Truthiness Detector – Custom Search Beta

Sites such as  Snopes, Fact or Fiction, & Politifact abound. Introducing the ‘truthiness detector’, a search engine for fact-checking sites around the web. First release in series of experiments illuminating philosophy vis-à-vis Google custom search engines.

As a bonus, upcoming haiku, also in ‘beta’…

Startup Schlep – Rinse & Repeat

Conception. Design.

Develop. Test. Iterate.

Release. Inception.

SOPA Updates for Monday, 1/16/2012

Stories discovered on Monday, 1/16/2012, re: looming Internet blackout on Wednesday, 1/18/2012 to protest SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. These stories were also integrated with A to Z – The Definitive Guide to SOPA.

Also published yesterday - ‘August Dreams’, a haiku in remembrance of  Martin Luther King, and a  search engine simulating the effects of Wednesday’s Internet blackout.

1. Al Gore & Frank Zappa having a conversation
2. Alexis Ohanian’s activities (Reddit co-founder)
3. Bad industrial policy
4. Censorship in Netherlands?
5. CloudFlare – stop censorship app
6. Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, speaks out
7. David Seaman no longer contrd_ibutor for NBC - musings - IB Times
8. Google rebuffs Rupert Murdoch ‘piracy leader‘ claims
9. Hmm, H.R. 3605 Global Online Freedom Act of 2011
10. How far we’ve come, how far we need to go
11. How social media movement stalled SOPA legislation?
12. Local News Coverage - Omaha!
13. MPAA & SOPA supporters claim obstruction ‘clears the way’ for action?
14. President’s Challenge – what does gov’t want from tech world?
15. Republican presidential debate – Fox News via NYT - reddit - twitter - ROE - Q&A
16. Send a sympathy card over Internet death to your senator
17. SOPA is a red herring?
18. Skyline banner over Packers playoff game
19. SOPA Infographic - Internet leaders
20. Wikipedia joins the blackout - confirmed by Jimmy Wales - tweets - Twitter disagrees
21. Why blackout?

A to Z – The Definitive Guide to SOPA

UPDATE - unlike most posts, updating as new links are discovered. Updates highlighted & summarized in ‘history’ section. Latest? Check out our ‘blackout sampler’ search engine - powered by Nikki Blight‘s blog, SOPA Strike, &  OpSOPA.

Background material for future post on ‘plausible futures’ of legislation similar to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Enjoy!

First, the ‘Simple SOPA’ whiteboard overview

Yes, show me the ‘A to Z – The Definitive Layman’s Guide to SOPA’.

SOPA Song Parodies

SOPA and PIPA are not inherently evil with respect to protecting content. However, these bills do introduce a risk of unintended consequences.

To facilitate restoring perspective to this sometimes vociferous debate, these song parodies are dedicated to  “Weird Al” Yankovic and other folks who legitimately obtain intellectual property. Enjoy!

#10 - You Bring Trepidation - to tune of You’re The Inspiration by Chicago

You know I-P was meant to be
Copyright protection lasts forever
And I need your bits with me
From tonight until SOPA’s end

You should know, everywhere I go
You’re always on my RAM,
In my smart phone
In my hard drive

You bring trepidation to my life
You give me such temptation

#9 - Upload It Now - to tune of Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones

If you upload it now

If you upload it now,
SOPA bills will never stop
If you upload it now

I’ve been running hot
Got me downloading gonna blow my bits
You make a bit torrenter cry

Spread out the network nazis,
call the bit police

Click smooth, download to mobile phone
Upload it now

 #8 - Clicking To Steal - to tune of Learning To Fly by Tom Petty

Well, I started down a torrent path
Started out all alone

Firewall went down as I crossed the line
And the monitors lit up,
progress bar went still

I’m learning to steal, but I ain’t got skills
Getting caught is the hardest thing.

Click to discover all top 10 SOPA song parodies!

100 New Year Resolutions – Building Content Creators Habits

100 ideas to inspire you to improve by 1% (or more) as a  ‘1 %’ content creator in 2012. Follow-up to our 99 content creator gift ideas post. Capture – engage – express – inspire others – inspire yourself –  learn – personal – productivity – upgrade – enjoy!

• Capture
  • Start using a pen tablet
  • Take a self-portrait – every day
  • Brainstorm via whiteboard - melamine - porcelain.
  • Subscribe to great feeds. Delete unproductive feeds.
  • Start your personal wiki – Outlook - Evernote - Google Docs- Zotero
  • Carry your commonplace book – everywhere – e.g., soft cover or hard cover Moleskine
  • Journal – before you create. Every time – clear your mind – in your wiki or commonplace book
  • Backup your creations to the cloud - Amazon - Box - CrashPlan - Dropbox - Evernote - FilePigeon - Zotero
  • Leverage voice recognition – WSR best w/ WSR Macros and WSRtoolkit – or perhaps, Dragon NaturallySpeaking
  • Exploit your Tricorder - AKA, smart phone  - camera – voice recorder – calculator – sketchpad – notepad – & much more.
    click for 100 content creator New Year’s resolutions