This one’s for Tamara: iKitty-alike pod cover?
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Archives
Gawker media’s international expansion
Oct 5, ’05
8:23 PM
Gizmodo International Unveiling – Gizmodo
What an interesting development (also covered on Nick Denton’s blog).
While paying for bloggers to effectively run online maga/fan/niche-zines was a great idea, the question was always around scale. Nick’s business model was neat and, where the personality and chosen niche gelled together the compelling read could easily turn a nice profit (where ad revenue > cost of blogger). One would always be at risk of said blogger being poached or going solo (as happened), but the clear niche for Gizmodo, the momentum behind it and a swift, good replacement covered that nicely.
The next question was enhancing the commercial model. There were forays into paid/sponsored content, or getting closer into bed with advertisers, but these sit uncomfortably with the open, “part of the community”, blogger approach.
The current link with VNU is therefore a neat change. Nick gets distribution (and free translation!). Good brand extension. Syndication, in a word. VNU gets some cobwebs blasted off its offerings in this area and hopefully lots of names and addresses so they can sell subscriptions to them when they have their work hats on.
Nick hasn’t anything to lose: hell, anyone could have copied/linked to the blog anyway! VNU gets to see whether these micro, difficult to manage “communities” have any point. I wonder whether they’ll manage to find a way of making supplier/advertiser support more palatable?
I also wonder of course how the sk8tr-boi geek patois of Gizmodo will translate into French or Italian… If only my French were good enough to be able to tell!
This move shows that Nick is still combining learnings from publishing, especially syndication, with a good ‘nose for a niche’ and an eye (ear?) for a deal.
Boiling water from your tap…
Oct 5, ’05
8:14 PM
“Quooker” – heh, great name.
So – I turn on the tap and boiling water streams out. Wonderful! Imagine, no more boiling the kettle so you can give the ‘tatoes a head start on that interminable 14 minute boil…
I wonder if you can incorporate a water filter so as not to get the heady aroma of London Piping and heavy metals as a background to the tea?
Either way, reminded me of my college room which was too near the boiler: the taps had two settings: boiling or explosive vapour. Taught me to wash my hands quickly and to stand at arm’s length when you turn on a tap. Ah, life skills!
Alice in hospital
Oct 5, ’05
1:44 AM
Poor Alice, here in the isolation room at the Royal London Hospital.
She’d had chicken pox, then impetigo and then lethargy/stomach upsets and general not-wellness. To top it all off there appeared a nasty swelling at the base of her neck, hot to the touch and painful. Quick trip to the GP was on the cards. One referral to hospital later and there ensued blood tests, swabs, x-rays, ultrasound and finally an IV drip of antibiotics.
Alice took all of this rather well, helped by a liberal supply of “I’ve been brave” stickers. What a great idea.
Since there was some concern that the lurgy couldn’t be identified and could be contagious we were put in an isolation unit and Vicky had the joy of spending 24 hours there with Alice.
Staff were great, the environment was as good as could be and overall everyone worked to make the stay as painless as possible. Cheering to be able to report so positively on our brush with hospital. It was very hot there, though 
Helga stayed over at our house to look after Manon who seemed unpeturbed by the temporary loss of her twin, rather enjoying the attention as an only child for a while. Since Alice’s release Manon’s been very solicitous and informs us all the while that Alice isn’t well.
This photo of Alice shows her watching cbeebies on the monitor while awaiting a scan. Thank god for cbeebies!