Mon - July 25, 2005

Trying to clear up some technorati snafu 



Posted at 12:12 PM    

Mon - May 2, 2005

Google gains from MSN ads... 


As I noted here a few months ago when Microsoft started running pretty generic TV ads for its search service, such a move by an upstart can have the effect of helping the market leader.

Surprise, surprise, as the Wall Street Journal notes today (subscription required):

"Bill Gates has talked a lot about how Microsoft is taking search seriously. But in the wake of quarterly earnings reports last month and lukewarm enthusiasm for the unveiling of MSN Search, it looks like Microsoft could be falling further behind Google and Yahoo, figuring out iron just as its rivals are moving on to steel."

MSN's ad revenue was up 4% in the previous quarter from a year earlier, even as Google's ad revenue almost doubled and Yahoo's gained 54%, writers Tim Hanrahan and Jason Fry noted.


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Posted at 08:30 AM    

Sat - March 26, 2005

It's officially spring now 


Well, the flock of wild turkeys has returned to the backyard after hiding out (somewhere) all winter.



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Posted at 11:11 AM    

Wed - March 9, 2005

It's messy at Logan Airport 


Raising the question how much snow is too much snow in one winter even for winter lovers (like me), we the residents of Massachusetts got socked by, what, our 10,000th snow storm of the season last night. Logan Airport, from whence I post this posting, is still digging out and many flights have been cancelled.






(pictures snapped with wimpy camera phone)

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Posted at 07:34 AM    

Mon - February 28, 2005

MSN's Search ads will help Google 


Some years ago, I was interviewing Bob Pittman, the now-departed chief operating officer of America Online and he gave me a golden nugget of marketing advice. Before coming to AOL, he ran the theme park operator Six Flags. When did Disney World have its best year for attendance, he asked me. The year that Six Flags mounted a massive marketing campaign. It seems that the Six Flags ads got people excited to go to a theme park -- any theme park -- and since Disney was the best-known brand by far, more people headed off to visit the Magic Kingdom than to the parks run by the company paying for the ads. Oops.

I was reminded of that anecdote last night during the Oscar telecast when I saw Microsoft's new ad for its MSN Search service. The ad doesn't make a whole lot of sense to begin with as wild music plays and the outlines of various basketball-related images appear inside a search box. The unadorned search box actually looked more like Google's than Microsoft's. The words "MSN" and "Microsoft" are not visible during most of the ad but the word "search" is shown during the entire spot. I'm not sure that basketball, or "college hoops" as the ad says in the end, is really of much interest to most Oscar watchers but I guess "March Madness" is around the corner. In any event, though, it seems destined to feed traffic to Google, the best known search site.

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Posted at 05:25 PM    

Tue - February 22, 2005

This is a test of the emergency relaxation system 





This is only a test. You are booked on the last flight of the day out of Logan Airport in Boston to Miami, where the temperature is 80 degrees. A snow storm is bearing down on New England. If you don't get out tonight, you aren't getting out -- there is no sunny beach vacation. The plane is overbooked and filled with crying kids. You load on like sardines. You have an aisle seat three rows down from a lavatory. The plane is loaded. you sit. You sit some more. You sit even more. Time is ticking. The pilot comes on and says that the lavatory toilet is clogged and he can't take off. They open a door in a side of the plane and bring in a hose. You and 299 other passengers hold your breath. On the third try, they succeed. Doors shut. Airborne. Arrive in Miami an hour late, taxi to gate, plane stops. You sit. You sit some more. ten minutes go by, 20 now. The pilot comes on and says that there is no gate crew to let you out and he is mad. You wait even more. They get a crew and let you off the plane into the cool but not too cool night. The first person you see upon entering the terminal is wearing shorts. This has been a test of the emergency relaxation system. It was only a test. Had this been a real relaxation emergency, you would have been informed where and when to take a chill...

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Posted at 09:38 AM    

Thu - February 10, 2005

That quarter in your pocket could be worth $1500 


Turns out the U.S. mint let some Wisconsin quarters out last year with flaws and collectors are paying big bucks. A quick check of Ebay shows plenty of supply, however, so the quoted $1500 price may be long gone. Now go check your piggy bank!



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Posted at 10:45 AM    

Wed - February 9, 2005

Amazing Moon Photos Take to the Net 


While we wait for Google to digitize and make publicly available the greatest works of literature and history (at least mostly those published before 1923, and some later works too) from some of our greatest libraries, there's plenty of other amazing new stuff arriving on the Internet for all to see. Today's entry -- highly detailed, 360-degree panorama photographs from the Apollo moon missions that were created by scanning the original mission photos into a computer and stitching them together. The photos are in color but you almost can't tell because the lunar surface is a dull grey. Beautiful. Appears to require that you have Quicktime installed.

.

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Posted at 10:30 AM    

Thu - January 27, 2005

Snowfall has 19th Century ring 


It's official -- we've now had the most snow in these parts in 113 years!  

Posted at 08:40 AM    

Mon - January 24, 2005

Delicious blizzard of 2005 


The snow came and, unlike some other blizzards around these parts in the last 30 years, had the good sense to arrive with a. plenty of warning and b. over a weekend. The damage in terms of power outages was minimal and plowing crews had plenty of non-rush-hour time to get the roads in better shape. Here in the burbs southwest of Boston, we got almost 2 feet of light, powdery fluffy stuff. It almost looked like fake Hollywood snow (of course it didn't feel that way when I shoveled my uncle-in-law's caddie out from under a big drift). The drifts were so deep in the back yard that the kids could only walk in the path of my footsteps. Later, we saw the deer were doing the same. All in all, very enjoyable.

Our "official" measurement out back, almost 22 inches:



Caddies in the snow - check out the wind-drawn profiles. Maybe GM could use this:




No swinging until spring?



The woods were silent even in the middle of the day:



After my little snow trek through snow up to my thighs:

 

Posted at 09:08 AM    

Sun - January 23, 2005

Strike that, reverse that -- snow arrived 


Impressive, Mother Nature. The blizzard has arrived. As of 7 a.m., the storm has dumped a load and the weather folk say it's not done.

She got the minivan! But the high winds have blown around quite a bit here.



Then I tried to open the back door. Ooops:



I couldn't get the window open to get a good shot of the front door:



We'll get outside and take some more pictures from around the woods soon. Coffee is brewing. 

Posted at 07:12 AM    

Sat - January 22, 2005

Blizzard dump yet to arrive 


The weather channel says we're going to get close to 2 feet of snow this weekend but so far, as of 10-ish p.m., there's a lot of wind but not much snow -- a few inches really:

Not much on the minivan...



Not much on the back steps...



Not much on the front steps (although we didn't shovel the front steps after the last storm -- oops)...

 

Posted at 10:16 PM    

Brooks Brothers -- not dumb 


When I discovered that Brooks Brothers was making an all-cotton oxford shirt that could be washed the regular, old way (in a washing machine) and yet DID NOT HAVE TO BE IRONED, I thought I had died and gone to work clothes heaven. I quickly moved to revamp my entire work wardrobe around their line of dry cleaner killing shirts.

Over time, the line expanded and included more and more styles and colors. Sweet. Now the dark side, with no-iron shirts comprising almost everything available, the prices have risen. At the Brooks Brothers in the Chestnut Hill Mall today, no-irons were $65 each or on "sale" 3 for $179. That's about $20 more than the old sale if you bought 3, alas.

p.s. What was I doing wasting time in in the Chestnut Hill Mall just hours before the giant blizzard struck? Isn't it obvious? 

Posted at 09:41 PM    

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