The River

The personal professional blog of Pamela Parker -- musings on marketing, advertising, media and technology.

Pamela Parker

Evildoers

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In keeping with the Internet Axis of Evil theme appearing here and here, I’ll report that the Axis power iSearch toolbar (among other things) has vanquished our Windows XP-running laptop. Luckily data is recoverable and all we have to do is reformat our hard drive. Yep, that’s all. Just more than a week of battle, during which time the computer was un-useable.

On our side: Spyware Doctor, Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta) and Webroot Spy Sweeper. On their side: Pure evil.

We suspect infection occurred when we were searching for gambling odds for the Pope’s successor. Be careful out there.

Serendipity

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The things you happen upon while doing product research on Amazon.com… (for an ice cream maker, in this instance)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars This “Iced Cream” stuff is good!, April 12, 2005

Reviewer: MusicalGenius “Jeremy” (Minneapolis, MN US of A) – See all my reviews
I have led a very secluded life. I grew up in a very prominent New England family, (I’m sure you have heard of them, but I will not say which family. Just know that I’m a multi-millionare who has never worked a day in his life except at my Mashed Potato bar)
When I was growing up, I had never heard of Iced Cream. I hear that many children enjoy this treat. I was not so lucky.
Most of my childhood was spent in my extremely large room playing the latest videogames on extremely large television sets. If you have seen the movie “Richie Rich” starring McCully Culkin, that is the closest experience to my childhood I can explain. Except he had nice parents.

I did not.

My parents didn’t let me have “the devil’s energy” (sugar).
It wasn’t until recently when I wanted to upset Mother, that I tried my first taste of Iced Cream at a local Mall. It was WONDERFUL! I was hooked.

I bought this immediately, I needed my Iced Cream all the time, I didn’t care if it was 4am, I would need it! Now I can make it myself! And there is no greater treat than something you make yourself. No matter what Mother says.

The best part about this machine is you can make whatever kind of Iced Cream you want. Some of my specialties include “Tuna and Anchovy Iced Cream” , “Turkey With Stuffing And Gravy Iced Cream”, “Tequilla Iced Cream”, “Whiskey Sorbet”, “Onion and Baked Bean Iced Cream” and of course “Mashed Potato and Gravy Iced Cream”.

Ah, there is still some serendipity on the Net.

Jaffe: Nike’s Next Commercial

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Kudos to Joseph Jaffe for sharing the amazing 16th-hole shot that made for an amazing Masters, and suggesting it should be Nike’s next spot. How could one miss the “swoosh” on the golf ball as it teetered on the edge of the hole? Nice stuff.

(I can’t believe I’m writing about golf but when your husband is Scottish, it’s really unavoidable. Even I can appreciate the beauty of that shot.)

UPDATE: Gary Stein’s great comment on the shot as a spot.

UPDATE2: Tom Watson linked to me saying I had some insight on this moment, so I feel like I’d better add some, and quickly! Mostly, I agree with everything Gary has been writing about over the past couple of days. I love that Joseph Jaffe put up the video of the moment — one could watch it over and over again and bask in its beauty — but, honestly, producing a :30 or :60 is one of the most obvious ways to take advantage of this occasion. You got the TV-watchers, and even the ReplayTV-ers like our household, with the shot when it happened (and with endless replays). How do you get everyone else? How do you take it a step beyond? How do you take advantage of interactivity? Gary’s got some good suggestions, and he’s gathering more from his insightful readers. Stay tuned over there.

The Masters, a different perspective

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On the subject of citizen journalism… The Augusta Chronicle is
inviting spectators of The Masters golf tournament to submit their own photographs of the event. They are displayed on the publication’s official Web site for The Masters. Today, they’d mostly just be pictures of umbrellas, but it’s still nice to see.

Now that I look more closely, it appears the newspaper chain has a central site — Spotted — for photo sharing. Great community concept.