Mike Hudack

The $144,146,165 Button

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:24:55 -0400

The average New York City taxi cab driver makes $90,747 in revenue per year. There are roughly 13,267 cabs in the city. In 2007, NYC forced cab drivers to begin taking credit cards, which involved installing a touch screen system for payment.

During payment, the user is presented with three default buttons for tipping: 20%, 25%, and 30%. When cabs were cash only, the average tip was roughly 10%. After the introduction of this system, the tip percentage jumped to 22%.

Those three buttons resulted in $144,146,165 of additional tips. Per year. Those are some very valuable buttons.

"Each ad skipped costs the viewer $.10, which is automatically deducted from their pre-funded..."

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:07:25 -0400

“Each ad skipped costs the viewer $.10, which is automatically deducted from their pre-funded account. When an ad is skipped, the advertiser receives a credit from the publisher who is paid a percentage of the viewer’s fee by SkipIt.”

- New SkipIt Service Asks: “Would You Pay to Avoid Online Video Ads?”

I applaud SpotXchange for trying to come up with creative solutions for preroll. But they are solving for the wrong problem here. As is anyone jumping into the “skip this preroll” game.

We should be figuring out how to make preroll ads better vs. creating mechanisms to avoid them.

We like commercials. Well, we like good commercials. We also like to be marketed to. Advertising works when great creative, solid targeting and respect for the consumer are combined. All too often - especially when it comes to preroll - this does not happen.

Those of us in digital video - particularly those on the advertising side - need to work together to make preroll better. Advertising can - and should - always be additive to the content experience. A great example of media doing this right is fashion magazines. When polled, readers of fashion magazines often cite the ads as part of the experience of enjoying the magazine. The ads add to the experience of the magazine.

We need to get to this place in digital video.

Here at Blip we’ve done a number of things to make the preroll experience additive to the content viewing experience. First and foremost we built Blip Creative Services, a fully-functioning creative agency within Blip. This team works with our clients to build custom ad units and custom video experiences.

Blip Creative Services has spent a lot of time developing unique preroll formats. They have created a number of preroll enhancements and interactive features that engage the viewer but more importantly respect their time. Most viewers are savvy enough to understand the value proposition of free content: they can enjoy Blip anytime, anywhere and always for free and in exchange they need to watch a preroll. But it’s on us to make that preroll experience worth their time.

This is what is lost on many in the ad world today. Products like SkipIt are simply the latest entry in a grand race to the bottom.

Content creators work very hard to make their content compelling. The same ethos should apply to preroll. Instead of all of these smart people figuring out ways to let consumers skip preroll we should be thinking of ways to make preroll better. In the end this will add far more value to the digital video ecosystem.

(via evangotlib)

racismschool: iamtrayvonmartin: #wearetrayvonmartin...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:50:43 -0400

racismschool:

iamtrayvonmartin:

#wearetrayvonmartin #iamtrayvonmartin #justice4trayvon

“NYS Senator Eric Adams and his colleagues memorialize Trayvon Martin during the March 26, 2012 senate legislative session” via Facebook

I LOVE THIS! I LOVE THIS WITH MY ENTIRE HEART!

Health Care Mandate Thought.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:24:29 -0400

spiegelman:

If Congress has the power to force people to buy insurance, then doesn’t Congress also have the power to force people to invest in Goldman Sachs?

The rationale would be the same. More people buying into the insurance pool results in economic benefits for everyone, and Goldman is too big to fail so preventing it’s failure results in economic benefits for everyone.

I don’t like the idea that Congress can force me to invest in Goldman Sachs.

Or what about Congress levying a tax penalty if someone doesn’t make a mortgage payment? I’m trying to figure out what exactly is the nature of my objection other than “where do you draw the line.”

There you go with your intellectual consistency and honesty again. Can’t you just blindly support your president and party in the face of an overwhelming assault by the forces of evil? This is the problem with Democrats.

tastefullyoffensive: [context]

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:47:57 -0400

tastefullyoffensive:

[context]

breakingnews: Hundreds of students at several Miami area...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:28:24 -0400

breakingnews:

Hundreds of students at several Miami area schools staged walkouts for slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin today. Above, students form ‘TM’ on a football field. Read more at NBC Miami.

Knight News Challenge: Alive.in/ Video Journalism from the Frontlines

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:42:33 -0400

Knight News Challenge: Alive.in/ Video Journalism from the Frontlines:

newschallenge:

1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]

Develop alive.in/ as a social network for content from international video journalists, using our mobile app, and youtube directly.

2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]

GlobalVoices is…

"Frankly, the professional experience I have had with TSA has frightened me. Once, when approaching..."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:24:06 -0400

“Frankly, the professional experience I have had with TSA has frightened me. Once, when approaching screening for a flight on official FBI business, I showed my badge as I had done for decades in order to bypass screening. (You can be envious, but remember, I was one less person in line.) I was asked for my form which showed that I was armed. I was unarmed on this flight because my ultimate destination was a foreign country. I was told, “Then you have to be screened.” This logic startled me, so I asked, “If I tell you I have a high-powered weapon, you will let me bypass screening, but if I tell you I’m unarmed, then I have to be screened?” The answer? “Yes. Exactly.” Another time, I was bypassing screening (again on official FBI business) with my .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and a TSA officer noticed the clip of my pocket knife. “You can’t bring a knife on board,” he said. I looked at him incredulously and asked, “The semi-automatic pistol is okay, but you don’t trust me with a knife?” His response was equal parts predictable and frightening, “But knives are not allowed on the planes.””

- gmancasefile: TSA: Fail (via auerbach)

nickdouglas: publicradiointernational: British company Pavegen...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:27:38 -0400

nickdouglas:

publicradiointernational:

British company Pavegen has developed a new paving tile that captures the energy of footsteps and turns it into electricity.

On a small scale, one day’s worth of foot traffic over a few tiles could power one street light overnight. In another recent field test at a music festival, dancers stomping on a dance floor with Pavegen tiles generated enough energy to recharge their mobile phones.

The company’s first big field test will come this summer at the London Olympics. Pavegen will be installing its system just outside the Westfield Stratford Shopping Center, one of Europe’s biggest and busiest urban shopping malls. The tiles will be placed on one of the main pedestrian thoroughfares leading into nearby London Olympic Park. Depending on the foot traffic, the company hopes its tiles might be able to power the mall’s entire lighting system. More.

(Image: Pavegen)

Am I crazy for thinking that can’t possibly recoup the energy cost of making, installing, and maintaining the system?

Caroline McCarthy: A Response to Julia Allison's Op-Ed Addressed To Women Moving To NYC, From A Woman Who Once Moved To NYC

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:24:51 -0400

Caroline McCarthy: A Response to Julia Allison's Op-Ed Addressed To Women Moving To NYC, From A Woman Who Once Moved To NYC:

katespencer:

[Warning: TLDR]

Tonight on Twitter I stumbled upon Julia Allison’s NY Post op-ed titled “A warning to a new generation of women — don’t let ‘Sex and the City’ ruin your life.” (Co-written with her friend Julia Price.) At first I was like “huh,” and then I skimmed it and was…

bliptv: You can now add Blip to your home screen on your iPod,...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:36:12 -0400

bliptv:

You can now add Blip to your home screen on your iPod, iPhone, or iPad! Click above for a how-to.

via gunsandrobots

Want To Make An Android Phone? That'll Be $15 To Apple. $5 To Microsoft. $0 To Google.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:16:40 -0500

Want To Make An Android Phone? That'll Be $15 To Apple. $5 To Microsoft. $0 To Google.:

parislemon:

This is where things start to get really interesting. Reports Ian Sherr for Dow Jones Newswire:

The consumer-electronics company [Apple] has put forth proposals to Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. to settle some pending litigation in exchange for royalty payments to license its patents, among other terms, these people said.

But:

Apple isn’t attempting to offer patent licenses to all its competitors or create a royalty business, one person familiar with the matter said.

Okay, so what are they doing then? The key may be here:

One factor is that Android has proliferated so widely that shutting the software out of the market using injunctions is no longer practical, one of the people said. Licensing is an alternative that could add cost to Android development and make it less appealing for manufacturers.

In other words, if this report is correct, Apple is simply taking a new approach in their battle to destroy Android. Instead of suing them out of existence, they may take a page from Microsoft’s playbook and demand a fee that will make the OEM partners think twice about using the “free” Android software.

Put another way, it’s a shift from “fuck you” to “fuck you pay me”, as I previously wrote about last December. This seems to be playing out exactly as this Bloomberg report predicted.

If Microsoft is getting $5 for each Android device sold from many OEMs, and Apple starts getting another $5-$15, that’s a lot of money to be paying to use an OS that was previously completely free.

It has been reported that Steve Jobs said he would be willing to spend all of Apple’s money to destroy Android. Right or wrong, Tim Cook may be opting for the more economically viable approach.

braiker: Fake.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:10:55 -0500

braiker:

Fake.

Sean Sutton, left, greets his boyfriend of 2 years, U.S. Navy...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:10:02 -0500

Sean Sutton, left, greets his boyfriend of 2 years, U.S. Navy sailor Jonathan Jewell, E5, with a kiss after Jewell returned from a seven month deployment aboard the USS Stennis on Friday, March 2, 2012 in Bremerton, Wash. The USS Stennis returned to its home port in Bremerton Friday, completing a seven-month deployment in which the aircraft carrier launched the last Navy air mission over Iraq and more than 1,000 flights over Afghanistan. Photo: JOE DYER / SEATTLEPI.COM

The "Inflected Right"

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:55:47 -0500

wiesen:

You know how, like, pretty much everyone, like makes fun of teenage girls for like, always talking like this?

Have you noticed that people in tech do almost the exact same thing, but with a different linguistic crutch? Consider the following made-up exchange:

A: So you know, right, there’s no way that Google can catch us. They just don’t get product, right?

B: Yep! Think about Google Wave, right?

Over the past year or so I’ve noticed an extraordinary amount of “inflected right” popping up in the discussions among entrepreneurs, VC’s and other people in and around tech. People pepper their dialog with the word right, typically at the beginning or end of phrases. I’ve been in meetings where, like “um” with a person who struggles with articulation, it’s astonishingly common once you start listening for it. Pay attention during your next two or three conversations with people in tech who you don’t really know – I’ll bet at least one of them uses this crutch a few times and probably much more than that.

What’s the purpose of this? It’s essentially an “um” for tech. Valley girls (do they still have those?) started saying “like” instead of “um” – I have no idea why, really. But I think in tech the inflected right is a way to use the pauses inside of sentences as a way to sound self-confident (arrogant if you prefer), as if one is semi-implicitly coopting the listener into one’s point of view.

“Those guys are killing it, right?” – I assert that a company is doing well, and I assume that you agree with me and self-confirm with my inflected right. Now it is kind of difficult for you to disagree without it being awkward.

It’s clearly a relatively trivial quibble, but I think it actually foreshadows some of what’s happening in our ecosystem. Words matter and speech matters, and the inflected right is subtle evidence of groupthink and conclusory thinking. Also, it’s annoying.

Lastly, I know that I sometimes do it. So if you catch me using the inflected right, bust my chops for it. Because it’s annoying when I do it too.

thenextweb: Square has just put the word out that it is...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:18:49 -0500

thenextweb:

Square has just put the word out that it is rolling out to 30 NY taxis today, but instead of the white scanners we’ve come to love, riders will be the first to lay their eyes on brand new, rather sexy hardware. As you can see in the picture below, it’s quite gorgeous. Square replaced the annoying LCD with an iPad, letting you to pay while the trip is in progress. Plus, it even sends receipts right to your phone or email. (via Square Hits NY Taxis with Sexy Hardware)

Wow. Super awesome.

My thoughts today are with the Russians, the Syrians, the Libyans, the Egyptians, the Bahrainis and all of the other people who continue to fight for their freedom across the world...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:16:13 -0500

Backed into a corner. (via Photos: Russian police break up anti...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:14:45 -0500

Backed into a corner. (via Photos: Russian police break up anti Putin protest | Denver Post Photos, Video)

Welcome to the dystopian future. (via Photos: Russian police...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:14:05 -0500

Welcome to the dystopian future. (via Photos: Russian police break up anti Putin protest | Denver Post Photos, Video)

annieisms: EVERYONE GO HERE: http://mustachify.me This is...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:52:55 -0500

annieisms:

EVERYONE GO HERE: http://mustachify.me

This is amazing. I have to tell everyone. Sooo amazing! I don’t know how it works. But I CAN’T EVEN… OMG. TECHNOLOGY!!! \o/

IT EVEN CAUGHT JAKE IN THE BACKGROUND!!

UPDATE: See also http://mustachify.me/1 and http://mustachify.me/2