Griffey: What if He Never Got Hurt
Every time Ken Griffey Jr. approaches a home run milestone, you immediately have to wonder “what could have been” had it not been for the numerous injuries that plagued him during the last decade or so. Even with the stops and starts, his latest shot on Thursday leaves him just 4 homers shy of 600 for his career.
High School Team Scores 66 Runs in Two Innings
File this one under “rough outing.” A Japanese high school pitcher got knocked around a bit, allowing 66 runs in less than two innings of work. He retired just 4 batters and threw over 250 pitches, before he was finally saved when his coach threw in the towel. I guess the bullpen was inactive that day.
Note to NBC Execs: You Sound Like Morons
Maybe I’m missing something, but NBC Universal’s ridiculous stance that they’ll return to iTunes only if additional anti-piracy measures are implemented is a crock of shit. George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC, had this to say at ad:Tech this week:
Keep in mind, we’re talking about broadcast television content that is available over the airwaves in standard definition and high definition for free, yet NBC wants someone to not only pony up $2 per episode (and possibly more) but to add even more restrictions on what consumers can do with the content they buy.
They truly wind up sounding like fools when they talk about piracy and how much content on “leading MP3 players” is pirated. I’m sorry, but how does this have anything to do with selling video content through iTunes? No one has successfully cracked the FairPlay DRM and allowed iTunes video content to be distributed freely online. So what does that even mean? The MP3 argument doesn’t hold any weight in this equation.
By not offering their content for sale on the most popular digital storefront, all NBC is doing is driving more and more consumers to torrent their shows. Hulu is a good offering — I’m not debating that — but for a television network to restrict their shows to a browser-dependent medium, they’re doing nothing but limiting viewership potential online.
A peek at In/Out from 37signals
Often times I ask my co-workers “What are you doing right now?,” not to hound them or assume they’re doing nothing, but to ensure that everyone is being utilized and doing something.
At 37signals, they’ve built an internal app called In/Out to manage these macro-status updates, which is a great idea especially when you have full-time employees working remotely.
I’d certainly throw a few bucks a month their way if this was released as an actual product.
D.R.Adams Films Inc.
Friends of mine can attest to my obsession with Ryan Adams. Yes, he’s known to lack the self-editing skills of a normal artist and he’s had many on-stage meltdowns that have alienated some fans and turned a large segment of the press against him. At the same time, the guy isn’t shy about his life (he admitted in a NY Times piece to doing speedballs — snorting heroin mixed with coke — every day for years before recently sobering up) and his Tumblr account is a wide open book that is a confusing, yet highly entertaining, read.
This week he posted eleven facts about himself, including his take on an incident that has followed him around for years. Legend has it that he had a concert goer booted from a show for requesting Bryan Adams’ Summer of 69.
From Ryan:
How can you fault him for this?
Vitamins May Increase Risk of Death
According to new research, taking antioxidants like vitamins A and E to prolong life may actually have the opposite effect. Soon, cigarettes and copious amounts of alcohol will be revealed as being beneficial to your health.
Stan Flack, MacCentral Founder, Passes Away
I was saddened to see the news today that Stan Flack, founder of MacCentral and MacMinute, has passed away at the age of 42. I was never extremely close with Stan, but back when I was running Webintosh, we had a competitive yet friendly relationship that lasted a few years.
It seems like another lifetime ago, but in the the 1996-1997 timeframe, the Mac publishing community was very, very fragile and faced an uncertain future. After all, it was strange for a bunch of guys to be hitching their financial well-being on the back of an Apple train that was just about to go off the tracks.
As such, I think it’s safe to say we were scared, yet this new publishing medium was addictive and attractive to us Mac entrepreneurs. The competition amongst MacCentral, Webintosh, MacInTouch, Mac Resource Page and others actually drew us together. We looked out for each other and did what we could to ensure that despite what was going on in Cupertino, we’d have a thriving online community
I even remember talking with Stan and the other Mac publishers about a quasi-official association that would look out for the best interests of our small industry. Now that I think about it, I need to scour my Claris Emailer archives and dig up those threads. I’m sure our naivety would make me smile (and probably cringe a little).
But I digress. Despite our brief and distant interactions, I admired Stan and always looked at him and his work ethic with the utmost respect. He had a strong business mind, an ability to execute to the finest degree and a humble personality. The Mac community has lost a truly great talent. Rest in peace, Stan.
Discover Foam City
Superballs. Paint. Bunnies. Now Foam. Sony unleashed 2,000,000 litres of foam per minute in downtown Miami for its latest television spot. The commercial breaks the “let’s do something uber-creative for the BRAVIA line” and instead promotes the company’s digital cameras and camcorders.
While it certainly evokes more of the “whoah, that’s cool” reaction, how many times can they go back to the well for what amounts to the same concept? What’s next, Sony releases a horde of mosquitoes in Times Square? Or throws buckets of blood out of high-rises?
I’m not sure whether Sony’s planning on doing this or not, but what would be cool is to utilize the “Foam City” experience footage and photos that were taken by consumers during shooting and post the 200 different perspectives online. That would be a killer integration idea.
Why is Blockbuster Bidding for Circuit City?
Let’s assume for a second you’re Blockbuster. For the past several years you’ve been shutting down hundreds of your own retail stores (282 in 2007 to be exact) and getting beat down in your category by Netflix. The smart move would be to spend $1.35 billion for a struggling electronics retailer like Circuit City, right?
VotesPA.com Redesign Live
This past Friday, our team launched the redesign of VotesPA.com, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s online voting resource center.
As I mentioned before, the previous site certainly was not a stand-out in the design or IA department. With the latter, even months after the start of the project, I found myself constantly saying “where is XYZ on the existing site?” Definitely not a good sign for PA voters.
A complete overhaul was obviously in order. We scrapped the previous navigation scheme and focused the new architecture on a system that mimicked the process a voter would go through during the voting process.
For voters with unique needs (ex. you’re a member of the military), we devoted a main homepage module to a simple selector that lets these individuals drill down to the appropriate content in a quick and easy-to-use manner. No more digging.
Elsewhere, we peppered in content about the voting and electoral process, as well as some new tools that will remind you of key dates via email or text message, for instance.
Of course, as with any project, there are certain things we would have liked to do better, but we’re incredibly pleased with the outcome. With such a focus on the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, it’s nice to know the state will have a modern and easy-to-use resource for voters.
Before:
After:
Latest MacHeist Bundle Available
MacHeist is back at it again with a new software bundle. This time they’ve even produced a trailer for the release, which might very well be the first animated marketing spot for a software bundle. Clearly, the profits they’ve netted from past efforts are being spent on even more bells and whistles.
Some will argue that Mac developers are getting the short end of the stick and that Casasanta and crew are reaping all of the profits. That may be the case, but then again, how are they able to generate enough developer interest to put together bundle-after-bundle?
Incredibly Edible Delites®
Need to tell a sweetheart, a best friend, a teacher or a colleague just how special they are? What better way than a FruitFlowers basket? As a guy, flowers don’t cut it for me, but fruit disguised as flowers? I dare someone to buy me the “Out of the Park.”
Engadget Goes for Ugly with Redesign
Just noticed Engadget’s redesign, which I guessed they rolled out in the past week or so. My opinion: awful. I’m all for big photography and white space, but there are much better ways of pulling it of than what Ryan Block and co. have done (for instance, Uncrate). I’ll be sticking with your feed, fellas.
(Be sure to check out the “other weblogs” at the bottom of the page. Someone sure is a big fan of padding.)
Last.fm: Free Music Helping Sell More Music
According to Last.fm, their free-on-demand service, which launched in January, has lead to a 119% increase in CD and download sales through Amazon. Existing users are purchasing 66% more albums and tracks than they did previously did.
American Apparel’s Dov Charney: Sheer Loopiness
American Apparel’s shamelessly provocative ads are nothing compared to the lifestyle and mindset of founder & CEO Dov Charney, who was profiled in this weekend’s WSJ.
A few highlights: he’s called his CFO a “complete loser;” those racy photo shoots are done in the basement of his LA mansion, which is filled with vintage porn; he walks around the factory in his underwear to model new designs; and he’s been sued four times by former employees for sexual harassment.
On that last point, it’s funny to think just what he did to cause those suits, especially when his public stance on HR policies is unabashedly straightforward and to-the-point: