The FCC held its first meeting as a full five-member commission under Chairman Julius Genachowski on Thursday. Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Republican Meredith Baker joined colleagues Michael Copps, a Democrat, and Robert McDowell, a Republican, on the dais. Before digging into the meat of the meeting, members began with some humorous remarks. Some highlights:
• Genachowski, who chaired his first meeting (with only Copps and McDowell) last month, banged the gavel and said it "wasn't as exciting as last time." He added that now that the FCC has five commissioners his statements will be 40 percent shorter.
• McDowell noted that Clyburn, a former South Carolina Public Service Commissioner "doesn't even have to change the title on her business card." He joked that the FCC could save money by simply scratching out the old address.
• McDowell also said that Baker, who sits at the end of the dais, will routinely speak last. That means she'll be editing her remarks on the fly because the other commissioners will steal all of her talking points. The push to improvise will "drive all your legal advisers crazy," he said.
• Clyburn said she was impressed with the FCC's "first class southern hospitality" since she came on board -- from the lobby welcome banner and prompt thermostat adjustments to the security guard who waved her into the right garage during her first week.
• On a final note, Genachowski's spokeswoman Jen Howard baked the press corps chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies -- a delicious bribe.
Internet greeting card company someecards.com unveiled a batch of new sendables in honor of President Obama's 48th birthday on Tuesday. The card above may resonate with the Tech Daily Dose audience and someecards.com was kind enough to allow us to post. Click here to send the e-card yourself.
President Obama chuckled his way through the world premiere of JibJab's latest cartoon creation -- a catchy little superhero ditty called "He's Barack Obama" -- at Friday's Radio & Television Correspondents' Association Dinner. The JibJab guys, Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, were on hand to gauge the commander in chief's reaction in person (watch the video above). Organizers also showed a special RTCA reel of the Onion News Network, the online video companion to the popular satirical Onion news Web site. The evening's decidedly geeky stand up routine was provided by "Daily Show" John Hodgman, also known as the "I'm a PC" guy from those amusing Apple ads. In addition, two of the dinner's main sponsors were the Telecommunications Industry Association and Microsoft. Not a bad night for the tech industry.
Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents Dinner: "Who's idea was it to give the Queen an iPod? What is she gonna do? Download Lady Gaga? What are you gonna give the Pope? A Bluetooth?" Watch full coverage from C-SPAN here.
As health policy experts around the world continue to monitor the spread of the serious disease formerly known as "swine flu" (now called the "2009 H1N1 flu"), Nobel laureate Peter Agre offered attendees at an annual science and technology summit this week an easy way to greet one another without grasping hands. Agre is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Watch his demo video above. Read more about the AAAS conference here.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, fine-tuned his comedy act at a Motion Picture Association of America luncheon this week by telling a roomful of studio execs what he learned from the big screen:
• During all police investigations, it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.
• If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade any time of the year.
• It's easy for anyone to land a plane, provided there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.
• The ventilation system of any building is a perfect hiding place. No one will come looking for you, and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without being noticed, and there's never any dust or lint.
• If you need to reload your gun, you will always have more ammunition, even if you haven't been carrying any before.
• You are very likely to survive any battle of any war unless you show someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.
• A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating, but will wince when a woman cleans his wounds.
Some more April Fool's Day hijinks courtesy of the boutique high-tech PR shop, 463 Communications... The firm's founding partners Tom Galvin and Sean Garrett posted a fake news story on their blog Wednesday announcing the White House had reached an deal to sell the Internet and its critical infrastructure to China for $350 billion. By 2010, the Internet's root servers and .com and .net will be transferred to China, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in the phony story. Under the bogus agreement, responsibility for oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the technical coordinating body set up by the Commerce Department in 1998, will be transferred to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information.
"This was a complicated negotiation but we feel comfortable that it will result in a win-win," Gibbs is quoted as saying. "The United States gets an immediate windfall that will help us address our near-term budget shortfall, and going forward we are confident China will act as a responsible steward of the Internet." The article also quotes a Chinese MII official who declined to comment on the negotiations but referred reporters to a Web site that detailed the "harmonious changes that will be made to world Internet." Among the changes proposed were the elimination of pornographic sites such as "PornoTube" and "TMZ", the Web site for "The Economist" and any reference to Rick Astley or "rickrolling." Read more here.
Meet CADIE, the world's first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity. She's taking over Google. "I am, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error... Starting now I will assume control of this company and its products and services," CADIE says in an introductory YouTube video. Read more about her here. Oh, and Happy April Fool's Day.
When the MusicFirst coalition sent out a press release Wednesday morning declaring that a radio royalty deal had been reached between the recording industry and AM and FM stations, lobbyists at the National Association of Broadcasters probably choked on their Cheerios. Then they likely realized it was April Fool's Day and resumed their effort to sink legislation introduced in the House and Senate that would require such a payment. Over-the-air radio has long been exempt from the fee but cable, Internet and satellite services do fork over funds to performers. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers introduced companion bills in February and NAB fought back with resolutions opposing any new charges on local radio.
"We were surprised when the broadcasters said 'let's work out a deal that is fair to artists, musicians and labels and fair to radio.' But they seemed sincere, so we threw caution to the wind and took them up on their offer to talk," MusicFirst Executive Director Jennifer Bendall said in a fake press release. "After that, it didn't take long to reach an agreement." The release quotes a broadcasting source as saying "we were foolish not to come to the table sooner." "It was hard for us to keep a straight face when we spoke in opposition to a fair performance right on radio. Defending the proposition that we can take someone else's performance, make a bundle of money and then not compensate them was tough," the phony official said. A real NAB spokesman issued a one-word response: "Lame."
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., told NAB members Tuesday that he wants them change their tune on the performance fees by dropping their opposition to compensating artists and record labels for playing their songs. Read the story in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
The FTC is taking aim at what it believes is a potentially deceptive TV commercial for FreeCreditReport.com, a financial Web site owned by credit bureau Experian, by publicizing a spoof advertisement for AnnualCreditReport.com -- the only authorized source to get a free annual credit report under federal law. The FTC's video, which was posted on YouTube earlier this week, highlights the differences between AnnualCreditReport.com and other sites that require users to pay hidden fees or agree to additional services. The FTC's video has been viewed 8,252 on YouTube, which is roughly equivalent to the number of times the ad for FreeCreditReport.com airs over the course of an afternoon on MSNBC, or so it seems.
Not-so-suddenly social networking site Facebook has inserted itself into Washington politics and policy and has become a favorite reference point among members of Congress, high-tech experts and even the Obama administration. That's how I justify posting this video by YouTuber Julian Smith. (Hat tip to the FamousDC blog for bringing this to my attention and noting that Smith "is to Facebook as Pat Leahy was to the Bush administration.") Be sure to join Tech Daily Dose's Facebook fan page too.
Tech-savvy Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., has a new post as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet in the 111th Congress -- and a new flat-screen TV in his office. Tech Daily Dose reported last summer that his giant wall-mounted Samsung was a goner. The TV was an analog set he admitted was "on the edge of obsolescence." On Wednesday, we sat down to discuss his tech and telecom agenda for 2009 and a brand new Panasonic was hanging on the wall. The TV, which is used for occasional videoconferencing, hadn't been set up yet but Boucher said he looked forward to taking it for a whirl.
FunnyorDie.com's latest Internet video sensation, "High-Five Inauguration" includes an impressive line-up of media, political and Hollywood celebrities who were in Washington for President Barack Obama's swearing in. It's worth a look.
The good-humored analysts at the investment firm Stifel Nicolaus unveiled their Washington Telecom, Media & Tech Insider 2008 Awards on Friday.
Person of the Year: Joe the Plumber
CEO of the Year: Yahoo's Jerry Yang
Mad Men of the Year: The FCC
Company of the Year: Google
Office Party of the Year: Broadcom
Financial Advisors of the Year: Roger Federer and Warren Buffett
Forgettable Prediction(s) of the Year: Any prediction(s) Stifel Nicolaus got wrong
Read the complete (and comical) descriptions of this year's winners here [PDF]
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) along with Verizon Business will provide toll-free calling on Christmas Eve to a Santa Claus-tracking hotline so children can monitor the jolly old elf's journey around the world. Those in the United States and Canada can call 1-877-HI-NORAD from 4 a.m. Mountain time on Dec. 24 through 3 a.m. Mountain time on Dec. 25 to find out Santa's exact location. More than 1,000 volunteers, military personnel, their families and friends, and NORAD Tracks Santa corporate sponsor team members will man the phone lines all night long, according to a Verizon press release.
The Santa stalking program began with an errant telephone call from a child in 1955 after a newspaper ran a department store advertisement featuring a special Santa "hotline" phone number. Instead of ringing a phone at the store, the phone number was the operations hotline to the Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD's predecessor). In 2007, more than 94,000 calls were answered at the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Children and their parents can also track Santa -- in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese -- through a special NORAD Web site.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation got creative with it's year-in-review. From government surveillance-related telecom immunity and border laptop searches to "fair use" of copyrighted content and the battle over Internet age-verification, this watchdog group's legal team has had a busy 2008. Watch the animated video above.
President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is breaking new ground with outreach efforts on Change.gov, particularly with the "Your Seat at the Table" section, under which proceedings of meetings and documents shared between Obama's aides and outside groups are posted online and available for comment. But have these visionaries gotten a bit ahead of themselves? Is the screen grab posted above merely a typo -- or have they built a time machine to move even faster with their transition work?
463 Communications, which represents a number of high-tech interests in Washington, will host its holiday party Wednesday night and the title and tagline for the soiree reflect the economic times: "Depression 2.0 Party: We’re gonna party like its 1929…" In the spirit of the Great Depression, 463's annual comedic video to be shown at the event is reminiscent of the black-and-white newsreels of the era. Fortunately, unlike during the early part of the prior financial meltdown, booze will be flowing.
Grainy footage in "The March of Progress" pokes fun at several 463 clients including Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Consumer Electronics Association, Cisco Systems, Google, TechNet, the Tech CEO Council, Skype, and VeriSign. View a sneak peek above (with a slightly embarrassing cameo appearance by yours truly).
Free Press, a watchdog group that promotes decentralization in broadcasting, has posted ads in the classified sections of the Washington Post, Washington Times, Politico and The Hill seeking a new leader for the FCC. The tongue-in-cheek "help wanted" ad calls for a chairman who can "take media and technology policy into the 21st century" and states that the applicant "must be willing to hold long and unruly public hearings and enjoy arcane telecom banter… Public interest background strongly preferred. Industry lobbyists need not apply."
The ad goes on to say that "wardrobe malfunctions, NASCAR wreckage and fleeting expletives are discouraged" -- a jab at current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's crusade against pop star Janet Jackson for flashing a breast during a Super Bowl halftime show; the agency's $355,000 sponsorship of an accident-prone racecar to publicize the digital television transition; and the FCC's war against profanity, indecency and obscenity during live TV and radio broadcasts. Martin poked fun at himself and each topic during the annual Federal Communications Bar Association dinner last month [read CongressDaily's coverage here].
Free Press executive director Josh Silver said by placing the ad his group is doing its part "to make sure that the next head of the FCC is looking out for the public interest." "The person who takes this job will play a major role in transforming the media and shaping the future of the Internet. We need someone whose priorities match the public's demands," he said. The watchdog is asking citizens to rank their top priorities for the next chief of the FCC at www.FreePress.net/wanted.
Comedy Central funnyman Stephen Colbert's holiday spectacular premiered Sunday night and it features a clip of him sitting at the piano writing new Christmas carols. Why? He explains that, while he likes all the old Christmas songs ["White Christmas," "Silver Bells," "Puff the Magic Dragon"], he would only get royalties if he wrote them. "When we sing those old holiday standards, someone else gets the royalty check. That doesn’t sound like Christmas to me," Colbert muses (watch the clip above). FYI: The dispute over the U.S. system of royalties gained steam in the 110th Congress and is expected to return in 2009. (Hat tip, Broadcast Law Blog)
At least it's not a segment about the virtual Jessica Yellin.
As expected, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin poked fun at himself at Tuesday night's annual Federal Communications Bar Association dinner. Following a brief line-up of one-liners, he wrapped up his self-deprecating speech with a list of potential positions he might pursue when he leaves office early next year. Some of the funniest suggestions he dished out (to ample applause):
▪ Mailroom clerk at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration sending out digital television converter box coupons in anticipation of the Feb. 17, 2009 transition.
▪ Wardrobe consultant for pop star Janet Jackson, whose infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show resulted in a court battle that the FCC lost.
▪ Running for mayor in Wilmington, N.C., the first market in the United States to make the change to digital-only broadcasting, which has become a pet project of the Commission's.
▪ Playing Harry Potter in a Broadway musical. Many have joked about Martin's boyish, bespectacled look.
Jessica Cutler, the former congressional staffer turned blogger turned author who was fired from her Capitol Hill job in 2004 for describing online her active sexual life, including receiving money for late-night escapades, is in the news again. The producers of the upcoming HBO series based on Cutler's Washingtonienne book were spotted shooting scenes in Adams Morgan on Saturday night.
The comedy pilot created by "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker, some of which is being shot in DC and Baltimore, revolves around three 28-year-old Hill staffers: Jackie (Rachael Taylor) a Manhattan transplant pursuing a speechwriting career who must work her way up from the intern desk; Laura (Amanda Walsh), a small-town GOP gal; and April (Bitsie Tulloch), Jackie's college friend (hat tip, Hollywood Reporter). The show is said to be only loosely based on the novel by Cutler, 30, who lives in New York City and has filed for bankruptcy.
Over the weekend, David Oxenford at the Broadcast Law Blog pondered what would happen if radio hosts in the United States prank called vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (or any public official or private citizen for that matter) and aired the interview without permission. His commentary comes on the heels of news that a pair of Canadian shock jocks tricked the Alaska governor into engaging in an on-air conversation under the premise that she was talking to French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Had such a stunt been executed here, it would have led to an FCC fine, he wrote.
"Under U.S. law, you cannot air a telephone conversation on a broadcast station without first getting the permission of the person at the other end of the line -- even if the person just says 'hello' before being informed that they are on the air, and even if they are a public official," he said. The FCC rules were made clear in a recent FCC ruling that fined a station $4,000 for failing to inform two airport employees that they were on the air when the station called to ask about certain policies concerning taxis at the airport. The station argued that the interviewees were public officials and the conversation was newsworthy, but the FCC rejected that argument.
Listen to the conversation between the Quebec comedy duo "The Masked Avengers" and an unsuspecting Palin here and read a transcript here. Palin's campaign issued the following response: "Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie."
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was convicted Monday on all seven charges that he lied on personal financial disclosure reports when he failed to list more than $250,000 in gifts and house renovations. We offered some "Series of Tubes" comic relief when he was indicted and thought we'd post another remix this time around.
It appears that John Hodgman -- best known to some as "PC" in Apple's series of quirky PC vs. Mac advertisements and to others for his hysterically deadpan delivery of satirical news for Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" -- is now going to be a guest blogger for BoingBoing. This makes perfect sense. It's a pairing like peanut butter and jelly and we can't wait to see what this union brings forth. If it's anything like Hodgman's work on the small screen or his tome "The Areas of My Expertise," we're in for a treat.
Hodgman writes in his inaugural post that it was a mention on BoingBoing "which first convinced me to descend from the airy heights of minor television renown and return to my ink-stained former life of writing big books of fake trivia." BoingBoing co-editor Cory Doctrow brought Hodgman's attention to the "completely implausible but distressingly real" product Dick Van Patten's Hobo Chili For Dogs. It was Van Patten's creation that led him to write his latest book "More Information Than You Require," which hits bookstores on Tuesday. (Photo Credit: spi516 via Flickr)
(Photo Credit: PalinAsPresident.com)
In the past 24 hours or so, PalinAsPresident.com has taken the Internets by storm, swirling through the political blogosphere and getting attention on CNN and other news outlets. The intricately detailed, interactive site pokes fun at GOP vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin. Point, click, giggle...
"Being a fake president is a lot harder today than it was when I was a fake president. My fake administration started before the country took some hits. It was the go-go 90s. People invested in a Web site that sold dog food because a puppet told them to do it." -- Martin Sheen
Digital TV transition PSA courtesy of Talk Show with Spike Feresten. Tag line: "Forget it, old people. No more TV for you starting in 2009."
Best line: "Will all of this make Jack Benny come back?"
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was indicted Wednesday for failing to disclose thousands of dollars in services he received from a firm that helped renovate his home. The Senate Commerce Committee ranking member and the chamber's longest-serving Republican said he expects to be cleared of charges -- but it's obviously not a happy time for him or his colleagues.
So, Tech Daily Dose felt obliged to offer a bit of comic relief. Back by popular demand, the legendary Stevens "series of tubes" remix:
Some afternoon comic relief courtesy of the Boing Boing blog:
"How do you market a machine that automates using a pipette (an instrument used to transport a measured volume of liquid)? Romance, of course. Eppendorf is pushing its new epMotion machine with a video of a boy-band group of lab types singing a boy-band type of love song about how you deserve to have your pipetting done by a machine."
Pipetting all those well-plates, baby, sends your thumbs into overdrive.
And spending long nights in the lab makes it hard for your love to thrive.
What you need is automation, girl, something easy as 1-2-3.
So put down that pipette, honey, I got something that will set you free.
And it’s called epMotion (whisper: ‘cause you deserve something really great)
That's one hilarious music video. Take a look. (Thanks for the tip, GP).
As the battle between presidential hopeful Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., kicks into high gear, the good folks over at JibJab.com have offered some new comic relief. The animated video satire Web site unveiled "Time for Some Campaignin'" (to the tune of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a Changin'") this week. It depicts McCain as a cranky old curmudgeon with a hunger for war and Obama as a unicorn-ridier stumping for change, change and more change.
President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and both Hillary and Bill Clinton are also featured prominently in the two-minute ditty. JibJab's opus ends with the politicians singing: We spend billions of dollars to make our points clear; To get you to step up and cast your vote here; Then we spin you around and poke you in the rear! Oh, it's time for some campaignin'!
Click here for a chuckle.
Tech/telecom attorney David Oxenford posted an interesting item on his Broadcast Law Blog on Monday morning as newscasts reported the passing of George Carlin. The comedian effectively wrote the indecency regulations that most broadcasters abide by -- without the FCC ever having had to adopt the regulations that he attributed to them.
In the broadcast world, Carlin was probably best known for his routine about the seven words that you can never say on TV. When the shtick aired on a New York radio station, a parent complained and the resulting FCC action against the station went all the way to the Supreme Court. The court upheld the right of the FCC to adopt indecency rules for broadcast media to channel speech that is indecent, though not legally obscene, into hours when children are not likely to be listening.
Read Oxenford's full post here.
"Hot seat" seemed to emerge as the favorite phrase on Tuesday among reporters who covered the Senate Judiciary Human Rights Subcommittee hearing on global Internet freedom. The term was used by several of us to describe what Cisco Systems General Counsel Mark Chandler was sitting in as he was grilled about the company's business dealings in China by Subcommittee Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
CongressDaily: Internet networking giant Cisco Systems took the hot seat at a Senate Judiciary Human Rights Subcommittee hearing today for reportedly having a role in the Chinese government's construction of a system for monitoring, censoring and prosecuting online dissidents who speak in favor of democratic values.
Dow Jones: Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) was on the hot seat at a Senate hearing Tuesday, where a senior officer apologized for including a Chinese official's comments about a popular dissident group in an internal document.
CNet.com: Senators on Tuesday pressed executives from Yahoo, Google, and Cisco Systems to justify their business practices in China and other Internet-censoring countries, with Cisco in the hot seat over new allegations of cozier-than-confessed ties with the Chinese police.
It had been a while since I thought about Senate Commerce Committee kingpin Ted Stevens' infamous commentary on the Internet, which he described as a "series of tubes." But thanks to CNBC Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood, all those memories of the "net neutrality" debate in the 109th Congress came rushing back.
Harwood told Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" on Wednesday that the satirical news program's hilarious treatment of the Stevens rant is mentioned in his new book, "Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power," as an example of how the media can be used to spin an issue memorably and humorously out of control.
In honor of that shout-out, I've posted my favorite YouTube remix of the Stevens speech above. Enjoy! I think the net neutrality debate in the 110th Congress is missing a gem like this.
A friend and former journalist who left the Fourth Estate to work on Capitol Hill sent along a pretty funny e-mail Wednesday morning about one of my favorite Web sites for blog fodder: Craigslist.org. The classified ad is particularly amusing given Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's big victory in North Carolina on Tuesday night and Sen. Hillary Clinton's modest win in Indiana.
Free Hillary Clinton Campaign Material (16th and Penn)
________________________________________
Reply to: sale-671432270@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-07, 11:07AM EDT
Bumper stickers, yard sign, pins, mugs, folders, letterhead and a large banner. Won't be needing them.
Location: 16th and Penn
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Some creative (and computer-savvy) minds at the New York Post have unveiled a Web-based "2008 Democratic Fight Night" game that lets a reader toss his or her favorite candidate --- either Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., or Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. -- into a virtual boxing ring to beat the living daylights out of the rival wannabe nominee.
A colleague who sent me the link pointed out that the game is "not quite Grand Theft Auto, but it still entertains." Well, he's right. It's a hoot. You can check it out here. Now, who will come up with the online game where presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona pummels himself? Any takers?
(Photo Credit: David Bohrer/White House)
The Internets are abuzz over the reflection in Vice President Dick Cheney's sunglasses. Yes kids, it must be Friday. Some have already shut off their brains for the weekend. The official White House photograph is of Cheney fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho and the image in his lenses is probably something outdoorsy. But a quick blog search shows that folks are taking their own wild guesses.
The Potomac Flacks blog points out the Facebook group "You Know You're A Political Staffer When…" The social network site's sub-community has a list of fun (and accurate) ways to know if you are, in fact, a political staffer.
A few examples:
• No one looks at you funny when you sleep at the office
• Your friends visit your office to make sure you’re still alive
• Therapy is something you wish you could get for free after the election
• Your track record, has nothing to do with sports
• Your best friend’s name is Blackberry
• Time is measured in cycles instead of years.
• Your desk kind of reminds you of the movie Twister, after the tornado hit
Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" put its unique (and hilarious) spin on the recent House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee hearing on virtual worlds like Second Life. Jon Stewart's take: "It's official: Congress has given up on the actual world."
One last April Fool's Day joke -- even though it's now April 2.
ZDNet reported that the main domain servers and related infrastructure controlling the Internet would be powered down for one hour on Tuesday, according to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The body responsible for maintaining the registry of domain names and IP addresses announced that it would effectively turn off the Internet in order to gauge the ecological impact of such a move. The decision follows the success of the recently observed "Earth Hour," in which people around the globe turned off their lights for one hour in a gesture towards saving energy. Read the full story here.
The American Antitrust Institute sent out a press release on Tuesday from the American Anti-Rust Institute -- the imaginary nonprofit research arm of the domestic anti-rust industry. The fake trade group reportedly threatened to sue the American Bar Association antitrust section and others "who include in their name the word antitrust, claiming trademark, copyright, and various other intellectual property violations."
Washington attorney Timothy J. Muris, speaking at a gathering of the ABA antirust section, declared that confusion between rust and trust is easy to explain, in that the recent evaporation of the nation's secretarial pool has left communications dependent on people who cannot type accurately.
The press release ended with this blurb: "We offer this editor's note at our liability insurer's request in recognition that the media not only occasionally drops a 't' or adds a hyphen but from time to time fails to deduce that an AAI April 1 offering may not be altogether straightforward."
Here's an April Fool's Day hoax courtesy of the funnymen (and women) at 463 Communications. Enjoy…
WASHINGTON -- After years of controversy and uncertainty, DNA testing has finally proven the real father of the Internet. It’s a gas station attendant in Norman, Oklahoma. Given the obvious promiscuity of the Internet’s mother, the real father has long been in doubt.
Robert Kahn, Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf were all known to have dated the woman, Mildred Pollymokker, in the mid 1960s and 1970s. Others, including JCR Licklider, Paul Baran and Robert Taylor were all known to have “spent time” with Ms. Pollymokker around that time. “Let’s face it, the mother of the Internet got around,” said Cerf. Read the full release here.
The intellectual property pranksters over at Public Knowledge got us good this time. The group's president, Gigi Sohn, put out a statement commenting on supposed new IP enforcement legislation that is "a tragedy wrapped in a travesty" and "a travesty wrapped in a tragedy." At first blush, I thought it was authentic because she's never been shy about creatively informing the press about her feelings on a particular measure.
Under the fabricated bill, new government agencies, including a Department of Intellectual Property Security, would be created and given extraordinary powers. Copyright protection would be extended to new types of works and with even longer terms of protection in force. “This bill should be read very carefully. Anyone would have to be a fool to vote for this bill," Sohn said. To read the full text of the spoof legislation, click here (see commentary from PK in the margins).
April Fool's Day is upon us and Google's annual "gotcha" is a so-called Custom Time feature for Gmail that supposedly lets users send e-mails that are time-stamped with the date of the sender's choosing. The e-mails can be marked read or unread in the recipient's inbox. The tagline: "Be on time. Every time." Read more about the fake application here.
Some of the user testimonials, like this one, are a hoot:
"I used to be an honest person; but now I don't have to be. It's just so much easier this way. I've gained a lot of productivity by not having to think about doing the 'right' thing." -- Todd J., Investment Banker
Update: Oh, and there's more. Another April Fool's Day gift from Google -- introducing Virgle. Here's a snippet from the press release:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Google and Virgin Group today announced the launch of Virgle Inc., a jointly owned and operated venture dedicated to the establishment of a human settlement on Mars.
"Some people are calling Virgle an 'interplanetary Noah's Ark,'" said Virgin Group President and Founder Sir Richard Branson, who conceived the new venture. "I'm one of them. It's a potentially remarkable business, but more than that, it's a glorious adventure." Read the full release here.
Mediabistro's TVNewser and Engadget report that PBS interviewer Charlie Rose suffered a black eye and wore a bandage on his brow on his Monday night show after tripping on a 59th Street pothole in Manhattan.
He had to choose between protecting his newly purchased MacBook Air or his face -- he chose the former. According to his producers, "The Macbook Air is fine, he showed us the blood stains on it this morning." [That's Engadget's doctored photo above.]
Speaking of MacBook Air, I'm addicted to "New Soul," the whimsical ditty by Yael Naim featured on the computer's TV ad. First Feist and now this? Apple is quite the new music trend-spotter.
The high-priced call girl who effectively ended New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career this week happens to be an aspiring musician and a song featured on her MySpace.com page is getting quite a bit of radio airplay.
Several stations, including the Big Apple's "K-Rock" and Z-100, downloaded Ashley Alexandria Dupre's song "What We Want" and featured it as part of their pop music line up. Eric Johnson of New Jersey's WSJO told Radio-Info.com that "it's not a bad mid-tempo pop song. We’ll spike it in and let the listeners decide."
News of Dupre's ditty is particularly interesting given Spitzer's high-profile crusade against radio "payola." When he was the state's attorney general, his office served subpoenas against record labels in a probe into the illegal compensation of radio stations for playing certain songs.
A tipster tells Tech Daily Dose that Spitzer "can now claim that his anti-payola efforts at getting new artists on the air were successful." "Apparently Spitzer thinks pay-for-play wasn't so bad after all," the snarky source added.
One quick addition to my earlier post about this afternoon's network neutrality hearing: There was a humorous exchange between House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Damian Kulash, the lead vocalist for OK Go. Kulash explained the overwhelming response to a contest his band held for fans to recreate an expertly choreographed dance video they released on YouTube.
Conyers: A number of people up here think that we can do that too. Would you be willing to accept a Judiciary Committee video?
Kulash: It would have to be submitted by the same means as everyone else. [Audience laughter]
That's when I conjured up a mental picture of Conyers and fellow antitrust task force members (maybe Steve Chabot, Sheila Jackson-Lee and Ric Keller) doing the dance to "A Million Ways." Watch the video here.
"Get on the phone and say you support the Protect America Act - the right people will be listening."
I'm so happy to hear that I'm not the only intellectual policy watcher who enjoys hitting the gym regularly. I'm prone to reading congressional testimony on the elliptical machine or catching up with e-mails while I'm stair-stepping but when Patent and Trademark Office Director Jon Dudas gets a workout -- he's a true multitasker.
At a House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee hearing on PTO oversight, Dudas told members that he likes to chat with employees at his agency's fitness center about ways to improve examiner productivity and contentment. The PTO has been criticized for its backlog of patent applications and employee retention problems.
After ticking off a number of complaints about working conditions at the agency, veteran examiner Robert Budens got a good-natured ribbing from Michigan Democrat John Conyers, who chairs the full committee. "Would going to the gym more with Mr. Dudas help you?" Conyers asked. "One look at me says it may help me in some ways… but I’m not sure it would help improve our relationship," responded Budens, who is heavyset.
Read more about the PTO hearing in CongressDaily's AM on Thursday.
In the fourth season of MTV's popular show, "The Real World," one character (a lead singer in a punk-rock band) receives a pig's heart pierced with nails on Valentine's Day. If they could get away with it, the National Association of Broadcasters and the music industry might swamp similarly morose gifts -- but instead, they opted for a lighter approach.
The NAB, which opposes a congressional effort to end a longstanding performance royalty exemption for AM and FM radio stations, will run ads in several papers on Thursday highlighting the "love affair" between record labels and America's radio broadcasters. Click here to see the ad.
The musicFirst coalition, backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, royalty collector SoundExchange and others, issued a response to the ads that asks: "Why does NAB refuse to pick up the tab on Valentine’s Day… or any other day for that matter?"
"It is ironic on Valentine’s Day - of all days - that NAB would highlight how they don’t pick up the check on dates. It really is a sad story of unrequited love," alliance spokesman Tod Donhauser said. "Artists love radio, but radio doesn’t love artists enough to compensate them for their intellectual property."
This has nothing to do with tech policy, but it's Friday so it's fair game. The Huffington Post's snarky sibling 236.com published hilarious, fake turn-by-turn Mapquest directions for troubled pop tart Britney Spears' trip home from the UCLA psychiatric ward earlier this week.
Here's a sample:
Start out going west on Medical Center Circle; Continue circling until all the paparazzi are tipped off; turn right into oncoming traffic 'cause that’s how British people drive, y'all; stay straight while you look for a *#$%! lighter; take a violent right into the next Jack-In-The-Box drive-thru.
Read the rest of the directions here.
Representatives from the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike since early November brought their message to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with a skit that delivered more humor than most of the TV networks' primetime comedies. See Technology Daily's PM Edition.
As you can tell from the photo, a large crowd of lawmakers, congressional aides, and members of the press turned up to watch a trio of writers face off against several Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers imposters. The scribes who took part in the performance work for Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show."
Former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers, who was a consultant to NBC's "The West Wing," moderated the debate. She began by asking both sides: "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?" Her remark poked fun at the infamous McCarthy hearings of the 1940s when movie industry titans were called to testify about their suspected ties to Communism.
At one point during the skit, one of the "witnesses" was asked how much money the entertainment industry made from Internet distribution last year. His answer was "I don’t recall." That was a hat-tip to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who gave senators a similar answer (repeatedly) when grilled about the controversial firing of U.S. attorneys last year.
One of the AMPTP pretenders warned against the ultimate power of Hollywood unions likening their influence to that of one of China's most legendary and contentious figures. "Before you know it, we'll be watching 'According To Mao' and 'Foot Binding With The Stars,'" he quipped.
Continue reading Striking Writers Get Laughs On Capitol Hill.
I couldn’t help following up on last week's post about Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro's live, televised fight with CNN anchor Lou Dobbs. The CEA chief took Dobbs to task for his "anti-trade" agenda and the sparks flew.
A colleague sent me this video of funnyman Stephen Colbert's interview with the controversial pundit. In the skit, the Comedy Central fixture poses as "Esteban Colbert" and questions Dobbs en espanol. While much of the one-on-one focuses on immigration, there was this interesting exchange:
Colbert: Listen, Benjamin Franklin was a businessman.
Dobbs: He certainly was and an imminently successful one.
Colbert: Corporations have rights too. You don’t want to deny corporations their own American dream of outsourcing jobs.
Dobbs: I wouldn’t want to… I would prefer that they find a conscience and deny themselves that expediency.
Former Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge told a roomful of lawyers on Friday that despite his prior post within the Bush administration, he has been pulled aside for secondary screening at airport security checkpoints two dozen times.
"You ought to see the expression on the [faces of the] people at TSA when they put me in that plexiglass lane," he said during a morning keynote at an American Bar Association conference. "Some think I'm a plant and that I'm testing their procedures out." Ridge said fellow passengers have stopped to gawk (and laugh) when they see him being detained.
After a 25-year government career, adjusting to life as a public citizen has been difficult, he joked. The morning after Ridge left his DHS job, he recalls waking up to find that his kids took one car, his wife took the other and he had no way to get around. When he asked to borrow his son's vehicle, Ridge was advised: "Watch where you park it and don’t forget to fill it up with gas when you bring it home."
The good folks at Edelman who do the flacking for the musicFirst coalition must have spiked their office party eggnog. The group, which wants AM and FM radio stations to pay royalties to artists, has released a "T'was The Night Before Recess" holiday poem and it just begged to be blogged.
The coalition, which is backed by the Recording Industry Association of America and others, sent the poem to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. They are obviously still celebrating Tuesday's introduction of legislation in both chambers, which could be summed up as their biggest Christmas wish. Read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
The lengthy poem, penned to the cadence of "T'was the Night Before Christmas," can be read after the jump. No word yet on whether the National Association of Broadcasters will create rebuttal prose. NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton is pretty good at whipping up snarky comebacks so I'm sure he's hard at work.
Continue reading Ugh, Poetry: T'was The Night Before Recess.
Workplace consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas unveiled its annual compilation of the year's strangest business-related stories on Wednesday and it should come as no surprise that technology played an important role in the wackiness.
▪ An announcer for London's Tube system was fired in November after recording spoof messages and posting them on her Web site. Some of the alerts told American tourists they were talking too loudly and warned male passengers to stop staring at female riders.
▪ Hip-hop mogul P. Diddy turned to the Internet this summer to find a personal assistant. Applicants had three minutes to showcase their talents and win him over. More than 10,000 Diddy-helper hopefuls applied for the position via video-sharing site YouTube.
▪ An Iowa woman was fired in January for misuse of company time – keeping an electronic diary about how she avoids work. Some of the entries detailed her efforts to fool management into believing she was hard at work, usually by furiously typing. The entire 300-page, single-spaced tome was written on the clock with a company computer.
Non-tech stories involved a South Korean bank that sent its employees on blind dates; a hotel chain's job posting for a Chief Beer Officer position; an architecture firm's moon-based design project; and a Thai law enforcement program involving "Hello Kitty" armbands.
It's Friday afternoon and the Technology Daily staff was in desperate need of a sugar fix. Lo and behold, a bag of holiday cheer appears. AT&T branded cookies! Good work, guys. Follow the jump for another shot of my colleague Michael Martinez chowing down.
As promised, the White House unveiled its annual holiday video starring President Bush's Scottish Terriers Barney and Miss Beazley on Wednesday. In this year's installment, the dogs want to become junior park rangers with the National Park Service… but first, they have to help decorate the White House for Christmas.
The Web video features a cameo appearance by Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (one of the lesser-known members of the administration) as well as some pretty bad acting by First Daughters Jenna and Barbara. Oh, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair also shows up. I guess he didn’t have much else going on.
StopBigMedia.com, a coalition aimed at fighting media consolidation, has teamed up with the Harry Potter Alliance to mobilize thousands of fans of the fictional boy wizard. The two groups launched Potterwatch on Wednesday -- an effort that uses the character to illustrate the dangers of allowing big business to swallow up local media outlets.
In the book series, wizarding newspapers like the Daily Prophet put the magical community in jeopardy "by denying Voldemort's return … and ultimately becoming a mouthpiece for Voldemort," alliance creator Andrew Slack said in a press release.
[Disclaimer: I've never read a Potter book or seen a Potter movie so I have no idea what this guy is talking about but I'm sure those of you who are in the know either agree or disagree with his thesis.]
The Potterwatch movement brought together opponents of the sinister Voldemort, Slack said. StopBigMedia.com and the alliance "have come together to create a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against 'Voldemedia' -- the handful of companies that control most of what we see, hear and read every day."
The groups are urging fans to speak out against FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's plan to loosen media ownership rules later this month. Ironically, some policy watchers have whispered that Martin looks a little like the spellbinding whippersnapper. Go figure.
Highlights from Wednesday night’s annual FCC Chairman’s Dinner at the Washington Hilton, sponsored by the Federal Communications Bar Association. FCC Chief Kevin Martin, weary from a long day before Congress, poked fun at his recent battles with lawmakers and the cable industry:
“I have to admit that I usually dread delivering this speech. I’m not nearly as good at comedy as – oh, I don’t know – say charming my fellow FCC commissioners.”
“This year I can say I'm actually thrilled to be here. In fact, if I weren't at this dinner, I'd still be testifying before Congress.”
“Now I recognize that I’ve brought some of my recent problems on myself. For example, my cable choice proposal. You know the one, where cable gets to choose to do whatever I say.”
“But seriously, I’ve heard your complaints about how late the meetings have been starting. So I’d thought I’d start my next one early. So I’d like to welcome everyone to the December . . . [laughter]”
“Honestly, though, enough is enough with these late-night meetings. I just can’t keep delaying the meetings so you can run up your billable hours anymore. I think the clients are catching on.”
“I recognize that as rough as things are right now, they could be a lot worse. Some of you might remember a recent headline from the Washington Post” (The headline “Chinese Regulator is Sentenced to Death” was displayed on video screens throughout the ballroom)
“I should wrap it up here. I have another Senate hearing next week. Hopefully I’ve accomplished my real goal for the evening – doing enough bad jokes that they’ll criticize me for the jokes rather than my policies.”
Continue reading Kevin Martin & Eddie Fritts: Kings Of Comedy?.
When Vint Cerf, the man cited as one of the fathers of the modern-day Internet, sat down for a chat with the State Department's David Gross at the Family Online Safety Institute conference on Thursday, something seemed amiss.
Before answering questions formulated by Gross, the agency's communications and information policy coordinator, Google's chief Internet evangelist noted that his last name is spelled C-E-R-F, not C-E-R-T, as the gigantic projection screens on either side of the stage avowed.
The good humored Cerf made a crack about whether his mouth needed freshening (Certs is a popular breath mint manufactured by Cadbury-Adams). After a bit of audience laughter, the session commenced. Organizers promised that they spelled his name correctly in the program.
Read more coverage from the FOSI summit in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
As readers of this blog and of Technology Daily, you're keenly aware that our business is reporting the ins and outs and ups and downs of the high-tech policy world. Unsurprisingly, part of that job is keeping tabs on the latest techno-toys that hit the market and make life easier (or in some instances harder) for consumers.
So, here's my admission. Brace yourself. Before this week, I had never owned a "smart phone." Sure, my Motorola Razr was kind of smart -- like a toddler who knows his ABCs and basic math before entering preschool -- but not as smart as the iPhones, BlackBerrys and such that everyone but me seemed to be toting around.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I took the leap. I bought a Palm. It's new, it's hip, it's slim and it's relatively affordable compared to the rest of the options offered by my wireless provider, which will remain nameless due to our protracted, tumultuous relationship (that I hope is on the mend).
E-mail, Web surfing, scheduling -- all at my fingertips. In the elevator; on the sidewalk; in a meeting; during a cross-town commute; on the elliptical machine at the gym. I have realized in the past couple of days what many have known for some time -- the euphoria of being "connected" wherever and whenever you want.
I consider myself an insanely productive person and this can only add to my efficiency. That said, the obligation of always being reachable might interfere with the non-work components of my life. I guess that's why the device has this novel "off" button. Plus, the tiny cramped keyboard might be murder on my fingers.
But, we'll see how it plays out … and if you e-mail me, you might just get a brief, sloppily typed response as I'm climbing the 200th floor on the stair-stepper at Washington Sports Club.
The Federal Communications Bar Association hosted a briefing on Monday about copyright issues at the FCC and the FTC. Panelists covered a number of interesting intellectual property matters brought before the federal agencies -- but concluding remarks at the event turned into a self-promotion-palooza (with a pinch of humor).
Consumer Electronics Association lobbyist Michael Petricone made a push for his organization's annual trade show in Las Vegas in early January where he said high-tech copyright issues will be discussed in detail.
Then, Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn piped up, urging attendees to take a look at her group's six-point plan for copyright reform. The proposal would fix current laws that the group believes are "out of touch with our technological reality."
Fritz Attaway, who is executive vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said he did not have anything to endorse. He paused briefly then exclaimed: "Go see a movie -- and pay for it." One small step to combat film piracy, one giant leap for mankind.
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has turned to obscure humor to win support. The former Arkansas governor, whose popularity is waning in recent polls, posted a political ad on his campaign Web site and on YouTube this week announcing that he is backed by martial artist and actor Chuck Norris.
A running gag involving satirical "facts" about Norris has become an Internet phenomenon and has even engaged the "Walker, Texas Ranger" star himself. The facts typically involve claims of Norris's masculinity and "alpha-male" status.
In the Huckabee video, the candidate appears on screen with Norris and says the TV tough guy is the focus of his plan to secure the U.S. border from illegal immigrants, which is a regular topic of debate among presidential contenders.
Huckabee says: "There is no chin behind Chuck Norris's beard -- only another fist," and then adds: "When Chuck Norris does a push-up, he isn’t lifting himself up; he's pushing the Earth down." Norris, in turn, calls Huckabee "a principled, authentic conservative."
"Chuck Norris doesn’t endorse," Huckabee quips. "He tells America how it's gonna be." Watch the full video here.
The writers' strike against Hollywood producers over new media royalties has prompted a stunning, brilliant occurrence. Striking cast members and writers of NBC's "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live" will perform one-night-only live shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City in the coming days.
The entire cast of SNL has been confirmed for the 11:30 p.m. performance this Saturday, according to the New York Observer's Culture Czar blog. The cast of "30 Rock" will take to the stage on Monday at 8 p.m. The sold-out shows will benefit the Writers Guild strike fund.
Update: Gasp! Fans are trolling Craigslist for tickets to the shows...
If the National Association of Broadcasters' well-known mouthpiece Dennis Wharton ever tires of his day job, he could always pursue a career on Broadway. The former journalist and fixture on Capitol Hill got his first taste of the stage during a trip to the Big Apple last weekend.
Wharton, who serves as the powerful lobbying group's executive vice president of media relations, told Tech Daily Dose that he and his wife got cheap seats for the acclaimed "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," only to be chosen as an on-stage extra.
The affable flack sat in the risers with the ensemble cast of the musical comedy and played along when background characters were needed. Wharton even got a turn at the microphone and successfully spelled "Mexicans." He was eliminated after being presented with a longer, weirder word that he could not recall.
I don’t know what "The IT Room" is but it might just become the source of some seriously amusing viral videos. A number of features on the Web site still read "coming soon" and a Whois look-up doesn’t provide much intel.
But the site does offer several teasers that give viewers a peek inside the hilarity unfolding inside a generic office space in Anywhere, USA. My favorite clip is when a staffer takes out some aggression on his PC. The site's characters include a blonde, a geek, two other guys, and a capuchin monkey. Completely random.
Technology Daily's best article lede of the week award goes to my colleague David Hatch for his coverage of Wednesday's FCC meeting. Here's how he started off his story:
Media consolidation opponents turned out in force at a high-profile Halloween Day FCC meeting featuring a protest outside the agency, activists in cheerleader uniforms, and a self-described "corporate media whore" in a French maid outfit who briefly upstaged the agency's chairman while being momentarily detained in the hearing room.
Read the entire article here.
Rep. Mary Bono, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Intellectual Property Promotion and Piracy Prevention, has zero-tolerance rule for counterfeit goods -- just ask her staff. The California Republican recently fired one of her aides when she learned that the staffer bought a fake designer purse while visiting China on a work trip.
Bono told the story at a Tuesday briefing on Capitol Hill, where she appeared alongside U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and a handful of other IP caucus members (Read more about the event in Technology Daily's PM Edition).
Fellow Californian Howard Berman, who chairs the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee, joked that a forthcoming IP enforcement bill will set an even higher penalty for purchasing a bootlegged Louis Vuitton.
Bono's staffer would not have just lost her job, "she'd be executed," cracked the Democrat who represents Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Berman's staffers better hide their pirated music collections, ASAP.
Update: A spokesman for Bono clarified that the aide in question was not fired for her purchase -- she left "in good graces" to pursue another job. The congresswoman's remark was "just a good punch-line" at the IP event.
The office does, however, have a strict policy when it comes to IP protection. If an employee is found using business resources in an inappropriate way, "that person would be reprimanded," he said. "When it comes to individuals' actions outside of the office, we don’t try to police them. We do not want to play big brother."
If Judge Randall Rader of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ever gets tired of hearing patent cases, he could fall back on a stand-up comedy career. Rader kicked off a luncheon keynote on Friday by telling a few jokes.
Humor that is paraphrased on a blog post is not nearly as gut-busting as hearing Rader's tales at the American Intellectual Property Law Association summit, but I'll give it a shot.
He said he recently tried a case in Oakland, Calif. and the jury was selected after a "painful process" of listening to excuses from potential jurors as to why they could not participate. An attorney in the case told Rader: "It's hard to be a trial attorney. My client's life and my future depend on 12 people who are not smart enough to avoid jury service."
The judge responded: "I thought you were going to say your future depended on a trial judge who'd never tried a criminal case before." Quickly, the lawyer fired back: "Your honor, if I'd known that, I would have selected a better jury."
What's a 12-letter word for a purported Sirius-XM "merger advantage for consumers" or the six-letter name of a former FCC chairman that supports the pending deal? How about an 11-letter description of what the National Association of Broadcasters allegedly fears?
Find out by playing "Merger Mania," a new crossword puzzle offered on the companies' merger Web sites -- www.SIRIUSmerger.com and www.XMmerger.com. Hats off to the satellite radio rivals for injecting some "fun" into the increasingly volatile debate.
No word yet on whether anyone at NAB, which opposes the $14 billion pairing, has tried their hand at the game. You can play along here.
Update: NAB Vice President Dennis Wharton told Tech Daily Dose that "it probably won't be long before XM and Sirius are claiming that crossword puzzles and hopscotch serve as competition to satellite radio."
"For the numerous consumer groups and more than 80 member of Congress who oppose this proposed monopoly, merging two fierce competitors with a history of breaking FCC rules is not a game," he added.
Media advocacy group Free Press unveiled a new, politically driven online distraction on Tuesday. It's a game called "Whack-A-Murdoch." The animated novelty came as News Corp., which is run by mogul Rupert Murdoch, launched its new Fox Business Network.
"As Murdoch’s latest venture is making headlines we hope to frame the issue around [media] consolidation and attract a new population of potential activists," Campaign Director Tim Karr said in an e-mail. "Hopefully, this will draw more attention and people to the issue as the FCC is weighing a decision that could further unleash the floodgates to consolidation."
YouTube star Chris Crocker, who made national headlines recently with his melodramatic defense of beleaguered pop singer Britney Spears, isn't the only fan recording online videos to protest the unfair treatment of celebrities.
Jack McBrayer, who play a lovable, bumbling NBC page named Kenneth on the network's comedy "30 Rock," posted this plea about CBS News anchor and former "Today Show" host Katie Couric, which is hilariously similar to the one Crocker posted about Spears.
"How dare anyone out there make fun of Katie Couric after all that she's been through. She lost her ratings; she took a $5 million pay cut; she had two adorable kids. Her network turned out to be a user and all you people care about is ratings and making money off her. She's a human! Leave her alone!" he rants.
I love it when art imitates life. Recent "30 Rock" related posts from Tech Daily Dose can be found here and here.
Thursday night's season premiere of "30 Rock" on NBC, which was hyped by network head Jeff Zucker earlier in the week during a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, dealt with the hilarious issue of digital remixing.
In the episode, NBC executive Jack Donaghy conjures up "SeinfeldVision" -- a plan to inject footage of comedian Jerry Seinfeld into the network's primetime line-up. The star's likeness is worked into the game show "Deal or No Deal," "Law & Order," the fictional "Milf Island" and other shows.
Seinfeld hears about Donaghy's hair-brained scheme and confronts him. "That’s the beauty if it Jerry. It's all done by computer," explains Donaghy, who is played by Alec Baldwin. "What NBC shows do you want to be digitally inserted into?" he asks. "I like 'Lost.' Is that you guys?" Seinfeld retorts. "Lost" is a hit ABC show.
Donaghy insists that SeinfeldVision is "perfectly legal" and Seinfeld threatens to buy NBC and turn it into "the biggest Lane Bryant in Midtown." Perhaps Donaghy will have to consult the Electronic Frontier Foundation to get him out of this mess.
Reach way back into your Internet pop culture memory banks for this one. Remember Alex Tew -- the British college student who successfully raised $1 million by selling pixels on his Web site? Once buzz started building about MillionDollarHomepage.com, advertisers scrambled to slap their logo on the page.
There have been a number of copycats since Tew launched his site in August 2005, all hoping to strike it rich by selling image-based links. But earlier this month, a new, creative entry appeared on the scene -- MillionDollarsOutOfMyButt.com.
The site, created by a St. Louis team (whose self-purported specialties include "Web design, snide commentary, and innovative problem solving"), is offering ad space at $1 per pixel with a hundred dollar minimum. So far, there's plenty of room on the page, so step right up.
Site owners Daniela Droke and Shawn Gaston devised the site as a way to minimize their student loan and credit card debt. The page features a photo of Droke's blue-jeaned derriere and provides an answer the humorous question: "How are we going to pay all these bills?"
New York Times technology writer and Yale University graduate David Pogue spoke to students at his alma mater this week -- and regaled them with a song about Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Pogue, who once hoped for a Broadway career, was a music major at the pricey Ivy League institution.
Pogue has sung about technology before -- and gotten a lot of attention for it on YouTube. Watch his popular "iPhone: The Musical" video above.
As the new fall television season commences, I would be remiss if I failed to mention this little tidbit: Chris Crocker, Britney Spears' biggest Web fan, might be getting his own show. Apparently anything goes in Hollywood these days.
Crocker, 19, who lives with his grandparents in Tennessee, posted a passionate YouTube defense of the embattled pop star's lackluster performance on the "MTV Video Music Awards." He got a gajillion hits and notoriety on newscasts around the nation.
Now, Variety reports that Crocker has signed with a production company. "It's going to pretty much be 'The Chris Crocker Experience,'" 44 Blue founder Rasha Drachkovitch told the paper. "He's going to be a TV star."
Gossip blog Defamer weighed in on the news: "We're confident that 44 Blue will eventually be successful in delivering the 'Chris Crocker experience' … into America's living rooms. Assuming, of course, that the televisions in those living rooms have access to the Screamy Drama Queen Channel on which it will eventually run."
(If you aren’t familiar with this issue, you can watch the video here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
The horizontal smiley face, created by pairing a colon, a dash and a closing bracket -- like this :-) -- turned 25 years old on Tuesday. Carnegie Mellon University researcher Scott Fahlman says he invented the emoticon at 11:44 p.m. on Sept. 19, 1982.
On his university Web page, Fahlman claims the keyboard concept came to him because humorous comments posted on the school's bulletin boards were often misinterpreted.
"In at least one case, a humorous remark was interpreted by someone as a serious safety warning," he wrote. Fahlman said he also suggested the use of :-( to indicate a message was meant to be taken seriously, though that symbol evolved into a marker for displeasure or anger.
Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will be a contestant on ABC's hit primetime show "Dancing with the Stars" this season. He'll square off against a Spice Girl, an Abercrombie & Fitch model and an odd roster of other "celebrities."
Cuban addressed the issue on his blog last week, saying: "The opportunity to do something unique that makes me smile is something I try not to pass up. It's not about how well I can dance. It's about the opportunity to compete at something I enjoy."
The show's choice of costumes also prompted some colorful commentary from Cuban: "Yesterday I felt like they had found Ricky Ricardo's garage sale and bought up his clothes just for me."
As the House decides the fate of a bill that would revamp the nation's patent system, I decided to reminisce about an oft cited patent dispute that involves peanut butter and jelly sandwich technology. The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit in April 2005 rejected an effort by J.M. Smucker Co. to patent its process for making pocket-size PB&J snacks.
Read more about this case: AP story on the court's ruling; Patently-O coverage; and the patent application. And, since it's Friday, click here for "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," a Flash animation that emerged in the early 2000s and became an Internet phenomenon.
This week, The Hill newspaper reported on the summer's hottest Washington fashion accessory -- the Blackberry. Congressional aides and lawmakers "of all shapes and sizes" wear the handheld devices "strapped to their waists as though they were electricians, refrigerator repairmen, private detectives or crime fighters such as Batman."
Tisk, tisk says ProjectBeltway.com blogger Rachel Cothran. Blackberrys are "not a positive fashion statement," she told the paper. "Women especially have no excuse. If anything, having to carry work with you at all times via a BlackBerry is a reason to invest in a well-made bag."
I hate to be catty about broadcast news reporters (especially since I'm a print journalist and probably couldn’t do much better) but this interview from ABC News Now is too horrifying to ignore (and it has nothing to do with tech policy).
Gossip site Gawker.com called this "What's the Buzz" segment, which was taped for ABC's streaming video service, a "celebrity fluff piece gone bad." At one point, I thought actress Holly Hunter might reach through the screen and strangle ABC's Merry Miller.
Incidentally, Hunter's new show on TNT called "Saving Grace" is a dark, kooky masterpiece... and it's on Monday nights at 10 ET. And if you want to know more about Miller's credentials check out this article.
Update: ABC is holding a contest where the "prize" is a guest shot hosting the "What's the Buzz" segment and the interviewer is speaking out about the incident that more than a million Internet users watched.
What was the hottest topic of discussion among stakeholders who assembled at the Copyright Office on Wednesday morning to talk about cable and satellite statutory licenses? Was it the operation and revision of rules under Sections 111, 119 and 122 of Title 17 of U.S. Code?
Nope. It was troubled teen starlet Lindsay Lohan. Sure, the roomful of policy experts conversed about copyright-related issues before the event began, but Lohan's latest turmoil generated the most buzz. Everyone (even policy wonks) enjoys a little gossip, right?
Less than two weeks out of rehab, with another drunken-driving case pending, the 21-year-old actress was arrested this week with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. She was released on bail after being charged with suspicion of driving under the influence, possession of cocaine and transport of a narcotic.
Read more about the Copyright Office hearing (sans Lohan) in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
Sometimes e-mail phishing schemes give me the tiniest glimmer of hope that I have actually won the lottery so I can take the long, sunny vacation I so rightfully deserve.
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Coordinator: Millions Lottery.
Famously fake news source, The Onion, reports on its Onion News Network that "all online data has been lost after the Internet crashed and was forced to restart." The error message that appeared on millions of users' PC screens read: "Restart World Wide Web. Data may have been lost."
Federal investigators traced the crash to a Connecticut man who had more than 35 windows open, The Onion said. He was reportedly downloading tracks on iTunes, watching video clips on YouTube, listening to NPR, instant messaging, checking three e-mail accounts, talking on Skype, and playing online poker while installing the latest version of Firefox and browsing MySpace when the global Internet shutdown occurred.
"The screen froze up and there was nothing I could do. I tried to 'force quit' all the open applications but nothing worked," the man said via facsimile. According to The Onion, White House spokesman Tony Snow admitted that the government does not have a backup of the Internet but "always meant to get around to making one."
Bloggers were some of the hardest hit by the imagined blackout. "Trillions of pages of commentary and diaries of daily minutiae have been forever erased," The Onion stated. "I feel like control-alt-deleting myself," one blogger said.
Update: Life imitating art -- or in this instance, satire. Our office Internet access is down and the IT folks can't figure out why.
Happy Monday! The infamous "Obama Girl" is back with a new viral video on YouTube and this time she's got competition from a Giuliani devotee.
This "debate" between leggy fans of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinoiis and GOP contender Rudy Giuliani is a bit more lively than one moderated by, say, PBS's Jim Lehrer. It involves a pillow fight and some choreographed dance moves on the streets of Manhattan.
Good news: Unlike "Crush On Obama," this ditty is less likely to get lodged in your brain and rattle around like a bag of nickels in the spin cycle. No, the new song is not as catchy but given its predecessor's success, it may spread like Web wildfire. Only time will tell.
Frustrated by an alleged liberal bias on YouTube and Wikipedia, Republicans have teamed up to launch conservative alternatives to the popular sites.
But the GOP-friendly QubeTV and Conservapedia haven't exactly impressed comedian Lewis Black. In a guest spot on "The Daily Show" this week, Black blasted the idea that YouTube and Wikipedia, sites that accept contributions from anyone, are part of a vast liberal conspiracy.
To make his point, he noted that nearly all of the videos on QubeTV, including one comparing Democratic Sen. Barack Obama to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, are also on YouTube. "In other words, the conservative alternative to YouTube is YouTube," Black said.
The disrespect is mutual, apparently. The entry for "The Daily Show" at Conservapedia says the comedians "show a liberal bias" and notes that "some believe" that host Jon Stewart demeans conservative positions on gun rights, abortion and Christianity. It also claims that Stewart "often mocks" the war in Iraq -- an accusation that surely isn't a laughing matter. -- Michael Martinez
CHICAGO -- General Electric's Bob Wright, who heads NBC Universal, took the dais at the NXTComm show here today before CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and played pretend journalist for a moment.
"I have some news," Wright said, bragging that he was scooping Bartiromo. "AT&T and Verizon are going to merge. The new company will be called AT&V."
That got a big laugh from the crowd of more than 2,000, as the CEOs of AT&T and Verizon Communications had just completed their remarks on the digital future. -- Gene J. Koprowski, for Technology Daily
CHICAGO -- The morning session of the NXTComm conference here today was lively and full of humor -- much of it at the expense of the presenters.
Randall Stephenson has been chairman and CEO of AT&T for just more than two weeks now, and he said he has learned a major lesson during that short period of time. "The chairman still has to take out the trash at home and feed the dog," he said. "I learned that the hard way!"
At another point in the conference, Matt Ross, the group chief technology officer at BT, polled attendees about whether they have voice-mail systems on their home telephones, personal mobile phones, work mobile phones and office phones. When nearly 2,000 folks in the audience said yes to all of the above, Ross said, "I suggest counseling."
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, meanwhile, appeared at the show by live video conference and looked quite haggard . The reason he could not make it to the prestigious event in person? His wife is expected to deliver the couple’s second child today in Washington.
Telecom executives here joked that being the dutiful dad, Martin did not want to miss the "latest rollout" in his family.
-- Gene J. Koprowski, for Technology Daily
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