One of the best YouTube videos….ever
The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus
So says the billboards that are part of the new Ask.com campaign that launched over the past few weeks. They’ve been spotted in the Bay Area and here in NYC. Other billboards proclaim "The Algorithm Killed Jeeves". The campaign comes from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, who also did the aggressive "Truth" anti-smoking campaign. I hated this billboard when I first saw it, but its grown on me since. It definitely makes you think - an effect not necessarily conducive to driving use of a search engine. I think what they are saying is the search algorithm is so good, it finds jesus…an attempt at a funny play on words. But it took me a little while to figure this one out and I work in the industry.
This is the coolest gadget ever….
I hooked up my Sonos system yesterday, and haven’t left the couch in 38 hours. Okay, I left a few times, but only for absolute emergencies. This is the coolest gadget I’ve used in a long time. Not only does it connect my stereo with my digital music library and stream the music seamlessly, it also gives me access to Rhapsody, which has completely blown me away. Rhapsody gives me access to any album from any band in any genre I could ever be in the mood for. In a day and a half, I’ve listened to 15 new bands. I control everything from my laptop anywhere in my apartment. Here is a picture of the interface. This is true music on demand. I was also a relatively late adopter on the iPod, but I can’t believe I waited this long to get my hands on this.
Google gourmet
I had lunch with a friend at Google’s NYC offices on Friday. Many of us have heard about the food in their cafeteria by now, but it’s one of those things that’s hard to believe until you see it for yourself. For lunch, I enjoyed glazed cod, teriyaki salmon sashimi, crusted artichoke balls with aioli mayonnaise dressing, shaved zucchini chips, hearts of palm and kidney bean salad and freshly-made sun-dried tomato focaccia. I passed on the buffalo burger, raw food bar, sushi bar and salad bar, my plate already piling over. For dessert, we returned for a fresh plate of Oreo fudge, chocolate brioche arborio custard, pineapple cinnamon pudding and fresh strawberries and blackberries. And it’s all free!! (there are several security guards patrolling the cafeteria in case you had any ideas). Working at Google would be a culinary delight, but one that would likely add a few extra pounds to the ol’ frame.
The digitization of money…and passports
The Economist wrote an article in this week’s issue about the digitization of money over the next few years and how the U.S. presidents and British prime ministers assigned to new currency may have short-lived circulation (something perhaps well-deserved of our current leader). The EU estimates that it spends $65 billion a year to service cash transactions!! And I’m sure this doesn’t include the $20 bills that fall out of our pant pockets or disintegrate in the wash. This digitization may be one of the most
significant advancements enabled by the internet yet. With the added convenience,
however, also comes significantly increased tracking of our spending behavior and possibly less anonymity, something that cash provides. This is great for marketers, but not so good for Tony Soprano. Somewhat ironically, Citibank has been at the forefront of the movement from my perspective. I was impressed by the digital subway token called PayPass that automatically debits your bank account which they distributed to customers earlier this year (pictured here). A few months later, they sent me a radio frequency random password generator to login to my business account. I read this week that Paypal is following their lead. For a company that I generally associate with poor customer service and antiquated technology, this was a nice surprise.
Another area that is long overdue for digitization is immigration and specifically, passports. The concept of carrying a little book around with stamps from each country you visit seems completely ridiculous in this age. How much more efficient would it be to create a token or card that stores your personal information in a central database and tracks your every move? America, along with most countries, still issue paper visas that are glued into non-citizen passports. For my upcoming trip to Australia, I applied for a visa online. It was not only granted, but also applied to my passport electronically. When I recently called to confirm my seat assignments (its a long flight), the Kiwi on the other end (I’m flying Air NZ) checked and confirmed that the visa had been attached (virtually) to my passport. That’s efficiency!!
AnswerTips now available to bloggers!!
We released AnswerTips to the public today!! Its been live on CBS News and a few other sites (including this one) for several weeks, but this is the first time we are releasing it for public consumption by bloggers and other micro publishers. The neat thing about this tool is that it provides remote access to the 4+ million topics covered by Answers.com by making every word on your page live. Visitors can double-click any word to launch an Answer Bubble (or caption window…about 1/4 the size of an average browser window) that give definitions, explanations or general background info. We also think it keeps users on the page longer since they have less need to go search for info on a new topic that they come across. One of the challenges is educating the visitor that the tool exists and for this we are providing small icons that appear on the page. Mine is on the top of the sidebar. Enjoy it and please let me know what you think.
Consumer electronic packaging….time to rethink it
Why are most gadgets and electronics still packaged in armored plastic that requires scissors, pliers and hacksaws to open? Every time I pick up a new toy (it’s somewhat frequently), I encounter the same frustrating predicament, negotiating the item out of its plastic home. Typically, it goes something like this: I begin by attempting a dissection of the top and bottom plastic pieces by pealing apart the edge where they are connected. When this fails (and it always fails) I grab a sturdy pair of scissors and cut a strategic slice through the hard plastic that will hopefully give me access to the item. Now comes the fun part. Once the cut is made, I usually try to pull apart the top and bottom enough to reach my hand in and grab the item. A fair amount of time, one of two frustrating things happens. Either (a) there’s not enough room to squeeze the item out and I end up breaking off some small but critical piece or (b) I cut my hand or finger on the sharp plastic edge left over from the incision and subsequent tear. I know everyone out there has experienced the same damn thing time and again. With all the cool technology we’re developing today, I gotta believe that clear plastic packaging that is easy to open can’t be that hard.
Windows Home Server and my media storage nightmare
A few months ago, during a party at my house, a small scuffle developed over music selection. We had worked through the 5-10 CDs that I set aside for the evening and the tunes were beginning to repeat. Around the third time my 5-disc changer began Michal Franti (a perennial favorite), I grew embarrassed by the antiquated nature of my music system. This is not a new problem, but one I’ve had a hard time addressing for lack of adequate solutions. I have hundreds of CDs scattered throughout my stereo/TV cabinet. They are, needless to say, disorganized and difficult to navigate. Many are digitized on my home pc, some are not. Separately, I have a larger collection of music (approx 80gb) on my home pc, but haven’t developed any system for delivering that music to my stereo. This may seem silly, but I’ve been reluctant to invest in new technology, save an iPod, because I haven’t found any solution impressive or sufficient enough to do what I want. I think that’s about to change.
Microsoft unveiled Windows Home Server at CES a few weeks ago, and I think it may solve many of my problems. WHS serves as the hub for all media in the home and you can interact with it from any pc. It also provides auto-backup, and remote access so you can interact with your data and/or share it from the road or office too. This photo is of HP’s home media server, which runs WHS and is slated to be the first release later this year. I’d like to use it to store all my music, video, photos and documents that I can’t afford to lose. Paul Thurrott gave Windows Home Server a thorough review and I came away impressed. TechMeme also had a lot of discussion. Next comes the question of how I can distribute my music to my living room and bedroom. For this, I think Sonos has the best product on the market….at least until Apple addresses it. Their Zone Player allows you to distribute music from your storage device to multiple locations wirelessly and processes the sound in a high quality digital signal. Slim Devices makes a similar unit, but after reading reviews, I think better of Sonos. But I didn’t feel good about Sonos’ controller. It looks like a fancy iPod and probably provides an inferior user experience. After some research, I found the Samsung Q1 tablet pc with a 7" screen. I think it will provide a more fulfilling experience navigating my music and creating playlists, etc. In place of a Zone Player at the server, I plan to invest in Netgear Powerline Adapters and use the electrical wires in my apartment to distribute my network. I’m hoping the wires aren’t too old to handle something like this and it will save me several hundred dollars.
To me, this feels like a solid home media system and something long overdue. Since I can’t buy the Windows Home Server for a few months, and I couldn’t afford one now anyway, I’ll use my existing pc to host my music. I’ve been talking about this for months, and I think its finally time to pull the trigger. If anyone has thoughts or experience to share, please….
NY Times launches video obits with Art Buchwald
"Hi, I’m Art Buchwald and I just died," the video opens. He was a beloved journalist specializing in satire who began his career at the Herald Tribune in Paris in the 1940s. Fittingly, to announce his death, the NY Times debuted a new product called video obits which gives individuals a chance to record their own obituaries before they die. In Buchwald’s video obit, he discusses his life, his writing and the unusual road to death, which took him in, and then out, of a hospice. He also mentions how he found that most people were still afraid to talk about death. I find it strange that with all the progress and advancement we’ve made as a society in practically every field of study, we still have difficulty facing the most unavoidable reality of all. Last month, I discussed death with my 86-year old grandmother and, although I was slightly uncomfortable raising the topic, it led to a nice, very real conversation that I’m happy we were able to have. So in addition to putting video technology to a new and valuable use, I think video obits may also help us face death in a more accepting light by opening the door to its discussion.
Google movie-search provides fast and simple results, winks at Fandango/Moviefone
I don’t know how new this is, but someone turned me onto Google Movies over the weekend, at www.google.com/movies oddly enough, and it’s awesome!! They give you all the key information you need to make a movie decision and they deliver it much more quickly than Fandango, Moviefone, Rotten Tomatoes or any of the other competitors in this space. The presentation is ultra-simple very similar to the way Google presents search results. They also provide simple user reviews with a universal rating system, a link to trailers hosted by Apple and a link to IMDb for more information on the film. Best of all, it actually remembers your zip code so the next time you login, it presents all the theaters in your area automatically, something that should be simple, but seemed difficult for the others to accomplish. Also, it shows every theater nearby versus just the ones with whom they’ve partnered (in the case of the others). Sometimes the best innovations are the simplest. In this case, it seems to me that Google has snickered at the competitors in this space and the millions they’ve invested by providing a simpler and more convenient solution. It’s true that they don’t provide ticket purchasing, but I’ll still use this page for my default movie listings.