Attention All Twoofers

Hey folks, Glenn Beck, and Dennis Leary...

You larger media folks may be used to this stuff, but this is my first death threat in years, so I'm a bit taken back by it - hence my posting.

A while back, I posted a video of Dennis Leary appearing on the Glenn Beck show that we ended up using on the RizWords show. As you can see from the comments page linked above, it sparked quite a debate from what I'm now learning is the 'Twoofer' movement (a play on the word 'truther'), and those that are sane.

I know, however, that a few of my readers really do think that 9/11 was an inside job.

So I'll post this graphic of a fellow from YouTube who calls you twoofers compadres.

Kinda wants to make you second guess your position on the whole 9/11 thing. These are the kind of nut-jobs the rest of the world sees you associate with.

To Focoist: your comments have been forwarded to the proper authorities, and Glenn Beck as well as Dennis Leary.

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Grey Going Technicolor

A lot of my Rizznites out there are involved with my video initiatives, and have already embraced or are considering embracing video solutions for your old media content. For those of you who have not yet made the leap, here's a story about the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal and their decision to go with video to supplement their other online content:

The New York Times will make the embed code of its video clips available to the public by early fall. This means that many of the paper's videos will be freely used and posted to blogs and Web pages.

This change will be implemented in Q3, according to Diane McNulty, a spokesperson for The New York Times.

Just yesterday, The Washington Post began to offer the code of its clips. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal opened up it's code.

These big newspapers understand that gaining market share means making their content usable on many platforms, even if there is some degree of risk. There is upside, of course. Through this system, the pre-roll ads that are seen on the site are shared as well and viewed from wherever they are placed.

I think it's terrific that The New York Times is taking a page from YouTube game book of making embed codes available to everyone. After all, a good part of YouTube's success has come from the utility of providing embed code.

Below are links to a clip of comprised of two observers of the success of YouTube: Forrester senior Brian Haven and MIT Professor Henry Jenkins who head the Institute's Media Studies Program. They frame the success of YouTube and the power of sharable video.

The second clip is my interview with Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of Brightcove. I spoke with Jeremy in Boston earlier this year about Dow Jones and its plans to share the embed code.

http://www.youtube.com/v/DuWDnzfI98w
http://www.youtube.com/v/rpSbZAaquUk

If you've not yet made the leap to video, I strongly suggest you call me and see what I can do to help your business cash in on this trend. Give me a call at 903-705-9770.

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Reliant Energy: Not Exactly Thrilled!

I haven't been a user of Reliant Energy for more than one billing cycle, but I'm already facing disconnection, outright lies from customer service, stalling tactics, and impending disconnection.

As many of you are aware, I've recently had a child, as well as just recently have had to move. Those of you that listen to the podcast are probably aware that I've undertaken several new projects that have yet to start really paying off... so as you might imagine, finances are a bit tight at the moment.

Well, imagine my surprise last night when I received a bill (my first bill) from Reliant claiming that my payment of $418.55 was past due. $418.55 for the first month's bill? This is after a $350.00 deposit that I paid roughly three months ago now.

Let's start with what I was told when I signed up:

• I was told that customer service would be available 24 hours a day.
• I was told that customer service systems would not be primarily machine based, and that I could talk with humans.
• I was told that when I had problems, customer service would be responsive to fix them.
• I was told that I would be charged an up front deposit of $350, and no other fees other than my kW/h charges.
• I was told that I would incur a nominal fee for transferring my service across town to the new apartment.
• I was told I've have the lowest kW/h rate in the state.
• I was told I'd have detailed billing.

As it turns out, Reliant has so far not been able to deliver on any of those claims:

• Customer service lines are available 24/7, but most of the time, the interaction is strictly with machines. It's about a 25 minute session of punching buttons and listening to recordings before a human will answer the phone. This takes time out of my day as well as runs up phone bills.
• Once I reach a person, that person inevitably is unable to assist me and patches me through to a different department, one that apparently has no ability to figure out what the five-hundred buttons I pushed in the automated system were.
• They have decided to add an additional $275 deposit because I moved 10 days after my service started.
• They have decided not to return my prior deposit - no explanation given.
• It is by no means the lowest kW/h in teh state.
• My bill has absolutely no details on it.

Bottom line - avoid Direct Energy and Reliant Energy like the plague. Direct has a long history of crookery with me. Reliant seems intent on claiming the title of worst energy company evar for itself.

Want to be part of the Rizzn-ite army? Indoctrination instructions here.

Just a quick UBN Update...

Hey Rizznites!,

Head on over to www.unimaxservices.com/ubn and check out the live show we're putting on tonight.  I'll be running the phones and the board, and probably not on camera, but this could be a good foreshadowing of things to come... and you definitely don't want to miss this if you can!

--
/mark "rizzn" hopkins
For my blog, profile, and wikipedia entries, simply Google "rizzn"
--
join my google group: http://groups.google.com/group/rizzncom-v83/
Listen to my DAILY podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RizWords
--

Chart Topping Monsters!

Hey Rizznites!

Just a quick note to brag: RizWords has graduated. This week we were ranked number 23 in live participation at TalkShoe.com, we were ranked number 2 in terms of total downloads, and number 1 in overall downloads and participation!

So we're basically the number one TalkCast on TalkShoe.com!

See what you're missing - head over to the podcast page!

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Top 25 Blogs Evar!

Ken Rutkowski published a list of the top 25 blogs as graded by a concoction of independent stats measurers... came up with a fairly interesting list:

25 Most Popular Blogs

Logo	Rank	Name	Location (URL)
	1	Gizmodo	Gizmodo.com
	2	TMZ	TMZ.com
	3	engadget	engadget.com
	4	LifeHacker	LifeHacker.com
	5	HuffingtonPost	HuffingtonPost.com
	6	boingboing	boingboing.net
	7	PerezHilton	PerezHilton.com
	8	Gawker	Gawker.com
	9	Kotaku	Kotaku.com
	10	DailyKos	DailyKos.com
	11	TechCrunch	TechCrunch.com
	12	Defamer	Defamer.com
	13	Wonkette	Wonkette.com
	14	AutoBlog	AutoBlog.com
	15	ARSTechnica	ARSTechnica.com
	16	joystiq	joystiq.com
	17	AlterNet	AlterNet.org
	18	downloadsquad	downloadsquad.com
	19	CrooksandLiars	CrooksandLiars.com
	20	Mashable	Mashable.com
	21	GigaOM	GigaOM.com
	22	littlegreenfootballs	littlegreenfootballs.com
	23	PostSecret	postsecret.blogspot.com
	24	AListapart	AListapart.com
	25	ReadWriteWeb	ReadWriteWeb.com

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What's Going On Here?

Hey, Rizznites!

You may notice short and unexplained outages here on the site. Basically, here's what I'm working on:

Getting Paul Darby's UBN up and running properly for next Monday.
Getting the final proposal for the new podcast network ready, so we can add new podcasts to a lineup to be featured here.
Re-Designing the site to showcase the expanding nature of the content here at Rizzn.com.

The site is going to change a little bit. The blog will still exist, and the links aren't really going to change any. I am, though, going to be switching up how the page looks when the default domain "rizzn.com" is hit... it'll contain the latest blog post, an autoplayer for the show, and links to all the content we're working on. Consider it the 1.0 for the new content network we'll be unveiling here soon.

I don't have any screenshots to show you, but it'll have a similar feel to snips.rizzn.com since everyone seems to be agreed that it's a much more clean and pleasing look than the current rizzn.com layout.

Hopefully, after I get this part done, I'll have the time to upgrade the rest of the Oblong Box network to fit in with our new content setup. We've really got some big things planned (I mean it this time), and there appears to be a gracious benefactor who believes as much as I do that there's money to be made in the New Media space, and appears willing to put his money where his mouth is.

That's all for now, I need to get back to work.

James and Art will be hosting the show tomorrow without me as I take time to focus on these new developments. I should be back Monday, hopefully.

/rizzn

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