Games, Recommendations

I will crush you and your armies.

Recommendation of the day: Warfish. It’s a basic online Risk game, and it’s tons of fun. You can get an idea of what the gameplay is like by watching this timelapse of a game. Games can last hours/days/weeks, and you can have it e-mail you when it’s your turn. It’s the perfect 3-minute break from whatever else you were doing. Signup is invitation only, so if you want in, leave a comment or e-mail me for an invite.

Oh, and by the way, I’d like to thank Tom for getting me addicted to this game when I was supposed to be working. Thanks Tom!

Blog, Funny, Life

Guilty as charged…

Busted…

Blog, Netscape

Content theft

I noticed via a pingback to one of my posts that someone is scraping all of my blog posts, publishing them at netscape9.com, and displaying Adsense ads next to them. I don’t know which route I should take first: get their Google Adsense account closed for violating the TOS, contact GoDaddy about the user using the Netscape trademark without permission, or get their hosting shutoff for copyright violations. I think I’ll do all three. :-D

Update: The owner of the site offers some clarification.

Software

Yahoo shortens search box, makes Techmeme

Seriously, why is this news? They slapped a “width: 192px;” in their style tag, and I see it in half a dozen of my RSS feeds.

Digg, Funny

Show it to the Navy.

Somebody e-mailed me this satirical article about Digg’s userbase revolting, which “quotes” me talking about Kevin Rose defacing my blog. I’m undecided as to whether it’s actually funny, but I did like this bit:

“What, is our Alexa ranking gonna drop from 73 to 74?” said Digg CEO Jay Adelson. “You know, for every 30-something who decides he’s got something better to do than digg a couple hundred stories a day, there’s a 15-year-old kid willing to skip his homework and take care of that for us. We’re not worried.”

Had I read that quote in any other context, I probably would have reluctantly believed that Jay said it.

Update: The site that was hosting the original article is now gone; here it is for posterity:

Digg Users Form Union, Refute Site Changes

SAN FRANCISCO (CAP) – In a rare show of solidarity on the Internet, users of the popular website digg.com have banded together to form a union in response to Kevin Rose’s decision to remove the “Top 100 Users” feature from the site. They intend to boycott Digg until the feature is reinstated.

“This could be the start of Web 3.0,” said independent internet analyst Will Scurto. “Instead of user-generated content, it’s user-demand management. Gives a whole new meaning to gaming the system.”

The union, aptly named Digg Users United in Harmony, has already received the backing of the ACLU, and is reportedly close to hundreds of thousands of dollars in venture capital funding to help support the effort. DUUH is the brainchild of once-and-future top Digg user, iliv2dig4u.

“We made Kevin Rose what he is today,” said the 28-year-old iliv2dig4u in a phone interview from the basement of his mother’s house. “Until he gets this fixed, we’re urging all Digg users to go use Netscape, where at least we can be recognized for all the free work we do to help these websites make money.”

However, the list has not totally disappeared from the Internet, having popped up on an independent blog run by Christopher Finke. Although Rose left a mean-spirited message on Finke’s blog about the rogue list, Finke said that doesn’t tell the whole story.

“I erased most of it because it was pretty childish,” Finke told CAP News. “It said something like, Baby, baby, stick your head in gravy, and then something else about bubblegum and the Navy. Kinda weird coming from a guy who’s almost 30.”

For their part, Digg staffers don’t believe the union or impending boycott will have any effect on the site itself.

“What, is our Alexa ranking gonna drop from 73 to 74?” said Digg CEO Jay Adelson. “You know, for every 30-something who decides he’s got something better to do than digg a couple hundred stories a day, there’s a 15-year-old kid willing to skip his homework and take care of that for us. We’re not worried.”

DUUH’s new website to promote their cause is expected to be live by the end of the week, and their first rally will take place on ICQ over the weekend.

Browser Add-ons, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Software

Netscape 9 Teasers: Week III

This week at the Netscape blog, I wrote about the allowances we’ve made in Netscape 9 for installing extensions targeted at Firefox 2:

“Since Netscape 9 will share an architecture with Firefox 2, it is very likely that most Firefox 2 extensions will work in Netscape 9 without modification. This is why Netscape 9 will allow you to install extensions that list Firefox 2 as a compatible version but do not explicitly list Netscape as well. This feature will give all users of Netscape 9 immediate access to Firefox’s wealth of custom extensions without having to wait for each author to update the extension’s compatibility file.”

Check it out.

Netscape Blog

Extensions and Netscape 9

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

It has been established that Netscape 9 will be based on Firefox 2.0. One of the greatest things about Firefox is its community of extension developers – if you want a feature that is not built into the browser, chances are that someone has written an extension to add it. We’ve even released several extensions of our own for people who use Firefox with Netscape.com.

However, chances are that you’ve run into an extension you’d like to install, only to find that it’s not compatible with your browser version. This is because extension authors must test and update their extension every time a new browser version comes out to ensure that it works properly with that version of the browser.

Since Netscape 9 will share an architecture with Firefox 2, it is very likely that most Firefox 2 extensions will work in Netscape 9 without modification. This is why Netscape 9 will allow you to install extensions that list Firefox 2 as a compatible version but do not explicitly list Netscape as well. This feature will give all users of Netscape 9 immediate access to Firefox’s wealth of custom extensions without having to wait for each author to update the extension’s compatibility file.

Blog, Digg, Ideas, Social Media, Software

On resurrecting Digg’s Top Users page

My restoration of Digg’s Top Users page yesterday got a lot of press around the Web:

Both the list and my blog post about the list were submitted to Digg, but both were buried off of the front page. (Buried, or manually removed?)

Michael Arrington mentioned the list at TechCrunch, and the readers commenting on his post inexplicably turned against Netscape. Even though my actions had nothing to do with Netscape, the fact that I write code for them as well apparently makes my reproduction of the list “lame”:

“If this would have come from someone NOT at a competitor (in this case Netscape), I would have thought ‘cool!’ The fact that this comes from someone at Netscape makes me think ‘lame!’.”

Deep Jive Interests (a personal favorite of mine) was the first to wonder how long it would be until I heard from Digg’s infamous legal team. Nothing yet, but I’ll blog about anything that comes in.

This blog somehow decided to go with the headline “Netscape Bringing Top Digg Users Page Back.” I think if Netscape was sponsoring this effort, they’d want some kind of mention somewhere on the page. What? It only links to Digg? That’s awfully strange.

Like many others, Technacular incorrectly reported that I was scraping user profile pages for the rank number that is displayed there; kudos to them, however, for being the only ones to update their post after I sent them a clarification on how the script actually works.

Additionally, my blog was linked from Techmeme, blurbed on Download Squad, and mentioned at ValleyWag.

Oh, and there’s one question that I’ve been asked a few times that I’d like to address here: Sorry ladies, but I’m already taken.

Blog, Greencode, Software, Themes, WordPress

Greencode WordPress Theme Updated (0.3)

I’ve updated the Greencode WordPress theme (which I’m using on my site) to version 0.3. Since version 0.2, I’ve added a print stylesheet (screenshot of a printed page below), optimized the header image to reduce its size by half, and fixed a few miscellaneous bugs.

Example of page with only print style applied.

You can download the newest version from the Greencode homepage.

Digg, Software

Top Diggers list is back

Digg removed its top users list this morning. However, as I mentioned yesterday,

It’s an exercise in futility. A competent programmer could easily throw together a page scraper to determine the top submitters, so when the dust settles, Digg will still have problems with pay-for-play, but the most prolific users will no longer be recognized by Digg for their work that makes the site so successful.

To prove my point, I’ve done exactly that: I’ve put together a script that displays the top 100 users at Digg, with the list being updated twice per day. You can see the list here.

Update: I do work for Netscape, but this has nothing to do with them. I did this on my own time and of my own volition.

Also, I didn’t create this list for any mean-spirited reasons; I enjoy Digg and the service it provides, but I think Kevin made the wrong choice in removing the top users list. I’m not trying to profit off of this, and I’m not trying to scalp members from Digg for Netscape. I’m just proving a point – this data is easily attainable by anyone who is motivated to get it. Removing the top users list from digg.com does little in stopping people from finding out who the top Diggers are.

Digg, Social Media

Top Diggers no longer recognized

Kevin Rose writes on the Digg blog:

Some of our top users are being blamed by some outlets as leading efforts to manipulate Digg. These users have been listed on the “Top Diggers” area of the site that was created in the early days of Digg when there was a strong focus on encouraging people to submit content. The list served a great purpose of recognizing those who were working hard to make Digg a great site, as well as a way for new users to discover new content. Now, as the site has matured and we regularly get 5,000+ content submissions per day, we believe there are better ways to discover new friends based on your interests and what you’re digging.

After considerable internal debate and discussion with many of those who make up the Top Digger list, we’ve decided to remove the list beginning tomorrow.

It’s obvious that Digg is removing the “Top Digger” list exclusively to try and thwart companies that aim to recruit Digg’s top users into some kind of Digg payola scheme, and I don’t blame them for trying to stem that tide. They shouldn’t, however, claim that they’re getting rid of it because it will no longer serve its purpose of helping users “discover new friends.” The purpose of the “Top Diggers” list is to recognize the Top Diggers – plain and simple. Users may have added the top Diggers as friends, but most likely as an attempt to get more recognition for their own submissions.