Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Identity Theft can happen to you A few months ago, I had to deal with an incident of identity theft in Florida. I was contacted bya credit card company regarding an account opened at a Walmart, then subsequently used to the tune of almost $1K. I notified all the credit agencies, files a local police report, and got word back from the credit card company that the account has been deactivated, and that I am not liable for any of the charges. (BTW, did I write about this already? Sure would be nice to simply search my weblog!!!!) So now there's this bit o' news: Cops Bust Massive ID Theft Ring Federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a credit bureau help-desk worker and two accomplices who allegedly stole more than 15,000 credit reports and sold them to other crooks for $60 a pop. Michelle Delio reports from New York. [Wired News] I always wondered how this incident happened, and now I wonder if I wasn't somehow part of this? Freaky. All of the credit agencies now have my accounts "locked", if you will, such that attempts to retrieve my credit report, or issue new credit, must be authorized by me on the phone. Nowadays, with identity theft on the rise, I think this should be normal operating proceedure! 3:31:22 PM

Groove Salad is BACK! SOMAFM returns to the online airwaves Popular downbeat-techno online radio station SomaFM is back! Thanks to everyone's help in writing to congress and encouraging them to pass HR5469. About 10 days ago, it passed in both the House and Senate. (...) This weekend, we're launching a new web site, and have now put most of our core stations back on the air: Groove Salad, Secret Agent, Drone Zone, Indie Pop Rocks! and Beat Blender. You can get to them from http://somafm.com. More channels will follow as we rebuild our infrastructure. We'll still need to come up with about $6500 (hopefully less, the final rates are not agreed to, but we know that it shouldn't be more than $6500 for previous years, and $2000 or 12% of our revenues (donations) going forward. It's still a lot of money for what over the air radio broadcasters get for free, but we can work with this, and stay in the air. LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing] YEAH! 3:08:38 PM

Email ads getting a better rap? Email Click Throughs Increasing eMarketer: E-Mail Click-Throughs Climb in Q3 According to the Q3 Email Trend Report from DoubleClick, average click-through rates (CTR) for e-mail campaigns grew to 6.13% in Q3 from 4.85% in the previous quarter. DoubleClick notes that this year's Q3 average is on par with the average click-through rate during the same quarter last year. The report also discusses click-through by industry and types of email (research, marketing, subscription offer, etc.) Haven't we moved beyond click-through though? [marketingfix] Agreed. Research from DoubleClick about ad clickthrus isn't so much research as marketing. If click-thru rates are indeed increasing, though, is it thru sheer beligerence and volume that spam gets past our defenses? Or is it because marketers are using more meaningful connections? 2:41:11 PM

Brilliant marketing and/or end-of-line Apple Parodies Own Switch Campaign Regardless of where we all fall in the Macintosh vs. Windows debate, we all have to agree that Apple Computer's Switch campaign has been very successful creatively. It's elicited many parodies, such as this Mac User who isn't happy with Mac OS X, it has given Microsoft yet one more idea to copy, and has created a star in Ellen Feiss. This time, Apple's decided to have fun with their own campaign. They've hired Will Ferrell, a comedian of Satuday Night Live fame, to help get a laugh or two out of this coming holiday season. There are two ads, "Santa and Lawyers" and "Santa's iPod" featuring Ferrel. [For more Switch parodies, check out this collection I put together on my Bruner Blog site in August, including my favorite from DrunkGamers.com. -Rick] [marketingfix] These are kinda funny, but I suppose the real value here is in how much buzz this will increase over Apple and its products. Can they go back to straight switch commercials, or does self-parody ring the high-note finale? And what will next year's Apple campaign message be? 2:37:05 PM

What is it that Jackson sees? Jackson has been very visually synchronized with us lately, looking to us for feedback on his actions or for reassurance at startling times. But there is more than that. The other night, I was feeding him in my lap, when I looked down and noticed him looking at me very intently. I smiled wide and coo'ed at him, and he smiled even wider and kept the eye contact going. And he just smiled, and smiled, and smiled... My heart almost burst with the purity of his gaze, his joy so freely transmitted... (That thought came from this...) The eyes of a child .... The eyes of a child. "Something animated and vital looks out from our childrens eyes. Whatever it is, we recognize it and know it is precious. Yet except in rare cases today, that spirit is broken early and irreparably. The light goes out all too soon. We know, because at some inarticulate and dimly conscious level, we are those children. We feel the wind of spirit move us at odd moments, but put it down to nostalgia or temporary possession by some impractical flight of fancy. We shake it off and get back to work. Robbed of a voice to speak of these things, something animated and vital looks out from our own eyes, but only in rare, unguarded moments -- and even then, wary, circumspect, suspicious. We let no one see what we fear no one will understand." --Chris Lockemore > [Ming's Meta Mechanics] [Seb's Open Research] 2:28:04 PM