To anyone subscribing to my blog who received 29 copies of my google reader links. They were good, but not that good. I’m having some plug-in glitches with my WordPress installation – but hopefully all are ironed out now.
Sport’s psychology
Great little article from Paul Sheehan at the SMH on the way the sports invented by a country speaks to its culture and the psychology of its populace…
Can you imagine the Americans coming up with a game where the score was commonly 0-0 or 1-0? Or inventing a game that could be played over five days, with numerous meal breaks, and end in a draw?
It’s actually a promo for the Superbowl, this year featuring an Australian. While Sheehan seems to be lauding the excitement contained in US sport he neglects to mention that the Superbowl is essentially two coaches playing chess with the pieces wearing body armour. Chess has built in timed pauses in which the players make their moves. The superbowl is the same, only the pauses also allow advertisers to get the best bang for their buck.
The best bits – January 22, 2009
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Don’t worry, be happy
All is now fixed. I can log in again. Hooray.
I brokes the internet
I can not for the life of me figure out what I’ve done to my WordPress
installation – but for now, the only way for me to post anything is by
email.
Targeted ads miss the mark
The amount of information stored about us online – through Google and Facebook and their ilk is incredible. It’s meant to lead to brilliantly targeted advertising with content so compelling that clicking links is irresistible. I haven’t been one to click these links too much. Sometimes I do it in order to penalise the company – they have to pay per click.
Today Facebook tried to lure me to a site for “Liberal theologians” a celebration of liberal theology where fundamentalists don’t belong. Needless to say, I clicked. I feel like I have more in common with atheists than liberals – at least the atheists are logically consistent in their beliefs.
I hope the guy behind that site thinks it’s money well spent. I can’t help but wondering why this guy is paying to advertise his blog on Facebook.
I wonder if my generic “religious belief” was instead set to “intolerant fundamentalist Christian” what sort of ads would pop up? Probably not all those Christian dating service advertisements I’m inundated with. Surely those advertisers on Facebook should be targeting people listed as “single”.
Does anybody out there use Twitter? I confess I am not seeing the point. It seems to be an acquired taste. I know it’s great for reporting news events in the US because it’s reached critical mass there… and our pollies have jumped on board. I have eight friends that I am following on Twitter – far short of the number of my friends on Facebook which seems to serve essentially the same purpose.
Maybe it’s just me. I also haven’t figured out exactly what I should be putting in my tweets – most of the other people’s I’ve read seem to be either obscure or mundane… if you do use it, and you want to follow me – here I am.
Audacity of hope
The market is down 1% so far today. And closed 4% down in the US. So much for the much hyped Obama effect. Just yesterday ABC Radio’s morning show was telling us the market would bounce the moment he was sworn in.
Update – it seems this image from the SMH changes in real time.
I have finally got an inbox wi…
I have finally got an inbox with no unread items. I may have cheated by marking all as read.
Weighty issue
Does that scenario look familiar to any of you girls out there? Well, now there’s a solution.
A toilet seat with built in scale. Designed to make girls feel good about their weight – but used to give guys bragging fodder regarding their weighty issue. Come on, admit it, you’ve always wondered how much that thing you just flushed weighed… or maybe that’s just me.
The best bits – 21/01/2009
Here’s what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
- Read the full text of Obama’s speech.
- Morons Who Named Their Son Adolph Hitler Lose Their Kids To Youth And Family Services
- MP3 Grenade!
- A T makes us an offer we can’t refuse
- Starbucks Brews First Coffee Using Chinese Beans
- Australian, Harry Nicolaides, Sentenced For Insulting Thai Monarchy
- Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President
- Wiimote and skateboard hacked into a controller, Gator not impressed
- Making The Most Of Free Wi-Fi At McDonald#39;s
- Google Web Drive on Its Way? [Google]
Try getting this one through airport security.
The Godfather… in lego…
This is cool.
For those not already aware – McDonalds is rolling out free wifi broadband across the country. That, in a quick calculation, would have saved us $40 NZ dollars if it had been the case in NZ. Wifi is great. Free wifi even better. Now, if they release an apple app for iPhone users to use their wifi to order a burger from the store they’re in… that would be the ultimate convergence application. And I’d probably use it as another reason to covet an iphone.
I like the idea of a web drive from Google – given their propensity to give each email in gmail its own URL it’ll make hosting stuff for sharing (ie stuff I want to use on the blog) nice and easy. Plus, I like google products as I’ve said before. I hope this happens.
Shirt of the Day: Spoiler alert
Awesome shirt – guaranteed to earn you a punch in the face from an unhappy movie buff. Designed by Brit Olly Moss available on Threadless.
Youtube Tuesday: 8 bit Batman
If you’re anything like me you’ve been picturing the Dark Knight – a movie that broke new ground by employing imax cameras for standard cinema shooting – in 8 bit NES style. Or maybe not. This just goes to show that you probably should have been.
It kind of makes me sad that nobody’s out there programming NES games still…
Board game keyboard key for bored
Tired of your old, boring keyboard? Spend all day dreaming about board games? Maybe you like long words using the letter q – like quixotic in the never ending hope you’ll come up with the goods next time you sit down for a friendly game of Scrabble. It’s worth 76 points according to this scrabble calculator. Now you’ll be able to figure it out using your keyboard without actually keying in a stroke…
I shared this Scrabble keyboard yesterday via a link – but text doesn’t do it justice. Here it is in the flesh.
How many points for xylophone?
White House Transition – Brick by Brick
January 20, 2009