Tag Archive 'myspace'

Will the Real Spam King Please Stand Up?

This post originally appeared on PCworld.com.
As more and more spammers are arrested, prosecuted, and sued under state and federal antispam statutes, there’s one thing you can count on: Someone somewhere will invariably call the targeted spammer a “spam king.”
It seems the bulk e-mail industry has more kings than a pinochle deck. But who is really [...]

Social Netiquette: Oh Behave!

Think you know how to mind your manners in the brave new world of social networks? You may be in for a rude awakening.
[Note: A severely neutered version of this story appears on Macworld.com. Call that version “Copyeditors Gone Wild.” Here's what this story was supposed to look like.]
Etiquette used to be easy. As [...]

Embarrassing Photo #9: Nice, err, Pom Poms

As Texas is to nude art teachers, Illinois is to scantily clad cheerleading coaches. In April 2007, 25-year-old Natosha Shaw was temporarily stripped of her pom poms when parents at Waukegan High discovered sexy photos on Shaw’s MySpace profile. Parents claimed the aspiring dancer/model was also "inexperienced, incompetent, and immature" as well as under [...]

Is Sarah Palin more popular than porn? Search me

Do search terms really indicate what Americans are thinking? It all depends if you believe Americans are actually thinking. Cringely has more.

Embarrassing Photo #5: Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

What do you do with a drunken pirate? Throw her in the brig–or, if you’re Millersville University, deny her a teaching degree. That’s what happened to Stacey Snyder, a then-27-year-old student teacher who posted a self portrait to her MySpace page under the caption "drunk pirate," even though it was not clear from the [...]

Embarrassing Photo #3: Muscle bound or muscle brained?

What is it about firehouses that makes people want to take off their clothes? In this case, Boston fireman Alberto Arroyo got in trouble for stripping down to take part in a body-building competition last May. (He finished eighth in the 2008 Pro Natural American Championships, by the way.) There’s nothing wrong with fire [...]

Embarrassing Photo #2: Quick, call 911 - my pants are on fire

Now that an ex-beauty queen is running for the VP slot, life may be easier for hot mommas who also happen to be office holders. It will be too late to help Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, though. The former mayor of Arlington, Oregon, got in hot water with her constituents after a family member posted photos [...]

Embarrassing Photo #1 - Hey Kevin, Tinker Belle wants her outfit back

It’s bad enough to dress up like you’re about to slip a dollar under some toothless child’s pillow. But former intern Kevin Colvin made it much worse by asking his boss at Anglo Irish Bank if he could take time off for a “family emergency in New York,” then flitting off to a Halloween party [...]

Smoking guns and broken voting machines

(This post originally appeared on Infoworld’s Notes From the Field blog.)
by Robert X. Cringely

My last post about Sequoia Voting Systems and its painfully stupid e-voting machines inspired both cheers and jeers from the Cringe faithful.
Cringester E. N. believes we should all just grow up and accept that mistakes happen (though he seems to also believe [...]

The WhizKid Files: Ashley Qualls

In researching my PCworld.com story on wunderkids, I asked Ashley Qualls (AshBo to her friends) how it felt like to build a site to give away her MySpace designs and turn it into a thriving business. Whateverlife.com now pulls in more than $1 million a year in ad revenue. Did I mention that Ashley [...]