The Most Stupid TV Commercials; Nationwide and Microsoft

For weeks now, Microsoft has been running TV commercials, generally promoting the PC. The commercial usually starts with an individual, usually has a young, sort of geeky looking person, out to buy a new laptop.

He or she (they have multiple actors) could be a young lady or guy, who starts out describing what kind of a laptop he or she wants and then the voice-over tells him or her that “if he or she finds that kind of laptop under $1,500…, then he or she can keep it”.

Now, the thing is this; it implies as though all the laptops for sale anywhere are more than $1,500 and that, if he or she’s lucky enough to find one under that amount, then he or she can keep it. And then, to make it even sillier, at the end of the commercial, when he or she has found the laptop she or he wanted, then he or she’s given a stack of bills, as though it’s a reward for finding a laptop under $1,500.

So, my question is; does that mean that there are no PC laptops under $1,500, and if I found one under that amount, then I can keep it, and that you’d reward me? Really a stupid commercial.

The second TV commercial that aggravates me, because it’s really stupid, and they keep running it over and over, it’s by Nationwide. The commercial starts with a woman (a black woman) who talks like she’s running diarrhea. She doesn’t talk like she’s scripted, which may be a good thing, as an indication that Nationwide uses real people, not actors, who say what they really feel about their auto insurance.

Now, this lady goes on, explaining and slowly stating that; “Nationwide has a forgiveness program…, which means, if you have an accident, then Nationwide will forgive you… they will not raise your premium based on your first accident…, because Nationwide….

Didn’t she just say that Nationwide has a forgiveness program at the beginning? Why does she have to repeat and explain her silly-line?

Geico and Safe Auto have some of the coolest, eye-and-ear-catching phrases, TV commercials. Microsoft and Nationwide should may be look up to them and may be, learn from them.

Filed under: TV, Tv show, advertising, adword, insurance, production, promotion , auto, commercial, insurance, Microsoft, Nationwide, stupid, technology, TV commercial, TV spot

CNN.com Tech Increased My Traffic to Over 410% in 3 Hours

This afternoon, the traffic to my blog, http://simonkapenda.org, sky-rocketed to over 410% in less than 3 hours after my blog appeared on “CNN.com Tech Linking Blogs section”, in regard to my response posting to “Microsoft‘s Outlines Vision of Pay-as-You-Go Computing”, an idea which I find to be ridiculously amusing, dumb, and ill-conceived.

My blog has never had so much traffic in a single day, let alone in a single month. So, this is soooo cool and awesome…!

Read more about my response to Microsoft’s dumb idea on Pay-As-You-Go Computing.

Filed under: technology , CNET.com, CNN.com, computing, Google, Microsoft, Techcrunch, technology, Yahoo

Is Webware Walking in the Shadow of TechCrunch?

Every hour of each day, other than CNN.com, BBC News, Yahoo News, and the New York Times, I have to peek at TechCrunch and then Webware to get my hourly up-to-the-minute news on any new and upcoming technology and web companies.

However, for the longest now, TechCrunch and Webware have been more like, following each other on what each one reports, with TechCrunch always leading the way, while Webware seems to only peek at what TechCrunch has to report and then they come up with the same news reporting on the same subject.

I am not saying that Webware plagiarizes TechCrunch, but it gets really boring to have the two tech news venues that I have come to like and admire always reporting on the same subject, different written style but on the same topic. TechCrunch will have a story on a certain subject and then an hour or a day later, Webware will have a story on the same subject that TechCrunch has just previously reported.

Have the tech news stories suddenly become so rare that Webware always seems to be walking under the shadow of TechCrunch?

Filed under: Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, advertising, article, blog this, branding, business, entrepreneur, events, networking, news, startup, technology , companies, Internet, news, online tech news, social networking, startup, Techcrunch, technology, web, Web 2.0, Webware

Nominate RentersQ for the Crunchies 2008

Please help, with your only click of the mouse, please nominate my web application, RentersQ, for the Crunchies 2008.

Click the button below to nominate RentersQ now.

Nominate RentersQ

Thanks alot!

Filed under: Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, blog this, business, houses, landlord, networking, real estate, rent, technology, tenant , crunchies, Techcrunch, technology, technology awards, web application award

Columbus, Ohio is Forbes #1 Tech City

According to Forbes.com, Columbus, Ohio, my college (OSU) home town, is #1 on the list of Forbes’ Top Up-And-Coming Tech Cities.

Yes, Columbus is really a nice city, I just don’t like the weather. And it’s been hit hard by the current unemployment crisis. There are many jobs available, but only for low hourly rates, average $9/hr.

Read more at Yahoo! News.

Filed under: AOL, Internet, advertising, article, blog this, business, culture, networking, social, startup, technology , best city, Columbus, Ohio, tech city, technology

The Biggest Hoax in the History of Mankind

The biggest hoax of the 20th century and in the history of mankind, purposely designed to exponentially boost sales and benefit large businesses and corporations was the Y2K Bug.

Remember when you were running around from store to store, stacking and packing up goods and durable inventory, carving hiding caves and rebuilding basement to safe keeping and protecting you from any of the much hyped Y2K mishaps?

While you stacked up bottles of water from Wal-Mart, candles, and Kerosene, canned goods, and everything else you thought you needed for the Y2K, while you were doing all that, businesses were smiling to the bank.

I’m just wondering what the guys who paid millions of dollars for the Y2K domains are thinking about now.

Do you remember what goods you stacked up for the biggest business hoax of the century, the Y2K bug? If you had a business, store-front then, did you cash in big time?

Filed under: advertising, article, blog this, business, culture, economics, education, energy, entertainment, environment, food, life, living, politics, social, technology , bug, business, computing, history, mankind, scary, technology, threat, virus, Y2K

The World’s Best Underrated Web sites

1. Photobucket (www.photobucket.com), the world’s biggest photo Web site, the easiest and most reliable way for people to create, manage and share their personal media online.

2. CNN.com (www.cnn.com), the world’s best and leader in online news and information delivery.

3. CNET.com (www.cnet.com), the world’s largest and the original web publisher of computer and technology news and information.

4. USA.gov (www.usa.gov), the world’s largest government web site.

5. DontDateHimGirl.com (http://www.dontdatehimgirl.com/), the world’s powerful and largest online community activist for women from around the world.

6. RentersQ (http://www.rentersq.com/), the world’s first online rental verification platform, the most complex web based rental predictive intelligence application ever developed using critical algorithmic expressions, for all the landlords and tenants around the world.

Which other world’s best underrated Web sites can you think of?

Filed under: Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, blog this, business, entertainment, rent, technology, tenant , Internet, online news, photo, technology, Web 2.0