Jay Adkins

If you haven’t heard by now, The Pirate Bay is being acquired by software company Global Gaming Factory X. GGF will acquire the torrent/file sharing website in August 2009 and will change the business model so that artists will be paid royalties for their work according to the TorrentFreak blog.

A sad time for lots of Pirate Bay fans out there for sure. This will inevitably be the end of an era in my opinion. Despite what the press release says, I believe the site will never be the same. Will they keep the free-spirited, defiant attitude of the old Pirate Bay? I sincerely doubt it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m behind the artists getting paid 150% but the RIAA and big record companies are greedy and only a small percentage of the money actually goes to the artists on any music sale. Of course The Pirate Bay isn’t just about music. It’s also host too millions of other files as well such as movies and television shows. I guess, in the end we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. The current owners of The Pirate Bay lost a huge lawsuit and with that looming over their heads, it’s bound to be one of the reasons for the sale but that is purely speculation on my part. Should The Pirate Bay have sold out? I think they should have sold for more than $7.8 million if they were going to sell at all, but that’s just my humble opinion.

Popularity: 2% [?]

What is Twitter? That’s the question a lot of people ask. Those who are familiar with the service and use it on a daily basis will tell you what it is, but are they right? Twitter started out as a project by company board members of Odeo. Not realizing just how popular the service would be, the board members including Jack Dorsey, branded the service Twttr. Inspired by services like Flickr, the service adopted American mobile short code 40404 due to the fact that it is easily remembered and can be used by SMS from most American mobile phone carriers.

The working name was just “Status” for a while. It actually didn’t have a name. We were trying to name it, and mobile was a big aspect of the product early on … We liked the SMS aspect, and how you could update from anywhere and receive from anywhere.

We wanted to capture that in the name — we wanted to capture that feeling: the physical sensation that you’re buzzing your friend’s pocket. It’s like buzzing all over the world. So we did a bunch of name-storming, and we came up with the word “twitch,” because the phone kind of vibrates when it moves. But “twitch” is not a good product name because it doesn’t bring up the right imagery. So we looked in the dictionary for words around it, and we came across the word “twitter,” and it was just perfect. The definition was “a short burst of inconsequential information,” and “chirps from birds.” And that’s exactly what the product was.
—Jack Dorsey

Twitter is not the new kid on the block anymore. The service has become mainstream in the fact that the name alone is being used in everything from commercials and news casts to viral advertising by companies like Pepsi. Twitter is used by individuals, companies as a form of marketing and even celebrities. So, what do you think Twitter is? Is it a messaging service, a status tracker, an instant messaging service or all of the above? Do you think people are using the service as it was intended?

Personally I think Twitter has spun out into a life of its own. I believe it became bigger than anyone had anticipated and will have dire effects if it ever shuts down for good. I don’t anticipate that happening in the foreseeable future. Is it a fad or faze that we are going through or will Twitter stand the test of time? I guess we’ll have to wait and see but they will have to come up with a plan to monetize the service before they run out of funding, otherwise the service will be lost and that would be a sad day for those of us who are social media geeks.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I just wanted to take a minute to say if you’re reading this and you are a father, Happy Father’s Day!.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Last night my wife mentioned to me that her mother who is in a nursing home was having a “Senior Prom” and wanted to know if we (the family) could come to the prom. I said “sure, why not”. I mean how bad could it be. The old folks want to feel young again and that’s cool. I know when I’m that age, I’ll tear it up in my wheel chair as they spout nick names for me like “hot rod” and “Evel Knievel” to which I will just throw up my thumbs up sign while swerving through the halls of the nursing home screaming “watch out!”.

Anyway, I kinda went off subject there for a minute. So, this “Senior Prom” thing should be cool. All of the residents of the nursing home got new dresses and suits for the event and there will be catered food (yum). I’ll post actual photos of the even tomorrow, but here’s one that I think represents the night as it will occur.

If they start spiking the punch with little blue pills, I’m outta there! I swear it!

UPDATE:

I stayed home and let the wife and kids go to this thing, so unfortunately I won’t have any photos of grandma doing the Macarena or gramps trying to do the Hand Jive (no pun intended). Sorry kids, maybe next time!

Popularity: 2% [?]

I got up this morning, kicked on the old pc like I do every morning and started checking my emails. Very curiously, I saw one that said I ‘made a baby’ and it was from my wife via Facebook. You can imagine the curiosity, the bewilderment, the pure discombobulation I was feeling at that moment. After all, we already have three children (beautiful children I might add) and now I’m getting this message from my wife via Facebook. As I stared in amazement at the email, there where many scenarios running through my mind. My trembling fingers (from my lack of caffeine) resting upon my mouse, jerking hastily as if they wanted to click the link themselves. Finally, I gave in and to my surprise, I saw the following image:

Courtesy of my wife!

My reaction was pure relief and hilarious laughter at the same time. Ok, ok, she got me. I’ll give her “one up” on this one but I shall seek my revenge. The perfect timing WILL come and she will feel the wrath of Baby Jay! As for now…laugh all you want but oh yes, I will get my satisfaction for all of the Interwebs to see.

Popularity: 2% [?]

By now you may have heard all the hubbub about St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa’s Twitter account being hacked. It seems Tony is so peeved about the hack that he’s now suing Twitter. Apparently someone got a hold of Tony’s Twitter account and made some statements that he didn’t particularly find amusing. Now, Twitter is responding with the possibility of verified accounts, which may or may not be a good thing.

In my humble opinion, I believe verified accounts would be a good thing in that you would know exactly who you’re talking to. On the flip side, the anonymity wouldn’t be there and some may have a hard time saying things they would normally say, knowing that no one knows the “real person” behind those comments. I think it will be good, especially for celebrities who Twitter. I mean who wants to talk to some “wannabe” celebrity when they can Twitter with the real deal, right?

Either way, someone will always come up with some way to get around the system and each time they do, Twitter will be there to counter. In Twitter’s latest blog post, the also say that Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit was basically a waste of judiciary time and “Twitter has not settled, nor do we plan to settle or pay.” Go Twitter!

Popularity: 44% [?]

Is it just me or should some people just refraine from using social media at all? In this scenario, a man decides to tweet his whereabouts while arriving on vacation to see some friends in Kansas City. Unfortunately when he and his family returned home, they found that their home had been robbed.

Police were not ready to like the robbery to the Twitter post, @izzyvideo say he will not stop Twittering because of the incident.

All I can say is next time, you may not want to share as much information about where you’re going and what times you’ll be there. Unless of course you have a security system and a pack of Dobermans waiting at the front door.

Popularity: 24% [?]