hwork.org

So like the iPhone is out and stuffs. We got video for the iPod. We got wifi now. These products will obviously get iteratively better and more sexy. The iPhone — of which I am a new owner (4 gig for $323 total) — will get gps, faster network, smaller, better screen, bigger hard drives, an iSight (frelling sweet!), etc, etc, and etc. Apple TV may keep going forward (though it’s not like they’re pushing it much). The iTunes Store basically has every kind of content now, and it seems much more like wrangling with the content guys about what goes in it. Leopard will come out and that’ll be sweet, and the iMacs, Macbooks will march forward with bigger hdds, faster cores, better batts, etc, etc.

But what’s the next big thing? It seems like most of their killer cards have been played. When they first announced the iTunes music store, you knew that the next step was video. Same thing with the iPod. Then came the iPhone rumors, an ‘all-in-one’ device. The Apple TV was on the horizon as they created the content store and wanted to get it to the most obvious place, the TV. I can’t see the next awesome thing: they sell great computers, they’ve gone mobile, they distribute great content… and now what? What’s the next thing to droll over?

Here are a few ideas:
-Better Laptops. I’m thinking flash-based, multi-touch, some truly thin (like paper) mobile laptops could shake things up a bit.
-iPhone ** 2. This space is huge. There are so many things to work on. Up it up, Apple.
-Home Media Center-ish thing? The iPod of DVRs or something? Dunno.

Bowdoin just added a cool new feature for off-site access: you can now see the ‘internal view’ of the Bowdoin Directory. So, if you’re off-campus but still have a valid Bowdoin user account, you can search for people just like you’re on-campus. Pretty sweet.

I run a business where the more people watch ads on my tv shows, the more money I make. I want as many people as possible to watch, because then advertisers will pay me more.

So, I release a show on the television airwaves. Then, being the savvy President that I am, I simultaneously release the episode on the internet. People navigate to my website, and then they click the show they want to watch. They got an array of episode qualities to choose from, the common 350 megabyte xvid file that’s roughly HD, the the super quality 1+ Gigabyte true HD version, and the iPod-sized version.

A user clicks on the episode they want and the quality they prefer. It’s a torrent of the show they really want to watch, maybe once, maybe over and over again. When it’s done downloading, they fire up their viewing device; maybe it’s their laptop screen, or maybe they’re beaming it to their TV. Either way, they start watching it. Commercials are included in the episode, and so it’s exactly like the experience aired on TV. Now, millions of people from around the world are watching those ads. I get paid mad bank.

Now, I realize that some of my viewers will figure out ways to skip my mad-bank-paying ads. Groups have formed to download episodes and re-release it on competing torrent sites, ad-free. Others will find clever ways to skip commercials on their home players with built-in 30 second skip buttons and stuff. But, I realize that going after these people is not really what I need to do.

I’ve figured out some pretty clever ways, as President, to get people to watch the ads. I make sure the webmasters put nice notices on the download pages that say ‘hey dudes, support the show! watch the ads! we’ll keep making the show! because we get paid mad bank!’. I realize that competing torrent sites are way less well known to the average viewer and more cumbersome — my webmasters are smart as crap and have invested tons in making the downloads fast and the website easy to navigate. Also, instead of spending money on people to enforce ad-watching, I spent the monah on increasing the hardcore buzz around the show. Superfans of the show now have better access, more backstory, official support to their own significant support of the shows that I make that are just so funnah or sincerely deep. I’ve also decided not to cancel shows without giving them time to mature and making sure that superfans, and their shows, are giving proper respect when I axe them.

And most significantly, I’ve started to use the internet to update the aging TV advertising model. Finally, I’ve stopped wasting my viewer’s and my advertiser’s time by showing generic, widely-appealing ads to people who have specific interests. Of course, I’ll still do that stuff on the regular TV airwaves, but on the internet I’ll do some clever stuff. Sure, I exploit some data about my viewers, but in doing so I give them ads on stuff they want and probably will like. Maybe even occasionally, they’ll get ads that they enjoy but hadn’t seen or found before. International fans who don’t get the TV feed will love supporting the show overseas! They’ll watch ads built for them in their own culture. Sweet! I love money advertiser’s are throwing at me.

To reflect, I’ve gotten more people to watch the awesome content that I create, and at the same time, have crammed more ads into their heads. More people see the ads, and I make more money. And I’ve created an attractive environment for people to watch their shows, instead of pirate them. I rule!

http://www.boingboing.net/

Wow, did they mess up their design. Content used to be king. Now the ads, title, date, and white space owns the focus for the viewer. How did they mess up this badly?

[Herc walks into Gregg's Office]

Herc: F’ing white boys, I love ‘em, I f’ing love ‘em.
Kima: Yeah?
Herc: Dumb as a box o’ rocks.
Kima: Who?
Herc: White boys. Talkin’ about the brain-deads in my Cane Street case. I call ‘em up, I tell ‘em I wanna buy some drugs. You know what he says? He says ‘okay, I’ll sell you the drugs, how much drugs do you you want?’ I swear to God Kima, they don’t quote it, they don’t ask for a meet, nuthin’. And then when you make the deal, no runnin’, no bullsh*t, it’s the guy himself walkin’ up to you in the parkin’ lot sayin’ ‘I brought the drugs, did you bring the money?’
Kima: (laughs)
Herc: No I’m not kiddin’, I have much respect for Black people after workin’ with these idiots for two weeks. And seriously, white boys wanna sell drugs in Baltimore, have to make different laws for it, like even it out for ‘em.
Kima: Affirmative Action?
Herc: Leave no white man behind.

THE CONSPIRACY…..

fire |fīr| noun

1 combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke : his house was destroyed by fire.
• one of the four elements in ancient and medieval philosophy and in astrology.
• a destructive burning of something : a fire at a hotel.
• a collection of fuel, esp. wood or coal, burned in a controlled way to provide heat or a means for cooking : our small kettle was kept constantly on the fire.
• a burning sensation in the body : the whiskey lit a fire in the back of his throat.
• fervent or passionate emotion or enthusiasm : the fire of their religious conviction.
• poetic/literary luminosity; glow : their soft smiles light the air like a star’s fire.

blagomurch.

weather.com warning, originally uploaded by sea_bass.

weather.com, originally uploaded by sea_bass.

Above is the current information for Brunswick, ME according to weather.com. Beyond the utter crappiness that defines the weather.com layout, design philosophy, ad-inundation, they actually get some stuff right: weather warnings.

A new startup, SimpleWeather.com , gets it mostly right. However, ignoring weather warnings is something they get dead wrong. In fact, I’d say it’s the most important feature in a weather site — people need some warning about when the weather is going to be crap. Here’s the Brunswick, ME data:

simple weather, originally uploaded by sea_bass.

According to this forecast, the weather outside is peachy. As I hear the half-inch hail smoothing out the Searles rooftop , I disagree.

Team Profile, Microsoft Hellhounds:

Microsoft Hellhounds (formerly known as Ruhrpott Hellhounds), while a newcomer at RoboCup 2006, is one of the oldest and most successful teams in the history of the Four-Legged League. The team was founded in the autumn of 2001, as a project group for students of Computer Science. In spring 2002 it took part to its first competition, German Open 2002, and joined the GermanTeam, a joint effort of the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Bremen University, and the Technical University of Darmstadt, to take part in the RoboCup World Championships as a national team. Together with the other members of the GermanTeam, Microsoft Hellhounds won the Technical Challenge competition at RoboCup 2003, and the Soccer Competition in 2004 and 2005. As an individual team, Microsoft Hellhounds won the German Open 2005, RoboGames 2005, US/German Championship 2005 (defeating the winner of the US Open 2005), Dutch Open 2006 and US Open 2006. Due to its large amount of team members, after RoboCup 2005, Microsoft Hellhounds left the GermanTeam with the intent to compete as a new team at RoboCup 2006.

Team Profile, Northern Bites (I swear to god, check here (and I didn’t even write it, either))

Bowdoin College’s Northern Bites began in Spring 2005. Though we are mostly undergrads balancing full class loads, we enjoy RoboCup as an escape from the standard academic methods of problem sets, examinations, and essays. Team member quotes as to why they joined the nBites: “I was interested in the application of advanced mathematics in a computerized environment.” – Mark McGranaghan ; “I hoped to finally succeed in competition after losing at years of sports in school” – Joho Strom; “Nothing shows the inanity of our human existence more then robot dogs running on carpet.” – George Slavov. You can read all about our glories and downfalls at our state of the art blog: http://robocup.bowdoin.edu