The Muppets break down the Presidential Debates.

Spread the word!

Once again, big entertainment announces they’ll be doing something awesome, then panics and overcompensates with their online security causing frustration and annoyance among viewers, limiting their potential moneymaking abilities. This time around, NBC online gets the booby prize. After making big announcements and running advertisements about allowing people to watch the entire Olympics online, NBC throttled the viewing experience with a horrible and limiting Microsoft DRM interface, killed any embedding abilities for the video, time-shifted everything and basically made even searching for the events you wanted to watch such a chore that they “only” managed to pull in $5.75 million during the two-week extravaganza.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics have had millions of Americans glued to the screen, whether on TV or online, with record viewership and Web site traffic. However, the great popularity of the games did not quite translate to huge amounts of video advertising. Based on video stream figures released by NBC, eMarketer estimates video ad spending on the NBCOlympics.com site will reach $5.75 million. That sum is surely a passable performance for a bit more than two weeks, but it represents only 1.1% of this year’s online video ad spending projection of $505 million in the US.

Even with the Olympics’ popularity, much of the record traffic on NBCOlympics.com was not video viewers. One reason for that discrepancy? NBCOlympics.com users were forced to download Microsoft Silverlight, the company’s competitor to Adobe Flash, and being asked to download something to access content tends to eliminate part of the audience.

Spread the word!

After reading this article on the new LZR swimsuits worn at the Olympics, two things immediately pop into my head.

One: it’s fucking awesome that Speedo was faced with a conundrum and did the right thing by essentially opensourcing their new technology. Definitely a lesson to be learned here for other major companies, as they still ended up with the lion’s share of the publicity and, one would assume profits, even though they essentially gave their work notes away.

The company believes that the LZR is an equally profound invention — and the athletes who’ve raced in it tend to agree. As LZR-wearing swimmers instantly began to chalk up world records, word got around that anyone not competing in one at the Olympic Trials might end up “at home watching on NBC,” American coach Mark Schubert said.

Swimmers who were under contract to race in TYR, Nike, Arena, Mizuno, and others, were torn: support their sponsors or take the advantage offered by the LZR? Sensing bad PR, Speedo allowed the basics of the LZR to be copied; their rivals scrambled to create similar suits. In the end, most swimmers in Beijing competed in Speedo (although several countries, including Italy, wore Arena suits).

Two: this is the shit that superheroes would wear, albeit slightly more riddled with StarkTech or WayneTech upgrades.

I’d been warned that the suit takes 20 minutes to pull on, so I used the wetsuit trick of slipping plastic bags over my feet to make things easier. It did — to a point. It still took 10 minutes to get the thing over my legs, and three people to zip me up. The LZR’s fabric, Brommer had warned, isn’t soft like Lycra. Rather, it has a delicate, papery feel. And while the material is super-thin it takes effort to stretch it, as though it were far thicker elastic. The polyurethane panels act as a truss, which gives you the feeling of being hugged by the suit. Support=strength; think of weight lifters wearing their weight belts,

In short, you feel pretty badass in the LZR. That is no accident. When designing the suit, Speedo also probed swimmers’ psyches. “We asked them how they wanted to feel on the blocks,” Brommer says. “Michael Phelps said that he wanted to feel like Superman.” Did it work? “I feel better in the water than I have in any other suit,” Phelps says.

Spread the word!

I’m going to make the assumption that everyone’s heard of Michael Phelps by now. Apparently the world’s most popular super human is responsible for this being an insanely watched Olympics, with over 40 million people tuning in to see his final race this past Saturday. Again - 40 Million People! On a weekend! Without footballs and tailgating!!

Apparently, the last time NBC had this many folks stay home on a Saturday night to watch them, it was for an episode of “Empty Nest,” and they only had 31 million viewers for that. Chalk up one more record the dude’s smashed.

Spread the word!

Thinking about getting a new LCD TV or monitor this month? You may want to think againa nd wait just a few more months, according to the New York Times.

One of the year’s hottest seasons for buying new LCD TVs and desktop monitors is around the corner, mid-August through September, and analysts are nervous that people may not buy as many units as expected, which will send prices lower.

“Our recent channel checks show that the industry pendulum has swung into a ‘buyer’s market’ where customers are holding back orders,” said Jeffrey Su, an analyst at investment banking firm Merrill Lynch, in a recent report.

One problem facing the industry is a supply gut.

“Over-shipment of large-area LCD panels in (the second quarter) due to an overly optimistic outlook for 2008 was the main factor contributing to the rapid and significant panel price reductions seen in the panel supply chain beginning in June,” said DisplaySearch, in a report issued Monday.

I’ve been in the market for a new TV for a while, but never seem to be able to jump on the good deals when they come along. Here’s hoping that this winter I can finally get rid of my faux-HD tube and have a nice, sleek flat panel sitting in the living room to watch my Charlie Brown holiday specials on.

Spread the word!

You can shove that iPhone and solar car up your ass, turkeys! An inventor from New Zealand has invented a working jetpack! About time is all everyone has to say.

On Tuesday, an inventor from New Zealand plans to unveil what he calls “the world’s first practical jetpack” at the EAA AirVenture, the gigantic annual air show here. The inventor, Glenn Martin, 48, who has spent 27 years developing the devices, said he hoped to begin selling them next year for $100,000 apiece.

“There is nothing that even comes close to the dream that the jetpack allows you to achieve,” said Robert J. Thompson, the director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. He called it “about the coolest desire left to mankind.”

Be sure to click through to the article and watch the video, which is maybe one of the doofiest ever.

And click through the jump for an exclusive KFR photo FROM THE FUTURE!!!
Read More »

Spread the word!

Barnegat, New Jersey must be the awesomest place in the world to live. Not only do they have the Jersey Devil, but the town apparently has a ninja infestation on their hands!

Public schools in Barnegat were locked down briefly after someone reported seeing a ninja running through the woods behind an elementary school.

Spread the word!