Archive for April, 2007
The last week saw seven more stations bring hi-def newscasts online, bringing the total number of local newscasts in HD to 45. From Broadcasting and Cable:
The new entries span a wide range of geography, affiliations and market size: WSOC, the Cox station and ABC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C (DMA #26).; KCBS and KCAL, the CBS owned-and-operated stations in Los Angeles (DMA #2); KFSN, the ABC O&O in Fresno, Calif. (DMA #55); KTVK, Belo’s independent station in Phoenix (DMA #13); and Cordillera stations and NBC affiliates KVOA Tucson (DMA #70) and WLEX Lexington, Ky. (DMA #63).
Makes me glad I’m off the air. I should only be seen in low-def.
April 28th, 2007
Companies change names all the time, especially in the telco business. You usually find out this way: Telcom A sends you a note saying “We’re now Telcom B. Here’s your bill.” Never once has this confused me. But, for some reason, we are being exposed to - nay, hammered over the head with - “Cingular is now the new AT&T.” (And AT&T is the new black.) This noise started in January. Please make it stop. We understand. We’re not walking around with our Cingular phones and thinking “Wait - what happened to the bizarre jack-shaped dude on the bills?” We can handle it. Let it go.
April 28th, 2007
New York, NY
Read the full post April 27th, 2007
This week, Dilbert’s “Pointy-Haired Boss” decided he should start his own blog. Of course, he’s outsourcing it to Tina The Tech Writer (”I need you to write the first one by noon. I can’t wait to see what I’m thinking.”). Damn you, Dilbert.com, for not making the strip embeddable. Still, check it out. The story started Thursday.
April 27th, 2007
LR salutes the youth of America for their constant ingenuity. Every time you think you’ve found a way to stop them from high-tech cheating (They’re texting answers!) they come up with a new way to game the system. The latest cheat technique involves recording notes onto your iPod or similar device and then snaking an earbud up behind your shirt or jacket and into one ear so you can listen back during the exam. (”Psst… me… the answer is the train leaving Chicago.”) TV people who use IFBs will appreciate this concept. Schools got wise, so now they are banning iPods in class. (They used to allow them?) LR is confident that this should, once and for all, put an end to cheating in our schools.
April 27th, 2007
2007 is Lost Remote’s Year of the Clean Site. So we salute any and all site redesigns that eliminate clutter and come up with a clean new look. This week, AOL.com rolled out a beta (Do companies like AOL still get to say they’re in beta?) of its latest iteration, and it’s clean and easy to navigate:
However, as LR pal Steph points out, AOL.com now looks mighty similar to Yahoo, which has had this look since last summer:
Now, we don’t get too obsessed with huge design concepts for their own sake around here. After all, LR’s look is pretty spartan and you can probably find blogs that look like us. It’s about the content. Still, when one big corporation rolls out a product that looks this similar to a competitor, it’s worth noting. And AOL agrees that there are similarities. David Liu, senior vice president of the AOL portal site, told internetnews.com “I think in this industry there are a lot of elements of portals that are just going to be similar because people have developed them to a point that they are standards.” But he adds the functionality is where the difference lies - that the different “modules” on the page will be made available for users to have on their own pages. There will be more applications and content modules to come as AOL.com rolls this out over the upcoming months.
April 27th, 2007
Red Swoosh has just released FoxTorrent, a torrent downloader plugin for the Firefox browser. The cool twist is this: FoxTorrent claims it lets you watch or listen to the file as it downloads. Still, torrent files are divided unevenly and are different than streaming files, I was able to watch a 1/2 hour video as though it were streaming, but I had to give it a hefty head-start. (Michael Arrington had a different experience.) Akamai recently purchased Red Swoosh, so they’re the power behind all this. Installation was a snap on this Mac/Firefox combo. And the video I downloaded was purely for investigative purposes… (via TechCrunch)
April 27th, 2007
Although Sen. Mike “Some of these people frighten me” Gravel prompted one LR commenter to write “he looks like he’s channeling Admiral Stockdale,” you gotta give the man this much - he made a splash. (Journalists with a sense of history should be at least a little interested - Gravel was one of the driving forces behind the release of the Pentagon Papers.) As the decided agent provocateur of the debate, Sen. Gravel certainly had some colorful suggestions and observations. Still, he seemed to be a hit with a substantial amount of the audience. MSNBC, which aired the debate, has an online poll and one of the questions is “Who stood out from the pack?” As of this writing, Gravel leads Biden, Dodd, Richardson and Kucinich. Especially interesting is the poll over at DailyKos which asks “Who won the debate, if anyone?” Here again, Gravel beats Biden, Dodd, Richardson and Kucinich - and comes within two points of tying Hillary Clinton. Over at Slate, John Dickerson writes that “Wild Mike was a near perfect synthesis of crank candidates of the past…” Instapundit livegraveled the debate, and noted this fine comment entry from Reason: “President Gravel? Only on the Flintstones!” So - what do you think? Will Sen. Gravel generate a Howard Dean-like swell of online support? Or are we just so tired of the same old same old that a person who speaks their mind is that refreshing?
April 27th, 2007
Rafat, Staci and our pals at Paid Content have concluded what sounds like a fascinating conference on the economics of social media. EconSM was held in Los Angeles, and PaidContent put on the event. Too many great items of interest to list here, so pay a visit to Paid Content and check out their Flickr photostream, too. Great work, guys.
April 27th, 2007
New York, NY
Read the full post April 26th, 2007
ABCNEWS.com unveils its new look this weekend and, from the preview ABC’s media relations sent us, it looks like a major departure from the current site. The new ABCNEWS.com is much cleaner and easier to read and navigate. The upper right is dedicated to an embedded video player and the search box is prominent (as we’ve pointed out, that’s how people navigate). According to a memo sent from ABC News President David Westin to the ABC News staff this morning, “One of the important goals for the new ABCNEWS.com is to use the power of the community created on the Internet to take that reporting to new levels. We will actively seek participation by those with something factual to add. We will solicit from our Internet users the questions they want answered by those in positions of power and knowledge.” Below, a screengrab sent to us from ABC News.
April 26th, 2007
LR reader Brandon Wirtz has humbly alerted us to this addendum to the Colbert Google bomb story. He is the second “Greatest Living American,” if you do a Google or Yahoo search. I consider this an even more impressive feat than Colbert’s since, no offense Brandon, Colbert has a slightly bigger audience. The more links Brandon gets, the higher his ranking goes. Who are we to argue? Here’s to Brandon Wirtz, the second Greatest Living American. He is also shooting for Greatest Undead American, so I’m including that in the body of this copy as well. I now issue this challenge: I want the LR Faithful to make “Steve Safran” the top result for “Laziest Man in America.” Let’s keep the meme going. Link to this story and include the words “Steve Safran is the Laziest Man in America,” along with whatever stupid stuff you have to do for SEO or Google bombing. Together, we can make a difference.
UPDATE: Will you look at that? One day later, and I’m #2 in the search rankings for “Laziest Man in America.” Yeah, second laziest is pretty lazy alright. But I’m in it to win it. Keep linking.
April 26th, 2007
As part of MSNBC’s continuing rollout of its theme to offer “A Fuller Spectrum of News,” it now has an interactive feature called “Rate the Candidates”:
You watch a video featuring clips of the candidates talking about their positions on key issues and then use the sliders to give them a positive, negative or neutral rating. Once you’ve done that, you can see the results of how other people have rated other candidates. Locals: learn from this. Many locals now have sections that feature the candidates’ positions on issues - and this is a fun interactive way of drawing people in to learn more and offer instant feedback.
April 26th, 2007
WSJ’s wise media pundits Mossberg and Swisher now have their own vertical site, AllThingsD. There are seven staffers, including the cool John Paczkowski. You’ll find blog posts and the ‘Digital Daily Video’ feature and, in the making money realm, there are video prerolls and one banner ad position per page. And, relating to the “To brand or not to brand” discussion below, there’s no WSJ logo at top. Yep, it’s it’s own vertical brand. The site’s about us statement…
Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate
Plus: What the blogs have to say about AllThingsD
April 26th, 2007
Stephen Colbert has dropped the Google bomb, and it has worked. A search of the term “Greatest Living American” turns up Colbert Nation at #1 on Google. (He’s also the top result for “giant brass balls.”) How did this happen? It started with the visit of a search engine expert to the taping of an episode of the Colbert Report. One Q&A session later, and the Google bomb was dropped. Mind you - Google has changed its search software to try and stop Google bombs. (But try to stop Colbert!) Oddly, as is pointed out in several posts on this, a search for “Truthiness” doesn’t come up with Stephen in the top five. Explain that. First Wikipedia, now Google. Oh, that Colbert.
April 25th, 2007
The list is out for this year’s EPpy nominees, the annual awards given to online media sites. It’s a long list, but some of the items of interest: WaPo leads the pack with five nominations; New categories include The Knight News Award for Innovation, and an award for a Spanish-language media-affiliated site; and of the eight “Best Use of Video in a Web Site” nominees, only one (CNN.com) is from a conventional TV news outlet. The EPpys are sponsored by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek, and the winners will be announced May 24 at the Interactive Newspaper Conference and Trade Show in Miami.
April 25th, 2007
Yahoo, The Huffington Post and Slate will jointly host two online-only presidential debates this fall. From Mediaweek:
The Web only debates, which will be hosted by longtime PBS host and former 60 Minutes correspondent Charlie Rose, will take place sometime after Labor Day of this year. During the two events – one held for Republican candidates and one for Democrats, Internet-users will be able to directly ask candidates questions, either through text or video submissions, and eventually vote on the debate performances of each participant.
What do you bet the questions - and answers - are better than the ones you get at the traditional debates?
April 25th, 2007
San Diego
Read the full post April 25th, 2007
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