Porres.com - Eric’s Humble Place in Cyberspace

I’ve been thinking about getting a Kindle for a long time.  I’ve had an Amazon wishlist of titles even longer; I pretty much keep any and all books I’m interested in but don’t have time to order/read immediately on that list. Out of curiosity, I added a Kindle device to my shopping cart, only to find that it was no easier to add any of the books on my current wishlist to my cart.  Clearly, every book title that is “Kindle-enabled” sits in a database.  Wouldn’t it be great if, when ordering a Kindle, you immediately got a secondary checklist of all the titles from your Wishlist that are Kindle-enabled?  It’s technically possible, and provides immediate incremental revenue.  Or, even less complex, for your wishlist, have a “Kindle-tally” of all the books in your wishlist that are Kindle-enabled?  I’d love to go through the 6 pages of titles I have, but I don’t have the time.  If technology can be a great enabler, then it damn well should.

Is Google a Media Company? - The New York Times

Is Ad Targeting the Next Big Thing - Don Dodge

Evil Genius: (The Good Side of PowerPoint) - Maya Design

How To Demo Your Startup - Tech Crunch

Facebook’s Redundant Ad Rating System - Tech Crunch

Web Privacy on the Radar in Congress - The New York Times

Jeff Jarvis wrote this very interesting and provocative blog post today. Here’s just a brief taste:

The internet doesn’t make us more creative, I don’t think. But it does enable what we create to be seen, heard, and used. It enables every creator to find a public, the public he or she merits. And that takes creation out of the proprietary hands of the supposed creative class.

Interested? Then read more. I had the good fortune to meet Jeff last year through a mutual acquaintance and spend some brainstorming time in a room with some other smart people. If one day I can write with 10% of his eloquence I will consider it a day of reckoning. I did make a more feeble attempt with my reply.

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I came across this ad / write-up for T-Mobile Germany today (thanks to Greg March for pointing it out):

http://weaklythunk.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/germany-delivers-an-operatic-surprise/

The background is here (original audition):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

and then here (the finals):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqWvuMJV0Yw&feature=related

Maybe you already knew about this guy…I did not (either because I was living under a rock or have 2 small children to run after), but anyway I thought you would appreciate how T-Mobile weaved the story into the ad.

Thanks to John Durham for sharing these.

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE  ROAD?

BARACK  OBAMA:

The chicken crossed  the road because it was time for CHANGE!

JOHN MCCAIN:

My friends, that  chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in  cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the  road.

HILLARY  CLINTON:

When I was First  Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This  experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure — right from Day One! —  that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross  the road.  But then, this really isn’t about me…….

JOHN  KERRY:

Although I voted to  let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road  to cross, and I was misled about the chicken’s intentions. I am not for it  now, and will remain against it.

GEORGE W.  BUSH:

We don’ t really  care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken  is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or  for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK  CHENEY:

Where’s my  gun?

COLIN  POWELL:

Now to the left of  the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken  crossing the road…

BILL  CLINTON:

I did not cross the  road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of  chicken?

OPRAH:

Well, I understand  that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this  road. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take  falls, which is a part of life, I’m going to give this chicken a car so  that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest  of the chickens.

BILL  GATES:

I have just released  eChicken2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file  your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer  is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable  and will never cra…#@&&^(C% ………  reboot.

ALBERT  EINSTEIN:

Did the chicken  really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the  chicken?

ERNEST  HEMINGWAY:

To die in the  rain.  Alone.

AL  SHARPTON:

Why are all the  chickens white? We need some black  chickens.

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Great show:

http://tinyurl.com/5dj4bu

‘88 Cos D’Estournel
‘88 Margaux
‘88 Latour

Good conversation about relevance of ratings and storage, etc.

Image via Wikipedia

Thanks to scouring the web I found the following blog from Tim Anderson where there were over 180 comments based on a post he made about a problem he was having in Word 2007…wading through the comments I found that they were all similar problems having to do with a corrupt registry.  I have no idea how I corrupted by registry, but be that as it may, following the advice of some comments and then a link to a buried Microsoft support page I was able to correct my problem…only wish I had discovered this yesterday and didn’t waste over an hour of uninstall/reinstall/office-diagnostics time.

Interesting article in the NYTimes about private jet interlopers…those who are the passengers in the lap of other people’s luxury travel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/fashion/13hitch.html

A few months ago I started sketching out (and I have witnesses!) an idea for an update service to update multiple social nets from one source.  I back-burnered the idea after have a hard time coming up with a revenue model to support it.  With that said, the folks at Ping.fm had the similar idea, and acted on it, launching the Ping.fm service not too long ago.  Check it out….interested to see how this evolves.

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Interesting article from the NYTimes on the redesign of the gallon milk jug which has some pretty interesting implications regarding the balance between industrial design, functionality, and profitability:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/30milk.html