THIS PAGE IS AN ARCHIVE. GO TO THE HOMEPAGE TO FIND OUT WHAT TO DO NEXT.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. arch emisou panton
	Phil's Blogservations Thursday, February 28, 2002 Posted by philgomes 2:39 PM "Nyah...Nyah...Nyah...My World-Class Financial Publication Is Better Than Yours Is!!!:" In a discussion about the database industry, renowned tech columnist Chris Nolan told me in '98 that, when several competitors are pushing similar products in a down market, they are more prone to engage in acrimonious and vicious banter in the press. "After all," she offered. "A database is really just a means to create a big fancy list." She reasoned that it's really hard for one company's "list" to be necessarily better than another's. Further, any features that did make the "list" better were easily and quickly duplicated, reducing differentiation. When there was nothing competitive left to talk about, the Larry Ellisons of the world turned up the noise in the media with Silicon Valley's own brand of feverish invective. Pointing to a similar situation, Blogservations contributor Lish Nieva-Woodgate pointed out this article about the public spat between The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. Drilling down far enough, both publications are very different. But, at the end of the day, they are both global-class financial publications. It's a shame that the Ellison-esque rhetoric that Business 2.0 and Fast Company were engaging in has percolated to the global media stage. Tuesday, February 26, 2002 Posted by philgomes 1:19 PM Frogs...Boils...Pestilence...Butterflies?: The New York Times is reporting that a recent storm in Mexico has caused millions of butterflies to freeze to death, fall to earth, and begin to rot with a horrible smell that has been described as anything from "fetid and sweet" to "like a rotting pumpkin." They buried "more than 3,000 monarch butterflies that had died in the storm" in a hillside cemetery. The incident has worried locals as to the PR impact to the tourist industry and, somewhat unusually, "inflamed the often argumentative community of monarch scientists." Hmmmm...I wonder what kind of debates this "argumentative community" actually gets into... Monday, February 25, 2002 Posted by philgomes 5:38 PM Next, Feline MK-Ultra Program Will Create "Manchurian Mouser": It was bad enough when widespread prescription of Ridalin became the answer to kids that exhibited, well, youthful tendencies such as short attention spans. Now, the contemporary culture that promotes the concept of the chemically designed personality is extending that philosophy to include medicating the humble feline!! The shopping list for caring for the cat of tomorrow: wet food, dry food, kitty litter...and meds!! Are people so neurotic that they've taken to medicating their pets? I thought we had more pressing things to think about these days. In many cases, Ridalin became a substitute for parenting and classroom discipline. Now, we have drugs that can substitute for training, housebreaking, and so on. What a world... One Blogservations reader offers, "We should stick to drugging ourselves and leave our poor pets out of it!!" Friday, February 22, 2002 Posted by philgomes 4:26 PM Formerly Controversial Director Does The Right Thing...For His Bank Account: I had to read it twice, but it looks like Spike Lee's film production company will be producing the ads for KMart's post-bankruptcy campaign. "The ads also illustrate how Kmart reaches the 'aspirational' wants of consumers by stocking exclusive brands," says the article. Of course, these exclusive brands include the wares of that domestic dominatrix Martha Stewart and Jaclyn "what-has-she-done-since-Charlie's-Angels" Smith. Someone stop me...I feel a short position coming on... Posted by philgomes 12:53 PM "Oh, bollocks! We haven't screwed anything up this badly since the Spice Girls!": File this under "Funny-If-It-Weren't-True." Contributor Elizabeth Campbell made Phil's Blogservations aware of this story about how the British Royal Marines accidentally "invaded" Spain while on manuevers. Apparently, a storm made it difficult for the Royal Marines to determine which side of the centuries-contested Gibraltar region they were landing on. They wound up a few yards on the Spanish side, somewhat irritating locals and vacationers. Oooops. Imagine being that commander. A hard thing to live down, no? Posted by philgomes 10:44 AM "I'm Dick Cheney / Yes, I'm The Real Cheney / All You Other Dick Cheneys Are Just Imitating...": Vice President Dick Cheney is starting to get out there a bit more, according to this article. I sure wish the man had something more profound to say than "My life is certainly better, thanks to a wide array of technology that I depend on." Duh... While I can say that I'm a big fan of the proposed R&D tax credit, the "looser rules for exports of computers and high-tech equipment" scares the aneurysm-bursting bejeezus out of me. As far as I'm concerned, export laws for computers aren't strict enough. Thursday, February 21, 2002 Posted by philgomes 11:46 AM Next Generation Of Counter-Terrorism Measures Surprisingly Low-Tech: EBN's Jack Robertson (I really can't remember a time in my professional career when I wasn't reading his work) has a nifty opinion piece on the surprisingly low-tech guts of many biometric identification systems used to thwart would-be terrorists. After all, he argues that "the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were low tech." He goes on to describe how currently deployed systems are surprisingly accurate though they use fairly old hardware and software: the Pentium II, Windows 3.0, and even Zilog's venerable Z80 enjoy mention in the piece. Since these systems have plenty more technology upgrades to hit before reaching the state-of-the-art, I suppose that I'm feeling just a little more confident about America's ability to catch future terrorist attempts. His final thought: "The good news is that the technology already exists, both old and new, for homeland transportation security. The task is to get it in place expeditiously." Wednesday, February 20, 2002 Posted by philgomes 6:25 PM From The "God-do-I-wish-I-was-making-this-up" Department: Television will once again be spitting on our brains soon with Profiles From The Front Line, a new weekly "reality series." The producers will be given unprecedented access to the war on terrorism, turning the idea of war into yet another hunk of broadcasted basura for our collective enjoyment in the tradition of Temptation Island, Survivor, etc. Please. Read a book or something. Tuesday, February 19, 2002 Posted by philgomes 11:53 PM Another Good Criteria For Picking A School: I don't know about the undergrad college courses you might've taken, but all I know is that my experience at Our Lady Of The Perpetually Rising Tuition was nowhere near what the students at UC Berkeley are up to! According to this SF Chronicle article, "A student-run class on male sexuality was suspended Friday after published allegations that class members had an 'orgy' at a party and went to a strip club where an instructor had sex on stage." According to their spokesperson, "Such activities 'are not part of the approved course curriculum.'" Sigh And that truly is a shame. I mean, California keeps swapping with Arkansas for the dubious distinction of "Worst Educational System In The U.S." Chances are very good that these Berkeley undergrads are having sex at maybe only the 10th or 11th grade level. On second thought, maybe it's a good thing I didn't have that particular college experience. My school was run by several middle-aged Christian Brothers. 'Nuff said. Saturday, February 16, 2002 Posted by philgomes 3:45 PM J. Lo Tops Osama, Hitler, and McVeigh: According to the excellent FOIA nerds at The Smoking Gun, download interest in Jennifer Lopez's backstage concert demands (called "riders" in the music biz), tops interest in Hiter-, McVeigh-, and Bin-Laden-related documents by wide margins. Well, I guess the folks at The Smoking Gun and their loyal viewers were swayed by Ms. Lopez's ample Cubana charms. I mean, haven't they seen Bin Laden's rider? That little terrorist prima donna asks for a half-dozen goats at every Al-Qaeda stop! (It gets lonely out in the desert.) Friday, February 15, 2002 Posted by philgomes 3:41 PM "PornFormance": The Next Internet Test Benchmark: Pornography has shaped much of the technology we consume today. For example, porn is the reason why VHS tapes became so popular compared to the technically superior Betamax format. (The former did not require royalty payments to Sony.) And you can guess which industry makes the most use of the "multiple camera angle" feature on DVDs. Since the size, complexity, and volume of porn-related Web data is staggeringly high, it only makes sense that online pornography serves as the best test bed for Internet performance. I've decided to coin the term "pornformance." A site called Smutcraft has taken this to heart. Using an automated script, it determines the most popular operating-system-and-web-server combinations by analyzing various porn sites. Not surprisingly, open source or otherwise free server technologies (such as the Linux operating system or Apache Web server) are by far the most popular. By the way, their logo totally rules. Posted by philgomes 11:24 AM Jeffrey Tarter On The State Of Technology Communications: Jeffrey Tarter, editor of the highly renowned SoftLetter had some enlightening and provocative things to say about the state of technology public relations and journalism. This correspondence started when I asked Mr. Tarter if he planned to do an follow-on piece to this October 1999 article about tech PR. In an email conversation with Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogmaster, Mr. Tarter offers: I'm not sure I actually predicted the great PR meltdown we're going through (and I certainly don't want to be blamed for it.). But almost every day I see agencies imploding and old friends on the street. Of course, the trade press is going through a similar implosion, and so is the technology ad community. (Hey, might as well throw in the retail channel, software packagers, the trade associations, conferences, and the rest of the industry infrastructure.) This is way deeper than a recession, and I really don't think we're going to "bounce back" without a major restructuring of the business. In fact, I've been thinking lately that the whole notion of a powerful trade press and monster-sized PR firms is really a historical fluke. If you look at most other industries, the trade press has very little influence and the vast majority of PR people work in grungy little two-person shops--flacks and hacks. I don't know if that's where we're really heading, but I think there's a fair chance it is. Of course, I receive this on the day that Internet PR bigwigs Niehaus Ryan Wong announced that they are closing up shop. Thursday, February 14, 2002 Posted by philgomes 6:31 PM From The "Glass House" To The "Big House": c|net is reporting that the new federal clink in Atwater, Calif., will be a recycling center for end-of-lifed computer parts. Never mind the fact that you can probably make a nifty shiv out of a printed circuit board or hunk of molded plastic housing from a computer monitor. Of course, various lawyer types are decrying this as "an involuntary servitude type of approach to dealing with e-waste." Funny...What should we be doing with prisoners? Teach them how to crochet? Posted by philgomes 3:13 PM Well...At Least It's Cute: I'll leave it to the moralists or theologans to determine how right or wrong it is to clone a kitten, but damn it's a cute little bugger, isn't it? "Mommy!! Buy me one of those!!" Monday, February 11, 2002 Posted by philgomes 11:22 AM Would You Like Your PDA Well-Done? Medium? Medium Rare?: Somebody tried to dry their wet Palm VII in the oven. Read about it here. It's up to you as to whether this is real or just a very clever urban legend. Tuesday, February 05, 2002 Posted by philgomes 4:15 PM Phil's Search For A Must-Have Springboard Module Continues: The most recent Handspring Visor user's newsletter has the Eyemodule 2 at a $50 discount ($149) and it's predecessor at $99. I must admit that I was tempted to whip out my credit card. I chose the Visor over the Palm two years ago 'cause I thought I was going to get a helluva lot of use out of the expansion slot. However, to date, I have yet to find an Springboard expansion module that I must have. If you've come across such a device, please let me know. HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.