The Consumer’s Corner

deviant ART is an amazing user driven art web site that everyone should know about, eveN if for no other reason than their selection of brlliant wallpaper images. The site as a whole covers all things art, from traditional paintings, 3d digital images, photography, even poems and short stories!

I think places like Deviant are what makes the internet such a great place; where else can thousands (millions?) of artists come, and show off their goods, just for art’s sake. All the images can be downloaded  directly to your hard drive absolutely free of charge, where they can be printed. Better yet, you can have some of the pieces professionally printed (on canvas or poster paper) in many sizes, and shipped to you for a reasonabl fee. They even make coffee cups! Anyway, you get a high quality product for a low price, and help that starving artist out at the same time.

When you register, you’ll receive your own little page, where you can store your favorite works by others, and have your own submissions on display. You can even run a blog. The search features are super easy to use, allowing you to type in whatever you want to look for, or use the menu to find things by process of elimination. Each image has a ‘Zoom In’ and ‘Add to Favorites’ buttons which are self explanatory. Most artists will personally thank you on your page if you make one of their images one of your ‘favorites.’

For the kiddies and the conservatives out there, the site does host a massive collection of nude photography (some of it well past the ‘is it art or pornography’ line), so be careful while surfing. A filter is available, should you choose not to be exposed. The great majority of it is tasteful, and falls well within the ‘art’ grouping rather than straight ‘porn’, but I just thought I’d give you a heads up. Enjoy!

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

I love reading the news via the internet; it’s cheaper (like, totally free) than news papers (and much more green!), you have the ability to search for actual news worthy (to you) stuff, and most places will allow you the ability to add comments and discuss stories with others. You can gain a vast amount of insight into the world this way, mainly how ignorant people are.

Thoof.com offers you personalized news through their site, automatically. ‘Personalized?’, you ask? Yep. As you read stories, Thoof will remember what you’ve clicked on. That’s it.  All you have to do. Should you have read the story and didn’t happen to like it, you will have the option to tell the Thoof God’s that you weren’t impressed. It learns! Follow this process enough times, and soon you’ll be presented with a huge page of news customized just to fit your particular tastes.

Thoof is comparable to other services like Digg, Reddit, plime, and especially Stumble. The difference is, there’s really not a ‘front page,’ just your page, displaying only the stuff Thoof thinks you’ll want to see. Users submit stories and blog entries, and by using a tagging system, you’re shown only the results that are filtered to correlate with your previous likes and dislikes. Bloggers can even add Thoof Rank Badges to items they submitted that detail how relevant the article is to the rest of the communities tastes.

Try it out, and leave me some feedback about what you think. I’m sold already, but if you have any differences in opinion, don’t be shy.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

Very useful blog post that I found from Stumble, so I figured I’d share with you guys. It’s not really ‘review able;’ it’s just a nicely organized list of free/open source programs. Hope you enjoy it!

Best 101 Free Computer Software For Your Daily Use

–Jeremy Hobbs

I can’t so much as offer this as a review, but an experiment. Many of my regular readers are other bloggers, so this one is for you guys. rssHugger is a free* service that will help you gain a bit of exposure to your RSS feed. RSS readers are the ‘Holy Grail’ for bloggers, so you can understand how important that exposure is.

rssHugger, in it’s current state, is big enough to hopefully offer some positive gains for your site, but it’s not so big that it would be easy for you to get lost in the shuffle. I’ll be giving them a shot; I hope you will as well.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

Recently I reviewed / recommended the excellent news source ‘The Drudge Report.’ Matt Drudge runs a tight ship, bringing you the best of the best in mainstream news. But there is another side to the news industry; an ‘underground’ if you will. People that spill the beans, and tell you the things that ‘they’ don’t want you to know. Alan Watt, and his site ‘Cutting Through The Matrix’ is one of those sites, and I bring you this ‘review’ if for no other reason than to be thorough.

Alan is based out of Canada, runs a (bi-weekly?) internet radio show, produces books, CD’s, and DVD’s that ‘enlighten’ people as to how the world really works. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to a few of his broadcasts, and at the very least, what you’ll hear is bizarre enough to keep you interested. Especially the callers!

Whether I buy into these conspiracy theories or not is inconsequential, I just think it’s great that we can live in a world where this type of ‘information’ is freely available to those who want it.

As far as a ‘real’ review goes, I can’t give you one. I have not, nor will I ever purchase any of his products. No good can come of doing so; if he’s right and ‘they’ are out to get me, I’d rather not be on the mailing list of the guy who exposed ‘them.’ Should he be (gasp!) wrong; I’ve wasted perfectly good money that could’ve been spent on genetically modified food.

Take a peak, if for no other reason than other reason than to hear a different point of view. Keyword being ‘different.’ Who knows, you may be one of the few who becomes ‘awakened.’ Remember to keep an eye over your shoulder though; just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!

 

Official Site

 

–Jeremy Hobbs

 

 

 

alan watt, cutting through the matrix, conspiracy theory, underground news

Everyone in society should do there very best to be an informed citizen, and to do that you must keep up with current events. An easy way to do that is by reading your newspaper, but I detest newspapers; they’re big, bulky, cost money, and are slam full of things that most people really do not need or care to know about; also known as filler. Again, not trying to be an activist, but they’re also a tremendous waste of resources. Useful for local news only.

So where does one turn for news? You can try sites similar to Digg, but you’ll end up watching Mentos vs Diet Coke videos, and Britney’s latest screw up. Your local paper’s site might be of use, but it will be be full of ads, and (most likely) not full featured.

Me? I use the Drudge Report, which offers a unique selection of news covering a very broad spectrum of topics. You’ll get the major (read: important to the average person) financial, political, weather/natural, celebrity, and overall current events, usually with an odd ball story or two thrown in for the entertainment value. The site works by finding the biggest stories that are going around, and then linking to the page that authored said story. There is no personal commentary, minus an occasional jab in the stories title.

You can stay fairly up-to-date by checking in twice daily, though the site itself refreshes and adds content throughout the entire day. It even auto refreshes! I usually read once in the late morning/early afternoon, and again later at night. Maybe sometime again in the middle of the day if something major is happening, or I get bored and can’t think of anything to blog about.

This site isn’t the end all, be all of news sites, many of you will need more specific information on certain topics. To do that, you’ll of course have to find a more specialized site (or blog!) tailored to your specialized needs and/or interests. Drudge just offers you a ‘best of the best right now,’ and is more than suitable to allow you to appear knowledgeable while standing around the water cooler.

To my younger readers, I recommend (read again: plead with you to start) frequenting this site to get into the habit of knowing what’s going on in the world around you. Ignorance is not bliss, it’s sheer laziness. Older readers, considering this is one of the most popular sites on the web, you probably already check it out from time to time, but thanks for reading anyway!

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

drudge, news, current events

One of the first articles I ever wrote (a very long long time ago) was on ‘GodCasts.’ That was a subject that I was very passionate about at the time, and I still am. Since then, YouTube has exploded, and videocasts have become a far more popular device for delivering ‘home made’ media. It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing since before YouTube really took off. Maybe my time line’s off, that just doesn’t sound right.

Anyways, GodTube really works as a purely religious alternative to the all mighty YouTube. Granted, YouTube does have most of these religious inspired videos (probably all of them?), but it’s nice to have them all grouped together, without having to wade through all of the Mentos vs. Diet Coke garbage. Not to mention shady advertising.

Content includes a broad selection of movies, shorts, Christian music videos (yes, they do make those), and videos of sermons. There’s even more than that, but I don’t want to ruin all of the surprises. GodTube is simply a really great site for those of us who care about our faith, and want to enjoy faith-based entertainment. Not for everyone, I know. But the internet is a huge place, no reason that everyone cannot have their own niche.

Only downside is, things seemed to run a bit slow on my end, but it’s still a fairly young site, and I’m sure there are some kinks to work out. It’s very usable though, just expect a hiccup or two. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

video, web 2.0, christianity, religion

Today’s article is going to be a tiny bit short, simply because it doesn’t require all that many words to get the point across. PayPal, a service we (especially bloggers) all know and love, is teaming up with MasterCard to provide you with a new service; PayPal Secure Card.

What exactly is a PayPal Secure Card? Hint; it wont be a card at all. It’s going to be this little button you install into your compatible web browser of choice that is linked to your PayPal account. When shopping anywhere on the web, even at shops that have zero PayPal support, you can click this button and it will generate a one time use only MasterCard number that will allow you to complete your transaction with your available PayPal funds.

I use PayPal a lot, almost all the money I make online goes into that system, and I had grown quite tired of only buying stuff off of eBay. This is the perfect remedy, and I whole heartily commend them for implementing this into their service. Oh, and I’m sure the roll out just in time for Christmas shopping was purely coincidental.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

paypal, credit cards, shopping, mastercard

This one was so much fun to research! Have you been considering moving into a brand new community? You know that the real estate agent is going to tell you all the neighbors are perfect citizens, and most of them sing in the Church choir. But you and I both know that is just a huge load of crap. So where do you have to go to find the real deal on what is going on behind those strange looking people’s walls? Rotten Neighbor dot com.

I checked out my own neighborhood on Rotten Neighbor, and it had already been tagged several times; quite accurately I might add. I left a tag or two myself, and definitely plan on leaving more later. I just couldn’t wait to start the article and let everyone know about this service.

The mapping system runs off of Google maps, using the satellite, map, or hybrid views. I’ll assume it updates as often as Google does, but I really have no way of verifying that. Anyways, if you’re familiar with Google’s wonderful map service, you’ll feel right at home at Rotten Neighbor. If you’ve never used Google maps, you’ll catch on quick, and you’ll love it. Quite addicting.

Rotten Neighbor requires (a fairly painless) registration, but the comments you leave can stay anonymous (thank God). Most definitely a good thing. I recommend going and checking this out immediately; you might be surprised what you learn!

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

real estate, social network, tagging, maps

I am a very active participant in both of the biggest social networks (MySpace and Facebook), and if you get online much, you probably are as well. These social networks, along with a few others, are taking over the internet. It’s nearly gotten to the point that is as important to have an account at these sites as it is to have email. No reason not to have both, but for arguments sake, let’s say you can only pick one; which do you choose?

MySpace Pros

• Nearly Infinite customization options. Everything in the areas of colors, backgrounds, fonts, and over all style is user controlled. An entire (profitable) industry has been born dedicated to providing CSS layouts and other all types of other niceties for MySpace pages. Plus, with a tiny bit of html know how, you can make your own stuff, and express your artistic side.
• Privacy. It’s true that by using a tool or two a power user can still look at a lot of stuff you decide to hide, such as comments. But to keep away the prying eyes of the general populous, inserting a little piece of code into your ‘About Me’ is usually enough to make sure you keep your business your business.
• Awesome network of musicians and film makers. MySpace brings with it a video hosting section that could rival YouTube, and the music selection is astonishing. Many independent bands get discovered there, and it’s one of the best ways I’ve found to discover lesser known artists.
• Blogs. I’m all about blogging (duh!), and no blogging system is easier to use than MySpace’s. That’s where I really caught ‘the bug;’ I still update it, and I probably always will. It’s my ‘personal’ blog, and I like it being where all my online friends can have easy access to it, but strangers wandering in from Google cannot.

MySpace Cons

• Ads are freaking everywhere, some of them being quite adult in nature. Not a place I recommend for young kids (10 and younger). Others are just very annoying; they flash and make noise. I hate that.
• To get the most out of the service, you kind of have to learn some simple html. This is kind of a pro as well as a con, html is something that’s good to learn a little bit about, but it can certainly be tricky for those that are not especially computer literate.
• Spam. Especially geared towards young men. Expect porn invites daily, unless you make your profile private. This has gotten better (a lot better), but it’s not gone by any means.
• All the things that make some of the sites look so great; pictures, videos, music, etc. can really bog down a slower dial-up internet connection. Dial ups are becoming less and less common, but a great many people still use them.

Facebook Pros

• Super simple, and incredibly easy to use. Just fill out the forms, and you’re done. You can’t change things like your font, background, etc, so you’re good to go within a couple of minutes.
• Far less spam. I’ve been registered and active for several months, and I’ve never received anything that even resembles spam.
• Being nosy. Some people just like to know who said what, and when. Facebook gives you a ‘news’ feed of all of your friends activities. As long as two people are friends of yours, you can see what they’re saying to each other on their Wall’s, Pokes, etc.
• Third party developers are creating interesting little applications to help you personalize your page a bit, and many of them are very creative.

Facebook Cons

• At the core, all the pages look exactly the same. Some are just more cluttered than others. This removes a lot of your ability to use it as a medium to express yourself. You can add applications, but all that’s really doing is adding an extra box to your page.
• Keeping your privacy. You have to jump through a couple hoops to keep your stuff from showing up on friend’s feeds. Not cool at all. It should be the other way around; you should have to give permission.
• TMI. It can be annoying looking at your feed, and seeing a hundred instances of ‘x is now friends with x.’
• No true blogging options. Boo!

I like both, I’ll continue to use both (a lot), but if I had to choose one and only one one, I’d have to choose MySpace. I’m a creative individual, and MySpace allows me the tools to be creative. Regardless of which you choose, the best thing about both sites; they’re free! You’ll have hours, or in my case years, of good times. Can’t beat that!

MySpace.Com

Facebook.com

–Jeremy Hobbs

web 2.0, facebook, myspace, social networking