Here’s the spam, complete with links(don’t say I never did anything for you, Flux!)

FluxSEO the Leader in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
http://www.FluxSEO.com has come into the world with dominating style and a unique system like no other. http://www.FluxSEO.com leverages users around the world for a system link setup similar to a bot-net we are able to reach out to the world with the most organic search results and organic traffic for our companies. Our unique visitors around the world will be viewing and using your search keywords or key phrases.

Google?s Analytics system looks for 5 things.
Direct Traffic
Returning Traffic
Organic Traffic
Back-link Traffic
Search Engine Keyword ? Key Phrase Traffic

Since we use organic IP addresses and a percentage of them are returning traffic. While they look up on the search engines for your companies keywords. Thus taking care of search traffic, direct traffic and returning traffic. Also since our of system is fueled with static and dynamic IP addresses ranging from businesses to residential allocations, you have organic traffic covered. Now that leaves one system not taken care of ? back links. Through social media venues we can pick up the much needed back linking that occurs only when it is correctly submitted through our copyrighted Site Addition Tool.
To FluxSEO, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is has been and now is a complete science as a service. Companies offer to get you visible but none until FluxSEO could announce they could create a unlimited amount of daily organic traffic for a site.

FluxSEO
Website Cleanup (fixing errors on the site and bringing a site to WC3 Compliance)
Direct Traffic (Part of the FluxSEO Traffic Packages)
Returning Traffic (% Part of FluxSEO Traffic)
Organic Traffic (All of the Traffic from FluxSEO is Organic)
Back linked Traffic (We help create backlink traffic to a site)
Search Engine Keyword ? Key Phrase Traffic (FluxSEO system uses search engine keywords through Google, Bing, Yahoo and AOL) http://www.fluxseo.com/about-fluxseo.htmlhttp://www.fluxseo.com/tesimonals-and-statistics.html

First, let’s completely disregard the fact that a company that promises to utilize the above mentioned revolutionary methods to get your site to the top is using the same old and tired blog spam to get their site to the top.  Who cares how they do it, we just want results, right?  Well, let’s see what kind of results they get:

Search Engine Ranking Results:

Domain: fluxseo.com
Keywords: search, engine, optimization

Results:

Google:  Sorry, Your site was not within the ranks in Google™’s results (keyword:search engine optimization)

MSN: Sorry, Your site was not within the ranks in MSN™’s results (keyword:search engine optimization)

Yahoo: Sorry, Your site was not within the ranks in Yahoo™’s results (keyword:search engine optimization)

Ask: Sorry, Your site was not within the first 200 results in Ask™’s results (keyword:search engine optimization)

So let’s recap, shall we?  FluxSEO states that they will improve your search engine rankings(packages start at $500!  What a deal!)   They’re attempting to improve their site’s ranking via blog spam and finally, you can see how fantastically well their revolutionary placement services work by viewing their site’s rankings in the search engines.

So, pull out your checkbooks motherfuckers, hold on to your ass and prepare to be amazed!

Add some glasses and part the hair a little differently and I think I may have found the culprit:

Please note that her post is sitting in the spam bin.

It makes you want to give her money to get to the top of the search engines, doesn’t it?

Here’s their article in full (Hey, I figure someone should get the search results):

Thats a great post I read it all. there are things I agree and there are things I disagree, but than all them I wanna share with u an article I loved similar with this theme…

Sell More Books With an E-mail Newsletter

NOTE: Because many words in this article are likely to trigger sp^m filters, we’ve disguised them with symbols (e.g. sp^m). This will ensure a higher delivery rate if you use this article in your e-zine.

If you’re selling your book online, you’re practically guaranteed to increase sales by publishing an e-mail newsletter, or “e-zine.”

Why? Well, for a start, it’s a super way to give readers a taste of your expertise and style along with samples of your content. This ensures they’ll come to be familiar with you, trust you, and hopefully buy your book when they’re ready for more information.

Also, it’s a great way to *capture prospects* who aren’t ready to buy your book when they visit your site, but are still interested in the info you have to share.

Based on my own experiences in marketing my manual, ‘Boost Business With Your Own E-zine,’ here are 7 ways to help increase book sales using an e-mail newsletter.
• First thing: Encourage e-zine SIGNUPS on your Web site where you promote your book.

Before you even begin publishing, start collecting e-mail addresses. Place a signup form in many places on your site to invite visitors to subscribe to your free e-zine. This way, if a visitor isn’t interested in buying your book today, she can sign up for your free e-zine. Now you haven’t lost her, and she’ll learn even *more* about your book from being a subscriber.

E-zine publishers also report GREAT signup results using pop-up and pop-under boxes at their Web sites.

Examples: On my main site, http://www.woopsIdeletedyourURL.com, I feature a signup form on EVERY page, as well as a pop-up box. On my book sales site, http://www.woopsIdeletedyourURL.com/tutorial, I have a pop-under box that appears once you close the main window.

Remember: NEVER sign anyone up without her permission!

• Feature EXCERPTS and/or TIPS from your book in your e-zine.

These can be either direct excerpts or short tips that summarize some of your content. Go through your book and highlight individual tips or small sections that could stand well on their own. Just don’t give away the whole store! For example, giving your readers a whole chapter of your book in each issue is going overboard.
Besides lifting material directly from your book, try some other spins on your topic such as a list of top 10 tips, a how-to article, a list of resources, or a review of a trend in the industry.

Example: One of my clients, a life coach, has a hard-cover book out right now that features 101 tips on how to attract what you want in life. Each issue of her weekly e-zine features one of those tips, along with a brief explanation of how
to implement it.

• Directly after your article, give a quick PROMO BLURB that shamelessly plugs your book.

Why right after the article and before anything else? If someone reads your article/tip and says to themselves, “Gee, that was great information,” they’ll be ready to hear what else you have to share on that subject. Really pump it up
and have a good time with it.

Example: “Did you like today’s article? If you did, you’ll LOVE my new book, ‘Double Your Business in Six Months.’ It’s jammed with more than 257 great ideas to help you grow your business FAST. Learn more and order now at [Web address here]. You can begin using my best tips within minutes!”

• In each issue, offer a TESTIMONIAL from one of your book purchasers. Let your readers know that many other people just like them ARE buying your book and LOVE it. Idea: Create a small section in your e-zine for this purpose.

In each issue, feature a short testimonial from one of your readers here.

Example: “What ‘Beauty Blastoff’ Readers Are Saying: ‘I can’t tell you how much your book has helped me improve my appearance. Thanks to your tips, I’ve lost 20 pounds, cleared up my skin, and rid of all my unwanted hair. Now my rich ex-husband even wants me back. You’re a saint!’” — Suzy Smitten, Los Angeles, Calif.

• Offer your readers a SPECIAL DISCOUNT for a l1mited time.

Make your readers feel special by offering them a special discount on your book when you can. For best response rates, make it a limited time offer to lend a sense of urgency. I did this with my manual when it first came out and got great results.

Example: “For Subscribers Only: Buy my book before midnight this Friday and receive a 20% discount!”

If you can’t give your subscribers a discount, offer something else to make them feel special, such as a bonus report or free phone consultation with their purchase.

• Mention your book in as many other places as possible in your e-zine.

Bottom line: The more you mention your book, the higher your chances they’ll buy. While your opportunities are endless, here are a few ideas to start with:

• in your masthead (This is where you give the reader info about your publication— usually at the very top.)
• in your editor’s or publisher’s note (This is where you give a personal note to your readers.)
• in your article (If you mention a certain point that you cover wonderfully in your book, say so!)
• To attract even more prospects, advertise your e-zine in your everyday email SIGNATURE FILE.

You know what a signature (or “sig”) file is, right? It’s that little blurb with contact info that you can automatically insert at the end of every e-mail you send. Besides your obvious contact information, give a quick plug for your book AND e-zine. Why? Well, if you just advertise your book, some people will read your sig file and think, “That’s cool, but I don’t want to buy anything right now.” BUT if you advertise your FREE e-zine, they’ll likely take advantage of your offer. THEN you’ve got them on your list.

Example: Here’s what I have at the END of my sig file, after my contact information: “BOOST BUSINESS by publishing your own e-mail newsletter!
Learn how now — sign up for fr*ee how-to tips at http://www.woopsIdeletedyourURL.com.”

(c) 2000-2003 Alexandria K. Brown. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is author of the award-winning manual,
“Boost Business With Your Own E-zine.” To learn more about her book and sign up for
more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://www.woopsIdeletedyourURL.com

XP was released on Oct 25, 2001 and Vista was released on Jan 30, 2007.  If 7′s released doesn’t get pushed back, that gives Vista’s life a duration of a little under two years. Development began on Vista in May of 2001, which gives us a span of almost 5 years.  They’ve touted Vista as the best selling, most secure and most successful operating sytem in Microsoft’s history.  Until they began pushing the adoption of 7.  Then they called Vista a necessary mistake; something they had to do to give the users what will be the best selling, most secure and most popular operating system they’ve ever developed.

Vista was XP’s ME.  Something they released as an interim release due to pressures from other OS manufacturer’s.  Just like ME, it was a stillborn and something that will go down in the annals of history as a screwup of epic proportions.

Which leads me to the following query; If Vista mimics the life of ME, will 7 follow the path of XP?  Say what you want, XP is usable.  Out of 7 computers in my house, 5 run XP.  I’ve bought extra copies of the OS for any future computers that end up here. Vista, which came on my gaming computer and on my wife’s work rig is slow and awkward.  I can’t imagine purposefully installing Vista.

Initially, it would seem that 7 will be what Vista should have been.  After all, 7 was being developed alongside of Vista(remember that Vista was an interim release).  When you take into account however that Steve Ballmer stated that 7 is a “revised” Vista, it tends to dampen your hopes that the most used operating system in the world is going to have a suck factor equal to Vista.

All of this suspense almost makes me install one of the thousands of linux flavors to begin hand editing samba config files throu vi in hopes that I can get to my networked files.

Nah, I’m just kidding, but I am concerned.

It stands to reason that a group of people that did so great in the browser wars would now up the ante by offering to store your data that could potentially ruin your life were it to be, lost,  placed in the wrong hands or compromised.

I don’t have a problem with the fact that Netscape developers are getting into the cloud storage business.  I think for that to happen, I would have to find cloud storage a viable technology.  I find the whole premise of remote storage to be utterly laughable,  so at most, the Netscape angle is just a higher level of laughable.

Cloud storage.  It sounds cool, doesn’t it?  We’ve been embracing the whole web 2.0 thing for a while now, so these types of things just get absorbed into the savvyness of it.  Facebook, Twitter and MySpace for every asshole that wants to tell you about his current emotional crisis by text message?  Sign me up!  AJAX for the most simple of web elements, increasing the page source ten fold for no good reason?  Rock on! Why, we’ve even got Web 2.0 style buttons for your web page, so everyone can more closely integrate their adoption of the fad with each other. Cloud apps, storage and even OS’s are hot too, man.  If you’re against it, you might as well be yelling “Get off my interlawn!” or telling whippersnappers how you did it in web 1.0(or web .9.2, if you’re hard core).

Google began the big push for cloud apps.  They needed a way to keep you under their advertising umbrella for a longer period of time.  They already tell you where you are via Google Maps when you’re lost, where your fat ass is currently sitting when you should actually be exercising via Google Earth and what number you should have actually called via GOOG-411.  What they didn’t develop, they bought.  Google is the behemoth that everyone thought Microsoft was when the people demanded that the government castrate the Redmond giant.  In short, Google wants more.  Of everything.  They can’t get enough.

So they push cloud apps and storage.  Because, you know…. they offer remote stuff.  “Have your company use our remote apps and be able to share and develop from anywhere in the world?  We’ll hold on to everything for you.  Why, you don’t even have to buy applications for your computer.  We’ll provide those as well.”

Who in the fuck thought this was a good idea?  I would ask how they convinced the people that it was a good idea but if you know me, then you know how little I think of you all(If you disagree, you can leave a comment on my Facebook page directing me to your twitter post concerning the topic).  It’s well known that Google will do absolutely anything for statistics and demographics.  They already parse their users’ mail to be able to serve them better targeted advertisements.  Of course we should store all of our sensitive information with them. What could possibly go wrong?

Google is no longer the company that does no evil.  Google is the company that does what it has to do to make money.  It’s too large of an entity to have a sense of ethics.  With the current storage methods, you have the ability to attempt to safeguard your data.  with remote storage, you get an empty promise from a nameless entity too large to have a chain of accountability.

The drinking of the Kool-Aid doesn’t stop there, however.  Storing your data remotely warrants being labeled an idiot.  Storing your applications along with your data?  Well, that’s just idiot taken to a much higher level.  I once had a conversation with a man developing a web based OS. Nobody but I saw the humour in a remotely hosted operating system.

Steve Jobs proved long ago that people would buy anything if you made it sexy enough, price be damned.  It didn’t need to be better, it just needed to make you feel better about yourself. As time progresses, people attempt to become more of an early adopter of anything that is considered sexy. People can be found notifying others about posting to their MySpace pages from their iPhone.  Nevermind the fact that MySpace is a joke and the iPhone is an overpriced steaming pile of shit.  They’re cool and if you’re cool, you’ll follow suit.

Why, back in my day, we had to store our data on floppies.  And we liked it.

We loved it.

They state that they were following the “regulations” set forth by the FCC. If that is the case, then why is DirecTV, Tivo and every other DVR system able to record the same shows that WMC can not?

Aha, therein lies the rub. The reason is because there are no “regulations” prohibiting the recording of any media. The FCC and MPAA attempted to dictate what the hardware makers could allow their hardware to record with something called broadcast flags, but the courts said they were high.

Imagine that your local schools stated that you could not drop your kids off in any vehicle manufactured with a sunroof. This was because you could inadvertently fall out of the car if the earth’s gravity were to reverse in areas with a high concentration of ill behaved children. Although the courts stated they were morons for attempting to enforce something like this, GM produced cars for your region that, if equipped with a sunroof, refused to turn into any school entrance. When asked, GM states “it’s the law”.

What Microsoft is doing is just as lame as my attempt at an analogy.

Microsoft loves digital rights management. They pack it into anything they can; music services, media centers, personal audio devices. If they are able to fit the code into something, you can pretty much guarantee that it will be shipped with it. When asked though, their common response(after their initial refusal to respond at all) is that their hand was forced by the media providers. Just like now. These concrete rules and regulations that they absolutely must adhere to. These absolute laws that they are unable to circumvent.

If only there were an alternative.

It’s just that they make it so easy, sometimes.

Take the latest news involving the Zune.  It’s likely that a future software update will install a copyright protection scheme that will block any unapproved media from being uploaded to it.  This means that Microsoft will determine whether you purchased it via approved channels.

That dvd you ripped at your house?  That’s almost guaranteed to be an “unapproved channel”.

The only thing that keeps me from being incensed is that we all get to choose which player we will use and if you get screwed by Microsoft, it’s because you wanted to.