Two sides: KXAN vs Time Warner

I have been hearing a lot about the disputes between KXAN and Time Warner Cable that has ultimately resulted in the loss of KXAN in Time Warner's cable line up.  What a bummer!  Say goodbye to Heroes, 30 Rock, The Office, and Law and Order: SVU.  Most importantly, say goodbye to the SuperBowl!!!  Ouch.

So what happened?  If you are like me, you have heard or seen commercials that Time Warner has been advertising.  It directs you to a website to see facts about the dispute.  Time Warner says that KXAN wants to charge customers for the free signal they are receiving.  Because Time Warner really "cares" about their customers, they decided to pull the channel.

But we all know, there are always two-sides to a coin.  So, what's KXAN's story?

KXAN's general manager, Eric Lassberg,  told 

The Austinist in an interview their side of the

 story.  Lassberg states: "Our dispute is about fair and equitable treatment. Time Warner charges its cable subscribers a fee to provide KXAN-TV in its channel line-up. It also charges its cable subscribers a fee to provide cable networks, which cable subscribers may or may not watch. Time Warner shares that fee with the cable networks; however, it does not share that fee with us. In essence, it takes our signal for free and resells it for a profit."

This changes the story a bit, huh?  I think KXAN has a right to be upset, even though I am upset with the decision to pull the channel.  KXAN could have done a better job of advertising their point of view if they had commercials or a website like Time Warner did.  So, the question remains... who's side are you on?

The solution to drailing!!!

It's 3 a.m., you are in a taxi going home after a long night downtown.  It was a good night, you had a couple of drinks and you feel a little happier.  Okay, maybe a lot happier.  Once you have your Whataburger and you are at home with your friends laughing about the night, you might decide it would be a good idea to call you ex.  You know you shouldn't, but something in you has decided to take over.  Next morning, you have a nasty voicemail and apparently you said some things you might not remember.

Been there?

It's the drunk dial.  It is, for some of us, some of the biggest mistakes of our social lives.  Yet, there is another trend rapidly growing and its called "drailing".  Have you heard of it?  Well maybe you have experienced it.  Let's take the following scenario and instead of calling your ex, you opt to send an email.  That's drailing, or otherwise known as drunk e-mailing.  In class, we have talked about the fact that "e-mail is forever".  The moral of the story was that you might want to think twice before you click send to that nasty e-mail, most especially if its your boss.  Help is on its way!

According to the Associated Press, Google has just developed a new feature that is being used in G-mail that prevents drailing. "Mail Goggles" takes effect late at night and on the weekends.  Jon Perlow, the designer of the Goggles, has designed this feature to ask you to solve some simple math problems before allowing you to hit the send button.  This feature trusts that you will know these simple problems sober.  So, if you passed elementary math, Goggles will save you... from yourself!  Make sure to thank Google in the morning after you treat your hangover!

I think this is a great idea!  It is an effective to solution to a big problem.  Although it is still in its testing phase, I encourage you to try it out and leave a comment telling me about your experience and if YOU think its effective or not!

Que se oiga la gente, la Raza, MI GENTE!!

Juntos las voces de la Raza Latina se van a unir y sera UNA VOZ, UNA GENTE, UNA RAZA!

SI SE PUEDE!!

Translation: Together the voices of the Latin Race will unite and we will be ONE VOICE, ONE PEOPLE, ONE RACE! YES WE CAN!!

Yet another tool reaching out to the youth vote, except this time it is targeting Latinos.  Voto Latino is a non-profit, non- partisan, youth-driven organization that wants to reach Latino youth and educate them on the issues facing our country.  Voto Latino wants to give voices to the silent.  There is a website, blog, Facebook group and Myspace group dedicated to this organization and it is great.  They state that although there are currently 7 million registered Latino voters, over 8 million are still UNREGISTERED.

That is huge.  Latino's are not the minority anymore and we need to lift our heads and speak up.  Voto Latino is endorsed by countless celebrities including co-founder Rosario Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama, Perez Hilton,  Vida Guerra, Daddy Yankee, Cameron Diaz, John Leguizamo and Jennifer Lopez.

Dawson says that Voto Latino strives to get people registered and to serve as a reminder of when to vote and where to vote.  Voto Latino does NOT intend to sway your vote.

There have been various PSA's and a REALLY FUNNY series of short episodes featuring Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama, and Nick Zano. New episodes are to appear soon featuring Perez Hilton. Voto Latino recently won the Myspace Impact Award on September 24, 2008.  They also have their own blog with a Twitter widget reminding readers of registration deadlines.

This is a really great organization and I encourage everyone, all races, to visit the site!

Si se puede con el Voto Latino!!! 

The Myspace Debates

Cue presidential music: dum, dum, dum,dum, dum, dudumdudumdudum dum..



Please play this video while reading the remainder of my post for comedic effect... Thank you.


The Washington Independent has reported that the Commission on Presidential Debates will air the presidential debates on the social networking site, Myspace. Along with the airing, users will be able to access a toolset from MyDebates.org powered by Myspace. Below is a screenshot:




Okay this is actually SUPER COOL! You can take a quiz about issues you care about and it will match you up with your candidate, either McCain or Obama. It will rank your issues on importance and if you choose the "I don't care" button it will skip to the next issue. If you read both stances and do not know which to pick, it will mark it with a question mark and say you need to watch the debates to hear them both out. Cool ehh?

Another cool feature, guys! It actually has surveys and graphs of what other Myspace users think is important. You can check the map to see who is winning the Myspace vote, Obama is beating John McCain by an overwhelming amount. I believe there were four states for McCain, 6 undecided states, leaving a WHOPPING 39 states for Obama!! WOW! To be critical, though, Myspace does not offer the amount of people surveyed and if there were an equal number per state. But that aside, I really liked this new feature Myspace has added!

Final cool feature... you can actually send in your questions to the website and some lucky people will actually have them answered by the nominees! WHATT? That is soo cool! This is a GREAT digital media marketing tool to increasing the ratings among young adults to the debates. This election has been pretty wild, and many people are voting for personalities and not issues. Myspace and MyDebates have brought us back to the issues. The Commission is really trying to hook on to the most popular website on the Internet right now. I think this is a very smart move and will see good results.

This just goes to show how cool Web 2.0 can be. I am looking forward to the debates! The first one airs Friday, September 26!!! Visit Myspace.com/mydebates.


I will leave you with my FAVORITE music video this year called "Yes We Can".



YES WE CAN!