Recession for 2008=More Advertising $$?

(Pic from linusb4 @ sxc.hu)

So, it’s pretty much an accepted fact that we’re gonna go through some sort of recession this year: The only questions that remains are how long and how deep will the recession affect us. The Economist’s issue from Jan 26-Feb 1 gave a great insight to the upcoming recession, and predicts that it won’t be the slump of ‘97-’98, cushioned partially by the “decoupling” effect between the US and the rest of the world, especially emerging markets. (Note: I could be talking out of my ass here, but that’s what I got from reading the article.)

But for those of us involved in media, PR and advertising, there’s one pertinent question that needs to be answered: How will it affect advertising budgets? In this story, The Economist points out that there is hope yet for 2008, with ad budgets actually increasing thanks to the Olympics and Euro 2008. Instead, it says, 2009 will be the year that advertising budgets will be affected deeper.

Another interesting point brought forward was the fact that the recession could actually be a catalyst for an increase in Internet Ad spending, with advertisers slashing budgets for scattershot traditional media like print and TV, and instead concentrating more on the more targeted medium of the ‘net.

IHT provides some details of the Soc Gen debacle

For those who still haven’t heard about this, Jérôme Kerviel, an (ex) employee of French (vive la france, etc etc) bank, Societe General managed to make trades on on European stock indexes using the bank’s money, costing the bank 7.2 BILLION USDs in losses. Details on the actual dealings are very sketchy but IHT has a pretty good article that gives us an idea of what happened:

Kerviel’s fraud, according to the bank, consisted of placing sizeable, real purchases in one portfolio but creating fictitious sales transactions in the second, off-setting portfolio. This gave the impression to risk managers that the risks in the first portfolio were hedged, when in fact they were not. As a result, the bank wound up exposed to massive, one-way bets, or “long” positions. Instead of hedging, which was his job, Kerviel was effectively speculating with the bank’s money.

“Our controls identified from time to time problems with this trader’s portfolio,” Mustier (Jean-Pierre Mustier, chief executive of the bank’s corporate and investment banking arm) said, although he declined to say when the first questions were raised by risk managers, saying that the bank’s auditors were still investigating.

Each time one of Kerviel’s trades was questioned, Mustier said, Kerviel would describe it as a “mistake” and cancel the trade.

“But in fact, he then replaced that trade with another transaction using a different instrument” to avoid detection, Mustier said.

This guy makes Nick Leeson’s 1.4 billion investment adventure (which brought down Barings) look like an expensive Paris Hilton shopping spree. There certainly are many parallels. Apparently nothing has been learnt. This despite the fact of all the banking and various regulatory requirements put into place such as Basel II (you gotta love the Swiss for selling services we never thought we’d ever need) that was supposed to prevent this sort of thing after Barings. Has any of that money spent on audit and controls etc actually changed anything? If you’re one of the good ol’ boys, you still can get away with anything as always.

In Singapore, Nick Leeson got 6 years in prison for his activity. It wouldn’t surprise me if this guy, in Paris gets something similar. For some reason what these guys do isn’t considered theft. Wow. Steal 100 dollars you get caned. Steal 7.2 billion, and you get a web page and a book deal. I bet if his longs actually turned out to be profitable, he would’ve got promoted even – assuming of course that he channeled some of the profits bank into the bank.  Greed and hypocrisy knows no bounds.

And Now, A Word About The Elections (Possibly Feat. Jay Chou)

(Pic from the dynamic duo, taken in sober mood.)

First off, a big huge-ass congrats to Michelle, Sarah and all involved in VotEd, who were featured in NST on Jan 6 (yeah, so I’m a bit slow) for starting up the group, which you can find out more on Facebook. Essentially, if you’re young, on Facebook, and absolutely blur on the issues surrounding the local political scene, join up to get yourself informed on the latest news and blogposts in the run up to the nearing elections.

And no, knowing them personally, they’re not ball-busting chicas who’ll bore you to death with a pessimistic view on Malaysian politics. On the contrary, I think they’re quite the optimists, who believe that the apathetic attitude of Malaysian youth can be turned around to make a difference in the way the country is being run. If it’s one thing this country needs, it’s hope, and they have bagfuls of it.

The Internet Vs The Church of Scientology

VS

(Update: You can witness the gradual shutdown of Scientology sites here. Foshizzle.)

This is breaking all over the Internet. A group that calls themselves “Anonymous” have release a video on youtube (posted after the break) along with a press release declaring war on the Church of Scientology. From their press release:

Anonymous is a collective composed of many Internet users, combined under one name. The group gained fame through popular image-boards and accrued influence both on the Internet and the real world. They have launched offensives against a wide variety of targets, including the social website Habbo Hotel and various White Supremacy entities. Anonymous played a major role in the capture of Canadian pedophile Chris Forcand.

To help coordinate their attack on the Church of Scientology, Anonymous has set up Project Chanology, a wiki which gives users tips and tools to attack the church. The attacks range from denial of service (DoS) attacks on their servers, prank calling their phone lines and looping a fax of a black page.

First Brad, then Heath, next… Britney?

(Pic from TMZ.com)

In a rather weird quirk of coincidence concerning the death of young Hollywood, last week featured a couple of op-ed columns on the public’s fascination with Britney Spears. The bigger of the two headlines involved Jon Friedman’s Media Web, and his atrociously, but attention-grabbing title: “Britney Spears is heading toward a tragic end”, in which he declares how the Paparazzi are determined to hound Britney until she’s dead, much in the same way that Diana died.

I don’t believe it’s so far-fetched. Remember what happened to Anna Nicole Smith and Princess Diana? Even if you don’t blame the paparazzi for Smith’s demise, there is no way to defend their glee in exploiting her fame after she died.

The paparazzi aren’t interested in covering Spears’ story with any acknowledgement of her right to privacy. The fiasco has spiraled completely out of control, well beyond the bounds of acceptable good taste by any reasonable standard. What’s especially unfortunate is that her two small children will eventually pay a big price.

The Spears train wreck is so fascinating and lucrative that it has ensnared the mainstream media, too. CNN’s “Larry King Live,” no stranger to tabloid television segments, examined the psychodrama in gruesome detail on Monday night.

This story seems destined to end badly for Britney Spears. If indeed the paparazzi hound her into an early grave, you can count on them to go on “Larry King Live” and the like, express their distress and offer sympathy to the Spears clan.

But they’ll mostly just feel sorry for themselves — because they’ve killed the golden goose.

Holy Cow! Car Found Abandoned with Cow Inside.

It’s not very often that I find many interesting stories in the Malay papers–unless, of course, you count the “holier-than-thou” LOL attitude of some of their columnists–but this picture and story splashed on the front page of Berita Harian was simply unmissable. According to the story, residents of Kampung Pondok Labu, near Kulim, foiled an attempted cow-theft (?!) when they stopped several men driving a Proton Wira with a friggin’ cow inside.

A COW.

You’d think there’d be better ways of storing a cow, huh? But what’s more amazing to this story is that residents claim that this “solves the mystery of several missing livestock, believed to be done by the same thieves, about a month ago.” The conspiracy theorist in me says that it’s the work of Proton’s new viral marketing machine to drive up flagging sales. The tagline: “Proton: Full of Bull,” “Proton: We’ll Go On Till The Cows Come Home,” “Proton: We fit the Bull.” etc. etc.

Here’s an excerpt of the story in BM:

KULIM: Sekumpulan penduduk Kampung Pondok Labu, dekat sini, yang mengadakan rondaan mencegah jenayah, berjaya menggagalkan cubaan beberapa lelaki untuk mencuri seekor lembu di kampung berkenaan, tengah malam kelmarin.

Kejayaan penduduk itu juga dijangka menyelesaikan misteri kehilangan beberapa ekor ternakan terbabit di kampung berkenaan sejak lebih sebulan lalu, yang dipercayai dilakukan kumpulan pencuri sama.

Bagaimanapun, apa yang mengejutkan ialah bagaimana pencuri itu dapat melarikan lembu hanya menggunakan sebuah Proton Wira, kerana tentu sukar untuk mereka memasukkan ternakan berkenaan ke dalam kereta terbabit.

Seorang penduduk berkata, dalam kejadian kira-kira jam 11.30 malam kelmarin, beberapa lelaki yang membuat rondaan cegah jenayah di kampung itu berjaya mengesan kegiatan pencuri terbabit di sebuah kebun kelapa sawit.

A Final Glance At Heath; Baptist Morons protest Memorial Service. Jeebus.

(Pic from Gawker, link below)

Gawker Media gets “the last images of Heath Ledger alive, filming on the set of the movie ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ in London, a fantasy-adventure based around a traveling theater company.”

While news surrounding the cause of his death–suicidal or not–remains vague, one thing’s for sure: there are some Baptist Morons in Kansas who are protesting Heath Ledger’s memorial service because he promoted homosexuality. Crackerjacks.

A radical Baptist church in Kansas known for picketing the funerals of soldiers who perished in Iraq said it intends to protest Heath Ledger’s memorial service with signs claiming the actor died and is in Hell because he played a gay character in “Brokeback Mountain.”

Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka said that she and other members will picket Ledger’s United States memorial services, not those held in his native Australia.

“You cannot live in defiance of God,” she said. “He got on that big screen with a big, fat message: God is a liar and it’s OK to be gay.”

A press release circulated by the church references Leviticus 18:22 in the Bible, which states that “thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

Cripes. This Ain’t Good.

(Pic from lusi @ sxc)

News of an approaching recession in the US has been rumoured since last year, and unless the US Elections provides some kick ass results and economic reforms (Come on, Obama!), 2008 could be… uh. Start hoping and praying for a good year ahead.

This breaking from AP: “Asian Markets Extend Losses Amid Worries That US Is Headed for Recession.”

Global stock markets extended their shakeout into a second day Tuesday, plunging amid worries that a possible U.S. recession will cause a worldwide economic slowdown. The dramatic declines were expected to spread to Wall Street, where stock index futures were already down sharply hours before the trading day began.

“Unless we get some positive ’shock effects,’ such as drastic measures from the U.S. government, there is almost no hope for a recovery in stocks,” said Koji Takeuchi, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.

Markets have been plunging amid pessimism about the ability of the U.S. government to prevent a recession. The Federal Reserve has indicated it will lower interest rates further, and President Bush has proposed an economic stimulus package that includes $145 billion in tax cuts, but investors around the world are doubtful that the measures will lift the economy quickly.

The U.S. economy has been battered by a slump in the housing market and a credit crisis that has led to billions of dollars of losses among major U.S. banks.

Mediacorp offers podcasts

(Andrea Fonseka–in ur mediacorp podcast, mking u prokrastinate)

Here’s another reason why Singapore is just that much better than Malaysia when it comes to Digital Media. Mediacorp– the media juggernaut down south–has embraced the podcast phenomenon and are now offering a whole bunch of stuff at their podcast portal. Granted that much of it is currently straight from their radio channels, but it would make sense to start with audio only from Mediacorp’s perspective.

More importantly though, they also allow user submitted content at their site (with prior review and approval of course). This is huge. Mediacorp are offering all of us a gateway to market our podcast to the domestic regional audience and this allows newbie podcasters to at least have an avenue to gain that critical mass of listeners before they can start getting ad revenue.

iTunes is full of seasoned pros and vets at this point and is so full of stuff, it would be easy to get lost there. I am unsure if contracts etc. with Medicorp will be involved , but hey, at least this is an option that was unavailable previously. All newbie podcasters should at least check it out.

The site also has a very definite iTunes Music Store look and feel to it so I guess those familiar with podcasts (majority using iTunes) will feel right at home. The site now claims to have already exceeded 3 million downloads.

Because An Indian Version of Sweet Child of Mine Totally RoXX0rs

I’ve always thought that the promo spots for Channel [V] totally sucked in comparison to the MTV spots, until I saw this little clip on YouTube. Totally awesome. Haven’t seen it here yet though.

Nerdgasm Alert: This is what they mean by Pure Black Plasma TV

(Pic from Gizmodo, link below)

Despite the rather lukewarm reception to the CES 2008 show, one piece of interesting news came up about the new Pioneer Plasma screens in the latest TWiT podcast, where the blacks were so black, that you couldn’t spot it in a room with the lights off. A great statement to make, except that in an audio podcast talking about TV’s, it’s kinda hard to feel the full impact of such a device.

Voila! Gizmodo took a picture of the new Pioneer Kuro Extreme Contrast (“Kuro” means “black” in Japanese”), and there you have it–Robert Heron’s wet dream come alive. And that’s not all–the Plasma TV is just 9mm thin. That’s fucking crazy, man. Imagine a 50-inch screen, with this sorta contrast, and less than 1cm thick. Crap. I want one.

Pioneer execs shuffle us into a dark room, reveal the most critically acclaimed TV made, and then unveil a TV that can kick its ass on contrast. Yes, Pioneer’s current Kuro—the “best flat-panel ever”—was shedding light like a sumbitch next to Pioneer’s concept Kuro, whose black literally emits no light. So here it is, a strange Battlemodo pitting the super-hot 8th-gen Pioneer plasma against its own future self.

And in case there are any girls out there who can’t understand what this whole nerdgasmic rant is all about, here’s a little video explaining why this plasma screen is so brilliant (or rather, just the complete opposite).

Because Carmen Electra Became Hot Without Make-Up

Gotta admit that when I first saw this story on Digg I didn’t really hit it. I mean, Carmen Electra is so overdone and over made up, I never expected anything too mind-blowing with the title “I Never Knew Carmen Electra Was This Pretty.” Then, Diggnation happened, I saw the picture, and I was blown away (full pic here). And yes, I know there’s a pussy on her back, but this is such a totally SFW and innocent picture that no puns come to mind at the mo. Yes, it is possible to see a Carmen Electra photo without having dirty thoughts.

Bionic Eyesight: Coming Soon in a Future Near You

I haven’t seen the latest re-incarnation of the Bionic Woman yet, but hell, from the way things are going in our science labs, the Bionic Woman may be soon be considered out of date, thanks to the good engineering folks at the University of Washington. Word is that they’ve developed a rabbit-tested contact lens that has embedded electronic circuits and lights, enabling us to browse the web in the future through our contact lenses.

This, however, fails desperately in comparison to good-ol’ beer goggles. Here’s an excerpt:

Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes – visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

“Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,” said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. “This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising.”

The results were presented today at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz’s now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Other co-authors are Ehsan Saeedi and Samuel Kim in the UW’s electrical engineering department and Tueng Shen in the UW Medical Center’s ophthalmology department.

The MacBook Air: What’s Your Take?

(Pic from Joyoftech)

So now that the MacBook Air’s out, what’s the reaction after the reality-field has died down? I won’t go into a long rant about it, but I think it’s safe to say that,at USD1799, the MacBook Air is clearly a supplemental laptop for those who can afford the cool factor–given its specs, it’s clearly not going to be your primary computer, so it’s really a really cool-looking luxury item for the rich. The only question here is not whether you want it, or need it, but whether you can afford it.

Here’s a rundown of stories where you can find more opinions on the MacBook Air: Arstechnica, and MacBreak Weekly Podcast both give it a rather “meh” conclusion, while Gizmodo gives a decent rundown on where the MacBook Air lies against its competition.

Plaything for the rich or innovation that will change the way we work? There’s more than enough voices out there to make your own conclusions, but one thing’s for sure: not everyone’s drinking the kool-aid.

PS: I can’t afford it.

Opera Mini Users Alert: theres a proxy server in your ssl connection

From the Opera Mini FAQ:

Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?

No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full web browser such as Opera Mobile.
Opera Mini uses a transcoder server to translate HTML/CSS/JavaScript into a more compact format. It will also shrink any images to fit the screen of your handset. This translation step makes Opera Mini fast, small, and also very cheap to use. To be able to do this translation, the Opera Mini server needs to have access to the unencrypted version of the web page. Therefore no end-to-end encryption between the client and the remote web server is possible.

To the non geeks, what this means is that if you are using the Opera Mini (NOT the regular Opera) browser on your mobile phone to browse the Internet, all connections are actually being passed through servers within Opera rather than going directly to the web site.

This is done so that Opera can optimise and customise the web page so that it displays in a clean and neat format on your tiny mobile phone screens. A very nice feature. Except that for SSL (the secure connections) this is a HUGE BIG FAT NO. If you’re doing Internet banking or trading or buying something with a credit card, your so called secure connection is actually being intercepted by Opera and is being decrypted for you before being re-encrypted using their own encryption implementation. All your bank/credit card/personal data *can* be seen in plain text by Opera or rather the folks who work in Opera.

WTF! They shouldve left SSL connections alone. I don’t think this is very responsible of them. If you have to use Opera Mini as the alternative to the piss poor BlackBerry browser, just make sure that you don’t submit any confidential or sensitive information using any forms. Or just don’t bother with Opera at all.

Bill Gates’s Messiah Complex? An Interesting Take on His “Retirement”

Gosh, has it been that fast already? It’s been 2 years since Bill Gates announced his official departure from his post at Microsoft, and his much heralded “Last Speech” at CES 2008 was marked with the sort of reverence reserved for religious figures. He leaves Microsoft in a cloud of heavy criticism–”lost core competency” being the main one, with the disastrous flop of Vista and their ever-losing battle against Google for advertising space coming under heavy fire from the tech community.

But, argues ol’ coot Dvorak, you haven’t seen the last of Gates yet. In fact, it’s this heavy weather that Gates may want after all prior to his departure; leave the company in less-than-healthy circumstances, and then later come back like a saviour some time later in a Messianic cloud of glory. Michael Dell has done it recently, Steve Jobs has done it, and heck, even Starbuck’s Howard Schultz pulled it off last week. And they’ve been both hailed as heroes. So why not take a crack at it? Here’s an excerpt of the column:

I, for one, am not buying any of it. And I actually think I know what Bill is up to: It should be interesting, since his possible plan is not trivial, if it’s going to work.

Let me explain.

Bill would like to extract himself completely from Microsoft, so he can let the company drift. If Ballmer quits, and they don’t promote from within by letting Jeff Raikes or some other trained clone of Gates take over, then the company is doomed to follow the path we’ve already witnessed with Apple.

Then, according to plan, Gates would have no choice but to return to save the company. And while there is no originality here, if he could do this, it would be spectacular. It would even top the Steve Jobs “Return of the Prodigal Son” act, since Microsoft is enormous compared to the early-era Apple.

But Bill is at a dead end at Microsoft. Thus, he takes a page from historian Arnold Toynbee and decides to pull off a classic “withdraw and return” gambit, which could result in great success. Napoleon and Jobs both did it, not that I should be comparing the two (well, maybe).

Gates always seems to be in his element when he’s crushing Borland or kicking Sun or smashing Netscape. At his best, he’s the nerd from hell. So now, after all that, he drifts into becoming the namby-pamby head of a charity, dealing with people begging for money? Are you kidding me? I don’t think so.

Hey Bill, you’re not fooling me.

Of course, no post of Gates’s departure would be complete without his hilarious Final Day video, which, for one week, made him pwn Jobs.

This Is How I Think The Public Views The Issue Of Privacy

Picked this up from the hilarious Joyoftech. Admit it: It’s funny because it’s true.

Gizmodo’s Prank: Woz Would Be LOL.

It’s the biggest consumer electronics show in the US, a few thousand display screens, and you have a remote control that can turn any of them off and on at any time. Not many people could resist turning off a couple of screens, and Gizmodo just caved in to the temptation whole-heartedly by pulling off the prank of the year so far.

CES has no shortage of displays. And when MAKE offered us some TV-B-Gone clickers to bring to the show, we pretty much couldn’t help ourselves. We shut off a TV. And then another. And then a wall of TVs. And we just couldn’t stop. (And Panasonic, you’re so lucky that 150-incher didn’t have an active IR port.) It was too much fun, but watching this video, we realize it probably made some people’s jobs harder, and I don’t agree with that (Especially Motorola). We’re sorry.

It’s a prank that Steve Wozniak would’ve been proud of (though he wouldn’t say it out loud), but the CES organisers have decided to take a hardline to ban the prankster from future CES shows. It’s kinda harsh–after all, if Woz could be forgiven, even praised, for his ingenious pranks, why not the staffer from Gizmodo? Sure, interrupting the Motorola PC was a little off, but in the end the show went on and no one died. And I really hate anyone who says that they “love the prank, but was happy the prankster was punished.” Grow some balls, man.

Oh, and the real winner of all this? TV-B-Gone. Great ad, folks.

I Love Paris!

Though Sandeep would beg to differ–”Screw the French!” is one of his more toned down opinions about them–I have to say that after watching Paris Je T’aime, I am totally in love with love again. It’s a collection of 18 short films by 21 directors, including Alfonso Cuaron, Joel & Ethan Coen, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant, and Wes Craven, and it so kicks the butt of any other short movie ensemble I’ve seen. If you want to know how great–and hard–short stories on film can be, there’s no better movie to watch.

I’ve gleamed off a couple of the shorts from YouTube, the first, Faubourg Saint-Denis, directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Natalie Portman, and the second, Parc Monceau, is one of my favourites, and stars Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier. The latter is the only film I know where the line “My love, you are a Zeppelin” can be said by a man without the woman slapping him back.

And Nick Nolte’s voice has never been so romantically exploited by a director before–it kinda breaks your heart a little.

Seriously folks, just go out and find it at your nearest DVD retailer now.

Because Crazy Ads Like These Just Don’t Happen Anymore.

Like, seriously. This oozes so much macho-ism it makes me wanna light up just so I can blow smoke at a woman–and considering that I haven’t smoked in a while, I gotta say that this is a damn good advert. Here’s nine more awesome adverts from 2spare.com

Because Pictures of Religious Defamation Are Just Damn LOL.

Always wanted to post this. It’s an old pic, but it’s awesome. (And it’s probably true, so it’s not sacrilegious)

Here’s the place where I found it.

According to Maoglone it was taken “in or around Cincinnati, OH. The sign originally said, “God Listens to Mike McConnell,” I believe. 700WLW is an extremely storied AM radio station. It’s where one can listen to the Cicinnati Reds, too.”

Also related (but old post): the final conclusive, mathematical evidence that God does not kill a kitten everytime you masturbate. So yes, your conscience is clear, O lonely one.

There are nearly 26 billion male masturbation sessions in the U.S., yet there are fewer than five million kitten deaths annually. Far from a one-to-one correlation, there are 5401.5 masturbation sessions for every single kitten death. This means that the average American man can masturbate regularly for 22.5 years before he is responsible for the death of a single kitten.

Indeed, with a life expectancy of less than 75 years, the average man will be responsible for only two or three kitten deaths in a lifetime of vigorous masturbation.

How to Make Fireballs

Or, in geek speak, how to attain a Level 3 Magic User Spell (Damage: 1d6 + 3 per level of caster, 20′ radius). This looks amazingly simple–anyone got lighter fluid?

RIP Sir Edmund Hillary

 

Another legend passes:

A state funeral is to be held for Sir Edmund Hillary, who died this morning from a heart attack, aged 88.

In a statement, his widow, Lady Hillary, indicated the family thought such a funeral appropriate, “recognising the impact [Sir Edmund] has on all New Zealanders”.

Lady Hillary said Sir Edmund died peacefully in Auckland Hospital at 9am today after his heart gave out.

He had been in hospital since Monday but was due out and had been looking forward to coming home.

“He remained in good spirits until the end.”

At the family’s Remuera home this afternoon, step-daughter Susan Hayman also said Sir Edmund was in “high spirits” prior to his death.

The Long Rant: FHM Goes All Glamour–Will It Work?

Just picked this up from the Guardian that FHM is going the Glamour way by launching a more compact, “travel” edition of the magazine. It’s about 70% of the original size, following the footsteps of Glamour’s “Handbag”-sized format in order to recapture a fading lad’s mag market–FHM UK was down 16% in its latest ABC figures.

Rob Munro-Hall, the managing director of Emap’s Men’s Lifestyle and Music Magazine Brands, was quoted in the article as saying that it’s “yet another example of FHM leading and beating the rest of the men’s magazine market into a new arena.” I’m not so sure if such a gimmick would boost sales. I mean, one of the reasons why the smaller-format Glamour is so popular is because it fits into a handbag. Like, hello, where are your handbags, eh, lads? It doesn’t make much sense to me other than it being a gimmick to get noticed again on the shelves.

I can’t get hip with the Web2.0 peeps, yo.

This story and the earlier mess that was beacon is really beginning to become scary.

Facebook has blocked the “Secret Crush” widget for violation of its terms of service, following a row about the use of the application to dupe users into downloading adware onto their PCs.

Users tempted into installing the application were told they need to invite at least five friends. However, no secret crush is ever revealed. Instead users are directed to an external website which invites Facebook users to download potentially unwanted applications that display pop-up advertising software from Zango.

“Facebook is committed to user safety and security and, to that end, its Terms of Service for developers explicitly state that applications should not use adware and spyware. Users should employ the same precautions while downloading software from Facebook applications that they use when downloading software on their desktop. We have contacted the developers and have disabled the Secret Crush application for violating Facebook Platform Terms of Service,” it said.

Fortinet claimed that four per cent of Facebook’s users had installed the Secret Crush application by the time it was disabled.

As it is, I am already super averse to freely giving information about myself to shadowy companies and agencies who can then profile me and send me targeted adverts etc.

The thought of being profiled on some database someplace freaks me out. For no particular reason besides the fact that it is information about me and I did not knowingly agree to it being stored indefinitely and shared without further approval.

Alas, such views are generally incompatible with the current trends and social networking going on in the Internet. I have a minuscule amount of Facebook apps installed on my profile and am actually toying with the idea of quitting it altogether.

The thing isn’t so much that I don’t trust Facebook. I signed up for the account and I put all that info up there myself. However there are now literally hundreds, if not thousands, of 3rd parties that publish applications for Facebook that require access to all your personal info (for no obvious reason) along with information regarding who you’re friends with.

It’s a veritable treasure trove for advertising marketeering types. Also, even if you trust the publishers of these apps, what about 3rd parties that they (the publishers) make deals with? What happens when someone else buys the publisher up? Who owns your personal data now?

LG’s Phone Watch: Ridiculous To Use, Ultra Cool For Geeks

(Pic from Engadget, link below)

The buzz from this year’s CES isn’t coming from the giant TV screens or pumped-up audio equipment, but this little gadget caught by engadget: The LG Phone Watch. Yup, it’s a phone shaped like a watch. It’s true–in the future, you too can be Michael Knight and talk to your watch. It’s the stuff of every geek’s wet dream–well, this, and seeing Jessica Biel using this watch. To call me. MMMMMM…. random fantasies.

Oh, did I mention it’s absolutely ridiculously hard to use? Dialling a number takes 3 times longer than a normal mobile, with a rubbish clicking sound everytime you scroll for the numbers. Imagine texting on this thing–it’s a nightmare. But not, of course, if Jessica Biel’s texting. MMMMM…

On to the video:

2009–Where The Internet’s Money At, Yo.

(Pic from Garon419)

So it’s been a rough week for me–got into a small accident on Friday, so that meant more cash splashed out unnecessarily on top of the Christmas spree. And Everton got knocked out by Oldham, which, in the big picture of the Universe and Life, won’t matter much, but sure as hell didn’t help my spirits. At least this little story in The Guardian perked me up a little:

According to Group M, the combined media planning and buying operation, has predicted that “the UK internet ad spend will overtake TV, which has been the leading advertising medium for half a century, in 2009.” More than that, they also predict that Sweden (that’s home of the Pirate’s Bay, Arrrrrrrr) will take the lead this year in becoming the first country to see advertisers spend more on the internet than on TV ads. Damn, those Swedes are cool.

Fantastic! Well, I know that the Brits and are thousands of miles away, but it’s a good sign of things to come. Of course, we won’t see anything like this in this country over the next 5 years, if ever. But nevertheless, the wave will come here soon enough. I just hope I’m able to catch it. This, from the Guardian:

Group M forecasts that the UK will be on the brink of passing the milestone at the end of 2008, when the internet will account for 24.8% of UK media spend, just behind the 26% share held by the TV ad sector, according to Group M.

After that, UK internet ad spend will need to grow just another 6% year on year to overtake TV in 2009.

Group M predicts that UK internet revenue is likely to climb by 30.8% this year, to £3.4bn, compared with just 1% year-on-year growth in TV ad spend to around £3.56bn.

In the meantime, to keep you dreaming of all that moolah, here’s a video showing what $207million looks like–which, for geeky trivia’s sake, is what Google’s net profits are in 19 days (they earn $11m per day). Ah, what a time to be a dreamer.

The ethics of “stealing” wifi

Original, full article available at Ars Technica:

It’s time to put an end to this silliness. Using an open WiFi network is no more “stealing” than is listening to the radio or watching TV using the old rabbit ears. If the WiFi waves come to you and can be accessed without hacking, there should be no question that such access is legal and morally OK.

The argument that using open WiFi networks deprives ISPs of significant revenue is also a red herring. Take the case of public WiFi hotspots: official hotspots aren’t that difficult to find in major cities—every public library in Chicago has open WiFi, for instance. Are the public libraries and the countless other free hotspot providers helping defraud ISPs? No, they’re not. There’s no law that using the Internet requires payment of a fee to an ISP, and the myriad public hotspots prove this.

A couple of caveats: be familiar with the law of the land. As the examples at the beginning of this story show, it’s illegal to access a WAP without permission—even if it’s wide open—in some places. Also, you should never use an open point for anything illegal or even unneighborly. Don’t log onto the first “linksys” WAP you see and fire up a torrent for your favorite, just-released Linux distro.

One thing the article does not address is where the responsibility lies for those not technically savvy enough to secure their wifi access points and are therefore unknowingly sharing their Internet connection.

Also as an aside, does anybody know if sharing our streamyx-wifi is legal?

Yoo-Hoo! TwitterTale sees you!

This is more of a novelty site than anything else, but it’s pretty fun: TwitterTale basically monitors and puts up any twitterer who cusses, using the “top 5 Naughty Words: Shit, ass, fucking, bitch, balls”

Some choice tweets so far:

“Hmm. I just realized that Art’s balls are larger than mine.–rcdiugun”

“Balls. You’re all a bunch of pansies. Where’d the mothafuckin’ cheese go at?–aarwalk”

i think i can safely say that “freezing one’s balls off” is just an expression. if it were a real phenomenon, i’d be a eunuch now.–misc

Kevinz sez: Ask Marion!

Haven’t been picking through Kevin’s blog over the past couple of days, so I was glad to see this little post, with a big-ass picture of Marion Caunter. The message of the post? Well, now, through his blog, you can exclusively ask Marion all the questions you’ve been dying to ask about her. Deadline is 8th January–so hurry up!
Already, I feel an Isaac-OMG-I’m-Dying-To-Know segment coming on and I’m refraining myself from asking FHM-questions like “Do you like Bananas?” But really folks, she’s super nice, and I’ve got a special place for her in my heart since she was my first interviewee when I was a shy FHM rookie writer way back in 2004. I was tongue-tied then, and I think she was kinda nervous about it too. Ah, good times.

Women: Please Love Your Geek Boyfriend.

It’s a clip taken from a recent Diggnation episode, but it pretty much sums up my sentiments: Girls, don’t try to make us geeks normal. Just accept us for who we are–digg-surfing, video-gaming, computer-nerd talking nerdus maximuses. LOL.
Now, if I can only find a date…

Because E-Paper is so pweeeeeeeeety.

And I’m lazy to blog anymore: Here’s a link to Engadget’s breaking news that LG.Philips’s latest A4 sheet of flexible e-paper is to be seen at CES.

14.3-inches, 1280 x 800 pixels, 16.7m colors, 300 micrometers thick, full 180° viewing angle. It’ll be at CES, but apparently only for Korean models to hold and love.

So is The RIAA Going Nutso or What?

The big story before New Year’s Day–not that it matters much to us folks in Malaysia–is that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America, or Ridiculously Insane Association of Assholes, whichever way you wanna look at it) has started going ballistic by suing Jeffrey Howell, of Scottsdale, Ariz., for owning 2,000 songs ripped from legally purchased CDs.

According to The Washington Post, the “industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer. The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.”

It’s About Time: iPod Touch Hacked With VoIP

I don’t know why I keep writing on about Apple (No, it’s got NOTHING to do with my job), but I thought this story was interesting. Wired picked up this video about The Touchmods team, who have released version 1.0 of SIP-VoIP for the iPod Touch, which they’re giving away for free. Of course, it’s not all altruistic on their part–you’ve gotta buy their iPod Touch microphone.

Oil Breaks the $100 Barrier.

(Pic from lusi @ stockxchng)

Yups. We’re all screwed. Start tanking up, people. Tonight. This breaking from the BBC:

Oil has traded at $100 a barrel for the first time.

Violence in Nigeria, Algeria and Pakistan, the weak US dollar and the threat of cold weather have all raised prices after the new year break.

Light sweet crude rose $4.02 to $100 a barrel in New York, prompting a drop in shares and a surge in gold prices.

There are concerns that the high price of oil will stoke inflation at a time when many central banks are trying to cut interest rates to stimulate growth.

But some analysts played down the relevance of passing the $100 mark.

“The entire focus on $100 oil is frivolous,” said Tim Evans at Citigroup Futures Research in New York.

“It is not a magic number. It doesn’t suddenly make this a fundamentally strong market.”

Trading volumes were about half of their usual levels as traders returned from their new year breaks, which may have exaggerated the effect of speculative transactions, analysts said.

“I would imagine the speculators are the biggest drivers today,” said Phil Flynn from Alaron Trading in Chicago.

Lost No More–The Big Secret Whisper Revealed

Okay, okay, so call me a n00b for not picking up on this story earlier. But thanks to a reposting on Digg, I now finally know what Bill Murray whispered to ScarJo (yes, we’re on a pet-name basis these days, thank you very much) at the end of Lost In Translation, with some help from digital audio enhancements. It’s one of the best, most heartbreaking love stories I’ve ever seen (and gawd I hope they never make a sequel), which I should’ve mentioned in last month’s column, but forgot thanks to last-minute deadlines.

It may not be as earth-shattering as you might think it would be–after all, you’d think that to make ScarJo cry would take something so totally fucking mindblowing–but then again, to make a love story real, you gotta use believable vocabulary (not Jerry Maguire stuff). Anyways, on with the show:

The Shameless Build Up To Macworld

(Pic from scol22, stock.xchng)

For those interested to know, Mac Rumours recently received confirmation from a reliable source that Macworld will see the launch of the long-awaited Apple Sub-Notebook, with a (and I’m sure fan boys will drool at this) multi-touch trackpad. Meh. They’ll be using a mouse anyway, so does it really matter THAT much?

A Mac sub-notebook is indeed expected to be coming at the Macworld and, as rumored, will not coming with an internal optical drive. This omission is presumably due to Apple’s ongoing efforts to reduce the size of their laptops. Instead, Apple is said to be offering an external optical drive with the sub-notebook. This detachable external drive would allow customers to read/write from CDs or DVDs as usual, but would allow users to leave this extra bulk at home when on the road.

For those who want to check out their hit-rate on the rumours so far, check out their biggest Apple leaks of 2007–they stole the lead on the iPod Fatty Nano, which everyone slammed at first, before drinking the kool-aid at the Press Conference.

News Anchors. Gotta Love (and spank) ‘Em.

News bloopers are almost always hilarious. The guy’s a bit of an ass, but if I were him, I’d have the same reaction.

Because It’s (not) Britney, Bitch.

I was trawling through the Guardian website last night, and came upon this interesting critique about Britney Spears’s album, Blackout. It’s basically a rant targeted at music critics who gave the album the thumbs up and praising Britney, and not the producers, for her amazing comeback, fightback, attitude, etc. But “Britney had nothing to do with it,” according Caroline Sullivan, “nor with the ‘futuristic, thrilling’ ambience that had critic after critic dribbling superlatives.”

It’s a really insightful, if short, piece about the state of modern pop-stars (and a dig at n00b music critics) these days. I love Blackout–it truly is one of the best pop albums of 2007–but Ms Sullivan does have a point. It’s the producers we’ve got to thank, as much as I’d like to say that Blackout was Britney’s great comeback to all her haters out there who put her down and out for the count. Nope, she’s no Rocky, peeps.

Well, then again, Rocky was a manufactured character, so I guess the analogy does fit.

Despite having cowritten two tracks, her involvement was minimal. Britney’s job was to come in and sing; Danja and company did the rest. Even the eyebrow-raising “It’s Britney, bitch,” which opened the single Gimme More, was reportedly suggested by a producer.

Why did so many reviewers give credit where it wasn’t due? They must have been romanticising like mad – they’d have to have done, to be able to see in the lumpen Britney a parallel with the tragic heroines whose creativity really was at its most fruitful during periods of anguish. Spears is not a musician, or even a “singer,” as such – she’s an entertainer who, like the Spice Girls, hasn’t been beaten with the talent stick, but has powered through by a combination of sweat, determination and timeliness. She’s not of the class of artists who funnel their despair into their art, and shouldn’t be applauded as such.

Warning: When Firing Guns, Always Weigh More Than 50kgs.

Chicks and guns have always been sexy in the movies. This is what happens in real life.

Best Way to Give Your Presents: Bring ‘em down, then set ‘em up

A dad gives his kids the best Xmas present they could want in a really cool way. Scary thing about all this? This will be what your kids want in a few years’ time. And boy, has this dad set the bar real high for the remaining years. Yikes.

Of New Year’s Resolutions.

Okay, so I’m a little late with the wishes, and sadly I don’t have any photos of any NYE revelry to post up because I pretty much lazed my way into 2008. Not that it’s going to be an indication of how the year will go on, of course, and to prove that, I’ve already drawn up a list of Resolutions–which I’ve never followed in my life, but am willing to give it a go. And besides, since this will go on the Web for all 30 people to read and remember, I’m hoping that at least one of you will slap me straight if I’m not keeping up with them. Hopefully, of course, before December 31, 2008.

John’s New Year’s Resolutions:

1. To start something new–a business, a podcast, some way to make my stagnant money grow.

2. To blog more frequently (I’m already doing this, so yay!)

3. To travel more. Even if it is just to Damn Singapore–Mosaic Music Festival is definitely on.

4. To start writing short fiction again.

5. To cut down on saying “it can’t be done because I’ve got no leave/money/time.”

6. Ask out more girls, even if it means facing more (silent) rejection, eh, K?

7. Move out.

It’s gonna be some year.