Recession Positive: It really IS the best time to buy a car

With an economic crisis looming over a failing industry, the catchphrase "Now's the best time to buy a new car", for once, might be the absolute truth.

read more | digg story

2008: Proof Positive that We Need College Football Playoffs

Every year, the debate rages over whether or not to have a playoff system that enhances or replaces the current Bowl Championship Series. This year more than any other is proof of how badly we need one. After 10 years of hit-or-miss BCS National Championships, the time has come for a change.

read more | digg story

Protest: Utah's Auction of 100k Public Acres for Oil and Gas

A coalition of conservation groups has just filed a formal protest opposing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to auction off 100,000 acres of public lands for oil and gas leasing and development.

read more | digg story

Protest: Utah's Auction of 100k Public Acres for Oil and Gas

A coalition of conservation groups has just filed a formal protest opposing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to auction off 100,000 acres of public lands for oil and gas leasing and development.

read more | digg story

Volcanoes in Pictures

From Uberly, this story shows us the awesome beauty and terrible wonder of volcanoes. They are ever so destructive, but the pictures in this story lend more towards the idea of beauty and grace.

read more | digg story

Earth's Most Extreme Conditions

This compilation from MediaCaffeine takes a look at the most amazing physical conditions that have been recorded on Earth.

From the hottest places to the coldest, the strongest winds to the longest bolts of lightning, this gives a visual and written description of the most extreme the world has to offer.

Extreme Weather Conditions

Pictures of 5 Strange World Record Holders

One of the things that really freaks people out is when they see other people who have strange attributes. Super long hair, extraordinarily long tongues, 25 digits - all weird stuff that freak people out. This story picks out 5 of the strangest people you will ever see. They have something in common - they are all world record holders for their particular traits.

read more | digg story

Atomic Computer Memory

This one did not hit the front page, but it sure looked like it would. With 70 diggs in the first couple of hours and a headline that appealed to a good portion of the Digg crowd, I was already counting it as a victory.

Somewhere along the line around 120 Diggs it just disappeared. Buried. Mysteriously. Oh well. It happens.

It's an interested story, though, as it details a recent breakthrough in science that is nothing short of brilliant - storing computer data in the nucleus of an atom.

Atomic Computer Memory at the Nucleus digg story

Rick Astley WILL be Performing, One Way or Another

With over 300 Diggs and nearly 400 comments, the popularity of Rick Astley and his Rickrolling phenomenon cannot be overstated. He is the definition of an Internet meme beyond any that the world has ever seen or ever will again. What makes this story so special is that... well, we'll get to the special part later.

For now, suffice to say that Rick is most likely going to perform at the awards ceremony on November 6th, at least according to a good source.

read more digg story

Stephen Hawking Discusses His Disability

This one is a touching piece written by Stephen Hawking a few years ago and posted to his site. It's amazing how he is able to keep a sense of humor through his personal struggles with his disability.

It was submitted to Digg and Reddit and made it to the front page of Digg with over 1200 diggs and 74 comments.

read more | digg story

Car Dealer SEO Video that I made

For those who don't know, by profession I am Executive Director of Marketing for TK Carsites. We use clean and accepted methods to help our clients move up in the search engines.

Below, you will find a video that I made a while back that talks about Car Dealer SEO. Feel free to take a look at it, have a chuckle, eat some popcorn, and let me know what you think.

Wishes "Funner" was a word. It's so useful. Cute to say when you're 4. Not cute to say when you're old but act 4.

Tomatoes: After $500 million in losses, the FDA appears wrong

Please check out this story:



http://ping.fm/HKJXy



It is likely that, after huge losses, the FDA may have been wrong about declaring tomatoes as the source of the current salmonella outbreak.



There's a Digg button at the bottom of the story if you like it.



THANKS!

oboy

Was Oil the real "WMD" that put us in Iraq?

http://ping.fm/lONqN - Great story that I found on NowPublic.

Testing Ping.FM on Blogging

This is the first test of the http://ping.fm blog posting feature for my blogs. If this pops up on Plurk or Twitter or anything, please disregard as ignorance.

Don't Leave: ‘Iron Man’ Scene After the End Credits

A quick warning -- there is a bonus scene after the credits in Iron Man. FYI. The full story from Geeks of Doom is linked below.

read more | digg story

Newspapers - Adapt or Die

Some of my best times in youth were spent sitting down in a lawn chair with a cup of coffee in the day or a beer at night reading a good newspaper or one of the old school magazines like the Atlantic Monthly or The Newyorker.

I haven't read anything from a paper publication in forever, unless it's online, of course. Still, it saddens me that we are seeing these venerable old rags failing. They need to adapt. They need to take their great writing and figure out how to expose them to the world of the Internet. Simply putting up a website is just not enough anymore.Thanks for listening for my rant.

JD Rucker - oboy

read more

We are paying $4 per gallon. What is Exxon doing?

Making money. Simple. I know there are those who will say it isn't their fault, that they're the beneficiary of Cheney or Iraq or whoever, but when you look at a 30% profit gain for a company that is already the most profitable in the universe at a time when people are making drastic changes in their lives to cope, I just can't feel that Exxon is exempt from any blame.

read more

Makers of Dove buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesian rainforests

This is just stupid! Is it so bad that major companies have to cut corners just to make an extra buck? The link below leads to the greanpeace story itself -- not much there other than the facts -- but the real kicker is the video and the open letter at the bottom of the page that goes to Unilever, the makers of Dove products. Please help. Do your part. It takes a minute.

read more

Wow. Desperation at work, but at least it's clever.

One of the most amazing displays of "Is it clever or is it just plain dumb?" I guess that will depend on if it works or not, but either way, I have to say that I like the attempt. The fact that it will probably get over 10k diggs is just absolutely mind-blowing.


digg story

Pondering the Potential of a Web 3.0: Social Hybrid

This is a well thought-out post about the potential that is (hopefully) coming. Web 3.0 has been bubbling for a long time. Many have claimed to have started it, but nothing has really been different enough from Web 2.0 to really make a mark. What we really need is something fresh, something different. You would think that it wouldn't be that hard, but hey -- it's the Internet. Everything seems harder on the Internet.

read more | digg story

Toys "R" Us Gives more evidence that society is stupid

I normally get annoyed when I see "kids" under drinking age with lower back tattoos. How did they get them, why did they get them, yadayadayada. This absolutely blows my mind that society finds it okay when a major retailer for children is even willing to offer "slut advertisement" on their shelves. I'm not a prude -- just a concerned parent.

read more | digg story

Furniture Recycling - Fun, Functional, and Fabulous

Sorry -- just a must see. No worries about reading it -- I barely scanned it -- but the pictures are enjoyable and may actually spark some ideas for your... garage? Home? Office? No, probably just the garage, but still cool, nonetheless.

read more | digg story

Where is the "Algorithm Justice" on Digg

This one blows me away. Here is a good story from a great source, arstechnica.com. It has been on Upcoming Hot in All for several hours now. It has as of the time of this blog post 218 Diggs and 20 comments. It wasn't shouted or anything like that. Yet, it has been passed over by the following titles with the following number of Diggs:

1) Possibly the Greatest Invention of this Millennium - 25 Diggs, link died after 2 minutes on front page

2) Living Upside-down Shapes Spiders For Energy Saving - 65 Diggs, a good story by a great submitter, but definitely not a better story

3) Fighting with spouse can be good for your health - 25 Diggs, unreliable content

4) Hillary's - 106 Diggs, good source, but what's up with the headline?

5) Bad Fashion - 40 Diggs, picture that isn't exactly Digg front page material. I hate whining, but this is ridiculous. I have 4 stories on the Upcoming sorted by Most, and it looks like this is the only one of them that will hit. Oh well. It's just Digg.

read more | digg story

Manifesto to Avoid a Google Media Monoculture

For many decades we had a PC monoculture controlled by Microsoft and, to a lesser degree, by Intel. Today, in the world of online media, that same thing looks like it could happen. But it doesn't have to be that way. This 4-point manifesto lays out how to avoid a Google media monoculture.

read more | digg story

Whither Internet freedom?

With Verizon and AT&T gobbling up even more spectrum, SavetheInternet.com asks what needs to be done to ensure the mobile Internet doesn't become like cable TV: closed off and antidemocratic.

read more | digg story

Semantify - SEOs are scared - is this the solution?

Anyone in the search engine optimization industry who keeps his or her eyes on what is coming around the corner is aware of Semantic Web. They are researching the implications and making decisions about the adjustments that they're going to have to make. Here is a solution. Is it the right one?

read more | digg story

Official Google Blog: Google for Non-Profits

Official Google Blog: Google for Non-Profits: "Many of you spend your days making this world a better place, and we want to do our part to help. Today, we're excited to launch Google For Non-Profits, a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization's mission in a smart, cost-efficient way."

Java Gibbons - Deforestation at 300 Soccer Fields Per Hour is Killing Them

Indonesia destroys an estimated 300 soccer fields of forest every hour. EVERY HOUR. The Java Gibbons are down to 4,000, which classifies them as basically done for. This doesn't even take into account the damage that is done to the rest of us because of the idiocy over there. I'm not an environmentalist by any stretch of the imagination, but this doesn't take "green love" to understand that it's wrong and needs to stop.

read more | digg story

Digg: Growing or not?

The video in this link is from SXSW. Worth a watch and a Digg!

read more | digg story

Disconnection Anxiety - It's real, but that really sucks (and yes, I have it)

If someone were to have told me 10 years ago that there would be an actual condition that was associated with disconnecting from gadgets and the internet, I would have guessed that it would effect maybe 5% of the country. To find out that it actually effects 68% is at first shocking, but when I stopped to think about it, I realized that most people I know suffer from it We all need to stay connected to some extent and we get anxiety when we disconnect for long periods of time. It is a real thing, it's just become so commonplace that most don't even notice it. It is the norm. It sucks.

read more | digg story

Amazing Speed Painting to Ray Charles Music

Here is another one from Metacafe that didn't get the justice it deserved when it was initially submitted to social media sites. Until they figure out how to either (A) Recognize quality content even if the submitter is not a "stong" user, or (B) allow do-overs when content that should hit doesn't, we'll have to rely on linkjacking to get good content out there. As always - the disclaimer - this crappy little blog has no advertising or adsense or anything on it to make money. This video is posted here because it's good and people need the opportunity to see it. Enjoy!


StrangelyDrawn Speed Painting - "Ray Charles" - The most amazing home videos are here

See more good stuff (and some crappy stuff) at the social media blog homepage.

Plagiarism Sucks, and Here's 8 Reasons Why

To me, plagiarism is 100 times more difficult to (A) Prove, (B) Combat, and (C) even Catch -- all because today's internet world cranks out 150K new websites a day. The reason for posting this is to point out one way to find where your work is being plagiarized. It's call Google, a search engine.

The standard "duh" response comes to mind, but for those who don't know, just use the quotes. If you search for a unique line from your writing and place it in quotations in the search box, it will find entries on the internet that only occur with those exact words, that exact order. Just as an example, give it a few days and search for this line:

If we eat raw media, our social minds will implode.

Put quotes around it and see who plagiarized this story. The answer should be nobody, but you never know. If you try the search without the quotes, you'll get around 100k results. Once this page is indexed, you'll get only the results from this blog. If you get anything else, please let me know. If you do, I'VE been plagiarized! Wouldn't that be funny?

read more or check out oboy's archive.

One Journalist, Times Job, 9 Stops Along the Way

When I was young, I was idealistic. I felt that the best way to position my skills was to become a journalist, exposing the evils of the world while promoting things that people need to hear.

One year and one childbirth later, I noticed that my fellow journalists were driving Pintos, Datsuns, and occasionally even bikes to work while the advertising executives were cruising in Beemers and big trucks. Need overcame ideals, and I found myself switching to the dark side.

This piece touched me because it represents what could have been had I stuck to my guns. But hey... then I wouldn't be here putting out content on these blogs!

read more or read less

An Article to Keep For Buying Cars - the checklist

There are certain things that just don't happen enough to get the practice you need to be good at it. If that didn't make any sense, it's okay. Just remember, buying a car is a very important event.

Many people treat it with haste or lack of effort because they don't like it. Who wants to deal with a car dealer? Still, it's one of those "gotta do it, so might as well do it right" kind of things, so keeping this car buying checklist handy is a perfect way to not lose it when the time comes.

Check out the Car Buying Checklist or read more social media stories.

Blogs Making Lots of Money - Don't Sell

A look from one of the sources into why blogs that are making over $1,000,000 a year should not sell, and why building a blog portfolio for business is a good thing and a bad thing. The article itself makes decent points, but the writing is very strong. Highly recommended reading, whether you're a blogger or not.

read more or not

Show your receipt at Walmart OR ELSE!

Now, for fairness sake, the guy could have just showed his receipt. The customer had it in his wallet and was too proud or offended or whatever to pull it out and show it. With that said, the rest of the story is ridiculous and totally not the customer's fault.

There are things that multi-quadrillion dollar companies should put into place to fight theft, but there are ways to train employees on how to handle situations properly. Maybe it's my bias against Walmart. Somehow, this story tugged at my cynical heartstrings.

The Consumerist Walmart Story is an interesting read. The posts here at 0boy's social media blog are not.

Super Sprayer Space Art

I stumbled this on MetaCafe. I wanted to Digg it, Mixx it, Reddit it, Propel it, yadayadayada from the origin, but it had already been dugg and didn't receive the justice it deserved. Before chastising me for linkjacking, keep in mind, this crappy little blog has no advertising or anything like that. In fact, I encourage you to view the video from the source. This is just to get the word out about this amazing style of art that I had never seen before. Ultra cool stuff! Don't read the rest of this blog, though. It's crap. Just a place to store stuff I like.


Super Sprayer - Click here for more free videos

The Breakfast Club 2009

What if? What if they remade The Breakfast Club? The old one still holds some relevance today. Not a lot, but enough to keep it on TBS year after year. If they redid it now, could it be as good as the first.

It wasn't that the first one was a monumental achievement in film making, but it did touch the teens of that era in ways that few movies have since. Lindsay Lohan as Claire? Surely I jest.

The complete story is at the Breakfast Club post on Soshable. Or, check out my other, much lower quality blog here.

Ars Takes a Look at Adobe Air

I don't normally get into too much tech stuff, especially with new products, just because it's boring. I use it, I enjoy it, but sometimes it just isn't that interesting to blog about.

Arstechnica is often the exception, and here is another case where the quality of the review and the writing itself makes it blog-worthy. Check it out!

read more at Ars, or check out the rest of my storage blog.

5,500 year old plaza redefines history of Peru

Again, this falls under the category of "why is this here?" The reasoning is simple -- this is a cool find! It never got the attention that it deserved when it was first published on other websites, so here we are, showing the video. Pretty cool? I hope!



read more | digg story

Or, just visit 0boy's Blog.

Finally, found an actual superbowl commercial that was funny

There just weren't a whole lot this year. Pound for pound, I think this may have been the worst year ever in SuperBowl commercials.

Million dollar budgets, yet they couldn't as a group trump this low budget one by a local Portland Toyota Dealer. Say it ain't so!

Check out Portland Toyota Dealers on YouTube or return to oboy's homepage.

Remembering dreams and getting published... again... quickly

Mark Dykeman from Broadcasting-Brain.com explores the reasons why it took 13 years to get published and why it won't happen that way again.

A very personal look into the mind of one of social media's stars. Touched me personally, as I am in a similar situation.

Dykeman's Post is here. oboy's posts are cool, too!

Stop Smoking, duh

Some people continue to smoke because they like it. Some people continue because it's too hard to quit, in their opinion. Oboy is definitely against smoking!

I think there are those out there who continue to smoke, not because they can't quit, but because they don't think that there will be any benefit. Basically, they think it's too late to quit. Here's some evidence to the contrary.

read more

The Best of The Best Pictures

Since I just posted about a movie, might as well keep going. Here are the top 10 Best Pictures as rated by FilmSchoolRejects.

10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
9. All About Eve
8. Midnight Cowboy
7. Unforgiven
6. West Side Story
5. Annie Hall
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
3. The Godfather
2. Lawrence of Arabia
1. Casablanca

Some of the recent ones that I noticed are missing, since the list seems to be leaning desperately towards the old, are: Silence of the Lambs, Gladiator, and Dances with Wolves.

read more - or just go back to our homepage for 0boy.

Ryan Reynolds in Wolverine -- 2 Guys Destroy a Pizza Place

Ryan Reynolds is oddly versatile. Funny, yet able to be very serious. I would like to see him play a villain someday, just because he can generate a really killer nasty look.

Could play a good serial killer, possibly even a misunderstood evil henchman about to commit some diabolical deed for his evil master played by Anthony Hopkins or something like that.

Not that movies have any place being on this blog, but when I saw this on the front page of Digg, I thought -- hmmm, that is actually somewhat interesting.

read more at BigPictureRadio.com or read more from this blog by oboy.

Banners. We hate them. Please stop them.

I am embarassed to admit that I use IE. It isn't that I prefer it over Firefox or other browsers, but in my line of work, it pays to see exactly what the client sees, so IE it is until they change their ways.

That's not the point of this article. The point is that those of us who hate banner advertising, especially those of us who do not have adbockers, are forced into dealing with them website to website, day to day, minute to minute. I can't stand them.

This article talks a little about some of the ways that this practice can be made obsolete through proper, honest advertising instead of by offering to give away a tremendous prize in exchange for some survey answers.

The complete story about blocking banner advertising is interesting, or you can read more stuff that 0boy likes.

The Only Reason for Me to Consider an iPhone

I love Starbucks. I can't get around it. Two or three a day is the norm, but I've been known to have 5 venti iced Americanos with extra ice, 5 raw sugars, cream, and whipped cream on top.

If it's possible to order it to that detail (and save the order for quick re-ordering later), I might just have to fork over the hundreds to get an iPhone. Wouldn't use it for anything else, other than as a phone, but the Starbucks feature is enough to at least make me consider it.

Dvice tells the story and has a few nice pictures. Or just, keep it here at Social News Posts from 0boy.

Internet Addiction Affects Many

Internet addiction has led to skipping sleep, ignoring family responsibilities, and showing up late for work to fulfill their desire to visit chat rooms and surf the Web. The consequences were severe: Many suffered from marital problems, failed in school or lost a job, and accumulated debt.

At first, I thought this article was going to be a satire, but now I see that it can be a truly serious problem. Not too different than a substance abuse problem, internet addiction can actually change the way you operate, how you think, and what you care about.

Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Addiction is tough to deal with. If you are addicted, spend more time with oboy.

Writers' Strike Over after 100 days

All I can say about this one is, "Finally, the reduction of reality TV." Don't get me wrong, I supported the writers on this one. They are the underappreciated heart of Hollywood.

Still, it's sad to think of what has happened to the crews: they're the backbone of the industry. Without them, Hollywood is suddenly very low quality indeed. Glad it's over.

read more of the story, then check out more social media by oboy

Wedding Favors Website

I'm married. So why would a wedding favors website be on this blog?

Easy answer: a friend wanted me to post it for him on here.

Hard answer: there are certain aspects of SEO that are both good and bad. Links mean everything, so even a site about wedding favors has a chance to make it to a high quality, super active blog like this one.

Okay, it isn't a high quality blog, but for Wedding Favors, here's the place to go:

Wedding Favors

When you're done with your wedding, you should visit more 0boy stuff.

Adelson on Autobury: "Why would we want to do that?" -- (i.e. sidestep the question)

Some quick facts:

1) All submissions from certain sites get removed from the Upcoming section of Digg sometime around 20 diggs, regardless of how many buries were recorded or who submits it.

2) One story from the social media blog in question was submitted by MrBabyMan. It was removed from upcoming at 20 diggs in 42 minutes.

3) This particular post was removed at 20 diggs after 26 minutes.

4) Despite smokescreens, autobury is a reality, and the proof is coming.

Digg Autobury has the complete story, but you found it at 0boy and his choices for this blog.

Stumble Upon: A performance enhancing drug for bloggers

While StumbleUpon.com in general is one of the most useful, innovative social media sites on the internet, it can often be abused. That isn't to say that it shouldn't be abused or that there's anything wrong with using it for these purposes. It only means that a blog that offers good content and has a decent following can benefit from being stumbled.

Sometimes, the benefit can be huge in the short term and sustained for a long, long time. Well, long in internet terms, which means weeks, potentially even months.

For a blog, this is an eternity.

Check out the information on StumbleUpon and Blogs or go to the front of this social media blog.

Fusion Power in the Next Five Years!

A prominent venture capitalist, Wal van Lierop, of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, has begun to invest in companies (such as General Fusion) who are providing patents and technologies for economical fusion power.

What many don't know is that fusion is one of the safest and least expensive forms of producing energy. Sure, there's a risk of killing thousands, but it's a really, really small risk.

Also, there's the whole disposal aspect, but eventually we'll figure out a way to send it all to the sun. I'm for it.

Fusion Power is Coming will tell the whole story, submitted to Digg by MSaleem. Read more stories at the home of a wannabe social media maven.

2008 Guide to Movie Sequels from GeeksOfDoom

There aren't a whole lot of great movies made anymore. Even worse are the sequels. They are rarely made based on the merits of the first. It's usually about the money.

If a movie makes money and there's an opening for a sequel (and usually, movies today are made to "have legs") then there is a great chance that there will at least be a sequel that goes straight o video.

These are the ones coming out in 2008 that should be watched.

GeeksOfDoom for the complete story or visit 0boy's home page.

Mediocrity: The Way of Life Now?

Mediocre. Post is actually a very good one, not because the topic is new or the angle is different, but because of the irony of it. A post about mediocrity. The situations described were... mediocre.

It really spoke to me. There was nothing earth shattering about it. That in itself was absolutely amazing, considering what the post was about. I know it's hard to understand, as it doesn't fit in with a lot of the things that will be covered on this blog, but hey, if you start with mediocre, you have an opportunity for improvement.

Consumer Blotter Story on Mediocrity digg story

Social Media with 0boy

Hello. My name is JD Rucker. I am all over social media.

Here, I will post links to the posts on social media sites that I liked a lot. Some are mine, some aren't, but all are good (at least to me).

You can find me on my Digg oboy account. I was there once as 0boy, but was banned, so I became oboy. Long story.

I am 0boy on Reddit. Not quite as active here as on other sites, but I still like to contribute.

The 0boy StumbleUpon blog is everyone's favorite. Okay, maybe not everyone, but it's my wife's second favorite, next to hers, of course.

My DiffeeOnline Propeller account and DiffeeOnline Mixx account -- let me explain them a bit. When I was a noob in social media, I used the name of my employer as my social media profiles. I deleted most, but kept those two because I didn't have an 0boy presence on them. Sorry for the name confusion.

0boy on Newsvine, JD Rucker on Metafilter, and other that I'll add later. Of course, you could always find me at my newest blog, 0boy oboy social media!

Cheerz!