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I decided to start playing with the MyBlogLog widget. You can see it on the side of the page there(Edit: Not anymore, I tossed it). Essentially it’s a social networking site for bloggers, allows you to connect with other bloggers. One of the hardest things about starting a new blog is overcoming the feeling that you are talking to yourself all the time. Thankfully I have lots of experience doing that, so it doesn’t bother me too much.

Having the widget on the side of the page lets me see if other bloggers are checking out the page and is useful for stalking. Just kidding I can’t overcome the feeling that it is all a blog pyramid scheme though, adding other blogs to your friends list, having bloggers visit your blog in exchange for you visiting theirs. It is funny too how the bloggers who use basic psychology tricks, such as thanking people for visiting their page, and asking tons of people to be friends, become the most popular. MyBlogLog taps into that inner need to feel part of a group, and to have a network of people who care about you. In the end social networking is so popular because it connects with a deep need for community and acceptance. Combine that with a voyeuristic ability to pry into others lives, and you can see why it has taken off in the last few years. We all yearn to be popular on some level and to know how others are living their lives. That’s why celebrity rags are so big with a certain segment of the population, vicariously experiencing popularity without taking any risk.

It makes me wonder if social networking will ever merge, or it will continue to splinter into small fiefdoms/communities. The first person who gives people the ability to simply share information between different social networks, carry friends over, etc. is going to be very wealthy. I can’t help but be reminded of a Pulizer Prize finalist book I just finished, The Blank Slate ( I cannot recommend this book highly enough). The Blank Slate addresses how many people in modern society deny human nature. I think if you look closely you’ll see human nature in all aspects of popular internet sites. There are basic needs hardwired into us all, those who make it big on the internet tap into these base desires (think pornographers, or Google {ask a question, have it answered}, or Facebook {look how many friends I have, look at the parties I’m going to….}) . Yeah, I guess that’s the point of this rambling post, if you want to be someone on the internet, think emotionally first, then rationally implement the plan.

This is the first of a series of posts concerning computer privacy. Part 1 will deal with Windows privacy, more specifically Windows XP (although just about all the software will also run on Vista). Why XP? I haven’t bothered installing Vista on my machines, and I don’t have any intention of doing it anytime soon. I only want to recommend products that I have personally tried. A Linu

Many times when you see a list of software on the internet, it seems like the author just stocks it full of crap in order to have more items. I suppose certain social bookmarking sites prefer a list of 500,000 free but not very good tools to a short list of items that the author has actually tried out. All the items below are freeware. Most are open source (If you value your privacy, you should understand why that’s important). I have personally used all of them at one point or another and would recommend them all. In other posts I will examine the why and how of computer security, but let’s just jump right to the good stuff, the software and webtools you’ll need. Without further ado….

Free Windows Privacy Tools

Antispyware:

AdAware

• About - (Vista version is not out until August 2007)

• Download

Hijack This

• About

• Download

Spybot S&D

• About

• Download

Spyware Blaster

• About

• Download

Antivirus:

AntiVir

• About

• Download

Browser:

Firefox

• Download

Browser Extensions:

AdBlock Plus

• About

• Download

AdBlock Filterset.G Updater

• About - “This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days. Filterset.G is an excellent set of filters maintained by G for Adblock that blocks most ads on the internet.”

• Download

BugMeNot

• About - “Bypass compulsory web registration via Firefox’s right-click context menu.”

• Download

Cookieculler Extension

• About - “CookieCuller is modified version of the Cookie Manager built into the Firefox/Mozilla browser”

• Download

FoxyProxy

• About - “FoxyProxy is an advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox’s proxy configuration.”

• Download

Torbutton

• About

• Download

Compression:

7-Zip

• About

• Download

Disk Cleaning:

CCleaner (Slim, no Yahoo Toolbar)

• About

• Download

E-Mail:

E-Mail Client

• Thunderbird
  
  • About
  • Download

Throwaway email

• List of sites

Thunderbird Extension

• Enigmail
  • About - “OpenPGP message encryption and authentication for Thunderbird”
  • Download

Firewall:

Zone Alarm

• About

• Download

Hard Drive Encryption:

Truecrypt

• Download

• FAQ

Host File & Other IP Blockers:

• About Host Files

• About IP Blocking

Bluetack Internet Security Solutions (Closed Source)

• Host File Manager
  • Download

• Protowall
  • About
  • Download

Phoenix Labs Peer Guardian

• About

• Download

IM:

Pidgin

• About - “Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, and Zephyr.”

• Download

Pidgin Encrypt Plugin

• Download

Web Proxy:

• SSH SOCKS proxy how to

Proxy Lists

• http://tools.rosinstrument.com/proxy/

• http://www.digitalcybersoft.com/ProxyList/fresh-proxy-list.shtml

• http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html

• http://www.econsultant.com/proxylist/index.html

Privoxy

• About - “Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, modifying web page data, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.”

• Download

Web Search-Engine Proxy:

BlackBoxSearch

• About - Supports Google, MSN, & Yahoo Search, this uses a proxy to search these services so the queries are not traceable back to you.

• Site

As Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. Now you too can stand on the shoulders of giants (assuming hooked on Phonics worked for you). Thanks to the internet it is easier than ever to read the classics. The first and best place to go is Project Guttenburg. This online book repository now has over 20,000 books to read for free. You can download the books too and take them with you. They’ve also implemented a cool program which breaks their collection into subjects and then lets you download all the books in that subject area, usually a cd sized download.

Another way to find eBooks is through your local library. ‘Wait a minute’, you say, ‘I thought this was supposed to be an article about eBooks’. It is, shut up and listen. A lot of major library systems around the nation are now allowing their users to access books through the databases they subscribe to. If you’re a member of a city library, current college student, or alumni you should check out your local public/university library to see if they offer this feature.

For those of you out there who are thieving pirate scum, there are some great websites on the internet to download free books. One of those is the bittorrent site eBookShare which focuses on business, investing and computer books. Another option is eBooksDatabase, “Your online eBook Database for IT & Tech eBooks”.

Some book publishers out there have started making their books available free online in the hopes that you’ll buy a print copy. One example is Baen books. I personally think that’s a good way for writers to suck readers in until the eyestrain and stiff neck makes them beg for a paperback version. It is one thing to read a technical book on your computer, but no one wants to read a whole novel on a monitor.

What I’ve tried to make very clear in my posts so far is that you really shouldn’t be creating websites or blogging to make tons of money. Unfortunately we have thousands of self-styled money-making gurus on the internet, most of whom have neither a BS in CS (although in fairness they do all seem to have a BA in BS) or a MBA. Now I’ve tried to be fair and balanced(unlike some news channels I mean it) and show you how to create new websites, setup blogs, and even where to find moneymaking resources if that is your thing. Now I’m going to show you why the whole thing is a house of cards waiting to come crashing down.

The Blogobubble:

The preponderance of easy to use blogging software on the internet means that everyone and their grandmother’s goat has a blog (pot, meet kettle, I know). In order to make money from their blogs people need traffic, and lots of it. So what’s a would be millionaire to do? …..

Pyramid Schemes:

This technique made me think of “The Office” episode where Michael is explaining to his staff this brilliant new business opportunity he’s involved in and Jim walks up to the white board and draws a pyramid around his presentation. So many bloggers think like Michael. Let’s see, how do I get popular, I know, by recruiting even more beginning bloggers out for a quick buck. I’ll write articles about their articles and they’ll write articles about mine…… Seriously, how many pages have you gone to which are little more than a quote of someone’s post, a synopsis which you could have gotten just from reading the snippet, and then a link? This link trading is nonsense. How many pages do you have to go through before you get down to the original content? If the number is not zero then it’s too many. Give me just the facts when you’re sending me to another page, not your two line review. Eventually the blogs that only write fluff are going to get separated from those which actually produce content. Advertisers want results, the people want to RTFA (or at least enough of it to post their highly educated comment like, “FIRST POST!!!”), the money is going to flow towards the content eventually. And no, I don’t care what you think of another blogger’s page, because I know you are hoping that they will write the same kind of review for you.

Black Hat Advertising:

These are the spammers of the blog world. They’ll go to social bookmarking sites like digg or stumbleupon and game the system into pushing content to the top. In exchange they want your cash. These soulless weasels want to take one of the only areas where egalitarian meritocracy (I guess I could talk about markets and group mean group estimation here if I weren’t so lazy) still exists and cheat. Plain and simple, their content is not good enough to make it to the top naturally, so they cheat. If you have ever even considered using one of these groups, do the world a favor and kill yourself.

Now how do the Blackhat’s do their dirty work? Pink Hats….

Pink Hats??

Most social bookmarking sites are dominated by men. So here’s what you do, you find a titillating picture of a female, give this woman a sexy/slutty name, send friend requests to every guy you see…. and profit. Men being the one-track minded creatures we are fall for this like lemmings. HornyAllAlone18 wants to be my friend????!!?? Score! Now with sites like Stumbleupon if you friend someone you’re more likely to see the pages they suggest. You can put a link to you site in your profile. Oh and if you’re feeling really evil you can just send out messages to people asking them to check it out and write a review for you… because this is your first ever website.

Other Psychological Tricks:

Besides the old standbys of pyramid/get rich quick schemes and sex what else can one do to drive piles of traffic? Other less nefarious options include posting comments on every blog you can find with a link back to your website, stalking the people who come to your website and thanking them for stopping by, and prizes.

Prizes? Oh yeah, I love this one. Using the renowned human inability to judge odds blogs will offer a chance to win a prize to some random blogger who(pick as many as you would like): Signs up to your mailing list, subscribes to the RSS feed, writes a review of your blog, creates some original marketing campaign for you, etc. When people get the ability to gamble for free they jump right into it. So for a relatively modest cost a blogger can bring in lots of traffic.

Playing to the natural human tendencies( greed, ego, feeling part of a group, be creative, grab a business psychology/ marketing book and leave your soul at the door) works every time.

Link Bait:

What’s link bait you ask? Link bait consists of top ten lists, pictures of animals acting like humans and talking like script kiddies, telling people how your switched to Ubuntu went (seriously, it’s not that hard, shut up about it already), jokes, and anything about how great/evil Bush/America is. Oh, and guess what, most people don’t even produce the content themselves. They go around collecting it and then post it as their own. That was easy.

And in Conclusion:

To me anything short of black hat advertising and outright stealing isn’t so bad. Then again, I’m not your priest/rabbi/pastafarian minister. What else…. Oh yeah, you know what else works well? Rants about how everyone tries to drive traffic to their websites.