Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Remember that giant paper clip I got in the post last week?

It's now been joined by a pocket calculator. A pocket calculator that's bigger than my laptop...

Oh, and there's a new URL. Owned by the same people. I'm pretty sure that it's the teaser for an online office platform, and I'm pretty sure I know which one now...

The other morning the postman tried to deliver a couple of parcels. This morning I walked down to the Post Office to pick them up. There were two, identical cardboard boxes that were quite large, but very light. I opened one and found a giant (and I by that I mean really really big) paper clip. Oh, and a URL.

Who'd sent it and why?

I went to the web page, and just got a teaser announcement for something due at the beginning of March.

So time for a little detective work. My favourite online Whois service came up with a domain owner, and Google quickly found their site. There was a list of clients, many familiar, and one new one.

I suspect the newest client - the font on the web site looks like one of theirs - but I can't be sure. I guess I'll find out in a few days when I get a followup email or phone call.

With the tools around I wonder how difficult it is to run a teaser campaign like this. You'd have to know that it's easy to find out that you set up the domain (in fact I was surprised that it was in a company name - I'd thought that a simple cut-out by having a member of staff register it in their name should thwart most look-up attempts), and you'd have to know that the client list on your web site would be the first place that someone would look...

Well, just 5 months later, the very same marketing hoax has made it to the UK. Though this time it's masquerading as a MySpace account.

Still pretty much the same billboards, though...

Emily:



Jane Doe:



And whoa - look what programme is appearing on a satellite channel here in the UK. The very same one that "thatgirlemily" was advertising.

[Edit: is there a link between NTL/FLextech and GCap Media? BRMB certainly seem to be in on the hoax...]

So we've got a shining example of really bad PR - running a discredited viral campaign from the US in the UK, in the vague expectation that no one here could have spotted any of the US controversy. What's sadder is that some of the UK media seems to have fallen for the scam. Don't they do any research?

Original pointer to the poster and the MySpace account by A PR Guy's Musings

Grr.

One thing I've started noticing recently is the number of different PR companies that don't seem to have their own central contacts database. It used to be that they'd have details of every relevant journalist, their address, their areas of interest, and (most importantly) the publications they wrote for. It all used to be up to date, and everyone in the agency had access to the information. It was their silver bullet, the intellectual property that differentiated the agencies and helped them win accounts and get their releases to the desktops of people who mattered.

I expect it was probably something like a FileMaker or an Access application, or even a shared Excel spreadsheet, perhaps an intranet application knocked up in LAMP. Whatever it was, it was nothing flash, but it worked. Now, however, they seem to have started outsourcing things to external companies, none of whom seem to be up to date, or have the full story. I'm now finding that agencies I've talked to for years have no idea of my address, while others, simply because I've written for the FT's technology section, insist on sending me financial press releases. I'm sure their are travel journalists out there who are getting press releases about new mortgage products...

I'm sure it'll all sort itself out in the wash, but I suspect that expensive contact databases have replaced the old in house systems - after all, that's someone else keeping track of things - but there's little or no feedback, no correction cycle - and above all, no attempt by the database companies to actually contact the journalists their tracking and check that they have the right information about them. If someone is paying many thousands of pounds far access to this information, shouldn't it be correct?

After all, if the aim of the game is to get stories out in the press, inaccurate and badly targeted releases are a waste of everyone's time and money.

Grr.

...came from Microsoft's UK developer tools team, with the heading "Music to code to".

The survey of more than 100 developers revealed that rock is the preferred music to code by for professional developers of all ages. Those surveyed were also keen chart watchers with the votes for top band going to four big hitters of 2005 - in first place Chris Martin's band 'Coldplay', followed by U2, third most popular were Manchester boys 'Oasis' and in forth position, Stereophonics.

Of the developers surveyed more than 29% claim that rap or hip hop was the most off-putting music to code by. The other genres that developers were least likely to listen to whilst working were country music (12 %), ambient music (9%) and opera (8%).

An odd selection. Me, I code and write best to both ambient and trance. So thank goodness for the nice folk at Platipus records (where Art of Trance have started recording again).

HMV has a "Music to code to" radio station on its web site. So, if you really need wall to wall Coldplay...