When A Hummer Is Just Too Practical

Got six tons to haul? Want to be different from your neighbors down the street? Don't want to compromise on the puny-sized Hummer H2?

Got $115,000 to blow?

The International Truck CXT Pickup might be for you. It weighs in at a svelte 14,500 pounds and is over 21 feet long. Perfect for those commutes to the grocery and soccer practice.

Thankfully, it has a 70 gallon diesel fuel tank, so you only have to fill it up every few days.

-aB

But He Used His Turn Signal To Pull Over

Minnesota's Samuel Tilley got a speeding ticket.

He was travelling 205 mph. That's a buck-forty over the speed limit of 65 on U.S. Highway 61. Tilley was feeling a bit of a breeze as he achieved this speed on his Honda 1000 crotch rocket.

The ticket will cost Tilley $215, which is about $1.54 per mile per hour over. Dollar for dollar, that's a lot of speed for the money. What a bargain, until Sam's insurance company finds out about this little event.

Check out a copy of the ticket on The Smoking Gun.

-aB

Can You Trust Online Poker?

Here is an interesting story about "poker bots," automated computer programs that could be playing against you in an online poker room near you. Snippet from the MSNBC.com story:

Widespread use of bots capable of beating your average player would pose a significant problem for the red-hot online poker sector, which has grown exponentially in recent years and is expected to top the $1 billion revenue mark this year. Without some way of verifying the identity – and humanity – of players, the business could be significantly undercut.

Hard to believe, but online poker is now a $1 billion industry, thanks in part to reality television and the celebrity poker tournament TV shows. What made for VERY cheap television programming (what's cheaper than setting up some lights and a few cameras around a card table) has now created a new industry.

What' perplexes me is that a few weeks ago, I wanted to buy some decent poker chips for my friendly in-person poker games. It was almost next to impossible to find a store in Atlanta that sold them. HELLO - stores need to make "poker" hay while the sun shines.

Read the full story here.

P.S. Finally bought this set of poker chips from Brookstone. Very cool.

-aB

The Sun Is Setting on Network News

Much has been written about the demise of traditional network news. The cable network Fox News beat ratings for not only the other cable nets, but also the "big three/four" network broadcasts during the Republican National Convention. Cable news had never beat out the network news before. Ever.

Certainly, this Dan Rather story isn't exactly helping build credibility, respect and viewership for network news, either.

James Pinkerton has a good editorial in Newsday today entitled, "As Rather Goes, So Does Network News." Pinkerton feels that Rather should resign, and gives many good points and precedants for this.

He also talks about the new ways that people are getting their news. Snippet:

So the "de-massification" of the media has been ongoing-and will keep going. In the '90s, Internet-based news-most notably the Drudge Report, which burst on the scene in 1998 by breaking the Monica Lewinsky story-proved that the "new media" could blow past older media. And now we have even newer media: the bloggers, the folks at home in their pajamas who collectively broke the "Rathergate" story.

Read the column here.

-aB

The Advent of Breaking News Blogs

With the speed and relative low cost at which people can set up blogs, as well as register new URLs, it just makes sense that we're going to start seeing blogs on very specific, narrow topics that are also very timely.

Take a blog that went live on Saturday. Rathergate.com discusses the controversy regarding the authenticity of military documents used in Dan Rather's 60 Minutes story from a week and a half ago.

It's very much a grassroots effort (sharing a conservative point of view), with frequently updated blog content as well as a petition tool to enable Anti-Rather readers to share their displeasure with CBS and local affiliates.

The interesting thing about this blog is that it was set up to basically discuss one topic/issue. While there are hundreds (if not thousands) of blogs talking about "Rathergate," this is the only one I know of that is focusing exclusively on this topic, and one that has a specific URL (www.rathergate.com) to prove it.

Much has been written about the Dan Rather forged memo story over the past week, especially in the blogosphere. The power of bloggers to not only write about breaking news, but to affect it is significant. Bloggers' interactions with traditional journalists on this story (and many others during this presidential campaign are changing the entire news gathering process.

How will this story, as well as the blogger-journalist interactions during this entire presidental election, affect the news business? This is going to be interesting.

-aB

Superman and Locks...

Superman and Bic pens have something in common - they both don't mix well with Kryptonite. It seems as though the non-writing end of a Bic pen can be used to open U-Shaped steel bike locks, made by companies such as Kryptonite. Snippet:

The U-shaped steel bike locks that cyclists have relied on for years to keep thieves at bay just had a gigantic hole blown through their reputation, as bike lock maker Kryptonite scrambled to reassure customers that it is working on a solution.

Kryptonite Locks issued a press release on Friday announcing a pretty unprecendented swap program. They're going to share more details of this upgrade/swap on Wednesday afternoon.

The same "Bic pen lock trick" is discussed on dozens of Web sites with details on how it can be used to open vending machines, gas pumps, bike locks, security systems and generally anything that uses a cylinder/tubular lock.

How much you want to bet that someone will demand that Bic change their product design? How much you want to bet that Bic will be sued with claims saying they're liable for designing, manufacturing and selling a product that can be used for theft?

Just wait - it won't take some lawyer long...

-aB

1999 Wasn't That Long Ago

This is a picture of the Google.com "server farm" way back in 1999. Yep, that's all it took to run what is now the most popular search page (and Web site) in the world.

See more pictures of the vast computer network, with running commentary at Archive.org.

-aB

Can't Find 742 Evergreen Terrace?

So, you've had a beer at Moe's, grabbed a burger at Krusty Burger (the one on Route 401 one block south of LardLad Donuts), and now have to head over to Professor Von Bowser's Sanitorium for Dogs (you know, the one at Center and Oak Grove Streets) to pick up some medicine for Santa's Little Helper.

Lost in Simpson's references? Don't be. Two Simpson's fanatics Jerry Lerma & Terry Hogan have compiled an amazing map of Springfield, USA, home to all of The Simpson's characters we all know and love.

From the South Street Squidport district, home to dining establishments like The Frying Dutchman and The Legless Frog, to West Springfield, where you can find the John Ford Center for Alcoholic Cowboys and Cletus' house, it's all on the map. All of your favorite obscure references from 300+ episodes are displayed on this map. Amazing.

You have to check it out.

-aB

Oprah Gives Entire Studio Audience New Pontiac G6s

WOW.

This is not only an amazing (and very expensive) publicity event, but also an amazing charitable gesture. Snippet from the news story:

CHICAGO (AP) - Talk show host Oprah Winfrey celebrated the premiere of her 19th season Monday by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.

"We're calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off," Winfrey said.

Read the entire AP story here.

The audience members for the show were chosen because they had written Oprah about their need for a new car.

This is one of those stories (and they're not many of them these days) that makes you feel good. Bravo, Oprah and General Motors for creating a media event that also did some real good for 276 people and families.

-aB

Value of a TiVo Just Plummeted For Me

What good is a TiVo if recorded programs are weighed down by significant restrictions preventing consumers from watching saved content?

Both ReplayTV and TiVo have agreed to significant replay restrictions on recorded content, thanks to the lawyers in Hollywood. A story in the San Jose Mercury News discusses the agreement. Snippet:

The makers of TiVo and ReplayTV digital video recorders have agreed to limit how long consumers can keep pay-for-view movies stored on future versions of the VCR-like devices.

The new technology also will allow Hollywood movie studios and broadcasters to regulate how often movies purchased through pay-for-view services can be watched. Digital video recorders that recognize these new copy restrictions will begin appearing in the spring of 2005. But it could be years before entertainment companies begin to take advantage of the technology, according to ReplayTV President Bernie Sepaniak.

Read the full story here.

Geek News Central predicts the demise of these DVR companies within two years.

TiVo, what are you thinking? You were finally on the right track, as this article in this month's Business 2.0 magazine explained. First you took off the ability for users to skip through commercials, now you're agreeing to restrictions limiting the one thing consumers purchase your appliance for - to "time shift" and be able to watch programming on their schedule.

Hollywood (much like the RIAA) forgets that honest consumers had none of these restrictions back in the days of cassette tapes and VCRs. And they seemed to be able to make a decent profit back then, didn't they?

Sigh, and I wanted a TiVo Series 2. Makes me reconsider...

-aB

McOrder Predictor

I was in a McDonald's in Pittsburgh over the weekend and noticed that, behind the counter over next to the drive-thru window was a television monitor showing the approach to the drive-thru lane and menuboard.

Cool, I thought. I guess that they can look at that and see if they're about to be busy with cars lining up.

Little did I realize that the camera and monitor are part of a much more complex order and traffic prediction system, as outlined in this MSNBC.com story that I came across today. Snippet:

Do you want fries with that? Never mind, we already know. A Pittsburgh startup, HyperActive Technologies Inc., is testing technology at area fast-food restaurants designed to give kitchen workers a good indication of what customers want before the hungry souls even get close enough to place an order.

Very cool stuff. Notice that the article didn't mention scanning license plates and cross-referencing with previous orders from that vehicle. Come on, you know they're doing it...

-aB

Politically Correct Wheaties Snubbs Hamm

General Mills, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to be "globally politically correct" and not include Paul Hamm, the first American to win the men's all-around Olympic gold medal for gymnastics, on its series of U.S. Olympic champion Wheaties cereal boxes. Bad PR move. Very bad. Snippet of the Reuters story:

General Mills Inc, the maker of Wheaties cereal, announced on Monday three U.S. Olympic champions will appear on millions of its iconic orange cereal boxes - but Hamm was not among them.

For those of you who didn't watch the Olympics, (and according to NBC, there weren't many of you - ratings rocked and NBC/Universal made a killing), a scoring error caused one of the biggest controversies of this year's summer games, and a gymnastics ruling body (not the Olympic ruling body) asked Hamm to return his gold medal, so that it could be given to South Korean bronze medalist Yang Tae-Young. Bad PR move there as well, but that's another rant entirely.

It's not Hamm's responsibility to return the medal. He didn't do anything wrong. He accepted the medal that was awarded to him. The gymnastic ruling committee (which seems to be about as ethical and credible as the figure skating ruling committee - remember that fiasco two years ago?) should petition the Olympic ruling committee(s) to give another gold to Yang Tae-Young. They can do something about it, not Hamm.

Back to General Mills...

Why are Wheaties and General Mills getting into this controversy? An American company, with an American cereal product that has displayed gold medalists on its "Breakdast of Champions" box cover for 80 years doesn't want to upset South Korea? Why snub Hamm? Spin control at General Mills has already begun. Snippet:

"We feel pretty good that they were among the top performances, and they include a broad cross-section of sports" at the just-concluded Olympics, General Mills spokesman Greg Zimprich said.

Here's the funny thing - the "Contact Us" link on the bottom of the Weaties.com web site home page don't seem to be working (at least tonight at 1:00am). Go ahead, try it: http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/comments/.

Read the entire Reuters story here. Read General Mill's press release here.

-aB