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Strange Twists of the New Media

Trivia question: Martha Stewart’s web site recently had its busiest day ever. What site linked to Martha on that day to generate all this traffic?

If you’re thinking New York Times or CNN you’re not even close. And it’s not Google or Yahoo.

The media giant that slammed Martha Stewart and Omnimedia’s web servers:

Cute Overload

This blog has grown into a media powerhouse with pictures of cuddly mammals and clever commentary. Although I do not frequent Cute Overload, that does not keep me from seeing the latest kitten sleeping on a German Shepard or newspaper-reading otter. In fact I’m exposed to it constantly each time I walk into my wife’s workroom. It’s rare to pass through that part of the house without a COM (or Cute Overload Moment).

The site was started by a couple who ironically have no pets of their own (she’s allergic to cats and he is allergic to dogs). Wanting to share some photos of cute animals they started the blog. The rest is history.

But unlike the sticky sweet glurge that so often clogs our inboxes, Cute Overload offer clever and witty commentary along with the cuddly creatures. In fact, an insider jargon has even evolved to describe recurring themes, such as “prosh” combining precious and posh, or “baroo?” to describe a dog tilting its head as if trying to comprehend. Even this jargon itself has earned the name “cutecabulary.”

What fascinates me about the site is the magical way it has grown into such a hugely popular media property. Meg, the site’s founder, is frequently seen on daytime TV. And now, as Martha Stewart recently found out, a link posted on the site guarantees you a tsunami of web traffic. Pretty impressive considering it all started as a place to post some pictures.

Mobile Devices: Back to the Future

Remember the Nineties?

Remember Netscape Navigator and Eudora Mail and Compuserve? If you were trying to create web pages back then you’ll probably remember dealing with different web browsers and versions and plug-ins. I remember avoiding the use of tables because there were still browsers in use that didn’t support tables. Yes, tables. Like rows and columns.

All those heady memories have came rushing back to me as I delved into the wild and wacky world of the mobile web. Also know as WAP (wireless application protocol). Otherwise known as cell phones. With web browsers.

Most people my age can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily surf the web using a cell phone. That’s another discussion- all I know is what my web stats tell me. And they say people are hitting Places 2 Ride using mobile devices. Which made me wonder, “Just what the hell does it look like?”

Turns out it didn’t look like much.

My cell phone, a Motorola C261(far from a high tech piece), displayed certain parts of the site. The majority of it appeared to have slipped off the right side of the screen. Some images were visible, others were not. Columns were shown in a random order, seemingly picked from some celestial wi-fi soup. It needed work if several hundred people were going to insist on looking at it on a two-inch screen.

Anywho, back to the stroll down memory lane.

Turns out that delivering content to these mobile surfers is quite similar to those carefree days back in the Nineties. You’re dealing with limited bandwidth, tiny screens and a variety of browsers. Some phones do amazing things, many do very little. Some actually use the same web browser as a desktop computer. You may have a final product. But you don’t really know what it looks like to everyone.

Here are some links and tips I have found helpful in my WAP endeavors:

devMobi portion of the dotMobi website with reference, forums and tools for developers- including their handy…
Emulator at dotMobi here’s what Places2ride.com supposedly looks like on a Sony/Ericcson K750 cell phone.
Blogger Mobile this article explains how to create a Blogger template that will play for mobile devices and desktop machine alike.
Tips just my own observations…
- Don’t mess with WML (wireless markup language). This technology appears to have either never taken off or died prematurely. XHTML is where it’s at.
- Learn a scripting lingo, or at least learn how to copy-n-paste it. Find a “browser sniffer” like a PHP or ASP script and use it to identify whether to show your visitor the normal website or the mobile site.
- Minimize. You can’t display very much information to mobile users, so you’ll need to identify the most basic content and show only that.
- Sign up for Ad Sense. Unless you plan to promote porn or gambling you don’t have many options for generating revenue from a mobile site. Google can supply relevant ads based on the content of your pages. When a visitor clicks, you earn revenue.

Need a phone that surfs? Check out Tracfone for the cheapest wireless in America.

Pennytech: Laptop Workstation

During our recent ice storm trauma Jackie and I spent a good deal of our mornings soaking up coffee and wi-fi at the nearest Panera. This went on for the entire eight days our power was out.

Each morning we would pack up the Dell laptop I use at work. It’s a reliable, if not exactly light, Inspiron 5500 that has served us well. Jackie doesn’t use laptops very often and had trouble negotiating the glidepoint pad and found it difficult to type with the laptop flat on the table. I solved the glidepoint problem next time by bringing along a mouse. The solution to positioning the keyboard at an angle was her idea…

Most dollar stores sell rubber door stops in a package of 4 or 6 or more. Placing two of them under the laptop sets it up at an angle and makes it easier to type.

Now I keep a pair of doorstops in the laptop bag to use whenever I travel or need to use the Dell on a table top.

Our Leisure Time in the Internet Age

I love trolling through Craigslist.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an obsession. I don’t spend every waking moment there. But when I have a few minutes to kill that’s one of the bookmarks I occasionally visit.

You never know what you’ll find. This morning under motorcycles/scooters I spotted “Large gas powered train holds 5 people” located in Kansas, OK. How could I resist? You just have to click on this stuff. The train cars are made from 55 gallon drums.

Or last week I came across a jar of dirt. It was free.

The free stuff is sometimes a little crazy. Almost creepy. Like today’s post for “Fun random things,” that sounds a little scary to me. What sort of serial random murderer might be lurking behind that randomized email address?

A couple of months ago I saw a vintage BMW motorcycle. I sent it to a friend half-jokingly. Last week he called me up to tell me he’d just bought it. Which proves you must be very careful how you use this powerful tool. You can quickly put yourself, or a friend, in the poor house!

So remember- the ‘List has great power. Use it only for good, not for evil.

tulsa.craigslist.org

The best of Craigslist….

This Recorder IS Handy: Zoom H2

Handy Recorder might be a silly name, but the Zoom H2 digital audio recorder is anything but silly.

I was looking for a way to record audio on the go, mostly with video in mind. The most common options are wireless microphones. But a really good one is expensive. And since we would be using it around machinery (ie; spark plugs) I worried about interference with the radio signal.

Then one afternoon I picked up a copy of Event DV magazine and saw an article about the Zoom H2. The specs rolled off like a wish list: built-in mic, external line or mic input, USB interface, no tape, no moving parts, weighs like… nothing. It even has a guitar tuner! What’s not to like?

We ordered one up. When it arrived I put a new battery in my trusty clip-on mic from Radio Shack and we were ready to go.
Synch
To record audio on the Zoom while recording video on our camcorder requires us to synchronize the two for our final product. This is really pretty easy to do with computer video editing software. It’s a similar process to synching a two-camera shoot.

To simplify this feat we use a $2 clicker from the local pet store (you’ve seen them before- like they use to train Border Collies). The click makes a huge spike that’s easily visible on the two audio tracks. Move them so the spikes match up and your sound is synchronized. Once we’re rich and famous maybe we’ll get one of those cool clapboards like the Big Boys use!
The sound is great, it can store days of audio and uses AA batteries. For under two hundred bucks we’ve got a fully portable audio system that can be used standalone or with a clip-on lapel mic. So far it’s worked out great for our nascent video productions, and we’re coming up with new uses almost every day.

I’m planning to use one at work to record conferences. Last week a buddy told me he attended a concert at the Cain’s Ballroom. A guy down in front was holding a Zoom recorder over his head to catch all the action.

This darn thing really is pretty handy.