New here? Why not subscribe to my RSS feed? Thanks for visiting!
You may have noticed that I haven’t written anything since last September. For the foreseeable future, everything I do will be posted at QAQN.com. This blog had a good run, though I was very… inconsistent. I don’t have a ton of interest in blogging, but podcasting is another matter. Come check it out!
So this morning we filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against advertisers we believe have deliberately broken our rules.
It’s hard to imagine that Google doesn’t realize what douchebags this makes them sound like. I’m all for getting these kinds of pharma companies (as mentioned in the article) out of the search results. I’m all for the proper authorities working to take those companies down. What I’m not in favor of is setting a precedent that says not playing by Google’s rules is somehow illegal. Google policies are not law.
There’s a sign at my local McDonalds that says, in effect, “no shirt, no shoes, no service”. They can throw me out of the restaurant if I come in without a shirt on. What they can’t do, is take me to court for breaking their rule.
So, just a few minutes ago, I got this in my inbox:
To Daniel Clark:
As a participant in one of Newegg?s Advertiser Programs offered through Commission Junction, you may be aware that Newegg does not accept affiliates into any of its Advertiser Programs if the affiliates have sales tax nexus with North Carolina or Rhode Island.
An affiliate has sales tax nexus with a particular state if the affiliate has either (a) an office, residence or other physical presence in that state, or (b) activities in that state by the affiliate, its employees or a person or business with which it has some sort of contractual or agency relationship, which are sufficient to require the affiliate to collect and remit that state?s sales tax under state and federal law.
Based upon the information you have provided to us, we have determined that you do not have sales tax nexus with either North Carolina or Rhode Island and are treating you accordingly. However, please notify us immediately if you have nexus with either of these states.
Thank you for your cooperation
Hideaki Kondo
Affiliate Marketing Manager
Did they just really send me an email to tell me that they double checked and found that I’m not in a state where I’d have nexus? I dig NewEgg, and I’m sure Hideaki Kondo is a nice person; this just struck me as, well, odd.
I hope Marvel casts someone better than Jessica Alba to play Sue in the Fantastic Four reboot, like a can of corn or Soupy Sales’ corpse.
GailSimone
GailSimone
Normally, I’d just retweet something like this, editing where necessary to interject my own reaction. Unfortunately, there is no way to edit this thing down without completely destroying the superb wit of Gail Simone’s message. So, here you go. Let’s start a petition to get Soupy Sales’ corpse to play Sue in the FF reboot!
And if you’re not reading Birds of Prey, get to it. It’s awesome again.
Last Friday, August 13th, I flew up to New York City to attend two events: Audience Conference and Affiliate Summit East 2010.
Most of what I wrote while there was posted over at Geek Dads Weekly, but before I give you the links, check this out:
That’s me on stage at Carolines. Yeah, that Carolines. I can’t say I killed ‘em, and I almost got yanked off stage when I said I was going to pitch something (a bad turn of phrase – I wasn’t really pitching anything, just announcing a charity project). But I can say that I was on-stage at Carolines, which is pretty damn cool.
Okay, here are some links to what I wrote while in New York. There’s still more to be written, especially about Audience Conference, and I’ll update with links to those posts later on.
Social media is supposed to be about communication, but do people listen to you when you use the medium?
Followers, friends, connections, buddies, whatever-they’re-called-on-LinkedIn (sorry, I just can’t bother with it)… whatever they’re called on whatever services you use, they’re not what you think they are. Chances are, they’re not listeners – and you need them to be.
Let’s use Twitter terminology from here. There’s a huge difference between a follower and a listener. A follower is a statistic. A follower is merely a part of a tally found on your Twitter page. A listener is engaged. A listener takes the time to read what you put out there. A listener may not always answer your call to action, but at least he hears your call to action – a follower doesn’t.
There are lots of ways to ensure that you have a great follower-to-listener ratio. Be personable. Be passionate. Be likable – or at least notable. Be witty, funny or thought-provoking. Be interesting.
How do you ensure that nobody listens to you? Here’s two examples. Both of these people started following me, and I always check out the streams of those who follow me before following them back (or not).
On the left, someone who never interacts, and updates his status with the most inane, boring statements someone could make. On the right, someone who only ever retweets other people while occasionally posting tech headlines that are readily available from places like TechCrunch or Mashable.
Don’t be these people. More importantly, let’s send a message that this is the wrong way to use the medium by not following them back – even if you’re planning on ignoring them. Accounts with 20,000 followers that look like the above examples only encourage others.
So there’s that. Are you working to turn followers into listeners?
There is nothing – nothing – fun about using the self checkout. Hey Walmart – and all you other grocery/general stores that have these self-serve checkouts… we’re not stupid. You have them there so you don’t have to pay another cashier to work a register. Don’t act like you’re doing us a favor, okay?
When the iPad was first released—has it really only been 3.5 months?—I railed against it for being nothing more than an oversized iPod Touch. I didn’t see the value of it, I didn’t see where it could fit between a smartphone and a laptop (especially if the smartphone was an iPhone and the laptop was a Macbook Pro).
The screen was too small. There was no camera. The screen wasn’t the right aspect ratio, wasn’t true HD. No multitasking. Awkward to type on. Goofy name. You know the list. You’ve been hearing it since the device was announced back in January.
But then a funny thing happened. Apple sold a few million of ‘em. People in the really real world, not the bizarre faux-world that tech journalists tend to inhabit, started to give their opinions about the iPad. By and large, people love this thing. The lack of multitasking that all the tech bloggers said would kill the iPad? Didn’t matter. Remember how all the ‘experts’ said this thing was going to be a disaster?
I was down on it for less common reasons. I didn’t care that it couldn’t multitask because I was used to that on my iPhone. I didn’t care that there wasn’t a camera because I can count on one hand how many times I’ve used the camera on my Macbook Pro. The main reason I wasn’t sold on it was that I simply couldn’t imagine where and how I would use it if I already owned both an iPhone and the aforementioned Macbook Pro.
When the reports started coming in from real world users, I started to change my mind. I started to realize that a 9.7″ device could work really well in my life; I could velcro it to the wall in my kitchen for referencing recipes, I could use it to read any book ever written to my kids at night, I could use it in the car for maps like I do with my iPhone, only larger. I could do all these things with my Macbook, but mine is the 17″ model – velcro is out of the question, it’s awkward to read on while laying in bed next to the kids, and there’s no 3g access built-in, so maps in the car aren’t possible. These are only a very few of the many uses I came up with.
I started to really warm up to the idea of getting an iPad. Then I got the iPhone 4.
Now I’m back to swearing off the iPad… temporarily. You may have heard about the iPhone 4′s “Retina Display” – the device has 326ppi (that’s pixels per inch) and it looks amazing. It’s got cameras. It’s got multitasking. It’s got a lot of things that people have been bitching about for a long time. What do you think the odds are that this stuff isn’t going to be in the next iteration of iPad?
The display alone is worth the wait, to me. These things ain’t cheap, after all. I’ll wait until the announcements come for the next version of iPad – probably either before Christmas this year or early next year – and I’ll make a decision then. If there’s no retina display, no major hardware upgrades, maybe I’ll just go ahead and get one then. But if those hardware improvements are coming, I’ll feel pretty damn great about not spending my $700 on a first generation iPad. It’s not like I need one… right?
Or woman. Whoever is in charge of coming up with promotions needs to be replaced. This isn’t the first time I’ve written about Papa Johns, and I suspect it won’t be the last. Here’s their latest batch of WTF:
You’ve probably spotted the problem, but I still feel compelled to point it out. Numbers 1, 3 and 4 are exactly the same offer. How about a few more specials? Four large pizzas for $40? Five large pizzas for $50? Why stop there? Clearly they think we’re dumb enough to go along with this, so how about THE BEST VALUE: 10 Large Pizzas for $100! Amazing! What a deal!!!
I'm Daniel M. Clark.
This is me →
Blogger, podcaster, geek dad, and full-time cool dude. Slightly sarcastic.
