Buzz Blog

I've seen the dumbest thing on the Internet this week. According to the UK's ITN (via Yahoo!), two groups are adding padding to light poles to see if they will reduce injuries.

Injuries from what, you may ask. From inattentive people too focused on sending text messages from their cell phones to bother looking up. One of the groups, directory-assistance provider 118 118, claims a survey showed 1 in 10 people have hurt themselves whilst gazing into their cell phones.

That's not the dumbest thing. To me, the dumbest thing is the photo that accompanied the story. The photo appears to be posed as the camera just happens to snap the gentleman walking kerplunk into the padded lamp post. However, I might be willing to give the benefit of the doubt -- if the man was unaware that a photographer was snapping pictures, he may have not noticed the post.

This whole thing has to be an elaborate hoax, an early April's Fools Day prank or perhaps an article from The Onion's UK bureau. The two groups mentioned in the article seem legitimate (although there's no mention of this initiative on their respective homepages).

Their cause seems obscure. Because, really? Ten percent of people have injured themselves while texting? Really?

Not only that, but their solution seems like total overkill. Let's take all these lamp posts and wrap completely ludicrous and gaudy amounts of padding on them. However, let's only put the padding on one side of the post. I guess the people on the other side of the lamp post will have to fare for themselves.

Speaking of how the padding would supposedly be deployed, take a closer look at the photo. I counted several potentially lethal objects:

1. Exposed lamp post - As previously mentioned, it's a visible menace.
2. The rubbish bin - The rubbish bin (English for "trash can") is just hanging out there at waist level, waiting to prey on some hapless traveler.
3. Vehicles - There's an entire street running alongside this sidewalk. Won't someone think of the cars? Unless the cars come padded on the outside, I don't know if people should walk the street.
4. The sidewalk - Sure, it's a stretch. Since we're padding everything else, why take chances?
5. The pedestrian - Unless this man is wrapped in comparable padding, he may be a risk to himself and others.

I thought of a way of implicating the cell phone in this sordid affair, but I really couldn't. After all, it's just a piece of technology not capable of making decisions. After seeing this story, I may start to doubt the ability of humans to make decisions at all, much less wise ones.

Posted by Ryan Olson at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back when the Web was young, the United States government set up a clearinghouse Web site. This site was geared to tie all of the various services and institutions to one address so people wouldn't have to search the FTC or the DoD for an IRS tax form.

It sounded good and still does. What didn't sound good was the site's Web address -- firstgov.gov.

It was a silly name -- "gov" is in the address twice, for crying out loud. I could barely remember the name tonight when I was trying to find some financial information on a company.

Thankfully, the U.S. government has eventually wised up and changed the name to a much-simpler one. All those services are now available at USA.gov.

I originally thought the address should've been America.gov. It seems the U.S. State Department is now using that as a news and information site.

Similarly, our friends up north have both canada.ca and gc.ca go to the same place. Apparently "GC" stands for "government of Canada" (or "gouvernement du Canada"), but who's going to remember that?

Posted by Ryan Olson at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Way back in late October, I was happy to be a part of a panel at the Great Valley Center's Sacramento Valley Forum. I joined Jeff vonKaenel, from the Sacramento News & Review, and Bryan Byrd, a Comcast director of communications, for a panel discussion entitled "Ink, Pixels, and the Remote."

The discussion was focused on how people and communities can use different technologies to get their message out. vonKaenel discussed how people can use the alternative press while Byrd talked about community access and Comcast's OnDemand platform. I spoke about NorCal Blogs and how people can use blogs as a news and information platform.

I recorded the discussion because I thought I would use it for some aspect of the Enterprise-Record or ChicoER.com. Since that hasn't materialized, I'm presenting the audio of the hour-long panel here:

Download audio (MP3, 12MB)

My portion of the discussion starts about 28 minutes in. I was surprised my portion pushed up against the recommended 20 minute speaking length. I thought my performance started out a little shaky, but I think my basic message got across. The ultimate message was "If you can send an e-mail, you can blog."

Posted by Ryan Olson at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been quiet here lately. There are lot of things on my mind that will make their way to this page soon.

Oh, and I'm slightly tickled to discover what was screwing up my RSS news feed (the way I let others know my blog has been updated). For some reason, a strange character got inserted into one of my posts. That was enough to throw my news feed into disarray.

I'm glad it got fixed.

Posted by Ryan Olson at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've seen a lot of things over the past few weeks that I've been meaning to write about, but haven't got around to. So I want to launch my first-ever "Bang for your buck" round-up where I look at things that I've done and seen or things that I might want to purchase.

Without further ado:

• "Flight of the Conchords: Season 1" DVD - I didn't quite know what to expect when I saw the first commercials for this HBO series, but the show about a lowly rated New Zeland folk band is pretty hilarious. The plots can be very straight-forward -- most comedic band use the plot to string along a set of jokes or songs. The true genius is in the band's songs and videos. The music ranges ballads to rock to pop electronica. It's a brilliant deal for $20.
• "Jekyll" -- Less impressive was the performance at the Blue Room Theatre last Friday night. The troupe there put on an amusing, if extremely short, take on the classic tale of "Jekyll and Hyde." It had been a while since I had been to the theater so I enjoyed the live performance and the staging. The music number was fun and the live music was a cool touch.
  
  The performances were pretty good with the actor playing Hyde doing a convincing job of displaying the wild nature of this classic alter ego. The play did a decent job of showcasing Hyde's orgy of violence. However, I feel the play could've done more to offer a newer take on the classic struggle between a man's civilization and his wild side. It's OK at $10 and 45 minutes, but the play would be pushing it if lasted longer or cost more.
• "Dan in Real Life" - The new romantic comedy starring Steve Carell was a pleasant way to spend an evening, but I don't know if I would pay the full evening ticket price. Carell plays a widower who happens to write an advice column on parenting. He sometimes has a hard time living up to his advice as he meets a beautiful woman during a family reunion weekend. The catch is that the woman is the currently attached to Carell's brother, played by Dane Cook. I thought the story held together all right, but it didn't launch itself into greatness. If I was rating it on a four-star system, I would give a solid 2.5 stars.

Posted by Ryan Olson at 04:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Internet, in all of its glory, often fails to deliver what it promises. Part of that is human nature -- many of us oversell an item in order to generate some interest in an item. Goodness knows, look at MySpace, any dating site and the real-life bars.

Two recent things have got me hopping. Two sites promised me items from beloved institutions only to let me down.

I was surfing the Stockton newspaper Web site when I noticed an ad touting a huge gift card to the Ikea Stockton.

Ikea, for those who may have not experienced it, is a mega home-furnishing store offering decent furniture at good prices. It's a huge step up from discount retailer furniture but a few steps below a full-blown furniture store.

Put another way -- if you think spending more than $450 on a couch is ridiculous, Ikea is the place for you (although they have some pricey couches).

As someone who really, really enjoys shopping at Ikea, I figure I would've known about Stockton receiving a store. A quick check of the company's Web site quickly refutes the ad — the nearest store to Stockton remains in West Sacramento.

Disappointment no. 2 is an ad that I see all the time on MySpace. Among the dating service ads, this advertisement for an "NPR Ringtone" pops up:

As an avid listener of National Public Radio, I believe the ad is referring to some sound from the broadcasting service. "NPR" could stand for something different -- like Never Preach to Rhinos (sound advice).

The promo doesn't make sense -- why would it be an "NPR" ringtone? Is it some theme song from the network? Is it NPR newscaster Carl Kasell just saying "ring, ring" over and over?

While the advertiser got me to click on the link, I hit another wall. It's a ringtone service that wants me to input my phone number and other information before I can enter the site.

Thanks, but no thanks. I definitely don't want to wind up in a situation where I'm giving billing information to some unknown third-party site just to satisfy my wandering curiosity.

Both of these are kind of bummers. I'd like to see these things exist, but sadly they don't. I'm keeping my hopes up -- I've heard there's a bridge in Brooklyn on sale at eBay.

Posted by Ryan Olson at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The launch of the new "Halo 3" video game was accompanied by a bevy of related products, including a special flavor of Mountain Dew. The instructor I interviewed mentioned that several products were rejected for various reason.

It got me thinking about what products might not have passed publisher Microsoft Corp.'s muster. Here's the best product I could think of:

"Halo" Kitty -- Combining the cuteness of the Sanrio figure Hello Kitty with the awesomeness of Halo's Master Chief.

I can take credit for my brilliant idea to closely tie "Today" show weatherman Al Roker with a candy to go in the NBC's candy shop at Rockefeller Center:

Almond Roker -- Taking the best of Almond Roca candy and combining it with Roker's iconic image.

Posted by Ryan Olson at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today marks the launch of "Halo 3" -- the biggest game for the Xbox 360 and perhaps Microsoft's saving grace in the ongoing console wars. My contribution to the brouhaha can be found here.

Many of my technology stories cover the latest and the greatest, but it's interesting that I rarely, if ever, use the products I cover. This ranges from "Halo 3" to the iPhone.

It can lead to some product envy. Sure, a new iPhone would be nice, but is it practical on my budget?

It's also challenging to sound knowledgeable, but I hope I held my own against the hardcore fans of a product. I don't need to have played the "Halo" games to know the basic premise or to know the impact the first-person shooter has had on the industry. At the same time, I feel I'm missing a little bit by not playing the game.

I guess it's not too much different than covering a band or a TV show or an event that I don't frequently partake in. It just seems different for an item someone can take to the checkout line and buy.

Posted by Ryan Olson at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)