After Fleshbot linked to a Fred Durst sex video a little over a week ago, you’d think that the news would be all over the blogosphere, but you’d be wrong. It may have to do with the fact that Fred Durst in a sex video is a completely unappealing thought, but regardless, Durst has fought back and slammed Gawker with an $80 million lawsuit. The lawsuit might actually take hold though because Gawker hosted the movie for a few hours instead of just linking to it. First rule of this industry: hosting = liability.
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Scrivens vs. Dixon, Opinion vs. Fact
Sometimes you come across an article on the Web and you figure it was written just to upset some people so that they would write about it. In these cases sometimes it is best to just move on and never think about the article again. However, there are times where a person says the stupidest things in the world that go against everything you are preaching to your clients and you have no choice but to do a write-up.
First let’s get one thing straight. This site that you are reading right now is a blog. Now that we have that out of the way it’s time to open the can of (insert your favorite saying here) on Mr. Clint Dixon (first time I had to use the new ‘nofollow’ link attribute). For this entry’s sake, let’s assume that his article is what he really believes and that this isn’t some joke.
Kottke Goes Workaday Blogging
While I don’t wish to get into the merits of why this will or won’t work, I do think it is interesting to note how fast this piece of news spreads across the web due to the power of blogs. When doing any type of fundraising drive it is important to get your message out quickly and in front of as many eyeballs as possible because you are working with a deadline.
At last count Kottke had 15 trackbacks pointing to the entry (16 including this one) and it has only been published for 2 hours. Over the week this will get over 50 trackbacks (my guess) and will probably be picked up by Wired or some other mainstream publication who will see this as a new venture, but if you have been reading blogs for the past 2 years you will know this is old hat.
Oh look it’s on MetaFilter as well.
Now don’t get the wrong idea about what he is doing. This has been tried before with both successes and failures. Also, this type of news wouldn’t spread as quickly if it was someone else. What makes this exciting is that blogs make this type of venture possible (successful though is another story).
Best of luck goes out to Jason. I have been living off of blogs for the past year now and don’t see myself turning back. Of course I use a different (and safer) strategy…
Mozilla Drops Ball on NY Times Posters
Remember when Firefox ran the 2-page ad in The New York Times? Well Mozilla sells posters of that advertisement for just under $7, so it’s a pretty good deal if you’re a Firefox fan. In fact, everyone outside the U.S. who doesn’t have access to the print version of the Times would probably be buying this to remember the event, at least that’s what I’d assume.
Firefox Extension Tutorial
For my final class at RIT I had to create a Firefox extension using XUL, CSS, and Javascript. Just to shake things up around here, I decided to post the tutorial about its development here instead of on a standalone website. I know that extension development may not be your cup of tea, but maybe you’ll find some of it interesting. Here we go!