The Final 7 from the SXSW 2006 Showcasing Artists

Finally got through all the Showcasing Artists from this year’s SXSW. Found 39 songs
Which means there’s 7 you don’t know about yet….

Why the Democrats Lose

Over the past 17 days I’ve received 19 calls from this same unknown number. No message, no nothing. Some where in there, I found out it was the DNC calling (presumably for money) and well, I don’t have time for that right now. They just kept calling, and calling, and I just kept hitting ‘Ignore’. Leave a message, seriously.

Tonight, call number 20, I had a single moment to hear their spiel.

Uninspiring. Some vague statement about needing to train people, some script-read bit about taking back something from Bush, and how they need 80 gazillion dollars to make it worth their while. And the ask;

“Can we count on you to make a symbolic contribution of $110?”

“Symbolic” contribution?

Are they asking for actual, real money?

Baffled, I asked why they called me 20 times and couldn’t leave a message.

She apologized and said the call center had so many calls to make that nobody had time to leave a message.

Wrong answer.

There are so many things wrong with this story. So many. At least 20.

If the DNC is going to win, they need to be aggressive, passionate, straight-forward, engaging, and focused. Not annoying, aimless, vague, and apologetic.

Have we learned nothing?

The Most Annoying Spam Form Yet – Fake Forum Registration

Someone’s been hitting the Garrick Van Buren .com Forums with a spam robot. The robot seems to be registering as a forum member with the spammer’s target url as the username and a fake email address.

I know this because the registration confirmation email bounces back with these crazy long member names like:

urlhttpthisisaveryinterestingsiteandborrowmoneynowinfourl

Not sure how to prevent this and it’s happening so infrequently I’m still slightly amused.

End Illegal Immigration – Send More Jobs to Mexico

The reason America has so many illegal immigrants is the same reason America (and any other country) has immigration. Same reason young Americans flee the Dakotas. Those places suck.

Building a fence between the US and Mexico won’t make Mexico suck less (or NoDak) – illegal workers sending money to their home country just might. US, European, and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) corporations opening satellite offices, training Mexicans, and making Mexico a cool place to be will.

What if.

What if the rest of the world took it upon themselves to improve Mexico. And they did. Sure it could take years. Decades. Decades that should be behind us.

Double Feature: History of Violence & Murderball

I’d been looking forward to watching Murderball for a while now. I couldn’t wait and listened to Michael Geohegan’s Reel Review. Murderball is great for one reason – it’s a really cool sport. As a sports movie, it feels more like the skateboard/snowboard/bicycle-stunt team self-promotional videos I grew up with. With the best parts being the hits and the falls. I do have a soft spot for them – got a couple in the Netflix queue right now. I felt the passion from the players and the coaches…I didn’t feel it from the film makers. At one point, I thought the movie was over, popped the DVD out of the player and put it in the return envelope. According to Jen, I was a couple scenes early. Whups.

Then, tonight we watched Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. Jen’s been anxiously awaiting this one – I got interested via Elvis Mitchell’s conversation w/ David Cronenberg. In true Cronenberg fashion – the movie asks good questions about identity (I think the answers given by the wife and son were wrong). Again, like Murderball, good hits and falls. Some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen since Buffy left the airwaves. Unlike Murderball, I was expecting one more scene to wrap thing up more neatly – and glad I didn’t get it.

DoubleShot Coffee’s Single-Click Order Dashboard Widget

Yesterday, I came across the DoubleShot Coffee Order Widget.

DoubleShot Coffee, the same Tulsa, OK folks on the receiving end of a trademark infringement claim by Starbucks, just made one giant leap for ecommerce.

Simplicity and Persistence.

After setting up credit card information on the widget’s backside, select one of their 18 coffees from the front and click ‘Order’.

Need more? Do it again.

Best of all, I don’t need to remember their url, bookmark their site, or remember anything. When I want coffee – I hit F12.

That’s how you build highly-passionate and caffeinated customers.

Thanks Brian.