polls

I don't know. Something about framing the purchase and playing of video games in the same light as the practice of religion, defending one's property, and attaining redress from one's government strikes me as a tad overly dramatic.

On the other hand, I get it: gaming is serious business. Like, to the tune of almost $10 billion a year, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

And like any industry, consumers have come to expect a certain level of service. That's why two game developers compiled a list of 10 "rights" PC gamers have. The … Read more

As CNET News reported earlier Thursday, Microsoft has tapped Jerry Seinfeld to star in a $300 million marketing campaign aimed at countering negative perceptions of its oft-maligned Vista operating system.

The comedian, best known for his eponymous NBC sitcom, will reportedly get $10 million for the campaign, which is expected to play off the phrase "Windows, Not Walls," and to stress the connection between people and ideas.

Comedians Will Ferrell and Chris Rock were also considered for the new advertising spots, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the marketing push. The paper said … Read more

You thought it was bad getting tossed aside for another woman? Try getting rejected for an MP3 player.

A new dating series based on the notion that "boys love their toys" will pit girls against gadgets in an attempt to answer that age-old question: hottie or hot HDTV? In a twist on the reality TV staple For Love or Money, Playboy TV's Gadget or the Girl will make contestants choose between a weekend getaway with a girl of their choice or a surprise high-tech toy.

The gear will range from a 60-inch plasma TV to an arcade … Read more

Over the weekend, poll-making tool PollDaddy quietly released a new OpenSocial app called PollDaddy Jr. It's got all of PollDaddy's features squeezed into a "mini app" (not to be confused with a widget) that can travel the rounds to any OpenSocial-ready network.

I gave the app a spin on Hi5 and MySpace, and both offer the same experience of building polls like you would on PollDaddy's own site, but nested within the confines of the social network instead.

What may be more interesting is the chat I had with PollDaddy founder David Lenehan. Lenehan says … Read more

Like polls? Check out Poll Authority, a new poll host that lets you create some really clean looking polls with relative simplicity. It offers many of the features the popular Poll Daddy does but at a lower cost for its pro service which runs at $8 a month. Stripped out are surveys, meaning you're limited to just polls, but it's set up to let you create one in less than a minute which is impressive.

Also included in the pro accounts is vote analysis, which lets you drill down and see where your voters are coming from as … Read more

Its name might be wacky, but some investors with deep pockets think it's the real thing: SodaHead.com, a polling and answers site, announced Wednesday that it has raised $8.4 million in Series B venture funding. The money comes from new lead investor Mission Ventures, as well as existing investor Mohr Davidow Ventures.

The company's previous round, with veteran investor Ron Conway and Tech Coast Angels contributing, had totaled $4.3 million.

SodaHead was founded by Jason Feffer, former vice president of operations at MySpace, and his childhood friend Michael Glazer. Feffer describes the site as "… Read more

The bigger a nation's wealth and carbon footprint, the less its residents care about global warming. That's according to an online survey of 46 countries on every continent by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The prosperous Dutch appeared the least worried about the prospect of future rising oceans and wild card weather, even though half of the Netherlands lies one meter below sea level. The next least concerned were people in Russia, the United States, Latvia, and Estonia.

"If you take global warming to heart, you understand that you have to sacrifice something," study … Read more

Polls Boutique, which is a play on words from the 1989 Beastie Boys album, is a free polling service that's great for creating simple polls with statistical depth and a great sense of community. Like Polldaddy, which we use extensively on Webware and used for Webware 100 voting this year, and more recently on CNET News.com for the iPod survey, Polls Boutique lets users build and deploy polls to blogs or social networking profiles quickly and easily.

What makes it notable is that you can add all sorts of media to your polls such as photos, audio, and … Read more

Does anybody buying an iPod in 2008 expect to get more than a few years of use out of the thing? My five year old iPod still plays, but I can't get it to work in newer iPod docks or iPod speakers. My iPod is too old.

A good friend of mine plays his 30-year-old Linn LP-12 turntable almost every day. It was an expensive turntable in 1978 when it sold for around $1,200. But he's gotten 30 years of use out of the thing, and even now listens to a lot more vinyl than CD. So … Read more