Archive for January, 2009
The Gaffe Machine processes another tax return
Thursday, January 15th, 2009John Hinderaker, over at Powerline
Categories: News and/or Media, Political Rantings | 1 Comment »
Yet another step toward iPod gold…
Thursday, January 15th, 2009Back in July, I blogged about the Last.FM AppStore app for the iPhone, and how it moved digital music toward it’s holy grail – the impulse buy of a song when one hears it ambiently – such as on the radio or from some other streaming service.
I call this the holy grail because a person’s reaction to a good song on the radio is powerful, instant and short-lived. If a music vendor can provide the consumer with a “Buy it now” button while his/her toe is still tapping, the impulse purchase rate would likely be very high. And if it’s on a mobile device, which is often used in a group setting, there’s a “network effect” possibility (think a group of teens on a bus or at a party, and one says, “hey – check out this song!” and before you know it, a dozen kids have all clicked “Buy it now.”
If that button isn’t there at that exact moment, the person likely forgets about the song minutes after hearing it, and even if they have the opportunity to buy it soon afterwards, they probably don’t think to do so.
Today comes news of another AppStore app from Slacker Radio, which can access over 100 Internet radio stations, as well as custom stations derived from user preferences (genre, decade, popularity, etc.). While a given song is playing, the interface has a nice big “Buy on iTunes” button at the bottom of the screen (click the image to enlarge it). This, combined with the iPhone’s ITMS purchasing capability is pretty close to the situation described above. My only pie-in-the-sky request, at this point, is to make the “Buy” button 1-click, rather than opening the iTunes app. But then again, I’m picky that way.
Categories: The Future is Now | 2 Comments »
The new “Got Milk?” Campaign?
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009This from the excellent photo-blog, Incredimazing:
This is not a humorous topic, of course, but I must admit to smiling when I saw this picture. First of all, anything that makes hateful people look stupid is a step in the right direction, as far as I’m concerned. Second, I just love the fact that he thought he could clarify his error by writing the word “Zionist” in parentheses above the word “Juice.” So now, instead of just misspelling “Jews,” he’s create the concept of Zionist Juice, which I presume is made by squeezing Zionists really hard? And not only that, he’s against Zionist Juice, which I’m guessing is the opposite of the message he’s trying to convey. Ah, sweet linguistic justice…
Anyway, sorry if this offends anyone, but I thought it was hilarious.
Categories: The World Wide Weird | 2 Comments »
The Five Living Presidents
Saturday, January 10th, 2009Barack Obama had lunch yesterday at the White House with the four other living Presidents and ex-Presidents:
For the record, despite appearances, I’m told that Jimmy Carter was not played by a cardboard-cutout of Jimmy Carter. Then again, Photoshop is a powerful tool and we shouldn’t take anything for granted these days.
Anyway, the picture made me think of this picture from Richard Nixon’s funeral in 1994:
Since ’94, we’ve had two ex-Presidents die, and we’ve elected two more. All part of our Presidential replacement program, I guess…
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Random Acts of Blogging – 1/9/09
Saturday, January 10th, 2009Happy New Year to all! We start off 2009 here at I Should Be Sleeping with a random smattering of things I’ve seen since New Year’s that I thought you’d find fascinating:
First, there’s Burger King. Last month, we discussed their new meat-scented cologne. Now, they’ve gone hi-tech. The Whopper Sacrifice
Categories: Family Matters, Money Talk, Political Rantings, Random Acts of Blogging, The World Wide Weird | Comments Off on Random Acts of Blogging – 1/9/09