Now taking blog posting requests!  Honey, this one’s for you…

I used to use the r-word.  Not a lot.  I’d rather call somebody an idiot, stupid, incompetent, george bush, etc.  But, I’d fire off a few r-words from time to time.  All that changed when I met my wife, a special education teacher.

I don’t think people understand how offensive the r-word is.  I surely didn’t.  Just like black babies can’t change the color of their skin, children with disabilities can’t change their genes.   How often do you hear the n-word?  I’ll guess not as often as you hear the r-word.  Why?  They’re equally as offensive.

Yada, yada – below is an article about a group of students fighting the r-word…

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-090331-retarded-story,0,2990757.story

Update: Chicago Tribune – seriously?  Look at the above URL.  Well, at least they ran an article.

Microsoft Hotmail’s false and misleading advertising part 1:

https://bcclist.com/2009/03/14/hotmail-ad/

Well, the geniuses at Microsoft are at it again…

“Now up to 70% faster.”

Seriously.  Prove it.  Of course, I assume Microsoft wasted money handpicking some firm to run some sort of test proving Hotmail could perform up to 70% faster.  Note: up to 70% faster. WTF? From what I’ve experienced, Hotmail seems about 3% (I made up that number like Microsoft made up theirs) faster than it did in 2002.  So, technically Microsoft isn’t misleading since 3% is “up to 70% faster.”  Ugh.

“Now avaialble on your iPhone.”

Hotmail has always been available on an iPhone. Unfortunately, when you set-up your Hotmail email account on your iPhone, it downloads EVERY message in your inbox.  Yes, every message.  I don’t think I’ve ever deleted an email in my Hotmail account.  So, 15,000 emails downloaded.  50 of those emails showed as new.  Figuring I should be able to delete those 50 emails so my iPhone Hotmail inbox would show 0 new messages, I was disappointed to see…

Worthless.  Note: this annoying “bug” doesn’t happen with Gmail.  Why?  Because Google doesn’t put out a shiatty product.

From January 3, 2009 when MSU was ranked #15…

https://bcclist.com/2009/01/03/go-right-through-for-msu-part-4/

“Sparty looked really good tonight. It’s the best MSU team I’ve seen since the 2000 team. That’s saying a lot since the 2001 and 2005 teams made the Final Four. Barring injuries, anything less than a Final Four or NCAA Championship would be a major disappointment. Keep in mind that the Final Four is being hosted in Detroit this year. Watch out!”

Sometimes I impress myself.  The National Championship is next!  Well, it’s next after MSU destroys UConn.

P.S. Here’s a link to a review of my Elite 8 picks.  Could be better – could be worse.

https://bcclist.com/2009/03/22/elite-8-review/

Nothing is going on in the world for the second straight Saturday.  Awesome.

Stumbled upon the below photo after finding this link on Digg.

Funny stuff…

Well, I’m bored – so, off to do some lines with Ashley Biden.

But, go right through for MSU? Yes!

I’ve adamantly been against printing money we don’t have.   This will never change.

But, I supported the Wall St. bailouts after learning how dire the situation has become.  I support the American automotive industry so I didn’t mind the auto bailout – possibly because I don’t want to see my home state in a straight up depression.  My bailout views  (sort of) changed upon reading something so insignificant as a blog posting regarding iPhone Apps.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/apples-iphone-app-refund-policies-could-bankrupt-developers/

So, iPhone App developers are concerned that they could go bankrupt if too many refunds are requested for the Apps they’ve created.  Why? Developers have to pay Apple back 100% of the App cost but they only receive 70% of the App’s original cost as a sales commission.  Here’s a pretty simple way for them to not go bankrupt – stop making sh!tty Apps!

Seriously, I’ve downloaded at least 20 paid Apps over the last month or so and 50% of them are straight up crap.  One of them was bad enough – with a blatantly false and misleading description – that I almost went through the process of requesting a refund from Apple.  I decided not to – the App was $1.99 – after the developer said he would personally cut me a check.  I thought that was weird but after reading the above blog posting, his personal refund makes sense now.

Regardless, let the sh!tty iPhone App developers go bankrupt.  If the American auto industry isn’t going to make cars that are desired, let them go bankrupt.  If Wall St decides to take on way too much risk by holding shady loans, let them go bankrupt.  Why? There have to be eager entrepreneurs willing to fill the shoes of bankrupted companies by making a better products and/or smarter decisions.

Note: I’m not agreeing with the other side.  I’d rather try to fix the mess their president caused.  But, I now see their point.  It’s weird that it took an article on iPhone Apps – of all things – to understand where they’re coming from.

Banner ads are annoying and I presume an extremely ineffective way of advertising.  For God’s sake, they all but ruined digg.  Ok, that’s a little overdramatic though those Ford rollover ads and the flashing ads for whatever that company was really sucked.

Regardless, outside of Facebook (lame ads though overly pertinent to my profile so maybe I’m just lame?) and Yelp (good enough ads), I can’t recall any other site that runs remotely effective ads.  Enter Twitter and tweet advertising.

GIORDANO’S – Example of a Local (based on IP address even?) Advertising Campaign:

NIKE – Example of a Broad/National Advertising Campaign:

So, ads run on Twitter (as tweets) every so often.  In a perfect world, the Twitter user could choose who they wanted to be bothered by.  E.g.  I would fill out a profile that selected only local Chicago ads offering drink, dinner, cover charge, etc. specials.

Talk about Utopia for both the advertiser and consumer – awesome!  Of course, such an option to select preferred types of advertisements could only be realized once Twitter obtains a decent number of local advertisers.  But, if a site like Citysearch can somehow sell to local businesses, so can Twitter!

I’m confident Tweet Ads are a better way to make money than charging corporate users for Twitter Pro accounts or selling placement/banner ads on ExecTweets.com – FAIL!

Update 1: I just noticed in my screenshots that Tweetie bought some ad space for their $2.99 iPhone Twitter client.  Did you miss it?  Look under the numbers displayed for following, followers, updates.  The ad isn’t annoying – per se – but, I think there’s more money to be made.

Update 2: I’m 20 days behind the times though nobody reads PC World.  Here’s something from March 5th referencing a variation of Tweet Ads:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/160747/twitter_tweet_ads_are_on_their_way.html

Update 3: Twitter hired Adam Bain to help make them money. They could have saved money by reading this posting.  Adds: I’m for hire and have the resume. 🙂  Anywho, this posting is 1.5 years old…come on, twitter – it’s not that hard. As mentioned, if Citysearch can somehow make money with online advertising, you can make BILLIONS within months.

Update 4 (9/21/2010): Below is a screenshot of an advertisement from a firefox plugin named yoono. I’ll be damned that a twitter add-on will make money more efficiently than twitter. As I’ve noted several times, I’m über shocked twitter is successful/popular though I’m admittedly addicted to it. When is somebody like google going to clone the service, make it more stable, offer better functionality, and thus make a ton of money via something like “tweet ads?”

As originally seen on BccList.com here, below is a close up panoramic shot taken with my iPhone of some damage to cars that were parked below the chimney’s strike zone.  Yikes…

Or, is it just old age?  If drunk, thatta boy Tommy – you still got it.  If old age, woah.  Long clip from Comcast SportsNet’s Chicago Tribune Live – you can start anywhere to view Tommy’s erratic behavior but I started around the 3 minute mark.

Burchie, thank you.

I’m sure most people have 8 teams alive.  I’ll take 7 teams.  I’ll also take a clear path for MSU to the Final 4.

It’s official – nothing is going on in the world today.

So, the WordPress iPhone App was recently updated.  Everything seems the same outside of improved comment management and a splash of color on the home screen logo.  Very good App.

President Obama compares his bowling to the bowling performance of a Special Olympian. Well, the Special Olympics won’t have any issue getting government funding for the next few years.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/president-ob-15.html

Damnit Mr. President, stupid comment. Glad this didn’t happen during the election. White House apology from Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton….

“The President made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics. He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world.”