Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons... part deux

Could have used more Alice, but I enjoyed it...

The commerical

Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons... hmmm, never typed THAT before

Such a good news, bad news moment.

Alice will be appearing, albino snake in tow, in a Superbowl commercial for Bridgestone Tires. While I still think the NFL is missing the boat in not securing him for part of the halftime performance, a Superbowl Commercial isn't too shabby.

Unfortunately, he will appear with Richard Simmons in this commercial. Kinda takes a bit of the luster off the deal. The premise....

What happens when a fitness icon, a rock legend and his slithery companion confront a speeding car equipped with the precision technology of Bridgestone-brand tires?

More info and a couple of screen shots are available on the Bridgestone media site.

Alice REALLY needs to evaluate the company he keeps. Golfing with David Cassidy in the 70s - and now this :)

Test your powers of observation

Fun little quiz to test your memory/power of observation.

19 for me with no cheating - tempting as it was.

Best I can tell only works in IE and not Firefox. Sorry about that.

Something old, something new

Two fun images on the web...

The old - zoom into the paint flake level on the Last Supper

The new - source image that provided the "bigfoot on Mars"

Album dead?

Interesting post regarding the demise of albums by Mark Cuban (Blog Maverick). While you can't argue with the drop in sales, what Mark Cuban (Blog Maverick) incorrectly discounts is that certain artists - usually vintage I grant - create music that is to be enjoyed as a collection.

Sure, much of this comes from my Alice Cooper bias - "From the Inside", "Brutal Planet", "Alice Cooper goes to Hell" simply are better as a collection of songs than as a one by one product. Also, I might never have bought a single track off of Capt. Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" or Graham Parker's "Struck by Lightning" - but I gotta tell ya, but they grew on me after repeated plays.

Buy "The Wall" on an installment plan? I think not.

Mr. Cuban (Blog Maverick) also offers up this point of view:

My guess is that consumers will feel better about subscribing to an artist and getting a song a week or every 2 than dropping 10 dollars at a time for an album.

I guess if they are math challenged, or have the attention spans of dogs, that makes sense... but 99 cents paid out every two weeks eventually ends up around 10 bucks for 10 or 11 songs (or 18+ songs if you buy TMBG albums).

In fairness, the subscription idea does address the need to keep things simple. I would rather not have to scan the horizon for new stuff from favorite artists. Bundling them as albums helped me keep track - pretty sure subscriptions would too.

And any approach that would have let me opt out of "No More Love at your Convenience" off Alice's "Lacy & Whiskey" has some merit.

Going green by going black

With some iffy data to back it up, Blackle promotes the concept that moving from the stark white of Google to more of a "Google noir" could save oodles of energy. Sounds a bit to me like typing in lower case to save hard drive space, but who knows.

Reminds me of the First Citiwide Change Bank...

How do we make money doing this? The answer is simple. Volume.

Hello Kitty assault rifle.

Yes.

You read right.

A Hello Kitty assault rifle. Cute, in a internal organ destroying kinda way. Still favor the Darth Vader-Kitty brand extension :)

Standard Green Bay Packer fan behavior

Res Ispa Loquitur (the thing speaks for itself)...

Packer fan duct tape caper

Being Jackson Pollock

In my quest to help others waste time, I have highlighted opportunities to fly a pig or destroy websites, but here is one that will not only VERY effectively gobble up time - but with the right printer and aggressive marketing - you might just become Jackson Pollock.

Don't forget to click your mouse once in awhile once you start painting.

Wikipedia/Wikia v. Google part deux (inversed) - Knol vs. Wikia

The fun continues. Since Wikipedia is trying to provide an alternative to Google in search via Wikia, now Google considers out wiki-ing Wikipedia with Knol.

Market forces at their best - we all win in the end as quality improves. Now, spelling (wikia? knol?), that is a different story

Roll your own RSS

Dapper is a pretty slick little tool do add RSS to a site that doesn't offer it. Easy to use. Worth playing with if you are so inclined. Thanks to Cheryl for the heads up on this.

Vintage technology ads

William Shatner, Commodore 64 (65K for $595!!!) , Burger Time, and a line dancing Link from Zelda... pretty fun stroll down memory lane with some vintage commercials.

Wikia and Google

Some time ago, I posted about the Wikipedia (Wika) search concept and how it may or may not compete with Google. Well, it is out. Got a good comment on my previous post extolling the "wisdom of crowds" and how it could indeed result in a better search. I would argue that the way Google uses links to set relevance is really a "wisdom of crowds" thing too - less direct, but that might not be all that bad. Still - point well taken.

The different thing here, is each day (at least in theory) Wikia will improve. Should be fun to watch and see.

Wi-fi virus risks

Interesting read on the concept of wi-fi based virus attacks. Anyone with a laptop and a wireless card has probably seen the surprisong large number of completely unsecured networks (often with the default SSID "linksys" or the like). Some folks take "plug and play" a bit too literal :)

I still recommend doing something

Watchus Caucus

Nope, not a long forgotten Roman Emperor, just something for the political junkies out there... here are some resources to see Iowa Caucus results as they happen.

Mike Birbiglia needs you

Mike Birbiglia could use your help on the Comedy Central "Standup Showdown". I thought about writing something clever to encourage voters (it is like Chicago, you can vote multiple times - just have to wait a day each time), but then I realized being clever is kinda Mike's thing, so in his words...

Go to the comedy central website and vote for me in the Standup Showdown. I know it’s superficial but since I haven’t won anything since author of the month in 3rd grade, my self-esteem hinges directly on the results and right now I’m almost off the list! You can put it in bookmarks and vote once a day, or hire someone who knows how to outsmart computers to vote THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF TIMES PER DAY.

Purpose of the Internet - volume 2

Without the Internet I could not have patched Bioshock to work on my lame video card (more on that later - curse you shader 2.0), I could not have fixed various family laptop problems, I could not waste time regularly on YouTube... but all this pales when I see sites like this...

Missing something?

Is e-mail dead?

Not according to this article.

Seems to me the "big three" in asynchronous text communications are e-mail, texting, and IM. Also seems like IM and texting get more of a volume pass than e-mail - tons of IMs just don't carry the stress factor of an inbox with 100 unread messages. Also seems like you are held less accountable to responding to texting and IMs - a good thing since all of these comminication buckets are overflowing.

Of course any long standing readers of this blog are aware that the solution to all e-mail problems has already been provided.

I guess at the end of the day, it will come down to where is the most reasonable place to find person "B" in "A" to "B" conversations, for me that is seem my e-mail inbox.

For now.

My hatred keeps me warm

Ok. Fine.

I have had several "friends" ask me if I have seen the following JC Penny commercial:

A young boy is opening a Christmas present -- it is a doll. He is surrounded by many other things pink and frilly. You see his frown deepen as the doll is revealed. It appears to be the end of a harrowing unwrapping session.

Then it cuts to a shot where he is writing a letter to Santa. Which says:

"Dear Santa Kelly is a boys name too."


Well har har hardy har.

Boys CAN be named Kelly. It is actually quite a manly name. Look it up - its meaning is warrior. Can't get more manly than that.

If you research more, you might also discover that it is further refined as female/princess warrior, but I strongly encourage you to stop before then. Once you see it means warrior, walk away immediately - with new found respect for the burly nature that is Kelly.

Remember:

Pat = what you do to a puppy's head
Matt = what you wipe your feet on
Bob = what wood does in water
Mark = a scuff on your shoe
Kent = a sissy location in England
John = well you know
Robin = now THERE is a girls name, as well as a tiny bird
Jamie = means Jamie I guess, but it is the baby sister of Robin in my book
Nick = a chip of a china plate
Art = art

Kelly = WARRIOR

(just found a no so great quality online version of this commercial here.)
(now a good quality one - oh joy)

Stop blocking?

A Canadian study suggests business and marketing leaders believe social media is replacing traditional media.

46% of them said social media is more important than TV, radio, newspapers and magazines.

85% believe it has become a vital element in communication.

66% don’t think employees should be using it at work.

Go figure.

This information, and much more insight on this topic can be found here.

X-wing rocket launch...

... and subsequent BOOM!

Someone had a tad too much time on their hands, but very cool.

You might want to watch this this version to see what REALLY happened.

Geekware

If you want to prove to the universe that you are 110% geek, have I got the laptop for you.

I figure I'll go the Horde route.

Middle Ages Tech Support

This appears and disappears from YouTube ona semi-regular basis. Ring true to me. So, while it is out there - enjoy Middle Age Tech Support

The trap for the quest for the better mouse

Yoda-like title, eh? The Microsoft Surface interface seems very cool. I would place it above the Wii as the most significantly different human/computer interaction method that has a chance to catch on.

RSS feed coming soon...

www.abevigoda.com

Virtually worthless

Some folks are looking into options to better connect different virtual worlds. The theory, I guess, is the need for some to travel from WoW to Second Life to Kaneva, etc...

Seems like a reach.

My vote would be to get webpages working the same across browsers ahead of this noble effort. I know, that is crazy talk... have html work the same across systems and browsers??? No IE tab in FireFox???

Well... yeah, I thought that was the plan to start with.

Facing Mecca from space

No answers, just questions. The challenges of a Muslim in orbit.

On this day in 1979... Pac-Man arrives

The grand-daddy of video games, Pac-Man made it's way to America's shores on Oct. 10, 1979.

A few years later, we counted the days until we could shell out around $60 (1980s dollars!!) for the Atari 2600 version. Without a doubt the WORST translation on the game possible. The "Pac-Man" looked more like a lumbering, mutated, pixelated stop sign. This remains my ultimate moment of buyer's remorse.

It would have been moved to second place in my big mistakes list if I had not bailed at the last moment in purchasing the red LED 3-D Nintendo thingie - that looked just a bit too much like the result of an unholy union between a sniper rifle and a Viewmaster.

New link added

Way more design skills and likely deeper insight than found here, can be found here... JamieFike.com

Plasma screens around the world sigh in relief

Nintendo now packages the Wii with remote holders that reduce the likelihood that the control leaves your hand like a white boxy shuriken.

Will even send these (for free!!) to early adopters.

Life is good

Cubs swept, Bears beat the Pack... all in all a good weekend :)

Prove you are human

Nope, not a fringe Dune post, just a cool Captcha tshirt.

Sony unveils the world's first OLED television

OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology seems pretty cool. Thinner, brighter display... less power... more "green"

But OLED degrades over time, I guess you would call that monitor rot :)

Me likey

Me likey very much.

Per instructions on Bob and Tom

Mike Birbiglia is skinny and hilarious

The free stuff keeps coming

IBM's a free word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=198BFAE:731607879F340201D3FE05778A
1ABDFEEFF29049075316B4

Google adds a presentations application to Apps

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=198BFB1:731607879F340201D3FE05778A
1ABDFEEFF29049075316B4

Fast and Bulbous

Capt. Beefheart's story in comic form. Pretty cool.

Fixing e-mail

Nice idea on addressing e-mail overload. Gee, I wonder if there is even a better way.

3-D sans glasses

Interesting article on virtual worlds. Still argue my Wii was a business expense.

Wi fi coming to your city....

NOT for a very long time. Problems abound.

Great Pyramid 2.0

Not sure which is stranger, the fact that someone is considering building a new great pyramid, or that it would be located in Germany.

Das Pyramid just does not roll off the tongue.

101 - Web 2.0 for business

Nicely done communication of web 2.o business uses in plain language.

Foulballguy

New pics added to the Foulballguy website.

OK, some are not new, but our shiftless web team finally got to them.

Also the maps of FBG world domination are also updated.

101 - SOA

Nice high level overview of Service Oriented Architecture, in less than 3 minutes (after the annoying ad).

Plenty of other good stuff on this site as well.

Make your mark maties

Please mark your calendars now… National Talk Like A Pirate Day is September 19.

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/08/27/woman.pirate/index.html

Thanks to Jenny for the heads up!

Bill Gates goes to college

OK, it is old, but if you have not seen Bill Gates and Napoleon Dynamite together, you should.

Oh for the good old days of Microsoft Bob.

Brand protection gone bad

Sometimes, even if you are right, it ain't right... for example, the Red Cross debate

StarOffice

StarOffice is now part of Google's "Google Pack" offering.

Now sure how this blends with the whole Google Apps thing - not at all is my first guess. I downloaded my first copy of StarOffice on a 28.8 modem connection and enjoyed all that an hour plus download had to offer.

I love broadband. Nice reminder why.

101 - BitTorrent

Nice, tidy BitTorrent overview from Wired.

Redmond Ink

For the geek who has everything, a Blue Screen of Death tattoo.

Sponge Ed

So... here is the blending of Spongebob and Iron Maiden's Eddie.

Different.

What would be stranger? Charlie Brown blended with Freddie Kruger? Smurfs and Nancy Grace?

Space ranging

I had mentioned Photosynth in my blog in the past.

I was struggling to see a "killer app" for this. Not sure the following example is it... but it is way cool if you are into NASA at all... Space World

Baseball map

Very cool map that summarizes baseball fan alignment. I wish the White Sox territory was larger, but can't really argue with it.

10 worst Sci-Fi shows ever

Stroll down memory lane and see how many of these Sci Fi clunkers you recall. Pretty good list (I had totally blotted Quark from my memory), but what about:

1. The Planet of the Apes series
2. The Star Wars holiday show
3. Mork and Mindy (kinda Sci Fi????)
   

Mmmmmmm.... bacon-y

BaconSalt.... because everything should taste like bacon (the candy of meats!).

Well, this is different

I know Kirby. Kirby and I have taken on many challenges together (on several game platforms). Kirby is NO hater!!!

Kirby vandalized

101 - RSS in plain English

Just as good as the wiki overview, here is an explanation of RSS that is clear, simple and engaging.

Avatar vs. reality

Real people and the avatar counterparts. Pretty spooky.

Mutli-player musing

Pretty interesting take on blending business and MMORPG.

Regardless, I remain convinced the future of interviewing lie in This Spartan Life

Simpsonize me

Cool movie tie in for the Simpsons. Convert yourself to your Simpson alter ego.

For example...

I tell tell just by lookng at 'em

Test your ability to prejudge and paint with a broad brush.

Neat little site where you guess political affiliation by looking at someone's photo.

Two Actuaries and an Underwriter walk into a bar...

Insurance humor. Niche market. Slightly above the pun in the hierarchy of funny.

Well, so much for my Capt. EO spreadsheet :(

Surprisingly, e-mail is not an ideal tool to render in a "second life-y" way.

Maybe they should have tried implementing virtual email in a virtual world via a virtual console.

Web apps

Nice little recap of several handy web apps.

iPhone,,,, will it blend?

Let's find out.

Seems so wrong, doesn't it?

First Litigation

First avatar to avatar lawsuit in Second Life. Not shocking. It is over an item called a "SexGen" bed... more disturbing, but even less surprising.

Hype

In a post iPhone arrival world, here is Crave's list of the most hyped tech launches.

I get most of this list, but Gizmondo??? I much have been napping that month.

Consistency is good

3rd in a row of useless posts.

But, this is done with 2 gifs, not Flash, so I was impressed.

Boo!

Red Bull timewaster

241 feet was the best I could manage so far...

http://www.redbullflugtagusa.com/games#flugtag

Dramatic Chimpmunk

Thanks Karen.

Keep to the code

I continue to think the emergence of user generated content is a wonderful thing, but something that will require some sort of demarcation to let people know how vetted material is. I think this will be extremely important for internal business use of Web 2.0.

My first attempt was a classification scheme, but it was not all that fun.

Maybe thinking about content as a continuum from the Ten Commandments to the Pirate's Code would be a better angle. We all know the Code is more like guidelines anyway.

Content musings

1. Most content is relevant to some

2. Some content is relevant to most

3. Little content is relevant to all

Content producers believe their content is usually "3" and occasionally "2" -- while everyone else's content is lucky to be "1" on a good day

101 - Wikis explained

Good stuff...

13 Fantastic Free Wallpaper Images

Pretty nice wallpaper images.

VRML 2.0

Microsoft has an interesting approach in the labs right now trying to convert the 2-D world of your screen into a 3-D world of images. Kinda like the illegitimate offspring off Google Earth and Photoshop.

Pretty different.

Public Policy

Google has launched a public policy blog. Blogs seem like the absolute best and absolute worst place to vet these ideas. Worth watching.

Mooter

Interesting concept, so-so search results, cool logo and name... the search tool Mooter

Who do you think we are?

Ever wonder who you look like. Here is a pretty handy way to find out online.

Wis.dm

Have you checked out Wis.dm ? Pretty interesting social networking concept. Basically built on participants answering yes or no questions. No sure of the value, but pretty darn fun.

Simpsons Intro

I love the Simpsons and always look forward to how they handle their intro. One of my favorites....

A beheaded body can take 32 steps

No real value here, but the title caught my eye.

If at first you don't succeed....

post, post again.

http://www.thefamousguy.com/blog/

Timeless truth #124

And oldie, but a goodie...

PDFs... BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD

Cognito ergo google

So does using Google make you dumber or are you dumb not to use Google?

Linux car crashes

The Linux car crashed and finished dead last at the Indy 500.

The Vista car did not fair much better. The driver complained about the partially inflated tires that he had pit early to fill up the rest of the way, and difficultly in seeing the track through a blue screen.

Legless chihuahuas

First of all, my life is now complete since I have used "legless chihuahuas" as a title for a post.

Check out Google Hot Trends if you get a chance. Pretty cool stuff. Still a work in process though -- on May 21 results included “legless chihuahuas” at 25, and “legless chihuahua” at 36.

Cola 2.0

OK, now there is open source cola under a GNU Public license. Passions run amok.

60 elegant designs

One of my favorite design-focused sites posted their view of the 60 most elegant website designs.

Once I overcame the shock the foulballguy.com was not on the list (buy a freakin' tshirt!), I thought the list was pretty good.

All the sites fall into the emerging web 2.0-ish feel, which strikes me as a meld of Fisher Price and Microsoft clip art with a hard to explain dose of cool.

Not buying it

The Defense department has banned several social networking tools due to bandwidth concerns, not content concerns.

Riiiiiiiiight.

Blogging rules

Interesting read on the concept of regulating blogs. Covers the issues from both sides. I continue to struggle with the "right" to be anonymous. Free speech - I get. But accountability should also be there.

Let everyone be free to say whatever the want -- but have the courage to stand behind your words.

Boo DoD

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/pentagon-blocks-myspace-and-youtube/

For your reading pleasure

Clearly, FierceCIO would only publish material from insightful individuals.

Well, usually.

Today they were willing to include Jeff Grimshaw and me.

http://www.fiercecio.com/node/3760/#part2

IM traffic

There is a pretty cool layer you can add to Google Earth to watch realtime IM traffic. Not sure of the value, but a nice little time waster/mashup

Say Cheese

What did we EVER do without the Internet???

http://cheddarvision.tv/

Numbers game

Hang on past the first few slides on school hardware and you will see some very interesting numbers on China and India.

http://www.lps.k12.co.us/schools/arapahoe/fisch/didyouknow/didyouknow.wmv

Even Zaphod might feel a tad less significant after viewing this.

Mr. Grumpy

With a lead like...

There are a few things I have learned about the Internet since I first logged on to a chat board back in the late 1980s. It promotes anger far easier than it promotes tolerance.

As the public immigrated to the Internet from once productive lives, the real focus has been on the goofy, ridiculous and weird, not on the serious or the productive.

... I am pretty sure this guy needs some decaf.

Read his full grumpiness.

Ed Wood would be proud

Here is a rogues gallery of lame technology mascots. Fairly comprehensive except for the glaring omission of MicroSoft's Bob. The last mascot in the gallery (the bunny in the space helmet) by Plan 9 from Bell Labs is my favorite. Named Glenda... Ed Wood would indeed be proud.

http://www.wired.com/culture/design/multimedia/2007/04/gallery_mascots

Two days in a row of useless stuff

Of equal or lessor value than the GPS post. But a stupid kind of fun....

http://monster.namedecoder.com

Kinda funny

Playing off our big brother fears

http://www.sat-gps-locate.com/

Go figure

You would think that the growth of authoritative (news sites) and non-authoritative (blogs, wikis) information sources - coupled with easier ways to stay on top of them (RSS, Google start page) - would make it easier to know "the truth" about events.

But instead I keep getting this