Jewish Camp Fail
Posted by Bill McGonigle Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:25:00 GMT
Sometimes automated keyword-based ad-selection heuristics aren't alone sufficient.
Disney Buys Marvel Comics
Posted by Bill McGonigle Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:08:00 GMT
I saw the Mouse laughing with delight, the day that Marvel died.
A Model for Better, More Competitive Newspapers
Posted by Bill McGonigle Fri, 22 May 2009 22:11:00 GMT
A comment I left on Bob Cringely's WAAS Up article:
Whenever I’ve been interviewed for a newspaper, words and facts have been twisted and/or just gotten wrong. Whenever I read a popular press article in an area where I have in-depth knowledge, it’s wrong, at least in the details.
So, I just assume that’s true all the time and go to specialists for real news reporting. I haven’t checked, but I’d assume a place like Jane’s would have a good article on this GPS thing.
How about this business model: be a journalist who’s a bona-fide expert on GPS. Write completely accurate, insightful, and helpful news articles on GPS happenings. Charge alot for them.
The last part is the trick of course. But how many GPS journalists does the world need? No more than a handful. With the Internet it should be possible to greatly reduce the number of generalist journalists and start making ‘newspapers’ much better with experts. There’s probably too much inertia at established papers but a disruptive model seems possible.
It’s not ‘mere blog aggregation’ because most bloggers aren’t writing in the form or quality required, but some scheme with writers, aggregators, and integrators could get it done. I don’t see the value in local newspapers doing anything but inserting their local stories into layout and selling ads these days - find an integrator that matches your editorial values and outsource it.
Thrashing 75 Years of Branding
Posted by Bill McGonigle Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:11:00 GMT
I saw a TV ad for a new Mortal Combat game that includes the DC Superheroes metering out bloody death to their opponents.
Let's see:
- The Ultimate Boy Scout
- Truth, Justice, and the American Way
- Smashing your opponent into the pavement by crushing his spine.
I'll let Cookie Monster handle this one:
Sure, there's probably contrived rationalization for this, but it's not about nerdly debate it's about branding. And about taking a huge license fee payment in trade for said brand quality.
Collateral Damage in Gawker vs. Palin
Posted by Bill McGonigle Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:29:00 GMT
In reference to the Gawker post of Gov. Palin's e-mail excerpts, photos, etc:
First, the Gawker people are complete crap for posting the e-mail addresses of Gov. Palin's friends and family. If nothing else, this is unmistakably over the top - several dozen people will now effectively have to start all new e-mail accounts and endure the difficulties associated with that. Inexcusable.
As to conducting government business, yeah, there's a point to be made here. However, I'll bet that the most likely reason is that the sender typed 'sarah palin' in their mailer, and having two addresses for her picked the wrong one. Many mailers hide the actual address after choosing, so this is an easy mistake to make.
The governor could have at that point chosen to scold the sender, but instead she just replied. The former would have been the pedantically correct thing to do - whether the latter was inexcusable or pragmatic is a matter of perspective.
The important thing to do here to implicate Gov. Palin would be to establish a pattern of certain types of mails, certain correspondents, certain policies, specific projects that she only used her Yahoo! account for. This doesn't seem to exist - the contents appear to be random and mundane. Even the guy who broke into her account and read all of her mails looking for something 'juicy' concurs. So, the conspiracy hypothesis fails, leaving random technology farts as the likely cause.
There's still a technical case to be made here, but good luck getting anybody who has a work and home account themselves to actually care.
Blocking the Path to 9/11
Posted by Bill McGonigle Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:04:00 GMT
Due to the order of a judge in Florida against Echostar I don't get any major network programming at home, save a PBS national feed. So, when "The Path to 9/11" came out, I wanted to see it, but figured I'd wait until the DVD came out (it wasn't urgent).
I haven't paid any attention to the film since then, but today I heard the director of the show on Dennis Miller's radio show talking about how there would be no DVD release, and how the Clinton machine and Disney collaborated to edit the film for airing and then finally kill all future availability. Apparently they didn't like the way Bill Clinton was portrayed. The director says the miniseries was the #1 mini-series of the year and attracted 28 million viewers. There's simply no argument that there's not a DVD market for the product. He plans a documentary about the attempts to bury the film.
So, while I'm in favor of rewarding artists for their work as part of our social contract under copyright terms, their end of the contract implies availability for the term of protection. Since they've violated the agreement, for political expediency no less, I have no trouble reminding folks that the bittorrent tracker sites are searchable and the people are likely to be routing around this kind of censorship.
Cost of Political TV Ads
Posted by Bill McGonigle Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:18:00 GMT
Somehow I got on Jennifer Horn's spam list. I opened one accidentally today and it contained this nugget:
every $750 donated will buy us one more spot on WMUR; every $150 donated will buy us one more spot on Fox News.
Wow, $750 for, I'm guessing, 30 seconds of airtime. If somebody wants to get rid of 'money in politics' they need to stop paying these kind of advertising rates. Hint: Internet. If there needs to be a transition period, buy 10 second TV ads that say, "I'm getting rid of money in politics, visit billmcgonigle.com" or the like.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Posted by Bill McGonigle Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:40:00 GMT
Emma and I went to see Indy 4 last night.
I got Phantom Menace‘d again. Drat. I’m not surprised anymore that Lucas would do this, but I am surprised Spielberg let him. It’s not just a Star Wars thing anymore then, Lucas is off my list.
There are some interesting scenes, and as a collection of vignettes the movie has some moments. But the plot is absurd on all kinds of levels. Now, this is Indiana Jones - of course it’s absurd, but the absurdity is in its internal inconsistency. You’re not asked to suspend your disbelief, you’re asked to stop thinking and ignore what just happened for the sake of… what? So they wouldn’t have to write a sensible plot? Twenty-ish years was too short a time to come up with clever plot elements?
The SciFi channel’s special on the crystal skulls was frankly more interesting, and that was as good as you’d expect it to be.
Thankfully this was a double-feature at the Fairlee Drive-In, and Iron Man was up next. Emma and I first saw it on opening night on a huge digital screen in CT with our friends Andy and Robin and two things can be said about seeing it a second time: 1) It stands up well to repeated viewings, improves even and 2) Big digital theatres are really the way to see this kind of movie. Oh, and 3) this time I stayed for the Nick Fury scene. The corn dogs were great, but visuals like Iron Man’s are more enthralling when they’re bright, crisp, and big. And loud (our window speaker was the last on the cable run and rather low).
If I were going to buy a BluRay player for a movie it would be Iron Man. That’ll have to wait for the projector.
Also of note is the cost of gas as a factor in going to the Drive-In. It takes about four gallons round-trip. Last night’s bill: $8 for admission, $12 for two corn dogs, fries, and drinks. $16 for gas. $36 for Indy 4 just isn’t a good deal, I could have bought the DVD for half of that. $36 for an evening out with Emma is of course well worth it.
Spy Satellite Shoot-down Video
Posted by Bill McGonigle Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:10:00 GMT
Naturally skeptical about such things, while hearing plenty of press reports about a successful shoot-down of the failing spy satellite, none of those news reports cited evidence, simply spokespeople.
I found that the military has a nice video site itself. Here’s the money shot, little glowing bits of high-tech satellite ablaze:
And the full video:
Now I’m left curious about the camera tracking controller - I don’t think a human could have done that.
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