Courtesy of Paul Wells

... But here's an ad I'd run this weekend, if I was a Grit and seriously worried I was about to lose big:

BLANK BLACK SCREEN

TYPE APPEARS ACROSS SCREEN AS DEEP, URGENT VOICE READS TEXT:

"Foreign Minister Stockwell Day"

SCREEN DARKENS; RELIGHTS ON LIBERAL LOGO; BRIGHT WOMAN'S VOICE READS:

"On January 23, Vote Liberal."

Remember the advertising in Minority Report?

What Google wants to do ... is SERVE EVERY TV COMMERCIAL ON THE PLANET because only they will be able to do it efficiently. Only they will have the database that converts those IP addresses into sales leads, only they will have the servers and disk space close enough to the viewers to feed the ads. Only Google will have the chops to run a constant, real-time auction for the next ad every consumer is about to see, and then serve that ad at the moment the program goes to commercial.

Suddenly, everybody can (and, really, must) advertise on TV, because it'll be so specific...and so dynamic. If you start shopping for a new WiFi access point in the morning, Google will know, and that night when you watch Two and a Half Men, your ads will be from D-Link, Linksys and Belkin. And, further, they'll know that an intelligent buyer lives at your IP, so your ads won't show you a hot model demonstrating how they're plug-and-play, but will instead feature a quick recommendation from the SveaSoft guy about which AP's the best one for hotrodding.

From Bob Cringely's latest column. Spooky. I highly recommend his columns, BTW, for knowing what the future holds in the technology arena.

Strategic (sic) Voting

Everybody in Canada goes on and on about strategic voting, which is actually misnamed. It should be called tactical voting, since it's a single tactic contrary to your overall interests, exercised individually, not an overarching strategy commanded centrally and consistently over time.

But anyway. The gist is this: You like Party A, then party B second, then Party C third. A has no chance of winning, so you vote B to ensure that C doesn't win. Most commonly, A=NDP, B=Liberal, and C=Conservative.

The problem is most people forget that a Canadian election is really 308 little elections, and the national polls don't matter. So Joe Canadian thinks A has no chance *nationally*, so he votes B, even though in his riding A would have won if they had his vote. This happened all over last time, to the NDP's detriment (and the Liberals' amusingly, since a stronger NDP would have meant they could form a stable coalition).

So if you must vote "strategically," please make sure you know what you're doing. Learn more here.

So perfect

Sorta political, but also fun: http://bawdypolitic.ca/catalog.htm

I want to order them all! (work safe)

I hate email forwards...

Normally, I'm bombarded with "Microsoft and Pepsi are testing a new email system and will send you $100..." or "This kid's dying of cancer and wishes..." type email forwards. They're all hoaxes, by the way. If the email says "forward this to everyone you know," it is guaranteed to be a hoax.

But today I got this from a friend. Not seriously, he just thought I'd be amused by it. The thought that this email might be being forwarded around the country and actually influencing people made me cranky though. So here's my response...( very long )

New Vegas Plans

Seeing friends is more fun that being alone in Las Vegas. So now we're seeing friends in Seattle, and *then* going to Las Vegas! We arrive Feb 22 around lunch, and leave Feb 24 around midnight. Wooo!

Wolf Pickle!

Holy crap! Super Mario 64 completed in 16 minutes and 16 stars! I watched it and it's legit*. The scariest part for me, being a one-time obsessive Mario 64 player, is that the first 16 stars come in only nine minutes of gameplay. And the 16 minutes includes two minutes of intro stuff at the beginning. !!!

* To be fair, it appears to take advantage of a couple physics bugs.