Author: Rocco Penn

With all of the buzz surrounding Google+, people tend to forget that Twitter is nearly 10X bigger than the new kid on the block while Facebook is over 30X bigger. Between the two, they have a billion users (granted most Twitter users have a Facebook account, but who’s counting?). When it comes to business, branding has become one of the primary focuses when it comes to using social media. Marketing directly has proven to be less effective than it once was, so getting advocates and fans has been the primary goal of social media managers at businesses large and small for a while now. This infographic…

The science behind hacking passwords has evolved much faster than the passwords themselves. While many websites and programs set limits on password-attempts that make brute-force attacks impossible, there are plenty of sites that do not. With many people using the same password for multiple sites and profiles, they don’t necessarily have to hack everything. They just need to find the weakest link. The cartoon above by XKCD brilliantly and simply explains why long passwords with common random words are much more effective than the standard 1 capital letter, 1 number, 1 symbol, 8-12 character-long…

Normally when blogs talk about link-building, they’re referring to an SEO activity that involves spamming forums, article directories, and comment threads. This type of link-building is bad. Out friends at IGN give us a different kind of link-building to watch. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a gamer or not – Link from the Legend of Zelda series is probably at least familiar if not recognizable to you. He has been around since the dawn of modern gaming and will likely fill our Nintendo-console screens for years to come. If you ever wanted to learn how to draw him, here you go. …

They have taken down websites representing banks, religions, and governments. Now, if a recent video is authentic, Anonymous has its sights set on the most powerful social network in the world: Facebook. Here is a partial transcript of the video: Attention Citizens of the World, We are Anonymous. We wish to get your attention hoping you heed the warnings as follows. Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you’re a willing activist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy….

On August 6, 1991, the World Wide Web was officially launched by its father, Tim “NotAlGore” Berners-Lee. He posted a project summary here and the rest is history. The World Wide Web has its foundation in work that Berners-Lee did in the 1980s at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. He had been looking for a way for physicists to share information around the world without all using the same types of hardware and software. This culminated in his 1989 paper proposing ‘A large hypertext database with typed links’. Read the story of how it all went down on TheNextWeb….

There have been many renditions of fights between Street Fighter primary characters Ken and Ryu. Cartoons, CGI, even real-life movies have been used to portray the fight between the two evenly-matched combatants. The one below may be the most creative one yet. Using a Nikon D5100 sent as a sponsorship tool, YouTube user counter656 uploaded the video today and it’s already starting to make its rounds. …

Having the latest shiny new gadget is something that many people strive for. They are the ones who are willing to wait in line, get test samples or beta invites for new technology, and generally consider last year’s model an abomination. They are the early adopters and there are distinct advantages to being one. There are, however, costs as well. This graphic by our friends at SocialCast explores those costs and shows how people who are getting the latest and greatest may be getting a little ripped off in the process. Being an early adopter is often a status symbol, and as with most status symbols,…

Die-hard fans of video games often play them continuously until very few people are even playing them anymore. Halo: Reach, which was launched nearly a year ago, has a custom map that is drawing back players in droves. The video telling about it was the top story on Reddit Gaming, a high-volume subredddit that is very difficult to top, and has over 1000 points. It was just launched today but is very likely in the low-6-figures as far as overall views. Looks like fun. …

With all of the rumors and false sightings, we were starting to believe there was more myth and legend to it all than truth. Now, it seems that a credible source is declaring a month for launch of the magic beast known as iPhone 5. Just in time for the Christmas shopping spree (as if it needed the boost for sales) the iPhone will have its newest edition launching in October, 2011. Last week, Gizmodo reported that AT&T employees were barred from requesting vacation time the last 2 weeks of September, prompting the nature cry of, “It must be the iPhone launch!” John Paczkowski from AllThingsD received…

In the 21st century, most people are aware that there are little creatures living in or on everything that we touch, eat, and breath. Microbes are a fact of life that many ignore simply because we can’t do a lot about it. We try to stay clean, use antibacterial soap, and wash things that come in contact with food, but what about our beds? Again, it’s something that we ignore. A recent study by SleepBetter took a look at pillows and mattress pads that are being used by college students across the US. Bacteria, yeast, fungus – yep, they’re all there. While nobody is suggesting that we bleach our beds every…