LB's Rambles

CBS Marries CNET

In an alphabet soup marriage, CBS has decided to acquire Internet news purveyor CNET, in a deal worth about 1.75 Billion dollars according to Crain's New York Business. It's another example of old media looking for quick ways to expand further into the new media space, and it could make a lot of sense. Certainly, it looks like a good deal for CNET, as CBS will be paying $11.50 a share - up from the closing price yesterday of $7.95. Nice work if you can get it.

There's nothing hostile about the takeover; CNET is recommending approval to its shareholders, while CBS chief Les Moonves is praising CNET's virtues as "a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company ." On the surface, it's probably a good move for both companies. We'll see what kind of reaction it draws.

Aargh

I like and admire Steve Rubel. His Micropersuasion blog is on my list of must-visit-daily sites, and a great deal of what he says is valuable. But he is also a perfect example of one of the things that drives me crazy about Twitter. So far this morning, Steve has sent 25 tweets on Twitter. Ten of them were within the last hour alone. 25 tweets. 25 times my Twhirl has set off an audible alarm and popped up a message box. 25 interruptions to my work flow.

I'm not singling Steve out. But I can tell you that I'd far rather he rolled all these together into one blog post which I could read at my convenience. Instead, the last post on his blog was four days ago. I guess blogging is so...yesterday. But 25 interruptions is simply too much - it becomes a time-waster, not a time-saver. As I say, it's one of my major complaints with Twitter.

Two more tweets from Steve while writing this. We're up to 27 and counting.

The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring

Spring has finally sprung.

The azaleas are happy.

Are You "Hyperconnected"?

There's a fascinating nugget buried in a new study of workers around the world, as reported in Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog today. The study itself, sponsored by Nortel and carried out by research company IDC, has some interesting findings about what one thing people would take with them if they had to leave everything else home - 30% say their mobile phone. But here's the nugget: the study found about 16% of the workers are what they called "hyperconnected."

It's the definition of hyperconnected that brought me up short: it means, according to the study, a person who uses a MINIMUM of seven devices for work and/or personal access, and a MINIMUM of nine applications such as IMs, texting or web conferencing.

Those are MINUMUMS.

Let's see. I use three computers - a desktop Dell, a desktop Mac and a laptop Dell (my wife uses a Mac iBook too, but I don't really use it, so I can't count that one). I have a cell phone. That's five. I don't know if they count iPods and such, or the land line phone, but I suspect I may not make the hyperconnected category.

And do I really use nine applications? Do separate social networks count? I use LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter, but are those all part of one? I don't use IM very much and I mostly receive (rather than send) text messages. Nope, I'm not going to be hyperconnected.

The point is, 16% - ONE IN SIX - workers are already "hyperconnected." And the study predicts that will increase to 40% in five years.

Suddenly, I feel very old indeed...

Target Me - Please

There's another new study which reinforces my own firmly-held (and frequently expressed) belief that most consumers would rather receive RELEVANT advertising info than the hit-or-miss ads that bedevil us on most web sites.

Brand Week reports that a study by Prospectiv, a Massachusetts-based marketing firm, finds 56% of respondents said their social networking experience would be improved by seeing targeted ads. 62% said they would be interested in seeing offers from favorite brands.

That's the good news. Here's the down side: 87% say NONE of the ads they see match their own preferences or interests.

I wonder if some of that is because of the cries of "invasion of privacy" that we hear every day. Seems possible to me. I would hope that the various legislators who feel they have to pass new laws to make sure that nobody can receive ads that conceivably might interest them - at least not without going through some formal opt-in system - would pay attention. I certainly don't object to opt-in. What I fear is that too many sites will decide it's more trouble than it's worth and will simply keep pumping out irrelevant ads.

Hat tip: IAB SmartBrief

"The Bells of Old Bailey"

"When will you pay me/Say the bells of Old Bailey"

Sound familiar? It's a couplet from a familiar English nursery rhyme, one that names the bells of London. That nursery rhyme is woven through a marvelous, if rather grim, mystery, "The Bells of Old Bailey," by Dorothy Bowers. In a small English village, where five people apparently have committed suicide, the local police turn to a Scotland Yard detective for help. Soon, there is a murder to be solved, and a truly vicious plot eventually is uncovered.

Dorothy Bowers is little remembered today; she died quite young and completed only a handful of novels. Part of the fun of doing my "Classic Mysteries" podcast is having the chance to introduce authors like Dorothy Bowers to readers who might enjoy her work. You can check out this review here - and, as always, I would welcome your subscription to these free weekly podcasts by pasting this RSS link - http://classicmysteries.podbus.com/index.xml - into iTunes or any other RSS podcast-capable program.

Fixing the List

For those of you who use the links from the right hand side of this blog to listen to individual "Classic Mysteries" podcasts, I have finally fixed the list so that the newest entriees appear on the top of the list. That way, you no longer have to scroll all the way down to find the latest reviews. Hope it helps.

Look! Up in the Sky!...

So you think that some Internet advertising in intrusive? You can't get away from those ads that are popping up all over your screen?

The Daily Dog reports, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

I wonder how you pronounce "flogos" anyway - is it flow-goes? Or, perhaps more appropriately in this case, flog-ohs...

To Catch a Thief

Score another point for today's communication technology: The Boston Herald has a story about how a woman whose computer was stolen managed to use another computer to locate the stolen machine  - and then use the multimedia capabilities of the stolen computer to finger (or maybe eyeball) the suspects.

Hat tip: Jules Crittenden

The Reporter as a "Hungry Teenager"

Over at the Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog, Brian Pittman interviews Eric Auchard, technology correspondent for Reuters. Read the whole thing, but the best quote:

"The best way for a PR person to deal with a journalist is to treat the reporter like a hungry teenager," says Reuters technology correspondent Eric Auchard. "We're impatient, we need things, we're on deadlines and we need to be fed. If we're not fed, we get angry and have tantrums."

And he even has good things to say about press releases...

The Corner of the Picture

Gerald Vanderleun tells a funny, heartbreaking, beautiful story about old age, museums and Seattle. He tells it so well I had to share.

"The A.B.C. Murders"

A, you take Arsenic. B, you've been Bashed. C, for a touch of Cyanide...

No, not exactly. But the ABC's are very important to one serial killer who is wreaking havoc in a number of alphabetically-chosen places, upon a number of alphabetically-chosen victims. And the killer is challenging Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot to do something about it.

It's all part of Agatha Christie's entry in the serial killer sweepstakes called "The A.B.C. Murders," and it is our book being reviewed this week on the "Classic Mysteries" podcast. You can listen to it here, or, of course, you're welcome to subscribe - there's a link in the right-hand column or you can find the podcast on iTunes and other fine podcast directories. Did I mention, "free"?

Unhappy Birthday

According to ABCNEWS.com, this past weekend marked the 30th "birthday" of email spam. Let us wish this nuisance a hearty Unhappy Birthday.

Personally, I'd far rather be attending a wake or memorial service for email spam. We'd all be able to sit around, maybe have a few drinks, and reminisce about all those get-rich-quick opportunities from wealthy bank scammers, those male-enhancement ads (particularly the ones sent to women), the endless opportunities to refinance with NO CREDIT WORRIES, the innumerable sales of foreign and/or phony drugs...the list goes on. And, after waxing nostalgic, we could bury the damned stuff. Permanently. And go home and get on with our lives, spam-free forever.

No, alas - email spam will live on. It will probably outlive us all. I wonder if, 70 years from now, someone will be writing about the hundredth birthday of this garbage.

Video: The Simpsons Ride

This is kind of neat. I've been working on behalf of the new Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios Florida, in Orlando. It's a new roller coaster simulation ride using the latest technology, including some really great Simpsons video. Anyway, there's a preview - a welcome from Krusty the Clown, followed by some video from the start of the ride itself. Just imagine yourself in a ride car...and...

Time Warp

A followup on my last post about 3D technology.

There are times I think I have been living in a time warp. Last week, I wrote about a reunion of ABC Radio News personnel, some of whom I have known for more than four decades. After that reunion, I received a video that was put together back in 1969, to promote what were then the brand new ABC Radio Networks. In 1968, ABC became the first US radio network to program four distinct newscasts each hour, each one aimed at a particular group of radio stations. This allowed ABC to have up to four affiliates in each market - very clever indeed.

At any rate, watching that video, I found myself amazed at how far we have come. For example, there are shots of audio tape being edited with a razor blade and a grease pencil. That's how we did it, folks. Even video tapes started out that way. The editors, newscasters and writers all used typewriters. MANUAL typewriters; I was pounding away on an Olivetti until the early 1980s. Video? TV relied on film, which had to be shot, shipped, developed and edited; the entire process took at least hours and often, for overseas stories, days.

The narrator notes, with pride, that all of the ABC news bureaus were linked by private teletype. I remember that one; I was quite proud of being able to type at the machine's maximum speed of 60 words per minute. We also had "facsimile" machines that could transmit documents over phone lines; it generally took six minutes per page. And the newsroom was filled with the clattering noise made by the AP, UPI and Reuters machines, disgorging reams of paper, usually running multiple carbon paper rolls.

Time warp. This morning, I sat and watched people demonstrating console editing of 3D digital video. Punch a few buttons, move a mouse, and a miracle happens. I don't think the people doing the presentation had ever worked with a film doublechainer; certainly not as their primary source. I doubt they were born when that promotional video was made.

Yes, I AM older than dirt.

Time warp.