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.”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/coack-k-disses-obamas-basketball-picks/

Ok, like 30% of Americans don’t approve of the job Obama’s doing as president.  I think 45% of people didn’t vote for Barack.  But, you won’t find a single person other than Coach K that criticizes him for taking 10 minutes to fill out a bracket.

Way to positively brand the Duke name to the few remaining people outside of Durham, NC that for some reason don’t find the program/coach really annoying.  Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.

There’s nothing like March Madness!  Below is my National Championship game pick.  Good luck – you’ll need it if you heed to any of my tourney advice.  Ha!

I considered taking UNC to win it all.  But, assuming the Spartans make the championship game, I’d hate to be ok with a MSU loss because I called it correctly in my bracket.

Below is a video of my walk to work this morning.

The good stuff starts about 30-45 seconds into the clip.  Not sure if anyone was injured but the top of the building was torn up and a handful of cars around the building were completely destroyed.

It would be awesome if Qik for the iPhone somehow allowed the ability to zoom while recording in but I’m not complaining.  Also, I’ve received a few emails saying that the video doesn’t stream and is choppy.  Weird.  Hope it’s not a Qik thing.

Vodpod videos no longer available.
Update 1: Here’s a link from the Tribune with a photo of the f’ed up cars…

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/river-north-furnace-explodes-debris-closes-streets.html

Update 2: Here are some more photos…

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=65115&l=acaff69508&id=659682276

Update 3: I’m an idiot.  A large brick chimney on the top of the 8+ story building next to Club Lago is what fell.  Still, a sh!t ton of damage to Club Lago and surrounding cars.

There’s nothing like March Madness!

Below is my National Championship game pick.  Things really heat up (???) tomorrow when I declare my National Champion.

Good luck – you’ll need it if you heed to any of my tourney advice.  Ha!