Once again, it's time for that programme that has no music, no
jingles, no commercials, no themes. Obviously no talent and
certainly no agenda coming to you from an overcast United
Kingdom in the curry manner. I'm Adam curry.
And I'm John C. Dvorak in sunny. Northern California.
You've been having a great week isn't been like in the mid 70s.
All week so far.
It's 70 for a couple of days.
Beautiful, man. Now it's been it's been dreary here. It really
has no good.
Well, if it makes you feel any better. It's supposed to rain
this weekend.
Love oh, what? And I'm not even coming to the city. I mean,
that's when it's supposed to rain when I
come. Yeah, no, I they decided that. Maybe you are coming. You
don't know it. Yeah, that's true.
What the hell do I know? Well, I guess not. Dude, what happened
to Ziff Davis?
What happened?
They filed for Chapter 11.
Well, that's, you know, something that's been you know,
they've been on and off to do that for last five years. What
was interesting to me is we had we they caught, at least with
me, they they caught up with all our payments.
I'm sure that was interesting to you.
Hmm. It was kind of a surprise. So I figured something screwy
was going on? I don't know. I'm not I don't know the whole story
yet. Okay, well, they're still they're still in business. It's
just it's, you know, it's not like they're shutting down right
now.
Because, you know, I can say that we've certainly gazpacho
has been talking to him. We're trying to put a deal together.
And I was just like, you know, it's kind of surprising. It's
like, Oh, okay. I presume I don't know much about chapter
11. At least not the US version. I know about other versions.
But chapter 11, basically freezes the companies
essentially puts the company into into a kind of an oversight
group picks the, you know, takes a look, and they don't want to
pay their bills for a while. Right. So that's kind of so they
refinance, essentially. Hopefully, I mean, they airlines
have done this numerous times. And at some time, you know,
publishing companies, I don't know how many of them come out
of it. Well, but we'll see.
So, obviously, you know, chapter 11, was, you know, some kind of,
you know, to protect the assets, I guess, but that doesn't mean
the company can't do businesses regular, right, we can still do
a deal with these guys. So I think we actually would
contribute and help them.
Yeah, no, I think actually, you're in a better position now.
Good. Okay. Excellent. Excellent, excellent. Hey, you
know, so you sent me something. Excuse me, but I think I should
say, by the way, today is Thursday, March 6, when we're
recording this. And I actually thought for a few moments, while
I was making some tea, you know, maybe we should just wait until
tomorrow to release it. But I'm thinking, yeah, something could
happen overnight. We should release it today. I'm sure you
agree, John.
Yeah, well, I know why you edge is easier.
It's just being easier. No, no, no, no. But so we have
no talent, no work, no agenda and no hassle.
No hassle, more money, less work. That's my motto for 2008.
We got we got to let's just just get into it. Let's you have
something you want to talk about. Right off the bat. You
want to just hear one or two of these? Well,
you know, I think we got a lot of feedback on our last show.
And I think it seems to me that people really jacked up about
about us talking about tea.
Oh, yes. Oh, dude. Oh, dude, I think I did get at least one
consistent piece of feedback, which is about the milk you
want. This is about 50 seconds. So let me just play this for
you. It makes sense.
Hi, Adam. And John. This is a calling from South London.
First of all, I like it guy from Britain. Yeah, you already feel
kind of right, don't you?
Yeah, I love it. Here we go. Just interested
in the conversation you had in the last no agenda about putting
the milk in the tea first. The way I hear it is that's
traditionally an English thing. Possibly European in some cases,
but mainly English and use the fact that back in the day, I
guess 1700s We were really shifting and making porcelain.
And so if you made tea without putting the milk in first the
cups would crack or break. And that that's where the English
tradition of putting the milk in the tea came from first. So you
put it in the tea pot and then I guess pour it in the cup but
with the milk in first February here and it's probably right.
This seems to be the accepted wisdom over here. And so John's
comment about no one over 30 Does it it's probably maybe it's
making a revival or something. Okay, guys love the show. And I
listened next week.
I got a lot of those. So that's
how I got I got a couple of those myself and it actually
does make some sense. Except for the fact that it makes less
sense today, especially when people put the milk in And then
they put a tea bag in it. And then they pour the water into
the tea. You know, they've noticed, yeah, I can see where
you would put the milk in the thing and then brew it in a pot
and then pour the brewed tea into the milk, but not to make
the tea bag with the milk. No, no, which is what I groups been
saying. Yeah. So so it's an abomination.
But boy, people are passionate about their tea. Hmm. Over
there, unbelievable.
I also heard there was a somebody complaining that you
know that. In when I'm in England, I very rarely see a tea
bag with us with a string and a label on it. And I think I'd be
interesting to see if anybody knows the history of that
particular phenomenon. I think it was Lipton.
Who started with the Yeah, with the string in the holder. You
mean?
Yeah. The string of the little tag on the end? Yeah, it
was probably made specifically for the US market. You know,
that seems like a typical, maybe it's a US invention. Who knows?
I'm sure someone patented it.
Yeah, it definitely looks patentable. Now that having said
that, I remember some years ago, I was in France. And they and I
wish I could find this stuff again. But just because it was
so cool. They and you've seen that you you'll see this
actually in France, the tea they made you know, they have tea in
bags and France and they do have the little string usually
attached to it. But they the tea is always really weak. They
don't you know, they're French are real tea drinkers by any
means. Even though they have a couple of famous tea companies
that you know, solar, expensive teas and a canister. But anyway,
I saw this while I was at some hotel. And the tea came with
this cup of tea bags in the tea bags themselves were made of a
fine silk.
Oh, yeah, no, I've I had those over here. There's a Ah, I
forgot who makes it. There's a British brand that makes it with
fine silk as well. That's I've seen that around.
So since then, I went to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco
a few times because we have a deli. And so I'm in I'm there.
And then tea has become like a big deal at the Fancy Food Show.
And there's all these companies that make these tea purveyors,
you know, and again, it's not as good as PG Tips after this
stuff. But you know, they sell like individual little boxes
with a tea bag in a box. And it's unbelievable. I mean,
anything to you know, just screw the public. And there's a bunch
of tea companies, these high end, you know, hoity toity tea
companies and they've got the tea that's in not silk, but some
sort of a weird mesh plastic of some sort. That's the new high
tech tea bag.
Yeah, I've seen that too. Yeah, it's like a pyramid tea bag only
it's
some of them. Some of them aren't, you know, there's a
variety of designs, there's a square one.
You know, I, this morning, I went to it's called the the job
centre. I had to get the my National Insurance number, which
is equivalent to a social security number, because now I'm
working at least partially on on the UK payroll. So as to be
fair, you know, so it's not to get in trouble with the tax man,
etc. Her Majesty's customs and Revenue Service. And so you have
to be interviewed, you know, because they're gonna see if
they really think I'm the real deal, right? So this probably
isn't intended specifically for,
for me,
you know, if you just look around the room was like, Okay,
this is for immigrants who do not speak the language. But you
know, you have to prove that you actually live at that address.
And so I got, you know, what are the chances I got a young, not
very good looking woman who had to do my interview. So with
either like three cheating me look at my documentation, she
was already stamped and stuff. But I'm talking to her and
pretty soon the, the conversation turns to well, you
know, I'm actually leaving, I bought a house in Spain. I'm
like, well, that's interesting. You know, here, you are
interviewing me to come in and you're leaving. And all of her
own accord. She brought up something that we've talked
about a couple times on the show, that is now really focus
of the mainstream media here in the UK is the binge drinking.
And yeah, and righteous thing, right. Now what so the
government's response to this, I just wanted to revisit it,
because I know we have a lot of European and UK listeners, the
government's response is to raise taxes on alcohol. And I'm
like, I mean, don't they understand that there's got to
be a root cause and even this girl was saying, you know, oh,
in Spain, it's like, you know, people drink but it's not off
your face. And in America, she says, You have to be 21. And
you'll know and people don't mess around with that. And you
don't see people well, maybe frat parties and college here,
but that's kind of what you're supposed to do there. But you
know, other countries around the world, it just doesn't happen.
It's something really British and she came right out. She
said, You know, there's something much different going
wrong here has nothing to do with the cost or availability of
alcohol. And I don't hear anyone standing up and saying that's
horse crap.
You mean used to saying what's worse scrap the fact that the
judge is going to tax it? Yeah,
just just, you know, it's a higher tax, in fact, so they've
done some statistics, never since they opened up the pub
hours to go past 11 o'clock, or whatever they used to close
really early. And now it's 24 hour a day licence. And, you
know, so alcohol related crime, I believe, has actually gone
down. I mean, there's all kinds of statistics that show that
that didn't really make any difference in the drinking
behaviour and pattern, but because it got spread out, you
know, people didn't start to go steal and trash stuff at 1130,
you know, when the pub was closed. But I don't hear anyone
contradicting this idea that, you know, that's the problem
solver is taxes. It's, you know, it's this country's asleep over
here, John, it's really surprising to me, that this
country of so called stiff upper lip Brits who, who I think
really like to live their own lives and live free, you know,
they're suppressed man, it's
it brings up a couple interesting points, first of
all, back in the in the day, or during, you know, a blitz a
couple 100 years ago, I mean, the Brits were well known for
drinking too much. I mean, the the problem with gin is even,
you know, even crops up in history books, when it
shouldn't. And if you look at all the Hogarth etchings, he
would ridicule the English for its kind of drunkenness. So, I
mean, I don't know, if there's something that goes back, I
think maybe it's just, it's just returning. And the other thing
is, the image Americans have of the British is not quite the
same as a lot of other people's overall image and and what I
wanted to cite, and I wish I had math to see if I can find a copy
of this clip that's on it might be on YouTube or someplace we
were watching. When I'm in Washington, we watch Canadian
television, mostly. Because it's just not because it's
necessarily better overall, but it's different. And one of the
my favourite shows is this hour has 22 minutes, which is a
comedy show that's been on CBC probably for decades. And they,
they decided, they did a thing where they they're going to
interview a couple of typical Brits. So they cut to the
satellite to talk to these two people in their homes. And it's
like, and they they portray them as you know, with a horrible fat
woman with teeth going every which way and blubbering about
stuff and bashing her skinny, perverted husband who's like
hunched over and it's just like, you see that in this the image?
We're watching this. My wife says, guy, this is sure not the
image the Americans have of the British, but this the way that
Canadians see them. And, you know, so it's possible that
we're all wrong. And you know, maybe the Canadian got it right.
The Brits are just a mess.
What's it what's the video you you want to reference?
Well, I'm saying I'm wondering if that if this hour has 22
minutes is up on YouTube ever? Because the show itself is worth
watching in this particular episode. It has these these
English?
Of course it does. Oh, yeah, of course it does. Of course, this
on YouTube, did he kid me all the stolen shooters on YouTube?
Hold on.
So I have to find this particular thing, because it's a
point of sociology. That's quite interesting. And then the
Canadians would have, you know, they have a longer association
with the English. I'm sorry, that closer when we do for sure.
I mean, we just write you know, rouse them in 1776. And, you
know, never and we're not we, we have Americans typically have a
nostalgic view of the British, you know, you know, they drink
tea, and the queen is kind of interesting. And, you know, they
have a royalty we don't have it's, it's peculiar. In fact,
during the Civil War, or just before the Civil War that many
of the states in the South South Carolina in particular, were
actually thinking about, you know, splitting from the UN and
becoming a monarchy.
Really, they wanted a king.
Yeah, South Carolina in particular, they still have that
kind of attitude in that state. Yeah, they wanted to kill me.
Oh, incoming email. I do. I made a horrible mistake of actually
going to that YouTube video. crunched the bandwidth. I'm
telling you man, these guides like the bandwidth in the UK
sucks.
Sucks
know what YouTube videos were out while on Skype?
No, no, I I understand that but we had such a great connection.
I thought maybe I just give it a shot. No, you're right. It's the
same with the with the Dutch. You know the Dutch the
perception The Dutch used to be windmills wouldn't shoes tulips,
and then somewhere probably say in the 70s towards the end of
the 70s certainly after John and Yoko spent a week in bed in the
Amsterdam Hilton, it kind of became known for hippie
paradise. You remember the hippies sitting around Damn,
squab damp the damn monument, right. hookers and drugs and now
it's hookers and drugs. Absolutely. And you never hear
anyone about wouldn't shoes anymore. If you know if you ask
a kid at school, you know, ask a fifth grader you know, Holland
hookers and drugs, you know, no more wouldn't choose. And they
still use them.
Actually, when I was in the last time I was in Amsterdam, one of
the things I went to do some long street I can't remember the
name of it, but it's a huge shopping street
call from the other call for
huge addicts miles. It's the only other one in the world that
I've been to that says impressive in terms of it's just
length of one street for shopping, is in Beijing, there's
a street that's dead probably even longer. And it's wider.
It's huge. It's this big, giant shops at least a with place it
goes on for forever. I never could get to the end of it.
Anyway, yeah. So I'm shopping in this street and going looking
for some shoes. And so I found some fun, you know, there's
some, some shop I went into, and I did some really cool looking
pair of shoes. And I figured by didn't quite fit right. But the
guy gave me a lecture. So well, you know, this was one of the
last two shoe companies left in Holland that made the shoes and
he went on and on with a lament about how many shoe companies
are used to me and I guess this goes back to the wooden shoe
days. He said that I guess there were hundreds at one point here
and they've all consolidated down to like one or two and
they're about to go broke.
Well, and that's also part of a larger gripe in the Netherlands
is that they you know, they've been saying for maybe 15 or 20
years you know, the government has basically put Holland into
the into the into the storefront window. Everything has been sold
they don't make anything new we were complaining about America
they don't make anything there was nothing being produced in
Holland anymore nothing zero you know except well banking and
that just got sold ABN AMRO, you know, sold to what was that?
Barclays?
I don't know. I didn't follow that.
Yeah, so that was kind of like the last thing the Netherlands
has. And you know, and there's just no more industry there. And
it used to be a very industrious trading based nation. No longer
I don't know what to tell you. Nothing. So I don't really
care. I don't know why these countries believe I guess you
know, they're all locked into this internationalism globalism
and they believe that they can get the all their products
elsewhere cheaper in such a way that they never have to worry
about ever making them again, but gee, if some of you know
that Hitler cropped up in you know, in this day and age to
would be easy to do these countries would be a walkover
they wouldn't have to have a blitzkrieg.
No, oh, no, it would be. It would be very easy. The
Netherlands Of course, in the Second World War capitulated
within like five days, they gave up their three rifles and two
bicycles.
Well, more than two bicycles according to the Dutch, that's
all they do. Is they still bitch about the fact that the bicycles
are never returned?
Yeah, they. God. That is, that is a joke. We don't make any
more in Holland, John. That is, that is no longer valid,
culturally speaking, not politically correct.
Why when did that change?
Um, well, as we all got got older, you know, I've dealt with
lots of Germans my age, and you know, there's this great, the
new Germans, I'll just call them, you know, the generation
that has now grown up that was, you know, that didn't grow up. I
grew up grew up whose parents were born during the Second
World War. You know, they're very reliable in general that
have to say, in business dealings. They're pretty
reliable. They're, they're friendly. They're, you know,
they do I like doing business with them. And they, culturally
they're, they're quite rich, you know? So we just don't mess with
them anymore. Because now they're just our good
neighbours. And we you know, and by the way, what an economy you
know, there's the Netherlands when Germany sneezes the
Netherlands, you know, catches the cold.
So the bicycle issue is, is off the table.
Yeah, we do. We do not. What No, we do not say that anymore. No,
no.
No, not not funny anymore. We
I never thought it was supposed to be funny. I thought it was a
complaint. It was a legitimate complaint.
I want my bicycle back. A couple other things that happened, not
just the stealing of bikes, a couple of things went on
See, actually so did you get to chat with me says we're talking.
We're on this topic. Did you get that song I emailed you? Yes, I
did. Play it interesting. Before you played I'm going to this I
ran into the song I was recording a, this is from a
movie done in 1942. And a lot of people out there don't realise
that. But if you don't realise that both the US England and
most of the countries in World War Two in 1942, a lot of
historians will say that we actually technically have
already lost the war, the war was over, and the Germans were
going to win everything. Okay, and, and so 9042, there was a
turn around, mainly because of the productivity of the American
factories, where we were cranking out, I mean, we
Manchester discusses this in one of his books, and he has all the
stats, which I should blog one of these days because they're
actually quite phenomenal. Whether it be like doing a ship
a week kind of thing.
And like, you know, 700 aircraft a month I mean, it was really
high turnover
or more. But anyway, there was a lot of they were cranking out a
lot of stuff and then war turned around. And we ended up winning
but that then 42 It wasn't clear that we're going to and so then
so there was a bunch of interesting sociologies that
took place during this period one of them that that fascinated
me was this song which is in a movie literally, you know, one
of these war movies called in the movie was called Iceland and
I don't have the singers name but I think the band was Sammy
Kay and and I found it interesting because this song is
essentially if you read between the lines, kind of making a
don't even tell him don't even tell
him Yeah, okay, well we'll listen to it and then we'll
discuss it
listen little lady gets the order wrong the day issued by
the highest authority in the service simply can return to you
must get priority. So if you're patriotically in the call
you can say no to a soldier or sailor or you can say no with
the wants to dance. If he's gonna fight to romance, get all
your lipstick and be beautiful and do your time man it's still
okay. You can always get some in a sisterly way. Oh you can say
no. No Your God when you can say no sailor or handsome he wants
to he's gonna ride he's got a right to romance. Get out
most submarines you can put a sweater on what Amy? Oh, you can
say no no no, you better given
yeah,
that's basically saying Do your local servicemen so we can win
the war?
Yeah, basically saying that, you know, let's do the whoring out
the country because if you don't get you know, because you if you
don't get get keep these guys happy, you know, you're gonna be
stuck with, you know what you get in a war situation. Somebody
else takes over.
I have a rape. I really liked it where it was, you know, you can
always kiss him in a sisterly way. I thought that was pretty
funny. Yeah,
there's also there's a couple of twists in there, you know, be
beautiful and dutiful.
And I got to try it tonight. Honey, you've got to be
beautiful and dutiful to Me.
And my, actually, my the really interesting little twisted
phrase in there was you know, if he says it's cold in the
submarine, you can get him a sweater. But that's not what he
means. So
I know I don't know. And then you got was it Popeye or Brutus
popping in there?
Yeah, that guy. I can't remember his name. He's in a lot of
movies from that era.
He He's like an Ernest Borgnine type guy. But he's actually
he was a character actor showed up here and there and he's in
the beam movies mainly.
That must be so that's part of a film you said.
Yes. It's a it's a scene in the movie. Iceland, and they cut to
this song. And I just thought it was interesting because it
matched the year which is 1942, which is the year that we're
losing
the year you were born, of course.
Yeah, no. And not that old. And it was a year we're losing. It
sounded that there actually weren't a lot of people born
that year because their most people were
waiting. Was that before Pearl Harbour or post? No, that's
after Pearl Harbour, right. Okay. So yeah, downer mood, for
sure.
And then the Hitler was, like, you know, beating everybody up.
And so it was a bad time. And I think a lot but the interesting
part of the song, which is like telling these women to get out,
you know, to get to work, having sex, I think essentially, it
seems a bad thing, because this, this whole arrow is is
completely, completely lost to, to anybody, today's generations,
or the anybody. And as a matter of fact, I think it's kind of
you mean, the general got general vibe and how people felt
and what the what the,
because we have like the, you know, these war efforts that you
know, like the Vietnam War and all these insincere wars that
we've been seemingly in and you never had this kind of thing
where this was, this was actually a desperate situation
where we people had to do things. And I think the song
reflects that in some way. That I don't think we'll ever see
anything like it again.
You know, where I still see that. On Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen
Nightmares. Now, I'm telling you, they have there's two
versions that are over here. There's the I know you watch it,
John, I'm sure you've seen the show. So absolutely. So whenever
he does, it's so different when he does a friend of French or
British restaurant. And so for those who haven't seen the show,
essentially Gordon Ramsay, I'm sure you know him famous
celebrity chefs as fuck a lot. Probably. That's why I'm drawn
to him. But he's very powerful, intense guy. And he goes into
these businesses and he tries to turn them around in well, of
course, it's really one hour of television. But the idea is it's
a couple of days in real time. I have no idea how long it takes
him to shoot and then he goes back and visit them a couple
months later to see how they're doing and these are all
restaurants on the brink of failure. But once again last
night they were doing an Irish Pub in I think it was Florida
you know ex cop took his pension, you know, family
business complete.
It's always a sad story.
It's Oh, it's it's heart wrenching. You know, it's just
like ripping it right out, you know, but then when you get the
Americans when when Gordon Ramsay lays into these
restaurant tours, and as often the chef or the owner, it's
usually the owner you know, in the in the European versions is
like, you know, who the fuck do you think you are Gordon Ramsay
man. Yeah, that's the French guy. Exactly. But with the
American version, it's like, gotten to the top of his game,
man, you know, he's the top, he's motivated me, I've opened
up again, I've learned how to love what I'm doing with
passion, we're gonna go kick some ass. And you know, and I'm
like, and I sit there and I get goosebumps. And I think that's
it. That is the definition of the American spirit. And I think
it was probably the same thing in 42. But you still see it in
situations like that.
Ya know, there's, I, I watched both versions two, because we
get BBC America and the Dish Network. And they show the
British versions of the Gordon Ramsay show on their usually
they show him in a bunch of them in a series like the devil do a
weekend, it'll be like 10 in a row. So
we're staying in the catalogue.
So while you can record them, but anyway, the and you and the
contrast between the American version and the European
version, or the British version is exactly what you say, which
is the Americans tend to be more amenable to consultants, which
is what he comes in. And that you know, he's and then they
listen, and they and they try to adapt and they once in a while
they try they get into a little beef, but a lot of that you
wonder is this sometimes a semi artificial because I don't think
it's the editing. Oh, no, it's
totally the yeah, there's a lot of editing because like the
reality TV where this you know, it's a lot of it's fake. You
mean like,
you just have people looking, you know, with the acquisitive
expressions.
I can see the director saying can you just drove down?
slow that down a little bit? You know what, let's add a boiling
sound effect here. Yeah. Here's my other favourite. That's what
you do. When animals twist head looking in amazement at Crazy
humans add sound effect.
So and but then when you go to the British for the British
version of the show, and they and he goes to France often and
he goes all over the place. He was in Paris and you know, some
expat was there trying to open a place and they they're, they
they're more sensitive. They don't like being told what to
do. They don't they're not into consultants, so much like
Americans, we you know, kind of like a consultant culture. And
they they they reject the guy and they get into these huge
arguments that It's actually highly entertaining but 90% of
the time it's you know, it's just a bunch of a holes yelling
at each other.
Yeah. What's the difference between that and boxing or
football or soccer?
Yeah, well, there's none. No people always want to see that.
Yeah, it's entertaining.
By the way not to be outdone, John by your song, I did a
little bit of research and I think I came up with the 2008
version of that song. Want to hear it?
Yeah, let's go.
jugs and orbs and darts and guards. Elma birds and bouncing
Buddha's sweater stretchers, lung protectors, beach,
umbrellas, frost detectors, Scooby snacks and Snake Eyes,
dice, jello, molten high beam lights. Every day, I probably
use 99 words. But you'd appreciate that
one. Yeah, that's, that is a good example of the difference
between 9042 and today where you have kind of a juvenile attitude
about everything.
I'm sorry, I can't help my say some of the podsafe Music
Network. 99 words for boobs. It's just it's it's a beautiful
thing, man. Come on.
Yeah, no, I'm downloading. No.
No, don't do that. It'll ruin our Skype connection. Hey, dude
in the paper today. Rumour and word is now out. I have a
feeling it's a trial balloon because it was almost like
orchestrated. I'm seeing it across everything I'm going to
tell you, including my favourite newspaper, The Financial Times.
Looks like the EU is going to approve the Google DoubleClick
merger.
Oh, and why shouldn't day? Well, you're always saying
that they're, you know, that nearly cruces out to out to stop
all the big American companies?
Yeah, no, I think but I don't think that this is a would be a
good example. Because the it's not like there's it's going to
create a monopoly or anything. I mean, it's been around forever.
And with just a service company. The deal is this.
Well, no, the deal is, first of all, the advertising agencies,
the media buying agencies are flipping out over this. Because
they're now figuring out, especially with this piece from
adding this strapping on double click that Google is the buyer
and the seller that they can no longer that media agencies can
no longer really influenced price. So they're really
freaking out over this. The second thing is, of course,
privacy. I think that's what it was under scrutiny for most is
now that you if you combine all the information Google has on
you. With DoubleClick cookie information, I believe that's
where people were worried that there were some privacy or
potential for privacy issues.
Yeah, I can see that. And I bet you
take them on a case by case basis after the fact. I don't
think it's a big deal personally. Anyway, I'll tell
you something screwy going on with Google the stock is way
down. Yeah. Where's
it now? 400 from coming from seven to 400
where it's in the 400 Some people were predicting it going
lower, lower. I'm not seeing that when I look at the charts,
but I don't know. I mean, anything can happen. Anything
can happen. I was 50 I seriously have heard 150
B that would be a disaster. Yes. But anyway, so but one of the
things I've noticed is that my Google I test AdSense and by the
way, when I was talking about scheming AdSense last week, I
didn't mean that I meant scheming the Google advertising
on the search engine page. I don't know how to scheme
AdSense. Anyway, the backpedal, backpedal. The I noticed that my
numbers on my blog, for example, are going way up. Okay, but the
mound of money I'm getting from Google AdSense is going down.
Sure, a lot.
I had the same thing happen. It's ever since we started the
show.
I'm telling me, that could be it. But the numbers are going
down to the point where I have some other tests on that page,
which which have actually stabilised or have gone up a
little bit. Which indicates to me that is not that people
aren't dealing with advertising online. It's that they're not
that the Google stuff is becoming especially AdSense is
becoming invisible. Yeah,
I've always believed that. The brain parses that out, you know,
I frame the information on the page. I'm used to that. You
know, I'm used to that as as an airman. I'm used to it as a disc
jockey. I'm used to doing this right now. I'm looking at a
screen and I know there's all kinds of stuff going on. I know
honey, I'm actually Two screens, one above another. But I'm
focused on you know, in the aircraft we call it the T scan,
you know, when you're flying instruments is like you focusing
on these eight instruments that are in a T formation on your on
your panel. So why wouldn't the brain do that on a webpage?
Obviously, it's doing it but I may have to move the ad
someplace else, the
insert back into the T scan.
Just move it around, was you're supposed to do anyway because
you know, I think you're right, because I was noticing it
myself. I was on the web page the other day. And I was I went
to something else. And I decided to do the old test about what a
great ad I you know, people say, Wow, I saw this great ad, it was
unbelievable is the funniest thing I've ever seen. And you
ask what was what was the ad for? Yeah, exactly. And they go,
I don't remember. I don't know. And I, I realised that I haven't
been seeing what's on those. Those ads for a couple of months
now. Yeah.
I always look at the top of my weblog because I'm always
interested. And I saw it go from, you know, because I do
test to you know, there's a there's a retail a big box
retail outlet over here called curries. I'm sure you've heard
of that? Oh, yeah. And so curry.com, you know, and lo and
behold, there's probably 2600 Search hits. So we're looking
for curries every single day. And so I started, you know,
putting links in there to, you know, the stuff that you know,
like, want to buy a TV set. Buy it from me.
Yeah, and no, no, no, no, can't have that right now.
And essentially, you know, you do see stuff change over time.
But, you know, that's really only because that's a part of my
daily scan that I'm really interested in seeing what words
have appeared there. But otherwise, Man, I ain't nothing.
And it didn't wasn't our survey about banner ads, you know, the
punch the monkey stuff. It's essentially guys punching the
monkey isn't that turns out that that's what banner ad clickers
are.
Yeah, there's, there's some issues. I think that's one of
them. I mean, the banner ad thing, you know, that's why I've
seen it seen it is a company responsible for inventing a lot
of these these initiatives, including banner ads, and that
big square box. It's now in the middle of everything. They did
that and the I don't think they responsible for that. The most
annoying ads, which is the thing that the flash ad that comes
crawling across the screen? Yeah, I don't
think that's flash. I think that's that's Ajax stuff, I
think,
could be whatever the case is annoying. And there's a Yeah, so
these guys are desperate for coming up with something. But I
think Google may have some issues here. If I'm if these
numbers are correct, because I have a stat packages on the
server, I have stat packages on the pages. So I know what my
numbers are. And when I get numbers, you know, or when I see
Google having, you know, consistently not showing it,
then one of the things they do is I like to I don't know how
they measure a lot of this stuff, since I put my Google
stuff right at the top. But sometimes they won't give you
credit for a page view. And I'm thinking, here's what I'm
thinking. I've noticed that as my numbers increase, the Google
numbers kind of stay the same, or even go down a little bit to
make the to make the click per page number look a little
better. Because the total income from the Google AdSense is
actually retreating, and to make themselves look at least look a
little more effective. There's something screwy going on. And I
don't think I'm the only one seeing this. And I think it's
being reflected in the in the stock going down the way it is.
I mean, somebody's got to I mean, there's something going on
that screwy?
Well, I think there's a couple things going on. So first of
all, I believe you're right on all counts. On the parsing of of
ads on a page, I think people have gotten used to that. I
agree with what you're saying about, you know, the the page
counts. general fatigue, as well, you've got to take that
into account. But you know, these guys are, I think they're
really desperate at trying to figure a lot of this stuff out.
And, you know, there's, I don't know, if you've ever ventured
into the hidden groups of SEO SEM, you know, there's, there's
all kinds of places where these real experts who are making
millions of dollars, you know, congeal and they all have, you
know, names like, Dark Dragon and stuff like that. Moody
actually does a lot of that stuff, you know, moody from from
our office. And, you know, it's there's a lot there's a lot
going on that that we just not privy to a but that we're not
even it's not even on our radar. And yeah, I think there is I
think there was a scramble, a scramble to figure it out. It
has to do with PageRank and has to do with that Have a multitude
of different factors and weights and balances that really tweaked
their system. And by the way, their systems in general have
been a bit shaky the past few days. I've had Gmail problems.
We've had Google Group problems. We've had calendar problems,
Gmail reader problems, you know, files uploading and then
disappearing. There's there's definitely something going on.
Well, it's not good, whatever it is. It's not productive for the
course. You know, one of your companies that you had a early
investment and it made you a wealthy person has decided to
change your entire mouth about ask.com To
Ask Jeeves is what I invested is to
be asked Jeeves, which I always thought was a cute idea, except
for the fact that it didn't work. But I liked the name. Ask
Jeeves. It's kind of cute, but then they changed it.
We know what to ask, you know, what happened is a guy who kind
of like a friend, you know, he was a guy who almost became a
client at think new ideas. And then we kind of stayed in touch
and he was out in LA. And he called me one day and he said,
Dude, I'm looking for, you know, a little bit of cash, you know,
it's gonna be the last round is his company. There's certainly
no there was no Google. AltaVista, I think was the
search engine at the time. And it's it look, I got $50,000
That's all I have. I really can't invest more than that. He
said, No, no, man, it's perfect. And that was pre IPO. And that
had for those for those who won't, who don't remember or
don't know, they had a spectacular initial public
offering. And it was based on nothing. I think at the end of
the day, it was based on a cute branded character. Interesting
name. And so now they're there. I you know, I heard the hurt was
on cranky geeks. I think I saw you guys talking about how
they've read the how they're supposedly now. Fritos, cranky?
Yeah, you're focusing on married women who have a household to
run and need help in their life.
Yeah, that's what it that's what actually was the was what the
Associated Press reported.
It's interesting, because I hadn't looked at asked in a long
time. And so I, you know, I went around to first thing I entered
was like cooking recipes.
But yeah, that's funny, because as soon as I read, that's the
first thing I did, too. As soon as they made this announcement,
I went to it immediately to try it. And you know what, it's not
bad.
No, I was just about to say, isn't this exactly what mahalo
is supposed to be? I mean, it has references to other other
chefs, you know, so actually, it was like, you might want to look
at Jamie Oliver or Nigella or, you know, and because I knew was
in the UK, so it's gonna be UK results. it real nice. While
you're typing stuff starts to pop up. I love that, you know,
pre search where it's already giving you ideas and the
possibility to turn it off. I mean, yeah, it actually looked.
Oh, hold on a second.
Oh, man. Are you there, John? Boy, hold on a second. Let me
see if I can fix this. If I can't do it in a couple seconds.
Then I'd have to reroute. Oops. Okay, folks, hold on. Let me get
John back on the line.
Okay, John, you there? Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know
what happened. All of a sudden, I think we might have had to
start
breaking up. You know, it's possible somebody else is using
a machine in your place. You know what,
though? That's not it. The I saw the entire router go offline.
Sometimes we get brownouts where I am and just enough to mess
with the router and all of a sudden everything went dead and
I apologise.
So your fault, you should be apologising for the British
utilities companies screw
those British utilities.
Anyway, so I don't know what mahalo was.
Well, yeah, it looked to me like someone had done some work. So
when, you know, someone obviously went in and figured
out that with cooking recipes, you know, here's some chefs to
look at. That doesn't seem like a real automatic thing to me. So
there's clearly someone doing some manual work. And, you know,
that was I have to say, I actually sat there and said, I
might use this a couple times. See if I like it.
Yeah, I did some work on it. And I thought it was well, you know,
it's it was It wasn't bad. I mean, I could I mean, I've
actually made this comment I think in print somewhere, which
is that would we what would be different about the world? Yeah,
I always do this as an exercise anyway. But what would be
different about the world if Google didn't exist? And I don't
think that much would change.
No, nothing that would change anyone's life. I don't think so.
Well, we'd have nothing to talk about. That would be a problem.
Shin now man,
you're breaking up a little you still there? Yeah, okay. Yeah,
see, I had another hiccup you know what? I'm gonna do
something here. This is some I noticed this the other day. A
hold on that. And it could also be the provider, I really got to
work on this shit. Hold on. So if I I basically just open a
ping connection to somewhere out on the net. Are you still there?
Yeah, I'm here I get I basically, yeah, I can hear you
I basically opened a ping connection to somewhere out on
the net, and it just keeps the connection alive. I don't know
what the hell is going on.
Sorry, interesting.
Well, anyway, so I like to do this exercise, which is that
imagine what the world would be like with a company missing? And
I I've concluded that Google is not the be all and end all. I
mean, you can if without Google, we'd still be able to get good
search results here and there.
Well, of course, we could. I mean, it's ridiculous to think
that you could and no doubt about you know what, remember
when when Google came on the scene? They came with the right
time, though, John, they had, you know, they had a really,
really fat, you know, the big thing on the on the search
results was how fast they got your results. So it was all
about
it wasn't any faster than what Alta Vista was doing in its
heyday?
No, no, wait, hold on a second, I beg to differ. Remember, these
were the days of 56k modems. And when you had these huge pages,
and you know, at the time, I think it was frames, and it took
you took your computer's longer to render and with Google, it
was like one page one search box. It was a revelation. I
remember this very clearly. That was the day I convinced
that AltaVista, except for the fact that they were bought.
Hold on John. You
know what they were doing with what to do with digital they
killed Alta Vista
who killed a digital killed Alta Vista?
No, no contact did Compaq computer, they didn't kill it.
They just let it languish. And then Google came along at about
the same time. And the next thing you know, they were doing
what Alta Vista was doing. I don't think that the difference
was that substantial?
Well, it's certainly something that's reproducible. And by the
way, it doesn't make any difference, because that's not
really the business. The business is AdSense so they
don't make money on their search business. It's on AdSense. And
the search business is of course, a great part of that.
And not unimportant part. But just because you and I love
going to use using Google to search doesn't necessarily put
money in Google's pocket. Right. So you know, it's really the the
advertising business and by the way, not a lot of successful
geeks in the advertising business.
No, never will be.
You know, you got to have finesse baby, you got to have
flair. You know, you gotta know how to talk. That's what gets
you through and Madison Avenue.
Generally, yeah, so. So I'm looking at this talking about
Madison Avenue. The segways are fantastic. Are you
gonna talk about madmen?
No, no. Looking at Adweek. And there was a creative six trends
you should know and they came in there's this phrase that I was
unfamiliar with. They had to look it up by going to my
website and there's I have an acronym finder on the homepage,
the word.org/home.htm. And you familiar with the accurate
acronym brick BRC?
Brick? Yes, I am familiar with the acronym in several different
contexts. One is a a dimension of a real wholesale package of
marijuana. Okay, nevermind that too is the constant let me get
there, too is when you have a mobile device or portable device
that becomes completely rendered unusable usually through
hacking, then you turn it into a brick.
Let me be Ric now. Let me just let me give it to you in
context. The title The subtitle of this paragraph is Brick
fashions break the fashion world would be looking to the BRIC
countries in 2008.
The BRIC countries,
ie countries that have homes made of brick,
no Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Ah, yes, no, I have heard of this. Actually. I've read this
in Financial Times. It's been a while but yes, I have heard
this.
So it's one of the trends they say. And I think this is largely
due to the reason Brazil Brazil has a number of fashion
international fashion designers who are quite talented, but then
they show this picture of some a top form or a top a top like a
top a woman would wear from Shantanu and Nikhil showing this
horrible I mean, I don't want to say anything, you know, I love
the Indians. But India fashion is not something I want to see
much of, to be honest about. Northern movies, by the way I
have to be.
I love fashion. I love fashion shows. I told you I went to the
fashion show with my wife and Amsterdam on a Sunday. Nice. I
had my suit on.
Yeah, that suit. Yeah. Who was the designer you saw? Was it
just a bunch of?
No, no, it's just it's one designer, Paul's filter. And
Patricia works with him every, every season on the show. And
you know what the model should look like? And of course, I'm
highly interested. Because what I get to do is I get to hang
around everywhere. This is naked models walking around is
awesome. I'm not kidding. Yeah. And but yeah, it's not like
they're posing, but they're all really tall. And, and so I said,
you know, excuse me, I just got to hug you for a second. I know
you're feeling the same way. Because you know, when I talk to
each other, and I always get it, you know, I always get hug. It's
great. But I really screwed I really screwed up this time.
Because my favourite favourite model of all time, who always
walks the pulse Hill to show and it because all the the mega
superstars are big buyers or celebrities. And of course,
we're none of the above. They get they sit right in the middle
of the front row at they're on the runway. And so we're
actually in an even better spot that's like two spots to the
right. That's where the models make their turns. They make
their turn right in front of us. And she always gives me John,
I'm not kidding. She gives me the most wicked look. Just like
you know, it's like a fantasy. And it's a game because you
know, my wife and I laugh about all the times. Let's see if she
gives you the look. Anyway, she after the show. She's upstairs
and she's, you know, she's D just taking everything off
essentially, all of her model stuff. And I said, Oh, you know,
when's the divorce because my dream has to finally come
through. And she says March 13 How did you know? Oops. I felt
so she had a horrible so we took her
out to dinner. I feel worse when she starts calling. Oh, dude.
Not a problem. I said it right. I said it's okay. My wife is
okay with it. We can have an affair. It's not a problem.
Patricia is sitting right next to her. I was funny.
Speaking of women, John, hold on a second.
Hey, guys, I wanted to let you know first of all that you do
have some stem privilege women listening to you. One in Ohio
even crazy. Couple of things. Adam, if you can't get a tobacco
company to sponsor you, you are not fucking trying. I mean,
every time I hear your letter, click, I want to go dig through
my coat pockets and see if I have any cigarettes from like
five years ago. It's perfect. You don't have to change
anything. You just keep doing what you're doing. They might
make you want to mention some brand or something. But I really
think you could actually
Alright, so we got wacky checks. Listen to us.
One from
Ohio. But we did strike a chord with making money on the show. I
got a couple emails about that. Did you get any? Yeah,
yeah, I got a couple of myself but you know, we'll see what was
the general consensus what were people saying?
Oh, they all Yeah, oh, it was just tonnes of money. Be Me, you
know.
tonnes of money. where's the where's the grant specialist? I
liked the grant idea the best I like that's
perfect ideas. Very cool. That would be that would be
outstanding to have a show sponsored by a grant and
listener donation.
Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. And we we do it on a regular we wouldn't.
That we will no, no, I think it's fine. People would get the
weakest font once a week is good. That's enough for people
No, I
was thinking we'd actually do it on the same day is what I was
gonna say but oh, that's never got that. I thought the better
of that.
John stuff and no agenda, person level down here. I got a message
for your haters, Adam. Listen up, folks. Food has to be put on
the table gas has to be put in the car bills have to be paid
insurance has to be paid mortgages have to be paid. Money
makes the world go around. You don't exist without money.
You're a rotting corpse on the ground. So I say fuck anybody
who gets mad at him making money from them. He can make money by
giving me content I want to listen to fuck yeah, go America.
Go Adam curry. I don't care. Do what you got to do. They don't
like it, bro. That's it. If you're getting paid, you're
gonna keep doing this. And I'm gonna keep adding cool stuff to
listen to. And I like the long format. Right?
Is that the stand up comic Doug Stanhope.
Chris from Levittown. He calls it a lot
so hey, there's something I wanted to mention on the show
before we finish up here that because we're getting feedback
we got enough audience now that we hit we're getting it we're
actually getting conscious Yeah. You know you you always can tell
when you're you know you have enough people out there I mean,
that's what I do. You know, I do want to do the Twitch show I'm
always asking for clothes, for example, seemed to get a lot of
shows John, it shows when I see around the office as are clearly
freebies.
So here's what I want. Now. Somebody out there has got to
happen. I think I'm gonna just keep soliciting. In this deal,
we get it. I heard I got wind of this some time ago. And then I
decided and I kind of forgot about I've been I've been trying
this district, but supposedly with Otis elevators and I
suppose Schindler elevators and some of the other ones, there
are, there are codes on the on the elevator itself. In other
words, we're going to mongst, the push buttons, certain
combinations of things will get you certain things that the
dummy with special special features? Well, for example, if
you put I've been told at least one of the things that if you
push the closed door button and the floor you want to go on to
on the at the same time, it turns it into express mode.
So it skips all the other floors.
Yeah, just zooms right. Awesome.
I'll bet you there's a tonne of information about there about
this out there, I bet
you that they whether that one's even right or not, I have been
trying it. I haven't found it not to take but you know, I'm
not using a lot of busy elevators. I suspect that
because of the nature of especially with the newer
elevators that are you know, computer there, you know,
there's a computer running them, they have to have a tonne of
secret codes, that somebody out there, there's an elevator guy
listening to the show that knows a few of these codes that would
be happy more than happy to tell us what they are
completely anonymously, just look at the show notes. There's
a phone number there, you just call it we can't trace you. We
can't I mean, the government can but we can't trace you or track
you. And let us know.
But I just think it'd be nice to know these cooks sometimes, you
know, you're in a hurry.
When When did you come up with this? You just woke up one
morning and said, I wonder if you know, I
read a number of months ago, I read someplace and some forum or
some you know, some news group or somewhere that some guy had
knew about these codes. And then he talked about the the closed
door, floor button, simultaneous push. And as soon as he said it,
I said yeah, there has to be I mean, obviously you if you're
programming these elevators, you're gonna put a bunch of
secret codes because when you're gonna repair the things you're
gonna you're gonna it's like, you know, the phone companies
have all kinds of weird numbers they can call Yeah, yeah. And
they, you know, there's like one number you can dial it and it
tells you the phone you're caught with the number of the
phone is that you're calling from? Well, that's the
whole you know, the whole unlocking thing is also based on
codes that you input.
Exactly. Yeah.
Hey, isn't that an apple thing this morning? That iPhone
something or other where they're gonna announce something? about
something? Probably,
yeah, who cares? Again, you know, Apple gets too much
publicity as it is.
It's true, but sometimes they do those live on video and I enjoy
watching that I love watching Steve Jobs present as beautiful.
He's a master. It's fucking a he's a master. It's just
beautiful.
Really, really, especially when you compare him to the other
schlubs in the industry. It's kind of pathetic.
Who's going to do the big announcements. When Yahoo
eventually gets sold or bought Steve Ballmer is going to do it.
The money is now heading toward fact, I'm writing about this
from MarketWatch. Waiting for that. Yes, he has your plug. I
think I'm going to discuss the possibility that AOL and Yahoo
get together.
I don't see why this wasn't something people looked at much
earlier. I think.
Andrew Horowitz who does the disciplined investor, he had a
month ago told me that he's was suspicious. And he posted a
video, which I have on my blog, by the way divert.org/blog He
posted a video that shows if you overlay the homepage of AOL and
Yahoo is like the same exact page
I hope it happens that will be beautiful that really would we
can we be interested in this guy? We could do business with
those guys. I know we can because they don't you know,
they? They both have a little bit of a clue about something.
But not really the whole picture. And I think AOL
personally I think AOL is really in a lot of trouble. I don't I
don't follow it. I have no idea what you know what reports there
are but it just it just feels like it's like it's one big
script running you know, there's not there's no nothing behind
it. This Is anyone home basically.
Yeah. You know, ever since Steve Case is that even though people
didn't like the guy
left is entertainment. Yeah, he understood it.
Well, he also had a sense of of it. I mean, he's the you know,
he did have the vision. I mean, he was the captain of the ship.
He's the one who saw you know that sometimes you need somebody
running things that can say no, no, that's a bad idea. And
here's the reasons why. Even though this idea of without that
guy would go ahead if it
wasn't Steve Case in flock of seagulls. Seriously, I think
yeah, I think at some for some reason, I think that he was his
law case was
long. I don't think he's ever been a musician. Ah, I mean,
proven me wrong.
Now I'm afraid to open my browser now because I don't want
to lose the connections. I
will do it for next week, we'll figure it out. But wherever the
case is, he's not there now, and it's a different place does look
like a rudderless ship. And and people are forgetting about
people used to talk about AOL, AOL Time. Everyone had an
aol.com email address, and now they don't and you know, it's
just a really sad,
I still have my Yahoo though. Do you still have your Yahoo
address? Yeah, I have a
Yahoo address. I have a, I have the Google address. I got one of
the early ones. I got my name. And you know, the right, which
should be Yeah. And
why do you have to buy from someone? Or did you have to wait
for No, no,
I got I was I got in really early. And so I got divorce
back. Okay. So I don't use it. I, I only use Google as a
complete backup, because they have, you know, run it through
my own server. Yeah. And why do you do that?
It's just because you started out that way. Never wanted to
change it? Or you find it's better for you? Or what? To have
divorce.org? No, just to have your own? No, no, you actually
have you don't, you know,
it's hosted over by Mark for keel over at sea time. Computer
time, you know, he's the one who does it. I've always had my,
I've got a domain early divorce.org. And I also have
divorced.com, that I don't actually use much. But I
initially got hooked up with a guy in New Jersey, who, you
know, who I thought was just a great guy. And he had, he was
running a server this back in the early 90s. And he says, let
me just host it, and you can do your emails from me. And then I
didn't, and it's just kind of bounced around from friend to
friend, and went to another guy in Chicago who was doing it for
a while, and then he got bored. And you know, because it gets
rough, unless you're doing it professionally. And I was gonna,
you know, move as I moved it. Mark has the email system, you
know, they were I get no spam. And so he said, You got to run
through my system, because you get no spam to him. So I gave it
to him. And he's been running it ever since. And it's like, you
know what, quid pro quo I give him his, his, his publicity. And
he gives me the he's gave me the server space. And you know, and
I suspect it'll go someplace else. Someday follow Mark seems
to be in the business for a while. But so yeah, it's been a
tradition of me to keep my own stuff and my own server that's
like,
Oops, that I lose your John
F TOS phone off.
I'll just give it a second to catch up, John. I would.
We really shouldn't do this show. Unless it's on a weekend.
Well, anyway, let me just finish the spot and we can finish.
Okay, which is that I'm worried sick that at some point, they
either they just pull the plug on? Yeah.
You mean the email provider? Yeah, they just
pull the plug on you. Hey, where are you? We decided you know,
you you're a spammer they come up with something they don't
want you anymore. Yeah. And then they all your mail is lost, and
you can't do the email people send to it just goes into a
black hole. I just don't like I don't trust these guys.
Right? Well, you know, you can always in your MX record, you
can always set up a secondary which could be your I got no
spam guy. But yeah, regardless, doesn't matter. I was just
always interested because I know that you have it with some guy
who gives you no spam. And it gives me his email address. I
get spam.
Mark ma RC at pur. Cal PE r k e l.com. Okay, got it.
Well, um, you're going up to Washington for the weekend,
John.
Yeah, gotta check in on the deli.
See if we're making money, see if we still got some meat in the
freezer. Hey, man, I although I enjoyed talking to you, I don't
like doing the show during the week when the bandwidth is all
crappy at risk. Distracting shit.
Yeah, we'll try to avoid it. Yeah.
You know, just tell me me. Sorry, honey. I can't come up
this weekend. I gotta do the show.
Well, next week for sure. We'll do it on Saturday morning or
Friday, whenever. Okay, actually, we've been doing on
Friday a lot. This Saturday is when we don't when we have the
best bandwidth or Sunday.
Yeah. And the weekend is always in the you know, maybe some punk
neighbourhood kid came home and turn on his bed toward you don't
know what's going on. Could be anything.
Right. All right.
See what I did. I remember the music this time. John, yeah,
here it acknowledge
crap. All right. This has been no agenda. We'll come back at
another time, sometime near the end of next week from the United
Kingdom. I'm Adam curry.
And from sunny Northern California. I'm John C. Dvorak.
And we'll talk to you again next week on no agenda.