Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Snackr Will Chomp Away At Your Life

Ok, the warnings were explicit everywhere I looked. I picked up this from rexblog.com, who picked it up from Read Write Web. I guess that makes both sites pushers.  I should have listened. I didn't. I downloaded and installed Snackr, which is an Adobe Air app that creates a river of news that scrolls up or across your screen from an opml file of feeds you provide. Yep, it is addictive.

Click on a feed as it scrolls (streams?) by, and the scroll stops and you get a popout window with the info you're looking at (full text if that is what is available in the feed, partial if not.)

Damn. More time lost.

Technorati Tags: Snackr

Is The Puppet Going To Get Paid?

Loren Feldman is going to start charging for some of the videos he does on 1938 Media. I like his statement:

Occasionally I will be posting videos that will require you to pay 99 cents. I will be using zong for payment processing. You will have access to that video for 7 days. Almost none of you will do this. That’s ok. The content will be a little different. Longer, sketches, racier, How-to’s, I’m not really sure. A little of everything. No refunds, no warranties.

Should be interesting to follow.

Technorati Tags: Loren Feldman,1938 Media

Sprint Taking Heat and Losses

Not a good thing for Sprint. They are apparently losing customers in droves according to this report in BizJournals linked to by The Consumerist. I’m sure a lot of that comes from the huge customer service negatives they deal with for so long. CEO Dan Hesse says they are working on it.

Makes you wonder what would happen if cable customers could choose among providers the same way. Granted this hasn’t kept Telecos from becoming the spawn of Satan, but at least they have to play the game with their competitors.

Technorati Tags: Sprint

GorillaPod Go-Go Still a No Show

I've been anxiously following any news about Joby's GorillaPod Go-Go. I'm not sure which is worse, Joby's penchant for missing shipping targets or Democratic Super Delegates that are holding out from declaring a preference. Something tells me the Super Delegates will come clean first. The shipping of the GorillaPod Go-Go has moved from March to April to now who knows as the web site still says shipping in April. In the end it won't matter because I'm sure the product will be a hit, but it is taking awhile.

Technorati Tags: Joby,GorillaPad Go-Go

Media Coverage and the Presidential Follies

I noticed that NewsGang Live regular Karoli has put up a post that she has abandoned CNN over some recent coverage following Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. I long ago turned off CNN for similar reasons as Karoli, but also because I just find their coverage of just about anything so annoying that it gave me a headache. I'm not saying other alternatives are any better because they are not, but they don't give me a headache while annoying me. CNN does.

Since we're entering a transition period between the primaries and the general election, and before Hillary Clinton declares herself an Independent and runs on her own, we'll see some navel gazing by the media outlets on how they did, that won't come close to examining just how poorly they serve their audiences with coverage that is either screaming to get ratings, or following the pack.

It appears now that this presidential election will lead to some historic changes on the political front. Maybe this year's Presidential Follies will lead to some much needed change in the media that feeds and feeds on that beast.

Somehow I doubt it.

In Body WiFi Could Call 911 In Case of Heart Attack

This could be an interesting development. The TimesOnline is reporting that sensors could be implanted into folks at risk of a heart attack creating an in-body-network that call 911 if a patient had a heart attack. It could also send an alert if a patient didn't take proper medication. Spooky, but heartening.

Technorati Tags: WiFi

Social Networking for the Dead

Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor wants to do for obituaries what he did for classified advertising for jobs. He's starting up a new company called Tributes.com. Supposedly, the last web page you'll ever need, it has funding from the Wall Street Journal, and to my eye plays to the ego in all of us as well as the emotions of those grieving the loss of a loved one. The idea is to sell this to funeral homes who will then use their high mark-ups to package it to customers.

The Wired.com article where I found this says that online grieving is certainly on the rise, and I'm thinking that makes a lot of sense. I'm just wondering how Twitter will fit into this.

Charmin Turns Stall Surfing into Social Networking with Google Sharing Feature

Following on the heels of Google's announcement of Share Anything. Anytime, Anywhere., industry leading toilet paper manufacturer, Charmin, announced today that they've added Google's sharing feature as a social networking component to their latest new products. According to a Charmin spokesperson:

"The essence of social networking is sharing. Sharing things you find on the web, pictures, videos, news articles, all sorts of information. With the advent of smaller and more mobile devices, we've seen an uptick in the trend of Stall Surfing, where an individual will carry his iPhone or other mobile device to the restroom for a little browsing while they are taking care of business. So, we've added Google's new share component to our latest products, to allow you to share any information with other users who might, or might not be stall surfing at the same time."

"It is simple really. Our new toilet paper dispenser is equipped with a WiFi connection that hooks into your home network. When you see something you wish to share with a friend or your followers, you simply choose the Charmin Share button on the dispenser, which immediately sends the item over the web to your Google shared feeds, as well as prints it out on the next sheet of toilet paper. Share on the web, or keep a hard copy for yourself or someone in your household."

The spokesperson continued, "Of course you can plug into the Twitter API, as well as other social networking tools, so that all of your followers can see what you've just shared right from your toilet seat. Share Anything. Anytime. Anywhere. Just don't squeeze it."

Technorati Tags: Google,Twitter,Social Networking

Quick Hits

Worth reading on a Thursday night.

Colin Walker: If I'm not a blogger then what am I? Some good thoughts about the latest navel gazing episode on the Internet, prompted in large part by Louis Gray's latest round of posts. So much of this discussion centers on value and measurement, even when it is taking great pains not to, Whenever this kind of conversation circles back around (the distance between circles seems to be decreasing, I'm not sure if that is a sign of anything or not) I'm reminded of a quote from my grandfather:

You only get out of something what you are willing to put into it.

Robert Scoble: Early adopter angst. Robert calls it angst and says his arrogance on the subject come from his belief that early adopters are the ones who drive society. Again, I'm reminded of a quote from my grandfather:

You only get out of something what you are willing to put into it.

Ballmer as Hamlet?

Kara Swisher sounds like she's loving the classics in her post about the ongoing sturm and drang between Microsoft and Yahoo. She pulls out references to Hamlet, (Steve Ballmer as Hamlet? The zaniness fits.), Scylia, Charybdis, and Odysseus.

She may be right, but even with her explanation I'm thinking this more Damon Runyon like with a chorus of gangsters singing Luck Be  A Lady Tonight, and Ballmer as Big Jule.

Latest reports have some sort of decision happening today after the market's close.