Archive for the 'Cool Stuff' Category

This one is old but it’s still really funny.

Thanks to Apple’s iPhone commercial, Tyson is now prime time.  I wonder if my sister-in-law’s Westie (short for West Highland Terrier) could learn this trick?

If you really like Tyson, visit his website at www.skateboardingbulldog.com.

by Brion Lau

Here’s a quick update to my post on Oct. 27th regarding the Yahoo! Talent Show.  The voting period will close tomorrow for the five finalists chosen.  Feel free to check out their videos and cast your vote.

If you haven’t been following Yahoo’s search for the “next web celeb” then you probably aren’t aware one of the celebrity judges is the famous Ask Ninja.  However, that’s another article for another day.

In the meantime, if you’re wondering who the host is, her name is Mayleen Ramey.  Feel free to check out her website for more details.

Enjoy!

by Brion Lau

Ms. Dewey adds a fresh new look to the typical search engines. Introduced by Microsoft, Ms. Dewey, played by actress Janina Gavankar, brings beauty and sass to the world of search. Dewey is not your typical digital librarian (and yes the name is a play off the Dewey decimal system).

Dewey jokes, mocks and threatens to call the police on Web searchers, depending on the query. Here’s a few queries that seemed to get a funny rise out of her: “cars,” “Bill Gates” and “Google.” She’ll also put you in your place if you try to get fresh with her online. Let me know if you can track down some others.

The engine works through Flash software and is powered by Microsoft Live. Thank goodness for Dewey–just another way to help get through the day!

by Mike Fennelly

So, we here at PopDigerati have written a bunch about virtual celebrities, or people and things that are only famous because of the internet. What happens, though, when the real world celebrities cross over into the virtual world and start interacting with the fans?

Meet Billy West. You may know him a little bit better as Ren, or Stimpy, or Fry, Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, or Professor Farnsworth from Futurama. Or maybe as the red M&M, or Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig. You get the picture. You may not know him as one of the most accessible celebrities out there today, via his messageboard at http://www.billywest.com.

Now the question for the readership (hello everyone from mybloglog.com, thanks for checking us out!) is (as you may have guessed, since it’s the title of this post) Who is your favorite “real” celebrity that’s out there online interacting with their fans? As you can see, we’re using the term “celebrity” a little loosely. They don’t have to be Paris Hilton, but they should be Someone We Would Have Heard Of. They should also be actually out there, via messageboard, chatroom or blog, actually interacting with their fans. Let us know, so we can steal your ideas run features on them here on PopDigerati!

This post has been truncated here because Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless But Might Possibly Be Mike’s Girlfriend told him his last post was “too long”. Pshaw.

by Brion Lau

Can a $10 investment really amass $1 million?  Ask Anshe Chung (aka Ailin Graef), real estate tycoon of the virtual world, Second Life.  According to the official press release,  Chung’s virtual real estate empire totaling approximately 36 square kilometers is now roughly valued at $1 million.

The Valleywag blog seems to think this is BS.  Normally I’d agree except other articles clearly show a real business model for making real money in the virtual world.  Case in point, Businessweek wrote an article, “My Virtual Life”, highlighting a few examples of virtual riches including Chung’s example.  If you still think this is just hype, then I recommend reading Kim Roach’s article, “Second Life Marketing”, as further evidence that PopDigerati may be writing about even more virtual celebrities in the future.

by Brion Lau

With all the press coverage over the past few days, you’ve probably already realized the Playstation 3 has hit the shelves of retail stores across the United States. Nintendo’s Wii is going to be on the market tomorrow. With all the hoopla, it’s a bit ironic that I spotted an article entitled, “Young pro vid games gross six-figures” by Kelli Kennedy of the Associated Press.

Sounds intriguing huh? According to Kennedy, Tom Taylor (aka Tsquared) is one such pro video gamer who raked over $450,000 since 2004 and he’s only a teenager! But you’re probably thinking this sounds too good to be true right? Well, the video gaming industry is already a multi-billion dollar industry with no signs of letting up. It’s not to hard to envision professional video gaming as the next big sport – or cybersport however you look at it. In fact, there’s even a professional league for gamers called Major League Gaming!
So rev up your gaming machines and start your gaming exercises. Will YOU be the next Tsquared or Lil’ Poison? If you think you’ve got what it takes to become a pro gamer, you should also check out “Professional video gamer says it’s not all fun” to be a balanced perspective. Also, if you’re interested in reading more about Tsquared, check out his blog over at MLG.

by Mike Fennelly

Okay – leave this site RIGHT NOW, and go to woot.com – Normally their method of selling is one day, one deal, and when the product’s gone, it’s gone, but today (and with luck, the rest of the weekend) is special. They’re having a semi random event called the Woot!Off, where as soon as one product sells out, the next in line appears. If you enjoy insanely good deals, and don’t believe in that annoying “necessity” of sleep – today is the day to introduce yourself to woot.com!

example:

by Brion Lau

What about a sports fan? Car buff? Fashion? Why am I asking?

Tonight I attended an event featuring entrepreneurs who have made the transition from employees to starting their own business. One of the panel speakers was Dave Lu, founder of FanPop.

The FanPop concept is simple: as a fan you can create a ’spot’ which collects together links to news stories, video clips, blogs, photos, forums and other online resources. All these links are submitted by Fanpop users, who can vote on each other’s links to highlight the best.

Lu had already been experimenting with blogs, affiliate marketing, and contextual advertising (Google adsense). In fact, he was running a blog called EOSrebels prior to launching FanPop. He soon realized there was an opportunity to create a platform where fans of all niches could come together to swap links and pool information.

According to TechDigest’s article on FanPop, Lu states, “Why not multiply that site by a thousand and give people an easy way to share their links and videoclips for all kinds of niche subjects?” he says. “You can search on Google or Yahoo, but there’s no context around what the results are, to tell you if they’re good. Social bookmarking sites do that kind of thing, but they’re disorganised and tag-based, and don’t build a community around those tags.”

For now, the site is still in beta, focused on growing its fans, and driving revenue through contextual advertisements (Google Adsense). Also, I can’t help but mention Dave Lu sounds just like David Liu from my previous article on Faqqly.com!

[Note to Mike: go create your fanpop page on the Red Sox. Lu says there's not enough sports enthusiasts yet.]

by Brion Lau

This past week, I literally stumbled upon Faqqly.com (FACK-LEE or FACK-UH-LEE)–a new social networking/community site. The premise behind this site is to create an “authentic community” where the quality time spent on this site will also lead to time spent with FAQQLY friends off-line.

FAQQLY was founded by David Liu, still a senior at UCLA! While the site is still in beta, Dave is off to a good start as an entrepreneur. Since launching the site earlier this year, FAQQLY has over 5,000 registered users participating including Cali Lewis from GeekBrief TV, Keiko Agena of Gilmore Girls, and Amy McKay, Canadian author of “A Birth House”.

Since FAQQLY is still in its infancy, it will need a critical mass of users joining. In addition, it will need to differentiate itself from other services available such as Yahoo! Answers, Google Anwers, Wondir, and Microsoft’s QnA to name a few. That said, we at PopDigerati are not about to write Dave off. In fact, we’re looking at seeing how we might be able to leverage his service to enable you to interact directly with the various digerati we’re writing about. Stay tuned on this one.

Meanwhile, Dave maintains his own FAQ page, finding time to personally answer his FAQs despite his busy schedule. We encourage you to check out his page and ask him your burning question directly!

by Mike Fennelly

No posers, or pleas for rapidly falling teenybopper stars to marry aging Turkish freelance journalists in this post, folks – just a list of where I’ve been spending my time online, and a question to the readers about what they read when they should be working.

First up : The Gawker Media Conglomerate :

The Consumerist, Gizmodo, and Lifehacker – Lifehacker to learn how to be more productive in less time, so there’s more time to slack off, Gizmodo to buy toys to take up all of my newly discovered free time, and The Consumerist to let me know who to complain to, and how to do it effectively when my new tech toys burst into flame when you so much as look at them.

Next : The Damn Liberals Ruined Everything :

DailyKos, crooksandliars, and thinkprogress : Because I’m a bleeding heart liberal who will tax and spend you to death while forcing you to homosexually marry pot smoking abortion addicts. Also, I can watch Colbert and The Daily Show on crooksandliars sometimes.

Next : “Please stop pooping in the house! Please?”

Westie Club of America, Dumb Friends League/Humane Society of Denver, and the SFSPCA – because we just got this guy.

So -  What keeps you pretending to be busy at work? Let us know – that’s why we have a comments section, y’know.