PatrickPretty.com

Category: Writing And Branding

  • RateMyVanity.com, Inspired By Madoff Attire, Coming Soon; Readers Will Rate Newsmakers’ Vanity

    blank-logoRateMyVanity.com covers news from the worlds of entertainment, media, politics, business and sports, asking readers to rate how they perceive the vanity of newsmakers. Select stories will include a vanity poll.

    Read the News Release.

    The site was inspired by the Bernard Madoff case, particulary the garb he selected on the date of one of his bail hearings.  Content, however, won’t be limited to business news.

    Say, for example, the quarterback for your favorite team throws an ill-advised pass that gets intercepted late in the game, costing your team a win. If we write about the interception, we might ask readers if vanity played a role in the quarterback’s decision to throw into heavy coverage with the game on the line, instead of simply throwing the ball out of bounds and lining up again to give the team another shot at victory.

    Now, take the Bernard Madoff Ponzi case, for instance. When we write about it, we’ll encapsulate the news for readers, and ask them to rate the amount of vanity in play in a given situation.

    In the world of media, we might ask readers to assess the vanity of an anchor or reporter or host or opinion-maker in a given situation. Did Bill O’Reilly call out a federal judge because his heart was there and it was the right thing to do — or did he scold the judge because it was good for ratings?

    Did Keith Olbermann call out the President of the United States out of principle — or because he was trying to curry favor with his left-leaning viewers?

    The site message is simple: RateMyVanity.com: Vanity in the News. Rated.

    The site still is undergoing some tweaking and testing. The polling system is working, and there is a test poll on the Madoff case. As it stands, the poll is a “dummy” poll, meaning the system will record responses. The vanity choices in the poll, however, were designed for testing purposes only and don’t include the degree of “sizzle” we’ll use in day-to-day polls.

    Visit RateMyVanity.com.

    Here’s hoping you’ll make RateMyVanity.com one of your daily stops. The site will mix serious news and fun, giving readers a chance to rate vanity in the news. Perhaps little vanity will be present in a given story — but perhaps it will be present to a stifling, maddening degree.

    We’ll tailor the site to reflect current events, things that will having meaning to readers. The site will have some “attitude” — but it won’t be over-the-top. Over the weekend we’ll continue to tweak and test, with the site going operational from an editorial perspective Jan. 7.

    In time, prospective advertisers will be given a chance to sponsor an individual RateMyVanity “Vanity Poll” and also purchase a display ad. The site is aimed at consumers, news junkies, folks who like dish, readers who enjoy a diversion from the ordinary, people who believe the news is an endlessly fascinating display of things that aren’t always noble.

    Visit RateMyVanity.com.

  • Missing The Visual Editor In WordPress 2.7? This May Help

    WordPress recently released version 2.7, which I use on this and three other Blogs. Three of the four Blogs all made the conversion without incident. One of them, however, lost the WordPress Visual editor that appears when you’re making a post.

    The editor is supposed to appear as a tab marked “Visual.” A second tab marked “HTML” also appears, if you want to edit with html or add code. On one of my Blogs, only the HTML tab appeared. The Visual tab simply vanished.

    After Googling it, I discovered others were having the same problem. I followed some of the remedies, but the problem remained. Some folks said it was plug-in related. Others said it had to do with the “js” folder contained within the “wp-includes” folder.

    I re-downloaded WordPress 2.7 and reinstalled the “js” folder in case something didn’t copy properly during the first installation. That didn’t fix the problem. Tried the same thing a second time, and that didn’t fix the problem.

    While working on a fix, I also disabled the plug-ins one by one to see if I could isolate the source of the conflict.

    Finally, I read an old post on wordpress.org from a person named tieguy.

    tieguy said to click on “Users” and then “Your Profile” in your WordPress back office — and make sure the tiny box to dealing with the Visual editor has the appropriate check mark. You can enable or disable the Visual editor from “Your Profile.”

    I enabled the Visual Editor — which is the WordPress version of a WYSIWYG editor — and the Visual editor reappeared.

    If you’re having this problem, click on “Users” and then “Your Profile.” Make sure the Visual editor is enabled in “Your Profile.” (It’s near the top of the page.)

    This approach might solve your problem quickly, as opposed to re-downloading files from WordPress and re-uploading them to your site. I can’t say for certain if the simple fix will work for you, but it worked for me.

    Here is another discussion on prospective fixes for the problem of the vanishing Visual editor.

    Why three of the four Blogs required no fix is a mystery.

  • Bailout Fatigue: Public Restless, But It’s No Reason To Permit Ponzi Schemes

    When the $700 billion U.S. government bailout plan was announced, some people warned it could lead to a slippery slope. Banks, the auto industry and the home-building trade now want a share, and there’s a chance the incoming Obama administration will package a stimulus plan that will trickle down to consumers in the form of tax-rebate checks next year. President Bush took a similar approach earlier this year.

    The U.S. has lost some international prestige in the bailout, with some publications and giddy governments declaring capitalism as we know it dead. It’s hard to imagine that the business dependency class has grown so large so quickly.

    But it’s a mistake to think that what the government is doing makes the “anything goes in a free market as long as it generates cash” argument a valid one.

    Some online opportunists are seizing on the bailout as a means of defending the autosurf business model, for example. The linchpin of this argument is that right-thinking capitalists could create wealth — and mitigate the need for bailouts — if only the government would mind its own business.

    In other words, throw as much cash as you can afford to an autosurf and become a winner during lean economic times.

    We’d thought the alleged Bernard Madoff $50 billion Ponzi scheme would have taken that argument off the table, but people have gone into overdrive to sell the autosurf model — which commonly is associated with Ponzi schemes — as a wealth-generation system.

    Some promoters actually are suggesting that cash-strapped nonprofits should participate in autosurfs as a means of generating revenue during lean times. Others are trading on government resentment and class envy to rationalize their autosurf “opportunity.”

    Feel bad? Join an autosurf. You’ll feel good as soon as you see money streaming in. Feel good? Join an autosurf. You’ll soon feel even better. Worried about the economy? Join an autosurf and scotch your fears. Hate the government? Join an autosurf and experience the joy of free enterprise as practiced in offshore locations that actually embrace free trade.  Run a nonprofit? Worried that people won’t have money next year to donate to help fund your good deeds? Join an autosurf and soar to new heights of community service.

    Just spend perhaps 10 minutes a day viewing ads from like-minded business people and you’ll prosper. You won’t have to purchase anything. Just view the ads, cash out and take your check to the bank — perhaps even to one of the banks that got a government bailout.

    Families are becoming increasingly cash-strapped. Unemployment is increasing. The U.S. housing market is suffering. Big companies are bleeding money. Small businesses can’t make ends meet. Charities are suffering — and the autosurf market-makers have been using all of these reasons to get you to throw money at them.

    None of these reasons, however, makes a Ponzi scheme any less of a Ponzi scheme. Even at this moment people are clamoring to get refunds from failed autosurfs. There is no way to police them, no way to do legitimate due diligence, no way to know if you’re doing business with criminals.

  • Maddy Makes Her World Debut

    Maddy, Nature Enthusiast
    Maddy, Nature Enthusiast

    A few readers asked to see a picture of Maddy the Wonder Puppy. Today she makes her world debut on the PatrickPretty.com Blog. :-)

    It is Christmas Eve, Maddy’s first. She began her day at 4:30 a.m. with a call to nature in freezing rain. She seemed even to like icy cold precipitation, as she displayed no haste to return inside. I was less enthused, but still found myself marveling at her spirit.

    Last night she became spellbound by a small twig of pine needles that had fallen into the side yard. One of the needles must have caught her on the tongue because she began to act as though the twig were alive, stomping on it and then using it as a hockey puck. She intermittently batted it and buried it, acting as though it was the most important thing in the universe.

    Santa will come tonight. Maddy, though, has one fewer gift. My sister gave her a Christmas outfit a couple of weeks ago, and I absently set it on the dining-room table. Maddy fetched it when I had my back turned and ripped it to shreds. Perhaps she didn’t like the color, but she’s not a dress girl anyways. I never would have put her in the thing, but didn’t have the heart to tell my sister.

    Regulation beef for Maddy tomorrow on her first Christmas.

  • Death Of The Legendary ‘Deep Throat’: Mark Felt, Watergate Source

    W. Mark Felt died peacefully yesterday in a California hospice. He was 95, a legendary figure among journalists — and known best by his secret name:

    Mark Felt was “Deep Throat.”

    It was a code name whose roots were unseemly, but it emerged a powerful brand and captured the public imagination for more than 30 years.

    Felt was the former No. 2 man at the FBI. His clandestine reports to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post helped topple the Richard Nixon White House, ultimately resulting in Nixon’s resignation in August 1974.

    “Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office,” Nixon famously said, on Aug. 8, 1974.

    We remember the drama of the moment: The President of the United States, looking tired and worn, announcing on national TV that he was resigning. The crisis began in 1972 over a bungled break-in — famously cited as a “third-rate burglary attempt” of Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office-apartment complex in Washington, D.C.

    Felt acknowledged in 2005 that he was “Deep Throat” in Vanity Fair magazine.

    Not only did Felt play a pivotal role in U.S. history, he helped Woodward and Bernstein become household names. The Pulitzer Prize-reporting duo went on to write “All the President’s Men.”

    Robert Redford played Woodward in the movie version; Dustin Hoffman played Bernstein, and Hal Holbrook played “Deep Throat.” Woodward and Bernstein have been on the stage for decades now, in part because of Mark Felt.

    Wanton criminality inside the Nixon White House is what motivated Felt to steer Woodward and Bernstein in the right direction, he said.

    Felt left the FBI in 1973. In 1980, he was convicted on charges of approving illegal break-ins to investigate the Weather Underground during his FBI days. The Weather Underground was a radical group. Felt was pardoned by President Reagan.

    Nixon always suspected Felt was “Deep Throat”; Felt denied it in public until 2005. Woodward and Bernstein confirmed his story when he came forward.

    Woodward and Bernstein, of course, have co-authored books and have had magnificent careers as solo writers and authors. Mark Felt’s death must have brought back a lot of memories for them today, two guys with remarkable talent who’ll be everlastingly linked to Mark Felt and Watergate.

  • BREAKING NEWS: AdSurfDaily Says Judge Lacks Jurisdiction

    AdSurfDaily Inc. has filed a defense in the civil-forfeiture case brought by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. The firm is asking for a jury trial.

    Among the most interesting defenses is that the case was brought in the wrong court — U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — and that the court lacks jurisdiction.

    ASD argued that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer has no authority to hear the forfeiture issues. In August, the government seized nearly $100 million and real estate in Florida and South Carolina as part of the probe into ASD’s business practices.

    “To the extent the Court requires a response, Claimants deny that acts or omissions giving rise to forfeiture occurred in this district and, therefore, deny that venue is proper in this district,” ASD said today.

    Lawyers for ASD also said ASD was a legal business, denying it had engaged in money-laundering and wire fraud. The firm also raised Constitutional issues in its defense.

    Prosecutors said in their August forfeiture complaint, however, that an undercover agent made ASD purchases from Washington, D.C., which could make the venue issue ASD raised an uphill battle.

    “On or about July 20,2008, a[n] [agent] opened another ‘upgraded member’ account with ASD from a location in the District of Columbia, also via the Internet,” prosecutors said in the August complaint.

    “The next day, a[n] [agent]made a direct deposit into ASD’s [Bank of America] account, this time by delivering a check to the BOA branch at 700 13th Street, NW, Washington, DC. Thereafter, a TFA faxed a copy of the deposit receipt from the District of Columbia to ASD’s office in Florida.” prosecutors said in the August complaint.  “The ability to access ASD over the Internet from different states, and to open accounts from multiple locations by delivering payment to ‘your nearest Branch of Bank of America’ as directed by ASD confirms that ASD knows it operates in multiple states, and so intends.”

    Here is ASD’s defense, filed today.

    Here is the August civil-forfeiture complaint against ASD’s assets.

    Prosecutors said ASD was selling unregistered securities while calling itself an advertising business and running a Ponzi scheme.

  • A Note To Readers

    Dear Readers,

    It had been our plan all along to convert from Blogger to WordPress in 2009. We made the conversion earlier than planned because of significant problems we began to experience with databases and website functions earlier this week.

    Part of the plan also was to port hosting. We ended up carrying out both tasks this week. One of the challenges was to learn a Linux-based system different from the system to which we were accustomed. We’re still learning. :-)

    A good number of you have been following our coverage of the civil forfeiture case against AdSurfDaily, a so-called autosurf company. We’ll continue to cover the story, which has affected thousands of people involved in online commerce.

    We plan to build this new site a little each day. We’ll also talk about the writing life and branding. Google is one of the world’s great businesses. It indexes billions and billions of web pages. One of the challenges of launching an online business is finding a way to emerge from Google’s giant slush pile. Many entrepreneurs and hobbyists are buried under tons of electronic slush and seek ways to make their websites memorable.

    This is the “experience economy.” It’ has never been more important to provide a memorable experience to website visitors. But far too often memorability gets confused with noisiness. People try to shout their way out of the slush pile, believing screaming is a virtue because “everybody is doing it.”

    We do things a bit differently here. The spokesperson for this Blog, for example, is a cartoon-character “Poster Model” with trendy glasses, trendy hair, a magnificent red nose and a smile made for toothpaste commercials.

    It’s our way of not screaming, of climbing up through the mountains of slush. These mountains existed before we even contemplated an online presence. Our eBooks and information products are about emerging from all that slush. Our plan is for the long-term. The traditional print media — our home for years — is facing monumental challenges. Newspapers and magazines and broadcast outlets are laying off employees.

    Their fear is the fear of the blacksmith confronting the age of the automobile. Our roots are in print media. At one time the advertising pie was comprised largely of only four slices: print, radio, TV, billboards. The Internet forced a fifth slice, and has been taking an incrementally larger share of the pie. We do not believe our print share ever will increase, which is why it’s important to build the Internet share.

    Well, enough for now on this subject. Just wanted you to know we appreciate your continued visits.

    Regards,

    Patrick

    So,