I think I speak for every F1 fan in saying that this weekend's race should be unbelievable.

So how are the teams preparing for racing under the stars? Here's a funny little video from the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team that pokes fun of what not to do to a multi-million dollar, aerodynamically hyper-sensitive racing car....

Well done boys.

[via AutoBlog]

Google vs. MSN

MSN vs. Yahoo!

Yahoo! vs. Google

And as a special bonus, a friend in Spain turned me on to Flight of the Conchords this past week when I was in BCN, and here is a little taste of the greatness of Bret and Jermaine...

Let me explain.

I made a call to Verizon today because, since we moved to this apartment a few months back, we’ve not been able to have any clear conversations on our mobiles without having to stand next to a window or going outside on the balcony. If we don’t, our conversations cut out and sometimes our calls drop. Also, strangely, Verizon to Verizon calls seem to be the worst, and with both of our families exclusively on Verizon, that’s an issue.

Obviously, the reception here isn’t good, and conversations with others in the building confirm that this is a bad spot for Verizon, and a number of people have dropped Verizon when they got here.

No biggie, I thought. If there isn’t reliable service here, Verizon will understand, apologize and let us out of our contract without fees. I mean, if you can’t service a customer properly, you’re not going to force them to keep your service or pay a fee, right?

Wrong.

One thing in the article that bugs me though is this:

Sen. Obama can also claim a huge lead in nonpaid search traffic, which suggests that he has done a good job optimizing its Web pages for search engines.

I think this is more of a "big brand" thing than an optimization thing. Kind of similar to the reason that GEICO gets as much search traffic on Google as the term "auto insurance."

Picky, picky. I know.

To get in the mood for the event, I've been reading Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72, and I've been startled by some of the similarities between then and now. A good example of this is the following excerpt from the book (pg 174):

"I've always thought that the blue-collar vote had to be a source of his strength," said Frank Mankiewicz, McGovern's main strategist. "It always seemed to me that McGovern-not as the anti-war candidate but as the change candidate-would appeal more to Middle America than he would to any other group. They're the ones with the most to gain from change and they're the ones who get screwed by the way we do business in this country."

Funny how so little has changed in the last 36 years.

[via The Egotist]

I've been spending A LOT of time looking at site that could be a potential like targets for the company I'm working with, and I can honestly say I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of the web over the last couple months.

While I think it's safe to say there are a pile of contenders in the property search market, some of the sites that are popping up on the real estate fringe are quite interesting. Two examples I found today are StreetAdvisor and Walk Score.

StreetAdvisor is a site that uses user generated content to help you decided on a street to live on. As with any user generated content site, there are areas that have not yet been contributed to, but doing some searches around the Denver area I found some good reviews for my favorite streets. A very cool concept, and a company that could pretty logically be snatched up by a big property search player looking for interesting neighborhood data.

Walk Score is a site that looks at the schools, stores, shops, parks, etc. and rates address' "walkability score." It's a great tool for anyone looking to move to a city they don't know well, and that might not have or want to use a car in this age of rising gas prices. Not sure if this is a target for purchase, since they pretty much explain their algorithm on their site, and are using Google Maps as their data source. Still, I have a feeling selling out may not really be the endgame for Walk Score.

Know of any other fun sites like this in the property world? If so, leave me a note in the comments!

How long until you think someone is going to use the "fake bigfoot" theme in a commercial.

I give it 1 month.

Via The Denver Egotist.

It's almost like the printer lost the actual ad copy and instead used part of the copy from the agencies justification presentation to their clients.

I'm not sure if this was a mistake, a high form of "lost in translation" or the future of marketing - full explanation of your targeting strategy in lieu actual feature and benefit statements.

We shall see.

I am in Barcelona and having a good time (now). Got in on Thursday morning in one piece, but my luggage was nowhere to be found. Long story short, I finally got my luggage Friday night at 10PM at the airport. Was glad I had a flask full of Jameson stashed in it.

3 days in the same clothes was not ideal...especially when 1 day of that was on an airplane and the other 2 days were spent in an office without air conditioning in the middle of a very hot Spanish summer.

But now, I am good.

Slept in today until, well, late, and then went and had a nice lunch and sat on a bench by Sagrada Familia and read a book. Then I headed to Placa Catalyuna and did a bit of shopping...it's sale season here in BCN.

It's about 9 here in Barcelona now, so it's dinner time and then maybe off to meet some people for a drink.

Enjoy the weekend!