Make love, not war. That’s what I would like to tell the guys at Posterous. Then again, that’s just me. This may be a brilliant tactic to gain more users – who knows?

Anyway, if you haven’t already heard, Posterous recently launched an “attack” on rival Tumblr. It seems that they are taking on a more aggressive stance, and posted something in their blog:

Tumblr is a pretty cool service. They offer easy set up, loads of funky themes and super-simple reblogging.

But blogging on Tumblr is sort of like being in high school. But you know deep-down that you can’t be in high school forever. Eventually, you have to move on.

It’s the same with blogging. After you get your feet wet, you need comments and the ability to moderate them.* You need to add different media types to each post. Your sharing needs are more complex, and your site needs to grow with you.

Face it. You need to leave Tumblr behind and graduate to Posterous.

If those aren’t fighting words, then I don’t know what to say! However, the claims that Posterous is making seem to be unfounded. If Mark Milian of the LA Times is correct, Posterous is NOT ahead of Tumblr in terms of growth. Also, it seems to me that Tumblr has more features that are easily usable as compared to Posterous.

On the other hand, some people think that Posterous really is better than its rival. Nick Saint from SF Gate, for example, thinks that the move is excellent. Then again, he says outright that he favors such tactics.

How about you guys out there? Which platform do you use more? Why? Which is better? And, most importantly, what do you think of Posterous taking this aggressive stance?

Image courtesy of http://static.arstechnica.com

The murder of a couple in Florida became headline news all over the US, but the pronouncements of a blogger has turned the case on its head.

Byrd and Melanie Billings, a couple with 13 adopted special needs children, were murdered in their home after an apparent robbery attempt. This was the official police report. But if you ask Rick Outzen, a local blogger and publisher of an alternative weekly, the real reasons for the deaths are far more sinister.

Outzen said that based on what he has heard, Mr. Billings has a seedy reputation and that according to some of the seven people who were charged with the murder, it was actually a contract killing.

Outzen shared his thoughts on the killings on his blog by posting a 277-word post. This has obviously made him quite a controversial figure and his blog an overnight sensation. Six weeks after the incident, Outzen has proven to be quite a pivotal figure in the investigations. In an interview, the Escambia County sheriff (where the killings took place) said that Outzen’s anonymous sources are largely correct in the information that they give.

Outzen’s case has put blogs in a very different light. Blogs are something that can also be taken seriously and also becoming an integral part of the fourth estate.

As expected, the recent elections have sparked anger over the blatant disregard of personal freedom for supporters of the opposition leader Moussavi who say they have been cheated. As expected, the closed state tries to silence protests and other forms of civil disobedience by blocking or interrupting mobile phone services and of all internet-based services Twitter which has been one of the best sources of information, responsible for the organization of protests in the capital Tehran that has managed to go through the information blockade. The portability and effectivity of Twitter to bring instantaneous news out to the rest of the world has put supposedly elected President Ahmadinejad mad as hell at attempts of what he calls are Western powers who have been giving the Iranian political system a shaking it should not have been subjected to.
Twitter being one of the fastest and only available links to the outside world, along with scant video from mobiles that have managed to go through the extensive information black-out has heeded requests by protesters from the opposition party to halt scheduled maintenance to allow a continuance of use of their services that apparently was used to organize the protest movement. Techcrunch and Gawker both have features on the developing story, most of which happens outside of the field of sight of the rest of the world in what is well known to be a suppressive society.
Even the religious leaders of Iran who have always resisted influence from the outside world has been forced to reconsider demands for a re-count of the votes, many of which have been rigged according to the opposition’s supporters.
The tides may be turning in a country that has just recently enjoyed a solid stance against the rest of the world, holding on to their ways of old. Change as President Obama has says, is a question of when rather than a question of how, the use of social media being one of the holes the government may have failed to plug, getting news (real news from the streets) out of the country where none should have ever gone through. This might be one of the most significant roles, social media has played since it was launched as WEB 2.0, and as we see, it is a flood that cannot be dammed by any walls nor blockades, linking humans to others like him with the same thoughts and feelings.

The network discusses the growing rift between Steve Jobs and his former CFO regarding and issue that surfaces regarding Jobs landing in hot water with the SEC over some stock options that were seemingly over the edge. Stock options to major companies have always been part of corporate culture and the same is with Apple, one of the biggest earners in today’s technology driven world. The scandal has some millions of dollars in question regarding the value and amounts of shares the former colleagues used to share that some accuse the former CFO of blowing the whistle out on which led to his eviction from the board of directors in 2006. After all the finger pointing and accusations, Steve lands in the sights of the SEC more and more who are interested at the matter due to taxes and other financial issues and so does the long gone Apple executive.
Apple elevates the matter by hiring a former competitor from Palm and the other party hires another top Apple executive and the battle continues between the two principal characters. The events at Apple is no nothing new and anybody in the Valley accepts the fact that this is no coincidence. Technology driven firms fighting out each other, slinging mud left and right is a battle for control or at least a part of the market shares in the ever growing smart-phone market which has boomed in the last few years with Apple at the helm of course with their show stealing iPhone.
Seems corporate life will remain as cut-throat as it always is for all over the industry the same events happen over and over with much documentation on the net with the millions of people, experts and analysts each having their own views. So what do we make of all the fuss? Cash people and lots of it, for these companies make millions if not billions and even such lowly incidents brings publicity which in turn brings in more cash as people become interested in the events and products in question. That is the norm of corporate life, where what you know or don’t know can indeed make or break the bank, figuratively of course or not.

News that all major players in the electric car race have standardized their plugs for a combined effort is welcome news indeed. but is it really a question of feasibility and inter-cooperation? Nope, it’s about dominance in a rising green car market that rivals the likes of events in the IT industry where profits is a direct result of dominance of a budding market worth billions. From Europe to the US, these auto makers have seemingly agreed to take up the cause and band together to come up with products that would work all over the globe. Electric cars in their many forms and shapes are sen to become the transport industry’s future for our most popular mode of conveyance the lowly automobile is the major source of one of the most damaging greenhouse gasses the world over. Electric cars are clean and more efficient that their oil-based counter parts yet they are indeed having to deal with such trivial issues as a standardized plug that would allow a European made car to work in the US.
Imagine a simple issue as a PLUG becoming the nagging point in the industry who claims to be aiming to provide a better world for the rest of us. The auto industry has been the major and is one of the most polluting industries in the history of this earth and it’s about time they took up the cause. Or simply put, it might be a simple way of avoiding the fate of the many other automakers who have already succumbed to the economic crisis that have come and gone, sending them into oblivion as history’s unsuccessful companies.
It’s about time these people placed profits behind the main and ultimate goal of the drive to come up with feasible electric vehicles and that is to lower their impact on the world. Imagine an issue as simple as a plu which you can in theory change with ample know how or can you? The issues plaguing the auto industry is far beyond helping the earth and is more on the profits they will be making, for they are businesses after all and the main goal of businesses is to make money!

Years back when the industry was still in infancy and Microsoft has been ruling most of the IT industry in terms of profits or should we say overall dominance, Yahoo and Google came up with the bright idea of a system that would allow subscribers of their free web-based email service to do lots of nifty stuff with contacts and friends who also had accounts with the same email services. Microsoft has introduced the same functionality to their long standing HotMail web-based messaging service which many have been waiting decades for. Yahoo and Google have long been in the fray of web-based systems and it seems Microsoft, the former dominant software maker of days gone by is finally realizing the benefit of such additional services for their many HotMail users.
Many say it’s about time and others say they shouldn’t have bothered but anyway, it is up and it’s getting better. Hotmail has long been the free email system of choice in the UK and in the US but when Microsoft introduced the infamous Ms Messenger which like their other software products can be compared to an old clunker against Yahoo and Google’s Corvette’s. The many errors, requirements on the hardware and software side, just for you to properly access the Messenger service dissuades people from using it and add to that the ever invasive WGA that installed itself whether you like it or not many began to shun away from MS Messenger and Microsoft’s overall image in the industry.
They might be a fledgling in that arena but they will surely catch up, this may sound crazy but it adds more options for users on the already congested Yahoo and Google servers. Maybe Microsoft is getting more life out of super-computers in their data centers that used to be the best, trying to get more out of them int he face of stiff competition that has steadily nibbled at their profits. Or whatever the reason for the late introduction, we might never know (ask Gates ?!????).

Well, it ain’t actually Twitter’s fault, for some teen who was bored just happens to get the bright idea to make a worm of a headache that has been plaguing the micro-network since Easter and has surfaced time and time again since. The worm is linked to the StalkDaily.com site that Twitter promptly warned their users to stay away from, for a visit would lock you out of your account. While Twitter tries to address or at least rid the Twitter world of the darned creepy crawly, they are advising people to stay away from their user profiles to prevent infection. The site they are blaming for the infection StalkDaily (who is currently off-line due to re-development), is denying all association with the said worm and it’s maker yet many kinda’ find it hard to believe.
Called, Mikeyy, the worm has managed to annoy the millions of Twitterers out there who have had to deal with the inconvenience of the offending twitters. To avoid the problems, users are being advised to not use their web version of the twittering system so that leaves you with the many third-party apps out there. Watch that itchy trigger finger too for links can be booby-trapped, kill the Javascript from your browser too and do an overall sweeping of your browsing history or simply clear your private data from the Firefox menus. You can also consider changing your password for it may have been compromised, even if Twitter has announced that no private data was compromised as a result of the attack (shucks, we ain’t that ignorant).
The teen who created the darned worm said he was expecting Twitter to respond swiftly which they didn’t and the speed at which it spread astounded even him, Michael “Mikeyy” Moony is merely 17 years old yet his worm has managed to garner tons of new members to his site as a result of his boredom. The success of his first version was so good he decided to release a second version, now that’s boredom for you, get others in on the whole thing. Just hope he enjoys his fame if you could call it that for he may come face to face with Twitter’s attorney’s in the near future. (Now didn’t they say they had $55 million in funds? Good Job People)

From GreenOptions.com‘s Sustainablog, a feature on the government’s drive to get people to trade in their old clunky cars for newer more efficient ones is underway. The post started with an idea from a child who suggested that everybody with old cars trade them in for new hybrids to solve the whole global warming thingy’. Bright idea right, well somebody in Washington thought of that too and the “Cash for Clunkers” program was born. The program is designed to make the world a cleaner place by giving incentives to people who trade in their old inefficient cars for newer cleaner cars that use alternative energy for fuel. The program is beginning to catch on and every family who opts to avail of the program helps mother nature and also gets a new car in the process making the approach a viable one that is good for the earth and the US auto industry as a whole.
On another avenue, TechCrunch tackles the moves of the new FriendFeed which they deem to be too fast, not in the speedy sense but in relation to their parent product FaceBook and Twitter. All three web services just happen to be some of the most popular services being offered on the internet (thank GOD Zucker’s gone) yet they see a common problem reminiscent of the good old days of Microsoft when they brought in technology from a little known firm, integrating it into their own product and then buying out the competitor even before the copyright infringement suits could be filed. they cite the fact that the functionality of all three services tend to be the same giving rise to the fear of them becoming one system in time. The newer version of FriendFeed goes on beta testing today before it hits the mainstream, to be unleashed into the wild that is the social net.
Google by the way gets a low blow from Billy Bragg who is a British Musician who just happens to hate Bebo.com and is now pointing the finger at the poor guys down in googling headquarters for lost profit, well what can we say, that is life in the net. Always new, always unexpected and always mundane (crazy even!)

From the networks, Gawker’s Valleywag tackles the resignation of founding FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who resigned from the company after a threesome of disastrous corporate decisions. The first nail in his corporate coffin was the revision of the FaceBook TOS debacle which angered so many users they flooded the site with negative publicity and everything in between. It even got the attention of lawmakers who informed them that the move as an utter disregard for their initial statement. The company revised their view of owning everything that was uploaded to their servers after, well, a ton of headaches, calls, email and some bottles of aspirin maybe.
His second blunder was the FaceBook page re-do, which was likened to having your hair done by a mechanic. The page looked uglier than ever and people started to express disgust at the new design prompting the company to do another round of re-makes. Talk about cost cutting and dumb decisions. The last nail in his corporate resume was the utter corporate chaos that was brought on by the kicking-out of CFO Gideon Yu, who by the way is part of the major WEB 2.0 systems YouTube and Yahoo. The move by the company resulted in utter chaos, disagreements on focus and direction of the company as a whole and as a business entity. Zuckerberg remarked that Yu chose his family over the hectic corporate lifestyle with nobody listening (well more of snickering to be exact at the truth behind his words). He is finally out and the company can now re-focus on a re-make of the whole site and business (Hmmmmm…… like President Obama and the Recession ??!!??) to repair the damage that has been done.
The events at FaceBook clearly shows how much impact the decisions of one man can make or break a well-loved company. Maybe now, they can re-focus on getting back their lost following, victims of ill-corporate wisdom that doesn’t quite work on the social internet.

From the Gawker Network, a job they call as one of the most annoying ones so far from the social web, the job which we would gladly coin as the “Twitter Impostor Terminator” or a lawyer who does just as it says, takes down twitter users who are pretending to be celebrities. Well, as if these people need more publicity, it seems the transparency of the social web is still the main detrimental factor which makes the internet dangerous. From sexual predators, spam and impostors, they all use the internet for their dastardly deeds.
Hailed as a joke by most but praised by his clients, the lawyer sends out email and letters to twitter headquarters and the erring twitterers who are using his client’s good name for no good such as fraud and other activities. In effect, this entrepreneurial lawyer creates a whole new field of law that is specifically aimed at these impostors and it is his job to take them off Twitter, one of the fastest growing social media outlets to date. His client lists are mostly people who cannot cope in timely manner to impostors who are using their names for illegal activities. This might just follow the move by the RIAA to halt music piracy and to enforce DRM which has all but collapsed with even iTunes, one of the largest electronic sources of music on the net to begin offering content that is DRM free. The first and only Twitter Lawyer to date (as if people would care) has announced his portfolio and has released a warning to Twitterers out there that they better watch out or they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law if proven guilty.
Such is the amount of opportunity the social internet has created, with everybody trying to find and build a business even on a lowly mobile or 3G enabled device. one of his success stories is the one that had a fake televangelist doing dirty work in the name of the true one for Crystal Cathedral Ministries where he has successfully booted the impostor from Twittering in the name of the good man’s Servant. The expanding reach of the social web has been creating many such issues, like the claim by Face Book that it earned all content uploaded to it’s servers, much to the annoyance and complaint of all the millions of users who threatened to file suits. That was promptly followed by a retraction of the said site rules which were reiterated again and again on the various media forms to be an ill-thought of statement that has now been revoked. Just hope he can get those annoying celebrity blogs (the real ones) off-line for utterly annoying and useless content.