I currently have 4,599 sites rated positively and probably more than that negatively. I’ve been a member of the StumbleUpon for less than 9 months. Do the math. The toolbar is like channel surfing on crack. You tend to see a lot of things that interest you and it can start to take up a lot of your time.

Another draw back to this service is the privacy issue. Your rankings are on there for anyone to see. This service is a marketers dream. It doesn’t get much easier than this to do target advertising. A while back EBay bought StumbleUpon but they have not done much with it. Personally I always felt this service would be a perfect match for Facebook. Target advertising would be simple, you could share stories and websites effortlessly with friends, it would combine the best of blogging with the best of social networking allowing you to connect with people of similar interests.

In any event, I highly recommend this service. It will really open up the web for you, taking you to all sorts of places you’ve never seen.

To quote Mr. Taleb directly: “‘My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves & the quality of their knowledge too seriously & those who don’t have the guts to sometimes say: I don’t know.…’ (You may not be able to change the world but can at least get some entertainment & make a living out of the epistemic arrogance of the human race).”

The first book I came across by Mr. Taleb was Fooled by Randomness. Nassim Taleb is both brilliant and arrogant. You can probably guess why I like him. He loves taking pretentious traders down a notch. His attacks on the inability of society to comprehend and properly use statistics are spot on. Fooled by Randomness uses countless examples from Mr. Taleb’s time on Wall Street to brilliantly illustrate points.

The followup book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is equally as insightful. I’ll take a passage from the book which tries to explain the basics of the Black Swan:
“What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three attributes.

First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.

I stop and summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective (though not prospective) predictability.* A small number of Black Swans explain almost everything in our world, from the success of ideas and religions, to the dynamics of historical events, to elements of our own personal lives. Ever since we left the Pleistocene, some ten millennia ago, the effect of these Black Swans has been increasing. It started accelerating during the industrial revolution, as the world started getting more complicated, while ordinary events, the ones we study and discuss and try to predict from reading the newspapers, have become increasingly inconsequential”

The author has a tendency to really pound home points. But his points are really worth driving home and understanding. The outliers, the unpredictability of events, our inability to really look at the long term and how we attempt to use past data to extrapolate future trends, fail, and then turn around and add the new data and believe now are models are perfect.

The role of luck in success, winner-takes-all payoffs and survivorship bias are also focused on in these books. Essentially, only the lucky keep playing a game. The unlucky drop out. So when you look at a successful stock trader it is really difficult to separate whether he is lucky or good. Over the short term really bad dumb people will still make it to the top because of pure chance while many really smart people will be forced out because of a string of bad luck. Because people so badly misunderstand the odds, they will take large risks and be wiped out by outliers in the long term. Eventually being dumb catches up to you. An example the author uses in Fooled by Randomness is playing Russian Roulette. If someone is offered a lot of money to play the game and they win they will look like they’re successful. However on a long enough time line, if they keep playing the game, they will lose badly. It is possible to have someone who’s played numerous times survive and tell you he’s blessed, but only the people who survive are around to talk about it.

Nassim Taleb also points out that what we don’t know is just as important as what we do. The politician who mandates locks on September 10, 2001 and prevents a terrorist attack is never known. Instead he is lambasted for spending money on useless programs. Human beings are much better at reacting after the fact to the threats of the past. The events that don’t happen are every bit as important as those that do, but they are harder for most people to grasp.

In any event, I’m just going stream of consciousness here talking about these books. I highly recommend them. Luck plays so much more of a role in success than anyone is ever willing to accept. In the short term it is impossible to separate the good from the lucky. Both of these books are must reads, (well those are asterisks but imagine stars).

I think a lot of my time and energy is really taken up by the fact that I work with some really inept people. Very nice, wonderful people. But oh my god can you not do anything without me babysitting you? Are you kidding me. I work for a large university, so part of the frustration stems from bureaucratic culture. Every decision goes through twelve people, things never change because no one wants to be personally responsible for anything. Then on top of that you have departmental infighting. Everyone has their own little fiefdom. Instead of trying to provide the best experience for the students, everyone reinvents the wheel to justify their positions.

I know this is never going to change, I know this problem is as old as time. It just frustrates me to work for a prestigious university and deal with such pettiness. I never cease to be amazed at just how inept people are. I don’t care if you’re brilliant at your position or if you can think outside the box, just be able to do your own job. Is that too much to ask? Sure it would be great if you could think without the rules, but just being able to do what you’re supposedly getting paid for would be awesome too. I think personal responsibility is really a forgotten art form. At least it is in any bureaucracy. Of course in most businesses employees are graded and held responsible, but unfortunately to false metrics. There are few places in the world where logic and statistics reign supreme. Where long-term consequences are judged alongside short-term profits. But that’s a diatribe for another time….

Donnybrookdesign will probably never be an everyday posting place for me. This is more of my professional blog and sandbox website. I’ll probably try out a lot of crazy things here and discard them. I’m adamantly against posting news stories and just writing a two line comment for the sole purpose of having a post here. I know many bloggers have the need to become rich and famous off of other’s efforts but that is not really my intention. I want this to mostly be an index site directing you to the most reputable sources of knowledge and software on the internet. I may not be the most intelligent guy in the world, but I do know how to recognize talent and collate widely disparate information. I think that has something to do with spending way way way too much time in academia and more specifically academic libraries…

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.

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

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.

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.

Webcomics II: the Donnybrook Strikes Back

Anyway:

Apple Geeks:

Catlevania RPG Comic Strip:

Dungeons and Dorks:

NuklearPower.com:

The Order of the Stick:

Over Caffeinated:

Zelda Comic:

Bonus - And Now for Something Completely Different:

Here’s a couple other strips that don’t really fit anywhere else but are dorky in their own way…

Russell’s Teapot:

Clangnuts: