What It’s Like to be Featured on the MSN.com Homepage

Hacking Passwords on MSN Homepage

Hacking Passwords on MSN Homepage

I was getting calls all afternoon from friends and family yesterday informing me that I was on the homepage of MSN.com. Apparently that makes me famous. ;-)

MSN was featuring a little article I wrote called How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords. You may have read it… many millions of people have. But this was not the first exposure on MSN.com. It’s previously been featured on other areas of the site several times. And I’m very glad that the article is getting the kind of coverage it is, because password security is a serious concern.

Anyway, I started thinking that a lot of people don’t really know what goes along with this sort of thing so I thought I’d give you a glimpse at the Woopra analytics being gathered by the click-through traffic the article was generating back to this blog.
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Wasp Barcode’s New Corporate Video: It’s Ass-Kicking Awesome!

Ok, I’ve got to give it up to Wasp Barcode Technologies for their new social media campaign launch. Here is an example of a big company actually embracing online marketing and social media channels. Not only that, but they are trying to tailor their message to an audience that is intollerant of corporate propaganda (namely YOU and ME) – and doing a great job at it!

Case in point, check out this deleted scene from Wasp’s video before we even get to the end product!


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Interview with AnyBots’ CEO Dr. Trevor Blackwell

AnyBots is a company that is building an innovative remote controlled robot which serves as a personal avatar. Yes, that’s right, just like the movie Avatar an operator remote controls this robot and it allows you to virtually be present in another location.

The applications for this technology are endless, but imagine a large company with multiple locations having a few AnyBots that people can “check out” and use to attend meetings with colleagues. The theory is that this is more inviting than simple video conferencing.
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VistaPrint.com Is Threatening to Sue Me Over a Blog Comment. Really???

It never ceases to amaze me what bad decisions some corporate executives can make. But here comes a brand new one…

Three years ago I gave VistaPrint.com a try for some cards or something. Who cares what it was… I had a bad experience. I wrote about it on my blog. End of story. Except that it wasn’t. Many other people have since chimed in on that topic, one of whom is someone by the name of “Hubbers”. He claims to have had a really bad experience and then did a whole bunch of research to suggest that VistaPrint is associated with some fairly shady dealings.

I have no idea if that is true or false, but the information certainly seems to have some validity to it. Furthermore, I spot checked some of Hubber’s claims and the information presented does appear to be fact based. But I never would have known this if I hadn’t been forced to do the research when I received the following email from VistaPrint HQ!

UPDATE: Stop the presses! VistaPrint is NOT threatening to sue me! Their Ex-partner Adaptive Affinity Ltd is!

After putting out a tweet regarding this post I was contacted by Jeff Esposito from Vistaprint who very politely informed me that his company was not the ones behind the threatening letter you will read below. After doing some research he found that VistaPrint used to partner with Adaptive Affinity to offer some subscription based services, however they ended that affiliation some time back.

Apparently some customers were inadvertently subscribing to these third party services, there was a class action lawsuit, the lawsuit was dismissed, and VistaPrint decided it was no longer in their best interests to offer these programs.

So, to summarize – Adaptive Affinity, kiss my ass. VistaPrint, we’re cool.
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.CO Domains Launch and Here Are the GoDaddy Coupon Codes to Get ‘Em!

I have a lot of friends who have been trying very hard to come up with a really good or really specific domain name for a while without any luck. It seems like all the good ones are taken, doesn’t it?

Well, if you are one of those people you need to know that there is a brand new top level domain that ends in .CO (as in Company or Corporation, etc.) which was just released in the last 48 hours. This are still a HUGE number of awesome .CO domains available, so if you are thinking about registering anything ANY time soon you need to head over to GoDaddy and try and snag some of these good ones NOW!

Top Reasons to Go Register a .CO Name Now:

  • Get it for branding purposes
  • Protect your main URL by getting the .CO (for when people accidentally forget the M on the end of your .COM)
  • Plan for future websites, promotions or projects you might ever want before the domains are gone!
  • Get it to sell later

Remember, if you don’t buy these domains now you will be at the mercy of people who want to sell them to you for thousands of dollars each once they are snagged. Personally I bought $1,200 worth of domains in the last 24 hours and I’m thrilled with the ones I got. So invest in your future by snagging some good domains today!

I recommend GoDaddy for registrations so here is a link that will take you straight to their .CO registration page. HURRY!!!
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VIDEO: Watching 1,000,000 Page Views A Day on Woopra

Yes, there are actually people who get at least 1,000,000 page views per day on their Websites. And yes, some of them use Woopra for monitoring and analyzing all of this traffic.

Considering that we don’t often (if ever) get to glance at this level of traffic on our own sites, I thought I’d share a tiny sneak peak of what it’s like to watch live as a site is experiencing this level of traffic. Enjoy!

(Select the image to view the video. WARNING: The file is 40MB!)

Social Media: What It Is, How To Use It, and Where To Begin

Social media is an all-encompassing term used to describe any of several online channels that utilize the technology to facilitate social interaction through written, visual, or audible communication. Examples of different types of Social Media sites include:

The use of social media as a marketing and promotional tool and strategy is becoming more and more popular with businesses because it can be an extremely effective way to promote products and services to a targeted audience. Websites can function as a static billboard to promote products, services, or ideas – but social media opens up a dynamic dialogue with your audience, allowing for interaction and personal connection.
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Scott Ellis and I Talk Coffee and Woopra

Good lord. I hate to watch myself on video! But for those of you who are sick and want to torture yourself, you can listen to this little interview I did with Scott Ellis in which we discuss Woopra and the ways that people can actually use a real-time Web analytics tool like this to actually make money.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Airwaves – Why Economics Are Killing ‘Old Media’

media-is-deadFor a long time now I’ve been hearing people predicting the death of traditional media (you know: television, radio, books and newspapers). “Old Media is dead! Long live New Media!”

This is 50% crap, but it’s also 50% true. And since I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about this lately, let me see if I can break it down for outsiders in terms that are a little easier to understand and have some actual logic behind them.

The real magic of “new media” has nothing to do with the people. It is quite simply all about the delivery mechanism.

An Academic Explanation Using Simple Economics

Car FramesIn any industry, the cost of goods produced are ultimately borne by the buyers of the finished product. So, for example, if the price of steel goes up, the price of automobiles goes up as well.

But imagine a situation where a radical new material is developed that costs 1/100th the price of steel, but which is actually stronger, can be made in an ordinary kitchen, and can be used to build cars just as well!
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