Daily Nonsense

Where do Americans spend their time on the web?

Wow! This is quite scary.

MySpace beats out any other destination. Ouch. Does that mean I have to get with the times and sign up for MySpace?

If your first thought was MySpace, then you’re not wrong, according to Compete’s list of Top 20 sites by time.

Less obvious is that Yahoo! is in second, presumably because of the success of its email service. Its news and Yahoo Finance services are pretty good too. And it owns Flickr.

Jay Meattle says:

Yahoo holds a significant lead over Google+YouTube.com, MSN+Live.com and AOL+AIM.com. Yahoo simply needs to merge with MSN to take #1 (hint hint)

But that would never happen, would it?

Super Bowl Ad Spoiler!

USA Today posted an article on their website about the ads for this years Super Bowl. Not really interesting except for the last couple of paragraphs which describe an ad by Nationwide Mutual Insurance that features Kevin Federline (Britney Spears ex). The ad has K-Fed fantasizing about being a rap star while in actuality he’s a fry cook in a fast food.

Now the National Restaurant Association CEO Steve Anderson has sent a letter to Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen expressing “serious concerns.” I’m sorry, I don’t get it. Isn’t K-Fed allowed to fantasize just like everyone else? If that’s his fantasy, so be it. Regardless of his actual skills he’s as deserving of fantasies as anyone else.

Advertisers kick off dash for Super Bowl commercial slots

By Laura Petrecca and Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Now that the matchup on the field is set for Super Bowl XLI, the lineup for advertisers for the game is also filling up.

Announcing Wednesday that they will join about a dozen already planning to suit up for advertising’s biggest game will be beverage giant Coca-Cola, sales lead website Salesgenie.com and GPS device maker Garmin. Drug company King Pharmaceuticals said earlier this week that it will advertise during the game on CBS on Feb. 4.

Last year, Coke bought ads in the pre-game show and its energy drink Full Throttle sponsored the kickoff, but it has let rival Pepsi have the game to itself for cola ads since 1998. Its advertising this year in the game will be for its flagship Coca-Cola brand.

Coke will air a 60-second ad with video-game-like animation. The ad has been shown in movie theaters since Dec. 29 and on the new season of American Idol. The company likely will have a 30-second ad, as well, says Katie Bayne, head of Coca-Cola brands for North America. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to use high-profile appointment viewing.”

Last year, more than 90 million people watched the game, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Super Bowl ad developments:

•Rookie advertisers. Salesgenie.com’s ad will show how its service providing sales leads can make a businessperson successful — without too much hard work. Garmin’s ad, for its personal navigation system, is a humorous take on the troubles of using a paper map for directions.

•Returning players. Taco Bell will introduce a pair of comic live lions in an ad for its new Carne Asada Steak Grilled Taquitos. The lions “chat” about game hunters that they are watching return to camp with the new taquitos.

“When the Super Bowl falls at the beginning of a new product launch, it makes perfect sense to advertise,” says Jeff Fox, chief creative director for Yum Brands, Taco Bell’s parent. “What better way to reach so many people at once?”

As part of the promotion, Taco Bell also will launch an interactive website where the comic lions recite punch lines from visitors.

•Not laughing. Published descriptions of a Nationwide Mutual Insurance ad — Britney Spear’s estranged husband Kevin Federline appears to be a rap star, but turns out to be a french fry cook — prompted National Restaurant Association CEO Steve Anderson to send a letter to Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen expressing “serious concerns.”

It says, “An ad such as this would be a strong and a direct insult to the 12.8 million Americans who work in the restaurant industry.”

“The intent of the ad isn’t to offend or insult the many fine individuals who work in the restaurant industry,” says Steven Schreibman, Nationwide ad chief. “The focus … is the element of surprise.”

Ford Loses Record $12.7 Billion in ’06

It’s a shame that Ford has to live amid the fallout from the whole electric car farce out in California. When the California Air Resource Board (CARB) passed legislation that basically overturned a previous law requiring car manufacturers to sell zero emission vehicles, all of the major US automobile companies abandoned their electric car projects. Toyota and Honda, on the other hand, kept at it. R&D dollars and marketing successes led to the current Prius which gets 60 miles to the gallon. And the best possible answer from the US industry is actually a Ford product, the Ford Escape Hybrid. It gets 32 miles per gallon. A smidgen more than half.

Now, it’s important to note that there are NO American CARS in the mix, just two SUVs. Pretty sad I think. Anyway, here’s part of the NY Times article about Ford’s losses:

DEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 25 — The Ford Motor Company had the worst year in its history in 2006, losing $12.7 billion and suffering sharp erosion of its share of the United States auto market.
ord lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter alone, the company reported today. In the same period a year earlier, it lost a comparatively trivial $74 million.

The company took in $160.1 billion in revenue in 2006, 9 percent less than in 2005.

Ford’s full-year loss, equivalent to $6.79 per share, far exceeds the $7.39 billion it lost in 1992, the worst previous year in its history, and it even surpasses the $10.6 billion loss posted by General Motors in 2005.

Most of the red ink in the latest year was produced by the cost of shrinking and reorganizing the company, buying out workers and writing down asset values. Those charges accounted for $9.9 billion of Ford’s full-year loss after taxes. But Ford’s day-to-day business did very poorly as well, with a loss of $2.8 billion on continuing operations, compared with a $1.9 billion loss in 2005.

The figures were an unwelcome surprise to many Wall Street analysts, who on average had forecast a loss of about $2.5 billion for the year, excluding special items such as restructuring charges.

More of the article here.

[Thanks, NY Times]

Who Loves the Smell of Coffee??

Well, I can only imagine everyone does. What a wonderful smell! I remember a friend of mine went to Kona in Hawaii and brought back a t-shirt that had been dyed in coffee. Man, that was the nicest smelling t-shirt ever. Anyway, I came across a web site today that makes me wish we had a fireplace. Java Products Corporation manufactures an artificial fireplace log out of recycled coffee. How cool is that? Click on the picture for more information!

The Invisible Enemy in Iraq: drug-resistant supergerm

Have we finally encountered the infamous “Weapons of Mass Destruction” that Bush’s administration has somehow not yet been able to find? With only 7 deaths attributed to to the supergerm, know as Acinetobacter baumannii, I don’t think this is the one. But the article in Wired sure is compelling. I’ts long, but worth the read.

Since OPERATION Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, more than 700 US soldiers have been infected or colonized with Acinetobacter baumannii. A significant number of additional cases have been found in the Canadian and British armed forces, and among wounded Iraqi civilians. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has recorded seven deaths caused by the bacteria in US hospitals along the evacuation chain. Four were unlucky civilians who picked up the bug at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, while undergoing treatment for other life-threatening conditions. Another was a 63-year-old woman, also chronically ill, who shared a ward at Landstuhl with infected coalition troops.

[Thanks, Wired]

THE AD GENERATOR

This is, without a doubt, one of the most intriguing sites I’ve been to in a long time. Words from corporate slogans, images from Flickr. It’s hard to describe but fascinating to watch. Below is creator Alexis Lloyd’s text from the homepage:

The ad generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly. By remixing corporate slogans, I intend to show how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold. In using the Flickr images, the piece explores the relationship between language and image, and how meaning is constructed by the juxtaposition of the two.

The ad generator was created by Alexis Lloyd as a component of an MFA thesis project in the Design and Technology department at Parsons The New School for Design.

My YouTube video of cars sliding down the street. {Here}

Storm chaos prompts virus surge

Western Europe has been battered by huge storms for the last couple of days. So bad were they, they actually have 47 casualties that they are attributing to the weather. So, what is the second biggest news story to come out of the destruction? Email virus attacks with storm themed subject lines. How low will these guys go? Read this article from the BBC:

E-mails claiming to contain details of the storms that battered Europe contain a malicious virus, security firms warn.

The e-mails with the subject line “230 dead as storm batters Europe”, can leave computers vulnerable to attack.

The messages were first detected as the storms, which have killed at least 28 people, continued to rage.

Variants of the virus have circulated for a number of days, but experts say they were surprised at how quickly the new modified virus appeared.

“The new virus only started spreading a few hours ago,” said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at security firm F-Secure. “The spamming started when the storms were still raging.”

Mr Hypponen believes the adaptation was designed to take advantage of the interest in the storms.

Security firms advise computer users not to open e-mail attachments unless they are expecting them and to keep security software up to date.

There is actually much more to the article here!

[Thanks, BBC News]

Foreign Diplomats Owe $18 Million in Parking Fines

The city of New York is owed more than 18 million dollars by UN diplomats.

And it’s all from parking violations. Can you imagine? Parking tickets.

Why do these countries and diplomats take advantage of our good nature. An agreement between the UN and the U.S. State Department in 2002 indicates that diplomatic immunity no longer protects UN Members from certain types of civil and criminal infractions. Parking is one of them.

I would think that we could get the $1.9 MILLION dollars that Egypt owes with some creative applications of the BOOT.

U.N. diplomats’ NYC parking fines near $18 million, despite crackdown

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The new U.N. secretary-general expressed support for New York City’s goal of recouping nearly $18 million in traffic fines owed by U.N. diplomats and members of the consular community.

Most of that debt came prior to a city crackdown four years ago on envoys who routinely were cited for illegal parking on city streets but rarely paid because of diplomatic immunity.

When asked what he would say to diplomats to get rid of the backlog, Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday: “It is important for diplomatic officials who enjoy diplomatic immunities and privileges to abide by and comply with all necessary regulations in force in the countries where one is working.”

According to the New York City Department of Finance, 99% of the outstanding debt by the diplomatic and consular community was incurred before a 2002 agreement between the mayor’s office and the U.S. State Department to help the city collect on the unpaid tickets.

The number of tickets issued to diplomats at the United Nations and consulates in New York has been dropping since the deal and as of late December had decreased by 94.4%, according to the city finance department. Only about $250,000 of unpaid fines have accumulated since the agreement, but the department said some of these violations are new or haven’t gone through the courts yet.

U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq suggested a way for delegates to avoid the problem altogether — walking.

He noted that Ban has been walking to work from a midtown hotel while his residence is being renovated. “So maybe some people can follow his example.”

Topping the Department of Finance list of countries owing the most was Egypt, racking up about $1.9 million in fines, followed by Kuwait, with nearly $1.3 million. The Egyptian Mission to the United Nations said no one was available for comment.

Ban’s home country of South Korea, one of 177 countries that have yet to pay city fines, owes $17,000.

Delinquent countries have not gone unpunished.

As part of the 2002 agreement, the U.S. government has been withholding, in the form of aid, the amount owed by each country, plus 10% on fines dating back to 1997.

Part of the agreement also stipulates that the State Department can remove license plates from a vehicle if three or more tickets issued after 2002 have not been paid within 100 days.

In the four years since the deal, the city finance department said it has collected $3 million of debt owed by countries before 2002.

[Thanks, USA Today]

China Launches Ballistic Missile, Shoots Down Satellite

In a move reminiscent of Doctor Evil from the Austin Powers movies, China launched a “kinetic vehicle” killer missile at an aging weather satellite on January 11th. A Kinetic Vehicle Missile would be one that does not contain explosives, rather it uses it’s stored kinetic energy to destroy it’s target.

As you can imagine, this is wrong on many levels. Primarily, where did the debris go? Can we expect it to land on our heads? Just irresponsible behavior on the part of the government of China.

(Not the real missile, but it is a kinetic missile.)

US condemns China ’space weapon’

The United States, Australia and Canada have criticised China over a weapons test it is said to have carried out in space last week.

The Americans say the Chinese sent up a ballistic missile to destroy an ageing weather satellite.

They say the test went against the spirit of co-operation both countries aspire to in the area of civil space.

Reports say Britain, South Korea and Japan were expected to express their concerns to China soon.

Earlier, a report in the American Aviation Week magazine said that US spy agencies had concluded that China conducted a successful test of a satellite-killing weapon on January 11.

It said China knocked out the weather satellite with a “kinetic kill vehicle” launched on board a ballistic missile.

The impact occurred at more than 500 miles (800 km) above Earth.

[Thanks, BBC News]

Police Confiscate Mysterious Bottle From Michael Vick

Are professional athletes really this dumb? Michael Vick tried to get on an airplane with a water bottle tricked out with a secret compartment that contained the residue that appeared to be pot. What was this guy thinking?

Newport News native and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick had a water bottle confiscated by security officials at Miami International Airport.

A police report says the bottle had a hidden compartment and that it contained a small amount of residue that is “closely associated with marijuana.”

The police report says Vick was at first hesitant to turn the bottle over to security screeners and that the compartment was hidden by the bottle’s label. The effect was that the bottle appeared to be full of water when held upright.

The bottle and its contents were sent to a crime lab and police say the results of the investigation may not be known for weeks. No charges have been filed.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[Thanks, WTKR.com]

Unsigned Band Makes Chart History

Koopa, a rock band from Essex in England has made history this week by being the first unsigned act to hit the UK top 40. Koopa is the first band to take advantage of new chart rules that allow the sales of digital singles to count towards chart position even though there is no CD!

This is quite the coup. Not only are they unsigned with one of the RIAA megaliths, they don’t even have a CD! They’ve done all this by selling the song in it’s digital version ONLY! That is so sweet. A real success story against the recording industry that has tried to grind the artist into the dirt while ripping off both the artist and the consumer.

Here’s the full story:

Essex rock band Koopa have made chart history by becoming the first unsigned band to land a UK top 40 hit.

Under new chart rules their download-only single Blag, Steal & Borrow debuted at number 31.

Chart rules were changed at the start of the year to allow digital single sales to count towards a chart position even if there is no CD version.

At the top of the charts, X Factor winner Leona Lewis made it four weeks at number one with A Moment Like This.

Mika, winner of the BBC’s Sound of 2007 survey of new talent, has the highest new entry at three with his single Grace Kelly, while Eric Prydz was at number two with Proper Education.

The second highest new entry was Just Jack at four with Starz In Their Eyes, pushing Take That’s Patience to number five.

Amy Winehouse climbed to the top of the album chart with her latest offering Back to Black.

James Morrison’s Undiscovered rose three places to number two, Snow Patrol’s Eyes Open was a non-mover at three and Take That’s Beautiful World fell from the top slot to number four.

Koopa have benefited from a change in chart rules introduce on the 1 January.

Before that date an artist needed to release singles on CD or another physical format – and therefore have a record deal – to qualify for the chart.

Record deal

Singer and bassist Joe Murphy told the BBC News website it was all down to their manager and “awesome” fans.

“Without them we would not have done it,” he said.

“Just four days ago nobody had heard of us, now it seems like everyone has. I can’t get my head around it.”

Murphy added that they had been contacted by a number of big record labels, including one who recently turned them down.

There is also talk of a US label flying them out to America for talks.

Koopa, from Colchester, have been together for seven years in various forms and have built up a fanbase on the internet and on the live circuit.

They have played almost 500 gigs in the past three years, including a headline show at the Mean Fiddler in London last summer.

[Thanks, BBC News]

Skype does TV!

Well, that about does it! The perfect web application, internet TV! This is really what I’ve been waiting for. The ability to connect to programming in any language form any country. I’m hoping to be a Beta tester, although I’m NOT above begging for a beta invite from someone who already has the service.

Here’s what the BBC had to say about the new service called JOOST.

The founders of the Skype internet telephony service are launching what they describe as the world’s first broadcast quality internet TV service.

Following speculation about a service dubbed The Venice Project, the online television software is now being unveiled under the name Joost.

It is designed to enable broadcasters to get their programmes in front of a global internet audience.

It will allow viewers to access all kinds of television over the internet.

Trial period

The chief executive, Frederik de Wahl, showing off the service in Joost’s London offices, claimed that it provided a different experience from other internet television ventures.

“We are trying to replicate the complete television experience,” he explained as he flicked through channels using the Joost interface on a widescreen television.

“It’s full-screen, broadcast quality, you’ve got instant channel flipping, and interactivity – a viewer can come to us and get all their TV needs.”

The service is still undergoing trials, but thousands of people have taken up an invitation to download the software and try it out.

But the big question is what is there to watch?

So far, it is hard to see a compelling reason to switch on to Joost, which will be a free service supported by advertising.

Competitive market

There is a line-up of sports, documentaries and music programming, but nothing that is going to tempt many away from their existing television diet.

But Mr De Wahl insists this is just trial programming and when the full launch takes place in the next few months there will be much more impressive content on offer.

Joost is backed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who founded Skype, while Frederik de Wahl previously ran a business whose peer-to-peer software was used in Skype.

He says a version of that software is key to the appeal of Joost, with new peer-to-peer technology, backed up by the firm’s own servers, making it possible to stream video on demand.

But rival services are already casting doubt on the claim that Joost represents a new frontier for internet television.

BT Vision, launched in December, offers video-on-demand via broadband, and Channel Four Television says its 4OD service promises DVD-quality programmes to download to your computer.

Meanwhile another company calling itself Babelgum contacted the BBC to insist that its service, launching in March, would also use peer-to-peer technology to stream video at “near-TV resolution”.

A spokesman said “the Venice Project hasn’t got this to itself.”

The battle to broadcast over the internet is hotting up and the Venice Project – or Joost as we now must call it – will have to make plenty of noise to make itself heard.

[Thanks, BBC News]

Call Europe Free from the US

So, this is new. Call Europe for the price of a call to Iowa! When the FCC added incentives to subsidize rural phone companies Pat Phelan saw an opportunity and jumped into what could be a lucrative enterprise. AllFreeCalls.net is his site and explains how to take advantage of this arcane FCC loophole.

How is he doing it? He’s getting a kickback from the Universal Service Fund we all pay in our traditional phone plans. Here’s the explanation from Techcrunch:

Here’s my understanding of how this works: the founder created his own telephone company in Iowa. Iowa is apparently the only state taking advantage of an FCC kickback scheme that gives telco’s a portion of the fees generated from every inbound call to an Iowa number. So when you call the AllFreeCalls phone number, a portion of any long distance fees you are paying go to the company. The kickback is apparently authorized via the Universal Service Fund. These kickbacks are enough on average to more than cover the international outbound calling fees.

[Thanks, Techcrunch]

The question is, how does Mr. Phelan do this? Well, a VOIP scheme with a set rate would make this work profitably I think… We’ll wait and see just how this one works, I’m sure the details will be out shortly.

The Things I Learn As I Go Along

There is a subculture out there that enjoys creating ‘prototypes’ of rumored devices. Who Knew??

Using photoshop and an inventive imagination they create what they think something should look like. For instance, the iPhone has had an enormous number concepts designed by average folk. This link shows some of the ideas people have had over the last two years.

But wait! What’s this? The ‘concept’ for the iPhone Shuffle. Too funny……

[Thanks, Gizmodo]

There’s a lot of buzz out there about this new service. Cellswapper allows you to swap your cell phone plan with someone else eliminating the early disconnect fee that every cell carrier charges.

Capitalizing on the loophole that lets most mobile users out of unwanted contracts by transferring it to someone else, Cellswapper is a new online service allowing those who want to abandon their current plan by posting it for someone who wants a short-term plan. To facilitate the win-win exchange whereby neither party has to pay a fee for starting or canceling service, Cellswapper uses a Transfer Tracking system to keep users informed about the exchange and helps facilitate the legal transfer. Swappers are encouraged to offer a handset or a small cash incentive, which is one of many searchable criteria, including plan cost and features. For early adopters looking to ditch non-Cingular contracts in the wake of the recently announced iPhone and its multi-year exclusive deal with Cingular, Cellswapper is an expeditious solution.

[Thanks, Cool Hunting]

OpenCourseWare at MIT and Elsewhere

Slashdot had an article this morning about the free courses you can take at MIT. This is the second or third time the subject has come for me up in the last week or so. I thought I would mention the other sites I found with free, on-line courses, available to anyone with an Internet connection:

1. MIT OpenCourseWare Home
2. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s OPENCOURSEWARE
3. Tufts OCW
4. The University of California, Irvine
5. Notre Dame OCW

There is even a nice list OCW offerings outside of the US at the OpenCourseWare Consortium.

These links could hold the answer to many questions, including “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

Snowin’ Again

Well, winter storms are back. We’re in the middle of a snow storm again here in Seattle. I noticed it was snowing at about 4:15 and decided to bolt out of work early. It still took me about 50 minutes to get home (I did stop at the Safeway to get coffee and creamer, but that was 5 minutes max!).

It’s supposed to snow on and off through about 9pm, then everything freezes. They are talking mid teens for the temp. So the streets will be a giant sheet of ice by morning. I’m glad I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.

So here’s a pic of the I-90 on Mercer Island which has essentially come to a stand still due to the icy conditions. Shame on me….. The pic below is actually updated frequently. so there’s no still pic from yesterday. Oh well, live and learn.

I just hope tonight and tomorrow don’t bring a power outage. That would really suck.

I spoke too soon!

I guess I spoke too soon. It looks like Wired on-line is actually reporting on other topics from CES. Here’s a short report on WUSB:

CES: A Staccato Note in the WUSB Chorus

After years of wanting and waiting, Wireless USB has finally hit the market and relevant standards are being finalized. Staccato, a 2003 startup that aims to carve its way into the nascent market, showed off their prototype hubs and dongles at CES.

“We’re the only company that has a single-chip solution.” — Staccato’s Jason Ellis.

Pictured is the magic sliver that could become part and parcel of printers, laptops, keyboards, mice, and much else besides. It’s wafer thin!

[Thanks, Wired]

Playskool and Creative give birth to a healthy baby MP3 player

Well, here’s something new! Playskool and Creative have teamed up to cater to a surprising demographic, the toddler! With 50 pre-loaded songs and a soft, chewable covering this is sure to please…….

Considering that it has been made explicitly clear that iPods are not meant to be eaten or chewed on, the popular DAP is pretty much ruled out as a contender for the ears of our wee young ones. Thankfully Hasbro-subsidiary Playskool and Creative have teamed up to make sure that baby Apple isn’t left out of the loop (you could be missing a key demographic, Steve). The “Made For Me” line of MP3 players is pretty scarce on details, but what we do know is that it comes preloaded with 50 songs, has a voice recorder, and can be used with other appropriately labeled “Made For Me” toys (sounds familiar). The device should be available come fall and is expected to retail for about $80. While we’d personally just stick a stereo in our kid’s room and call it a day, we will reserve judgement and leave the parenting to the parents.

[Thanks, Engadget]