Tag Archives: Digg

Digg Updates

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Today and yesterday brought two major changes to Digg. Personally, I like the look of both changes, though I’ve yet to see the actual implementation yet.

Today Digg launched a much needed overhaul to the commenting system. I don’t think there is anyone on Digg who liked the way the comment system was. Nuff said about that.

Yesterday’s update isn’t going to make the “power diggers” too happy. The algorithm that determines what stories to promote to the front page has been tweaked. The changes should help to promote diversity in digging and discourage group digging. If it works as planed, I’m all for it.

Digg Updated

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Digg updated their site yesterday adding a much improved category navigation system. Also added is the new Digg Images section which has only been one of the most popular requests to ever hit Digg, second only to the “fix the damn comment system” requests. Maybe some day we’ll get that.

The Top 5 Sites I Visit

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I use to visit a lot of sites each day, and now I don’t. Why? Well, I really don’t have a real reason why. I guess I could chalk it up to being lazy. The fewer sites I have to check, the more time I can spend on them (and the less bookmarks I have to click!).

Digg (http://digg.com)
This is probably my main tech news site these days. I use to be a regular visitor to Slashdot.org, but lets face it news is posted on Digg far faster than on Slashdot. Not to say that /. is a bad site or anything, it’s just that I prefer to see what’s interesting right now, not what was interesting 4 or 5 hours ago. For those of you that enjoy the /. comment flame wars, the Digg comment system is just about the same… though I’ll admit, the recent update to the Digg comment system sucks.

Neowin.net (http://neowin.net)
I’ll admit, I visit here more for the forum than anything. Neowin’s forum is huge as well as highly active. My favorite sections are The Media Room and The Gamer’s Hangout… enjoy a TV show? I can almost guarantee that you’ll find others discussing it. The thread for Heroes (Season 1) had 156 pages and 2,335 replies, while the thread for Lost (Season 3) had 292 pages and 4,371 replies. Now, that’s what I call discussion topics! Sure, there is more to Neowin than games and TV shows… that’s just the sections I spend most of my time in. They’ve got areas devoted to Linux users (I should be there), Windows Users, Mac Users, and even those of you still interested in hardware, modding, and overclocking.

Mashable (http://mashable.com)
I started visiting this site a few months back, but only registered as a member last week. This is probably the best site around for information on Social Networks. To keep things active, they’ll also throw in “popular news” here and there. It’s basically like Techcrunch, but without all the skewed charts and graphs and a little less Web 2.0.

Engadget (http://www.engadget.com)
This is still one of the best places to visit for anyone who enjoys technology. There is a reason that “gadget” is in the name.

iGoogle (http://www.google.com/ig)
Though not a tech news or community website, Google is still important to me… especially the iGoogle. I use Google Bookmarks to manage my bookmarks, this way things are synchronized no matter where I am or what browser I’m using. Firefox at home? Opera at work? Easy access to my bookmarks right from Google. It also give me the ability to monitor my personal (Gmail) email from work. While I cannot access my mail directly, I can still see what mail has come in and from who. With the ability to add various other “gadgets” to my page, I have quick access to weather, news, RSS feeds, and more. Not to mention Google Search. It’s basically my one-stop-shop for everything I need. No wonder it’s my homepage.

There are still a number of other sites I visit on a regular basis (d3bruts1d.com, OperaWatch, FilePlanet, and even MySapce to name a few). Now that I’ve listed my “Top 5″ websites that I visit, which sites would you call your top 5?

Comcast E911 Fails

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Here is a story that you need to read if you have Comcast Digital Voice (VoIP) service. I’m posting this because I have CCDV, and I hope that maybe by some chance the “internet revolution” can help change Comcast so that no one else ever experiences this issue.

According to this blog entry, the guy’s son had a seizure and he tried to call 911 (via Comcast) twice and ended up with some odd noise rather than an emergency dispatcher. The guy ended up getting in touch with medical help by calling 911 on his cell. The problem of course, is that 911 via his home phone (with Comcast).

Thankfully the guy had a cell phone. Playing the what-if game, we could really change things… what-if he didn’t have a cell phone, or what-if the cell phone was dead… granted, if you have Comcast Digital Voice (or any VoIP service), you’ll probably own a cell phone… again, this is just a what if. What if the guy had been alone, hurt and couldn’t get to his cell? Better yet, what if it hadn’t been a medical situation… what if someone was breaking into the house.

Yes, things need to change. To be honest, I haven’t even tested the 911 service with Comcast. You better believe that this evening when I get home, I am going to test it out. — Important note here, if you plan on testing 911 with Comcast (or any other service), DO NOT JUST CALL AND HANG UP WHEN THE OPERATOR PICKS UP. You need to tell the operator that you were testing to make sure the service worked, if you hang up they will spend time and money trying to call you back and possibly dispatch police and medical to your residence.

Back to the original story…. after his son (along with his wife) had been taken via ambulance to the hospital, the guy (still at home with the other son) tried to call Comcast support and get some answers. Can’t blame him there, I would have. He was bounced around from person to person and center to center.

Now, I don’t know exactly what happened, or what was said, but I can guess some of the things I would have said. Truthfully, there probably wasn’t a thing that any minimum wage call center tech could have done for the guy, even the call center supervisors were probably helpless… add that to a rabid customer, and they probably were willing to do even less than they could.

I agree with the guy on the point that this is something that should go all the way up. If the 911 service does not work, it needs to. It has to work. It doesn’t matter what the cost is to Comcast, this service needs to be in place. They’re squeezing enough out of the millions of TV subscribers that they should be more than able to pay for any necessary changes that need to be made to make 911 work.

I encourage everyone to Digg the original blog entry (not mine) to help spread the word about this.

They Put A Hex On Digg.com

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What’s the big deal about this hex string?

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88

Well, for most people that is absolutely useless. However for Digg.com, that one little string could mean it’s death.

The number was posted to Digg.com and received a huge number of votes (including one from me!). The story was pulled, and quickly another story with the number was posted. Once again the story was pulled, which started a vicious cycle.

But things went from bad to worse for social new site Digg.com. The repeated “censorship” of Digg users sparked a revolt, which at one time had every story on the front page of Digg.com containing the key.

How will Digg operators put out the flame? This should be interesting… will they ban the several thousand user accounts that digg a story containing the hex number, or just the 5-10 “top” diggers? If they thought a revolt from a story removal was bad, I can only imagine the backlash they’ll encounter with a mass ban.

The press is also covering this revolt…. Drudge, C|Net, and a number of other site are covering the “War at Digg”.

Update: Digg founder, Kevin Rose, has responded to the HD-DVD revolt on the Digg Blog. The users have won!