“New App Lets Banner Ads Listen, Remember, Respond”
In the late 90’s I played a small part in our company’s early efforts to get on “the information highway.” We went all-in on an idea called AdActive. Proving, once again, that nothing ever dies on the Internet, I found the following on ClickZ. (1998)
Straylight in Seattle launched AdActive, a software product that allows existing banner ads to provide advertisers information on end-user brand perceptions, letting marketers target future messages based on individual responses.
Designed to support one-to-one relationships between customers and companies, AdActive works with a Web site’s existing ad delivery system or network to extend the traditional banner ad, the privately held company said.
Users are offered a number of options to tell advertisers what they think of the product or brand being presented without being taken away from the content they are viewing. AdActive then records the response so that it can be aggregated to provide detailed brand/product perception reports and used to more effectively target future ads.
“AdActive allows Web sites to realize new revenue by giving advertisers the ability to interact directly with consumers,” said Allen Hammock, technical director for Straylight’s AdActive Product Group. “Advertisers will also be able to look at what people think about their brand and products while giving Web surfers the ability to actively shape their online ad experience without registering or giving up their online anonymity.”
AdActive features a response bar, a small footprint Java applet, allows an individual to pass along positive or negative responses to an ad, contact an advertiser directly or even cancel an ad from being shown again.
The app gives advertisers the ability to respond to individual consumer brand perceptions with new advertisements or to refocus their efforts on consumers who chose not to respond at all.
AdActive is designed to work with NetGravity’s industry-standard ad delivery system, AdServer. The software is priced in a tiered structure based on a site’s traffic and computing resources.
Spring 2021
Simplicity
Spotted this motorcycle in front of our local coffee shop. I know nothing about motorcycles but find this one especially beautiful. No saddlebags. No radio. No cupholder. No windscreen! No place for a passenger.
Time Capsule
In early 2008 Apple introduced the Time Capsule, a wireless router that automatically backs up data for any computer connected to your wifi network. In approximately 2016, Apple disbanded the wireless router team that developed the AirPort Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme router. In 2018, Apple formally discontinued both products, exiting the router market.
Don’t recall when I got mine but it was a long time ago. Since Apple no longer supports the device, I retired mine and replaced it with an external hard drive, using Time Machine to back up my MacBook.
Was planning to take the old Time Capsule to the recycle place but remembered it still has my data on it. A lot of data. I could plug it back in and erase but I’m told it would take a long time so I decided to destroy the thing. But it’s impenetrable! No way (that I can see) to get it open and get to the hard drive. I could probably beat it with an axe or a sledgehammer but that sounds like a lot of work. So I’ve decided to take it down into the woods (we live on six acres) and bury it. I know, probably not good for ground water but I’ll do my best to seal it up.
I kind of like the idea some alien archeologist discovering the thing and being frustrated she can’t find a power cord or cable for it.
So what next?
“The first step is to tone down the prophecies of doom and switch from panic mode to bewilderment. Panic is a form of hubris. It comes from the smug feeling that one knows exactly where the world is heading: down. Bewilderment is more humble and therefore more clear-sighted. Do you feel like running down the street crying “The apocalypse is upon us”? Try telling yourself, “No, it’s not that.Truth is, I just don’t understand what’s going on in the world.”
— 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018)
“Next target is cancer”
(AP) “The scientist who won the race to deliver the first widely used coronavirus vaccine says people can rest assured the shots are safe, and the technology behind it will soon be used to fight another global scourge — cancer.
The vaccines made by BioNTech-Pfizer and U.S. rival Moderna uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, to carry instructions into the human body for making proteins that prime it to attack a specific virus. The same principle can be applied to get the immune system to take on tumors.
“We have several different cancer vaccines based on mRNA,” said Tureci, who is BioNTech’s chief medical officer.
Asked when such a therapy might be available, Tureci said “that’s very difficult to predict in innovative development. But we expect that within only a couple of years, we will also have our vaccines (against) cancer at a place where we can offer them to people.”
Before you say, impossible, consider that the best scientific minds in the world were certain it was impossible to create a COVID-19 vaccine in less than a year.
The Turning Point
Ping Pong
Yesterday I played ping pong with my friend John for the first time in more than a year. Before the pandemic we’d get together every couple of weeks in his basement. John is good enough to call it table tennis but it will always be ping pong for me.
We chat as we play and boy was I ready to interact with another human. John and his wife, Peggy, have both been vaccinated for COVID (as have I) so we felt safe as we played and talked. It will be a while (never?) before I take such simple pleasure for granted.
Buddha Trump
A cast of “Trump, the Buddha of Knowing of the Western Paradise,” by the Chinese sculptor Hong Jinshi.
“A furniture maker and decorator in China created a stir — and inspired copycats — by casting a ceramic sculpture of the former president in a meditative pose that evokes the Buddha. Mr. Hong’s sculpture reflects an abiding cultural fascination with Mr. Trump in China that began with his election. Many admired his brash style, his family’s business ties to China and even his early courtship of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, whom he called “an incredible guy.” (New York Times)