X-Geek

Extreme geekiness

There are 702 posts filed in X-Geek (this is page 34 of 71).

Digiboo DVD download kiosks

Movie Booth DVD download kiosk


Remember last year when I spied that intriguing DVD download kiosk in the Seattle airport? Looks like it is similar to the kiosk service put together by a startup company called Digiboo, according to a news story today.

The rental service, from Santa Monica, Calif.-based Digiboo, is being introduced at a time when consumers are shifting away from movie rentals to online movie streaming. Whether the Digiboo kiosks mark the next evolution in watching video, or just another dead end like the Betamax VCR, they illustrate the enduring allure of the movies even as technology morphs them into new forms.

[snip]

The first kiosks were installed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Next up: the Seattle and Portland airports, Thomas said. If the concept is successful, thousands of kiosks will be put in a variety of public places, he said.

I thought initially today that the booth I saw might have been a Digiboo booth but the article seems to indicate that Digiboo hasn’t been installed at the Seattle airport after all.

I guess the mystery remains as to who owns the DVD download kiosk at SEATAC.

Update 12:10 PM: I did a little Google sleuthing and believe the “Movie Booth” kiosk I saw was from a company called LightSpeed Cinema in Los Angeles. I found one press release from December 2008 that mentions that LightSpeed Cinema is Santa Monica-based, as is Digiboo. Are these companies one and the same? I’m guessing they are and the DVD kiosk I saw in Seattle is an early Digiboo model.

Here’s Digiboo’s website. Also, this press release offers more details on the company.

Yet another infographic

An Internet acquaintance forwarded to me this email he received from our infographic-making friend Tony Shin:

From: Tony Shin imtinytony@gmail.com
Date: Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 1:17 AM
Subject: A graphic on the ethics of the wealthy
To: blah blah blah at gmail.com

Dear Editor,

While I was searching for blogs and posts that have talked about social psychology, I came across your site and wanted to reach out to see if I could get your readership’s feedback on a graphic my team and I designed, which focuses on the studies found on how those socially and financially well-off behave unethically compared to the lower ladder.

If you’re interested, let’s connect.

Thanks! =)

—
Tony Shin
@ohtinytony

The infographic in question can be viewed here.

Google search turns up many infographic mentions

This Google search on “infographic my team built” seems to find many of these spam emails posted on various websites.

Look closely and you’ll find a few sent by our friend Tony Shin, too. Here’s another, and another, and another.

Here’s a whole blog post of Tony Shin’s infographics. Here’s another.

Here’s another from Peter Kim. It was taken from the HackCollege.com website, which is (surprise!) also registered through Moniker:
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Mystery infographic email part of stealth SEO/marketing scheme?

Looks like I’m not the only one who’s gotten the mystery infographic emails. I found this post on blogger Andrew Gelman’s blog:

A personal bit of spam, just for me!
Posted by Andrew on 13 March 2012, 6:50 pm

Hi Andrew,

I came across your site while searching for blogs and posts around American obesity and wanted to reach out to get your readership’s feedback on an infographic my team built which focuses on the obesity of America and where we could end up at the going rate.

If you’re interested, let’s connect. Have a great weekend!

Thanks.
***

I have to say, that’s pretty pitiful, to wish someone a “great weekend” on a Tuesday! This guy’s gotta ratchet up his sophistication a few notches if he ever wants to get a job as a spammer for a major software company, for example.

Similar formula. It’s pretty slick, actually.

The real Peter Kim?

Peter Kim


A Google search shows that Peter Kim is a search engine optimization guru. Note his bio on Amazon.com for his soon-to-be-released book:

Peter is currently Chief Strategy Officer of Dachis Group.

He is a leading advisor on social business, working with clients on strategy formulation and driving global industry discourse. Peter has been quoted by media outlets including CNN, CNBC, NPR, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and featured as a speaker at events including SXSW, Web 2.0 Expo, and Dachis Group Social Business Summits.

?Peter was previously an analyst at Forrester Research and head of international marketing operations, e-commerce, and digital marketing at PUMA AG.?? He holds degrees from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania.
This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

He also has a blog on seomagpie.com, as does Response Mine Interactive. I don’t know if this is the same Peter Kim who wrote me but it’s possible.

Update: SEO guru Peter Kim grew up in Atlanta, where Response Mine is located. I don’t know if they’re connected or not, however. I do know that his Twitter page lists his email address as hello@beingpeterkim.com, which is strikingly similar to the hello.pkim@gmail.com address that was on the email I received. I’m leaning towards this being a SEO stunt of some sort.

Update 18 March: Peter Kim, SEO guru, says he’s not behind the infographics.

Mystery of the Infographics

Who is Peter Kim?


I’m really not sure what’s going on here but it’s gotta be something. And hold on to you hats, I’m going to be doing some serious geeking out with this post. You have been warned. 🙂

Out of the blue a few weeks ago I got an email from a complete stranger who had this to say:

From: Peter Kim hello.pkim@gmail.com
To: “Mark” blah blah blah at gmail.com
Subject: Re:SOPA and PIPA
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:16:40 -0800

Hi Mark,

I was wondering if this is the correct contact in regards to the content on the http://markturner.net. I came across the site while searching for resources around PIPA and SOPA. I just created a graphic on the topic and was wondering if you’d be interested in taking a look, I’d love to get your thoughts.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Peter

Well, I don’t normally have Copious Free Time to be dicking around with critiquing infographics. But what the heck, I decided to humor the guy and answer:
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Mandatory 10-Digit Dialing Coming to 919 Region Mar. 31

Went to the city’s website today and found out that Raleigh will require 10-digit dialing by the end of the month. I didn’t hear anything about this until now.

The March 31st deadline doesn’t leave a lot of time for phone system vendors, alarm vendors, and others to update their equipment. This could be a trainwreck in the making.

The growing population in central North Carolina and addition of devices that require a phone number is exhausting the available numbers in the 919 area code. The North Carolina Utilities Commission has announced a new area code is coming to the 919 region. The 984 area code will overlay the 919 area code bringing 10-digit dialing to the region. You won’t have to change telephone numbers, just the way you dial in the 919 area code. The 984 area code will be assigned only for new telephone numbers within the area code.

Effective March 31, 2012, 10-digit dialing – the appropriate area code (919 or 984) + the seven-digit number – will be necessary for local and expanded local calls. It will not be necessary to dial a "1" or a "0" when dialing your local and expanded local calls. Local calling areas and rates will not be affected by this change.

via Mandatory 10-Digit Dialing Coming to 919 Region Mar. 31 – The Official City of Raleigh Portal.

Introducing Little Raleigh Radio

Little Raleigh Radio


One of the initiatives that’s been taking up my Copious Free Time is helping start a low-power FM community radio station in Raleigh. A few months ago, a friend mentioned the Little Raleigh Radio (LRR) project and I became determined to help this project succeed.

I’ve been following low-power FM (LPFM) for quite some time so when I learned that the FCC’s window for granting new licenses may be opening again, I felt I had to help.
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Making the “Open Source City” a bit more open

I was away from my home the other day and wanted to tune into the streaming video of the Raleigh City Council meeting using my smartphone. Lo and behold, the proprietary Microsoft Silverlight video format that the Granicus service uses to stream Raleigh’s government channel does not have a player for my Android phone. I’d be surprised if a client exists for iPhone, either, for that matter. It seemed I would need to be glued to my desk if I wanted to keep up with Raleigh politics.
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