Fear & Loathing

We've Moved

I've converted Fear & Loathing to the WordPress platform and moved it back to manishin.com.  You can find the blog here.  This archive will stay up until the transfer process is complete for old posts, photos, etc.

How Time Flies

It's been six years since the "shock and awe" of the war in Iraq.  And it's been just about that same period since I launched this blog in late March 2003.  At the time, I wrote that I was not sure what it would become.  I'm still not sure, but have been having fun -- with a few off and on breaks -- just expressing my views.  For those who honor me by reading, thank you.  For those who could care less, thank you, too, for again teaching me humility.

Generating Product Buzz with PPT - Pay-Per-Tweet

So Intuit is paying social media users to post reviews and plugs of TurboTax in Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere by paying for a mention of its flagship tax preparation software. This may be a good example of a corporation embracing Web 2.0 media savvy, but I think it is just as bad -- perhaps worse, if the relationship is undisclosed -- as pay-per-post used to create blogosphere traction by compensating those who post favorable comments. At the very least there has got to be transparency when a product placement is made for compensation. At the worst, it still stinks IMHO.

Posted via email from glenn's posterous

Getting Buzz (Jennifer Aniston Naked!!)

No, this is not really an E! or Inquirer celebrity story. Although I certainly do think Jen's cute and wonder why it took 39 years to see a naked photo, this post is about how headlines create buzz and traffic, especially online. 

See, when one notices something like this -- Jennifer Aniston Not Nervous to Get Naked [E! Online] -- is just when the Google-stats go crazy. Admit it. Now I could add links to how to guides or the impressive statistics on searches for "Jennifer Aniston," but I won't bother.  You didn't read this post because you are a student of online traffic science. You read it for the prurient thrill created by putting "Jennifer Aniston" and "naked" in the same sentence.  Naughty, but fun.

No one ever said the Internet is only about public policy and high-minded ideas. In fact, most of the 'Net is about trash and the mundane. So I don't blame you at all for stopping by to voyeur the former Friends queen. Now just don't tell your mom/wife/husband!

Micro-Blogging

Trying out posterous.com as a micro-blogging and status tool for Facebook and Twitter...sorry for any duplicates folks.

What Larry Doesn't Get

I have tremendous respect for Prof. Larry Lessig of Stanford -- developer of the Creative Commons license, author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and a strong open-source software advocate. One of his most famous essays, from early in the Iternet era, was titled "What Declan Doesn't Get." But Larry is also a dreamer, taking positions that as a practical matter are idealistic, not realistic. This one, I think, epitomizes that character trait. Lessig (and Others) Asks Candidates to Make Debates More Open [Post I.T.].

Who ever said these were really "debates" anyway? Lincoln-Douglas they are not, having calcified into a series of scripted mini stump speeches, in which the candidates are given a platform to offer bromides but never pressed by the media or engaged with each otther. So to suggest that "new media," bloggers and the like shoud participate misses the whole point. Major party candidates don't want to debate. They like the dominance of debates by legacy television media; that's the whole point, to STAY in their political comfort zone. It's all good and well to propose otherwise, it's just quixotic because no one who matters cares.

Talking the Talk

Too bad I missed SNL's parody of VP candidate Sarah Palin Saturday night. Live From New York, It's Sarah (Tiny Fey) Palin! [Political Radar] . Apparently it's a huge hit on YouTube. ABC's bloggers report that "Palin has yet to say so much as hello to the press corps." Well, duh, if you're generating this much buzz without going live except with Charlie Gibson, why press the envelope? But read the unfiltered public comments here; they are tremendously warped, divisive and funny!

The Net Changes Nothing

So if Howard Dean and MoveOn.org mastered online contributions and bogs, Barack Obama has shown that he doesn't get social networking. One For Actual Journalism: Barack Obama VP Pick Fails To Arrive First Via SMS And E-mail [paidContent.org]. The idea was that Obama and his self-styled new politics would go viral through Web technology and his VP choice. The reality is that he went backwards with the latter and simply bombed on the former. Sure, the campaign now has a cellphone database -- free -- all in the hands of sorely disappointed early adopters. Not a good sign in my view.

This Is Not Real

Having lunch at Scoma's in Sausalito, California. This is one of only a handful of places -- such as Aspen, Carmel, Cap de Ferret and a very few others -- that just aren't real. Like Disneyland for the huber-rich. Still nice to visit and look at, though. Ciao.

What an Open

Spent several hours today, in the midst of conference calls at work, following the U.S. Open playoff between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate by way of live blogging.  That's an astonishing development, but even more impressive is that if one Googles "U.S Open blog Woods Mediate" you get an amazing 989,000 results.  And most of them are indeed blogs covering the Open.  Wow!