Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The new "Earn Money Working From Home..."



Have you ever seen those homemade signs that are attached to utility poles, usually around stoplights? They say, "Earn $$$ working from home!" and include a phone number.

Usually, they're either a Ponzi scheme or a job stuffing thousands of envelopes a day. Fun. Joy.

Well, our friends at Amazon have decided to take this idea to 2.0 with their Amazon Mechanical Turk concept. They promote it as:

Complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it. Choose from thousands of tasks, control when you work, and decide how much you earn.


It's an interesting premise. There are a lot of jobs that a human can do quite easily, but a computer has difficulty in completing. I decided to take a look at the HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) that were available.

If you're expecting big bucks, keep on looking. Only three HITs came up for me, two had no "reward" (payment) and one was paying $0.02 to listen to songs and determine the exact name of the album's primary artist. The good news is that there are 105,035 songs available to identify, or about $2,100 for a lucky audiophile.

Very interesting premise. Most HITs require Qualifications, either a fancy resume or experience in delivering high qualiy answers. I assume the rewards for higher end tasks are higher than FREE or $0.02.

Take a look at the site here.

-aB

Monday, December 05, 2005

I Bet the Neighbors Love It. Not.



Meet Carson Williams. He has done some decorating for the holidays. About 25,000 lights twinkle in his front yard. Did I mention they twinkle to music? To Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter"?

It's great. No, it's awesome.

Take a look at a 3 minute video here.

Read about it in The Cincinnati Enquirer here. Thanks to AdRants.com for the link.

You have to check it out. Still laughing.

-aB

Monday, November 21, 2005

New SBC/AT&T Logo...



SBC's acquisition of AT&T is finally complete, and last week they launched the new AT&T logo. What do you think?

I like the way it looks - it's definitely more "AT&T" than "SBC," but it doesn't say anything to me. It just looks like the "Death Star" AT&T logo gussied up a bit and tilted on its axis.

Now, for SBC, anything is better than their dreadful logo:



But I don't see any SBC branding in this new logo at all. With the amount SBC has seemed to spend on national marketing over the past year, that would seem to me to be a mistake.

I blogged on the Sprint/Nextel new logo here, not realizing that it's main graphic is a representation of the "pin drop" (very cool once you see it). But the new Death Star doesn't tell us anything, other than AT&T is about world domination.

Love to hear other thoughts...

-aB

Friday, November 11, 2005

Gladwell's Blink To Be a Movie, With Leo...



The Tipping Point author Malcom Gladwell's latest book Blink is to be a movie.

And Leonardo DiCaprio will be the star in the adaptation of this best-selling non-fiction pseudo-business book.

Here's a snippet about the book:

"Blink," published in January, is a story about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. Author Malcolm Gladwell posited that when you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. "Blink" is a story about those two seconds when instant conclusions reached by people are really powerful, really important and, occasionally, really good.


Here's a snippet about the movie:

Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for writing the drugs saga "Traffic," is adapting and directing the Universal Pictures project... Gaghan's take is being kept under wraps.

The studio is shelling out $1 million for the rights from Gladwell, and is paying $2 million for Gaghan to write the screenplay. If the project goes forward, the entire deal could be worth upwards of $6 million.


This should be interesting. I'm sure Malcom Gladwell is pleased. I think it's an ok book (I blogged about it here in February) but not nearly as good as The Tipping Point.

-aB

Monday, November 07, 2005

Will People Pay For TV On Demand?



Both CBS and NBC have announced today that they've inked deals with cable providers to allow their most popular programs to be available for viewing on demand - for a fee.

Want to watch CSI or Law & Order, but time-shifted (and you don't own a TiVo or other DVR)? Got 99 cents? It's yours.

Here's a snippet from the story on MSN Money:

"You can't stop technology," said David Zaslav, president of NBC Universal Cable. "People are viewing content differently and this is going to happen."

NBC Universal and DirecTV, the biggest satellite broadcaster, have agreed to make top NBC programmes available through a new digital video recorder, DirecTV Plus, which is being made available at retailers this month. For 99 cents, viewers will be able to watch top shows without commercials.

In the deal with CBS and Comcast Corp, the biggest cable operator, popular television shows can, from January, be viewed after they are aired for 99 cents, but commercials will be included. The service will be available to more than 8m digital subscribers.

This comes on the heels of ABC's deal with Apple, allowing people to download Desperate Housewives thru Apple's iTunes onto the new video iPods.

The only redeeming aspect of the $0.99 deal is that viewers will be able to see edited, commercial-free versions of the programs.

So, will people pay for the convenience? Perhaps very, very short term. But I think this time-shifting ability is going to be the expected norm - for free - very soon.

-aB

Friday, October 07, 2005

Video Games a Spectator Sport?

The new XBOX 360 comes out in a little over a month, and its flagship “must have” launch title is "Project Gotham Racing 3."

What’s so special about this game (other than the unbelievable visuals that it's purported to have)? It's a spectator feature that will allow up to 30,000 fans to watch in on online races and tournaments.

People who own the game and an XBOX Live subscription (what Microsoft makes you pay for in order to play games online) will be able to watch racing tournaments in real time. While limited "spectator" modes are available in some other games (Unreal Tournament 2004 comes to mind), never before has a gaming company capitalized on the idea that large numbers of players might want to watch other players – especially those who might be pretty good at the game.

Here’s a snippet from IGN.com:

Did I mention the other big number that Bizarre threw out at us? You've been hearing about the fantastic idea of a spectator mode from the likes of J Allard and Peter Moore. Project Gotham Racing 3 offers you a spectator mode with the ability to host 30,000 spectators on one eight-person race ... Can you imagine 30,000 people watching you play an online game? Bizarre said that if the spectator mode is successful and more than 30,000 people appear, they can expand the Microsoft servers to hold even more people...


EA has learned this with the Madden Challenge, an annual road show around the country where they find the best Madden football players and give them the chance to play for big moolah (on a televised show presented on the G4 cable network). It's great promotion for EA and the Madden franchise – still the top selling video game of all time.

But this Project Gotham Racing 3 online model is the first big stab at spectator gaming. Sure, it's interesting from an entertainment standpoint, but from a marketing standpoint – this is big stuff.

On top of the product and branding placement shown in the game itself (virtual signage, car brands, logos on the cars), and the game "sponsors" (like Old Spice's sponsorship in several EA Sports games this year), you now have the opportunity to introduce even more broadcast-like advertising into the game. Will there be commercial breaks, with 30 or 60 second packaged messages? Will the players (virtual and real) be interviewed and, like their NASCAR counterparts, name drop a half-dozen sponsors in 15 seconds? What about the play-by-play commentary? Will there be marketing messages here?

Interesting idea. While I don't believe that these events will become the Super Bowls of the future, it is another step towards (whether you like it or not) professional gamers.

And this is a big opportunity for agencies like Massive, which handle in-game product placement and other video game sponsorships. I predict other ad agenies are quickly going to create divisions to do this, and many other boutique firms will emerge.

-aB

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Who DOES Own the News?

Interesting article from AP, that includes an interview with the director of BBC's Global News Division. The article discusses how user-generated news is turning the entire news gathering (and news "owning") model upside down. Snippet:

The avalanche of high quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division said Wednesday.

"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."


Interesting story. Check it out.

-aB

Friday, September 30, 2005

Cyan Closes Its Doors...Not So Fast, Gump



Back on September 6 I posted a blog entry about Myst game creator Cyan Worlds closing its doors. Check it out here.

Well, reporter Dean Takahashi's blog on the San Jose Mercury News site posted on Wednesday that Cyan had a "narrow escape of death" and that writing its obituary would be a bit premature. Snippet:

I was about to prepare the company's obituary. But Cyan isn't dead yet. I sent an e-mail off to Rand and he answered, "We've had a reprieve. Managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat (that I can't give details about yet), so we rehired almost everybody. Crazy industry. It's giving me whiplash!" This company has had an incredible run since Miller and his younger brother Robyn founded it in 1987. They created "The Manhole," the first game on a CD-ROM. And in 1991, they began work on Myst. They released it on Sept. 24, 1993, and they changed the gaming world.


Today, Cyan Audio Director Tim Larkin has an interview posted on his Music4Games.net site mentioning that Cyan is "going in a bit of a new direction." Check out the interview here.

Reviews of Myst V have been pretty positive. Guess I need to check it out.

Thanks to Joystiq for the links here and here.

-aB

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Thank Goodness for TiVo



Last night was the LSU vs. Tennessee game. The game was supposed to be played on Saturday, but concerns about Hurricane Rita delayed it until last night. (The delay caused several other "domino" issues as well, including UT having to travel to and from Baton Rouge yesterday, and also play an away football game against a #4 team on the same day, too.)

Needless to say it wasn't a good recipe for football. Last night I was frustrated more than I had ever been watching a football game in my life.

At halftime, the game was 21-0, with Tennessee unable to get the ball past their very own 35 yard line. Awful, awful football. Ainge, our starting quarterback, couldn't do squat.

I turned the game off at halftime, something I have almost never done before. Thankfully, TiVo'ed the game from that point forward.

This morning I wake up to see several messages on my cell phone, all posted past 11:00 pm. I knew what that meant. Before listening to the messages (knowing that something must have happened), I went down and watched the 4th quarter and overtime on the 'ole TiVo. Snippet from ESPN.com:

The LSU transfer led the Vols back from a three-touchdown deficit and Gerald Riggs Jr. pushed into the end zone from a yard out in overtime to give Tennessee a 30-27 win Monday night in LSU's long-awaited, hurricane-delayed home opener.


Well, I think we figured out the UT quarterback controversy for once and for all. Sorry, Ainge. It's Clausen v.2.0!

Hopefully, Tennessee can turn a new page here. While I know traveling down there and playing on the same day was tough, there is no excuse for the sloppy play we saw last night and basically throughout the first three games of the year.

-aB

Friday, September 23, 2005

Will Political Blogs Be Subject to Campaign Finance Rules?

Looks like the Federal Election Commission is looking into regulating blogs, according to this BusinessWeek Online story. Snippet:

Amid the explosion of political activity on the Internet, a federal court has instructed the six-member Federal Election Commission to draw up regulations that would extend the nation's campaign finance and spending limits to the Web.


Right now, Internet communication is exempt from the legislation. But with $14 million spent on Internet ads and other online marketing during the 2004 campaign, you can bet the FEC is going to want to get all over the blogosphere.

With 43% of the "Top 400" blogs tracked by the recent comSCORE research report being classified as political in topic, it doesn't take much to see the implications of this. How will the FEC define a political blog? How will it be enforced?

I think we can all agree that this will be coming down the pike, sooner or later. And the debate won't be pretty. First Amendment debates never are (nor should they be).

-aB

Clever Outdoor Advertising. Love it.



Via Joystiq, Aeropause abd a few other sites, here is a link to some pictures of a transit bulletin (bus stop) advertisement for the Sony PS2 in Malasia.

Along with the bus stop roof graphic (which is very nice), there are four large panels with hundreds/thousands of the the PS2 controller icons on them. That's cool, but the clever part is that the icons are actually printed on bubble wrap.

So it's thousands of little bubble wrap pockets, just waiting to be popped.

As Joystiq mentions, this would be bloody hell for some obsessive compulsive person waiting for the bus.

Love it. Very clever.

-aB

Thursday, September 22, 2005

$5 Petrol - Coming Soon to a Pump Near You?



Thought $5 per gallon gas was only in Europe? Think again. CNN reports that Katrina was only the opening act of the Gas Price Dance.

Rita was just dropped to a Category 4. That's good news. But it's still a very powerful storm. My prayers are with the coastal Texans and Louisianians, especially those already besieged by Katrina.

-aB

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

When the Pitch Becomes the Story

A work associate of mine, Nicholas Scibetta and I wrote the following piece for a monthly column on our corporate intranet. The column is called ".NEXT, the Bold New World of Media."

This month's column discusses an interesting change taking place today in PR firms and the media (including the blogosphere):

When the Pitch Becomes the Story

We’ve seen several examples over the past year of public relations professionals getting dinged by bloggers. Respected companies like American Express, Mazda and Dr. Pepper all received negative criticism when PR pros tried to unsuccessfully work with them. In general, the PR pros did two things wrong: They didn't fully disclose their clients' identity and they assumed incorrectly that bloggers lived by the same journalistic "code" as their mainstream media counterparts.

This unwritten code states that journalists will accept "off the record" comments as just that – off the record. The code also includes that reporters won't write about the "pitch," the actual act of marketing and presenting a story to a reporter.

Bloggers have proven that many of them don't adhere to this same code (and honestly, do they have to?). They often publish off the record statements in their posts and discuss the actual story pitch process. But traditional journalists still adhere to the code on their personal blogs, right? Wrong.

We know examples of journalists who have honored a media embargo with their traditional print publication, but posted the same story on their blog hours before the embargo was lifted. We know examples of reporters writing a balanced story for their employers' publications, but then writing different versions of the same story on their personal blog. This "inside baseball" is something we need to consider in public relations.

Journalist blogs have certainly created more transparency in the newsroom. Take Brian William's blog, "The Daily Nightly." Here, Brian writes daily about the goings on at NBC News, even providing us insight on how the day’s leading stories are selected. On his blog, Brian provides a glimpse of the editorial process to put The Nightly News together, including behind-the-scenes conversations between producers as to why and why not certain stories made it to air or didn't. Many newspaper outlets are encouraging their editors to write more about the why they cover what they do and how they go about doing it.

A recent story in The New York Times discusses how papers in the McClatchy Group, which owns the Sacramento Bee, The Star-Tribune(MN), and The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., are "undertaking 'accuracy audits' in which they survey people who appeared in articles to see if they were represented properly." Going even a step further, "some papers have invited citizens to sit in on their Page 1 meetings." CBS News' recently launched website features an ombudsman charged with, among other tasks, answering viewer questions about the workings of the news division.

This trend of "full disclosure" can be closely associated with the media's desire for the appearance of transparency and attempt to remain "sticky" with their current viewers/readers, while also attracting new ones. Living through the recent scandals involving the accuracy of quotes and existence of actual inside expert sources has put media somewhat on the defensive. This trend is certainly exciting. It's fun to have a view into the editorial process. But as public relations professionals, it should give us pause. It changes the rules. This isn't necessarily a bad thing – but it’s something we need to be ready for.

We need to ensure that our "pitch" can be distributed. We need to ensure that any additional background information that we give to a reporter can be published – either in the traditional publication or on their personal blog. And we might even want to consider the reporter's personal opinions and stance when we pitch them. While most journalists will work to deliver a balanced piece to their editor (as they are obligated to do), their personal blog, which might have a sizeable audience of its own, may share a different story (again, that's the reporter's discretion). Do the research, understanding the reporter's leanings can help you land a pitch and quite possibly prevent you from putting your client in a potentially adverse situation.

So the takeaway for today? Always pretend that you’re pitching Don Imus – someone famous for broadcasting the PR "pitch" as much as the story itself.


-aB

Thursday, September 15, 2005

REUTERS: Proof That The President Pees



This image, with the following slug, went out on the Reuters wire today:

U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking


Surprise! Presidents pee, too. They also eat, brush, floss, scratch, poop and probably sing in the shower. And, according to our former President Carter, they also "lust in their heart."

No matter which side of the political fence you stand on, it’s pretty obvious the objective of this wire release and its bias. What's the journalistic purpose of this story? Did we not realize that the President had bodily needs before this important news story?

I’m just curious why we didn’t see a photo wire release like this about six years ago…



Just having fun with the camera phone.

-aB

Monday, September 12, 2005

Bypass That Customer No-Service Phone Tree...



Tired of the ridiculous IVR phone trees and other firey hoops you have to jump through to speak to a live human anymore? Me, too.

That's why I was very excited to come across this "Find-A-Human" Web page, listing the "back doors" and other secrets to quickly speak to a live human at about 60 businesses.

The tactic recommended for Cingular - to pretend like you're cancelling the service to get a live human IMMEDIATELY is one that I figured out a long time ago and have used successfully for Comcast, Chemlawn, and Chase. They all go to the same customer service operators - it's just a matter of where you are placed in queue.

Good site!

-aB

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

NerdTV



I've always been a fan of Robert X. Cringely's books and specials on PBS. He has a new show, called NerdTV that, in his words is the "Charlie Rose for geeks."

The NerdTV Web site provides video of the entire shows, transcripts and MP3 files of the shows, all under a Creative Commons license. Pretty neat stuff. Snippet:

NerdTV is distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally share the shows with their friends and even edit their own versions. If not THE future of television, NerdTV represents A future of television for niche audiences that have deep interest in certain topics.


This week's show is an interview with Andy Hertzfeld. Andy was the original Macintosh systems programmer and someone I'm a pretty big fan of. I blogged on Andy's book, Revolution in the Valley - The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made here on GumpRants.com on April 28. Take a listen to Andy's interview, and check out the book here.

Good stuff.

-aB

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Myst Creator Cyan Closes Its Doors



Remember Myst? I do. I remember purchasing a copy of this game when I was still in college, right before finals (very, very bad idea). It was the first computer game that so captivated me that I remember playing for 12 or so hours straight. I was enthralled by it, not only by the game itself, but by the idea that you could become so immersed in what really was just a highly rendered slide show. It was eye candy, on a whole new level. And a demonstration that good content trumps almost everything else.

(Aside: I wasn't the only one enthralled by Myst. It ended up selling over 12 million copies and being the top-selling PC game of all-time until The Sims came around a few years ago.)

Myst producer Cyan closed it's doors on Friday, a few weeks before Myst V hits the shelves.

So, why is the creator of one of the best selling games of all-time closing? My rant is that Cyan didn't keep up with the technology evolution in PC gaming, something that changes even faster than Moore's Law. The Myst successors like Riven and Uru were good games, but still not 3D-based, years after full-screen animation began to be the expected norm for PC-based video games. Now it wasn't only Cyan and Myst that didn't keep up - the entire "adventure game" genre was impacted the same way.

Also, Cyan really didn't stray far enough from the Myst franchise. All of their games were Myst-based - all sequels. The Myst franchise got tired (not a huge surprise after twelve years) and they didn't have any other game brands (or seemingly ideas) to fall back upon.

So long, Cyan.



-aB

Friday, September 02, 2005

Corporate Generosity



I'm usually not a fan of Wal-Mart, but this announcement changes that:

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Sept. 1 - Following President Bush's announcement today that former Presidents Bush and Clinton will lead a nationwide fundraising effort to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott contacted President Clinton and the White House and committed $15 million from Wal-Mart to jump-start the effort.

As part of this commitment, Wal-Mart will establish mini-Wal-Mart stores in areas impacted by the hurricane. Items such as clothing, diapers, baby wipes, food, formula, toothbrushes, bedding and water will be given out free of charge to those with a demonstrated need.

Wal-Mart previously donated $2 million in cash to aid emergency relief efforts and has been collecting contributions at its 3,800 stores and CLUBS, and through its web sites www.walmartfacts.com, www.walmart.com, www.walmartfoundation.org, www.walmartstores.com and www.samsclub.com.

Through its Associate Disaster Relief Fund, the company will also give displaced associates immediate funds for shelter, food, clothing and other necessities.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and SAM'S CLUBS in all fifty states. Internationally, the company operates in Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Argentina and South Korea. The company's securities are listed on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges under the symbol WMT.


Remember, you can give too, at www.RedCross.org.

The Gulf Coast needs our prayers and financial support.

-aB

Monday, August 15, 2005

Terrell Owens Needs To Get a Life



Watch any SportsCenter last week? Listened to any sports talk radio? Read any sports pages lately?

If you have, you've read all about Baby Terrell.

I just got done reading this editorial by Sports Illustrated's Peter King.

Awesome. Agree 100%. Snippet:

Go back to the Eagles on Wednesday, T.O., shut that massive piehole, play football and try to prove to some of us who think you're the worst kind of problem with American sports today that we're wrong. Please.


Gotta love it.

And if the Eagles don't waver here, I'll be a fan for life. This is what is wrong with pro sports.

-aB

Friday, August 12, 2005

Things We Miss...



CNet today (via Gizmodo) has a great list of tech things that they miss, and I must admit, I agree with almost all of them:

- Kozmo.com
This was a company ahead of its time. So was Webvan. The idea that you could go online and order up a frozen pizza, 6-pack and DVD was just about perfect. We had Kozmo in Atlanta when I lived there, and they practically saved my life when I got sick and needed some Pepto Bismol - fast.

(Aside - I had to go online to find out how to spell Pepto Bismol and found the Pepto-Bismol.com Web site. Very funny.)

- The Concorde
Never got to go faster than the speed of sound. Damn.

- Good Keyboards
Where is an originial IBM Model M Keyboard when you need one?

- The Newton
Yes, I am a dork. I have two. A MessagePad 110 and a MessagePad 2000. They made the move to Pittsburgh with me. Need to fire it up.

This story at CNet has the rest, compiled by Rafe Needleman. This should be a ongoing column!

-aB

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Apple Finally Gives In To a Two-Button Mouse. Sort of.



Many have long complained that Apple never had a piece of mouse hardware with more than one button. Ever since the Lisa (and my Apple Mouse that I installed on my Apple //e long ago), Apple's been a one-button mouse sort of company.

Until today. Apple today releases not a two-button mouse, but actually a four-button mouse. But you say, they're no visible buttons. Here's a snippet of how Apple's copywriters explain it:

Meet the mouse that reinvented the wheel. The scroll wheel, that is. At $49, Mighty Mouse features the revolutionary Scroll Ball that lets you move anywhere inside a document, without lifting a finger. And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design. Click, roll, squeeze and scroll. This mouse just aced the maze.

Spry and Mighty
In the beginning, there was one button. Then there were two. Then there were clickable scroll wheels and programmable toggles and solid-state slides. But nobody made a mouse as easy to use as your Mac. Until now. Mighty Mouse combines the capability of a multibutton mouse with Apple’s signature top-shell design for the best of both form and function. Use it any way you work: Stick with single-button simplicity or click with multibutton efficiency.


It's $49, which isn't bad. It's Windows compatible, too. That's nice. It has a cord. That's bad.

While I definitely want to go play with one (anyone to the Apple store for lunch?), I'm pretty happy with my cordless Apple Bluetooth mouse. But the minute they make a cordless of this puppy, I'll want one. Bad.

Read more about the Mighty Mouse here.

-aB

Friday, July 15, 2005

Google Earth Is Just Plain Tasty



Google's at it again, taking the uber-cool satellite technology they ported over to Google Maps and putting it into a desktop application. And the consumer version of the tool is free. Now, it's purely eye candy (or a good tool to check out the house your boss lives in) but it's still amazing nonetheless.

Google Earth is the manifestation of Google's purchase of Keyhole in 2004. If you remember, Google bought this satellite imaging and database company, which sold several "flavors" of software to enable consumers and businesses to map out information using almost-real-time imagery.

Google Earth has a free version (that is just fine for personal use) as well as Plus and Pro versions that cost $20 and $400, respectively. They also have enterprise versions that probably cost tens of thousands of dollars for companies (like retailers) who use the data to scout out traffic patterns, neighborhoods and potential store locations.

Try it out. It's totally cool. For fun, check out the White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower and more. This page tells you how to tour these pretty places.

And sorry Mac fans, it's only for PCs right now. No love for you.

-aB

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Great Book



Everything Bad Is Good For You is a good book. It takes the premise that video games and today's multimedia culture are harmful and turns it on its end.

While I agree that violence and sex in the prime-time TV window and in video games targeted towards kids is out of control, I do believe that author Steven Johnson has a point here. The book describes how video games do more than just spur hand-eye coordination. Their multi-level plots, problem solving puzzles and deduction-thinking are certainly better for kids than watching a rerun of The A Team on Spike TV.

The book also goes into detail on how today's television programing is so different than that of a dozen or two years ago (and I'm not talking about violence and sex). Today's television shows include intriciate, multi-threaded plot scripts that are non-linear. Today's shows require you to assume a lot and sometimes include heavy amounts of content that you must choose NOT to understand (like the medical jargon in ER or the abbreviations and political references in The West Wing). Multi-level plots in prime time all started with Hill Street Blues in the early eighties, and today's shows like The West Wing or The Sopranos can have as many as 12-15 different plot lines working in parallel, weaving in and out and sometimes converging at several points.

And programs like The Simpsons and Seinfeld have plot elements that not only carry on from show to show, but sometimes from season to season. Seinfeld references like those to Art Vandalay (one of the examples from the book) can carry over six seasons, with 2-3 season delays between mentions.

While I don't agree with everything in this book, it is a very interesting read and definitely something that anyone on multimedia should pick up. I only wish there was a bit more to it - $24 is a lot for a small 250 page book.

-aB

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Five Day Forecast, But We're Not Talking Weather



A television station in Sacramento is going to begin broadcasting five-day TRAFFIC forecasts today, according to this story on NewScientist.com.

Here's a snippet:

A traffic forecasting system capable of predicting traffic conditions seven days in advance will go live to the public in California on Wednesday.

Alongside the weather forecast, viewers of KXTV News 10 in Sacramento can now get 3D animations of their local road network, showing not only where the gridlock is but also where it is likely to be.

The system, called Beat-the-Traffic, is the first public traffic forecasting system that combines real-time traffic density and speed with historical trends on major routes.


It looks as though the system is from a company called BeatTheTraffic.com, who combines traffic sensor data (from the DOT) with their own predictive systems, based on season, previous traffic issues, sports events, etc.

This is totally cool. What I am waiting for is the convergence of this info on in-car screens. With so many cars now having GPS screens (as well as DVD monitors), how hard is it to display traffic info? I know the Acura RL has a traffic system on-screen in it's new car, can we expect to see this provided by others?

-aB

Friday, June 24, 2005

Sprint's New Logo



Via Gizmodo, here's a look at Sprint's new logo, updated from the red & white after their merger with NEXTEL.

I like the little logo and the typeface of the wordmark, but the logo is pretty blah. It really doesn't say too much about the company. It could be a logo for a software company, an airline or just about anything.



I think Cingular did a good job with their logo after the merger with AT&T. (Disclosure - I worked on the merger and on the Cingular brand launch.) They decided, correctly that the Cingular "Jack" (and they hate when you call it that) had more positive equity and personality than the AT&T globe. They simply changed the Cingular wordmark from it's Cingular orange color to AT&T Wireless blue.

I'll wait and see if the new Sprint logo grows on me...

-aB

DSL or Cable Modem?



VHS vs. Beta. GM vs. Ford. Pepsi vs. Coke. GSM vs. CDMA/TDMA. Cubs vs. White Sox. Yankees vs. Mets.

Our world is full of choices. We try to make the right one.

Right now, for me, the choice is DSL or Cable Modem at my house. As some of you know, I have recently moved from Atlanta to Pittsburgh, and even after being here a week I still have not hooked up the Internet access at home. (Shame.)

I have two welcome kits sitting on the kitchen counter. One from Verizon for DSL, one from Comcast for a cable modem.

Both sets of hardware were free. Both service plans are $40/month (with six months @ $20).

Now, I've had DSL for a number of years in Atlanta. No problems - probably only a half dozen failures in five years. I was getting 800k-1.2mb/s on my DSL at home.

I've never had an experience with cable modems. The guy who came out to install our cable said that the drop to my house had the capacity for 6mb/s, but that obviously that would slow down as other people on the street logged in, too. He said that they would generally guarantee 1.5 mb/s, which is faster than DSL.

So cable modems seem to win the speed issue. Then there is the issue of dealing with the cable company or dealing with the phone company when there are issues. Nothing like having two crappy choices to pick from.

Well, I'm going to research today and over the weekend and install at least one of them. I think it's honestly going to come down to where I put my desk in the office - close to the cable jack or closer to a phone jack.

-aB

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Gump's Moved North



Where's Gump Been? We've misssed his thoughts and rants on gadgets, computers, Tiger and marketing.

Gump's been busy, moving north of the Mason Dixon line for the first time in my life. Over the past two weeks, I've sucessfully moved from Atlanta, which has been my home for the past eleven years to Pittsburgh, my new home.

So, goodbye Braves, grits and sweet tea. Hello Steelers, snow and Pepsi products.

I'm looking forward to writing here in Gump Rants about my move and the transition. So far, so good. The people in Pittsburgh are very nice and so far the weather has been incredible - absolutely incredible. (I do realize that it will change come November.)

So, until I get my DSL hooked up at home, expect more sporadic posts to the blog here. Which brings up a question - Cable Modem or DSL? I have welcome kits for both, now I have to decide which one to go with. That sounds like a topic for tomorrow.

-aB

Friday, May 27, 2005

Court Reporter Steno Machines...



Via Gizmodo, I've always wondered how those things the court reporters type on work. You would think that with all of the technology today, they would have found a way to update these things, but I guess if it ain't broke then don't fix it.

This Slate story talks about how the Stenotype machine works. Interesting. Snippet:

It's called a stenotype machine, and it's also used for captioning television broadcasts and general office stenography. The stenotype works a bit like a portable word processor, but with a modified, 22-button keyboard in place of the standard qwerty setup. Modern stenotypes have two rows of consonants across the middle, underneath a long "number bar." Set in front of these are four vowel keys: "A," "O," "E," and "U."


Now, the other thing I want to know is how surveying equipment works. Those little telescopes, the reflectors on sticks... Can't you do all of this with GPS now?

Enjoy.

-aB

Friday, May 20, 2005

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Sony PS3 Officially Announced



This CNN story does a decent job of showcasing the new PlayStation, due out next spring. I've written here in this post about the Cell processor it will utilize, but this story goes into a bit more detail on the entire package.

Key Points:

  • 35 times the power of the PS2

  • More powerful than the current PS2, XBOX and GameCube combined

  • Utilizes Blu-Ray disks

  • Wireless bluetooth controllers - capacity to handle seven simultaneous controllers/players standard

  • Ability to output two different signals to two different TVs (standard or high-def)

  • Console will be initially available in silver, black and white

  • Supports 1080p high definition format

  • Supports interaction with the PSP handheld via wireless

  • Supports Sony's Memory Stick Duo format as well as SD and CF cards


Pretty neat stuff. I was expecting it to look a bit cooler than the pictures show. Not necessarily disappointed, but not quite the "wow" I was anticipating.

But the specs do wow me.

-aB

Internet Explorer Falling Further Behind, In Several Ways



The gang at IBM dealt a blow to Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser today, announcing that they were making the FireFox browser available to their 300,000 employees. Snippet from Information Week:

Microsoft's Internet Explorer continues lose market share as more consumers and businesses adopt alternative Web browsers. Rival IBM on Friday became the latest company to embrace Mozilla's Firefox browser, making it available to 300,000 employees.

"IBM recognizes a bandwagon when it sees one," says Andy Jaquith, an analyst at the Yankee Group. "Besides, it's migrating its whole operation to Linux."

Firefox clearly has momentum. It has been downloaded more than 50 million times, and members of the open-source Mozilla project have provided funds for advertising to promote the browser. Firefox has features that aren't available in Internet Explorer. And some experts think it's more secure than IE, reason enough for businesses to consider it as an alternative browser.


CNN noted a few days ago that IE market share had dropped to less than 90% for the very first time. Information Week gave Firefox about 8% market share, and interestingly Apple's Safari browser 3% of the market (or virtually all Mac users out there).

This Information Week story announces that the new IE 7 will include tabs, a feature that Safari has had for years and a big differentiator for Firefox. Microsoft IE product manager Dean Hachamovitch realizes the mistake to wait so long for tabs as he explains, "I think we made the wrong decision here [not including tabs] initially, and we're making the right one now."

Sounds like the new IE 7 won't be in beta until this summer. I'd thought that they were shooting for a lot earlier than that. Another big feature in IE 7 that many are waiting for is the built-in RSS reader. I bet that it's going to get a lot worse for Internet Explorer before it gets better. Plagued with security flaws, slower speed and fewer features, Firefox is the best choice on a PC. Safari's still my favorite overall browser, especially the one built into OS X Tiger.

-aB

Friday, May 13, 2005

Finally An iPod FM Transmitter That Doesn't Suck



I am not a big fan of the iTrip, or pretty much any of the current stable of FM transmitters for the iPod. Their signal is just too weak. And unfortunately, I have to use a transmitter in my BMW to be able to listen to my iPod. (In my Infiniti, I have a cassette player, so I can use that adapter, but my BMW is the model year before they added the iPod functionality discussed at iPodYourBMW.com).

Well, I have finally found something that works. It's the Monster iCarPlay Wireless Plus. It works.

It's not wireless like the iTrip, but it more than makes up for that with the quality. You plug it into the cigarette lighter plug, and it broadcasts a pretty strong signal on any FM frequency you want. Plus, it charges your iPod while it works (and it's a smart charge to prevent overcharging the iPod battery).

Another good thing is that it pulls the audio signal from the dock connector, rather than the top earphone jack, so it's a clean "line audio" signal. Nice.

It costs $80, so it isn't cheap. But it's definitely the most powerful of the transmitters I've tried. I put it on the same frequency as Star 94-FM here in Atlanta, and it blew that Star 94 (and it's great mix of today's top hits!) way back to Jessica Simpson-ville. And if that's all it did, it would be worth the $80 price alone.

-aB

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Is Music Industry's DualDisc Too Late?



Bought my first DualDisc music CD tonight. It's Dave Matthew's new "Stand Up." Good album.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the DualDisc format, it's a regular CD on one side, and a DVD on the other. One disc - just two different sides sandwiched together. This means that there is no writing on either side - the name of the album is written on the plastic center of the disc.

It's a great idea and captures a lot of the points that I brought up in this post way back in July 2004. It was a rant to the RIAA and the music industry that they needed to do something to convince people to purchase albums again (as compared to stealing/pirating them or legally purchasing music online).

I commented about what the dance/electronica music genre was doing - with cool packaging for their CDs, bonus CDs and sometimes even DVDs included with the album.

Read my old post here if you want to see what I said.

Well, DualDisc does a lot of these things. The jewel box is different from a regular CD. It's curved on one side and has a button on the front that you push to open the box. Cool. The first discs have decent liner notes, and the CD/DVD has good content on it. Not only does the DVD side feature videos and other extras, it also includes a surround sound 5.1 mix of the same album that's on the CD side. So playing it at home (or on new car with audio DVD players like most of the new Acuras).

Well it save the industry? I don't know about that, but it is the first actual tangible music CD I have bought in months. It's been iTunes for 95% of my music for the past few years.

-aB

It Isn't The Frisbee Dog Nationals, But It's Still Funny



I'm a big fan of the Frisbee Dog competitions, a Frisbee + Dog competition where the dogs (and their masters) do all sorts of crazy tricks. Every year at the Dogwood Arts Festival in basically my front yard at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, the dogs go at it. I love it because the dogs are having fun, the owners are having fun, and the crowds can't help from loving it - watching all of the craziness.

Well, this isn't the Frisbee dogs, but it's still pretty funny. This week over at Georgia Tech, the 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open was being held. The compeition ended with a bunch of programmed Sony AIBO robot dogs playing soccer. Snippet from CBS News/AP:

Hugging the sideline, the robot dog waddled down the field and hit a ball with its nose. The ball bounced off the goal post.

It was one of the University of Texas' last chances to get back in the game, which it eventually lost 2-0 to the reigning European champs from Dortmund University in Germany.


Robot dog soccer is one of five games that teams of scholars competed in during the 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open, held Monday at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The aim of the three-day competition, which ends Tuesday, is to develop software for better robots with the long-term goal of fielding a robot soccer team good enough to play a human team by 2050.

The compeition was close, but the team from Dortmund University in Germany won the match.

Read the entire story here.

-aB

Monday, May 09, 2005

Mac OSX Tiger's Dashboard Compromised



Via Slashdot, this post discusses a slightly dangerous and quite annoying vulnerability for Tiger's new Dashboard feature, the Konfabulator-copying new OSX eye candy that I've discussed here. Snippet from Slashdot:

If you're running Safari on OS X Tiger and go to this website, a 'slightly evil' Dashboard widget will be automatically downloaded and installed and can't be removed without manually removing the file from the Library folder and rebooting the computer. The widget is called Zaptastic and is a demonstration by the author of how easy it is to exploit Dashboard for nefarious purposes. The essay, released under the Creative Commons License, goes on to describe the many ways users can be taken advantage of...


The Web site discussed is Zaptastic. DO NOT go to that link if you're using Safari on a Mac with Tiger installed, unless you want to delete the downloaded widget yourself. It's not a necessarily "evil" widget, as the author's main purpose is to demonstrate the vulnerability.

Hope Apple fixes this soon. The whole idea that you aren't supposed to be able to delete widgets once you download them is rediculous. While if you can navigate down to the Widgets folder in your Home > Library, it does require a restart or two to truly clean them up. And Apple's help documentation says "You cannot remove widgets from the Widget Bar or change their order."

Boo, Apple. This is awful. I hope they fix this (as well as several other things) in 10.4.1. How did this get through testing?

-aB

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Got Multiple Monitors? Meet Mandolux.

Found a wicked site tonight. Mandolux.com. It's from a guy named Mando Gomez who's a photographer that has created desktop images for people with multiple computer monitors.

At home, I am blessed with two honkin' 19" LCDs on my main computer. It's awesome - dragging windows onto both screens and truly being able to multitask.

Now, I've cropped and placed some of my own images onto my screens, but for those not fortunate enough to have their own, check out Mandolux.com. The archive section of the site has plenty of cool images to use.

P.S. I would show you some images from Mandolux.com but Mando gets a bit upset with bandwidth hogs.

-aB

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Great Book for Mac Geeks



As I write this, my copy of the new Macintosh OS X operating system, code-named "Tiger" is on it's way to me via FedEx. This morning, The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg said about Tiger:

Overall, Tiger is the best and most advanced personal computer operating system on the market, despite a few drawbacks. It leaves Windows XP in the dust.


The new OS includes Spotlight, a very powerful search function that will change the way people manage their documents and data files, a new iChat video conferencing application that you need to see to believe, a RSS-enabled Safari Web browser that I blogged about here way back in June 2004 and Dashboard.

Dashboard is a great idea. Unfortunately, it's not a new idea. A piece of software called Konfabulator (one of my personal favorite shareware apps) has been doing the Dashboard thing for several years. Apple decided to "borrow" the idea without compensating Arlo Rose, the Konfabulator creator. Good news for Konfabulator is that it is now available for Windows and is more than worth the $24.95 they ask for it.

So sorry for the rant. Got carried away there. This post is about a book, "Revolution in the Valley - The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made." Andy Hertzfeld, one of the major brains behind the Mac compiled this book from stories on his Web site Folklore.org about the Mac, written by the actual people who built the original Mac. It's a pretty, coffee table-like book with lots of pictures and nice design. For those who have read the stories on Folklore.org, some of the chapters will be second-time reading, but even for me it was great the second time around. And it $24.95, it's actually a good deal for a hardback book with quality paper and spot color on every page.

I'm not sure if Steve Jobs has taken this book off the shelves of the Apple stores.

More on Tiger tomorrow...

-aB

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Two Interesting Stories on Google



Via Slashdot, here are links to two interesting stories on Google and how it's impacting the Internet.

Snippet from The Globe & Mail:

Although it may seem that Google is already well-along the path toward such an information-rich Utopia, the truth is that the current state of affairs is only a first foray into the world of information retrieval. Today's smartest search algorithms still only read words as text strings, failing to make much sense (at least in the way a human would) of the ones and zeroes churning through their distributed server clusters. This lack of semantic connection is something being worked upon by the founder of the Web himself (Sir Tim Breners-Lee, at MIT) in a radical re-design of how the Web is structured and an update of the communication protocols that hold it all together.


And a snippet from Fortune:

Microsoft was already months into a massive project aimed at taking down Google when the truth began to dawn on Bill Gates. It was December 2003. He was poking around on the Google company website and came across a help-wanted page with descriptions of all the open jobs at Google. Why, he wondered, were the qualifications for so many of them identical to Microsoft job specs? Google was a web search business, yet here on the screen were postings for engineers with backgrounds that had nothing to do with search and everything to do with Microsoft's core business—people trained in things like operating-system design, compiler optimization, and distributed-systems architecture. Gates wondered whether Microsoft might be facing much more than a war in search. An e-mail he sent to a handful of execs that day said, in effect, "We have to watch these guys. It looks like they are building something to compete with us."

He sure got that right. Today Google isn't just a hugely successful search engine; it has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft's dominance. You can use Google software with any Internet browser to search the web and your desktop for just about anything; send and store up to two gigabytes of e-mail via Gmail (Hotmail, Microsoft's rival free e-mail service, offers 250 megabytes, a fraction of that); manage, edit, and send digital photographs using Google's Picasa software, easily the best PC photo software out there; and, through Google's Blogger, create, post online, and print formatted documents—all without applications from Microsoft.


Good stories on a company who's corporate mantra is "Don't Be Evil." It's hard to put a fence around what Google is...today as well as tomorrow. It's certainly more than a search engine.

-aB

Scratch my back and I'll, wait a minute, do I have to?

Colleague of mine added 'ole GumpRants.com to his BlogRoll. Alan's a pretty nice guy, so I will reciprocate.

By the way, you gotta love the name - DogBrainCentral.

It looks so pretty down there in the BlogRoll, between The Onion and DPReview.com. There's juxtaposition for ya.

Kumbaya, my friend, kumbaya...

-aB

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

I Want One. No, I Need One



I have a little trouble getting up in the morning. I know how to divide by nine, which is number of snooze minutes my Sony clock radio "Dream Bar" will give me. I snooze for about 40-50 minutes (or actually 45-54 minutes to be precise) every morning.

Clocky from this MIT student is the solution to my problem. An alarm clock on wheels. Here's a snippet:

Before you hit the snooze button a second time on this alarm clock, you'll have to hunt it down.

The shag carpet-covered robotic alarm clock on wheels, called Clocky, rolls away and hides.

The clock is the invention of Gauri Nanda, a graduate student -- and a person who occasionally oversleeps -- who works in the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Looks kinda freaky with the shag carpeting. Make sure to keep all ferrets away from this device.

Read the entire story here.

-aB

Friday, March 25, 2005

Braves' Turner Field to Get World's Largest HDTV



Turner Field is about to get a new TV. 71 feet tall by 79 feet wide, it's a biggie.

Here's a snippet from DesignTechnica:

The world's largest outdoor high definition display (56,000 square feet) will greet and entertain Atlanta Braves fans at the newly renovated Turner Field this season.

The 5,600-square-foot Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision screen, which will be recognized by Guinness World Records at a special ceremony on March 23, is 71 feet tall and 79 feet wide, weighs 50 tons and has more than five million LED lights.

The new display consists of 266 panels that each contains 20 lighting units, resulting in a screen with nearly 5,200,000 LED (light emitting diode) modules that can faithfully reproduce 1 billion colors, and be clearly seen from almost any viewing angle.


When on, it needs about 400,000 watts of juice to keep it going. Let's just hope that the Braves have something good to put on the new screen this year.

Read the story here on DesignTechnica, via Gizmodo.

-aB

Monday, March 14, 2005

Another Great Pontiac Marketing Idea



The US is definitely behind the 8-ball when it comes to use of mobile phone technology, but a new campaign for Pontiac's new G6 sedan is perfectly timed, in my opinion.

I spoke about the G6 promotion with Oprah Winfrey here a few months ago, and complimented the program up and down. What I saw last night is just a clever and groundbreaking (at least for the United States).

I saw a commercial last night for the new Pontiac G6 "Catch a G6" viral/mobile campaign. Simple, but very clever campaign using the camera on most people's (at least in the G6 demographic) mobile phones. (I must admit, it's one of those "why didn't I think of that" ideas).

Basically, if you photograph a Pontiac G6 on the street with your cameraphone, send it into Pontiac (at the number/email provided), you are submitted into a drawing for $1 million, as well as a few G6 cars that they'll give away. Simple. Elegant. Great. Here's why:


  • It gets people specifically looking for G6s on the road (a dream of auto manufacturers);
  • It creates a database of potential GM buyers (and their cell phone/cell email numbers;
  • It's viral buzz-worthy (people are talking about it);
  • The site also features a G6 ringtone for your phone (I bet it sounds like the G6 exhaust);
  • It speaks to the demographic of the potential G6 buyer, speaking to them with a marketing campaign that they see as "clever" and "sophisticated." People who likely aren't interested in a G6 won't "get it," but Pontiac could care less.

This is one of the most simple SMS-oriented promotions I've seen here in the US. And I bet it will be effective.

Visit the Pontiac promotion site here.

-aB

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

ESPN Interviews Malcom Gladwell



Not exactly your typical ESPN interview, but ESPN's Jeff Merron interviewed Blink and The Tipping Point author Malcom Gladwell just before the Super Bowl and asked him to translate his thinking into sports references.

It's a great interview, and Malcom's thoughts and theories make complete sense in a sports environment. Here's a snippet of an interview question about what advice from Blink he'd give the Eagles:

Well, it would be slightly terrifying to talk to the players, given that I'm, at my best, 135 pounds. So I'd settle for an hour with Andy Reid. I'd tell him the story from "Blink" about Millennium Challenge, which was the $500 million war game the Pentagon conducted in 2001. It was an elaborate dress rehearsal for the Iraq War, with one side "playing" the U.S. and another team playing Iraq -- and Iraq won. The chapter is all about how that happened, and it focuses on a retired Marine Corps General named Paul Van Riper, who was playing Saddam Hussein.

Van Riper won by speeding up the game. The team playing the U.S. had all kinds of computer programs and decision-making systems, and experts on every conceivable problem. But when the war started, Van Riper hit them with so many unexpected plays so quickly that he forced them out of that kind of conscious, deliberate decision-making mode -- and forced them to rely on their instincts. And they weren't prepared for that. Van Riper, in a sense, went to the "no-huddle" against his much more formidable opponent. And his experience shows that being good at deliberate, conscious decision-making doesn't make you good at instinctive decisions.

That's why I've always been so surprised that more NFL teams don't use the no-huddle. It's not just that it forces your opponent to keep a specific defense on the field. It's that it shifts the game cognitively: it forces coaches and defensive captains to think and react entirely in the instinctive "blink" mode -- and when teams aren't prepared for that kind of fast-paced thinking crazy things happen, like Iraq beating the U.S. Andy Reid has to know that Belichick has an edge when he can calmly and deliberately plot his next move. But does he still have an advantage when he and his players have to make decisions on the spur of the moment? I'd tell Andy Reid to go no-huddle at random, unpredictable points during the game -- to throw Belichick out of his comfort zone.


Good interview. Great book.

-aB

MapQuest Gets Trumped by Google



Google launced the beta version of its new mapping service today at maps.google.com.

And it's amazing. Smooth scrolling, drop shadows, live scrolling and zooming. It looks very Apple-like in the GUI. And that'a a compliment.

Unfortunately, the folks who would admire this the most - people using the Safari browser on the Mac, won't be able to see it yet. The site currently only works for IE and Firefox/Mozilla, according to Slashdot.

But if you're on IE, you're in for a treat. Check it out here. Sorry, MapQuest and Expedia Maps, you're going to have to evolve.

Monday, February 07, 2005

New Details on Sony PS3 Processor



Holy Crap. That's what I said when reading these specs.

Sony, IBM and Toshiba today announced some of the details of the Cell processor that they are all developing in collaboration. The PS3 will be the first application of this new smoker.

Now I don't know what all of this means, but I do know that big numbers are usually good and that these are some pretty big numbers:

  • The processor operates at greater than 4GHZ.

  • The processor is capable of 256GFLOPS. What that means is that the processor can handle 256 billion floating-point operations per second. That's billion with a "b" and per second as in, well per second. The Pentium 4 maxxed out these days is around 20 billion, to put this in perspective.

  • They're 234 million transitors on the little chip, pictured above between the push pins.

  • The processors are coming off the assembly line for testing. In other words, they're real.


NVIDIA is developing the graphic chip for the new PS3, and we can only hope that it is being built as aggressively as the CPU.

Amazing stuff. Read about it here on IGN. Read a more boring version (yet more detailed) of the same story here on ABC News.

-aB

iPods Don't Have Favorites. Promise. Steve Said So.



I have always felt that the "random" feature on iPods isn't really random. Sometimes, it just picks really good orders for songs in my playlist. I know this is just crazy talk, but many others have felt the same way.

Some think that their iPods have a thing for Steely Dan. Or maybe Alica Keys. For mine, it was James Taylor, Ian Van Dahl and U2 (especialy after the iPod/U2 commercials started - think about that conspiracy for a second).

But after many moons of research and now a statement from Stevie Jobs in Newsweek, it looks as though the algorithms that Apple developed are truly random. No affinity for certain songs, artists or BPMs (Beat Per Minute).

Engadget's statement is that "People love their iPods so much that they look for patterns in the pseudo-randomness. It’s what we do, as humans." Guess that makes sense.

Or does it?

Read the story here via Engadget.

-aB

Monday, January 24, 2005

Goodnight, Johnny.



Here's the last interview that Johnny did for Esquire magazine, way back in June of 2002. This was only one of two interviews that Johnny did after leaving The Tonight Show on May 22, 1992. (I think he also did an interview for the Washington Post).

This interview/article is by the excellent Bill Zehme. I know you'll like it - all ten pages of Carsonian glory.

-aB

Monday, January 17, 2005

The Genius of Apple. Again.



Have you seen the new iPod Shuffle? A pretty neat, albeit not necessarily new innovation. iRiver and Creative Labs have both made small, flash-based mp3 players for a year or two.

Apple's newest product is pretty similar to these. Subtle differences include the fantastic Apple Design and a USB-based rechargable battery (instead of reliance on AA or AAA batteries). It's also a pretty good value, with the 512MB flavor going for $99 and the 1GB going for $149. (Although iRiver and Creative Labs models have LCD screens and other features at this price point.)

I'm betting that the margin on this product is rather small. Apple is betting on making money on the acessories. Go into any Apple store around the country, and you'll see about 10-15% of the shelving in the store dedicated to earphones, cases, chargers and car adapters (rather than computers and software). Recently, Apple retail stores doubled store space dedicated to iPod accessories, breaking up iPod and iPod Mini SKUs into different departments to help alleviate traffic issues in the stores. Too many people crowding in too small a space. Who thought?

And get ready for more. Go to Apple's iPod Web page, and you'll see the dozen or so accessories that will be coming out for the Shuffle in the next few weeks. Accessories are where the money is.

But there is one accessory missing from this list. One thing - one accessory - that it made more sense to include with all new iPod Shuffles. Something it made sense to give away rather than trying to milk $12 out of each iPod Suffle buyer. What is it? A lanyard.

Why is this so important. It takes the Shuffle from being an audio player to being a FASHION ACCESSORY. It's an advertisment for Apple and the iPod product. Just like the trademark white earbuds have been an ad for an "iPod In Your Pocket," the Shuffle lanyard will be sandwich board on every early adopting consumer around the planet. Because they'll want to show off their new toy, too.

Good thinking.

-aB

Monday, January 10, 2005

Absolutely Amazing Use of RSS Technology



Today, someone showed me the Web site 10x10, at www.tenbyten.org. Basically, it culls the RSS news feeds every hour and picks the top 100 stories, and their corresponding images. Those images are then shown in a 10x10 grid that us updated hourly.

Their press materials do a lot better explaining it, so here's a snippet of their "Process";

Every hour, 10x10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. After this process, conclusions are automatically drawn about the hour's most important words. The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from the source news stories. At the end of each day, month, and year, 10x10 looks back through its archives to conclude the top 100 words for the given time period. In this way, a constantly evolving record of our world is formed, based on prominent world events, without any human input.


Go take a look. Pretty cool. It's a lot like a photographic version of the "News Maps" that I discussed here at GumpRants.com back in August.

-aB

Friday, January 07, 2005

Cingular Wireless + Text Messaging = Tsunami Relief



Cingular is giving all of its customers with text message service the ability to donate to the tsunami relief in South Asia and East Africa.

Over the next week or so, Cingular cusomers will receive a text message from Cingular, telling them how they can donate. By replying to the text message, customers can choose which of three charities they'd like to contribute to (Red Cross, UNICEF and Save the Children). Customers can also choose to donate $0.99 or $1.99, the same cost of a ring tone. All of the money will go to the charities.

Read about the program here.

I have a Cingular phone. I'll let you know when I get the message.

-aB

Great Interview of Jeff Bezos



Wired online today is presenting a short, but good interview of Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos.

In the interview, Bezos speaks about Amazon.com's inventory model, the success of "Search Inside the Book," and about the declining "bricks and mortar" music business.

He also talks about his predictions for the percentage of retail that will be transacted online. Snippet:

I think online ultimately will be 10 to 15 percent of retail. The vast majority of retailing will stay in the physical world because people have acute needs, they want things now. Also, there are products, like a yard rake, where the economics of delivery don't make sense. But a 600-pound table saw is a great item to sell online because it always gets delivered. And it's expensive enough that there is enough profit in it to cover the cost of shipping. Plasma TVs, same idea.


At the end of the interview, Bezos shares why Amazon.com is no longer doing television advertising. Very interesting stuff. Enjoy.

-aB