A chunk of ice from defrosting the freezer, on a bed of autumn leaves.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/909, F4.7, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-12-06T15:44:54-05, 2005-12-06_15h44m54
Location: Thripp Residence, Ormond Beach, FL 32174-7227
Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.
I was just banned from sending Facebook friend requests. After doing some research, I found I was breaking the rules. FACEBOOK USERS ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO SEND FRIEND REQUESTS TO PEOPLE THEY KNOW IN REAL LIFE. I’ve been sending requests to people who share many mutual friends with me. All of these people were in my “recommended friends” list, but apparently sending out 50 friend requests is abusive behavior on Facebook, even though I only sent requests to people who live within 30 miles of me.
Evidently many people I tried to add to my friends reported me for spamming, because that seems to be the reason Facebook bans abusers. I’m sure this ban was completely automated, and I doubt I’m in any danger of losing my account.
Here is the message I received upon logging in tonight:
To prevent you from contacting people against their wishes, your friend requests and your ability to send messages to strangers have been temporarily blocked.
If more of your friend requests are later marked as spam or reported for being sent to strangers, this block could be extended. To prevent this, you may wish to cancel your pending friend requests. Also cancel unanswered requests?
I opted not to cancel my unanswered friend requests and I have been banned from sending new friend requests for 48 hours. Perhaps I will be banned permanently? I sure hope no one else reports me for spamming.
While I’m disappointed, I totally understand that Facebook can impose whatever restrictions it wants on me because I don’t own Facebook.com like I own Thripp.com. Perhaps my Digital Sharecropping article from 2008 was not so far off.
I’ve decided to get out of domain speculation and never register a domain name again. EVERYTHING MUST GO, $10 EACH, EMAIL richardxthripp@thripp.com AND I’LL SEND MY PAYPAL INFO.
In total, I have 96 domains for sale. Most are registered by GoDaddy and expire in Oct. 2011, but 20 are Netfirms domains and about 5 expire in a couple months. If you want to know for sure, look it up.
These prices are FINAL, please disregard any higher prices I’ve posted elsewhere on the Internet. There could be a lot of gems in here. Don’t pass up this opportunity!
alachua.biz
angley.info
angley.us
anthonyrobbins.us
applicationbusiness.com
axxx.us
bakercounty.us
bradford-co-fla.com
bryanferry.us
chipola.us
claycounty.us
daytonafl.org
daytonastate.us
dispute.mx
dixiecounty.us
dvdsort.com
entrepreneurs-journey.org
exabyte.us
feelgooder.org
flaglercollege.info
flaglercollege.us
flashdrivebackup.com
forthepeople.info
fullsail.biz
g2x.org
g2x.us
gadsdengov.com
gladescounty.us
gulfcounty.net
gulfcounty.us
hardeecounty.info
hardeecounty.us
indianrivercounty.net
jackcanfield.org
jamesblunt.us
jerrybrowngov.com
jimrohn.us
johnchow.info
keiseruniversity.us
levycounty.info
levycounty.us
libertycounty.us
lifedig.com
madlibs.info
markvictorhansen.us
miami-dade.us
monroecounty.us
mydakota.info
mydakota.us
mydaytona.org
myflagler.org
myholmes.net
mymanatee.net
mymexico.us
mymiami.info
mymiami.us
mynewyork.us
mynewyorkcity.net
myorange.us
mystetson.com
mytexas.net
myvolusia.info
mywashington.us
news-journal.org
newsjournal.us
ocgov.us
okaloosa.us
okeechobeecountyfl.com
orangecountyfl.info
orangecountyfl.us
parkingrestrictions.com
pavlina.org
photography-school.org
polk-county.info
polk-county.us
queuebook.com
reunioncounty.com
rickscott2014.com
rickscottgov.com
stephencovey.us
stevepavlina.us
suwcounty.com
swfc.us
tobu.org
tri0.com
verbix.org
volusiacounty.biz
volusiafl.com
waynebray.com
waynedyer.info
yournewyork.us
yourny.net
yournyc.info
yournyc.org
yournyc.us
ziglar.info
Let the liquidation begin!
This was a sign at Wal-Mart that apparently means “no trucks,” but I thought it looked funny. The truck on the picture looks more like a box with four wheels. So I’ve decided to title this “No Wheeled Boxes.”
This photo is from 2005, but the source image is dull and ugly. Using the curves tool, I added a lot of contrast, making the sky a bright blue and the colors white, black, and red on the sign very vivid. Then, I selectively desaturated the blue in the sky to prevent color banding when I make prints of this photo. The red will look fine, but blue is a particularly vulnerable color for some reason.
I don’t talk much about this, but it costs me $115 per month to keep this blog and my other sites online. If you could make a donation or make your Amazon.com purchases through my Amazon affiliate link, I will be very appreciative.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/286, F4.7, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-11-21T09:17:57-05, 2005-11-21_09h17m57
Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.
I’ve switched all ads on most of my websites to AdBrite, which is similar to Google AdSense but does not ban people so easily. I received a $5.73 check for my AdBrite earnings from July 2010, but switched back to AdSense to make more money. Now that I’m banned from AdSense, there’s really no reason not to use AdBrite. I hope this program becomes as good as Google AdSense, but I am expecting a huge decline in income.
This is definitely a wake-up call for me. It’s never good to invest yourself too heavily in one company. It’s like I’ve lost my job. I was making over $400 a month from Google’s program as an independent contractor. Now, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have basically said “YOU’RE FIRED,” and they don’t even want to pay my back wages!
UPDATED 2010-11-22 05:45 GMT: I have been restored to the Google AdSense program, but I can no longer display ads on other peoples websites. This will reduce my income by 75%, but AdSense still generates more revenue than any other program, so I’ve stopped using AdBrite, which only generated about $1.00 per day.
30 minutes ago, I received this email from Google AdSense:
Hello,
We continually review all publishers according to our Terms and Conditions and program policies, and we reserve the right to disable publishers or sites that are not in compliance with our policies.
Our specialists have found that your account is not in compliance with these program policies. As a result, we have disabled your account.
Google has certain policies in place that we believe will help ensure the effectiveness of Google ads for our publishers as well as our advertisers. We believe strongly in freedom of expression and therefore
offer broad access to content across the web without censoring results. At the same time, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the ads we display in our AdWords program and the sites on which we choose to display them in our AdSense program, as noted in our respective Terms and Conditions.Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
I immediately filled out an appeal, but I don’t even know why I was banned. The email doesn’t say. Is Google trying to cheat me out of the $570 they owe me? I earned $430 last month and $140 this month I have not yet received, and my AdSense account says they are not going to pay me until “issues” with my account are resolved. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???
If you use my Tweet This plugin, DO NOT enable “Insert Google AdSense ads to support Tweet This” anymore. Unless my account is restored, Google will just keep the money. It won’t help me at all.
UPDATED 2010-11-11 20:45 GMT: Here are some details of my AdSense usage I posted on this forum:
I’ve been doing the same thing for the past 8 months and receiving Google checks every month, so it’s really surprising that they would ban me now considering I haven’t changed anything!
I display ads on my personal website. I also run a URL shortener called Th8.us and I display Google AdSense in an iFrame above the redirect page with a link to hide the ads. The service has over 21 million short URLs and makes about $150 per month from AdSense. I got the idea from About.com which does the same thing using Google AdSense ads.
I develop a WordPress plugin called Tweet This which includes the option “Insert Google AdSense ads to support Tweet This.” If checked, this inserts ads with my publisher ID on the plugin user’s blog. Last month, this made $143.
However, I have been doing both of these things for a long time. Tweet This has had the AdSense option since Feb. 2009, and it hasn’t changed a bit. Why would they ban me now?
UPDATED 2010-11-22 05:45 GMT: I have been restored to the Google AdSense program, but I can no longer display ads on other peoples websites. This will reduce my income by 75%, but AdSense still generates more revenue than any other program.
This is a picture of Bill’s dog, Scrappy, from 2005. At the time, Bill was the owner of Angelo’s Pizzeria in Mims, Florida, but he sold the business in 2009 and is less involved now.
Scrappy was very well behaved and is beloved by his owner. In this portrait, he is looking out the window of a car, wondering if his master is going to take him somewhere.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/167, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-11-13T10:34:20-05, 2005-11-13_10h34m20
Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.
A view across the lake. The water was in fact quite green, but I corrected that by changing the white balance.
This is a new edit of a photo I took in 2005. The original was quite dull, but with a simple contrast enhancement it became a memorable photo.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/1429, F4.7, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-10-27T12:18:46-04, 2005-10-27_12h18m46
Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.
A baby snake my father was trying to pick up with his glove. This is a new edit of a photo from 2005. I removed a lot of dirt on the glove and sidewalk using the spot healing brush. This snake is long dead, unless he managed to live over five years.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/30, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO100, 2005-10-03T20:25:08-04, 2005-10-03_20h25m08
Location: Thripp Residence, Ormond Beach, FL 32174-7227
Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.
One of my early photos from Dec. 2004. In the beginning, I made the mistake of setting my 2MP Fujifilm FinePix 2650 to 1 megapixel resolution, which was 1280×960 instead of 1600×1200. At the time, I had a computer with a 4GB HDD and monitor with a resolution of 1024×768, so I saw no reason to take higher quality photos. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
This is newly edited with Photoshop CS5. I added a lot of contrast and made the white balance warmer. Every version of Photoshop gets easier to use, at least in my opinion. The auto contrast and auto tone functions work better now, and I find myself using them rather than curves more often than ever. However, the auto color feature still sucks.
I will only be posting photos from 2005 for the rest of November 2010 and some of December. I will also get into the 2006 photos next month. For a preview of what’s coming, look at the photos I posted on deviantART in late 2005 and early 2006. I will be reposting them here, but with different descriptions, titles, and much better editing.
Fujifilm FinePix 2650, 1/1400, F8.7, 6mm, ISO100, 2004-12-12T10:51:01-05, 2004-12-12_10h51m01
Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.
