He may have been proclaimed the winner of The Ultimate Fighter Season 5, but Nate Diaz is now facing the wrath of fans and his own organization following his controversial tweeting.

On May 16th Diaz, a UFC fighter competing in the lightweight division and ranked seventh in the world, posted the following tweet to his official twitter page:

It is believed that the tweet was posted in defense of Diaz’s friend, lightweight Pat Healy, who was stripped of his bonus money after a drug test at UFC 159, which came back positive for marijuana usage. The ‘guy who took the money’ is believed to be bantamweight Bryan Caraway, who was recently awarded the submission of the night bonus.

The UFC acted immediately, suspending Diaz pending a full investigation. In an interview with MMA Fighting, UFC President Dana White said, “We are going to fine, suspend or cut him. One or two of these things will happen”.

On Friday May 17th, White made good on his promise, suspending Diaz for 90 days, and fining him $20,000  for violating the organization’s fighter code of conduct. In a recently released statement, the UFC said “the language used in the tweet was regrettable, offensive, and inconsistent with the values and culture of the organization, and is not tolerated.”

However the penalties didn’t seem to resonate with Diaz as he again took to Twitter on May 18th to direct the following message at Haraway:

Diaz’s suspension is just the latest in a long line of suspensions for controversial comments on social media platforms. In 2011, the UFC released bantamweight Miguel Torres for tweeting a joke making light of rape, although the organisation later reinstated the fighter after he apologised. Earlier this year they suspended and fined heavyweight Matt Mitrione for comments he made towards transgender fighter Fallon Fox.

Social media platforms have been important to the growth and consolidation of the UFC. Dana White is himself a keen Twitter user, utilizing the platform to engage with fans and promote upcoming UFC competitions. He has stated that fighters are entitled to their own opinions, but that they are subject to the consequences of the words they use.

Diaz’s suspension should act as a lesson for other fighters to think before they tweet!

I have been lucky enough to spend a week in the company of the Samsung Galaxy camera. These are my thoughts on and photos taken by the camera…

In the last seven days, this lucky little thing has gone from Auckland to Christchurch, to Dunedin and back to Auckland. What better situation to review a product than whilst traveling up and down the country.

First impressions

The camera looks great! The sleek white design and massive screen make it stand out from other digital cameras. However, as soon as you stop using it as a camera and start checking your emails on it, things start to get weird. If you want to really confuse people, you can install viber and call your mates from your camera!

The camera

The 21x zoom on the camera is one of the best I’ve seen on a digital camera – the lens just doesn’t stop extending! Whilst using the camera, you can choose to use to take your photos using three different settings: auto, smart or expert. Auto is for those who just want the best possible picture from the given situation without having to change any settings. If you want to mix it up a little, choose ‘smart’. Smart allows you to chose from a number of specific settings for various situations (e.g. panorama, night, fireworks, flowing water) – there is a smart filter for just about every situation.

If you consider yourself a camera expert, this setting is for you. Expert allows you to change everything from the shutter speed to the aperture. Very fun if you know what you’re doing.

The device

Once you’ve actually taken your photos the fun can really begin. Because the camera is an Android device, you can jump onto the Google Play store and download any and all of the apps. There are hundreds of photo editing apps so you can edit your pictures straight from the camera and then upload them instantly to instagram or dropbox, or email them to a friend. Being able to do everything straight from the camera is one of the biggest positives of this device. You don’t need to get the computer out and play around with Photoshop for hours, just find an app that does what you need and you’re away laughing.

I have had a blast with the Galaxy camera this week. It has all of the functions that an SRL camera does, the only thing that I would advise would be to use a tripod where possible. As is the case with most digital cameras lacking a viewfinder, pressing the capture button does cause some movement.

Meet Mr and Mrs batshit crazy.

This enchanting couple were featured on an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, and even he got rid of them because they were too crazy for him!  Last night they had an epic meltdown on Facebook, posting, yelling, screaming IN CAPITAL LETTERS at anyone who disagreed with them. They are god-fearing American’s ya’ll, and we are just devil children, not understanding their plight.

BLAH. BLAH. BLAH.

Here are a couple of examples of their amazing amazing posts.

(She is a witch)

ISN’T IT AMAZING HOW WHEN YOU READ CAPITAL LETTERS YOUR MIND AUTOMATICALLY MAKES YOU YELL IT OUT LOUD IN YOUR HEAD.

Um… Aren’t they meant to be a bakery? I thought people that baked cakes were nice and kind and had fluffy hair that bounced when they walked?

While reading this hilarious and rather sad meltdown (YOU CAN READ IT HERE), it came to me that for their next venture (as surely this one is going to collapse under the weight of all those capital letters) they might need some tips on how to avoid the next meltdown. So here are my top 5 tips on how to avoid ruining your brand on Facebook (that goes for relationships/friendships too).

1) Throw away your laptop, not your dignity.

If you are pissed, and I mean REALLY pissed – like throw-your-laptop-out-the-window-pissed, then throw your bloody laptop out the window. Even a MacBook at $3,000 is cheaper to replace than your ENTIRE company (and possibly, marriage/relationship/friendship.) Rather than taking it out on the public, take it out on that bloody device that links you to the public. Smash it. SMASH IT TO PIECES!!!

2) Get drunk – offline.

Everyone loves a drinker. Have you not seen 28 Days with Sandra Bullock? The best part of that movie was when she got hammered at her sister’s birthday party and fell on the cake and ruined it. (I’m kidding. I love that movie, I always cry when I watch it. And how like HOT is Viggo Mortensen like before-he-was-famous. Dayum.) Anyway, back to the drinking. Go get hammered. Imagine your hourly wage TIMES the amount of hours you would have ranted at these ungrateful ungodly customers and spend THAT amount on booze out a bar. That hangover will still be better than the alternative.

3) Have a cry you cry baby.

Everyone cries, there is no shame in it. Throw yourself down on the ground and chuck the world’s biggest tanty – screaming about about how noone understands you, and everyone hates you.

4) Get physical, physical.

Getting physical when angry is underrated. I am not talking about just throwing a laptop here. No I mean start punching yourself, yelling at yourself, pulling your hair out etc. I mean showing up bald for work the next day because you have pulled your hair out, is STILL better than the alternative.

5) And finally, how about you just shut the hell up.

If you are at the stage where Gordon Ramsey – the king of dysfunctional areseholes can’t even deal with you – then you are too far gone even for god to save you. Whether you are a god-fearing American or not.

So next time you are about to go batshit crazy, take a moment to reflect on my 5 top tips. Perhaps it could help you.

The Bang With Friends app for Facebook promises to “anonymously find friends who are interested in you, too!” This issue seems to be that Bang With Friends was anonymous until Graph Search got rolled out. Uh-Oh. Bang With Friends works on a simple premise. You click on your friends that you want to “bang” and other users choose their “bangable” friends; if two people choose each other, they are connected.

Now, you can very easily find out which of your Facebook friends are using the hook-up app (let’s hope it’s not your boyfriend/girlfriend). All you have to do is click on this link, and Facebook will tell you which of your friends are using Bang With Friends.

Facebook Graph Search has opened up the platform in new ways. Now is a good time to take a look at your app settings page and make sure that your private apps stay private so no one can see who you want to bang.

Starting Friday, Bing will show comments from Facebook relevant to your search in the sidebar.

Microsoft wants to distinguish itself from Google, and they have their sights set on the social aspect of searching. After you log in with your Microsoft account and connect your Facebook account to Bing, you can view comments on Facebook posts in the sidebar inside of the search engine itself. You can comment and “like” posts without having to visit the Facebook home page at all.

The new Facebook feature is an extension of the social sidebar Bing introduced last year. That feature brings in relevant social results from networks such as Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, and Klout that are pertinent to your web search. Previously, you were not able to comment on or Like those posts.

What do you think of social searching? Social gone too far?

Facebook  is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze for up to $1 billion.

Due diligence is underway after a term sheet was signed. Waze uses satellite signals from members’ smartphones to generate maps and traffic data, which it then shares with other users, offering real-time traffic info.

Waze and Facebook partnered in October 2012 when Waze released its updated version that allows users to share their drive with their Facebook friends.

This would be Facebook’s third acquisition in Israel. It bought Snaptu in 2011 for $70 million and Face.com in 2012 for $60 million.

The premise of Snapchat is simple: Send a photo or short video to a friend, and it will self-destruct after 10 seconds. That way, it won’t wind up on the Internet and ruin anyone’s reputation, friendships, or career.

It has been billed as the anti-Facebook - a communications tool that deletes your data rather than preserving, analysing, and trading on it. In short, it’s supposed to make messaging fun again.

But the app’s security has never been ironclad.

As the media have repeatedly warned parents, and parents in turn warned their kids, message recipients can still save a compromising image by taking a quick screenshot.

But Snapchat tries to mitigate the risk somewhat by automatically notifying the sender when that happens. If someone screenshots you, it’s a virtual slap in the face. If they don’t, you can assume you’re in the clear.

Except that apparently you can’t. KSL-TV in Utah reports that an Orem-based firm called Decipher Forensics has figured out a way to recover supposedly deleted images from the recipient’s phone.

The process isn’t simple, but it’s still possible. What are your thoughts? Do you think Snapchat should be worried?

The average Facebook user spends more than a quarter of his or her time on the site scrolling through the News Feed. For users, that means a lot of baby pictures and stale memes. For brands, it represents an opportunity.

Virtually every fan of a brand, such as Coke, will never return to its page after an initial Like (if they even visited at all). So where’s the best place to reach that consumer? Why is  News Feeds of course.

That’s where EdgeRank comes in. Whether you’re a brand or an average user, it’s helpful to understand what shows up in your News Feed and why.

Because it’s an infographic kind of day, check out the infographic below, courtesy of Post Rocket and educate yourself on EdgeRank. Are you happy with what you see in your News Feed? Let us know in the comments.

I came across this infographic on Social Media Today. It breaks down ways that social media influences the visibility of your website in search results, including:

• Social media can help search engines find and index your content faster
•  Likes, shares, retweets, etc. indicates to search engine that content is new and interesting, often leading to a temporary increase in rankings
• Your content will increase in search results for people connected to you
• Increases domain authority and the number of inbound links to your website

How many of you use Path in New Zealand? Path is a social network that limits the number of friends each user can have to 50. Its focus is on sharing photos with a close network of friends. It was founded by former Facebook senior platform manager Dave Morin, Macster co-creator Dustin Mierau and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning.

According to news today, Facebook has cut off Path’s ability to access its “Find Friends” function. Access was restricted after Path updated its smartphone app on Friday. However, the San Francisco-based company can still use Facebook as a login option, and share posts to Facebook.

TechCrunch speculates that Facebook blocked Path’s “Find Friends” access because of aspamming mishap in which the app bombarded users’ address book contacts with invites.

What do you think of Facebook’s decision to prevent Path users from finding friends? Tell us in the comments, below.