automaticable

With Finals just around the corner, I look back at my college career thus far and I see all the good decisions that I’ve made. I switched from Medical Science with a hopes for Orthotics and Prosthesis to Recreation Management and I couldn’t be happier. I came back home from SIU to finish up my general education classes and receive my AA from College of DuPage and I love every minute of being home. I’ve switched around from a couple jobs and finally found something that I enjoy doing and that gives me hope for a brighter future. The relationship aspect of my life couldn’t be better. I have a steady girlfriend of over two years now, and we’re always talking about what the future brings, planning little trips with each other, and we can never stop smiling when we’re with each other.

With the weather turning nice I’m becoming more and more optimistic and becoming less stressed. Finals should be pretty much a breeze this year due to the classes and the requirements that they have for me. I gave two huge project presentations yesterday that I worked for 6 hours straight on over the weekend, and I found out immediately afterwards that I had aced both of them. I feel a sense of accomplishment this semester through all the trouble and stress that my classes brought me. I feel I did the best I could in all my classes and I’m not afraid of anything that future classes throw at me.

I used to sit in my room with the blinds closed to keep the heat in my room so it doesn’t get too cold, but I came home the other day and my mom had opened them, and I realized how beautiful of a view out my window I have. There’s a beautiful backyard with trees lining the perimeter of the half acre backyard, thick green grass, a flower island in the middle of the yard, and horseshoe pits in the back. I could probably sit and look out my window all day and watch the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and the neighbors cats run through our yard all day and be content.

Basically what I’m getting at here is that through all the stress and hard work that have been hitting me this entire semester, I’m glad that it’s finally over and I have a bright, relaxing summer to look forward to. The warm afternoons, the stormy nights, the bonfires, the hookah parties, or just relaxing on the screen porch, falling asleep in the chase lounge are all things that I have to look forward to. So all you college students out there fretting over finals and worrying about grades and their futures, take a step back and look at all the good things you’ve done so far and all the great things in the future that lie ahead of you. Realize that ultimately they’re just grades and a beige piece of paper, and that what you should be worrying about is how many times your going to ride Superman at Six Flags this summer.

If the 16+ years of schooling I went through taught me one thing, it was that plagiarism is as close to murder as you can get without becoming a criminal. I don’t think I’ve seen people get riled up about something as easily as a professor who catches a whiff of plagiarism. So why is it that there is such obvious, guiltless plagiarism running through the blog world?

You may not see it if you casually peruse your favorite blogs, but as a semi-addicted stumbleupon user (the first step is admitting I have a problem, I know) I see this all of the time. Every stumble-session I have invariably leads me to a page that has blatantly ripped their content from another source without citation whatsoever. I can almost forgive someone for copying content word for word as long as they give a hat tip (and link) to the original source, but generally this is not the case.

I imagine some people, especially those that repost their favorite photos from other sites, do not realize that they are stealing other people’s work. These people see something cool and just rip it into their own blog without even thinking about it. But most people who blog know exactly what they are doing, and they do it purely out of laziness and/or selfishness. People want to drive traffic to their own blogs and they either don’t want to work for it or they do not know how to come up with their own content. These are the people that infuriate me.

Not only are they stealing someone’s work, but they are creating what I like to call “internet pollution.” This internet pollution is not only morally wrong, but it is ultimately bad for the user as well for a number of reasons:

1. The obvious reason plagiarism is wrong, the original author does not get credit for their own work
2. On social sites such as Stumbleupon, this creates duplicates of content which adds no value (and I would argue, negative value) for the user, and
3. Related to #1, the work loses its original citation, which means the user will never be able to find further work produced by the creator if they find it interesting

Reason #3 is what has personally annoyed me the most. I can’t tell you how many times I have run across a set of amazing photographs, blog articles, or artwork that I wished I could have followed up on.

Because of my continued frustration with the online polluters and moral internet scum (yeah, it’s that bad!), I have come up with a way that I feel I can personally help clean up this mess, even if it is just a tiny bit. I’m hoping that you will use this strategy to help me combat plagiarism and internet pollution online. Here is my strategy:

If you know for a fact (as in, you’ve seen the original work published elsewhere) that the page is plagiarized, make your way down to the comments field. You will always have to put in a login/email to post a comment, but luckily these things aren’t validated. So just type in whatever you want, it doesn’t matter that much. Here comes the good part. It is a little bit rude, but I feel that if my words can drive traffic away from sites that lack common decency online then I have helped out the internet community as a whole. Anyway, I generally say something along the lines of,

I don’t know if you realize this or not, but every bit of your content is ripped from [insert source here]. You have blatantly copied this work with not even a link to the original article. By reposting this work, not only are you plagiarizing the author, but you are helping to pollute the internet with this reposted tripe. Post something original, or at the very least give credit where credit is due.

Ok, that is actually a little nicer than how I usually word it, but go ahead and add your own spin. I give you permission to take creative license with it.

The great thing about this is even if the comment is moderated out, the author will see your words and will hopefully take them to heart. I know that it sounds a bit like a personal crusade, but I am hoping that a few automaticable readers will join me in helping to clean up the clutter that is plaguing the web.

If you have any success or similar frustrations, let me know in the comments.

The trash on the ground, the gum under the desk, the empty toilet paper roll in the bathroom, and the smudges on the windows of the doors all are cleaned up or taken care of by type of person in public areas: the Janitor.  When you think of a Janitor, do you think of the guy with the raggity old clothing that has a faded name patch on the side?  Maybe the loveable gray cart with the yellow trash bag on the back?  There’s many things that come to mind when you think of a janitor, but the sad thing is, none of it is positive.  When ever someone thinks of a janitor they always think of them as a nothing, not a person.  People don’t realize that they are people too, just like you and me.  Most of the people in this position are NOT high school drop outs that took that sort of job because they have nothing going for them, or ever will.  Some of them have graduated from either a two year or four year technical school or university with a major in engineering or something of that sort, and decided that an easier job like this best sooted their needs.  Then there’s also the younger kids and young adults you see doing this job.  Most parents look at these kids as worthless individuals who wasted away their lives and have to resort to doing shit jobs because they can’t make anything of their lives.  This is false.  I currently hold position where some of my duties require me to take care of custodial tasks, and I haven’t wasted away my life, I’m not going nowhere, I haven’t dropped out of school.  I’m working my way up from the very bottom in hopes to make it to the very top, so that way I can see what it really takes to run a business where all the employees are happy and treated equally.

The workplace is no different.  You would think your fellow employees would treat you with more respect because they work with you and know how bad of a job it is, but this is entirely false.  I receive radio call after radio call from people at the front desk for the smallest little tasks that we have 5 different people on staff that could do the job, but they always call me because no one else wants to do it.  The most ridiculous call I ever got was someone had dropped a piece of paper on the floor and they wanted me to come pick it up.  Now, let me just set the scene here.  It was a Saturday afternoon, so there was a Building Supervisor, two Open Gym Supervisors, a person running Registration, a Fit Desk worker, and me working that day.  I was busy downstairs cleaning a fitness studio when I get this call, and when I go upstairs to find this piece of paper, I find it on the opposite side of the desk where the Registration lady sits, and behind the desk are the Open Gym Supervisors, and the Building supervisor, all talking, doing nothing. One of them is actually on the computer checking their facebook.  Even though these people were sitting right there, doing nothing, the registration lady thought it would be best to pull me from what I was busy doing to come pick up this piece of paper for her.

This is the type of ignorance that I’m talking about. The simple tasks that they can take two seconds out of their time to do themselves, they decide to just pawn it off onto someone else, they pawn it off to someone else, until finally it gets down to the lowest guy on the food chain who has no one to pawn it off to, so he has to do it himself.  I have multiple examples of this sort of stuff but it’d just turn into me ranting about how people become so much lazier once there’s a janitor employed at their workplace.

I want to change the stereotype of janitors, especially the ones that are younger individuals like myself.  They’re not worthless individuals, and they shouldn’t be looked over.  These people work hard and are good at what they do.  They’re the reason why when you walk into a building and you think “Wow, this place looks awesome!”  They’re the ones that make it look awesome.  Next time you see a janitor, young or old, take a look around and realize that the place they’re in charge of looks the way it does because of the hard work and commitment they put into their job.  Don’t overlook them, appreciate them.

You may have noticed a little downtime this afternoon.  That’s because we’ve upgraded the blog to use the brand new WordPress 2.5.  The change should go unnoticed for the casual reader, but the upgrade means many enhancements for writing and maintaining the blog.  Among the biggest changes:

• Simplified admin dashboard: The interface for writing and managing the blog has gotten a major face-lift.  What used to be cluttered is now much more organized and easy on the eyes.
• Integrated Statistics: We’ve been using the WordPress Stats plugin to analyze our visitor data.  Now it’s been integrated into the main dashboard for quick access.
• Better Photo Management: It’s now much easier to upload and add images to posts, without the need for additional plugins.  You can even create a gallery associated with a single post very easily.

The upgrade process was nice and simple, and everything seems to be working as expected.  We’ve also added a new subscribe link in the sidebar.  If you notice something wrong with the site, please let us know in the comments.

I try to keep up to date on a lot of different topics, and there is no better way to cover massive amounts of information than through blogs. I taught you before about how and why RSS feeds are so important, and now I’ll give you a rundown of a few of my favorite blogs to help fill up your RSS reader. Like I said, I try to cover a lot of topics every day, so I’ll break down my recommendations by subject as best I can.

Advertising – Even if you aren’t in the advertising biz, there is still a lot of interesting information out there. I recommend:

• Adland - Adland receives submissions of both commercials and image advertising and puts the best on display. This is a great place to see the hard work and the resulting concepts from advertisers all over the world. No industry is excluded, so you will see ads for pepper spray next to commercials for vodka.

• SEO Book – This one definitely comes to down to personal interest, but I love reading about SEO news and tips and SEO Book is a great place to learn. Obviously the motivation for Aaron Wall to write this blog is to sell his book and subscriptions online, but he puts out a ton of free, useful information all the time.

Food – Though I don’t often cook large extravagant meals for myself, I still like to inspire myself to try new things. My favorite food blog is:

• FXcuisine – François-Xavier (FX) is an amature cook and food photographer, but you would never know he wasn’t being paid to do this work. Hailing from the shores of Lake Geneva, he focuses on traditional Italian, French, and Swiss cuisine, though you will find influences from all over Europe in his work. The reason I absolutely love this food blog is not for the recipes since they are fairly difficult and usually use obscure ingredients, but because of the absolutely beautiful photography and the step by step instructions included for every dish he makes.

Geeky – I definitely have a geeky side, and it shows in my choice of blogs. Almost half of what I read is tech related! Below are just a handful of blogs that satisfy my geek-tooth.

• Google Blogoscoped – While not an official Google blog, Blogoscoped comes darn close. This blog is a great way to not only get up to date Google news, but also tips and tricks on all of your favorite Google products.

• Gizmodo – This is simply a fantastic source for gadget news and reviews. Though it can be inundating with over 35 posts a day on average, it is easy to skim through and read what really catches your eye. Coupled with Engadget, you will never miss a single gadget announcement, ever.

• xkcd – While not a blog per-se, I still have this daily comic imported into my RSS reader. If you have even an ounce of geek in you, you will absolutely love xkcd comics. They are clever, witty, and downright nerdy. I have never felt so smart for laughing at a comic. Don’t worry though, there are comics you won’t even understand, meaning there are people out there nerdier than you.

Interesting/Random – The rest of these blogs don’t fit into one category very well, but are all worth reading. They will teach you things you never knew you needed to know, all while entertaining you.

• Lifehacker – No single blog has changed my life more than Lifehacker. I am not exaggerating when I say that either. It focuses on “life hacks” you can use to make your life more fun, productive, and efficient. From high-tech hacks such as Linux installation guides to ultra low-tech hacks on how to help conserve water, Lifehacker has everything you will ever need to know. If I had to recommend one blog that every person should be reading, Lifehacker would be it.

• Clusterflock – Clusterflock is considered a group-blog, written by a large team of blogging friends. It has no real focus but is always entertaining. Many of my posts on automaticable have spawned from ideas on Clusterflock and I expect to find even more inspiration from there in the future. They also often comment on posts by Jason Kottke, who is one of my favorite bloggers right now as well.

• Marginal Revolution – Marginal Revolution is an economics blog. Before you judge it, give it a try. Included is the continuing series “Markets in Everything,” which covers how people will try to start businesses in everything from wigs for cats to demilitarized ICBM silos, and the ongoing discussion about how prostitution, both legal and illegal, effects the world economically. This blog will make you look at the world differently, forcing you to take a look at the economic effects of every decision that is made.

These are only a handful of the blogs I read daily (there are over 40 on my list!), but this should be a great place for you to start. Have I missed any blogs you feel should absolutely be included? Let me know in the comments. I am ALWAYS looking for new and interesting blogs to read.

1 month ago today automaticable and I (and 3 other Wegner brothers) started an interesting new relationship. When automaticable.com was birthed we had a handful of posts to import from our old Blogger days, but we pretty much started from scratch. So what do we have to show for it? Read on for an overview of our first month.

Continue reading “Happy 1 Month Anniversary!”

I know correlation does not imply causation, but I still want to apply fuzzy logic to this post I found on clusterflock. Excerpt below:

How Some Bloggers Feel About Talking on the Phone

Yglesias: “I couldn’t be more thrilled with the phone’s decline. I used to be painfully shy as a person, and while I’ve largely gotten over that IRL I still find it incredibly stressful to talk to people on the phone.”

Atrios: “I think I enjoyed chatting with girls when I was 13 or so, but since then I’ve pretty much hated the phone.”

Alan Jacobs: “This is a loathing I share, and have for a long time.”

McMegan: “Weird fact: every single (successful) blogger I know hates talking on the phone. I’m gregarious face to face, and I’m an inveterate user of various kinds of textual messaging, but I would rather scrub my floors with a toothbrush than get on the phone.”

The logic I want to apply is this: I am a blogger by definition since you are reading this post. I also very much dislike talking on the phone, but consider myself socially competent both in face to face interactions and through text. These facts combined imply (fuzzy logic incoming) that I am a soon-to-be successful blogger.

I know, I know. This makes no sense. But if successful bloggers hate the phone, and I blog and hate the phone, there is at least potential, right? I wonder what the real reasoning behind the correlation between bloggers and their hatred of the telephone, if there even is one. Anyone want to do an in depth study on this? I’m sure there is a psychology major out there that needs a thesis or term paper topic.

It’s 2008, so you know what that means. No, not the Olympics. No, not your daughter who was born on February 29th, 2000 will FINALLY turn 2. What I’m getting at is that it’s the year of the vote. This is no more fun that doing taxes, except you have to do taxes every year and only vote every four years.  Politics are like the bible, you know what’s going to happen, but you keep going back to them anyways in hopes that there’s going to be some kind of change, but inevitably there won’t be. Now, I’m not very political at all, hell, I usually vote for the guy that can be best photoshopped into a monkey (sorry bout the Bush vote, totally not my fault). Sorry, dramatization there, I do actually take the time and do some research and pick who I think will be best for the position (again, sorry for the Bush vote, totally not my fault). This year we have two front runners who basically sum up the the entire schlepper of man/woman kind. Now, I mean this figuratively of course, because who really is a schlepper now a days, other than Ralph Nader. The two candidates I’m talking about are Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. (Sorry McCain, you have to be a bench warmer for now….)

Now, here’s the first thing that sets these two people apart from every other candidate we’ve ever had; they’re different. Obama is African American, and Hillary is a female. (Is it sad that I thought of Kindergarten Cop when writing about how Hillary is a female?). ANYWAYS this is the first time that the next President of the United States will either be a woman, or an African American and frankly that scares a lot of people. Now, I’m not saying that it scares me, I think it’s a great idea! Maybe in another 4 years we can have a Disney Character in the office! I should prob stop with that part of the rant right now before I take it too far….

But anyways, back to the candidates. So Brittney Clinton, er, I mean Hillary Clinton has been bashing Obama a lot recently. The big one that comes to mind is she is releasing photos of him over in third world nations dressed in typical Muslim attire and implying that he is working with terrorists (she won’t directly state this because THAT is an outlandish statement!). So, yeah, she’s using sly tactics and is just getting bashed beyond belief….oh well!

Now, to be fair, Osama, er Obama’s (wow, slip of the tongue there) no saint either, he’s using mud slinging tactics as well, but unfortunately he’s not as bad as Hillary so therefore, no hard evidence to prove that he’s such a bad guy.

If I come off a little biased here, what ever, its a blog, you should be a work working anyways, not reading this silly thing. For now I’m gunna go eat some frozen french toast sticks with warm eggo syrup and drink a quarter gallon of milk, because I live in America, and darnit, that’s the healthy American thing to do!

By the way, Happy Birthday all the sons and daughters out there born on February 29th….I know your birthday comes only once every 4 years, but trust me, in 84 years, you’ll be able to drink legally!

As most of you know, on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 there was another miraculous sight given us to by nature; a Total Lunar Eclipse.  This is something I have only seen a few times before in my lifetime, but by golly, I swear it gets better and better every time!  I’ve always been a fanatic for anything astronomy, hence why my freshman year of high school I went on an Earth Science field trip just so I could be in the desert and see as many stars as possible.  Tonight’s viewing of the lunar eclipse was especially magical for me because I got to watch it with Lindsay by my side.  The astros has always been regarded as something magical and romantic and I totally agree, star gazing is still one of my favorite pass times.  As we were desperately waiting outside in the -6 degree weather not only did we get to witness a total lunar eclipse, but from where we were standing, we were also able to view a shooting star from our location.  We also couldn’t have asked for a better viewing setting.  For one of the very few times during the year, the skies over DuPage County were clear of any clouds, fog, haze, or smog.  I swear I was able to see more stars tonight than I have ever been able to see in a suburb.

I was excited to see tonights Total Lunar Eclipse, and I’m also excited for another three years from now, for when the next one is.  For all you people out there that missed it tonight, mark this date on your calenders; December 21st, 2010!  Keep your eyes on the sky, for you’ll never be sure what you might see.

One of the key reasons blogs have gained popularity is because they are a constant source of new material. Because of this, a system was put in place for people to easily aggregate all of their frequently updated blogs (and many regular websites) into one place. Blogs, news sites, message boards, podcasts, and pretty much everything in between create “feeds” which send information every time something is updated on their site. The nice thing about these feeds is you, the user, can import them all into one place using RSS, or real simple syndication. Using RSS, you can import all of your frequently updated sites into one place, such as Google Reader (my favorite, among a plethora of other options), so you don’t have to go and check all of your favorite sites individually in case they have new content. More than anything, it is an efficient way for you to scour the web for updates on sites that you frequent anyway.

One of the drawbacks of using RSS is you don’t always see the author’s intended formatting of each story since each RSS reader translates the data a little differently. Also, if you are a fan of participating in the comments on different sites, you will still need to visit each site to do so, as the comments are generally not included in each feed.

Anyone who frequents even a handful of blogs will be able to tell you of the benefits of using the RSS feed on sites. It saves you the time and energy or scouring the internet for new content and will also allow you to cover a lot more content in much less time. If you’d like to subscribe to automaticable’s RSS feed, you can click here or on the red button in the upper right hand corner of your screen. And just FYI, that button (usually orange) is the universal symbol for RSS, so any time you see that symbol you can click on it and have updates imported to your RSS reader automatically.