Recently in Web 2.0 Category

A WikiHow contributor posted a useful tip today on how to confront someone who is giving you the cold shoulder. I was enjoying the article, which started out with good solid advice. "Make sure you're not just being paranoid." Good point.  Now I'm paranoid about being paranoid.

The article continued with calm and sympathetic advice on how to resolve the issue peacefully using empathy and understanding. But I was feeling aggitated, and I couldn't quite figure out why. Until I realized, HE was there.  Cold Shoulder Man himself, standing there in his black and white mime hoodie, giving me the freaking silent treatment, just like they said he would in the WikiHow tip.

So, I asked him. "What are you lookin' at?"

Of course he said nothing.

"Ohhhh, I see!  Okay, now I get it. You're here to make a point. Well, I hear you loud and clear, mister." And then I threw in, "Do I know you? Didn't we date in college?"

I took a deep breath, and set out to the work at hand. I practiced confronting him using the 9 Step Program outlined in the WikiHow tip. It took a while, but finally I felt closure. I patted myself on the back, as instructed in Step 9, and thanked Jeebus that I was not just being paranoid.

Jack Links Beef Jerky has a wonderful series of commercials out right now called Messin' With Sasquatch. My personal favorite is the Pickup Truck spot. But go check out the Official Messin With Sasquatch site to see them all! 

Sasquatch even has a MySpace page, which he updates regularly, unlike everyone else!. His life is absolutely riveting, so of course I added him to my friends list.  I love being able to get all Web 2.0 with Big Foot!

Puppetji.com

I think that my favorite thing about puppets is that they can say what humans want to say, but can't or won't due to social mores. Puppetji is a guru who tells is like it is. He even has a MySpace Page, a blog, and a YouTube Channel. He is a truly enlightened and extremely well connected Web 2.0 phenomenon.  I recommend watching his Hookah Talks for immediate chakra cleansing.

Buckminster Fuller, Photo from Buckminster Fuller Institute

It was announced today that Standford has purchased a large interview archive from New Dimensions, and plans to digitize content to make it available online.  New Dimensions is a non-profit organization who has spent the last few decades interviewing and broadcasting session with the world's more innovative thinkers.  The collection that Stanford bought includes interviews with Buckminster Fuller, Timothy Leary, Deepok Chopra, Maya Angelou, and tons of others.

READ ABOUT IT HERE

If you don't know about New Dimensions, and all of their wonderful podcasts and Internet Radio options, you should. So here you go. Go forth, and become enlightened!

New Dimensions Podcast Subscriptions
New Dimensions Internet Radio
Buy New Dimensions MP3s for $1.99
New Dimensiona Audio Club

Last week, the New York Times Online boldly abandoned it's subsciption model, and is now offering all of the site content without the need to login. This opened up the site's archives, and all other columnist based content to the entire web viewing audience.  Analysts are now closely watching the actions of Rupert Murdoch to determine if the Wall Street Journal will follow in the Times footsteps once the Journal is officially under his control.

Signs point to Yes!

I guess the newspaper organizations have finally woken up and smelled the coffee Google and AOL have been brewing for the past decade.  Free the content, and the advertisers will take care of the rest.

Try looking at this photo without having Puff the Magic Dragon stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

Originally Uploaded on flickr by Syrtis

San Jose startup, PuddingMedia, has come up with a new way to make money from phone calls connected via the Internet: having software listen to the calls, then displaying ads on the callers' computer screens based on what's being talked about. The company announced today that their free internet calling service, ThePudding.com, will launch on Monday October 1, 2007.  But beware, someone will be listening to your calls.

ThePudding.com will provide 100% free calling to any phone number in North America without the need to download software to your computer.  You simply dial in over ThePudding.com's website, and talk over the pudding VOIP network.  Voice recognition software, VoiceSense (TM),  hosted on PuddingMedia servers will translate your conversation, and content will be served to you on ThePudding.com that is relevant to the conversation you are having with the person on the other end of the line.

Talking about movies? You might see local movie listings and times served to you on ThePudding.com. Discussing what food you need to bring to an upcoming office party, and you're served recipes or ad from local take out restaurants.

The company's privacy policy claims that they do not collect, record, or store any conversations, and that they  "implement reasonable and appropriate security safeguards" to secure your data. Well, that's comforting. I will be interested to see how this product plays out.  Sounds a lot like snooping to me. (Oh, and by the way, the Privacy Policy and FAQ are MS Word documents that you have to download to read. Argh.)

Read More will take you to the Press Release from PuddingMedia.

The next time you get a hankering for the old In And Out, check out FastFoodMaps.com, and their completely insane fast food mashup.  With over 50+ cities to choose from, you should be able to find a burger or a chicken leg before you can even say, "Fast Food Mashup!"

But before you start salivating, you might want to watch Morgan Spurlock's documentary, Supersize Me, which you can order here from Amazon.com. (For only $6.99 now!)

Except from the Amazon Editorial Review:
"Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, rejected five times by the USC film school, won the best director award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival for this alarmingly personal investigation into the health hazards wreaked by our fast food nation. Under extensive medical supervision, Spurlock subjects himself to a steady diet of McDonald's cuisine for 30 days just to see what happens. In less than a week, his ordinarily fit body and equilibrium undergo dark and ugly changes: Spurlock grows fat, his cholesterol rockets north, his organs take a beating, and he becomes subject to headaches, mood swings, symptoms of addiction, and lessened sexual energy. The gimmick is too obvious to sustain a feature documentary; Spurlock actually spends most of the film probing insidious ways that fast food companies worm their way into school lunchrooms and the hearts of young children who spend hours in McDonald's playrooms. French fries never looked more nauseating. " --Tom Keogh

I know that Supersize me is old news, but seriously, if you're even thinking about bookmarking FastFoodMaps.com, you might need a fresh look at the film!

More Morgan Spurlock Links Here:
Morgan Spurlock on Wikipedia
10 Questions for Morgan Spurlock on Time.com
Five Minutes with Morgan Spurlock