July 2004 Archives
Anyone who listens to MP3 should consider downloading the MusicBrainz tagger. It searches your MP3 files and compares the information versus their huge user-modified database. If your tags are incorrect they fix them. The program takes some time to figure out, but once I got the idea it's really a great piece of software for getting your MP3's in order.
The use of MusicBrainz was prompted by Audioscrobbler, a plugin that keeps track of all the songs you listen to and then makes reccomendations based on others listening habits. I'm not sure that AudioScrobbler is allowing any new users to sign up at the moment, though if they are it's worthwhile and a fun way to find new music.
Last, and this has nothing to do with music. If you don't have a del.icio.us account, get one. It's a social bookmark program that allows you to bookmark webpages of interest in a public place. Instead of using a folder hierarchy, del.icio.us uses tags that allow you to identify a link in multiple categories. All the links on the right side of this page are kept on del.icio.us and then fed onto this page. I've also found it incredibly useful for work where it allows me to easily organize information that I plan to use for future stories. When you sign up you get a little button to put on your toolbar that allows you to bookmark any page you're on very easily. Go sign up.
Update (6/26/05): As I was going back through old entries adding categories, I realized this was really a Newly Discovered, so I have adjusted it accordingly.
Leave a Comment
I was poking around Wikipedia and I noticed the random page link. So far I've gotten Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax, Kosovska River and Calahorra. If you haven't ever used Wikipedia, it's a user created and edited encylopedia. If you find something that's not there, or incorrect, you can go in and update it.
Leave a Comment
It appears that somehow the latest American Demographics Alert (the new weekly newsletter) has slipped online (it's supposed to be subscriber only). Since I expect I am not allowed to post any of my own work myself (all of it has a big Primedia copyright notice at the bottom), I am left to linking to it when it gets accidently posted: so here it is. Enjoy my article about children and their weight problems.
Leave a Comment
For those who missed Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention last night, as I did, you can read the full text here and I have provided some excerpts:
Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems.
But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice.
Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America-there's the United States of America.
There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.
There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
Leave a Comment
There is probably no quantifiable way to prove that Americans are an impatient breed. We want what we want, when we want it, and we're willing to pay for the privilege. Today, companies rake in millions--sometimes billions--giving people the ability to have sex on demand, sleep on demand, television on demand and technology on demand.
This comes from a Forbes.com special report titled "Life On Demand." When did we become an On Demand culture and when was the move away from instant gratification. What is the difference anyway?
You can't live in an instant gratification culture when culture moves at the speed it does in America. We are no longer gratified by speed. Broadband is widespread, cell phones allow us to speak to people at any moment and music is constantly leaked before street release date. Every piece of American culture moves at the speed of fiber optics and it's not slowing down. We are simply no longer satisfied by speed. Speed is little more than an ante at this point, content has moved up in our list of priorities. The internet has taught us that the world is at our fingertips. That is the message. It is the 'world-wide-web' and it is availabe in our bedrooms, on our laptops and at blazing speeds. 'On Demand' is about bringing you things you want, when you want them. As speeds continue to increase, content will continue to move up in our list of priorities. We will demand more and more, both in terms of quantity and quality. As people become better informed the speed of things should be easier to cope with. Then, if all goes according to plan, the cycle should start up again.
Leave a Comment
Since I'm fairly busy at the moment with a deadline, I decided to post a links roundup. So without any further ado, here's some stuff to read (with excerpts):
My Blog is Poop: Top 3 Disappointments in Life
1. Sega CD
2. The Nintendo Power Glove
3. My gay son
AndrewSullivan.com: The Conservative Party
The argument Kerry must make is that he can continue the substance of the war, but without Bush's polarizing recklessness. And at home, he must reassure Americans that he is the centrist candidate - controlled neither by the foaming Michael Moore left nor the vitreolic religious right. Put all that together, and I may not find myself the only conservative moving slowly and reluctantly toward the notion that Kerry may be the right man - and the conservative choice - for a difficult and perilous time.
New York Post: Monica Lewinsky's Hot Dog Reaction
MONICA Lewinsky celebrating her 31st birthday at Serendipity 3 with her aunt, Debra Finerman. Monica ordered a foot-long hot dog and gasped, "Oh my God!" when the waiter placed the giant tube steak in front of her . . .
Stewardess Uniform Collection
More than 330 different stewardess uniforms from 184 airlines
The New York Times: Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?
Of course it is.
Many-to-Many: Demeaning bloggers: the NYTimes is running scared
Blogging has terrified mainstream media for a while now. Journalists want to know if blogs are going to degrade their profession, open up new possibilities or otherwise challenge their authority. This also means that whenever the press writes about blogs, one must critically consider what biases are embedded in their reporting. This morning, the NYTimes took their bias to the headlines: Web Diarists Are Now Official Members of Convention Press Corps
Wikipedia: Ken Jennings
Jennings has become known for his quirky behaviors:
- He writes his name in a different style each day, with styles ranging from cursive script to block letters to dots.
- Every time his total winnings are announced at the beginning of the show, he shakes his head in disbelief.
- He will often attempt to pronounce foreign words, phrases, or locations with an accent.
- On Final Jeopardy! and the Daily Doubles he almost always wagers an amount that could bring his total to a multiple of $5,000, or at the least a multiple of $1,000.
- He did not want to beat the $52,000 single-day record of former five-day champion Brian Weikle just "for the sake of beating it" (from the Jeopardy! forums). He intentionally tied this record three times. However, on the episode aired July 23, the final episode of the Jeopardy! season and Jennings' 38th win, he entered Final Jeopardy! with a total only $600 shy of the record, and beat it with a final total of $75,000. (He would havebroken the record with $60,000 in his 30th win, but missed the Final Jeopardy! question and finished that game with $32,000).
Christian Science Monitor: Kerry's task: clarify his message
As John Kerry makes his way toward Boston and the final phase of the presidential race, he's still working to develop a fundamental campaign building block: a clear and compelling message.
In The 90's: Top Ten Songs of the 90s
What are your top ten favorite songs from the 90s?
The Big Apple
A series of citations, quotations, and evidence on the true origins of a New York City nickname, with additional material on other words and terms associated with the city.
Soccernet.com: Coach had questioned ref's ruling
"The referee awarded a penalty against the visiting team during a friendly match and then players stormed the field," Govender said. "It looks as if the referee had the firearm on his person and fired at the players first before hitting the coach in the chest."
Salon: Is Your Computer a Loaded Gun
At a Senate hearing on Thursday, defenders of the Induce Act -- which would ban technologies that encourage copyright infringement -- will try to explain why their bill isn't the stupidest idea they've ever come up with.
DivaBlog: What if Mozilla were to win in the end?
Anyway, the presenter was doing his pitch in a polished way and at one point he said he wanted to show us a "really cool" feature and he looked up into the audience and said "Show of hands...How many of you use Internet Explorer?". Probably 99 times out of 100 when he asks that question all the hands go up, right? Well first there was a pause and then a giggle and then a whoop of laughter as the audience looked around and realized that NO ONE had raised a hand. The presenter was thrown off his mark, but he recovered and said, "Wow! Okay how many of you wish we'd fix IE so you could use it?"
Still no hands....
adland: Fuse parodies two campaigns in one - gets Apple on the phone
Amalgamated's Charles Rosen on the conceptual homage: "Much like Mother's Lilt soda spot spoofing BBH's Levi's 'Odyssey,' or the many commercials spoofing the Honda 'Cog' spot, our campaign is paying tribute to the cultural impact of the Chiat/Day ads. As with any parody, there are elements borrowed from the original that are transformed or twisted, in this case to capture Fuse's brand personality and the lifestyle of its viewers."
Leave a Comment
I was shocked to find that Google was down this afternoon. After looking into it, it seems that there's some kind of email virus that scans email domains in people's address book and then uses search engines to find valid addresses at those domain names. BBC has just picked up the story and SlashDot picked it up around 1. Without Google to search, I found myself lost. I hadn't used Yahoo to do a search in about three years and felt uncomfortable doing so. It's so strange that we hardly even know web addresses any more, just as cell phones have eliminated the need to memorize phone numbers, Google has eliminated the need to memorize addresses (as well as just about any other piece of information).
Leave a Comment
I'm really getting fed up with hard to find RSS links. I went on the Hardblogger site (the new MSNBC group-blog with contributions by Ron Reagan and Joe Trippi, to name a few) and I couldn't find an RSS link. Sitting in the middle of the page was a way to email Hardblogger comments, but nowhere to be found was the RSS link. Shouldn't this be well placed? This is such a powerful tool for keeping in touch with users that burying it away is a crime. I know in my own experience that the first thing I do when I go to a site I like is look for the RSS feed. If I don't find it, more likely than not, I will not be back there anytime soon. All they had to do was place a little link a little more prominently and they would have had a daily reader. Their loss.
Leave a Comment
Not exactly sure why, but the feature for the July/August issue of American Demographics has been posted online (all articles on Demographics.com require registration). Anyhow, the article is fairly interesting and I contributed to it, so check it out: "Foresight is 20/20". The article is a look at what the year 2020 will be like through the eyes of 12 futurists in assorted fields ranging from technology to economics to population. Enjoy.
Leave a Comment
Jeff gave a whole bunch of people a year to come up with their top 10 songs of all time (with explanations for why each is on the list). It's an interesting challenge and much tougher than it sounds. He has just released his top 10:
1. Don't You Want Me, Baby - Human League
The most entertaining song I've ever heard. If my life comes out the way I hope, my wife and I are going to duet this song on our wedding day. Think about the concept of the refrain: "Don't you want me?" It's a tootsie pop with sadness inside.
2. In The Ghetto - Elvis (written by Scott Davis)
I'm not sure why I love this song. I just do. I didn't grow up in the ghetto, though I hated kids for North Arlington and often fought them. For me, its probably the coolest sung song I've ever heard and the lyrics are really touching.
3. A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
The best lyrics I've ever heard in a rock song. If you know me a little, you know why.
4. The Superbowl Shuffle - The 1985 World-Champion Chicago Bears
My very first memory is these buffoons singing this song is the cheesiest music video of all-time. I have loved the Chicago Bears ever since. They've been responsible for three near-suicides, one dead relationship and for two weeks in fall 2001 - joy, when I didn't think I'd find it.
5. Barcelona (from Company) - Stephen Sondheim
The song that made me love musical theatre. Its brilliantly crafted and endlessly clever and most importantly real. If I can write one song as good as this in my career, I will be a success.
6. Freshmen - The Verve
Second best rock lyrics I've ever heard. Just a really really powerful song that I listened to on-loop for about two years (and then revisited with Lou during my frosh college year).
7. I Saw Red - Warrant
Well, a hair band had to get on the list. I'm sorry. The day I walk into a karaoke bar and this is on the list...every woman in the room will want to fuck me. I'm convinced of this.
8. Jeremy / Garden - Pearl Jam
I could have chosen any songs from this album. It is the greatest album of my lifetime.
9. Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin
I sang this song in a karaoke bar in Dundee, Scotland called The Fort which prompted the captain of police to invite my uncle and I to his home for Sunday roast.
10. (tie) Summer Nights (from Grease) - Jim Jacbos / Warren Casey
10. (tie) Getting Married Today (from company) - Stephen Sondheim
The two songs that made me love Marie's Crisis in the West Village. I sang one with Alexandra to begin the craziest romance of all time and sang the other to prove that I know more about musical theatre than any other straight guy in the universe. Oh shit, I just realized I'm straight.
Honorable Mentions: Jessie's Girl (Rick Springfield), For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield), What's the Use of Wondrin' from Carousel (Rodgers & Hammerstein), Pretty Women from Sweeney Todd (Sondheim), Closing Time (Semisonic), Mr. Jones (Counting Crows), If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof (Bock & Harnick)
I'm still working on mine (lists are due in December). Everyone is invited to join in (and if I know you and you add your list, you'll get a copy of everyone elses CD). Add your list in the comments.
Leave a Comment
Are blogs a viable marketing tool? That is the question that Jim Meskauskas addressed in yesterday's Mediapost OnlineSPIN titled Flogging the Blog: Welcome, Marketers!. Mr. Meskauskas attacked the idea that blogs were really a new marketing tool at all. "My personal opinion about blogs is that by and large, they are simply web sites that serve as personal diaries being offered up to the masses in the hopes that someone will care about what the author thinks," Meskauskas writes. I don't completely disagree with Meskauskas, many blogs are nothing more than personal web sites or diaries. However, there is an important tool of blogging that Maskauskas fails to mention. RSS is an important part of what makes blogs so powerful. The ability to deliver constantly updated information to the reader (or consumer in the case of marketing blogs), makes this a very powerful force.
I don't believe Mr. Meskauskas and I see eye to eye on what a marketing blog is. His only example is Gawker's Art of Speed website for Nike. While this website was interesting and one the first major forays into the blogging field by a non-tech blue-chip company, I don't believe it should be held as the ideal for what a corporate blog should strive to achieve. What about all those companies out there that are allowing their employees to blog? People like Microsoft's Robert Scoble are giving a huge corporation and real face and a human voice. This is essentially a marketing blog, even though Scoble often writes on topics far removed from Microsoft. But if the goal of marketing is to make honest connections with consumers, then haven't Microsoft and Scoble achieved their goal now that Scoble has a loyal stable of readers?
I couldn't agree with Meskauskas more when he says that blogs are "individualistic personal expressions that are supposed to be for their authors' authentic manifestations of the self. To let companies co-opt that is to undermine the very power blogs have that is attracting marketers to them in the first place." This is a fine point, however, by only examining Art of Speed, you Meskauskas missed thousands of other examples of companies using blogs correctly.
What about a blog to keep consumers informed of what's going on with a product? Blogs are the most powerful tool for this because of the constant updates and RSS capability. People are interested in knowing what's going on, and this is a great way to keep those interested people informed. Especially as products are in development, blogs can be a powerful tool for building excitement. How can Meskauskas completely ignore this function?
What about the other advantages to blogs? Things like trackbacks allow people to link to one another to continue a conversation on a different webpage completely. It opens up the dialogue and makes the blogosphere a social networking dream-space. Not to mention the comment field that goes along with most blog entries, which allows people to ask questions directly of the blogger (or company) with the answers available for all other readers to see. Isn't this a valuable tool for technical support? When new functionality is added, developers can be in dialogue with users. Blogs can help maintain brand loyalty.
This is not to say that Meskauskas is completely wrong, and that many marketers won't use blogs completely wrong. However, I think it certainly nullifies his last paragraph:
But there is nothing unique about blogs that makes them better for this than other environments. Like all new things, to quote Frank Herbert, the author of the original "Dune" novels: "'this too shall pass away' applies to all the known universe."
Art of Speed may pass, however, blogs and the technology, like RSS, that has been pushed forward with them are here to stay. If Meskauskas wants to stand in the way, bloggers will simply link around him.
Leave a Comment
I was informed today that ALF, the furry alien from Melmac, will finally be coming to DVD (it's going to be four discs of cat eating wonderfulness). This is some of the most amazing news I've heard since they announced ALF's Hit Talk Show on TVLand (which was really terrible, a fact that pains me as an ALF fan). Anyone looking for more ALF info should head towards Stephen's ALF Page.
By the way, is there anything better in the world than the full body ALF shot? Come on, when you get to see ALF waddle around like a midget in a furry suit, it's so good. I love that show.
Leave a Comment
I read the Executive Summary from the 9-11 Commission report. I pulled paragraphs that I found interesting out of the 31-page document. The only time I removed pieces from paragraphs were in the bulleted lists, where I removed bullets that I found less interesting. So, without further ado, here's my summary of the Executive Summary:
At 8:46 on the morning of September 11, 2001, the United States became a
nation transformed.
The 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise.
Islamist extremists had given plenty of warning that they meant to kill
Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers. Although Usama Bin Ladin
himself would not emerge as a signal threat until the late 1990s, the threat of
Islamist terrorism grew over the decade.
Until 1997, the U.S. intelligence community viewed Bin Ladin as a financier
of terrorism, not as a terrorist leader. In February 1998, Usama Bin
Ladin and four others issued a self-styled fatwa, publicly declaring that it was
God’s decree that every Muslim should try his utmost to kill any American,
military or civilian, anywhere in the world, because of American "occupation" of Islam’s holy places and aggression against Muslims.
The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were far
more elaborate, precise, and destructive than any of these earlier assaults. But by
September 2001, the executive branch of the U.S. government, the Congress,
the news media, and the American public had received clear warning that
Islamist terrorists meant to kill Americans in high numbers.
The history, culture, and body of beliefs from which Bin Ladin shapes and
spreads his message are largely unknown to many Americans. Seizing on symbols
of Islam’s past greatness, he promises to restore pride to people who consider
themselves the victims of successive foreign masters. He uses cultural and
religious allusions to the holy Qur’an and some of its interpreters. He appeals
to people disoriented by cyclonic change as they confront modernity and globalization.
His rhetoric selectively draws from multiple sourcesâ€â€Islam, history,
and the region’s political and economic malaise.
By September 11, 2001, al Qaeda possessed
- leaders able to evaluate, approve, and supervise the planning and direction
of a major operation;
- a personnel system that could recruit candidates, indoctrinate them,
vet them, and give them the necessary training;
- communications sufficient to enable planning and direction of operatives
and those who would be helping them;
- an intelligence effort to gather required information and form assessments
of enemy strengths and weaknesses;
- the ability to move people great distances; and
- the ability to raise and move the money necessary to finance an attack.
During 2000, President Bill Clinton and his advisers renewed diplomatic
efforts to get Bin Ladin expelled from Afghanistan. They also renewed secret
efforts with some of the Taliban’s opponentsâ€â€the Northern Allianceâ€â€to get
enough intelligence to attack Bin Ladin directly. Diplomatic efforts centered on
the new military government in Pakistan, and they did not succeed.The efforts
with the Northern Alliance revived an inconclusive and secret debate about
whether the United States should take sides in Afghanistan’s civil war and support the Taliban’s enemies. The CIA also produced a plan to improve intelligence
collection on al Qaeda, including the use of a small, unmanned airplane
with a video camera, known as the Predator.
During the spring and summer of 2001, U.S. intelligence agencies received
a stream of warnings that al Qaeda planned, as one report put it, “something
very, very, very big.� Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet told us,“The
system was blinking red.�
The day began with the 19 hijackers getting through a security checkpoint system
that they had evidently analyzed and knew how to defeat.Their success rate
in penetrating the system was 19 for 19.They took over the four flights, taking
advantage of air crews and cockpits that were not prepared for the contingency
of a suicide hijacking.
Nonetheless, there were specific points of vulnerability in the plot and
opportunities to disrupt it. Operational failuresâ€â€opportunities that were
not or could not be exploited by the organizations and systems of that
timeâ€â€included
- not watchlisting future hijackers Hazmi and Mihdhar, not trailing
them after they traveled to Bangkok, and not informing the FBI about
one future hijacker’s U.S. visa or his companion’s travel to the United
States;
- not sharing information linking individuals in the Cole attack to
Mihdhar;
- not taking adequate steps in time to find Mihdhar or Hazmi in the
United States;
- not linking the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, described as interested in
flight training for the purpose of using an airplane in a terrorist act, to
the heightened indications of attack;
- not discovering false statements on visa applications;
- not recognizing passports manipulated in a fraudulent manner;
- not expanding no-fly lists to include names from terrorist watchlists;
- not searching airline passengers identified by the computer-based
CAPPS screening system; and
- not hardening aircraft cockpit doors or taking other measures to prepare
for the possibility of suicide hijackings.
The missed opportunities to thwart the 9/11 plot were also symptoms of a
broader inability to adapt the way government manages problems to the new
challenges of the twenty-first century. Action officers should have been able to
draw on all available knowledge about al Qaeda in the government.
Management should have ensured that information was shared and duties were
clearly assigned across agencies, and across the foreign-domestic divide.
There were opportunities for intelligence and law enforcement to exploit al
Qaeda’s travel vulnerabilities. Considered collectively, the 9/11 hijackers
- included known al Qaeda operatives who could have been watchlisted;
- presented passports manipulated in a fraudulent manner;
- presented passports with suspicious indicators of extremism;
- made detectable false statements on visa applications;
- made false statements to border officials to gain entry into the United
States; and
- violated immigration laws while in the United States.
The civilians, firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians, and
emergency management professionals exhibited steady determination and
resolve under horrifying, overwhelming conditions on 9/11.Their actions saved
lives and inspired a nation.
Since 9/11, the United States and its allies have killed or captured a majority of
al Qaeda’s leadership; toppled the Taliban, which gave al Qaeda sanctuary in
Afghanistan; and severely damaged the organization.Yet terrorist attacks continue.
Even as we have thwarted attacks, nearly everyone expects they will come.
How can this be?
The problem is that al Qaeda represents an ideological movement, not a
finite group of people. It initiates and inspires, even if it no longer directs. In this
way it has transformed itself into a decentralized force. Bin Ladin may be limited
in his ability to organize major attacks from his hideouts.Yet killing or capturing
him, while extremely important, would not end terror. His message of
inspiration to a new generation of terrorists would continue.
Because of offensive actions against al Qaeda since 9/11, and defensive
actions to improve homeland security,we believe we are safer today. But we are
not safe.We therefore make the following recommendations that we believe can
make America safer and more secure.
No president can promise that a catastrophic attack like that of 9/11 will not
happen again. But the American people are entitled to expect that officials will
have realistic objectives, clear guidance, and effective organization. They are
entitled to see standards for performance so they can judge, with the help of
their elected representatives, whether the objectives are being met.
In October 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked if enough was
being done “to fashion a broad integrated plan to stop the next generation of
terrorists.� As part of such a plan, the U.S. government should
- Define the message and stand as an example of moral leadership in the
world. To Muslim parents, terrorists like Bin Ladin have nothing to
offer their children but visions of violence and death.America and its
friends have the advantageâ€â€our vision can offer a better future.
- Communicate and defend American ideals in the Islamic world,
through much stronger public diplomacy to reach more people,
including students and leaders outside of government. Our efforts here
should be as strong as they were in combating closed societies during
the Cold War.
- Expect less from trying to dry up terrorist money and more from following
the money for intelligence, as a tool to hunt terrorists, understand their networks, and disrupt their operations.
The strategy we have recommended is elaborate, even as presented here very
briefly.To implement it will require a government better organized than the one
that exists today, with its national security institutions designed half a century
ago to win the Cold War. Americans should not settle for incremental, ad hoc
adjustments to a system created a generation ago for a world that no longer
exists.
We call on the American people to remember how we all felt on 9/11, to
remember not only the unspeakable horror but how we came together as a
nationâ€â€one nation. Unity of purpose and unity of effort are the way we will
defeat this enemy and make America safer for our children and grandchildren.
We look forward to a national debate on the merits of what we have recommended,
and we will participate vigorously in that debate.
Leave a Comment
A link to the 9/11 Commission's report.
Anyone looking for a project for the day can head over to: http://www.9-11commission.gov/. The 9/11 commission has just released their, suposedly harsh, report on 9/11 including the many intelligence failures. Enjoy. (You can download the whole document as a PDF, or download single chapters, the first of which is called Chapter 1: "We Have Some Planes.")
Leave a Comment
In today's New York Times there's an article about the lure of beta testing as a status symbol. The article is titled "For Some Beta Testers, It's About Buzz, Not Bugs" and primarily focuses on the buzz around Gmail accounts. I have talked on another page about the brilliance of Google's Gmail marketing strategy (and will paste that post below). Anyhow, what really made me laugh in the Times article was the last line, which compared the current state of the Gmail to that of the formerly ubiquitous trucker hat.
But if some beta versions live by hype and buzz, they die by it as well. As with all status accessories, digital status symbols come stamped with a sell-by date. Gmail accounts were lucky to go for $5 last week on eBay.
"Once everyone has been invited it's no longer cool to be invited," Mr. Loukissas said. "I mean, it works the same way as fashion: once everyone wears a trucker hat, it's over."
I don't really think that's a fair comparison and I certainly hope that Austin Kutcher stays away from Gmail. Also, I noted that this hype was fading a month ago when I wrote this other post. It's just another example of the Times' inability to stay on top of cultural trends. Here's that old post from another site:
June 24, 2004: Gmail Toss-Up
There is a certain brilliance in Gmail's invite system. From a marketing perspective, they created a buzz around their product and allowed indivuals to promote for them. By opening the system to Blogger users first they were guaranteed to have a group of people who cared about the internet (most likely more than average). By bringing the invites out in cycles they were able to keep people interested and happy at the same time.
The only question is how google will finish this performance. I read someone this morning suggest that it would be pretty funny if it were all an April fools joke and, in fact, they never opened Gmail to the public. This would mean that Yahoo! and Hotmail were forced to up their storage capacity to compete with an email system that only had a limited number of users. It certainly got Google a lot of attention.
But seriously, what if Google never opened Gmail to the entire public? What if, instead of doing a giant 'grand opening' they continued their invite system? They would then control supply and demand and keep their name floating around. (Although right now it appears as though most people who want Gmail have it. Pretty much anyone very serious about the internet has already gotten an invitation and it has moved on to the mass public. When I go to a party and have three people mention Gmail to me the initial hype is officially over.)
Anyhow, I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but I do think it has been a fantastic strategy. They put a great product into the hands of people who care most about their computers and the internet and let them do the promoting for them. I know I have touted the advantages of Gmail to any number of people over the last few months and I will continue. It is far superior to most any email application I have ever used and I really enjoy. I have even been stingy with my invites, only giving them to people who I knew would be using Gmail as their main account (no one who just wanted to dabble in Gmail and stick with Hotmail was invited). This is exactly what Gmail wanted with their invites and they got it. We've been duped -- but we've gotten a great product out of it. So there's the toss-up.
Leave a Comment
For those not aware, the Mercury Prize goes to the UK album of the year. The prize was awarded to Dizzee Rascal - 'Boy In Da Corner' in 2003. Here's this year's list:
Amy Winhouse - 'Frank'
Basement Jaxx - 'Kish Kash'
Belle & Sebastian - 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress'
Franz Ferdinand - 'Franz Ferdinand'
Jamelia - 'Thank You'
Joss Stone - 'The Soul Sessions'
Keane - 'Hopes and Fears'
Robert Wyatt - 'Cuckooland'
Snow Patrol - 'Final Straw'
The Streets - 'A Grand Don't Come for Free
Ty - 'Upwards'
The Zutons - 'Who Killed......The Zutons'
Of these I've listened to Basement Jaxx, Belle & Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, Keane, Snow Patrol and The Streets. So automatically I've got to cut the list in half. Out of those I was least impressed by Snow Patrol. Their album wanders with a few standout singles (I love "Chocolate"). It seems to try to hard to be Emo and comes out sounding boring and generic. Not very impressive. Keane I only listened to two or three times. I should probably give it some more time, I enjoyed it, but it's never something I feel like listening. So we're down to four. These four are legit:
Basement Jaxx - 'Kish Kash': This is what electronic music is supposed to be. It's funky and fun. With some interesting guests including J.C. Chasez, MeShell Ndegeocello and, my personal favorite, Dizzee Rascal (if your a Dizzee fan and haven't heard "Lucky Star" off 'Kish Kash,' do yourself a favor).
Best song: "Lucky Star (featuring Dizzee Rascal)"
Belle & Sebastian - 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress': I didn't love this at first, then I tried listening to it again during the springtime and I got it. It's very pop ('If You're Feeling Sinister' fans beware). Just a good album for a sunny day.
Best song: "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" (though "I'm a Cuckoo" and "If She Wants Me" have also been my favorite song on this album at one point or another)
Franz Ferdinand - 'Franz Ferdinand': Everyone's heard this by now. It's a fantastic album. Not much more to say.
Best song: "Take Me Out" (with "Michael" a close second)
The Streets - 'A Grand Don't Come for Free': I love The Streets. I thought 'Original Pirate Material' was the best album of 2002 (and one of the best hip-hop albums of the last 5 years easily). This album is a serious shift away from Mike Skinner's original sound. The entire album is a narrative of losing a grand (as the title would suggest). This is much less accessible than his first album, but after a few listens I was rewarded with a very well put together complete album (which is rare). Skinner has slowed down many of his beats, which I am okay with, but it also means that it's a little bit harder to walk around and listen to it without feeling a bit depressed (I do most of my music listening on the move). Skinner was also fantastic live, which gives him points in my book.
Best Song: "Could Well Be In"
My winner: Franz Ferdinand - 'Franz Ferdinand' defeats 'A Grand Don't Come for Free' by a hair, just because it's a little more upbeat and fun and that's what I feel like listening to more often.
Leave a Comment
MediaThink has writte a new white paper on RSS titled "RSS: The Next Big Thing". I'm not sure that the white paper itself is revolutionary, although the fact that it exists marks the first of its kind (to my knowledge). It's fairly amazing how little research has been done on RSS considering the number of people that are using it and just how influential those people are. RSS has amazing potential to completely change the way people use the web and Mediathink highlights that. I think the study focuses too much on aggregators and not enough on the demographics of the users. However, those demographic numbers are much more difficult to come by. Here are some of the highlights from the white paper:
We strongly believe that RSS is the web's Next Big Thing. It is potentially most disruptive to email and applications relying on email, though it is important to understand that RSS is not at all likely to replace email. New media rarely ever replace old.
Implications for Marketing
Marketers can reasonably see both salvation and threat in RSS. Salvation comes in the form of easy distribution of online content. The RSS threat lies in its ability to draw attention away from email and other direct marketing channels. While RSS can make more marketing messages more relevant, it also makes them more easily filtered, potentially shrinking the reach of marketing communications deployed with it.
Rich Media
A rich media RSS standard (RM RSS) would allow publishers to make such content available online in the same way news articles are today. Instead of simply streaming audio or video, we see users enabled to create personal broadband "channels" with the RM RSS viewers. Essentially, we see TiVo or a TiVo-like device connected to the web and subscribed to all types of rich content.
Mediathink Summary
We see RSS as the single best method available to receive information from selected sources. RSS possess the unique ability to eliminate the usual chores of search, navigation, and interruptive marketing avoidance currently required to receive most of today's valuable news content. By its virtues, we see RSS disrupting email's current hold on point-to-point communication and growing its share of user attention faster than any web technology preceding it.
There you have it.
Also, I have been trying to think of a traditional media analogy for RSS. The best I could think of is that RSS is like being able to subscribe to certain television stations 'On-Demand,' so that when you get home you can simply chose what show to watch from the list of shows since you last logged on. What do others think?
Leave a Comment
It seems like everyone is getting political this election season. There are interesting articles from The New York Times and Salon on Carlos Delgado of the Toronto Blue Jays and P-Diddy, of bad hip-hop and MTV fame. Here are some excerpts:
New York Times: "Delgado Makes a Stand by Taking a Seat"
Last March when the United States invaded Iraq, Delgado, in his own quiet way, said that for him, enough was enough. He had stood for "God Bless America" through the 2003 season but vowed not to do so this season. In an act of a simple, mostly unnoticed, protest against the war, Delgado, a 32-year-old first baseman, has chosen to remain in the dugout while "God Bless America" is played.
Good for him. In the world of mainstream professional sports, where cookie-cutter athletes rarely take a stand on any issue, let alone one as highly charged as a war, Delgado is a rarity. He is unafraid to question a ritual that he does not agree with. Delgado's protest this season has been so quiet, so subtle that Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, didn't know about it until I called him to talk about it on Monday.
His well-thought-out opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is just one part of a larger issue for him. Delgado, a native of Puerto Rico, sees his protest as consistent with his earlier opposition to the Navy's use of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a weapons testing ground. In many ways, the United States military waged a form of war for 60 years on the tiny island, using a 900-acre site for bombing exercises.
Delgado is doing it right. He believes in something and he's making that known. He's not doing it for exposure or publicity, he's just a baseball player who follows politics and is doing what he believes is right. I'm glad someone gave him the recognition he deserves and I hope he is not treated harshly by any fans for his decision.
Salon: "P. Diddy's appeal to youth: 'We will attack all of your senses'"
Combs says that he will utilize all of his "God-given talents as a marketer to market this election" and "make politics fashionable."
Combs thinks that his effort to market the presidential election will attract the "largest youth and minority voter turnout in history." His plan to make it happen? "We will attack all of your senses," Combs says. That means huge "Vote or Die" signs on street corners, a new P. Diddy album about voting out before November and a last-minute celebrity blitz in swing states in the days leading up to the election, including trips on Combs' own campaign jet.
Mobilizing the black community to vote is incredibly important and no matter what I personally feel about 'Diddy,' I commend him for using his resources and marketing know-how for a good cause.
Leave a Comment
Boing Boing posted a link to Salling Software who creates the Salling Clicker, a program that allows you to access your music collection via Wi-Fi Palm or Symbian Phone.
Be a mobile DJ at your next party
Don't you hate it when someone hogs the CD-player for hours during your party? Using your computer as a juke-box (with password-protected screen saver on), this is a problem of the past. Salling Clicker lets you pick the songs while taking care of your guests.
Not only can you move between and scan within tracksâ€â€Salling Clicker lets you search for tracks by name, artist, composer, and album. When used with a Palm OS handheld or Symbian phone, upcoming tracks or album artwork is shown in your handheld's display!
Leave a Comment
"Convention seats do not turn Internet gossips into journalists." Or so says the sub-headline from an LA Times article by Alex S. Jones titled, "Bloggers Are the Sizzle, Not the Steak." In the article Jones defends his traditional journalist cohorts from the onslaught of the blogosphere. "Make no mistake, this moment of blogging legitimization [the invitation of bloggers to the political conventions]  and temporary press credentials  doesn't turn bloggers into journalists," Jones writes. Jones supports himself with:
However, bloggers, with few exceptions, don't add reporting to the personal views they post online, and they see journalism as bound by norms and standards that they reject. That encourages these common attributes of the blogosphere: vulgarity, scorching insults, bitter denunciations, one-sided arguments, erroneous assertions and the array of qualities that might be expected from a blustering know-it-all in a bar.
This is fair enough, most bloggers are not writing in a traditionally journalistic way and most political bloggers make no claims to be non-partisan. However, it was Jones' later argument that really bothered me.
However, if history is any indicator, such earnestness will attract those who would exploit it, and they include some canny, inventive people. There is already talk of bloggers who would consider publishing items for cash and commercial blogs that tout products.
Blogging is especially amenable to introducing negative information into the news stream and for circulating rumors as fact. Blogging's fact-checking apparatus is just the built-in truth squad of those who read the blog and howl loudly if they wish to dispute some assertion. It is, in a sense, a place where everyone has his own truth.
Bloggers who would consider publishing items for cash? Is that really a fair claim to make without providing some evidence? Also, is it even something traditional media should bring up in the age of corporate synergy. I'm sure that the LA Times, a Tribune newspaper, does reporting on other Tribune properties in a postitive light. Just as you see the latest American Idol star paraded on every Fox show.
As for the claim of fact checking and reliability? What about Stephen Glass or Jayson Blair, I mean, if you can't trust The New Republic or The New York Times, who can you trust? I agree with Mr. Jones that everything everything a blogger says should be taken at face value. But shouldn't that be true with all media?
Leave a Comment
StevenBerlinJohnson.com has a very interesting post up entitled The iPod Is The Remote (Or Should Be). In it he asks why Apple didn't design the new iPod to function as a wireless remote for the Airport express. "Because what I need now in my iPod is not more storage space, or Mini-style color designs -- what I need is wi-fi. I want my iPod to double as an audio remote control when I'm sitting in my living room. I want to be able to call up any song on any computer in home network, and direct it to any set of speakers, right from the iPod scrollwheel," he explains in the post. I've been wondering this for a while, not for the iPod necessarily, but for digital music in general. There is a serious need for a remote control that allows you to see the music you're choosing. This is something that is almost completely missing from the MP3 player market as well. Outside the iRiver, I can't think of any hard drive MP3 players that have a remote with an LCD screen that allows you to actually look at your file library. I wanted to hook a computer up to my stereo and have it act as a permanent jukebox, however, the thought of having to use a mouse and keyboard everytime I wanted to play an album sounded painful. It seems like someone must be able to develop software that would allow a Wi-Fi PDA to control your digital music library from another room. Shouldn't they?
Leave a Comment
Lately there have been some fascinating articles on issues of weight and obesity in America. Here's some of the more interesting ones with excerpts followed by my own opinions:
Washington Post: "The Weight"
"We don't think [the subsidy question] is the real issue," says Richard Martin of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, a group that opposes any government proposals to curb food-industry advertising to children or to tax high-fat foods. "We don't force people to buy products. We are driven entirely by consumer demand, and people don't want restrictions. What really matters is how many calories people consume. Unless people are able and willing to expend enough energy in relation to calories, they'll gain weight. I don't really like the phrase 'personal responsibility,' but to a large degree it is an individual's responsibility. There are no simple answers."
It is what those involved in the obesity issue all over the state say, from Oxford to the impoverished towns along the Mississippi Delta, where the obesity problem is believed to be most acute. "In any place, but particularly in a poor area, parents often express their love for their children through food," says Kathleen Yadrick, an official with the Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative. " 'Mama fed me a lot': You hear that often. The attitude can be: 'The more I feed you, the more I love you. And you won't get hungry. I might not have the big house on the hill, but I can give you all the food you want, and make it delicious, too.' "
Reuters: "Americans Abandoning Low-Carb Diets"
"More than half of all U.S. consumers that have tried following diets that eschew carbs such as bread and sugar have given up, a survey released on Wednesday found, and interest in the popular regimens appears to have plateaued."
The New York Times: "You Are How You Eat"
Ultimately, it's not the carbohydrates  or the next unsuspecting food group that will come under attack  that will make us overweight. It's our relationship with food and our lifestyle. In other words, how we eat is just as important  if not more so  than what we eat.
Maybe that's the ultimate cooking lesson. In general, Italians take their time when they eat. Many businesses in Italy still close in the middle of the day for three hours to allow for a leisurely lunch. Family mealtimes are sacred. Cooking for one's family becomes an act of love. Family meals allow for conversation and strengthen the family bond. The antithesis of the Italian eating style is fast food and "eating on the run," where little attention is given to what is being consumed and the quicker one is done, the better. There is a physiological benefit of eating more slowly, too: your body senses that food has reached the stomach and shuts off the feeling of hunger before you overeat.
The fight against fat is not one that is going to end anytime soon. I agree most strongly with Giuliano Hazan's piece from The New York Times, "You Are How You Eat." It is about people's relationship with food and health, not about advertisments or fad diets. People need to understand the basics of healthy eating and caloric consumption. (I am a firm believer in understanding the basics of how calories work, if you consume more than you work off, you gain weight, it's a simple but incredibly important and underknown equation). As more and more children stay inside with their Playstations and instant messengers, these obesity trends will only continue. Schools need to begin doing a better job of educating children of what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle (something suggested in the wonderful, sad and quite long, Washington Post article "The Weight"). I firmly believe that Atkins is not the answer. I refuse to accept that it could possibly be more healthy to eat a brick of cheese with a side of bacon than it is to eat a turkey sandwich on bread (even if that bread is of the wicked white variety). I think these articles start to get at the crux of the problem: we are a time starved nation. Everything we do is to save time (email, cell phones, etc.), but to what end? If we can't sit down and eat dinner somewher other than Kentucky Fried Chicken, then what are we saving time for?
Leave a Comment
I just got around to reading The Second Browser War from Thursday's Guardian, which highlighted a major point I failed to mention (though meant to). Google's Gmail proves that web-based application can exist successfully. As broadband connections continue to spread across the world, we will begin to see many more everyday applications which exist online only. These online applications are available from any web browser, meaning those with Macs now have more software available to them, one of the major hurdles to converters (or at least to myself -- I admit I am still a PC user). All of a sudden people may not be uttering, "better than PCs, but only a must have for designers" (I've heard this before, whether it's a commonly uttered phrase I do not know). Instead, it will just be a better platform . . . period. Interesting possibilities await us in the coming years.
Leave a Comment
PC's have long dominated the computer market, however, that could change. I think we are seeing early warning signs that this dominance is beginning to erode. First, it's easy to spot the market dominance of the iPod, white earbuds have invaded cities across the world. Newsweek has a cover story on the iPod, with an accompanying photo of Steve Jobs holding the newest version of the yet-to-be-released music player. iPod currently has a 50 percent market share, according to Jobs (iTunes has a 70 percent share in the U.S.). As more and more people buy into the iPod and iTunes, they are also going to buy into the brand. I've heard a lot of stories of people who purchased Mac's in the last year to go along with their iPods. With a simple device like and iPod, Apple is able to penetrate the market and build brand awareness and loyalty. "It's as Apple as anything Apple has ever done," Jobs states in the article. They have created a product that sucks people into the vortex of Apple, with all its high-art design and catchy commercials. Once they are in, there is a question to whether they will be able to escape, or even be interested in doing so. One of my theories is that most iPod users are college students, or at least twenty-somethings (I have no data to back this up, so please prove me right or wrong). From my own experience in college, many of these iPod users purchased theirs after they had entered college. What that means is that they had already bought a new computer (or their parents had bought one for them). I would also assume that most students go through one computer in their four years at college (though this too could be absolutely wrong). With all that in mind, what will happen when it is time for these iPod users to buy computers of their own? After they’ve graduated and the PC they bought before freshman year is obsolete who are they going to choose, Mac or PC? If this is correct, we could see a seismic shift in computer sales in the next two-to-three years.
It is not just the iPod’s dominance that’s contributing to this change, however. Just last week it was announced that IE had lost 1 percent of its market share over the last month due to security concerns. While this loss resulted in Internet Explorer moving from 95.7 percent of the market to 94.7 percent, it also marked the first time IE was below 95 percent share since June 2002. Since Microsoft and PC are so interchangeable, I believe the damage of people moving to browsers such as Mozilla cuts much deeper than people realize. If users can abandon Internet Explorer, the backbone of Windows XP, why can’t they abandon Windows altogether? The browser has become the most important and most used piece of software on a computer for most people. "It takes a lot to get someone to change their browser. It's been years since anyone has been willing to do this in significant numbers," Geoff Johnston, an analyst for WebSideStory explained in the PC World article titled “Mozilla Gains on IE.�
Is a new age upon us? Are we about to see Mac’s tip to the mainstream? Microsoft has been stagnant the last few years (not that innovation, per se, was ever really their specialty). A recent memo from Steve Ballamer, a Chief Executive at Microsoft highlighted this point. “In spite of spending more than $4 billion per year on research and development, Microsoft can't seem to beat its rap: It's a follower, not a leader. After all, it was Google that reinvented Internet search with its breakthrough technology and Apple (AAPL ) that led the music industry into the Digital Age,� Steve Hamm writes in BusinessWeek. Both Apple and Microsoft are set to launch new OS versions in the next two years. Apple’s OS X v10.4 Tiger will do battle against Microsoft’s Windows codenamed “Longhorn.� If Microsoft doesn’t do something impressive soon, we could see a bloody battle with Tiger standing on top of Mount Rainier roaring in its dominance.
Leave a Comment
An instant message conversation with my mother:
Noah says:
but i tried to set up those links on the side as grey all the time
Noah says:
but for some reason
Noah says:
they ended up drink and i can't explain it
Barbara says:
drink?
Noah says:
freudian slip
Noah says:
green
Noah says:
little hungover
Barbara says:
that's quite a slip!
Leave a Comment
Well, looks like this will work for now. This is my site. You are reading the blog-type portion. To the right you will see some links, those are constantly being updated (it's a feed from my del.icio.us site: http://del.icio.us/nrb210). Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this. I hope I have something useful to say. I hope someone is willing to read it. Poke around, tell me what you think and come back for more. At the very least come back for the links, which people seem to enjoy. That is all for now, my head hurts.
Leave a Comment
Excerpt from the Sports Guy's new mailbag:
"Q: If an animal attacks a PETA supporter, do the rest of the PETA people have to stand there and watch it happen so as not to hurt the animal? Or, would the attackee even want to be saved because if he was saved, he would be interrupting the animal's meal?
-- Ronnie, Edmonton, Canada
JK: This is a great question -- particularly considering the fact that PETA supporters are frequently naked. One can only imagine the joy that would be derived from seeing a wild boar simultaneously drive both his tusks into Pamela Anderson's breast implants -- like a saline shish kabob -- while Paul McCartney looked on helplessly, wondering if his new bride's remaining leg would be the crazed boar's next meal. Ronnie -- if you are younger than 25, I'd like to adopt you.
BS: I'm afraid to say anything right now. Those PETA people are like Scientologists -- you don't even want to look cross-eyed at them. They're terrifying."
Leave a Comment
Hi, I'm 
