My Favorite 2:49 Minutes of TV Comedy from the Fifties

Brightcove, causing some buzz for its new deal to share ad revenues with video producers, has a channel of clips from the Museum of Broadcast Communications. For Boomers it's nostalgia. For Xers and Nexters it's archeology. This surreal bit never fails to crack me up.


Mickeleh's Take: This bit is one of the supreme achievements of comedy genius. Ever. I'm eternally dumbfounded as to how its creator developed it. You might suspect drugs, but that really doesn't explain it. As for Brightcove's new business model, if sharing ad revenues helps them attract good new stuff, all the better. If it's only a magnet for infomercials, I'll just link to the dead geniuses, thanks.

(tags: TV, Television, Comedy, Fifties, Boomers)

NPR wants to stop me from using an iPod in the car

NPR wants to kill the low powered personal FM transmitters that folks use to play iPods and satellite radio through the car FM radio. And I just found a decent one that works with my Nano.

Ironies abound: Doc Searls points out he subscribes to Sirius to listen to NPR. I use my nano to timeshift NPR via podcasts. (That's a half-lie. I use it to listent to music and podcasts, among which are NPR shows.) Matt Murray notes, "So the funding from Joan B. Kroc, is going to try and smite the FM modulators and satellite radio, instead of expanding a news department or two."

Mickeleh's Take: Just when I was getting over my disappointment with NPR for canning Bob Edwards, they're joining the ranks of old-line media whose strategy for success is to thwart the desires of its customers. The record industry can fill you in on how well that works.

BTW, is this even a problem? Have you ever had interference in the car from a personal FM transmitter?

(tags: NPR, Satellite Radio, Podcast, Media, iPod)

Computers, Cell Phones, and Moxi, Yay!

It's standard time this morning. And my connected toys knew it before I did. My clock radio, microwave, car, and wall clocks* won't find out until I tell them. I go now, to make the rounds.

*Dave Winer has a wall clock that updates itself.

Mickeleh's Take: No wonder my dog overslept. BTW, who makes his bio-clock "fall back"? And how? And how long does it take?

Gartner: Apple, HP advance in market share

Gartner has released PC market share estimates for Q3. Worldwide, HP (16.3%) has edged Dell (16.1%) to take the number one spot. Overall PC shipments are up 7% worldwide.

In the U.S. HP is gaining on Dell, but still in the number two spot. Apple showed a spectacular 31% gain in units shiped (975,000) from same quarter last year (744,000), holding the fourth spot behind Gateway. Apple claimed a 6.1% of the U.S. market in Q3.

As for the top two PC-makers, Dell Q3 shipments (5,113) dropped 7.1% vs. last year, but that still keeps them comfortably ahead of second-place HP (3,657), despite HP's gain of 6.3% on the year.

Mickeleh's Take: What accounts for Apple's share growth? Is it the iPod halo. Or is it the "I'm a Mac" spots?

Jobs on Zune: "your lover's lips"

I wonder if Steve Jobs is taking lessons in sexual metaphors from Jean-Louis Gassée. In an online interview with Newsweek's Steven Levy Jobs dismissed the threat of the new Microsoft Zune.

Of the new Zune-to-Zune wireless music-sharing feature:

"It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left."

Of iPod losing it's cool-factor now that everybody has one:

"That's like saying you don't want to kiss your lover's lips because everyone has lips. It doesn't make any sense."

In a move clearly designed to innoculate the market against the imminent release of Zune, Jobs uses his powerful mediagenic rays to secure major Newsweek print coverage as well.

One more thing: Levy has a vested interest in our interest in iPod. He's about to release a book about it.

(tags: Steve Jobs, iPod, Zune, Apple, Microsoft)

Scoble's take on "Google Buys YouTube?" flurry

Robert Scoble has a smart take on the rumors that roiled the blogosphere today: Google in talks to buy You Tube for $1.6 Billion: a) It keeps YouTube out of play for Microsoft and Yahoo; b) it's a brand with a loyal audience.

Mickeleh's Take: Hmmm. Three weeks ago it was Google Video plus Apple equals world domination. Now it’s Google plus YouTube. What if both rumors are true? Could get mighty interesting. Wanna play another round of Zune vs. iPod?

(tags: YouTube, Google, Web 2.0, Blogging, Blogosphere)