Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

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

Verizon in FCC Spectrum Auction Driver's Seat?

Forbes is reporting that it looks like Verizon is in the driver's seat in the FCC's spectrum auction. They are also saying that Google is happy to be out of the running after influencing it in the run up to the actual bidding. Still too early to know what the real results are, as things aren't settled yet.

 

Technorati Tags: Google,Verizon

2008 Wicked Stage Predictions

Someone will be elected President of the US, despite everyone's best efforts to screw it up.

Whomever is elected president will not get the usual honeymoon that new presidents receive.

There will be natural disasters.

There will be extreme weather conditions at various places on the planet.

Extreme weather will be blamed on Global Warming.

Scientists will insist Global Warming isn't real.

There will be several celebrity trials, murders, scandals, etc.. that will dominate the news.

The Writers Strike will never end. No one will notice. No one will care.

The RIAA will branch out to start suing other lawyers for using boilerplate legal language in EULAs.

New products will be announced. Some will actually be released. Some will actually sell units.

Google will continue its march towards world universal control of all data.

Microsoft will continue to suck at marketing its products.

Apple will continue to roll.

Steve Jobs will continue to fight with the entertainment industry. He'll win some and lose some. He'll  be perceived as the winner and the loser, depending on the phase of the moon.

Web 2.0 will become Web 2.1.0319428. We're not ready for Web 3.0 yet.

The Gang will continue to be this decade's best effort at surrealism.

The Russian Bot gang will take down another country.

Savings will become the new consumer buzz word.

Telco's and big media companies will continue to bite the hands that feed them, even though they continue to get slapped by those same hands. What's a little pain when you have profits?

Robert Scoble will upset someone somewhere with a blog or Twitter post.

Someone will patent stupidity and then we are all doomed.

There will be predictions made at the end of 2008.

Steve Rubel's Knowledge Ninja Program

I'm going to have to look at this more closely. Steve Rubel has pointed out some helpful tips to using Google Reader and Gmail to help manage knowledge flow. There look to be some good ideas there and I'll be trying a few of them out in the next few weeks.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Young people are getting more involved in philanthropy. This is a good thing. Let's hope it lasts. In my experience as a not-for-profit arts administrator things have turned from "how can I help" to "how can you help me." Which is depressing.

Jeff Jarvis writes that Google is God. At least as far as its growth is concerned.

Circuit City's shortsighted business practices result in end of the year losses. They fired their top salespersons in favor of lower paid newbies. But the VP's all got huge retention bonuses. (Try $1 million on for size.) Didn't  these guys learn math? Or did they just learn it the wrong way? BoingBoing calls it suicidal. I agree.

John Lundberg on How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bard.

Hugh MacLeod revisits How Big Is Your Audience?

The RIAA goes after individuals for copying CDs they own. This guy is fighting back. Scoble has a fun post on why the RIAA is right. Doc Searls sees a VRM model for paying artists.

Meanwhile, Mashable wonders if 2008 will be the year the RIAA will die. I doubt it.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

The Richter Scale video controversy keeps popping up, and so does the video. I'm sure it will get knocked down again by photographer Lane Hartwell. Michael Arrington has embedded it again here. Eric Rice tosses in his $.02 here. This may indeed be a copyright/fair use debate, but it is also an interesting expressionistic tussle over the craziness that is copyright law these days. Or is it just Wack-A-Mole?

Steve Gillmor on Overnight Success: Twisting and turning into crazy crevices, but he posits that Ray Ozzie, and thus Microsoft won the war with some interesting allies.

Google getting ready to rumble with Microsoft? So says The NYTimes. Old news. Guess they should have read Overnight Success.

In the wake of Marc Orchant's passing away, Dave Winer talks about Future-safe archives, or what to do with all those words on the Intertubes after you're gone. Good questions.

Two bullies fighting. Comcast is going after the NFL in court over what Comcast perceives as the NFL trying to get folks to switch carriers. Too bad so many don't have that option. To leave Comcast. Via The Consumerist.

Chris Pirillo highlights Bruce Munro on DRM issues. Interesting look back at the short-sighted practices of the Recording Industry.

Funny but too true. CrunchGear on installing Vista SP1.

The NY Times highlights the administration's efforts to give immunity to the Telco's on the warrantless search front. So, if nothing is being done wrong, why does immunity need to be granted? I'm just asking.

Three Years of Life on the Wicked Stage

This is my third year of blogging and the third year of Life on the Wicked Stage. I find it hard to believe I've been doing this for three years, and yet harder still to imagine not doing it. In many ways Life on the Wicked Stage is my refuge. In still other ways it is a platform to share some thoughts on what I find outrageous, wonderful, crazy, sublime, and just plain wacky in the world. I often find myself wishing I had more time to do that. I mean, let's get real. There's plenty of wacky to go around.

A lot has happened since I began blogging, both in the world and to me as I rotate around on it. I started out blogging mostly about Tablet PCs and mobile computing but most of that shifted last year when I joined the gang at GottaBeMobile.com. Wicked Stage struggled a bit during that transition but it seems to be doing ok these days as I still blog about mobile computing, computing in general, politics, wacky stuff, Wayside Theatre, and things that simply astound and amaze me. I find great wonder in that and hope some of that gets relayed in the words here. I also find great idiocy in the world, and I imagine I contribute to that as well.

This was indeed a crazy year. This was the year of social networking. Twitter became a part of what I do and how I share. Facebook became a part of what I do and how I share. I have to say that I find great joy and value in how that platform as allowed me to reconnect with some folks from past lives. That said, I think that while this was the year of Facebook, it may unfortunately be the year that Facebook started a death spiral because of privacy issues. Too bad they got greedy. With the way things are going now and the the reaction to the stupid advertising platform they call Beacon, it shows just how perilous this whole Internet thing is.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Google becomes GM on the road to the White House. On the one hand, I'm glad politicians see some wisdom in speaking to important business constituencies. On the other hand, I think dog and pony shows don't lead to much, except donations.  Via NY Times.

What is a blog? Good answer here.

Facebook has raised a lot of questions and ire all about the Beacon advertising scheme. Long from over, but I think the line may have been crossed. Don't you love the innocence and greed of American capitalism? Marc Orchant also weighs in on this on his way out of the door. Hugh MacLeod weighs in here.

Dave Winer on podcasting. Dave brings this idea about a podcasting device up every once in awhile. He's correct in his assumptions. I wish it would happen.

The Courts order Bush and cronies to turn over data on the Telcoms and how they gave up your data. Via CrunchGear. Do you read about the Facebook thing and wonder when the Feds are going to go after that goldmine?

The EFF is still on Comcast's butt about their downshifting users' bandwidth. Comcast still is saying it doesn't. I can't prove it, but I think it is happening here. Not on BitTorrent, but on some media uploading and downloading.

Richard Belzer on banks, the sub-prime chaos, and history. Andrew Jackson would say I told you so.

Linda Epstein's Annual List for Santa. A must see shopping lists of Tablet PCs, UMPCs, and gadgets galore.

The Washington Post profiles Martin Scorsese. Good read on one of my favorite film directors.

Double Dave. Dave Winer on the writer's strike. What he's saying will be heresy to some. Religion to others. And it will be a muddled mess for quite some time beyond this strike.

Michael Parekh on Verizon's move to openness. Are they wolves in sheep's clothing?

Why Twitter can be hazardous to your job security. Too funny.

Technorati Tags: Google,Facebook,Comcast,Tablet PC,UMPC,Verizon,Twitter

Google Tosses Hat In The Ring For Wireless Spectrum Auction

I'm glad to see this. Google has moved the ball down the field again, after playing strong offense on this already. With earlier announcements that they might enter the FCC auction for the 700Mhz radio spectrum and placing some conditions on their participation, Google opened up a conversation on the future of how we all communicate. That move was significant. Declaring today that they would officially enter the auction is probably even more so. While I'm certainly no mind reader, I happen to believe Google's heart is in the right place on this, and their desires to see things opened up will indeed benefit consumers tremendously.

We've watched things shift and change a bit already since this process kicked off in earnest. Let's hope we see more of it.

Google Thinks Spammers Are Giving Up

Google thinks spammers might be giving up. The basis is that the spam being sent and received seems to be reaching a lull, at oh, something like 10 billion a day. Filtering and other methods do improve things, but if things are slowing down, I believe it is because it just isn't as lucrative, or other fields are more lucrative. But I don't believe it is slowing down in reality. Probably just become old, not sexy news.