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Regular Geek

Where programming, the internet and social media collide.

Image representing Digg as depicted in CrunchBase

Digg has done a lot of interesting things over the years, but recently they did something that confuses me. First, they banned Zaibatsu, possibly the third most active user of Digg. A few days later they announced new funding for what they call international expansion. About one week after that announcement, they banned many of their most active users with minimal information on why. According to the user named Cosmicdebris, this is part of the explanation:

your Digg.com account has been permanently banned due to egregious violations of the Digg.com TOU related to script usage.

I find this flurry of activity a little too coincidental. If these users were using scripts to enable them to Digg better, then they have been using them for a long time. David Chen has a very g

100 Posts and Other AdministriviaOctober 11

It has been a while since one of those “State of the Blog” posts, but I have been waiting for something interesting to happen. Well, that something interesting was my 100th post! Post #100 was about Facebook being the Key to the Mainstream. That post was written because I saw many applications creating Facebook applications to get in front of millions of people. I saw SocialMedian get a big jolt of traffic when it was released. Days later, Netvibes announced integration with Facebook Connect.

So, how is the blog doing? Let me just dump the numbers for you:

Months Blogging: almost 10
Posts Per Month: 11
Words Per Post: 677
Total Words In Posts: 68398

The past month has been a little more active:

Posts this Month: 13
Words Per Post: 849
Total Words In Posts: 11042

I find the fact that my posts are longer to be humorous. I have been trying to make my posts shorter. I am definitely failing that goal.

Of course I have to answer the question, how do the “major” ranking statistics look:

Technorati Authority: 131

Fear is not the Answer, It is Time to AdaptOctober 9

Image via Wikipedia

I know I had a lengthy post yesterday, but sometimes some articles get posted that warrant some sort of response. Given the economic situation we have here in the US, there is a lot of belt-tightening going on. The other problem is that there is a lot of fear, and the media is spreading this fear. This fear is also leading to some technology investors telling their portfolio companies to lessen their spending. While this makes all the sense in the world, I take issue with the fact that it is news or more directly that startups should have to be told to watch their spending. Whatever happened to startups basically existing on soda and pizza in one small apartment? Honestly, I think this economy will force that concept upon us again, but that is a good thing. This forces companies and startups to be innovative and imaginative.

Some people are even using this as a call to action of sorts. Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins

Facebook is the Key to the MainstreamOctober 8

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

As usual, Chris Brogan has a very good post regarding people in the real world and social media. The basic idea is that “normal” people live in a different world than the social media crowd:

Sometimes, it’s worth flashing a bit of a public reminder that even though it seems like lots of us are deeply passionate about this space, most folks don’t exactly understand what we’re talking about.

He goes on to ask whether normal people have heard of Twitter or LinkedIn or even if your local pizza shop has a blog. I highly recommend that you read his post because of his “be a bridge” idea. You do not need to convert people like an evangelist, but if you show them the way they may follow. This are great ideas, but I think he is underestimating how close the mainstream really is.

Enter Facebook

What are the social applications that the mainstream uses? MySpace and

One Month of ChromeOctober 5

Image via CrunchBaseGoogle Chrome was released about a month ago. A lot has been said about the new browser, with mixed reviews all around. I had a review of my own, that was more of an explanation of what Google looked to be planning. So, what happened after the initial hype? Well, I tried using Chrome as my main browser for about two weeks. As a browser, Chrome is OK. The real problem is that I need my plugins. Until Chrome gets a plugin model similar to FireFox, it will just continue to be an also-ran.

However, one item that I did like was the application shortcut. I have been using shortcuts for GMail, Google Reader and Remember The Milk (RTM). Because I do not want to use Chrome as my main browser, Google Reader as a shortcut became a pr