2 Minutes Of Nothing

From Alex Tew, the guy who sold 1 million pixels for a buck a piece on the Million Dollar Homepage, comes a new project that simply asks you to do nothing for two minutes. "Just relax and listen to the waves," and "Don't touch your mouse or keyboard." reads the text on the site http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/, in the background is an ocean vista with the sun peering through the clouds and the sound of waves. Also on screen is a countdown timer set to 2:00, if you are impatient and move the mouse or click on screen the timer turns to a nice red "FAIL" and the exercise starts again. Unfortunately my attention span this morning would not allow me to wait out the two minute exercise so I can't tell you what happens when the clock strikes zero but I can tell you that there is a lot of chatter on techcrunch's comments and that Alex Tew himself is weighing in "I did this project just for fun. Some folks should try and stop looking into things too much :)"

I guess if you've made a million dollars in four months and have plenty of time on your hands a website that plays the sound of waves and counts down from 2:00 makes a lot of sense... why didn't I think of that? Perhaps the fact that I haven't made a million dollars is my stumbling block?

Twitter's New Tweet Button For Websites

Twitter added a new feature for website owners yesterday. The Tweet button allows you to embed a small pieces of code in your site that  will allow twitter owners to tweet your page to their followers, big deal you say... I can already do this, true but the difference in this button is that it embeds your twitter username in the tweet and launches a new overlay page that then keeps the reader on your site. A small but powerful step forward for site owners, IMHO. See twitter's video explanation:

...and here it is, give it a click!

Tweet

Dirty Politics?

It's no secret that politics is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for you if you don't want your dirty laundry aired in public. The latter is what is being played out in a judicial race in McClain County  Oklahoma where a lawyer, John Mantooth, is facing a great deal of opposition from his daughter and son in-law who have created a website http://donotvoteformydad.com/ in an attempt to inform the voters of their opinion of the candidate. It seems as though daughter Jan Schill has had an unpleasant past with her father and perhaps her husband Andrew has other motives. Though Andrew Schill is quick to point out "We are shocked both by the extent and the nature of the media coverage this story has generated.  And we completely agree with Mr. Mantooth that the voters should look at his experience and record when deciding how to cast their vote for District Judge.  It is our sincere hope that you will examine this record for which we’ve provide the limited examples available to us and make an appropriate and informed decision."

MSN Vs. Google - The Rap Battle

From the time waster department comes searchenginerapbattle.com... you be the judge.

Webkinz stolen identities

The NY Times Bits blog is reporting that theft of the popular Webkinz plush toy's identity tags is becoming a real problem for the company who makes the toys and retailers alike. It is such a problem that some retailers are resorting to displaying the toys behind the cashiers in more secure locations. Let's make this clear, the thieves are not taking the stuffed animals, but just the uniquely numbered little paper tags that allow the purchasers access to the Webkinz website where they can play with a virtual replica of their toy. It seems that the online version is perhaps more popular than the toy itself, or at least a lot easier to pilfer.

Big Brother - feline edition

Juergen Perthold decided to spy on Mr. Lee, a stray cat that he and his wife adopted. It seems that Mr. Lee liked having regular meals but didn't like the house rules and often fell into his wandering ways. Juergen decided to put his engineering background to work and devised a collar based camera that takes pictures at intervals. Now with a web site to share Mr. Lee's travels and to provide step by step directions to creating your own kittycam, Perthold and Mr. Lee are becoming Internet celebs. As I said in Juergen's guestbook, my cat is an indoor cat but this might be a good way to hunt dust bunnies. Happy travels Mr. Lee!

Thanks to the Globe and Mail for this one. Kittycam™ and Mr. Lee™ - Juergen Perthold.

Newspaper or online news?

A survey conducted by British news publishers asked readers of web sites run by traditional news media whether they also purchase hard copies of the paper. The good news for the newspaper publishers is that 80% of the online readers also bought their paper. It appears as though there is a fine line to walk with how much content from the more profitable print media goes into the publisher's web site. If the newspaper ignores the web they are missing out on the growing ad revenues online, but if they publish too much of the content they risk losing readers who pay for their paper to the free web site. See the story at The Register. For the record I usually purchase The Globe and Mail, which I read at the local coffee shop and leave for another patron to enjoy once I've finished... I usually write this sites URL on it next to articles I intend to blog about, shameless self promotion perhaps but it's only fair it was my dollar!

CBC unveils new site

I just surfed over to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) web site and was greeted with a brand new interface. It took me a moment, I double checked the address, and sure enough the site had undergone a radical redesign. In this letter to their audience, Executive Director Steve Billinger describes some of the changes and the reason behind them. Like anything that changes drastically, this will take me a little getting used to but the look is fresh and the promise of more tighter integration with other programming sounds great. I like it so far, now where did they hide the tech stories?