This is an open letter to the marketing staff at MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Sands, and other casino corporations. And if you’re part of the marketing staff at a different type of company, you may want to pay attention to this as well – since the core takeaway here applies to you as well.
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How many Facebook friends do you have?
No, really — how many of the people you have “friended” on Facebook are really, honestly your friends? People that you know IRL (that’s “In Real Life” for those of you who don’t know), that you would talk to anyway over the matter of course?
Yeah, we thought so. You really only know about what – 130 people, tops? So whatcha doing with that Facebook friend list that’s hovering around the 462 person mark?
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So Web Watch is in the process of packing up some of our video game systems and putting them away. The PS2 and Xbox Classic are no longer needed, and don’t even get us started on the TurboGrafx or Sega Genesis that were also taking up precious shelf space.
We’ll leave the Wii and PS3 where they are as we still use those regularly, as we anxiously await the long-rumored Xbox 720 to come out to replace the Xbox 360.
So what does all this mean? We’re not the only ones with older gaming systems still hanging around and being used.
But what are they being used for? It’s not always what you think.
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By now, you probably have heard about CARRIER IQ, that software that many cell phone manufacturers and service providers had installed on all sorts of cellphones in order to track how well their networks were performing.
The issue, if you didn’t know, is that CARRIER IQ wasn’t a very well-designed application and was recording a lot of each user’s phone actions without that person’s knowledge. Now, Congress has gotten involved and it’s turned into a big ugly mess.
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Remember how much fun Napster was, back in the day?
Yeah, well Napster is officially gone now.
What about LimeWire? KaZaa? Yeah, you shouldn’t be using those either.
Nope, whether you agree with the legalities (or lack thereof) of those sites, none of the old fun “file sharing” apps and websites are valid anymore, thanks to the movie and music industry.
And the proliferation of $0.99 songs and apps on the iTunes store. That kinda helped a little bit.
Of course, you always have that peer-to-peer sharing via BitTorrent, which is a legitimate way to legally share giant files amongst people who need them. Unfortunately, a few bad apples had to go and ruin BitTorrent for everyone else too, by using BT as a way to throw around pirated movies and music.
Digital Boudoir Photography:
A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Fabulous Images of Any Woman
As is almost always the case with technology, porn leads the way.
It was the case with VHS vs Beta video tapes. It’s been the case with online payments. And it’s been the case with social media.
Porn is a big money-making industry, and the Internet has just made it easy for Anyone to do it. And we’re not just talking about those leaked celebrity sex tapes, either.
Web Watch was visiting an office a few weeks ago when the people we were visiting were trying to log onto the shared computer in the conference room.
They thought they knew the password, but something wasn’t right. After about 20 minutes of trying, they called their IT guy for help. He walked in, went over to the computer, and read the correct password off of a Post-It Note that had been taped to the machine specifically for this purpose.
This was in a high-security building, in a room that only a few people had keys for — and the password was taped to the machine for anyone to use. It probably wouldn’t be a problem, as many people would need to use that same computer, but we’ve been told for years not to post passwords on Post-It Notes.
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Web Watch knows that we’re a bit of a computer nerd. Some would say that “geek” would be the more appropriate term. To paraphrase a recent episode of CSI, a “freak” is someone who is naturally talented in unusual ways; a “geek” is one who learns how to do the same things.
So we’ll go with “geek”, as all computer knowledge is learned – whether it be via formal school education or by tinkering around with gadgets and on the Internet for hours/days/weeks/years on end to see how things works and to make thinks work better.
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were nerds, and they’re proud of it.
Which brings us to our initial question: How big of a geek are you?
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