You Learn Something New Every Day

I've never been big on photography. Neither taking photos or viewing them have ever been much of a passion, except to see how ridiculous I looked in my fat stage at 13 or how innocent I looked back before I turned into a complete and utter self-serving jackass (mostly photos taken by my mother pre-1987).

In my entire life, I have taken three series of photos. One from a particularly fun and intoxicated May 2-4 weekend when I was 18. One from a particularly dressy and intoxicated High School Prom. One from a particularly cold and intoxicated New Year's trip to Montreal. When I woke up on New Year's Day, 2002, I subconsciously made the decision to never care about taking another photograph ever again. Until now.

I've started getting into photoblogs lately, and a few are making me itch to get my hands on a high-power camera and go out and start taking some shots. Granted, knowing very little about cameras and having very little creative or artistic ability, I'm sure I won't be producing enough to make the purchase all that worthwhile for a good amount of time. But hey, who knows, maybe I'll discover a hidden talent. I mean, everybody has a talent, right? I'd like to think that my current talents of well-timed smart ass remarks and the ability to drink in excess without second thought to the ever-worsening condition of my liver are just the tip of the iceberg.

A few of my favorites so far:

Daily Dose of Imagery

Apparently Nothing

eP - emptyPictures

If you know of any other really good ones, send me a link. I'm turning into a junky.

Sex Cells...

Those crazy Europeans. Looks like their insatiable lust for barely-legal hardcore pornography is spurring quite the lucrative digital industry - a mobile pornography industry, to be exact.

Today, the industry is worth about $1.4 billion. By 2011 it should be up to the $3.3 billion mark, as estimated by Juniper Research, who obviously realized that the age old adage "sex sells" also applies to research papers.

You know, there have been a lot of times where I've been out and about and thought to myself "you know what would make this walk even better? Some hard core pornography". Now it looks like that won't just be a pipe dream after all. Just open up the web browser on my cell and let the good times begin!

Only problem is, I hate the fact that it costs me 15 cents to send a text message on my current plan. Just think about the cost of a 2 and a half minute porno pick-me-up! It could easily be a slippery slope to the equally exciting world of bankruptcy!

However, this does sounds like good news for smut peddlers worldwide, who I'm sure had to have been a little disappointed only a few weeks ago, when they found out that their once dominant market share online has dwindled to a measly one per cent of all web content. See what happens when "user-generated content" gets out of hand? The pioneers of this online world find themselves having a difficult time keeping up with expansion. No pun intended.

A Heartfelt Letter to a New Acquaintance

Dear Nicorette,

My name is Matt. We met a few days ago, and have been spending an awful lot of time together since. In this time, I feel we've gotten to know each other quite intimately. That's moving rather fast for a humble man such as myself, yet I feel compelled to overcome my urges and avoid taking a step back in our relationship.

You see, I had heard all about you before. I knew all the rumours. I listened to the good, and I paid close attention to the bad. To be fair, I expected the ugly. I didn't think it would be this ugly.

You see, over the past decade I had developed a very strong relationship with your counterpart, cigarette. We got along quite well. Cig (as I affectionately call her) was always there for me, in good times and in bad, helping to elate my joys and ease my troubles. Whether it was drinks with the friends or a quiet night in, I always knew that I was sharing my time with somebody who really understood me. Who really knew me. Who really loved me.

Today I am saddened. It's tough to say goodbye to anyone who's been a part of your life for ten years, regardless of the amount of time you spent with them. But Cig was a big part of my life, so it'll be especially tough times over the coming weeks. She knows she's being replaced and isn't happy about it. It puts me in quite a bind to see her pained so.

Are you proud of yourself, Nicorette? Do you feel you offer everything that Cig does, with a cool minty flavour to boot? Well I'm here to tell you - you don't. You don't offer me any social benefits. You don't soothe my cravings or ease my worries. You don't even make my breath any fresher with your nicotine and tar aftertaste. What you do is bother me, and to no end.

In short, Nicorette, you suck. Cigarette was way cooler than you. But, we're stuck together for now, so let's try and make the most of it, okay? Just keep in mind one thing, though - you really, really do suck. I'll be glad when you're gone for good, unlike my dearly departed friend Cig.

Sincerely,
Matt

p.s. you REALLY suck. Just thought I'd say it again.
p.p.s. I was so angry while writing this that I had the urge to have a cigarette. Instead, I popped a Nicorette. The only thing worse than bitter gum is bitter irony.

Shameless Plug

If you happen to find yourself if Niagara Falls this weekend, swing by the House of Comedy @ the Americana on Lundy's Lane for the hottest new comic in Canada, Marc Sinodinos.

He may be ugly, and he may smell pretty bad, but damn can this red-headed Greek Adonis make you laugh.

Falling off the Wagon...

I've been getting harassed by some of my faithful readers (all dozen of you) for not posting much lately. Okay, at all lately. It's not because I haven't wanted to post - it's far from it. It's just because, for some reason, I haven't had much to say on things lately. Call it bloggers block, or something to that end.

The creative juices have been zapped, and I'm not altogether sure why.

So, in an effort to get out of this self-imposed funk, let me chime in on all the cool stuff I've seen but have been too tuned out to write on over the past nine days. This may not be pretty, and is sure to be pretty random, but bear with me. I gotta try something to get out of this funk.

The Peanut Butter Manifesto. Good stuff. My take? It didn't work so well for Jerry Maguire. Lets hope it works better for you, Brad.

The week of PS3 and Wii. Both, as expected, officially launched to rave reviews from gamers worldwide. Those who were lucky enough to ge their hands on one get to brag to all their friends for months, until more shipments are made, or regift them for a tidy little profit.

digg and Deceit. A fake Reuters story, reporting that 650,000 PS3 units would neeed to be recalled, made it's way to the top of the food chain on digg earlier this week. When it came out that the story was a hoax, digg promptly removed it from their website. Not to fear though, because only days later Sony did issue another recall, only for a camera. Good to know that the company, while seemingly walking into #@$#storms left and right, is at least being consistant.

Russian spy dies in London. Isn't this a really extreme way to promote the launch of Casino Royale? Hey, give it up to the marketers that were willing to take it to the next level.

Speaking of marketers, a recent survey by Zoomerang says that 79% of marketers are unfamiliar with the term Web 2.0. At first I wasn't going to say anything negative about this. Then I realized - Hell, it's not like they're going to see this anyway. Do your #$#%$#% jobs, people.

I started reading "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson this week. Fascinating book. A must read for anyone who considers themselves a part of the business world. A must read right away for that 79% mentioned above.

Big payday for the Big Hurt: Franky T is coming to Toronto. Not since Roger Clemens have we had a player that has very own video game named after him. Only problem is Frank Thomas' video game (Big Hurt Baseball for anyone who wasn't part of the Sega Genesis generation) was released a decade ago, back when he truly was a force. Two injury ruined years + one comeback year (39 dingers is nothing to sneeze at) = 2 years, $18 million for a 38-year old DH. Ballsy move, Riccardi.

There's about thirty additional little snippets I'd discuss, but hey, just cause I need to break out of a funk doesn't mean I need to put you to sleep. Thanks for the harassment... I needed it.

An Almost-Perfect Economy

Did anybody else see this coming? With programs that can crash major networks coming through emails and hackers that can infiltrate the safest networks, did nobody think that sooner rather than later somebody was going to come up with something that would fuck with our favorite virtual world, Second Life?

CopyBot, a program designed to let users (surprise, surprise) copy inventory from the virtual world without having to pay for it has the million-plus users of SL in an uproar. Businessess are closing shop. Users are going nuts. Who knows? There could even be riots in the virtual streets. It isn't out of the question - there's already protests going on.

Could this be the beginning of the end of another great idea? Doubtful. Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life, look to be on it.

Turning the Tables....

Talk about irony. YouTube, one of the darling's of Web 2.0 applications and the newest property of Google, is trying to play the other side of the field. Consistantly lambasted with copyright infringement questions, YT has sent a "Cease & Desist" to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, one of the darling's of Web 2.0 business, stating that an application TC created infringes on THEIR copyrights. You can read the actual letter in full here.

Not long ago, TechCrunch developed a small tool that lets people download YouTube videos to their hard drives. They did so after reviewing YouTube's Terms of Use and determining that the application would not be in conflict with any legalities.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

In other YouTubeNews: It's being reported that Google has set aside $200 million in escrow from the $1.65 billion deal for one year, in an obvious legal fund to fight the pending copyright infringement claims they are sure to (or already have) rolling in.

Which has me wondering: Have they issued the cease and desist to TechCrunch in an attempt to a) take action on an action they feel wrongs the company, b) recoup some of the money they're certain to have to pay out or c) get a taste of being on the other side of the claim, as research for when they're pulled in themselves?

Second Life - The Time to Buy is NOW

Second Life has been receiving a lot of mainstream press over the past few months, and it's helped to push the number of users of the virtual environment past the million mark already. While a number of companies are already taking part in Life part Two, IBM is one of the companies leading the way with their announcement of an additional $10 mil in funding to Second Life-related initiatives over the twelve months.

With all this additional exposure, coupled with corporations starting to invest heavily in Second Life, is it going to be much longer before the price of land and items in the virtual world skyrockets? It would appear that if companies want to buy in to Second Life, now's the time to do it. Get in while the water's warm. Soon enough, it'll be boiling.

Side point: Working in the tech space, I hear the word "innovation" thrown around like a paper bag in a wind tunnel. However, the majority of the tech companies out there aren't utilizing Second Life to their benefit. If these are the innovators, shouldn't they be all over this innovative way of doing business?

Is Social Disclosure the Future of Filing?

Although nothing official yet (and probably not for some time), there is a chance that in the future the SEC may be open to allowing corporations to officially file fair disclosure information via corporate blogs. In a response to a letter from Sun Micro's Jonathan Schwartz, posted as a comment to his blog, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox took the first step in proving that it isn't such a crazy idea after all.

Would it really be such a bad move? After all, major blogs receive upwards of seven-figure hits daily, and the fact that the information is obtainable within minutes is definitely a plus. I think those alone are pretty good examples of why the forum might not be a bad idea for fair disclosure.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Looks like NTP's about to see what it's like to be on the other end of the blade...

NTP Puts Palm in the Crosshairs

Six months after making RIMs pockets a little lighter (to the tune of 612.5 Mil), NTP is now setting their sights on RIMs biggest rival, Palm - maker of the Treo, NTP is making a similar claim that the technology behind the smartphone infringes on no less than five similar patents than the RIM case.

It's funny how you don't hear too much (anything) from NTP unless they're going out and suing the big guys for patent infringements, whether the claims hold serious weight or not. Makes me wonder - with all these patents, why aren't they actually a real player in the market? Is the company so focused on innovation that they forget that the revenue comes from the follow through?

If you ask me, the most interesting aspect of a company such as NTP is its unorthadox business model. I can see an executive board meeting now. "Organic growth? Acquisitions? Nah - everybody does that. We're an innovator, not a follower. Pumping money into patents and legal teams? That's the way for us. Good meeting. See you at the Christmas Party."

Heads-up, Nokia. You're next.

Can Business Computing Save Sony?

Earlier today Sony unveiled it’s “Vaio Business” brand, the first step in its move to try and conquer the business computing market. Frankly, it’s good to see some positive news coming from a company that’s been beaten mercilessly over the past few months.

The “leader”, which has been battered by slowing sales, product issues and increased innovation from competition, needs this move into the enterprise to work, or else it may be continuous tough times for the future. It’s estimated that Sony could lose upwards of $3 billion because of this summer’s battery recall; profit dropped nearly 100% this last quarter; and issues with hardware for the PS3 has put it well behind schedule, in a dangerous loss per system margin, and well behind the launch of it’s biggest competition, the Xbox 360.

Consumers in the video game market have brand loyalty that runs deeper than most, but that doesn’t mean they’re sheep – if the PS3 doesn’t hit a homerun out of the gate, we could be looking at the next Dreamcast or Gamecube.

Does Sony have the wherewithal to make it through these tough times? Well, they didn’t top the market because they lacked business sense or innovation. When Sony looked down on the marketplace, it forced the competition to up its innovation, determination and value to the market. Now, when seemingly nothing can go right for a formerly infallible brand, Sony will have to take lessons learned from the Panasonics, Toshibas, etc. if they want to reclaim their spot atop the marketplace elite.