Did you hear that the cover art for the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series was unveiled today? I’ve seen three different covers so far, one for the children’s edition in G.B./Europe, one for the children’s edition in the U.S., and one for the adult edition. The one below is the U.S. children’s edition. I think all of them look great, and I can’t wait for July 21 (the worldwide release date, of course).
It goes without saying that different websites take different approaches to marketing their products or services. Obviously, some of these marketing techniques are more successful than others, which is why some websites prosper while others go down the tubes in a relatively short time. One of the best means of marketing these days is through short, interesting videos that are capable of generating sustained buzz across the Internet, and it’s clear that the site BackgammonMasters.com understands precisely how viral marketing works.
BackgammonMasters.com is the premiere destination for backgammon players of all skill levels who want to get in on some online games or tournaments. I’ve been hearing a lot about BackgammonMasters recently (even though I’m not a player myself) thanks to their popular video series featuring an animated tiger named Jean-Claude, who happens to be the world’s #1 backgammon player.
These Jean-Claude videos are designed to illustrate the widespread appeal of backgammon to people of all walks of life — and in this respect, I think they’re a success. As if the blinged-out street-smart tiger in 70′s clothes wasn’t enough to keep people coming back to the site, BackgammonMasters.com has many other attractive features for their players. For example, you can win prizes by answering trivia questions about Jean-Claude’s videos or for suggesting great script ideas, and of course you can play exciting games online, including backgammon, poker, and Perudo (Liar’s Dice).
Interested? Then check out an example of one of these Jean-Claude videos by following this link (and be sure to take a look at BackgammonMasters’ 3-in-1 download too!).
The episode of 24 that aired on March 26, 2007 featured events that took place between 8:00PM and 9:00PM. Here’s a quick recap of 6×15.
Jack: There was plenty of Jack this week as he was out in the field following up more leads on Gredenko’s whereabouts. We were introduced to a couple of new characters, a man named Mark who works as a security specialist (or something) for a nuclear power plant and his autistic brother Brady, who is a computer whiz. Well, Mark has ties to Gredenko, who calls him and orders him to hand over some schematics for the power plant. CTU intercepts the call, and Buchanan tells Jack to get to Mark.
Mark gets shot when CTU storms his house, so Jack has to use the autistic brother to draw Gredenko out in the open. Mark calls Gredenko and says he won’t be able to make it to the handoff, so Brady will do it instead. When Gredenko arrives, he can sense that something’s up since Brady appears so nervous. He orders the young man to be shot as soon as the plans are done uploading, but Jack overhears and is able to have his men take down Gredenko before Brady can be harmed. Now Gredenko is in Jack’s custody and is about to be questioned.
CTU: Some random guy who knew Doyle in Denver handed him a device that proves Nadia wasn’t the mole, but isntead that someone accessed her computer from the outside. This evidence could land Doyle in a lot of trouble since he jumped the gun on accusing Nadia. But the guy owes Doyle a favor from his Denver days and decides this is the way to pay up. He won’t say anything about the device and will let Doyle cover his ass.
After the two return to CTU, the guy from Denver (sorry, I didn’t catch his name) approaches Milo and tells him that he gave Doyle evidence that will clear Nadia but that Doyle is suppressing that evidence in order to protect his job. Milo immediately runs up to Doyle and starts accusing him of wrongdoing, but then Morris pipes up and says Doyle gave him the evidence to verify that it’s authentic. So Doyle managed to get out of that situation intact.
Oh, and after that, Nadia is finally released from the holding cell and Bill convinces her to stay on the job. Then, Milo grabs her and kisses her right there in CTU… by way of apology, I guess.
White House Bunker: Karen convinces Sandra Palmer to order the doctor to wake Wayne up from the induced coma. VP Daniels gets word of this and tries to intimidate the doctor into not going through with it, but the doc does it anyway.
Meanwhile, Daniels is still meeting with Lennox and other officials about the proposed nuclear strike against Assad’s unnamed country. Daniels wants the strike to occur within the hour, so some general or other starts moving the necessary ships into position. However, just when Daniels gives the order to strike, the general reports that the ships have already been ordered to stand down. Who gave the order? Wayne Palmer, who is miraculously awake, aware, and running the country.
Daniels isn’t going to take this lightly. As soon as he hangs up with Wayne, he orders his assistant to get the Attorney General on the line. Daniels doesn’t think Palmer is competent, and wants to have the President removed from office.
My Reaction: I thought this episode was okay — not too good, but not too bad either. I liked the misdirection with the Doyle setup (maybe the guy isn’t as bad as we’ve been led to believe) and wonder what he has in store for the dude who tried to frame him. Milo and Nadia? Meh, not interested. At all.
The Jack action was decent. It was nice to see him show a human side with the autistic man, and I’m glad Brady was able to make it out of the situation unharmed. Now let’s see what Jack can get out of Gredenko!
Still not interested in the political angle of the show, although I have to say that I thought Powers Boothe (VP Daniels) was awesome tonight! His expression after hearing Wayne’s voice on the phone for the first time was just priceless. I’m not even going to comment about how improbable it is that Wayne is awake and coherent….
On average, I’d say that I watch between 3-5 movies per week. That probably seems like a lot to you, but I need to do this in order to keep posting new reviews to my blog. Up until now, I’ve been renting my DVDs the old fashioned way by going out to local stores to browse through their selection and hope that they have what I want. However, I’m getting tired of that method and am thinking about switching to an online service that will deliver DVDs right to my mailbox.
I don’t know anything about the various companies that provide online rentals, so I had to do some research first. That’s when I came across a website called Bilihost.com and discovered all the information I was looking for right there in one place. Bilihost.com compares the pros and cons of the major online DVD rental services in detail and lays out the most important information in easy-to-read tables. This made evaluating all the different plans a snap, and now I’m pretty sure which company I want to sign up with.
Speaking of signing up, I can do so right on the Bilihost.com site, which is yet another point in their favor.
Overall, I think Bilihost.com provides a useful service. I found their reviews helpful and unbiased, and will sign up with an online DVD rental company based in part on what I read on the Bilihost site. If you’re in the same boat I am, you might want to head on over to Bilihost.com right now to study their reviews.