The perils of internet euphemisms as distilled by those squwakers over at Gawker, of particular note is the perils of contextual advertising:

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Time has an article entitled iPhone Apps: To Pay or Not to Pay, part obligatory iPhone App article to appear to be down with the tehcno hipsters and part questionning of the consumer’s willingness to pay for an application when all around us is free, free, free…

‘So why can’t all iPhone apps be free? Well, quite simply, because people are still willing to pay for them. Apple currently generates most of its revenue from up-front sales — whether it’s for MacBooks, iTunes or iPhones. And the pay approach for mobile games, ringtones and videos has long been used by other tech purveyors like Verizon and Research In Motion, and even third-party app stores like Handango. “It is a historical business model,” notes Kevin Burden of ABI Research. Buyers are willing to pony up, though, because of the cachet of the Apple brand.’
Read the rest of this entry »

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My 2.5 year old daugher said to me this morning, ‘when I’m a big girl I want chewing gum and pills’.

My fear for her development and the effect she may have on any pre-approved babysitter and the fact my wife is 8 months gone with Untitled 2 means our Saturday nights are spent watching a film and eating sustainably sourced pizza’s from South Africa, or something like that.

Wife, who knows her way around a Google but thinks RSS is a whispered insult has taken it upon herself to subscribe to Love Film. People at the daytime social gatherings we attend also subscribe to Love Film.

3 weeks in and dismayed with Wife’s selection, I have decided to take control and duly logged in as her. Frankly if you’ve sat through The Family Stone you will know why I did this. Read the rest of this entry »

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Still covering the Google/MacFarlane story when I came across Eric Berlin’s post over at Online Media Cultist, which pretty much sums it up:

‘The questions over how successful it will be are many of course, but Google and MacFarlane are starting out with sharp assumptions: animation is popular on the web, Family Guy itself is one of the most popular TV shows that people watch online, and MacFarlane himself is a geek’s geek, idolized by the men and young people most likely to watch shows online. The Times goes on to report: “In an interview, he described the installments as ‘animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier.’”

If the answer to that question is anywhere close to a yes, then we’re seeing a huge shift right now, right here, in how content will be thought about, produced, and distributed from here on out. ‘

AdSense has the network, but this new area is wide open for further innovation, for example a widget which you embed in your site (which is what AdSense is in effect), you feed the widget some data, say movie’s you like, so when people visit your site they see movie trailers reflective of your preferences together with additional short form content. Who doesn’t like a movie trailer?

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You Tube is 3 years old, but like Miley Cyrus seems much older. But like smiley Miley, should we be asking You Tube to pose near naked for Vanity Fair in order to satisfy I don’t know’s vanity? You Tube should just keep it’s clothes on despite what Annie Leibowtiz might say and stick with singing songs to tweens. I really mashed up the metaphors there, feel free to translate in the comments below.

note: we are unable to re-produce photos of Ms Cyrus for fear Annie will sue us.

The ‘how is You Tube going to make money?’ question is perhaps a little premature and I’d argue irrelevant.

It’s never going to make money, deal with it. UGC just ain’t compelling to advertisers and it’s increasingly Read the rest of this entry »

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The statutory 1 day of summer in London is here:

(via Wooster)

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Troy Young at AdAge (subscription needed) has more on the Power of Seth:

‘News of a Google-powered Seth MacFarlane content-syndication play hit the The New York Times today. It describes how Google will turn its AdSense display ad units into mini film units that will run MacFarlane-created videos, bringing advertisers that sponsor the content along for the ride.

Syndicating content across the Google Content Network is not news. Media Rights Capital and others have been experimenting with the idea for more than a year. We ran a similar program with Motorola and the Burg across our network more than a year ago. Crackle has been pushing content paired with ads through social nets like Hi5 for a while. What makes this different is Read the rest of this entry »

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Asylum has a succinct summary of the pros and cons of having sexual relations with a robot such as a Japanese kissing doll or love doll. Please note this story has no relation to an earlier Pikachu genitalia piece.

Is having sex with an ultra realistic robot hooker cheating? Truly it’s a modern conundrum and Asylum has the details and a bonus question:

What if a robot hooker looks like a celebrity?

These are deep digital philosophical questions and perhaps something Qajack might be able to help with, I’ll add it to my list of beta questions.

I had intended to write a post about cloud computing but became distracted by my winking and trusty RSS reader, Newsfire, also it’s hot today and I have to go to a strangers house this evening and massage my wife in front of other men massaging their similarly heavily pregnant wives. It may also involve yoga which concerns me.

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Parkour and poultry, I wish I was in on that creative drumstick fest:

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