Memorial Gym Magic:  Just
saw one of the most amazing basketball moments ever. While
(unfortunately) it’s a game in the NIT (”Not Invited Tournament”), a
full-court pass and lay-up with 6/10ths of a second left to break a tie and give Vanderbilt a win over Wichita State. Has to be #1
on Sports Center’s Plays of the Day tomorrow.

Update: My young colleague, Lena Basha, reports (see comments) she was at the game and almost passed out.

New Nashville blog: Kevin Barbieux, the formerly homeless Nashville resident who created The Homeless Guy, one of the most compelling blogs I can ever recall, has launched a new blog called “This.Is.Nashville.” I look forward to seeing what he develops there. (If I were a certain TV station, I’d be buying ad space there.) Also, I just noticed that Kevin has a knitting blog called “Knitting a Home” where he sells his work.

(Update: Kevin (see
comments) says he’s still homeless but very, very close to being
“formerly.” I hope to see him tomorrow night (see comments) to learn
more.)

What Jeff said: Jeff Jarvis says it’s about time Google News displayed some transparency in revealing the news sources it indexes.

While I agree with Jeff on the need for transparency, I think there is such a means. I don’t know what happens when you use the form, but at least they seem to invite feedback, questions and suggestions.

HP snaps up Snapfish: It’s a
picture-perfect day for folks who have online photo-sharing services to
sell to deep-pocketed buyers. First flickr (or was that yesterday? I’m
losing track.) and now it’s Snapfish.

On Coke: Back in a previous
life when I’d just joined a Nashville advertising firm to help launch a
PR subsidiary (now that I think of it, exactly 20 years ago) one of my
first assignments was handling the Nashville-area introduction of New
Coke (and then, Coke Classic, a few weeks later). Even at the time, I
thought everything about it was surreal, but wildly amusing and fun. I
just had a flashback when I read that Coke
was about to introduce a New Diet Coke made with Splenda (in addition
to the current version) and then introduce another diet cola called
Coke Zero.

I guess every 20 years or so, those folks go stark raving mad.

Naked rock climbing?  I had the same question when I saw the the April issue of Outside magazine
at the neighborhood outdoor-stuff store: Are newstand sales that bad? Is
this the only way to compete with the SI swimsuit issue? (Answer to
anticipated question: No, I didn’t purchase a copy — but. by the way,
where did that office copy go?)

Parents magazine launches custom
projects for Target: Here is the press
release announcing the “ultimate, one stop” resource for
parents, target.com/kids (currently,
however, I can’t find anything there) and a customizable e-newsletter
coming in May, target.com/baby.
Interesting in
light of last
November’s news that iVillage had lost its contract to
produce Baby
Connection for Wal-Mart. (I notice that content for the
Wal-Mart site is now provided by Baby Center, “a member of
the Johnson & Johnson family).

A bit presumptuous, but good, question: Jason Fried, the incredibly smart and talented person behind one of my favorite cool things on the Internet, Basecamp, asks a question that only he can answer:

Again, nothing against Jason. I’ve spent the past week
telling people how incredible his presentation at SxSW last week was.
But, the number of popular web apps (among different niche audiences)
that are completely on their own is a mind-boggling number.

Vaporzine, or not? While I still add them to del.icio.us/rexblog, I typically don’t blog vaporzines (unless I can make fun of one particular one), but whenever someone announces a new magazine and specifically asks in the announcement whether or not it is a vaporzine, well, I have to link there and, once more, say that vaporzine is not a derogatory term, merely a term that is used until the magazine rolls off the press. But, for the record and since David Shaw is a friend, I’ll be happy to grant this launch early “former vaporzine” status.

Podcasting pooper? Not me! Dave Winer and I are being called podcasting poopers by Frank Barnako at Marketwatch.com. However, I’m not going to complain about any mischaracterization as I’m also called “innovative” in the piece and, frankly, if I start correcting him, then, well.

Anyway, it’s the business-hype of podcasting I’m pooping. I’m a huge fan of podcasting and the podcasters who podcast them. I just would rather focus on the movement of podcasting (like the launch of OurMedia today) than the money-flow and competition and central marketizing of podcasting. Also, don’t get me wrong: I’m a devout and practicing capitalist and I don’t mind people getting rich off of podcasting. I just believe it’s not the interesting part of the podcasting story at this time.

Also: My “first class” crack was not directed at Adam Curry. Frankly, it wasn’t directed at anyone. It was just the goofy way I always write around here — the seven regulars know that.

Also, it appears the Marketwatch.com story has spiked the traffic to the rexblog (up from my typical seven readers). Sorry for any technical difficulties you may have encountered due to this. I believe the traffic is back down to seven so you probably won’t have anymore difficulty.

Over nine usage and grammar errors that hopefully everyone who reads rexblog knows they don’t do: Ten things that make Jesse Kornbluth flinch.

(from: Mediabistro.com)

MSN’s branding magic: Microsoft’s MSN has renamed its custom-solutions division the ‘MSN branded entertainment experiences team.’
I’m sure brand managers in need of some enetertainment experiences will
really be blown away by the branding savvy of those who came up with
that new name.

(Apologies: In one way, I’m late with this news
(it was announced last week). In another way, I’m early, as April Fools
Day is not until next week.)

(via: ElectricNews.net)