omgnews:

If you’re a Coen Brothers fan and you live in the Big Apple, there is a MAJOR event going down at Hammerstein Ballroom on August 16th that you’d be damned if you missed. This year’s local Lebowski Fest will feature a screening of the Brothers’ classic, followed by a - wait for it - cast reunion featuring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemiand Julianne Moore

(Source: perezhilton.com, via omgnews)

New York City, Thursday, June 4th 2009 I checked in to Saigon Grill with several other folks before heading over to Webster Hall, the site of my second check-in and watched a live taping of Diggnation.

I woke up late the next morning for a flight to southern California out of JFK, the site of my 4th check-in. There was a 5th at LAX and a 6th at the Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara. This pattern of arriving and checking in continued until today. 467 check-ins  and 43 mayorships later and I’m calling it quits. Well, maybe.

I have been wondering a lot lately why I bother checking in to these places. Why do I feel compelled to announce my presence or stake my claim of a venue that I’m not really mayor of?

I have spent countless hours updating, merging and adding venues but if asked “Why?” I probably wouldn’t have an answer that made any sense.

“Because I want to make sure there aren’t two of the same Ralph’s Pizza’s on Carrillo St - on my phone-in case someone else wants to announce they’re here-to someone who isn’t here-and become mayor-of the pizza place.” Huh?

I dont have some amazing insight here so if you’re waiting for it I hope you aren’t disappointed. I just have unanswered questions. Well, one, really. Why? Why do I check-in. Why do I care if I’m the mayor. Why do I care if someone goes to that place more than me?

After all my check-ins and time spent on Foursquare I find that I have gotten NOTHING in return. It has never yielded free food or drink. Never yielded a serendipitous rendezvous that led to something great. It has led to an unbalanced relationship. I give and give and give and get nothing.

We expect this balance in everything we do. Go to work, get paid and or satisfaction from performing a task. We give something of ourselves in our relationships hoping for reciprocation. If you’re in a one sided relationship with someone the chances are it won’t last long. We have all been there.

The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t feel like I’m getting ANYTHING AT ALL out of Foursquare. It’s a one sided relationship where I am tired of giving. It’s a game with no winners. It doesn’t even need to be played on the same field. In football, 22 men play on the same field in an effort to score points and win at the end of 4 quarters.

Foursquare lets me check into a venue from my bathroom if I wanted to. I could mayor every joint in town from my toilet and so the fact that people can so easily game the system ruins the gaming aspect for me.

For some a game is enough value but for me I require more for my time and so what I get out of it needs to be a little more substantial. I like Foursquare and respect the team behind it. I’m just struggling to find something I value these days. Maybe I have grown out of it.

I wonder how many others feel like me? If there are many is it only a matter of time before there is an exodus? I think that Foursquare needs to get venues on board to survive. I am curious how they intend to do it. Early on I see that by being 1 of 4 coffee shops on the block that offer a free latte to the Foursquare Mayor will draw some traffic but I don’t see how that works when all shops offer it.

So it seems that Foursquare will need many but not all venues. Many venues participating in some way makes it attractive to users but too many makes it unattractive to venues.

So with that said I am going to give Foursquare until after SXSW to show me something in return or I’ll be checking out for good.

Stay tuned, Mom…

After reading the initial reviews and insights I’m less than excited about the iPad. I own an iPod Nano, 2 iPhones, a Macbook and so I qualify as a mac user.

I think the iPad looks cool but if it doesn’t offer me more than what I have today why should I buy it?

No (real) GPS.

No USB support the way we know and love.

No in-browser flash support

No camera.

No dragon drop file management.

No HDMI out.

No 1080p.

No SD slot.

It has ADHD (No multitasking).

How do you make breakfast beter? Add bacon. Apple needs to use that same recipe for success.

Make it irresistable. Make it tempting.

iPad? iPass this time around.

AT&T is in a great position BECAUSE their network is perceived as unreliable. It’s not that they are on undesirable phones or their customer service is horrible as per a recent study done by the Noit-Mussa Group. It’s easier to fix a network than corporate culture or public sentiment based upon bad customer service experiences.

If AT&T was smart and really wanted to make an impact with their newly announced $2 Billion network upgrade they would put 100 towers in Austin, Texas for SXSW. Then they’d announce their new campaign “No Call Left Behind”.

AT&T would then magically begin monitoring dropped call rates on the networks present. Since most of the tech world and “now web” media will either be at  or monitoring SXSW from afar behind a wall of LCD monitors in their Dr. No-esque lairs, AT&T could leverage the web coverage and boast about their cell coverage, hopefully, announcing that the No Call Left Behind Act was a huge success. Finally Apple should help in this effort because the better the perception of AT&T the fewer excuses people have to not buy an iPad.