HSX

So the Oscars are over...I was definitely way off on my predictions, some that I'm glad about and some that I'm not. I like that The Hurt Locker upset Avatar all night, but I really didn't think either film deserved the hype that they got. The Hurt Locker is perhaps more deserving of the awards that it received, but I definitely wasn't blown away by it. The award that ticked me off the most was Best Original Screenplay. There's no way that The Hurt Locker should have won over Inglourious Basterds. The dialogue in Tarantino's movie was brilliant, creative, intense and definitely should have won that award.

But anyway, what's done is done. Another year, another new selection of films to see. If you're like me and you enjoy reading/watching upcoming releases and deciding what you think, you may want to invest in those predictions. Now you can with HSX.com, the Hollywood Stock Exchange. It's exactly what you would guess it is: you can buy shares of not only films, but also TV shows and actors themselves. For example, you can already buy shares of Avatar 2 (symbol AVAT2) for $242.04. Iron Man 2 (symbol IRNM2) is currently going for $367.69. You may want to jump onto Tron Legacy, which is currently at $168.65, but I'd guess that'll at least double in the coming months. Unfortunately, however, this site doesn't run on real money but on "Hollywood Dollars," which are basically worthless. I'm hoping this changes eventually. Regardless, it could be fun.

You can sign up for free and get $2,000,000 to invest with...as they say, the rest is up to you. I like the concept and might jump on eventually. As for you, don't blame me if you lose all your fake money on buying shares of Gary Busey.

C O D E O R G A N

I came across this website via NPR. Codeorgan was developed by a creative British marketing company called DLKW. The site allows you to enter any URL and through an algorithm, processes the body code of the site into music. Pretty slick idea.

The music is composed of three parts: key, synth and drums. The keys are in a pentatonic scale, depending on the most common letter of the source code that is part of the A-G musical scale: major scale if that number is even, minor if it's odd (so for example, if you have 164 E's on the body source of your site, it will process that into a major pentatonic scale). 10 synthesizer effects are available and this program chooses one based on the amount of content on the particular site. Thirdly, there are also 10 different drum loops and those are chosen based on the ratio of all letters to the number of letters in the musical scale.

This is one of those sites that you can find yourself playing around with for an hour. Some sites sound horrid; some are interesting. This blog sounds kind of like a broken grandfather clock with a drum beat (though that will inevitably change once I post this). It'd be interesting to intentionally create a page based on the algorithm in order to produce good music. If anyone plays with this and finds a cool site to use, please leave the site in the comments.

Esquire Augmented Reality

Print publications are dying. Most of us know it. A lot of us have already rid it from our lives. More of us are taking that process a bit more slowly.

I can't see printed books ever going away, even with the recent technology of Amazon's Kindle and the subsequent competitors.

Newspapers are probably the low man on the totem pole. Many of us get our news online now.

Magazines probably lie somewhere between. Personally, I may be in the minority these days but I enjoy the feel of reading magazines occasionally so I still have a handful of magazine subscriptions, one of which is Esquire.

I'm fascinated and in admiration of an idea that was launched in Esquire's December 2009 issue which links their print publication to people's computers. This idea is what is called "Augmented Reality." With a quick (free) download of software from their website, this "Augmented Reality" uses your web cam to detect markers throughout the print publication to show you additional content. David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire explains this concept further in the following video:



There are 5 content icons in the December 2009 issue: the cover with Robert Downey Jr., the Funny joke from a Beautiful Woman segment and the Style segment with Jeremy Renner as David Granger exemplified. There is also an icon for a blurb on jazz musician Robert Glasper, which gives you a listen to one of his new tracks, and there is an icon for a rather creative photographer which gives you a slideshow of some of his work. Also, there is a 6th icon for Lexus, which demonstrates some of the capabilities of one of their new models. This demonstrates that Esquire can make money off of using this technology while advertisers can present a very unique concept to potential customers.

Altogether, it only took me about 20 minutes to go through all of this in my issue but I found it very interesting and think this is just about the best idea that a print magazine could come up with to compete with online content. Augmented reality is not a new concept; it exists in such things as the yellow first down marker in football games. However, Esquire took it to a different level making it fun, engaging, interactive and obviously (or hopefully, for their sakes) encouraging for people to pick up the magazine to see it for themselves.

Not surprisingly, there was no AR in the January issue of Esquire. I wouldn't expect them to use something involving complex algorithms that inevitably take a lot of time to create for every single monthly issue. Yet, I definitely think (and hope) that Esquire will be using this again in the future.

My Life is Complete

Click here to find out why.

Fired for Facebook

Everyone is well aware of the popularity of social media outlets such as Facebook. What you post on Facebook has sparked quite a debate. Career guidance services suggest that you tone your profile down, particularly with pictures, so that potential employers won't see you in a bad light.

First of all, when you create a Facebook profile, atleast back when I did, by default your profile is restricted only to those who you are friends with or are in a network with. So the whole get-rid-of-your-pictures debate has always confused me...just restrict your profile to people you know if it isn't already! You should be doing that anyways. On the other side of it, I had pictures of me drinking and/or obviously drunk in college on facebook; if an employer somehow saw them and decided not to hire me based on college drinking pictures, that's not somewhere I'd want to work. If there were a picture of me taking a bong hit, that'd be another story.

I bring this up because, it shames me to say, my Philadelphia Eagles made an executive decision based on what a seasonal employee said on Facebook. We're talking about a seasonal, game-day employee who worked as a gate chief, his name being Dan Leone. Now let's get to the juice of this story...Dan was fired because of what he posted as his status on Facebook: "Dan is (expletive) devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver...Dam Eagles R Retarted!!"

I admit it's not exactly Disney-esque but hey...this guy is just saying what every other Eagles fan was thinking once they heard the Dawkins news. I'm not sure how it was discovered; if Dan was friends with other employees through Facebook, then yes, it was kind of a dumb thing to do. Even if he wasn't, you probably shouldn't badmouth your employer online. But to get fired automatically? And over the phone? I should also mention that this poor guy has transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder that causes muscle fatigue, and he apologized for what he posted multiple times. This reminds me of the post I made way back regarding a CNN employee that was fired for blogging. I'm sure this Eagles employee did not have any Facebook-clause in his contract.

If these issues are becoming more prominent, and you're going to get fired without question, employers need to put it out there at the time of hire and let you know that there is a zero tolerance policy for using Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. to talk about the company. Since social media is a part of most of our lives these days, how free are we to use it?

Google Goggles

Those cool folks working at Google came up with another cool little gadget. Since the adaptation of cell phones, the concept of "drunk dialing" has become a common phrase, meaning to make calls when drunk. Obviously, this can be dangerous because when drunk, it may seem like you're having the most intelligent conversation with the Dalai Lama when in reality you're just drooling and speaking gibberish to your boss at 3 am. Similarly, when around computers, people can make the same mistake through e-mails.

Well Gmail users can rest assured now with Mail Goggles (I think they should have named it Google Goggles). Once enabling this feature, the default application of it is all night on the weekends, but you can obviously change those settings. What it does is when you click "send" during those set times, a pop up box appears with 5 math problems according to the difficulty you set for it. You have 60 seconds to solve them correctly, otherwise the e-mail will not send. The math problems don't seem incredibly difficult, even at the highest setting, but I guess when you're drunk enough to be sending improper e-mails, they'd probably look like trigonometry.

Here's what it says when you get them wrong:

In-text Advertising

Has anyone noticed these advertisements within articles? Look at this:

I was reading an article about Radiohead on MSNBC, one of the sites that is using this, and noticed these links within the article. This link, particularly, for "concert," was what I expected to be a link to a previous article regarding that particular concert (as most in-line links do). When I scrolled over the word, however, this advertisement popped up for HP. Clicking on "concert" leads you to the HP site. First of all, what does printer ink have to do with a concert? Fortunately, the other few of these "in-text advertisements" were loosely relevant to the words that were linked, but is this kosher?

I think it's a decent idea in moderation, as long as the advertisements are relevant. Linking what the writer described Radiohead's songs as (beauty) to skin-care products is not relevant. When I'm reading about "beautiful" music, I don't think, "man, I wish I was beautiful like this music," nor does any right-minded person, so the advertisement is ineffective aside from the person who gets tricked into immediately clicking on the word and just happens to get hooked in. I was kind of annoyed that this particular "concert" link deceived me into thinking that I could find out more information about a concert, but fortunately I am atleast weary enough to scroll over a link before immediately clicking. After experiencing this, I'll probably become even more weary.

Keep it relevant. If the writer is talking about Radiohead's first album, "Pablo Honey," link that to Amazon or some other site that sells the album. That could be an effective advertisement. Don't crowd articles with useless trickery. You won't have to worry about my blog participating, even if I supported it - apparently it's for sites with atleast 500,000 pageviews/month...I don't think I'm quite there yet.

WuChess

If you listen closely to most of the lyrics to hip hop songs today, you probably will not have any moments of intellectual inspiration. I'll admit some of them have catchy beats and are fun to listen to when you're out at the bar, but I usually shy away from downloading these songs or even listening to the radio stations that play them on repeat. I wouldn't even really consider these songs "hip hop"...they should be grouped with "pop" along with Britney and Madonna and all of them. I'll give Lil Jon some props for creating his own wine label, but his songs are mostly just different combinations of "what," "yea," and "ok." I have more respect for the talented, true hip hop artists such as Jurassic 5, De La Soul, The Roots, and of course Wu-Tang Clan.

Rza from the Wu-Tang Clan just started a website called WuChess, in hopes of promoting chess among the hip hop community. The site will have live chess tournaments, etc. and proceeds will benefit the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, which probably has the best mission statement ever: "Using chess, music and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and non-violence." The founders of this organization recognize that chess can develop life skills such as patience, focus, and thinking before doing.

Personally, Rza has inspired me to start playing chess. If I adopt it as a hobby, my goal will be to someday meet Rza face-to-face in a match. And I'll bring the ruckus.

The Blog Cuss-O-Meter

So, it looks like my blog is pretty much G-rated:


Created by OnePlusYou

I'm guessing most people who have used this tool are on the other end of the spectrum. Apparently my rating was 90% less than other websites who took the test. Out of curiousity, I tested some major websites, most of which were under 1%. If George Carlin had a blog, he'd be able to cuss all he wanted; he's a comedian and people expect it from the persona that he has established. But there are people that don't like George Carlin because of his foul humor. If you're looking to attract pretty much anyone to your website, foul language should obviously not be used. Even if you slip on one page, that could lose a customer/reader/person forever.

WSJ has taken away some free news!

If not every day, every other day I work the Wall Street Journal Media & Marketing section into my online news rotation...

Well apparently not anymore...unless I want to subscribe! A bulk of the online edition of WSJ is subscription-only, but the Media & Marketing section was one part that had free access. All of a sudden (a minute ago when I checked), they change that? What's the deal?

I'm sure subscription fees are minimal, but I'm not even going to look into it because it's the principle of it. Making something free, that you normally have to pay for, is an easy transition to communicate to the consumer. The reverse is a different story though. Don't make something initially free if you're going to take it away later on. Atleast post some reasoning for the transition.

I'm fighting for my right to free news...I'm e-mailing them. Stay tuned...

Anti-CNN

I used to check CNN online for news, and occasionally I'll watch it on TV, but I'm going to try to make a conscious effort NOT to anymore. Why? A CNN television producer was fired for blogging.

He had started a blog in 2006 while he was on medical leave and it became popular so he continued it. And two years later he gets fired? When this came up, articles stated that a similar situation had happened to a CNN employee, who was fired for having a password-protected online journal which apparently had a lot of positive working experience stories. I know that you can't set rules according to whether you write about a positive or negative work experience, but what happened to free speech? If you're going to ban blogging, make it clear. Apparently the CNN handbook stated that "any writing produced for a 'non-CNN outlet' is required to be checked with the network's standards and practices department." As this producer said, that's pretty vague. And what happened to warnings? The rule doesn't say that it has a zero-tolerance policy. If you're going to fire someone without warning over something, shouldn't they be informed of it when they start working there?

Best part of the story is how the guy explained how it went down: "Ed, seeming to channel Bill Lumburgh from Office Space, informed me of that which I was already very well aware..."

The guy made a reference to Lumburgh...he's innocent in my book.

Guitar Rising

Did anyone watch the South Park spoof on Guitar Hero? Guitar Queer-O? Stan's Dad (probably my favorite character) watches as Stan and company play Guitar Hero and decides to bust out his real guitar and play the real songs (which of course everyone thinks is lame). Then Stan's Dad tries out playing the game and can't hit a single note.

Point is...I love Guitar Hero...but it doesn't really have anything to do with playing real guitar. I love how when I played, people were like, "oh well you play bass guitar so that helps." Not really.

Here's where Guitar Rising comes in. Expected to come out late this year, it's a program that will come with a USB connection for real guitars (the ones that make real noise when you play them). It looks just like the Guitar Hero games, but it allows you to learn guitar because you're learning the actual notes and progressions (this means 6 strings and a pick...not green-red-yellow-blue-orange buttons and a "strum-bar"). Now kids (and adults like me) can actually have a real shot at becoming a Guitar Hero!

P.S. I know...I italicized "real" like 5 times in this post.

US Citizenship Test

This test gives you 14 of the questions that are currently used in the US Citizenship Test...

Take the test

Apparently you have to get 7 or 8 out of 10 right in order to pass. I don't know about you...but I definitely did not know the amendments that address voting rights. Thankfully, I knew most of them...I guess that barely makes me a US Citizen. I wonder what percentage of current US Citizens would actually pass that test though...

Just noticed...

I was just checking my Gmail...and interestingly, this was the advertisement at the top of my inbox...


Now that's advertising!

The Downloaded Movie Debate

The music industry has seen drastic changes result from the technology that more and more people are adapting to. Downloading music used to be something that everyone did and thought was perfectly fine. Eventually, it caught on, and scared the s#$% out of the RIAA. Then, legal battles cracked down on "illegal" downloaders. It made an impact on many people, but of course people still download their music for free. Businesses caught on to those who became scared off, and companies such as Apple cashed in on their legal $0.99/song iTunes shop. Now, brick-and-mortar CD stores are seeing less and less foot traffic as people continue to digitally download their music.

Now...focus has been shifted more toward the digital movie download. First, to accommodate the all-American increase-the-laziness effort, companies such as Netflix offered movie rentals through the mail (because God forbid you would have to physically move to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video) [note: I'm sarcastically commenting on American laziness...but I'm practically the poster child for it...Netflix is a great idea]. Companies such as Blockbuster perked up once they saw this concept going successfully, so the new twist was added: a service that also allows you to stream the movie from your computer to watch. The obstacle: not everyone wants to watch movies from their computer monitor. This is because God created large televisions and surround sound systems.

Just two days ago, Netflix made a deal with LG to offer a set-top box that will act as the middle-man between your computer and your TV, so you can watch the streaming videos accessed by your computer...on your television. This is not the first of its kind...but I bring it up because it makes you wonder how people will watch their movies 50 years from now. Will movies go digital like music has? Or will the whole Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD battle prove a victor and become the standard?

It's hard to tell...whatever happens, nothing will completely dominate in music or film. People have different lifestyles...it's hard to change formats constantly...and if you were to make a decision to change, it's not exactly easy to pick.

I'm pretty comfortable with standard DVD's right now...I'm in no rush to change. I'd be quicker to change to the winner of the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD battle than to go digital. I think digital movies still have a long way off of becoming dominant...but they'll definitely become popular. Once a change is made, though, you better believe I'll be updating my copy of Braveheart.

Woot!

I just wanted to bring a website to everyone's attention in case you have never been to it before...

woot.com

[Warning: In case you happen to work at the same place that I do, you can't look at that site while on the network.]

The concept of the site is very interesting, and I think it is a genius business plan. It's been around for a few years, but I just caught on to it in the past couple months. They sell electronic-type items, ranging from headphones to sound systems to vacuums. A lot of these items are cool gadgets or unique items that you don't typically see, and they all have awesome prices (example - I bought a bluetooth this morning for $13 and that includes $5 shipping). By the way, $5 is what they charge for shipping regardless of what you get.

The kicker is that they only sell one item per day, until it sells out or until the clock strikes midnight...and the cycle continues...a new item every day. They have dubbed Tuesdays "2-for" or sometimes "3-for" Tuesdays, meaning they'll sell 2 or 3 of whatever it is they're offering for very cheap (this past Tuesday was 3 FM transmitters for what I think was about $15). They have also expanded into a wine-woot (selling wine and wine accessories) and tee-shirt-woot (selling graphic tees, a lot of which are user ideas). I've gotten into the habit of checking all 3 pretty much everyday. I think it's genius because I see how it's hooked me in...it wants people to make the site a daily check because it's fresh and exciting.

What would I would like to see it expand into? dvd-woot and video-game-woot :-)

Don't go to the theater for this one...

The newest installment of the Jackass series is premiering online. Starting on December 19th, for one week only, Jackass 2.5 will be streaming for free through Blockbuster's newly acquired Movielink. Reports suggest that this online release, the first studio film to be released online, will be an experiment to see how successful an online debut can be.

Now...maybe I've been in the dark for a while, but I check out the news online atleast a couple of times a day, and "Jackass" would definitely catch my eye, just as it did today. My point is that this release is less than a week away...didn't they think to promote this ahead of time? Now, I know traditional movie theaters are not going anywhere for a while...some movies just require the big screen and THX sound. However, this could have potential to catch on for certain types of movies...and I'm just hearing about it the week before? Don't get me wrong...I'm definitely going to watch the free stream...but not all consumers work like me (like a genius, that is).

Maybe this process is for good reason (and by reason, I mean revenue). Again, the free stream will only be for one week. Starting December 26th, the free stream will end, and it will be available to download for a price on iTunes and Amazon.com. A DVD will also be on sale, with 45 minutes of extras (always gotta get you with the extras!) for a higher price. So the lacking promotion for this new concept is probably to reduce the amount of people who get a free watch...well you can't fool me Paramount!

So if you're looking for what's destined to be the feel-good holiday hit of the season, curl up by the fire with your laptop and some hot cocoa and watch someone tee off at the driving range off of Bam Margera's crotch!