tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5964852024-03-26T02:15:21.852-07:00Buzzword ComplaintWhere buzzwords go to dieJosh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-42094918102964128602008-05-23T08:58:00.000-07:002008-05-23T09:09:57.425-07:00MediaPost Raw - A New Buzzword<blockquote>We haven’t heard corporate wordplay this clever in some time. Last year, a top Grey executive said he’s aiming to create a “tra-digital” shop — one equally proficient in old and new media.</blockquote><br /><br />Tra-digital? Whoa - that's bad. Straight out the Elks' lodge.<br /><br />The other buzzterm the post cites is "automagically," which is at least 3 years old. Heard it in numerous conference demos and video tutorials.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-34882283587338364492008-02-29T16:34:00.000-08:002008-02-29T16:34:24.751-08:00An Interview with Buzz Saw<a href="http://posthoc.com/interviewbuzzsaw.htm">An Interview with Buzz Saw</a>:<br /><br />In 2000, jargon-garbage was at its peak, and buzzkiller.net rejoiced in its endless battle with weak-minded PR entities. <a href="http://bestpr.net/profile_susanb.htm">Susan Mac Tavish Best</a> interviewed me, The Red Worm, after a particularly creative haircut:<br /><blockquote>1). How often do you go red from using a buzz word?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Very rarely. When I do use a buzzword, I try to make sure the sardonic quotation marks are audible. When I was at Forbes, there were a few agonizing instances in which buzzwords were edited into my stories. See http://buzzkiller.net/hypocrite.html<br /><br /></span>...<br /><br />10). I heard that the hyphen key on the computer keyboard was going to be swapped with the single quotation mark for ease-of-use. All buzz, all true, or just a load of crap?<b><br /><br /></b><span style="font-weight: bold;">The ultimate PR hack attack would be a trojan horse program that turned the hyphen key into a delete key. PR Newswire, Business Wire and M2 Presswire would be out of commission. With a shortage of mushy buzzwords to grease its progress, the Web industry would screech to a halt.</span><br /></blockquote>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-36293053793527263892008-02-12T11:01:00.000-08:002008-02-12T12:24:54.816-08:00Business Technology : Oracle's Hot New Offering: GobbledygookProps to WSJ business technology blogger Ben Worthen. Being on the biz tech beat, he and his colleagues have to sift through steaming piles of buzzword-laden press releases daily, but a recent "offering" from Oracle crossed the line, and <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/02/08/oracles-hot-new-offering-gobbledygook/">Worthen pounced</a>:<br /><blockquote><br />Are you looking for a “market offering designed to simplify the lifecycle management of complex IP-based services?” Have we got the product for you!<br /><br />That description is straight from an Oracle press release that touts…well, we’re still not sure what it touts. The release is string of bewildering tech terms and vague verbiage. It refers to whatever it is the company is selling as an “offering” in each of the first three sentences. Is that software, hardware or something you sacrifice to Quetzalcoatl?<br /><br />The release explains that this offering is an “integrated solution” that “enables communications service providers to manage growing IP service complexity, scale operations efficiently and facilitate ongoing network change.”</blockquote>There's more, so check out the link above for a proper thrashing of Oracle's PR department.<br /><p>Thanks to David Resnic of CA for alerting us to it.</p>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-58466242690785977542008-01-31T13:33:00.001-08:002008-02-12T12:26:48.389-08:00First, create the problem...<blockquote>Business Process Management<br />Building End-to-end Process Solutions for the Agile Business<br /><br />"Within the average organisation working patterns and associated operational practises change on a regular basis. Modern business systems must be capable of responding to change as and when it occurs. Today's leading Business Process Management (BPM) systems are capable of delivering information and service in a form and at a time that supports the everyday needs of the business and its users."<br /><br />The Butler Group<br /><br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-73034037780133406042008-01-29T23:57:00.000-08:002008-01-29T23:57:44.484-08:00Children In Film Launches First Online Social Networking Service and Most Comprehensive Resource Center for Child Actors and ParentsAh, the return of the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">robust</span> database" from fin-de-siecle retirement -- and for such a tear-jerkingly worthy cause.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/01-16-2008/0004737675&EDATE=">Children In Film Launches First Online Social Networking Service and Most Comprehensive Resource Center for Child Actors and Parents</a>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-73338334489268849982008-01-10T13:24:00.000-08:002008-01-10T13:41:59.125-08:00It might take CSI to determine what they do<a href="http://www.news.com/1606-2-6225397.html?tag=nefd.also">See if you can figure out what Lexicon Digital Communications does</a>. <br /><br />Oh - a "solutions-based" company. Taking the pain out of the process...which process?<br /><br />The ghost of 1999 is upon us.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_sarYH0z948&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_sarYH0z948&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-13286932452292158522007-09-18T11:05:00.000-07:002007-09-18T23:22:25.728-07:00At Least the Names are Better This TimeLooking at the Demo Pit at the <a href="http://techcrunch20.com/blog/">Techcrunch 40 conference</a>, I have to say that big fonts and pastels aren't the only huge Web 2.0 improvement over the dot-com stampede. Freed of the idiotic naming convention whereby ".com" was suffixed to every company's official name, in order to signal to day traders that "this here is an int4rWebz company," and aside from the "Big"s, the "[elided-e]r"s and the "-ster"s, this is a pretty decent crop.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Names I'm feeling</span>:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=45">Vudu</a> - du it.<br /><script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=34">Stixy</a> - yum!<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=36">Swamble</a> - sounds like the name of a country judge.<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=29">Pakt</a> - ...and ready to go.<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=38">Tangler</a> - risky, but frank.<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=5">Boomi</a> - cheeky, with a bass track.<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=33">Spoke</a> - 'nuff said.<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=25">Mashery</a> - either a British misdemeanor or a pre-industrial fast food chain - either way, guilty as charged!<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=58">Houseglue</a> - construction adhesive or coagulated dance-sweat? Who cares - two good nouns that go great together.<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=93">G.ho.st</a> - spooky in a good way</li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=75">Polar Rose</a> - sounds like the name of a Yes track or something. How can that be bad?<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=88">WorkLight</a> - take out the intracapital, but cozy and solid nonetheless.</li></ol><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Names I'm not feeling</span>:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=10">DotName</a> - way too close</li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=97">Chuala<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> - woof!</span></a></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=11">Empressr</a> - lose the "r" and you've got something<br /></li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=31">SmartHippo</a> - redundant</li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=42">MyFridj</a> - oh, my.</li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=56">Goojet</a> - disgusting</li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=82">Snoozester </a>- and that goes for the language in the company description too.</li><li><a href="http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=52">Dopetracks - e-heroin chic?<br /></a></li></ol>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1150162082251614862006-06-12T18:24:00.000-07:002006-06-12T18:28:02.290-07:00Learnings<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>I've been seeing and hearing this one frequently: "learnings," as in "There were some key learnings to take away from that project." <br/> </p> <p>Translation: "We got our ass handed to us on that one. Never again."</p> <br/> <p style="text-align: right; font-size: 8px">Blogged with <a href="http://www.flock.com" target="_new" title="Flock">Flock</a></p></div>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1137084247967837772006-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:002006-01-12T08:44:08.003-08:00Red Meat D.I.Y. on those words<a href="http://monkeydyne.com/rmcs/opencomic.phtml?rowid=91770">Son X</a> has a little commentary, couched in the form of a customized Red Meat comic. It's suggestive of a buzzkiller/red meat mashup, but really this is more of a remix than a mashup. There's a difference. You knew that.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1131580755573136722005-11-09T15:59:00.000-08:002005-11-09T15:59:15.580-08:00Enough said!<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraserspeirs/50100138/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/24/50100138_76bd65c296.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraserspeirs/50100138/">Hipster PDA nano</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/fraserspeirs/">fraserspeirs</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> </p>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1125244064939181472005-08-28T08:47:00.000-07:002005-08-28T08:48:59.100-07:00Back-Story BattlesReporters beware? Mark Cuban <a href="http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000477055301/">blogs the email interview</a> for a NYT piece about him.<br /><br />This thing, while definitely a warning shot to reporters tempted to take liberties with source material and interview notes, basically boils down to a criticism of the way Sorkin's friendly approach differs from the critical tone of the resulting piece.<br /><br />The whole kerfuffle is a far less intense version of the <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/101481/">war that David Eggers wrought on NYT reporter David Kirkpatrick</a>, which includes a ton of the email correspondence between the two, from Kirkpatrick's dogged effort to draw Eggers into commenting to the bitter denouement. If you can find (and endure) the original "correction" that Eggers ran, you really get to see the seamy side of the journo business.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1122315925980532092005-07-25T11:25:00.000-07:002005-07-25T11:30:40.843-07:00An Email Blacklist of Technology PR Agencies - at last!The long-awaited <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/004930.html">Blacklist of Technology PR Agencies? (by Jeremy Zawodny)</a> is upon us! Buzzkiller.net was long rumored to have an automated blacklist of PR agencies. But our automated email blacklist has always been trained on <a href="http://buzzkiller.net/buzzboard.htm">specific buzzwords</a> and <a href="http://buzzkiller.net/incite.htm">worthless phrases</a>, not on any agency in particular.<br /><br />Also, I ran into Mr. Zawodny in the lobby of Yahoo building D or B or some letter, and the first thing he said to me was "You haven't updated your blog in, like, a year." Hence all the recent activity here. Thanks for the inspiration, J.Z.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1121241952044115472005-07-13T01:05:00.000-07:002005-07-13T01:08:23.133-07:00Bad Pitch! Bad!We hope this is truly a weekly flogging of weak flogging...<br /><blockquote><br /><a href="http://www.corante.com/flackster/archives/2005/07/12/hopelessly_inept_pitch_of_the_week.php">Corante > Flackster > </a><a href="http://www.corante.com/flackster/archives/2005/07/12/hopelessly_inept_pitch_of_the_week.php">Hopelessly Inept Pitch of the Week</a><br /></blockquote><br />Bonus: the first commenter asks <a href="http://www.corante.com/flackster/archives/2005/07/12/hopelessly_inept_pitch_of_the_week.php#27630">the question</a> that we put to bed five years ago, <a href="http://buzzkiller.net/poll.html">via a poll of our readers</a>: to name or not to name the source of the pilloried pitch?Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1121070388933024112005-07-11T01:26:00.000-07:002005-07-11T01:59:42.756-07:00Flackosphere Intersects Blogosphere!Russell Beattie flies into the kind of rage here -<a href="http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008527.html">- PR People Are Morons</a> -- that I haven't felt since the late 1990s, when an earlier wave of completely <a href="http://buzzkiller.net/netapp.htm">clueless PR zombies</a> launched an offensive.<br /><br />There's a lot of thoughtful <a href="http://www.natterjackpr.com/archives/2005/07/blog_relations_21.html">PR discussion</a> stemming from Russell's rant and an admonitory <a href="http://www.dashes.com/anil/2005/07/05/dont_be_a_bad_">post by Anil Dash</a> with a slightly more urbane tone.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1120722356217846092005-07-07T00:45:00.000-07:002005-07-07T00:46:55.350-07:00Napster, Dude what the Dell?Oooh - Dell is hmmm - reselling subscriptions to Napster at a student discount rate.<br /><br /><a href="http://gigaom.com/2005/07/06/napster-dude-what-the-dell/">Om Malik,</a> none too impressed, has a laugh at the expense of the press release.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1120094116531003152005-06-29T18:15:00.000-07:002005-07-06T23:44:05.426-07:00Micro Persuasion: 10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public RelationsMusic to our ears!<br /><br />If we had to choose one commandment, it would be #8. No, not the old one, about stealing. The new one, about meaningless business jargon...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.micropersuasion.com/2005/06/10_commandments.html">from Micro Persuasion: 10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public Relations</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>8) Thou shall banish corporate speak – People want to hear from you in a human voice. Don’t hide behind corporate speak. It will soon sound like ye olde English.<br /></blockquote><br />Well said, <a href="http://steverubel.typepad.com/about.html">Mr. Rubel</a>. You're a credit to the profession. We beg to differ with you on that last point, though. Olde English (a.k.a. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olde_English_800">Eight Ball</a>, for all you EZ-E fans) provides an honest buzz, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_language">Old English</a> means what it says.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1114195852897327402005-04-22T11:42:00.000-07:002005-06-29T19:11:03.840-07:00peeling back the layers of PR B.S.<a href="http://daringfireball.net/">John Gruber</a> provides an excellent <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2005/04/adobe_translation">translation of the company line</a> on Adobe's purchase of Macromedia. Thanks to Bob at Snee dot com for alerting us.<br /><br />one of the translations - check it:<br /><div style="text-align: left;"> <blockquote> <p><strong>Who proposed this acquisition — Adobe or Macromedia?</strong></p> <p>Official answer:<br />With the recent success and strong momentum of both Macromedia and Adobe, the CEOs of each company agreed that this was an excellent time to combine forces. Together, we have the opportunity to create an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content across a wide range of devices and operating systems.</p> </blockquote> <p></p><blockquote><p> Translation:<br /> Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen was the pitcher, Macromedia CEO Stephen Elop was the catcher.<br /></p> <p></p></blockquote><p>Every PR department should have someone who can translate like this.<br /></p> </div>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1113760740303289092005-04-17T10:38:00.000-07:002005-07-25T11:27:44.353-07:00praise be: gibberish generator's gravitas gulls gobbledygook glorifiersMIT undergrads pull a <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/15/hoax_paper_accepted/">nice prank</a> on the organizers of a conference. Well done, lads!Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1099533698419732272004-11-03T18:01:00.000-08:002004-11-03T18:01:38.420-08:00<b>Grind 'Em!</b><br /><br />from Jeffrey McManus:<br /><br /><blockquote><p><a href="http://mcmanus.typepad.com/grind/2004/10/learnings_is_a_.html">Jeffrey McManus' Grind: 'Learnings' Is A Stupid, Stupid Word</a>: <br /><br />Attention, Masters of Business Administration of Corporate America: Quit using the word 'learnings'. It makes you sound really stupid. The word you really want is 'lessons'.<br /><br />Your pal,<br /><br />Jeffrey<br /><br /></blockquote><br /><br />Hear, hear. Our suggestion: Use a catapult to leverage your granular pile of learnings through the aether into a porcelain vat half-full of water, where the learnings would splash and dissolve, creating a solution.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1098983701047484492004-10-28T10:15:00.000-07:002004-10-28T10:15:01.046-07:00Just a general "what's up with <i>that</i>?" entry here:<br /><br />Books with authors who use "Dr." as a prefix. Stop it. <br /><br />I guess "Dr. Phil" is the corniest manifestation of this phenomenon, the cheesy, bullying effort to establish some kind of authority over the unlettered peasantry. Oooh - the Doctor is in! Quick - everybody to the town square for the laying-on of hands!<br /><br />It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the additional, inevitable use of the "M.D." or "Ph.D." suffix at the end of the author's name. Hey fatheads - the suffix is all you need! People understand what M.D. and Ph.D. mean. Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1095184120528965292004-09-14T10:48:00.000-07:002005-06-29T19:03:44.650-07:00make your own bogeyman!<p>Now here is a new one, on me at least. <a href="http://www.transmediacorp.com/about/digital_friction.htm">Transmedia Corp</a> has apparently trademarked a concept, "digital friction," which is the alleged problem their wares purport to solve. Rather clever, actually - <b>first, invent the problem</b>:</p><font><blockquote><p>What is Digital Friction??</font><br /></p><font><p>Digital Friction™ is caused by the rapid proliferation of digital files and information (music, video, images, documents, calendars, contacts etc.) and of non-integrated, incompatible proprietary systems used to manage the many aspects of digital work and home life.</p><p>Digital Friction™ begins when you select and purchase software based on your PC and OS requirements, continues when you install and configure software and is most apparent when working with and navigating between multiple programs on your desktop creating software and OS conflicts, often necessitating extra steps to complete tasks (e.g. manual migration and format conversions of incompatible files and information between software applications) and taxing processor power and memory. These are examples of Digital Friction™ that we all experience…and that we have considered acceptable…until now…</p></span><p></p><p>Who is Responsible for Digital Friction™?<br /></p><p>The Digital Revolution like the Industrial Revolution has brought with it incredible advancements but also its own set of intrinsic problems. One byproduct is Digital Friction™ that takes away valuable time and resources from people. Many technology companies, create Digital Friction™ by --<br />• Promoting proprietary and closed platforms<br />• Working against open systems and customer choice<br />• Fighting format wars that create incompatibilities for users and frustrate their ability to manage and share media and communicate with others<br />• Forcing people into “artificial” online communities that are exclusionary by design and defined by corporate interests<br />• Promoting open systems that do not honor and protect content creators and the value of media content </p><p>How Does TransMedia Combat Digital Friction??<br /></p><p>TransMedia’s individual empowering and community building technology, makes the status quo and current methods of media and information management, communication and sharing a cumbersome experience. A process of natural selection drives people away from rigid, closed, friction filled systems toward compatible and integrated system.<br /></p><p>The TransMedia platform reduces Digital Friction™ by providing a single integrated and compatible online platform that enables users to manage media files, communicate, and browse and share media files and information through a fully interactive media portal providing global access to media content and information. Colaborata overcomes differences in hardware, software, formats and other technical obstacles. </p></blockquote><br />Wow. This is vintage 1998 "marketing collateral," warmed over for the new millenium. Scintillating stuff.<br /></font><br />afterthought, 6-29-2005:<br />And furthermore, trademarking it! What better way could there be to make sure that no one else will ever use that phrase you're trying to popularize?<br /></span>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1081896732540647262004-04-13T15:52:00.000-07:002004-09-14T11:14:51.553-07:00"m-commerce," R.I.P.There's an <a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2004/000477.html">entry at VentureBlog</a> that looks at why the non-phenomenon formerly known as "m-commerce" was a total non-starter in the USA.
<br />The author, <a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/contributors.html#klaws">Kevin Laws</a>, theorizes that the US carriers were too short-sighted and control-crazed to see how they could make money by letting people buy stuff using mobile phones, and therefore strangled it.
<br />We have a theory of our own, as indicated in our super high-profile buzzkiller column's <a href="http://buzzkiller.net/incite.htm">take</a> on that almost-burgeoning field in the former magazine known as [inside] back in '00: it's a stupid name for a bad idea put forth by a terrible industry (the US mobile phone industry, that is - the rest of the world seems to somehow have a much better grasp of how to do mobile-phone business).
<br />The other possibility, of course, is that all those captains of industry were [inside] subscribers, saw our mockery of the whole m-commerce notion, and immediately decreed that all m-commerce initiatives be scuttled.Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1081283348820063832004-04-06T13:29:00.000-07:002004-11-03T18:26:35.340-08:00Hyphen, God of Mirage<b>DuCharmed, we're sure</b><br /><br /><blockquote>From: "bob_at_snee.com" <bob@snee.com><br />Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 1:04:18 PM US/Pacific<br />To: teeth_at_buzzkiller.net<br />Subject: world-class value-added hyphenation<br />Reply-To: bob_at_snee.com<br /> <br />See this press release: <br /><a href="http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/altavista/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040329005792&newsLang=en">http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/altavista/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_<br />view&newsId=20040329005792&newsLang=en</a><br /> <br />Whoever wrote it did some did world-class, high-quality, content-centric, enterprise-class, mission-critical, leading-edge, world-leading, value-added work. <br /> <br />I swear, every one of those is actually used in the press release--some more than once. (As a game, find which one is used more than once *in the same paragraph*.)<br /> <br />stay vigilant,<br />Bob DuCharme<br />www.snee.com/bob</blockquote><br /> <br />[ed. note: we sense an up-welling of non-sense as the technology start-up scene begins to stir again with new money. We welcome it.]Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1078947843641815342004-03-10T11:44:00.000-08:002004-11-03T18:36:08.146-08:00Hello, Fodder<blockquote><p>From: Dawn_E_Carter@KeyBank.com<br />Date: Wed Mar 10, 2004 5:19:55 AM US/Pacific<br />To: <teeth@buzzkiller.net><br />Subject: More Fodder</p><br /><br /><p>Hi! Just visited your Web site for the first time. Love it! Want to contribute!</p><br /><p>We have a queue where people can request help from my department on their development projects. This was recently added to the queue:</p><p> <blockquote>Subject: Productionize Analytical Models</blockquote></p><br /><p>And if that wasn't a bad enough case of turning a noun into a verb, here's the first line of the description of the request, which turns a noun into a verb and then back into a noun again:</p><br /><p><blockquote>Description: Development and productionization of 21 analytical models ...</blockquote></p><p>Oh! That felt good! Thank you for letting me get that off my chest!</p><br /><p>Dawn Carter<br />Technical Writer and WebMistress</p></blockquote>Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596485.post-1068620206836692542003-11-11T22:56:00.000-08:002004-11-03T18:37:47.053-08:00<em>from the buzzkiller.net executive summit, held at the <a href="http://www.sfstation.com/bars/kezarbar/">Kezar Bar</a> in Cole Valley, USA:</em><br /><br />summit summary: putting the blog page right up front seemed like a great way to give the site a more current, less static feel. but that line of thinking ignored the fact that we do not blog enough. we realize that the splash-page blog, untended, serves as evidence of our slackness.<br /><br />resolution: we will blog more. <br />Josh McHughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065247617545357801noreply@blogger.com