Todd Lyden

Seriously, there are times when I wish I weren't so jaded about the state of what happens on the internet. Here are the results when you run that sentence through Google:  https://www.google.com/search?q=I+wish+I+weren%27t+so+jaded+about+the+state+of+what+happens+on+the+internet.&oq=I+wish+I+weren%27t+so+jaded+about+the+state+of+what+happens+on+the+internet I ran that same sentence through several FREE online plagiarism detectors. Thankfully, Quetext did not find a copy. Searchenginereports was 100% clean. Even NoPlag.com came back ok. Why do I ramble about this? Because I have found yet one more example of "re-worded" plagiarism of one "business consultant" of another's work.  I won't tell you where I found these examples, but based on the dates of the sites, this paragraph came out first in 2015:  "The definition of success is a very personal one. It’s unique to each individual and only they can know if they’ve reached it. Unfort...

Photo by Alvaro Serrano Dear Founder/Marketing Head/Product Development/Customer Funtime Lead, I am just writing this vague and boilerplate email to repond to the Nth Billionth email I've received from one of you with regards to your freemium, SAAS product/app of choice. Look, if I had questions or concerns about your product, I am a smart enough guy to find the email, contact page, or bot that you call a chat module to get an answer. If you want feedback, you really do need to give me enough time to actually use your product. Emailing me a mere day or two after I have only signedup for the product is not enough time for me to evaluate something. It finally occurred to me that you are like the waitress who comes back to the table right after dropping the food and asking if I like it before I've even begun to chew. So please, stop. Just don't bother. Use your email for advertising or something else, but pestering a potential client like this is a pretty good ...

909. That's how many "connections" I had amassed on Linkedin since January 2009. Well, I just "Hoovered" my connections. I went down the list, bit by bit, and removed a whopping 203 from the pile. Sadly, some of the folks had passed. I'd say about 1/4 never really used the platform at all even if I knew them well enough. I'd say another 1/4 might have meant to use the platform, but switched jobs, lost interest, or just didn't bother. It was surprising the number who had duplicate and even triplicate accounts (?) I was really surprised by the number of what I would consider "high profile" people I know that have poorly executed Linkedin accounts. I'm not in an area where Linkedin is perceived as a networking opportunity, but it is. I get requests DAILY from people I have no clue who they are. Somehow they found me. For some reason, they deem me important enough to get in their circles. I suspect it was just because it looked li...

Somewhere back when, I used to talk about movies on this blog. I thought I might take a look at the box office winners this year to see what I have seen and give you some of my thoughts... I went down as far as 25! 1. Captain America: Civil War - Did exactly what it needed to do. Wish that we could have seen the movie without the "civil war" that was PROBABLY planned BEFORE they got RDJ involved.  2. Finding Dory - Not a bad sequel, but really added nothing to the overall appeal of a much better predecessor.  3. Zootopia - One of the gems of the year. This will be rewatched if not rehashed with the eventual sequel. 4. The Jungle Book (2016) - Sorry, I could NOT get past the CGI backgrounds. I don't care what people say, the animal effects were largely ok, but I could never see past the GREEN SCREEN on this one. And a sequel?  5. The Secret Life of Pets - STILL HAVE NOT SEEN. Good or bad?  6. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Edit about 45 minutes and th...

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution. Letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 October 1780), "The Works of John Adams", vol 9, p. 511 We were friggin' warned about the two party system. And we've ignored the admonition for so long, look at the election it has wrought us. This Anti-Media.org article from JP Sottile has it nailed in the title: "2016: The Final Season of the United States Reality Show."  The article goes on to compare what we are living in as the "Jumping of the Shark" in the show. Sadly, the truth is there and the reality to show for it: a LITERAL reality show candidate versus a woman who by most accounts has done literally almost ANY thing to be president. It's like selecting a presiden...

I come back to voting every election year, mainly because I am so thoroughly disappointed in the outcomes of our two-party system. And make no mistake, it is the party system that fails us. I talked about "how not to get out the vote"  - "vote even if you are disgusted?" UGH I've always liked this article about shaming "non-voting." I completely agree with the author:  "No one should have to justify exercising a right; rights, by definition, justify themselves. Nevertheless, for many people, not voting is an entirely rational choice: The cost of learning about the candidates and the issues often outweighs the benefit to be had from casting a ballot whose odds of making a significant difference in the outcome are infinitesimal." And for those that argue that you have a "civic duty to vote," please lay off the doody. I like what this guy has to say about the idea. Just because someone has the right to bear firearms does n...

As a former political science student and teacher, one thing that has ALWAYS bothered me about the electoral system in the United States: why does the public PAY for party primaries? I can understand the states being responsible for running their general elections to provide opportunity for their citizens to choose mayors, governors and all the way up to president, but for the life of me- why does the public pay for party primaries? FROM: http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2016/8/3/very-few-americans-nominated-trump-and-clinton.html Look at that graphic above. You can see how it works here:  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/01/us/elections/nine-percent-of-america-selected-trump-and-clinton.html?_r=0 Only 9% of the American public selected either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump via the party primary process! So, 9 out of ten of us are paying for the privilege of the remaining less than ten percent to have a chance to participate in what are private organiza...