PayPerPost update Oct 17, 2006
PayPerPost is trying another rewards program for its members called Postie Patrol.  They basically show up at your house or your job and offer you a chance to win some cash by performing a trick or playing a game.  I think it's a mildly good idea, but it's totally unfeasible.  It's like that Ricola Mystery Cougher thing.  There's no way they're gonna go anywhere but a big city, and even then, it's like a needle in a haystack.  I'd love to see these people show up at my door, but that kind of thing doesn't happen to me.  I don't win things.  I'm not a winner.  Except that one time I got a free Coke with an under-the-cap thing.  That was awesome. 

But I think it's interesting that payperpost keeps giving money to its members.  The posting opportunities I've taken so far have only been "internal" offers, meaning they're things that drive more traffic to PayPerPost.  The real purpose of their service is to drive traffic to other people's sites.  The big problem with that is that the advertisers who use PayPerPost are horrendous.  Why would I want to promote a video on how to change a light bulb?  Why would anyone ever look at a website that talks about top real estate agents?  These things are stupid, and the websites they point to lack even a shred of useful information.  I'm pretty sure they're all part of some sort of social experiment to see how many people will perform a stupid task for a few bucks. 

As far as PayPerPost being the end of "responsible blogging", I've already stated my opinion:  Things won't change.  But what I see happening in the near future is a bunch of blogs filling up with paid links to other useless sites whose sole purpose is to generate hits.  Oh wait ... yeah, I guess that does mean the end of responsible blogging.  Ok, maybe the critics are right. 

This is a sponsored post. #technology
Google Webmaster Tools Oct 17, 2006
Google Webmaster Tools is a simple set of tools for people who own and/or manage their own domain.  It includes services for crawl errors (not found, unreachable, etc.), robots.txt analysis, search query statistics, and sitemap validation.  What's cool about the whole thing is that it's done automatically; the webmaster doesn't need to download any files or include any javascript.  It's simply a set of statistics from the Googlebot, organized in an easy-to-read format.  But to make sure everything runs smoothly, it's helpful if your site has a robots.txt file and a sitemap.  Mine didn't, so I used Wikipedia's guidance and the Google Sitemap Generator WordPress plugin.  One major issue it brought to my attention was that a couple of my posts were "Not found" by the Googlebot but easily found by me.  I figured out that the problem was that the "Post Status" was set to "Private" within WordPress.  I'm not sure how this happened, but I fixed it and now everything works.  Also, one of my recent posts had some dirty links in it, and Google didn't know what they meant.  I added a rel="nofollow" tag to them, which should do the trick. #technology
Express checkout line (5) Oct 17, 2006
I just don't get it.  At most supermarkets and retail stores (Walmart, Target, etc.), there's an express checkout line.  It usually displays a sign that reads, "10 items or less".  It's great for people like me who go into a store to buy 1 or 2 things and want to quickly get out (in the absence of a self-checkout line).  There's usually a short line if there's any line at all, and it moves quickly because people are only buying 10 items or less. 

Except those stupid people who don't know how to count.  Or maybe they don't know how to read.  Either way, some people go through the express checkout line when they have well over 10 items.  I'm not talking 12-15 items.  I'm talking 25-30 items.  It gets me ragin' mad because they're abusing the system.  I make sure I follow the system at all times.  I count the number of objects in my hands as I'm walking to the checkout line.  If I have more than 10, I go to a different line because that's what you're supposed to do.  But some people don't quite understand this and they buy 10 different pieces of fruit, several feminine hygiene products (just to make me feel awkward), and several items without price tags.  They invariably end up paying with a check (another way to make me hate you) or decide to attempt to learn how to use the credit card machine ("It says 'Cash or Credit'; what should I do?").  I think these people should be punished in one of several ways: 
1.  The offender is forced to replace the items removed from the shelves, at which point said offender is physically thrown out of the store and onto his/her butt. 

2.  All lights in the building are turned off, a spotlight is placed on the offender, and a voice calls out over the intercom, "Stupid alert!  Stupid alert!". 

3.  Green slime is poured from a container in the ceiling onto the offender's head, reminiscent of Nickelodeon's Double Dare. 
Ah, sweet revenge. #business
Taskbar Shuffle Oct 17, 2006
Taskbar Shuffle is a simple little program that satisfies the needs of the extremely obsessive compulsive:  It allows you to move windows on the taskbar with a simple drag and drop.  It's similar to TaskArrange, except that it always runs in the background.  It comes as either a standalone program or a Google Desktop gadget (though I'm not sure why anyone would want that).  Now my taskbar buttons can always be in the order I want them in.  I may have problems.  (via Download Squad) #technology
Hostels.com Oct 17, 2006
Hostels.com is a simple website that can be used to search for hostels in major cities around the world.  It even has some listings for small towns in the US.  I've never stayed in a hostel, but it seems like a good alternative to unnecessarily overpriced hotels ... as long as you're ok with sleeping in the same room with strangers and sharing a public bathroom.  (via Cool Tools) #travel