Prediction: Turner Broadcasting Will Be Spending Money in Beantown

After shutting down most of Boston today with their Aqua Teen Hunger Force marketing stunt, I'm thinking that Turner Broadcasting is going to be in some serious trouble. My only question is what kind of goodwill will those big boys from Atlanta be doling out. Maybe a CNN Center for the Homeless? The TBS School for the Deaf? A TNT Greenway addition? I just can't see them NOT being obliged to do some serious mea culpa action.

Plus, what took them so long to come forward? The "packages" first appeared this morning, but it wasn't until the 6 o'clock news that they were making a statement? I'm sure there were quite a few lawyers in on this one:

The ''packages'' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim’s animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger.

Way to avoid taking any responsibility or showing any remorse!

Top 5 Reasons to Root for the Bears on Sunday

Like most people outside of the Midwest, I have no natural rooting inclinations for a game between two cities I have zero connection with. However, there is absolutely no question that I will be on the edge of my seat every time Rex Grossman drops back to pass. That's because I don't want the Bears to lose, because that means Indy wins, which is bad because:

1. Peyton Manning should never win the Super Bowl. I mean EVER. I am so tired about how he's due, or he deserves it. You should never expect to get a title, you have to earn it. And for someone who has had plenty of chances, he's never been able to capitalize. So, in my book, he's an underachiever when it really counts, and having a ring might let him off the hook, which would be a shame because...

2. Peyton Manning is the most over-commercialized athlete since Michael Jordan. I don't know how he finds time to "study so much film" when he's so busy being captured on it pimping various products and services in completely unoriginal ways.

3. Tony Dungy should never win the Super Bowl. He is a terrible playoff coach, all the way back to his Tampa Bay days when he had the team so close but could never get it done and then Gruden pulls it off the first year after taking over.

4. The Colts shouldn't win because of what they did to Baltimore, sneaking out of town in the middle of the night to go to a smaller market. Unforgivable.

5. Adam Vinatieri should never win another Super Bowl. He should have retired a Patriot. He broke up the good karma. He was a legend in Boston, and as a kicker, that's quite an accomplishment. Now it'll always be a bit tarnished since he went to the Colts.

*Note: I do not give one reason why the Bears should win. I don't particularly like them. They have an OK defense and, um, maybe now people will shut up about the '85 Bears who couldn't even get into a 2nd Super Bowl for all of their greatness.

24's Atomic Clock Still Ticking

Intriguing tidbit on how the "24" storyline has the current season in 2012. While I applaud the writers' commitment to not throwing the time-space continuum out of whack (although apparently no one uses the bathroom or eats in the future), it is kind of odd that everyone is using five-year-old mobile phones and there are no new cars on the highways.

Of course, if Jack Bauer and company were cruising along in futuristic cars and shooting laser guns at the bad guys the show would be dubbed "sci-fi" or get lost in the clutter of near-future gadgetry. So, there's no ideal way to handle the issue, but it does at least explain how they're on their sixth president (pre-Palmer I; Palmer I; Died-in-a-plane-crash; evil-weenie-former VP; evil VP's VP; and now Palmer II) in as many seasons.

Sprint Monetizes White Lies

Sprint has always been a thought-leader in the mobile content domain, but I must say this is a pretty ballsy move in officially supporting an application that's only purpose is deception. The MobileFaker app lets you receive self-directed fake calls, give out fake numbers, etc., mostly for the purpose of avoiding awkward social situations. If this is inside the "walled garden," you have to wonder what it is they're trying to keep out.

The Awkwardness of LinkedIn

I was reading about LinkedIn's quarter-billion dollar valuation, and agree with one point about how LinkedIn is primarily only good for job-hunting or recruiters. For me, while it certainly has value in that realm, I'd like it to serve as a way to keep track of the people I have met professionally or worked with, even as they take new jobs, get new email addresses, etc. However, the LinkedIn process requires you to ask permission to add someone to your network through an email invitation. I find that an unnecessary and awkward step, and I usually refrain from doing it - although I almost alway accept invitations from other. I think it's much more natural to just add someone to your network automatically from their profile (so if I come across someone I know I can just click a link and they end up on my list). At that point, the person you added can be notified that you added them and asked if they want to reciprocate (by adding you to their network).

Maybe it's just my introverted nature manifesting itself in user experience design, but to me that seems much more natural (just like I might hang on to someone's business card while they might toss mine). I suppose the down-side of my plan would be that I could, say, add Bill Gates to my network even though I've never met the man, but the LinkedIn site could display whether or not the linkage had been reciprocated to show if I really did know Bill or was just a big MSFT fan.

Wizards Uniforms Casting a Spell... of Nausea

I am NOT a fan of the Celtics, despite living within 10 miles of the Garden, er, the Fleet Center, I mean the T.D. Banknorth Garden (sigh). However, the horrible collection of basketball players known as the Celtics do appear on Channel 52 as I am flipping around, and last night I was stopped in my channel surfing tracks by the sheer hideous nature of the Washington Wizards shimmering uniforms.

I have no idea where these alternate road jerseys came from (their regular uniforms barely have a hint o' gold). However, if the mission was merely to get noticed, well they got the job done. I spent more time watching the Celtics last night than I normally do in an entire season.

Comcast & TiVo Collaboration Confusion

This month there were two TiVo/Comcast announcements that are a bit confusing when you put them together. The first is that there is going to be a special Comcast-TiVo box, which was announced at CES. Nothing all too surprising about that. The second item is a little more odd, that being that existing Comcast DVR users (those of us renting the Motorola set-top box) will be able to download TiVo software to run on their existing box.

Put together, this seems like kind of a scattered strategy. It also seems like a bit of a management nightmare for Comcast with two different classes of TiVo users out there. But mostly, I can't see that downloading TiVo onto an existing box will go well. It just seems like a recipe for disaster and many, many tech support calls. Does your existing content get wiped during this process? Most DVR power-users are not going to like the sound of that. Plus they want to charge a higher monthly fee just to have the TiVo software option. Is TiVo that much better than the Moto SW?

I have had the Motorola DVR for 2+ years. I have had my issues (one box died, another one spontaneously wiped its memory during a power surge) and annoyances (the SW freaking out and needing to get tech support to send a "pulse", remote control responsiveness issues, not handling those pesky shows that run to 10:01 very well). But overall, my only real complaints are the lack of memory, no way to put content onto permanent storage and no multi-room solution. Downloading TiVo doesn't fix any of those issues, so I don't see why it's worth extra money and hassle just to get recommendations and a cool sound when I pick stuff on the menu.

Mobile Browsing Find

I have been working on the mobile Internet since 1999, but I still find myself only looking at a few mobile-friendly web sites on my phone since so many STILL don't have sites optimized for devices. I learned about a new directory of mobile-friendly sites (Mobitopia) from this blog review. The site has the normal search/browse options of a directory and a bastardized version of del.icio.us tagging features, but also features a nice emulation option so you can see how the sites will look (although be forwarened it launches a YoSpace Java applet that crashed Firefox the first time). The key feature it is missing, however, is the option to send a bookmark to your device right from the site.

A Tale of Two Web 2.0 Events

In the last seven days I have had the opportunity to attend two very different events about Web 2.0 on behalf of my employer, Sun Microsystems. The chasm between the tone and content of these two outings that were theoretically covering the same topic illustrates (for me, at least), the conundrum of "web 2.0" and all the fun that comes along with that.

The first event was a Mashup Camp at MIT. These event was an unconference, which all alone is an invigorating environment. The place was full of people actually doing mashups and using web services, feeds, AJAX, wikis and the like to create some interesting new offerings. The SpeedGeeking sessions were like show-and-tell for hackers and I came away from the event really energized about the possibilities that Web 2.0 could bring even to a half-ass HTMLer like myself. Business plans danced in my head and I found myself constructing RSS feeds from scratch, installing wikis on free hosting servers and touching JavaScript for the first time in ages.

Then yesterday I went to the Mass Tech Leadership Council breakfast, which also had a Web 2.0 theme. In an audience filled with VCs and CXOs of the companies who are making the decisions on whether to invest in this technology, there was not a scrappy young developer to be found. Instead the well-dressed crowd was treated to a series of self-serving lectures on Web 2.0 from a panel of technology retreads that had resumes dating back to the 1970s. At best, these folks are somewhat informed observers, commenting on the trends from afar. And they had little insight to offer that these same suits in the crowd couldn't have garnered from an article in the Wall Street Journal. Their message was simply "you can't do business like you used to," but with no marching orders or insights into exactly what it is they should be doing tomorrow.

After an hour-plus of this, Dave Girouard, VP & GM, Enterprise, Google, gave a second keynote (the new governor had given the first one, publicly wrangled a new set of BOSE headphones from the sponsor and then fled the scene). This was inspiring, however it also made it clear that if you're not Google, well, you might as well not bother doing anything they've got their fingers in already because they will crush you mercilously. Basically, with all of the Google apps, there is no reason to have an IT department take care of lots of mission-critical items like email, calendar, etc. You can just outsource it to Google, who has more scale than you ever will, and it will be way cheaper and they will still have huge margins and everyone wins... unless you don't have Internet access and want to get at that email or calendar.

Dave then changed gears and spoke about Massachusetts specifically. Before he landed at Google he'd done a bi-coastal job search and basically said that the East Coasters just don't get it. VCs and start-ups here expect people to have already done what they're being hired to do and to not be well-compensated up-front, but rather slave away on ramen until that potential liquidity event. On the West Coast, according to Dave, the hiring types want people who have skills and experience but haven't necessarily done the same exact job already, plus they are giving people a decent salary and benefits from Day One. This might have something to do with more competition for talent in California, but it seems to make sense to me. His point is that once you've been a VP of Marketing, you probably don't want to be one again, but are rather looking for a new challenge. He also commented that VCs on the East Coast all said they would have never invested in YouTube or Google and that kind of conservative thinking will hurt Massachusetts long-term. Investing in consumer-oriented businesses that don't have a business model from the start is important, in his mind, because you don't know where those technologies and talents will take you.

The Unnecessary "Pop" Remix

While remixes are nothing new, I feel there's an unsavory trend in the music business when the label tries to "cross-over" a country star to the pop radio stations. Shania Twain was shameless in this, releasing entire albums full of pop remixes, not that her music sounds all that country to begin with. But recently I've heard a few of these country hits remixed for "normal" audience and I just don't see the point.

Two examples would be TimMcGraw's "Live Like Your Were Dying" and The Wreckers' "Leave the Pieces." In the first case, there is no amount of background music that is going to make McGraw NOT sound country. His wife might be able to pull that off, but there is no hiding his Southern vocals. Plus, "Live Like You Were Dying" is not a song that musically sounds all that country to begin with.

No. 2 would be The Wreckers first single, "Leave The Pieces" off their debut Stand Still, Look Pretty. Again, this is not all that country-sounding (unlike their second single "My, Oh My"). So, I was somewhat horrified to hear this jangly pop remix on Boston's Mix 98.5. It sounds totally unconnected from the vocal tracks and I think would be less appealing to a pop crowd than the original.

I know Nashville is more of a hit factory than a land of artistic freedom, but to me these remixes undercut the power of any song and its original vision. I'm pretty sure a mainstream audience can handle the hint of a steel pedal guitar in the background. I have NO problem with pop covering country and "country covering pop, but you shouldn't cover yourself.

Nothing kills a mood like a parking ticket

So, yesterday was my eldest daughter's 4th birthday. As part of our celebrations, we decided to stop by our friend's kids clothing boutique for it's big quarterly sale. My wife finds a fancy dress for only $10, which makes the birthday girl quite happy, we pay up and head back to the car to seek out an early dinner.

Lo and behold, a parking ticket from the City of Brookline has found its way under my wiper blade. When I had pulled into the spot, the meter was green, so I hadn't bothered to put any more money in. The planet continued to move along its axis and now I owed the parking coppers $25 - making the sale event evolve into a $35 dress (which far exceeds my "no kids clothing should cost more than $20" rule). I am livid, dinner out is vetoed and there is no kind of angry for me like my outrage at the parking ticket.

It just seems like $25 is an awful pricey penalty to pay for forgetting to put in a quarter - not to mention that it seems out of proportion to the fees other violations incur (such as only $15 for blocking a driveway or a fire station) - I mean, in the grand scheme of things, what is the larger offense? I think $5 is a reasonable fine. You screwed up, here's a penalty, the police get some money and you remember to put your quarter in next time. But $25 is a "purchase". You can get some really nice stuff for $25. It takes time to earn $25.

Why Now?

Why am I starting a blog now? - I blame my 14-month-old daughter who has been up since 3am and is only sated with Kashi ranch crackers. Plus I've been feeling the need for more "outlets" - must have something to do with working from home full-time the last year.

Why "off-centred"? - Well, I live in Newton Centre and it's not like there's a ton of URLs left anymore... you can only drop so many vowels before the words are no longer pronouncable.