Author: Me

This is sad. Sad that Choice has fallen to the crappy PR strategy of attacking a big brand for little gain.

Every other product mentioned in this story has failed. Not just one or two of each, but every single one. Can the same be said of every iPod failing? Of course not. I’ve all the people I’ve met I’venever met a single one who had an iPod with a cracked screen or dud battery. Where are all these people?

On the other hand, I would find it implausible that not a single iPOd of the millions produced was a dud. But for Choice to include it in their top 10 is nothing but PR hackery at it’s worst.

Poor show Choice.

Link: iPod wins Shonky award – National – smh.com.au.

Every weekday morning from 9am for thirty minutes ABC local radio Sydney opens it’s phone lines and airwaves to anyone with an opinion about anything.

I have no interest in the ramblings of the ordinary person. I do not care about their opinions, thoughts or issues – unless they effect me. I hate their whinny voices talking about the flag, their neighbours, the government, etc etc. I hate that on the free airwaves of the greatest public radio network in the world I am forced to listen to drivel.

Many years ago I wrote a letter to the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald about an article on advertising. I got a phone call from the editor of the letters page to confirm that the letter (email actually) was from me, that the opinion was mine and that I was a real person. The letter appeared.

And the shit hit the fan. One of the directors of the agency I then worked for read the letters page avidly and was unimpressed with my take on things. I’d never really understood what was so important about free speach until that moment.

You may or may not agree with what you hear or read but the ability for someone else to write or say that thing is something no one should ever argue with.

We can argue quality. Why do the three commercial TV networks offer such rubbish as their current affair programs. They have no excuse bar economics as the ABC and SBS are able to provide high quality programming with less.

I hate the 30 minutes of listener call in on ABC. I love that they can do it.

Another excellent article from Wired that just reinforces the power of podcasting.
Like most new things the growth will be exponential, which is good becuase my work load is already keeping me in the studio and at the office longer than my wife wants me to be.

Link: Wired News: Podcasting’s Reluctant Evangelist.

If you missed the SBS doco on what the current head of Telstra did before he found humself in Australia, get the trasnscript for SBS. This article is an excellent read on the real problem facing Telstra and the communications industry in general.

theLink: The Age Blogs: Barkers Byte / OK. so what about a telecommunications policy? Archives.

Or is this just a Microsoft ploy bcause they forgot refuse to put podcasting in Vista?

Of course not.

But then Laporte (see the story) is at the cutting edge of this and many may follow. Personally, I’ll wait to receive the letter from Job’s lawyers. They are apparetnly really valuable on eBay.

Link: Is It Apple’s Fault? Podcasting to be Replaced by Netcasting – Tech News – Playfuls.com – Science & Technology.

This is a time lapse movie of dawn over Sydney Harbour with a thick fog. Made by me. There are more in the series. Better than watching paint dry. Grass grow – now that’s a great idea for a time lapse movie.

View it here. It’s only a couple of minutes.

The first thing I learnt when I started working in a office was to always answer the phone with the business name, my name, ‘how can I help you?’

Today, like many other times, the next thing I heard was click – obviously the caller had dialed a wrong number. But when I call a wrong number I always apologise for inconveniencing the receiving caller.

However today, with the caller’s number on the display of my phone, I decided to teach this rude prick a lesson.

So I called back and got the voice mail of Adam Cassisdy from Pitney Bowes Australia. I told Mr Cassidy from Pitney Bowes Australia that I was the person he had just called earlier and hung up on. I also told him I was going to blog about how rude he was. What I didn’t tell him is that we are currently in the market for a product that Pitney Bowes sells. We shan’t be purchasing from Mr Cassidy or Pitney Bowes.

But my question to you is this; is Mr Cassidy A) Rude, B) Stupid, C) Both?

Oh dear. Carlton’s Big Ad was always going to be a tough one to make a sequel to. Flash Beer (www.flashbeer.com.au) was viewed over 37,000 times in the first two hours since it went up. I was one who saw it yesterday when it was launched but I’ve waited 24 hours to post a comment.

It’s based on the final scene of the movie Flash Dance ehich I haven’t seen. And I don’t think too many other blokes would have seen that movie either. It is a funny ad but it’s no where near as good The Big Ad. In fact, Toohey’s trebuchet ad (yes, they were trebuchets, not catpults) is far better than this one.

What were they thinking? Are they trying to get chicks to drink the beer now? Woeful.

The national lotto game of Powerball has the odds of winning div 1 of about 10 with 40 zeros after it.

The base prize is A$3 mil. Typically it jackpots week on week, which with odds like that is easy to understand. For the past the jackpot has grown like this: $3mil, $6mil, $9mil, $15mil, $20mil, $27mil and $30mil. It has never reached more than $30mil so who knows what would come next. Like tennis scores; 15, 30, 40, Game. Is game 50, 60, 55? Who knows? Or cares.

For the first time in recent years, the jackpot this week is not $9mil, but only $8mil. When I say only $8,000,000 I still mean I would love to win, but it’s not the $9mil it should be.

With the recent 25 basis point increase in interest rates (plus another being touted before Xmas) and the oil company/goverment profiteering at the petrol bowser could it be that people are spending less on gambling, so much so that the prize pool has dried up that much?

There is also a state Lotto draw this week that is $22mil. Historically, a promotional campign would focus on a draw of $25mil or even $30mil.

The Powerball Economy Meter – more accurate that any economist.

Blah blah blah blah blah. Perhaps the big boys are getting more and more worried about an individual can achieve.

Link: INSIDE PCIJ » Podcasting threatened by proposed UN broadcast treaty.