Stuff and Things

Canadian Study Suggests Flu Shot Increases Risk for Swine

2009-11-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

A recent Canadian study caused quite the international stir when it strongly suggested that season flu shots doubled one's risk for being infected by H1N1. Although follow-up studies are being conducted due to the worrisome implications, as of now the data presented is generally considered "solid" and is largely accepted by those reviewing it because of the large number of credible authors and researchers involved and the huge sample size of 12 to 13 million people taken from the central reporting systems in three provinces.

Regardless of these statements some skepticism still exists because these findings are not shared among other countries, the study's impact appears confined to Canada alone. Researchers in the US, UK, and Australia have not reported anything that would imply a similar situation is underfoot elsewhere. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of vaccine research at the World Health Organization even feels that there might be some "study bias" involved with this study considering it's exclusive nature.

In the meantime most Canadian provinces, to the dismay and confusion of the public, are suspending the distribution of seasonal flu shots until January 2010 at the earliest. Only New Brunswick has chosen to disregard this research and will still administer shots as usual. The exception for all provinces are citizens over 65 will still receive their flu shot as they prove more susceptible to the common flu, though interestingly they still carry antibodies from the 1957 pandemic that seems to neutralize H1N1.

With this being said, the link between the season flu and Swine still proves mysterious, one theory postulates that the seasonal flu vaccine preoccupies the cells that would otherwise produce antibodies against H1N1 but otherwise scientists are floundering on this one. “We don't understand the mechanism,” Dr. Rubinstein said. “At the present time it is quite perplexing.”

Link to Source

The "Diplomat Trailer" drinking game

2009-11-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

The Diplomat Trailer

The beauty of this games comes in the form of versatility. It can be played anywhere that laptops exist and alcohol (or suitable beverages) can be enthusiastically consumed. If a non-alcoholic version is desired even a dorm lounge would be serviceable.

Supplies required
Mandatory:
Diplomat Trailer Video
Viewing Equipment
Seating/comfort/proper area
Beverages (bottled, canned, tapped etc.)
Recommended:
Cups, steins
Costumes

The rules are rather simple, yet depth is brought out in the potential level of customization and combination.

Before the trailer starts but after a brief stating of intent and any background info regarding the trailer is taken care of the attendees are given a list of the cast to choose from based on how much they want to drink, with characters that appear in more scenes generally requiring more beverage indulgence. HIGH=much drinking to be done and so on.

Cast:
Main Man: Gabe Winski--HIGH

Daughter: Kathrine Anderson--MODERATELY HIGH

"Kane" (lead Antagonist): Nolan Gauttier--MODERATE

Partner: Laura Labbe--MODERATE

Goon in bathroom: Ethan Rittershaus--LOW

Male Goon: Nolan Gauttier--MODERATELY HIGH

Female Goon: Laura Labbe--LOW

To further customize one's experience one can choose multiple characters or choosing the actor/actress instead. At the most basic level every time a character/s of a participants choice appears on screen a drink must be taken.

Universal Circumstances requiring a drink (invented rules are recommended):

At the 1, 2, and 2:35 (end) minute marks
When someone dies
When a gun is present
For every scene with a blatantly added effect/s
When you spot a hacksaw
During a closeup
When you recognize a dorm setting
When you spot the dalmatians painting about half-way through
A shift in musical score
The opening of a door (kicked or otherwise)
You note something of a badass nature

Example of further drink circumstances if the "Main Man" is chosen

When you can't see the main character's face (e.i. him running away, yelling in defeat etc.)
When the trench coat is replaced with a wifebeater
And then to a blue t-shirt
And then to a black jacket
And then back to a wifebeater
And finally to the trench coat with police vest
When coarse language is used
During a moment of emotional distress

Of course there are many options to consider but these are merely guidelines. To add further depth consider adding combos into the mix, for instance follow up one drink with a continuous chug for the duration of the scene involving the next circumstance. Or throw penalties into the mix. If you miss a cue, take a drink. If you mis-drink (take the wrong cue), take a drink. If someone else mis-drinks, join them for their penalty drink. The possibilities are vast.

"Android 2.0: The iPhone killer at last?"

2009-11-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

Not likely if you ask Galen Gruman from Infoworld.com. While apple has been criticized for being overly restrictive for developers and not secure enough for many businesses its iPhone is still a complete powerhouse as far as smartphone market share is concerned. The iPhone is the second most used mobile device to browse the web, and globally, as as smartphone, it holds the largest percentage (40%) of web use. Pretty tough competition out of the gate.
While Palm and Microsoft based OS's have been floundering as of late, Android would be going up against the well established user bases of the iPhone and Blackberry in the US market, or Nokia's products when looking abroad. However, with Google, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, Acer and other big-name players collaborating together it would seem that the Android smartphone would still have a relatively easy time getting a strong foothold. Gruman feels otherwise, stating that " [the] Android could become yet another failed partnership among selfish, oafish industry heavyweights. Along those lines Gruman expressed concern about self interest, with so many disparate companies backing a single product things could quikly become confusing, inconsistent and messy. And while this might seem to be somewhat mitigated by Google's built-in cloud-based apps and functionality it could also backfire and prove restrictive and shallow.
In the end Gruman expects the Blackberry and iPhone to maintain their lead in the smartphone market. "[The] iPhone and BlackBerry will be what matters in North America, with BlackBerry becoming the "safe" choice for businesses that don't want their employees accessing the Web or running personal apps -- the lock-down device, essentially..." and apple handling the Web and app-based heavy lifting, fueled by consumer passion to maintain it's separate lead.

Source

"How to Win an Internet Flame War"

2009-11-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

With anonymity ruling both the everyday as well as the darkest reaches of the web it's no surprise that its power is frequently abused. When you have no reputation to uphold and no real identity online you can essentially be the very worst person you always wished you could become in real life, save for the consequences.
It is because of this that what might have started as a simple back and forth on a message board or forum, escalated into an all out flame war, if you want to survive this potentially damning encounter you'll have to keep a cool head but not be afraid to get dirty at the same time. Below is the abbreviated version of the tongue-in-cheek article Wired.com posted recently.

Get caught up in semantics, but use misdirection and a twist or two of the truth to provide a good counter without opening yourself up to further attack.

Have at it with the insults, attacking someone on a personal level, usually regarding intelligence or spelling ability is a good place to start. It will win you a small personal victory with each witty retort as you slowly whittle down their patience and destroy their cool, futher exposing their weaknesses.

Use forth grade anti-bully advice for yourself though, if you ignore the flamer, that is if they insult you and it seems to bounce off then you've already made them madder or more likely to give up or even better, start making mistakes you can pounce on.

Thanks to anonymity you can make any terrible, crushing assumption you like. Any attempt as refuting this will likely only serve to make them look all the most suspect of your initial claims.

In conclusion there are a lot of disgruntled 16-year-olds out there with a lot of time on their hands, they're good at what they do but with a calm, collected and occasional cruel approach you can enter the fray of flame and exit the victor.

link to source

Twerp Project Overview

2009-11-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

The Twerp Project was created by Josh Smith during the fall of 2009. Quite possibly the first of it's kind on YouTube, Twerp both satirizes the popular social site, Twitter as well as popular culture at large. Anyone who's spent much time around Twitter knows that not all "tweets" (posts limited to 140 characters) are particularly scholarly or insightful. In the most dire of situations they can even prove overly revealing and personal, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, completely redundant or unnecessary.
The Twerp project aims to capitalize on these conventions and in it's 10-15 second videos viewers are treated to a variety of seemingly absurd "tweets", only spoken out loud rather than typed, essentially a "live-tweet" as Josh initially dubbed it. This approach helps to emphasize just how ridiculous some of the things people tweet around truly are, we often find there to be a big distinction of what we would say, and what we would say online. I think a lot of us subscribe to the "reserved in public, revealing online" social habit and it's nice to see that someone has picked up on this trend and given it some exposure.
Ideally the Twerp project will influence others to post video responses, or re-twerps as they might be termed.

New Literacy

2009-10-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

Scholarly and academic types have long bemoaned the rise of technology and it's apparent effect on how kids write, often siting text messaging and chat rooms as sources of this downward spiral to illiteracy. However, it looks like these claims may be put to rest as new research from Andrea Lunsford of Stanford University supports a dramatically different conclusion.
As part of the project: "The Stanford Study of Writing", Lunsford and her colleagues have carefully mulled over a total of 14,672 different writing samples. From blog posts to traditional in-class prose, numerous contemporary forms were studied from 2001-2006.
Her conclusions are in direct opposition to the typical complaints of the critics. Lunsford believes that we're in the midst of a literary revolution, as opposed to some kind of plunging decline. She noted that young people today get far more practice writing then the once did before the internet age. It used to be that once a person graduated and left the educational realm they were unlikely to pursue writing again. Now almost everyone spends a great deal of their spare time writing online, often to an audience, which Lunsford also notes is a major difference between modern students and those of years past.
Today's youth are particularly adept at adapting their prose to meet the demands of an audience and have explained in interviews that they consider good writing to be that of a persuasive nature. Lunsford concludes by mentioning that even with freshman writers the much scorned text-messaging speak never made its way into their prose, showing that young people know that there's a time and place for such short-hand.

Link to Source

A bundle of project links

2009-10-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a healthy set of links to various projects from some fellow classmates. There's a whole range of topics covered here but the underlying goal is to gain recognition and wide distribution so I encourage anyone to repost, link, and share to your heart's content.
*Just make note that these are all a work in progress so possible revisions and additional content is likely not far behind.*

Failpoint ->A blog that aims to make "Fairpoint Communications" synonymous with "Failpoint".

Battered Rose -> A well crafted fan site for singer/songwriter, Emilie Autumn.

Prof Salaries -> How much are they paying your UMaine prof? Check out this repository.
(download complete excel doc by clicking the icon near the top of the page).

"A Strange Occurance" -> An experimental film involving a mysterious package. A real mind trip in a good way.

Twerp -> A satirical take on the silly, redundant, or puzzling nature of Twitter, acted out in public places. Check out the first 3 entries: 1 2 3

Social Hackers -> A website devoted to mixing up your day-to-day grind with "social hacks". Must be seen to be fully understood. Latest videos: 1 2

Divorce Photography -> A new take on a classic. A place where life's more sour memories are appreciated for what they are.

"The Diplomat" -> In case you managed to avoid it this long...

The Status Quo: Meme Cycle Update

2009-10-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

Efforts Made to Date:
-Added video responses to 3 related videos on YouTube with more reach than mine.
-Posted link with plead for help on HardwareFo rums.com, hoping to involve a new audience.
-Tweeted link to facebook status via "selective twitter status" (#fb tag)
-Added link to blog post on facebook
-Created note on FB with a carefully tagged, 25 friend dream-team I expected would best propagate the meme
-Set up automatic blog import function on FB so friends could see any recent blog posts and updates

Results to Date:
HardwareForums.com

Facebook

5 comments out of 25 friends tagged, 1/5th feedback total=decent
Youtube

253-301 views in 7 days (10-7 - 10-14)

1 new comment
Feedburner:

September 28th-reach of 2...

6 blog hits via facebook

Newsy: "The News Is Broken, But We Can Fix It"

2009-10-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

It's no mystery that many people take their choice of news source pretty seriously, often involving the level of loyalty and the resulting hostility more often associated with sports fans. This generally boils down to politics. A persons party affiliation will often steer them toward a specific website or news station, like Fox News or Common Dreams depending on where they feel they stand.
The new web service and iPhone app, Newsy, hopes to mitigate this problem by collating various sources reporting on the same subject into a single video with highlights narrated by Newsy's journalists. The aim is to offer news buffs a more rounded, global perspective that they would otherwise not likely have if they relied solely on one source for their news.
Newsy also hopes to makes the hundreds and even thousands or similar articles on a single subject online a little more manageable to sift through by taking on the "legwork" for you.
As of the time the article was written Newsy was solely limited to the condensing of multiple news sources into a convenient package but with no system of rating, fact checking, or analyzing. While this would certainly bolster the content of the site, the absense of these features are likely a peacekeeping effort in order to avoid riling up the news organizations used.
Link to source
Link to Newsy

"The Diplomat" Exclusive Backstory

2009-10-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

Introduction: "The Diplomat" came about last year as a final class project for NMD 270. This was a rather open-ended assignment that pretty much just required that we worked in groups and the video was at least 1 minute long and utilized some techniques covered in class.

Intent: We tried our best to make this seem like a movie trailer. We aimed to have the pacing speed up by the end and throw in a little production value with weapon effects and movie studio logos. It's pretty obvious this is a class project and is a little rough but hopefully some hidden charm will shine through.

Premise: Aside from the movie trailer vibe we were looking to convey a sort of satirical take on the action/drama film. Nothing the trailer does is meant to seem original or fresh but rather it's aim is to poke fun at movies or shows we've all seen before. The title "The Diplomat" is unsurprisingly intended to be a little tongue-in-cheek as there's nothing very calculating or tactful about the main character to say the least.

Cast: Main Man: Gabe Winski

Daughter: Kathrine Anderson

"Kane" (lead Antagonist): Nolan Gauttier

Partner: Laura Labbe

Goon in bathroom: Ethan Rittershaus

Male Goon: Nolan Gauttier

Female Goon: Laura Labbe

"Air Force Releases ‘Counter-Blog’ Marching Orders"

2009-10-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

In an effort to ward off misinformation, degradation of name, and "raging" the US Air Force's technology division has recently put together a flow chart guide to "counter-blogging." This chart instructs officers on how to handle blog posts that could use some redirection.

While seemingly rather forward thinking the Air Force is actually rather behind in this field as the Both the Army and Navy have made efforts over the past years to connect with bloggers in such matters as "blogger roundtables" and humanitarian missions. The Air Force on the other hand, while obviously beginning to take the plunge, has been largely reclusive in this realm with many sites being altogether banned from Air Force networks.

Captain Flaggard of the Public Affairs Agency has been looking to help mitigate this by setting up a twitter account and even a blog for the service itself.

While still in its infancy the flow chart is a very good step in the right direction it would seem. Military spokesman, Steven Field agrees that "... a military-like process would be a good bridge to connect the services with the blogosphere."

Link to source

Link to "counter-blogging" flow chart

Charles Darwin Tagged You in a Note on Facebook

2009-10-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

acebook has always been a powerful force since it's inception into the world of social networking in 2004. It was no surprise to see it become the successful internet tycoon that it is, however, few likely would have guessed that we could use it to better understand digital evolution.

Chris Wilson goes on to explain that the Facebook phenomenon "25 random things about me" or simply "25 things" is actually the end product of a fairly lengthy evolutionary path. Starting out as "16 random things about me" (also a prime number) the meme proved highly virile, but only for a short time. Subsequent re-imaginings, both varying in number of "things" and general content helped to keep the meme alive but it was only when the sweet spot of 25 was discovered that it really took off.

Wilson even discusses how after analyzing data he was able to determine that 25 thing's hey day corresponded with Facebook's month of highest traffic (as of Feb '09). So Mark Zuckerburg might want to consider thanking the little meme that could for the wintertime surge of popularity earlier this year.

Wilson continues with evidence from his talk with biologist Lauren Ancel Meyers who studies the spread of disease that suggests that the spread of 25 things closely mirrors that of an infectious strain. Wilson goes on to comment on the short lived nature of even the most popular of memes (also similar to many contagions). The meme, in it's various forms seems to come and go. It's spread out at an exponential rate but those that choose to participate almost always will do so within one week , meaning that there aren't many stragglers out there.

He closes by stating that a memes success often seems like a crap shoot so the best bet for acceptance is to simply flood the market with all sorts of ideas and hope that at least one takes root. "If evolution is any guide, however, there's no predicting what succeeds and what doesn't. Just look at the platypus".

Link to source

2009-09-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Esther Polak made ripples in the GPS artist community when she utilized satellite technology in Nigeria to track the distribution of "Peak" brand milk. Polak feeds this data into a custom built robot that then traces the routes across the ground so those involved can reflect upon the journeys they've made. She feels that milk has always been a critical part of diet and has "sculpted our lives and landscape". Her goal was to create a visual documentary and reflection on nomadic life as we've rarely seen it.

The Meme Connection: I like to think that if feedburner does it's job that I might have something of a simply plot of how my meme migrates and gain a little insight into the wild world of online propagation. The statistics won't quite give me the same effect as Polak's milk distribution setup but it will nonetheless be interesting to see visitation and redirection stats.

http://turbulence.org/blog/2009/01/08/nomadicmilk-nigeria/

GDC: Facebook, iPhone Intersect on Scrabble

2009-09-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

Take the revered board game Scrabble, give it a Web 2.0 overhaul and the made it mobile. That's pretty much what Electronic Arts has done with it's latest iteration of the classic.
What started as a welcome facebook app has now made its way to the iPhone and iTouch allowing users on either their mobile device or their desktop to compete head to head with one another. However if a little smack talk is needed the chat function is always ready to go between competitors.
There is some slight latency due to connection speeds and facebook's safety protocols but considering the methodical nature of the game it's hardly a glaring issue. There's also the option to play several people at once so if one of your friends needs to take a call you can still spell it out with another pal.

The Meme Connection: Seeing as I'm definitely utilizing facebook here I can't help but be intrigued. Just today I used two facebook apps to help bolster my automated functionality of the meme cycle.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/03/iphone-scrabble/

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (outcomes of the proposed meme cycle)

2009-09-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

The Good: My target audience of YouTubers and Facebook friends make great strides to propagate my meme. The link to the video is spread among a vast array of people and viewership and ratings soar. "The Diplomat" reaches thousands of views and generates comments. I take part in the Sundance Film Festival and become a beloved internet allstar.*

The Bad: My target audience spreads the meme and a wide viewership emerges. However it is met with disgust or simply misunderstood and both my facebook wall and youtube profile are marred with negative banter. My internet name is tarnished for all time and I am know as the guy who made that one amateur video.
Alternative Bad scenario: As my video gains popularity YouTube catches on to the fact that I have snippets of unlicensed music contained within its duration and disables my audio track, rendering my video pointless and confusing and killing my ratings and views.

The Ugly: I am simply not able to generate much enthusiasm for my video. People take little interest in my blog and due to my sub-average facebook friend population my promotional efforts go largely unnoticed. My video operates in somewhat of a niche market where it won't necessarily appeal to everyone and an apathetic audience never spreads it among themselves.

*realism not taken into account, would be cool however.

making it happen 1.0

2009-09-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

In an effort to get the ball rolling with this meme cycle I [very] recently made some advances in the automation aspect of the project. The update appear as follows:

There is now an all encompassing subscription chicklet in the top left of this blog.

Using feedburner any new blog posts also appear on my Facebook wall as notes that users can comment on.

Using the #fb tag in twitter, I can selectively add tweets to my facebook status automatically.
All Twitter updates also appear on my blog.

Fog Screen Technology

2009-09-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Looking to change projection technology as we know it the FogScreen® projection system, produces a thin curtain of “dry” fog that acts as a translucent projection screen, allowing it to display images just about anywhere. Using simple tap water and digital projection technology the images FogScreen produces literally float in midair, allowing users to touch or walk right through the "screen." This technology is quickly becoming adopted among those who aim to impress at tradeshows, casinos, nightclubs, museums etc.

source: http://www.fogscreen.com/en/

Mr. Know-It-All on Spam Among Friends, Blog Contests, Naked Babies

2009-09-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. Know-It-All is a popular feature of Wired magazine and it's accompanying site that functions much like a Dear Abby column for the tech savvy. This particular segment deals with three disparate topics that we may or may not have wondered about ourselves.
Topic 1) Is mass emailing people from your address book about an event okay?
Response: That would basically be spamming. No one wants to consider the act of giving out their email address an invitation to be bombarded with shameless updates. That isn't to say that self promotion is bad but more care is needed than what a blanket message would allow for. Only target specific people that might be interested and make sure to personalize the opening to the message. And if things turn ugly be human enough to apologize.
Topic 2) Is it wrong to boost blog traffic by giving away gift cards at random?
Response: This would be more of a sweepstakes, as seen with sites like Publishers Clearing House. Because users weren't rewarded for their skill but picked at random you would be subject to the laws regarding sweepstakes of your state. Basically they usually state you need to have all that fine print regarding the contest printed on the site. Sometimes this can be as specific as posted the odds of winning and "no purchase necessary". However despite all this "The California attorney general's office couldn't identify a single case of a blogger being punished for holding a sweepstakes."
Topic 3) Is posting pictures of your naked baby on facebook like childporn?
Response: Porn would have to contain sexually explicit content and or including "lascivious exhibition" of genitalia. This doesn't really apply to baby pics. In fact while facebook didn't really approve of breastfeeding, Facebook spokesperson Simon Axten mentions that "We've carved out an exception in our policy to allow photos of infants posted by parents or other family members." Also mentioned was that Facebook, provided certain settings are enabled, can be much more private than most any other site, allowing only trusted friends to see such things.

source: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_kia

Meme cycle revision #3

2009-09-22T22:47:00.002-07:00

Web users 'getting more ruthless'

2009-09-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

While ruthless might be a strong word, The annual report into web habits by usability researcher Jakob Nielsen looks to show that people are becoming much less patient when they go online. He explains that much fewer people doddle on any given page and mostly go online to complete a specific task
and then leave. Because of this we've become pretty resistant to promotions or editorial choices that aim to distract them.
He mentions that users often get very frustrated when there are too many extras on a given site (think facebook). The major complaint here is that it makes the pages take longer to load, which in the this "hot potato" age of surfing, just isn't acceptable. He concludes by saying that search engines pretty much rule the web, only 25% of individuals used their homepage to travel to a given destination.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7417496.stm

'Vanish' Makes Sensitive Data Self-Destruct

2009-09-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

Developed by computer scientists at the University of Washington, "Vanish" is a pretty revolutionary piece of software designed for the highly sensitive environment of digital exchange. The premise is that via a firefox extension users can essentially self-destruct any message after a given amount of time.
Both the sender and recipient must have this tool installed. If a user highlights any sensitive text entered into the browser and presses the "vanish" button which encrypts the information with a key unknown to either party. This allows the text to be read by the recipient when they use the "unscramble" button but after eight hours the message will be impossible to unscramble for anyone. This appears to work for any form of text entered online including Facebook and blogs.

source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/21/1522255/Vanish-Makes-Sensitive-Data-Self-Destruct?from=rss

Online Jihadists Plan for ‘Invading Facebook’

2009-09-16T09:38:00.001-07:00

It's a pretty well established fact that terrorism has made it to the virtual realm that is the internet. Jihadists have proven their ability to utilize resources like YouTube and blogs to spread their propaganda for years now.
However as of recently there have been rumors of plans to step things up to the social networking level, specifically facebook. Naturally this would pose major difficulties to anyone involved, as stated by professor Marc Lynch of George Washington University, "How do you get your people in, and keep intelligence agents out?" Certain resources mention plans to have seven "brigades" work together in order to accomplish such goals where certain Jihadists will distribute video and training material, some will focus on Arabic, and others in English.

source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/12/online-jihadist/

Revised Meme Cycle

2009-09-16T09:35:00.001-07:00

Gulf Hagas Trip

2009-09-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

How is this even possible?

Meme time

2009-09-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Payload-> Video:"The diplomat"

Circulatory Systems-> Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

Direction-> Horizontal (peer to peer, word of mouth) Vertical (mother-child)

Vector-> forwarding, hotlinking, tagging, embedding, subscriptions (facebook, YouTube)

Hook-> backlinks->blogs, related content->YouTube

Recognition-> page rank, star rating, views, diggs

Please use as directed, pretty please?

2009-09-09T09:38:00.001-07:00

With a sarcastic intro the blogger explains that marketers have an expectation that consumers use their products as designed and when this doesn't happen decisions must be made "and decisions are toughies."
He goes on to sight several different example of how a brands products were used in ways perhaps not intended for and how the companies behind said brands reacted. For example when a man furnishes his house with FedEx box furniture and posts the pictures to his website he gets sued by FedEx as they complain that he shouldn't be using the brand for his personal benefit.
When a MIT student builds a Gatorade-bottle raft and crosses the Charles river Gatorade responds by giving him and his roommate two $2 coupons and two lanyards.
It would appear that Coke didn't quite get the Mentos-diet Coke popularity when they respond to various experimenters by saying "the 'craziness with Mentos ... doesn't fit with the brand personality' of Diet Coke." Mentos on the other hand was "Tickled pink" (their words) by the whole act and sent sent some experimenters 3000 Mentos and created a website to host videos of the wildness that ensued.
The blogger concludes by praising Mentos for really understanding what it was all about and realizing that instead of doing any harm they were actually enforcing the brand recognition.
While I can't really compare my potential project to this directly it still serves to enforce the power of both the people and the tools they use, in this case the web.

source: http://brandednewb.blogspot.com/2006/07/please-use-as-directed-pretty-please.html

Video Prank at Domino’s Taints Brand

2009-09-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

Via the power of the internet two presumably disgruntled Domino's employees single handedly marred the reputation of a once respected franchise within a matter of days with their release of a video showing them tainting their food deliveries in various ways.
“It’s the toughest situation for a company to face in terms of a digital crisis.” explains Paul Gallagher, managing director and a head of the United States crisis practice. Various peace-keeping efforts had to take place in terms of formal apologies, an explanatory youtube video featuring the cheif executive and even a separate Twitter account reserved simply for fielding the many questions everyone had.

This once again reaffirms the massive power of big-name websites like youtube and twitter not only for pushing contagious media but for the cleanup process that might have to follow. It really makes you think of just how far something like this can go if you have something that people get worked up about.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/media/16dominos.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Star Wars Kid, internet & public stupidity as art

2009-09-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

Easily one of the most internet famous videos of all time, the "Star Wars Kid" has spawned numerous remixes and has even been parodied in prime time shows like Family Guy and South Park. However despite the popularity of the video it has apparently caused no end of grief to it's star, a then pudgy 15 year old who didn't realize his pals were going to upload it after the filming. Because of the attention the boy received after it was revealed how he felt many people began to feel that the internet was an unfair invasion of privacy and could be used to exploit people and destroy lives etc.

Steven Streight counters this by explaining that the internet doesn't force any of these things to happen and is simply a tool that we use as we choose to, whether for good or bad means. He notes that "It wasn't the Internet that made that boy act stupidly. It wasn't the Internet that videotaped him. It wasn't the Internet that posted the video to YouTube. Why blame the Internet for anything?" He concludes by saying that we should simply just learn to take advantage of the resource that is the internet, rather than complaining about it.

I really have to agree with Streight on this one and I feel that in some ways this ties into what I'd be dealing with as I promote my own video. Once it's out there I'm simply at the mercy of the crowd, so it really pays to know what you're getting into ahead of time.

The Da Vinci Code: What Happens When You Twitter the Mona Lisa?

2009-09-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

Mario Klingermann has set out and accomplished something probably none of us have really even accepted as being possible. He has managed to tweet an image of the Mona Lisa, albeit with the end product resembling a more cubist take on the original.
Seeing as Twitter's 140 character limit translates into only about 140 bytes of data this would seem to be an impossible task. But being the clever man he is, Klingermann, designed an image encoder that translates the Mona Lisa in this case into Chinese characters, allowing him to utilize 210 bytes of information as opposed to the theoretical maximum of ~140.
Once decoded, the characters form a Voronoi Diagram, or a series of polygons that translate into colors and shapes. Unfortunately Twitter won't do this for you, the decoder Klingermann uses is not something that comes standard with any Twitter client.
While he explains that he still doesn't see any immediate practical application for this he will release the code he used to spawn a little creativity in aspiring Twitter gurus.

A thorough collection of Klingermann's other experiements: computational experiments

source: http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/The_Da_Vinci_Code%3A_What_Happens_When_You_Twitter_the_Mona_Lisa_

Web Boycott: Just Say No to Viral Videos Starring Cats

2009-09-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

Piano playing cats just aren't for everyone apparently. Kelley Reeves decided youtube had gone too far and has urged everyone to join in on a one day boycott of all cat related postings today, September 9th.
In an interview with wired Kelley reveals that she believes cats are a prime subject for humorous videos and pictures due to their unassuming demeanor, whereas dogs aren't quite as nonchalant. She also noted that cats are more unpredictable and have very expressive faces, probably serving as the biggest boon for Lolcat creators.
She notes that on youtube cats totally dominate, with the Pets and Animals category being made up mostly of cat-related videos.
Near the end of the interview she somewhat contradicts herself by explaining that she has two cats of her own that she's featured in videos of her own before.
While I don't have nearly the same interest in cats as Kelley I do consider Youtube to be my primary circulatory system for the video I plan to push.

Her website promoting the event: A Day Without Cats on the Internet.

source: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/09/web-boycott-just-say-no-to-viral-videos-starring-cats/