Be Nice, Get $1,000,000

This cold season, sitting next to this guy ====> might finally pay off. Here's the way it works: someone coughs, you offer them a Ricola lozenge, win $1,000,000! "Mystery Coughers" are being sent out into the wild, and the generous soul offering a lozenge will be instantly be able to select from 50 envelopes, one of which contains one million smackers (the rest have $1,000).

Go to the website to sign up to receive hints on where the Mystery Coughers will be. As an added bonus, a Mystery Cougher will be sent to someone's house in the town that has the most e-mail participants.

Sorry, Miami, Honolulu, and San Diego, my guess is that you are s.o.l. for this one.

Read more about last year's happenings.

Preview, and They Will Come

ESPN streaming radio might just be the best thing at work since the minimize button on Internet Explorer. Since there are some crazy laws regarding which commercials can run where and on which platform, there are many commercials that don't run on internet broadcasts.

To replace these, ESPN plays some background music and the same commercial for their Podcasting service. The problem is that they only have one commercial. I hear it 10 times everyday! It's not even a bad spot, just repetitive.

Wouldn't they be better served by introducing a podcast and the host, then playing an entire minute of the podcast instead of a minute of background music? My guess is that people using streaming internet radio fall into the target for their podcast service, or at least more likely aware of the podcasts. Why not hook the ones who haven't subscribed yet? Give them a taste of the service and I guarantee they would increase subscriber numbers.

It's Google's World, You Just Live Here

Forget Bill Gates and Wal-Mart- Google now looks as though they will take over the world- and they are putting a smile on our faces while they do it! Have you seen the web applications they are putting out? A quick look at Google’s Options shows almost 40 products, from customizable searches and shopping to text messaging and the omnipotent Google Earth.

Let’s take a look at the commerce giants they are challenging. Gmail (with unlimited storage and searchability functions) is fast becoming an e-mail favorite over Yahoo!, MSN/Hotmail. Google Docs & Spreadsheets allow users to create, edit, store, and share data online which will soon challenge (gasp!) Microsoft. Google is also moving onto more Gates territory with their Calendar- lookout Outlook! Not playing favorites, Google’s Homepage lets you collect RSS feeds (like The eCLECTIC other Apple Widget-like apps. The one opponent Google looks to have conceded to is YouTube- so they bought ‘em.

Take a look at Google’s beta testing playground- write some code, create a webpage, find a new subway route to work…hell, explore Mars- no seriously.

image from nerdyshirts.com