GameSpot Reviewer Fired for Angering Advertiser

Its kind of assumed concept in the world of journalism, whether online, TV or print and that's the journalistic endeavors are separated from the business and advertising goals. In other words, a company may buy advertisement but they are not buying good press. Its also assumed by many that is not 100% of the case and that business goals do leak into journalistic ethics (see Newsweek's love issue to Amazon) but at least its usually blatant enough that you can make a judgement call on what you are reading.

However, there are times when the entire facade is blown away and confirms our suspicions and further erodes the trust between journalists and their readers. That is the case with the controversy surround GameSpot.com who fired Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann, a 10 year veteran of the company.

The theory is he was fired for his 6.0/10 review of "Kane & Lynch" which resulted in Edios pulling hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue. Information leaked form someone working close to Edios is he was fired for "unprofessional reviews and review practices" and the "tone" of his reviews (whatever that means). Judge for yourself and read the review (here and here) and watch the video version below which was pulled from GameSpot.

Currently these theories cannot be confirmed. Gertzman briefly commented on the story by saying he is unable to comment, "This probably won't come as much of a surprise, but I'm unable to comment on the rumors surrounding my termination."

CNET, owner of Gamespot, did release a short statement that didn't address this controversy directly "GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis."

The news of the firing came about last night as a result of an early release of a Penny Arcade strip that comments on the firing. Tycho later released a statement on the controversy. As a result of the strip, the news of the firing has blazed across the gaming websites everywhere with few pleased with the news. It even resulting in Edios closing their forums.

So to sum up, all that is known is that Jeff Gurtzmann from Gamespot has been fired. The theory is the cause is because of a bad review of a game that resulted in lost advertising dollars but the site owners are claiming the real cause is "tone" of his reviews. Edios, CNET and Gamespot have refused to comment directly on the story and will not allow Gurtzmann to do so either.

Why is this important? Well, this confirms that many of us suspect but don't want to believe, that advertisement dollars drive editorially content and can buy positive reviews of products. This has a chilling effect that post effects current employees of CNET's network of websites and also the readers of the those websites.

For the employees that provide reviews, articles and content for the site, I can't imagine that if you currently work for a CNET owned website that this doesn't have a negative effect on how you review and write about products and companies that do business with CNET or under consideration to do business with them. If Apple buys advertisement does that mean that CNET reviewers need to consult the business end to determine what the iPhone review should be? Oh wait, Nintendo just bought advertisement space, should the next game review for the Wii be a 9.5 or a 10? What if the advertisement arm is trying to pursue new business, does that mean reviewers have to check all reviews and stories through them to verify it will not effect the closing of a sale? If I was currently employed there that would be steps I would consider as not doing so apparently can cost you your job.

For the readers, its an issue of trust. When you look up reviews you want an honest opinion, warts and all of a product so you can make a sound decision. If its an article about a company and what its doing, you want the truth, not spin.

As of now, thanks to this controversy, you can not trust any of the content on Gamespot or any of CNET owned websites and publications. I include all of CNET because we simply don't know if this was a decision internal to Gamespot or is part of a company wide policy for advertisement revenue. Until CNET clarifies and explains exactly what happens (and allows Gerstmann to do the same), defines what the hell "tone" of a review means (because I don't see a problem in the reviews I read or seen), and makes it clear what steps it will take to keep the advertising arm firewalled from the content arm it is my belief that CNET and any of its websites can be trusted as a source of news, reviews and information as we simply don't know what has been bought off and what hasn't.

Amazon's Kindle Released

Amazon announced what it considers to be the re-invention of the book called Kindle (pics). The book is slightly larger but thinner (7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7") then your average paperback (6.9" x 4.2" x 1.2") and comes with a lot of bells and whistles that books don’t have like wireless access to new content via Whispernet (similar to a cell phone network), storage of over 200 books (thousands available, around $9.99 per), and ability to download newspapers and blogs (pricing varies), view email attachments and light web surfing (How to Video). All of this in a $399 device. Compared to most other eBook readers, the Kindle stands on its own.

Does the book need to be reinvented? Sure, why not if it’s an improvement. Based on this first version I don’t think the book has anything to fear. The eBook model doesn’t yet duplicate the feel of getting into a novel and reading faster and faster to get through the exciting story as times passes unnoticed by you. The theory is there with the “E Ink” display, but when you have to wait a second for a page to load, the momentum can shift. Time suddenly gets noticed and suddenly finishing the chapter may not be so important.

Then there is the cost. $400 dollars for the electronics that display the books contents (assuming no pics). Even with the discount of only $10 per new novel (versus $20-$30 it usually costs) that is a lot of book buying to recoup the “savings”. Then there is notion of convienance. I just don’t see people tossing this into a backpack the same way we do books. There is something to be said about the ease of being worried about your book breaking. Sure you will have hundreds of possible books at your fingertips but really how often is that really needed?

The screen is currently black and white, to mimic reading a book, but is that necessary in the digital age? Why not a color screen that can display pictures and content, with it switching to black and white as the books need it? Also why no backlight? One annoying aspect of the book is needing a lot of light to enjoy it (to avoid headaches) so why not make it easy to literally read a book in most conditions such as long car trips or say a wait outside on Black Friday?

All these quibbles aside the Kindle is a good first step in the reinvention of the book. The potential is there, whether its books that get corrected and updated on the fly, the ability to access information anytime, anywhere, or even a college student that has all their books for class literally in the palm of their hand. I could be wrong as don’t have $400 to find out first hand, but on the surface it seems this first attempt at the book 2.0 doesn’t seem worth it, not yet anyway. I will let the early adopters work out the kinks and look forward to Kindle 2.0 (which would benefit greatly from iTouch technology).

Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Black Friday

Using the idea from here, I decided to write my own list of how to prep for Black Friday 2007.

1. Research your deals.
Many sites now provide the Black Friday weeks early. The one I use the most is bfads.net. I also recommend getting your local paper on Thanksgiving Day so can verify those ads.

2. Determine what want and from where.
Reason I recommend this is a lot of places offer the same deals. For instance one place may have a DVD set for $18 but another for $25. So this avoid duplication of effort and figure out what places you want to hit in what order. Some stores provide price matches but they tend to suspend those rules for Black Friday deals so don't count on those.

3. Check for Online Deals
You have your list of much have items and their great prices, now check to see if can beat them online allowing you to avoid waiting in line or focus on new must have goal. In some cases, stores will only have online deals so be sure to create shortcut list and check them frequently on Thanksgiving Day. Just don't count on getting the item as you will not be the only one checking so still have a store waiting plan B just in case can't get what you want online at the price you want.

4. Prioritize your goals.
Stores open early, and with limited quantities so its literally the case of the early bird gets the worm. Unless your in teams or lucky you can't store hop successfully for those high ticket, low item deals. With most stores all having lines, you probably have only one shot at one store to get that huge deal so make it count.

5. Try to work with a team.
Teammates can help with the long lines and wait with tag teaming and supply runs. They can also help hit multiple stores at the same time increasing your chances of success. But remember that its generally one per customer so your bud shouldn't be eyeing that deal too.

6. Get plenty of sleep the night before.
Stores open early, but all that means is you have to get in line even earlier. The better the deals (and more likely the more limited the quantities) the earlier you have to arrive. That means no sleep as between getting up to prep and celebrate for Thanksgiving you may not get that nap that allows you to go from doing the family things to getting in line. Its possible as a result you might be up for 24 hours or more so just be aware of that.

7. Be prepared for the line.
You will have hours of waiting to go so you need some basic supplies. Dress comfortably and for the weather, you will be outside in the elements so add some layers. You can always remove layers but once in line its hard to add them. A blanket wouldn't hurt either. Entertainment is a must such as a book or a gameboy, but note plugs may not be available so don't depend on power for that laptop or DVD player. Be sure to fully charge everything to day before. Also standing is just painful and tiresome so bring something to sit on whether a fold up chair or cushion. All lines are different, don't rely on the kindness of strangers to hold your place during that the long wait so don't over do it on the drinks and food before heading to the store. It doesn't hurt to over prepare but you want to line just enough stuff that will get you through the wait (and pack up quick) but not necessarily require you to have to leave the line to get more. Once you get a feel for how the line is being handled (friendliness etc), trips to the car may be possible. Don't forget your list! It would stink to get there, wait it out, and then forget key items.

8. Leave the kids home.
Seems obvious but you would be surprised how many people will show up with kids and wait hours in line with them. No Black Friday deal is worth the hassle and aggravation to yourself and others in trying to control bored kids for hours or simply just trying to keep up with them. Its also irresponsible as its probably going to be cold. Kids also will divert you from your gameplan and push you to buy items you may not have planned on. To put it bluntly, they will get in the way.

9. Get there early.
Hopefully you have your list, your supplies and an agenda. But its no good if people already wrapped around the building because you showed up just before the store opens. So determine when the store is opening that day and show up even earlier. How early is hard to determine because it can vary wildly but generally the better the deal is the earlier you should show up. Also just how much is your time and effort with it to you to save those dollars. If your saving only 10 bucks maybe not, but if its a few hundred, maybe it is.

10. Be realistic and have fun.
Know going into this that you may not get some or any of the items that you want. Most of the best Black Friday deals are in limited quantities so things could sell out very quickly. Some stores give out "coupons" for the BF items before the store opens so keep an eye on that. If they run out of coupons to the first 10 people in line and your 40 back well you know that your probably out of luck. If your realistic in your goals you can plan better and handle the stress of waiting better. Most people take the waiting and shopping entirely too seriously for mostly unrealistic goals. This can lead to conflict and sometimes violence and really no sale is worth that. If you go in prepared but with proper expectations you can actually have fun doing this. The point is a good deal but also hopefully done in the spirit of giving and if your more stressed about the deal then the pleasure you hope to give then your missing the whole point of Christmas.

So there you go, my Top 10 list of how to prepare for Black Friday based on my experiences from last year. I achieved only a tiny tiny fraction of my goals but I fun in the effort and actually came away with some great presents as a result. Because I went into it prepared and in the proper mindset, it had fun and plan on doing it again this year.

Google's Android SDK Info

Google has released a few details on the SDK for Android, its mobile phone OS its developing in partnership with multiple companies. According to Engadget, the phone will support touchscreen, 3G networks, Java, threaded text messaging, and MPEG-4, h.264, MP3, and ACC file formats (common Apple and Microsoft formats, but apparently not divx). Also it can handle 3D games qith Quake used as an example. A demo of the OS (on a device reference model, not actual product) is below. The SDK can be downloaded here. Also Google has annouced the Android Developer Challenge with a pot of $10 million that will be divided among various winners.

Another iPhone Brick That Can't Call

Userfriendly posted a hilarious strip that covers the recent bricking of hacked iPhones that is sung to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall."

Special Comment: Conspiracy of Torture

Keith Olbermann closed Countdown yesterday with another scathing indictment (transcript) of the Bush Administration. An administration that seems to know no ends of its depravity.

This special comment was triggered by recent revelation that Bush fired Daniel Levin for daring to disagree with him on American policy regarding torture. Levin was Justice Department official assigned with determining Bush Admins policy on torture. He decided that first hand knowledge would be helpful and experienced Waterboarding first hand. From that experience he declared it a form of torture, very much contrary to Bush's stance on it. For daring to disagree and not do what all other Bush minions do by simply regurgitating Bush's current opinion regardless of consequence or if its good for the nation. As has consistently been the case, for Bush the only thing that matters is what Bush's wants and the nation be damned.

The video can be found here. (couldn't find on youtube at time wrote this)

Legend of Zelda Commercials Compliation

If a fan of The Legend of Zelda through the years (I have em all), then here is a walk down memory lane via commercials some of which are pretty strange. Learned of the compilation via Joystick and edited together by Skullkid700.

Mario Bros Theme on Tesla Coils

Rather then rewrite a solid description from YouTube:

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI.
The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB If you look at another You Tube video which is from a different angle, you can hear the echo off the building and get a better idea of how loud it is.

fast Food Calorie Counter

If you eat fast food, you know its unhealthy. If you don't, you have bigger problems. What may not know is just how unhealthy the food is. Fortunately Calorie Counter provided a nice guide to just how unhealthy the fast food is with a little best and worse (relative to each other) for each category.

For Fries, Sonic's is the best, White Castle and Dairy Queen the worse. Basic hamburgers its White Castle and Wendy's best, Carl's Jr the worse. In the other burger varieties, best is Burger King (whopper jr) and White Castle (Bacon Cheeseburger) and the Worst goes to Carl's Jr for the Double Six Dollar Burger and its 1520 calories and 111 grams of fat. Wow.

Lots more information can be found here.

Google Phone, I Mean Android Announced

Today Google announced the development of Android for mobile phones (press release). Android would be an open source Linux based Operating System for new phones that would allow easy development of applications that could work on multiple brands and types of phones as long as have the core OS. This would be a direct competition to closed OS's like Palm, Windows Mobile and iPhone. The expected release date of phones with the new OS is second half of 2008 and the SDK for developers will be available on November 12th.

So far 34 different companies have signed up for the Open Handset Alliance. This includes the top mobile carriers of At&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and others from various countries. On the hardware side, Samsung, LG, and Motorola are also signed on. Nokia oddly staying out despite rapidly losing the cell phone race. Additional companies include Nvidia (graphics for phones) and Skype (voice over IP).

Its to early to say what impact this will have on the market but with the calibur of money and talent being brought to the table, its looks the "smartphone" will become the de facto phones on the market. What this means for Blackberries, Palm devices and the iPhone could be to make them obsolete as users will have the ability to customize their phones to fit their needs rather then work with whatever the developers think you need. The iPhone apparently was just step one of a mobile phone revolution.

I am personally looking for to the variety of choices that may come available. I wanted to possibilities that the iPhone was bringing to the table but as the locked down iPhone combined with being forced to do business with the craptastic AT&T was unacceptable at any price.

VideoSift Open Letter to Viacom

Videosift, a website that tracks popular online videos, has posted an open letter to Viacom and its owned network Comedy Central to work with the Internet. Viacom has started a policy where its most popular internet programming is only available through select websites and doesn't allow sharing via embeds and the like.

The result is no one can easily share the funny and insightful moments from their most popular shows such as The Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park. Its their anti-YouTube policy of limited distribution from very limited sources. Something I think its idiotic and counter productive to advertising and selling the brand. Out of sight, out of mind is something to be avoided while Viacom seems to be embracing the concept. Personally because of the difficulty is sharing moments from Comedy Central, I simply don't bother to post about them anymore.

Here is the letter:

We love the Daily Show on VideoSift. The Comedy Central video embeds have been consistently some of the most popular voted content here.

So, it’s with a lot of regret - after an extensive community discussion- that we have decided to ban the submission of all Comedy Central videos.

The Internet does not respect national borders and your recent decision to block access to non-US viewers means that 30% of the members on VideoSift see a frozen screen when trying to view content from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park and other CC programs.

I’m sure you have very good reasons for taking this action - exclusive distribution deals with overseas TV networks, advertisements not meant to be globally broadcast etc. - but we ask you to reconsider your decision – and not just for the obvious reasons.

Programs like the Daily Show do more to create goodwill toward the US than the current US administration has ever done.

If the Daily Show can relentlessly skewer its nation’s politicians without fear of retribution - it gives hope to those living under despotic regimes that democracy isn't quite dead in the US.

Those of us living overseas see Jon Stewart as a face of America- and we like an America that is self-deprecating and willing to highlight her many mistakes. It makes it so much easier to forgive that way.

Of course, you own the content, and who are we to tell you how it should be distributed? Comedy Central has no obligation to send a political message to the rest of the world.

But there is another reason to allow international viewing that has more commercial appeal. When you block dependable access to your videos, you are driving people to illicit sources for their favorite content. (YouTube, Bittorrent etc.) We would try to monitor contraband
submissions on our site, but for you, policing this across the Internet will be like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon.

Comedy Central, please think globally and give us our Daily Show!

Respectfully yours,
The Rest of the World

PS. While you’re at it – can you prevent your videos from “expiring” after a few weeks?

Big Teleco To Rule It All

The 3rd US Court of Appeals upheld the FCC's deregulating of the Internet in regards to rules that revoke a requirement for the telephone companies to provide "nondiscriminatory" access to wire lines to consumers to competing Internet Service Providers. This means that the big teleco companies can tell the smaller companies to go to hell legally with massive bills for access.

As has been the case for the last 20 years, the call for "deregulation" has only led to the merging or elimination of competition so that only 3-4 companies are the sole providers. These providers often working together so the illusion of competition is maintained even though there really isn't. In the end, as it has always been, the consumers will pay the price as the teleco can dictate prices and you will have no choice but to accept it.