March 2008
53 posts
The Big Apple's Little Boom - washingtonpost.com →
The number of children younger than 5 in Manhattan has increased about 30 percent since 2000, said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. The increase is driven by white toddlers, whose numbers have gone up by 60 percent, according to the 2000 census and the 2006 American Community Survey, he said. For the first time since the 1960s, young white children outnumber their black...
Faster, Maybe. Cheaper, No. But Driving Has Its... →
the most frequent reasons given by drivers for shunning public transportation were the freedom to come and go as they liked and the ability to avoid dealing with other people
Filmgoers get a taste of the good life -... →
A recession may be looming, but a group of investors thinks Americans are ready to pony up $35 for a movie ticket.
Case Study: Dissecting the Dell Regeneration... →
Dell Computers, along with Federated Media (A social media marketing agency), and Graffiti Wall (A popular self-expression Facebook application), deployed an interactive marketing campaign that encouraged existing Graffiti artists to be involved in a contest that spurred a member created campaign resulting in affinity towards Dell. The artists were encouraged to ‘own’ the message, their creativity...
If the news is important it will find me - Blog... →
I have a declining (although slowly) number of RSS feeds that I follow, and a stable number of aggregation sites that I “lean forward” and read. Everything else is extraneous and “lean back”. If its important, someone wlil email me, post on my profile (and I will get an email alert for it), or one of the email newsletters I subscribe to will send me an E Lert and “it...
A VC: Where My Traffic Comes From →
the aggregator market is changing from rss readers like Google Reader, Bloglines, Newsgator, etc to smart aggregators like techmeme, reddit, hacker news, friendfeed, twitter, delicious, and stumbleupon.
Parties Differ on Whom Economic Aid Should Help -... →
“Democrats are more likely to propose protecting individuals, and Republicans are more likely to propose protecting markets,” said William A. Niskanen, chairman of the Cato Institute, a libertarian research group in Washington that champions smaller government. Despite differing approaches, Democrats and Republicans may end up in a similar place because it will be difficult to protect individuals...
Fat City? 10 Million Pounds Gained in 2 Years -... →
“the citywide weight gain totaled more than 10 million pounds in just two years,”
Yes, Running Can Make You High - New York Times →
now medical technology has caught up with exercise lore. Researchers in Germany, using advances in neuroscience, report in the current issue of the journal Cerebral Cortex that the folk belief is true: Running does elicit a flood of endorphins in the brain. The endorphins are associated with mood changes, and the more endorphins a runner’s body pumps out, the greater the effect.
Does the Web Deserve
The Power It Gained
To... →
Web videos, especially on YouTube, are a good place to start. They have been called the death of the TV sound bite, for the way voters can experience lengthy realities without the filters of a news show constrained by time limits and commercials. The 37 minutes of Sen. Obama’s race speech quickly became one of the most widely downloaded. Less clear is whether YouTube will be just as bad, or...
Will Gmail Ever Catch Up? A New App May Help... →
Cemaphore Systems, the maker of MailShadow, is pitching the new Google App as a way to back up Microsoft’s Outlook and Exchange. But the NYT points out that the real value here: In theory, the software will allow users to stop paying Microsoft for use of its Exchange servers, and run Outlook, more or less for free, from Google’s servers.
Google’s five-year plan to hit Enterprise... →
Gmail’s email servers use far less electricity per mail than Exchange’s do. Environmentalism anyone? You think that’s not important for CTOs? It sure is. Both are going to be major drivers that will get Google’s offerings paid attention to.
The Buzz on the Bus: Pinched, Press Steps Off -... →
For firsthand, daily dispatches from the campaign trail, most of the others have relied heavily on reports from the wire services, including The Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters; a handful of Web sites; and video captured by camera-toting producers from the television networks and cable news channels.
Affluent Hobnob on Social Networks - eMarketer →
The rate of affluent US Internet user participation in online social networks increased dramatically to 60% in January 2008, from 27% in January 2007, according to The Luxury Institute’s latest WealthSurvey “The Wealthy and Web 2.0.”
textually.org: Skullphone hijacks digital... →
18 year old graffiti artist Skullphone hacked into 10 of ClearChannel’s digital billboards in Hollwood, Culver City, and elsewhere around LA, putting up his logo in between the more normal ads.
Put a Patent on That Pleat →
Meanwhile, some labels are trying to outmaneuver the pirates. Copycat designs often show up in stores within weeks of a fashion show, while the authentic clothes don’t arrive for months. Halston, which is owned by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, is one of those pushing to make its catwalk fashions available right away, on the online retail site Net-a-Porter.com, in hopes that shoppers will...
Poll: Public Backs Traffic Fees if the Money Goes... →
Skepticism about how the money would be used appears to be the biggest hurdle for proponents of the traffic fees; half of voters said they did not believe that new revenues from congestion pricing would actually be devoted to mass transit.
Businesses Say New York’s Clout Is Emigrating,... →
Every big employer in the city, it seems, can cite an example of high-paying jobs that had to be relocated to foreign cities because the people chosen to fill them could not gain entry to the United States.
E-Mail Verizon and, Surprise, It’ll Write Back -... →
Verizon has decided to invest in customer service to try to gain an edge over cable companies.
Amazon Takes the Humans Out of Fulfillment With... →
Amazon keeps adding to its Web services. Today, it is opening up an API for its Fulfillment by Amazon service, which allows online merchants to outsource their shipping to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Up until now, the service still required a lot of manual steps on the parts of companies or entrepreneurs using it—they had to pre-label each box before sending it to Amazon and manage their...
Is Facebook Playing Favorites With App Developers? →
Facebook has taken steps to limit application spam numerous times in the past - a hard cap of 20/day to a variable rate that takes into account the rate of declines by recipients. So when developers noticed that CBS seems to be playing by different rules than everyone else they were understandably irate. CBS’ March Madness facebook application, which is being promoted as “The Official Tournament...
FCC approves new method for tracking broadband's... →
federal regulators on Wednesday voted to overhaul the way they measure how widely broadband is available across the United States
Techdirt: Advertising Is Content; Content Is... →
The captive audience is dead. There is no captive audience online. Everyone surfing the web has billions of choices on what they can be viewing, and they don’t want to be viewing intrusive and annoying ads. They’ll either ignore them, block them or go elsewhere.
Google Maps, Wiki-Style →
google is now allowing anyone in the U.S., Australia, or New Zealand to improve Google Maps by editing places
U.S. Adapts Cold-War Idea to Fight Terrorists -... →
A primary focus has become cyberspace, which is the global safe haven of terrorist networks. To counter efforts by terrorists to plot attacks, raise money and recruit new members on the Internet, the government has mounted a secret campaign to plant bogus e-mail messages and Web site postings, with the intent to sow confusion, dissent and distrust among militant organizations, officials confirm.
On the Mark | The Industry Standard →
wireless operators have a “blind spot” because radio-frequency monitoring tools don’t see packet data, and IP tools can’t get inside of cellular networks. He says carriers need something that can detect problems in both sides of a network.
E. J. Dionne Jr. - The Street on Welfare -... →
if this near meltdown of capitalism doesn’t encourage a lot of people to question the principles they have carried in their heads for the past three decades or so, nothing will.
Dusting Off the Archive for the Web - New York... →
“The real hidden value of this is what it does for search,” said John Squires, executive vice president of Time Inc., the Time Warner subsidiary that publishes Sports Illustrated. The move quadruples the site’s volume, he said. “We’ll have to work our way up the search algorithms over time, but eventually, someone searches Johnny Unitas, and SI.com is going to pop up.”
If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Post ... - New... →
“You should kill yourself. No one likes you.”
What's This Fascination with Ad Networks? (Or, the... →
Brands are about media. Ad networks are about scale and technology.
KUSA rechannels workload, product - The Denver... →
Multitasking by newsroom personnel and the push to drive viewers to interact with advertising are new priorities, according to KUSA general manager Mark Cornetta.
Wired News - AP News →
“The afternoon newspaper is in a sense being reborn online,” he said. A separate survey found journalists are, to a large degree, embracing the changes being thrust upon them. A majority say they like doing blogs and that they appreciate reader feedback on their stories. When they’re asked to do multimedia projects, most journalists find the experience enriching instead of...
What I’ve Learned as a Blogger for The New York... →
What’s much more important to me, however, is what blogs do that our traditional forms don’t. First of all, blogs are part of a conversation. We link liberally to others, even our direct competitors. Readers comment. And so do sources and participants.
Yahoo Embraces The Semantic Web - Expect The... →
Yahoo talked about their plans to allow third parties to alter and enhance search results with structured data that may be useful to users. Today, they’ll give more details on the developer platform and will announce support for a number of semantic web standards.
A Cure for the College-Bound Blues - New York... →
The transition from high school to college is not what it used to be. Freshmen show up on campus with stress from the admissions chase and parents hovering a text-message away. For them, the gap year is a way to reclaim what has been lost. Mindful of those strains, schools are promoting gap years more aggressively. Last month, Princeton unveiled plans to send at least a 10th of its incoming...
Brain Enhancement Is Wrong, Right? - New York... →
One person who posted anonymously on the Chronicle of Higher Education Web site said that a daily regimen of three 20-milligram doses of Adderall transformed his career: “I’m not talking about being able to work longer hours without sleep (although that helps),” the posting said. “I’m talking about being able to take on twice the responsibility, work twice as fast, write more effectively, manage...
TV Puts an Odd Lens on Politics - New York Times →
since political coverage has migrated to the cable networks, the tenor and texture of campaign reporting are changing as well — there have been leaps in presentation and diversity, but it more closely resembles a political caucus than straight news coverage. Stentorian anchors taking feeds from veteran reporters who had been traveling with the campaigns have been replaced by flashy sets stuffed to...
Dancers in the Crowd Bring Back ‘Thriller’ - New... →
The effort is part of the continuing quest to reach consumers without turning them off. Sony BMG executives said the strategy was successful with younger fans, a factor in the sales of “Thriller.” “It’s all about engaging the consumers,” said John Ingrassia, the Sony BMG commercial music group president.
The Next Slum? →
The decline of places like Windy Ridge and Franklin Reserve is usually attributed to the subprime-mortgage crisis, with its wave of foreclosures. And the crisis has indeed catalyzed or intensified social problems in many communities. But the story of vacant suburban homes and declining suburban neighborhoods did not begin with the crisis, and will not end with it. A structural change is under way...
Cable Firms Join Forces to Attract Focused Ads -... →
In an effort to slow Google’s siphoning of advertising dollars away from television, the nation’s six largest cable companies are making plans for a jointly owned company that would allow national advertisers to buy customized ads and interactive ads across the companies’ systems.
How Do They Track You? Let Us Count the Ways -... →
When all these data collection events are combined for users in the United States in December 2007, Yahoo had the potential to gather data, through 400 billion events in the month. Time Warner, which includes AOL, was second, with about 100 billion events. Google was not too far behind with 91 billion. Interestingly, Microsoft, with 51 billion events in December is far behind not only the other...
To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You - New... →
The rich troves of data at the fingertips of the biggest Internet companies are also creating a new kind of digital divide within the industry. Traditional media companies, which collect far less data about visitors to their sites, are increasingly at a disadvantage when they compete for ad dollars. The major television networks and magazine and newspaper companies “aren’t even in the same...
SXSW: Meebo Users Plot Revolt During Dull Panels |... →
Chat rooms have long been part of internet conferences, but they’ve generally been more informal back channels, like the Macworld IRC back channel. Here at SXSW this year, Meebo-sponsored chat rooms are a major part of the panel-going experience. They provide live feedback on panelists’ performance with all the decorum and kindness you associate with blog comments. Or, in the words of...
Is User-Generated Content Out? | Newsweek... →
In short, the expert is back. The revival comes amid mounting demand for a more reliable, bankable Web. “People are beginning to recognize that the world is too dangerous a place for faulty information,” says Charlotte Beal, a consumer strategist for the Minneapolis-based research firm Iconoculture. Beal adds that choice fatigue and fear of bad advice are creating a “perfect...
Southwest Air Faces Big Fine on Plane Inspections... →
The Federal Aviation Administration proposed a record penalty of $10.2 million against Southwest Airlines on Thursday, saying the carrier had continued to fly 46 Boeing 737s that it said it had grounded because they had not been properly inspected for fuselage cracks.
Stumper : Expertinent: Why the Obama "Brand" Is... →
How much have brands like Target or Apple or Volkswagen—these high-design, but essentially accessible brands—paved the way Obama? I think they’re all very much of a kind. I would name those three brands as ones that share a lot with the way this candidate is presenting himself. They’re meant to look transparent, open, accessible and democratic to a certain degree....
MediaShift . Digging Deeper::Politico 2.0: Ruffini... →
you’re starting to see online support correlate with momentum. If the campaign has a potential for mainstream appeal, then I think there can be a correlation between all the momentum you’re getting with website traffic, with money that helps the bottom line. I would just point to this — Clinton and Obama have received roughly the same amount of votes [as of last week], maybe he’s ahead by 500,000...
US Internet Highs and Lows - eMarketer →
Mississippi had the lowest rate of Internet penetration in the US, at 46%. Less than one-half of households in West Virginia and Alabama were online. … higher education is closely related to Internet usage. College towns topped the research company’s list of places with the highest number of Internet users. Ann Arbor, Michigan – home to the University of Michigan – boasts 86% of its...
This Psychologist Might Outsmart the Math Brains... →
Potter likes to use what psychologists know about human behavior. “The fact that these ratings were made by humans seems to me to be an important piece of information that should be and needs to be used,” he says. Potter has great respect for the technical prowess of BellKor — he is, after all, still behind the team in the rankings — but he thinks the computer science community...
IEBlog : Microsoft's Interoperability Principles... →
We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously.