I have to agree 100% with Andy Beal’s comments:

He owes his fans, the media, and his sponsors an explanation.Yes, he does!

They invested their time, their money, their emotional commitment to Woods. He sold them a brand and now he’s not living up to it. Just like any other “product” its customers deserve to know why it’s not “working” the way it has for the past decade or more.

Cold? Sure! And Woods can continue to hold onto his privacy if he so chooses–as Bobby Brown would say, that’s his “perogative!” But, at some point he needs to decide what’s more important, Tiger Woods the person, or Tiger Woods the brand.

Because Tiger Woods the brand is in a lot of trouble at this point.

With OTHER huge brands riding the Tiger name: Gatorade, G2, Nike, Buick, Gillette, EA Sports, and more. All of these brands will need to rethink their sponsorships and face-time with Tiger as a spokesperson if Tiger continues to dodge the press.

I sure hope Tiger considers his reputation and decides to be a bit more vocal about the incident.

I haven’t been this excited for a baseball season in, well, 10 years. My favorite player has reunited with my favorite team. Welcome Home Griffey!

I’m discovering I’m quick to jump on the bandwagon with those that have kinda similar belief-systems as I do. But the minute I feel like someone is about to join the conversation who has a strong persuasion in a different direction than I do, I start setting the conversation on auto-pilot steering it to avoid a conflict of personalities. Conflict isn’t my game. Maybe it should be.

I wouldn’t always say that I’ve voted the popular vote. I’ve proudly voted for independents and third parties in elections past. I have long believed that a third major party would be good for this country. It seems that “moderates” make up a large population of the electoral, and I would definitely classify myself as one. Things aren’t as black and white as a bipartisan system would have you believe, and the way the system is now there is too much infighting happening within both parties prior to the general election. Then they expect us to “unify” behind a candidate which may be very difficult if it wasn’t your candidate of choice for the party. This happened to me the previous two elections. Luckily it wasn’t the same this time.

However, when it comes to politics there is one issue that I do feel strongly about: technology. This election Obama clearly has the stronger technology platform IMO, although I must admit that McCain’s tech policy has evolved somewhat in the recent months going from almost nothing to being a fairly strong offering. Obama has had tech issues as a strong priority from the start, and I feel that he is more passionate in protecting these crucial elements of American society. I learn my living online, and have for over the past 10 years. Technology impacts my lifestyle directly. Oil, foreign policy, environment, fiscal policy: all these items are important to me, but I’m a realist and know that most issues can only be changed mildly in 4 years time. Even in 8 years time isn’t enough for most of the issues. However, when it comes to technology 4 to 8 years is a lifetime. The wrong decisions can impact us immediately and drastically. Sales can get more taxes, access can be limited by monopolistic ISPs, forms of advertising can regulated, and someone can claim they own rights to something you have (like a domain name and/or website). One crazy act of congress, and the rules change overnight. So this is something I watch intently and closely so I can continue providing for my family doing something I’m good at.

And damnit, I want to play online poker and not feel like a criminal (thanks GOP!).

July 23rd, 2006 – Somewhere in Hot California – MySpace, an overly addictive community site owned by the Fox News megaborg, was reported down for a considerable portion of the weekend due to a massive heat wave that crashed on the shores of California. California is where the site’s data centers are located.

Califonia residents have been given a Heat Advisory warning about the extreme conditions and have been asked to consider turning down their air conditioners so that MySpace may be able to come back online.

“This is ridiculous!” Said Ashley, a high school Senior from Carlsbad, California. “I can live without air conditioning. I feel so lost without my Myspace!”

Her boyfriend, Carl, was less sympathetic. While playing Xbox Live he was heard telling his girlfriend to “cry to someone else about your MySpace problems!”

Jose, a 31 year old resident of Belmont, California, went dateless tonight. He tells us MySpace is to blame. “I had tickets to the Giants and everything. Nothing sucks worse than going to the game alone. It sucks worse that they lost tonight. Man, I hate MySpace!”

On the other side of the nation, residents of New York were in nearly as much angst. Sherrie, an accounts executive on Madison Avenue was relieved to hear MySpace was down. “My power is out too, so I feel better knowing that my friends can’t be MySpacing since I can’t any ways.”

In Las Vegas, Jason Murphy thinks it may a bigger problem “That power outage took down my sites too. I must be in the same data center or a webhost hotel nearby. But my site is back up now, what’s MySpace’s problem?” Jason was also showing signs of larger withdrawal symptoms such as staring contests with his monitor and trying to answer Stephen Hawking’s question to the Life, The Universe, and Everything. He even went so far as to blame it all on Google. Seriously? “Seriously!“

The Department of Home Security is considering raising the terrorist threat level to Orange since MySpace was used as one of the departments major lines of communication. “We foresaw MySpace going down in the near future as a possible terrorist act. This is one reason why we prepared and launched Ready.gov. (We even have a cute picture story for the kids.) Little did we know that the air conditioning shortage in California would lead to this national crisis,” reported an Unofficial Department Spokesman, “We will learn from this event and be much more prepared for future attacks.”

FEMA officials were on vacation, but when reached were able to mention (off the record) that “We’re considering offering temporary MySpace pages to victims of the power outages on both coasts. Those who may be affected can visit our web page for more answers. It’s still up, right? Our webpage I mean. We didn’t go down like MySpace did?” When confirmed that it was still functioning he was overheard shouting in background: “Hey sweetie, will you call our sysadmin and check on the page. I just got a warning that it may be down. If not, can you tell him to take it down until MySpace is working again? Or at least put an apology on our heat page? Thanks Sugar.”

Senator Ted Stevens was caught ranting on the phone about MySpace. “I tried to get my staff to download to me the MySpace but now it is down. This is preposterous! I must have my MySpace and it can’t be delivered by a dump truck! Just who regulates MySpace’s tubes?”

When asked about Orkut, a once popular site similar to MySpace, Orkut Büyükkökten the creator of Orkut responded “Orkut? Yeah that’s me.” When asked about his site he replied “Oh, you mean my site. Well right now it is down but I hear MySpace is working on it.” When asked about Orkut.com he acknowledged “Oh! You mean Orkut.com? Yeah I’ve been wondering how that project was doing.”

Official MySpace representatives, including Tom, could not be reached for comment. All their MySpace pages were down.

Developing news: Chicago Plane Skids Off Runway into busy streets. (CNN/AP) Truly tragic, at least one boy had died (he was in a car), and a lot of horrified travelers during the holiday travel season.

And here I am finding irony in odd places. Check out the street sign in the photo and if you’re like me you can probably come up with a few creative captions off the top your head.

I don’t know which is more sad: The accident, or the fact that I can still find sick humor in it.

[Thanks John]

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Congrats to Chad Ridings and his band avenu A. Their single It’s Not Over. has been selected as Today’s Garage Band Indie Track of The Day. Inspired by groups like U2 and words like amalgram, Avenu A is getting a lot of buzz after just one single. They don’t even have a demo yet!

Chad, listen, if Avenu A makes it big then I feel it is my duty being a friend and all to do what real friends do. And that is to sell out. I'll be contacting VH1 and E! True Hollywood Story to offer my documented tale of "Chad's previous life as a monkey spammer". So... best of luck! $)

Ok, just foolin. I know the real life of a band, and if y’all ever need a place to crash in Vegas, let me know. I have one futon, a couch, a toddler bed and a ton of floor space. I’ll even buy you extra cap’n crunch to take on the road.

Seriously, congrats again on the reviews and buzz your track is getting. I’m anxious to hear what else you’ve been working on!

What?! You give them cash, they arrest you? I’ve GOT to try this!

Ok, so I’m geeking out on this. I actually think it is absurd, and what more to let Best Buy know of their absurdity than by repeating the process OVER and OVER and OVER again! Repetition is the key to learning. From now on, I pledge to make every purchase at Best Buy in $2 bills, no matter what the price. This will be much more fun than a simple boycott, as boycotts never really work. So what if they lose one customer, I’m easily replaced. But a customer who hands over 500 two dollar bills for a computer–THAT they will remember (at least the manager will).

Imagine if every store were to experience a slight increase in $2 bills in the accounting department. I don’t know that it could be anything major, but at least it will be easily noticable. And since Best Buy already has a poor image with a lot of customers after their Open Box problems, they might actually take note.

Who knows? But please, if you do have a $2 bill (or $1 coin) story, from Best Buy preferably, please share.

[article via Digg]

Remember that old Snickers TV commercial when a football quarterback gets his bell rung and lays momentarily on the stadium floor? The coach comes over and asks “How many fingers am I holding up?” and “Do you know who I am?” both of which the quarterback answers correctly.

The coach then asks “Do you know who you are?”

The player shifts his eyes and replies… “I’m Batman!”

That is probably my favorite commercial of all time.

Seth Godin points us to a similar guy who either had his bell rung, or is about too. This guy is pulling off a publicity stunt on Buckingham Palace. Funny, in a sad kind of way.

I agree completely with Trudy W. Schuett that this is not exactly the most effective show of father’s rights activism. Sure, he was seen by the world like he wanted to be. But was his message effective?

Read the supporting news clip here.

Apparently John Kerry is a big Dustin Hoffman fan. To marry a silver-screen icon such as Tootsie, wow, that’s dedication. And since when did John Kerry become a bursting fountain of emotion?

(I could have used this picture as a springboard for a bunch of sex-related captions, but that would have been too easy. Just look at their faces.)

As some are aware, I am a fan of Scion. I like what they are doing with their cars, but mostly I’m a big fan of their marketing. They know how to create buzz and turn heads.

A couple of years ago, Scion showed off their ccX concept car (pictured above), which best fits a two-door sports wagon description. It would be in the same class as VW Golf, Honda Civic Hatchback, Toyota Matrix, Mazda RX3, etc. If I ever wanted a concept car, Scion ccX would be the one I wanted. So, instead of continuing to wonder if the ccX would see production daylight, I decided to inquire their PR department to appease my qualm curiosity.

Dear Scion,

I am curious about your ccX concept car you showed a couple of years ago. With the Dodge Magnum in production with a similar body style, and more wagon concepts on the way, are their any plans to produce the ccX any time soon?

If so, can I be the first buyer?

Thank you,

Jason Murphy

Concept cars generally serve two purposes: 1) see what the design team is capable of (and pieces of the concept could be implemented into other cars in the future), or 2) just to see the public reaction to a new design. I know that full concept cars rarely see production, but it was worth a try. Unfortunately, the reply was discouraging.

Thank you for contacting Scion.The question you have asked is one that we frequently receive.

We appreciate your interest in the ccX. The ccX is a concept vehicle intended to reflect features and design elements that may be represented in future Scion products. At this time there are no production plans for the ccX.

No plans? Too bad, and I really did want one. The only satisfaction that I got was knowing that my name and voice were added to the list of inquiries and showed increased demand for the ccX concept car to be produced.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the new Ford GT’s story. When Ford showed a mock-up (a non-functioning concept car made mostly of plastic and clay) of a redesigned GT at an auto show, the excited crowd started chanting “Build It! Build It! Build It!” The Ford automakers knew what the public wanted and responded with a fully working concept car and production plans for 2005 availability. Inspiring.

So, how much do automakers listen to the public when it comes to concept cars? They are always quoted as saying they listen to the public for responses to their stock concepts and third-party after-market modifications. They say they are constantly monitoring the wants and demands in target markets and try to incorporate general populace feedback into future designs. But do they really listen, or is it all hearsay?

Or am I the only person in America who wants to see the Scion ccX produced?

For those that are inspired by the Ford GT story, perhaps we could band together and form a unified voice to let Scion know that we REALLY want to see ccX’s on the road. Let’s make sure they know there IS a demand!

Here’s what you can do:

1. Go to Scion’s contact us page and use their form to send an inquiry similar to mine to the Public Relations department. You can ask if they’re going to produce the ccX, when, why not, or if you can buy one. Basically, anything to let them know the demand is there, and that you, a consumer, want one.
2. If you’re a blogger, blog you’re experience and let us know your response. Let this grassroots campaign spread through the blogosphere. Trackback to here so that others can find your post easily and read about your experience.
3. If you’re not a blogger, you can comment here and let all of us know about your experience.
4. And probably most important, pass this on to your Scion loving fans. The more fanatical they are about Scions, the better.

This is an opportunity for your voice to be heard and may be the only chance we have at seeing the Scion ccX, or similar, ever hitting the production lines.

I was watching CNN today and saw a nice blurp on the recent news marquee bar at the bottom of the screen. It said something to the effect of “Gas Prices continue to rise. Websites help find lowest prices. GasBuddy.com and GasPriceWatch.com“.

I remember seeing these sites years ago. I had since forgotten them and I am grateful that CNN brought them back to my memory. Very useful resources.

update: A german blogger predicted this would happen.

Homebrew developer Paul Slocum teamed with the creators of the cult webtoon Homestar Runner to convert lovably cantankerous characters like Strong Bad into 8-bit form. yes the graphics are painfully blocky, but Slocum’s ambitious role-playing game chokes more power out of the ancient system than anyone ever dreamed of back in the Carter era.

It’s not too surprising, since the site features a few Atari-like games already. Awexome Cross 98!! features their character The Cheat donning an Evel Knievel costume as he bounces through a stunt track in an old spare tire. Trogdor! is a favorite among site visitors. You play a one-armed dragon that runs around a village “burninating” the peasants and the village. In Population:Tire you bounce the spare tire in the air as many times as you can without letting it touch the ground. You get extra points for hitting seagulls and balloons. Most of the games and character ideas come from a weekly featurette on the site where a main character, StrongBad, answers actual viewer emails.

The site also has a few playable hidden games that were designed more for making fun of the gaming industry rather than content value. They are still amusing and you can easily space out in front of them for hours. StrongBad Zone emulates the infamous red-vector graphics of the Nintendo VirtualBoy. Strongbad then points a finger at text-based RPGs with Thy DungeonMan, where you must “click to enter yon dungeon” and choose a direction from “North, South, and Dennis”. In StrongBad’s RhinoFeeder, StrongBad shows us that some games that are published are just plain weird. In RhinoFeeder, you run around dodging snakes while attempting feed a giant rhinoceros before he gets mad and tramples you to death. In Secret Collect, StrongBad points out that if it’s a really classic system, your playable character will most likely be just a block.

Well, it’s time to climb in your attics, clean out your garages, and dust off the old Atari love. Unless of course you’re a true geek, in which case you’ll just need to turn on your tv because it’s already plugged in. If you sold your old system because all the classic games are being re-released for current systems, Ebay has a few for $20 to $50.

Related Links:
Paul Slocum – Official Project Site (preview screenshots and demo available)
Atari Age – Titles In Development List

G4 Forums – Thread

Maps and Legends – Craig Pfeifer blog entry

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I typically stay away from happenings of my former employers and have been trying to move on with life, but I happened upon this report yesterday and posted it as a reference to those past co-workers who visit.

“We got the hate mail, we got the group of people who interpreted our agreement as validating SCO or endorsing SCO or any number of things,” said [EV1Servers.net's CEO Robert] Marsh.

“All of a sudden we went from being reasonably good guys to being, in some people’s eyes, akin to the devil. And that’s certainly something that weighs heavy on our minds, because we always want to do the right thing,” he said.

So how does Marsh feel about the deal nearly a month later? “Would I do it again?

No.

I’ll go on the record as saying that,” Marsh said. “I certainly know a lot more today than I knew a month ago, in a lot of respects.”

While it’s good to admit to your mistakes Robert, this is too little too late. A late “um, I’m so sorry guys, can we be friends again?” seems half-assed and doesn’t cut it. If you truly regret this business decision, some action needs to take place to resolve it and the contract needs to be broken, retracted, dissolved, or whatever EV1 can do to wriggle it’s way out of SCOs “I won’t sue you…I promise” contract.

I’ve already migrated my server away from EV1Servers.net and I won’t be going back.

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