RKNet Blog... Thing

Admittedly, I’m an Internet n00b (does anyone even say that anymore?) Sure, I was chatting away with the best of ‘em on AOL in 1995, but it’s only within the last year (since I began work at an internet marketing company) that I’ve thought to embrace any browser other than Internet Explorer, any email client other than hotmail. I shudder to think that just a year ago, good ol’ IE held my hand while I traipsed naively through the interwebs, but, since then I feel I’ve taken strides, leaps, cross-country flights in the right direction; and today I’m proud to say that, Internet junkie or not, I am a bit of a Firefox whore.

I’m not web-developer. I can’t code (yet). I dabble in SEO but have barely scratched the surface. No, I’m just your average Internet user, and below is a list of the apps I like. Applications come and go, and I’ll admit, I try more than my fair-share. But, some add-ons stand their ground and prove useful and pleasant day in and day out– even, or perhaps especially, for the Internet n00b like me.

Interclue

Mouse over a link and, in the top right corner of the term an icon indicating the location appears. Wikipedia shows up as a small W, Newsweek as a red box with a white N, and so on. Mouse over this icon, and a window pops up where the contents of the link is displayed like its own separate page. It’s not just a preview. Most of the time the entire contents of the page will be given; a scroll bar down the right side if necessary.

There are actually several link-preview applications on Firefox, but I’ve found Interclue to be the least intrusive. Many pop-up with an unintentional mouse-over and stay-up, blocking half the page and contributing to my overall level of irritation (one that sits quietly in the background of my average workday.)

Cooliris

I love this photo and video viewer. Cooliris turns your browser into a 3-D screen for viewing photos, images and videos. From browsing a friend’s Facebook album, to searching for videos on you-tube, Cooliris is convenient, easy and fun to use. It also features a “discover” section, where images and videos of the latest news, sports, art and entertainment are posted. Click on the image and you’ll be taken directly to its source. Only one complaint: a right mouse-click won’t bring up the option to save the photo.

Twitterbar

Post to directly to Twitter from your address bar. Your 140 characters count down as you type, and a clicking a conveniently placed green arrow signifies you’re ready to post. The login window pops up to confirm so you don’t end up posting random urls every time you hit enter. Quick and easy!

Colorful Tabs

Simple and pretty. Colorful tabs makes each tab you bring up a different color. Nothing fancy, but a pleasant add-on that might help you organize your tabs while browsing.

Better Gmail 2

Better Gmail 2 is a fairly straightforward enhancement of the web-based mail client of the same name. The application offers new skins (my favorite is the Gmail redesign: complete redesign), file attachment icons and hierarchical labels.

So there you have it, the beloved apps of an internet newbie.

In the spirit of anarcho-capitalist-warm-fuzzy-anti-establishment (alright so that’s pushing it) consciousness expansion and technological empowerment, I am proud to announce the foundation of a series of meeting guaranteed to satiate your curiosity, tittilate your senses, and delight your sense of accomplishment. It’s an offshoot of NH Media Makers geared towards creating a fun learning environment for new technlogies.

The Location: Adelle’s Coffeehouse, 3 Hale St., Dover NH 03820

The Time: Sunday, October 5th 11am to 1pm - Date and Time unconfirmed! Watch this post for changes!
Meeting will officially start at 11:30 to give everyone time to mingle and get settled. Meeting may end earlier or run later than 1pm. Let me know if there are any conflicts here!

The Goal: To provide an open, informal, and comfortable learning environment for anyone who is interested in “new media”, specifically internet-based forms of media, and the systems and tools which make the newest forms of media run, Macs, Windows PCs, and *nix-based systems. If you don’t know the first thing about Macs, Windows PCs or what *nix even is, it’s ok. If using the formatting tools on your email program are intimidating, or if the term “formtatting tools” leaves you at a loss for words, that’s ok too.

Meeting #1: Intro to Blogging

This is for the person who says to themselves “I want to get my writing published on the internet, and I want it to look professional and attractive.” Or “How do I write things to put up on the internet?” Or “What the heck is a blog?”

For this meeting, I can and will personally commit to going over the basics of Wordpress, since I am most familiar with that. I will also go over some HTML 101 topics, which is critical for writers who wish to publish on the internet. I am looking for help for people who want to talk about other platforms, TypePad, Drupal, etc etc.

The only requirement for attending is a desire to learn more about computers and the internet. The requirement for presenting is to have something you want to share with others. That’s absolutely it.

Of course we’ll do our best to stick to one topic per meeting, to give all attendees the best introduction and help on each of the billion topics as possible.

I am also looking for is people who want to learn! Tell everybody and their brother who has ever wanted to publish something to the internet. Come find out how to run your very own blog, and help us decide what the most enticing topic of conversation is for the next meetup!

Future ideas include:

• HTML and CSS 101 - Don’t even know what CSS stands for? That’s ok! Learn the basics of HTML, XHTML and CSS, and get reference resources and practice ideas.
• Video meeting - From the basics of using your webcam to slap a video up on YouTube, to putting together or participating in a web series.
• Photography meeting - Photophiles share their favorite techniques, tips, and equipment recommendations. Figure out how to share your work, get noticed, and enjoy photography more.
• Podcast/audio meeting - Wonder what a podcast is? Want to know how to listen to them, even if you don’t have an iPod? Want to learn how to make audio to distribute via “podcast” or the internet? We’ll go over all that good stuff!
• Image editing - Ever wonder how the captions get on all those lolcats? Want to crop a photo so you can email it? There are all kinds of easy ways to edit images, and lots of folks to share their favorite techniques.
• M$ Alternatives - Don’t want to pay for licenses for the Inext generation of Microsoft Office or Outlook? That new version of AIM really making your computer choke? There are alternatives, and best of all… they’re 100% FREE.
• TV Alternatives - Don’t throw away your television, but do figure out how to make your home network, internet-based content and your TV circumvent your pricey cable bill.
• Windows 101 - Learn more about the system you might have been working with for years. What to turn off, what to keep on, how to maintain and support one of the most popular OSes in the world for the best possible experience.
• Mac 101 - Learn what it takes to make the most out of a system known for it’s sleek, artful presentation. It’s not just for artists and college students! Come see the real thing and learn how enjoyable and approachable the Mac OS can be.
• Linux 101 - No neckbeard required. It’s an open-source (community supported), lean, mean operating system. Linux may run some your favorite sites, but it can run your home computer in ways you might not have expected.

And that’s really just the list of topics I came up with in a short amount of time. There are probably a few dozen that could take up several meetings to cover the basics! Of course no one has to attend ALL meetings, and I’d encourage everyone to follow their passion and speak their mind. These meetings are meant for you, for me, and for anyone else who wants to attend. As I learned from the GI Joe cartoon: Knowing is half the battle. If you’re fighting with your concerns that you just “don’t get” computers, or code, or a specific kind of tech, it’s OK! Bring your questions, bring your lack of experience. We’re here to share!

So please, comment, email, tell a friend. We’ll be here, and we’d love to see you, too.

Note: I’d love to be able to webcast or record the instruction part of the session for future reference, anybody interested in helping with that, email me.

If someone reliable could tell me when in the future films would become solely based on finances it’d certainly save me the hassle of looking up articles on the Internet. If someone told me it would be next week I wouldn’t be shocked in the least since in it’s current state it’s just about at the point where it’s not about telling a story but a good way to rope in a few thousand people and scam them out of $10 because Will Smith pretends to act (I’ll get into that in just a moment.) As an up and coming independent film maker I have many issues of how things are dealt with in Hollyweird. To rattle of several quick ones — planning sequels months prior to the film’s release (it’s a half-cocked gesture mostly from the studios and regardless of how good you think it is or how profitable you believe it will become you must keep in mind the judgment of the public will have the real say), the MPAA and their rating system and advertising standards, 20th Century Fox (I’ll get into them later as well), studios pushing for PG-13 ratings for a wider audience (I don’t care what educational background you have but to try and make “Punisher: War Zone” PG-13 because “The Dark Knight” conveniently was and made a shit-ton of money doesn’t make it just. How can you make a man’s head exploding soft-core?), and painful “actors”. Let’s break it down, kids.

In case you haven’t noticed that for the last several years 20th Century Fox has prowled on modern celluloid like a drunk man in a bar or a 13 year-old white kid from Iowa who thinks he’s black, they think showing their cock will win affection. Wrong. Lately they’ve really been pouring gas on themselves. The bigger stunt recently is their lawsuit against Warner Bros. over upcoming comic book movie “Watchmen”. The studio claimed that Warner Bros. didn’t hold the rights to make the Alan Moore graphic novel or at least distribute the picture, never minding the fact that Warner Bros. owns DC Comics/Vertigo for which the graphic novel resides on.  So now they are currently in a legal battle to do either one of two things — make it so that Fox is the distributor (which can only mean they will ghastly edit the movie into a mind-numbing 90-minute feature that contains only the parts where there is fighting and shit blowing up with no intellectual transition) or to completely wipe the movie’s release date off the calendar completely, never releasing it. Though luckily given that the justice system moves about as fast as tree sap downhill in the winter the trial may not actually begin until January of 2009, a mere two months before it’s slated release date. Given that Fox has a tendency to shoot their wad like they know what they’re doing chances are (this is at least wishful thinking) the case will rule in Warner Bros.’s favor.

Another valid point that Fox has no idea what they are doing to tell a story visually is going around the creators to have it your way. This is unprofessional and also a dick move. One instance stated in the following article is on the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” which tells the tale of how Wolverine came to be (Weapon X program, scrapes with Sabertooth, etc.) and needless to say a very dark tale which requires seemingly dark environments.  One such environment was changed without the director’s knowledge. What called for something “dark, dinghy and somber” was changed to something less depressing with lighter colors and cleaner textures. Now if in the correct fashion this can work in favor but unless you’re doing some “One Hour Photo”/”American Psycho” clean-looking thriller then you are a pussy of a film maker. Changing a set’s design to something more cheery (a colorful euphemism) is almost a denial of reality itself, thinking it can’t be this dark and disgusting when in truth it can be because it fucking is! You can’t cover a bald Kevin Spacey in Laffy Taffy and believe he just killed Brad Pitt’s girlfriend (if you can, please lower your dosage.)

Changing lanes here — YOU CAN’T PUT WILL SMITH IN EVERYTHING! Okay, chances are I’m blaspheming here but you know what I have to say this, why should I really give a shit about a movie because Will Smith is in it? Because conveniently 98% of the movies he’s done have raked in billions?  Will Smith isn’t that fantastic an actor. His barometer for character ranges from a good guy who says “fuck” a lot to a good guy who doesn’t say “fuck” at all. Occasionally he’ll mix it up and have the good guy be a bit of a dick or an arrogant douche but for the love of God just knock it off. It doesn’t matter how fantastic he seems you can’t cast him as “The Karate Kid” or Captain America, it’s wrong on every level imaginable to the sane. If I could ever afford his salary for a movie I’d have him play a serial killer who hardly speaks just to break the mold, and when he does speak it’s in a strange language. To help illustrate my point, whenever I see a movie that has Will Smith in it I know it’s Will Smith, I can’t believe he’s anyone else. I can believe Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Trent Reznik, I can believe Josh Hartnett as Slevin Kelevra and The Salesman, but you throw Will Smith into a role I’m gonna know it’s him regardless. Captain Hillard, Muhammad Ali, Jesus Christ, I’ll only think, “Oh, hey, Will Smith.” You may think I’m daft for uttering or even thinking such a thing but I’ve heard a similar tear about Christopher Walken and look at his fucking acting skills. (Inside joke: 111th biopic on Andy Warhol starring Chris Walken.)

A couple other mini-rants. If you’ve never been to Massachusetts or talked to someone from there for more than 20 minutes then it’s news to you that often people from their have a habit of shooting their mouth off. Mark Wahlberg is from Massachusetts, so for him saying that Max Payne could take down Batman in hand-to-hand combat makes sense coming from him but is ghastly offensive to the point where if I saw him in a pub I would shatter the closest bottle near me and jab it into his eye socket. First of all the two characters are miles apart, Payne wants revenge for his wife’s death while Bruce Wayne/Batman wants justice for them and others. And also dropping the obvious factor to play in, he’s fucking Batman. Imagine if you will a man standing before an expert martial artist who is performing a series of moves for intimidation and Joe Guy takes him down by jabbing him in the throat. And in the interview where he made this claim he mentioned it was strictly in the matter of fisticuffs, not the box office which shows even more delusion since if you’ve seen any previews for “Max Payne” you’d know that Fox has ruined another video game on the big screen. Well kids I’m putting out the ashes for now. My next piece will detail the new releases of Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Slip”, and how the two contrast each other. See you on the other side, keep it sketchy.

=Sketch/Ed

My awesome Lorem Ipsum shirt provided by TeeFury, makers of fine, rare designer tshirts.

First off, it was great to see everybody again! I had missed the last two Media Makers events and kicked myself pretty hard both times. Thanks to my cat and the fact that I have a memory like a (rusted) steel trap, I was able to make it out to Newmarket in time to schmooze a little before everything got started.

Everybody is really busy! I took some general notes on each person and everybody had something fun or interesting to share.

UnclePhilms -

• Talked about film projects he’s working on, stuff in conjunction with NewtonStudios.com and BostonFilms.com (bostonfilms.com links to a weird page about internet connection sharing??) - Zerk.tv
• Mentioned that he is scoring a film (horror film I think it was).

Bryan White of Cinema Suicide -

• Launched Soundtrack Apocalisse, featuring soundtrack reviews. Apocalisse is Italian for apocalypse! Neat!
• He’s got tshirts for Cinema Suicide now! They’re really cool looking, done in fake movie poster style, with Cinema Suicide’s URL on them. Go get one now so you can say you were in at the ground floor.
• Quoted by Ghost Adventures, who will soon be putting out a DVD (which may or may not contain some of those CS group quotes). (Correct me if I’m citing the wrong Ghost Adventures group.)
• He mentioned gearing up to do a documentary about the less-than-savory history of Portsmouth, NH and doing some paranormal investigation to coincide with the area. Talked about a lot of really interesting history surrounding Portsmouth. Things I’d never heard before like all the old aqueduct work that has survived, and the old tunnels under the city surviving from old military installations. It sounds like there are a lot of really fascinating subjects he could cover in a Portsmouth documentary and I look forward to hearing way more about it.
• Cinema Suicide got covered by local entertainment paper: The Wire. The story is mentioned on the front page, so if you see a copy, go grab it!

Newcomers! Rob Jaques and Shawn Lampron.

• Rob is a writer, a musician and photographer. He’s got a pretty awesome flickr profile at santaplausible (which is a name I just absolutely love, by the way). He’s looking to collaborate and learn more about cool stuff to do on the internet.
• Shawn is a writer and I believe he said he’s also done some teaching. He’s interested in getting involved in more media and web-based projects.

Chris Clark of GeekForceFive -

• He’s got a book out! Congratulations! It’s called Those Little Bastards and it is available for sale through echristopherclark.com.
• Over at GeekForceFive, he experimented with adding a Question of the Day to a video post he did regarding his recent NIN concert experience. This got some of the best feedback he’s seen yet, and he is considering making Question of the Day a regular feature on GFF. Sounds like a terrific idea and I hope he keeps us posted!
• He’s also forging a community area for GFF at geekforcefive.ning.com - ning.com being a resource for people who want to take a sort of plug-and-play approach to social networking/community sites.

Leslie Poston -

• She’s doing some authoring over at TechnoSailor.com, a tech, business, and new media site.
• Got BIG plans for the upcoming SXSW, trying to get a panel together on “Can social media save the world?” and is looking for support to get this exciting concept off the launchpad and into the conference. The idea behind this panel was inspired by her recent experiences at PodCamp Boston.
• Got a site going called UptownUncorked.com, which has a neat wine glass shape going on with the first U that I think is really neat and would totally like to see develop more as a concept.
• Recently attended a Mashable event in Boston. Also mentioned that she’s a frequent attendee of Boston. Any Media Maker folks who are interested in Boston events should probably contact her for info on carpooling and so forth.
• She’s working with a site called Blorge.com who is also doing some hiring right now.

Deb Mcnally -

• I finally got to meet @debdebtig! I’ve been following her for a while on Twitter because she’s a locally active person. It’s nice to be able to put a face to a name like that.
• Deb is a tech communicator (all types of media, not just writing), as well as a local farmer!
• She’s got nheggs.blogspot.com and will be branching that out to include an official site (NHeggs.com) as well as adding some web service profiles for her chickens, giving people a day-in-the-life look into what it’s like to be a hen on the farm.
• Anecdotally - Back-in-the-day, her husband ran the largest BBS in southern New Hampshire! How cool is that? I myself didn’t spend much time on the internet during the BBS days, I spent more time trying to stay up late playing Shining Force on the Sega channel without getting caught. :3

Nick Plante aka ZapNap -

• He’s also written a book! It’s called Practical Rails Plugins and it’s currently available for pre-order on Amazon. It’s pretty exciting to have published authors in our midst.
• For anyone who doesn’t know, Nick is a freelance developer, working primarily with Ruby on Rails, but is awesome enough to provide services above and beyond that as duty calls.
• He’s also been involved with a zine called ink19, which as I understand it started life as a paper zine and has since evolved some digital tentacles to better propel itself through the cultural miasma that is the internet. The primary focus of ink19 is music, but they cover other fun stuff like movies, television and various other exciting whatnots.
• Nick has a dream! A dream in which it is much easier for people to read and distribute webcomics. That’s a really awesome dream. One which we can probably all get behind.
• Sub-question: Should we do a group event to brainstorm all the possible features and needs of a webcomic reader/distro system? Could be a really entertaining and worthwhile project, and could ultimately unseat things like WordPress when it comes to web comic creation and distribution! (and how boss monster would that be? pfft. very.)

Brian Turnbull -

• Another newcomer, and recent transplant from Chi-town (Chicago). He’s a professional photographer and has recently collaborated with ZapNap.
• Brian and Nick worked with a client to very recently launch Razume.com, a site in which people can have their resumes reviewed by their peers (and probably also by hiring professionals!).
• He took photos of this month’s NHMM which are already up. Why do I always get caught making the most awkward faces?!
• He’s done some photography work for various big band jazz groups, including album art for the Stone/Bratt Big Band.

John Herman -

• Gravityland season two is in the works! More people are getting interested in the project, so the second season could get really intense.
• He’s also working away on a pilot for an HD webisodic show called Thomas in Wonkyland. The premise came about at an improv event a while back, and some of those same players are coming back to work on this concept. It sounds absolutely hilarious and I can’t wait to see it!
• John recently helped his wife make a 1 minute movie for a film festival called le 60, a bunch of 1 minute movies to be shown in Boston in mid-September. He shared with us a really inspiring story about how he contacted a musician in Germany that he really admired, and was able to get some unique music for the project from that communication. Very cool. Incidentally: le 60 is accepting submissions through August 15th, so there is still time to participate in this project/contest.

Jill Silos -

• Jill is an author and cultural historian who works with grad students at UNH, as well as other local college-level students in the area.
• She is working on a book called Everybody Get Together: The Politics of the Counterculture. The book in project form won an award back in 2005, and I think it’s safe to say everyone in the group was very interested in the finished product when it’s ready for release.
• She’s learning to play guitar and apparently does a pretty mean D minor, but is still looking for tips on how to transition between chords.

As for myself, I talked a little bit about exciting new developments at work, and a few of my ideas for RKNet.

• RKNet will be featuring content from paid bloggers. I am still taking inquiries about this, although I have had several interested parties contact me already. Email giania [at] gmail.com if you wish to get more info about the program.
• The purpose of the paid blogging program is to free me up to do the following: redo the RKNet template, develop really cool merch ideas, strengthen affiliate relations. Eventually I want RKNet to be something like boingboing without the awkward lesbian “unpublishing” drama. Baby steps.
• Chris had a really terrific merchandise idea for RKNet, develop “random kitty” plush toys, literal random kitties, probably small batch or one-off items to keep things interesting, and cement their status as collectors items.
• I talked briefly about an idea I had to create a site to specialize in supporting local farmers and local farmers’ markets by providing a centralized site catering to their needs. Deb let me know that in her experience it’s actually pretty difficult to keep up with the normal demand, much less deal with greater exposure. I’d love to work with some people on this concept, to come up with a variety of ideas on how a site like this could help the most people, and maybe make some money.
• Some things I neglected to mention:
• I’ve got a soup! giania.soup.io it’s a kind of micro-blogging, tumblr sort of service. It’s lots of fun and allows for quick sharing of some of your favorite (or least favorite) items on the internet.
• I attended the Boston-based An Event Apart conference. I have transcribed some of my notes, but there’s still a lot left to put up. Stay tuned.
• I mentioned a friend’s ninja doll project but forgot the URL ( ninja-dolls.com DUH), also posted the URL in the comments at the NH Media Makers blog.
• As mentioned gingerly so as not to offend the nice people at Crackskulls, I am a HUGE fan of Dover’s newest coffee shop, Adelle’s. As we get more people at NH MM, we may run out of room at Crackskulls. I spoke briefly with one of the people who works at Adelle’s and it sounds like they might be interested in hosting an event like ours. I believe they have wifi there, and I’m working on getting them their own website so news/events can be posted there also. I’m really dying to try one of their bacon cheddar scones.

Don’t forget to visit the official NH Media Makers blog and check out all the notes John put up, as well as all the comments and follwups from the attendees!

Do you have RSS feeds for sites that you like, but they aren’t in your language? Don’t you wish you could get those feeds translated and delivered in the language you’re most comfortable reading? Of course you do! Well, the internet is full of surprises and helpful little whatnots, and one of those items is a site called Mloovi. Mloovi is a Web 2.0-ized spelling of mluvi, or “to speak” in Czech (probably because they couldn’t get mluvi.com I’d be willing to bet! domaining is a harsh mistress).

This site will provide you with a widget linking to your RSS feed in 24 languages (including English), with the translations provided by Google. The only catch is they display ads in the bottom of the feed. In other words, certainly not perfect but a big help for making a single language feed available to speakers of other languages. I’ll be providing this widget for RKNet (check the sidebar at the right), and I would love feedback from people who speak the languages in the list on how well it translates, and whether or not you like the mloovi feed format.

Initial Feedback: This concept is clearly still in its infancy, and it does have some flaws:

• The widget generator produces an iFrame, which is not the most standards-compliant solution.
• I had to configure the height and width of the widget myself (160 by 600, in case you use the generator for all languages like I did).
• They maintain a directory of translated feeds, but the directory does not appear to be searchable, or even have a break down by date range or alphabet to make it easier to find previously translated feeds.
• You CAN sort the directory by language to find feeds already translated into your language, though.
• If you choose the widget generator, and have it translate your feed into multiple languages, it will show you progress on how many translations it has completed. (That’s a good thing!)
• There are quick links in the directory to add translated feeds to online feed services: NetVibes, Google, Yahoo, AOL, and PageFlakes. (This is also good! But it should be available as an option with the widget also.)
• The project owner encourages feedback, and I will be sending this list, along with some other suggestions, as soon as I get an opportunity.

I love the internet.
This is so gross, not for the faint of heart.
Read the rest of this entry »

The network administrator is one of the funniest, most dedicated, generally awesome guys I’ve ever had the good fortune to meet. This morning I got copied on an email he sent to one of my co-workers regarding a rather unfortunate circumstance: a client of his was one of those people who gets a chain letter and forwards it to EVERYONE in their address book. This naturally included my co-worker, and the presence of giant attachments, unwanted witticisms and lots and lots of animated gifs was really starting to cramp the guy’s style.

Network Admin to the rescue! Below, with some redacted names to protect identities (because I try to be polite like that) is the solution.

Hey Todd,

I can block his e-mail address from hitting our server, but unfortunately he wouldn’t be able to send any e-mail to us at all if that happened-/probably/ not a good idea if he’s a client.

You can delete them, but the best thing to do is to ask him to stop sending them in the first place. The easiest way to do that is to make **ME** the bad guy, so the fucking idiot doesn’t get all offended and shit. Try something like this:

/”Good morning Mr. Latent Pedophile,

I can’t put into words how much sheer, unadulterated joy your wonderful e-mails have brought me. You see, before I starting receiving your witty and carefully crafted mass-produced chain e-mails my life was but a meaningless shell. Being on your “send” list has truly been a divine gift from above. Not only has it made me a better man, but flowers smell better, the sky is brighter, and food tastes better.

Best of all, it no longer hurts when I pee.

Alas, there is a problem: You see, the network administrator here is a real “type-A” knuckle-dragger. He’s an angry, angry man-the type of guy who has driven away anyone who has ever tried to love him. He is verbally abusive to his co-workers, and his breath is so bad that the paint around his desk *is actually peeling. *He monitors all of the network traffic to and from our e-mail server. Yesterday he waddled over to my desk, belched, farted in my general direction, and //then started screaming at me about bandwidth issues and security concerns. For this reason I must beseech you to stop sending me these types of messages. He assured me that if I receive any more he was going to dock my pay $10.00 per megabyte-so you’re most recent message for example could cost me $13.20.

I’m not sure how I’m going to cope with not receiving future chain letter messages from you. Alas, I may have to take up clown punching, chicken choking-or some other constructive way to vent my inhuman rage against the man. Thank you for your understanding.

I weep alone,

Todd T.
Resident Badass
“/

Give that a shot dude. Let me know how it works out.
*
**
Chris
*

Oh Chris, it is truly an honor to work with you!

Fake Stephen Colbert, a twitter user posting under @stephentcolbert, has been unmasked. Luckily, the psuedostephen opted to share the reasoning behind this Twitter-Digg deception.

It’s really fun to see someone take a silly experiment and launch it to the next level, a silly experiment with wide recognition. Of course, with Stephen Colbert’s huge popularity these days, is it really any wonder that a Twitter account that was updated with some regularity would get noticed?

As noted in the Fake Stephen’s article, there was already an @stephencolbert when Fake Stephen went to register. However, that person had updated very infrequently, and had stopped updating a very long time ago overall. Even though @stephencolbert had 10,000, without updates it was just another idle account. When I checked earlier tonight, Fake Stephen’s account, @stephentcolbert only had 5,000 followers. Yet it was this account that hit the front page of Digg and got called out by Comedy Central themselves. Proof that one of the keys to recognition within a social environment is to be social! (Duh.)

I kind of hope that Fake Stephen carries on in some way, shape or form. It might be a nice addition to the pantheon of other Fakes out there. Like Fake Steve Jobs.

Well, I’m just back from the first ever NH Media Makers get together. What a terrific idea, and what a great turn out. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, both in people or content, despite the post at the actual NH Media Makers site detailing who would be there and what to expect!

We had all types of people, with different disciplines, but the major unifying factor was our passion for all things internet. Which is extremely refreshing as a majority of people I’ve met here in New Hampshire have not been the slightest bit interested in the internet or tech in general. It was like a high school AV meeting with a million times more class.

After adamantly sucking down as much coffee as possible, I tuned in to each attendee’s introduction and background. Everybody had a great story to tell and a variety of really terrific projects they were involved in too. I don’t think a single person there had just one thing they were working on, interested in, or knew about. There was no shortage of great ideas, and everybody seemed tremendously passionate about their field of interest.

We had photographers, videographers, writers, entrepreneurs, search engine marketers, programmers, culture geeks, and often times most people were several of those things if not all of them! Had I been taking notes I’d have a lot more details about each person. Everybody I met was just terrific. There was a definite buzz in the air and I could tell a lot of really valuable connections were made. Separately we’ve got a ton of super ideas and talents, together we could really turn this area into a hub of internet and cultural activity.

Couple of points I want to shout out to any local readers:

• One of the attendees is a film maker out in Manchester who will be looking for extras interested in dying. :)
• Another wants to get interest up in late night monster movie showings in the area, preferably big screen. Who knows about theater in the area?
• We’ve got film folks who might want extras, guest writers, feedback, or musical contributions/suggestions.
• There are authors chomping at the bit for publishing tips or inspiration in general.
• There’s me, looking for blog authors and people interested in helping my wacky friends commit some of their film ideas to the web.
• There’s a niche marketer looking for ideas and feedback on how to incorporate things like video and blogs into his repertoire to strengthen his position as the top in his field(s).

And so much more. I’m hoping others took better notes. There will be a mailing list, and notes and attendee URLs will be posted over at the NH Media Makers site, so stay tuned. We’ll also have some pictures and video courtesy of a few folks who were there. (Phil, John, and Roger if I remember correctly.) There will be more of these in the future, so if you missed the first one, fret not, you will have a chance to join in the fun!

Despite my vehement aversion to being up before noon on any weekend day, I am very very fired up for the NH Media Makers event this Sunday. It will be held at Crackskulls book store, coffee haus and cozy nook. I look forward to meeting a lot of folks I’ve been tweeting back and forth with for the last couple months.

The goal of this get together is not just to serve as a general #NHTWEETUP but to also gather up people from the area interested in, well, making media! Specifically internet-related ventures like vlogging, podcasting, blogging, and making the most of social media outlets. It’s going to be a meet-and-greet and round table discussion, and thankfully for non-morning people like me there will be plenty of coffee on hand.

For those that have already pledged to be there, I look forward to meeting you. For those NH folks who might come across this, make sure you pop by the NH Media Makers blog and RSVP so everybody knows you’re coming.