From the Network Solutions FAQ:

Major bummer!

Then there’s the second Horseman of Apocalypse: Apple. The deals MS and Apple are inking, and likely to pen down in the future, are bound to put a hole in the Googly mothership. Does this mean Google is going away? Not anytime soon. Google is freaking huge.

One thing to understand about public company financing is that the amount of money you have to fund your business has a lot to do with your stock price, and your stock price is tied to what the market believes your stock will be worth in the future – not now. The companies that are better managed from a financial standpoint – maximizing what they do with the money they have available – are the ones that succeed. When the market believes you won’t deliver on the earnings goals of the future, it means the returns on the stock won’t be there and thus your stock is not worth as much as the investor thought when they bought it, so they may sell it before other folks find out you’re not going to make your numbers, which cascades in share sales at ever-lower prices down to the point where the market expects you will be. In a sense, the market corrects itself for its over-valuation of the company. The problem for a publicly-traded company is that a drop in stock price is like someone going into their bank account and literally taking money out and throwing it away; it causes the company to have less funds to fund its operations, which in turn causes it to miss its targets. Its not a death spiral, but you get the picture of how companies can crash to the ground.

The tech industry is a place where disruptive models and tech cause things to literally vanish overnight. Anyone remember when Altavista was hot shit?

What goes around… Comes around…

I wonder who will be the Third Horseman of Apocalypse in this story.

Post Sparked by Shoemoney’s post titled: “Is Google’s One Trick Pony About To Be Euthanized by Microsoft“

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

The logo:

What my perverted mind sees:

Some points to ponder:

• Jeremy Schoemaker started humbly and slowly learning the ropes and succeeded while maintaining his integrity and honesty in a field where its pretty much a big medieval melee.

• He built a brand around his name.

• He is putting the brand behind a very public offering of a training, the Shoemoney System. Would you put your last name and a picture of your face to something you have even a shadow of a doubt might end up flopping? Lets say you might – lets say you think in a very shortsighted way and believe that this “one shot” might be enough to screw everyone over and take a permanent Caribbean vacation; and lets say you can’t imagine why anyone would do differently. Then the reason Jeremy is not thinking the way you are is because he is kinda dumb (at least in your book) and has been showing he is kinda slow for a few years now – He has put his name behind dozens of things and none of them flopped and he hasn’t moved to Bermuda just yet – Being dumb is not something that goes away overnight, so this latest thing he is doing is probably another one of those things that actually delivers on its promise.

If that’s not enough endorsement, how’s this for an endorsement: I convinced my mom to sign up. Yes, I did and its not a joke. I signed up myself and had already talked to my mother about it at length. Endorsements don’t get much better than stuff you talk your own mother into.

Head on over to the Shoemoney System sign-up page and see if there are some spots left.

Looking for a quick way to rewrite an article and bumped into Human Spinner – Really cool. This saved me the time of going to e-lance or other similar options and wrestling with folks while waiting days for results.

More than a quick re-write, these guys have a system that will chunk down an article into paragraphs or sentences (your choice), then submit these for re-writing and iterative reviewing over at the Amazon Mechanical Turk, where a couple thousand people work on these little tasks. This works remarkably well for what Human Spinner does. Since the pieces of your article go out in parallel, the article gets re-written in a flash – I’m talking a few minutes for a 2,000-word article – much faster than what any single person could do. You could paraphrase an entire book before dinnertime using this chunking idea.

The main aim of HumanSpinner, however, is not simple one-shot re-writing – their aim is to take an article and output “JetSpinner” or ‘spinner’ formatted stuff. You can tell the system how many “alternates” of each sentence or paragraph to get from the workers. This all gets compiled into a document that looks like:

The {quick|fast|speedy} brown fox {jumped over|hopped across|skillfully dodged} the lazy dogs.

With just two alternatives of “quick” and “jumped over”, an article spinner can now generate some nine articles. For an article like mine, the number of “spun” possibilities is enormous – of course not all of them would be significantly different from each other. I’m wild guessing 30% of the total number of possibilities is likely to be sufficiently unique – still a fricking huge number. The system even gives you the option of downloading a zip file on the fly with your article “spun” – So you get a zip file with a thousand (yes, a thousand) different articles in it based on the combinations of content. I didn’t stop to look at how unique the algoritm makes the versions – I was just poking around – but I suppose there’s specialized software for finer control.

I’m not into Article Marketing, content spinning or that stuff – I don’t quite get the full ‘circuit’ there or why I would want to have five billion shitty articles, but I can appreciate what these guys are doing is pretty cool for those that do understand how to work this.

The Bad

My only negative on the system was its non-existent ease of use. There’s a walk-though video which you have to see or nothing in their interface will make sense. I recognize the interface as the type of thing I launched PlayVault with – It had all the levers and buttons exposed to the user, the problem is  users need a “next step” button to guide them, prompts to tell them what they’re supposed to do next and a consolidation of steps into as few as possible. They also hammer you with an offer on the sign-up page, which is very confusing. Just go back to the site, sign in, watch the video you’ll be able to figure it out.

Turking It

I’m a sucker for anything that uses the Amazon Mechanical Turk programatically like this, after all I did my Dissertation for the University of Liverpool based on the system. What they’re doing in the background is submitting those pieces they show you off to the Amazon Mechanical Turk, for the workers there to re-write. I logged into the Amazon Mechanical Turk’s client site and was able to see the HITs that made up the rewrite of my article. They’re paying the workers about 30 cents per paragraph rewrite, which is about 50% of what they charge users of the service -  This doesn’t mean that they’re making out like a bandit; they are not only paying the Amazon fees, I noticed they’re also absorbing some overhead costs of keeping the workers happy. Judging by the speed of completion, the compensation rate for the workers is competitive – otherwise folks just pass up.

The Good

HumanSpinner is really offering a good service at a good price. Technically anyone could go into the Amazon Mechanical Turk and submit these things manually – It would take forever to split the document, submit all the HITs, review and approve and then re-assemble them into the right format. Technically you could build a special-purpose app to do exactly all this – but with the cheap price they’re charging for the use of their system I don’t see why anyone would do that. Their pricing is clearly a cost-plus model, very fair and low cost. Go check them out if this is your boat: Human Spinner.

Human Spinner is one of the services provided by “Spontent“. Looks like they have a similar service for populating a phpBB forum – I’m not trying that one out, but by the looks of the video its also Amazon Mechanical Turk-powered.

Spin This Doc!

Just for fun, I requested a “spun” version of this review… It cost all of $4.00, with chunking by paragraph.
You can see most of the writing is pretty good – You’re definitely not winning a Pulitzer Prize with this one, yet it serves its purpose well.

Spun review:

The Human Spinner tool came as a big boon to me in rewriting articles, efficiently and effectively. Not only did I save time, but also got relieved from the bother of getting the tasks done by freelance writers.

More than a fast rewrite, these men have a system which chunk down the article into sentences or paragraphs (up to you), then make them into a submission for rewriting and iterative reviewing over at mechanical turk, where approximately 2,000 individuals perform these jobs.  This functions amazingly great for what Human Spinner performs.  Because the article pieces go out in parallel, the article’s rewritten in an instant, I am talking about a few minutes for a two thousand word article, a lot more quick than what one individual has the ability to do.  You may paraphrase a whole book prior to dinnertime utilizing this chunking technique.

HumanSpinner’s key goal, nevertheless, it not a basic one time rewrite, their goal is taking an article and outputting “JetSpinner,” or spinner format articles.  You may let the system know the amount of “other choices” for every paragraph or sentence to obtain from these employees.  All of this is put in 1 document which looks like this:

The {quick|fast|speedy} brown fox {jumped over|hopped across|skillfully dodged} the lazy dogs.

With a mere other choices of “fast” and “passed over,” an article spinner may currently approximately 9 articles.  For an article such as the one I’ve written, the amount of “spun” potentials is huge, certainly not each of them would vary much from another.  I am making a crazy guess that thirty percent of the entire amount of potentials is probably adequately individual, still a completely large amount.  This system even provides you the choice for downloading a zip file instantly with the “spun” article, thus you obtain a zip file with a 1000 (yea, 1,000) various articles in it based upon the content mixtures.  I did not halt to peak at the amount of individuality the algorithm creates for the versions, I was merely nosing around, yet I assume there’s a specialized program for greater control.

I am not a fan of content spinning, Article Marketing, etc., I don’t really understand the complete “circuit” there or reasons I’d desire to have 5 billion horrid articles, yet I do appreciate what these people are doing since it’s fairly awesome for individuals who do know ways for using this.

My only disappointment with the system was the difficulty in using it.  If you don’t watch the walk-through video, nothing on their interface will make any sense to you.  It reminds of the kind of thing that I launched PlayVault with.  All the levers and buttons were exposed to the user.  But, users need a “next step” button and some prompts to guide them, and the steps need to be consolidated for minimization.  Also, it’s bewildering how they attack you with an offer on the sign up page.  Well, if you go to the site, log in and look at the video you’ll be alright.

I’m a softy for a thing which utilizes the Mechanical Turk program like this, after all my Dissertation was based on it.  What they do in the background is submitting the articles you see to the Mechanical Turk, for their employees to rewrite.  I logged into Turk’s client website and could see the HITS which created my article rewrite.  They pay workers approximately thirty cents for each rewrite of a paragraph, which is approximately half of what they charge those who utilize the service, this does not mean that they are making a ton of money, they don’t exclusively pay fees to Turk, they additionally must pay a few overhead costs to maintain happy employees.  Judging by how quickly they’re completed, the pay rate for employees is competitive, or else people pass on it.

HumanSpinner is really offering a good service at a good price. Technically anyone could go into the Amazon Mechanical Turk and submit these things manually – It would take forever to split the document, submit all the HITs, review and approve and then re-assemble them into the right format. Technically you could build a special-purpose app to do exactly all this – but with the cheap price they’re charging for the use of their system I don’t see why anyone would do that. Their pricing is clearly a cost-plus model, very fair and low cost. Go check them out if this is your boat: Human Spinner.

 

 

 

 

I should be one of the first “100″… I signed up within three minutes of the opening – yes I was refreshing the page. Once I had made the decision to try it out, no point in delaying – plus I’m curious to see what the “bonus” is.