raving lunacy - oxymorons for the 21st century

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce. Noble stirring words for a planet on the brink of the latest castastrophe. And fodder for PR sausage machines.

“now made with 100% post-consumer recycled HDPE.
HDPE is non-toxic and Bisphenol A and Phthalate free.”

I don’t know which annoys me more, the quacking of companies who offer you green guilt free products, or the folks who describe them.

Google’s entry into the Browser Battle is just that, another entry. It will not enlarge your penis, make your breasts perkier, bring whirled peas, or cause the heat death of the universe. It does however bitchslap Microsoft right between the Active X controls.
As Paul Kedrosky puts it:

“Google’s new Chrome browser - is finally reducing Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers.”

Amen Brother

Some interesting stuff on the intertubes this week.

National Federation for the Blind’s 6 Million Dollar Payday.
Target and the NFB have settled out of court for 6 million bucks.. At issue was the position that Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act includes retailers who are also online.

The Flashturbationites and the AJAXians web designers have been given yet another pass to make the web unusable to folks who do not have a full set of capabilities.

MetaFilter has a great commentary which points out the positions that various folks hold.

This ’settlement’ does nothing to settle whether or not people with visual, aural, or other disabilities, are equal under the law. It is a cheap out for Target, about 10 minutes sales profit.

Digital Preservation
Sustainability of Digital Formats
This is a very technical discussion about various digital formats for creating and preservation of digital media. This is an interesting document coming from the Library of Congress who used to be the Depository of Record for Copyrights, and keeper of the Public Domain, but has since bent over and grabbed its ankles for the ‘entertainment’ industry since 1976, when mandatory deposits were abolished.
They may be thinking ahead, but they will be out of a job real soon unless copyright is reset back to 14 years for everybody.

Safe Harbor ahead for YouTube

“In a development that could portend some good news for Google-owned YouTube, a federal judge in San Jose has ruled that Veoh, the video-sharing service, isn’t liable for copyright infringement for material that was uploaded to its site.”
Source: WSJ LawBlog

DUH!!

Finally Politics
Sarah Palin for VP? One bullet from the Presidency? Get Fucking Real!

Here are some interesting things to show up on the internet lately.
VRM
Is VRM a ‘phenomenon’? Alan Mitchell looks at VRM from a different perspective. Still missing the point that for VRM to succeed requires us to make companies beg for information after a full disclosure. The default position is that they are stealing it with every click and visit.

WordPress
WordPress Tips + Things You Can Do After Installing Wordpress Interesting things to do if you are running WordPress yourself.

Social Media
The Media & Social Media: Follow Up With Cincinnati Enquirer A story selling the Social Media/PR Rebranding/User Generated Content model to the Social Media thermos bottle. It is worth the read as there are a large quantity of numbers tied to this post. It should also be noted that as the Social Media Missionaries show up at your door, you should probably think about how much work this is.

Kindle.
the Amazon electronic book continues to elicit reviews. Shelley Powers has an Interesting look at her’s and pricing.
Grumbles in Kindletown

Car leasing for individuals has never been a good idea, as the first time you turn the key, the car loses value, and the terms and conditions of car leases always end with you upside down.
The NYT has this nugget:
Plummeting Resale Values Lead Chrysler to End Leases
Chrysler may be the first, but will not be the last, and only because the new ownership team is quick enough to chop it off.
There is no money in used cars. There is very little in new cars either.

Businesses are gonna take a big hit soon as this ripples into the commercial markets. When the leasing stops businesses will lose that tax deduction, and need mechanics, in house or shops.
Expect free shipping offers and UPS, FedEX, and others to raise rates.

AOL sent an email out to the troops explaining what widgits were getting the axe.
In the middle of it was this nugget:

“We have found that building media management applications within the context of a social experience is a more rapid and effective way to grow the business.”
Kevin Conroy - VP AOL

Simply put, wrapping ads around ‘user generated content’ is the only way to make any money.

I don’t have the heart to tell them that the advertising supported display model had its noon about 6 months ago, sundown is coming sooner than they think, followed by a bitter cold winter.

Updated another blog from 2.5 to 2.6 and the ‘Pages’ do not work.
They show up in the control panel, can be seen in the control panel, but can’t be found on the site.

Probably should have waited the rest of the month for a little more testing.
Word Count? who the fuck cares about word count. Keyboard fetishists or punctuation nazi’s most likely.

A much more useful feature would be a post comment word counter. We could call it the HMTCYBADH How Many Times Can You Beat A Dead Horse contest.
we could separate the twitters to the askimet file, and dump folks who have forgotten what vowels are.

Oh yeah, turn off that fucking WordPress is available Update Now Nag screen. Everytime I update I spend more time getting things working again.

Jonnie Moore is a facilitator and marketing consultant. I have no idea what that means.
Some sort of PR nonsense.

But he does have a sense of humor.

Definitely, my  kind of club

“it’s important to get more people talking about word of mouth”
Jackie Huba :Church of the Customer Blog