:: mass delirium ::

Goodbye Blogspot... Hello Wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:30:00 +0000

I've decided to move over to Wordpress. Blogger is sorely lacking in features when compared to WP... and WP is so much easier to work with.

So if you are linking to my blog, please update the new URL @ http://massdelirium.wordpress.com/

Seeya at Wordpress!

iDrool... iLike... iWant... the iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:41:00 +0000

Finally I managed to get my hands on an iPhone. Before anyone get all excited, no it's not mine. And since it's not an authorised handset, I shan't reveal the source. ;)

The first thing that hit me was how incredibly slim the iPhone is. Anorexic even. It feels very solid and not at all plasticky like how I'd imagine it to be. It just makes you wanna caress it, damnit.

The SMS function is simpler and easier than I thought. Even though the keyboard looked rather small, I managed to punch the correct keys most of the time. Maybe it's because I have slim ~~figure~~ fingers. Still, I much prefer a tactile feedback especially since I SMS alot. The keyboard and spelling dictionary (not T9) takes some getting use to though.

The pinching actions when viewing photos or surfing the web is quite a novelty, IMO. Most of the other functions are a breeze and most users shouldn't have a problem.

Having touched one, it just makes you wanna go out and buy one immediately. Should I get the iPod Touch as originally intended or just hold out for the iPhone's Asia release? Decisions, decisions!

Updated 1 Nov 07:
P/S On hindsight, it will be better to wait. The second generation iPhone to be released in Asia will probably be 3G-enabled (and will hopefully contain none of the alleged hazardous chemicals).

Blog action day: iPhone an environment killer?

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:10:00 +0000

Ok ok, so I forgot I was suppose to blog about environment related issues on the 15th October... but it's still 15th over at the US... so technically it still counts.

I just read an article at TechCrunch where "According to Greenpeace, the iPhone contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the prescence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs)) and hazardous PVCs."

Does this spell the death of the iPhone? I doubt so. Most electronic products are made up of non-biodegradable materials so they just sit in landfills when chucked away. But at least it's creating awareness about electronic waste that most people aren't aware about.

Another environment-related entry I posted earlier can be found here.

I'll also be waiting to see how Apple will respond to this. Will Jobs be ready with another PR spiel?

Goodness... Twitter spam?!

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:37:00 +0000

I received an email notification that someone is now following me on Twitter. I thought that was rather strange. You see, I'm a rather low-profile user and and only have a handful of people on my list because I hardly use Twitter.

I clicked on the link and discovered my new follower called "mycoupons". Mycoupons has online discount coupons for everything from adult toys to cosmetics to iPods. OMG. Spam has even worked its way into Twitter.

Needless to say, I blocked mycoupons.

Paid blogging (and how it may affect the PR pitch)

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:28:00 +0000

Recently I got to know of a friend who worked at a company that had just launched a new service. The company engaged the service of the controversial pay-to-blog company PayPerPost (PPP). How it works: You pay a pre-determined amount of money for XX number of blog posts. Bloggers in the PPP network blog about your product or service and received a percentage cut of the fee.

Because bloggers were not required to disclose the real nature of the sponsored post, it raised a storm of controversy and ethical concerns because article integrity were being compromised. For all you know, the next door teen queen/soccer mom/tech geek who raved about a certain product on their blog did so because they were paid to do so. PPP subsequently relented and later required bloggers to state upfront that they are paid to blog about a particular product or service. Still, it doesn't take away the fact that it IS a paid review. You don't have to be a marketing guru to know that most of the time, the review is skewed in favour of the product/service.

My friend had reservations about associating with such a controversial company but the boss adamantly pressed on with it. That aside, another problem is Google. One of the factors that affect a website's Google page rank is the number of links to it. If there are alot of websites/blogs linking to your website/blog, you can be sure your website's page rank will improve. The paid blog posts usually link to the website of the product/service reviewed. Google has a major issue with that, because it screws up the "real" ranking or organic search result of websites. Google is constantly fine-tuning their search algorithms to sniff out paid links; and sites that utilises paid links may end up getting *horrors* blacklisted on Google.

You are now probably asking "How does this affect pitching to bloggers?". For one, if bloggers can be motivated by monetary incentive to blog about something (or anything), why in the world would they want to listen to your pitch? And companies, without the proper understanding of public relations and media impact, would have no problems bypassing the PR folks and going straight to PPP or the bloggers themselves.

Personally, I think it's a bad idea. It just beats me why any self-respecting company or blogger would want to associate themselves with a controversial outfit like PPP.

Kit Chan joins Hill & Knowlton

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:08:00 +0000

The one and only Kit Chan has joined Hill & Knowlton, one of the world's five largest public relations firms. The established singer starts her new career as a campaign strategist in September. Are high visibility and influence good substitutes for relevant PR training and experience?

"One reason is that in this profession, you can get away without formal PR training and professional accreditation. Employers hire PR personnel based on the candidate's writing skills, media experience and event management. Hence, it is easy for anyone who has these abilities, to claim to be a PR professional. Such flexible entry requirements have long been a subject for debate in the industry."
(Quick Guide to Public Relations, IPRS)

I wonder if this means that from here on out, we're gonna see a posse of celebrities crossing over to join the PR industry? I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Diana Ser also joined/started a PR consultancy not too long ago. Well it'll be interesting to note how this will work out for Kit.

PR and Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:56:00 +0000

Here is an excellent article on PR and social media.

Digital storytelling

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:39:00 +0000

Recently I watched a BBC mini-documentary about the Roman Emperor Augustus which threw up a really fascinating theory.

Without going into too much details, Augustus used the popular artform of his day to project himself as a pacifist to manipulate and gain the trust of the monarchists, who wanted Rome to be under the rule of a monarchy. He succeeded and came to power, placing Rome under his dictatorship. Interestingly, under Augustus's rule, Rome flourished and enjoyed much prosperity because of his policies and reforms. BTW since this is the month of August, I did some checking and found out that the month of August was so named in honour of Augustus.

Throughout human history, across every language and culture, people have sought to articulate themselves through artistic expressions. We learn to tell stories and share ideas using images and sounds, from Roman sculptures to the wayang kulit and MTV. These mediums evoke powerful feelings and sometimes even alter our perception of reality. In today’s cluttered media landscape, we are constantly bombarded with media designed to assault our visual and aural senses. Art have always played a part and will continue to do so in the new media in the form of digital storytelling.

Politicians have long been able to skillfully exploit the media to engage and influence the masses. In this digital age, agendas are no longer set on canvas or cast in stone but enacted in the converging technologies of print, television and increasingly, the internet. We can expect to see and hear more politicians, celebrities and the average citizen tapping on the power of the new media in the now. Happy National Day.

Live Earth - Hope or Hype

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:40:00 +0000

The Live Earth website states "Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis."

When you read the above, or any article on global warming for that matter, it is an assumption that the climate is undergoing some sort of immediate crisis. We are shown data after data suggesting how increasing CO2 levels has raised the earth's temperature which in turned is causing the entire North Pole/South Pole glaciers to melt leading to rising sea levels. All these changes in the earth's atmosphere is also causing destructive weather elements such as widespread flooding, hurricanes and the like. I too, believed that our planet was doomed for destruction by man's greedy exploitation of the earth's natural resources and wanton disregard for the environment.

Many years ago, I read Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear. It changed my perception of the reality of global warming. Although the novel is a work of fiction, Crichton based much of the information in his book on real, actual scientific research and data. The conclusion? What we're experiencing now are normal fluctuations in the earth's atmosphere; throughout earth's history there are periods of warming and cooling. All these has got nothing do with human negligence but rather a result of natural solar activity.

Alarmists, perhaps fueled by political agenda, has turned global warming into a myth and a cause to be championed for. How interesting to note that the organiser of the Live Earth campaign, the Alliance for Climate Protection, was founded by none other than Al Gore. In the weeks leading up to the concerts, the local media too jumped onto the bandwagon. Various b-list celebrities appeared on commercials cooing "We are not exaggerating" while pretending to tear their hair/look serious/act cute. I wonder exactly how many of them actually did any kind of research about global warming first?

Well the concerts are over, the crowds dispersed and the superstars jetted back to their multimillion dollar homes. Different reports have already come in and the results aren't exactly very pretty. Live Earth generated about 74,500 tonnes of CO2 and would require the planting of 100,000 trees to offset the greenhouse effect of the concerts. Not to mention the HUGE amount of fuel and energy wasted, I mean utilised, to stage the concerts.

Having said all that, I'm all for caring for the environment because I firmly believe we all have a responsibility to be good stewards of our planet. But we need to learn to discern myth from fact, especially so when agendas are propogated so often through the media. More on that in the next post.

For further reading, here is an excellent article on the whole Live Earth shebang written by a 19 year-old political science student from Canada.

Google Print Ads

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:09:00 +0000

The word’s been out for some time already but search engine giant Google has officially launched Google Print Ads, which is basically a version of its Google Adwords incarnated in print form.

It is interesting to note how Google is extending its reach beyond that of the internet sphere and muscling in on territories traditionally dominated by advertising agencies and other media companies. I can imagine them peeing in their pants now. Should they be worried at all? What’s to stop Google from moving on to the radio and television mediums? The Google empire is growing every year and they are on the prowl for other lucrative channels.

Personally I find the idea a little disturbing. Imagine seeing Google EVERYWHERE you turn... Google Radio Ads, Google Television Ads, Google Bus Ads, Google Billboards, Google YellowPages. It’s a freaking scary thought.

No doubt Google may be trying to grab a slice of the pie, but its mainstay and strongest influence is still the internet medium. At this point, it may be too early to tell whether Google Print Ads will create any impact on the media landscape.

Whatever and Anything

noreply@blogger.com (Stanley) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:38:00 +0000

Two of the most oft-used words in our modern lexicon have become the polestar of a major advertising blitz for two beverage products called, you've guessed it, Whatever and Anything. If you've never heard of this before, you probably just came down from Mt Kusu, in which case you'd be better off climbing back up again.

The (very successful) teasers and ad campaign generated lots of interest and buzz and personally, the print ads never fail to illicit a chuckle. Whether the actual products lives up to the hype is another thing. From what I've heard so far, feedback hasn't always been positive. Just last night, I tried a can of Whatever, and it turned out to chrysanthemum tea laced with so much sugar they should stick a diabetic warning on the can.

I attended a company-sponsored course last week, and the trainer just so happened to mention that the products was a result of focus groups replying "Anything" or "Whatever" when asked what were their favourite drinks. (I checked the product website, and the creators claimed they stumbled upon the idea themselves.)

First we had the baby boomers, followed by Generations X, Y and Z. Now apparently we have the Whatever-and-Anything Generation. Typical teenspeak for you:

"What shall we have for dinner?" - "Anything."
"Which way is better? X or Y?" - "Whatever."
"Which sauce would you like to have? Mayo or thousand island?" - "Anything lor."
"Gerald/Geraldine is soooo cute!" - "Whatever!"

Some of us non-teens aka adults are guilty of the above as well. Nothing wrong with that of course, but unless you want to be accused of being indifferent and apathetic, then you better speak up. Wait, Singaporeans ARE indifferent and apathetic. That probably explains why we are the first ones to invent beverages with innovative names like Whatever and Anything.