Paul McNamara

Taking aim at popcorn-popping viral marketers

Paul McNamara — 2008-11-25T00:00:00Z

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus said in a press release: "Advertising claims made in the context of viral videos produced to build interest in a product are subject to the same standards of truth and accuracy as advertisements published in traditional media."

You've been 'synergy-related headcount restructured'

Paul McNamara — 2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

Even the word layoff is a euphemism, when you think about it. Yes, it can serve to draw a distinction between budget-based and performance-based termination, but not many laid-off workers get recalled to their old jobs these days; "laid off" pretty much means you're fired.

'Net teaches print another lesson

Paul McNamara — 2008-11-10T00:00:00Z

How thoroughly has the Internet come to torment the dying industry that is print newspaper publishing?

I need a 'wallet phone' why?

Paul McNamara — 2008-10-31T00:00:00Z

This looks to me like still-not-here technology aiming to eliminate a minor inconvenience that existing technology has already all but eliminated.

Predictive markets and other online gambling

Paul McNamara — 2008-10-23T00:00:00Z

My knowing little about the ins and outs of online "predictive markets" hasn't kept me from wondering over the years why U.S. politicians don't attack this kind of Internet gambling with the same vigor they apply to online poker.

An unsettling week for everyone but Joe

Paul McNamara — 2008-10-20T00:00:00Z

Bill Gates told a symposium at the Harvard Business School that he expects today's unemployment rate of 6.1% to top 9% before the dust settles. But I read a story on Network World's own Web site about Gartner assuring one and all that no matter how bad things get they won't be as bad as the dot-com bubble burst.

Verizon exposes the wrong 1,200 e-mail addresses

Paul McNamara — 2008-10-09T00:00:00Z

A Net Buzz reader on Verizon: "In a period of three hours I received 14 e-mails promoting Verizon's 'Secure the Information. Secure the Infrastructure' webinar series, and three e-mails promoting their '2008 Data Breach Investigations Report Road Show.' Considering their content [about data-breach seminars], I thought it very humorous that the TO: field of the e-mails contained over 1,200 e-mail addresses: 17 e-mails times 1,200 addresses equals more than 20,000 chances for leaks."

Airport 'X-ray art' courts TSA trouble

Paul McNamara — 2008-10-02T00:00:00Z

Techno-artist/open-source developer Evan Roth has a message for the Transportation Safety Administration -- several messages, actually -- about what he considers excessive airport security "theater." He also has chosen an intentionally provocative method of delivering those messages: the TSA's own X-ray screening machines.

Google has gone and redefined 'beta'

Paul McNamara — 2008-09-29T00:00:00Z

The question of why so many Google products are classified "beta" -- and classified thusly for so long -- has knocked around the tech press for some time. However, no one really seemed to know the answer, at least no one outside of Google.

Verizon robo-caller torments my household

Paul McNamara — 2008-09-18T00:00:00Z

Nine robo-calls in 24 hours, all from Verizon: Nothing could make them stop; not my wife's increasingly urgent pleas (I was away); not the hapless customer service reps who promised relief; not the "in-charge supervisor" who wasn't in charge; and, not even the ever-so-helpful individual who said the barrage was "a national problem" before adding, "We're suggesting that people just unplug their phones."