Get noticed!

The Globe and Mail has this article and this short clip online that describes having success by posting short videos online... enough said!

How about a nice game of chess?

Well it's no WOPR (showing my age here a little) but it plays a mean game of checkers! A researcher at the University of Alberta and his team have created Chinook, a checker-playing computer program, that will never lose. Jonathan Schaeffer, chairman of the department of computing science at the University says "The program can achieve at least a draw against any opponent, playing either the black or white pieces,". Traditionally game playing programs employ heuristics, a rules of thumb approach, that make them right most of the time but Schaeffer explains "What we've done is show that you can take nontrivial problems, very large problems, and you can do the same kind of reasoning with perfection. There is no error in the Chinook result. ... Every decision point is 100 percent." I worked on a chess playing program once and can appreciate the difficulty the researchers had, considering the number of pieces and possible moves... I wish I could have received some of that government funding to work out the solution! Not that there is no value in this type of research, I truly wish I could get paid to work on projects such as Mr. Schaeffer's, they are extraordinary. Even though it took them 18 years to complete, I'm sure it was a lot of fun and a labor of love. Now Professor Falken, how about a nice game of chess? Wired has more details here.

Potter finale leaked online, pirate not too bright

The news world has been having fun chasing this one. Someone apparently, in a process which must have been brutal, photographed every page (784) of the yet to be released US version of the J.K. Rowling title "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". One slashdotter posted that the quality leaves little to be desired, apparently he's viewed the results. The story was covered in the latest CommandN (episode 97) and on Buzz Out Load (episode 520) and it appears that the perpetrator didn't realize that digital cameras embed meta data into their files which may help authorities round up the culprit. Ever upload pictures to flickr? that's how the site knows the type of camera you shot the picture with... He/she better not have registered their camera or take it in for repair! I wouldn't rush to bid on that Canon Rebel 350 just posted on e-bay either!

Putting my space travel plans on hold, for now

The sliding US dollar means that travel plans for about a dozen would be International Space Station tourists may have to change. The trip cost $25 million earlier this year but has jumped to $30 million due to exchange rates vs. the Russian ruble, if that's not bad enough space travelers will likely have to pony up $40 million in 2008/2009. After that you might just be out of luck for a few years as NASA plans to retire the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010 and the 3 person Russian Soyuz vehicles will be in greater demand for space station missions, seats will be scarce! Somebody call Sir Richard!

CBC news article.

Comic strips blind sided

In 1947 Life Magazine asked famous comic strip artists to to draw their characters while wearing a blindfold, the results were varied but most of them recognizable. I'm not quite sure why I find this little experiment (scanned images included) fascinating, but I do. I guess it reminds me of exercises I was once subjected to in a traditional graphics class. We were not blindfolded but rather asked to draw with our "wrong" hand, or draw the subject upside down, it really made you look at the small details... the lines. I'll bet these guys could draw their characters in their sleep! Thanks for sharing this Johnny C.

Google reports 2nd quarter results

Google reported revenues of $3.87 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, an increase of 58% compared to the second quarter of 2006 and 35% of all revenues were generated through the AdSense network. That's $1.35 billion dollars in 3 months... doesn't sound like the botnets are hurting Google too much!

Click fraud on the raise, botnets said to be the cause

Warning: Although I did not intend for it to happen, this post has turned into a bit of a rant.

Acknowledgment: I acknowledge that the blogosphere has differing opinions regarding advertising and blogs, you have your beliefs and I have mine. Neither is necessarily right or wrong, they are just different.

And now for the post...

Cnet is reporting on one of their news blogs that statistics are showing a rise in the number of fraudulent clicks on advertising networks such as Google's AdSense. The overall industry fraud rate is estimated at 15.8% for the second quarter of this year, up from 14.1% a year ago, and the numbers are worse for the big advertising networks like AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network, where their rate is estimated at 25.6 percent, up from 21.9 percent for the previous quarter. The increase is being blamed on the rise in the number of botnets which are designed to take over unsuspecting PCs for nefarious reasons, in this case systematically clicking repetitively on ads on websites. The botnet developer either benefits from the revenue generated by the clicks or in many cases, the attack is meant to burn through the advertising budgets of the advertiser without producing any results.

As a blogger who, obviously, is a member of such an advertising network, this is not good news! By no means am I getting rich from the revenue generated by this, in fact it falls somewhere in the "beer money" category, covering the cost of domain registration, and I shutter to think what the remainder translates to on an hourly basis. I'm obviously not in this purely for the money, but it would be great if there was some sort of compensation that fairly rewarded me and the throngs of other bloggers for our time and effort. The ad networks provide some monetary promise and as they say "the cream will raise to the top", meaning those who do a good job of attracting visitors may find themselves in the enviable position of making decent coin from writing about their passions, being comical, insightful, or whatever it is that makes their blog an interesting read. The numbers above are staggering and one would assume that advertisers must be seriously considering whether or not the conversion rate is worth the extra expense brought on by these fraudulent clicks. We all consume advertisements throughout our day via radio, television, print media, and telemarketing, and whether we chose to believe it or not it does have an affect on our purchasing decisions. I'd like to encourage readers of this or any blog to consider having a glance at the ads, don't just dismiss them as noise pollution. If something catches your eye click on it, and read the advertiser's message. With this small gesture you will be compensating the author of the site and creating more meaningful click through rates, maintaining the viability of these services. It only works however if you consume the message of the advertiser, randomly clicking just to serve the interest of the writer further dilutes the value of the click and jeopardizes the system. Advertisers are not expecting that every click results in an immediate sale, although they might like that, they just want to be considered when you make your purchase decision. Likewise I am not expecting that every visit results in an AdSense click, I would like to think that if you visit the site and like what you see both in terms of content and occasionally advertising, that you would click through and read an ad from time to time. In this way all parties benefit. Oh, and keep your security software up to date! If these botnets have no place to reside the process works better anyway.

New CD format from Disney - CDVU+

Battling declining CD sales, Walt Disney Co. music label Hollywood Records is launching a new CD format known as CD View Plus (CDVU+). The new format will offer CD buyers additional content similar to that found on DVDs, in this case song lyrics, photos and other extras aimed at encouraging fans to give up their downloading ways. The Globe and Mail has this story. I think it's a last ditch effort that might be a little too late for the music industry, the youngsters are all about the downloading! I personally think that the Amie Street model is the way to go, it rewards artists for producing good music and encourages music lovers to visit often, not to mention its DRM free! But then again the model rewards the artist and that's not what the big labels are all about. Wake up music industry, your shiny new trinkets will not entice anyone... just what everybody needs another new format, lame! The only good news in this is that the format will be offered in a more earth friendly packaging.

China's online gaming crackdown

The Globe and Mail has this story of a new Chinese Government campaign to limit the number of hours teenagers spend online playing games. The government requires Internet gaming companies to install a program that requires users to enter their ID card numbers. Players under 18 years of age are prompted to stop and "do suitable physical exercise." after 3 hours of gaming, if they ignore the directive they will lose half of their accumulated game points, and after 5 hours all of the their points are lost. I had to chuckle a little bit when I read this article having just watched a Simpsons re-run where Marge's sister (Selma, I think) is attempting to adopt a child from China, the government liaison assigned to her case had some great lines that sounded a lot like these quotes:

"promote civilized Internet use,", "measured gaming is good for the brain, but gaming addiction hurts the body." and my favorite "will develop in a healthy, harmonious direction".

FBI turns to spyware to trace bomb threat

According to this CNET post the FBI remotely installed spyware on a MySpace account suspected of being used by a bomb threat hoaxster. The software was designed to phone home with the IP address of the suspects computer and other information garnered from the PC. The suspect was a former student of the High School that was subject of the threats. The FBI had reported in 2001 that it was working on such software, a virus called Magic Lantern, but hasn't said much about it since. I wonder if MySpace cooperated in this case or if it was done totally cloak and dagger?