Obama name shock!

Obama’s name is pretty amazing when you stop and think about it..

Osbama

It’s not just the fact that his middle name is that of a former US public enemy #1, it’s also the fact this his first name is one letter away from the reigning (waning?) US public enemy #1!

Can you imagine if a certain Mr. Clement Benito Hatler had been elected British Prime Minister in 1945? Or if a Mr. Harry Adolf Horohito had taken over as US president on Roosevelt’s death in the same year?

Like, totally weird or what?

Anyway, name-games aside, good luck to you, Barack Hussain Obama. Let’s hope this is a great new beginning for the US and her emulators around the world.

Sickie woo!

A special ‘Facebook Darwin Award’ to Kyle Doyle for ‘SICKIE WOO!’

sickie wooNone of the kids I know who use Facebook (our own included) spend any time thinking about the impact of the portrait they’re creating of themselves.

Or the ‘history’ they’re building. Or the forces behind the data they’re sharing. They don’t even see Facebook as something to talk or think about. It’s just there, invisible. They just use it without thinking.

Just like this guy who - internet legend has is - tried to pull a sickie but didn’t think that his bosses might check on his Facebook status.  Like most online stories some say it’s true, some say it’s faked.

Either way it’s funny - but when it’s stopped being funny, it’s just worrying.  All you have to do is take a look at the news feed of any 20 year old Facebook user to see the same lack of caution and awareness.

London’s rubbish

This just made me smile.

For some reason, this looks absurd to someone who lives in Devon.

Neatly swept up leaves in clear plastic sacks.  Or perhaps freshly bought from a seasonal style shop, waiting to be scattered across the pavement to create an autumnal motif?

Who can say?

All I know is that I’ve never seen it in my life before, and that the passers-by thought the weird thing was me taking the picture of it.

What happens when you let someone invent their own job title?

This :-)
Creative name
I love it!

Shark and surfers picture debate: ‘mu:kaumedia verdict

Is this a real picture of a terrifying killer monster shark leaping menacingly out of the water in a feeding frenzy just inches from unwary surfers?

Shark and surfers

Yes and no.

I know, this has nothing much to do with online marketing - except that it’s in the Daily Telegraph online and I’m contributing to the debate (since the Telegraph doesn’t let you comment on this story).

‘mu:kaumedia verdict? After a further bit of PhotoShopping, we say the shark movement is credible and the pictures are likely to be genuine - albeit not really that surprising, particularly when the text accompanying the ’shock’ story effectively says “Yeah, mate, we see ‘em all the time”.

Could do better…

What’s the one thing that the UK Podcasters Association really needs to be able to demonstrate it can do well?

You’d be forgiven for answering ‘Podcasting’ :-)

The dire quality of the video podcasts currently on their home page sends a really poor message to the wider world. I’d seriously recommend taking them down - particularly since there are better versions of the same events elsewhere on the site.

Even though the other versions are slightly more watchable (because you can hear the audio) they still make what I think is a big mistake: they’re video. Why is that a mistake? Because the image doesn’t add enough to make the huge filesizes worth it.

It also means that I can’t take it in the car to listen while I’m doing something else. I’m not against video podcasting. On the contrary - I’m all for it when it’s presenting information that can’t be presented any better way but I’m not sure this is a good example of that.

Act now and get my eBook ‘What I hate about internet marketing’ - worth $697 - absolutely free!

MoneyHeres the free secret of making money online with internet marketing:

All I ask is that you pay a reasonable s&h of $7.99. (That was it, BTW, the Secret. Did you catch it?)

What I hate about internet marketing like this is that it’s so soulless and empty.

Why? Because it sells a dream of achieving wealth through marketing digital content - but the content itself is only ever about how to market and sell digital content.

It ends up that there are no ‘end buyers’ of this content other than people who want to learn the secrets of becoming rich by, ah, selling content about how to become rich by selling content about how to become rich by…. :-)

The benefits of voice-to-text software?

Voice recognition software can save you time - but it can also lose you the most important data

This morning, I received a copy of an email referring to an event we’ve been asked to podcast. It contained the following line:

“As you know I also spoke to move came who are blog and sane recordists…”

Not the best ad for voice-recognition packages - although I’m flattered at being called sane :-)

Blam! The old footshoot ;-)

footshootIf your business is words and images, make sure you’re good with… ah, words and images.

Make a mistake and people will forgive you…..

But make a mistake in the thing you just said you were a specialist in - and people will roll their eyes and walk away.

I stopped pointing this kind of thing out to people because if I have to explain why making obvious mistakes in the thing you claim you’re an expert in…. oh forget it. ;-)

The ‘UC’ Awards 2008

Yes, you guessed it! We’re calling for nominations for the first ever ‘Under Construction Awards’ - in search of the world’s most oldest website place-holder ever.

Now this one’s a local beauty - but hey, it’s a mere cherub - at only 14 months out of date. Are there any older ones?

And do you know someone with a website like this? If you do, screenshot it and send us the pic - but better than that, get them to call us! :-)

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