I’m up, I’m here, and I’m at it! The Blogathon 2003 has begun! The next 24 hours will entail much, I have to keep this one a bit short but my next entry will begin to carry the details of what I’ll be doing here over the next 24 hours. At least once every 30 minutes I’ll be posting.

Thank you to those who have made a pledge for me on behalf of ASACP. If you would like to pledge something, just click here. There’s still time!B

I read about this study (source: UF study: Web is safe space for cyber affairs) and have heard this before that chatrooms were a haven for secret affairs. I’ve seen and read the raging online debate whether cybersex was cheating or not. There are lots of secrets that people in marriages keep from each other and that is the kind of stuff that needs to be opened up, in my opinion. What people in marriage should ask themselves is what they can do for their partner, what turns their partner on. It’s not get married and get bored with each other and look elsewhere for sex. I think the problem with divorce is that people don’t get in with the attitude that they are going to keep the lines of communication wide open.

Hmmm, time for me to go to bed as the Blogathon 2003 starts in just 5 hours! I will be writing what the plans are when I wake up. Looks like I will not be having a full 8 hours sleep. That should make things interesting …

(story: Typing for a good cause) Blogathon 2003 continues to get good press. It will be starting soon! I shared more details on what is happening with this blog on today’s live radio show

Unsuspecting grandparents and roommates are among the first, according to this article to be fleshed out by the RIAA in their seemingly unending quest against digital pirates.

Over the coming months this may be the internet’s equivalent of “shock and awe” - the stunning discovery by music fans across America that copyright lawyers can pierce the presumed anonymity of file-sharing, even for computer users hiding behind nicknames such as “hottdude0587″ or “bluemonkey13.”

I’m not sure the comparison to the Iraq shock and awe is appropriate or relevant, but I think this will raise the awareness level for internet users who share their accounts with others to be more careful. Check out this humorous cartoon on the RIAA that I found using Google images search. The cartoon is from designer cosmo7

AC Pay recently changed names to EGS Pay, and now according to this general statement sent to clients, is also going to be changing ownership — tomorrow we find out who that will be in a joint press release:

Recent months have not been easy for any of us, as we have all had to make significant changes in the way we do business. A worldwide recession, governmental regulation, and increased pressure from card associations and banks have combined to make the adult industry a more challenging place to do business. In response to that environment, and after much consideration, we have decided that we can best serve our clients by focusing on our core competencies–Adult Check and affiliate programs such as AC Movie Pass (ACMP), AC Prime, and AC Sex Toys.

We appreciate your patience during the past few weeks. We’ve been working around the clock, and are pleased to announce that EGS Pay is in the process of being acquired by a large e-commerce company. We expect to issue a detailed joint press release tomorrow, and processing of new and pending sales will resume shortly thereafter.

The past year has seen dramatic industry and economic shifts, and we have realigned our staffing and priorities have to address these changes. To adapt to the current environment, we will phase out the existing incarnations of AC Free and Gay Mega Sites (GMS) to focus on our core products. Beginning August 1, 2003, AC Free will no longer purchase email addresses from its clients. Any credits accrued through that date will be paid out according to our regular payment schedule. Existing AC Free sites will remain online, allowing clients to continue to receive upsells from existing members.

On August 15, 2003, we will remove the GMS links list. Vendors will retain existing rebills and continue to be paid. We will soon add a large amount of content to Club GMS to better serve existing members and assist with retention. Existing GMS sites will be grandfathered into the AC Gold program on a fast track, despite the fact that some of them may not meet the program’s new 1000-picture minimum standard. Please contact Bryan at bryan at adultcheck.com to begin the process of migrating your sites.

Our core business is strong, stable, and profitable. Adult Check remains the first and largest product of its kind, ACMP continues to maintain an average membership retention of more than 8-months. Adult Check, ACMP and our other affiliate programs will continue to lead the industry. These programs have always been successful and profitable for everyone involved, and with additional resources to build on the industry’s first, largest, and most reliable platform, they will become more profitable in the future.

We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. Our new management is focused on providing our clients with the best of what we do. By reducing the number of peripheral products we will be supporting, we can and will provide improved service for our core offerings. Please rest assured that all future development will be directed toward these efforts. We will, for instance, shortly unveil a new content area for AC members and a trouble-ticket system for clients that will allow us to provide much more efficient webmaster support. We will soon announce additional exciting new innovations for our core products.

We value your business. In our six-year history, we have never missed a payout, and we will continue to provide our clients with the industry’s best products and the highest possible standard of service. We look forward to a continued good relationship, and increased focus and profitability for all of us.

Sincerely,

Tim Umbreit
President

(source: Reuters) eEye Digital Security found a hole in the way Windows handles MIDI files. Make sure you get the patch here: http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-03 0.asp

My training continues for the Blogathon 2003. Staying up to 2am now without too much trouble, and yesterday was up until 5am, so I am almost ready.

I am still looking for your support and you still have time to get your pledges in for me to support Adult Sites Against Child Pornography. You can donate as little as $1, if you want, so break open those piggy banks. Now what am I planning on doing?

Webcam - a live webcam will be running so that you can watch me typing, blogging, playing videogames, surfing, eating (Tabasco!), playing guitar, coding away and more!

Radio show - at 4am PST / 7pm EST Sunday July 27, 2003 you can tune into Script School Radio live and catch me broadcasting the final 2 hours of Blogathon 2003. Peter from crushing krisis is planning on calling in and sharing an original song of his.

So what all will I be blogging about during these 24 hours? Stay tuned.

(source: Mediapost) My current personal favorite internet Radio @ AOL was ranked as the number one Internet Broadcast Network with 21,679,740 hours of Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) for the month of June. What do I like about Radio @ AOL?

1) broadband sound is great,
2) commercial free (only station IDs so far, but I bet this changes) 
3) plenty of different music “stations” within the network 
4) follows the KISS principle that AOL is so great for: Keep It Simple Stupid. LIVE 365 has the diversity as far as stations go, but AOL is doing things right so far.

If you are like most people, you are using windows passwords that are alphanumeric. Some people, god help them, just use words with no numbers. According to this story cracking your Windows password if you use alphanumeric passwords is still more possible than not. To tighten the security add symbols to your passwords like ‘$’.

Just listened to an interview today from Sylvester Stallone on the Jim Rome Show and he had a number of interesting things to say:

- Rocky 6 is written and ready for production: it is about fighters having a “puncher’s chance”. He said one of the producers was having some hangups with it (he didn’t elaborate) but otherwise it is going forward. Fans of Rocky sequels will rejoice. Stallone admitted he was disappointed with Rocky 5 and how he made Rocky too mortal. I suspect this movie, if it ever comes out, to be a cross between Rocky 3 and 4 and to sell much like Rocky 5. Time to hang up the gloves on this franchise, Sly.

- His kids wanted him to do Spy Kids 3D and he is the bad guy in it. I am looking forward to this movie, actually, and we have plans to go see it. I like 3D movies and hope that this isn’t a dud and will help to spur on more 3D development. [update 7/4/04: reviewed Aug 3, 2003]