Finally finding a parking spot after driving around endlessly can be life saving depending on how elevated your blood pressure got. Finding out you have no change for the meter can almost push you back over the edge. Think about how many times you’ve dived into a local store to buy something in order to get some change, or worse decided to just take the chance and return to a $35 ticket (I live in San Francisco). I’ve seen that there is an effort to put in these giant, most likely costly, electronic meters that have a keypad for account entry. I’ve only seen them around the motorcycle spots in the city. I imagine it’s a pilot to determine the benefits and cost associated with this new kind of metering. Well, I think there is a better answer. I drive through toll booths skipping lines with a little unit in my car that debits an account. I believe all it contains is a small Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID), which is becoming increasingly more popular in supply chain management. I think the government should put a tag on each license plate so that I don’t have to worry about having change for the meter. I would just pull up and it would debit my account. Of course this would most likely also mean I would be immediately debited for the parking ticket when I park somewhere illegally. Now, I am as big of a privacy concerned citizen as any. Most of my friends know I go so far as to make up names for things such as grocery club cards, but I do think there is more promise to these RFID tags then just letting Wal-Mart know it’s out of Gillette razors.
thoughts on blogging
The buzz reminds me that I have seldom used my blog to articulate to the world all the wonderful ideas I think I have flowing in my head. But, I
Embedded Video Ads Online
Today I saw my first embedded video advertisement on a web page. Now, I’ve seen the fancy flash ads that run across the screen, pop up or are just placed as a banner, but those are like animation not full motion video. The online version of the Wall Street Journal today has a full motion video advertisement, with sound, for FedEx regarding international shipping. It’s new, so it stopped me dead in my tracks. I saw the screen moving much more than an animated GIF would and I was intrigued. So, naturally I clicked on the sound button and low and behold I was watching TV on a website. I have a DSL connection so this worked fantastic. However, I figure the novelty will last only months and then it will just be another ad. Given I pay for my online subscription to the WSJ, I will be upset if they put in a larger ad or insert it between pages, but I think that is the future for free content online. It’s as easy as putting a page in the click process that makes you watch a full motion advertisement before letting you on to the next page of information. It?s very annoying if you ask me, but it could incent people to subscribe to a pay service without ads. Either way, keep your eyes on the look out for full motion advertising online. It’s here!