bioneural.net » advertising

TomTom latest map guarantee trap

Bruce — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:18:12 +0000

Just bought a new TomTom with a 30-day latest map guarantee? Don't download any map update as prompted by TomTom HOME on the day you register your device. Why not? Because if TomTom do release a new map in 30 days time, you won't be allowed to download it. You may still be within 30 days, but you will have the map that was current on the day you got your device. If, however, you carefully count to day 30 before downloading any map updates, you will get the latest map as of that time. The ambiguous guarantee is not for the latest map within 30 days—it's for a map within that period. Once again: Don't download any map update as prompted by TomTom HOME on the day you register your device. We ordered a TomTom One v3 with Western Europe maps which we received on 21.04.08. We'd seen it discounted in PC World, but it was an even better bargain online. The maps that came with my TomTom Navigator 5 were very out-of-date, and too costly to upgrade in relation to buying a new device with better software. Since we are driving to the Continent shortly the latest map guarantee we'd seen on the packaging would be very timely, we thought, negating any concerns I had that the unit may have been sitting around for months and the maps already outdated. As a marketing tool it was an effective device. The misleading leaflet that isn't what it seems Inside the packaging was a leaflet ...

Block IntelliTXT faux links with ease

Bruce — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:40:01 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Bugged by faux hyperlinks with intrusive IntelliTXT pop-up ads on sites like MacWorld UK? Disable them in Firefox with Adblock Plus, or an ABP clone called SafariBlock if you're using Safari.

Great NZ logos

Bruce — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 22:12:47 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

There are several symbols that are very strongly associated with a New Zealand identity: the kiwi, the silver fern, and the koru. Here is a small collection of notable logos that incorporate these symbols. I've previously mentioned a proposal for changing the New Zealand flag to a design that represents the nation rather than its former colonial power. One of the reasons for the suggested change merits repeating: The job of a flag is to instantly signal the country of origin in the simplest, quickest, most potent manner. This means utilising a single powerful image rather than several elements and thereby diluting the potency of the symbol. In my humble opinion the "preferred" design promoted by the campaign does just that: Proposed new flag (© NZFlag.com Trust) Next up is one that's been around for a while; the simple outline of a kiwi in the Buy New Zealand Made logo: Buy kiwi for kiwis (© Buy New Zealand Made Campaign Ltd.) The national airline carries a New Zealand symbol to distant corners of the globe. It's not hard to spot the Air New Zealand tail-fin at airports around the world, sporting a highly recognisable koru: A koru with wings (© Air New Zealand) Anyone who enjoys rugby will be familiar with the Canterbury of New Zealand clothing label: Activewear that's hard to rip (© Canterbury of New Zealand) And you can't mention rugby without mentioning the All Blacks, wearers of the silver fern logo on their shirts: Activewear that's hard to trip (© All Blacks) The Department of Conservation do a great job ...

Unravelling Amazon link formats

Bruce — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:25:16 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

According to Mint, most of my blog visitors are American. To reflect this I decided to change my default Amazon Associates links from the UK to the US. In the process I got confused over the link syntax I should be using, but now have this sorted. For managing links to specific items on my site (automatically tagged with my Associates ID) I use Amazon Media Manager. AMM is a WordPress plugin that will randomly show a specified number of product links, categories of which can be matched to categories on your blog. AMM development is not active, however, it is easy to hack the plugin to use the more recent link syntax. Which link to the Amazon homepage? My links to the UK store (as indicated by the -21 in my Associates ID) looked like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect-home?tag=bioneuralblog-21&site=amazon Unfortunately you can't use the same Associates ID for each store; it is necessary to apply for an Associates ID for each program individually. Your referral fees thus cannot be combined. In my first e-mail from Amazon US I was advised that this was my unique Amazon.com homepage linking format: http://www.amazon.com?%5Fencoding=UTF8&tag=bioneuralnet-20 Soon after I received a second e-mail confirming my application had been approved, saying that this was my unique Amazon.com homepage linking format: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/bioneuralnet-20 I contacted Customer Support and was advised to use the following syntax: http://www.amazon.com/?tag=bioneuralnet-20 Hence my confusion. Some more prodding and Customer Service explained: All of the links track to your account. Some formats are not compatible with some web building programs, so we supply a variety of linking ...

IOTW: Imitation v inspiration

Bruce — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:12:55 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Sometimes it surely happens by chance that two logos are as alike as peas in a pod. At other times (and I've seen several examples on the 'net) it is equally clear that there is something more than chance at work. During our recent trip to China we noted a few shop logos that looked remarkably familiar, despite a zero probability that we had encountered the shop displaying it before. An imitation is intended to copy or at least closely simulate a design. It is the antithesis of design by inspiration, which implies a certain measure of creativity, innovation and imagination—without stretching all the way to originality and inventiveness. Inspiration is a valuable artistic tool for those suffering from a depletion of vision, but can readily be taken too far. Here is a shop logo that may have been conceived due to lack of inventiveness, sheer laziness, or maybe the constraints of time or budget. But I suspect it may have been re-engineered from a famous logo for reasons of brand association. It makes good marketing sense: a vaguely familiar or trustworthy logo may draw in customers otherwise confused by the visual cacophony of a busy street. You decide: imitation or inspiration? Would the real logo please stand up? Want to see more from IOTW? Click here for an archive view.

Embedding iStockPhoto feeds revisited

Bruce — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:17:53 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

In an earlier post I described a JavaScript-based method to include recently-approved iStockPhoto images in a page on your website. When I migrated from a static blogging system (iBlog) to WordPress I found a useful plugin that worked very well in MAMP. Unfortunately it broke when I moved my developmental site to a live DreamHost server. Here is a bit more background to the problem and an eventual solution that uses SimplePie. Although the focus here is on displaying photographs, it's a solution that should work with practically any feed you might wish to embed. No go with latestistockimages.php I was initially using Christine's (of UTW fame) iStockPhoto plug-in for WordPress to display my latest approved images. This worked fine under a localhost development environment, but when I went "live" with DreamHost it stopped working due to the blocking out "outdated" PHP code that posed a security risk. For some reason my e-mails to the author went unanswered, and the download link has been a 404 for ages. Plugging the gap with Feed2JS I turned back to Feed2JS, with this in my sidebar: My iStockPhoto photocast

Ads in your iBlog RSS feed

Bruce — Thu, 26 May 2005 21:04:53 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Google are currently beta-testing intergration of AdSense adverts with various blogging systems. A few of the feeds I subscribe to in NetNewsWire now carry ads (e.g. Engadget). Since I already use AdSense and it makes a (tiny) amount of $US, I applied to be a beta tester out of curiosity but was turned down. However, I decided to try and make it work anyway using iBlog... This article refers to iBlog (version 1.x), a Mac blogging client that was formerly used to publish this site. It may refer to design elements and other features that have since been replaced. Google AdSense FeedPage.txt is the file that iBlog uses as a template to generate your RSS feed. It's just a text file so easy to edit. I simply copied the AdSense code I use in iBlog's Navigation Editor and pasted it into the file after the <$EntryAbstractOrBody$> placeholder tag. It didn't work. I'm guessing because the AdSense code is a JavaScript and/ or contains multiple line breaks. Amazon Associates I also have an Amazon Associates account. With a small amount of editing you can make the iframe code generated by the link builder into valid XHTML. When you're done just paste the code into FeedPage.txt after the <$EntryAbstractOrBody$> tag; you might want to add a break before and after the iframe for cosmetic reasons. Each iBlog entry in the feed displays a different ad. In NetNewsWire the ads appear at the bottom of the abstract (it works in Safari RSS too):

Surf without pop-up ads

Bruce — Fri, 07 May 2004 16:36:56 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Apple's web browser, Safari, includes a built-in pop-up blocker. What are your options if you have to use Windows, and how do they compare? Pop-up ads are a real pain, although it's been a while since I've seen one, since Apple's Safari browser includes a pop-up window blocker: But, like many Mac fans, sometimes I have to use Windows, and under a standard installation of Internet Explorer the pop-ups are back. Other Windows browsers can block pop-ups (e.g. Mozilla, Netscape), but most computers (e.g. those at work) have only IE installed. There are a number of free pop-up blockers that add this functionality to Internet Explorer e.g. the MSN Toolbar or Google Toolbar: Note that Windows XP SP2 will include a Pop-up Manager. There are various techniques for creating pop-ups, and Pop-up Test is a website dedicated to putting pop-up blockers to the test.

Fumigate now against adware & spyware

Bruce — Fri, 07 May 2004 14:17:26 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Free software can help protect your PC from software that secretly invades your privacy or bombards you with unrequested advertising... Spyware and adware explained According to Wikipedia: Strictly defined, spyware is computer software that gathers information about a computer user without the user's knowledge or informed consent, and then transmits this information to an organisation that expects to be able to profit from it in some way. Data-collecting programs installed with the user's knowledge are not, properly speaking, spyware, if the user fully understands what data is being collected and with whom it is being shared. More broadly, the term spyware is applied to a wide range of related malware products which are not spyware in the strict sense. These products perform many different functions, including the delivery of unrequested advertising (pop-ups in particular), harvesting private information, re-routing page requests to illegally claim commercial site referral fees, and installing stealth phone dialers. According to Wikipedia: Adware or advertising-supported software is any software application in which advertisements are displayed while the program is running. These applications include additional code that displays the ads in pop-up windows or through a bar that appears on a computer screen. Adware helps recover programming development costs, and helps to hold down the price of the application for the user (even making it free of charge)—and, of course, it can give programmers a profit, which helps to motivate them to write, maintain, and upgrade valuable software. For more discussion on the rise of adware and spyware, see this article from Wired. Detect and destroy ...