Commercial Convinces Me To Throw Balls Into Oncoming Traffic

How come no one told me about these awesome commercials? Shame on you.

Building Exploding with Paint
Streets Filled with Superballs
Streets Filled with Play-Doh Rabbits

Keeping Sales A Secret

I've recently had a couple conversations about "Black Friday" sales, and some retailers odd habit of threatening websites with lawsuits for publishing their sales info. The NY Times recently had a good roundup of the Black Friday strong arming, for those that are interested.

So Many Peaks

Forget about Peak Oil, and Peak Water. The new "Peak" to scare the crap out of me, is Peak Internet. That's right, we could run out of internet. The basic gist of the article is that a version of Moore's Law applies to most things on the internet, except to access, so that the demand will outstrip providers ability to supply, especially with the increased consumption of videos. Unlike other "Peaks" predictions of decades or centuries, Peak Internet has the hutzpa to predict the first internet brownouts in a mere two years. The article also states that the studies recommendation is that congress should solve things for us. Uh huh, good luck with that.

My predictions are that by the end of next year someone will be talking about "bandwidth conservation", and that providers will end up increasing their investments in the internet backbone and nothing will come of it. And if I'm wrong, you will have forgotten about this post, will no longer have access to it, and I can safely never mention it again.

Touch

There was an interesting article on LiveScience about how toddlers interacted with a robot. The secret wasn't in making the robot soft and fuzzy, but to give the robot a sense of touch, so that it would react when touched by the children.

That seems profound to me. That bond isn't formed when you touch me, or even when I touch you, but when I know that you felt my touch. That you were affected by me. It's that common human desire, to know that we've affected the people in our lives, left our mark upon them, illustrated in such a basic form.

Turning Spam Into Chuckles

If you don't know what a Nigerian 409 scam is, you can find info on them here.

From: Amao Ajegu
To: Xuthus

DEAR SIR, WE ARE SENDING THIS LETTER TO YOU BASED ON INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE FOREIGN TRADE OFFICE OF THE NIGERIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. WE BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD BE IN A POSITION TO HELP US IN OUR BID TO TRANSFERTHE SUM OF FORTY-ONE MILLION,FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($41.5M USD) INTO A FOREIGN ACCOUNT. WE ARE MEMBERS OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE FOR BUDGET AND PLANNING OF THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM, THIS COMMITTEE IS PRINCIPALLY CONCERNED WITH CONTRACT APPRAISALS AND APPROVAL OF CONTRACTS IN ORDER OF PRIORITIES AS REGARDS CAPITAL PROJECT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA. WITH OUR POSITIONS, WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SECURED FOR OURSELVES THE SUM OF FORTY-ONE MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATE DOLLARS(US$41.5M). THIS AMOUNT WAS ACCUMULATED THROUGH UNDECLARED WINFALL FROM SALES OF CRUDE OIL DURING THE IRAQ WAR. WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU IS TO PROVIDE A SAFE ACCOUNT INTO WHICH THE FUNDS WILL BE TRANSFERRED SINCE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE NOT ALLOWED BY OUR LAWS TO OPERATE FOREIGN ACCOUNT. IT HAS BEEN AGREED THAT THE OWNER OF THE ACCOUNT WILL BE COMPENSATED WITH US$8.3 MILLION OF THE REMITTED FUNDS, WE KEEP US$31.125MILLION WHILE US$2.075MILLION WILL BE SET ASIDE TO OFFSET EXPENSES AND PAY THE NECESSARY TAXES. IT MAY INTEREST YOU TO KNOW THAT TWO YEARS AGO A SIMILAR TRANSACTION WAS CARRIED OUT WITH ONE MR. PATRICE MILLER, THE PRESIDENT OF CRAINE INTERNATIONAL TRADING CORPORATION AT NUMBER ---, EAST --TH STREET,--TH FLOOR, NEW YORK ----- WITH TELEPHONE (---)-------- AND TELEX NUMBER -------, AFTER THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN BOTH PARTNERS IN WHICH HE WAS TO TAKE 25% THE MONEY WAS DULY TRANSFERRED INTO HIS ACCOUNT ONLY TO BE DISAPPOINTED ON OUR ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK AS WE WERE RELIABLY INFORMED THAT MR. PATRICE MILLER WAS NO LONGER ON THAT ADDRESS WHILE HIS TELEPHONE AND TELEX NUMBERS HAVE BEEN REALLOCATED TO SOMEBODY ELSE, THAT IS HOW WE LOST US$27.5M TO MR PATRICE MILLER. THIS TIME AROUND WE NEED A MORE RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON OR A REPUTABLE COMPANY TO DO BUSINESS WITH HENCE THIS LETTER TO YOU, SO IF YOU CAN PROVE YOURSELF TO BE TRUSTED AND INTERESTED IN THIS DEAL THEN WE ARE PREPARED TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU. WHAT WE WANT FROM YOU IS THE ASSURANCE THAT YOU WILL LET US HAVE OUR SHARE WHEN THIS AMOUNT OF US$41.5M IS TRANSFERRED INTO YOUR ACCOUNT. IF THIS PROPOSAL SATISFIES YOU, PLEASE CONTACT ME STRICTLY THROUGH MY E-MAIL STATED ABOVE SO WE CAN ADVICE YOU ON THE MODALITIES OF THE TRANSACTION. ALL MODALITIES OF THE TRANSFER HAVE BEEN WORKED OUT AND ONCE STARTED WILL NOT TAKE MORE THAN 14 WORKING DAYS WITH THE ABSOLUTE SUPPORT OF ALL CONCERNED. THIS TRANSACTION IS 100% SAFE. PLEASE TREAT AS URGENT AND VERY CONFIDENTIAL. GOD BE WITH YOU AS I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR REPLY. BEST REGARDS. CHIEF AMAO AJEGU.

This is an email I received a couple of weeks ago with my old email address. It's a classic 419 scam, and I decided to string the guy along and see just how ridiculous I could be and still get a reply. I didn't want to appear too eager, so I decided to pretend to be busy with "charity" work.

From: Xuthus
To: Amao Ajegu
Dear Mr. Ajegu,

I appreciate your email, and I wish you the best of luck in your work.
Though I would like to help you, I'm afraid my church is quite busy with
other charities at the moment. Your mission to take oil money from Iraqis
and to give it to Americans does sound like a just and righteous one, and I
do wish you well in finding a trustworthy soul to assist you in God's work.

God bless,
Rev. Xuthus Hardere

I also decided to pretend to be a reverend since Nigerian scam artists always pretend to be devoutly religious.

From: Amao Ajegu
To: Xuthus
Dear Rev. Xuthus Hardere,

Thank you for your response and concern shown to my offer.Though you have
made your point why you are afraid of helping me out in the project proposed
as the church is busy with other charities at the moment.How? Could you
explain further to me sir.Perhaps this might of interest if it is geared
towards the work of God.

Sir I really appreciate your advise and good wishes and would want a more
communication between us in the near future if this deal I proposed does not
work out as you have asked me to seek a trustworthy soul to assist? How?
Are you not trustworthy?

God bless.

Amao Ajegu.

So far so good. Now to turn on the wacky.

From: Xuthus To: Amao Ajegu
Dear Mr. Ajegu

I'm sorry I haven't written back to you sooner. I have been on assignment in Arkansas, distributing canned goods and Heroes DVDs to needy children. That show is righteous. Arkansas sadly, is not on the intertubes. I don't know how people can live like that.

This work is what is keeping me busy over the next couple weeks. If there is any assistance you could offer, I would certainly be interested. Please let me know if you know of a way to get some cheap food and DVDs. No questions asked, eh?

I do feel though that you may have misunderstood me. I only wished you luck as my charitable counterfeiting will keep me busy for another couple weeks still, and I a sure that a rare opportunity like this will be leapt upon before my schedule gives me an chance to assist you.

Praise Jebus,
Rev. Xuthus Hardere

Sadly, I didn't get a response from this one. Guess I over did it. There are actually groups of people that do this for a hobby, it's called scam baiting.

Not Quite TV

I read some speculation that the writers strike may give a boost to online entertainment. I'm not sure if that's something that will happen, but I coincidentally started using a program called Joost that provides streaming video that includes a mix of licensed television content, and internet content. It appears to be ad supported, and the ads are pretty minimal compared to television.

They've attracted a lot of VC interest lately, and it would be great to see a new form of media like this take off.

(And yes, there's also a Mac client)