Promote locally owned

Whenever business owners manage businesses or units or subsidiaries outside their hometown, those businesses should be aggressively regulated and taxed.

I Vant to Drink Your Vatts - New York Times

Back in the old days, when you turned off an appliance, it was really off and it drew no power. The emergence of our hi-tech society and the development of microchip technology, Congress had a meeting this week to address new consumption (and labeling) standards for these energy suckers, not the least of which is that small black box that hangs on an electrical outlet, often called "wall warts".
I Vant to Drink Your Vatts - New York Times

Bill Writes a Memo

AJAX is asynchronous Javascript and XML, which enables web based applications such as web based email and word processing via the web, a technology often referred to as "Web 2.0". It was developed in 1998 by Microsoft and largely not exploited -- until now. Hence Bill's Memo. Almost a decade after it's development, Microsoft is a late adopter of its own technology, they call "Microsoft Live", as NetSuite and Salesforce.com emerge with their "software as a service" models.

RAB CEO Battle Cry: ROI over CPM; Use New Media More

My day job is coodinating new media products for listeners of seven midwest radio stations, then developing marketing partnerships to support those products.

As a matter of necessity, I pay close attention to industry analysts, listeners, web visitors and my customers.

When Gary Fries, the president/CEO of our industry's trade organization, says we need to move faster toward digital advancements, he does so after a quarter century of pressure by all segments to get with the ages.

Electronic invoicing and audience measuring tools are desperately needed, and all of the individual elements need to speak the same language. Gone, or soon to be, are some of the most antiquated systems for quantifying the value of broadcast and new media to advertisers and their agencies. Instead of simply showing how many people are being reached, we need to demonstrate with a good level of accuracy a genuine return on marketing investments.

I have always believed my industry has been 15 to 20 years behind the digital curve. While it's getting better in the midst of consolidation, much of the local leadership needs to be open for more rapid change.

We are leaving behind a century of blind arrogance and our sites are set on digital agility & accountability. Who's staying & who's coming with us?

Radio Sales Today

TiVo loyalty evaporates

Now requiring a 1-year service contract, TiVo is gradually pricing themselves out of business, and it's more than a money issue for users. When it becomes too costly in terms of convenience and freedom, subscription growth will slow, and hardened TiVo nuts like me will stop using their settop boxes in lieu of MythTV and other Open Source platforms.

The first big news out of the TiVo camp in a long time was their decision to allow networks to "red flag" shows, which can limit when a program can be watched, how long it can be saved to the hard drive and whether it can be copied using the TiVo-To-Go feature.

TiVo has been extremely easy to use, and that has been its major selling point all along; no one who tried it didn't love TiVo. But the limitations just got to be too great for this to be a viable product in my home. One example is its proprietary file format. I want standard MPEG files that you can import/export/edit and save as long as I damn-well feel like it.

My loyalty for TiVo is gone. I predict that I will be using MythTV in 2006.

BetaNews | TiVo Institutes 1 Year Service Contracts

More than just "early adopters" Podcasting

This is clearly not a small thing. Podcasting has unquestionably hit the maintream -- repeatedly.

And they're not just 2-5 minute 'casts; I frequently see mainstream media producing 20 to 60-minute shows, some longer.

Podcasts are largely free, although some big names, like Rush Limbaugh, have managed to collect a fee from their fanbase in exchange for their exclusive content.

For those that stumbled across this post accidentally, Podcasting is an audio (and video, in some cases) form of "blogging", using a communications protocol known as RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, which enables anyone to automatically receive feeds to which they subscribe, similar to email.

Wired News: Tracking Rita: Interactive

Management defined...

Read carefully this story. It says, in essence, that the President cannot manage, for its definition is "getting things done through other people". This imbecile couldn't lead a dog catcher.

Health Emergency Declared for Texas, La. - Yahoo! News

Gvote

My advice to the right-wingers in American politics is this: beware! The open source community is mobilizing to shut you down.

I don't know from where, but the 'libs' are going to hunt you down and take away your 'G' membership cards.

Just giving you fair warning.

Peace out.

Republicans hate Democrats

Despite clear and documented evidence to the contrary, US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist maintains ignorance to his own assets. Frist's sale of the "blind trust" fetched an undisclosed amount, but his earlier statements indicate values in the range of $7 to $35 million.

Okay. We don't know if this particular transaction was illegal or not, but we damn-well know now that the Frist family are the epitomy of the bloated & greedy healthcare industry -- being the largets for-profit hospital company in America. One quesiton certainly looms: do you trust Senator Frist to be the next leader of the free world?

Just asking.

Prosecutors, SEC Probe Frist Stock Sale - Yahoo! News

Pink promotes Homophobia

New University of Iowa law professor (and former Bostonian) Erin Buzuvis apparently came to Hawkeye country to make trouble. She says Coach Hayden Fry promoted homophobia by having the visitor locker room at Kinnick Stadium painted pink and plans to change her new home.

Doggonit! I knew that should have been a screening question in the hiring process.

Funny. "Buz" sounds a bit like a "Butch".

TheIowaChannel.com - Sports - Professor Says Pink Locker Room Promotes Sexism, Homophobia: "Homophobia"

I came up with this neat idea...

I'm not sure where I came up with the idea, but I thought of a big national coffee house that seems to be the epitomy of the undermining of American values and culture and wanted to do something that people would want to support.

If I start a coffee chain, it will be a locally owned franchise in each location and have only a few restrictive guidelines. The first rule: wi-fi is free. Beyond a few basic rules, let them serve Folgers in plastic cups for all I care, so long as the spirit of open source is felt.

Oddly, when I Googled "open source cafe", which I made up, seems someone else made it up first:
The open source cafe - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Ideas - News

Rats!