Brad’s Sketchpad

Thoughts about copy-cat startups, in my PlainText column on Newsweek.com this week

I don’t object to the emerging idea of “carbon offsets”. I agree they can play a role in a broad solution to the forces contributing to climate change. But I don’t think that programs like Ford’s Greener Miles are a replacement for making conscientious consumer decisions, such as whether to by an SUV. I argue as such in this week’s Plain Text.

Having written a book about the robot hobbyist community, Gearheads: the Turbulent Rise of Robotic Sports, attending Make Magazine’s Maker Faire last weekend felt like a homecoming. Here’s my take, in this week’s Plain Text. Here’s Jennifer’s take, in her Wired.com column.

In today’s Plain Text, I vent some pent-up Cleveland angst while discussing new wired ways to watch baseball this season.

I spent the fall of 2004 researching the cryptic business practices of a New York City adware company called Direct Revenue. In my Newsweek.com story, aiming to be fair-minded, I gave Direct Revenue CEO Joshua Abram a chance to respond to my allegations against his firm. He insisted that his company had done nothing illegal and that it was cleaning up its business practices. (more…)

The worst part of recovering from identity theft is trying to freeze your credit accounts with the three credit brokers, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. The young TrustedId, which I wrote about last week, is trying to make it easier. They have their work cut out for them. This week, I attempted to untangle MSN’s new search ad system, AdCenter.

I write about the Web’s most popular video site, YouTube.com - and one of the reasons for its popularity, all that copyrighted material sitting on the service.

This past weekend, Jen and I went to New Orleans to see friends, the first parades of Mardis Gras, and to witness the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina. I wrote about our trip in this week’s Plain Text.

Another Valentine’s Day, another opportunity to riff on how technology changes relationships. This year, I ask whether today’s complex gadgets are forging a dangerous codependency among couples and families. Last year, by the way, I had fun with the using email to woo women.

What I hope will be the first in a series of Plain Text columns on online advertising. It offers a bit of an overview of what’s ahead for Web ads in 2006.