Following this blog’s recent rise in popularity (thanks Howard Rheingold!) I’ve got a taste for the big time, and I’m turning to you, dear readers, to help me knock it up a notch. Don’t worry, it’s all completely consensual.
You’ve seen those ads on other people’s sites. The little squares with the ‘Best Hosting Ever!’ and the ‘I can has LOLcats t-shirt?’ messages in them? Well I promise to never ever run those on here…
However, I do recognise that they are a valid form of advertising, linkbacks and branding. Hell, they are an important part of Web Culture! Which is why I kindly ask that if you’ve enjoyed any of my posts lately, you’ve used my WordPress plugin, or you’ve got an empty ad slot you’d like filling, please help yourself to one of these tasty Blog Badges and spread the love:
The Plain Ol’ Badge:
Help spread the word with this moody ’statement’ badge.
No fuss, no muss, just black & white, baby. Emo-friendly.
The Brain Coral Badge:
Your chance to own a piece of natural beauty, with this tasty chunk of purple brain coral. It’s nature’s cranium!
The Rotating Badge:
Bore easily? Try this! It rotates through my fave colours every time you hit the refresh button. Great for kids parties.



















Why Facebook Is Awesome
Recently I’ve been using Facebook a lot more than usual, in order to:
Now that I’ve got all of my contacts sorted, I thought I’d try one of those friend wheels, just out of interest. I chose the one with most users, which is called Nexus, and I’ve gotta tell you – it is seriously good!
Nexus creates a interactive image of your friends’ interrelations, their shared interests, and their profile information. It is really powerful, takes about four minutes, and it’s results are guaranteed if not to please, then at least to look cool.
Here’s my Nexus analysis, with some text roughly labelling my groups:
If, like me, you use Facebook as a life-management tool, you may find it interesting to see your whole network presented in this way.
I was surprised at how this complex display of some 460 connections made me really nostalgic (soppy, I know) and has driven me to reconnect with people I haven’t thought about in ages. Seeing everyone like this revealed that this is basically who I am: a series of connections. So you could say, this friend wheel has reaffirmed me as a human! Who thought Facebook could be so deep?!
Where do you fit in to the wheel? Let me know if you recognise yourself amongst the connections. I’d love to know!
P.S:
It will allow bloggers to create subscribers to a Facebook page.
Try it by clicking this icon, and subscribing to Digital Cortex.