FHK SitRep 08.31.07: Notifir – Making Social News Networking FUN, EASY and PRODUCTIVE

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Notifir.com Private Beta Invitation

Welcome to Notifir.com! You have been selected as a private beta participant.

Following is information that will help you understand what the private beta is all about…

Some Notes

We have released Notifir.com early, into your hands, for the purpose of ensuring that by September 1, 2007 we have created the foundation for a tool that is easy, fun and has increased your productivity. Note that unless you are submitting stories, you probably will not find much use of this tool.

The private beta is expected to last until September 1, 2007, when we go into public beta.Our blog has the latest information regarding Notifir.com. You can visit the blog here: http://blog.notifir.com/

You may notice some slow response times during the private data, as we continue to optimize the Digg API calls (the current bottleneck).

Keep in mind that this is a functional prototype. The design will be implemented by September 1, 2007.This website has been tested on Firefox 2.0.0.6.

PLEASE report and bugs and or feature requests by clicking on the big orange button or by e-mailing us at info@notifir.com.

Access InformationProceed to http://www.notifir.com/login/add_user

You can sign up for one account. Be sure to input your Digg.com user name exactly as it appears in your profile (Member Name). The website will not function if you do not provide your Digg.com username.

Brief Guided TourYou will notice that there are some blank areas and non-functional links. Those are upcoming features that are scheduled to be implemented by September 1, 2007. Following is a list of what works:

1. DashboardAfter logging in you will see the dashboard for your Digg.com account. Click the “Who Dugg It?” link to get a list of the friends who dugg a particular article. You can click on any Digg.com user’s Nprofile to get a slimmed down version of the Dashboard for any Digg user (yes, you can replace the username in the URL to obtain a Notifir profile for any Digg.com user). 2. AdminThis will take some time to load (if you have allot of friends at Digg.com). The idea here is to input emails of Digg.com users that you know (this in not functional yet).

About Notifir.com

It is becoming increasingly difficult to manage participation in the many different social networking news websites (e.g. Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com, Reddit.com, Netscape.com, to name a few). This problem will get worse over time as quality social networks proliferate.
These social networks all rely on some type of voting system which determines how much exposure your content receives. With Notifir.com, social networking participants will be able to manage those social networks in one place. Notifir.com provides tools to notify friends of submitted stories (making it easy for them to vote), monitor those stories and provide resources to submit new stories.

Find out more at Notifir.com.

About ATLInnovations, Inc. (Notifir.com Funder)

ATL Innovations Inc. was founded in 2003 by Elmer Thomas and several Alumni of the University of California, Riverside, including Isaac Saldana, Chief Technical Officer and Jose Lopez, Chief Programmer.

ATL Innovations’ clients have included The Magic Johnson Foundation, Subway Development, and University of California Riverside College of Electrical Engineering. ATL Innovations has received numerous awards and honors of distinction, including most recently a letter of congratulations from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Technology Firm of the Year Award from the Inland Empire Minority Business Development Center, and was a finalist for the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Award for Technology by the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship.

More Information: http://www.atlinnovations.com/.

About ThemBid.com (Notifir.com Funder)ThemBid.com is an online community where consumers can post their requests and let businesses bid for the work. Consumers save time and money by eliminating the need to call around for quotes with little guidance towards finding value, while businesses get targeted advertising and new customers to help grow their bottom line. ATL Innovations, Inc. began development of ThemBid.com in November of 2006 and quickly generated industry-wide interest on blog web sites before ThemBid.com’s official public release in April 2007. Since that time, ThemBid.com has had over 200,000 unique visitors from all over the globe.

ThemBid.com has been featured in print publications such as The Press Enterprise, the Business Press and UC Riverside’s Engineering Times magazine as well as websites such as LinuxToday.com, KillerStartUps.com and Mashable.com among many others.More information: www.thembid.com

Notifir.com
Elmer Thomas Founder

Daily SitRep Archive

Does the politics of hate really work?

The mantra of the left can be categorized in one simple statement, “I hate George W. Bush.”  That’s it!  “I hate Bush” is the overriding political theme on blogs, social news sites, video sharing sites, and political web sites.  But does it have any effect?

Some would argue that it helped get the Democrats to power.  But that argument is muted by the fact that Bush was hated by the left for 6 years prior to Democrats taking office.  Hate got Democrats nowhere then.  Moreover, now that they are in office they are impotent to do anything.  They are a lame duck congressional body only left to spew their vomit at Bush.  They have accomplished NOTHING.

So, back to the question.  What does the politics of hate really do?  John Jay Chapman once said, “Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.”  Fair enough.  Hatred creates unit among the liberal, progressive, and Democratic horde.  But their unity of hatred has done nothing to affect the war in Iraq, change social policy, or create legislation of substance.

Here’s what hatred does do to answer the question rhetorically. 

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Hatred creates a degenerate culture.  A quick search on the internet will show the liberal hatred of Bush is manifested in violent “art work” or photography, profane diatribes, and ill-tempered statements.  None of these add to the political culture or dialog.  In addition, it only makes the hater look decadent and vicious.

In short, hatred fostered by liberals, progressives, and Democrats of George W. Bush will serve them nothing except more hate.  Buddha said it best:

 ”Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

Blog Honor Roll 08/31/07

Made in China or Maybe Not

American have deep concerns about products made in China.  The Gallup Poll is finding out people are shying away from Chinese products.

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Poll: Should Sen. Larry Craig resign?

Sen. Larry Craig has pled guilty to disorderly conduct after being caught by an undercover cop soliciting sex in the airport mens bathroom in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Should the senator resign his seat?

SonicWall and SurfControl – “Filtering,” or “Censorship?”

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the battle that Foehammer and 1389 were fighting to have Foehammer’s Anvil unblocked by SonicWall, so that it can be accessed at many businesses – 1389 followed up here, and here, that battle has since been won, but the war is not over.

Atlas Shrugs has listed at least three more sites that are currently blocked by Sonic wall, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, and Dhimmi Watch, all for supposedly being “violence/hate/racism” sites.

And now, 1389 explains that SonicWall is not the only filtering service selectively “filtering” these sites. SurfControl has similar issues. To read more, and find out how to help, go here.

Related Articles on FHK

FHK SitRep 08.30.07: Siphs

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No, today’s SitRep is not about a character from Star Wars. This is about Siphs, a new content-sharing site designed to make sharing websites you find with your friends much easier.

Basically, you download a browser link, then when you’re surfing and come across a page you want to forward to your friends, you just click the browser link, and fill in the info. Here’s a video demonstration.

And now, Arpan Ajhaveri has sent out the following information about a new blog beta:

Our link-blogging tool lets users post their links and associated comments publicly to their own personal, customizable page. Best of all, members can embed media such as YouTube videos, add their personal widgets, and even add their own third-party ad code to profit from their content-sharing activities. Each link blog comes with its own widget and RSS feed for easy integration into other websites or blogs. You can view a sample link-blog here…. Here’s a write up about us in
Mashable.

Check it out!

Daily SitRep Archive

Fred Heads: SEP 6th is the Big Day!

On September 6, 2007, Fred Thompson will be announcing his intention to run for President of the United States with a webcast available to millions at www.imwithfred.com. The launch of the video will be followed by a five-day campaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. On the evening of the 6th, there will also be a National House Party, during which there will be a conference call with Fred.

We enter this campaign in a strong position. Fred is consistently near the top in the polls, and conservatives across the country have put together the closest thing to a draft in recent presidential campaign history in an effort to bring about this day. The next few weeks will only serve to build upon those efforts, with house parties, visits to the early primary states, and a homecoming in Lawrenceburg, TN on the 15th. To view the dates and locations of Fred’s bus tour, please click here, and check back soon for more information on attending one of these events.

By announcing via webcast, Fred is able to take his consistently mainstream conservative message directly to the voters, who are already responding to that message with a strong upwelling of grassroots support. The webcast and the following campaign tour will play to Fred’s strengths, a consistent record of conservatism, his ability to clearly spread his message, and his ability to work with and connect with Americans from all walks of life. Be apart of this historic occasion by signing up to host or attend a house party today.

Sincerely,

Bill Lacy
Manager, Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc.

Blog Honor Roll 08/30/07

Is Liberal Hatred of Bush Erotic Perversion?

Robert Jesse Stoller’s psychoanalytical book entitled ”Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred” may help to understand the hatred by some on the extreme left towards George W. Bush.  The publishers of Stoller’s book describe the text this way:

The main contention is that in perversion the main clinical factor is hostility. It combines with sexual desire to produce the various forms that perversion can take on. Stoller shows that the perverse scene aims not only at denying castration, but also at securing a more solid basis for a jeopardized sexual identity. Risk, vengeance and trauma are some of the ideas that the author discusses while building up his argument.

Could it be liberal hostility toward Bush is grounded in sexual desires for Bush?  Moreover, could their hostility really be a fear of castration or a lack of sexual identity?  Stroller might argue that is the case.

The truth is we don’t know why some extreme liberals are so hateful.  Whereas most people will disagree philosophically and intelligently, some liberals cross the line into violence with their words.  That doesn’t say much for liberals or liberalism. 

Do I think it is because of a deep seated perversion on their part?  Not really but it is fun to consider the thought. 

Opus: Too Dangerous To Publish

This Opus cartoon was far too offensive for newspapers to publish it.  Consequently, they censored it.  See why it was censored.

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Poll: Which GOP candidate has the best grass roots support?

Grass roots campaigning is the key to helping a candidate win. Which GOP candidate for president has the best grass roots support in place?

More Woe-Is-Me from our Public Schools

…of Nikitas3.com

The New York Times reported on August 27 in an article titled With Turnover High, Schools Fight for Teachers, that public schools are facing yet another crisis, this one over staffing. The article describes what was called a “conspiracy of dysfunction” by Tim Daly, president of the New Teacher Project which helps underperforming and poor urban school districts with their staffing problems. “Most of the urban districts have no coherent hiring strategy” he said.

According to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, public schools are wasting $7 billion a year on recruiting, hiring and training new teachers. “The problem is that our schools are like a bucket with holes in the bottom,” said NCTAF president Thomas Carroll.

The grim statistic is that nationwide one-third of all new public-school teachers leave the profession after only 3 years’ service, and one-half leave after 5 years.

And if you’re wondering why, you can hit the snooze alarm again. For the rest of us, the answer is easy: While there are some good people in public education, the “big picture” is that the entire system is another unionized bureaucracy that resists any modernization, change or challenge to its power. And when they are government unions without direct accountability to the taxpayer, the situation becomes appropriately critical.

Imagine workers walking off the job at the rate of one-third or one-half in the private sector. It does not happen very often. Companies with that poor a record usually go out of business because people won’t work for them. Yet no matter how desperate the situation, the war cry on the left is always the same: “Sustain the Bureaucracy!” And the more urban and liberal the district, the more radical the curriculum, union rules and bureaucratic control.

In an election period when virtually every Democrat is demanding a government takeover of the health-care system, no Republican is demanding reform or privatization in education. Why this cowardice?

Because the Republican party has lost its spine, that’s why. Most Americans would welcome such a challenge.

Private business in America is a huge, juicy target for all the usual leftist pressure groups — consumer activists, trial lawyers, media investigators, congressional inquiries etc. At the same time, the public schools are immune because they are closed systems. Try getting reform out of your local school board and you’ll discover the truth. The “open” nature of the “public” schools is a huge myth while many of these schools are descending into more and more chaos every year. They could use guidance, but they won’t take it.

But then again, this is socialism we are talking about. Damn the consumer! Full steam ahead!

The main reason schools are having trouble finding teachers in the first place is not the usual canard of “low prestige” or “inadequate pay”. The reason is that most people know exactly what they are in for these days when they become a cog in a government labor bureaucracy. You are nothing and you have no power, while individuality, ambition and dissent are taboo. Teachers are intimidated into silence. On the other end of the spectrum, the sweetheart deals that the teacher unions make with every town they supply, including early retirement and generous benefit and pension plans, have caused the system to spin out of control.

Giuliani managed to institute some reforms in New York City, and his successor Bloomberg has continued the trend. But ultimately, the system is corrupt from within while you hear all the usual arguments about how people are avoiding the system for better pay in the private sector. But that is a misdirection. For the number of hours that public school teachers work every year — many fewer than most workers in America — they are more than adequately compensated. Teachers here in Massachusetts and many, many other places make more than the average private-sector pay.

It’s not the salary, or Bush, or ExxonMobil, or global warming or the Iraq war that is causing these woes. It’s this: “Public” is what it says it is; the public is accounted for. But in today’s “government” schools, the public has no say, along with anyone else outside the bureaucracy and the unions. Federal legislation like No Child Left Behind is a last resort to try and get the schools to do what they are supposed to be doing anyway.

If we want to change the status quo, we need to open up education in America. At least half of all students should be entered, with voucher payments from local governments, into charter, private or religious schools in order to balance out the public system and make it more accountable through competition.

But this is unlikely to happen at this time. Government schools are just another word for unaccountable government power. And that power needs to be challenged forthwith.

The Latest from Wallbuilders…

Blog Honor Roll 08/29/07

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