Planet Marc

We announced the Irish findings of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer this morning. The deck is available to view below. Some interesting findings as usual this year, an overview of the key results can be found here.

Ouch - and yeah, I was lean

Defending my MTB Marathon Title

It’s not uncommon to hear complaints from companies after a prerecorded television interview airs. A company representative might be interviewed for up to an hour, but ultimately a couple of minutes airs and the rest of the footage ends up on the cutting room floor. The ensuing accusation goes along the lines that footage that aired is not a fair reflection of the overall interview, with the producers picking and choosing segments to make the interviewee come out in the worst light.

This is a similar complaint that the Ultimate Fighting Championship made after an ESPN feature on fighter pay aired recently. The UFC took an interesting position when responding to the piece. They had also recorded the full interview and retaliated by posting it online. The move reflects the company’s overall slick PR machine and leverages the UFC’s huge online audience.

I’ve embedded the full video response below, but I’ve also included a clip immediately underneath which shows how well prepared UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was for the interview. Fertitta flips the tables on the interviewer by pointing out how little some fighters on ESPN boxing bouts make, completely undermining their ‘expose’ on fighter pay.

Loreno Fertitta flips the tables on ESPN

Full UFC Response

From an issues management perspective, the incident follows a trend of organizations using the Internet as an unfiltered platform to respond to negative coverage, without the restriction of column inches or the length of the show.

Hats off to some slick PR by the UFC.

So, for the last couple of years I feel like I've been stuck in a rut. I'm not depressed, as such; been there, done that, it's a lot different. I'm just a bit, well, apathetic. Anyway, I just realised that in a bit over a year, it'll be ten years since I started college. Ten years! So I'd really better snap out of it, start doing stuff again. Hobbies, not dreading the long evenings, etc. Maybe even get back to writing this blog!

Well, that's it, really. I just wanted to get that out, so I told the Internet, which hopefully is too busy with popup ads and cat photos and The Twitter to judge me for it.

Add-ons are small pieces of software that add new features or functionality to your installation of Firefox. Add-ons can augment Firefox with new features, foreign language dictionaries, or change its visual appearance. Through add-ons, you can customize Firefox to meet your needs and tastes.

For the last few years I have working with Mozilla and Briks to create some cool add-ons for developers and users. Here is a selection of the add-ons I helped develop:

• The official Mozilla Add-on Collector allows you to discover more of the best add-ons and organize your favorites in easy-to-manage collections. Subscribe to see how the collections you admire grow, and fans follow when you manage and update your own collections.
• The Mozilla Add-on Compatibility Reporter helps Mozilla make sure your favorite add-ons get updated for upcoming Firefox releases by using this extension to report whether they still work or are having some issues with alpha and beta releases. Note: Recommended for alpha and beta users only!
• Seismic Shaker rattles your browser window whenever a strong earthquake occurs near you. This add-on won the “Most Creative New Add-on” prize at the Mozilla Summit 2010.
• Facebook’s Toolbar for Firefox integrates your Facebook life into your browser.
• Microsoft’s HTML5 Extension for Windows Media Player Firefox Plug-in is an add-on that enables Firefox users to play H.264-encoded videos on HTML5 pages by using the built-in capabilities found in Windows 7.
• Frogger was one of my all time favorite arcade games. Froggr brings the fun to Firefox. Ideal for a sneaky game at lunchtime.
• Xultris is a variant of the computer game classic Tetris.

 

‘Free software’ is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ‘free’ as in ‘free speech,’ not as in ‘free beer’.

-Richard M. Stallman

I try to publish all my work in the public domain under a MPL or GPL license. This includes personal projects, tools, art and professional work.

• My Mozilla work goes out on AMO.
• Anything else gets pushed out to GitHub.
• Oh and I still have some stuff on CPAN.

 

Couple of things that caught my attention over the Christmas break.

This ad by Mercedes for its new E Class range caught my attention primarily because I never expected something like it from a brand like Mercedes. With car advertising becoming so serious these days, it’s nice to see a brand highlight its safety features in a more light hearted fashion.

Lovely ad by Kodak for its Inkjet printers, which not only nicely illustrates why people should print more images, but it also communicates its value proposition well.

There was a lovely feature in the Sunday Times about an initiative to mark the Queen’s diamond Jubilee in the UK. Face Britain is a national project that invites all young people in the UK to submit a self-portrait. The artwork will be part of a world record attempt and turned into a mosaic which will then be projected onto Buckingham Palace.

There’s a new feature on Twitter which allows you to embed tweets on your blog. Here’s a guide how to do it.

I was watching Come Dine with Me with the subtitles on (as you do), when I noticed something vaguely interesting. One contestant was bemoaning her shriveled vegetables; the commentator's line was "Shriveled or not, the show must go on", but the subtitles said "Shriveled or not, the show must go on, as the actress said to the vicar". I assume this was considered a little racy for a respectable Channel 4 show about having horrible people over to your house, particularly as one of the guests was a vicar...