Mister Krake, originally uploaded by Christine Gerhardt
It can be disconcerting to learn what, not to mention how much, marketers know about us. Consider a consumer like Scott E Howe.
The Acxiom Corporation, a marketing technology company that has amassed details on the household make-up, financial means, shopping preferences and leisure pursuits of a majority of adults in the United States, knows that Mr Howe is 45, married with children, the owner of a house in the 2,500-square-foot range, and is interested, among other things, in tennis, domestic travel, cooking, crafts, sweepstakes and contests. Those intimate details, Mr Howe says, are entirely accurate.
I am crazy about that stuff,
he says of the sweepstakes and contests.
Mr Howe is one of the first Americans to get a detailed glimpse of his own marketing profile because he happens to be the chief executive of Acxiom. But most consumers never learn the specific pieces of information that have been compiled about them by marketers.
That is about to change. Acxiom, one of the most secretive and prolific collectors of consumer information, is embarking on a novel public relations strategy: openness. On Wednesday, it plans to unveil a free Web site where United States consumers can view some of the information the company has collected about them, just as Mr Howe did.
The data on the site, called AbouttheData.com, includes biographical facts, like education level, marital status and number of children in a household; homeownership status, including mortgage amount and property size; vehicle details, like the make, model and year; and economic data, like whether a household member is an active investor with a portfolio greater than $150,000. Also available will be the consumer’s recent purchase categories, like plus-size clothing or sports products; and household interests like golf, dogs, text-messaging, cholesterol-related products or charities.
Each entry comes with an icon that visitors can click to learn about the sources behind the data — whether self-reported consumer surveys, warranty registrations or public records like voter files. The program also lets people correct or suppress individual data elements, or to opt out entirely of having Acxiom collect and store marketing data about them — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Brookfield Zoo is proud to share the birth of a male Snow Leopard cub, born on 13 June. The cub was born to first time mum Sarani and her mate, Sabu. At just over two months, the cub weighs about 10 pounds. The cub will remain off exhibit until he is about 3 months old. This will allow him time to bond with mum before making his public debut in mid-September — via ZooBorns
Colonne Morris dans le brouillard. Paris, France, circa 1933. Photograph by Brassaï — via Wil Wheaton
The Australia Zoo welcomed a 70 kg Southern White Rhinoceros calf on 4 May. The male baby is steadily gaining weight and now weighs more than 100 kg — via ZooBorns
Paul Michael, a jeweller, sketched up this design. I love it! It’s the perfect engagement ring for the Hutt who has captured (and frozen) your heart — via Neatorama
Hand knitted of a very good quality yarn (wool, alpaca and acrylic blend) these armadillos fingerless gloves will keep your hands cosy and warm during the cold season — via Etsy
A rare Ocelot kitten born on 26 June made her public debut this week at the Dallas Zoo — via ZooBorns
Fully working Steampunk workstation consisting of a computer table, a computer, a monitor, a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. The table was build from an old Singer sewing machine. The wood was completely reapplied (the patina retained). Three compartments provide storage space for small items. The PC was installed in an old wooden radio cabinet — via deviantART
At long last the Los Angeles Conservancy‘s effort to get a set of homes in the region included on the National Register of Historic Places has paid off, with the announcement that 11 of the Case Study Homes are deemed historically significant.
Ten of the homes have been placed on the list, according to the Conservancy. The 11th home did not get put on the list despite eligibility because of owner objection
. All of them will enjoy equal preservation protections under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
, says the Conservancy.
The Case Study program grew out of a post-WWII discussion of the future of architecture as a new era of building dawned. The idea was to create affordable, well-designed Mid-Century Modern homes for American families (of course, putting many in fancy neighbourhoods ensured the average Angeleno wasn’t likely to ever call one home, alas).
Not all the planned homes were built, and the program didn’t spring forth a gush of mass-produced affordable houses from the prototypes, but it did give architecture wonks and admirers much to love over the years. Most iconic is probably Case Study House #22, the Stahl house, designed by Pierre Koenig, which is oft-photographed — via redwolf.newsvine.com
— via DOGHOUSE
— via IUTER ONLINE STORE
Parallels has released an app that allows Windows and Mac OS X software to be used on the iPad.
Parallels Access customises the way apps are launched and how they respond to make them better suited to a touchscreen device.
Mac and Windows apps are run through a launcher, which presents each one as a large touchscreen icon. The launcher is automatically populated but apps can be added or removed.
Apps launch in full screen, with Access adding support for touchscreen taps and swipes, and a magnifying glass. When a user fails to tap squarely on a screen button, the app makes a best guess at the most likely intended action, making it easier to use touch with tiny buttons and other UI features designed for a mouse pointer.
Users can switch between running apps by tapping to bring up a quick bar.
Words and graphics can also be copied from within apps and pasted to other iPad apps or between Mac and Windows apps, using iPad-native select and drag copying.
Access works by streaming applications from a Mac or Windows PC over a network to the iPad. The machine can’t be used while the connection is active. Parallels Access can operate on both 3G and wi-fi networks but Parallels recommends using a broadband wi-fi network for a more stable connection — via redwolf.newsvine.com
On 4 June, the Espace Pour La Vie (Space for Life) Biodôme in Montréal welcomed three Lynx kittens into the world — via Lynx Kittens Explore New Territory at Montreal’s Espace Pour La Vie Biodôme – ZooBorns
New Zealand has finally passed a new Patents Bill that will effectively outlaw software patents after five years of debate, delay and intense lobbying from multinational software vendors.
Aptly-named Commerce Minister Craig Foss welcomed the modernisation of patents law, saying it marked a significant step towards driving innovation in New Zealand
.
By clarifying the definition of what can be patented, we are giving New Zealand businesses more flexibility to adapt and improve existing inventions, while continuing to protect genuine innovations,
Foss said.
The nearly unanimous passage of the Bill was also greeted by Institute of IT Professionals (IITP) chief executive Paul Matthews, who congratulated Foss for listening to the IT industry and ensuring software patents were excluded — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Package of 6 toppers, 2 of each design. Each tentacle measures 2” tall (50mm) (without the pick) — via Etsy
Parken Zoo in Sweden welcomed a new Fishing Cat on 24 May. The little one, whose sex is not yet determined, is doing well and will nurse from its mother until it reaches about six months of age. The proud mother and father, Alaya and Narjol, are already an experienced pair. They have two adult offspring, Arya and Arun, born in September 2009 — via ZooBorns
Over the years, CNN.com has become a news website that many people turn to for top-notch reporting. Every day it is visited by millions of people, all of whom rely on The Worldwide Leader in News
— that’s our slogan — for the most crucial, up-to-date information on current events. So, you may ask, why was this morning’s top story, a spot usually given to the most important foreign or domestic news of the day, headlined Miley Cyrus Did What???
and accompanied by the subhead Twerks, stuns at VMAs
?
It’s a good question. And the answer is pretty simple. It was an attempt to get you to click on CNN.com so that we could drive up our web traffic, which in turn would allow us to increase our advertising revenue.
There was nothing, and I mean nothing, about that story that related to the important news of the day, the chronicling of significant human events, or the idea that journalism itself can be a force for positive change in the world. For Christ’s sake, there was an accompanying story with the headline Miley’s Shocking Moves
. In fact, putting that story front and centre was actually doing, if anything, a disservice to the public. And come to think of it, probably a disservice to the hundreds of thousands of people dying in Syria, those suffering from the current unrest in Egypt, or, hell, even people who just wanted to read about the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream
speech — via redwolf.newsvine.com
About 80 homes in a wealthy Calgary suburb are once again facing sporadic mail delivery due to the antics of an aggressive, brooding hawk. For three years, the predatory avian has made her nest in Lake Bonavista. And once the chicks hatch, mama hawk has taken a particular dislike to Canada Post mail carriers. The problem typically resolves itself when the baby birds leave the nest and the hawks migrate to Argentina. Until then, however, letter carriers are making the daily delivery with caution. The Post’s Jen Gerson spoke to Canada Post employee Rick Tobin about braving the slightly too wild suburbs of Calgary’s southeast.
Q How long have you been a letter carrier in that area?
A I’m actually a superintendent for the facility and I’ve been delivering the mail during this situation because I’m comfortable with it. Most days we split up the mail, put one person on one side of the street and another person on the other side of the street so we can look for it. And when the bird comes out, we have one person deliver, the other person watches. If the bird starts swooping, and we feel it’s unsafe at that point in time, we stop our delivery and bring the mail back to the facility.
Q Now your situation is you’re going out with another carrier and you’re the lookout? And you take a tennis racket, is that right?
A I am the gentleman who walks with the tennis racket. The whole purpose of the tennis racket is to put it straight up in the air so if the bird does swoop, it will misjudge itself. It goes for your high point. It would hit my tennis racket before it hit me. It’s never come at me with its claws out, its claws have always been tucked behind. Every carrier who has come out to assist me in delivery has enjoyed their experience. They have enjoyed watching the bird — because usually they’re new and the bird only focuses on me — so they enjoy that experience.
Q Basically you’re saying that they enjoy watching their boss get swooped by a hawk?
A Totally — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A group claiming to be the Syrian Electronic Army was able to take down the New York Times on Tuesday by hacking into a web site in Australia, The New York Times said in a statement.
The group gained control of the Times’ domain name registrar, Melbourne IT. A domain name registrar is a site that sells domain names and controls a domain name server (DNS). DNS is the server that sends you to a web page when you type a URL address into your browser, such as nytimes.com.
By hacking into the DNS server, the group could redirect the traffic going to nytimes.com. The Syrian Electronic Army also said it hacked Twitter. Twitter reportedly also uses Melbourne IT.
Melbourne IT is the dominant provider of domain name services in Australia, partly because it long had the monopoly on allowing the registration of .com.au site names. It claims to have more than 350,000 worldwide customers. It current CEO announced plans to step down yesterday — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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