Dancing About Architecture

This was the funniest thing I've seen/heard on television in a long time. After watching Kerry's speech on CNN (that wasn't funny, just painfully awkward), it was time for balloons and confetti. For some unfathomable reason, CNN was mixing the audio of the convention director into the broadcast.

"Jesus, we need more balloons. I want all balloons to go, goddamn. No confetti. No confetti. No confetti. I want more balloons. What's happening to the balloons?" Eventually the director of the event lost his cool and voiced his frustration by shouting, "All balloons - where the hell - there's nothing falling. . . What the fuck are you guys doing up there?"

Couldn't stop laughing. Check out the article for a link to the actual audio.

Source: The Surprise of the Night at Democratic Convention: Balloons

Posted by Eric at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Of course documentaries are told from a particular viewpoint, and it's no secret what Michael Moore's agenda is. Many people won't watch this movie because they don't like Moore's stunts and tactics. In this movie, however, Moore keeps his sometimes annoying confrontational tactics to a minimum and lets the administration's (and other's) own words speak for themselves. This is a disquieting movie which leaves one with an uneasy feeling about the last few years. Even if you dismiss Moore's consipratorial claims, I imagine most will come away with a despondent feeling over the effect that the war has had on America's sons and daughters, as well as America's place within the world's community. This is a good documentary, not a great one.

Fahrenheit 9/11 (***)

Posted by Eric at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the effort to deal with spam, almost everybody has some kind of spam filter either built-in to their email client or provided by a service. I know, personally, that once I've trained my spam engine, I never look in the "Spam" folder and only give a cursory glance to the 20 or so emails that end up in my "Maybe" folder every day to see if any emails were misclassified as spam.

How sure are you that your emails are getting through to your intended recipient? Answer: you can't be sure. Send an e-greeting card to a friend? Might have been shuttled to their spam folder. What about sending a quick link to some colleagues? If you don't provide some supporting text, there's a good chance your co-workers will never see it.

It's an even bigger problem for permission marketers who depend on email to maintain a non-spam relationship with their customers. Entire companies like Return Path have sprung up to ensure that "the email must go through".

Mr. Permission Marketing himself has found himself in this trap and sees RSS as the way out. All I can say is: yes, Seth ... hold on, we're working as fast as we can!

Source: Seth's Blog: Seth Godin: Spammer

Posted by Eric at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first heard that this movie was coming out, I thought "Oh great, now Disney's creating movies from amusement park rides? What's next ... Space Mountain? Haunted Mansion? Swiss Family Robinson?" But then I heard from some people that "Pirates" was actually a good movie ... I foolishly allowed my hopes to rise. That was a mistake. They ONLY reason to see this movie is for Johnny Depp's "Keith Richards as drag queen" interpretation of his pirate role. That's it ... the only reason to see this movie. Well, and to see Keira Knightley ... okay, those are the ONLY two reasons to see this movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (**1/2)

Posted by Eric at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Very funny piece from kottke.org on the perpetually reigning champ of Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings.

Source: The cult of Ken Jennings (kottke.org)

Posted by Eric at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (101) | TrackBacks (1)

Wow, the seldom seem double-dip. It's not often you get to sell your company twice. These guys are the masters.

Hmmm, wonder if we can buy-back spyonit and go for the double-dip ourselves? I still miss having that service, and I think there's still a need for it.

Source: CNET Pays $70 Million for Photo Site · MarketingVOX

Posted by Eric at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good look at a few of the "link management" applications that exist. "Link management" applications are essentially server-side shared bookmarks. I currently use del.icio.us, a useful service with a hell-spawn domain name.

Michael Sippey wrote something not too long ago about the various methods for sharing or remembering information, and I agree completely with his analysis (except that I use Ecco instead of The Brain for long-term private storage). These online bookmark services fill a nice place for those low-privacy/low-context pieces of information you want to share.

Source: Many-to-Many: Social link management

Posted by Eric at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like the recently introduced new look and feel for Bloglines, but it seems like it's been acting a little funky the past day or so. It's not remembering items I've read, and sometimes an entire feed will just mark itself as unread. Is this happening to anyone else?

Between this and the "Brad Bug" on My Yahoo!, it's been a rough week for online aggregators. Or maybe it's just my account.

Posted by Eric at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here comes the buzz! Ken Jennings won his 26th Jeopardy! match yesterday to bring his winnings up to $828,960 ... a truly impressive outing. As predicted, he's becoming a cultural phenomenon.

Yes, you can consider me a member of the Ken Jenning's fan club. You simply must watch him play.

Posted by Eric at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh yes! This is exactly what I've been looking for. Ever since I've started using Firefox instead of Mozilla, I've really missed the "type type type down-arrow enter" location bar method of searching Google ... instead, Firefox has a separate "search field". One of those minor annoyance I've just grown to accept.

But not anymore! This page has some wonderful tips, including the killer tip "Searching from address bar". Thank you author Chu Yeow.

Source: Outfox, Outsearch with Firefox :: Forever Geek

Posted by Eric at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Do you like my new sig file?

You can have one for your blog, too. We haven't announced it yet, but this capability exists on FeedBurner as of tonight. You, loyal blog reader, get a little sneak peek.

Posted by Eric at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (6)

Here's a great mobile app from Nextel that I think will actually drive (no pun intended) handset sales: NASCAR PitCommand:

PitCommand, a wireless Java(R) application that delivers real-time race data in an exciting, full-color, visual display. PitCommand is available as part of NASCAR.COM TO GO, which packages NASCAR.COM's exclusive content in an easy-to-use service available on Nextel phones. PitCommand creates a single view of all the critical race elements - including speed, RPM, throttle/brake indicators, lap counts and more - the same live information that crew chiefs receive at their command stations, or "war wagons," at the pits.

It's exactly these kinds of apps that will make the general public start to look at their "phones" differently.

As an aside, I'm guessing that the intersection of people interested in the i736 NASCAR Driver Series handets and those interested in the Russell Simmons Phat Farm II Signature i733 is probably zero.

Source: Nextel Connects NASCAR Fans with Real-Time Race Action Displayed on Nextel Phones with PitCommand

Posted by Eric at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

An excellent and very appropriate use of RFID tags. In fact, the last time Dick and I went to Vegas we said that there were two killer apps for RFID: luggage tracking and casino chips. Looks like both might be coming to pass.

Source: Delta to Invest in Radio Tags for Luggage at Airports

Posted by Eric at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)