Play Memories was announced as a cloud service to sync Sony devices across a network. Phil Molyneux said the motto was to “Play, Watch, Listen and Share” and to “experience content the way you want to”.

The Sony Tablet P, which has a dual screen display, was unveiled. This is the same line as the Sony Tablet S.

Sony announced a new corporation, the Sony Mobile Communications division which will oversee all Mobile devices, such as the new Xperia Ion – exclusive to AT&T, and the Xperia S which will be available worldwide.

The Sony Bravia lines’ Picture Engine “X-Reality PRO” turns low-resolution internet videos into high-resolution videos.

The Sony Personal 3D Viewer, also known as the HMZ-T1, starts at $799.99, which is an HD headset using 5.1 virtual surround sound. See it online at SonyStyle.

4K Home Theater Systems, which is four times current HD resolutions, will be available soon.

The Sony Bloggie Live HD Camera will be the very first full HD capable WiFi streaming device. See that online at the SonyStyle store. This device is available tomorrow.

The new Sony SS-AR2 speakers were unveiled as well for those who enjoy their home theaters.

Also unveiled the Sony Crystal LED Display TV, which not many details were given, however Sir Howard Stringer said, “I have seen the future and it is a Sony”.

Sony Crystal LED Display

Of course the Sony PlayStation Vita was mentioned and will have 22 games at launch. We’ll be covering that in February and have a full review then. News on that today announced that Netflix should be available at the North American launch.

As announced, the Sony Open Golf Tournament will be covered in 3D.

Here’s the CES 2012 video line-up from Sony Electronics on YouTube:

If you’re at CES or watching online, here’s the full Sony CES 2012 Event Schedule.

We’ll update with more information as it comes to us, but for now, that’s it!

Most people are completely oblivious as to what SOPA is. We hope that a tech blackout DOES occur so you can whine and call and complain that your cat photos aren’t viewable on the Internet. The Young Turks, no affiliation (yet), explain it above pretty well, but we’ve added some additional information below. We’ve given several examples of who is supporting it in past blogs and highly encourage you to go take a look before you logon to the Internet one day and have a stroke because you can’t look at cat photos on Facebook.

More info about it states on this pastebin:

Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA) is a bill that would create America’s first Internet censorship system. In a nutshell, its similar like the censorship in China, Iran, etc. For more info look at http://www.americancensorship.org.

Time Magazine’s Graeme McMillan wrote this about it:

SOPA: What if Google, Facebook and Twitter Went Offline in Protest?

Can you imagine a world without Google or Facebook? If plans to protest the potential passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) come to fruition, you won’t need to; those sites, along with many other well-known online destinations, will go temporarily offline as a taste of what we could expect from a post-SOPA Internet.

Companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, Yahoo! and Wikipedia are said to be discussing a coordinated blackout of services to demonstrate the potential effect SOPA would have on the Internet, something already being called a “nuclear option” of protesting. The rumors surrounding the potential blackout were only strengthened by Markham Erickson, executive director of trade association NetCoalition, who told FoxNews that “a number of companies have had discussions about [blacking out services]” last week.

According to Erickson, the companies are well aware of how serious an act such a blackout would be:

This type of thing doesn’t happen because companies typically don’t want to put their users in that position. The difference is that these bills so fundamentally change the way the Internet works. People need to understand the effect this special-interest legislation will have on those who use the Internet.

The idea of an Internet blackout should seem familiar to anyone who’s been paying attention to the debate so far. In addition to a blackout already carried out by Mozilla, hacking group Anonymous proposed the same thing a couple of weeks ago, suggesting that sites replace their front pages with a statement protesting SOPA. That suggestion itself came a week after Jimmy Wales had asked Wikipedia users about the possibility of blacking out that site in protest of the bill.

As a way of drawing attention to the topic, it’s something that will definitely work. Just Google alone going dark would cause havoc online, but the idea of it happening at the same time as Facebook, Twitter et al. follow suit seems almost unimaginable.

The question then becomes how to translate the inevitable confusion and outrage from those who don’t know what SOPA is into activism. The key, I assume, lies in the execution of the blackout: Will the sites that voluntarily go down be entirely unavailable or will they follow the Anonymous-proposed model of replacing the front page with a statement explaining what is going on, why and how users can best become involved in the discussion? If the sites do go entirely dark, is the hope that the resulting outrage will be enough to fuel news stories about the reason behind the decision? And that users will not transfer their frustration to the sites themselves, as opposed to the bill they’re protesting?

The fact that Facebook and Twitter are both said to be considering taking part in the blackout is simultaneously heartening and worrying. The former because, well, they’re standing up for what they collectively believe in — and that’s a good thing. But the latter because the lack of availability for social media on the proposed blackout day feels like it’s giving up the best chance to harness the frustration and energy people will feel about the temporary loss of the Internet as they know it, and a great possibility to focus and direct that energy into productive activism against SOPA. Then again, it may take losing Facebook and Twitter to really drive home how dramatically SOPA could affect the Internet.

All of this may come to nothing, of course. The companies may decide not to black out their sites and find other ways to protest SOPA. That could be for the best; collectively closing down the most trafficked sites on the Internet to prove a point will certainly garner a lot of attention, but the effects it’ll have beyond that (and the reactions it’ll cause as a result) are difficult to predict and could easily end up causing a backlash against the sites responsible at a time when they least want it. But still … just try to imagine an Internet without Google, Facebook or Yahoo. Even for a day. Almost makes you want it to happen, just to make people realize how reliant we are on the Internet as we know it now, doesn’t it?

Some content originally reported at:

http://techland.time.com/2012/01/05/sopa-what-if-google-facebook-and-twitter-went-offline-in-protest/

http://act.ly/5cz

Might as well preface this with: A) It’s technical, B) It’s personal, and C) We gave them ample opportunity to make this problem right before we had to take the issue into our own hands. And in light of recent SOPA problems with GoDaddy, we hope this testimonial is even more of a reason that you don’t use their service. Speaking of, their real CEO, Warren Adelman, put out a statement about SOPA stating that because the Senate couldn’t come to a consensus that GoDaddy was no longer supporting SOPA. Read that again if you need to figure out why we’re astonished or read the whole article about SOPA and GoDaddy sucking. Now, on to the show!

We affiliated ourselves with GoDaddy, a.k.a. GoDaddy.com or Go Daddy, Inc., as an ICANN domain provider back in 2006 before we went public and as a reseller in 2008 to offer competitive pricing and an alternative storefront when we did begin offering public services. As a reseller, they take one of their other companies, Starfield Technologies as well as Wild West Domains (remember this name, it’s key to what went wrong) and have your WHOIS/Registration information pass through them. Since then, we’ve obviously learned that there are just as viable alternatives to domain acquisition and purchases than dealing with GoDaddy, often for pennies more or less. And our network continues to grow.

Looking for a way to keep costs the same or lower and provide the same if not better service, we looked at integrating what was called GoDaddy’s AnyCast DNS now called ‘Premium DNS’. We suspect that they stopped calling it ‘AnyCast DNS’ because you can’t serve DNS from one datacenter and honestly call it AnyCast… sort of a technical oxymoron. This was to be used as an extension of our services and as an alternative to running solely our own network of DNS servers. We didn’t jump in with both feet, but we were deep enough to start losing air before it was too late.

We called and spoke to a sales representative about their services a long time ago, long before our trust was broken and our issue ever occurred. At the time, we declined moving forward with their DNS service because there was no way to CNAME or create a hostname for the servers that matched a domain name of our own as we said a moment ago. When GoDaddy added the ‘vanity name servers’ bit to the DNS service, we were more interested. We called back several months later and spoke to a sales representative that we had make sure with her supervisor her statement was accurate and ordered the Premium DNS service because we were able to not hand out a string like a CDN does. At the time, we had been hosting our own servers and wanted at least one extension off of that for even more redundancy. Since we already had our .com at GoDaddy at the time with the core hostnames coming from GoDaddy, it was easy to say yes to testing out something for like $2.99 a month since we were paying much more than that per DNS server.

Before I get too far into this, a very important part of hosting relies on DNS. DNS to the layman is a server or network system which broadcasts the IP address or location of a server by converting the name of a top-level domain like turkreno.com into an IP address. DNS serves out usually every request that goes through a network and it also plays a very large part in the latency, or speed, in which content is found. There are times when a network is undiscoverable or slow just because of routing issues with backbone service providers. Those providers in the United States, such as AT&T, Global Crossing, Layer3 and others actually run the flow of the Internet and usually own the fiber optic cable on which it runs. So, when a DNS server does a query, the response or reply may tell your traffic to go to Washington first, because that’s where the first router is between you and the domain that resolved and the server you’re asking for, then further “hops” to other locations until your request reaches its destination. Having multiple servers, or an AnyCast-type network, that are within multiple datacenters around the world where those backbones are routed through provides what’s known as a Point-of-Presence (POP) and will decrease latency since the answer is locally cached to that router. In a worst cast scenario, the traffic where a network client requests a site that isn’t cached by the ISP, which is the usual case, the router may have to search or query the router ahead of it to search for a resolving DNS server, thus creating latency. Speed is of the essence and maybe that explains why this improvement is important for any network.

Digressing back to what happened is most likely easier if we just put it into a handy mind map and bullet out the entire issue here for those who don’t want to view a huge PDF. For months this issue was up on the whiteboard in the office and it took precisely that long to fix all of the screwed up issues that happened. We ended up making a mind map chart of what went wrong and we’ll go from there.

GoDaddy Network Failure Mind Map

PDF of the Mind Map — MP3 of the Voicemail

• GoDaddy Network Failure
• Cause/Reasoning
  • > TurkReno.biz hijacked to place to DNS records outside of our control by GoDaddy D/B/A Wild West Domains. Explained in further depth within “Effects”.
    • >> Premium DNS with AnyCast Network selected to improve upon POP in RackSpace ORD1 and DFW
    • >> Inquired about “AnyCast DNS” when plan was released and declined to move forward for fear of the effects that happened.
    • >> Told by sales associate that we could use “vanity name servers” in lieu of hosting our own recursive name servers.
      • >>> This sounded great. It’s much easier to tell a client, even if they’re technically minded, a human friendly and readable address.
    • >> Save money for same DNS purpose without self hosting part of the network. Expansion.
    • >Effects
      • >>> Apathetic responses from GoDaddy
        • >>>> Call from the Office of the President
          • >>>>> Spoke to “Jordan”
            • >>>>>> ”Main concern was getting feedback on how to prevent this in the future” – Actual Results:
              • >>>>>>> Apathetic
              • >>>>>>> Totally on GoDaddy’s Team
              • >>>>>>> Lacking in Technical Expertise, or at least playing extremely dumb.
            • >>>>>> No actual conclusion met. Essentially a feedback loop.
            • >>>>>> Refunded for AnyCast DNS service, but refused to compensate for any outage or brand damage we experienced.
        • >>>> Calls from Manager stating 4 days after the fact that this was due to “Vanity NS’s” not usable with ANY Domains outside my account, even ones within GoDaddy/DPR/WWD
          • >>>>> Recorded message to be put on CDN
            • >>>>>> Voicemail from GoDaddy – Epic admission of what we originally should have been told 5 days before.
            • >>>>>> Phone call from “Jeremy” stating exactly WHY this went wrong. GoDaddy states that you are not allowed to use vanity name servers with domains outside of
          • >>>>> Lack of information on purchase, would have left alone had known this information.
            • >>>>>> To this day, GoDaddy still has not corrected their website to prevent other users from this pitfall.
        • >>>> E-mails from Call Supervisors stating that they would not rest until this was made right.
          • >>>>> Never followed up to me directly after Presidents office called.
      • >>> Call to Registries
        • >>>> Placed call to NeuStar (.biz)
          • >>>>> Told to discuss this matter with Verisign since all domains affected were .com / .net, opened ticket #00406445
        • >>>> Placed call to Verisign (.com/.net)
          • >>>>> Opened ticket #6271
            • >>>>>> Verisign verified that a Wild West Domains employee modified the TLD causing the outage. Exact time of modification given by Verisign was 10:56:36 GMT.
            • >>>>>> Also recalled while on the phone with GoDaddy. GoDaddy support was extremely apprehensive about being on the phone and pretended as if what they were hearing didn’t happen.
      • >>> Distrust of clients
        • >>>> Letters from Client of Clients seeing once sites began re-resolving the message on our end stating to contact the webmaster.
          • >>>>> Clients e-mailing complaint letters
          • >>>>> Clients of Clients e-mailing stating that their travel plans had been ruined.
          • >>>>> Clients stating no traffic, business hurt
      • >>> Inability to correct problem without GoDaddy intervention
        • >>>> Shutdown of 39 Domains for 6 days
          • >>>>> Isolated to our account – per phone call and obvious reasons.
        • >>>> Several tickets opened without our ability to see any of the entry before the ticket was submitted. Basically the equivalent of a person summarizing everything you said on a call into one sentence and submitting it for you on the general contact form of the main website.
        • >>>> Interestingly never shown any of the tickets until after a technician responded to them, no way to reply to them either once responded other than rehashing the entire issue.
        • >>>> Investigative measure taken to identify scope:
          • >>>>> Used kloth.net and robtex.com as an external source to verify local terminal commands.
          • >>>>> Brought GoDaddy on the phone and conferenced in Verisign to have a verbal confirmation recorded by Go Daddy Corporate that WWD/GDI took our traffic offline.
          • >>>>> Purchased full listing of affected domains from domaintools.com to use as a reliable and neutral 3rd-party verifier to event.
            • >>>>>> 39 total domains verified affected by the change.
          • >>>>> Local terminal commands verified events.
            • >>>>>> Primary *nix command: dig turkreno.biz +trace
            • >>>>>> Discovered pleasedropthishost26787.turkreno.biz and pleasedropthishost26788.turkreno.biz – Totally unauthorized.
      • >>> Requests for Reparation
        • >>>> Invoice to GoDaddy
          • >>>>> GoDaddy Cites legal agreements (ToS) on site and says they will not pay any invoice.
        • >>>> No Reparations can be made at this time based on the notes found. Upon further review, subject to change.
      • >>> Removal/Termination of GoDaddy Security Scan from the primary website – Found to be worthless anyway.
      • >>> Deleted TurkReno.biz to attempt to clear GoDaddy NS Records
        • >>>> TurkReno.biz never returned or offered to be returned by GoDaddy. Deleting the domain did not make an immediate difference nor any measurable difference at all that would have happened on other odds.
          • >>>>> TurkReno.biz repurchased on a different ICANN registrar after the domain totally expired out of the Neustar registry as an available domain.
  • >Aftershock
    • >> Anti-GoDaddy Marketing Campaign with Twitter: #ShermanMarchesAgain Launched – (Thanks Tom)
    • >> Boycotting of GoDaddyBowl.com and all things related to the form GMAC Bowl in Mobile, AL.
    • >> Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg following made aware of dissatisfaction.
    • >> Recourse against TurkReno Incorporated.

We spent hours on this with them. Hours we want back from our lives. Maybe we can save you some time. Switch hosting to us, we’re not on GoDaddy’s crappy 4GH Network or whatever they want to call it. Or maybe you want to contact the Office of the President for GoDaddy. No problem, here’s all of their contact info:

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Phone: 408-505-8828

CEO: Warren Adelman

Alt. Numbers to GoDaddy Corporate Offices: 408-505-8800

So, when you think of DNS hopefully GoDaddy won’t be the first that comes to mind. We’ve got an awesome platform setup to accommodate multiple types of needs, including those of web masters using Linux or WHM/cPanel. Contact us if you’re interested. It’s private for the time being, but will be live soon.

Don’t trust GoDaddy with your DNS, their SysAdmins know NOTHING of how to complete a ticket and they COULD be stealing your traffic, or worse, blocking it because their tech support knows NOTHING.

This Act, when read in further detail, not only pressures Internet Service Providers like TurkReno to make rather extraneous measures to filter content and national providers of ICANN services to block a domain that they blacklist from search engine results and beyond. If they passes it to the US Senate then you can expect more than one derivative of its kind following SOPA. You see, it’s failed before. And, like a bad cold, this is another variant. Here’s the best summary from Wikipedia that shows what it was and how it’s moving:

The PROTECT IP Act is a re-write of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), which failed to pass in 2010. A similar House version of the bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced on October 26, 2011.

What’s disgusting about this is that GoDaddy, one of the largest ICANN domain registrars was, and under speculation still is, supporting the writing of this Act. They crafted it themselves. And then they release a press release today stating they would not further support SOPA, but we don’t trust it and neither should you. If they knew what they were getting themselves into, then it’s clear that their Executives are bluffing their way into keeping business. What really matters here is that they see the big picture. GoDaddy isn’t the only registrar.

Caption 1: Wow. This is GoDaddy Overselling Hosting.

And, with as much content as GoDaddy hosts, and over-sells (see Caption 1), they’d shut down 5,000 to 6,000, yes – THOUSAND, customers at a time per ONE (1) SOPA takedown order.

And here’s what they had to say:

GoDaddy No Longer Supports SOPA

Looks to Internet Community & Fellow Tech Leaders to Develop Legislation We All Support

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Dec. 23, 2011) – Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” currently working its way through U.S. Congress.

“Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation – but we can clearly do better,” Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s newly appointed CEO, said. “It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.”

Go Daddy and its General Counsel, Christine Jones, have worked with federal lawmakers for months to help craft revisions to legislation first introduced some three years ago. Jones has fought to express the concerns of the entire Internet community and to improve the bill by proposing changes to key defined terms, limitations on DNS filtering to ensure the integrity of the Internet, more significant consequences for frivolous claims, and specific provisions to protect free speech.

“As a company that is all about innovation, with our own technology and in support of our customers, Go Daddy is rooted in the idea of First Amendment Rights and believes 100 percent that the Internet is a key engine for our new economy,” said Adelman.

In changing its position, Go Daddy remains steadfast in its promise to support security and stability of the Internet. In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.

“Go Daddy has always fought to preserve the intellectual property rights of third parties, and will continue to do so in the future,” Jones said.

Found at: http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/release-view.aspx?news_item_id=378

Notice how they say "they" spoke. Who is "they"? Also, they avoid commenting on SOPA.

Here’s the great crux in this Press Release: SOPA has not been introduced to the US Senate. And it’s a reaction, not something they’ve done after hearing the SOPA proceedings. As celebrities threatened to leave GoDaddy, they pushed this out to stop the bail out. It’s a House of Representatives Bill. As stated on the US House of Representatives Website under “How Are Laws Made?” this answer can be found (We’re at the In Committee phase):

Laws begin as ideas. First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated or amended. If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill. Finally, a conference committee made of House and Senate members works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval. The Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process called enrolling. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the enrolled bill.

Anyone with half a brain can see this is just a PR stunt on GoDaddy’s behalf. Maybe even the protection of the recent additional DNSSEC properties which don’t totally jive with their product offerings. And admittedly DNSSEC doesn’t really jive with SOPA either, but it’s their main point of pressure to go after when attempting to take down a domain aside from seizing the name registration itself.

And the kicker to both Go Daddy and the rest of the world? DNSSEC is all controlled by IANA, Verisign, the gTLD (Generic Top-Level Domain) registrar for ALL .com and .net domains, acknowledging these Zone directives. ICANN and the U. S. Department of Commerce. Don’t believe me? http://www.root-dnssec.org.

Either way, this is part one of a few more that will outline why GoDaddy is failing as a company and why we believe that it’s not in your best interests to continue to do business with them.

Update 1/5/2012: GoDaddy, in all of it’s uncanny glory, has released a statement from CEO Warren Adleman. They don’t support SOPA because the representatives could not reach a consensus. I like one of the comments that state that “transparency should be a two-way street and not a one-way mirror”. Here’s the statement:

Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.

Still don’t trust them. Part two coming soon.

2011 was a year full of surprises, failures, catastrophes, losses and laughter. We first covered 2011 with Alabama Moon, a movie based on a book by Watt Key about Moon Blake. Supposedly this film took place in Alabama, but it was filmed in Canada and Louisiana. Fail. Read More about Alabama Moon.

In March an Earthquake and Tsunami struck Japan causing manufacturing and supply outages from mega-corporations like Sony and Canon. It took almost the rest of the year just to get some of the companies back on their feet again while others just shifted jobs to other parts of the world. Read More about the Earthquake and Tsunami.

Later in March, the White House called for a “New” copyright crackdown law citing that they wanted the US Congress to fix “deficiencies that could hinder enforcement” of intellectual property laws. Netflix and Hulu later gained an unprecedented momentum (thus filtering out pirate traffic vs. legitimate traffic) and later in the year SOPA took center stage where the Internet went into a rage. Read More about the Call for Copyright Crackdown.

In Late April, the Sony PlayStation Network outage occurred near simultaneously to the Amazon EC2 outage. Foursquare, Quora, Amazon, Sony, Apple, Reddit, Hootsuite, Wattpad – all went down. The only group to naturally take credit was “Anonymous” for the lawsuit Sony rightfully brought against George Hotz aka GeoHot for purportedly jailbreaking the PS3. Read More about the Sony PSN Outage Timeline.

In mid-May, the US State Department drew attention to the effect Social Media was having on the Internet landscape stating that it had become a “must-have communication tool. The Wall Street Journal put out a graph that indicated that while only a fraction of millions of people had visited websites like Coca-cola and Starbucks, almost 10 to 15 times that had visited their Facebook pages. We outline the Social Media aspect and as the question “Is It Time to Shut Down Your Website” in this retrospective.

On October 5th, 2011, Apple co-founder, CEO and American icon Steve Jobs passed away. Noted with the creation of innovations such as the iPod and iPhone, millions remembered Steve Jobs by e-mailing Apple how he changed their lives. To this day, that memorial can be seen here: http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/. We reposted his Stanford Commencement Address that still inspires many in our blog “Remembering Steve Jobs“.

In mid-October, we announced the upcoming 3rd Annual South Alabama Film Festival which took place in Downtown Mobile November 4th through the 6th bringing commerce and Independent entertainment to the area. Movies such as Wrestling For Jesus, Missing Pieces, Prairie Love, Man of Deeds and The Reconstruction of Asa Carter were featured. Read More about the South Alabama Film Festival.

Later in October, we reposted an article by Tomer Tagrin citing Steve Jobs at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference in 1997 in which he stated “Focusing is about saying ‘No’”. The video of the original conference as well as the article by Tomer can be read here.

The iPhone 4s and iOS 5 launched in late October. As subscribers of Google Voice, we posted some handy instructions for those who wanted to manually swap over their line to a new device. Read More about Activating Google Voicemail on the AT&T iPhone 4s.

On Halloween, we got word that Google had chosen Mobile, Alabama to launch their Mobilize Mobile campaign. At first, we didn’t believe it because of the source announcing it. But it did later happen. Read More about the Rumor of Google Coming to Mobile Alabama.

Also on Halloween, we resounded our own feelings about the banking industry, specifically Regions Bank, charging from $3.00 to $7.50 for debit card usage. We also got pretty ticked off when a “friend” didn’t repay a loan and illustrate just how much Regions can doublespeak when they want to. Read More about Banking: The Importance of Not Bearing False Expectations.

November 1st, 2011 brought some joy to PS3 MMO players around the world when Sony Online Entertainment made DC Universe Online Free-To-Play. Read More about DC Universe going FTP here.

Exciting for us, and maybe not for you, but we had Hibachi On The Go open up in Daphne, Alabama opened in November. Pretty good Japanese food and at a more affordable price than a sit-down sushi restaurant. Read More about Hibachi on the Go. Love the seaweed salad.

Also in the beginning of November, after leaving the area Checkers, also known as Rally’s in other parts of the country, reopened at it’s founding location in Downtown Mobile. The first 100 people got free Checkers fries for a year. Read More about the free fry giveaway.

Amidst the earlier speculation, Google actually DID come to Mobile, Alabama. We got a chance to meet Jason Spero, @speroman on Twitter, Director of Google’s Mobile Division in the Americas, see a few of our competitors, and learn more about the Mobilize initiative. We posted an online schedule of events and a link to the Mobilize website here.

Late November, we posted an important blog about the lessons we’ve learned on Twitter. Namely we wanted to emphasize to engage your followers and those you find interesting. It’s a good read and we hope you find it helpful. Read more about Twitter Best Practices Learned With Hard Knocks.

Client Brad Sundberg, who’s list of achievements are longer than this post, of BSUN Media Systems posted a very helpful guide to the Do’s and Don’ts of Black Friday Shopping. It’s still good for next year so take a look.

At the beginning of December, the long awaited Final Fantasy VI, also known as the SNES version of Final Fantasy III, launched on the PlayStation Network. Listed on multiple blogs, websites and magazines, this game has won top 10 and above in accolades for Must-Have RPGs. Read More about Final Fantasy VI.

The Thomas Hospital Foundation on December 9th announced that artwork by Elizabeth Goree was available to support the foundation during the holiday season. They also shared information on a Family Fun Project that anyone can do. Read more about the Thomas Hospital Foundation Christmas Greeting Program.

GoDaddy Sucks. And this is just Part 1. We illustrate what SOPA is, why GoDaddy was supporting it (we still think they are), and how it’s a major crux to the Internet. PR stunt by GoDaddy? Totally. Read More about GoDaddy Sucks and Here is Why – Part 1 – The SOPA Truth.

Just before Christmas, we shared a rather interesting and concerning video about how Siri, the newest feature of the iPhone 4s, could kill people. It wasn’t true, of course, but technology may concern people like this in the future. Consider yourself warned and Read More about When Apple’s Siri Kills People.

And in the continued SOPA controversy, Anonymous decides to declare war on the Sony PlayStation Network – again. Yawn. These kids are annoying, but if you want to Read More about Anonymous Declaring War on Sony for SOPA Support, be our guest.

Ending the news in December, barring nothing important happens between now and midnight, The day after Anonymous declares war on Sony more companies including Sony Electronics, Nintendo and Electronics Arts drop their support for SOPA. We also outline our stance on SOPA. Read More about Who Dropped SOPA.

From everyone at TurkReno Incorporated, Have a Happy New Year and a Prosperous 2012!

Black Friday is upon us again, and the deals are very tempting. Electronics are always a big draw, so I check the ads to see what’s going on. Best Buy loves Black Friday, and they are playing hard for your dollar this week. Now, don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not about to start trashing Best Buy, or even chain-stores. I already told you I shop at Wal-Mart for some things.

You see, I’m a small-business owner. I can’t sell a 42″ Sharp TV for $199, like Best Buy is offering on Black Friday. In fact, (and I swear this is true), my DEALER cost on a Toshiba 40″ LCD TV is $449 (plus shipping), and I might sell it for $479. Best Buy wins! Hip, hip, hooray!

Now, am I mad at Best Buy for offering a TV like that a price that low? Not at all. It’s a decent TV (not as good as the Toshiba) at a sleep-on-the-sidewalk price. In some respects, I am not in competition with Best Buy, as we offer two very different services. I clown on them from time to time, but I have purchased plenty of products from them myself over the years, and for the most part the experience has been OK.

It is estimated by the National Retail Federation that holiday shopping this year will be 2.8% higher than 2010, and hit $465.6 billion. That’s a big pie to share. So while I can’t price-compete with certain products on Black Friday, I can offer a bit of advice and direction.

Flat Panel TVs

I have written extensively on the differences between plasma, LCD and LED/LCD. In short, plasma has gotten a black eye for years over its supposed short half-life span of 60,000 hours. (That 20 years at 8 hours usage per day, but who’s counting?) Plasma still offers the most natural picture, consistently wins best TV viewing experience, etc. I love plasma, and so do many of my clients. (It should come as little surprise that you won’t find top-shelf plasmas at bargain basement prices this weekend, but I digress.) In my home, one of the TV watch is a 60″ 720p plasma that is more than eight years old. Not exactly cutting-edge technology, but it still produces a rich, vivid picture that LCD can’t touch.

If you are looking for a TV for the bedroom, kid’s room or back patio, grab one of the Black Friday specials. Target has a 46″ Westinghouse for $298! (Westinghouse… don’t they make light bulbs and air conditioners!?)

One important thing to remember is that for every HD TV in your home, you need either an HD cable box or an HD satellite receiver to receive HD programming. A large HD TV (even a cheap one) looks worse on basic cable than the little 24″ TV you’ve had since 1993. It’s like a giant magnifying glass, and it wants to see and display high definition.

But if you are ready for an upgrade on your primary TV, please don’t waste your money on the cheapest deal without doing a bit of research first. It may or may not make sense to buy your TVs from BSUN Media, but it would be smart to consult with us and help you make the right purchase. The truth is we are very competitive in price with most online and brick-and-mortar retailers. We just offer a higher level of customer service.

TV Mounts and Accessories

Here is where it get’s a bit more interesting. When you purchase your TV from Sam’s Club or Target or Best Buy, the eager young sales associate will pressure you to buy a mount, power conditioner andtheir super-duper HDMI cables. This is the time I beg you, plead with you, to say “No, thank You.”

He will continue on, in a slightly more firm tone to his voice:  ”Our mounts are specifically designed for this TV.” Your response: “No thanks.”

His brow will furrow with rage, and his fists will silently clench, and his robotic training will dig deep to find a chink in your armor.   “Our HDMI cables have been clinically tested to bring happiness even to dark orphanages in southern Asia! You must buy them, you must… you MUST!” Be firm, but say no.

Let me explain. The profits for the store are in the cables, mounts and accessories. Now, of course I am all for business making a fair profit, mine included. But when the products they sell are inferior and more costly than mine, I have to intervene. We install countless TVs every year. We hang them from pipes, on walls, on fireplaces, you name it. I know more about TV mounts than a normal person should, and the store brand mounts are, for the part, pure junk. Typically I would say you get what you pay for, but in this department you pay far more than you should for products laughably inferior to professional grade.

The BSUN Media Way

We installed some TVs this past week for a client who bought the mounts with the TVs, and hired us to do the installation. Usually I insist on using our Strong Technologies mounts, but I decided to be nice and use the store brand. I won’t bore you with the technical or structural details, but it was a nightmare. Trust me, avoid the mounts and talk to me.

As for HDMI cables, you will be encouraged to buy gold-plated, diamond-studded cables hand-made by craftsman in Germany who don’t marry so they can focus completely on the quality transport of electrons over copper. If you want to spend $175 on a piece of wire that sends a digital (numbers) signal from one device to another, PLEASE call me! Seriously, we offer great quality HDMI cables that start at just $22.

Surge Suppressors/Power Conditioners

Another one of those “You really need one of these products to protect your investment” products. Is it true? Absolutely. In fact, I would estimate in the last 18 months I have installed more than $100,000 worth of equipment due to lightning strikes and power surges. Having said that, there is no product that I am aware of that will absolutely protect a home theater from a direct lightning strike. That’s why we have home owner’s insurance.

Quality surge suppressors are great at keeping a wall between your stuff and voltage surges coming in from the power lines, which does happen. A $19 unit is essentially an extension cord, with no particular value other than more outlets. You should look for a model that offers a guarantee for anything connected to it. For example, the entry level Episode Surge Suppressor I sell comes with a lifetime $25K warrantee protecting anything connected to it. It costs $99, and it’s worth every penny. For larger, more complex systems we have battery back-up systems and voltage stabilizers, but that’s not really Black Friday friendly is it?

All-In-One-Surround-Systems

TV speakers are generally awful. Once you make the investment on the big TV, the sales associate is going to remind how much better the experience will be with surround sound. Everyone has surround sound! Even pets in Bel Air, California have little surround sound systems in their dog houses! (I just made that up, but it could be true.) Next you will be presented with an array of kits we call them…

Seriously?

HTIBs: Home Theater In a Box. They contain the speakers, subwoofer, surround amplifier and Blu-ray player all in one box. They even color-code the wires!

Now let me proceed with a bit of caution here. If you have $19/month of disposable income, you don’t need a surround system, you need groceries. But if you can afford and appreciate a certain degree of quality, you should pay attention. HTIB’s are the lowest form of surround sound. HTIB are to home theater’s as what mopeds are to motorcycle enthusiasts. They have their place, but they aren’t home theater. And, you get what you pay for.

Best Buy is offering a Samsung 1000-watt home theater system (Blu-ray, speakers, subwoofer!) for $199. That’s incredible! It is sort of on-par with the cheapest car in the world, the Tata Nano, which sells for 100,000 rupees ($2500) in India. It will get you to where you want to, for the most part, hopefully.

We take a bit more pride in our designs, and truthfully I can’t build you a surround system for $199. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy the Samsung, but don’t expect it to wow your friends, or your ears.

White-Glove Installation

I know the routine. Remember our frisky little friend from before, trying to push you to buy the mounting bracket? He’s going to size you up and suggest that you are not capable of mounting a TV yourself, you should hire the store’s well-trained professionals to do it for you. Be strong my friend, this is a vital decision. You must not crumble.

He will talk about the weight of a TV, and the dangers associated with having a TV fall off the wall and crushing entire classrooms of children if not installed by the White-Glove professionals his store has on staff. At this point you must smile and say, “No thanks, I have that covered.”

Veins will bulge on his forehead! He may need a drink of water to keep from exploding! With teeth clenched, and his voice now a frightening rasp, he will seethe, “Covered? You have that… covered?”

Your response should be, “Yep, it’s covered. I just need the TV.”

All jokes aside, I have seen (and cleaned up) plenty of “white-glove” install jobs. When you are dealing with an 800 number and guy with 7 stops on his clipboard, brace yourself for a bad experience. Save time, money and a headache and call us first to get it done right.

Wrap It Up

I’m like you. I love a bargain, but I also love value. Many of our installations are running smoothly years after the money was invested, with unmatched customer service and attention to detail. Sure, we can sell you a TV, but first we will meet with you, and ask a lot of questions. We will look at the space, make suggestions, and most importantly, listen. The design we come up with will be yours, to match your wish list and budget. No surprises, no pressure.

Black Friday has virtually overtaken Thanksgiving, and that’s too bad. I love Thanksgiving as a time to pause and truly give thanks to God for family, friends, and the countless blessings we have received.

This Friday the stores will be exploding with some too-good-to-be-true deals. There will be music, cinnamon rolls, coffee and crowds of eager, sleepy shoppers. It has become an American tradition, and I’ve saved quite a few dollars myself. Just spend a bit of time measuring short-term savings versus long-term value on your electronic purchases, and you are way ahead of the pack.

Will I be sitting on a cold concrete floor this Friday morning? I doubt it, but I’ll think about you if I wake up early.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brad Sundberg
B-SUN MEDIA SYSTEMS SOUTH
251.990.6599

Owner and TurkReno Incorporated Client Brad Sundberg brings many years of unique experience to the table. Early in his career he worked with Michael Jackson as technical director on the albums, “Bad”, “Dangerous”, and “HIStory”, as well as Quincy Jones’ incredible album, “Back On The Block.” These projects led him to begin working in the homes of many of his studio clients and their friends. In the early 90′s, Michael Jackson asked Brad to start building music and video systems at Neverland, and that was the start of BSUN. Through the years Brad has designed and installed systems in Los Angeles, New York, Florida, France and England. His studio background (he is a voting member of the GRAMMYs) gives him a distinct edge when it comes to sonic quality, and he loves new challenges, large or small.

Brad has been happily married to Debbie since 1985, and lives in Fairhope with his four beautiful daughters.

According to their website, Checkers was first started in Mobile back in 1986 and has been cooking up great burgers ever since. The Checker’s story, which some of you may know from outside of the area as Rally’s goes like this:

“Checkers & Rally’s restaurants were born out of the idea that a bland and flavorless burger was downright bad and that Americans everywhere deserved a better tasting burger — one that was unexpectedly bold, made-to-order and priced at a value that was hard to beat. Founded by experienced foodies with a renegade spirit, both the Checkers & Rally’s unique double drive-thru concept, with its over-the-top checkerboard squares, chrome styling, red neon signs and of course the food, was an instant hit. These two new burger experiences were hot, fresh and served with a smile. People were hooked, and the world of cookie cutter corporate burger establishments was about to change.”

And here’s the official release about the re-opening:

The new reimaged Checkers restaurant at 2213 Airport Blvd in Mobile, AL will host a Grand Opening celebration for the hungry public on Saturday, November 12, 2011.

To kick off the grand opening on Saturday, November 12, Checkers is offering FREE fries for a year to the first 100 guests in line. And, guests in line, 101 and after will receive FREE fries with purchase all weekend. So, be sure to be one of the first people in line, as we anticipate people camping out!

During the grand opening celebration, there will be a kickoff to food eating contests open to the public with a competition showdown at 11am between the University of South Alabama’s STATS (Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow) student organization versus the University of Mobile’ SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) student organization.

Checkers will also give away prizes, coupons, and promotions to reward the community and its loyal fans.

Hoping to see you all there!

According to the Mobile Press-Register and other local sources, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) recently approached local marketing firms and the Downtown Mobile Alliance to begin to “Mobilize Mobile.” Most likely playing on the name of the city, Mobile reportedly will be the first to be a part of a program named “GoMo” launching November 14 where local businesses, both private and nonprofit, will be able to come to a Google storefront, have a mobile-browser based website created for them within half an hour and also have Google host the website for one year on a first-come, first-served basis.

From the Press-Register:

The Google storefront will be at Space 301, across from Cathedral Square, according to Carol Hunter, representative for the Downtown Mobile Alliance said.

Having a city that shares a name with a tech buzzword hasn’t always been fortuitous, as anyone who has searched online for “Mobile phone company” or “Mobile apps” could tell you. Not to mention all the time residents spend telling out-of-towners that they are from “Mo-beel,” not “Mo-buhl,” Hunter said.

“If you are not thinking about getting mobile with your website, then in the near future you’re going to be behind,” Hunter said. “This is an opportunity for us to really be ahead of that curve.”

No doubt that the south Alabama area could use the attention. However, no sources on the Internet tie the event to the website HowToGoMo.com. There’s no doubt that Google intends to do something with the website because they did register it, but the website remains under password protection so no one really knows what it’s for.

Despite a few websites registered by Google, it’s perhaps Google’s re-branding attempt at drawing attention to the mobile world we are evolving into. Millions rely on smartphone devices to find food, entertainment, directions, keep up with social media and communicate in ways we never thought would be possible.

If you’re looking to get a website created for a mobile phone, Google already has the Google Sites – Mobile Templates website available where you can choose templates for your business, add information and have a live mobile browser website finished in minutes.

So what’s our take on this? It probably will happen. To have a Google storefront in Mobile, Alabama would be awesome as-is. On the other hand, there’s probably a silver lining. Google is notorious for monetizing websites using AdWords. We expect ads. Not only that, but having a site that’s more than likely template-based and not created by a professional website design company is more than likely going to bring the quality of the site down. So, in terms of search optimization, if it’s going to be free and hosted at Google, you’re going to get what you pay for especially if you don’t have control over your content. GeoCities Mobile anyone?

All attempts to confirm this information were made at the time of the article, however neither Google nor our contacts in the Silicon Valley area were aware of the event.

In addition to feature-length and short films, the festival will offer seminars and workshops for adults and school children, to further its goal of educating – as well as enchanting – the growing regional film community. In its third year, and for many more to come, the festival strives to be the yearly event in Southern Alabama for all who love, and create, film.

The festival takes place November 4th, 5th, and 6th at multiple venues throughout Mobile, AL.

Passes for the festival are available now and at the downtown office. Weekend passes will be $30 and individual film tickets will be $5. Click here for tickets.

The South Alabama Film Festival is a part of the Mobile Arts Council made possible by the generous support of the Mobile Public Library, The Crescent Theater, The Center for the Living Arts, The Bike Shop, The Fort Conde Inn, The Hampton Downtown.

FEATURE LENGTH FILMS
Wrestling For Jesus (documentary)
Sat, Nov 5
3pm
The Crescent Theater

A documentary about Timothy who was born in Mobile, AL and grew up a wrestling fanatic. After moving to South Carolina, Timothy started a Christian wrestling organization. His goal is to use wrestling to evangelize his neighbors. However his passion and vision for his ministry are tested when his personal life begins to disintegrate. Wrestling for Jesus is a raw and honest all-access pass into the two worlds of independent wrestling and religion in the rural South.

- Timothy (T-Money) is originally from Mobile
- Timothy is scheduled to attend

http://www.facebook.com/wrestlingforjesus
http://wrestlingforjesus.com

Missing Pieces (special preview screening) (narrative)
Sat, Nov 5
5pm
The Crescent Theater

This is a story about a man who’s lost everything and his misguided attempts to put it back together. Missing Pieces is an emotional enigma about love and loneliness…and a kidnapping. Through interwoven, poignant vignettes, this multi-plot tale unfolds and untangles into a truly unique and heartfelt love story about finding hope when all is lost.

- Kenton Bartlett (writer/producer) is from Birmingham
- Started the film when he was 19; he’s now 23
- Filmmaker is scheduled to attend
- Along with film Q&A, Kenton will also be participating in a workshop/Q&A session with the kids camp students

http://www.facebook.com/FindYourMissingPieces
http://www.findyourmissingpieces.com

Prairie Love (narrative)
Sat, Nov 5
9pm
The Crescent Theater

When a mysterious vagrant living out of his car among the snowy plains discovers a nearly-frozen local with a pen-pal girlfriend, he sees an opportunity to change his lonely existence. From the harsh Midwestern frozen plains, comes this wonderfully bizarre but heartwarming look at three people searching for love and self discovery in the oddest ways.

- This will be the first screening in South Alabama
- Ashley Bias & Dusty Bias (from Baldwin County)
- Filmmaker scheduled to attend
- Official Selection: 2011 Sundance Film Festival
- Grand Jury Prize, Best Narrative Feature: 2011 Oxford Film Festival

http://www.facebook.com/prairielove
http://www.prairielove.com
http://www.prairielove.com/press/mr.pdf

Man of Deeds (documentary)
Sun, Nov 6
1pm
Bernhiem Hall

Born into the chaos of the French Revolution, Mathias Loras would come to develop a vision for a state of spirituality in the New World that few dare dream. Brought up in an elegant, bourgeois family he would eventually become a missionary assigned to a remote outpost in the frontier territory of Iowa. There he would sow the seeds of the church to rough miners and farmers, while battling the unending hardships of life on edge of civilization.

- Filmmaker Craig Schafer is scheduled to attend
- From 1830-1832 Mathias Loras served as the first president of Spring Hill College

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Loras

The Reconstruction of Asa Carter (documentary)
Sun, Nov 6
4pm
Bernhiem Hall

Forrest Carter, best-selling author of The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Education of Little Tree, was an exalted Cherokee hero of New Age wisdom. As a leader in the Native American cultural revival of the 1970′s, Forrest touched millions of readers with his gentle and earthy tales of Indian life. Twelve years after his death, however, the public learned that Forrest had a hidden past. Forrest Carter was actually Asa ‘Ace’ Cater, violent Ku Klux Klansman and Alabama Governor George Wallace’s principal speechwriter; author of the infamous 1963 inaugural address, ‘Segregation Now! Segregation Tomorrow! Segregation Forever!’

- Filmmaker Douglas Newman scheduled to attend

http://www.facebook.com/reconstructionofasacarter
http://www.reconstructionofasacarter.com

FESTIVAL VENUES
Ben May Main Library, Bernheim Hall
The Crescent Theater
Space 301
Cathedral Square

More films are scheduled to show. Check the South Alabama Film Festival Website and find out more:

http://www.southalabamafilmfestival.org

Follow the South Alabama Film Festival on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/SoALFilmFest

The film, produced by Alabamians Kenny McLean and Lee Faulkner, follows eleven-year-old Moon Blake (Jimmy Bennett), who has spent most of his life hiding out in the forests of Alabama with his anti-government father who clings to conspiracy theories and trusts no one. Moon’s life suddenly changes when the land is sold and his father dies. Knowing only what he learned from his father, Moon decides to follow his last instructions: make your way to Alaska where “people could still make a living off trapping.”

In the path of civilization, Moon quickly lands himself in a reform school where he meets the mean-spirited Constable Sanders (Clint Howard) and learns what friendship is all about. With the help of Mr. Wellington (John Goodman), Moon adapts and learns to survive in the outside world. “Being involved with this movie has been the experience of a lifetime,” said Lee Faulkner. “When I read Watt Key’s novel I knew it would make a perfect family film.”

“Alabama Moon’s” Alabama ties run deep. Watt Key’s novel and the movie are set in the forests of Alabama; Key, Faulkner and McLean all reside in Fairhope, a small city in Baldwin County, Alabama; and one of the actors in the film, Uriah Shelton, lived and attended school in Fairhope.

Alabama Moon is a classic kid’s film complete with adventure and survival that most of us only dream about, which is what makes it great for the entire family. The film was awarded the Dove Foundation Family Approved seal in 2010. The non-profit foundation is dedicated to advocating for families and moving Hollywood in a more family-friendly direction.

Alabama Moon Website – http://www.alabamamoonthemovie.net

Alabama Moon Release Schedule

3/18 Birmingham

Rave Patton Creek
Rave Lee Branch
Premiere Tannehill
Premiere 16 (Gadsden)
Cobb Hollywood 16 (Tuscaloosa)

4/1 Mobile
Crescent Theater
Hollywood 18
Rave Jubilee (Daphne)
Rave Wharf 15 (Orange Beach)

4/1 Pensacola

Rave 18

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MDi media group
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