Global POV: At the Intersection of Technology and Culture

Too many ads

by David Holtzman

I feel advertising messages being pounded into every orifice that I have. This holiday season is the worst and the commercial cacaphony shows no sign of relenting. If I could figure out a way to sabotage advertisers and cost them some money for being so intrusive, I would. If someone can figure out how to make a paying business out of getting back at obnoxious advertisers, please let me know.

I went to a couple of movies with my kids and sat through easily 10 minutes of local ads for irrelevant services and products, poorly made and loud enough to be irritating. Then came the previews of coming attractions--many of which were apparently not coming until summer 2008. Several were of violent movies that I have no interest in seeing and less interest in previewing. The movie started and I was treated to numerous, not-so-subtle incidents of product placement in the film. There were ads on the popcorn boxes, ads in the lobby.

There are video ads on taxis, airplanes and other places where you're captive and can't get away. The percentage of commercials to actual content in network shows has made the use of a product like Tivo almost mandatory.

I don't mind static ads so much, but video and audio commercials are much more intrusive. You can page through a magazine laden with ads and completely ignore them if you want; it's much harder to do that when you're dealing with immersive media like video. Watch some veteran television watchers during commericals--they stare at the screen as intently as they do during the show itself--other than bathroom and snack breaks.

I don't know what the solution is. It will get worse. I've often wondered if it would be legal to advertise in space, because if so, someone would do it. I once read a science fiction story about someone who managed to put an ad on the dark side of the moon where everyone on the planet had to watch. It doesn't seem so far-fetched today.

The solution is probably going to be vigilanteism. I look forward to someone who can make a buck out of pushing back on advertisers.

Posted on December 27, 2006

King Art

by David Holtzman

The Washington Post has an interesting commentary on Second Life and intellectual property ownership. they point out that Second Life is the only online virtual world that allows its users to own the IP of what they create. Not the objects, the IP. They give the example of a young lady who makes $60K a year by designing virtual dresses. She has thousands of designs which can be purchased for "Linden dollars" (online currency), that can converted into US currency. Legally, according to Second Life's Terms and Conditions, she sells the design or template for the dress, not the dress itself.

Most similar sites have draconian Ts&Cs, claiming that they own the rights to whatever their users create. Creative and entrepreneurial types are disincentivized to work in such a system.

One woman on Second Life makes $250,000 a year from buying and selling real estate.

The real point here is that the online world is fast becoming an expression of thought and design and those who are the movers and shakers in this new world order won't do business in worlds with restrictive legal covenants, any more than many of us are willing to live in a planned neighborhood where we need to apply to a committee to paint our house a certain color.

I can even generalize more--the coming wave of tech is not about things, but about design. Software v. Hardware, schemas v. data, content v. context. If you want to make your future in the new digital world, train yourself by learning how to write or draw. Artists are poised to take over what the engineers created.

Posted on December 26, 2006

Pelosi Speaks

by David Holtzman

Nancy Pelosi is planning a 4 day celebration honoring herself for becoming Speaker of the House. In addition to church-going and old neighborhood walking, she's even having a benefit concert featuring jimmy Buffett.

No one elected Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. The electorate voted for a change to the Republican policies and most especially George Bush. I don't think most people thought about what they were getting in return.

After the high profile fighting with Jane Harman and Stenny Hoyer, Pelosi is off to a bad start with this self-serving behavior. I understand the justification--using the occasion as a very public image twister and establishment of her own leadership, but still---there's got to be a better image that the Dems want than this narcissism.

Posted on December 22, 2006

Dick in a box

by David Holtzman

Venerable old late-night creaker, Saturday Night Live (SNL) has shown a little life in the last year or so. In the past, they've revitalized the show by changing the cast and even then, by specific one-man wrecking crews like Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell or Mike Myers. This time, it's due to the machinations of funny man Andy Samberg who has added digital sketches to the show which are often distributed on YouTube, where they have garnered huge amounts of online accolades in the only appropriate manner--downloads.

Last year's "Lazy Sunday" video showing Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about the Chronicles of Narnia while eating cupcakes started the trend, quickly followed by heavily-bleeped rap video starring Natalie Portman.

The NY Times has a story today rightly pointing out the trend-setting nature of another SNL short that was aired on Saturday starring Samberg and Justin Timberlake. This video called "Dick in a box", talks about what the two gentlemen have gotten their women for Christmas (hint: it's in a box). On the show, they bleeped the word "dick." But NBC, for the first time in broadcast history, side-stepped the censors by placing the unexpurgated version of the sketch on Youtube where it has been extremely popular.

This is fascinating stuff. Since the FCC as no jurisdiction over the Internet, broadcast TV can sidestep regulation on the Internet, the way Howard Stern did by going to satellite. I predict wide-spread usage of the tactit during the next broadcast year, making YouTube even bigger than it ever was before.

Posted on December 21, 2006

Desk to lap

by David Holtzman

Cnet has published some interesting statistics related to computer purchases this holiday season--laptops are beating desktops, hands down. Notebook shipments were up 57.7% during the first 3 weeks of the shopping season from the same period last year. Also the average price of a notebook has fallen 20% from last year.

I find this trend fascinating. I think that it illustrates that we're becoming a mobile computing society and that's a significant shift in how computers are used; just as much as the transition from desktop publishing to all-in-one game and media machine.

Computing is no longer an isolated research activity done at a fixed station at home or work, it's often more useful when transportable, especially when it can be used online.

So what's this mean to the future of consumer computing? This is actually a negative sign for quick adoption of Windows Vista, because notebook computers are notoriously unupgradeable. They use custom hardware manufacturer generated drivers and it often takes the companies a year or more to support new OS's for anything complex.

Posted on December 20, 2006

Wake me up before you go-go

by David Holtzman

I'm bored with technology.

Tech has become the flying monkeys of marketing. The novelty and creativity behind yesteryear's tech has taken a backseat to use of clever ways to sell a new gadget, rather than the thingie itself.

Remember when Windows releases had the snap of a Beatle's reunion? Compare that to the annual running of the video geeks outside America's toystores, hoping to get this year's hot and trendy digital wampum. The Microsoft mooks were interested in getting the technology because they thought that it was cool (it wasn't;) the gamers are trying to buy something scarce. In the latter case, they line up because if they don't, they won't be early adopters.

Every year or two, I see some gadget that is different that I like. The first Palm Pilot, the NeXT machine, the WII console. But they're few and far between compared to the layers and layers of dreck that clog up our stores and pea-sized consumer minds every holiday season. Go look at MP3 players...are they really that different from a couple of years ago? How about stereos? Is a flatscreen TV significant because it's diagonal size has increased 3 or 4 inches?

I believe that there's a fundamental conservatism prevalent in America's technology companies. That even though they look innovative, hip and out-of-the-box, they are anything but. Silicon Valley has become this decade's Detroit; electronic gadgetry is the boxy American Patriotmobile that was displaced by genuinely innovative Japanese cars.

Posted on December 19, 2006

Blogging and snogging

by David Holtzman

An unlikely champion of Fair Use is emerging in the form of weirdly plastic, celebrity fluffer and blogger, Perez Hilton. Hilton's website is a tell-all blog that dishes out the dirt on celebrities. His specialty is outing believed-to-be-but-still-in-the-closet homosexuals. In the last few months, he has purportedly outed Jodie Foster, Queen Latifah and Clay Aiken as well as triggered off voluntary admissions from Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser).

But that's not what is putting him in the crossfire of the IP lawyers. It's his use of paparazzi photographs that has caused him to be hit with a $7.5 million lawsuit. He is claiming, naturally enough, that the Fair Use exemption allows him to use these pics (he draws little hearts and arrows on the shots and then makes bitchy comments about them in his postings).

I don't like the fact that he doesn't clearly attribute the authorship of the pix, but I find myself strangely supportive of his right to use them. The digital world needs to have much less sharp elbows when it comes to cross-fertilization of intellectual property and if Perez is the guy to do it, then great. I realize that the paparazzi make their living out of of these shots, but hey, dung beetles do not have an exclusive right to dung. These guys sell their shots on the basis of shock and initial exclusivity, neither of which attribute is diminshed by Hilton's usage.

Posted on December 18, 2006

Cyber stores

by David Holtzman

More details on IBM's investment in Second Life, the alternative reality thingamabobbie. Cnet has the first pictures and some details. Big Blue will be showcasing their technology and have even partnered with Circuit City to put up a virtual "store".

I am going to be watching this kind of thing closely over the next few years. Second Life itself may not go anywhere, indeed the odds are that it will not, but the concept rings true. I expect the future of CRM and helpdesks to be virtual, at least for the cutting edge companies anyway.

I predict three phases:

1. Hot companies use online VR worlds like 24 hour trade expos.
   
2. It becomes standard business practice to provide customer support virtually in cyberspace, eventually causing online lines and delays that mirror the real world as the problem quickly becomes the human in the loop.
   
3. The technology comes into its own as the human avatars are replaced with human-looking AIs that can hold their own in an online discussion.
   

Posted on December 15, 2006

Sony the streetwalker

by David Holtzman

Sony has been caught waggling it's marketing mojo at it's customers again. Saucy Sony is not shy about showing a bit of sales stocking to push it's product, but lately the company has been guilty of out-and-out marketing whoredom (remember their rootkit fiasco?).

Following on the heels of the FTC's announcement that they would begin looking at shill schemes, Sony fessed up that they were running a fake "amateur" hip-hop site to push PSP games. Their admission is here.

Here's what they say about themselves on their site:

Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.

Sony Computer Entertainment America

I'm sure lots of people on the Internet are not who or what they seem to be. But shilling for little kids? Come on, Sony. These are our kids that you're trying to con here. Even megacompanies need to have a sense of right and wrong sometime. Besides, I'm sure most savvy cyberpups can see the varicose veins through your fishnets.

Posted on December 14, 2006

Meat our illegal friends

by David Holtzman

In an odd and vaguely disturbing twist on the growing national problem of Identity Theft, 1,000+ immigrations officials swarmed into packing plants owned by Swift and company and arrested a gaggle of illegal aliens. The weird twist to this story is that the charge was identity theft. It turned out that many of the illegal workers were using stolen Social Security numbers to get hired. Apparently the agents checked everyone at all of the plants, seperating the legals from the nons on the spot, effectively shutting the company down for the day, while their workers were culled and processed, although hopefully the metaphor ends there.

So my first thought when reading this story was why do I have take my shoes off at airports? If the government can't spot a huge amount of illegal aliens who have stolen identities so often that it's became an employment method for an entire industry for crissakes, then who cares what's in my shoes? Clearly it's not hard to get into the US across the borders. Clearly Social Security numbers are a horrible identification method. Clearly the Feds are clueless, even with the help of their trusty megamillion computer systems--this decade's sop to the defense contracting industry.

If we can't stop illegal aliens how can we hope to catch terrorists?

I live in Herndon, Virginia, an incorporated town near Dulles airport in the Washington, DC area. Up until a few years ago, the biggest controversies in this burb were whether to pay for a dog walking park and how to get the subway to stop out here. In the last few years it's become one of the hotspots in the illegal alien problem as the percentage of illegals in the town has risen dramatically in recent years to a double digit number. A controversy last year over a day laborer's site catapaulted the town to national prominence as the town divided into two camps fueled by outside wingnut agitators. Last spring, the mayor and town council of Herndon, reasonable people, were swept aside by rabid Know-Nothings who goose-stepped into office on the strength of a single issue--dealing with illegal immigrants living in the town.

Throughout this controversy, I bemusedly watched the furor and wondered not why or when, but how? How had 5-10,000 people crossed the Rio Grande and made their way across much of the United States and ended in the Northeast corner in Herndon, Virginia?

What does that say about our National Security?

Posted on December 13, 2006

Hot manatee sex

by David Holtzman

I always wondered about those fake domain names mentioned in TV shows and movies. Like where someone makes a joke and ends up referring the listener to [whatever].com? Well, here's a good example of a comic that did make that kind of a joke and ended up buying the name and putting some funny content on the site. Conan O'Brien made a crack about "manatee sex" and according to CNET, his writers ran out before it aired, bought the name "hornymanatee.com" and set up a site.

It's hilarious.

Posted on December 12, 2006

Threeway on the online freeway

by David Holtzman

Starting this holiday season, consumers are faced with a fascinating and groundbreaking choice when looking to buy one of the new videogame consoles as one of the season's obligatory electronic gift-gadgets. The choice is that the three major contenders: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 3 and Nintendo's WII (pronounced "whee!") are not just differently priced variations of the same thing, but different approaches to implementation of the target technology. This may have happened before, but I can't think when.

Since the beginning of the electronic gizmo era, we buyers have had to pick digital entertainment devices on the basis of pricing, content availability and some uneducated guess as to which of the several incompatible formats would be left standing at the end of the day. VHS or Beta? Nintendo or Playstation? iPod or Zune?

This is different. The Xbox360 was released last year and is principly designed for people who want to play online live games with others a la Xbox live. The PS3 is a monster game system with everything imaginable thrown in including a DVD format (Bluray) so new that we haven't cracked its protection scheme yet. The really interesting one is the Nintendo WII. This device uses a wireless controller and attached "nunchuk" to provide a completely new gaming experience as the remotes have to be physically swung to match the online action. You manipualte the controller like a tennis racket, a steering wheel or a sword and can actually break out a sweat while playing a game.

The three consoles are priced differently, ranging from the low of the WII ($200ish after supplies pickup) to the high of the PS3 ($500-600)

I think that we're entering a golden age of electronic consumerism and this example points the way. The electronic gadget industry has matured enough to where there is more than one way to build a device and we consumers can only benefit from the diversity.

Posted on December 11, 2006

Phone locks

by David Holtzman

Tracphone, a low-cost (read: cheap) cellphone provider, hasn't lost any time challenging the new Digital Millenium Copyright Act exemption allowing consumers to crack the firmware "locks" keeping users from switching providers.

This is an interesting case to watch because it's a harbinger of things to come. The cellphone industry, like the motion picture and music industries have been using bully encryption...crypto to protect their interests and then heavy-handed lobbying to create legislation stopping their victims (sorry, customers), from fighting back.

Wait for the crypto wars. They're coming in every content-driven vertical industry this decade and cases like this will set the legal stage.

Posted on December 07, 2006

15 Minutes of editing fame

by David Holtzman

By way of Boing Boing and Cory Doctorow, a truly fascinating YouTube video: a recut of Mary Poppins as a horror movie. Seriously. You really have to see this.

The advent of cheap 'n easy digital media equipment has made it all too easy to record videos, sound and pictures as has been mentioned here and elsewhere, but let's not forget the increased ability to edit. As long as IP lawyers don't make it too difficult, editing can create new art from old content and 15 years of hiphop sampling shows.

I believe that new art forms based on digital sampling and editing are our future (or at least for the next several decades). Andy Warhol anticipated this in 2D, using conventional techniques, but now the technology exists for us to get the whole banana.

Posted on December 06, 2006

Politics 'n privacy

by David Holtzman

The '08 race presidential race has officially started and the Democrats are off and running. Governor Vilsack has announced that he's a candidate, Senator Bayh is forming an exploratory committee, Senator Clinton is scaring the bejeezus out of everyone, Senator Edwards never really stopped running, Senator Kerry is twice as ineffectively campaigning as he did last time, former Vice-President Gore is looking down through the ozone lawyer from his lofty throne and Senator Obama has joined OJ Simpon as being the second powerful African-American to say "maybe" this month.

This is shaping up to be the most confusing election in US history as the juxtaposition of advancements in electronic media are converging with a wide-open White House and a general public distaste of a Republican running it.

Issues will be flying fast and furious over the next year. While we're at it, I plan on tracking the progress of the privacy issue. So far, Obama has good street cred with the bill he introduced protecting taxpayers from being privacy snogged by their preparers. Senator Clinton has put out a position paper on privacy listing a "bill of rights" which is a good step. Senator Bayh was kind enough to author the Forward to my book, Privacy Lost (available on Amazon and a great stocking stuffer).

Let's keep an eye on them, shall we, as the race begins.

Posted on December 05, 2006

Future reporters--big taters and little tots

by David Holtzman

The Post has an article today about how the Gannett newspaper chain is trying to reinvent themselves as a wideflung, distributed local paper. They are doing this by using technology to push their reporters out in the field with digital appliances to report in real-time, both for the print and the web editions. Newspapers increasingly feel that they need to have rapidly updating websites, and who knows? They're probably right.

Some papers are pushing the edge even further by enlisting amateurs to snap pix and take videos.

This has dangerous ramifications for as Michael Richards found out last week, someone always has a camera these days.

It was bad enough from a privacy perspective when the big potato newspapermen made decisions to let the newsworthiness of their story trump any thoughts of individual privacy rights. The Geraldos of the world get away it because they have big lawyers.

But what about the little taters, the local reporters that have been newly empowered with their digital cameras, laptops and mileage allowance? And what about the amateurs, the tater tots? I suspect that these wannabe journalists will not even consider the privacy rights of their targets because success for the observer trumps privacy for the observed every time.

Posted on December 04, 2006

Hunches at O'Hare, guessing at LaGuardia

by David Holtzman

What do computer profiling systems and sausages have in common? They are both sometimes used to make disgusting things more palatable.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching a new software setup called the Automated Targeting System (ATS). It is a risk-scoring system that evaluates each traveler into or out of the United States according to heuristic programming (eg, "guessing"). The results of the guess are stored in DHS computers for at least 40 years.

I've been predicting this for years and devoted some space in my book, Privacy Lost, to the evils of profiling.

In a nutshell, here's what's wrong with this idea:

1. The rules are guesses, constructed by humans and not science
   
2. Once the "scores" are in the DHS system, they will almost certainly be used by other computers for other purposes.
   
3. There is no way to question the validity of the information
   
4. There is no appeal process or method to have incorrect data expunged
   
5. It will almost certainly be abused
   

The perceived purity of science is the sausage skin of politics; any offal stuffed into it becomes digestable, a trusted meat; a sausage not road kill.

If a good old boy cop was leaning back in a chair at the airport, his hat tipped on his head as he stared down would-be flyers needing his approval to pass through the gate and sometimes he nodded yes to travelers and sometimes no, without ever explaining why; well, we would not put up with it. Why does the substitution of a computer legitimize the process?

Posted on December 01, 2006