Author: oook

Social Advertising, bah!

A lot has happened since I posted about Facebook Ads, in fact, Facebook themselves further developed their ad platform adding what is now called “Beacon,” Facebook Pages which allow businesses to create a page on Facebook to advertise from instead of using a profile and of course, Social Ads.

All of this is supposed to layer on another dimension to targeted advertising and make us want to click the ads.

Of course, a lot of privacy groups don’t think so. In fact, MoveOn.org, an online advocacy group, has already started protests against Beacon even creating a Facebook group to petition against it.

I don’t have very good feelings about social advertising, especially as Facebook is implementing it. Since even if Beacon were to go away, the Social Ads part of Facebook appears mixed up with your news feed. This is as bad as Google’s text link ads which can appear unobtrusively in a blog post or article you’re reading.

Another annoying social ad is people using Twitter streams to advertise. And doing it badly.

Case in point? Saawariya, a Bollywood movie decides to create a twitter stream. All well and good, but how does it publicise it? By following all the Indian users on Twitter. This doesn’t mean they follow the Twitter stream back, but when someone goes to the Saawariya stream and hits the “With Others” link, it shows you the Saawariya updates along with public updates from all the people Saawariya is following! So while your updates may have been public, you probably didn’t know that so many people could see your updates, huh?

When will we learn?

Of all places, I found an article on reddit about a girl born with eight limbs on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Lakshmi is one of those conjoined twins where one twin did not develop completely. What makes her case especially interesting (medically) is that the two bodies are fused in a mirror image at her pelvis. Soon, she will be operated upon in an attempt to remove the extra limbs and re-align her internal organs.

But what really shocked me in that article were the fact that the girl is 2 years old and has been repeatedly refused treatment at the government hospital near her village as well as at Delhi when her parents painfully scraped up the money to take her there! What’s worse is that people have been lining up for her blessings assuming she is the reincarnation of her namesake, a goddess of wealth! Sigh.

Another day, another phone…

Ever since I lost my phone in July, I’ve been putting off buying a new one because of a financial crunch (thanks to crappy employers under-paying me and the bloody malaria!) I kept using my 3-year old LG with it’s scratched body, non-functioning buttons and annoying interface!

Well, that LG finally breathed its last. It just switched itself off quietly and refused to come on again one morning. Typical. I was not ready to buy a new phone as yet but I had to spend on one now.

I had been lusting after the Sony Ericsson K810i. Mostly for its looks, but also for the decent 3.2MP camera it packed. It was more expensive than I wanted to spend, but I went ahead and bought it anyway. And I’ve never been happier about my phone!

It didn’t take me long to install a few games, Opera Mini and the GMail app. Not to mention SSH! Bliss!

Quitting a job is so much trouble

I finally did it. Quit from my fun but under-paid and over-worked job. Obviously the employers didn’t take it well. They’d just lost a guy that did all their donkey work for them without a complaint in the absence of any support team whatsoever. Desperate attempts were made to retain me (none of which involved a promotion, pay raise and support which would have actually worked.)

Instead I was threatened about how I was walking away from such a great deal and that I could have all the support I wanted in a month as long as I did the recruitment myself. (I’m sorry, what are HR departments for?) Wild promises were made about the future of the work I was doing and about the benefits of working for a “global” company with a “global” clientèle. Yeah right.

My decision was made for me the moment my paltry pay raise came in and when I was offered a far, far better paid job at another company. And so I leave one marketing agency to join an online portal to manage one of their verticals. A lot more responsibility although just for one site, but accompanied with a good support team to help me realise my ideas.

Careers Meme

From All The Pretty Words

I went over to Career Cruising and found that the login and password from Rebecca didn’t work. A quick Google solved that problem and I found another login. And I proceeded to take the Career Matchmaker quiz.

Here are my results:

  1. Website Designer
  2. Foreign Language Instructor
  3. ESL Teacher
  4. Marine Biologist
  5. Desktop Publisher
  6. Zoologist
  7. Fashion Designer
  8. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator
  9. Computer Trainer
  10. Animator
  11. Multimedia Developer
  12. Set Designer
  13. Costume Designer
  14. Professor
  15. Taxidermist
  16. Veterinarian
  17. Botanist
  18. Graphic Designer
  19. Computer Animator
  20. Artist
  21. Biologist
  22. Medical Illustrator
  23. Corporate Trainer
  24. Veterinary Technician
  25. Music Teacher / Instructor
  26. Industrial Designer
  27. Animal Breeder
  28. Craftsperson
  29. Potter
  30. Microbiologist
  31. Video Game Developer
  32. Coach
  33. Interior Designer
  34. Environmental Consultant
  35. Pharmacologist
  36. Special Effects Technician
  37. Director of Photography
  38. Makeup Artist
  39. Sign Maker
  40. Food Scientist

Facebook ads

Today Facebook began displaying advertisements in the “news feed” you see on your home page. Here’s an example of one I saw today

When I clicked on the link in that ad, it took me to a page displaying this video

While a single ad in my news feed is not going to bother me much, I don’t know whether I’d feel the same if there are going to be many of them scattered through the feed. Also, it doesn’t look like this ad has been contextually targeted (unless Facebook knows something about me I don’t?) But I’m sure they have that idea lurking around somewhere.

What was really interesting though was that the ad was being served through DoubleClick which is in the process of being acquired by Google. So all those guys predicting the downfall of Google at the hands of Facebook might want to re-think their arguments a bit! 🙂

Yes, yes I know that’s not precisely what Scoble was saying, but I still think he’s full of hot air. 😛

Rant

This is going to be a post filled with me griping about random things in my life. You have been warned. Stop reading now!

I’m very irritated with how lazy I can be. Laundry piles up at home because I keep putting it off. I also own a bunch of clothes and other crap that I don’t use but I’ve not got around to getting rid off! All of this contributes to how grubby my apartment is beginning to look and I get annoyed with that too.

I’m annoyed with the company that employs me because even though I was supposed to be appraised and given a raise in April that’s been put off for more than 4 months now. While the appraisal itself happened in July, I’m still waiting for the promised raise.

The knock on effect of not getting my raise means I’m still living frugally and have to keep putting off the purchase of “luxuries” like new sheets for my bed or bookcase for my books. My books continue to languish in boxes or just lie around gathering dust which makes me very very irritated!

I also want a new laptop, my HP Pavilion is 5 years old, has no working battery, 1 or 2 broken keys, USB ports that are loose and wiggly and a power port that is loose and needs to held in place just right or it will turn off. Amazingly enough, the hard disk which is just over 4 years old is going strong, my speakers still work well and the screen is still in good shape after I replaced the backlight about 2 years ago.

I seem to be back in the “loner” mode that I was in for year or so in 2002-2003 but I don’t feel too bad about it this time. While people still tell me its weird to go watch a movie on my own or sit at a coffee shop reading a book, I’m perfectly happy doing that. What’s so weird about doing things on your own anyway??

I’ve have so many other things to grumble about, but I’m running out of time now. Bah! That’s worth a grumble too!

Lolcats!

I completely missed the recent internet phenomenon of Lolcats (which was quite the craze in June it appears,) but I had to post this image here… Hilarious!

Incidentally, the fact that there is a Wikipedia article on Lolcat already (and one of decent size too) should probably tell you something about Wikipedia’s geek slant.