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For those of you who followed the SOPA / PIPA saga, know that, at least for now, the Internet has defeated the Congressional Hollywood lobbyists and the "public servants" they have in their deep pockets. It's a good thing and we should all be proud. As a Sociologist I am well aware of the flaws of that statement, but it serves as a good introduction to what I really want to discuss, and that is the Internet Consumer -- both the consumer of what the Internet has to offer, and the traditional consumer who basically uses the tools of the Internet to consume.

That's really all I have to say right now.

Please write your Congressman to stop this draconian bill. SOPA and PIPA are a terribly misguided attempts to stop piracy by people who really don't know much about the Internet and/or possibly personal freedoms.

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I know that people have been writing about passwords, password management, password memory techniques, and password encryption forever, but I'm not done.

Let me start with a few facts:
1) Our memories are limited.
2) Passwords are hard to remember.
3) Long passwords drive most people nuts.
4) Hackers want your password.

When I wrote TranceNational AlienNation, my thesis that researches Trance Music culture in Israel and discusses the moral panic that ensues and targets the global trance community, I was surprised to find how easily people are whipped into a frenzy of panic by seemingly innocent events. Raves, drugs, youth culture in general, have all been targets of moral panics.

A few years back I did something that had serious ramifications for my family. There were unexpected consequences, some serendipitous, others just scary. It started as simple fun, but then became increasingly more intense. There were moments I thought we would totally lose control. But then things plateaued and levelled out. But for a minute there....

What did I do? I opened a Facebook account for my mother.

Long ago, about 252,288,000 seconds ago in programming time, Clay Shirky gave a speech called A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy. In it, among other things, he talks about how group members' (users') behaviour can wreak havoc on an open social entity of any kind (open being the key term here). He talks about the need to control members of any group by having clear rules to keep order.

If you've ever contracted a programmer, whether it be through a company or a freelancer, you've likely encountered some rather frustrating responses to your requests. Programmers aren't always right, but for the most part, the ones I know are honest and have the goals of the client in mind. In general, you don't want to upset him -- it's simply not in your best interest.

Think you need SEO help?

Let's try something. Google "SEO". Then click on the "10" in the Gooooooooogle pager at the bottom. Go ahead and do it. I'll wait...

See how many SEO companies are ranked 90 or more? Granted, SEO is an extremely competitive search term, and if every one of those companies was doing everything right with their own sites, still someone would have to be number 100, right?

(The following is based on actual events)

You have a fairly good idea of how you want your new website to look. You spend some time searching around for a developer, get some feedback and advise here and there, and are ready to proceed. You have someone plan your site, maybe add a few wireframes, a designer designs something that looks great on paper and the developers start working.