Postcards from the Bleeding Edge
Thursday, February 10, 2005

  Marketing Dissonance

With google being sued for displaying competitors advertising on searches, I have to wonder what boundries will be drawn.

I've long been disturbed by MicroS$fts policy of plastering advertising on every page that talks about Linux. You read the text, usually praising Linux, and then, smack dab in the middle of it is a slickly produced ad from the evil empire, which, theoretically in the minds of the pap-drowned consumer, sets up some level of cognitive dissonance. The marketeers daydream of pavlovian responses in the markets they target, "a sexy girl holding office 2003 will distract that lovelorn geek from making a rational decision" they must think...

At one level, I'm amused by the ferocity and pervasiveness of the tactic - ad dollars from M$ are supporting technical publication of Linux materials - and at another level, I'm annoyed - I relentlessly filter out marketing statements in search of the truth.

It's been going on for about 3 years now, although I stopped noticing it after I started religiously using the Privoxy web filter, which in addition to getting rid of most advertisements on the web, amusingly transliterates M$ into "Microsuck". I've also set it up to change incidences of the word "consumer" into "citizen" - and perform "brand bingo" tasks... It really helps to have a tool like this filter out the truth from the marketing and I would suggest that far more IT managers and citizens and politicians would do well by installing it.

In the interim, I look forward to the results of this lawsuit.

 
Sunday, February 06, 2005

  The underbird bites the dust

What else can I say other than?

"See you same time next year."

The best (and funniest) after game coverage is here
 

  Rooting for the Underbird

Although I have cable internet, I've never got a signal as far as my TV, yesterday I went looking for a place to watch the superbowl. Turns out that both the local bars that had wireless internet (the only kind of bar I ever go to) are closed - one for the season, and the other just plain went out of business.

I read, elsewhere, that the Patriots are the odds-on favorites to win.

So, at 3:30 PM today, you'll find me, somewhere in Santa Cruz, helplessly rooting for the underbird. Maybe I'll be online, maybe not. Maybe the ads will be interesting, probably not.

The best rumor about the game I've heard yet: Patriot's and eagles cheerleaders will bare their breasts in a show of solidarity with Janet Jackson.

Well, no, I made that up, and the halftime show looks to be about as bland as can possibly be. I will have to continue to wonder why showing acres of artificially enhanced cleavage bouncing around and men pounding each other to a pulp is more moral than briefly exposing a single natural teat.

I know what I'm going to do - sit in the bar, let the babble box ramble, people watch - try to get into the spirit of things - marvel at the ease of crowd control in a so-called terrorist era - and read a book.

I'm currently reading "Prisoners of Progress", which is about the industrialization of America between 1850 and 1920. Lots of choice quotes to be made... later.

see ya!

--
mike
PS One prediction likely to come true: Firefox will crack 23 million downloads... without running a superbowl ad. Go Iggles! Go Firefox!
 
David Täht writes about politics, space, copyright, the internet, audio software, operating systems and surfing.


Resume,Songs,
My new blog, NeX-6, My facebook page
Orgs I like
The EFF - keeping free speech in the world
Musical stuff I like
Jeff, Rick, Ardour, Jack
Prior Rants - New song: Log Off Now Sharing your home network better in a time of covi... Designing for the disconnect Email lists going down the memory hole Instituting saner, professional source code manage... Wireless and Wifi in 2015 - not what I dreamed of Saving wifi! Fixing Bufferbloat! Fighting the vend... Virgin Media - Fixing the epidemic of bufferbloat ... 49... and trying to find my navel Wheels down on mars!
Best of the blog:
Uncle Bill's Helicopter - A speech I gave to ITT Tech - Chicken soup for engineers
Beating the Brand - A pathological exploration of how branding makes it hard to think straight
Inside the Internet Mind - trying to map the weather within the global supercomputer that consists of humans and google
Sex In Politics - If politicians spent more time pounding the flesh rather than pressing it, it would be a better world
Getting resources from space - An alternative to blowing money on mars using NEAs.
On the Columbia - Why I care about space
Authors I like:
Doc Searls
Where's Cherie?
UrbanAgora
Jerry Pournelle
The Cubic Dog
Evan Hunt
The Bay Area is talking
Brizzled
Zimnoiac Emanations
Eric Raymond
Unlocking The Air
Bob Mage
BroadBand & Me
SpaceCraft
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Callahans
Pajamas Media BlogRoll Member

If you really want to, you can poke through the below links as well.

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