Just a short, simple blog for Bob to share his thoughts.
16 March 2020 • by Bob • Health, Blogging
Please, please, please... do not repost links to blogs about disease, regardless of how good you think those blogs might be, because they are NOT authoritative sources of information.
Instead of blogs, please post links to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website; for example:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/
Or post links to the World Health Information (WHO) website; for example:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
In most cases, blogs are just opinions or hearsay. However well-intended they might be, personal blogs often perpetuate misinformation. Any discussion about symptoms or treatments should be coming from experts in their respective fields.
PS - And yes, I do see the irony that I am posting this in a blog.
22 February 2010 • by Bob • Blogging
This blog isn't that old, I only created the site a few months ago, but it's amazing how much spam I get. It seems like every other day I have another spammer that is pretending to post comments, when they are actually just posting links to their (often bogus) business web sites.
Fortunately I have comment moderation turned on so their posts are never actually posted to the web site, but spammers are never deterred - they continue to post new comments to my site in the hopes that maybe something will get through. So I fully expect that some spammer is going to post so innocuous piece of worthlessness to this blog post within the week.
[Heavy sigh.]
Spammers suck.
20 January 2010 • by Bob • Blogging
Twenty years ago or so, even before the time of Al Gore, there was this thing called "The Internet." There were two kinds of people that used it: the military types and college types. As I was transitioning out of the military following the first Gulf War, I fell into both categories. There was no "World Wide Web" then - which some of today's younger generation cannot understand. ("How could you find anything before companies had websites?")
Back then you pretty much had to be a geek to be on the Internet; it had not yet been reduced to the fewer-than-140-character drivel that is so prevalent on today's Internet. That being said, I spent my time on the Internet using four technologies:
Gopher is long-since deceased, FTP is still in use but its power is waning, and if you're younger than the age of 20 then you probably spend more time with Facebook, Twitter, and cell phone texting than sending emails. (But wait until you move out, get a job, and start having to make a living and pay for your own existence - which includes things like rent and food, not just Starbucks and cell phone service.)
In any event, I used to spend a lot of time hanging out in various newsgroups arguing all sorts of issues and topics. Even when I agreed with someone I argued with them. That's really what newsgroups were for - so geeks from all over the planet could argue with each other. Over the years newsgroups have mostly been replaced by web-based forums, although the comments sections on blogs seem to have grown into the avenue-of-choice where the real arguing takes place.
Back in the pre-WWW days, someone put together the "The Twelve Commandments of Flaming," and I wish that I knew the original author's name. (I have seen it attributed to many different people over the years.) What is most amusing about this list is how true it was both then and now. For examples of such behavior, read this list, then browse to your favorite blog and read the comments section.
"Clearly, Fred Flooney is a liar, and a dirtball to boot."
"Polly Purebread, by using the word 'zucchini' in her posting, shows she has a bad case of penis envy."
"By saying that I've posted to the wrong group, Bertha has libeled me, slandered me, and sodomized me. See you in court, Bertha."
"I got an 800 on my SATs, LSATs, GREs, MCATs, and I can also spell the word 'premeiotic' ."
"Oh yeah? Well, your mother does strange things with vegetables."
Flames should be witty, insulting, interesting, funny, caustic, or sarcastic, but NEVER, EVER, should they be boring.
10 October 2009 • by Bob • Blogging
How many times have you seen words on a web page that say something to the effect of "Welcome to my blog..." on some anonymous person's web site? Does that make you really feel welcome there? I don't think so, because - let's face it - their blog is about them, and the Internet is supposed to be about you, isn't it? If nothing else, these days the web is pretty much a breeding ground for narcissism.
I mean, think about it - all of the big sites on the Internet are focused on you: there's MYspace, YOUtube, and MYlife, etc. The other big sites, Facebook and Twitter aren't named after you, but be serious - who else are they about? Everyone wants to brag about their number of friends, or their followers, or their site hits, or whatever. Everyone wants to post about themselves, or blog about themselves, or tweet about themselves... but no one really wants to read what you're saying because they're too busy posting something about themselves. And even when you write a blog, everyone else wants to post their thoughts about what you just posted - as if you care, because you just wanted to post something about you.
The wonderful folks at www.despair.com put it this way:
So - with all that in mind, why in the world would I bother to start another blog that will do little more than inundate the Internet with more senseless drivel?
Once again, the folks at www.despair.com created a great poster that says it all:
And on that note, that's enough for today.