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With the economy in shambles and everyone trying to inject a few extra dollars, many companies seem to be turning to adding additional advertising revenue to inject a lifeline. Some companies can individualize the message to make the advertising seem more integrated into their services. This could make the ads appear more like a value added. For example take Facebook and the comment made today in the NYTimes (Sorry Login needed to view fully)

Facebook’s ability to aim at particular demographic groups is impressive, Mr. McConnell told the club. As an experiment, he and a colleague set up an ad that would target all Facebook members who were 22- to 27-year old women, who worked for P.& G., were left-leaning and living in Cincinnati, and who liked sex and Cocoa Puffs. Facebook provided one person who perfectly fit the profile.

This level of sophistication along with adding some non-intrusive choices for small integrated ads should be accepted among the Facebook population. If deployed correctly the shock should be minimal and the acceptance of  additional ads in this add-advertising environment should not affect the demand for their services.

This is not true for all companies. Other companies have been injecting ads to the detriment of their services. For example take Tivo and their continued path to irrelevance.

The main purpose for the Tivo DVR device is to avoid advertisement and fast forward through annoying ads. Tivo deciding to create additional advertising on machines during their paused and fast forwarding moments is not what customers are needing. This decision is especially annoying to older Tivo machines since the added advertising is certainly taking up additional hard drive space without any added benefit. The nature of the machine and the reduction of the machines utility in the "updates" certainly makes even the most loyal Tivo users wondering about the future. Subscribers also wonder what they are paying $13 to receive if they still need to view advertising.

Compounding the troubles for Tivo is the reduction in price for computer parts, equipment and hard drives. As the annoyances of Tivo increase the cost benefit of building a Mythbox seems to become a more and more viable option. Tivo’s is currently making some poor business moves. It is inconceivable that collecting viewing habits cannot churn more of a profit. Someone is mismanaging the profits for viewer data or they have not figured out a decent strategy. If changes are not made, it is highly likely that Tivo will die along with its misguided advertising plans.

To some businesses the advertising expansion will help the revenue stream and to others this move could be the kiss of death. Businesses need to consider their end users and what their purpose and desire is for their service. If the business cannot perform their core duties and expectations to their user the addition of advertising could be worst move to make in these troubled times. 

Maybe we could be wrong… Someone could call her the "one eye" love, but this woman is asking for an eye-cam to be placed within her prosthetic eye. She does have very specific specifications. Besides just looking like an eyeball she is seeking:

• DVR
• MPEG-4 Recording
• Built in SD mini Card Slot
• 4 GB SD mini Card
• Mini A/V out
• Firewire / USB drive
• Optical 3X
• Remote trigger
• Bluetooth wireless method
• Inductors: (Firewire/USB, power source)

Sounds like she should call Dell and have one sent in 2 to 4 weeks…

With the success of Wall-E it is time to go back to 1984 and see how things started. The very first animated short was called The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. Wally B seems a bit similar to Wall-E in name. Considering the Pixar crew loves to credit back to their origins there probably is a connection. Although it is technically not a Pixar short, the animation was by John Lasseter, who was working on his first computer animated project and would move on to be a pivotal player at Pixar. The animations were rendered on one Cray X-MP/48. This was a serious piece of computer hardware in 1984. This Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project might be the Steamboat Willie of a new generation and should be given some healthy respect for computer graphics produced in the early 1980s.

Luxo Jr. (1986) which is the same image seen in all of Pixar’s opening logo sequences (bouncing lamp) was the first short produced by the Pixar corporate entity, but was not the first work produced by their team.

In the early 90s before Pixar became the entertainment giant, these shorts were regularly shown on Sesame Street. The digital market has really exploded since those days. More information can be found at Experienceproject.com

Readwriteweb and Charles S. Knight, SEO have complied a fantastic list of alternative search engines. If you are tired of Google, you might want to give one of these a try. For some features such as organization into clustered groups and different types of artificial intelligence, these alternative search engines might provide a significant advantage over the traditional Google search.

Several concepts have recently been released which demonstrate the effectiveness of using nanotechnology to produce revolutionary concept designs. Here are 3 concepts which will change our view of the mechanical world in the near future:

1) NASA Shape Shifting Planes

2)BMW Concept Car called GINA (Press Release)

3) The Nokia Concept Phone featured on Lockblog post What will You Cell Phone Look Like in 5 Years?

These designs feature modifiable structure which can only occur with Nanotechnology and future components under development. It looks as if the future is a bit more malleable than anyone might expect.