Author Archive
Spy cam detector? Ooh er.
Oh boy! What a bargain! 45% off! I had to laugh at the fine print … Note: While spy cameras do not have a standard protocol for data transfer they usually use a 2.4GHz RF signal. This detector will detect any 2.4GHz RF signal, even in instances where a spy cam may not be present. […]
Honesty in advertising — a rare and beautiful thing
Yes, I know, I spend a bit of time hassling spruikers (and others) for their hyperbolic marketing claims — like this from Mr ‘get-rich-quick’ himself Dean Letfus: After this week it’s “too late baby now it’s too late” to catch Shaun Stenning and I showing you how to generate genuine, sustainable cashflow fast. … Did […]
Damage control re 4G iPhone: NOT ‘sold’, just ‘exclusive access’
This spin is being promoted: Gizmodo didn’t “buy” the lost/stolen/disassembled 4G iPhone prototype for US$5,000 … they just paid that money for “exclusive access” to it … that’s part of Brian J Hogan’s attorney’s positioning statement referred to here. Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, California, says although he was paid by […]
Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer – Hilarious spoof!
Every cliché they could squeeze into 3 minutes … And when you’ve watched it, read some of the comments in homage of the style at YouTube. A lot of fun. Thanks to Don Miller. “Inspiring final line of speech that d**bags (ugh) will quote in their Facebook profiles!”
Lowlife con-artist uses internet to fleece Kiwis
Good riddance to this lowlife who, according to the NZ Herald this morning, came to this country as a visitor and scammed Kiwis using his ‘knowledge’ of how to pull confidence tricks over the internet: Rogers, who is in his late-30s, was sentenced this week in the Napier District Court to 17 months in jail […]
A glimpse of the future?
For geeks only: Charlie Stross expounds on his version of the future of computing — and it’s far more than the ‘death to PCs viva everything in the cloud’ mantra. He extrapolates from recent statements and events surrounding Apple … I’ve got a theory, and it’s this: Steve Jobs believes he’s gambling Apple’s future — […]
Powerpoint makes us stoopid
I’m not a big fan of overcomplicated, dense Powerpoint ‘presentations’. I’ve seen them used as a crutch and overladen with bullet points and too much type. Looks like other people have reached the same conclusion… Like an insurgency, PowerPoint has crept into the daily lives of military commanders and reached the level of near obsession. […]
iPhone ‘finder’ – a real sweet guy according to his attorney
Brian J Hogan, your fifteen minutes of fame start NOW. See Wired Records show a Redwood City address for Hogan about a mile from the bar where he found the phone. … His attorney says he recently transferred schools and will resume his college education in the fall. He has been working part time at […]
Even more convergence
OK this is getting spooky. After Dilbert climbed into the G4 iPhone prototype theft, now Jon Stewart has also … “buying” for the sake of his commentary the idea that Apple has the Silicon Valley police SWAT team in its pocket. And coining the term ‘Appholes’. Zing! Watch the full 8 min video clip at […]
True or false doesn’t seem to matter to liars
This is a really good essay about dishonest argument — which is one of my bugbears, as we have discussed before. It’s about US politics, but many of the points apply to the business of selling as well. Salon’s Gene Lyons examines the tactics deceivers use — repeatedly telling bare-faced lies or claiming the exact opposite […]
Kieran Trass: last week ‘property guru’, this week ‘property genie’
Landing in my in-box this afternoon … A promotion for an upcoming ‘not another property seminar’ with Kieran Trass, fresh from his stint at the NZ Property Guru’s [sic] hard-sell roadshow … Starring Kieran Trass as ‘The Property Investment Genie’. Well! Knowing Kieran as I do, I might have plumped for a different imaginary magical […]
Stating the obvious/sympathy for the dev… uh, Gizmodo’s Chen
Far be it from me to leap to conclusions about a police investigation, but let me say in response to this: It’s Cannabis & Co – cops By Alanah May Eriksen | NZ Herald | Wednesday Apr 28, 2010 A national indoor gardening chain would not have turned a profit if it hadn’t been knowingly […]
‘If you tell a lie often enough you’ll start to believe it…’
More from Michael Lewis on the success of Dr Michael Burry… Includes this: [Big finance firms selling sub-prime instruments] create lots of risk. The only way you get that risk out there and get people to take it is to disguise it. So they got really good at disguising the risk and they got so […]
Nice reference to Godwin’s law
Remember Godwin’s Law? As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. …but sometimes contracted to: ‘The first person to mention Hitler or the Nazis in an online argument loses’ Here’s a nice reference in a comment thread on the TUAW post I linked to earlier re […]
