Another Black Friday is almost upon us. Only in a capitalist society would a shopping day following a holiday get more attention than the holiday ahead of it.

Hey, if people want to get excited for ‘doorbusters’ that will save them $25 on a flat-panel TV, that’s their prerogative. However, each year I make a prediction, and that guess is that people will die on Black Friday, a result of shopping mayhem.

Will this be the year that I’m right? More →

Arrington’s at it again. Once more he has taken one of the more _dangerous_ and opinionated bloggers of the market and hired over at Techcrunch. After Duncan Riley (who started at TC on May 2nd 2007, shortly after failed attempt to hire Uncov author Ted Dzubia, this time it’s Paul Carr who will join TC with a weekly column.

This is a well known and often applied strategy within blog networks and even some of the people at our network, Splashpress Media, were hired in the same vain. Our own Franky, now Assistant Editor for Splashpress, started here at JOAB after a bashing of JOAB.

The reason why many site and network owners look in to hiring their biggest opponents is simple: silence your rival and let them show what they can do. Let them prove how good they are, while bringing the money in for you.

But is Paul Carr really a danger? No he isn’t, he is a columnist. But that is the reason why Arrington hired him. Carr is not afraid to leave snide comments in his column, ridiculizing A-Listers. And we all know how fragile Arrington’s ego is. Carr should have worked for Denton and spearheaded a reborn Valleywag.
Maybe we should start a tipjar and bring Carr to JOAB: Bringing lots to the conversation, nothing to work.

Jack of All Blogs favourite Michael Arrington has been at it once more. A supposedly French hacker forwarded several stolen/found Twitter documents to the Techcrunch staff and other online publications. They were obtained by guessing or recovering the password of both a Twitter employee and Twitter’s co-founder Evan Williams’s wife. Twitter uses Google Apps for domains and apparently Google has a simple password recovery method.

Although I missed the memo, it is an acceptable journalistic strategy to blame ‘Do no evil Google’ and get away with any moral issues. Moral issues about posting stolen documents and company secrets. Moral issues about posting these documents and at the same time knowing everyone who works at Twitter.

It’s not our fault that Google has a ridiculously easy way to get access to accounts via their password recovery question. It’s not our fault that Twitter stored all of these documents and sensitive information in the cloud and had easy-to-guess passwords and recovery questions.

Although Arrington a ruthless, self-centric, machine is, he does not seem to have enough of gut to blame people for being dumb and use simple passwords in the first place.

Logical Media is one of the innovative services that pay for ad placement within blogs. Do you have a blog and are you seeking a way to make additional money from the blog? Are you seeking a way to offset other programs with the use of ads? Through the registration with Logical Media, the blogger can have access to well-designed and functional ads, which are placed within the blog, earning the blogger money each time that a visitor to the blog decides to click on one of these ads.

As one of the top fifty affiliate networks in Website Magazine, Logical Media has reached a standard of customer service that many affiliate sites are simply unable to attain. Through the use of excellent placed ads, customer service and daily updates throughout the ads which are placed on the website, there are many reasons that you should consider Logical Media for marketing that can begin to earn you money from the moment you begin using the program.

With the added incentive that bloggers are equipped with, to earn twenty five dollars for signing up for the service, the blogger can begin to make money right away. With many other services, it seems that you are waiting weeks and even months for money to accrue within the account. However, with the instant twenty five dollars, just for signing up – you can begin to see an immediate profit!

With an easy to set-up and user-friendly interface, you can be up and running within a matter of minutes. Through the information which is provided and targeted keywords, ads will be developed that will be suited to your blog, your readers and your genre.

There are many other services which are offered to bloggers, in addition to the paid ad placement that can be taken advantage of throughout the blog. Through the use of valuable referral programs, in which the referrer can earn up to five percent through each referral and the real-time reports which the blogger will have access to, there are many ways that the blogger can learn to better the site – All while getting paid!

There are very few other paid ad placement companies that offer a high sign-up bonus. With the twenty five dollars that is offered to new customers you can begin to see your account move upward, through each click which is made on the ads placed within the blog. Are you seeking a program that enables you to track these movements in real time, while making real money? If this is the kind of program that you think would work for you, consider Logical Media, as the services offered are one of the many reasons more bloggers are choosing the company.

When it is time to get paid, bloggers always get paid on time, and the right amount. Through the use of intricate bookkeeping, bloggers are kept happy with accurate payments, regular payments and a variety of methods which are used to complete payments to bloggers that have signed up for the program. A reliable way to monetize your blog, more and more bloggers are choosing Logical Media.

Most of us are caught up in the end-of-year holiday madness. Before you know it, 2009 will be upon us and you’ll be scribbling down empty promises to yourself. Rather than waste your time, Jack of All Blogs has decided to lend a helping hand. Here are YOUR technology resolutions for 2009.

* You will put the final nail in the coffin of banner ads by promising not to click on a single one.

* You will demand that “news” Websites adhere to journalistic standards. And when you feel they don’t, you will bury them.

* You will give up on Vampires (Twilight, True Blood) and move on to Werewolves. Vamps are sooo 1700.

* You will accept that Web 2.0 is no longer emerging, it is here. Actually, it’s already gone.

* You will not forward e-mails or links. If it’s on the front page of Digg, odds are, we’ve all seen it already.

* You will limit the use of your mobile device by 50%. Unless of course you want brain cancer.

* If you are a blog owner, you will not copy and paste other people’s content, you will write your own unique material.

* You will give new blogs a chance, not just rely on the ones that are established and overexposed.

* You will not Google medical symptoms.

* You’ll stop looking for people from yesteryear on social networks.

I’m in; are you?

If you could write the world’s Internet resolutions, what would you add to the list?

One of the more powerful tentacles of the blogosphere are mommy bloggers. Whether it’s time, volume, hormones, or all of the above, you certainly don’t wanna piss ‘em off.

Just ask the vice president of marketing for Motrin, who’s likely popping a few of his own pills.

Mom bloggers took issue with a new online ad that suggested that they need Motrin to ease back pain caused by carrying babies in slings. They took to their blogs, Twitter, and YouTube, causing a firestorm so big, that the ad was immediately yanked by parent company Johnson & Johnson.

Who ever thought that a Dow company could be impacted by average citizens so quickly! Maybe that’s part of the reason our economy is so f’d up. Everyone is so freakin’ reactive.

The ad campaign was aligned to run with Intentional Baby Wearing Week.

Huh?

International Baby Wearing Week?!

There is officially a week for everything. Well, except Worship Jack of All Blogs Week, but we’re working on it.

I have plenty to say on the issue, but I learned long ago that crossing mom is never a good idea. Not even for Jack.

Bottom line: your blog might have more influence than you realize.

Would you trade your car in for a 16-wheeler? Probably not. Part of the reason is that you have no idea how to drive one. See, bigger isn’t always better. Then why oh why does everyone feel the need to grow their online network to steroidal proportions?

It’s not the size of your personal network, it’s how you use it.

Let’s take the ever-growing micro-blog platform Twitter. If the goal of the Web site is to ‘follow’ someone (which sounds kinda stalkerish, loserish to begin with), how on earth do you expect to keep tabs on thousands of people? Even hundreds is not realistic. But our new society forces us to pad our social lives. God forbid you have 7 friends, 11 connections or 16 people’s #s programmed into your phone.

What if someone from yesteryear Googles you and discovers you know a mere 8 people?!

The lesson has always been to choose quality over quantity, but that rule is tossed out the window when it comes to Web communications.

Is it possible to get back to a simpler, more realistic time? A start would be taking a step back to look at who your online connections are. Delete them if…

- You can’t identify who they are
- Don’t know their real name, only a handle
- You have no clue WHY you are connected
- You have not communicated within one calendar year

I realize this will never happen; your Web ego won’t allow it. But that won’t stop Jack of All Blogs from speaking the truth. We just filtered our network and are now a company of one.

The police union in Peabody, Massachusetts has added a new provision to their contract for next year, with a pretty wacky clause:

They want 9/11 to be a paid holiday.

Keep in mind that not a single member of the Peabody police force was killed during the terror attacks. It should be noted, however, that many aided the NYPD forces in recovery efforts.

Actually, even if officers had lost their lives, why on earth should a specialized profession receive the day off – or equally as bad – earn ‘double pay?’ I’m not saying some cops didn’t go above and beyond, but we all get paid to do a job – and there shouldn’t be extra praise for doing it.

That dark day in American history impacted the entire nation. Why should a couple of working-class cops who were more than a four-hour drive away from the World Trade Center get the day off?

The NYPD union, which lost 23 officers on 9/11, has made similar attempts to get cops compensated during contract negotiations.

9/11 sucked – for everybody. I understand some were affected more than others, but give me a break. The fact that these clowns want more pay – or a holiday – is asinine.

Just enjoy your double time at the St. Patty’s parade and call it day.

Let’s pray the City Council shoots it down.

I can make you a promise, right here, right now. I will never – ever – eat ice cream, made from breast milk. Sorry PETA.

I’d sooner peel away the ozone layer myself and drive a Hummer to the moon.

Those two hippies from Vermont sure like to think off the farm. I’m talking about none other than Ben and Jerry, ice cream manufacturers extraordinaire. If the duo decided to go the Lactacious Pastaicious route, it wouldn’t be the first time they used an ingredient that made me scratch my head.

Ben and Jerry became part of my life in the early nineties. I was a mid-teen away at summer camp in New Hampshire. One night, I was fast asleep, dreaming about the girls of Bunk 19, when I was jarred from my sleep. The counselors had returned from “town” with several pints of B&J. That night, I lost my virginity. I did it three times. Their names? Cherry Garcia (a spicy Latina), Heath Car Crunch (not as gay as it sounds) and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (a real chub rock). From that moment on, Cherry and I made a pact to see each other. Our relationship was more physical than anything else. In fact, I never really got to know what she was made of. Until that fateful day. Born from boredom, I decided to flip her on her side and read what she was really about.

Cream, Skim Milk, Liquid Sugar, Guar Gum – no surprises.

But then I saw it.

BEET JUICE.

What was a vegetable like that doing in a place like this? And how has it slid past my palate for so long undetected?

Even though the container went out of its way to explain that this ingredient was purely for “coloring,” our relationship has never been the same. From that point forward I’m a changed man. I can’t so much glance at a pint of ice cream without worrying what lies beneath.

Cherry and I still see each other, and we definitely have our share of good times, but it’s fair to say that things have never been the same.

I am 15 years removed from that Green Mountain summer, but I clearly haven’t learned my lesson.

I recently fell head over heels for Americone Dream, Ben and Jerry’s latest flavor boasting Steven Colbert’s moniker. Vanilla ice cream with massive caramel swirls, peppered with chocolate dipped cone fragments; what could be wrong? (Aside from 17g of fat per serving.) What puts the flavor over the top is how the bits of cone, even though they are frozen and immersed in ice cream, are astoundingly crispy.

But why?

In an effort to find out, I flipped the pint to reveal what was inside.

Milkfat, Corn Starch, Palm and/or Soybean Oil, Guar Gum – all expected.

But then I saw it.

Bamboo Fiber.

Huh? Now I’m a panda?!

I’m guessing this is the “magic” ingredient that keeps the cone crispy.

This is the last time you’ll “get me,” Ben and Jerry. From now on I’ll ask questions first and get fat later.

I grew up with cats, From Koota to Jack, there wasn’t a moment spent under mom and dad’s roof without a feline presence. The love of cats always seems to be a polarizing issue. As taboo as rooting for the Mets AND the Yankess, most people feel the need to pick a side. How anyone can root against anything that’s furry with four legs is beyond me. However, there are several observations about cat ownership that I would like to share.

If you own MORE THAN THREE CATS, you are likely:

* WEIRD. Relax, being different is a good thing.

* HYGIENICALLY CHALLENGED. We’ll blame it on all that little and kibble.

* UNMARRIED. And if you are, you’re not having much sex.

* DEMOCRATIC. This might have something to do with the fact you might be Jewish.

* CHARITABLE. The no-kill shelter gets a $50; the American Cancer Society solicitation goes in the trash.

* A PBS WATCHER. Admit it, you own the tote bag.

By “own” I mean these cats live under your roof full time. I’m not talking about the cats that mosey on by for some soft food.

Any person who cares for an animal is coolio. But in my experience, folks who own more than three tend to assign magical properties to their animals.

“Lucky gives my hugs and kisses when I’m sick”
“Delilah gets sad when she sees my suitcase”
“Schmookie was depressed when you left”

Of course, you also could have your parents refer to the cats as your siblings.

Before you start providing me with examples of how cats can save lives and warn their human friends of impending disaster, I ask you to ask yourself: How many hours a day do you talk to your cat? My guess is north of an hour.

In summary, there are three types of people in this world:

People with less than three cats
People with more than three cats
People with no cats at all

It’s the group in the middle that are usually easy to identify.

Do you think there’s any truth to The Three Cat Rule?