Sex, Pranks and Reality - Forbes.com

Sex, Pranks and Reality - Forbes.com

This is a good article, but I think the author misses the point somewhat. In fact, I am pretty sure she inadvertently plagiarized a bunch of articles that were written in 1994-1995 about the then-newborn World Wide Web. Is "being is Second Life" worthwhile for companies per se? No, not any more than using electricity within ones business is a competitive differentiator. As with the Web (or any other medium/business platform), the platform itself is not the point - it is what you do with it. VirtualAloft got shuttered because it had nothing to offer. Nissan Island, on the other hand, provides a place to drive your virtual car (which is actually somewhat worthwhile if you like that sort of thing.) IBM provides product seminars and demonstrations. Numerous universities have virtual classrooms. These are real business endeavors, not merely cool billboards.

...And You Press This Button To Fly

Steve McGookin has a much different take on the commercial possibilities of virtual worlds. He seems to imply that things like winged avatars and idealized body types will eventually go the way of cute signature lines, effusive smileys, and "kewl" email addresses (when is the last time you got a business card that had "cutie507@aol.com" printed on it?)

Real Men Love The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Real Men Love The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Perhaps the greatest movie of all time - and you probably have not seen it. This review, discovered recently, says it all. If you have not yet seen this cult classic (and your head has not exploded as a result), run, don't walk to half.com or netflix and get it.

Disclaimer - the acting is weak, the story line is ridiculous, special effects were cheap even for the time period, and the sound track is campy at best. BUT if you keep all of this in mind when you see it, you will love this movie more than you love... some other things that you love a little.

Corps: New doubts about N.O. pumps - Yahoo! News

Corps: New doubts about N.O. pumps - Yahoo! News

It has been forever since I last posted, but the good news (note the sarcasm dripping from your screen) is that nothing has changed. The exodus from New Orleans continues, city still isn't fixed, pumps don't work, and nothing looks to be improving.

I simply don't understand.

We Are Sinking

Funny video and good viral spread. Does this confirm that good viral marketing must equal humorous?

Why I'm rooting for the Saints this year

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Take a look at this article - New Orleans Brain Drain

We've talked about it, and now the media is waking up to it. There are clearly more than a few ways for a city to die - losing its doctors, educators, and administrators is a particularly painful one. The late Milton Friedman would probably argue that any deficit created by the departure of the young and talented will be filled by the market, but the market may well adjust for this through attenuated demand. In other words, other folks will leave, too.

I wish I had the solution - maybe all of the construction firms and land speculators should start thinking about this.

Second Life: Your World. Your Imagination.

I bought an island yesterday. It is about 16 acres in size, sort of rhombus-shaped, with a lagoon in the middle. I'm not exactly sure where it is, but that's OK since I can move it later on if I need to.

If you don't know what I am talking about, visit SecondLife.com and download their application. This thing is the latest online fad and is growing like a weed (from about 200k members this past Spring to over 2 million today), and like a weed it may well die once the seasons change. Somehow, however, I think this might just have legs.

The way this virtual world has been created is much more true to the "parallel digital universe" (my own term) described in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash from 1993. It has an economy, the design and function of objects and places are controlled by the users, and there actually seems to be stuff going on there that does not involve cybersex and porn. (gasp!)

Perhaps this is the next manifestation of a mainstream web? The way this works is that you can just visit SecondLife's world (insiders just call it "SL" not to be confused with "RL" in which we are all actually breathing air right now), you can build up your own little piece of it on somebody else's "island," or you can actually have an island of your own built just for you on which you can pretty much do as you please. This sounds very geeky and gamey - but replace the words "visit," "little piece of it," and "island" with "surf," "website," and "web server" and you start to understand that what this really is just a 3D version of the mainstream Internet! It is worth noting that at its outset, a huge amount of the bandwidth consumed by the Web was also driven by sex and porn-related activity.

So I bought an island. It is for my company, and we're planning at least one interesting experiment with it, but I am being very cautious about whether or not it really will mean anything in the future.

Those of you who read this (Alex) can really load up on your social currency in advance of holiday parties to come by getting this set up now and dropping mention of it in discrete circles. Sure, they'll think you are a big geek, but at our ages (and since we're all pretty much married now), let's face facts - we are big geeks.

See you in Second Life!

- Chime Bellman

1st Katrina insurance lawsuit opens today - Yahoo! News

All eyes on this case, most certainly. I wonder how many people have not filed a flood insurance claim because they don't want to invalidate their homeowner's claim? What about people outside the flood area - have they experienced problems getting their claims paid out?

Obviously money - flowing to the actual homeowners with a personal vested interest in their property - is critical to the rebirth of the city. Will it come?

Muddy "Katrina cars" take final ride - Yahoo! News

When Alex took me and some work colleagues around New Orleans, a repeated theme was the sheer intimidation presented by the number of things that needed to be done. In response to a question about the danger of black mold, Alex showed us a typical flooded home in which mold of every shade, color, and variety had taken over where the residents had left off, creating their own unique (and foul) culture. "Black mold is probably the least of our problems now," he said.

Same went for the marina, where 6- and 7-figure yachts and cruisers were tossed around the parking lot and in the water like old soda cans in a dump and decades-old restaurants had been literally ripped from their foundations and dragged out to sea. Same went for the city's gardens in many areas.

I remember, shuddering, each time Jamie and I had to pack to move to a new home. The mass of possessions, taking on the temporary mental label of "crap," overwhelmed us at the outset of each move. Just getting started took a concentration of willpower that far surpassed what one might expect. To me, the recovery of New Orleans is like that same challenge multiplied by 20 million raised to the power of the number of elements of the task that could potentially kill you.

It will be nice to get rid of the cars stacked under the highways. Unfortunately this will only reveal something equally ugly, annoying, or dangerous that was sitting underneath them for the past 10 months.

Hotel offers BlackBerry detox - Yahoo! News

If my company starts to explore this in our hotels, I may have to quit. The very thought of not having my Blackberry buzzing happily at my waist gives me the DTs.

Yes, this is very sad.

Duck X-ray reveals 'alien head' - Yahoo! News

Sorry for the slow-post season. This news story is a bit off-topic, even for this eclectic blog, but if you are looking for a conversation starter background image for your PC, consider this lovely photo. Does anyone have Agent Mulder's latest contact info, by the way?

Daniel, Sarah, Caroline, Jamie and I went to Turner Field last night to see the Braves take on the Marlins. It was Daniel's first baseball game (the girls' second). We arrived about an hour before the first pitch - time enough to enjoy the fun of the ballpark. The big hit (so to speak) was Tooner Field, the Cartoon Network-themed play area for kids. There, something wonderful, and hysterical, happened.

Take a look at this(Click here)

(It is big, but worth it.)

I'm a proud Daddy whose sides still hurt from laughing!

HealthDay
Read this article. Juan Gershanik is the last guy on earth to blow his own horn, but clearly he and his colleagues are among the many unsung heroes of Katrina. Take a look at this photo: - could be a Pulitzer winner if you knew the back story.

Wow.

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Updates - Click to read about the huge potential problem with the pump system.

Ugh. The levee breaks were the news and the root cause of the flooding, but it is important to understand that the system was designed for flooding. For this purpose, the city of New Orleans is surrounded by massive pumping stations which are there to get rid of floodwater.

It is critical to have stronger levees, but if the pumps are not (1) working properly and (2) shielded from water damage they will not be able to handle even simple things like heavy rainfall, something that is not only predictable but happens almost every day in the next couple of months.

Come on.

This house actually floated off its foundation and landed on the owner's car. Remember, all of this happened 8 months ago - in a major US city (and it still is in this condition!)
Lower Ninth Ward pics - these were homes, mostly privately owned. All gone now.

 

TechCrunch � AllOfMP3 Launches allTunes

My favorite legal MP3 store - I'm pretty sure it is legal, anyway. If you can buy a pair of Levis in Atlanta for $35 but can get the same pair in Moscow for $3.50 after the exchange rate, is it ethical to do so? What if your travel costs were free? That's pretty much the premise of this Russian-based music store. The prices they charge (about $0.10 per song, depending upon the compression you choose) are based upon the prices in Russia, where they operate as a music reseller. They've been challenged in Russian court by the RIAA and "won" by virtue of the case being thrown out by the courts.

Anyway, the new tool, alltunes.com, is most likely an attempt to address the pitfalls of the browser-based allofmp3.com storefront, namely the kludginess of downloading the songs you purchase. Their previously launched AllofMP3.com Explorer works pretty well, but it does not bring them into iTunes' league in re: customer experience.

If you have yet to join the age of digital music, know that when you do you'll have a very good way to fill up your iPod without draining your bank account.

One final tip - your credit card bank will likely deny your initial attempt to pay this retailer. They assume it is fraud until you clear it in advance with them.

New Orleans R&B star begins posthumous mayoral bid - Yahoo! News

The cynics are moving into New Orleans. Well, they've probably been there are for a while.

I returned to New Orleans for a brief visit two weeks ago. The company conference I attended was downtown and mostly contained within the hotel or the nearby sections of the French Quarter. From there, you could almost think the city was fine.

Alex showed us the face behind the Mardi Gras masque, however. He took me and two work colleagues for a 2 1/2 hour tour of the city which left us all speechless after about 15 minutes. Less than 5 blocks from the French Quarter we took pictures next to a house that had floated off its foundation and settled on the owner's car. The house is still full of furniture and clothing, all befouled by the floodwaters. This was the less-damaged part of town.

A short drive later and we were in the most damaged part of town - the lower Ninth Ward. Somehow even the name of this section of New Orleans evokes images of tenements and squatter shacks to those of us outside the city. The reality is far more depressing. This was a low-income neighborhood of single-family homes, most of which were owned by their residents. This was the working poor - not those on public assistance. Not the destitute that we all like to pretend does not exist in this country. These were the folks who were getting by pretty well. (A shopkeeper in the French Market had earlier described how a person could get by pretty well in New Orleans on a couple of thousand dollars a month in income - unlike most major cities).

This neighborhood is gone. Not damaged, not empty. Gone. There are piles of rubble everywhere, much of which looks a little like houses. Close to the levee break there is little but the foundations upon which houses once sat. Think of a war-ravaged city that was then hit by a tactical nuclear weapon and you'll start to get the picture.

From this happy place, we went through into St. Bernard Parish where we saw miles & miles of ugly brown lines across the sides of empty houses (the high water mark). We peered inside of some of these homes, admiring the patterns of mold covering walls and ceilings. In most cases, couches and chairs seem arranged in the least appealing and functional manner possible - but then you realize that the layout was done by tidal effects within the home itself over a period of weeks.

The tour took us back into Orleans via Lake Terrace, Lake Vista (not that bad) and near Lakeview.

The good news is that work is being done, some people are back (there were FEMA trailers everywhere), and the overall attitude could have been much, much worse.

We took a bunch of pictures, so when I get copies, I will post them for posterity. Thanks again, Alex, for the tour and for opening our eyes.

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP - United States - Trademarks on the Internet � Fair Play or Fair Game? (16/03/2006) from Mondaq

Here's a change of pace for you. This article presents a pretty good summary of the challenges of trademark law in the Internet age. Weigh in with your opinion.

Grim find shows normalcy still eludes New Orleans - Yahoo! News

(Click on title above to see full article).

"Katrina Fatigue" may be widespread, but the bottom line is that there are 400 people still missing more than 7 months after the tragedy. This is America still, right? Home of CSI and Murder, She Wrote and Bones? We can figure out what the driver of a stolen taxi was eating for breakfast on the basis of a dislodged pebble from his tire tread, but we can't find bodies in a demolished city area? Here's a hint: look under the rubble of the places where the people LIVED.

I'm coming across as a bit bitter today. Not sure why.

Maureen told me the other day that mail service to their home is "every couple of days," restaurants are open only occasionally with very limited hours, grocery stores are crowded (since many are still not open) - in short most of what we take for granted in this country is simply not happening in New Orleans. Again, is this still America?

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Updates:
Insurance costs for Louisiana residents and farmers will increase by 50% but will cover substantially less (things that actually cause damage and the need for insurance, for example). Hurricane damage? Not covered. Hail? Nope.

I like to look on the bright side of things. Here's my attempt for this one - since the local economies have been devastated by the aftereffects of Rita and Katrina, people probably could not have afforded the rates at the original levels, so they aren't actually any worse off.

My favorite quote:

"'The only way we survived those events was reinsurance,' VanDreumel said. 'The only reason we're doing this is the cost of reinsurance.' "

In other words - we had to pay out a ton of money for last year's claims. Now we have to get it back from these horrible people to whom we paid it.

Argh.

AOL video service to debut with Intel, Kraft ads - Yahoo! News

Former Nexchangers continue to be ahead of the curve in all things Internet. Joe Michaels was recently promoted to Director, Business Development for MSN. He does all of the MSN entertainment deals including video and other streaming content. Now AOL wants to catch up a bit. Joe, your market value is skyrocketing by the minute! Way to go, bro! "You're da best!"