Geeking it Out Before It Was Cool

RIP Amiga 2000

This is so great, I just had a conversation today with a guy from work about our childhood computers. Ahh, the good ol’ days of the family Commodore 64 and my dad’s Amiga 2000 — the Ferraris of PC’s back then.

From over at Boing Boing:

Mononchrom’s Johannes Grenzfurthner takes us backwards through time to Cyberpipe’s Computer Museum, a huge collection of functioning vintage computers located in Ljubljana, Slovenia.Dunja Rosina, Head of Project and a founder of the museum, shows us the collection which includes such dinosaurs as the Commodore 64, the ZX Spectrum, and the worlds first widely used business computer the IBM XT. Dunja and Johannes share nostalgia of the days of pirating games from the radio, the importance of the mouse, and the golden age of gaming in one color.

The space is free, fully interactive, and provides Internet access, workstations, educational programs and more to the public at no charge.

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Cool Apple ad (Mac and PC guys) in NYtimes.com

Apple has an ad in NYtimes.com today that utilizes the banner as well as the top right section of the site. It’s the usual Mac and PC guys. PC is inserting his op-ed into the Times site, it’s pretty funny and a creative ad, albeit really really expensive. But probably a lot cheaper than a 30 spot during prime time.

The ad itself is not at all obnoxious (the visitor has the option to turn on the sound), but the video streams regardless. I like how Apple has taken their huge ad campaign and geared it specifically for the Times (or other newspaper web sites).

Viral Marketing – Response to Matt

Thanks for your kind words Matt! I decided to just post my response to you b/c I think it’s good to know.

I should let you know that I’m not an expert in viral marketing, or marketing for that matter. However, I have heard things from people in the business who know a lot more than me. Common themes have emerged, though, from all the conversations I’ve had in terms of V.M., such as:

-It’s hard to gauge what will become “viral” and what won’t, so unless you have some crazy gift that allows you know what will become “cool” or take hold among the audience, then it’s really impossible to plan.

-However, things that are interactive have seemed to work better, like the example I gave of Paltalk.  JibJab also produced one related to the election:

-Another option is looking for videos on YouTube that have become popular (those that relate to your product or company) and sponsor the creator, like what Dr. Pepper and Stride gum did:

This is sort of a quick response, but I hope it helps a little. If you do create something, send it over to me and I’ll post it here.

The Folly of RCN

To: RCN

From: A disgruntled customer

I’ve been a RCN customer for a total of one week and am already dissatisfied! I’m not sure how it is in other places, but in DC (where I live) the customer service just, well, sucks. The technician who came over to connect me to the Internet decided it would be best to set up the modem in the living room — I was ok with that. The problem is the ethernet chord the guy had wasn’t long enough to reach my desktop in my bedroom, so we had to connect through my wireless router. After a week, I decided going through the routher wasn’t the best of ideas. It turns out I don’t like waiting forever to read e-mails, who knew?

Ok Ok, so the technician didn’t do the best job, but I’m ok with that — the dude was probably really busy, it was humid outside, and I probably wasn’t in the best of moods that day. The problem is their call center/help line. I can’t believe their reluctance to help people, I was shocked! I called them last night to get a technician back to my place to either set up the modem in my room or provide me with a long enough ethernet chord to reach my desktop. The woman I talked to (who had to speak to her supervisor 2-3 times for clarity) said they could not send out a technician until I went and purchased a long enough ethernet chord myself, then they would send a person out!

I don’t understand why RCN wouldn’t send somebody to fix a real problem, but are totally ok with sending them out to connect a frickin’ chord!! haha, I can’t belive it! Anyways, after about 10 minutes of telling the woman that I didn’t think it was my responsibility to buy a chord to connect my computer to the modem — something that I think is foundational and expected of an ISP — she hung up on me!

Am I wrong to hope and think that if I sign up and pay for a service (in this case, a certain transfer rate) that the company would at the very least provide it? Am I asking for the world when I ask my ISP to connect my computer to the Internet? Maybe I am. Maybe I’m just a selfish fool trying to bring down the poor corporate conglomerate.

Web 2.0 – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown tweeting at the G8 summit

This lil’ blurb in the Washington Post is all about Gordon Brown and his staff using Web 2.0 technology at the G8 summit.  The power of Web 2.0 tech. is pretty obvious, but this article shows how these new tools are letting regular people experience and be apart of something that they would never had had the opportunity otherwise.

Here’s his Blog/Twitter/Flixr

Viral Marketing – “Ball Girl”

A few newspapers have published stories about this viral marketing campaign, which was supposed to be scrapped. Apparently, Gatorade (or Pepsi) dropped the company who made the ad because they were dissatisfied with the work, but the ad was leaked online and became a big hit.

The ad was suppose to be aired on T.V., so I wonder if it would have had the same impact as it has had online if it were merely a television ad. I wonder if being online drives more interest to an ad. The thing is, when it’s online, people don’t necessarily know it’s a fake campaign. So perhaps that fact increases interest – the possibility that it might be a real video.

Here is a recent story from the Chicago Tribune. 

Viral Marketing

A new category: Viral Marketing

This series will feature, critique and solicit comments on various viral marketing campaigns I come across. Lately, I’ve become more and more intrigued about how companies and organizations use the technique and the metrics used to determine the campaigns’ successes and failures.

VS.

The first two campaign in this series are BMW’s “The Ramp” and Paltalk’s (video chat community) campaign that allows people to integrate a name into a video.

The latter is pretty creative and apparently a big hit. I personally sent it to about a dozen of my friends. BMW’s “Mockumentary” is unique, but it’s 30 minutes. The Wall Street Journal wrote a pretty good story about BMW’s campaign, as well as the risks involved when launching a campaign that essentially misleads target audiences.

As a viral marketing campaign, I think Paltalk’s is more effective because it integrates people into the process. Although I don’t necessarily think that that component will make or break a campaign, it doesn’t hurt to have people involved to increase interest and prompt the campaign’s distribution, which is the ultimate goal of such a campaign.

If you want to send out Paltalk’s campaign and trick your friends, you can either watch the link above — the form will appear at the end — or just click here 🙂

Social-networking (a shameless promotion)

After reading a post from one of my favorite blogs, Web Strategy by Jeremiah, I decided to create a couple of social-networking sites.

I started DCLeagues and CyclistsUSA so feel free to become a member or forward the URL to anyone you might know that either lives in Washington, D.C., or likes to bike.

They’re both under construction, but I’m going to start blogging about the trials and tribulations of starting such networks. It should be an interested journey and a great learning experience! If you have or are thinking of creating a social-network, feel free to comment or impart some advice/wisdom.

Steve Jobs

I just watched this documentary on YouTube–It’s pretty good. It covers his rise and subsequent firing at Apple; Bill Gates and Microsoft (with a great quote); and other interesting tidbits. I think it was produced in the late ’80s, so you can still sense his resentment.

Part 1

Part 2

And for the sake of balance, here is Jobs and Gates together at the All Things Digital 5 conference in 2007.

iPhone 3G

Pretty impressive. Although the actual plan is a little more expensive than that of the Edge, it all evens out in the end (with the reduced base cost). The iPhone application store is also pretty awesome.

I think it’s time I changed providers.

Here are a couple of articles about the 3G’s specs and controversy:

NYtimes.com

CNET News