Disqus - Latest Comments for kbondelli

Re: What French People in 1900 Thought Life Would Be Like In 2000

Kevin Bondelli — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:36:51 -0000

The whale bus is amazing.

Re: Rdio Playlist: Other Lives

Kevin Bondelli — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:46:54 -0000

Colourmusic is the band and Tog is the song for the final track on the playlist.

Re: This lazy harp seal is a drain on society

Kevin Bondelli — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:34:26 -0000

You have just made my day.

Re: Friday music blogging: First Serve

Kevin Bondelli — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:02:19 -0000

You might want to check out Common Market's self-titled album from 2006.

Re: Inoffensive Gay People on TV Continue to Not Offend - Entertainment - The Atlantic Wire

Kevin Bondelli — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:11:05 -0000

While I think that the flurry of posts in response to every gay character is a little overboard, it is interesting to look at the difference in the reaction to gay TV characters over the last 15-20 years.

After Ellen's character came out on "Ellen" in 1997, ABC began running a parental advisory before each episode. Sandra Bernhard's lesbian character in "Roseanne," Nancy Bartlett, and Roseanne's kiss with Muriel Hemingway in 1994 led to protest, pulled advertisers, and ABC affiliates refusing to air the episode.

Sure, we're not there yet, but in 1996 only 27% of Americans polled believed in marriage equality, now it is a majority.

Re: Leon Panetta's Weekend Commutes Cost As Much As That GSA Party - National - The Atlantic Wire

Kevin Bondelli — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:59:11 -0000

"But ultimately, the flights are for personal use and not business, so we do have a modest request, Secretary Panetta: as you look for ways to cut military spending, consider your flight bill. If not for taxpayers, then just for the sake of good optics as you push more significant spending cuts elsewhere."
You admit that Panetta is required to fly on a government aircraft and agree that it is important for the Secretary to be able to see his family. I am wondering how you expect him to cut his flight bill without cutting his trips home. The only thing I can think of would be to ask that he reimburse the government more than the legally-required coach fare.

Re: EA might be considered the worst company in America, thanks to deluded 'Mass Effect 3' haters - Guyism

Kevin Bondelli — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:29:44 -0000

Though you are right that it does seem silly for a video game publisher to win over companies whose bad actions have more serious effects on people's lives.

Re: EA might be considered the worst company in America, thanks to deluded 'Mass Effect 3' haters - Guyism

Kevin Bondelli — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:27:04 -0000

I don't think it is entirely because of the ME3 thing. EA has been public enemy #1 of the game community for years now. Like ATT, EA has notoriously bad customer service. They implemented extremely obtrusive DRM on their PC games. They are largely responsible for the annualization of franchise games and disabling servers on games after only a couple of years to force players to purchase newer editions. Always-on EA server connection, even on console games, has locked offline players out of their games. A lot of people are upset that they created Origin as a proprietary gaming platform. They buy out smaller software developers to acquire their IP and then spit out rushed product, which many players claim destroys some of their favorite franchises. In addition, EA supported SOPA and has gone nuts with the amount of "exclusive" DLC they sell for their games.

The icing on the cake are the comments by EA CEO John Riccitiello on how they use and plan to expand microtransactions in games the consumer has already spent $60 on. He said that if you are 6 hours into a game of Battlefield and need to spend a dollar of real money to reload, you are less likely to value that dollar and more likely to spend it in a game that you have already invested so much time in.

Most of the people who are losing their minds on the ME3 ending have focused on BioWare, not EA. I do agree that it has gone overboard. Did I like the ME3 ending? Not really. Should BioWare have to change it? No. If that was the artistic direction the writers and developers wanted to take, and they are proud of their ending, they should let it stand.

Re: Generation Opportunity — A Tool for Grassroots Movements for Young Americans - SocialTimes.com

Kevin Bondelli — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:12:37 -0000

Especially when you are just posting their press releases.
http://www.reviewseeker.com...

Re: Generation Opportunity — A Tool for Grassroots Movements for Young Americans - SocialTimes.com

Kevin Bondelli — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:09:45 -0000

Can we please stop pretending that this is some massive, non-partisan, youth-led organization? http://futuremajority.com/n...

Re: Troy Davis execution raises questions about episodic coverage of death penalty

Kevin Bondelli — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:47:47 -0000

I don't believe the author is attacking social media. The point is that many journalists and outlets cover death penalty cases and capital punishment itself like a sports highlight reel, remaining mostly silent on the issue in the interim between highlights. We would be better served by reporting that reflects the depth and complexity of such an issue, in addition to the episodic coverage.

Re: How niche is too niche? The case of gay news blogs

Kevin Bondelli — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:01:52 -0000

I think you're spot-on with the business-side problems. I've noticed that political news sites in general often have a harder time luring niche advertisers. The niche sites that seem to have this draw are those that directly involve products: a blog that reviews stationary products, photography sites, a genre of video games, etc. You see the same situation on Klout, where the influencer offers are based both on Klout score and topic influence. You rarely see offers for people influential in news or political topics. Most are for technology, travel, food and wine, etc.

Re: NUGENT: Millennials sleep as their future crumbles

Kevin Bondelli — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:38:09 -0000

Some Guy Named Ted Nugent Thinks Lazy Millennials Don't Protest http://futuremajority.com/n...

Re: The 5 Best Gaming Podcasts You Should Be Listening To

Kevin Bondelli — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:55:41 -0000

Some of my favorites: The Joystiq Podcast, RebelFM, Retronauts, The Xbox 360 Fancast, GiantBombcast.

Re: Tell Us Your Favorite Movies, Music, and More from 2010!

Kevin Bondelli — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 04:36:27 -0000

TV: Sherlock Holmes, Glee, The Mentalist, Fringe
Video Games: Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach
Books: Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
Music: Jimmy Eat World - Invented
Movies: Iron Man 2, Inception

Re: Find Your Lost Or Stolen iPhone, iPad Or iPod Touch with Find My iPhone

Kevin Bondelli — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 01:59:20 -0000

Did not work with my 3GS either.

Re: Uganda paper: "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos Leak. Hang Them."

Kevin Bondelli — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:28:08 -0000

This is so disgusting.

Re: Reboot RSS readers? Sorry, that train has left the station

Kevin Bondelli — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 01:17:55 -0000

Google Reader is still indispensable for me as a tool to curate news and posts from a large number of sources. Oddly enough, Reader became such an important tool for me after watching a video of you a few years ago about how you used it with keyboard shortcuts to quickly scan headlines.

Re: Gary Vaynerchuk - My CNBC Power Lunch appearance What do you think?

Kevin Bondelli — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:38:55 -0000

Great interview Gary. Way to stay on your game with people that just don't get it. I agree with the other commenters that saying caring for your users is corny says something about the old way of thinking.

Re: Gary Vaynerchuk - Is Effort enough to Scale? I think way too many...

Kevin Bondelli — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:57:32 -0000

I definitely agree about the quality of interactions vs. the quantity.

Re: Gary Vaynerchuk - Is Effort enough to Scale? I think way too many...

Kevin Bondelli — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:55:20 -0000

I think people have different definitions as to what it means to scale personal touch. If someone is talking about the ability to respond to every email, answer every phone call, etc., there is a point where time is unable to keep up with volume. If you are talking about a culture of personal touch, where it is clear that the person is putting in the effort to have that personal touch with as many people as possible, however briefly, I believe that is scalable.

As Gary said in the video, those people that have experienced that personal touch will to some extent evangelize that fact. In this case Gary embodies the culture of the personal touch and has found new, more scalable ways of connecting with people. For example, Gary's ustream last night about the Cinderella wine reached a few hundred people and the interaction was a form of personal touch (I ordered 3 bottles by the way, looking forward to it).

There are people that are relatively high maintenance, and to them anything short of flying out to their home town to have brunch with their family makes them feel like they aren't getting the personal touch.

Re: Big Chinese Online Store Sells Exactly… 5 iPhones

Kevin Bondelli — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:00:04 -0000

I can also imagine that being behind the "great firewall" severely hampers the iPhone's functionality.

Re: Gary Vaynerchuk - I am really excited about the Vook and getting...

Kevin Bondelli — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:10:59 -0000

I really like the Vook format, but I wish that you didn't have to choose web or iPhone. Instead of having to pay $7 for each there should at least be a combination price, for example $10 to have both options. That being said I went for the web version of Crush It.

Re: Murdoch’s Latest Money Grab: Charge for Mobile Access to WSJ

Kevin Bondelli — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:37:37 -0000

I had already deleted the app. Mobile news is a tough sell as it is, there is no way this works with the current competition.

Re: Why I Use Amazon Affiliate Links When Reviewing Items

Kevin Bondelli — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:50:07 -0000

I think 95% of people agree with you completely. Most readers want to easily be able to click to the product they are reading about, and you might as well be rewarded for bringing those potential customers to Amazon. I don't understand how someone can believe you are going to be influenced by a possible small % of sale on reviews you are choosing to write.