Archive: Posts from January, 2006
January 31st, 2006, 5 Comments »
Thanks to James for pointing me toward iheartharper.ca. To be honest, besides the URL, they forgot to bring the funny. They need to amplify the satire by about 200%–something along the lines of The Onion’s spectacular Jean Tissdale.
Plus, I don’t support the use of images of Harper’s children. Just because politicians use their children as unwitting pawns, that doesn’t mean the rest of us should.
UPDATE: Silly me, I assumed all that sincerity and pink hearts implied a satire. I’m so jaded. As Andrea suggests in the comments, it’s apparently a legitimate site, from “former President of the BC Canadian Alliance Youth Association, Erin King”. That doesn’t make it any more funny or less creepy.
5 Comments »
January 31st, 2006, 1 Comment »
Ah, frivolous threats of legal action. Where would the tech industry be without them? Today, Cory Doctorow received one from StarForce, a company that offers, er, ‘professional protection against software piracy’. You can draw your own conclusions based on their online reputation. Here’s the threat in question:
Dear Sir, calling StarForce “Anti-copying malware” is a good enough cause to press charges and that is what our corporate lawyer is busy doing right now. I urge you to remove your post from http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/anticopying_malware_.html because it is full of insults, lies, false accusations and rumors. Your article violates approximately 11 international laws. Our US lawyer will contact you shortly. I have also contacted the FBI , because what you are doing is harassment.
And this came from StarForce’s PR guy? Dear me.
1 Comment »
January 31st, 2006, 3 Comments »
I was at an HTCE event last night. A recurring theme was the exploding multiplicity of marketing channels, and the need to get extremely granular in your approach. There are fewer and fewer reasons, for example, to get your clients into (or advertise in) The Vancouver Sun. Instead, you want to narrow your audience as much as possible, and market appropriately. At the risk of blowing my own horn, I think QA Podcast is a good example of this.
However, it’s not nearly as creative as the Google Maps mashup this San Jose comic shop created. It displays (ostensibly) the best comic shops in North America. More importantly, it got plugged on Boing Boing, which no doubt has thousands of comic readers. They’re all potential customers for Hijinx Comics, the store in question.
I submitted The Comicshop on West 4th, where I whiled away many hours (and spent many dollars) in my childhood.
UPDATE: On a related subject, I wanted to remark on the skill and humour with which the Rocketboom folks have introduced the subject of advertising. Their eBay auction is red hot, and still eight days away from completion. They’re going to make a mint. I’m guessing it easily tops US $50,000. That’s still a deal to reach a million desirable consumers at least 250,000 desirable consumers in a week, and to have the cache of being the first advertiser. Every media article about Rocketboom for the next year will no doubt mention the advertiser as well–a nice fringe benefit.
3 Comments »
January 31st, 2006, 4 Comments »
The Movie Blog has a complete list of the Oscar nominations that were announced this morning. My initial, random thoughts:
- The best supporting actor category is stacked.
- Syriana was screwed, and apparently too smart for the Academy. No nomination for editing or direction?
- Cinderella Man is way overrated. Hollywood loves its period pieces starring afflicted heroes.
- I really hope “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” wins for best original song, and the presenter is, I don’t know, Anthony Hopkins or Judy Dench.
- The hardest category to call? Best adapted screenplay–they’re all such excellent scripts.
4 Comments »
January 30th, 2006, 2 Comments »
As you might imagine, I find bullfighting both detestable and utter indefensible. As such, I’m always pleased to watch video of the bull goring the heck out of a matador. Today, via CNN (apologies for the stupid, dodgy, popup video player), a bull goes one better, hopping the wall in right field to go after the fans.
If you watch the video to the end, you’ll spot a photographer with nerves of steel. Or perhaps he’s a retired matador.
2 Comments »
January 29th, 2006, 5 Comments »
Here’s an amusing ten-minute mockumentary about a couple of nerdy Dungeons & Dragons players. It’s entertaining, and brings back some uncomfortable memories of early adolescence.
Have you ever been chased by the entire football team, simply because you chose to wear your cloak that day?
I’m not sure they mined all the comic possibilities (there are so many!), but it’s a job well done. Plus, the closing credits are really slick.
5 Comments »
January 29th, 2006, 1 Comment »
I still live in CRT TV land. You know, the kind of TV that requires you to build an extension on your apartment’s TV nook to support its girth. I probably won’t upgrade to plasma or LCD or the-new-best-TV-thingy until a) my TV breaks or b) we move.
Still, that hasn’t stopped me from being curious about TiVo and HD-TVs and all the other new-fangled tele-gadgets. Alexandra offers a very thorough rundown of the state of Shaw’s HD-TV and PVR offerings:
The up-side: Shaw’s PVR is readily available, HDTV-friendly, and has a dual tuner — not features that are available in cable-ready TiVo units at the moment. The downside: it’s $577 after programming credits, which is $300 more than either the tuner-only unit OR than a TiVo unit with comparable capacity.
Coincidentally, I was looking at my TV and Internet provider’s PVR offering. Inexplicably, Novus doesn’t list it on their website, but their PVR starts at $850 (with some relatively small credit for Internet service). That struck me as highway robbery, so I’m leaning toward a standalone PVR+DVD recorder like this one.
1 Comment »
January 27th, 2006, 5 Comments »
There’s this meme going around where you answer a bunch of questions about yourself (here’s an example). One question asks about “movies I would watch over and over again”. Some years ago, another friend asked me what movies I must watch if I’m channel-surfing and see them in progress.
In the spirit of partial meme participation, here’s my top five:
- The Great Escape
- The Princess Bride
- Unforgiven
- Spartan
- The Truman Show
The number six movie is slightly embarassing, in that it’s Back to the Future. In fact, I spotted it on TV and watched a good half-hour. That’s what started this whole line of thinking, actually.
5 Comments »