December 2008
35 posts
4 tags
Firefox Extension Needed: TV Reader
I recently hooked my iMac up to my flat-screen using the standard HDMI to Mini DVI cord, mainly to watch Internet video via Hulu and Boxee, but what has surprised me is how much I actually just use my TV as a computer screen. I read the news, check the blogs, respond to email, etc.
I think the main reason why I do this is because it’s more social, as in I can sit next to my wife, instead...
1 tag
“The most searched-for product on eBay was Nintendo’s Wii console and 3,171...”
– Reuters. This makes sense to me. The Wii is comfort and family gaming, both of which are needed around this time.
November 2008
43 posts
2 tags
Joost launches iPhone app →
Streaming video on a mobile device won’t be interesting until mobile broadband connections are ubiquitous, which they most certainly are not.
3 tags
Top ten reasons why we love top ten lists
The context for what we are about to read is set right from the title (i.e. top 10 list of ____).
Lists are quick.
Lists are easy to understand.
Studies have shown that our short term memory can hold 7+ or - 2 elements.
10 is an even number, and even numbers seem to be more appealing.
Related to #4, lists are easy to share (b/c they are easier to remember).
Top 10 lists provide the...
WatchGenius.
3 tags
“The Internet is the greatest generation gap since rock and roll. We’re now...”
– Bruce Schneier, quoted in Valleywag
2 tags
Rant: aware consumers and manipulation
It seems to me that some people are slowly waking up to the old tactics of manipulation that have dominated advertising for the greater part of the 20th century. We may be on our way to becoming Aware Consumers. I’m still working to define Aware Consumers (your help welcomed), but previously I wrote this about the concept:
Is it possible for us to be alert, knowledgeable, and...
1 tag
“Some bosses don’t want to hire people who have a vision, a personality and...”
– Seth’s Blog
The Death of an Advertising Blog →
(BOULDER, Co) - Advertising For Peanuts, the daily blog known to all its readers as the Consumer’s Guide to Advertising, Media and Organic Produce, has died at the age of 3 (which, in blog years, is…
2 tags
Comments: a few observations
If you look through the comments to any popular blog or publication you’ll notice a few things:
People are sharing real, honest thoughts
People are talking to each other within comments
At least one person will be negative
Quite a few people will spam the comments trying to promote themselves or their product / service
They are somewhat self-policing
Comments are a bit like a forum:...
3 tags
WatchLawrence Lessig interviewed by Charlie Rose. This clip (2 minutes in length) touches on what Lessig refers to as Free Culture.
What I find most interesting is that he states that for the first 19 or so centuries we were both passive and active contributors to culture, but during the 20th century we have become predominantly passive couch potatoes.
What, you ask, will save us? The Internet, of...
1 tag
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-11-23) →
Andrew Bird
Feist
Grace Chicago Consort
Magnolia Electric Co.
Neko Case
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
2 tags
“Social” has sucked a lot of oxygen out of the online conversational room.
...”
– Doc Searls, talking about the Social Internet as a “bubble”.
Related articles by Zemanta
VRM Is Personal
‘Social blah-blah, Social blah-blah’
2 tags
The Internet is a Concept Car
I’ve been thinking about the auto industry lately (for obvious reasons), and one thing that struck me is their practice of introducing Concept Cars. According to Wikipedia, the goal of the concept car is to “showcase a concept, new styling, technology and more.”
They can’t be built right away (and most likely ever) because of safety, regulatory, and monetary reasons, but...
“Not only should Congress encourage/facilitate the organized bankruptcy of the...”
– Seth’s Blog
I couldn’t agree more. Why artificially prop up an organization that doesn’t work? But what about all the jobs lost? They will end up working for the 500 new car companies…
2 tags
“An extensive new research study has found that unhappy people watch more TV...”
– Reuters
2 tags
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YackTrack →
YackTrack is a service for monitoring all the conversations going on online. It comes close to offering what I blogged about last week, but doesn’t cover music, video, or news. It currently tracks: Mixx, Technorati, Google Blog Search, FriendFeed and Twitter.
2 tags
Prediction: Future Holiday - Unlpug from Internet
I wonder how long before we are so connected that we institute a Holiday in honor of the “old days” wherein we unplug from the Internet? No email, facebook, twitter, search, etc. Maybe 10 years?
Bonus: here’s another option - Technology Sabbath.
2 tags
“Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of CSI, doesn’t think you can just tell a story on TV...”
– NewTeeVee
3 tags
Dial Plus: new media enhances old media
Dial Plus is the first new (within the last year) technology product I’m actually excited to use. And they are a great example of how new media can enhance our already established and standardized ways of communicating, like the phone call.
Here’s an explanation from their website for how they work:
DialPlus enriches the standard phone call experience by automatically and...
2 tags
karmatube.org →
A collection of short, “do something” videos coupled with simple actions that every viewer can take. Mission: spread the good.
1 tag
Kairos is everything
I took a debate class in undergrad where my professor lectured on the basic elements of a good debate. The one that stuck with me is Kairos. From Wikipedia:
Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in...
2 tags
“Jamie Spencer, executive director at Magid Media Labs, said his research firm...”
– Washington Post
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-11-16) →
Elliott Smith
Gillian Welch
Andrew Bird
Crooked Still
Catherine Feeny
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
3 tags
2 tags
Internet Like Jazz
I was watching the Ken Burn’s documentary entitled Jazz the other night while trying to get my daughter to fall asleep and I was struck by how similar the Internet is to Jazz music. Wynton Marsalis is interviewed in the film and he lists out quite a few characteristics of Jazz music:
improvised
expressive
collaborative
entertaining
creative
unrestricted
inventive
experiential
...
2 tags
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“About 30 percent of Xbox 360 owners are paying for video monthly, noted Scherf....”
– San Jose Mercury News
“We will have some long-form videos up on YouTube, but I don’t think that’s the...”
– NYT.com
wish list: online trend aggregator
I wish there were a way to visit one website and see:
what’s being blogged about
twittered
posted to flickr and youtube
listened to on imeem and last.fm
read on Google Reader and Digg
and finally searched for on Google and Yahoo
It would be great to just see what’s going on today, this week, and the past month, while also having the ability to track a specific person or...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-11-9) →
Bon Iver
Broken Social Scene
The Notwist
Iron And Wine / Calexico
Eagles
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Stardust by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on Jazz at...
How to do research: start with yourself
We’ve all heard the phrase “so and so conducted a focus-group-of-one”, which means the person in question is projecting his or her feelings toward a product, service or situation onto the rest of us. This is not a good practice for obvious reasons, but I do think studying oneself can increase our understanding of why we do the things we do.
Instead of conducting a focus group...
twitter business model?
As cnet reports, twitter is hinting at a business model that seems to resemble the business model of another San Francisco based company, namely craigslist:
…corporate accounts for businesses that want to use Twitter. Twitter is a communication channel, he said, and what it can do is “charge the people who want to use that communication channel commercially.”
My question:...
Online Interest Aggregator
One online trend that I enjoy is how a lot of sites are starting to take into account my taste and input to tailor more relevant information to me, not just people like me, but actually me.
This is being done by music sites (last.fm, imeem.com, etc.), video sites (Netflix, Hulu, etc.), news sites (google reader, digg, etc.), eCommerce sites (Amazon) and many others.
I’m not sure how this...
Andrew Bird, Plasticities on Apocrypha. Cover Art...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-11-2) →
Neko Case
The Notwist
NPR
Lali Puna
Explosions in the Sky
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz