Although I have been bashing Microsoft’s newest $300 million “I’m a PC” campaign, they have finally got one right. This is a very cute and convincing ad that is targeted with a very simple and engaging message.
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The 2008 Darwin Awards
Hi All,
This is off topic but a good laugh. I’m not sure if this stuff is true but still its funny.
1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach , California , would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
And now, the honorable mentions:
2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and, after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef’s claim was approved.
3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.
4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn’t discovered for 3 days.
5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.
6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer… $15. [If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?]
7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he’d just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.
8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, “Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.”
9. The Ann Arbour News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti , Michigan , at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn’t open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren’t available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away. [*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER]
10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.
-Aryeh
Next iPhone Makes Me Forget All About Pre
Seems like Apple has been reading its customers’ feedback, if I am judging by the latest rumors on the Web. The long list of missing features for the iPhone will not be as long very soon, if these rumors are true.
New Design
Hi Guys,
We are working on the new design. Going to be under maintenance over the next few days.
Should be really cool when we are done.
-Aryeh
The Future of Online Video
I am not sure if something else like this exists, but it is a pretty cool concept, which I think could totally dominate the online video space. The possibilities are endless, just think about a company using interactive video to market their product, I have some pretty awesome ideas.
-Hillel
The 1981 Electronic Newspaper
Robin Wauters of TechCrunch claims “You need to see this video”, and I agree.
-Hillel
The Web Without Arrington
I just came across a very disturbing article written by none other, than Mr. TechCrunch, Michael Arrington. Just to summarize it, Arrington is taking some time off from blogging. What seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back was a very extraordinary event he experienced in his recent visit to the DLD Conference in Germany. Basically, as he was leaving, after a long and very tiring day, he was approached by someone who apparently did not get the exposure he would have wanted from TechCrunch, and was spat on. No, that is not a metaphor for the man saying something not nice to him, the guy actually hocked a lugi at Arrington. This is after Mike had his and his family’s lives threatened by another lunatic last year, which led him to have to hide out and walk around with constant security for a significant amount of time.
Arrington: Would You Spit On This Guy?
Now, this bothers me on so many levels, I do not even know where to begin. OK, I do not think this is the appropriate stage to discuss manners and ethical behavior, so I will focus on a different aspect. The Web has been known to be the most effective tool ever in marketing your business, and if there is one site that does it best, it is TechCrunch. You get your company mentioned by Arrington and you’re set. However, there is another side to that equation. The staff at TechCrunch do not randomly decide who to publicize and who to leave out. I am pretty sure they do not determine the topic of a post based on how nice the company’s logo is. They also have readers, and they need to keep them interested. He knows his audience and he writes accordingly. If Arrington posted about every company that he was exposed to, TechCrunch would not be what it is today.
But that’s not all. As I said, the Web can be a CEO’s best friend. One mention on the right site at the right time can make or break a startup. However, and this I can tell you from watching friends I have that work around the clock trying to promote their company, if your company does not succeed, no blogger or site is to blame. Yes, they could have helped, but making a successful startup takes years of sweat and tears, and that cannot be avoided. This guy who thought spitting is an appropriate reaction to his life’s failures, obviously has a failing company and he decided to blame the wrong person.
So to the spitter, I have two things to say:
- To build a successful company from the ground up, you need a lot of patience, maturity, and vision. Not to mention a good idea and an intelligent staff. Based on your behavior, you lack every single one of those traits.
- To quote a friend “Who spits these days”? Seriously though, spit? Really?
To Arrington (since I know he is reading), I say come back soon and keep up what you have been doing. I think it is safe to say that every tech blogger out there looks to you for inspiration. Wow, OK, Itamar made fun of me about my last post when I said Oren is a “sweet guy”, I wonder how he is going to react to this.
-Hillel
The Best of the Web
Since there is not much happening in the tech world over the last few days, I figured I would share with you my thoughts on some good sites that I visit regularly. I like to read up on the latest and greatest before I start my day.
The topics I read about include technology, world news, user generated stories (Digg and Reddit), latest movies and torrents, NBA (hence, the ridiculously awesome picture from the last NBA slam dunk contest), cars, social networks, and occasionally I will read a little about the latest Hollywood stories (don’t ask me why, it is just very entertaining).
So here are some good sites you might enjoy:
- Facebook: No need for explanation here, although I will say, I am FBing less since I became obsessed with Twitter.
- Twitter: No matter how you define addiction, I am addicted to Twitter and rightfully so, it is awesome. Follow me here.
- Tech N’ Marketing: Best blog out there, period. No, but seriously, we try to update daily, so bookmark us, and check in while drinking your coffee.
- Cnet: So I have mixed feelings here. I mean, I would love to accomplish half of what Cnet has accomplished, but I find myself reading Cnet less and less these days. I mean I don’t love the layout and for tech news, other sites are more updated and generally more interesting. I do love their podcasts though.
- Digg: I am a huge fan of Digg and Kevin Rose. I do not know how anyone thinks Reddit competes, it does not. Digg is awesome and Diggnation (their podcast) is even awesomer (no, I do not really think that is a word).
- Engadget: Probably my favorite tech blog. I have to say that I have Engadget Mobile bookmarked, but I follow all Engadget news on Twitter.
- Gizmodo: I used to like it more, I am not a fan of their new layout. Gizmodo, if you’re listening, newer is not always better.
- gsmarena: The authority of the mobile world . If you want any info on a GSM phone, they have it, with pics, vids, and reviews. Great site.
- Reddit: OK, this one is complicated. I used to love it as much as Digg, but for two reasons, I do not anymore. I don’t like the format of comments as much as Digg’s for one, but more importantly, I do not like the readers as much. At the risk of getting killed in the comments here, I will say that on matters of Israel, a lot of the comments on Reddit, irrelevant of your political opinions, are borderline Nazism. And that’s all I am gonna say about that.
- TechEblog: One of my favorite tech blogs. Great reviews, great writers, and great exclusives.
- RLSLOG: Huge fan of this site and have recommended it to many. They do reviews on movies that include a short summary of the plot, the writer’s opinion on the flick, the quality of the torrent, and a link to the torrent, generally hosted on Newtorrents. Now let me just say here that I use it to read about new releases and not to download illegal pirated movies of course. If you do not know, downloading movies is illegal (although a colleague of mine claims downloading is legal, uploading is illegal, but I find that hard to believe). The site is actually down as I am writing this, which doesn’t happen often. Uh Oh!
- Mobile Crunch: Another great mobile blog and this one is of course part of the TechCrunch empire. Let me say that Techcruch and Arrington are every blogger’s idols and what we aspire to accomplish as Web writers. And I do not only mean because of his success, I am also referring to the quality of the Web empire he built from the ground up.
- Six Kids and A Full Time Job: A fellow blogger, Michael Eisenberg, who writes on matters of Venture Capital, politics, family, and tech startups. He is a partner at Benchmark Capital, a father of 7 I believe (I don’t think he is considering changing his blog’s name), and just a very smart guy in general. I read his blog quite often, in fact, I am pretty sure I check his blog more often than he updates it.
- Jay Leno’s Garage: Only recently discovered this site, and I love it. To sum it up and to quote (not a direct quote, but close enough) one of my favorite movies of the year; Slumdog Millionaire (phenomenal movie, a Must See), “it is an escape from real life”. Jay Leno’s garage has pretty much every awesome car that ever existed, and on the site, he has videos where he talks about the cars and test drives em. He owns them all. Unbelievable.
- MacSurfer: A great site that has a lot of tech news and recently started posting from Tech N’ Marketing, so I am a big fan.
- Likemob: Our mobile podcast. Check back here every Monday morning for a new episode. Good times with Itamar and Aryeh.
- Blonde 2.0: One of my regular reads. A blog, written by a really nice lady named Ayelet. She writes about the Web 2.0 world and its startups. She has some very insightful thoughts on a lot of interesting topics.
- All Things Digital: This is the WSJ’s tech blog. I go here for one reason and one reason only, Walt Mossberg. He is the tech world guru and just a really nice guy.
- WWTTD: A celebrity gossip blog. Like I said before, I am not sure why I read it, but I just can’t stop. This guy is really funny, although at times a little inappropriate, so it gets a light NSFW rating (that means Not Suitable For Work).
- Davka BT: The one stop shop for downloading NBA games, old and new alike. It is updated very often, and the games are generally good quality.
Wow, that was a little longer than I expected, and your eyes are probably hurting you now, so at the risk of having a boring and non existent punch line to end off with, I am just gonna end this post.
-Hillel
The iPhone 3G unlocked
Check out this video by the DevTeam really cool stuff, cant want to unlock mine.
The Best iPhone App- iFart
I believe this is truly the most useful iPhone App yet.
We’re Moving
Hi All,
We are moving from wordpress.com to our own hosting. We are sorry if the site is a bit buggy for the next few days. We will be back better then ever.
-Aryeh