So, my friend Mike sent this video my way. Man, if Survivor did a show in the south, THAT I might watch. Nothing but Gary Hogeboom and a Bible. Now we’re talking.

Idiots!

I mean, seriously, how hard is it to shut up and govern?!?! Is there anything more useless than Congress? (Come on, Tamar, say France, you know you want to!)

This clip proves my thought that Family Guy is an amazing TV Show….

When they start mocking “Peanut butter jelly time” you know it has to be good!!!

I’ve been doing a comparison of a couple of different web site analytics packages over the last few weeks. Originally, it was just Site Meter vs. Google Analytics, but last week I finally got my invitation to the Measure Map beta. As of right now, FatMixx is configured for all three services, and I’ve been poking around at the numbers and comparing the tools. While FatMixx is not exactly a major blog or website by any means, we have enough traffic to compare the services and see how they do.

I started comparing these tools to see what else was out there aside from Site Meter. I’ve been using Site Meter on FatMixx for over a year now and like what it offers. Exposure to an enterprise level service like HitBox at work got me thinking about whether there was anything better out there. After a bit of searching around, I settled on testing two other services. I’m using Site Meter as my baseline so I’ve included a writeup for them below. Let’s take a high level look at the three services.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

TechCrunch highlights Root.net, a service that aims to be the “first open market for the pricing and exchange of realtime consumer data.” That sounds exactly right. It leverages the Attention Trust platform which is (simplifying a bit) a recorder that plugs into Firefox and records your clickstream locally and gives you controls to manage what is kept and what isn’t. The idea is that by putting you into control of your data and offering you incentives to share some of it, they create a market for advertisers, publishers, and consumers to exchange information. Advertising gets better and more relevant for you and because you’re in control, theoretically you control what you want to share. You can read more about the guiding principles of the Attention Trust non-profit if you like.

Whether this sounds great or creepy I think depends entirely on either your sense of paranoia or your concern about privacy issues. At first blush, this would seem a bit Big Brotherish. When you think about this, though, most people are already giving this kind of data away. On an opt-in level, anyone that has the Google or Yahoo toolbars installed with certain features (e.g. PageRank) activated is already giving away this information. Heck, Alexa, owned now by Amazon, has turned this data collection into products. Companies such as WebSideStory or Nielsen could probably generate similar information depending on the penetration of their stats services. Google is also getting close because of the popularity of their ad service.

Regardless, though, I won’t be trying this thing except to perhaps play around with it. I pretty much fall to the more concerned about privacy side of life. I realize how much data I “give” away so the thought of actively aiding that process doesn’t sound like something I want to be a part of. Second, I think the benefit to consumers is pretty lame. I don’t want better targeted ads. I want less ads bombarding me. I don’t think a market that monetizes combining users and advertisers and publishers wants fewer of those interactions, which is ultimately what I want.

I’m still keeping my mind open, because the people involved are good, honest, and bright people. For now, I just don’t think this is for me.

So, for those of you following this weekend, you try to tell me this isn’t fate. This morning on TBS, I watched Mortal Kombat while getting dressed. God, what a horrible movie. Oh well. More news later.

HIYEEE!

So, its finally here (I have no idea what I’m going to talk about once its over). The wedding of the century, and here I am at the hotel in Fort Lee, NJ (pinch me). Just to give everyone the blow by blow so far:

2:07: I arrived at the hotel. The room that I’d ordered had already been given away because apparently that’s what they do at Hiltons if you don’t show up exactly at 12 noon. So, instead, they offered me one of a series of smoking rooms or the one handicapped accessible room. Well, needless to say, I asked if they had any handicapped people coming this weekend. The nice woman behind the desk said, “well, we don’t know. we don’t ask when we book.” Of course you don’t. So, I took the handicapped room with its enormous bathroom and ridiculously tiny bed. That’s fine though, because, I don’t plan on sleeping much with all the FUN to be had.

2:20: I enter the room to a message from “picture girl”: Just in case you all changed your mind and brough pictures, I’m in room (and she left the number).

2:25: I look at the gift bag and think about how awesome its going to be to eat that chocolate covered, sourdough pretzel.

3:00: I read the schedule of events. My sister made a comment that she’d be coming up during “nap time” on Saturday. God, I love sarcasm.

3:02: I eat the pretzel. It was as good as I’d hoped. Go excitement.

4:00: I get paged to the groom’s room. We get our gifts. I love gifts, but shouldn’t it be the other way around? Oh, right, it was…repeatedly. Thank god for college football and rehashing of the bachelor party.

4:07: time to write the speech. Since I can’t write on Saturday or Friday night, I have to start now. Hopefully I’ll finish it in five minutes.

4:15: I guessed wrong.

4:27: GO LSU!

4:45: we finished the speech. Want to see it? You will tomorrow. But, unfortunately, since my one order was not to say anything that would get her not to marry him, its relatively tame.

5:00: I start writing this while looking at the schedule again:

Schedule of events:
4:13: Casual candle lighting
5:30: Services (ugh)
6:30: Delicious dinner (I’m serious, it says that. Plus it also says “Some great Ruach (singing) will follow the meal.”) Kill me now.
8:30: Drink. Heavily.

Ugh. Talk to you all later.

Update (at 8:35pm): Just got back from dinner. Yes, there was singing and dancing (alright, maybe just the singing). In fact, there was also Ruach. But most importantly, there was the Matchmaker song. It was HORRENDOUS!!!!! Thank god I was with people more sarcastic than Gregory House at my table. Only 48 more hours. Onto baby sit the groom…

I hope you’re having a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Be sure to stop by Heidi’s blog to see the new look for her blog.

1.) Rain is funny when the sewers back up in Allston, so people need to lift their pants over their knees to get into their cars (Honda Civics of course, because what else would fit?).

2.) Does anyone else remember when Miami lead the AFC East at 2-1? Plus, I agree with Herm Edwards, if the regular season was to figure out who should be there, then what the hell did you do for the 2 months-plus BEFORE the season?

3.) How does everyone like this: “And with the first pick, the Houston Texans select D’Brickshaw Fergason, Offensive Tackle from the University of Virginia”?

4.) Finally saw Batman Begins. Not a bad movie. I know, Josh likes a comic movie, go figure.

5.) Speaking of Miami, does anyone remember when Detroit was winning the NFC North? (yes, and not the Hockey version)

6.) Speaking of hockey, the Rangers are in first…

7.) Maybe this one: “And with the Second selection, the New York Jets select Matt Leinart, Quarterback, from the University of Southern California.”?

8.) Alright, I still don’t care about hockey, but that never stopped me from having an opinion. Does anyone else think they should go back to the Smythe and Campbell conferences? I don’t know, it just sounds cooler, and might almost make me want to watch the All-Star game.

9.) No, probably not.

Have a good morning!