Remembering that Google paid a whopping $1.65 billionaroonis for the online boob toob that is YouTube, one couldn't help but wonder if they were ever going to invent an ad format that might allow them to get some of those roonis back. Wait no more. The New York Times, along with a gazillion other blogs (including, now, this one), has reported that...gasp...Google announced a new type of video ad, one that was both unobtrusive and also keeps users in the driver's seat. Envision this...you're watching your favorite bulldog skateboarding video on... [More]

Tags:  youtube advertising google skateboarding_bulldog online_video

If you follow this blog with any regularity (the blogging kind of regularity), you know I'm a huge fan of the Geico cavemen. Everybody else thinks a new TV show about the cavemen is silly, but for me it's Must See Jurassic Age TV. So it was with a stroke of serendipity that I stumbled across some kind of "Sponsored by" Facebookvertisement this afternoon reminding me to go back and visit the Geico caveman hipster pad called the "Caveman Crib." First off, if you've never visited the Cavemans Crib, you must go. If you have visited it, know they've... [More]

Tags:  geico facebook advertising

Facebook hopes you never use your desktop or browser email client again. Or so it seems. In a post on the Facebook blog yesterday, Luke tells us you can now send messages to people on Facebook and to people not on Facebook. The idea seems to be that you will likely want to continue to communicate with Facebook holdouts -- you know, the ones you invite to be your friend over and over again, to no avail.  Luke informs us that you can invite friends to events and groups through such existing email addresses, and that they can even RSVP. ... [More]

Tags:  facebook digitollywood adobe_flash online_video digital_media

(I need to make a phone call.) Well, Skype's Heartbeat blog finally told us overnight what went wrong with the Skype network: Microsoft. As Villu Arak explains in his blog posting, "the disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through the Windows Update." Arak goes on to explain that the "high number of restarts affected Skype's network resources, causing a flood of log-in requests" and which, "combined with the... [More]

Tags:  the_great_skype_outage_of... skype voip

I woke up today after my post-Elvis 30th anniversary celebration expecting that all would be well again in the world of Skype, only to discover a rash of continuing headlines about a continuing outage. The New York Time's Brad Stone catches us up here, explaining that some 220 million Skype users around the world (many of them small businesses who had given up their landlines) are phoneless. eBay (Skype's owner) lost $1B in market cap yesterday. Folks like Om Malik are reporting how development teams scattered around the globe who depend on... [More]

Tags:  voip skype_outage

IBM and Sun announced a few moments ago that IBM will distribute the Sun Solaris Operating Systems and Solaris Subscriptions for select x86-based IBM System x servers and BladeCenter servers. This announcement builds on IBM's longstanding partnership with Sun and its work supporting Java. As our VP, Systems and Technology Group, Bill Zeitler just indicated on the teleconference announcing this move, he expects this announcement will lead to an expanded relationship between IBM and Sun. Then the inevitable question about AIX and Linux was just... [More]

Tags:  aix systems_and_technology sun linux solaris

What happens when you pick up your phone and your phone says it doesn't recognize you, so therefore you can't make a call? Ask Skype. They just posted that they're having problems with their log-in service, and the "engineering team has determined that it's a software issue" and they expect it to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. In the interim, Skype has disabled all further downloads of Skype. But they encourage users to keep their Skype client running so that you can be automagically be logged in when the system is back up and running. So... [More]

Tags:  voip skype outage

There's all kinds of speculation as to what today's teleconference with Sun's CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, and our own Bill Zeitler (senior VP for IBM's Systems and Technology Group), is all about. The Register's Ashlee Vance wonders whether Sun will ditch its middleware in favor of WebSphere on Solaris, or whether perhaps IBM is giving up on AIX. Others ponder whether IBM is ready to support Solaris on our Intel-based System x and BladeCenter systems. Me, I just work here, they don't tell me nothin'. So I will be tuned in like the rest of ya.... [More]

Tags:  announcements ibm sun_microsystems servers

Today is the 30th anniversary of the passing of Elvis Presley. My mom is probably one of the world's biggest Elvis fans. The room I grew up in is now a virtual shrine to Elvis, covered with plates and pillows and other memorabilia celebrating his memory. The last time my mom saw Elvis perform was in Fort Worth, Texas. The tickets were $10.00. The first time she saw him was in the early 1950s at the Texarkana Municipal Auditorium, a venue visited frequently by Elvis, as well as other up and coming performers like Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and... [More]

Tags:  elvis_presley

Way back when, back in the Jurassic Web age and about the time I started working for Big Blue, some of our researchers used the IBM invented Scanning Tunneling Microscope and some electron re-arranging tools to built a nano version of the IBM logo. Those wacky Picasso wannabes, they've put some of those master works on display via these here Intertubes. Sorry, no audio tour headphones are available. Meanwhile, on the Borg front, our Computational Biology Center at the T.J. Watson Labs (no relation, but boy do I wish), along with the National... [More]

Tags:  ibm ibm_research digital_art nanotech

Do you hate to give presentations? Would you prefer the guillotine to running a PowerPoint from the front of a packed hotel suite? Then Brett Tabke's got a blog post just for you, chock full of presentation tips, tricks, and other hassle-free suggestions of how to keep your colleagues, peers, and other various and sundry audience members awake during your pitch. And somebody else likes 'em, for the post has been "Dugg" some 1,122 times. I used to have a deathly fear of public speaking myself. But over time, after watching folks like Lou... [More]

the shark...I went out to check my mail at lunch and lo and behold, there was the new copy of Newsweek with a cover story entitled "The Facebook Effect." Too weird. Not only has the shark been jumped...it's circling in the waters, has totally tipped and is now well beyond anyone's hyperbolic control.  The Newsweek lead?  "Facebook grows up." I don't think I'd hand them their degree just yet...at least, not until Zuckerberg has cashed in for at least a few billion.  Then you can hand them their parchment. Speaking of getting... [More]

Tags:  social_networking digital_media facebook google

I wanted to send a shout out to the entire Lotus Notes and Domino development team.  The eGA announcement for Lotus Notes 8 and Domino 8 was posted earlier today. Our Notes user experience guru Mary Beth Raven also sends her gracious thanks to all the folks out there who, through their participation in her well-traveled blog, helped to shape the Notes 8 release in the spirit of Web 2.0 and beyond. Ed Brill provides some color on the announcement here (including some thoughts he'll soon share on subcapacity server licensing, by customer... [More]

Tags:  lotus mary_beth_raven lotus_notes product_announcements collaboration ed_brill

Is it just me, or has Facebook jumped the shark, passed the tipping point, gone completely out of viral social networking control? 100,000 new users per day and counting. Quick, somebody get them a McDonald's "100,000+ Burgers Served" sign and fast! And yes, I would like some ketchup with those fries. I'll be the first to admit, though I joined the Facebook party a couple of years ago, I mostly stood in the corner and didn't pay much attention to the whole scene. Not because I wasn't interested, but because there were all kinds of other tools... [More]

Tags:  facebook social_networking online_privacy

My worst fear is starting to come true: Mobile videoconferencing. Over the weekend, some geeks put together an iPhone video conferencing application for the C-4 developer conference. Never mind it required a convoluted mirror device (the iPhone's camera is on the back of the unit), or that it's not something going into production anytime soon. It's the principle of the thing that matters. Do you really want anyone to know where you anytime they want? Because that's what the mobile videoconferencing capability will bring you. No matter where in... [More]

Tags:  digital_media apple mobile_videoconferencing

Well, apparently John Daly did need a little more practice (although I loved that he swung for the green on 10 as he kicked off Friday's round), and it was Tiger who could have kicked back at the casino earlier in the week. Tiger's 63 on Friday was a marvel to watch on replay on the DVR, and my breathing about stopped on 18 when he missed that final putt to shoot the first ever 62 in a major. I don't think I've ever seen a putt sink that far into the hole before doing the horseshoe dance back out the other side. At the Circle C golf course... [More]

Tags:  tiger_woods golf pga

I love John Daly.  I can't help it.  The guy's so unassuming, he's the same age as I am, he's golf's Everyman, and instead of playing a practice round for this week's P.G.A. Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the temperature has been hovering in the high 90s, Daly instead went to the air conditioned confines of a casino to give away more of his golf winnings on the slot machines. Then, yesterday, he goes out to shoot a three-under-par 67, only two shots behind leader Graeme Storm.  When asked about his... [More]

Tags:  john_daly golf pga

IBM announced today a new offering that will allow pharmaceutical companies to create electronic certificates of authenticity -- or an "ePedigree" -- for every drug that passes through a supply chain. This offering will allow all participants in such a chain -- manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, hospitals -- secure, on demand access to historical data on individual bottles or packages of medicine. Underlying this new offering is WebSphere's RFID Information Center (RFIDIC), which was designed to manage and aggregate product serial... [More]

Tags:  supply_chain pharma ibm rfid

Consolidation continues in the online video and movie downloading space with Blockbuster's announced me-too acquisition of Movielink LLC.  First, Netflix forced Blockbuster's hand to provide mail-order movie rentals, the synergy with which Blockbuster's brick-and-mortar outlets gives it a competitive upper hand ("Okay, I'll drive down to the Blockbuster if I really have to. ") Then, Netflix began to allow online viewing of around 1,000 of its movies and TV series in January of this year. So Blockbuster swings back, this time intending to... [More]

Tags:  digital_media digitollywood online_video