The Meditations of MJ Santos

Archive for the ‘web 2.0’ Category

MAJOR OUTLETS RELEASE MJ´s BAILOUT SINGLE WORLDWIDE

In creative, music, news, politics, web 2.0 on 2009/02/25 at 22:09

You can now purchase the single:

Bailout on my Mind. 

 

Cover

Cover

 

 

Ringtones will also be available.*

You can click through the following major digital outlets ( other locations are pending*) below: 

Emusic .com

iTunes.com: Type MJ Santos

Amazon.com

Napster.com

Shockhound.com


Please tell all your friends and don´t forget to rate it.

 



Must have in 2009: A Cyberterrorist Love Letter

In blogging, life, news, politics, society, trends, web 2.0 on 2009/01/01 at 21:00

 

I have been quiet the entire vacation time to put in some time doing content for our companies under MJS Global Group: MJS Strategies, MJS Commodities, MJS Capital, etc. I have been putting it off for quiet sometime so I decided to buckle down with the help of some associates. After countless hours back and forth sharing and working through them despite of the time zones, I got the news today that we got hacked by this guy and all the files got infected and therefore we have to work from scratch again. We have notified Hostmonster and they have not responded due to the holidays.

 

My Love Letter from a Cyberterrorist

My Love Letter from a Cyberterrorist

This is my first experience on cyberterrorism. On the positive note I am glad we are still in the beginning stages, however, I already did 70 pages worth of content. What a way to start the year. 

Today is the 6th day of the airstrikes in Gaza so I know there are a lot of tensions. Many protests are going on and on the other end, I can understand why this cyberterrorist would do this. It forces people to look and listen, but to the extent of innocent casualties. 

This should be a huge concern for all of us especially when we are about to usher in the third evolution of the Internet: Semantic web, which will enable people to share content beyond the boundaries of applications and websites. So think about all your important information from Government to banks, etc and cyberterrorists like this suspends all activity. I know I cannot live without internet. I cannot even picture in my head how chaotic it would become when that is done on a global scale the way they hit 9-11 in New York just to make a statement. 

Al Qaeda are using this vehicle for fundraising and recruitment. Mumbai bombers were also quite high tech. These terrorists don´t need much to sacrifice to do destruction. They have calculated so well that all they need is a small rock to start the ripple effect. People have become so much smarter…and more evil towards each other.

The world has definitely changed. Happy New Year to us all!

World Ideologies for Dummies

In musings, politics, web 2.0 on 2008/12/03 at 21:46

Some friends from Facebook, Bradley and Mel posted this witty explanations of world ideologies and thought I would share it (Not sure who wrote it, but God Bless that person for having brains):

WORLD IDEOLOGIES EXPLAINED:

FEUDALISM
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk. 

PURE SOCIALISM 
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need. 

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM 
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in barn with everyone else’s cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.

FASCISM 
You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk. 

PURE COMMUNISM 
You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk. 

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. 

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM 
You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you. 

DICTATORSHIP
You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you. 

PURE DEMOCRACY
You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk. 

REPRESENTATIVE DEOMOCRACY
You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk. 

BUREAUCRACY
You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows. 

PURE ANARCHY
You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you. 

ANARCHO-CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. 

SURREALISM 
You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

2008 U.S. Presidential Elections Synopsis Part 2

In news, politics, society, trends, web 2.0 on 2008/12/03 at 14:35

The 2008 U.S. election proved that a new dawn for politics has arrived. We now have seen the power of web 2.0 and how it can shape a political landscape. We also saw how the Millenials are engaged. How did this all happen? The answer is two words: MARKETING and MONEY. The rule of the game (anywhere) is the one with the bigger war chest, wins. But there is something else about this election that was also not seen in a long time: STRONG MEDIA BIAS.

We can go on and on (which I will because there will be other things I will be ranting about this election), but for the sake of this page, I can safely say that Obama won because he vastly outspent McCain. Even Chris Cilizza of Washington Post (one of the newspapers who endorsed Obama) agrees with many of us who observed the political circus. 

According to Nielsen Company, from June through November, Obama ran 419,667 ads in local markets while McCain ran 269,992 ads — a difference of nearly 150,000 ads. In the final month of the election, the ad difference was even greater with Obama’s campaign running 210,425 local ads as compared to just more than 97,000 for McCain. Obama also had one-and-a-half times as many spot TV ads than John McCain during the general election season (6/08 to 11/08), double when he started running ads in January during the Primaries.

SPOT TV ADS: June-Nov 2008

Barack Obama 419,667
John McCain 269,992

 

Local Ad Spending by Both McCain and Obama

Local Ad Spending by Both McCain and Obama

Other notable campaign facts from Nielsen’s research

  • Obama’s ads were on the airwaves over twice as much as McCain’s in the final month before the election (210,245 vs. 97,023 ad buys).
  • McCain took early advantage of Obama’s long primary battle with Hillary Clinton, which ended on June 3rd. McCain bought over three and a half times more spot TV ads than Obama in June (26,594 to 7,251), the only month that McCain beat his opponent in that category.
  • McCain made a major push with national buys in September, out placing Obama 10 to 1 in cable and network ad buys.
  • The two candidates alone combined for almost 850,000 total ad buys dating back to January.

 

Here are some statistics presented by ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

 

Daily Tracking versus Actual Popular Vote From ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

Daily Tracking versus Actual Popular Vote From ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

This figure show results of the daily tracking polls, and the actual popular vote (blue). Main pollsters are colored, so that relative bias can be seen. The trend line is a less smooth through all points. 

 

State tracking results from ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

State tracking results from ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

The result for each state (blue, red) and polls for each state over the week leading up to the election are shown as a dot plot. From top to bottom, the order of the states is from most Republican to most Democratic.

Median is represented as a black dot, all polls as large white dots, and median of last week’s as a grey dot. Vertical lines mark 5% points difference. 

 

Obama tracking results from ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

Obama tracking results from ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

 

McCain tracker from ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

McCain tracker from ISU Statistical Graphics Working Group

These figures show the daily tracking results separately for Obama and McCain, and the actual result. Tracking polls low-balled the McCain %.

So, how fair was U.S. Elections this time compared to the 2000 or 2004?

Lesson learned here is that politics still truly local and money greases the machines. It is a dirty world we live and work in.

2008 U.S. Presidential Elections Synopsis Part 1

In news, politics, society, trends, web 2.0 on 2008/12/03 at 14:23

Fourty-eight days to January 20, 2009, before the spectacular fanfare of the historic 44th United States Presidential Inauguration, when an African-American takes center-stage and recite the oath on first entering office specified in Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect,  and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The theme for the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama is “A New Birth of Freedom,” which honors the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. People scrambling to get the hottest “non-existent” tickets in town. Yes, “non-existent” because they are not issued yet and there are scammers selling them for $1000+ already. So if you contemplate of buying them through the web, STOP IT NOW.  These tickets are FREE and you get them from any U.S. Congress and Senate Officials and usually they are only allotted with a couple of hundred tickets depending on their constituents. Some public officials have even started doing lottery to be fair. You cannot get these if you are not American constituent in that district that the particular elected official (or ask your American friends).

Washington D.C. is expecting about 1M visitors and a massive planning is taking place to keep the city in order. All this hysteria because people want to hear the man who used a Kennedy-King-Lincoln-esque platform and echoed throughout his campaign:

“I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.” Excerpt from A More Perfect Union

 

Electoral Vote tally

Electoral Vote tally

We sat with astonishment to the meteoric rise of this obscured Arab-cheered Messiah 46-year-old political virgin to become the first African-American to capture DNC nomination. (Thanks to the Iowa Caucus and Obama´s brilliant grassroots strategy through David Axelrod´s brainchild, he surprisingly rose above Clinton) Weeks later, he wins an overwhelming mandate of 365 Electoral votes versus the 173 that McCain  got.  World Leaders like Merkel, Sarcozy, Brown (pro-Americans to Obama´s advantage) reacted warmly and  with expectations,  tests and warnings

2008 U.S. Presidential Elections County by County Results
2008 U.S. Presidential Elections County by County Results

The 2008 U.S. Elections cracked a lot of ceilings. Both GOP and DNC parties made historical marks with their two women, Sen. Hillary Clinton (NY) and Gov. Sarah Palin (AL). The former proving to be a formidable candidate with 18M behind her and the latter, a female maverick that became GOP´s first female for top ticket. Then you have the massive money that got poured in through Obama´s internet fundraising, garnering aroung $650M in total which afforded him to release a 30 minute infomercial in all major networks. 

The RESULT: The longest, historic, exciting, most expensive U.S. Election ever!

Facebook RE-instated my Account with Warning Attached

In plans and goals, politics, society, trends, web 2.0 on 2008/12/02 at 10:43

 

FB warning me of my activity

Warning after an hour of posting around 20 messages to friends. A web 2.0 nightmare for a person with circa 2000 friends!

So it goes…after 58 hours and awesome sweet political Conservative and Liberal friends later, Facebook re-instated my original profile which I have had for years with the following email:

 

“Facebook has limits in place to prevent behavior that other users may find annoying or abusive…Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with the specific rates that have been deemed abusive. Your account was disabled because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions when sending links and making Wall posts, despite having been warned to slow down. Please be aware that if your account is disabled again, we will not be able to reactivate it. Once logged in, please slow down the rate at which you share links and post on group Walls.  We appreciate your cooperation going forward.”

First off, HOW exactly was I annoying and abusive? By having too much traffic and activity on my site because my FB friends are very much engaged in the posts that I put on my walls? Isn´t the idea of web 2.0 is SOCIAL NETWORKING? Why is being SOCIAL penalized? Is SOCIAL and INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY in social sites unacceptable? The ANSWER is NO. 

If I am annoying and abusive, what about those people that go to my site and attack me directly for my opinions out of nowhere? (They are not even in my list of friends!)

Some “hate mails” I have been receiving lately shows intolerance of other people´s views:

From Micah Weiss: ”Your Stand on politics is the worst ever !!! you dont even live here .. and you have those views about Obama … makes me sick to my stomach … im sorry .. not narrowminded !!”

From Todd Lytle- a Screenplay Writer in Hollywood: “shows your ignorance and honestly coming from a hard core conservative doesn’t surprise me you would have that kind of mentality. I shared your comment with a few of my friends who were and weren’t Jewish and they all said you were just being nasty trying to piss me off. I will not stoop to your pathetic level of insults based on a generalization. Instead I will just let people know who you really are…and give them the heads up on your ignorant nature. After all you cannot help it…DITTOHEAD!!”

From Alex Demyanenko, (who asked me to remove his Title and Employer, hmm) : “Your funnies (political cartoons you post) are offensive and further proof that GOOD finally won out over EVIL. Karma, baby! Rovian = Evil.”

From Trevor Capon: “I don’t know how I see your pictures but you are an idiot. You really think intelligence is the mark of a Republican? You who vote for Sarah Palin and you who’s hero is Joe the Plumber? John McCain finished at the bottom of his class and Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review. If you look at all of the polling college educated voters went 4 to 1 to Obama. Please try to back up your arguments with facts.”

I have allowed people to write me things like this (and decided to be above it because liberals have always resorted to personal attacks rather than substantiating their arguments). I also wanted to let everyone know that I am not the Conservative leaning chick who just deletes people because they think different than I do. I am NOT that judgmental. I got friends from all walks of life: Homeless, Filthy Rich, Educated with Ph D, Dropouts, Business owners, Social Welfare Milkers, Handicaps, Sports jock Olympians, Musicians, Tone-deafs, Conservatives, Liberals, Confused and Apathetic people. But I learn from all of them. I live in the same planet as they do and they ALL matter to me because each has their own way of viewing the world I do not see.

I understand that politics is personal but seriously, how come others are able to handle and accept other differing views while others resort to give insulting remarks. I have had worse emails than that too with people using profanities but I guess the slandering to other people´s pages calling me “idiot”, “offshore terrorist”, “moron”, or “stupid” are ok to write people instead of putting notes to facilitate debates. Do I get hurt? Not really. People are FREE to express their views, regardless of the degree to where it leans: Positive or negative. But I do take pride in the fact that I am touching them somehow and make them think or defend their ground, which is what I am after. Nothing is worse to me than people with no opinion, belief or purpose. You might as well be dead if you don´t want to grow. 

Facebook ought to pay me for such intellectual activity that I have started. The only people who appreciate are those are truly “educated” from life because they understand that we are all individuals with different backgrounds that shape our ideologies and values we live by. 

When I started with Facebook, I thought it was exciting to keep in touch with your college friends and stuff, but now that they allow all developers to create these annoying apps, I found it so cluttered. Excuse me that I do not want to clutter my page with those apps that I find useless. I want my FB platform to be purposeful and since I am a practicing political strategist ( I eat politics for breakfast and late night snacks), I want to do something on MY page, what I want to do: DEBATES. I want stimulating conversations with my friends and learn from all sides of the spectrum. I get that, but apparently Facebook is not the place for these types. All the more I am convinced that iCampaign.tv NEEDS be unleashed for people like me.

In a nutshell, iCampaign.tv will be a tool ( web , mobile and desktop ) to empower any campaign for all types of industries which will use Open Social platform. Stay tuned!

For those who do not agree with me, don´t worry. I will not delete you. Just show some respect in giving your opinions. But you are free to delete me. It is not my problem that you cannot handle people who think different than you. But you know, I don´t know if I want to be your friend anyway, because I find that being around all “Yes- People” are boring. Look at Obama with his choices now, at least I am grown up enough to find common ground with the guy. He is not after “Yes-People”.

Facebook says, “Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.” How is posting content on your OWN group walls and notes be MISUSAGE? Who made these stupid rules? This is like curbing my voracious appetite for putting my own content in a box.

Puh-leeeze, don´t bother boxing me in because I am going to find a way to crawl out of it. I don´t like boxes, the air gets too stuffy inside.