Going back to the early 90′s when I first started to heavily use the Internet I wanted to make money doing it.  Back then I used it to get mailing addresses for a small business I had going in High School and wanted to mail out a sales flyer to generate sales via phone, it worked.  In the late 90′s I remember All Advantage, a pay to surf the web tiered affiliate program.  Shortly thereafter I started to build websites and the rest has kind of been a blur.  It seems everything on the web can be monetized, Twitter is just another means to make some money for those who use it.

Back in the summer of 2007 I joined Twitter and while four and a half years isn’t very long, it’s forever ago in technology times.  The micro blogging service was quirky and no one really had any full understanding as what they were supposed to do with it.  It wasn’t long before I asked WTF was I thinking using Twitter? and vowed never to update it again.  Well, I have, and a lot.  By 2008 I was finding useful reasons to use it and for all intensive purposes, it’s a staple in my tech life and virtually everyone I know.  Twitter is so large now that I see TV commercials who no longer advertise their website or even Facebook page anymore, they are simply promoting the use of a #hashtag, this goes for major networks too.

Just over three months ago I joined SponsoredTweets, a site that links advertisers and tweeters together.  The company has some very high profile celebrities and some quick searching on Google made everything here seem pretty legit.  You fill out a short profile, including tags of things that both interest you and that you talk about on a regular basis.  Based on the date you joined Twitter, the number of followers you have in relation to the number you follow and a few other specifications, SponsoredTweets suggests a price for you per tweet.  When I initially signed up I had about 920 followers and it’s suggest price per tweet for me was $1.27 based on the tags I chose. When an offer comes in, you can accept or deny it, then use the given guidelines to write a tweet which will both include a link to what the advertiser wants and a disclaimer of your choosing, such as #ad, Ad:, #sponsored and a few others to indicate this is indeed an affiliate link.  When you accept and write your tweet it’s then sent for review by the advertiser, if they approve it SponsoredTweets will automatically tweet for you within a given time frame that the sponsor chooses.  Provided a few people click the links, you’ll get paid.  Continue reading »

My local newspaper, The Morning Call which is owned by the Tribune Company, publishers of The Chicago Times and the LA Times, among other has announced it will be changing it’s online terms to paid content.  It’s been nearly two months since the move was announced, but with the end of the free versions of online content readers are starting to become outraged.  I’m going to make an attempt to point out why this is not only a bad idea but one that will ultimately bring an end to my local newspaper.

Full disclaimer, I get paid to write articles for other sites, I understand nothing in life can be free and those who create work, tangible or not, should be compensated.  Randomn3ss has been a passion of mine for years as a way to explore my own writing and more specifically in this case, there is no option on The Morning Call’s website to leave comments for the article, which I find odd, so I’ll rebut it all here, piece by piece.

The Morning Call’s publisher is quoted as saying,

the decision to begin charging for digital content is based on readers’ strong demand for local news, features and sports on the Internet and mobile devices

Continue reading »

eBay is, without a doubt, the crowned king of person to person commerce.  There are downsides to eBay though, which most regular users gripe about.  Bloated shipping prices from sellers, which eBay has tried to regulate, fraud, several hour delay until your auction is live on the site, the almost exclusive use of Paypal for payments and of course the biggest complaint, fees.

Continue reading »

In November 2008 I was stoked to find a cool website that would tell me if I needed an umbrella today via text message.  After a week the success rate of messages was 50%.  The week following that I pretty much gave up on relying on the service to send me a text message, or have it be anywhere near the time I specified, the service was broken.

Continue reading »

Thirty-nine months ago I launched this project known as Randomn3ss.  The sole intention was to use this site as a platform to rant, rave, give reviews, complain and write about anything I wanted.  A staff of sorts quickly started writing with me and now, this is the 899th article published!

During the lifespan and evolution of Randomn3ss many changes have been made and this now is the third re-skinning of the site and I’m very pleased.  After using premium themes to re-launch my own site and more recently a friend / client’s site it seemed to make sense that Randomn3ss would receive one too. Continue reading »

It appears that the popular television torrent sources have taken shelter after several Cease and Desist orders.   That and the fact that the plaintiffs in thePirateBay lawsuit continue to seek jail time for the creators.

FeedMyTorrents left the following message at their old IP address which has since been taken down as well.

It’s over. We’ve received several take down requests, and have decided not to test the extents of the law.  We’d like to thank everyone who contributed, and for the fun times we’ve had.

TVRSS has not been live for quite some time, and I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering how, and where I will find relevant, high quality sources for my queries.

I just have to figure out how I will break it to my wife…no more Ghost Whisperer. (If I had only thought of this sooner!)

A few days ago an interesting tweet came up from someone I was following.  It started off normally, and had a link to the rest of it, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary.  The link I assumed would take me to a blog posting where the rest of the author’s message would be displayed, but it wasn’t.  It led me to Twitlonger.com, a new site for when 140 characters just isn’t enough.

Because of the Twitter open API, fun little projects like this one pop up.  Sometimes, 140 characters isn’t enough and you need 200 or 300 to get your message across, but it isn’t important enough to make a blog posting about.

Twitlonger defeats the sole purpose of Twitter by allowing more than 140 characters, which is most of the reason why Twitter has caught on so fast, but I think for certain instances, it works well.

After publishing The complete list of websites to stream full TV shows and movies from FirstonMars.com CEO Tuhin contacted me and asked that his site be added to the list, which I happily did.  I also decided to poke a bit further into his site, which is somewhat unique compared to the other places to stream.

First on Mars aggregates their video content from Hulu, so why wouldn’t I just use Hulu?  There are a few reasons; the most interesting one is the suggestion First on Mars gives you.  To get started, I’d suggest creating a free account so your settings are saved and you can start to favorite shows and networks as well as take advantage of the custom skins available.  If you’ve already cut the cable at your home, flipping through channels has a totally different meaning now, since you specifically choose what to watch, rather than landing on a show from the cable company half way through.  So what to watch?  This is where First on Mars gets really ingenious, they let you select your mood and make suggestions based on that.  Even better, you can deselect channels and shows you know you’ll never watch.  Personally, I never need to see anything on the Lifetime or We channel, so those were X’d right away!

There is also a place for My Shows and My Networks, making it easy to get caught up on the shows you already know you enjoy without digging through pages upon pages.  This feature alone is pretty handy if you watch several shows on a regular basis but can’t always remember which ones.

A blog http://blog.firstonmars.com/ will keep you up to date on new happenings with the site and you can also follow them on Twitter @firstonmars.  The site doesn’t feature any fluff or distractions, something I very much appreciate in today’s overwhelming web design.  That aside, it is done entirely in flash, so depending how fast your connection to the web is, it might take a few seconds longer to load than a typical website.  Video is streamed from Hulu so the content delivery is the same, usually flawless.  I’d also be interested in seeing a forum installed so users could discuss, share and suggest shows to each other, as well as develop some fan forums that cover plot lines or relive their favorite shows from years gone past that are now slowly coming to streaming.  I can’t tell you how happy I was when I first found Airwolf online!

Give First on Mars a try, or if you already use it, reply below and let me know what you think and what your favorite features are. With more than 12,500 episodes online, you’re bound to find your favorite shows and some new ones you might not have ever known about!

Simple little acronyms have completely taken over the internet.  Most everyone who has done an instant message chat session or a text message on a phone is familiar with LOL, or laugh out loud, and BRB, be right back.  Acronyms have been around forever, some have slipped so far into our verbal dialect that we just say them without much thought, like FUBAR, Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition, ASAP, As Soon As Possible, and VIP, Very Important Person. 2007′s movie Superbad introduced the world to a new acronym, FML, short for Fuck My Life.

As with all good things, it has now become a website with short user submitted stories.  Matt made a tweet (@xcrament) late last night that had me full engaged, laughing and entertained for nearly a half hour. Let me share with you, www.fmylife.com, and get read to spend some time reading, laughing and feeling bad for random people you’ll never meet.

A few choice stories,

Today, this guy took me to Denny’s on a first date and used a 2 for 1 coupon. It was expired. I paid. FML

Today, my boss fired me via text message. I don’t have a text messaging plan. I paid $0.25 to get fired. FML

Today, I can’t decide what’s worse, my mom walking in on me doing the five knuckle shuffle, or the one hour talk the next day about how it’s perfectly normal and even she does it. FML

If you are brave enough, share your FML story!

Paying for cable seems so 2008, doesn’t it?  Check out this complete list of sites to legally stream full TV shows and movies from, for free!  Most sites will require either the newest version of Flash or the new Silverlight technology to run them, so if prompted, install those plug-ins.  From my experience, most work great in Firefox on Windows and Mac.

Broadcast Networks

• ABC
• CBS
• NBC
• Fox
• The CW
• SEC games are streamed live on CBS Sports

Cable networks with full episodes and / or live streams

• Food TV
• Monsters HD
• MTV Music
• MTV Shows
• TNT
• Nickelodeon
• TBS
• CNN
• CNN Live
• Lifetime
• CNBC
• USA
• SciFi
• VH1
• Cartoon Network
• Adult Swim
• TruTV
• FX
• ABC Family
• History Channel
• BET
• A&E
• Disney Channel
• TLC / Discovery / Animal Planet
• HGTV
• CSPAN
• Current
• ESPN360 (Only works with certain broadband providers)
• Comedy Central
• Showtime
• ABC News
• TVLand

Show specific full episodes

• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report
• South Park Studios

Independent Internet-only networks

• Reuters
• MicroGuide
• ManiaTV
• CNET TV
• Revision3
• NextNewNetworks
• College Humor
• Funny or Die
• Gametrailers
• Gamevideos
• Super Deluxe
• Onion News Network
• Crackle
• Twit
• VBS
• FearNet
• blinkbox

Aggregation sites

• Veoh
• In2TV
• TV.com
• Fancast
• Hulu
• Joost
• iTunes
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Blip.TV
• Rewer
• OVGuide
• First on Mars

Pay Per View

• Blockbuster
• Jaman
• CinemaNow
• StarzPlay
• MovieFlix
• VOD
• Play4film
• Bigstar
• TotalVid
• etvnet
• Netflix
• Amazon

Sports

• SI Vault
• HockeyStreams
• ESPN Video
• ESPN Motion
• CBS Sports
• MLS
• PBA
• SPORTSKOOL
• MLB
• Fox sports video
• WWE
• The Tennis Channel
• NFL
• NHL
• NBA
• PGA
• Tennis
• Open sports video site
• Sky sports video

Consider clipping your cable bill after all that is available for the cost of your current broadband internet connection.  If you’re curious to try out Netflix, you can get a 2 week free trial by clicking here.  Way back when, I was a huge fan of Joost, but it was clunky, only worked on my Windows computer (which I’ve since sold) and required a stand alone application.  Even after it became available for Mac I lost interest when Hulu opened up to the public.  Delivering most shows in 480p, full screen with only minor 15 second commercials, it’s one of the best sites out there.  Netflix is also getting better with the video delivery, but there is still a bit of room for improvement.

While I still enjoy flipping through channels on my TV, I can see streaming video starting to become more and more of my daily life, especially since I can’t always be home to watch a certain show at any given time when it airs.  The downside is most sites wait 24 hours to seven days to air the most recent shows, if you’re OK with that, checkout some of these sites!