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 Thursday, October 17, 2002
Is 'Dell dude' Steven done for? "Dell Computer said its blond-haired surfer dude pitchman 'Steven,' played by actor Ben Curtis, will be taking a break despite helping to increase sales for the company since the campaign went on air two years ago." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson]
I must be getting old but I really do not find 'idiots' to be good spokepeople for a product. "Dell dude' Steve was bad enough but I really hate the 'interns' they are using now. Oh well, I'll never buy a Dell anyway, so the ads are obviously not directed towards me. 11:19:01 PM 
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Books for the Asking: "After spending a year trying to sell her book to publishers and receiving 70 rejection letters as a reward, Laurie Notaro, a newspaper columnist in Phoenix, decided to do it herself. Working with iUniverse, one of many companies that offer "print on demand" services, Ms. Notaro paid $99 to have her book designed, laid out, stored as a digital file and printed and bound only as copies were ordered. Several months later she sold the rights to her book, plus the concept for a new one, to a major publisher for a six-figure sum." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson]
A nice and novel way to get published. Similar approaches may be the way to go. Print on demand, coupled with a trusted blogging source...humm. And I even have a title for my book. 11:14:13 PM
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Blogs for developing language skills. One of my friends has commented on my not perfect English and suggested her help for improving it. She is going to start Radio blog, so I think about the following:
- She makes a special category, which is not visible in her blog, but has an RSS feed.
- Then she uses this category to comment on my posts pointing to errors and suggesting improvements.
- I subscribe to this RSS, get my personal feedback and correct posts.
Implications:
For me it should be more effective than any course or private lesson: no stupid exercises, but just-in-time feedback to improve my writing.
This could be a service that someone can provide for bloggers. Personally, I wouldn[base ']t mind to pay a bit for it.
For multinational companies this could be a solution to help their employees developing language skills and overcoming fears of writing in foreign language. [Mathemagenic]
A neat idea. The good editors out there could easily help correct the writing of bloggers in a way that is effective without being too embarrassing or public. 11:11:04 PM
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Ad fiasco: we will act, says Ballmer. The Age - Microsoft may consider sanctions against a public relations consultant who tried to pass herself off as someone who had switched from the Apple Mac to Windows XP in a high-profile US advertising campaign, chief executive Steve ...
Microsoft pulls fake endorsement VNUNet
Microsoft gears up to create more ties with Mac users IDG Communications
Salon - Wired News - ZDNet - The Inquirer - and 25 related » [Google Technology News]
Talk about closing the barn doors after the cows have fled. One reason the Apple ads work is that the people do provide their names, you can check them out. The MS ad provided no such details. Apple has been pretty good about making it obvious that their ads are not paid-actors. I beleive that, in fact, the participants are typical Mac addicts who did not any pay for the ad above 'room and board'. Apple spent several months soliciting switchers on its web site and picked the best responses. What did MS do? Hire an ad agency to fake it. Pretty typical. 11:05:48 PM
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