t 'n t luoma

X10 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This is news that will largely go unnoticed by the people who should notice is the most: advertizers. It won't matter to them, because they by and large have the attention span of house flies. It should matter to them because it reinforces my old adage.

Don't annoy potential customers.

Perhaps I come from usual breeding, as I know for a fact that my mother still won't buy a certain kind of laundry soap because of an obnoxious commercial from the 1970s. Whenever I used to hear an offensive commercial, my first move was to hit the mute button (I wore it out on the first TV that we bought). My second move was to find out what they were selling, and then make a mental note to not buy it.

Advertizers don't get this. They don't get that people don't like to be annoyed.

There may be some short term results. If you shout loud enough, you will get people's attention, but is just getting their attention enough?

X10 thought so. They were the company that first exploded onto the scene with pop-up or pop-under ads. You know the kind... you go to one website and suddenly another window appears either on top of the window you were trying to read (pop up) or underneath it (pop under). The theory behind it is that you will read the pop up because it is right in front of your face (wrong... people learned to close the windows as soon as they started to open) or that you will eventually read the other one because you will think it is important (false: people know an ad when they see one).

X10 started it all, and now a lot of sites have followed suit. I actually don't know how often these are used, since I use Opera and have them blocked. (If you use Opera, press F12 and make sure you have "Open requested pop-up windows only") There are ways for Mozilla and even Internet Explorer users to block them.

My guess is that most people don't block them They just ignore them. Like banner ads. Like Flash ads. The mind is remarkably agile. It will learn to block out what it wants to, and no advertizer can stop it.

But that won't keep them from trying.

Advertizers are going to have to learn that what is of value is a long-term relationship with a customer, not a .002 second flash of some ad.

It will be better for them, and for us. But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

Posted by TjL at 03:48 PM | Permalink

An “updated” version of St. Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, slightly adapted from its original version. (Compare to NRSV Translation.) From M. Robert Mulholland’s book Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation

For the community of faith does not consist of one pattern of preference but of many. If the INTJ should say, “Because I am not an ESFP, I do not belong to the community,” that would not make it any less a part of the community. And if the INTP should say, “Because I am not an ESFJ, I do not belong to the community,” that would not make it any less a part of the community. If the whole community were an INFJ, where would be the ESTP? If the whole community were an INFP, where would be the ESTJ? The ISTJ cannot say to the ENFP, “I have no need of you,” nor again the ISTP to the ENFJ, “I have no need of you.”

Posted by TjL at 08:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Opera Software today announced the Opera Platform for operators and handset manufacturers. By enabling full integration between handheld devices' local applications, the available Opera browser environment and operators' online content, users can now get a continously more fun, dynamic mobile phone experience right on the mobile phone's main screen. The Opera Platform engages users more than ever before, while also stimulating the use of the newly rolled-out online data services for higher ARPU (average revenue per user).

Read the rest of the Opera Platform press release. Also, the AtNewYork covers Opera Platform

Posted by TjL at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thanks to Ilya Shpan'kov and Martin Schrode, there are now translations of the 30 Days to Becoming an Opera Lover series.

There are 5 days available in Russian and 11 days available in German. They are both working on additional days as well.

To get to the Russian version, simply add /ru/ to the end of any URL, or /de/ for German. For example http://tntluoma.com/opera/lover/7/ becomes http://tntluoma.com/opera/lover/7/de/.

There are also links to the translations available from the English pages.

If you would like to start reading them, you should start at the German version of the Introduction or the Russion version of the Introduction.

Posted by TjL at 07:48 PM | Permalink

A yes, the wonders of Microsoft’s integrated browser (Internet Explorer). You know, other than being able to shut out other browsers from your Operating System and being able to strong-arm computer makers such as Dell into putting your browser on the desktop and no one else, the other really nice advantage to building your browser right into the OS is that you can compromise the security of the entire system even if people choose not to use Internet Explorer..

That’s right folks, even Microsoft will tell you that the latest Microsoft bug announced puts you at risk even if you don’t use Internet Explorer. Here’s the exact quote:

A number of security issues have been identified in Microsoft Internet Explorer that could allow an attacker to compromise a Microsoft Windows-based system and then take a variety of actions. For example, an attacker could run programs on your computer when you are viewing a Web page. This vulnerability affects all computers that have Internet Explorer installed. (You do not have to be using Internet Explorer as your Web browser to be affected by this issue.) You should help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.

Wow, how fun. So Microsoft forces you to have their browser installed (it is difficult if not impossible to remove it completely) and their browser compromises the security of your system! Great! Thanks again Microsoft!

Add to the mix that they are planning to integrate Internet Explorer and Windows even further in future releases of Windows, and the future just looks very rosy for Windows users.

(Personally, I hope to be Windows Free by the end of 2003 and onto FreeBSD.)

Posted by TjL at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)