Why is sugar soda only available for a limited time when high fructose corn syrup is so much worse? (Taken and uploaded with Google Nexus One).
Category: Media
Sick NBC Has 'Conan Fever'
There’s a collective scorn for the way that NBC has so openly pooped on its audience like Triumph the Insult Dog: replacing its 10 p.m. lineup with five nights of cheap, clunky Jay Leno shows […]
I’m With Coco
Conan O’Brien may not last much longer as Tonight Show host, but he has my support. Even if he loses his job, Conan will be a winner. Say, can Conan collect unemployment? Now there would […]
Apple Blue Shirts
Yesterday, I stopped by the Apple Store at Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. From there I tweeted: “WTH Apple Store Mission Valley; more employees than customers—at least 25 in blue shirts.” I snapped this […]
Conan O’Brien Should Out-Fox NBC
NBC’s reasoning for bringing back Jay Leno to late-night TV is baffling. I now understand why TV programming is rife with dumb-ass decisions: The people making them.
Here’s the basic story: Last year, Conan O’Brien replaced Jay Leno as host of the Tonight Show as planned. But then NBC gave Leno his own show at 10 p.m., preempting Conan by 95 minutes, five nights a week. NBC figured Leno could carry the timeslot, saving boatloads of money otherwise spent on producing dramatic programming. Whoops, Leno couldn’t deliver the ratings, and NBC affiliates complained they were losing local news viewers at 11 p.m. The solution isn’t rocket science: Can Leno.
Stuck in Newark Airport
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQeG1kaddsw] I agree 100 percent. “Maybe there is hope for our ever-increasingly isolated and anti-social (no, Facebook is making us less social) society after all”, nmook.
There can't be a Free Web if No One Pays
Paywall is suddenly a hot topic as free content turns many longstanding businesses—news among—to apparent ruin. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take this anymore. This week Murdoch repeats his call for paid services during a U.S. Federal Trade Commission public workshop.
“We need to do a better job of persuading consumers that high-quality, reliable news and information does not come free,” he says. “Good journalism is an expensive commodity.”
The Story Carl Rytterfalk’s Camera Tells
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-W2Ia9tar8]
Before there was Twitter or before Facebook gained popularity, I followed people online directly through their Websites or RSS feeds. I’ve long favored personal blogs over professional news sites. The best stories are told by and are about people.
Fast forward five years, people are what make the social Web work so well, and why my profession, journalism, is in state of chaos. Why read something filtered by a reporter/editor when the single, or even crowd, source is available? Interaction is more personal and direct.
Now This Is Advertising!
Only Microsoft could be so bold. As I explained in my last post, TechFlash’s Todd Bishop and I have been bantering back and forth about what is advertising. Oh, these IM arguments can be brutal. Anyway, […]
What is an Ad?
TechFlash’s Todd Bishop and I disagree about what constitutes an ad. I ask you which of us is right. The disagreement started over Todd’s post “Windows Ads, Finally Cool?” He reports about some Windows 7 videos that popped up online a few days ago.
I saw the same vids on Tuesday night and almost blogged about them. But I recalled reading something a few weeks ago (from the esteemed Long Zheng) about the same videos being produced conceptually for Microsoft. Also, the run times were all wrong for broadcast. Nobody airs a 51-second commercials. I dismissed the videos as YouTube-distributed marketing material, but not advertisements.
Michael Arrington, Talk Dirty to Me
There’s something dirty feeling about watching Michael Arrington’s interview of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. I don’t mean that as criticism of Michael; plenty of other folks have done that all too well. It’s this new media thing, where you sleep with the people you write about. You do business with them and for them.
Who am I to criticize? The new media thing is working out rather well for TechCrunch, which makes oodles of money, commands huge traffic and pageview numbers and mingles with Silicon Valley’s dealers and stealers.
Headline of the Day: ‘AT&T to Welcome iPhone Users to 2003 Tomorrow’
All Things Digital—and it’s an understatement. “At some point late tomorrow morning, the carrier will release an update enabling MMS,” he writes. About a minute later, AT&T’s network will go all to hell—it’s the end of the world as we know it—as iPhoners break out in one giant unison MMS.
Ah, the iPhone. A few weeks ago, I pronounced that my Nokia N97 is gone, it’s back again. I dumped the iPhone 3GS, and I’m surprised how little I miss the smartypants phone. Perhaps it was a psychological sense of missing out on something that caused the “disconnected” feeling using the N97 that I blogged about . No more.