Innovid: Advertising You Might Actually Enjoy
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 23, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
In spite of Google’s $2 Billion purchase of YouTube, and the general public’s slowly growing awareness of services like Joost and Hulu (and soon Sling), no one has yet figured out how to effectively monetize these sites. I mean, if you want to see advertisements while you watch videos, why not just watch TV? And [...]
In spite of Google’s $2 Billion purchase of YouTube, and the general public’s slowly growing awareness of services like Joost and Hulu (and soon Sling), no one has yet figured out how to effectively monetize these sites. I mean, if you want to see advertisements while you watch videos, why not just watch TV? And you might as well put physical stickers on my TV screen if overlay ads (see this Wired piece about Overlay.tv) are the alternative. However, Tel Aviv-based startup Innovid may be onto something with their ideas for interactive in-video ad placements. Imagine an interactive version of the Fight Club Ikea catalog scene. The possibilities here are compelling. In the meantime, free stuff is free stuff. Stop sticking ads in my free stuff! If you want to make money, get clever like Monty Python, and guilt-trip your viewers into making you #2 in sales on Amazon.
Obama On His Blackberry: Yes iCan
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 22, 2009 by admin in Technology
Barackberry Jams
Well, it’s been a bitter struggle, but it looks like Obama gets to keep his Blackberry. Sort of. For official purposes, he’ll be required to use the NSA-Certified Sectéra Edge. Which strikes me as a tiny bit odd, since the phone uses Windows as its OS. Isn’t Windows historically a frighteningly insecure operating system? Don’t they realize his enemies might be using an iSnipe? Besides, if he used an iPhone, he’d be able to enjoy an occasional iBeer when he sneaks an iPuff. In light of the seeming incongruency of Obama being kind of a “Windows guy”, maybe he should try the ZunePhone (which I’ve just now redubbed the whyPhone). Which reminds me of a horrible joke I made up recently when a friend dropped their Blackberry in the toilet… Q: What do you a call a Blackberry right before it falls into the toilet? A: A Blingleberry!
New WhiteHouse.gov: Spiffier Than Joe Biden’s Teeth!
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 21, 2009 by admin in Politics
It’s kind of refreshing in a way to look for old Bush press information and encounter the image at left. The Obama administration didn’t waste a second hitting the “Delete” button and getting new content on the White house web site yesterday. I’m excited by the prominence of the message that “WhiteHouse.gov will be a [...]
It’s kind of refreshing in a way to look for old Bush press information and encounter the image at left. The Obama administration didn’t waste a second hitting the “Delete” button and getting new content on the White house web site yesterday. I’m excited by the prominence of the message that “WhiteHouse.gov will be a central part of President Obama’s pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history“, and the fact that the administration’s Director of New Media Macon Phillips had a blog post up the first day is encouraging. However, contrary to this Wired.com article’s perception of all the technical genius going on, my inauguration day experience with technology was a little frustrating. I don’t have regular TV, so often watch things like this on line. When I visited the CNN live feed, even though it queued me up before I got an active stream, I thought it was pretty cool that I could see my friends “live blogging” (even though I seemed to be the only person I know who LOVED Aretha’s hat) since I had recently been logged into FaceBook. That is, until the second time I commented on the stream, when the video died. Rather than wait in line again at CNN, I fired up my Joost account, only to find it couldn’t connect. I eventually went to the Joost home page (Hulu was having seizures too) and got a solid stream. Until about 5 minutes into the speech, at which point it just sputtered out completely, so I switched on NPR (and people wonder why I’m such a late adopter with technology. Puh!) In any case, I couldn’t be more enthused about the changey hopey, and I’m glad there seems to be enough humor in this new administration that maybe we’ll have more things like joebidensteeth.com. Smile everybody! It’s a new era!
Don’t Be Such A Leafpeeping Masshole
[ 5 Comments ]Posted on January 20, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Said the Kaybecker Floatin’ On A Logan Eatin’ An Italian
 So Republicans Drink Coke And Democrats Drink Sodapop? |
I ran across yet another survey of the great Pop vs. Soda debate yesterday, which got me curious about regional dialects. I’m usually most intrigued by differences in language that are truly cross-cultural (one of my favorite books EVER remains Forbidden American English
Monday De-Motivators: The Final Edition
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 19, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
You’ll have to find a way to be late for work on your own from now on…
It occurred to me after the feedback on last week’s Monday De-Motivators that not only was I not succeeding at making anybody late for work on Monday (most visitors are clicking on this stuff after 9pm), but I was getting ahead of the visitors that actually enjoy the games linked to. So this may be the last Monday De-Motivator for a while; as much as I take pride in creating a few Stack The Cats addicts (you know who you are), finding this stuff is exhausting, especially (as I’ve stressed repeatedly) if you don’t like computer games in the first place. It’s kind of like being in AA and having to taste bourbon for a living. For example: Sling Wars, though quite simple, quickly gave me a mild brain-ache. I got all the basic principles right away, but didn’t really feel like spending the time necessary to get a feel for the weapon. I also struggled with the idea that even though I chose to be a Native American, my only choices were to fight in Africa and Europe. Looking at the top scores was quite worrying, by the way. I’m pretty sure “El Turco” – who scored 2,147,483,647 - is someone I probably don’t want to have lunch with. Domino Pressure is a little more my speed. Zero learning curve, immediate results. Though I’m still not clear on how or why a domino would smash a tomato. And GlobalPlayer actually looks kind of interesting, but it gave me a mild panic attack on the first go. My first job as a teenager was in warehousing, and it brought back some of the trauma of that. Now that I’ve steadied my breathing and had a cup of coffee, I might give it another try. And last up: I didn’t know there was a Stoneage Sam One, so I think Stoneage Sam Two: The Ice Age lacked a little of the intended “You loved it so much, we’ve done a sequel” feeling. It was however, quite an insight into a game designer’s mind to have to use a child and a piece of vine as a simple tool to advance the score.