Business

I just received this from the EFF and it's wonderful news. Warrants required to search 3rd party email providers (gmail, hotmail). Today is a good day :)

Dear Kevin,

It's been a great week for electronic privacy and the 4th Amendment!

In a decision issued yesterday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government must have a search warrant before it can seize and search emails stored by third party email service providers. Closely tracking arguments made by EFF in our amicus brief, the court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their phone calls and postal mail.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/12/breaking-news-eff-victory-appeals-...

Ad Proof - Ad Blocking Software and Reviews

It's live.

What's done:

• Setup - Drupal 6 and CCK+Views worked like a charm
• Content - there are 10 pieces of software listed to help you block ads and keep better privacy.
• PPC Ads (Google AdSense)
• Google Analytics

What's left:

• Affiliate Programs - still signing up for/getting approved with various companies
• Design - theme is installed, I modified header image, need a logo
• Marketing - I realize I didn't include this in my last post, it needs some links and *real* content

What Didn't Work:

• Reddit and Quora both failed me. I got one response on each saying AdBlockPlus. My personal opinion is it's a pretty damn good tool, but I thought there would be more options/responses. Maybe it was when I asked it or how I phrased/tagged. May try again later.

Logo is being designed at LogoNerds.

I searched around at a lot of options, I didn't want to troll the forums for someone because that's not really scalable. So I looked at companies. I used Logo Design Creation in the past but I found LogoNerds cheaper (27$ vs 39$) and it gives me 1 more concept (3 vs 2). The only downside is a potential for up to 2 more days in turnaround time (3 days vs 3-5 days).

Another interesting option if I wanted something more professional rather than a quick affiliate site I found was pre-made logos from Biz Logo. You pick a shape/design you like, browse the categories for something. Some really nice looking stuff in there and since it's pre-made, you're buying something you can see what you're getting.

I was trying to sign up for an Google AdWords accounts today and wanted to get some free money (seriously, always look for a coupon code for when you buy/signup for things!)

I could only find expired offers that had come in the mail (they never are valid when I want it seems) so I was off to the searches. Google apparently does not like people sharing codes and ties them to an account.

So, where might I be able to find a free coupon code? A little google fu led me to this: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://www.google.com/ads/offers. A list of all their offers through partners/programs.

I realized I use some of those services (Google Analytics, thanks!). So I checked my Analytics email account and voila! Coupon code still valid (you can see when coupons expired if you click on the offers at the bottom).

I realized it's been probably a decade since I last spent money on music (buying one of the <10 CDs I've bought in my life). Today, I found myself troubled, my Spotify travel use ran out. After 14 days I could no longer use it without paying. I lasted 24 hours before I paid for an account (49SEK/month ~ $7/month).

Spotify has truly changed the way I behave and consume music. After over two years on a free account, I don't have a music collection, I have spent countless hours crafting my playlists, sharing with friends and finding them on the web. Access to all that was taken from me and I didn't know what to do.

If any music startup could really kill it, I am betting on Spotify, I am in love and as of today, a paying customer. The iPod changed the way we listen to music on the go, Spotify changed the way I consume music at home, parties and with friends. Any song on demand, what could be better?