Notes on workshop for Seattle PI Interns.
25 July 2008
24 July 2008
Fighting Junk Faxes: Will You Join Me?
Have you received a fax advertising a “Florida Bahama’s Cruise” for $398 pp? If so, read on.
Under federal law (Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, 47 U.S. Code 227), it is illegal to send unsolicited commercial faxes. The definition, in my opinion, is broad enough to include junk email (AKA “spam”), but IANAL and that’s beyond the scope of this post. The law makes it illegal
(b)(1)(C) to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine
and it defines ‘telephone facsimile machine’ as equipment that “has the capacity”
(a)(2)(A) to transcribe text or images, or both, from paper into an electronic signal and to transmit that signal over a regular telephone line, or
(a)(2)(B) to transcribe text or images (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular telephone line onto paper.
The law allows individuals to sue the sender for $500 per violation. I am considering filing my first small claims court action due to an unsolicited fax sent to my toll-free fax number, even though the violator is in Florida. Why? The egregious nature of the fax and the company’s record of skirting the law.
21 July 2008
Google, Others Syndicating Video Into The Long Tail
VideoNuze tells us that Google is planning to provide ad-supported “high-quality video” (from Fox’s “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane) to affiliated websites. For free. The websites help distribute the content (a long tail distribution model). Google, MacFarlane and the website proprietor split the revenue.
Lest you think only big guys can play, consider Jambo Media — 12 employees, two years old, video syndication with 2 million views per day. Like Google, Jambo relies on affiliates to distribute the videos.
Amazon popularized this concept when it launched its affiliate program in 1996. In that program, website proprietors who linked to Amazon offerings got a small cut of any direct link sales.
NBC To Test “Late Night” Online
Lorne Michaels, the man behind the 1970s phenomena Saturday Night Live, plans to take NBC’s “Late Night” to the web this fall. According to the Los Angeles Times, Michaels wants new host Jimmy Fallon “to work out as many of the rough spots in his presentation as possible in performances on a website” before current host Conan O’Brien moves to “The Tonight Show.”
One reason for trying out the show online, Mr. Michaels said, is that the Internet will allow Mr. Fallon more freedom in terms of what he can say and do, “more opportunity for experimentation” … But the main reason for the idea, he said, was the experience of Mr. O’Brien, who endured a long period of uncertainty about whether he would survive after he assumed the desk on “Late Night” succeeding David Letterman. “Conan needed time to find his show,” Mr. Michaels said. “I think this will help Jimmy to do that.”
17 July 2008
Dr. Horrible!
Act 3 debuts on Friday. The whole thing goes away, well the streaming version, anyway, on Saturday. Then it will be iTunes and DVD-only. Watch it now! Learn more at the official fan site.
Is this the new business model for online video?
14 July 2008
Book Revision: Wikinomics
PenguinGroup tells us that Don Tapscott has updated Wikinomics (”expanded” edition, not “second” edition) with “a new introduction and a new chapter.” Great. But for those of us who bought the original book, why not make these two chapters available as a PDF for free or for a nominal fee?
I wandered over to the book’s website to see if they were offering these updates. Nope. The “sneak peak” link (pdf) is from the 2006 edition of the book, even though the webpage text focuses on the “expanded edition.”
When Sam Harris updated The End of Faith (hardcover to softcover transition) and added an afterward, I sent him an email and said, “It would be lovely if those of us who have the hardback could read the afterward that is part of the paperback … without having to buy another copy of the book.” Sam kindly sent me a PDF of the new chapter. Wonder if Tapscott will do the same thing? I’ll let you know if he does.
x-posted to summer’s economics class blog
The Faux Charge About Congressional Use of Social Media
Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) uses Twitter to communicate with constituents (and other folks). But according to TechDirt, he has been using that potent networking tool to “ignite a totally misguided partisan war, pretending (falsely) that Democrats are trying to prevent him from using Twitter.”
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13 July 2008
Technology and Wind Power; Pickens To Invest $12 Billion
ArsTechnica reports that NASA’s JPL scientists have identified optimal wind farm locations by analyzing eight years of global satellite data. And I missed this announcement: oil baron T. Boone Pickens (personal networth: $2.7bn) is investing $12 billion in a wind farm in west Texas. True to Texas mythology, it will be the largest in the world when completed, and it will start generating power in three years.
Newsweek compares the Pickens campaign with that of another Texan, H. Ross Perot in 1992. After all, oil prices and imports is not a headliner for either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain, the presumed D and R presidential candidates. And Congress and the President aren’t talking about it either.
Pickens — who kicked off his $58 million campaign with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal — thinks spending $700 billion annually on foreign oil — to import about 70% of the oil we use — is “dangerous, and it threatens the future of our nation.” He has done a complete about face on this topic (if he were a politician, someone would accuse him of flip-flopping) — in 2005, he pooh-pooed the idea of wind-based energy: (more…)
