Officials of the Quezon City Science High School (QCSHS) recently suspended four students who allegedly posted a blog that criticized the school’s principal.
The concerned blog … contains articles and photographs against Sadsad’s policies and person as well as the students’ gripes over irregular lunch hours and required subjects, among others.
The personal attacks against Sadsad in the blog even included violent declarations such as “Sadsad must die.”
While much of the students’ blog postings are on locked Multiply accounts–meaning they not for public consumption, but rather accessible to friends only–the Star cited another Multiply account as subject of the controversy.
I’m not taking sides on this issue yet. For all I know, the students’ gripes might be valid. But i usually get taken aback when people overdo it when they air their gripes online–especially if one resorts to personal attacks. This often results in a knee-jerk reaction, which can similarly be personal in nature. As bloggers, are we becoming a community of whiners? And because of this, are other people becoming overly defensive and over-reacting whenever they are attacked online? And why do we resort to ad hominem attacks?
On some forums and sites that I manage, I have experienced being on the receiving end of personally-directed attacks, too. Some are through private emails, some through public comments. Sometimes the argument gets lost in the midst of name-calling, swearing, and typing in all caps (probably the worst of ‘em all, eh?).
Then again, there’s a difference between launching an attack on one’s person and the recipient’s taking a valid argument too personally. But whether it’s one thing or the other, the perception of people reading rabidly-written complaint blog posts might not be too good. read more
WordPress.tv announced. Know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? A Tweet sums it up. WordCamp Whistler this weekend. If you use the WordPress logo, Matt Mullenweg wants you to use the right one. Last chance to have your say on the first permanent WordPress tattoo. City saves money choosing WordPress. And more WordPress news and information.
WordPress News
Watching WordPress.tv:WordPress.tv is your WordPress channel for watching all things WordPress. It features videos put together by WordPress staff and others on how to use WordPress and WordPress tips and techniques. The tutorials cover the full version of WordPress and WordPress.com. There is also a WordCampTV channel to watch the videos from WordCamp events around the world.
WordPress versus WordPress.com Overheard: The difference between WordPress and WordPress.com was recently explained on Twitter as:
@TheGeneTeam Diff between wp.com & wp.org is freedom. Org is freedom to tweak. Com is freedom to just blog. :D One free, other free with expenses.
Matt Mullenweg’s New Year’s Resolutions and Birthday Celebration: Among Matt’s new year’s resolutions is to get the WordPress Community using the correct WordPress logo. He’s created a comparison image to convince everyone to use the right logo. He worked hard to come up with the current logo created a few years ago.
Update on WordPress Logogate: Many thought the issue Matt had with the community generated WordPress logo was the colors. Matt has corrected this with a clear graphic explanation of what his issue is with the community-generated logos and the trademarked, real WordPress logo. It’s not the color, it’s the font. He worked hard to get the right font for the “W” in the logo. You can color it whatever color you want, just keep that pretty “W” font in its place. Thanks for clearing that fine detail up for us, Matt.
Let’s help Matt make his new year’s resolution and goals come true and use the right logo. I’ll be updating them here in the next issue. read more
Over two years ago, the Blog Herald held a small contest with a $200 USD cash prize for the winning blog. Given the gloom and doom around blogosphere today owing to the economic crisis, we feel that there could be no more appropriate time to repeat this contest and once more offer $200 USD for the most deserving blog.
The criteria for a blog to be able to enter is purely that it “should be helping to make the world a better place”:
This can be achieved in many different ways, from increasing our awareness as a society, being a symbol of hope through example or more obvious ways- such as fundraising or research.
It now has its own Wikipedia page called Conficker as the worm is also known as Downup, Downadup, Conficker, and Kido.
According to the Wikipedia article, the computer work first appeared in October 2008 but spread fast after the first of the year. It specifically targets Microsoft Windows and Windows Server services using Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. It has infected a few governments and hospitals, but mostly corporate computer networks.
On October 15, 2008 Microsoft released a patch to fix the bug. Heise Online estimated that it had infected 2.5 million PCs by January 15, 2009, while The Guardian estimated 3.5 million infected PCs. By January 16, 2009, an antivirus software vendor reported that Conficker had infected almost 9 million PCs making it one of the most widespread infections in recent times. Conficker is reported to be one of the largest botnets created because 30 percent of Windows computers do not have a Microsoft Windows patch released in October 2008.
The virus can spread through websites and USB drives, like flash drives, cameras, portable hard drives, and other USB connecting devices that trigger AutoRun, so Microsoft is recommending people upgrade their Windows programs and turn off AutoRun. read more
The senior vice president of digital strategy at EMI has said that he believes that bands should only use Twitter if it’s fun and is building community.
Cory Ondrejka, who looks into ways for bands to interact with their fans online, told Music Ally:
“If you’re a band, you’re using Twitter because, y’know what, it’s really kinda fun giving your fans this blow-by-blow account of getting to the stage, or your bus breaking down in a snowstorm.
“Sharing stories is what builds communities, and for some artists that is really enjoyable. But if Twittering is work for you, maybe you should have someone else doing it for you. And that’s okay.”
For FriendFeed fanatics having a hard time separating the “noise” from value, it looks like your problem may become much worse thanks to a new tool that allows you to find out which of your Twitter friends is on FriendFeed–and subscribe to them.
At WordCamp Las Vegas recent, Matt Mullenweg announced the new WordPress Handbook. I chatted with him about the future of WordPress documentation, the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users, and this new handbook.
For those still unfamiliar with the invaluable resource for WordPress users, the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users, it has long been the best place to find WordPress tips, techniques, instructions, guides, and technical articles. A few years ago, I wrote a A Guide to the WordPress Codex, to help WordPress users understand how the Codex works.
Sure, it is really just a PR stunt for the National Geographic Channel and some show they don’t want to tell me about since I’m located in Sweden and hence redirected to the Swedish site’s mainpage, but still! It’s Air Force One, and it is on Twitter. Like a tweeting airplane. How cool, and weird, is that? That certainly beats Kevin Rose’s cold.
Twingly is a Swedish company that previously launched a blog search engine and expanded the concept with a Top 100 list as well as Twingly BlogRank. The company also does widgets for sites that want to incorporate the blogosphere comments on their stories, widely used in Scandinavia on newspaper sites especially.
As you can see, Twingly Microblog Search include results from Twitter, Jaiku, Identi.ca, Bleeper, Bloggy, and even the Pownce archives (site discontinued). They are also urging people to let them know if they want other microbloggin services included in the search result, so if you roll your own you should get in touch. read more
What I love about this app is its ability to combine the simplicity of FriendFeed without sacrificing on functionality (the latter which I felt the FriendFeed Web App did).
While this app is far from perfect (as you will note by the bugs reported below), it does have a few features that make BuddyFeed shine against it’s rivals. read more
