Adam Schultz

So, recently I wrote a couple of posts about on-line TV and my frustration with the current options available to us lowly consumers. I mentioned that while there was alot of great content out there, and that there was some solid technology to view it, both need to come up a notch as the tech still needs work and there still isn’t A+ content available free and legally for online watchers through the existing chanels.

Enter this months issue of Wired.

Did you know that the founders of Kazaa and Skype have formed a new company to compete with the archaic broadcast televison world in the same way they used Skype to upend the traditional telcoms. Well, you do now.

Ladies and Gentelman, I give you, Joost.

(more screenshots)

< wait for applause >

Think YouTube, Kazaa, Skype, Firefox, Democracy Player, and MySpace all wrapped into one killer entertainment app.

Complete with buddies, ratings, p2p distribution.

The kicker, targeted ads. That’s right, think adsense for TV.

Because the ads are more targeted, 2 things will happen.

1. Ads will be more impact-full and we will watch fewer of them with more value to our selves and to advertisers.
2. Becuase the programing is ad supported, it will be free.

Sense Wired doesn’t publish it’s offline content on-line I can’t link to the article but I will summarize it in a follow up post with some of the juicy tidbits.

I have already signed up for the Beta and will let you know once I have a chance to give it a spin.

So now we have to wonder if they will use the new Adwords post and pre roll system for their ads or create their own.

So here is a perfect example to illustrate my point raised in my previous post about Microsoft not knowing how to communicate.

Google Adwords is down and I knew immediately why they were down and for how long this would be the case.

You might be wondering how I knew exactly what was going on so quickly.

Did I check the blog 3 days ago?

Did I get an email about it yesterday?

No and no.

It’s because they came right out and told me, front and center, at the moment that I needed to know.

Not only do they tell me what is going on, they do it in 17 languages, with a follow up links for me to get more information.

They even close with an apology.

That is how you communicate.

Take no chances, accept full responsibility and insure that your message gets through.

Microsoft,

See what I’m talking about. That’s all we need. Just a little thoughtfulness.

PS.

Does anyone know how Vista sales are coming along, the latest Mac ads can’t be helping.

So I go to log into micorsoft adcenter today and all I get is this.

Safari -

Firefox -

There is no update, no status message, no… nothing. Does the blue screen of death apply to all things microsoft.

Realy, this is just another example of why microsoft is doomed. They just don’t know how to communicate with consumers. That is to say, they don’t listen, and then don’t respect us enough to let us know what’s going on.

Shit, for all I know, they are only displaying this screen to mac users so we go out and buy PCs.

If any one knows what going on, comment some updates.

Updates:

Simple SEM said last month,

“Looks like the MSN Adcenter had a bit of a hiccup this morning, and they have decided to pull it offline for the remainder of the business day. This was a unplanned outage and is not a good sign, especially for the efficacy of new technology platforms.”

But this is a month later now and I was actually able to access it all month. What’s the story?

I certianly hope that whatever updates they are doing were worth it and that adcenter still works on a Mac when they come back online.

Microsoft,

Thoughts? Would you like to chime in, oh, thats right, you don’t listen to us. My mistake.

Updates:

As I was informed in the comments by Evan (thanks Evan) and then more gracefully by Thomas, this is just scheduled maintenance as specified on the 7th by the adcenter blog. It’s back up now.

Being fairly new to adcenter, I didn’t yet think to check the blog as I should have. (wipes mud off face)

However, would it have killed them to post a link on the error page?

Isn’t that just a common courtesty?

Or is it just me?

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The ADD Executive.

You will find some great resources, success stories, life hacks and most importantly, a place to share your experiences.

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The other day, I realized that George W. Bush is now directly responsible for killing more US citizens in Iraq than were killed on 9-11. (with Afganastan, that # was surpassed months ago)

That is to say, that over the past 5 years, Bush has killed more Americans than Terrorists.

If someone wanted to do the math, I would go out on a limb and say that very soon, George W. Bush will be directly responsible for the deaths and injuries of more Americans with his un-just, un-warranted, un-necessary war in Iraq than all of the US terrorist attacks, ever.

Now, even more astounding is the realization that as of a couple of months ago, over half a million Iraqis have been killed since major combat in Iraq.

Moreover, this President is un-willing to release research funding to harvest even one frozen, never going to be used for anything else, embryo, that could lead to life saving research for countless people plagued by countless diseases because he values human life too much to permit government funding for the research.

Like many of you, until now, I felt that this whole war was such a magnificent mess that no matter what we did it wouldn’t make a difference. Sometimes I feel like we just need to get the hell out, split the country into 3 and grovel for forgiveness to the international community to bring in international peacekeepers in to protect the new borders. Then, sometimes, I feel that more troops could help stabilize the country and help to slow the progress of civil war, and that we need to be there because its our mess to clean up.

But then I realized something. We are spending billions of dollars on this god damned war. Billions of dollars. To kill people, who are only killing us to get us out of the way for them to kill each other. spree that we are responsible for and kick started with our glorious SHOCK AND AWE. As long as we are there, killing is going to be the only thing that happens.

We must leave in order for any progress to take hold. Furthermore, for every father, mother , son or daughter we kill, out grows more people who will blame the US for their loss and radicalize in order to enact revenge. The implications will haunt us for generations. Just ask the Germans or the Japanese still living in the shadows of their awry past leaders.

More troops only mean more killing and that can’t be the proper path. If bush has his way, I am sure that over 10,000 us personnel and over 1,000,000 Iraqis will have died in this mess since the beginning. WTF!

If you just think of the lifetime potential and global contribution of over a million people. The lost accomplishments of these people, their children, their grandchildren and so on, it’s staggering.

Then we have Katrina. The city still sits. Still festers. Because the rest of this country and it’s President as written it off. Even in his State Of The Union Address, The gulf cost reconstruction was never even mentioned. Not a single utterance. Murder and suicide rate continue to climb and the news media has stopped talking about Katrina all together.

What are we doing spending Billions of Dollars on destroying Iraq, when that money could be spent rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

So that brings me to the title of this post.

I have a family to support, a business to build, and between the 2, that doesn’t leave much time for anything else save for the occasional blog post. I would like to do more but not only do I not know what to do to make a difference, I’m not sure I could commit time. All I have is a love for my country, my family and my friends.

I could wait for the presidential election, but I don’t think we can wait that long. The longer Bush is in power, the more exponential damage he is capable of. I am a member of MoveOn.org. I sign petitions and write letters they ask me to when I believe the cause is just.

But what else can we do. What else are we capable of doing that can actually make a difference. What can we do so that we no longer feel like ants being slowly burned by some big eared, thin lipped kid with a magnifying glass.

What the f–k should we do?

Leave your ideas in the comments and send this post to others for their input.

I will ask for feedback on some of the best ideas in follow up posts and I will personally head up an action commity for a chosen course.