First of all, I should offer up a disclaimer, I had a cell phone while in High School and College…infer what you will about my age. When I started high school, cell phones were just permeating their way into the nuclear family. I, unlike my younger cousins, had to get a job to pay the “cell phone bill” before the days of family plans and toddlers with Nokias.

One common rule in my household was whenever I went anywhere, I had to call and “check-in” with my parents as to where I was at, if I changed locations, I had to check in as well. The cell phone had opened up a whole new world of keeping tabs on me for my parents – they loved it (though I still paid the bill).

Recently, I downloaded the 4Square application for my blackberry. If you’re not familiar, it’s a social network that allows its users to check in from whatever location they’re at. So, let’s say I was at my neighborhood bar, I can “check in” with my 4square network and let them know. On top of that, 4Square will post a tweet letting anyone following me on twitter know where I was. Essentially, I could let anyone in my social network know I was having a beer. And anyone in the area would know (and presumably come flocking to meet me). Anyone stalking me (it happens quite often) would know my exact whereabouts anytime I checked in.

Flashback to 1999, for discussions sake, let’s say I had both twitter and 4square back in High School (making me either the coolest guy on campus, or the biggest nerd). My parents could have easily followed me on twitter, then had me check in anywhere I was at. Think about the convenience in not having to call them every time I was on the move. And imagine my parents – instantly calmed just by glancing at my twitter feed.

To say we’ve come a long way is a bit naïve; the important thing to note is that we’re still progressing. Who knows what kind of social networks and tracking we’ll have by the time I have kids? The one thing I do know is my kids are absolutely done for – they’re not getting anything by me.

Max Ray Butler, a former security researcher, was just sentenced to 13 years in Federal prison for hacking into financial institutions under the alias “The Iceman”. He was found guilty of wire fraud and identity theft and will be made to pay 27.5 million dollars in restitution, in addition to his 13 year sentence and five years of supervised release.

It is believed that this sentence is the harshest ever doled out for any hacking crime, and is meant to be a message to other like-minded cyber- criminals. Admittedly, it’s a scary proposition that today’s script –kiddies and mom’- basement-dwellers might be able to create and exploit security holes like this.

Just a few years ago, bank robbers had to “leave the house” and “find a bank”. After they were done “casing the joint”, they would have to go back to the bank with guns, shake everyone down, control the crowd and then escape in a get-away car.” Having to do all of that is deterrent enough to any sane person. The fact that most bank robbers leave with little or no money, and THEN most likely get caught and go to prison, pretty much guarantees that no one that you know will ever rob a bank.

The Iceman found a way around all this; there was never really anything to stop him. He stole more than the most ambitious bank-robbing syndicate could ever dream of stealing in a lifetime, and he did it from home and, surely, even in his sleep in some cases. It’s worth bearing in mind that the $27mm is only what he got caught stealing.

So, if it takes a decade or two of hard time to make someone hesitate when it comes to this sort of thing, I’m all for it.

“Hey, here’s an idea. Let’s create another social media network where people can voice what they just did. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, Foursquare – they’re just not doing it for me anymore.”

The above thought probably came from the creators of Google Buzz, Google’s foray into the social media world. Instead of diving into the pro’s and con’s of Google’s new social media application like every other blog in the internet – let’s take a look at another question. Do we really need more places to “express-ourselves?” Does the internet need another outlet for people to let us know that they just ate a sandwich/just watched a tv show/just went to the bathroom?

I’m saying no. Though, I’m fairly certain me saying “we don’t need it” won’t stop Google from rolling it out, probably won’t stop it from being massively successful either. The end user here, you and I, don’t need another social media stream in our lives. Let’s look at Facebook, it became a fun place to share your latest internet gem or tell the word what you’re up to. Then Twitter started microblogging, so every time you wanted to share something, you had to post it to Facebook and Twitter. But alas, what if you left your computer for (dare I say) an evening out and went to a restaurant…well then it’s time to “check-in” with foursquare.

I get it, we’re all connected, we’re all sharing what we’re doing. We’re in touch with each other, and social media has really opened things up and made things easier for us to do so. Nielsen reports Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email, Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population, time spent is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate.

We’re starting to spend a lot of time on social networks, and I guess one such question to ask is, are we spending more time sharing things online than we are discovering new things to share?

Please feel free to post this article to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and of course now, Google Buzz.

On Saturday January 30th A UN Committee met to discuss world-wide regulation of the internet in order to curb cyber-attacks on companies and countries alike. Some officials called for the equivalent of a peace treaty between countries which would ostensibly outline what is permissible, what is not and even to draw the line between what is illegal and what may be considered an out-and-out act of war.

Many possible solutions were bandied about, none of which was scarier than what Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy officer for Microsoft proposed. He is among many experts that agree that there is a growing need to police internet activity in order to nip fraud, viruses and even espionage in the bud. While we can all agree that these are admirable destinations, the question is: “How do we get there?” While Mundie has other ideas, the most controversial among them is to require a sort of Internet Driver’s License (IDL) for all internet users.

This sounds like a wonderful idea for “criminals” “fraudsters” or other undesirables, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that no one can tell who’s who on the internet and so for something like the IDL to work, we would all have to have one. This sort of thing would mean not only the end of free speech on the internet (which is the only place free speech exists in some places), but it also opens the door for internet ID theft.

One can hope that this is just a blip on the screen, but I have my suspicions that we’ll be hearing more about this soon.

As I celebrate another birthday and reflect upon my youth, I realize how soft my generation has gotten. It used to be that to write a paper, one had to select a topic, go to the library, and find appropriate research materials using something called the Dewey Decimal System. Now all you have to do to achieve the same thing is to plug a few search terms into a search engine without leaving the comfort of your own home. Even worse was having to actually *read* through a lot of the material in order to even know whether or not it was even relevant to your paper. “Ctrl+F” has pretty much solved that little problem.

The absolute worst part (and this may be a little bit more specific to me, personally), was having to use a foreign language dictionary. I spent a lot of time in high school and college studying foreign languages, and spent hours of my life sweating over whether the translation of “wind” that I had used in a paper meant “air that’s moving fast” or “what you might do to a watch” (yes I had a watch that wound).

If I had had a product like Babylon Translation Software, I could have avoided many sleepless nights. I may have even gotten better grades. It’s a quick download, available in 19 countries over five continents. Learn how to say “show me the money” in every language on the planet!

  The Blue Phoenix Media team will be at the Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Vegas!  This event will be fully loaded with experts, vendors, affiliate merchants and networks ready to share their expertise and create money making relationships that will help affiliates rack up on the big bucks for 2010 and so on.  Some of the speakers include Larry Adams from Google, Dave Gaetano of the New York Times and the CEO of Offers.com, Steve Schaffer.  Some other companies that will be in the building are Facebook, Affiliate Future, Resource Nation and Hub Spot. 

Yes, these speakers and companies are fabulous movers and shakers of the online marketing world; however, it’s only right that we take a few seconds to boast a few of our many attributes that we feel you should know about before meeting us at Affiliate Summit West.  We’re known for our affiliate network which consists of over 200 advertisers and 4,000 publishers.  We’ve got our back end PHP server along with 20+ exclusive web properties to maximize brand awareness that we’ve built and own as well as various Education Portals that generate quality leads.  We offer campaigns in over 20 verticals which include Education, Consumer Products, Health and Diet, to name a few.  We also have a Coreg platform to serve into registration pages to monetize websites.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, our CEO Amy Sheridan and COO Malaika Schmidt along with their team of affiliate managers will be in full effect at Affiliate Summit.  If you’d like to schedule a meeting, shoot us an email at Meetings@BluePhoenixMedia.com, otherwise just stop by Table #7 on Sunday January 17, at the Affiliate Meet Market, Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Amazon A-E
Time: 12:00pm – 6:00pm .  See you soon!

Hello Blogosphere and Happy 2010 (It’s officially pronounced “twenty-ten” and not “two-thousand-(and) ten” in case you hadn’t heard). I’m off to work my way through day one of a trial membership at a local gym to try to get back to my fighting weight (one of several New Year’s resolutions that I have undertaken). I know that this is going to require jogging, which may be the cruelest self-inflicted punishment that is routinely undertaken, but alas, I fear I have no choice.

Once I get sick of the gym routine, I may have to reach for a cup of Yun Wu Tea to help me fight the battle of the bulge. After all, scores of affiliates can’t be wrong. Yun Wu is one of the last ancient tea formulas passed down from generation to generation. Only the finest blend of the purest tea is used for this premium blend of Yun Wu Tea. It’s got a $40.00 payout on a third page submit, and I’m guaranteed to see results in two weeks.