Now this is the kind of privacy violation I like
I buy Gilette Good News razors...have been for years. My dad uses them, so they were the first ones I tried.
Duane Reade knows this, because I use their loyalty card, so Gilette bought the opportunity to send me a free Fusion five blade razor.
If it works, both companies will know about it.
They didn't ask to use my data, but I'm glad they did. Next time I shave my head, I'll let you know how it goes.
Searching for Some Web 2.0 in My One True Love
So, for some reason, I'm a little more conscious of being alone this year, even though its actually a rarity that I'm actually dating someone on Valentine's Day.
Being so swamped with work lately, I started to think that maybe what I'm looking for in the woman of my dreams is the same as what I look for in a good social Web 2.0 app.
Hear me out!
1) First off, low barrier to usage. I don't see myself registering and giving all my data beforehand. Whoever I wind up with is going to slowly seep into my life and get me hooked over time. Call it the New Dating Deal.
2) SMS and IM notifications... I really hate the phone, so she's going to need short form message capability.
3) Voice enabled... She needs to be outspoken, especially to be able to talk over and interrupt me. I get very excited about what I'm into and can too easily drown someone who is too quiet, even if I'm really interested in them and want to know about them.
4) Doesn't require too much money. I'm lucky that my career has kept me in a comfortable living situation, but I've never taken any of it for granted. She should appreciate whatever she has and be able to make do in rich times and in poor. Money doesn't buy happiness or a successful startup necessarily.
5) Uses AJAX...Small superficial changes should not require her to completely refresh her pages...she should be able to change on the fly without a lot of fuss...go with the flow
6) Tagging... She shouldn't easily fit into one static category...she can have many seemingly random traits and be many things to many people.
7) Open APIs... She plays well with others and is selfless and giving.
8) Uses OpenID...She's true to who she is in all situations.
9) Skinnable... She can dress up for a party and lounge around in PJs with no makeup and feel comfortable and functional in either attire.
10) Rounded corners. I'll be honest...I like a few curves in both my dates and my Web 2.0 app UIs.
Welcome... new bloggers, new readers...
In the last week, I went from about 950 readers to 1100. Feedburner glitch or real human subscribers? We'll see if it lasts.
In the meantime, I'm proud to say that my Fordham undergrad class got marching orders last night to start up their blogger blogs. Last week, they e-mailed some bloggers to get tips and they're building that last as they get responses here. One student jumped all over it and had his blog up about 40 minutes after class ended. Should be a lot of fun as, in a couple of weeks, we'll be moving from a discussion on tools to a talk about how specific industries are being affected by technology. They'll be blogging their responses and thoughts on the subject. Should be fun.
Plus, I'm going to open up those pages on how industries are being affected to the public... so you'll have a chance to have some input into the content of my class.
It's snowing here, by the way. I'm sort of unimpressed.
First Class, Coach, or Handbasket?
Let's see.... there's a conga line of men who claim to have fathered Anna Nicole Smith's child.
Norbit grossed nearly three times as much as Hannibal Rising.
The Mets signed Chan Ho Park.
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and recently, Flickr and Friendster told me that my ex has a new boyfriend.
Well, at least my dodgeball teams are good... Between my two teams, we're 31-8-1 and both are in first place.
Twitter just sounds... dirty
But I signed up for it anyway.
If you're connected to me on Facebook (which I've been keeping pretty much friends-only, btw... in case I turned you down), then you've noticed that I've been obsessing over the whole "I'm in ur (noun), (verbing) ur (noun)z" cat thingy. In fact, I'm so obsessed with it, that I just secured iminur.net. I don't even know what I want to do with it yet.
In any case, the idea of away messages that are freed from the IM client and universal is interesting, and so I thought I'd give Twitter a try. I think they have a long way to back into a whole social network or business, but it's an interesting concept.
Actually, though, if I were AIM, I'd just break the status messages out of AIM and allow people to place them as a blog widget and change them from my phone... they're well positioned to do this.
Exclusive digital distribution of sports games eats away at the core of my soul
When the Mets were in the playoffs last year, I couldn't get a video stream of the game on the web, even though I had paid for MLB Extra Innings. Why? Because I was actually in New York, so the game was blacked out locally. Well, without a TV at my desk, I literally had no access to some of the daytime games. It had nothing to do with whether I was willing to pay... I was just shut out cold.
Now, the NFL wants to feature similar TV packages exclusively on DirectTV. I don't have DirectTV. Therefore, this sucks.
Argue away about business models and pricing... about whether content should be free, paid for, freemium, ad supported or what have you... and that's fine... but the following is UTF (utterly... ridiculous).
It is 2007 and there is digital content that I as a cable subscriber and broadband internet user still cannot access, even though I am willing to pay for it.
When is this going to end? It's one thing to say that the stuff is mispriced, but access? Access should not be an issue. If I want to watch any baseball game, I should be able to... on my TV or on the web, regardless of who I pay for my big fat dumb data pipe, which seems to be getting dumber by the minute.
All content on demand for anyone, period. If I have to pay, I'll pay, but at least give me the opportunity.
Anyone want to venture some guesses as to when this happens?
Thoughts from the Left Coast
So first off, I'm so tired right now... Its 3AM in my world, yet West Coast time is only midnight. Couple that with the fact that I'm only on 5 hours sleep that finished around 5:45 AM this morning, and, well... sleepy sleepy soon.
But I did want to share a few thoughts...
First off, Jamba is like at least 20% cheaper here. I think that singlehandedly explains the difference in startup activity.
Second, why didn't anyone tell me that MikeCrunch was so tall? First time I met him in person and I couldn't help but stand on my toes a little... and I'm 5'11''.
Third, the sandwich I just bought only cost me $4 but it took like 25 minutes to make. CA: Cheap and slow. NY: Expensive and fast. I guess you get what you pay for.
Four, I really hate turbulence. Left right, not so bad. Up down, not so good. I nearly tore off the arm rest, Total Recall style.
Just landed and already found a San Fran Jamba
Waiting to pick up Shaival for our 3PM meeting... This one is in the Potrero Center. mmm...pb moo'd... I'm STARVING.
Three years ago today, I started blogging...
My blog has a post on February 8th, 2004, but actually, I really didn't "get it" until April 8, 2004, when I left a comment on VentureBlog... my first blog comment on the blog of someone who was doing this as a somewhat professional exercise. Up until then, I didn't know that anyone was blogging anything other than relationship issues and their trips to Cancun.
I was just looking for a reason to keep writing... because I had written a book for college freshmen that never really went anywhere because it never got published. One day, I'll e-book it or something.
Who knew what it would turn into.
I don't know the best way to celebrate a blogiversary, so I'll just do some highlights from the last year of blogging... my favorite posts and some red letter days.
So, let's see....
I changed jobs... that was probably the biggest thing.
Starting nextNY was huge, too, but that was sort of an accident. I'm very lucky to have met all the people I have from this group. Watch out for these people this year... I think they're primed to make a very big impact on NYC.
I broke up with television. This post was funny, but only I seemed to think so. This one, too. Kerri and I got attacked by a bird at USV.
I debunked Guy's quiz... funny, b/c I'll be seeing him at CommunityNext on Saturday.
I started teaching a class at Fordham, encorporating these how-to intro posts.
I pondered MySpace Tom's death, too... but people seemed more interested in the bird video.
We gave $550 to charity for the Superbowl Wiki... that felt good, as did my Christmas plan.
Oh and the Pillow Fight was fantastic.
So thanks everyone... I appreciate your comments, links, feedback... and offline or digital friendship. May your startups succeed, your posts get tagged and your Voki speak highly of you...soon, very soon.
Yes... there are rules and norms to this...
I love Clay Shiry's quote here:
"Shirky describes this generational shift in terms of pidgin versus Creole. “Do you know that distinction? Pidgin is what gets spoken when people patch things together from different languages, so it serves well enough to communicate. But Creole is what the children speak, the children of pidgin speakers. They impose rules and structure, which makes the Creole language completely coherent and expressive, on par with any language. What we are witnessing is the Creolization of media.”"
This is what a lot of people who aren't "of this world" don't get... the advertisers, the brands, the agencies, and even some of the social networks themselves... you can't just throw any crap up and say, "Come and create" or "tag this" or "be my friend" and expect the dollars to start flowing.
Few people really want to learn the culture, which every international businessperson will tell you is probably more important than just learning the language.
Maybe I'm just not the target demo... FOR ANY PRODUCT ADVERTISED DURING THE SUPERBOWL
...or the ads just royally sucked.
But Fred and I are in agreement.... the Doritos one was the hands down winner... and of course, it wasn't created by an ad agency... it was a make your own ad contest winner.
Users 1. Ad agencies 0.
I'd be curious to hear from agency folks on this one... did they really think any of these were any good?
Here are some random thoughts on the bunch...
Of course I was eyeing the Careerbuilder ones, and, well, they were sort of amusing, but really kind of heady, I think, for Joe Six Pack. I mean, if you don't work in a cubicle, did you really relate to that commercial at all? So it was like Office Survivor... I guess?
And what about those Toyota commercials. So let's get this straight. We go out to a canyon and contruct a huge and overelaborate track that just ends hanging over a cliff. Then, we construct two huge metal doors halfway down the track... and see if this dude in a pickup truck can accellerate fast enough to make it through the closing doors, then brake hard enough not to go over the cliff. If he fails on either part of the course, he'll die.
Are these people Bond villians, or what?
What else was there? I vaguely remember some floating car parts. Of course, there was GoDaddy... was it me or was the GoDaddy chic not as hot as usual on that one? I think that gag is getting a little tiresome.
The worst of the bunch? Anything with a song was root canal painful... the Garmin one, the Chevy song, Sheryl Crowe.
I will hand it to K-Fed, though... took a lot to totally make fun of himself like that.
Hmm... Jeez... I don't even remember half of them... Some lame animal ones... Gorillas, lions...
I watched the game in Brooklyn with about a dozen people and we were all in agreement... worst superbowl for commercials ever. Maybe the remakes on YouTube will be better. Wait... I'm confused... YouTube has me voting for existing Superbowl commericals... weren't they having fans make their own versions or something?
These bloggers fared better than Rex Grossman in the Superbowl
It was a sloppy game and the commercials were pretty much the worst of all time, except for the fan created Doritos one in the beginning... but at least one good thing came out of this year's Superbowl:
$550 in charity donations in the Charity Superbowl Wiki.
At the end of the first quarter, it seemed like we might have an upset in the making. The first play of the game resulted in a Bears TD and Peyton was the first QB to throw a pick. Six turnovers later, the Bears were up 14-6, making sexy commedianne blogger Heather Fink our first quarter winner. That will send a $55 check over to RAINN.
Of course, the Bears hold on the game, and the football, didn't last, and the Colts came back with 10 unanswered second quarter points, taking a 16-14 lead into the half... which... wait a second... makes Heather a winner AGAIN. Tack on another $137.50 unto the check for RAINN, bringing her halftime total up to $192.50.
The third quarter was all about kicking... and three fieldgoals later, the Colts extended their lead ever so slightly with two of their own to one from the Bears, making the third quarter score 22-17. Score the third quarter for Matt McLaughlin of Thermodepot's sponsorship of the American Cancer Society. They'll get a check for $82.50 on Matt's behalf.
Still, the Bears were in the game... until Grossman tossed up a duck and the Colts returned it in the fourth, putting the game out of reach, and giving us a 29-17 final, eh... I add the "eh" because our final score winner is Ken King and he has selected the Canadian Diabetes Association as his sponsored charity. They'll receive 50% of our pool total: $275 American. I wonder if Ken is as successful in his Grey Cup boxes.
Thanks to everyone who played our Charity Superbowl Wiki... see you next year!
Checks will go out tomorrow.
Thanks
Diagnosing Congestive Heart
My dad just called. We had to put our family dog, Puba, to sleep. I'm going to go for a walk or something soon, but for now, I'll post. I just put up a Flickr badge on the right with Puba photos as a little blog memorial. Feel free to trackback or comment with your little pet stories or whatever if you'd like.
We had Puba for 14 1/2 years. She was a bichon-frise (white fluffy ball of fluff) and she was the best dog ever... hands down. I've never met another living thing that loved to be loved as much as this dog did. She'd lay on her back and let you rub her tummy for an hour.
Originally, I wanted a rabbit. Brian's dad raised rabbits and it seemed like rabbits would make cool pets. Of course, I really wanted a dog, so by asking for something ridiculous like a rabbit, I got a dog. We got Puba from a private owner in Staten Island named Bob Amato. Maybe he'll Google himself or Google Puba and we'll find out, because we probably don't have their contact info and I'm sure they'd want to know. Puba was about six weeks old when we got her, and she was the runt of the litter. Her mother had abandoned her and the Amato's had to bottle feed the dog and she almost didn't make it on her own. A few weeks after we got her, they called us up and offered us a new dog plus $1000, because they missed her. My dad was ready to take the deal... funny how yesterday, he was thinking about how different and sad his mornings will be now, because he spends so much time with the dog in the morning when my mom's at work. Of course, it wasn't long after that he good hooked on her, too. I think letting the dog lick his face was pretty much the turning point... plus the few grand he needed to put down to get the dog cataract surgery.
She had cataracts before she even turned six months old. In fact, she was kind of a lemon. She had a small trachea, too... they all do, so she'd choke sometimes. She also had two ACL surgeries (you'd think she would be doing more than sleeping and eating to sustain such injuries), a skin allergy, and an overbite. Three months ago, she fell down our basement steps. She also fell down the front steps, too, when she was younger. And stepped on? Oh, I'm sure we've stepped on her a hundred times. She didn't know any commands. My mom swears she knew "stay" but I think it was just pure laziness. Sometimes, she'd sit for a cookie... but only for a cookie. She'd also require a cookie to do her business in the backyard. I wish someone gave me a cookie every time I had to do my business.
She loved my grandmother, too... she'd wet herself as soon as she came in. (The dog, not Nana, although Nana got pretty excited, too.) Yeah... the bladder didn't work too well either. One time, my parents were away and I was dog-sitting. She wouldn't climb stairs... only fall down them, so she sat at the foot of the stairs and whined for me to come down. I dragged my blanket down and went to bed on the couch with her so she wouldn't be lonely. It wasn't too long before I felt warm and wet... I suppose my blanket didn't have her scent, so she need to make it her own. Some thanks.
I never fed her from the table, though, but I'd always give her unsolicited food at random times, so she wouldn't learn to beg rudely. She liked grapes and she'd like a plate of leftover omelet for an hour.
My parents are pretty crushed... obviously they spend more time with her after I went to school and moved out. In fact, I'm pretty sure they love the dog more than the love me, but then again, the dog probably has a better disposition than I do anyway.
So that's it. Puba died... I guess there isn't much more to say.
Oh wait... actually, there's one more thing. When she was younger, she'd run around the house like a wild woman if you riled her up. She'd run in circles and behind our couch (the day she got too big to do that she got stuck back there) and then through the fabric skirt and under our couch in the porch. Then, we got a new couch that went all the way to the floor and that was a surprise to her as well, but a lesson learned quite quickly. Its going to be really quiet in my parents house now.