The Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD Battle is Over

With the recent announcement that Warner Brothers would be adopting Sony's Blu-ray HD format over Toshiba's HD-DVD format does this mean the end to the format wars that brought back memories of Beta vs. VHS?

According to the Bits blog at the New York Times:

"Warner Brothers is now going to throw its weight behind the Blu-ray format for high-definition disks. Warner has been the only major studio to publish its movies in both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats. Today, the studio announced that from now on, it would only issue movies in Blu-ray. "

This is the final blow to HD DVD because Warner Brothers is #1 in DVD market share. The impact of this announcement has sent reverberations through the industry. The HD-DVD group hastily cancelled press events scheduled for the upcoming CES trade show.

This move is a great sign for the DVD business as the battle was delaying the growth of HD disks. Now with Warner in the fold, Blu-ray can make some headway and the DVD business as a whole can look for brighter days coming down the pike.

Unfortunately those consumers who purchased their first HD-DVD player this Christmas are going to be a little un-happy. Maybe they can blow them out on eBay.

Great New Idea and its Green!

Looking for new ideas to improve the planet? Recycle your unwanted DVDs, CDs and Video Games for cash or charity at BuyBackDirect.com

SquidBids For You!

Squidoo announced today that they have launched a new promotional tool for eBay sellers called SquidBids. eBay sellers can use their eBay userID or eBay Store name to create a profile on their ebay business. It is a cool little tool and something even the big players on eBay should consider for their business.

I would love to see a SquidBid page for GrapevineHill, InflatableMadness, GothamCityOnline among others. Sellers need to reach out and find customers where they hangout and Squidoo gets tons of traffic. Here is an example of a SquidBid page from eBay Seller FreakNoodles.

Seth Godin does a much better job of explaining SquidBids then I would so here is a link to his blog post.

Combining SquidBids with the Red Door Store campaign that some store sellers have started might give eBay sellers some promotional juice.

It Pays to Squidoo!

I started creating lenses (pages) for Squidoo in March of 2007, not real sure what I was doing or how long I would be on the site. I like the idea of having my online content all over the web so it seemed to make sense to add it to Squidoo.

Now, after being on the site for 6 months it is clear to me that Squidoo is exactly how I would envision a successful online content site. I have content on Hubpages, Associated Content, my blogs and online newsletters but none have been as successful as my content on Squidoo.

Sure, my main blog gets lots of activity, with nearly 200 unique visitors a day but the revenue being generated through Google's adWords and Yahoo sponsored ads is minimal. I need to get the activity up to a 1,000 visitors a day before the numbers start to improve. In contrast, my monthly payout from Squidoo for July (paid in Sept.) was more than all of my other online content combined and even more amazing, it was 100% more than the previous month's payout from Squidoo.

Squidoo is both fun and profitable. The actual dollar amounts are small but the trend is fantastic as my payouts have grown exponentially from the $1.57 I earned my first month.

Squidoo is like Wikipedia on steroids. Just compare the Wikipedia profile on one of my favorite TV shows "Scrubs" with the best "Scrubs" profile on Squidoo.

Squidoo management isn't resting on their laurels either. They just recently launched SquidWho, a Who's Who on the net that has really taken off (read my take on SquidWho here).

You are not going to get rich building lenses on Squidoo but you can certainly earn some extra cash as you enjoy the process of building content on the Internet. In fact, I liked SquidWho's format so much I replaced my blogger profile with a SquidWho profile. Squidoo also is one of the top referrers to my blogs.

I think Squidoo and SquidWho are worth a look.

Death by Popcorn!

I was doing my normal websurfing this morning, looking for ideas (good or bad) when I came across this news article from the AP Doctor warns consumers of popcorn fumes. I hadn't even read the article before I brokedown laughing.

"A pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies to say doctors there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years."

Okay, after all of these years of Microwaving popcorn this is the first case. Also, he developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years."

The doctor went on to say "We cannot be sure that this patient's exposure to butter flavored microwave popcorn from daily heavy preparation has caused his lung disease," cautioned Dr. Cecile Rose. "However, we have no other plausible explanation."

This is laughable, what other dangerous activities has this man been involved with in the past several years? Maybe, he got lung cancer from checking his own breath every morning after he brushed his teeth. I don't want to make light of the fact the man has cancer but for any sane person, let alone a doctor, to publicly proclaim that the fumes from popcorn may cause cancer, is ridiculous. Though it did give me something to post.

Microwave popcorn is now a high risk behavior please use caution and stop smelling the popcorn before you eat it. The Popcorn lobby will be up-in-arms and I'm sure Orvil Redenbacher is rolling around in his grave.

In fairness there has been some data that suggests a problem in the manufacturing of microwavable popcorn.

The July letter, made public Tuesday by a public health policy blog, refers to a potentially fatal disease commonly called popcorn lung that has been the subject of lawsuits by hundreds of workers at food factories exposed to chemicals used for flavoring.

"In response to Rose's finding, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association issued a statement Tuesday recommending that its members reduce "to the extent possible" the amount of diacetyl in butter flavorings they make. It noted that diacetyl is approved for use in flavors by the federal Food and Drug Administration."

Where is Steven Colbert when you need him. Please Steven get to the truth of this matter