Consumers want a car. TV studios give pogo sticks. Doesn’t turn us into pogo-stick fanciers…

Great article about apples new line up, particularly this part about IPTV.

Amplify’d from www.suntimes.com

Digital music stores work because it’s one-stop shopping, whether you shop at iTunes, Amazon’s MP3 Store, or Rhapsody. If I want a specific album, I don’t have to first ask “What label was that recorded under?” and then “Which one of the following thirteen incompatible music stores is partially owned by that label?”

But that’s the problem we face with Internet TV. Which might kill the whole thing before it even gets on its feet. iTunes and Hulu’s strongest competition comes in the form of apps that make it trivially simple to locate the latest episodes of every TV show ever broadcast, posted on any filesharing site or service.

You want last week’s episode of “Dancing With The 19 Kids Of Cake Decorators?” You got it.

It’s illegal, sure. But it’s free and more importantly: it works.

Consumers want a car. The TV studios give us a pogo stick. It doesn’t turn us into pogo-stick fanciers. It turns us into car thieves. Please CC this comment to anybody you know in the television industry.

Read more at www.suntimes.com

 


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Luke and Joni Need a Home

Welcome, and thanks for dropping by!

Joni and Luke are on the hunt for apartment #4. We have been thinking that the tough part about the whole process is this: rental applications don’t tell the story. Unless people know their tenants, a rental application really doesn’t say much.

So we would like to share this link with friends and family to pass along to anyone who is looking to rent out an apartment… and we’ll probably put it in a few rental applications ourselves!

Where?

We are looking anywhere from the city to 10km north (suburbs like Neutral Bay through to Lane Cove and North Sydney, Australia).

When?

Our lease runs out on October 1st, 2010. We have a bit of flexibility if need be.

Rental History

First we were at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, CA) in University accommodation, then in 2009 we lived on Main St (Vancouver, CA), following that we moved onto Wyndham St (Alexandria, AU) from September 2009 — present.

About Luke & Joni

We have been together as a couple for nearly three years, after meeting in a tutorial we had together while attending Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Seeing as Joni is originally from Canada, we have spent a bit of time hopping between the two countries to study, work, and visit family, but are now based out of Sydney for the foreseeable future.

Luke works full time in the CBD and is an avid rower, while Joni works from home and enjoys doing a lot of cooking (have you seen her food blog, The Three Cheeses?). We enjoy the outdoors, travelling and camping, and try to live as ethically and sustainably as they can. (We even have a worm composter!)

For more info about Luke see Lukes.me. For more info about Joni see Jemerald.ca.


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Downstream is still looking to hire, #SEM Assistants/Managers – GREAT place to work, good benefits

Downstream Marketing is Australia’s largest and faster growing strategic Search Marketing agency. Awarded B&T’s Emerging Agency of the Year for 2008, we were recognized as the best of the best amongst all marketing services agencies and disciplines. Because of our ongoing success, we are looking for high caliber candidates to join our team.

If you have a passion for digital, data and direct marketing, Downstream could be an agency where you can grow your in the fast paced, ever changing world of Search and performance digital marketing. Downstream is a values based organization that recognizes team members based on their output, not input. We believe in operating under the principals of “freedom within boundaries” and actively encourage all staff members to excel in both their careers and non-work life.

If you are passionate about crafting the you want, being a member of a collaborative team and pushing your own personal boundaries, Downstream may be the right fit for you. Detailed below are opportunities currently on offer.


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Trying out amplify for autoposting to networks, should be interesting to see how useful it is :) Might make me blog a bit more often :p http://bit.ly/9a9bZl

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Australia Votes 2010

Okay, here’s my quick take on the Aussie election:
- It’ll be decided by the independents, there’s only one green in the house and he wont play ball with Liberal/National coalition.
- The independents are all former National members who felt that country Australia and the environmental factors were being ignored – more likely to side with a lib/nat coalition but it’ll be the greenest shade the coalition has ever had.
- Best case scenario for the country: one of the major parties works with greens/independents for a carbon trading scheme and tax reforms that make Australia a safe place to invest, making up for their lack of economic planing. The investment coming into the country from safe economic planning can then be funneled into long needed infrastructure.

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New job, rowing, new bike, life etc…

So, it’s been quite a while since I have updated… sorry!

What’s news for me?

Well, the job search is over! And all the turning down offers and holding off for a workplace that fits in with my values, suits my personality and extends me professionally has paid off :)

I’m now working at Downstream Marketing as a Search Engine Marketing Assistant. Which basically means that I pour through data from Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing mostly through an impressive tool called Efficient Frontier (exclusive to Downstream in Australia). I then analyse the data, create reports, have client meetings, optimise the ads and track the budgets.

Yes, it’s much less “creative” than my previous work, but it’s extending me and that’s the whole point! Plus I get to do it with a fantastic team of people (which you’d kinda hope after 7 interviews and a analytical/behavioural test).

In other news, I’m putting off further study for a while because I cant dedicate the time. Sure, it would have been nice to get my PhD very young, but I’ve still got time.

The plan is to build up capital and gain experience whilst doing a bit of moonlighting with Joni so that in a few years I can head abroad again and possible start a communications agency.

– but we’ll see how the best laid plans of mice and men work out!

As for rowing I’m enjoying being back into it! However, being ill and trying to row during my first week off work beat me around!

We (Winchy, Simon, Lachey and I) went cycling up to Pearl Beach last week and had a great time (with Joni, Tony and Bry in the car)! The weather was almost unbearable and my 30+ year old bike almost killed me.

After that my bike almost fell apart, so I BOUGHT A NEW BIKE!

GTR Series 3

Pretty neat, aye!

It’s my primary mode of transport and it’ll make my life much easier. Just got to figure out getting work clothes dry cleaned, having showers, packing lunch etc..

Joni has been working on the opposite schedule to me (4pm-12am and 2pm-10pm) and we’ve hardly seen each other. It was really nice to have the weekend together :)

On that front all I can say is that besides our crazy schedules, things are still going great! She’s amazing and more than 2 years down the track we’re still crazy for each other and enjoying each other’s company.

It’s great living with her and Jeremy. When you get on with those you live with it makes life just that much easier.

Well, this has been a long post and I’ve hardly scratched the surface!

I’m not making any promises, but I’ll be trying to update this more often now.

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Carolyn Steel: How food shapes our cities

Found this little gem :)

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Tim Ferris: Smash Fear, Learn Anything

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Ah, the joys of skype…

Got to love this conversation that happened last night when I was away from my computer:

A** L**** G***** (name blocked out because we all deserve privacy)
12:08 AM: hello!!
12:12 AM: are you there?
12:14 AM: speak with me!?
12:21 AM: hey
12:23 AM: i am cool, i am not a whore or virus or nothen
12:23 AM: just an brazilian girl

Honestly, I’m sick of unsolicited communications and every now and then, it’s on skype… at least have a reason for contacting like, “I saw your website and was wondering how you did…?” but none of this random contacting people without any context… even if you’re not a virus or “nothen” you’ll be treated like one.

Thoughts?

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Back in Syd with new contact info and looking for work!

Greetings one and all!

I am now living back in Sydney, looking for work and possibly doing graduate studies.

At the moment I am living with my folks in Narrabeen for a couple of weeks before moving into an apartment in Alexandria.

As you may know, I’ve recently finished my Bachelor of Media at Macquarie (Sydney) and spent time in Vancouver completing my Communication Honours at Simon Fraser University.

Our apartment is close to downtown Sydney (very close to the Redfern train station, one stop from Central) – a short work from the University of Sydney. If you’re ever in Sydney or Australia, we are maybe a 10 minute drive from the airport, so don’t hesitate to get in touch! Consider yourself as having a standing invitation to come visit any time–neither Joni nor I will be back in Canada for a while, so it’d be great to see some familiar faces.

As far as keeping track of me, please add me on facebook (facebook.com/lukefreeman), follow me on twitter (twitter.com/lukefreeman) or read my blog (lukefreeman.com.au).

I am also looking for work so please, please, PLEASE let me know if you hear of any work going either in my field (communicaiton/marketing/PR) or just in general (from admin to hospitality). Joni will also be looking for work when she arrives here on October 13th.

My resume is available at http://www.lukefreeman.com.au/resume

I am also back on the road with web designing – anything from simple “pamphlet/brochure” websites to dynamic, database driven, eCommerce solutions with content management & customer relationship management facilities. I work using: PHP, (X)HTML, XML, RSS, CSS, C++, JavaScript, MySQL, Automator and Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere, Flash).

So, I think that is it!

Look forward to hearing from and/or seeing you all!

Updated: Thanks to @ andrewfergusson for reminding me to websafe it! Contact me if you want my address / phone etc…

Picture 12

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