Wi-Fi Security?

A little over a week ago, some jerkwads snuck into my place on Long Island and stole a bunch of stuff. None of my personal belongings was taken, but Kim and Mom had their purses taken and Rob had his wallet stolen. Neighbors found the purses down the block, lying in the road with cash missing but everything else intact. Rob's wallet is still MIA. Of course, the purses were recovered after Kim and Mom had already called all their credit card companies and financial institutions to cancel cards, order replacements and such.

The scary thing about this is that the robbers were in the house while Mom, Kim and Rob slept. Kim heard something upstairs from her bedroom in the basement, but thankfully didn't go upstairs to investigate. I shudder to think what might have happened if she had caught the robbers in the act.

This past weekend, we were all talking about what to do about security. New doors, windows and locks are coming in September, and we're taking precautions to make sure everything is locked up at night from now on. But what else should we do? We talked about getting a home security system, but everyone I know who has one says they're more trouble in "false alarm fees" than they're worth.

During my last visit to CompUSA, I saw that the wireless networking usual suspects are offering home automation systems that I'd like to try out. I'm thinking about getting some cameras and some switches to turn lights on and off. Has anyone tried any of this stuff? Send me your comments if you have any experiences, negative or positive.

Blogs and the Flow Experience

Bill from Pheedo liked my post on blog advertising, but doesn't dig the notion of using disruptive advertising on blogs.

Bill's post makes a great point, and I want to clarify my earlier comments to address what he's saying here...

Right now, blog advertising needs to be a part of the blog reader's flow experience. Allow me to explain what I mean by that, because it's incredibly important. Blog readers are typically in "mission critical" mode when they visit their favorite blogs. Let's say I'm visiting Atrios on my lunch hour at work. All I want to do is get into Eschaton, read up on the topics that interest me, maybe post a couple comments, and move on. Any advertising that disrupts this flow experience is likely to be seen as annoying. IMHO, disruptive advertising like floating ads and pop-ups disrupt this flow experience with the goal of capturing attention. These types of ads tend to work best when the advertiser is competing with many other ads on the page or when they otherwise need to be disruptive.

The good news is that blogs aren't terribly cluttered (yet). There's no need to be disruptive, and I think that advertisers are better served by using ad units that "go with the flow" and don't create hiccups for the blog reader in the flow experience. I wouldn't recommend using pop-ups, floating ads or anything that's going to cause the reader to be forced to devote exclusive attention to the ad when they'd rather be focusing that attention on content.

At the same time, I don't think that advertisers can always get their message across using text ads or other ads that tend to show up in the same off-to-the-side placement every time. Often, advertisers want to present a more detailed message. And they don't want to appear in areas where readers see ads all the time and tend to tune them out.

The solution is meeting somewhere in the middle. Again, I have to be vague about what we placed on behalf of our client, but suffice it to say:

• We used animated GIFs, not rich media
• The placement was very respectful of the flow experience
• It was a persistent placement in the sense that it appeared on every page, but the placement varied slightly every time the blog was updated.
• Response rates increased over the course of the campaign

I wish I could point you to an example, but I think that might tweak the client a bit.

I also want to go on the record as saying that I dig BlogAds. I also like the idea of reaching blog readers through Google AdSense. However, I'm also of the opinion that bloggers tend to place these ad programs in the same place on their blogs and that readers will likely tend to tune those ad placements out once they become accustomed to seeing them in the same spot on every visit. I didn't think BlogAds or AdSense were appropriate for this particular placement because we didn't want the ads to be tuned out. (Besides, the blog we advertised on didn't make use of BlogAds or Adsense.) Additionally, we wanted to get a more complex message across than could be conveyed by a 150x200 graphic placement and 300 characters of text. That's about all I can say about this.

That's not to say that I think ad agencies should start peppering blogs with page takeovers, pop-ups, dancing baloney, annoying ads that blink or make noise, and other disruptive executions. Being disruptive in these environments doesn't serve the advertiser well, nor does it appeal to the reader. On top of that, blogs tend to be uncluttered environments (as they exist today), and there's no need to haul out the disruptive ad formats. A simple GIF will work just fine, as will Flash ads that don't creep outside their allotted pixel real estate without user interaction. I use the term "rich media" to refer to any ad that uses technology beyond that of animated GIFs, static JPEGs or text links. Not all rich media ads are disruptive. Since I didn't want to suggest that disruptive ads are the way to go here, I thought this clarification post was in order.

YMMV. There's no such thing as a completely unintrusive advertisement. But there are varying degrees of intrusiveness and media buyers should be respectful of this.

Philosophical Question of the Day

A blurry picture of Jimmy's
Darth Vader Talking Bank,
which he keeps in the office

Jim was giving me the history of the Darth Vader Talking Bank, which launched us into a conversation about toys.

"I wonder if you're reunited with all your old toys when you die and go to heaven," I hoped aloud.

"No doubt," said Jim. "That would be hot."

When I croak, I hope to be reunited with my Star Wars AT-AT. Regrettably, its demise came when I was 15 and went through the mandatory "Let's blow everything up with fireworks" teenage phase.

Some other toys I'd like to be reunited with in the afterlife: Microvision, the G.I. Joe hovercraft, all my Stomper 4X4s, Head to Head Electronic Football and my radio controlled R2D2.

Recipe: The Dip

After much egging on by a certain friend of mine, the staff of Hespos.com is proud to share one of our recipes from the Vault of Bachelor Food Recipes.

The Dip is delicious, made from very simple ingredients and so simply prepared that it can be easily made with even the rudimentary kitchen implements that bachelors have lying around the place.

I have taken this dish to the hoity-toitiest of parties and received nothing but praise. How embarrassed the hosts would be if they only knew that The Dip is just a refinement of an old college staple popularized by stoners.

Have a bunch of buddies coming over to watch the game? Or maybe having a Sopranos party and don't know what to serve? Read on for foolproof instructions on how to make The Dip.

First, print this out. Next, go to the store. You need to buy the following:

• 2 - Huge ass bags of taco chips. (I prefer Tostitos.)
• 1 - Can of Mild Salsa. Don't get all manly on me and buy Hot Salsa. You'll thank me later.
• 1 - Big loaf of Velveeta. If you're a metrosexual, you can buy Velveeta Lite, but I don't recommend it.
• 2 - Cans of Black Bean chili.
• 1 - Jar of Jalapeno slices.
• 1 - Bottle of your favorite hot sauce.

Great. Now come home with all this crap and go into the kitchen.

Get a big pot. Use the one you make spaghetti in when your girlfriend won't cook for you. Dump in the can of salsa and both cans of chili. Turn your stovetop burner about halfway up and put the pot on it.

While the salsa and the chili are heating up, cut up the loaf of Velveeta into cubes. You need to do this because if you don't, it won't melt the way it's supposed to and you'll fuck everything up. Get a wooden spoon and start stirring the salsa/chili mixture. Toss in a few cubes of the Velveeta and stir it until the Velveeta is totally melted. Keep going like this, tossing in a few Velveeta cubes at a time until you've melted it all.

Turn down the heat for a bit. Dice up about a dozen of the jalapeno slices. If you don't know how to dice, you're in good company. Order yourself "The Ultimate Chopper" at 4 AM off the DR commercial like I did. If you have The Ultimate Chopper, put the jalapeno slices under it and whack the handle a good 5-6 times. Stir in the diced jalapenos and stir, stir, stir. (If you don't stir, The Dip burns and you end up with a nasty, crusty mass on the bottom of your pot, which you don't want.)

Remove from heat, continuing to stir. As a final gesture, add a few drops of your favorite hot sauce. Mine is "Da Bomb: Beyond Insanity" which clocks in at about 119,700 Scoville units. If you have this stuff lying around, don't add more than a drop or two, because you'll ruin the whole lot. If you did everything right, your incarnation of The Dip will look something like the picture at the top of this post.

Get two big bowls. When The Dip is sufficiently cool, put it into one of these bowls. Fill the other one with taco chips. Serve with cold beer.

Optional: Some people like sour cream and additional jalapeno slices with their nachos. If you must, put out small bowls of sour cream and the rest of the contents of the jalapeno jar (drained, of course).

Enjoy.