Archive for ◊ May, 2009 ◊

22 May 2009 Facebook ads insult my IQ.
Author: Scott |  Category: Life  | Tags: , , ,  | Comments

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Look at this picture. I got this ad on facebook this morning.

This is the first time I’ve ever noticed this ad. I have a few hundred friends on Facebook, and it picked these people.

Facebook has really set a new standard for online marketing with the way it allows advertisers to target users with ads designed for them. For example, Lyndsay gets ads about nursing, but I get ads about Computer Science. …because Facebook lets advertisers choose the college majors that receive their ads.

Back to the above image. I know for a fact that Lyndsay has never used this IQ Test app, so it isn’t pulling from any actual data to get these numbers. None of my other friends appear to have this app either.

So then…I know that Facebook knows my friends, and can advertise to me things that my friends like. And it wouldn’t surprise me that the fact that I’m linked as married to Lyndsay on facebook could affect my advertisements. But does facebook know my WEDDING PARTY? That’s the strange thing to me here. If you know me you probably know at least one of these three people…Chris was my roommate in college, Matt grew up across the street from me in South Carolina (and got engaged the same day as Chris), and Lindsey is friends with Lyndsay (from high school) and lives 2 miles away from us. All three of them were in our wedding.

Seriously. Let’s for a second rule out Lyndsay’s appearance and say that the ad creator can know that we’re married. Nothing would make a husband want to take an IQ test more than seeing his wife at the top of the list to take down. So it then needs to choose three more people. There were 16 people in our wedding party. Of those 16, 13 are on facebook. So what are the odds that when you pick 3 people from a pool of 479 friends, they fall in the same group of 13? I wasn’t that great at probability, but wouldn’t that be about 1 in 5000 odds? And if Lyndsay’s selection and placement was random, then wouldn’t we be approaching the 1 in a half million odds? Math-loving sister, please check my numbers on that.

I know I haven’t seen this ad more than a few times at most…if ever. One of two things is true here. Either facebook got really lucky, or they’ve got some freaky creepy insight into my (and your) life.

Thoughts? Has anyone else seen this ad? Who was on it for you?

17 May 2009 Get Emails when I blog!
Author: Scott |  Category: Life  | Comments

New feature! If you’re reading post this on http://www.scottcrews.com, Look over on the left, right below my Twitter feed. You can enter your email address and get an email each day that I post a new blog entry. Pretty cool, eh? Of course, it doesn’t replace coming to the site to get pictures, videos, etc. But…it will save you having to come visit the site just to see if I’ve written anything. (Unless you just like doing that kind of thing….)

Of course, the BEST way to do this whole blog reading thing is with Google Reader. I think I’ve written about it before…but seriously, Google Reader is the best thing to happen to blogs since Wordpress. Actually, I’m not sure which one came first, Google Reader or Wordpress….but either way, they’re the best two things to happen to blogs.

Here’s the idea behind Google Reader: Each blog has a “Feed”…basically, a special web address. Google Reader takes those feeds and monitors them. Whenever a “feed” you follow gets updated, Google Reader gets the story. Then when you go to Google Reader, it shows you who has written new posts to read. This is terrific, because it saves you having to go to 12 blog sites just to see that one person has written a new post.

Go to www.google.com/reader to get set up with a Google Account and get the ball rolling. Once you get logged in, click “Add A Subscription” and paste the RSS feed from the blog you want to follow into the space.

How do you find the RSS Feed to begin with?

When you go to a site, if it has an RSS Feed it will probably pop up in your website location bar. (Unless you use Google Chrome as your webbrowser. For some reason, it doesn’t.) Here’s an example of what to look for:

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See the blue button here? That’s the RSS Symbol. Click it. (Yours may be a different color, like orange or white)

Once you click it, it turns to this:

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This ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/scottcrews ) is what you then copy and paste into Google Reader.

Voila! Do this for all the blogs and news types sites and you just saved hours of your life!

(Most news sites and blogs (except the Drudge Report) typically do RSS too…so you can have the headlines delivered straight to your feed reader. So handy!)

15 May 2009 Free Coldplay
Author: Scott |  Category: Life  | Tags: , ,  | Comments

Today only (I think…though maybe it’s longer than just today), you can go get a free live EP of Coldplay called “LeftRightLeftRightLeft.” I just downloaded it and I’ve got to say…it’s pretty good.

Here’s the link:

leftrightleftrightleft

So if you want to know what “the kids” are listening to these days…here’s a great chance to find out. For Free!

12 May 2009 Happy Mothers Day
Author: Scott |  Category: Life  | Comments

Okay, so it’s slightly late.

This year for mothers day we went to Bosco’s in Hillsboro Village with Lyndsay’s parents. It was good…though I must admit, I was sad when I realized that they have a special Sunday brunch menu and that I would not be having the cedar plank salmon I had spent the last day drooling over in my mind.

Here’s a picture of Lyndsay and her mom outside the restaurant:

Lyndsay Crews, Margie McDannald

After lunch, we had a wonderful video chat with my mom family via ichat. We couldn’t be with my family, so Lyndsay and I had taken a couple of pictures and had them printed at a one hour photo near my family, and then had my sister secretly go pick them up. They turned out pretty good! One was just for mother’s day…the other one we had Laura put in a frame for the family picture collection at home. Here they are:

Signts for Mom

Scott Crews, Lyndsay Crews

Not that you asked, but I love my super-portable Canon point-and-shoot camera (which took all these pictures). If you’re looking for a digital point-and-shoot…you should get a Canon. They don’t make mine any longer, but the current version is the SD880IS. If I had to buy a digital camera tomorrow, I think I’d probably get the smaller, cheaper SD1100IS. Or if I was on a tight budget, the A1000IS and A470 look good, too.

(Warning: Clicking the above pictures will make them HUGE. But it does show off how cool my camera is.)

06 May 2009 McCafe Coffee. Not impressed.
Author: Scott |  Category: Life  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Comments

This past Saturday I had a doozy of a CPA review–8 hours of nonstop accounting information crammed into my brain with not much more than a small break for lunch. When lunch rolled around, I decided I would need coffee in order to make it through my afternoon.

I saw a McDonalds across the street from the place I was eating lunch, and decided to give their “McCafe” coffee a chance. I haven’t been in a McDonalds for a meal in years (though I do visit the redbox machines in their parking lots on a semi-regular basis), so I decided it was time to give the ole McD a try.

I bought a medium cup of coffee, thrilled that I could save a dollar over the Starbucks equivalent.

I went back to class and proceeded to spend the next hour of class drinking the coffee.

The hour after that, I spent fighting the urge to nod off to sleep. Until I finally lost.

I don’t know what was in that coffee I drank (it tasted like coffee)…but…I can tell you that ‘caffeine’ wasn’t a part of it (even though I saw it poured from the “regular” coffee tub at McDonalds). I have never, never fallen asleep from drinking coffee…no matter who brews it. Starbucks, myself, restaurants, gas stations, my sister, my grandma…nobody. This was a first. I woke up surprised, actually.

As the Starbucks ad above correctly says…I bought the cheaper coffee…and I paid the price. That marketing campaign is dead-on.

I’m a big fan of generic brands and lower price substitutes…but I will not buy McDonalds coffee again. Unless, perhaps, I would like a nap.

I saw this video on MSNBC.com today regarding the “coffee war” that McDonalds is entering. Starbucks…and for that matter, the rest of the coffee selling world…don’t be alarmed by McD’s. I think its just muddy water. The rest of coffee drinking America will come around eventually.

Has anybody else tried this stuff yet? Thoughts?