Command Line Commands for Dummies

DOS command line interface in terminal window

Perhaps because eHow.com became the internet laughingstock after Google's Panda update or perhaps for some SERPy, SEO-y reason; Demand Media (now called Leaf Group) began moving their content onto "niche sites" or selling it outright. We've noticed a problem with the move, though: the company ran a bulk reformatting that changed the meaning of some of the content, some of it laughably so. If the content was already wrong, however, it sometimes made it worse. That's what happened to "How to Copy & Paste Files Using Command Prompt" when Rhian Hibner's post was moved to Techwalla.

Science and Religion Compared for Dummies

Science vs. religion, historical context...

Although our staffers put most of their time into searching the 'net for freelancer's factual errors, they do keep their eyes open for logical failings as well. Some months ago, an Antisocial Network researcher ran across some a self-appointed philosopher on HubPages and flagged his profile for future harvests. We already pointed out William J. Prest for his scientific illiteracy once, but heretofore ignored his many posts on conspiracy theories (the Lloyd Pye theory, cryptozoology, chemtrails, fluoridation, GMOs, and other pseudoscience). But we couldn't pass up this steaming pile of twaddle: "Faith in Science as an Objectivist Religion"; not after a copy of "The War on Science" circulated through the office...

Measuring Amperage for Dummies

Suppose you wanted to make money by answering questions on the internet. Of course, you could always just put up a page with a blank that says, "Ask Question Here"; pretty much the Google model, in truth. Since that idea was already taken, the people at Demand Media (now known as Leaf Group) created eHow.com, which hired random people to answer questions that had already been asked. Unfortunately, that meant that sometimes people who knew nothing would still try to answer questions that made no sense. After all, saying "You can't do that!" wouldn't make them any money! Instead, you end up with the kind of foolishness exhibited by Bob White (he's a bird!) when he attempted to explain "How to Calculate the Amps of an Outlet Using a Multimeter" at HomeSteady.com. Ouch.

The big problem, of course, is that multimeters don't calculate anything, including amperage: they can, however, measure amperage in a bare circuit or the voltage at an outlet. White actually gets at that problem in his intro:

Locks for Sliding Glass Doors, the Dummy Approach

Sliding door with mortise lock

The Antisocial Network mole who once wrote for Demand Media (owner of eHow.com, now reinvented as Leaf Group) says that it was common for a contributor to search for assignments with the same keyword once they'd established their "expertise." That must be how eHow.com contributor Alec Preble managed to write multiple articles about locks, a topic he probably didn't study on his way to that BA in English. Among them we found one of astounding dumbassery titled "How to Install a Key Lock On a Sliding Glass Door" (now living at Hunker.com).¹

Emerald Formation for Dummies

raw, uncut emeralds in crystal form

The Antisocial Network's founder recently read Shawn Otto's The War On Science, somewhat of a polemic on the treatment of science and scientists in the modern sociopolitical climate. One of the problems, according to Otto, is that journalists are taught that there is no such thing as objectivity, even though objectivity is the foundation of science. In other words, J-school graduates know jack about science. That's certainly true of "professional journalist" (turned organic farmer) Chris Sherwood, who demonstrated his scientific illiteracy for OurPastimes.com¹ when he attempted to explain "How Are Emeralds Made?"²

Towel Rack Repair for Dummies

How hollow wall fasteners work

As our crack research team putters around the internet in search of freelance bull, they often search for answers to questions that have come up in their own lives. One of the guys had a loose towel rack not long ago and, although he fixed it without outside intervention, he searched on the topic anyway. As luck would have it, he found eHow.com's Jonra Springs (a hot tub salesman?) ready to "help" with the problem. Here's what Jonra had to say in "How to Repair a Loose Towel Rack On Wall"¹ [sic].

As we do whenever possible, we went to the freelancer's original source, though we had to use the Wayback machine to find it; and – to be frank – it was only slightly better than what Springs wrote, suggesting that to tighten up a loose hollow wall fastener you simply "squirt a nice stream of glue into the hole" (small wonder the blogger who posted it took it down). But we're here to castigate Jonra, not Mark. Springs starts off with a bang, explaining that

Rock Identification for Dummies

Igneous rock samples

After a week of overt techno-stupidity, it's time to move back into the wide world of the internet and see what dumbassery's out there that isn't published at Techwalla.com. As luck would have it, one of our researchers ran across what may well be one of the worst guides to rock identification ever printed, compliments of Kelly Townsend at, you guessed it, eHow. Here's our rebuttal of the post Kelly compiled in response to the search phrase "How to Identify Stones,"¹ which now lives (for unknown reasons) at GoneOutdoors.com.