ARE WEBSITES RELEVANT WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES?

WEB SITES: ARE THEY STILL RELEVANT WITH THE DELUGE THAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES?
Hi, in case you weren’t paying attention, I am Blue Gene! I used to design websites for a living and I was there almost right from the start! For me the web exploded in 1997! My goodness… The days when the computer was just a terminal to facilitate tasks such as word processing, etc… WOW!!! Lol! In 1997 it wasn’t too long after I had ditched my Amiga 4000 that I was in the possession of a PC (that I built with the help of a work colleague). I found myself on a course to familiarize myself with the wonders of… The Internet and web page design using HTML (hypertext mark-up language). Ooooh! To be honest I was more interested into surfing the web, which was like taking trip into a newly opened shopping mall… A shopping mall full of dodgy “adult” shops and the occasional Star Trek fan site! The shopping mall came first and the street later – at least from my point of view! The Web was (and in a way still is) permanently “under construction”. Sites back then consisted mainly of text because the bandwidth was so narrow that pictures were a luxury! That quickly changed with the advent of Ulead’s Web Razor – now defunct – that compressed JPEG images down to the smallest byte. I used to swear by Web Razor!

Anyway, I tried my hardest to get to grips with HTML; it’s not complicated but longwinded. You enter some code into Notepad and then take a look at the results in a web browser. Boring! It took me a long while to understand why, for web purists, that hand-coding a website from start to finish was the only way! That said, I was relieved when Adobe PageMill arrived. PageMill was one of the first WYSIWYG web design programs and I took to it quickly! I have to admit that I used to set my computer clock back in order to keep using it! Hee hee hee… At the time I had no regards for text conventions i.e. by marking up text for headers, etc. I wanted my text at a certain size for the title, subheading and paragraph. As far as I was concerned if it looked good to me then I was happy! I was pretty pissed off that I couldn’t just use any font! I had to use fonts that adhered to HTML. I kind of lost interest in web design… …what was the point with so many restrictions and conventions? So, I had to user transparent GIFs for my fonts – not realizing that using images for text decreased Search Engine Optimization. In other words search engines would rank sites that closely adhered to HTML convention higher than that of sites built with little or no regard for pure HTML. Bear with me…

WEAVING
I spent time and money dodging learning how to code in HTML. I packed up my belongings and headed off to Amsterdam for a new life as a Multimedia / Web Designer. I landed a job within two weeks of my arrival and I was employed to prepare images and do the shell of a website which consisted of laying out the positions of the graphics and text. I was using Corel Web Design Suite (or something like that) and I got a shock! After badgering my boss to give me some design work he relented and I produced a “site” using Web Design Suite. When I gave the results to the “coders” they were less than happy with it! In fact, if it wasn’t for my being English I didn’t get fired! In Holland they, at the time, regarded English people as “cool” and I was given another chance! I got myself a new program that I saw being demoed at the famous Highbury and Islington Design Centre Multimedia Showcase. It looked amazing. I took my first wage and invested into Macromedia Dreamweaver and with it I produced better websites and was able to stay in the job for a good while. I quickly learned to avoid code that would favor one browser over the other… Websites were dependent upon the different browsers adopting Java code, DHTML (dynamic HTML) and other elements that I can’t be bothered to remember. Each update of Dreamweaver would produce a purer code that would ensure compatibility with all the web browsers.

To be fair to the WYSIWYG approach to web design Dreamweaver swallowed garish, ugly, eye aching web pages and spat out cleaner sites that looked not to dissimilar to a page in a magazine. Dreamweaver was quickly adopted by the “New Media” industry that included CD ROM design as well as web! Macromedia, before it was bought by Adobe, gave web and multimedia design many gifts in the form of Director (for interactive CD ROM design), Authorware (like Director, but more expensive and used to create training programs) and Flash!

Flash revolutionized the web even further with bringing multimedia to the masses and designers fell over themselves to know Flash inside out! The result was slick sites for corporations that wanted a cutting edge presence on the web.

FLASH FORWARD 15 YEARS
Yes, pun intended… Lol! What was the year when I decided to stop designing sites for others? Jeez…Yeah, I used to get fed up with “clients” showing me sites that they want to emulate who had no idea about time, taste and cost. In the end I would say to them, “You know what? It would be cheaper to just buy a web design program and do it yourself…” What a relief! Lol!

What has happened over the years is inescapable: Social Networking / Blogging and Video profiles. I think MySpace was first, then Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, WordPress… …it has gone nuts! The order in which these networks appear is not important… Y’know, when I used to design and build websites the one thing that plagued me was CONTENT!!!! Keeping content fresh! Keeping content fresh is no joke! Updating your website is like keeping the Rolling Stones alive! Maintaining a website can or should be a full time job! Trying to get visitors to your site is hard, but once you’ve got them there you want to give them a reason to keep coming back!

What has happened over the years is that many, many people are bypassing the hassle of creating and maintaining a site for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. It makes sense on one hand, the design is there, and all you have to do is update your profile with text, pictures and video. However, the reason for wanting your own website is to have control over your work. You don’t have to worry about Facebook or whatever closing your profiles down for reasons obscure. Or you might want to try your hand at your online business!

In the next issue of Synapse Circuit I am going to show you how to create your own website with ease! I am going to show you a few hosting solutions too! I’ll tell you what you ought to know about HTML5 – don’t worry, you won’t be coding in it! I’m also going to tell you why you ought to be aware of using Flash content on your site.

If you want to make compelling websites that brings all the elements together then…

Stay tuned… Issue #2 coming soon!

Thank you for reading! Please read Synapse Circuit magazine! Bless you!

ANTISOCIAL NETWORKING? PART ONE

ANTISOCIAL NETWORKING? PART ONE
Welcome to the first part of this series. Why has the first part come last? Well, the original draft was full of expletives and fury… Now that I have had a chance to mull things over here it is a revised and much thought out part one…

SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social Networking is nothing new. When the Internet started to take off there were many, many chat clients that allowed anyone to speak (via the keyboard) to another individual or to members of a group! Photos and links could be exchanged! As humans we have an inherent need to socialize and form bonds. Chat clients – all of which I can’t remember now – got phased out into ICQ, Skype and Microsoft Live. Of course, chat clients have come back on our smartphones in the form of WhatsApp, Viber, Kik, etc. My goodness… the amount of nights I spent chatting with friends from around the world! I even met a girlfriend through a chat client! Wow! But, the trouble with forming bonds over the Net is that we can sometimes add imaginary emphasis on emotional neurons to make up for the distance (oooh, heartache and the longing). Trust me, love is a work in progress – take shortcuts and the romance will be over faster than you know! That moment when you’re staring at the ceiling knowing that you’ve made a mistake… LOL!

Another pivotal form of social networking has been employed by businesses to garner, an often fierce, loyalty to their product / service. Yes, forums… …and we know all about what sort of nastiness can breed on such networking platforms! I think forums pioneered MySpace! Believe it or not… …I am sure you’ll believe it because I am a straight-up guy, but I started an Electronic music based social network that was inspired by a forum of a onetime popular music software, which will remain nameless (hee hee)! What I lacked to make this network become a massive success was that I had no idea of how to code membership sign-up and upload automation. I was doing everything by hand and sure enough I got worn out! LEARN TO CODE! Or find someone who can! Anyway, some years later came MySpace! I could have kicked myself! Lol! But look at what’s happened to MySpace! Just make some changes to the interface and pray that the users like it! Then came…

FEISTYBOOK
As you no doubt know, Facebook and other social networking sites is a good way to reunite with friends and family; oh, and not to mention work colleagues! However, Facebook frowns upon adding strangers! That’s one of Facebook’s rules written in stone! If you add people that you like the look of too often you can have your adding and messaging privileges revoked. I guess you know that already!

The “Add Only Those You Know” rule is ironic because Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t know any of us, yet we or most of us have a Facebook account! Sure, he hasn’t added me personally, but I am still a part of a social network that he created! And to think that he created Facebook to upset a girl who rejected him! Well, that is according to the film, ‘The Social Network’. And if that portrayal is close to the truth then he seems to pick and choose his principals at will to the point here he was sued by founding member, Eduardo Severin! So, my point is this: Do we ever know who our friends are? I am on my third Facebook account because the other two accounts were populated with people who I really wouldn’t want to socialize with offline: work colleagues and friends that turned out to be twofaced. Ironically, I have strong bonds with so many individuals that were hitherto strangers. Ok, they are online; I have met a few of them… It’s relatively early days! I hope to meet some more Facebook friends in real life as soon as… There’s scope! But that’s something Zuckerberg should be proud of! I have some amazing Facebook friends!

It’s almost as if Zuckerberg is using us Facebook users like Sim characters. You can do this! You can’t do that! Like this! All these threats should we make our own choices just isn’t right! We are capable of making our own decisions. Thank you!

Just think about the amount of inventions out there that got used for a different function than intended… Can you imagine if such “misused” products were policed?

“Freeze! Put that jar of Vaseline down and kick it to me! Now step away from behind that man!”

DEVINE CLUMSY INTERVENTION
Occasionally, friends will have spats with each other! And, unfortunately, some “friends” feel that they have to put in a complaint directly to Facebook. It has happened to me and this was all because I didn’t return the affections of a young lady… Yes, a woman scorned ‘n’ all… Facebook wrote to me and issued a warning and I didn’t get a chance to clarify the situation. Facebook shouldn’t have got involved. I mean, that is what the “delete” button is for, right? In the end I had to delete her only to have her add me again a few months later! Jeez Louise! Before I accepted I wanted to know why she behaved like an ass! This is more or less what she had to say, “I was a bit of an idiot… Sorry!” I re-added her and weeks later she started with the leaving flirtatious messages on my wall, of course I didn’t reciprocate and yes, she sent a complaint to Facebook who sent another warning and, again, I was not given the opportunity to present the facts! But with that I blocked the young lady once and for all! I never had that trouble again – touch wood (no not that wood! What are you like?)!

Facebook, Zuckerberg, don’t get involved in the friction of others. If allegations are made then by all means investigate – look into the private exchange if you must! Otherwise you’ll unwittingly become a troll! The bottom line is: Your people skills suck!

Have you ever had your account closed or deleted by Facebook? When that happens it feels terrible! All those genuine friends you have made, GONE! All the pages and groups you instigated and are a part of: GONE! You try to get it back by contacting Facebook Support (sic) and they ask you for personal ID???? Wait a minute… …this is a social networking site, it’s not the CIA! Can it be true that the CIA and other national security agencies are using Facebook to spy on people? When I access Facebook from my mobile it wants my whereabouts and to send me text messages! I feel a little uncomfortable with that. Hey, doesn’t it say somewhere that Facebook “owns” our data???? In any event, the Facebook Support is anything but… They are rude and unhelpful! They seem to take pleasure in being unhelpful!

I have an alternative model friend of mine who had her account deleted for some reason or another. Too much flesh, what in this day and age? She goes by her model name and Facebook won’t allow her to go by that name. Come to think of it neither does Google+. I think this is so stupid! Let people have their own identity!

Isn’t it enough that we “like” corporate products, entertainment, etc? Don’t you know that without us you’ll have nothing? You should be giving us some of those Billions! Everybody, stop using Facebook until each account holder gets at least $50k!

Thank you for reading! Please read Synapse Circuit magazine! Bless you!

ANTISOCIAL NETWORKING? PART THREE
FORUM FASCISM

STUPIDITY vs. EVIL
Welcome to the final part of this blog… Oh, the first part is still to come… Yes, I am aware that it is somewhat unorthodox to write parts two and three before part one. However, I have written part one and it is not family friendly! I will have to re-edit for all-round consumption!

Most people would agree that the Fascist movement was pretty stupid and the atrocities committed were pure and utter evil. The same can be said for slavery, the destruction of the rain forests, etc. Wherever you have stupidity it is almost certain that evil will follow!

It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people can be on forums; you might think that the comparisons to Nazi’s is extreme but it is not. The Nationalist Socialist movement started out as a concept of hate masquerading as politics; the strange shouting man with the funny moustache was a joke to begin with… People started to take the joke seriously! It’s a similar thing with forums… Again, you’ll get a group of people that form a clique and anyone coming after had better fit into the profile of that clique: DUMB & UNQUESTIONABLY CONVENTIONAL UNTIL BOREDOM HAS LOST ALL MEANING!

Forum members that claim to be upright standing citizens can turn out to be the nastiest judgeMENTAL people you’d not care to meet. What is it about the Internet that brings out the evil in people? How is it that forum members – including the moderator(s) can be so ignorant? What is the common denominator in these people that makes them act that way? Is it being relatively anonymous that brings out the nastiness? Perhaps the Internet allows people to take their moral filter off and that affects people of all religions: Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc. These citizens are usually the first to break the form terms of etiquette.

Could it be that people can’t understand context? I guess humour can be misconstrued from time to time. There again, there are those who just look for what they see as negative in every sentence uttered into a forum! However, when you try to explain the context they just don’t want to know. A few times I have been called a “smart Alec” but why on God’s green Earth would I want to contribute anything less than intelligence to a forum discussion – unless, of course, I am being silly for the purpose of raising a laugh!

Typically, all it takes is just one of the clique to take a disliking to you and the rest will inevitably follow like sheep! Then it becomes a sport of goading which is very ugly to witness indeed; it’s certainly not nice to be in the midst of and the focal point of such inane and insane derision.  What is even more disturbing is when the forum owners – the people behind the product / service – join the derision on the understanding that the so called moderators are right in their stance. Well, the majority must be right, right? Even the people behind the product / service can be just as dumb!

THE INSTIGATOR
Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see things that tired eyes can’t see. Foolishly (sic), I put some ideas forward for the forum to be improved. The main improvement being is a dedicated area where – in the case of the software – the users can show off their work without all this stupid spam accusations. Of course the Hive Mind objects to this idea and proceed to tell me why this is such a bad idea… It’s not as if someone will place a link to porn, Viagra, miracle dieting pills, free iPhone, iPad and other such annoyances. I think the reason for not allowing other users to show what they have done with the software is because they fear that an outsider will put their efforts to shame. It can happen! But someone else’s innovation can be a great source of learning!

The best forums are the ones where they allow a “promotional” area! It is common sense that once you have done something you want to find an audience! However, the Forum Fascists don’t see it that way! It really comes across that they do not want you to succeed. Why should you? You weren’t there from the beginning? You don’t contribute much, so why should the other longstanding members give you any support? Yeah, dumb unwritten rules that these lovely people go by! The Not So Silent Majority! The Forum Illuminati who are willing to delete your membership at will! Wow! Such power!

I try to instigate interesting conversations beyond taking about Mr. Fluffy the cat and my thread gets ignored or sabotaged. You can just see that the Instigators of Derision are private messaging each other to pour on the onslaught of undeserved scorn.

THE TESTS
I have conducted a bunch of tests to see if my hypotheses were correct…

Test One
I held up a mirror to the forum by starting simple threads that required simple answers and before you know it the responses got out of hand.

Test Two
I noticed that there was a member who has an online business using the software and, although he joined in the derision, he was up for an article based on him and his business! Ultimately he is loyalty lies with himself! Way to go! Yes, I ran another online magazine a while back!

Test Three
I would post pictures similar to the one above to see if they were able to understand the context. There were the usual bigots who would class me as a pornographer and there were those who actually got it! My good God… A glimmer of hope – if I weren’t deleted! Lol!

Yes, I haven’t lost my sense of humour! You’ve gotta laugh or these Misguided Misfits will win! Again, ultimately – in this case – the software company loses out… …no, not because of me alone! Uh-uh… It’s because of the private messages I received telling me that I was right to stand up to the judgeMENTAL Clique who have managed to consistently put people off!

I tell ya… …it’s not easy being a one-man army!

Thank you for reading! Please read Synapse Circuit magazine! Bless you!

WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY

RABBIT STEW
It seems to me that the only time we see confident women with technology is usually linked (get it?) with the sore subject (hee hee) of porn. “I run my own webcam site… Blah, blah, blah…” Or toys to enhance the female pleasure…”I love my rabbit…”

Over the years I have become a personal Tech-Guy  to my many female friends (of all ages) and I wonder why many of them don’t feel confident around tech. From the computer, printer to smartphones many women struggle to get the most out of them… It’s an odd phenomenon considering the beautiful and intelligent female presenters who show us the latest in consumer technology!

On the Gadget show we have or had the amazing Suzi Perry! Oh, I met Suzi Perry once; she was showing students how to present at a video production course I attended. She’s such a genuine lovely woman!

Then there’s LJ Rich who has been on QVC demonstrating various software and hardware. LJ Rich now does work on BBC’s Click! Fascinating woman of many talents!

If you look to the States there are so many female presenters who are beautiful geeks! You have Jessica Dolcourt and Molly Wood who do video reviews on the latest smartphones and other gadgets for CNet TV.

Surely, the aforementioned women should be sufficient inspirations for the, er, housewife – for want of a better expression – to get into technology and run with it as fast and as far as she can, no? I find it a little odd that some of my female friends thought (until I corrected them) that the Android was a make of phone! Kudos to Apple for making their iPhone ubiquitous to the point where people – including non-technical women (and men) feel the need to posses one!

YOU’VE GOT MALE
I guess part of the problem is that it comes down to men! Yes, who would have thought that in this day and age men are the bane and pain in the course of women getting off on tech! A few months back a female friend told me that she wanted to get a new phone because her old BlackBerry was broken beyond repair, so she went to Phones 4U to see what was on the market and with the view to make a purchase! However, she wanted a pay as you go and the sales person just bombarded her with a bunch of technobabble and proceeded to put her on a contract against her will! This resulted in her getting the hell out of Phones 4U in a flash and to come to me asking for advice! That should never have happened – at Phones 4U! I know what Phones 4U are like! I have been on the receiving end on a bunch of bull from several sales assistants at Phones 4U; as soon as you enter their store they are all over you like a swarm of bees on a sweet banana scented pheromone and try to sting you into taking a contract!

Then there’s PC World (UK) the owners of Phones 4U, the assistants in that establishment – for the most part of my experience – do not know what they are talking about. You go in and ask for a solution and they can lead you to believe that a solution does not exist. But I am quite confident with tech! I know how to research solutions. You’d think that the men in such establishments would know a thing or two, but a majority of the time they haven’t a clue… Oh, don’t get me started on the female sales assistants at PC World…The most they can do is look pretty while taking your money! Not even the most hairy of feminists can argue with that!

START
We have all got to start somewhere! A good 15 years ago I didn’t have a clue about computers, but I knew that I wanted one knowing that certain software could facilitate music production, graphic design, photo & video editing and so on. I don’t mind admitting to not knowing what a Wi-Fi was when I got my first decent Nokia! But I quickly learned! I learned through trial and error! I sure had a lot of errors! Come to think of it, I got my first PC by purchasing the component parts at a computer fair and put it together with the aid of a work colleague! Putting a PC together was more difficult then than  it is today! Today building a computer is like working with Lego!

Again, going back to the “Male-Thing”… I wanted a PC because of all the practical things that I could do with it! So, why don’t a majority of women pursue tech to get things done? An ex-girlfriend of mine felt compelled to purchase a digital camera, but she felt that buying a printer and computer was a bit much until I showed her what photo editing software can do. Women over the age of 35 have the opinion that technology is the domain of men! Today, many women are using their mobile phones to take pictures (and videos) now. I don’t think many are concerned with printing anymore; it’s enough to share via Facebook and other digital means. Even then some of my lovely female friends don’t or didn’t know how to get photos from devices and onto their PC via (micro) USB, Bluetooth, Wi-FI or to take the SD card out and into a card reader!

It seems that technology is seen as the domain of the young! Many women under the age of 30 seem to be making the most out of tech! Dare I say it, some of the time the interest in tech is driven by their efforts to meet men or keep in touch with their boyfriends / partners, etc via Skype and a webcam? It’s good to see young ladies become tech savvy! Well, kinda... Once in a while I am asked to layout / edit a friend's CV because she just have difficulties getting her head around other aspects of Word for Windows beyond letter writing and even then there are terrible spelling and grammatical errors! How is it possible????

I worked as an IT teacher in a community based institute a few years back and I did my best to help out the women of different ages get to grips with the basis of Photoshop! There was a lot of pressure to come through for them, but it was also a pleasure! Now guys on the other hand… I have to say that I hated teaching guys because they don’t pay attention – they think they know it all! You tell them not to do something and they do it and when they get lost in the mire of their own creation they want to blame the teacher, me!

It would make me very happy to see women who view themselves as simple “housewives” take an active part in using technology as part of their daily lives! After all, women are said to be able to multitask!

Ladies, please read Synapse Circuit!

Bless you! 

ANTISOCIAL NETWORKING? PART TWO FORUM FASCISM

ANTISOCIAL NETWORKING? PART TWO 

FORUM FASCISM

THE SON OF… …WAIT FOR IT…SPAM!

Do you know what we are? Sleepers… Sleeping agents for whatever agenda – agendas that we may not be aware of! Well, I guess this is the true meaning of a secret agent! If we were the wiser we’d behave differently! A lot of us are asleep; we’re in a dream world!

The advent of the “Social Network” has been a powerful and all encompassing one. It, as we know, pertains to our natural instincts to form bonds with people. But social networking is nothing new! We had this with these messaging clients when the Web (an apt name) was in its infancy where the populous is concerned. Heck, I even met a girlfriend through one of these chat clients! This was shortly before ICQ took off in the way that it did. But I used to like chatting with folk from all over the world! It was amazing and I formed bonds with people that I am sadly no longer in contact with! Yes, I moved to Holland and my Dutch life took over!

Social Networking, before that term was coined, was used by many online businesses in the form of forums! Forums are great for forming an allegiance to a brand, product, etc. The trouble with forums is that it can become a breeding ground for idiocy in the extreme! I have been a veteran of many o’ forums attached to many different things i.e. music software, music communities, design communities and so on. But I have never been there at the start of these forums. When I come along I seem to upset the balance. I have observed that forums quickly establish a clique and they, like the Star Trek Borg, think with a “hive” mind. A hive mindset is not something that I would ever want to a part of. This singles me out as an outsider from the get go! It’s like the Matrix movies where Agent Smith must replicate himself in order assert some odd sense of order… New World Order! Lol! An order of uptight Agent Smiths! God forbid!

Of course, I pose no real threat but this Hive Mind Clique has already made up their collective mind as to who I am and what I represent. The amount of time I have gotten into arguments where they haven’t been able to make any sense, but their actions speak so loud that it is deafening! As individuals they can’t see how they break the forum rules by ganging up on one individual. Whenever they lose an argument they just find something else to dig at! In fact at one point the forum owner had to intervene to state that the moderator had developed her own rules, which had nothing to do with their (the forum owner’s) statement of conduct. These forum “moderators” take it upon themselves to judge others based on their limited intelligence and try to take liberties with others. The Forum Hive Clique is the Invasion of the Body Snatchers! So, don’t fall asleep! Guard your right to think for yourselves!

“Aaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, SPAMMER!!!!” screamed the Forum Hive Clique Body Snatchers earlier today! Why? Ok, I will tell you why…

As you know I have recently put my magazine and website online! And I went to the ‘General’ part of a forum that I used to frequent who trolled me in the past for “Spamming”. Anyway, you are allowed to include your website link in your signature and that’s what I did. Furthermore, someone was asking about how to create a publication that uses the flip / page turn effect. I gave the person some ideas on how to do it and I created a link to my magazine that has the page turn effect and gave that person the way in which I did it. The next thing I know I was cut out of the forum with a message saying, “You have been banned because you are a spammer… Never to return…” I had to laugh because it is so petty and spiteful and so typical of this particular forum!

Some people use the term “SPAM” to cover up their own inadequacies as a group of misfits and as individuals. If they can’t do anything then you can’t either! The problem they seem to have is that I have a PayPal button on my site and some people just don’t like the thought of others being a success – unless it has been sanctioned by the Forum Hive Clique Collective! What’s even more intriguing is that I use the same software they do to create websites. It’s just that I am prevented from showing my site off. Well, if that pleases them… Small minds ‘n’ all! I wonder if the people behind the software are aware of the moderators (sic) actions… This is a reason why I wouldn’t want to have a forum on my site because you just don’t know who you’re letting into your house so to speak! And if I wanted to reach many people with my product / service I would not want a moderator or group of moderators who aren’t able to differentiate “spam” from someone being proud of their work and wanting to share – especially as – in my case – the website was created using the software associated with the forum. I am sure the software makers are losing customers because of a bunch of Forum Fascist Misfits! Oh, well… …that’s their look-out!

THE EXPERIMENT
Do you know of that experiment whereby people were told to administer an electric shock remotely to someone in another room by an authority figure and increase the dosage to dangerous levels? This experiment was recreated by mentalist extraordinaire, Derren Brown for UK’s Channel 4. Some people were quite happy to dish out the electric shocks to fatal levels despite the (pretend) screams from the anonymous person in another room… But there were those who refused to act on the orders of the authority figure. The Forum Fascist Hive Collective love to dish out the punishment because they are very disturbed people. If you happen to have a forum like that you are in trouble! Don’t ignore it! Don’t be afraid that you’ll lose customers by putting these trolls right! They are too stupid to realize that they are themselves trolls. They are a corrupt police force that has no cut off point. In their Hive Mind they actually think they are doing good. As individuals they are sleepers who only awaken online to their perverse mental, neural projections of who they think they are!

The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

WAKE UP
Think for yourselves! Don’t join the feeble minded! Celebrate creativity and celebrate those who wish to share! 

Synapse Circuit Issue #01

A true independent tech review magazine…
I am so happy to have gotten the first issue of Synapse Circuit out! It has been long overdue, thank you all for your support! It shows me that true journalism isn’t dead! Phew!

Personally, I have more or less stopped buying tech review magazines because I just don’t like what I have read – it’s almost as if there are a handful of people writing for the same magazines. They review in exactly the same way and, as always, they give certain products high praise unduly! I won’t list the mags. I can’t say that I am bitching; it’s just an observation.

I have spent long hours working on the website… …what you see is the third incarnation of the site! I like it!

Once upon a time…
Yes, once upon a time I used to be employed as a web designer. The heady days where there was once a division of labor! Oh my… …what happened to those days? The days when I could just focus on the look and graphics of the site in something like Dreamweaver and give the results to a coder to add the magic of the MySQL, PHP, CGI, and whatever… If those acronyms don’t mean much to you then welcome to my club! Lol!

If you have any ambition of building a website I will show you the best software that will enable you to do so without all that bothersome code!

Stay tuned! Thanks again for your support!

Blue Gene
Editor