So it’s a new year…have you forgotten anything?

Here’s a hint:

Ever see a site with a copyright statement 6 months out of date? Even big-shot corporate blogs make this mistake. But on a young, growing blog, it looks particularly bad.

Or perhaps you don’t have a copyright statement at all? Tsk tsk.

Why don’t we automate this, so we’ll never, ever have to think about it again? Here’s how to do it in WordPress:

1. Log in to WordPress, and go to Theme Editor.
2. Choose “footer.php”.
3. Delete your current copyright statement (if it exists), and insert the following code:&copy; 2008 – <?php echo date(Y); ?>…replacing “2008″ with the date you started your blog.
4. If you wish, put your name adjacent to the copyright, being sure not to disturb the php date tag. See mine below for an example.
5. Done.

Happy New Year! Anyone got a good detox recipe?

Rush Limbaugh in Serious Condition at Honolulu Hospital – KHON2.com
KHON2 has learned that conservative radio host, Rush Limbaugh was taken from the Kahala Hotel in an ambulance just after 2:40 p.m. Wednesday.

Sources say the 58 year old was suffering chest pains before the ambulance arrived.

EMS confirms a male was taken from the hotel in serious condition.

He is a guest at the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

The Hawaii republican party says Limbaugh was in Kona on the Big Island two days ago.

No other information was available on his condition.

We’ll have more information as it becomes available.

Today is the first anniversary of this blog. I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve ignored it, I’ve used and abused it. I thank you for the interaction, and the support. Now…I will be making some changes around here very shortly, and if you’ve been reading regularly or have subscribed, you may want to stop now.

After the surprising increase in traffic during my most recent Google Garbage™ experiment, I’ve decided for the time being to spend some of this blog’s precious PageRank on more such specious pursuits.

The fact is, posting a bunch of nonsense is good for business. I supposed the television networks figured this out decades ago, didn’t they?

Putting up posts on hot topics and/or “long-tail” niche keywords has made me a pretty nice little chunk of change over the past few months, here and elsewhere. Apparently this is how kids can make money these days. Since I don’t particularly have the time to do much else, that’s what I’ll be using this blog for, at least for the foreseeable future.

This is just to announce the change to the handful of readers who have stuck around through the garbage posts. If I have anything interesting to say or show, I’ll probably post it at my Tumblr blog.

Again, I suggest you unsubscribe and stop reading now, or you’ll find yourself reading about car radiator repair, rapid drug detox, natural snoring remedies, home surveillance cameras and Bowling Green State University.

Thanks all!

As you may or may not have noticed, Twitter.com disappeared for about an hour last night. Their DNS records were apparently compromised by someone claiming to be the (previously unheard-of) “Iranian Cyber Army”. The DNS entry, which essentially tells your web browser where to find individual sites, was apparently changed by some mischief makers to point to the wrong place. Some users saw a message from the “Army”, while others simply couldn’t access the site. It was back to normal in an hour or so.

It is unknown whether the “Army” acted in response to my repeated exclamations that “Twitter Must Die“.

It’s not the first time Twitter has gone down, though it’s certainly the most spectacular. Unfortunately, the crew at Mashable.com, who (as we’ve repeatedly noted, are obsessed with Twitter), reacted to the outage with Hindenburg-style hysterics.

Ben Parr, Mashable’s intrepid co-editor and repeatedly failed entrepreneur according to his own web site, breathlessly reported that Twitter had been hacked (a statement he later tweaked for accuracy purposes). Parr stated:

For one of the world’s most popular websites to be compromised and taken down, even for a few minutes, is a big problem. This type of thing should never happen, regardless of who is to blame.

You tell ‘em Ben! This should never happen! Twitter should never make the rookie mistakes you made with your own start-ups.

In his follow-up piece, Parr grew far more hysterical (and repeated the inaccurate, irresponsible “hacking” charge). Get a load of this:

We’re still in shock over what has just transpired. Twitter was just hacked.

…

Little compares to what has happened tonight. Even if it was a third-party DNS attack, Twitter still gets the black eye.

This is unacceptable for one of the world’s top 20 most-visited websites. There needs to be accountability for this situation (no matter if it’s within Twitter or within a third party), and a more detailed explanation is warranted. Twitter also needs to find a way to assure that this never happens again.

This is a tragedy beyond compare! It is unacceptable! Something must be done!

To their credit, some more intelligent Mashable readers called out Parr for over-reacting and being absurdly dramatic. But most of his readers joined right in:

Who knows if the hackers got our passwords and personal information?

I’m thinking about deleting my Twitter after this….It seems so unsafe now!

Do these people have all my info???

What will I do with out Twitter?

Can’t connect either from venezuela… There’s a hole in my heart and is killing me forever (8).. and is only being there for 30 min now =|,

I am having withdrawal symptoms already. Twitter down, not good :[

God Damn those fuckers, and Twitter has got to do something about the God Damn security on its website… damn it I am pissed off

PRAISE JESUS. TWITTER’S BACK.

Ben, you and your readers need to get outside and get some fresh air. You’ll feel better, I promise.

This time I created 20 posts based on the latest upward-trending Google keywords, and put in even less effort to make them anything but cursory. In addition, I slapped AdSense ads above and below the posts to see if I could catch any of the visitors on the way out.

Though I’m choosing these keywords at random from Google’s list of trends, last time I happened to pick a topic with legs (as it were), “Amanda Knox”. Though the web was full of info about this young woman, my post of pics was enough to triple my traffic. And as new developments occurred in her murder trial, my inane post returned to the top slot in my traffic reports.

This time I didn’t have that golden combination of sex and death working for me. Most of the hot keywords were pretty mundane, with the possible exception of the gay porn-star cat burglar, and the obligatory “Tiger Woods Affair photos” post, which continued to be popular even after the photos themselves disappeared. Perhaps if I could have been bothered to host them myself, this would have been a bit more popular.

In any case, I struck gold nonetheless. Unpredictably, this recipe for “Crack Pie” has proved unbelievably popular, generating about 8000 visitors in two days. As I write this at 5:00 pm on Thursday, Google Analytics says I’ve has over 6500 visitors so far today alone. The post has also been linked to by several prominent sites, which will no doubt increase my profile immensely in terms of Google. In fact, I’ve already seen my rankings improve for my primary keywords, thanks to this ridiculous little exercise.

As for the ads, only 1-2% of visitors actually click on them, which isn’t spectacular. However, with every day that goes by, my time putting together the posts becomes more profitable. Right now that time may have netted $10 – 15/hour, but by tomorrow that could be $20 or $25. By next year, who knows?

So should I do it again? That’s something to think about. It’s certainly not making the internet a better place, but I’m not sure that’s my job.

Nobody dreams of growing up to run a junkyard…

Tiger Woods Affair Photos

Tiger Woods Affair Photos

Here are complete list of alleged mistresses of Tiger Woods with their photos:

Rachel Uchitel	Jaimee Grubbs	Kalika Moquin
Jamie Jungers	Mindy Lawton	Cori Rist
Holly Sampson	Julie Postle	Unidentified Mistress No. 9
Unidentified Mistress No. 10	Veronica Siwik-Daniels a.k.a Joslyn James

What is this post? See here.

Big Ten Expansion?

Commissioner Jim Delany is not the only person within the Big Ten who supports expansion, Penn State coach Joe Paterno has come out in favor of adding an extra team as well. Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema has also thrown his support towards adding a 12th team.

For what it is worth, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald has spoken out against the idea of expansion, citing wanting to stick to traditions.

If the Big Ten is looking to expand, then the question becomes, who is the lucky 12th team? Here are a few names that have floated around, and some reasoning behind these choices.

Rutgers: The Red Raiders have vastly improved in the last few seasons despite having a down year in 2009. Adding in Rutgers will expand the Big Ten to the East coast as well as give them inroads to the New York media outlets.

Syracuse: Cuse was on the wish list for the ACC a few years back, but the Big East fought hard to keep them in place. If the opportunity arises again, the Big East may not be so lucky. Syracuse has had a historical football program that has hit on hard times. However, they do add a big gain when it comes to basketball.

Pittsburgh: Bringing in Pitt brings in the possibility of creating an instate rivalry between the Panthers and Penn State. Pitt has put together a solid program over the past seasons and would help the overall strength of the Big Ten.

What is this post? See here.

Brian Setzer collapses

Brian Setzer rushed to Albuquerque hospital
Three-time Grammy winner left stage Dec. 14 during a sold-out concert

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Three-time Grammy Award-winner Brian Setzer was rushed to an Albuquerque-area hospital after cutting short a concert.

Setzer, former frontman of the Stray Cats, had performed three Christmas-themed songs with his Brian Setzer Orchestra when he left the stage Monday night during a sold-out concert at Isleta Resort and Casino.

A publicist for Setzer didn’t immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages left by The Associated Press.

What is this post? See here.

787 First Flight Video

787 First Flight Video:

CNBC broadcast the Boeing 787’s first flight video. Here’s the video with Phil LeBeau’s commentary:

What is this post? See here.

Boeing 787

Boeing 787 VIDEO:

What is this post? See here.