Best Twitterers or tweetards?

Ok in no particular order here are some of my favorite twitterers on twitter. Might not be your cup of mescal but I think there is good entertainment value here.

Mama_Cougar* Stuck in suburbia and funny as all shit. I can't always relate but fun to follow.

whitegrlproblem* - similar to above in case you are wondering what to avoid in a girlfriend

FatJesus3* Zach Galifianakis really known recently as the Tard on the Hangover is the funniest fuck.

hipsterrunoff* - Ok if you are feeling old but hip and there are gray pubes popping in up in places you never thought possible this one you might want to ignore.

Nick_Nolte* If drunk had smart phone and tweeted a lot at bars and reported incidents with roosters his posts would be like this. (for the most part but maybe worse)

shitmydadsays* This guy got some sort of deal for making up funny shit from the perspective of cranky old man. Totally infamous but had to include.

What else you go? Make me reco and follow my ass on twitter*. I am my own tweetard brand with small opinions and taste.

Disclaimer: none of these people can be confirmed or denied as actually being real people trying to secure a movie deal but g*d bless them for your entertainment and mine.

A.I. Can now detect Sarcasm? No Really?

Direct from POPCSI.COM: The Future is now reports that some Israeli research team analyzed data using a method what they call SASI which is a Semi-supervised Algorithm for Sarcasm Identification(WHAT?) Which claims it can recognize sarcastic sentences in online product reviews with an astounding 77% accuracy rate. I for one love sarcastic product reviews it helps me decide on making important purchasing decisions because people tend to be pretty honest when they are writing them. Imagine if literal filters were put in place the web would be a really dry, uncomfortable and boring place.

On the other hand a Sarcasm(or verbal irony) software like this could really be useful invention - just imagine the possibilities! You could essentially also have a tweet alert and filter comments by an intent category in case you were asleep at the wheel. Check out the paper (PDF)

Understanding Facebook's Open Graph security for first graders

Here is the thing when considering sharing your stuff with your "friends" it's important to be able to distinguish between close ones and acquaintances. Once your mom joined facebook it became a very public forum. So you make changes or stick with it. I can see why the knee jerk reaction to the Open Graph but it seems to me facebook is making changes and listening while trying to grow their thing. Remember there was a time that your address and phone number were in a big thick book unless you paid not to be included or have your number listed. So what is the difference here? If you transmitted over a CB radio anybody could respond.

So what if you give a little more info? Don't you want custimized solutions for the things you like so they automatically display for you? A interesting example of the Open Graph change is if your boss is your friend on FB and you like a song on Pandora or article on CNN and they happen to be on the site with Open Graph enabled they will be able to see you like it or shared it if you choose to have the info made available. This is when knowing more about your settings is important. Again, it's important to know that if you read it and don't physically click the "LIKE" button then nobody will know.

Granted would be nice if you were allowed to editorialize why you liked something but alas that's what twitter and FB are for when you share with your friends in the first place. The NYT via scobleizer pointed out from public Q&A with a FB exec that the way Pandora is using the concept opens up even more discovery of music but I digress. What if you don't want your friends to know you like The Bare Naked Ladies(I don't btw)?

Well one option that is gathering momentum is to quit facebook all together on May 31st. but that would be just like quitting smoking or worse yet television no? What are you going to go to Amazon to a buy or download a book with all this new time on your hands and what do you ignore the reviews? How cool would it be if the people you trust helped you make a selection instead of a complete stranger.

So what if I still want to communicate with friends virtually but don't want to give marketers more access than I am comfortable with? Well there is diaspora.com for that issue which is open source project that is currently collecting funding to keep your private info in and advertisers out. We'll see how this goes. The world does run on advertising whether we like it or not it's a question are people willing to pay more?

But do watch what you say or a drunk Zuckerman may delete your FB account if he does not like what you say!

Frequently Asked Facebook Security Questions:
If you need help with your setting check out this graph on NYT
How is the Open Graph supposed to work with my favorite sites?
How do I delete my facebook account permanently?

Interesting Fact: The Facebook Privacy Policy is currently longer than the Constitution of the United States.
When is the official quit facebook day?

You decide.

Save Water and don't let it drip Water Aid Video competition

I grew-up in California with the saying "If it's yellow let it mellow and if it's brown flush it down." Here is a video of some creatives at work having fun with 48hr video competition for Cannes Advertising Festival to bring attention to the water and sanitation crisis that is killing thousands of people every day. Check out the video above titled "Man Saves Mime" from peeing himself.

Do a search and Vote here on you tube: youtube.com/canneslions to help bring attention to this global issue with so many catastrophes happening all the time the least you can do is help these guys get to France. Although I don't think they would be able to hold it all the way there, the least we can do is check out the contest to do our part for water conservation. Cheers.

The Name Stamp (Japanese Style) Video Contest

Here is another one of videos for the Search For the World's Greatest Salesperson video contest I'm working on right now. All you have to do is sell a red brick. This video cracks me up and really shows Matt Servitto's (FBI agent from the Sopranos) true talent. Follow the shenanigans on twitter.com/Sell_Or_Else. If you think you have sales skills you should enter to win.

Are you the best Salesperson in the World?

I love my Job and proud to share this real life contest with you. Do you know or think you are the Worlds Greatest Salesperson? If you can sell cars or mattresses you should be able to sell a red brick right? This is the challenge and your opportunity to help create the sales guide of the future and win a three month paid fellowship at OgilvyOne Worldwide. Similar to being on a board but in this case you also could win a chance to go to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France to prove you are best at what you do! This is a world wide search for the best of the best digital media thinkers.

For this real life campaign we created some tongue and cheek sales inspiration videos called The Moves -- perhaps you recognize them? Here is one of the videos called Envy Tranfer.



THE DETAILS:

Visit to enter the contest and see more of these spots: YouTube.com/Ogilvy and make sure to read the rules for your chance to win.

Download the full brief here for the Search for the Worlds Greatest Salesperson contest.

Press:

New York Times Article

The video submission deadline is May 16th, 2010.

Follow the action: Twitter.com/Sell_Or_else | facebook.com/ogilvy | LinkedIn Sell or Else Sales Group | youtube.com/ogilvy

I thought suicide machine was a band no?

But no apparently it's beheading app that Facebook is taking swift action against on the IP DNS level by blockin users from killing your history and friends off. see http://ping.fm/1eu3W Which is dangerous territory that could in theory block real users.
via http://ping.fm/3QOPB

Mobile Experience in Times Square

So it's been a long month but finally able to share my latest experiential project. Make this a destination kind of thing for the Holidays into the New Year in your travel or experience it virtually the Kodak Times Square Smile Gallery @ 46th street in front of the Marriot Marquee on the Earth Cam.

Here is how to do it:
1) Send your photo to kodak@aerva.com with a short caption in the subject line.
2) Then give it 24-48hrs so Kodak can approve.
3) Once they do you will receive a approval email with a short.
4) You can then trigger your image up to the board up to six times. The picture will also display randomly in-between the adverts. Get your 15 seconds of fame now!

I hope to post a case study in 2010. Lots of other neat stuff in the works.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: 1.4.10
Almost a 1,000 (991)tweets from this mashable post and by the time the ball dropped on New Year's the board received over 1,000 photo submissions. That's just about a 1-1 ratio! How's that for Social networking power?

Thanks Man Video by Kodak

All of the summer/fall fruits are starting to pop-up over the net. Get your free gift courtesy of the Kodak Gallery Thank You Man campaign orchestrated via O&M with assist from folks over at Green Card.

Schmooze Cruise with Jonesey & X-Ray burns

if you don't have your tickets already for 4 hour cruise with WFMU's Glen Jones and X-ray burns you are missing out. This coming Sunday 10/11 leavin' from east 23rd at high noon. Jonsey is celebrating with a live broadcast taking fans around Manhatten. There will be snacks and cash bar and maybe a naked dance by Jonsey himself (could be bad). get your tickets while they last from brown paper bag tickets. I'm going and I never do anything this fun. Come rock the boat.


What: The IBJ Schmooze Cruise around Manhattan, plus live broadcast + snacks + cash bar.
Where: Aboard the S.S. Jewel, departing from New York Skyports Marina, 2430 FDR Drive, East Service Road (at E. 23rd St), New York, NY.
Why: This Part of radio legends Glen and X. Ray's 2009 Marathon victory lap which included convincing their very brave Station Manager Ken to let them host their very own booze cruise. This is the first-ever IBJ Schmooze Cruise and could be the last too!

Mac vs PC vs the google Browser price point

Ah the age old question which one is better? Mac or PC? Ok for the last time. Macs are good for designers who have no sense of organization and PC's are good for business types who have no creativity. Enuf said. Funny article on Mac calling PC that their Best Buy TV ad is unfair where the user ends up buying a PC well because it's cheaper! HAHAHAHA! It is time to make nice guys

Everybody should be watching out for the Google OS which is really a browser. It's going to get ugly as Microsoft only makes about 15 bucks net according to the WSJ and that price is going to drop. If you're paranoid, and you should be, Google already has too much information on you and will now try and drive the cost of your hardware/sfotware too. Google would only release an OS because they want to improve the world. Right? Watch your back PC and MACs.

Sony BMG screws the Emusic indie pooch

Well unless you have been under a rock and not paying attention there has been some wheeling and dealing going on behind the emusic scenes with Sony/BMG. Like gasoline the cost of your online music is "slightly" going up to give you better service. Whaaaaaaaaaat? You mean double right Emusic? Early this year iTunes started charging a premium for some artists (1.28) and slightly less for other. Emusic is raising prices on average of 100% as they bring on the Sony/BMG catalog for releases that are two years or older. Ok fine but do i really care about Stevie Ray Vaughan at this point? Gimme Anti Records or nonesuch releases. If this is part of that plan. cool. If not it sucks.

To put it in perspective. My previous music download subscription account afforded me 65 downloads a month for $14.99 us dollars. Basically 23cents per track. The new plan I'm being forced to subscribe too is the same monthly fee for 37 tracks which is roughly 40.5 cents a track. Which is just about double what I was paying or 100% more!! I think gas prices are somehow related but we have not been able to figure out the connection yet. For albums with 12 or more tracks they are going to offer on select releases only a flat cost of just 12 download credits. The albums that already have this is limited so would be a good move by indies to think Nice Price but time will tell since all of your basic customer service plans details have not been released in full yet. You know I would have been fine with a slight increase but this is pretty harsh just so i can get me some Alicia keys. C'om on! Why not have those pop artists make better music or phase them out entirely. emusic has had over 250 Million downloads since it's launch by mostly independent artists (Remember last year we enjoyed the rolling stones on emusic for a spell).

Basically now you get 3 albums with of an avg 12 songs or more per album for 12 download credits, as opposed to 5.5 albums on old 65 luxurious download plan. Which is a 128% decrease in my subscription service. Bah hum-bug.

I'm also supposedly getting a +15 free booster track. Some legacy user with larger download plans (I imagine) will get a 25 booster pack. i wonder if this is every month or a one time thing? Because that would make it 52 tracks and 28cents a track which would be a fair rent 10% increase landlord. For those not grandfathered in the deal sucks or a least to begin with but still better than the lower 78 cent download price. I'll imagine it's a one time thing and will stick it out but the minute I start to notice the indies start to fall beneath promotion line I'll move on. I'm warning you emusic despite the single thread response the corp strategy has been to shoot the pooch first, watch them holler before responding. The internet is good like that.

Some of the Artists that are part of the Sony catalog will satisfy a lot of the alternative crowd who care about The Clash, Uncle Tupelo (sorry no wilco) and lou reed if you don't already own the damn cds!. For the older crowd you'll get Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke along with some classic rock Jefferson Airplane, Meat Loaf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, foo fighters, ben folds and some forgettable stuff as well, like kings of leon(my pov anyways), Rage against the machine. This of course is a partial list. Emusic is still the best deal out there for legal DRM free music.

What does luck have to do with it?

So the other day I'm about 4 houses away from mine and the front right wheel feels like it has a flat. Sort of turns right really hard so I mandle the steering wheel to bring it on home so I can at least be broken down in front of my home. When I jump out of the car all the wheels have their air except one is turned all crooked as if it's almost detached. Yikes! Now 10 minutes prior I was jamming down the Garden State Parkway going my usual speeds. eh-hem. What is wrong with this picture? Ya 10 minutes prior I could have bit the dust hard. Now for the fun part the guys who had replaced my struts and full front alignment are to blame. They blamed wear and tear from redoing my alignment twice before. BS. I'm very lucky to telling this tale. They didn't charge me for the redo and got it done faster than I've ever got car services. I won't drop names here because they are nice enough guys but luck has not been on my side lately. I suppose though having this incident happen to me so close to home was lucky. So next time you're a little stressed think of this simple story and don't stew over the small stuff. Life is really friggin' short. Timing is everything.

Social networks for Haters and the Karma Police

Totally odd premise for a social network site (based out of Pahrump, NV?) that is attempting to manage social karma called ventma.com by inviting the public to identify whistle blowers, call out sneaks or shall we say liars, cheaters, grifters, rapscallions, scallywags, scoundrels, shysters, sneaks, etc. Really for those folks who walk on water but on the other hand an attempt to socially level the playing field in this new age of transparency. If you're called out there seems to be a option to defend yourself. Booya for the haters and the over conscious social well adjusted individuals who always gotta be right. Some of the counter points for keeping lets say marijuana illegal, idiot managers, and are juvenile so if you're looking to get into a argument this is the place to do it. People can list their un-interests and of course see what Ventma's CEO Ryan Breen's life philosophy which is kind of short dude and not so revealing. Here's their over all premise:

All the social networking sites today are for finding and making friends. But lets be real, not everything in life is honky dory. The economy, the weather, greed, deception are all too real in today’s world. Because of these things, people act out in many ways. Some violent by action, some verbal and some self inflicted. All of these are a result from bottled up emotions. What if these people had an outlet to diffuse their anger before it came to that? We hope that as a result of Ventma.com we can accomplish just that. Even if we help just a few people this way, we will be satisfied.

They are looking PHP and Flash Developers as I guess the Hindi company they hired to do some of their work did not have karma on their side. I did find various bugs for the login and lost pw process which is problematic as could not login (PC/Firefox/Flash10)! I was seriously going to post about U.S. Companies outsourcing work to other countries in these messed economic times. Ahhh, that does feel better see! Support America's work force dummies that site would have been working properly or they should give me buzz and I can have my guys fix this site in a jiffy.



I much preferred hatebook.org when it was still active because there was no privacy at all. Everything you posted or emailed to another individual was open to all users. They say they are coming back but we'll see what happens. On the other hand there is nothing wrong with being straight up hater for everything even things we know are right. There I go being all socially pompous.

Download some hate:
Liar - Built to Spill - mp3 from you in reverse
Cheater - Bubblegum Thunder
Hateful - The Clash - London Calling
Hate Paste - Archers of Loaf