As we said earlier today, the W in WSG is for World Cup these days. So much so, that I felt compelled to purchase one of those awesome horns you hear in the background at all the matches. That’s right -- my very own vuvuzela!
For about $13, inclusive of shipping, I have in my hands a little piece of the World Cup. If I blow it in my house, my wife is sure to send me straight to the proverbial dog house, but it just might be worth it. I wonder how people would react if I tooted the horn in a pub, or other public place? Perhaps that will follow in an upcoming blog post.
What do you think? Is the vuvuzela annoying, or fun? Leave me a comment to let me know!
If you don’t know what this piece of red plastic is all about, Wikipedia says it best:
The vuvuzela (English pronunciation: /vuːvuːˈzeɪlə/, also known as lepatata (its Tswana name) and stadium horn, is a typical 65 cm (2 ft) plastic blowing horn that produces a loud, distinctive monotone (B♭3, the B♭ below middle C) note. A similar instrument, known as the corneta, is used in Brazil and other Latin American countries. Many types of vuvuzela, made by several manufacturers, may produce varying intensity and frequency outputs.[1][2] The intensity of these outputs depends on the blowing technique and pressure exerted.[1]
The vuvuzela is most used at football matches in South Africa.[3] It has become a symbol of South African football as the stadiums are filled with its loud and raucous sound that reflects the exhilaration of supporters.[2][4] The intensity of the sound caught the attention of the global football community during the 2009 Confederation Cup in anticipation of South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup.[4]
Vuvuzela 101 from Goal.com:
We’re all keeping up with Team USA’s run in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and it is fair to say that we’ve caught the fever. So if you hear some loud cheering or noise coming from the conference room at 4 Interstave, it might be in moments like Landon Donovan’s dramatic game-winner in the 91st minute today.
Google Voice numbers are no longer invitation only. The big G announced today that the service would be available on demand for Google ID holders. I’ve had a GV number for a while, and we were just able to beg/borrow/steal an invite for a client to use on their new site.
What’s Google Voice, you ask?
Before you click through to this story on the business success of ICanHazCheezburger.com founder Ben Huh, try and guess the amount of money the guy makes and how many sites are a part of his Cheezburger Network. I can haz some moneys, Mr. Huh?
Commercial and industrial painting contractor Frank J. Ryan and Sons, in concert with WSG, today launched their first web-site – RyanCommercialPainting.com. A forth-generation family-owned business, FJR & Sons stands atop their field, and now they have a web presence to match.
We were genuinely impressed to learn about the accomplishments of FJR and Sons. From their impressive client list, to the projects they’ve completed, their imprint is all over the Capital Region – Albany, Troy, Saratoga and beyond. If you’ve lived in this area for any length of time, you can be sure you’ve seen their work: The College of St. Rose in Albany, NY, the EMPAC building in Troy, the Sagamore in Lake George, NY, the LL Bean store in Albany and the Rensselaer Rail Station. FJR and Sons is also certified by the EPA as a lead-safe firm. Co-owners and brothers Bob and Steve Ryan were a joy to work with, and we look forward to continued work on their site.
The project included a custom design by our Creative Director Danielle McMahon, and is running on open-source content management system Drupal.
Quick post – HP bought Palm and ReadWriteWeb.com assembled a nice post about the bets Twitter content on the news. Find it here.
I know plenty of people who have dumped their in home cable television service in favor of video content from web sites like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix and other download or streaming media sources. Hulu will now apparently look to monetize come of their content with a $9.95 subscription offering. The LA Times reports that Hulu will start testing this offering at the end of May.
How much are you willing to pay for this kind of service? Does it even interest you?
Now, this is really nobody’s fault, but it is notable. On the same page as a TimesUnion.com story about the theft of personal information at St. Peter’s Hospital here in Albany was a banner ad for their biggest competitor, Albany Medical Center.
The ad should have said – “Don’t go to the place where your personal data is stolen by a file clerk – Go to the place where the same thing could probably happen, but hasn’t yet.”
I refreshed this page 15 times for good measure, and saw the Albany Med ad twice, an ad for Ellis Hospital’s Mother of the Year program, and the rest of the ads were not related to medicine or hospitals.
A client of ours sent this over to me today asking if it was legitimate or not. We get questions like this quite often, and we always tell folks to reach out to us in moments of doubt, rather than doing something potentially harmful. We’re always, always glad you asked. Here’s what was sent over this morning.
Look below for the rest of the post.
—–Original Message—–
From: C Web Mail Team [mailto:webmailteam@webname.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 8:00 AM
Subject: Attn: webmail Owner
Attn: webmail Owner
We just confirmed that you have not upgrade to the new web-mail version. That is why we are sending
you this massage to upgrade your account now. This is because we are preventing your web-mail from
closure. And also we have notice that your mail have been used for send spam mail to other mail.
To prevent your account from this you will have to send a verification massage so that we will
confirm from our computer system that you are the rightfully owner of this mail and also to upgrade
your account to the version. To upgrade your account you have to send us the following information
so that we can upgrade as soon as possible.
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW
Email User name : ……….
EMAIL Password : ………..
Date of Birth :………….
Last login:……………..
Warning!!! if you refuse to send this information to us within (1) weeks of receiving this warning you will
lose your account. Warning Code: PX2G99AAJ
Thank you for using webmail
………………………………………………..
NOTE: This message is authorize by the webmail Project email account protector unit.Notification message will be send back to you after verifying your account before account could be reset.
C All right reserve.
This is a common occurrence, and a nasty potential threat so let’s look at how this played out. Someone – let’s call them Janice – receives an email asking her to click on a link, submit personal information, reply with answers to questions and so on, all in the name of making sure something bad doesn’t happen to her. Things like the protection of her bank account, the continuity of her webmail access, a shinny opportunity like free tickets or an iPod and so on. The request is presented in ambiguous enough a manner as to keep Janice from dismissing it out of hand. If it was something more cartoonish like a Viagra solicitation or an invitation to a gambling web site, Janice might have been able to click ‘delete’ and move on.
In this case, Janice is left to wonder – should she or shouldn’t she. Should she send her birthday, password and username to the system administrator or not? What if her webmail access was turned off? How would she re-activate it?
We hope that Janice and everyone else will consider a third option – ask for help. We can quickly answer the question for you. Avoid, avoid avoid complying with requests like this, no matter now legitimate it might look. Just ask us. We can help you stay out of hot water.
Nuff said.
