Okay, so maybe it’s just a coincidence that the image appears to be a demon blowing the heat of hell onto the beleaguered state, but it’s still pretty darn nifty if you ask me!

Thanks to Frankensteam for finding this.

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Read more offbeat news on Noozeez.

“Are you going to make a phone more for kids so that my Mom will let me get one?”

At Tuesday’s shareholders’ meeting in Toronto, a child in the audience left RIM’s Co-Chiefs stumbling for a proper response to the simple question.

Mike Lazaridis, after pausing uncomfortably to find the right response, said, “There’s lots of opportunity and, you know, if the current BlackBerries aren’t acceptable to your mother, hopefully the next ones will.”

There’s an old joke where a father asks his young child to program the VCR. In 2009, the VCR is (excuse the pun) childs’ play for today’s PSP-savvy, DSi-armed youth. Those who think that children couldn’t operate a Blackberry are naive.  Chances are, a 10-yr old can use features that baffle many corporate CEOs.

It’s a humorous situation that happened at the stockholders’ meeting but it shouldn’t be dismissed. Children of just about any age can conceivably be a market for the exponentially-growing Smartphone industry. Could there be an “iPhone Jr” or “Blackberry YE” (Youth Edition) coming in the future? Perhaps this could be the entry for Nintendo to get into the mobile phone market while bolstering handheld gaming sales.

Thanks to one child, we’ll see the Smartphones for kids by 2011. You heard it here first.

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Read more Odd News on Noozeez.
Cute Image Courtesy of Wired for Noise.

In this era of unoriginality in Hollywood, they really should considered making a new version that takes everything about the movie a little closer to the edge. Why?

Why not?

Claire Standish – The Princess

While Molly Ringwald did a fine job playing the spoiled but sensitive popular girl in the original, her problems were just too minimal. The teenage angst she portrayed was so… 80s.

You didn’t really feel that she was that snobbish, that pressured, or even that popular.  She also didn’t quite fit the bill to truly pull off the lipstick trick.

For the updated version, plug in Lindsay Lohan and make her a real bitch. In other words, plug in Lindsay Lohan.

First, you have to make her more evil. Moviegoers love a pretty girl they hate (though the “pretty” part is arguable these days for LinLo).

It isn’t that we have anything against pretty girls, but the ones who start off mean, learn their lesson, then befriend a geek or two are the ones who make today’s movies more enjoyable. It’s corny but true.

The new version of Claire made it to Saturday detention because she spread photoshopped images of her ex-boyfriend and her ex-best friend engaging in Paris Hilton style activities.

Brian Ralph Johnson – The Brain

He was troubled by getting a B, so he decided to try to kill himself with a flare gun. Sadly, comically, it went off in his locker.

Anthony Michael Hall played this role as perfectly as anyone could have. He had the credentials through nerd role after nerd role before buffing up and turning psychic around the turn of the century. It will be hard to beat his performance, but we have someone in mind who should give him a run for his money.

Insert Michael Cera and you have a new age of nerd. Today’s nerds aren’t socially clueless like they once were. The Internet itself gives them resources for being semi-cool that they never had before as well as the communities and methods of communication to “practice” their social skills.

Now, at least, they can turn “hip” into a research project and have all the answers they need.

With Cera, the I-got-a-B-so-now-I-must-die argument doesn’t play. No, it needs to have more substance, more reality, more 21st century teen turmoil. Our nerd is a hack. He did get a B, but instead of ending his promising future with Apple, he created a worm that hacked Twitter accounts and posted Tweets about fake celebrity deaths. Not sure where the idea came from, but it seems to fit.

Andrew Clark – The Jock

Yes, wrestling is a sport, and wrestlers are jocks. Yes, Emilio Estevez could have been a wrestler. Still, it’s just hard to imagine calling Emilio Estevez a jock.

But, throw in a sporty tank top in the 80’s and you’re a jock, so we went with it. This version of Andy picked on a younger member of his wrestling squad and duct taped his ass cheeks together. Funny, mean, but it just wouldn’t fit in today’s world.

In 1985, it was a prank. In 2009, it would be a sexual assault and Andy would have spent detention in jail getting his pretty-boyness hit on rather than in a school library picking up weird chicks.

No, our choice for jock will be more focused on the end goal. He wants to make it to college sports and on to professional football or basketball or whatever (no wrestling), so, in keeping with the news of the era, our jock gets caught with performance enhancing drugs.

Tom Welling played a jock in Cheaper by the Dozen and a super jock in Smallville. Why not be a Breakfast Club jock as well. As a taller, more muscular actor than Estevez, it will be more believable coming from him when he says, “Two hits. I hit you, you hit the floor.”

Of course, he could also add the line, “I can burn you to death with my frickin’ heat vision coming from my frickin’ eyes.”

Allison Reynolds – The Basketcase

Here is a big challenge. Where else can you find an actress who can shake her dandruff onto her paper so convincingly? Ally Sheedy played the role in a way that left you wondering, “Was she acting or is that how she really is?”

This character was different from the beginning. Once we find out the reason she was in detention (she had nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon), we started thinking that there was some kind of mental issue here. She ended up pretty normal by the end of the movie even though her parents still ignored her and she most likely reverted to her black mascara.

The new version needs more issues. Getting ignored is normal for teens in the 21st century. We need something juicy. A drug addiction makes the most sense here. Our reinvented Allison is a meth-head. Basketcase means something totally different, but at least we won’t be whining about where this character fits into this group.

Now, the actress: Julia Stiles. I know — too clean cut, too well spoken, too old, too… whatever. My only reply is: exactly. She needs a role that takes her to the edge. There is talent there, we just haven’t pushed her yet. This role will. It could easily be the central role in the whole movie.

John Bender – The Criminal

This one is the most important roles in the new film, just as it was in the old film. It represented the real issues of the 80’s. It wasn’t the most common person from the perspective of teens being able to relate to him, but John Bender was the guy we rooted for.

He was the jerk, but with a good heart.

We liked it when he was right and the jock was wrong. We loved him when he then took the heat for it to allow the others to escape. Self-sacrifice. John Bender, the Judd Nelson version, was the first teen anti-hero (arguably).  He delivered the best lines in the movie and wore combat boots like an absolute champ.

Today, it doesn’t necessarily take a tough guy to be tough, a hard guy to be hard. Today, the loose cannons in school are the ones that you see and say “he could be normal”, but there’s just something not clicking for him.

In what is bound to get the most “I hate that actor and he doesn’t belong in Breakfast Club or anywhere in Hollywood” responses, we select Shia Labeouf as our 21st century anti-hero. Remove your natural bias for someone who starred in mega-disappointment blockbusters like “Transformers II” and “Indiana Jones and the Bad Script”.  Open your mind, give him a clean slate, and listen:

Don’t think he could do it? Read about him. You’ll soon see that, if it wasn’t for his break in Hollywood, he may have become the character we are describing. One difference in the Labeouf version versus the original — this one headbutts the principal when he gets in his face.

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Should “The Breakfast Club” be remade? Probably not. In fact, 99% of the movies that are remade shouldn’t have been. Still it would be interesting to introduce a new generation to that wacky Saturday in some random high school when coming of age happened for 5 unlikely friends.

Or something like that. In homage, here’s the original trailer:

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This isn’t a blog about movies. Still, it has a movie section, so it’s okay to check it out every now and then.

The dangers do not stop when the consoles are no longer used. E-Waste, or Electronic Waste, is potentially a greater problem as it is more likely to become an issue during the manufacturing or disposal process.

ArsTechnica took a look at the findings and had mixed feelings. While there is definitely evidence that the manufacturers should get together and share techniques to produce greener consoles, the popular blog still showed less urgency in the matter than does Greenpeace.

Our take on it is this: the solution is too simple to ignore. The companies in question are too profitable to let simple changes pass them by. If, as both Greenpeace and ArsTechnica agree, the three got together to do something about this, it would be relatively easy to make “Eco-friendly Consoles” a reality.

Here is how people can make contact with the manufacturers:

• Write to Nintendo
• Write to Sony
• Write to Microsoft

Here is a video about the findings: Playing Dirty

For more information on anything at all, please check out the homepage.

The reason that magazines prefer lists over rankings nowadays is because these are opinions and everyone has a different one. They fear people reading the list and say “this is all wrong.” I have no fear of this, as I know that the list is wrong for most people. It’s just the way I see it using their list of movies ranked the way I would have ranked them.

20 – SEVEN (1995)
Directed by David Fincher

It just wasn’t scary to me.  Creepy, yes.  Disturbing, absolutely.  Scare… where? When?

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19 – THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
Directed by Jonathan Demme

Again, this falls into the ?scary? category.  Where are the frights, the chills?  Yes, Hannibal was one scary dude in our imagination, but other than the part where he bites the guy’s faces off, there were no moments that made me jump.

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18 – JAWS (1975)
Directed by Steven Spielberg

This definitely deserves to be on the list, but more so for the suspense and the intense fear it provoked in beach-goers AFTER they watched it.

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17 – THE THING (1982)
Directed by John Carpenter

It had its moments.  Carpenter has scarier movies, though.

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16 – HALLOWEEN (1978)
Directed by John Carpenter

This one was pretty scary.  There’s the axe.  The chills.  Most importantly, there’s the converted William Shatner mask.  Terrifying and memorable.

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15 – PSYCHO (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The suspense in certain scenes (probably the only shower scene I didn’t really like) and the ever-creepy music makes this a certainty for any list.  I didn’t jump out of my pants (luckily for those around me) but it did make me shade my eyes a couple of times.

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14 – THE EVIL DEAD (1982)
Directed by Sam Raimi

Brains. ‘nuf said.

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13 – CARRIE (1976)
Directed by Brian De Palma

The finale made it worthwhile trudging through this lifeless and over-hyped flick.

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12 – AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)
Directed by John Landis

Any movie that can make you laugh and scare the crap out of you seconds later – definite winner perfect for the top 20.

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11 – ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)
Directed by Roman Polanski

Probably the creepiest part of the movie other than the piss-inducing subject matter is the scariness of the director.

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10 – HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1990)
Directed by John McNaughton

The reality aspect of this flick gives it a 5-place bump on the list.

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9 – THE RING (2002)
Directed by Gore Verbinski

If there was ever a creepier way for an evil spirit that doesn’t sleep to attack her victims… well, there just isn’t.

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8 – NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
Directed by George A. Romero

Brains. ‘nuf said again.

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7 – THE OMEN (1976)
Directed by Richard Donner

Bad things should happen to the people who conceived and worked on this demented pic.  Oh, wait…

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6 – POLTERGEIST (1982)
Directed by Tobe Hooper

For a movie that wasn’t rated R, there were some pretty terrifying moments.  Clowns.  Trees.  Swimming pools.  Ectoplasmic ooze.  This classic had it all, even the desecrated Indian burial ground.

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5 – THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper

The thump on the head with a hammer – who the hell wouldn’t be scared of inbred freaks in the Longhorn state?

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4 – 28 DAYS LATER (2003)
Directed by Danny Boyle

Modern day classic.

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3 – A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven

The gutting of Johnny Depp nearly moved this one down on the list, but Freddy held his own.

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2 – THE SHINING (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

The man is scary enough in real life.  Why did Kubrick have to go and make him nutzerer?

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1 – THE EXORCIST (1973)
Directed by William Friedkin

If this one needs an explanation… well, you probably shouldn’t see this movie.  In fact, don’t.  Pure evil.

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My only question… where’s Friday the 13th?

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This isn’t an Entertainment Blog, but I do like to be entertained, so read it often, please.

Whatsopen.com is one of these new local search destinations. Originally released at the beginning of the year in “Beta,” WhatsOpen’s only unique feature was its claim to provide hours of operation data for businesses that appeared for a user’s search query. Unfortunately, upon using the site for only a few seconds it became clear that the initial version of Whats Open had completely inaccurate and useless data, and had little more to offer than a cute frog logo and some fluffy language hyping their supposed testing in China and a pending mobile application just around the corner.

Although Whats Open was nothing more than a less useful version Google Maps, they did have a strong viral response thanks to some cleverly executed rumors. High profile blogs from Engadget to Gizmodo to Valleywag covered Whats Open leading up to and following its launch, not for its functionality (as there wasn’t any), but for its rumored relationship with Google as a potential Google Android application. All these stories explored the Google angle and didn’t really pay any attention to the Whats Open site itself.

After a short hiatus where a splash page promised an-all new version of the weak local search engine, Whats Open has gloriously been re-launched just this week. Luckily, the new website now features…well…no new functionality. But instead of a cute frog, the site now has a logo with a cool new attitude with spray paint and freeways around it! Clearly they didn’t take Google’s approach to good design, and rather than providing a simple layout that maximizes function over form, they chose to have a handsome albeit over-the-top design that is absent of any real value.

Whats Open is what’s wrong with local search. It’s simply a waste for users. The entire unique selling proposition is the availability of the hours of operation for businesses, but they can’t even get that right! Just like the previous version, the data is inaccurate and useless. Do they just expect users to not notice? Interestingly, in the previous version, users were able to login and edit the information if they felt charitable enough to provide the data for them, but they seemed to have removed the ability to edit the content in its current version, hmm.

We’ve featured stories on local search before. Local Buzzer is similarly an up-and-coming local search site, but it provides a vastly more useful experience for users. Not only does it provide useful mapping and address data, but it provides relevant links to websites, an events calendar, user reviews, coupon offers, and a wealth of other value information about the business the user is trying to find, including hours of operation! It’s more than just a Google Map mashup – it’s truly a local search tool.

When it comes to local search, there are plenty of options for users. First, there are the established local search portals that have become increasingly popular thanks to their clever social networking functionality. Yelp is one of these destinations, as it has a rapidly growing and active user base that has contributed greatly to its wealth of content thanks to the site’s solid foundation and features. Even Citysearch remains a user favorite for restaurant ratings and reviews.

But before all else, users have the top tier search engines themselves to locate all the local search data they could ever want! Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask all feature local search capabilities that are constantly being developed to provide users with a more robust search experience. Looking at Ask’s, local search portal, it provides the type or specialties of the business, amenities, what type of payments are accepted, user reviews, search results related to the business, and…wait for it…the hours of operation! Even Yahoo! has Upcoming which goes a step further and provides useful local even information.

As local search becomes more important and relevant to searchers, especially as more users are adopting mobile technology and need to know what’s happening around them, local search engines and portals will become more valuable to users. The top search engines have done a good job of providing the technology that facilitates effective location-based searches, and websites such as Yelp have provided an environment where users actually want to become involved and contribute to the community and its content. When it comes to local and mobile search, websites such as What’s Open are simply useless and shouldn’t promise what they clearly don’t deliver.

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Reviews of more new websites coming soon.

Here is a portion of the original page where it was found:

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Find more odd news here.

The problem is, they also don’t want to pay to visit websites. “Don’t make money off of us, AND make it all free.” That’s the message, and a recent study described in Arstechnica about Web surfers and Behavioral Targeting touches on this fact. Check out that article (later) but first, let’s take a look at a solution.

It’s more challenging for advertisers such as Los Angeles Toyota Dealers and Auto Loans Boston to truly make an impact without the right message.

OurSocieties, a social media and social networking hybrid, is taking advertising to the next level. People will look at ads. They may even click on them if they are relevant. They don’t want their data used to determine relevance. That’s the catch-22. To combat this, OurSocieties is selecting sponsors based on their targets without using the user data. Pages will be served based upon an opt-in advertising platform.

When new users join the site, they will be able to opt-in to the advertisers that they are willing to see. It will not be cumbersome — if they want to select their advertisers later, they will be served from the entire pool until they have the time to complete their own “behavioral targeting” profile.

In other words, instead of tracking the activities of the users, Our Societies plans to just flat out ask them.

It will be a breath of fresh air for both consumers and advertisers. Super-targeted advertising without incentives to click (other than to shop for products) is the way of the future. Advertisers paying for people who WANT to see their ads — there’s something new. No more force-feeding or manipulating.

There will be another advertising section that involved “relevant sponsorship.” The automotive category of the social media section will be sponsored by someone automotive — Toyota, Automotive.com, NASCAR — whoever steps up to sponsor it. Again, the advertiser is only paying to be viewed (and clicked on) by people interested in what they have to offer instead of misplaced Cole Haan ads in the Gadgets section (not that people who read about gadgets won’t wear Cole Haans, but a nice iPhone ad will probably have a better effect).

Scheduled to launch in July, Our Societies should become the model for online advertising. It isn’t too hard. If you want to give the people what they want, just ask them.

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This isn’t necessarily a Marketing and Business Blog, but it plays one on television.

Bloggers are in many ways amateur journalists.  I have written columns for print publications in the past and I prefer the editorial license allowed in blogs.  Why?  Because you can be more bold on the Internet than you can in a newspaper or a magazine.

The article in question speculates that there may be people in the McCain campaign who are intentionally doing whatever they can to help keep Hillary Clinton in the race so she can launch attacks on Barack Obama.  This is a reasonable specualtion and is probably, to some extent, true.  If done properly, McCain can only gain from a longer fight.

The attacks have been in addressing this opinion piece as one that does not offer an proof.  My retort: “If everything on the Internet needed proof, there would be about 1/3rd of the blogs that there are today.”

Blog boldly.  People will bash.  Don’t be afraid to share a controversial opinion or ask an odd question just because people will bash your point of view.  The true beauty of the Internet is that it allows everyday people to ask controversial questions and get outlandish responses in return.  That’s part of what makes it fun and informative.  It’s a blog, a place for people to speak freely.

Write for your audience.  Write for yourself.  Write what you want.  As long as nobody gets hurt, it’s all good.  No harm, no foul.

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This, for those who don’t know, is my blog.  Enjoy it, bash it, ignore it — whatever fits your needs.

Over the past several weeks, I have been privy to many projects in different stages of development. One thing that seems to hold true for many of them is that the developers’ idea of “the next big thing” is a hybrid of sorts.

Some are leaning towards social media mixed with social networking. Most of the social media sites have tried to head in this direction to some extent. All have fallen short. Most notably, the Digg changes a few months ago have turned from an attempt to socialize social media (with shouts and other features) into an unfair way to game the system. The results have been disastrous.

Social networking sites have each tried to crossover to other mediums. MySpace has been attempting (in vane) to offer portal-style integration, while Facebook had Beacon for a couple of weeks before realizing that becoming an advertising medium unlike any other had strangely predictable results.

StumbleUpon has been the only site to have some measure of success in trying new things, but that is at a scale. It isn’t that they have succeeded at anything outside of their core service. They just haven’t outright failed like the rest of the sites.

Enter stage left the Web 3.0 Social Hybrid. W3SH sites are all the rage right now because so few know exactly what will work and what won’t. The first wave of social sites, even the juggernauts like the ones mentioned above, all have glaring holes in them. User dissatisfaction is rampant, larger companies are considering them for buyout but not pulling the trigger because they don’t know how to make real money with them yet, and investors are lining up to start something without knowing what that “something” will be.

Of all of the ideas that I have reviewed over the past couple of months, only one really seems to have the legs, vision, and marketability to truly set the pace in 2008 and beyond. Only one seems to be a true contender to start Web 3.0. Sadly, I’m under strict orders not to discuss it here (or anywhere). Yet. Stay tuned though. If my gut feelings are correct, this one will really take off here in a few months.

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Read more about Web 3.0 soon on this blog.