Monitor your online addiction.

Do you know exactly how you spend your time while surfing the web? Do you spend too much time on a given site, and you think you should cut back (Excluding Mashable, of course?) Well, the wonderful world of Firefox extensions can help you monitor your usage and better plan your web browsing, some will even help you control yourself by placing blocks on which sites you visit, and how long you can visit them. So, find one you like, get it installed, and start earning back some time in your life! Go to this Mashable post.

Don't pee sitting down, guys. God hates it.

A preacher says so: What's wrong with the world if men sit down to urinate. Sit back and watch 4 1/2 minutes of sublimely weird preaching.

Two Different User Experiences On Facebook.

Technaute, La Presse newspaper's techno section, has created from scratch a fake profile to see how long it would take for Facebook to remove it. The fake Sébastien Tremblay created his profile on Feb. 12. The same day, he decided to desactivate his account and filled up the available form on the Facebook site . It took two emails and nearly 36 hours to Technaute after the initial request to succesfully desactivate the fake profile.

But I know one guy who won't have to wait too long to see his fake profile desactivated.

The young 27-year-old Moroccan engineer who opened an Facebook profile by the name of Prince Mulay Rashid, King Mohammed VI of Morocco's younger brother, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment and a fine of 900 euros on Friday by a the court in Casablanca. The prosecutor had demanded "exemplary punishment for the use of fake computer data and the identity theft of the Prince."

Twitter Web Traffic: Where Is Argentina?

In the blog, blog.twitter.com, the Twitter team presents us with datas (check the map below)about Twitter web traffic around the world. Living in Argentina now, I am a bit disappointed and surprised that my new homeland doesn't belong to the top ten group of countries. Actually, it is in 18th place according to Alexa, the information web company.

Tuitiar, the argentinean Twitter community, with its very active 846 members, is the most inportant spanish speaking group on Twitter. But, Twitter doesn't belong to the top 100 ranking of visited sites by argentinean users.

On Alexa, Twitter is ranked 646. In the last three months, Twitter has had visits from 0,15% of global Internet users.

To Be Or Not To Be, Web 2.0 Style.

Sites like Facebook, Second Life or MySpace determine the popularity and social networks both youths and adults alike. And it is entering the workplace as well.

Luciana was out. Out of the virtual world. Out about what all her friends commented. A year ago, however, everything changed: she registered into Facebook and set up her profile. "Before I did not understand a thing about vampirize people or groups with slogans, it all seemed funny to me. I was outside off the conversation," she confessed.

"It's like a popularity ranking. Who has more friends are supposed to also have a wider social network," said Victoria Irisarri, aged 32, who decided two months ago to try the Facebook experience. "The first day I spent 24 hours watching who is friend with whom, gossiping about photos and things. The idea is to see what friend you can steal," she added with a little irony.

It is estimated that Facebook, founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg at the age of 23, has about 62 million users around the world. MySpace, devised in 2003 by Tom Anderson, has a higher figure, approximately 100,000 million. In Argentina, 1.7% of Internet. Among teenagers, a Facebook or MySpace profile is like an identity card: a constituent part of their identity. Social relationships on the Internet are not new. But the relationship between men and the Internet, of course, is measured in minutes. Participating in a virtual community is like painting on a wall "I was here."

Moreover, businesses as well are beginning to wake-up to the fact that social networking sites such as facebook are no longer employee time wasters, but rather a new medium for extending their brand and communicating directly with consumers.

The social web has transformed marketing so that it is no longer a one-way transmission. Social media provides two-way communication between companies and consumers. It only takes a moment to realize why traditional media such as newspapers are losing readers and their appeal.

In order to embrace social networking companies must give up some control they previously wielded with an iron first via traditional media. Social networking and media is about giving the user a voice, opening dialogue and communicating with them. Media sites such as facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo and the like are perfect places to do so. Businesses are warming up to the idea that a conversation between them and consumers is ultimately a good thing.

A survey from ICM Research shows that Facebook has a better reputation inside companies that YouTube or iTunes. IT managers cut primarly access to encounter and music sites on their corporate networks. They are more lenient with social networks like Facebook, blocked in only 21% of cases.

A new version of the site went live this last April allowing new registrations on corporate e-mail addresses. Facebook Platform enables you to create social applications that let users interact with their friends and your business. With many deep integration points, platform applications are effective ways for your business to leverage the social graph.

Even the rich and famous have their own private social network. What do have in common Paris Hilton, Quentin Tarantino and Tiger Woods? The answer is: Asmallworld. It is a site, like MySpace and Facebook, where the rich and famous live in the world community (virtual). It can only be accessed by special invitation and the house, in this case, the site reserves the right to refuse admission. In this increasingly popular and exclusive network, is exchanged relevant information on issues that would be interested to any member of this elite club: best hotels, parties, travel.

Police service in action. Cops in trouble.

There are a lot of good policemen in service. But, there are some exceptions as well. So, mix some stupid cops with a Youtube video and you get some cops in trouble. And the winner is ... this one, who loses his temper on a 14 year old skateboarder. Just grind your own bean, man, it will calm you down.



Or those cops who forgot there were security cams in their station and abused of a drunk girl.

To serve and protect...

U2 Bono's bullshit: still clowning around with the rich and powerful.

Keep your dayjob, mate. I can't listen to you anymore commenting on how the industrialized countries should redistribute the wealth to help the rest of the world. Don't get me wrong, sure they should do it. But to hear it from the mouth of Mister "Tax Evasion" himself, gives me urges to throw up.

Like the King of Spain told to Chavez the other day: ¿Por qué no te callas? Tranlated in irish, it would sound like this: just shut the f.. up, you f...ing tax evasion b...rd.

One way for the rich countries to have money to redistribute is through the tax system. Within a country, the tax system is the best way for redistributing wealth. This is not the perfect one, but like democracy, it is the less imperfect. It helps to pay for the social measures and the common infrastructures that we as a nation all use.

This is not a new story. I read it for the first time in 2006, I think. The other day when I watched Bono in Davos and yesterday at the United Nations (UN), it came back with all the related disgust. For tax evasion purposes, U2 moved their song catalog from Ireland, a tax haven, to a better one, Holland. In Holland, their is still no tax on royalties. But, Ireland had decided to cap the income which can be subject to this exemption at 250,000 euros per annum. This is, of course, income beyond the dreams of about 99% of artists, whatever their medium, and so hardly diminishes Ireland's commitment to support the arts, if that was the intent of the exemption. But the change was apparently unacceptable to U2.

I totally agree with this following comment from Roger Rabbit:

" 1. up to the conscience and the morals of Bono to lawfully arrange his personal tax affairs as he sees fit.
2. open to Bono to use his public profile to put his personal political views to the public

But, what is at the same time hypocritical, laughable and unacceptable is for Bono to have the gall to avoid taxes and at the same time chastise others (governments, individuals, corporations and supra-national bodies) for meanness in the area of aid and to hector others for loans to basket-case countries to be written off. Unless, that is, he does like Bill Gates and forms his own charitable foundation from his wealth.

I'm off now to download all the U2 tracks I can from free sites - I now consider it to be my moral duty. "

To learn more about the importance of taxes, go to Tax Research UK, the Tax Justice Network and CorpWatch.

In Facebook there is a group called: Fuck Bono [and his faux philanthropy]. Join it as you please. I started a group called: Bono, pay your f.. taxes.

The Northern Illinois University shooting a la web 2.0

The web 2.0 and the blogosphere hasn't been indifferent to the NIU tragedy. Besides all the "breaking news" on the usual news network sites, You could gather more info and comments on the major social networks.

The university official website with the latest developments can be found here.

In Facebook, there are no official university group or network. However, there are many groups related to NIU and many related to the tragedy itself here. There is a group called "Candlelight Vigil" which is an event that will be held tonight at 9:00 in front of the library.

You could have followed the tragedy on Twitter. What has been written so far:

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On Youtube, many videos related to the shooting have been added here, like this one where eyewitnesses describe what they saw.





I entered the shooter's name, STEVE KAZMIERCZAK, in Google, this is what I found. In particular, check this site called, Mahalo, where you can encounter more facts and the shooter background.

As for the blogosphere, you can check Lies and Exaggerations, or Dream's end to read about someone who didn't seem to like Kazmierczak. Highered has some good posts too.

(update) Here s a video of the killer found on Liveleak.

(update)An interview with an eyewitness on this site called mom.logic.

My thoughts goes to all those directly touched by the senseless event.

Now easier to leave Facebook.

Facebook has been the subject of a New York Times article published last Monday. The daily New York highlighted the difficulties to permanently delete their profiles and personal information.

Simple coincidence? Monday, Facebook changed the "Help" section and added the question "How do I delete my account?". Facebook explains to its members that they have to fill out a onsite form . "Keep in mind that you will not reactivate your account or retrieve information or content that you had added," warns the social network.

Facebook has confirmed to the New York Times that they do not intend to further facilitate the process by adding an option to destroy its profile with a single click. "We've measured the effects of the changes made Monday. If we believe that more must be done to improve the user experience when he wants to remove his profile, we are going to test different models and measure their effectiveness," says Katie Geminder, Director of the user experience and design for Facebook.

Several complaints about how Facebook manages the closing of members accounts were raised in recent months. A group that explains how to leave the site has been formed on Facebook. Nearly 8500 people joined them.

What are the Twitterers saying about Facebook:

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Gang recruiting integrates social networking.

A report from CBS5.com indicates that "young people who visit social networking sites to download music and pictures glorifying criminal street gangs can unwittingly set themselves up to be recruited by those gangs, according to law enforcement officials and youth counselors".

Acording to San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer, who speaks for the San Mateo County gang task force, gang leaders are aware that kids like to socialize on sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

The complete report here.

Twittering about gangs:

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The new Florencia Kirschner's blog

This post y this one need to be upgraded. Florkey, the President's daughter, had shut down her blog to open a new fotolog here.

Tips for bloggers: how to use Twitter.

An interesting article from Problogger on how to use Twitter to improve your blogging experience that follows another post about some of the benefits of using Twitter as a tool to improve your blog. You can also find more good tips here.

Tornado Super Tuesday (they all need a big hug)

Last night in the US, the bis news apart from Super Tuesday and what some hot porn stars are thinking about it, were the line of tornadoes that hit the US south. Memphis TN was hit pretty hard and Union University in Jackson TN got the worse of the storm.

I was not online last night to cover the disaster live. I didn't get my information from the traditional news networks which gave erroneous info according to the uni's site. This morning, I opened a Hashtags tab and saw that the word tornado had been in some Twitter posts last night. Especially, about the Union University situation where some students got trapped in the dorms. So I opened Facebook and reached this university group (fortunately it is public) to see that there was no victim. I also saw that the university authorities have done a good job of informing the students through Facebook. There is also a video related to the events.

I suppose this the so-called higher purpose (see this post) of the social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Moreover that you could have followed the whole thing almost live and on the spotlike.

Here are some Youtube videos:











And the aftermath coverage on Twitter:

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Porn stars Super Tuesday thoughts.

Where the expression F... the politicians take its whole meaning.

All the Superbowl ads.

Last night was Superbowl night. For once the game seemed more interesting than the ads. Unfortunately, the Pats lost. Something was strange with Tom Brady. Can I sense CONSPIRATION?

Now, if you are looking for all last night's ads, go to this site, Spike. They are all there and you can embed them on your own site too.

I will do it tomorrow. Today, there is too much traffic on their servers.

UK's Times newspaper involved in a spamming scandal.

A blog can be used to express oneself, but it also can be informative and investigative. On the spot and the moment investigation, without the restraint of the traditional medias. Stephen Underwood on his blog, Waxy.org, presented a story that had begun by a finding on the Internet and finished in a field investigation.

He discovered that The Times (UK), a well-respected newspaper owned by News Corp., is involved in an extensive campaign to spam social media websites with links to Timesonline.co.uk articles.Since 2004, The Times retained the established SEO consulting firm Sitelynx to handle their search engine marketing. Working on behalf of The Times, a Sitelynx employee posted thousands of links to community and social news websites, including Mahalo, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Metafilter, Yahoo! Answers, Ma.gnolia, and Netscape's Propeller. His actions were done without any disclosure of his affiliation to Sitelynx or The Times and were, in some cases, posted under the assumed identity of his wife. Update: The Times didn't know what Sitelynx was doing, the Sitelynx employee was suspended, and The Sun is also involved.

The entire report here.

According to MySpace: atheism = porn.

Social networking site MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has decided to delete its adult oriented groups, where porn stars would advertise themself and their sites. I don't really care because I don't see what porn is doing in a social network like MySpace anyway. But, when I think that (maybe) some christian group could have pressured the network to take that decision, then I do care. CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE, GRINDING THEIR OWN BEAN AT HOME?

And they are pressuring. MySpace deleted the world's largest online atheist group following complaints from people who find atheism "offensive". "Atheist and Agnostic Group" boasted 35,000 members until it was deleted on 1 January for the third time in as many years. It was founded in 2004 by Bryan Pesta, an assistant professor at Cleveland University who established it as a social network "specifically for godless people."

The group was closed down for the first time two years ago after an organised campaign by Christians persuaded MySpace to delete it. It was eventually restored and MySpace promised to protect it. This time, despite a petition from 500 users and repeated emails to customer services, MySpace seems reluctant to reverse its actions.

It seems that atheism is as offensive as porn to the people of MySpace.