Recently we bought the Creative Live! Cam Video IM Pro because I wanted something for Windows that fit comfortably on top of my LCD monitor, included face tracking and could be motion activated. My thinking was this would be useful for videoconferencing. I chose the IM Pro camera which seemed very reasonable at $30 USD — and the last one on the shelf — at Best Buy.

The first thing that surprised me when opening up the package was that it actually came with some (not all) useful software. Most lowend purchases they think it’s time to upsell you into uncrippled pro versions of software you’ll never use. The IM Pro included the following software:

- Creative Live Cam Manager with FX including a dozen plus different backgrounds (see example of card background below), also manage: photo capture, video recording, time lapse, motion detection and remote monitoring
- Muvee Auto Producer 2.1. You can combine clips, add titling and make a movie very similar to Windows Media Maker.
- Orb 2.0 secure. This version uses too much AJAX for my liking and seems like more of a downgrade than from what I’ve seen so far, but the general idea is that you can placeshift your audio, TV, video and even your camera from another computer similar to how Slingbox works. Just watch out for the anonymous aggregated stats stuff here.
- Creative Photo Calendar and Photo Manager. Nothing to see here, move along. The kind of stuff that most people never use.
- Creative Software Autoupdate. Handy program that keeps up with the newest drivers and Creative program updates you are using. Since we have a Creative Sound Blaster sound card it found a newer driver automatically and let me choose when to install. You can make all parts of the upgrade process automatic but I’d recommend just having it download the newest updates and alert you that they are ready.

Decent selection from a bundled software perspective. You used to have to pay well over $100 to find a web camera that does everything the IM Pro does and at even worse quality. And what about the webcam itself? How is the quality? Is it $30 cheap?

It would be cool if you could (easily) make your own FX backgrounds. I’ll have to do some more digging around to see about that. Or of course if somebody knows the answer, feel free to use the comments below and share.

What do you think? The quality seems OK for video conferencing, 1.3 Megapixel quality photos and video chat up to 800×600 resolution, but regular video bloggers (vloggers) will probably seek something with better quality.

You can record in WMV and AVI format use a wide variety of codecs. Freak your friends with some of the special effects like the wavy mirror which splits your face into two or start your face on fire; more exciting than animated smilies, although I’m sure the novelty wears off.

I’m not sure how much videoconferencing I’ll actually be doing going forward, but the price was right and the quality passes for the intended use. Looking around online, I’m seeing prices for the Creative Live! IM Pro as high as $87. It’s definitely not worth that much, but if you can find it for $30 like we did, it’s worth digging into the wallet or purse. Grade: C+

Gotta love the indomitable spirit of Sylvester Stallone. The guy won’t let the Rocky franchise die and in a 20 days of Q&A via Ain’t it Cool news, he answers a question about why Carl Weathers who played Apollo Creed (in Rocky I-IV) won’t be in a brief montage in the upcoming Rocky Balboa film due out December 20:

Apollo Creed is not in ROCKY BALBOA because he wanted many thousands of dollars for a two-second piece of he and Rocky boxing. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford it. Then again, what ever happened to loyalty? Apollo Greed?

Could Apollo be bitter he was killed in the ring by Ivan Drago in Rocky IV? Wasn’t his famous line: “No matter what … no matter what.”

Stallone should be penning his own blog, but there is at least an official (?) Rocky Balboa blog at blogspot of all places (why doesn’t Sly spring for his own domain?). I’m still wondering where is Yo’ Adrian? Has she dumped Rock or what? Seems like in all the clips I’ve seen that part of the storyline has been left out. I wonder if she leaves Rock or is killed off before the story starts?

Ok, it’s nerdy joke time. This animated GIF from w3schools.com is good for a quick chuckle. The internet zipped probably wouldn’t take that many years unless maybe the person was on a lousy dial-up connection, but I like the part about the A: drive.

Like you’d have much more luck with a floppy!

In light of the past Microsoft position on easter eggs (”grounds for termination”), I’m not sure if we’ll see any easter eggs in Internet Explorer 7 to counter Firefox 2.x when you type about:mozilla in the Firefox (works in Flock too) URL bar.

BTW, that Microsoft policy covers Windows, I’m not sure how or even if that covers Internet Explorer. I still think easter eggs are a good idea in most (not all) programs. Why not hide a game in a spreadsheet program? Sure, easter eggs could become exploits if they are done at the wrong time and place in code, but hopefully Microsoft hires people smart enough (they do) that can figure out where not to place easter eggs. I think it’s too severe having a termination policy against them.

Hat tip to Download Squad.

If allowed, what would be a good easter egg for the IE team to put in? How about an animated picture of a bird who’s brain explodes after too many add-ons were implemented? Or a counter of memory use rising dramatically while IE7 remains stable? Suggestions, ideas?

Somebody get the Jefferson’s on the phone, Ken Kutaragi is moving on up away from the Sony Playstation division [source SCEI pdf] replaced by Kaz Hirai, head of SCEI’s US division. I’m not sure how many will view this as a promotion for Kutaragi, but that seems to be the way it’s being sold.

As Wagner James Au at Gigaom aptly points out:

Once a rising star, last year Kutaragi was demoted, with the Playstation 3 seen as his chance to redeem himself. This latest move almost certainly confirms that this redemption has failed, and that Sony is acknowledging (belatedly, or perhaps far too late) that their status as console king is in grave peril.

Also, I found it interesting that Au pointed to the possibility that there might be no PS4 and that Sony could go the way of Sega, a comparison I suggested back in August and was quickly flamed by Sony fanboys. The blind Sony loyalists claim how great the PS brand is and how easy it is going to keep the #1 slot on the console gaming front, but this time around things are a lot different.

1) Microsoft got in first and has a one year start
2) The Xbox 360 has a more established game library
3) The Xbox 360 has a more established online gaming presence (Xbox Live)
4) Nintendo isn’t in the game. They are playing for the lower priced model with a different strategy, realizing that their style of games can’t or won’t compete against the 360 and PS3 directly. They are going after families and could soon be playing the “we need exercise” card. Could be a brilliant strategy on their part.
5) Very few people will be able to buy a PS3 for the first six months, meaning that the real console challeng won’t occur until Holiday season 2007. By then a cheaper Xbox 360 will be out, making the PS3 look even more overpriced.

The only things Sony has going for them are some killer exclusive titles and strong, but weakening brand loyalty. Square comes to mind on the RPG front. If we see them give up and start supporting the Xbox 360 with these exclusive titles then I seriously doubt we’ll ever see a PS4.

While I’m not willing to make the leap that the PS3 is Sony’s dying console gasp — especially since I’ve never played one — things sure seems abysmal at the moment, don’t they? They would be — and already are — a very successful games company. Sure to be missed by the fanboys who will likely flame me for this post, I sincerely hope Sony can pull it together and not go the way of Sega. As readers here already know, I’m all for competition and Microsoft will be more innovative trying to catch up than they will be in the #1 slot. I’d like to see Microsoft staying hungry.

Would also like to start writing something positive about Sony, but feel that probably won’t happen until I actually get my hands on a system — next year. That’s the biggest problem. Far bigger than it was for Microsof with the Xbox 360 because there wasn’t a PS3 or Wii waiting in the wings like there is now.

And for the rest of you that still haven’t seen — and don’t expect to see — a PS3 available for sale, that isn’t stopping others from taking theirs and turning them into strange concoctions like a PS3 Grill via Make:

I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in knowing that somehow, somewhere, some dude is cooking up little steaks and sausages on a $600 toy.

Tasty!

Seriously, Bill Gates and camp were correct to make getting out there first being a key first victory in the next generation. We won’t know what the true fate of the Playstation is until 2007 or 2008 when both companies have ample supply in the stores with a good stable of games.

In one of the most bizarre exclamations I’ve read in a long time, ZDnet’s David Berlind attempts to make a case for the short URL service tinyurl.com being the next YouTube. No, really, he’s serious.

Berlind writes:

TinyURL is the next YouTube. In fact. It’s better. It’s a dream come true for the Madison avenue types whose Holy Grail has always been how to serve people with an advertisement at their moment of greatest need.

Yes, he’s talking about the same tinyurl shortening service which in addition to being useful to Berlind and others for shortening long relevant URLs is also a haven for spammers wanting to mask links to sites with illegal activity and worse (malware, anyone?). After I read the article I looked in my comment moderation bin for this blog and what do I see? Yup, you already saw it to lead off this post. Really, that was the very first comment waiting for me to approve. Berlind should get with Matt Mullenweg and see how many of these type comment spams are sullying up the Akismet bins every hour of every day.

My apologies for not masking most of the NSFW keywords in that screenshot, they are there to reinforce my point that this happens frequently with short URL services. All legitimate adult and mainstream affiliate programs have strict rules against spamming. Using a third party service to intentionally mask the URL for spamming purposes is clearly a major TOS violation. These affiliates would have their account banned for this activity. Is TinyURL or any of the competing short URL services working to report these people who use their service for spamming?

An owner’s perspective
Before we get too far, I speak on the subject of short URL services with direct experience. I’ve owned and operated a similar service since 2004 that is actually shorter than tinyurl.com (11 characters) called tdurl.com (9 characters). I didn’t start the service to compete against the other URL shortening services, but primarily to use for myself. I didn’t like the idea of links that could be easily expired at some point in the future and knew the only way to guarantee that short links I used wouldn’t be killed later or perhaps as Berlind hints someday become a second page to an advertisement. So I wrote my own code and deployed my own service intending for myself to be the primary benefactor. The entire codebase which makes up our tdurl.com short service is less than 300 lines in a single PHP file. The click counts for each short URL are kept in a database.

I told a few friends and our radio show audience of my intentions back in 2004. I even offered the code to my hosting company and encouraged them to start their own URL shortening service. IMO, I still believe every company with multiple websites should have their own URL shortening service rather than use any third party service (including mine).

With that in mind hopefully this post isn’t being seen as trying to bash a competing service or disrespect to the tinyurl creator from Minnesota Kevin “Gilby” Gilbertson (although I’m sure some will see it that way). Instead I’d like to point out the inherent problems with running a short URL service that outweigh their usefulness and value for third party use from a short URL owner perspective. I have almost two years of direct experience to draw from and that should be worth something to add to the discussion.

As a quick aside, I thought it was kind of funny how Gilby seemed a bit perplexed by David Berlind’s overexuberance:

ZDNet: Every time that I go to TinyURL, the thing that crosses my mind is this is the next YouTube…
Gilby: You think so?
ZDNet: I think so, I don’t know if you’re worth 1.6 billion dollars, but I think well, this kind of traffic, this kind of utility, this kind of simple idea, lot’s of incredibly useful data coming through that would be useful to advertisers on the Internet…

In a few words, hosting short URLs for others that I don’t know overall has been a miserable experience. Most of the third party activity has been similar to what you see in the screenshot above and/or from individuals trying to mask other affiliate URLs and spam newsgroups, messageboards, email, myspace, blogs, you name it.

Running one of these short URL services — and keeping it clean — requires even more aggressive filtering and monitoring than checking your email box. I lamented these challenges trying to keep these services spammer free back in a post here July called War of the Short URL Worlds. The activity had gotten progressively worse as spammers tried to hide their activities behind the short URL service which culminated in that post. For awhile I was getting daily emails alerting me that my short URL service was being used for spamming. Fortunately with the changes made over the past few months it has improved slightly. I also had to ban uses of other shorten URL services like TinyURL which were being used as multiple level spam redirection. Sound like fun?

In every case we remove the links and in most add custom filtering rules. I’m filtering out many porn, viagra, mortgage and other affiliate programs. Also blocking many country domains outside the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Still, the service can and is be used by spammers. An ongoing battle.

And remember, this comes from somebody who isn’t out actively promoting their short URL service for others to use. Spammers are still finding the service and trying to subvert it for TOS-violating and in some cases illegal activity. I can only imagine how much BS Mr. “Gilby” Gilbertson and others who do actively promote for others to use have to face.

Google doesn’t need the misery
Now why would somebody like Google ever want to buy a short URL service and suddenly become the proxy for spammers? They already receive enough bad karma from owning arguably the world’s worst spog haven with blogspot.com? Instead, they’d be wiser to use their assets to buy a one digit domain and build their own. These short URL services are easy to build and deploy, but require much more work to keep clean of trash. They could then start fresh and build their own anti-spam defense.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, Google has gone on record as saying that they don’t like intrusive advertising. People who use — and have used — URL shortening services didn’t intend, agree or want somebody to slam an ad in front of the target link like [cough, cough] a number of mainstream media sites use. That type of intrusion would no doubt be deemed evil by Google’s standards, eyeballs be damned.

To play devil’s advocate, there was a lot of negativity surrounding YouTube — particularly with copyright violations — and that didn’t stop the big G from closing the deal. But this is different in the sense that there are dozens of short URL services and the thing that separates them is how good they are about filtering (or accepting) the trash.

So then who would be a suitor for an existing URL shortening service? Somebody who doesn’t mind taking the PR hit, perhaps. Somebody who would love to take that database of links and subvert them, just as the comment spammers are using them while you are reading this. What does Gilby think about this?

The answer is in the podcast.

Podcast with Gilby, TinyURL’s creator
I listened to Berlind’s podcast with trepidation, primarily hoping to absorb some amount of logic in why he thinks tinyurl.com and the dozens of copycats (my own service admittedly being one of them) will ever be anything more valuable to non-spammers and companies that are willing to absorb the headaches associated with running this type of service.

Ironically, the podcast starts with “a word from the sponsor.” Then Berlind prefaces with some background stats on TinyURL that listeners learn has been running since January 2002. Over 28 million long URLs have been shortened using TinyURL and the homepage claims to be receiving over 675 million clickthrus a month.

In the podcast we learn, however, that TinyURL doesn’t count clicks of individual long URLs and that number must be an aggregate figure. This is a major feature for alerting the short URL owner that a long URL shortened could be spam and I’m surprised TinyURL doesn’t include this feature yet. Many others, my own service included, does.

Berlind realizes later in the interview that the 675 million clickthrus aren’t actual webpage visits to TinyURL. How did he not realize this is how it works if he had been using this for awhile?

Gilby sounds like a good guy. The type you might go ice fishing with in Minnesota. I graduated from high school in Wisconsin and he seems like the type of friendly Midwestener I went to school with. Gilby created a useful service, but it’s too bad that Berlind doesn’t dig into the dark side of these services. He sort of glosses over the abuse factor, even when mentioned by Gilby, in some sort of misguided effort to support his crazy notion that this could be the next YouTube.

Disappointing interview.

Curiously enough, Gilby is concerned about the service being ruined by advertising, perhaps in the very way that Berlind is thinking. I like web developers like Gilby who are more concerned about keeping the purity of the service than letting it be completely violated by advertising. I’m glad to hear he’s able to make a living from shorter URLs, but I don’t envy his position in any way, shape or form. When he mentioned “abuse” I knew exactly what he was talking about.

I’ve read stuff from David Berlind before and he seems like a pretty smart chap, but I don’t understand where he’s coming from at all on this one. Maybe he’ll be kind enough to ping me or stop by below and explain more fully in a follow-up. Honestly, I’m surprised that CNET/ZDnet doesn’t start their own URL shortening service. They could have cnurl.com or zdurl.com, if those are available. If they happen to have a coveted one or two digit domain with perhaps .us behind it, even better. The whole point is to get the shortest characters possible and the newer the service, the shorter the resulting URL.

In the podcast Berlind tells Gilby multiple times: “I think you are sitting on a gold mine here.”

Spammers joyfully subverting these services most certainly agree. Not sure any suitors with big wallets will agree.

Download Hmmcast #29 (mp3)

Most Hmm-worthy posts from November 18, 2006 - December 1, 2006
- The day after Wii are out of shape (0) [nov 20]
- Yahconfoosed! (3) [nov 20]
- Seinfeld alumni Kramer self-destructs in racist tirade (3) [nov 21]

“I know far too many white people (one is too many) who vehemently insist that they’re not racist, yet they will casually throw down the “N” word to disparage black people.”
– Comment by Vince Williams — November 21, 2006 @ 12:35 pm

“I too must mention that the use of the N word between African Americans to me is as offensive as it is with any other person using it. The only time I find it acceptable is when it is used in a dramatic sense to point out ignorance (such as movies and such).”
– Comment by Ron — November 22, 2006 @ 5:42 pm

- Communal slots could pave path to legalized internet gambling in US (3) [nov 21]

“This is pure genius. By creating group excitment around a slot machine, they’ll be able to replicate one of the major draws of the crap table. No longer is it one vs. the house, it’s us vs. them. It would not surprise me to see this as the dominate slot technology in five years.”
– Comment by Davis Freeberg — November 21, 2006 @ 1:09 pm

- All we need is hugs (1) [nov 23]
- How to search quickly for acronym definitions like: BTW, IMHO, NSFW (0) [nov 24]
- Black Friday madness (2) [nov 25]
- Coming Zune defense again (6) [nov 26]

“If there’s anything in my review that I wish I’d re-worded, it’s the “dead in six months” line. I’m confident that in six months’ time the Zune will have failed to make a serious dent against the iPod or the family of WMP-based players, and will have become irrelevant and mostly forgotten. But not dead and buried, not beyond revival with a terrific 2.0 firmware update … Anyway. Like I said, I thought your post was very illuminating.”
– Comment by Andy Ihnatko — November 27, 2006 @ 5:05 am

- Customers vs. users and being accused of astroturfing (16) [nov 27]
- Official blog snow day (7) [nov 28]
- Google puts brakes on Google Answers (1) [nov 29]
- Hmm & Tell Episode #1: Psychedelic BitWine Man (3) [nov 30] 4,000th Hmm post

“Are all Hmm and Tell episodes going to be as bite-sized and as hilarious as this inaugural voyage?”
– Comment by peter — December 1, 2006 @ 9:20 pm

- *How to add clickable Skype links inside Second Life and elsewhere (4) [nov 30]

Historical news events and releases
- 176 newspapers and Yahoo get together on project
- Microsoft Office 2007 for business launches, also HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360
- Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 launched, Wii takes early sales lead due to higher number of produced consoles
- US Copyright office shows cell phone users some love, you can break the lock on phones to use with competitors
- Wal-mart starts offering digital download (for Windows only) along with sale of Superman Returns DVD and soon others
- Google Answers gets pink slip
- MPAA gets anti-pretexting bill killed

How to subscribe to Hmmcast
RSS Feed - just copy/paste this to your favorite podcast client
iTunes - Hmmcast is available and listed in iTunes, just search for “hmm” in the iTunes podcast menu.

RSS feed readers: if you don’t see the download/play mp3 menu below just click on over to the website. Thank you for listening and reading.

Duration: 10:56

Today only you can download a free movie from AOL video. But you need to:

1) give them your credit card
2) download their video player software

#1 isn’t a problem for me, but #2 is a probable dealbreaker. I really try to keep AOL software off any of our systems. I’m sure their videoplayer isn’t as bad as the full AOL client but why can you only download with IE6?

AOL Video Delivery Manager can only be downloaded & installed using Internet Explorer 6.0. Support for Netscape browsers is not currently available. Support for Firefox and Windows Internet Explorer 7.0 are coming soon.

I’d have to downgrade just to watch movies like Nacho Libre or White Christmas? There are about 30 or so movies to choose from, so there might be one of interest to you.

Let us know if you give into the AOL force (doubtful I will, but I’m interested in reading about other folks experiences). Had enough computer problems yesterday that I really don’t want to mess around with anything from AOL + IE6 today, even if their video player works good.

Tonight, I saw something at the store I remember watching only a few times on Saturday morning as a child: Star Trek The Animated Series (affiliate, approximately $40 USD) that ran from 1973-1974.

The story picks up where the original series left off and features the voice talent of all the original crew members except Chekov (Walter Koenig). Alas, Koenig wasn’t left completely out of the project, penning one of the episodes “The Infinite Vulcan.”

I have fond memories of what little I saw those wistful Saturday cartoon mornings of my youth and am curious how it looks some 33+ years later. Besides perhaps the Simpsons, I don’t watch much animated stuff these days but I have a few friends who love animated pictures. Did any of you, friendly readers, follow this somewhat rare series of Star Trek? It didn’t last long, a mere 22 episodes, but is captured in a package similar to Star Trek Original Series. Whit with a splash of Halloween orange and the familiar ST insignia. It includes over 3 1/2 hours of special features.

This turned out to be one of those rough days better forgotten than remembered, but at least it ended on a positive note.

Waking up to a black monitor screen and flashing light on the computer with strange noise is rarely a good sign, certainly not on our second busiest day of the week: live radio show Friday. It’s also the day I record the bi-monthly Hmmcast and this is one of the machines used (doh!).

I unplugged everything and moved the box to my workbench area to see what was happening. Besides the massive amount of dust, which I took the compressor to it I noticed when I plugged it back in that the CPU fan wasn’t moving.

Kara did some intrepid Googling and found a PDF file from eMachines for replacing the CPU fan. The connectors on the heat sink were factory sticky and needed some semi-gentle prodding with a flat head screwdriver to release the CPU fan.

The local Best Buy doesn’t open until 10am (no holiday hours yet?), but hopefully that will be my last unintended sojourn of the morning. I’ve learned my lesson, no more eMachine purchases. We’ve had good success with lowend HP and Compaq machines. We roll these things over every 18 months or so anyway. If the flashing light problem is more than the fan, I’ll probably just buy a new machine and scrap this one for parts. No time this morning for new computer shopping though.

Why don’t these things happen on the weekends?

Update 4:47pm PST: LOL, the PC Doctor makes a quiz out of my dusty computer (see trackback link below). The system looks a lot better now after the compressor was taken to it: