MTA fare hikes

Can someone tell me where the MTA fare hikes are going to?

It sure isn't to cleaning the subway platforms.

Bleh. New York is starting to wear thin on me some days.


Cheers,
Dean

leading edge marketing or bleeding edge?

Just came across this article; http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=145105

Its not so much the article thats interesting (should people invest in location based marketing eg Foursquare etc), but what i found interesting was the comments at the end.

I'm paraphrasing but they fall into two camps "The market is too small, stay away" OR "Get in early while it is still new so you actually make a decent splash for your cash and get brand recognition".

It's this diopole argument that plays out every day, I wonder if it is the change (read "hard work") that people have issue with or just grappling with the metrics.


Cheers,
Dean

Ooops, we're on a collision course

Wow i had no idea that the milky way (our galaxy) and Andromeda (our nearest galaxy) are actually on a collision course to smash into each other (I was always taught that post big bang everything is expanding and spreading out).

Oh and just in case we miss (btw we wont because gravity will loop back whatever gets missed on the first collision pass and sort of begin a death spiral), whatever mess is left over is on course for a collision with the even bigger Virgo supercluster a little while after that.


Cheers,
Dean

French anti-smoking posters

I love it, i think it's a great advertisement.

I was stunned when i was in Paris with how many young people were smoking (20% of French 16 year olds smoke according to the article).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-in-uproar-over-oral-sex-antismoking-posters-1908559.html
French advertising companies are often criticised for using sexual images to sell everything from designer spectacles to sweetcorn. Now, for the first time, a controversy has erupted in France over the use of sexually suggestive posters as a deterrent.

The caption reads: "Smoking is to be a slave to tobacco."

 
Cheers,
Dean

Cable Wut?

So what do you think? am i wrong? Are you really going to give up cable? lots of talk about it in the glitteraty but i just dont see it happening soon.

Ever since i first started working with the Akimbo guys it's always....soon.


Cheers,
Dean

Paper or plastic?

Wow that's something I've never really thought about. Reading an April 2010 edition of Fast Company, interview with Osama Bedier from Paypal - "In the past 5000 years there has only been four ways to pay for things: Barter, Coins, Paper and Plastic, The future is undeniably digital transactions".

The Invention of Lying

Wow, i just watched The Invention of Lying on cable. Again wow I'm stunned. I originally thought it was be just some brainless 90 minutes movie where one joke was played out again and again and again, only to find out it's actually one of the sweetest movies of the year.

I'm sure some people will get turned off in the first 15 minutes and flip channels but i actually found it to be one of the funniest, thought provoking, wide spread look at humanity and why we do and are the way we are (especially love the jesus in robes scene about 20 minutes from the end, the empathy of it's lonely at the topic is just so poignant/depression inducing).

lol, like i said some people are just going to go ho-hum and get bored (remember only boring people are bored) but i think Ricky Gervais is a genius and i guarantee someone is thinking of writing a doctorate thesis about this movie, my advice go for it.


Cheers,
Dean

Former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson to be a contestant on 'Survivor: Nicaragua'

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/072110dnosposurvivor.2da4df1.html
Former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson to be a contestant on 'Survivor: Nicaragua'
Jimmy Johnson won a college football championship and two Super Bowls.  The former Dallas Cowboys coach will be a contestant on the CBS reality show "Survivor: Nicaragua" this fall. The series is being taped in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Filming started at the end of June.


About time they brought back someone who knew how to corral and manage people.
Ever since Rudy got voted off I've wanted to see another kickass take no prisoners old dude to boss around these namby pampy bubbleheads.

What i wat to know is when i Survivor going to go a country versus country Survivor eg 4 people from 10 different countries going head to head.

What are they worried about? showing how weak willed the USA contestants really are?
 
 
Cheers,
Dean

G4 cable network to change their name....for 1 week

I was just reading this article;
http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2010/07/is-nothing-sacred-cable-networ.php


Love it, what a great concept.

Kudos to whomever at G4 or Sprint came up with this idea as they are the perfect target audience.
 
 
Cheers,
Dean

iPad self publishing

http://mashable.com/2010/07/16/murakami-ipad-book

Seems like publishing is about 8 years behind music, self publishing works until publishers no longer have the revenue stream in order to promote……

Any thoughts?


Cheers,
Dean

Goldman Sax pays fine, lol cant stop laughing

LOL- just reading the news that Goldman Sax finally settled their fine about the recent illegal actions regarding misleading their customers (eg selling crap CDS deals against the best interests of the clients they were being paid to advise).

The $550m fine they paid is chump change eg, their stock price went up more than $550m in after hours trading (from $140ps to $145ps).

What made it really funny is the SEC puffery stating "how big a fine this was and how this was definitely going to discourage anyone from doing something similar in the future".

...... the $550m fine is less than 14 days of trading profits for Goldman Sax.

Your money at work. Bend over and breath easy......


Cheers,
Dean

New Zealand bans software patents

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/development/software-patent-ban-could-damage-investment

I'm not sure how this really works? eg could i set up a NZ based company and sell software on the web that whilst otherwise would be sued/injunction for patent infringement if operating in the USA could operate in NZ with impunity?

How could USA based companies deal with this?

Similar to the Caribean gambling WTO ruling (eg http://blog.collins.net.pr/2009/07/legal-wto-pirates-of-antigua.html ) does this mean companies will be able to act outside the USA legal net but if they ever fly to USA territories (or those where extradition exist) they will be snapped up by black pajama clad USPTO officers in black helicopters to be renditioned to East European torture centers?

What do you think?


Cheers,
Dean

Rebellion armies destined to win

Something tells me that if the imperial stormtroopers have this much trouble negotiating a New York subway car, that unless they change their outfit designers they cant really become a successful fighting force to dominate the empire.
:)

http://improveverywhere.com/2010/07/14/star-wars-subway-car



Cheers,
Dean

France bans the bikini

Ok so they didn't ban bikini's but banned face veils

I’m really kind of torn on this issue, I’m anti veil because some women may be forced into wearing them, but then I’m anti state telling anyone what they can do, (and of course some women might chose to wear veils).

Surely this has to be voted down as unconstitutional/illegal, can you imagine the outrage if the state was banning the bikini?


Cheers,
Dean

Abandoned platforms in the Gulf

I just came across this article in the HuffPost about 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the Gulf.
http://digg.com/d31W6QF

Wow thats interesting.... i wonder what the legal status of ownship of these abandoned wells are?

Anyone have an idea what the largest platforms are?

Sounds like a great place for a weekend fishing shack/hangout party joint. Anyone know the legal ramifications of occupation like they did with Sealand? (if you dont know about Sealand check out Wikipedia, it's a great read - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand )


Cheers,
Dean

PayWalls

I've just read 4-5 paywall coming articles in the last 24 hours, get used to it kids, the age of advertising supported content being the only way is gone.

So the question is what billing mechanisms are publishers going to use? Credit cards? Paypal? one off payments per year? monthly subscriptions?

Whats going to be the preferred system - site wide access only or per article "tiny value" transactions?

Are multi-publisher stored value "virtual wallets" going to make a big showing? 

What do you think as content providers? what do you think as content consumers?


Cheers,
Dean

Are you going to buy 3D tv?

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/japanese-shrug-off-3d-tv-hype/
Despite the push by manufacturers, a new survey shows that the 70 percent of Japanese are not planning to purchase a 3D TV for their homes.


I've liked some of the 3D movies and you can see the techniques are getting better (eg Alice had way better 3d effects than Avatar) but at the end of the day 'meh' is about all the feeling i can muster about 3D tv, i'm not motivated to buy one at all.

What about you? is the current content worth replacing your hardware for?


Cheers,
Dean

Freaks and Geeks

Lol - crackup, watching the Freaks and Geeks pilot on IFC. It's a crackup, i had no idea Seth Rogen or Linda Cardellini were in this when i saw it back in 1999.

HDbaseT very cool new technology

Just this week HDbaseT was announced.
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/7/1/tv-business-kisses-hdmi-goodbye

Basically HDbaseT is a competing technology to replace HDMI, it probably wont be available in TV's etc for another 12-18 months but it can carry as much data as HDMI currently can but over 100 meters AND most importantly uses standard ethernet cables and RJ45 jacks instead of a special thick HDMI cables to a max of 25 meters.

My only question is..... what will Monster Cables sell in two years time


Cheers,
Dean

Paula Cole

Just bought tickets for Paula Cole at City Winery for 21st of Sept
http://www.citywinery.com/events/90400

Let me know if you want to join us and I'll tell you what table number we reserved.

Cheers,
Dean
(Will add some my favorite tracks of hers into the music box on the weekend).

Brazil are out of the WorldCup

Wow i cant believe that Brazil are out of the worldcup, i reckon that the bookies must be rejoicing, at even mone there would have been a lot of bets on them.

Well done for the Netherlands team, http://www.liveworldcupchat.com/lscc/chat.do?id=4745

Ther is another match on this afternoon in a few hours so will be interesting to see who they are going to be playing against in the next round. If you are watching the world cup come chat live at www.LiveWorldCupChat.com/


Cheers,
Dean

iPads

So now that the iPads have been out for a while.... what do you people think of them?

I've actually seen a few on the subway, but not as many as you would think.

I also see a lot less people using them at tech conferences now that they have been out for a while. I swear every conference I was at for the first 2 weeks after the launch there was always someone in the audience trying to peck away on the keyboard, I kept feeling like I wanted to say to them...would you like a keyboard with that? It's called a "laptop" you dufus.

Don’t get me wrong I expect there will be a lot of great apps launched for the app, and if magazine/publishing people got their acts together you could see a change in publishing forever but you need another company apart from Apple to drive it, their desire to "be all and own all" just kills peoples interest in being involved eg. their iAds project is turning into a farce.

So what do you think?


Cheers,
Dean

Obama immigration

Wow i've never been anti-obama about anything but he is talking out of his butt about immigration, lips moving saying nothing then turns around and blaming republicans.

What a politician.

Quack Quack.

local network aware android apps

Neat,
http://www.centernetworks.com/blinkendroid-record-up-to-51-devices


On a similar line I'm surprised more ”network” apps haven’t been created. I keep expecting someone to launch a “broadcast my song” app for android that wifi broadcasts what people are listening to (in a streaming format not download for legal reasons) and that people can eavesdrop in on other headphone listending sessions within their immediate region, seems like the ultimate “look at me I’m cool” app.


Cheers,
Dean