spugbrap’s blog

Hey, check it out! The funny Gmail Web Clips phenomenon I blogged about a couple years ago was the subject of a recent entry in the Official Gmail Blog.

Yes, Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing Manager at Google, went through the same steps I did, when I first saw “Spam Hashbrown Bake” at the top of my gmail window:

1. disbelief: Is that really a context-sensitive ad for Spam-related products, appearing at the top of my Spam folder view? Maybe it’s just a funny coincidence.

2. confirmation: [refresh page a couple times] Hey, it’s another recipe involving Spam, and another one! There’s something funny going on here!

3. research: Ms. Schneider one-upped me on this one. When I encountered this Spam folder Easter egg, all I had available to me was the Gmail help system (which seemed to imply that this context-sensitive Web Clip thing should not be happening). She has the benefit of being a Google insider, so she actually went and talked with a Gmail Product Manager about it.

Here’s what Ms. Schneider found out, regarding the origin of the Spam recipe Web Clips:

At first I was told that these recipes “were placed there by elves when we weren’t looking” (real cute), but Keith, one of Gmail’s Product Managers, eventually divulged the real story. Turns out that when they came up with the idea for Web Clips, they didn’t think it made sense to show these RSS feeds and ads in the spam folder. After all, these clips should be useful and fun, but spam (of the email variety) is neither of these things. Not knowing what to put here, Keith searched for “spam recipes” and decided to make a feed out of the results. As he said, “it was just one of those late night ideas” — probably a consequence of too many said [sic] energy drinks.

One thing that she may not have noticed, though, is that a similar behavior occurs when viewing your Trash folder in Gmail. guess she didn’t notice (or just didn’t mention) that the Trash folder also has trash-related Web Clips (see screenshot in my original blog entry about this).

It was nice to finally read an explanation about this mysterious Gmail behavior, after all this time. I didn’t even have to seek out the explanation–it came to me in a feed! :)

I recorded video, with my phone, of a squirrel going nuts (no pun intended!) on my deck, last week. At first, he was just continuously waving his tail really fast. Then, I noticed he was quacking, so I opened the door and captured the audio as well. I enjoyed showing the video to my friends and family, over the past week, and everyone seemed to think it was cool.

So, I decided it was time to post my first video on youtube. Check it out!

When looking through my gmail Spam folder today, I saw several titles that stood out from the rest. About two thirds of them were about online pharmacies selling cheap Cialis. The rest were mostly about debt reduction; cheap replica watches; and people pretending to be someone I know, wishing to contact me. Some even included my email username in the title, which caught my eye. But, I still didn’t need their Cialis, so I didn’t click on them.

A few others actually made me click for a closer look–just for curiosity’s sake–because they used technical terms. Before deleting them, I decided they deserved publishing, because this was a relatively clever way to send spam to a geek. Here they are:

• Output iterators do not have a value type, because it is impossible to obtain a value from an output iterator but only to write a value through it.
• To launch and access an out-of-process server across the network in a COM application, both client and server must fulfill certain security requirements.
• The statistical engine makes use of the kernel-level packet filter to efficiently classify the incoming packet.

The messages, themselves, were actually another ad for cheap Cialis; an “insider” stock tip; and a collection of various mostly-geeky sentences–clearly collected from many different sources–and randomly strung together. The latter was somewhat amusing to read, so I’m including it here:

Paths in this manual may not reflect those compiled into httpd. A string representing the culture name.
Oh, wake up, Arthur. He knew there were heavy catapults there, and some fast boats in the island harbor.
Broken Cross Disk Manager 3. It will never be found, because I could never possibly describe where it is and how to find it.
Then the Ghost Not component kicked in, and the map got chopped up and stuck together again with the dark bits now completely missing.
Is especially effective in recovering digital images in JPEG format.
Utilities for Windows 95. Checked links to see if they work, and added an article for each red (unlinked) link.
The texture of his writing as a whole is undistinguished, at times fumbling. Chris looks askance at him.
There are no such rules. Look, pretend you’re injured real early.
Spanish Reversers might care to download the entire WKT Site (837k).
The 10Base-T Ethernet system uses this approach.
One advantage of fighting monsters was not having to worry about identification and who-goes-there games. LTM has been improved and simplified. It does not explain how to break into the E911 system. You may go no further.
You can normally use these modems by loading the program under DOS and doing a warm boot. I want you to listen to it.
For information on this, please see. Changes to Support Conditional Compilation Based on Build Environment.

Oh, and that last one also had an image attached, which was, of course, another advertisement for cheap Cialis from some overseas pharmacy. :)

As I continue to watch shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, I’m becoming increasingly aware of an interesting side effect. Music that I would otherwise hate — that would normally cause me to flip the radio station if it came on — is actually becoming tolerable. In fact, maybe tolerable is too weak of a word for it.

When a singer on American Idol covers a new song, that I’ve never heard, I immediately create a mental association between that song, that singer, and that TV show. This will happen whether I like the singer or not, and whether they do a great job or a horrible job. It doesn’t matter, the association is formed. Later in the show, when they recap the performances and tell everyone to vote, the song again gets associated with that singer, and that TV show. The next day, on the results show, they play a clip of each song that was performed, further strengthening this mental pathway. If the person gets voted off/sent home, they perform the song *again*! At that point, I will have seen their face, and heard them singing that song, at least 4 times!

Now, regardless of whether I would have ordinarily liked the song, I will remember American Idol every time I hear the actual original artist’s version on the radio, or in a TV commercial, or in a store at the mall. I am naturally curious to hear the original version of the song, to compare with the American Idol performance. So I’ll let it play. I like watching American Idol, so hearing the song automatically makes me think positive thoughts. Then, my brain associates the American Idol performance, the singer on that show, and the original artist’s version of the song, in a positive fashion, because I like watching the show. Now, not only did they make me associate an awful song with positive things, but they also strengthened the collection of mental pathways around the American Idol TV show, which helps to keep me looking forward to the next episode.

This also happens when a popular band performs a song on the show. Even if it’s not my favorite band or song, I will appreciate it more — every time I hear it — than I would have if I hadn’t seen the performance on Idol.

It’s incredible to me, how these shows are able to do this, but I am not bitter about it. I still enjoy the shows, even though I’ve discovered a new form of marketing that most people are probably not consciously aware of. I’m sure a lot of people have also noticed this effect, but I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. It’s pure marketing genius, if you ask me.

From an article on msn tv news (and every other AP affiliate):

Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of “The Simpsons” fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art.

Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO’s cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees.
…

What an awesome promotion! I just wish more stores were getting the temporary face lifts. But I vow to attempt to visit the closest one (in Bladensburg, MD) sometime this month. To see tons of pictures of the real-life Kwik-E-Marts, check out the Simpsons Movie Kwik-E-Mart Mirror.

There’s also a sweepstakes going on, with the grand prize winner getting to be animated in an upcoming Simpsons episode.