CrapHammer

Love and Lust

So.  You are riding a train and you see the "girl of your dreams."  She exits.  You tell yourself, "She's got a boyfriend," or "I'm not her type."  But a few hours later, you are running a fever, and all thoughts are still on her.  A day goes by and your friends refuse to hang out with you because you are beyond obsessing.  What do you do?

Well, this young man (if this is real) plays for keeps. Ya gotta check this out.

http://www.nygirlofmydreams.com/

Raises an interesting question of whether "love at first site" exists or if this is just lust in an obsessive/scary form.  There are so many things we lust after that once we get them we find we don't really want them anymore.  Whereas, once in a while, true love forms between two entities and a relationship is born.

I think that Love and Lust are important concepts when it comes to new media.  So many new tools are erupting onto the playing field every few minutes.  New social marketing sites.  New technology.  Who doesn't want an iPhone?  Or a Joost?  Or a Seesmic?

How much of this is Lust?  And how many of these companies are setting the stage for true love?  Or at least a relationship that goes past a one night stand?

Take away the porn!

I've been tagged.  Net Neutrality in Canada is an issue.  One that has been quiet for too long.

Mark asks... "[W]hat about the thousands of bloggers who benefit from the free, open and un-throttled internet we’ve become accustomed to?"

Here is a news piece on it.

And here is my old post from our friend the Ninja.

But I think we are taking the wrong tact here.  Someone just has to launch a scare campaign that the big bad internet providers are going to take away our PORN and I'm sure we will get the public outcry we are all looking for.  ;)

Peer to Peer Television

Joost rocks and I've taken WAY too long to post about it.

The idea is to legitimize Peer to Peer.  The way Skype did to free peer-to-peer phone services.  And it's by the same two dudes.  The content is legitimate in that it is from a central source as opposed to user generated or stolen content like on YouTube or other peer to peer services.  I watched the funniest music video yesterday by Basement Jaxx titled "Oh My Gosh."

The question is, if Rogers and Bell can limit the sites on their networks (see net neutrality, above) then what is to stop them from blocking the ports required by Joost?

TheGoodBlogs

I love TheGoodBlogs.  Vernon has done an amazing job.  You may have noticed a little widget on the right side of my blog.  Okay.  I have a lot of widgets.  Here it is to the left.

TheGoodBlogs take my stories and shares them on all the other blogs in my group (Marketing) that have deployed the TGB widget.  In turn, I showcase the stories from other bloggers on my blog.

You may have notice that one of the items in the widget has an orange dot next to it.  This is because I have launched my own personalized "channel".  And I've put the blogs I read a lot in this slot.  So I'm even able to control who I syndicate.  Brilliant.

Tags: netneutrality, canada, swarm-it, TGB, thegoodblogs, joost, p2p

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The future of touch screen interfaces is almost too Sci Fi to believe.

Wow.  You have to sit through the initial 30 second ad about some guy in an elevator with snakes.  But it's worth it.

Many thanks to Doug at The Mark of a Leader for this tidbit.  Doug is a client of ours.  New to blogging. Totally surprised me with this find.  Enjoy.

[embedded video]

Live Review of BlogTv.ca Beta!

Last night I was invited to the launch of blogtv.ca.  Was a nice launch event.  Lots of machines to sit and play and really no pressure, no long speeches and no annoying hosts.  Met some great folks I haven't seen in a long time and had a great time.

[click to see the first episode of craphammer on blogtv]

The interface takes a little getting used to.  But it's pretty sexy.  I like the chat window and moderation features a lot.  The ability to have two video hosts is also a really nice feature.

Check it out for yourself at blogtv.ca!

It's a potluck blog-dinner!

Think sex sells?

brandsizzle would disagree.

Now run, don't walk to this article at the Brand Builder blog. Back to the basics, baby.  A wonderful reminder  during the Holiday blitz that it's about inspiring dreams in our consumers.

Course, my dreams tend to be about sex...

Think you know how a 20-year old relates to technology?

Gavin over at Servant of Chaos wrote an article titled "Life beings at 40 -- Second Life at 20".  He raises the issue of a growing generation gap in how we use and view technology.  But he does so with poetic brilliance.  Take the following quote:

"We are not of the present because our victories are already in the past."

I dream of writing this well.  Keep it coming, Gavin.

Wrap it up

That's all I have.  What are you bringing to the potluck?

Image Credit: eleuki

Tags: technology, social media, generation gap

Bloggers just preaching to the converted.

Catch up and Technology

I meant to post a link (last week) to Red Ant's great “But is it Viral?” case study comparison of realestate.com.au and threadless campaigns.  I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already

My recent and somewhat disastrous foray into office remodeling (a long story) delayed my plans and gave me time to contemplate a book I've been reading about Technology's impact on our culture, our society and our lives.

“I once was invited to examine Chinese bronzes at the Freer Gallery of Art. The purpose of the gathering was to develop suggestions for research into the technology of Chinese bronze casting, to share knowledge and to avoid duplication. We were about six or eight, and I will never forget the scene. Most participants were art historians or museum people; I was the only researcher coming out of Engineering. We were all looking at bronze fragments and we all had magnifying glasses, but my magnifying glass was different [...]. 'They' had magnifying glasses that they put to their eyes and then lifted the object into proper viewing distance. I had a magnifying glass that I put on the object, and I manoeuvred my head into a good viewing position. They took one look at my magnifying glass and I was out. I was classified as an outsider.”

The above quote is from Ursula Franklin from her CBC Massey Lecture “The Real World of Technology”.  If you haven't guessed, this is the book I'm reading.

What is giving me pause is the method by which we create connections in the 'blogosphere“. The way we naturally connect with others who share our contextual view of technology.  ie: The likelihood that we are all using these technologies in a similar way.

In my work with clients, we counsel them to get involved in real conversations (the good and the bad.) To take risks and reach out to both customers and opponents so as to better understand the conversations their company or products create. But then I asked myself how many conversations do I participate in where I don't agree with the author. How involved have I been in real conversations on both sides? Next to none.

Am I a hypocrite?

Or does it go deeper? Even those with whom I might not agree see the world potentially through the same big lens. All of us bloggers are using the same ”magnifying glass“.

If I use the same tools, in the same manner as those around me, I am an insider and likely preaching to the converted. And at what cost, I'm unsure. Nor am I clear on how to change this situation or if it even requires changing.  But to blindly continue is not an option that sits well with me either.

I find all of this especially pertinent for social media when we consider our efforts in a global context.  After all, so much of what we do is now for a global audience. And I always assumed that different cultures would require different social media tools.  But now I'm curious as to whether the very act of using social media is creating a common culture and blinding us to what is outside of that "world".  Removing our ability to gauge what is next.

I am now looking for example of people who appear to be approaching technology from a different perspective (as both process and goal.)  I believe we can learn a lot by exposing our bias.  I want to know what is in my blind spot before I change lanes and cause a major accident on the social media highway.

Have any examples to share?  Or am I just breathing too many toxic drywall fumes?

Image Credits: kingjen and Noah Sachs via flickr.

Tags: social media, technology, intention marketing

Save the Internet, Ninja Style.

I have struggled a number of times to educate colleagues, students and clients on the concept and relevance of Peering and Net Neutrality.  And to do so in a way that doesn't cause half the audience to go to sleep.

AskaNinja does all this.  While building a brand.  And delivering compelling content to his site.  Just wish it was easier to access an RSS feed.

I urge all bloggers to learn more about peering and net neutrality.  Visit AskaNinja.com or SaveTheInternet.com to find out more and add your voice.

P.S.  Skip the Moby video on the SaveTheInternet site unless you are REALLY into cheese.  ;)

Errors and Inclusions

Oops.

This has got to be the most memorable and humorous error screen I have ever received.  I assume this screen is reserved for the extreme and unexpected system errors (losing a server, etc.)   If it's the only error message, the lack of contextual and timeline information may get a little annoying.  But as a final fall back, it's brilliant. 

Kudos to the Bloglines folks.  Brings some humanity back to these dastardly devices we are all addicted to.

P.S.  If you use BlogLines, get the latest Firefox!  It finally integrates BlogLines (along with some other like Google Reader).

Sigh. Please upgrade to IE.

This is a common and avoidable mistake - error pages that demand a certain browser for simple content.  While it's arguably legitimate to demand a specific technology for advanced functionality, I was simply trying to access the "contact us" page. 

The part that really got under my skin was the offer to upgrade to the latest "Netscape Navigator" browser.  Are you kidding??  This highlights the importance of error messages and how they deserve to be continually reviewed.  Something we all could use to remember as it's never a priority on any project.  Myself included.

All of this is because Starbucks is using IE specific javascript to protect their email address from SPAM.  A simple mistake, and one that can be easily rectified.  If you can get through to the contact page and let them know, that is.  ;)

What really surprised me was that Starbucks would not recognize the number of Mac types frequenting their organization (designers, agency types, programmers, etc.). Perhaps they don't have statistics on this?  Or maybe we're hidden?  Or maybe they just don't have the ability to test on this platform?

Note: I did finally contact them from a Virtual Machine on my Mac.  And people wonder why I get so little done in a day.

Polar Rose: all quiet on the PII front.

Polar Rose is a very interesting, if not potentially troubling, technology which allows for people to tag the faces of their friends and then share this data with others. 

 

  Polar Rose lets you discover people in pictures. Learn who people are, and help improve results by tagging pictures together with other users.¹  

Certainly there is much talk about youth being less concerned with identity issues online.

But being an old-fashioned, decrepit old-timer at the no-longer-hip old age of 37, I'm not so cool having people I don't know be able to identify me because I showed up in some photo.  Whether those photos come from "flickr, 23, Kodak gallery, or any other website" ¹.  Or, pray tell, some public camera on a street somewhere.

My friend Kate who first announced this on her blog, counseled that while paranoia may be a good thing, others have dealt with the PII issue quite adequately.

So I wrote an email to the CEO of Polar Rose, asking him to wade in on how they plan to deal with the potential PII issues.  Or if PII was even pertinent.

 

Hi Nokolaj,

  In today's world of public exposure, one of the growing challenges and fears for us older-timers is how we control our personally identifiable information.

  My face is one thing I consider to be PII (Personally Identifiable
Information).  Mostly when tagged with my name.

  I'm sure this is something you have contemplated.  I would love to find out how Polar Rose expects to deal with this issue. "  

So then I waited for a couple of days.  To no avail.  No response. 

So now I have to ask Nicholaj in public.  Maybe you will have better luck than me? His email is given publicly on their site as: nikolaj[aT]polarrose[dOt]com

Maybe it's a hoax?  Maybe I'm just paranoid?

¹ source: polar rose website:  http://www.polarrose.com/

UPDATED:  I've received an email and a comment from Nikolaj.

Links for 5 Oct 06

• b5media gets funding
  The VC's explain their investment as an opportunity to cash in on the intention economy - ad networks that target based on reader interests (reading a photography blog, for example.) Nice to see Toronto gettings a little VC action.
• ViralMeister recaps Social Media sessions at ad:tech London.
  Brief, insightful and well-written. The latest is Case Study 2 with Yahoo Europe's take on leveraging social media. Buzzwords: 360 degree solution and pesonalization.