Archive for October, 2007

Circus Circus Clowns Around With Their Hotel TV

Oct 22

Posted by Davis in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, DRM, Slingbox, Technology, TiVo, TV, VOD | Comments off

Circus Circus Clowns Around With Their TVI don’t take a lot of vacations, but every now and then I like to get out town, in order to do a little bit of gambling :) Every time I go to Vegas, Reno or Tahoe, I try to stay at a different casino, so I never really know what to expect. Some of the hotels that I’ve stayed at have been great and some have been terrible, but Circus Circus is the only one, that has lost my business entirely.

Normally, I’d be bothered by a dirty room or poor customer service, but in this case, it was a big fat sticker, that cautioned their guests about hooking up your outside equipment, to their television sets. Five years ago, I wouldn’t have cared about something like this, but with the explosion in the number of laptop to TV solutions, this has become an important issue for consumers to think about. What good does it do you, to be able to take your PC on the go, if hotels end up freezing you out, by neutering their TV sets?

I know that hotel PPV is a huge business, but I would think that tech savvy consumers would be a juicy demographic, that the casinos would be after. In the past, the hotels haven’t had to compete against outside video sources, but as technology has gotten better, we’ve seen new possibilities emerge. Instead of leaving your TV at home, you can placeshift it with Sling or Orb. With the proliferation of portable DVD players, it’s easy to take movies on the go. Whether it’s the newly announced Sansa TakeTV or the upcoming SlingCatcher, we are seeing an increase in the number of solutions for getting digital video to the television, on an almost daily basis.

I’ve never thought about checking to see if a hotel offers open access for their TVs, but in the future, it will be something that I make sure to ask about. I understand that the casinos would rather have me gambling, then watching TV, but being able to placeshift local sports, makes betting on them all that much more exciting.

In my dream world, casinos would charge $20 more per night and I’d get unlimited broadband, along with a TiVo that can record content during my stay, but I’m not holding my breath on this one. Right now, this is only an issue for early adopters, but as PC to TV technology goes mainstream, it will be something that more people will want to think about.

Some hotels may try to lock people into their proprietary systems, but in the future, I’m going to insist on free wifi and open television, even if it means that I’m staying at motels, instead of clowning around with Circus Circus.

Dude, I’m Getting A Media Center

Oct 17

Posted by Davis in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Media, Microsoft, Technology, TiVo, TV, VOD | 10 Comments

The AccessoriesI don’t like to think about it, but the death of my PC, could have ended much more tragically. When I first woke up and thought that I had lost all of my data, I went through all 5 stages of grief. At first, I tried to deny that there was a problem, then I got angry at myself for not listening to Thomas Hawk’s advice, this was followed by plenty of promises to be more diligent, if I could only figure out how to fix it and when I ultimately realized it was toast, depression set in over the loss. When I finally realized that my problems had nothing to do with my data, acceptance was easy because it meant that I was going to be able to transfer my digital life into an entirely new media experience.

Three years ago, I made the mistake of buying a computer from my work. They had extra ones lying around and I liked the idea of having access to Windows Office. The computer was old, but still an upgrade from my Windows 98 PC. At first I thought that this was a good solution, but what I didn’t realize, was that my work had stripped out all of the media related functionality. It ran on just a half a gig of ram, had no CD or DVD burner, the video card couldn’t support higher resolutions and somehow they managed to disable the microphone :(

As a media nut, this was a brutal mistake to make for a home PC, so when it came time to get a new one, I wanted to make sure that I had access to everything. Whether it’s being able to handle PC gaming or being able to stream digital video straight off the web, I wanted to make sure that I had as many options as possible.

Here are the specs for the gadget fans.

DI-700-XFIRE: Intel 700-class Crossfire workstation
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-tower
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz Dual Core 1333MHz FSB 4MB cache
Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe (Intel 975X)
DDR2 Memory: 4GB Dual-channel: 4 x 1024MB DDR2 667 MHz PC5300
Hard Drive with Serial ATA 2 interface: 320GB 16MB cache 7200RPM SATA2 Best value
Hard Drive #2 with Serial ATA interface: 320GB 16MB cache 7200RPM SATA2 Best value
Serial ATA RAID: RAID Level 1 (mirroring)
Optical Drive : 18x SATA Dual-Layer DVD±RW w/ Software
Crossfire Video Card: Two X1650 Pro 256MB for Crossfire mode
Removable Storage Device(s): Internal 8-in-1 Card Reader
Sound Card: On-board high-definition sound system
Network Card: Integrated LAN with 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet Controller
Input/Output capabilities: Refer to the motherboard chosen.
TV Tuner: Dual-channel TV-Tuner with PVR software
Additional Case Fan: Extra case fan
Power Supply: 500 Watt Crossfire/SLI ATX power supply with 120mm fan
CPU Cooling: Manufacturer’s CPU Fan
Operating Systems (OS): Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition

I’m looking forward to the extra horsepower, but the dual tuners excite me the most. Even with two tuners in my TiVo 3, I still run into recording conflicts. I don’t know why certain nights are so popular, but I don’t like having to make choices because of bogus :03 start times.

Media Center will be a change of pace over TiVo, but I’m looking forwarding to seeing the progress they’ve made with the Vista platform. Initially, I plan on using my Xbox 360 as an extender, but care far too much about having access to the internet, to stick with that for too long. Microsoft’s WebTV may have never taken off, but for me, open access is the killer app.

I’m also excited to finally be able to start exploring some of the other DVR solutions out there. Over the years, I’ve read an awful lot about SageTV, BeyondTV, and MythTV, but have never been able to fully evaluate the differences in their approach to the DVR. I feel like I made the right choices on the components that I selected, but won’t know for sure until, it finally arrives and I get a chance to test it under real world conditions :)

Beverly Hills

Oct 16

Posted by Davis in Music, VOD | Comments off

Invasion Of The Pod Snatchers

Oct 15

Posted by Davis in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Marketing, Media, Spam, Technology, TiVo | 3 Comments

Your Ticket To A Better Night's SleepEvery now and then, a study will be released suggesting that DVR owners don’t actually skip very many ads. While I can understand why people would want to watch certain programs live, it’s always hard for me to take this kind of data seriously, because it tracks so differently, from my own DVR experience.

I love being able to time shift my television and take full advantage of my fast forward button. If I absolutely need to see something live, I’ll still wait 20 minutes, just so that I can skip past the commercials. Over the last six years, I’ve been every marketers worst nightmare and yet, there has been one company that I have never been able to block.

Sleeptrain Mattress Centers

It’s not a major company, but this sleepy little company has been able to outsmart the DVR, by exploiting the very fast forward feature, that I love so much.

When you are fast forwarding, you don’t know when to stop until after your program has already started. Because of this, TiVo has built in a feature that starts playing the program a few seconds before you actually hit the play button. The idea is to account for the time that it takes your brain to tell your finger to hit the button.

When I bought my first TiVo, I did a good job of fusing with the skip back feature. By instinct, I knew the exact moment that I needed to hit play, in order to achieve TiVo nirvana. It sounds funny, but there is a certain sense of satisfaction, in starting a program exactly as a commercial ends.

It wasn’t until I “upgraded” to a cable company HDTV-DVR, that I lost my TiVo mojo. The fast forward speed on the generic device was beyond ridiculous and I had a hard time adjusting. Add to this the lag time, whenever you hit play anyway and it was easy to go 15 minutes into a program, before I could regain control of the DVR. I don’t remember the exact timing on the cable skip back, but it seemed much shorter then TiVo’s and required lightning fast reflexes, in order to get right.

When I upgraded to a TiVo series 3, I thought that my commercial skipping rhythm would return, but sadly, I haven’t been able to make the adjustment back. I’m still trigger happy when it comes to hitting play and start things far too early. I’ve thought about using hacks to shorten the length of the auto skip back feature, but would rather try and adjust to the default if I can.

Because I’ve had difficulty hitting the TiVo sweet spot, it means that I catch the end of a lot of advertisements. There aren’t a lot of companies that have focused on this, but over the years I’ve noticed that Sleep Train Mattress Centers seems to be at the end of a lot of commercial pods.

At first, I thought that this was a random thing, but I’ve also noticed that they buy time at the 30 minute marks, so that their logo is the last thing you see, when you delete a lot of programs from your DVR. As advertising continues to adjust to a DVR world, we’ll see more companies begin to pay a premium, in order to capture even a few seconds of a viewers attention.

In thinking about DVR advertising, there are two key spots. The first spot following a commercial and the very last moments before a program starts. The first spot is important because the advertiser has a chance to convince the viewer to watch. It’s like a home version of the Gong show. The minute you realize it’s boring, you hit fast forward and are back to your program. Sometimes, if it’s a movie preview or an especially creative ad, they can convince me to watch, but most of the time, I’m fast forwarding the second I know that it’s not part of the show.

With all of the middle ads being largely ignored, those last few seconds of a pod may be the only other chance for an advertiser to reach a fast forwarding public. I haven’t seen a lot of companies take advantage of this, but give kudos to Sleeptrain for having taken early advantage of this. They may not be able to convince me to buy a new mattress, but through the use of micro commercials and smart placement, they have succeeded at burning their logo into my brain, every time I hear a train whistle.

Winter Rabbit Land

Oct 15

Posted by Davis in Video Games | 2 Comments

Winter Bunny Land

It’s probably still too early to be thinking about winter, but I couldn’t resist posting a link to this strange little bunny game that I found online. The game play is pretty minimalistic, but I found its soothing music to be a nice alternative over most of the shoot em up games that I find. The goal of the game is to see how many bells you can get the rabbit to jump on without falling back to the ground. I couldn’t get all of the bells in order, but think that it might play a song if you can. My best score was 3800, but that was using a touch pad instead of a mouse. My only complaint was that I couldn’t find a mute key or a way to change the song after a while. Still, it’s a good stress reliever for when you want to waste time online.

New Security Questions For A Digital TV World

Oct 15

Posted by Davis in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Marketing, Technology, TiVo, TV, VOD | 1 Comment

Riot ActIf you’ve ever called up your bank or credit card company, you know that most financial institutions tend to stick with the same old boring account verification questions. There may have been a time, when your mother’s maiden name was enough to protect you against identity theft, but in today’s information society, this is no longer good enough.

I’m not sure why we haven’t seen banks ask more creative questions, but I like Om Malik’s suggestion, that it’s time to come up with new secret password questions. In a post raising the issue, he suggests alternatives like what is your World of Warcraft name or who was your first online date?

The World of Warcraft suggestion is probably a little weak because outside people can figure that out, but I’d argue that the first internet date question, is probably a much bigger secret then the last four digits of someone’s social security number. Since most of Om’s suggestions were geared more towards the Web 2.0 crowd, I decided to put together a list of my own questions, for digital television enthusiasts. Feel free to chime in, if you have your own suggestions.

1.) What show do you always record, but never find the time to watch?

2.) Name a TV show that you love, but would never admit to being a fan of?

3.) What is the worst show on television?

4.) What operating system do you use for your television (ex: TiVo, Media Center, Xbox 360, etc.)?

5.) If you had to remove one button from your remote control, which one would you give up?

6.) How many hours of TV do you watch each week?

7.) What time is prime time for you?

8.) What’s a show, that you make sure to always watch live?

9.) How low do prices need to get, before you’d be willing to pay for VOD content?

10.) What is your favorite TV channel?

For a few of these, it would be hard for a bank to implement them because they don’t apply to everyone, but I still like the idea of tougher security at the banks, even if they don’t end up using my digital TV questions. It’s strange that you have to change your banking passwords every 6 weeks, to something that is alphanumeric, contains wacky symbols and is only 8 – 10 digits long, yet all it takes is the city of your birth and someone can change your mailing address or gather information about your account.

The banks would benefit more than anyone, from better security questions and I see a real marketing opportunity for the first institution to step up and take Om’s suggestion seriously. If someone agreed to add, even one of his (or his readers) questions to their password reset screen, they’d get a lot of viral love highlighting their commitment to protecting their customer’s identity. In the end, it’s up to everyone to keep an eye on their own accounts, but by making the security questions more personal, it would make it a lot harder for fraudsters, to gain unauthorized access.

Explain

Oct 9

Posted by Davis in Music, VOD | 2 Comments

Software You’ll Need When Your PC Hits The Big Start Over Button In The Sky

Oct 9

Posted by Davis in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, DivX, Media, Microsoft, Netflix, Slingbox, Technology, TiVo, TV, Video Games, VOD, Web 2.0 | 5 Comments

ComputerRecently, I suffered a computer meltdown and the good news is that I still have my data, but the bad news is that it’s cheaper to replace the PC, then it is to fix it. Since I was already in the market for a laptop, I decided to purchase one, while I took the time to figure out my home PC strategy.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a new computer, so I was a little surprised at how long it took me to recreate my unique PC experience. Getting the right mix of bookmarks and software is key to taking full advantage of the horsepower that your computer has. At first, I thought that setting up my new laptop would be quick and painless, but I misjudged the sheer number of programs that I would need and forgot about the pesky bloatware to deal with.

Even after an aggressive campaign, I am still finding things that I need to uninstall. I did manage to get rid of the McAfee pop up that warned of my computer being comprised because I wasn’t paying them money :roll: but I’m still trying to remove the Vongo free trial offer that shows up in what seems like every menu.

Since I know that I’m not the only one to experience some frustration in setting up a new PC, I decided to keep a list of all the programs that are helpful, when you are doing a fresh install.

Web Browsing

Firefox – I’ve tried the new internet explorer browser, but it still can’t beat this open source underdog. Step #1 – fire up IE, so you can download Firefox, then delete all IE shortcuts, so you never accidentally launch the software again.

IE Firefox Plugin – As much as I try to avoid IE, sometimes there are services that are only supported by Microsoft’s browser. In order to avoid having to fire up IE, I install a firefox plugin, that allows me to use IE, in my preferred browser.

Email

Thunderbird – I normally use web based email, but still like having Thunderbird, in case I need to archive my emails. I actually prefer Microsoft’s Outlook, but am not willing to spend the money when there is such a great open source product available.

Communication

Skype – I don’t use Skype as much as I should, but think that it’s a great alternative to cable telephone or Vonage. I’m still looking for a good program that can record my Skype calls, but this is still a pretty robust service.

Trillian – Thomas Hawk turned me onto this one. Why run separate Yahoo!, MSN and AOL instant messaging software, when one program can handle all three? Instead of being forced to choose your friends, you can show up on all three major networks easily.

System Resources

AdAware – This one isn’t fun to play with, but it’s important to have on your system. It can’t stop a full blown virus from invading, but it can help you find programs that are trying to sneak their way on board.

Spy-bot Search & Destroy – Spy-bot is a lot like AdAware, but I like to keep both programs available. One time I came across a download that blocked AdAware from starting, but was no match for Spy-bot. These services can’t replace the paid ones, but they go a long way towards helping to improve the security on your computer.

Google Desktop – I’ve had mixed feelings about Google Desktop from the get go, but still continue to use it. On one hand, it’s really helpful to be able to search my hard drive easily, but on the other hand, I also feel a little weird about Google desktop tracking me. I figure that the functionality is worth it, as long as I make sure that I’ve got a strong password for my login.

Java – I’m not even sure that I can tell you what Java does, but I do know that it is at the heart of some pretty cool applications. I’ve used the technology to play games, watch videos and watch live streaming content online and I don’t think that I’ve even scratched the surface of what it’s capable of.

Greasemonkey – GreaseMonkey allows you to mash up different parts of the web inside of your browser. It’s a very powerful plugin and is worth downloading, even if you’re not sure how you’ll end up using it. My favorite GreaseMonkey script is a plugin that allows you to see which movies in your Netflix queue, will be airing on TiVo soon.

Social Web

Commentful – This software will change the way you interact online. It allows you to leave comments on web entries and then notifies you when someone has added something to the conversation. In the past, I would comment, but would never follow up to see if there is a response, now I use Commentful to help me continue dialogues that would have normally fizzled out.

WordPress – There are lots of blogging packages out there, but I use WordPress. I like it because it has great fan support and offers a lot of functionality, that I can’t find in other blog packages. My favorite part is having the ability to completely change the appearance of the site, with a simple click of a button. With plenty of WordPress widgets, it’s easy to customize templates, to fit any personality.

Del.icio.us – There are many different bookmarking sites, but I primarily use Del.icio.us. By downloading their firefox plugin, all you have to do is right click and you can clip articles. This is a great resource for archiving things that you want to view later.

Google RSS – A good RSS reader can help you keep track of your favorite sites. Without it, I wouldn’t see a tenth of the content that I track. In the past I’ve used Bloglines, but when Google introduced RSS search capabilities, they won me over. This feature alone, allows me to track 1,000 times more content, then what I could handle in a more basic RSS program.

Photography

Picasa – Photoshop is great, but there are still free alternatives, if you don’t want to spend the cash. Picassa not only has a decent photo editing feature, but also allows you to post your photos online.

Zooomr – I visit Zooomr several times a day, in order to check my Zipline. I also use Zooomr to host my photos for this blog and play web games in their forums. There isn’t any software to download, but if you drag and click on the Zooomr link, you can add a bookmark to your toolbar.

Flickr – Flickr is another great photo sharing site. They are one of the largest photo sharing sites, so they have an even better selection of images. There isn’t anything to download, but they do have a bulk uploader, if you plan on hosting a lot of images.

Remote Computing

Orb – You need a TV tuner and media center software for this one, but if you have these components, then Orb is a no brainer to install. It allows you to placeshift your content, anywhere you can get a broadband connection.

UltraVNC – Even though, I upload a lot of things online, there are still times where I need access to my home computer. UltraVNC allows you to log into your system remotely, so that you can access your files, even if you happen to be on the go.

Digital Video

Adobe Flash – YouTube is one of my favorite sites and in order to see their videos, you’ll need the flash codec. Because of the sheer amount of content encoded in flash, this one of the most essential downloads on the list.

DivX – Flash is great because it has broad support, but I prefer DivX because it offers a high quality experience that you can take with you. You can download support for just the codec, but I prefer to download the DivX web player, so that I can watch Stage6 content as well.

Quicktime – I’ve never spent a lot of time using iTunes, but I do come across a lot of Quicktime movies on the net. If you already have iTunes, you won’t need this one, but if not, then this is a helpful plugin.

Real Player – I’ve had so many problems with Real Player, that I almost hate to download it, but there are too many interesting things in Real format, to completely ignore this format.

Music

Pandora – This is one of my favorite places to find new music. Over time, Pandora will start to figure out your interests and will suggest a lot of things that you don’t hear on commercial radio.

Foxy Tunes – This is a great program for finding and sharing music on the web. It not only allows you to search for cool music, but you can also insert FoxyTunes links into emails that you send to friends

Last FM – I prefer Pandora, but use Last FM because it is supported on my TiVo. I’m not sure how to describe a technology whose roots are based in scrobbling, but once you get the hang of it, you can start to find some really cool music.

Word Processing

OpenOffice – This open source software package contains all the features that you would expect to find in a high priced business software package. It works transparently with Microsoft files and is a great alternative for those on a budget.

Google Docs – I don’t think that it can replace Microsoft in the business world, but Google docs is a free alternative for home users. It allows you to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Foxit Reader – Most people use the Adobe reader, but I only turn to it as a last resort. Adobe’s reader is an important program to have too, but it always takes too long to load and asks me if I want to update way too often. Instead I stick to Foxit and no longer have to wonder if my system will crash when I’m closing a .pdf file.

Calendar

Yahoo! Calendar – When choosing a calendar system it’s important to choose carefully, because the more time that goes by, the more you will be locked into that system. At this point, I have most of my important dates scheduled on Yahoo!, but still yearn for a better solution that offers me true data portability.

30 Boxes – If you love Ajax, you’ll be a fan of 30 boxes. The site allows you to open up your calendar to the social web. This is helpful for planning and sharing events. It’s an interesting concept, even if I’m still not ready to turn over my schedule to bill collectors and ex-girlfriends.

Games

TripleA – I highly recommend downloading this one, but don’t blame me if you drop out of society from playing it. TripleA is an Axis & Allies emulator that replicates the original game to perfection. It’s entirely fan built and is a great resource for playing out your own World War II fantasies.

FreeCiv – Sid Meier’s Civilization game had a huge impact on video gaming and this program validates it’s place in the pantheon of PC based programs. The program is a Civilization emulator where you can raise and develop your own society. I always try to be nice, but invariably, I end up attacking my neighbors.

ZSNES – This is a great open source emulator for replicating old arcade games. It won’t come in handy, if you want the modern day gaming experience, but it is useful if you ever wish that you could go back and play games from your childhood. Finding the games can be a little tough, but reuniting with an old friend, can make the journey worth it.

Peer 2 Peer

Limewire – If you don’t want to spring for the pro version, Limewire can be a little spammy, but it’s still a good resource, for those interesting in taking a bite of the forbidden fruit.

Emule – Another powerful P2P client. It doesn’t have access to the largest number of files, but it does offer a clean interface and is a good resource for when you can’t find things on the other P2P networks.

Bit Torrent – It’s one of the most popular programs on Download.com for a reason. This robust p2p system allows you to download and share tiny bits of content from multiple users at once. This helps to speed up the download times and helps to get around some of the uploading restrictions.

Fox Torrent – Fox Torrent isn’t as fast as the original Bit Torrent software, but it’s easy to use and makes downloading a breeze, when you don’t mind waiting for the content. The software integrates nicely into the Firefox browser and adds bit torrent capabilities to an already powerful internet browser.

Entertainment

Stumble Upon – I’m not a huge fan of the toolbar plugins, but I make an exception for this one. You can find some amazing stuff on StumbleUpon. It’s a great time killer, if you are ever bored and still have access to the internet.

Search

Wikipedia Firefox Plugin – I like to use the search bar that is built directly into the Firefox browser. The default supports Google, but there are a lot of other sites that will let you install plugins on your browser. It’s probably a good idea to double check the facts that you find on Wikipedia, but this plugin, makes easy to search the site, without having to go directly to their home page.

Stage6 Search – DivX Labs has built a plugin for Firefox and IE browsers, that allows you to search the Stage6 website, directly from your browser. I’ve found that this plugin comes is especially helpful, when I know that I’m looking for video content.

Del.icio.us – Most of the time, I prefer to use Google, but Del.icio.us can help you find articles that wouldn’t show up in simple keyword searches. I never know quite what to expect, but Del.icio.us search results tend to focus less on style and more on function.

Technorati – I love Technorati, even though the site only seems to work part of the time. I’d like to find another blog search plugin, but this is the only one that I know about.

MusicPortl – This search plugin allows you to enter the name of just about any artist and you can instantly find a wealth of information on your favorite band. MusicPortl aggregates their information so that you can see the latest YouTube clips, blog entries and Wikipedia information. This is a must, if you enjoy researching music.

Spout – If you love movies, you’ll love Spout. The site is a great resource for finding out information about your favorite films and for connecting with other film fans. This firefox plugin makes it remarkably easy to focus exclusively on movies, with your search results.

There are a lot of programs on this list, but I’m sure that I’m still missing some of the most important ones. f you know of any other services that should be included on this list, feel free to contact me or leave a comment and I’ll keep this post updated with other helpful programs that people suggest.

And Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Progamming

Oct 8

Posted by Davis in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Marketing, TiVo | 2 Comments

TiVo released a video of their HD start up animation online and I think it’s really creative. I haven’t seen this show up on my series 3 yet, so it makes me wonder if this is what people are seeing when they boot up the new HD TiVo? I like how they were able to use different TV shows in the animation.

As an added bonus, I also found an advertisement for TiVo and Sky+. The ad is very surreal, but I like it. I think that the ad was originally produced as a trailer in UK movie theaters in 2000, although I’m not 100% on that. After getting used to hearing the “TiVo Gets Me” tagline, it was interesting to see a more British version of “TiVo Understands Me” on this clip. Oddly enough, I think I prefer the British tagline over the American.

TiVo’s Pay Per Post Hook Up Turns Into One Night Stand

Oct 8

Posted by Davis in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Marketing, Spam, Technology, TiVo, Web 2.0 | Comments off

It's TiVo TimeTiVo latest hook up with Pay Per Post is beginning to look less like a relationship and more like a one night stand, after the company responded to criticism of the program, by asking “postees” to pull the TiVo ads off of YouTube.

In fairness to TiVo, there is evidence to suggest, that they had intended these ads to carry a sponsored by TiVo disclaimer, but due to quality control issues at Pay Per Post, the ads were leaked without the proper disclaimers.

Even though I think that TiVo made a mistake by partnering with Pay Per Post to begin with, killing the campaign was the right antidote for dealing with this poison in our community. There will always be times when companies make mistakes, but it’s how they react to those mistakes that define who they are and in this case, TiVo made the right move by deleting the campaign.

By moving quickly to kill the campaign, TiVo demonstrated that they are willing to listen to their community and take action, even when they’ve misjudged the rules that their community plays by.

In the long run, this won’t represent more than a five second skip back in the history of TiVo, but I do think that other companies can learn a valuable lesson from TiVo’s experience.

User generated content is sexy and it’s tempting to try and manufacture buzz, but sooner or later, your customers will find out that you are gaming the system and they will attack. Steve Rubel said it best, when he recomended that marketers be careful about trying to manipulate the social web.

“Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us and other collaborative news sites are like Bengal Tigers. They’re beautiful to look at and admire, but they’re very dangerous to touch. If your stories end up landing on these sites, then terrific. Be happy. Include the metrics in your coverage reports. But seeding PR links is trouble waiting to happen, especially as these communities become barraged with spam and the users’ sensitivity meter goes to code red.”

If your brand has no value, then there may be no place to go but up, but if you think that there is any equity in your brand, then smart marketers will think twice before supporting this tumor on the world wide web.

Even if there were an upside to astroturfing YouTube with fake ads, this controversy alone should make companies rethink their support for the Pay Per Post brand. If by partnering with the company, you end up damaging the reputation of your brand, then what have you really gained by paying people to create fake testimonials?

If I was an ad exec and my marketing consultant suggested Pay Per Post to me, I would fire them and find a marketing firm that has better ethics and an understanding of what it really takes to build grassroot support. Instead of uploading fake ads to YouTube, TiVo would have been better off, by having someone search YouTube, LiveJournal, Blogspot and MySpace for real TiVo testimonials and then leave comments thanking them for the support.

There are lots of times when I make suggestions for TiVo and while not everyone of them is a great idea, I can tell you that I would freak out if someone who worked for TiVo, left me a comment validating an idea and promising to consider it as a future development. Even if TiVo never implemented my idea, knowing that someone from the company took their time to consider it, would be exciting enough. This isn’t astroturfing, this is interacting and responding to your customers.

Fake ads, will always run the risk of blowing up on you, but by being open and transparent with your fan base, it’s not that hard to turn happy customers into viral customers. Instead of supporting companies like Pay Per Post, businesses should instead be thinking about how to engage their existing fans.

While you may or may not agree that the ethics behind Pay Per Post are deplorable, it’s clear that the company is a lightning rod for criticism. Whether or not that criticism is fair, should be irrelevant to marketers. There are some who believe that even bad publicity is good publicity, but I don’t think that anyone wants to see their brand dragged through the social mud. It’s exciting to see grassroots support for your products, but if you are going get into the same cage as the tigers, then you shouldn’t be surprised when they turn on you and attack. If some PR hack recommends Pay Per Post as a way to build buzz, do yourself a favor and go hire someone who knows what they are talking about.