Blogger guilty of leaking G’N'R tracks
Kevin Cogill pleaded guilty to leaking songs from the Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy”. As a part of his plea deal he’s agreed to work with investigators. Looks like some more people are gonna get arrested. The album is the band’s first release since 1993. (wiki)
Blog threats lead to 12 month sentence
Making threats online can result in the same punishment if uttered verbally. A blogger found out the hard way. After making a so called “satirical” post about desires to kill the prime minister (Stephen Harper) on his blog he was arrested and convicted. He claimed he was only joking. The judge was somewhat lenient and handed down a 12 month suspended sentence along with 60 hours of community service. Despite your frustrations with whatever government you’re living under it’s still against the law to make threats, especially the violent ones, to kill anyone.
Just because you’re behind the “Interweb” that doesn’t protect your “rights” to spout off hate speech or any other criminal behaviour. So be careful what you write. If you wouldn’t say it in public, don’t say it on your blog.
So how’s the new wordpress?
Still kinda sucky. But less sucky than before.
Vietnam blogger gets jail
A Vietnamese court upheld a 2.5 year jail sentence for “tax fraud” for blogger Nguyen Hoang Hai. Many are calling this decision politically motivated. After a few hours of “debate” the lawyers confirmed the sentence.
Nguyen Hoang Hai (or web personna “Dieu Cay”) is a member of the online Free Vietnamese Journalists Club. He has also taken part in pro democracy demonstrations with regards to China and Tibet relations. In addition to the sentence sources note that the police have been harassing his family as well.
The Vietnam government is expected to release new rules regarding “information” and “facts” posted online. Bloggers in Vietnam should be worried. (link)
Is guest posting for you?
One way to get traffic to your site is to do a guest post. So how do you get yourself in position to post on someone else’s blog? Well one way is to make nice and become friends. If your friend has a blog why not trade posts once in a while to change things up. Sometimes blogging about another topic helps keep your blog fresh with ideas. Also it’s good link bait.
Building up a reputation of being a good blogger takes time. If you’ve got no reputation, starting with making thoughtful comments and establishing yourself as a regular on someone else’s blog can help get your foot in the door.
Either way good blogging takes time. However you can be assured that there is plenty of blog love happening online. So long as you take the time and of course write good posts you’ll get a shot. Just keep up the good work.
Great guide to get started
On the weekend I managed to catch John Chow on the G4TechTV show ‘The Lab with Leo Laporte” and he gave some great advice on how to make money blogging. If you check his site he’s offering a free .PDF file on how to get started, you should check it out if this is what you want to do. One thing that stuck in my mind is how John’s English doesn’t seem to be all that great, and despite this, he’s managed to build and entire career blogging. Anyways, subscribe to his newsletter and get the ebook and start making money.
Breaking corporate policy by blogging
Many companies have corporate policies in place to cover potential liabilities. However many employees are breaking these restriction inadvertently by blogging. Perhaps you don’t understand the risks think the policies aren’t realistic but the fact is that you might be liable for blogging. Whether you mentioned your companies latest product code name or took a picture of yourself with a prototype in the background mistakes happen. Just because it’s a personal blog doesn’t make the repercussions any less significant.
The point is that corporate polices are made to cover butts, not yours but the your manager’s and their manager’s. Increasingly restrictive and increasingly annoying often bringing productivity to a stand still. But when the shit hits the fan just make sure your real name isn’t on that blog.
Service interruption
It looks like LiveJournal and WordPress.com users experiencing some service interruptions due to some denial of service attacks (dos). LiveJournal has confirmed that they are experiencing some networking attacks. Nobody knows for sure if the same source is causing the attacks and for what reason. It was a minor disruption most blogs were unaffected. This is good news and a testament to the security and stability of the WordPress and LiveJournal networks.
To blog or not to blog
Remember when you got your iPhone? You thought you were the coolest person in the world, showing it off at every opportunity. You even strutted (yes, you did, don’t lie) around the office because you were ‘da man (or woman). But now a few years and millions of iPhones later, the iPhone is everywhere and suddenly you’re little club is not so elite. Feeling a little disenchanted? That’s how this blogger felt. The bitterness really comes through in the text. I’m guess a few hundred insensitive blog comments will do that to you. Since when do bloggers care what other bloggers think? Are you doing this for your readers or for yourself? Maybe it’s time you consider another venue to express your girlie man thoughts hmm?
Sure, quality posts are harder to find. There’s more emphasis on quantity than quality but if you’ve got something to say and it’s well written, readers pick up on it regardless of where you are (or how lame your website is). Believe me, SOMEone is gonna see it, if it’s crap, it’s crap. Don’t cry of poorly thought out posts. Anyone can start a blog, but good writing takes skill.
Related
Blogs obsolete
The powers of bloggers
Today’s information is powered by bloggers. Unfiltered opinion, fact, or fallacies instantly published for public consumption. More and more frequently this power is being abused.
Take for example the rumor that Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack. This little tidbit was swarmed by bloggers and analysts alike. And the real world effect was the stock price taking an instantaneous hit dropping like a rock. Although the price rebounded mostly the effects have many people wondering what could be next.
Another report had a so called interview with Michelle Obama portraying her with unflattering comments. Again bloggers jumped all over this but upon a bit more research the “interview” was revealed to be completely false. However the real world effect still lingers with undecided voters. Such events could and can alter real world events negatively.
Anyone can blog and make up “facts”. Before you react to a post be sure to do your own research and decide what the “truth” really is.
