Jason Unger

Penelope Trunk Fired From Yahoo! Finance

Posted by junger - 12/27/07 at 09:12:17 am

How to deal with getting fired (from Yahoo)

Wow. If there's any columnist out there today who doesn't deserve to be fired, it's Penelope Trunk.

But she's been canned from Yahoo! Finance, according to her blog, because her career-oriented columns lower the overall CPM of the finance-related articles on Yahoo.

While this is a legitimate excuse, it's not like there isn't money to be made in career advice advertising. People will pay for material if they know that they'll be getting something valuable in return. Penelope's columns deliver that.

Even though she's written her last column for Yahoo, at least she gets to go out with a promo for her blog and RSS feed.

(Yes, she is my friend on facebook.)

What's Keeping Me Busy: 12/26/07

Posted by junger - 12/26/07 at 06:12:22 pm

Israeli scientists fit Bible on pinhead – Those Israelis, the ingenious sabras behind things like ICQ and x-ray specs, have come up with another invention: a Bible half the size of a grain of sugar.

Hope they built a super-powered microscope to go along.

Boston's $14.8B Big Dig finally complete – I can't believe this is true. For as long as I've known Boston, I've known the Big Dig.

Sadly, I guess all eras must come to an end.

Best Price Cameras (enterprisephoto.com, infinitiphoto.com, jandkcameras.com) – I'm in the market for the Canon HV20 high-definition camcorder, and the best price seems to be at bestpricecameras.com.

It's a good thing reviewers are out there, since the site has been panned as a bait-and-switch seller who won't send your item unless you purchase an upsold package.

Year-end roundup: Most loved and most hated posts of 2007 – Penelope Trunk rounds up some of the best posts from her site from 2007, and it's been a great year. She's one of the most insightful and entertaining bloggers today.

She provides great advice, opens up her life to her audience, and engages in the conversation. That's what every blogger should strive for.

Blogging is One Thing, But Stealing Content is Another

Posted by junger - 12/26/07 at 03:12:51 pm

Slashdot picked up a story CE Pro ran last year (like, June 2006) on The Batcave Home Theater, a custom theater room up in Maine.

It's not new, but the link from Slashdot (a huge source of traffic) went to a site called Slashfilm (not related, as far as I know). So, Slashfilm was getting tons of traffic from content that they didn't create.

Normally, I'm okay with that — obviously, I'd like to get the traffic, but you have to live with the fact that sometimes you don't get what you want.

The problem, however, is that
1) Slashfilm didn't bother to link to the original article on CE Pro (a quick mention of the "June 2006 issue of CE Pro" was all we got)
2) They took the entire slideshow, cropped out our watermark, and posted it

The non-linkage isn't right, but can be easily remedied. On the other hand, taking the images and cropping out the watermarks is stealing content.

This is the second time in two weeks I've had to deal with people stealing content without proper attribution.

I emailed Slashfilm's editor, Peter Sciretta, asking him to add a link to our story and replace the images with the original, watermarked versions.

I haven't heard back from him (and it looks like his site is down now), but in reality, it doesn't matter if he replaces them or not. The images have already been cropped, our watermark is gone, and anyone who sees them can distribute them without attribution.

So, what are you supposed to do in this situation?

I emailed CmdrTaco (aka Rob Malda), who originally posted the story at Slashdot, and told him the story. It's not like I'm worried about bloggers promoting and sharing content we create — it's doing it without proper attribution and basically stealing credit for other's work.

CmdrTaco went ahead and changed the link in the Slashdot story to the original article on CE Pro, and now we're getting the influx of traffic.

What's the moral of the story?

Don't steal and properly attribute or it will come to bite you in the ass.

Are Area Codes Important Anymore?

Posted by junger - 12/26/07 at 12:12:04 pm

Since we moved, I've been debating whether or not to change my cell phone number (in addition to potentially getting an iPhone).

Part of the reason to switch would be to have a local area code and get rid of my 617 Boston extension. But does that really matter?

Considering that so many people don't pay extra for long distance (whether it's from their cell phones or from a VoIP service), I'm not necessarily worried about people being able to get in touch with me. Getting a local area code would be more of a symbolic move.

Is it worth it? I'm not sure.

I think it's safe to say that area codes don't mean much technologically, since calling from one area code to another is (for most people) just like calling within one area code, and since you really can have any area code no matter where you live.

So should I get a local number? Does it mean anything anymore?

Let me know what you think.

Keeping Busy Over My 4-Day Weekend

Posted by junger - 12/23/07 at 11:12:51 pm

It isn't often I get a four-day weekend without having to take any days off from work, so I'm keeping busy by … well, just watch the video.