed out bike below was a beauty. The concept is ugly, but the final product came out great.

I will catch you later world. Maybe….

(always on twitter and chat though!

Posted under Just Blogging

    You guys know that I have been all over Delicious Bookmarks recently.  I found a site with some excellent scripts that every user could benefit from. 

   There are 15 on the list, but I am particularly interested in:

Google Reader + Del.icio.us - DOWNLOAD HERE   (You can easily add stories in google reader to delicious)

Digglicious - DOWNLOAD HERE  (Add digg stories to delicious right through digg)

Del.icio.us Bulk Delete - DOWNLOAD HERE (Bulk moderate bookmarks)

Fav.icio.us - DOWNLOAD HERE  (Add Favicons)

Snap.icio.us - DOWNLOAD HERE (Have a snapshot of the site that you bookmarked)

Del.icio.us Skin - Del.icio.us 2.0 - DOWNLOAD HERE  (Cool skin for delicious)

   The guys over at Killertechtips really made a great list, and you can go there to check it out for a few additional scripts.

   I know some of you have these already, but I am guessing that there is another delicious noob out there like me that could benefit from these scripts!

Tags: bookmarks, delicious, digg, download, google, google reader, greasemonkey, help, list, scripts

Posted under Social Networking

   I took a long break from digg after I returned from my tour in the Middle East.  They updated the site sometime early this year, and I never got a chance to really check out the new system.  One thing I noticed immediately was that there was a lot less relevant news content.  My tech section, which I live and die by when submitting, is near death.  Here are 4 things that I noticed with digg and the community.

1:  The same people are getting stories to the FP regularly.

  They implemented the algorithm change so that top digg submitters would not totally run the FP.  Sadly, this has not worked.  It takes 150-200ish votes to go FP for most users.  Guess which users can get that many votes on a single story?  Top diggers.  I see a lot more excellent NEWS stories from normal users not go FP, and a funny pic from a top digger go FP.  While I am all for trying to even out the community, I am not for less content.

2:  Everyone is using IM.

  I got 1 story to the FP a few days after returning, and I got hit with 14 IM friend requests within a few hours.  Turns out, this is the main way that people get diggs these days.  Every time I log on to IM now, I get 5-10 pm’s looking for diggs on content.  This is fine, but at some point I feel weird having some guy promoting content for gizmodo or some other huge site.

3:  Shouting, while widely considered spam, is really needed to get your submissions noticed.

  I really don’t like the shout feature in regards to promoting submissions.  Sadly, the only way that certain friends will digg submissions is if you shout it to them.  A lot of people are too lazy to check friend’s submissions these days.  I am virtually forced to shout a particular story if I want it to have a chance at FP.

4.  The Tech news section is dying.

  The only news that I submitted in the past was tech news.  This was fine for my account.  While my FP % suffered, if I had some good tech news, I knew it was going to the FP.  I think I got 1 tech news post FP since I have been back.  I am forced to submit pictures and political content because those sections are the most popular now. 

While I don’t learn much on digg anymore, I do get a good laugh every now and then.  Ironically it has changed my surfing habits, and I have subscribed to a lot more non-tech blogs recently.  I just wish more love was given to the tech section  

Tags: digg, friends, news, social networks

Posted under Social Networking