Technically Speaking

No, I’m not mad about anything – Just letting you know that a new video service launched this morning. It’s called – “My Damn Channel“. According to the information that was dropped into my e-mail, it launched about a hour and half ago at 7am New York Time.

I will say that any video service with Slash and Duff on it can’t be half bad. A dose of Slash and Duff is always good to see. Also, the video on here is quite clear, and the content is new. The nice thing is that all of this is sent up to YouTube, so you can grab the usual code if you like to put shows on your page.

The web site itself has this to say about themselves:

My Damn Channel is an entertainment studio and new media platform created to empower artists to co-produce, distribute and monetize original, episodic video content. Programming is created by artists for the My Damn Channel site and for syndication on today’s most heavily-trafficked online communities and social networks. My Damn Channel gives its artists 100% creative control to develop their own brands and new storylines. My Damn Channel produces a diverse array of programming and… blah, blah, blah. Are you still reading this crap? This is the web age. People don’t read anymore. If you really want to see what we’re all about, check out PromoSexual.

Why am I blogging about this? I think it’s pretty interesting, as well as I received an e-mail this morning from one of the top marketing agencies in the world. That being said, here is some more information on this new service:

Comedian/political satirist Harry Shearer (“The Simpsons,” “This is Spinal Tap”); music producer Don Was (The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan); independent comic filmmaker David Wain (“Wet Hot American Summer,” “The Ten”); and Web phenom Andy Milonakis (“The Andy Milonakis Show,” MTV), are all part of the launch of My Damn Channel.

From Shearer’s debut as Vice President Dick Cheney, singing the torch noir tune, “No Cooler for The Scooter,” to Don Was’ no-holds-barred interview session with Velvet Revolver’s Slash and Duff McKagan, and David Wain’s “Wainy Days” look at love and romance in New York City featuring Elizabeth Banks from “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” – My Damn Channel has something for everyone to watch.

Technically Speaking, I really need to get to work now, and yes I just updated the Link Blog. Watch Slash and Duff if you like; or go do some blog advertising for me:

**** UPDATE: VentureBeat admits mistake ***** Sorry readers, this wasn’t as it seemed. Matt posted a full explanation on the post which you can find right here. Every now and again, the percentages are going to go against you. I know Matt is very concise on his writing of stories. Very precise in fact. It happens, and all I can say is that VC’s/Investors – Take note – Next time it could be the REAL DEAL.

I was doing my usual before dinner Link Blog Lock n’ Load, and I ran across this. I about spit out what I was drinking in laughter. I had to of course see the source where he made his commentary. Now it’s funny, as in the fact that I want to just scream “I freakin’ told you so!” But I won’t. It is sad, as it sets a bad precedence for other investments being made.

There are many companies out there worthwhile of investment. Companies that need that helping hand to get off the ground. These morons have just about screwed it up for everyone. It’s always the case of the one bad apple.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against porn. I have nothing against flying in black helicopters on the company dime. What I find wrong is that if you want to buy porn, don’t buy it on the company dime (idiot). Or if you do, make sure you can at least do the crime correctly. If you want to steal company money, steal it in a totally shady way.

Yes, I see both sides of the coin at all times. Not against porn, not against the perks of the executive life. I’m just against stupidity and this has to be the epitome of it. I mean honestly, don’t you think that if you bought porn on the company funding, you would be smart enough to hide it in a paperwork shuffle?

Technically Speaking, I once wrote a post questioning the investment process. I said something to the extent of “it’s about how many tequila shots you can get the VC to drink” – I was flamed on that pretty hard in my comments. Hmmm… looks like I knew just a little bit more than that person. My words are probably a lot closer to the truth than meets the eye. Personally, I would have bought some real estate.

Lending Club announced this morning that they just passed $500,000 in loans. This is only a short time after they announced going past $250,000. This announcement was covered early this morning on Read/WriteWeb.

What is with the “5″ thing? Well, if you haven’t heard (maybe you have?) —

Lending Club has a $5,000 Video Contest running. Money is on the table, all you video people out there (and I know there is a ton of you doing vid’s) – what are you waiting for? Did you read it the first, second, third, etc. time I’ve talked about this.

Let me be clear – MONEY IS ON THE TABLE for YOU to TAKE. $5,000 may not be a lot, but $5,000 for making a video that isn’t hard for most of you video types, I see it as easy money.

Technically Speaking, this has been a short promotional post. I recently locked n’ loaded the Link Blog; where you can read the more exciting items of the day.

Full Disclosure: Rex Dixon works for Lending Club as their Director of Social Media Content.

I was filling a request for the Lending Club blog this morning, and I remembered I had messed around with the blog to PDF options. I had a few plugins that I downloaded some time back. Now you can save my literary masterpieces (master-fiascos?) as a PDF if you like.

At the bottom of the post, you can PDF the latest post if you like; just enter in your e-mail address and it sends you the PDF. To the right in the sidebar above my sponsors and below the Jambaz widget/Google AdSense stuff you will see “Send posts as PDF to” – same deal – enter in your e-mail address there, and you are set. It will send the 5 posts on the page you are on as a PDF. If your blog has more posts (or less) per page, that is what it sends.

I know it does pictures, and not sure how it will handle the SplashCast posts I have. No clue, but I thought I would share this cool plugin if you are interested.

Oh – Video people or people who do videos – don’t forget there is money sitting on the table for you! Lending Club announced the $5,000 Video Contest some time ago. I just want to make sure that every video maker out there has the chance to do one, enter the contest and take that money! Seriously – $5,000 is pretty easy money for creating a video. It doesn’t have to be high tech, just go view the linked post and read the rules, etc.

Technically Speaking, have fun with it. It’s better than buying silk trees.

Telstra apparently sent shockwaves through their company. They cut off Facebook for their employees! The horror! The cruel and unusual punishment! Ok, now that my sarcasm is done, seriously Allen is correct – you sign something at any corporate company I have worked at about internet usage. Does that stop most, such as myself? Nope, you still surf when you can, and when you have nothing to work on. It’s better than talking to your cubicle person who may be busy working on some other project. Nevertheless, the company has the right to do whatever it wants.

twittercal is just another by-product of twitter. Now the thing that interests me is that with twitter receiving funding, how are they going to reign in all these freebie created by someone applications? There are dozens of them, all based off twitter. Kind of like the Google Map API I suppose; all the companies that use that mapping for their core. I guess it’s ok for now, but I just wonder where twitter will make the money.

twitter equals following. Plain and simple. The reason they were funded without a business plan is the same reason that some bands can go forever without a record contract. Following. You want a sound business plan? Build a freakin’ following. If you can do that, you don’t need one. twitter did that.

They built a HUGE following, and basically when you say twitter, people know what you are talking about; just like (for you music types) – say “Cowboy Mouth” – and there is a perfect example of building a following. There are other bands that did the same thing. None had a business plan (pretty sure about that, refute me if you are in a band with a business plan!), all reached a level of success without a record label.

Technically Speaking, it’s a Friday and I just did my Link Blog lock n’ load. Time to get back to work, my e-mail is whistling at me. bodystockings

It’s been quite a busy day for me. I just went through and updated my Link Blog for only the 2nd time today. What I’m doing these days is fun, exciting, and at the same time frustrating at times. You know that being said, I wouldn’t trade it for any day job that I’ve done. Even when I worked in the IT industry full time, I will have to say, this is still 120% more fun.

Well I just went through my Link Blog, as I stated above, and one of the articles that jumped out at me of course is from CenterNetworks. One thing about Allen, he has a great way at putting across the news of the moment. I saw a bunch of articles about the twitter money grab, but he put it across in an engaging and interesting manner. One that grabbed my attention, and made me want to read it. Any article that finishes with the line

I am sure the cats who handle the servers are eating some fine Kibbles ‘n Bits tonight!

deserves to be read.

I will however have to say, even though the article he posted the other day on a great blog that talks about VC funding, I am going to have to lean to what I have always stated. Any freakin’ idea will sell to any VC if you know the right people. If you know how to grab someone’s attention, and hold it for at least 7 minutes, you can sell them another social network. Don’t believe me? Look through any of the major sites to see how many social networks have received $millions in the past 30-45 days.

So where do I stand as far as executive summaries, biz plans, and all that tree killing stuff? Well as a traditionalist I would say “Yes, you should have all of that ready to roll.” As a person that hates to kill trees for any purpose but to burn wood over an open fire, I would say, if you can talk the talk and get in front of some people; show that your product just “works” (twitter), all that stuff can be reserved for an open bonfire on your camping trip.

Another interesting item that I have yet to see is Om’s new show. GigaOm TV. Nice. Now again, I did read Allen’s review of the show earlier today (see guys/gals, I may not be blogging as much, but I am reading and taking note when I get a second!) – and I will have to say, I am still intrigued at watching. That just proves that a bad review or middle of the road interview is not a show stopper.

I agree with what Om said, all that production stuff is hard to deal with. When I was doing the podcast thing last year, 4 nights a week, I will say that was the worst part of it all. I can walk in and plain lay it down. Perform. That’s me. When it comes to producing a show, now that is another story entirely. As many have seen, I forgo any production these days with my occasional video web cam casts. Why? Because I would rather be the talent, and let someone else do the producing stuff. OR, I’d rather just produce and let someone else be the talent. Either or, but not both.

When you have the crew of Revision3 behind you, anything can be cool looking. Unlike the videos that I was in earlier this year that I did produce. The Technically Speaking Live shows, and the Friggin’ Break Reports. Yup, Rev3 could have probably made those shows rock. Unfortunately, being the talent as well as the producer takes quite a bit of time. All of these shows I speak of, podcast or video can be found on my media page.

Finally a “just this in“, well not really. It’s been in for a bit now, but looks like Microsoft is going after anything that strengthens their stake in the world of online advertising. They just acquired this Santa Barbara startup called AdECN Inc. I’m not the first to say anything about it, as I saw the smattering of stories as I went through the Link Blog, and it’s quite interesting to see their focus now on the advertising world.

One that I posted earlier in the Link Blog, that everyone that is in a startup should look at. It’s called, when it’s time to move on from your startup idea. I agree with the 3 points it made. For those that are in a failed startup, maybe it’s time you read this article that pretty much lays the facts out there. What was that saying? Oh yeah, “Lie to yourself, Lie to your mother, but don’t Lie to Rex Dixon.”

Technically Speaking, yes, I can be a goof ball – but when you live like I do, you have to have a weird sense of humor to keep your sanity some times day to day. Oh, and why it’s almost a total full time job being a blogger – this just in for real – Alesis iMultiMixer – now this is just plain COOL! I think some Wilmington NC real estate might be the plan someday.

If this laptop actually sells for $150 here, I think there might be some more people checking out Linux. It’s not a power workhorse, but basically for someone needing to check e-mail and do work on the web, it would probably suffice.

Unless you are a gamer, what are all the bells and whistles for anyways? I mean the laptop I have is probably overkill for what I need it for. Now, I did get a good price on it, but nothing close to the $150 price that the Medison Celebrity is being listed for. With a price like this, you could afford to go away for the weekend to some nice Bed and Breakfast – with wireless access of course!

Technically Speaking, at the price of $150, I might pick one up just to see how it works. No frills, but it probably runs better than my Vista laptop!