Now that’s what laptops were invented for, right? Computing power anytime, anywhere. Lugging around a 15-inch MacBook Pro isn’t quite my idea of how to best digest my RSS feeds while doing my thing, though. Thankfully with my latest gadget I won’t have to worry about getting a $2,500 device wet and rusty.

AdSense check just cleared and with a few extra bucks I got myself this Christmas season’s must-have gadget (aside from the iPhone)—the Asus Eee PC, the two-pound $400 wonder. Sure most modern laptops today will run circles around the Eee in terms of specs but this baby has hit the sweet spot in terms of price, portability, features and functionality.

The Eee measures just 10 inches diagonally and runs on a 900 MHz Celeron-M processor with 512MB of RAM and a 4 GB solid-state drive. It has three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA-out port, built-in mic and stereo speakers, MMC/SD slot and a webcam. Battery lasts three and a half hours.

Sure, it’s not top of the line in terms of specs, but again at $400 and at 2 pounds, it is worth considering, isn’t it?

Most other brand laptops close to this size will be more powerful and with more features, but also the closest competitor costs four times more. And at $400, the Eee is an Internet-ready computer with a light and fast operating system (Linux-based). Good enough for blogging anywhere there’s a WiFi connection. Perfect for those in the blogging biz like me.

I can now bring a full-fledged computer anywhere without breaking my back—and the bank.

So am I really blogging from the bathroom? Well, my home WiFi signal does reach to the bathroom, but to be honest I’d rather not read my RSS list while sitting on the throne. Too much crap can be a bad thing.

CAPTCHA is the bane of spammers who use bots to register email addresses and submit comments right? Wrong. Whenever there’s a problem, there would inevitably be a solution. And for CAPTCHA, spammers have found an innovative way of getting past the cryptic images for verification (sometimes too cryptic that legitimate users cannot decipher them!).

It’s all about social engineering, of course. Loose Wire alerts us to the Strip CAPTCHA trojan, which attacks unknowing perverts individuals. It’s simple: decipher the code, and the young lady will show some skin. Now who wouldn’t be interested in deciphering the CAPTCHA code with that?

The images above were hotlinked from Trend Micro (thanks guys!) who have issued a warning about this kind of social engineering ploy.

A nifty little program which Trend Micro detects as TROJ_CAPTCHAR.A disguises itself as a strip-tease game, wherein a scantily-clad “Melissa” agrees to take off a little bit of her clothing. However, for her to strut her stuff, users must identify the letters hidden within a CAPTCHA. Input the letters correctly, press “go” and “Melissa” reveals more of herself.

However, the “answers” are then sent to a remote server, where a malicious user eagerly awaits them. The “strip-tease” game is actually a ploy by ingenious malware authors to identify and match ambiguous CAPTCHA images from legitimate sites, using the unsuspecting user as the decoder of the said image.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And when there’s a way, there would be unsuspecting people who would be stupid enough play your game.

The CAPTCHA “game” being discussed by Trend Micro doesn’t relate directly with blogging, though. Most blogs these days use passive forms of spam-catching, such as Akismet and comment moderation. Still, this means we bloggers shouldn’t be complacent with securing our systems from spam attacks and other intrusions.

Looks like Robert’s not the only Scoble who sleeps outside an Apple store to wait for his iPhone. This Scoble is also an Apple fanboy, I hear. Only cuter!

A problem with having your job/business involving writing about and reviewing web apps is that you tend to sign up for too many sites than you can handle. Worse is that you sometimes end up signing up for outright scams. And since you give some info to these people, you’re practically giving them the right to spam your email inbox with promotional material.

I recently got an invite (yet another one) into tagged.com, and I thought I might give it a try. I signed up and it seemed simple enough until I got to the screen prompting me to enter my Gmail password. I thought, WTF? What kind of phishing scheme is this? It doesn’t even give me an option to skip this step.

It asks innocently enough, which is in the guise of checking your address book for users already existing in the system. But what Tagged will really do is send email to everyone in your address book inviting them into the system and subjecting them to the very same process. It will not even ask you to choose which among your contacts they can spam.

I guess I was stupid enough to sign up for tagged.com. I’m not going to be stupid enough to enter my Gmail password. But what about 90+% of the population who are not as smart as I? They’re likely to just enter their passwords and end up spamming everyone on their address book. The cycle then continues. Lord knows how many email addresses and even passwords these guys have already harvested.

Tsk. This seemed like old news (horrors, even Wikipedia says so). Why, oh, why did I fall for this?

Stay away from tagged.com!

Look around the blogosphere, and you’ll see themes, themes, themes. Themes are the rage these days. Not only do they beautify the web and the blogosphere, they can also be a good way to get good revenue (or at least link juice).

Sometimes bloggers even get that itch to shift themes every now and then. But this is bad for SEO (since you tend to jumble up your code drastically with every theme change). And this can annoy readers, also. So personally I don’t just switch themes on a whim. When I need something changed, I tweak it first, until my blog’s look fits my requirements. I consider a theme switch to be a big decision and a big step that one must really work hard on.

Sometimes, you have to take the plunge and give in to that need to get your site a facelift, or even an overhaul. Here on JOAB, that’s been in the works for quite some time now, and you’re probably seeing the result right now, as you read this.

The new Jack of All Blogs theme was created b Thord Daniel Hedengren. The new theme has the characteristic loudness and straightforwardness very suitable to JOAB. Nothing too fancy, but nothing too modest, either.

Of course, much like other new things, the theme needs breaking in. So we’re still tweaking under the hood, looking for possible glitches, and also for ways of making the user experience even better. So folks, if you have anything to say, please do drop us a line below at the comment threads or through our email feedback form.

Angelo here, folks, popping in (quite a rarity these days with someone else taking over the blog, and me taking over something else). Today we’re giving a lesson on blog design. And our highlight would be our sometime contributor Franky’s Am I Famous Now blog.

Am I Famous Now is, well, famous for its snark and commentary. Hey, check out Franky’s tag cloud, and you’ll see that he isn’t exactly the kindest person on the web—at least for the objects of his snark (he’s an angel to me, though).

You may notice how Franky uses proper markup in his headings. You’ve surely learned your SEO, Franky! Search engines are going to love your site.

There’s the H1 and DESCR tags on the title and description.

And then there are the H2’s for the sidebar headers.

And don’t forget blockquotes. Blockquotes are important. Otherwise, the echo chamber won’t exist.

Not exactly part of markup, but there’s the requisite Greek letter representing how far you are into developing your site or web app. Alpha, beta and gamma are for sissies. Franky is now on Kappa!

Okay, I know it’s a stab at all you strict XHTML people who would sue over missing DIV tags. But I found Franky’s take on markup quite interesting the first time I visited his site months back, and I still do so now.

I just couldn’t resist posting this, Franky.

Of course, Google AdWords per se is not illegal. But the very tenets of the AdWords system—which lets advertisers bid for ad space based on keywords—may be in trouble. 901am reports of a recent lawsuit involving Google and a company called American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc. American Blinds argues that Google is infringing on its trademarks by allowing competitors to bid on their keywords (i.e., “American Blinds”). This way, the company’s competitors can get top spot in relevant AdSense ad units, and even in AdWords for search units.

According to Reuters, American Blinds complaint argues that Google’s system violates trademark law by allowing competitors of American Blinds to use Google’s system to buy keyword search terms, such as “American Blind,” which trigger ads from rival companies.

“We spend millions of dollars annually to build brand awareness and cannot stand idle while Google allows our competitors to ride our coattails,” said a statement from Steve Katzman, CEO of American Blind.

Is this reasonable? Well, I’m no lawyer, but if they are using this argument, then perhaps they can also consider the possibility of competitors optimizing for those keywords. Macalua.com says some companies are already using their competitors’ names to optimize for search engine ranking. And they’re succeeding.

But Marc Macalua cites the Google AdWords policies in saying this practice is not acceptable.

Smart Communications Inc. is bringing the telco wars to search. Do a search for “globe visibility” (the product name for Globe Telecom’s flagship 3G/HSDPA mobile broadband service) and you’ll see the Smart 3G Adwords ad in the top PPC spot.

Is this keyword hijacking strategy legal? No, it’s not legal. That’s according to the Google Adwords FAQ:

Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we’re happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners. Also, our Terms and Conditions with advertisers prohibit intellectual property infringement by advertisers and make it clear that advertisers are responsible for the keywords they choose to generate advertisements and the text that they choose to use in those advertisements.

But then it’s not easy to monitor each and every AdWords bid to see if it’s potentially infringing on another company’s trademarks or copyrights.

Again, things like these bring up more questions, especially in the light of a changing media landscape, and changing practices and norms in the fields of PR and even law. Google is turning out to be the biggest player of them all, but is still not immune to criticisms and legal liabilities.

So is using a competitor’s keywords or name illegal? Probably, from the perspective of Google’s ToS, yes. But is Google liable when a client uses a competitor’s trade name as keywords? That’s what we have to find out soon.

Back in the day, my younger sister committed a very very serious crime. She told me a spoiler. And it wasn’t just any spoiler. She told me that Bruce Willis’ character in Sixth Sense was actually dead from the start. Whoops, did I just spoil the movie for you? Perhaps not (it’s almost a decade old!).

You’d think I would kill my sister for blurting out the story’s twist, but I wasn’t really that angry. I actually didn’t care at first (I watched the film months after that shocking revelation). But from that point, my sister stopped “sharing” story lines in advance. It was I who was out for sweet revenge (yes, even eight years after) by kidding around with story twists and endings of popular movies. And whenever I open my mouth attempting to “share” she would cover her ears and mutter incomprehensible utterances in order to drown out my voice.

From that point on, I was somewhat desensitized with spoilers. Even if I hear people talking about major story plots or twists, I would take it with a grain of salt, and still enjoy the movie/television show/book even if I knew the ending. No suspense, you say? Well, I’m one of those who tend to think that too much suspense would spoil a story anyway. Let a story take you through the ups and downs of a storyline and pretty soon you’ll be left too exhausted to enjoy it.

Perhaps this is the reason I sometimes watch movies and TV shows twice in a row. I try to seek out details (including imperfections and bloopers) the second, third, or fourth time around. I even scour the ‘net for reviews and recaps.

Sometimes, even before I download episodes of favorite shows online (Bittorrent or iTunes), I check ahead for recaps from those who were able to watch ahead. Silly, some might think. But in my busy lifestyle, I have no more time to actually get shocked and excited over details. I like having them in advance, and watching out for them during the viewing itself. Sometimes people who write recaps and reviews have different perspectives and I find them mistaken (ah, the shock value is there after all).

Some people I know are quite averse to spoilers. When downloading episodes, they try to keep away from any spoiler sites or recap resources. They even turn off their Twitter and IM clients just so people won’t accidentally share any details with them.

But that’s them.

I’m okay with spoilers. Call me weird.

I’ve been fiddling with Text Link Ads on my personal blogs for quite a while now. I’ve been handling technical aspects of Splashpress since I joined the network, and for a time I was responsible for actually applying for site approval and installing TLA code on some of our blogs. It’s great that most of our sites already have text link buyers, though some sites are just recently entered into the system, and don’t have ads yet.

Thing is, while my personal blogs have been on the system for about a year or more now, it’s only now that advertisers have bought links on these sites. I’m not really depending on TLA to earn big money (same with Google AdSense). The blog network pays enough for a full-time income (from where I come from). But the extra funds I find useful to pay the blogging-related bills like hosting, domain charges, revenue share with the team blog writers, and the like.

However I’m quite concerned with the fact that Google is now penalizing sites that sell text links. Maybe they’re not directly downgrading the search ranking of these sites, but some argue that Google is downgrading the link juice from these sites. That means that even if your blog or site is already a trusted site with high authority, your links to external sites (particularly those identified as paid links) are likely to not be given much weight by Google’s algorithm in computing for the linked site’s authority or credibility.

This might turn off advertisers. And for a blogger, this might mean that sites I link to (whether paid or not paid) get less benefits from the linkage. So in the end, if this really pushes through, then that means the power of the link would be diluted all across the Web.

Somehow that makes me want to rethink the concept of selling text links on my site.

I’ve read about the pitfalls of Twitter’s being used as a public chatroom. People are likening Twitter to CB radio , which was popular from the 1960’s to the 80’s*. While Twitter’s primary purpose is for people to answer the question what are you doing right now? a lot of people are publicly sending messages to each other, responding to one another’s tweets.

And you know what, I think you can’t blame them (actually, us since I’m fond of chatting via Twitter, too). Twitter is essentially a social network, but it lacks most of the sophisticated features that other social networks have, like the actual network of friends (being friends in twitter is just one level deep: your friends and your followers, and no concept of friend-of-a-friend).

And unlike a blogging service, readers cannot comment on tweets posted by twitter users. So what if you wanted to respond to a post? Just tweet yourself!

Hence it’s common to see Twitter updates bearing names of other Twitter members, which means that particular update is intended for the other person. So a typical thread would look like so:

Bob: Having Lunch in a while. 5 minutes ago
Jim: @Bob What’s for lunch? 4 minutes ago
Bob: @Jim Steak and pasta. Yum! 3 minutes ago
Jim: @Bob Enjoy! 3 minutes ago

... and so forth.

What’s wrong with that? Well, it’s just like sending instant messages that are readable by the public. And that could have privacy implications, especially if you’re haphazard with what you tweet about. So you’d better not chat on Twitter about things you’d rather keep to yourself, or a select group of people. Even if your Twitter updates are restricted to friends only, that still means that all of your friends can read whatever you’re writing, even if it’s intended for one of them only.

I think chatting via Twitter is all right if you’re fully aware that tweets are intended to be public in the first place. So Twitter should not just be about what you’re doing right now, but also what you want to say right now.

*Essentially because CB comprised of non-secure public broadcasts, so everyone can listen in to conversations.