In the build-up to tomorrow’s game, I couldn’t resist posting something I recently received in the mail:
They put our children and wives in concentration camps,
Plundered our farms and stole our animals to force us to give into them from hunger,
They torched our houses and burnt our crops…
Brought to you by: The Times Multimedia
The Register reports that Amazon’s ambitions of patenting the 1-Click shopping process received a serious blow when the US Patent Office rejected 21 out of the 26 claims that it listed in its patent for Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network.
Amazon infamously applied for this patent 10 years ago and received massive amounts of criticism from non-profit advocacy groups such as the EFF. A single New Zealand man, Peter Calveley, is believed to be responsible for unraveling Amazon’s patent filing and before you ask, it wasn’t because he was bitter about the rugby!
While I am a big fan of Amazon and order countless books and DVDs from across the blue seas, I have always thought that this was a groundless claim and I’m very happy that they are the ones that ended up with egg on their face – sorry Jeff.
There’s a very interesting discussion taking place on Poynter Online over a column written by Roy Peter Clark, a journalist and writing coach, who believes that the only way to secure the future of journalism is to buy and read printed newspapers. What’s more, he says, it is the responsibility of every journalist to do so!
As you can imagine, this has caused a fair amount of controversy, and responses to this call to action have ranged from the defensive to the downright personal and rude.
The catalyst for this argument is based on the perceived decline in newspaper readership in the U.S and parts of Europe, which comes as a major threat to many traditional journalists and dead tree lovers, who see this as a challenge to their livelihoods and quality journalism in general. The fact of the matter is that these fears go as far back as the 1940′s with the introduction of earlier disruptive technologies, but more recently the Internet has become a scapegoat.
In South Africa and other parts of the developing world, our biggest problem is not a decline in print circulation, which is in a healthy state for now, but one of press freedom as the recent case against Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and Jocelyn Maker aptly demonstrates.
My theory is that without a free press, quality journalism gets relegated to an afterthought, so it might be a while before we see local journalists debate the merits of printed newspapers and their relationship to quality journalism.
Hoosen Kolia, the Sunday Times MD, and I came up with a clever campaign for marketing our new TimesCode product, supporting local artists, and getting behind the Springboks ahead of their crucial semi-final match against Argentina in the Rugby World Cup this Sunday, all in the press of a button.
The idea is simple. We have been given permission by Gallo to give away a free ring tone (superbly crafted by Gregor) which we are calling the “Zulu Haka” by a new group called Phuzekhemisi in support of the Boks this weekend and to instill national pride for the rest of the competition. As an additional bonus it will most likely piss off the Kiwis. Need I say anymore?
All you have to do is snap the respective TimesCode and the ring tone will be downloaded directly to your phone in .mp3 format. Absolutely “No catch” as the television advertisement would say. I’ve already downloaded it and I can promise you that you will not miss another call again!!!
The campaign is being featured in a number of publications and has been announced on radio. I am hoping that it is going to be a huge success and will be interested to hear what others’ have to say about it.
This strip featured on the bottom of today’s edition of The Times:
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