insights from the digital future (blog posts 2005-2011)
I tried GoDaddy once years ago and absolutely hated it. But today I decided I wanted to register a .tv domain today and it seemed that GoDaddy had the most reasonable rate (advertised at $15.99). But every time I click “proceed to check out” Firefox bugs out. Anyone else have this problem? The conspiracy theorist approach would be to blame GoDaddy’s CEO, whose VP of domain auctions, auspiciously named Adam Dicker, was recently found to be gaming the domain name bidding system.
A couple months ago I was put off after seeing a friend in a sidebar ad on Facebook and realizing that I likely appeared on the sidebar of my friend’s Facebooks without my knowing.
At left, you’ll see Tom Lewis aka TomDog purporting to endorse a Facebook App. Sure, he probably is a “fan” of the app but I doubt he realizes that his image is being used in this manner on his friends’ sidebar.
There IS a way to opt out of your likeness being used in this paid ads for Facebook Apps, although it is not entirely easy to find the opt-out page.
Log-in to Facebook, go to “privacy” at the top right, click “News Feed and Mini-Feed,” then select the “Social Ads” tab within the module and change “Appearance in Social Ads” to No One. Screenshot below. Anyone else have issues with this?
Continue reading “How to Opt-Out of Appearing in Facebook Ads”
Hillary Clinton went some $10-15 million into debt just to finance her own charade of a much-too-long campaign. Now, with the help of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, she hopes that those who already donated to either Obama or her campaign will pony up yet again to help her get out of her self-prescribed debt.
Well, aren’t we all in a little bit of debt these days? Me? I’m not looking for millions, but even a couple hundred would help me stay in the black. And what’s more, I’m not asking anyone to pay me on top of some publicly paid salary — I actually do all this blog stuff out of the kindness of my narcissistic little heart. But you can PayPal all your pennies to andy@netzoo.net or hook me up with something from my Amazon Wishlist. I’ll let you read it when I’m done if you’re nice. So there! I’ve got nerve too, Hillary!
Continue reading “If Hillary Can Ask You to Pay Back Her Debt Then So Can I”
I had to chuckle this morning when I revisited a year-old post about Lara Logan (it’s been receiving traffic lately in the aftermath of her appearance last week on The Daily Show) and found this John McCain for President Google image ad at the bottom of the page:
SearchEngineWatch points to a couple interviews in which Google Ad execs predict that both candidates Obama and McCain will depend heavily on Adwords bidding wars and that the Clinton campaign was inconsistent with it’s usage of Google’s Adsense and Adwords platforms.
According to Adsense’s cost-estimate tool, the keyword Obama costs an estimated $0.88 – $1.23 per click (CPC). So, essentially the party who wishes to advertise on a website contextually relevant to the keyword “Obama” would have to outbid other potential advertisers. “Barack Obama” scored similarly on estimated CPC, but the estimated CPC for “McCain” is $1.23 – $1.85 — signficantly higher, implying that someone is driving up the bidding to advertise on websites/blogs featuring the word “mccain.” It comes as little surprise to find Barack Obama ads at the bottom of my posts that feature McCain. Yet, in the instance of the Lara Logan post, I’m betting that the McCain ad was picking up the “Iraq” keyword and advertising on that (Obama-related posts appear to be plastered with pro-Obama Google ads).
The below map is a sketch of some or all of the vineyards we’ll visit on this lovely afternoon. From the Hilton north of Santa Rosa, to Silver Oak (and possibly Meeker) and points Geyserville / Dry Creek, including Ferrari Cerrano, Bella, Mauritson, and Mazzocco. Followed by lunch in Healdsburg, then a scenic drive to Ledson in Kenwood, with possible stops at Mayo Family and finally Roshambo before a roadside nap and then drive to drop off the rentacar at SFO in time for an 8:15 flight.
Anything I ABSOLUTELY MUST hit along this route that I’ve left out? DO let me know with a text message (323.679.4945) or follow the adventure here. Photos and tasting notes to follow.