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Deadspin opines on the recent $250 million contract signed by David Beckham to play in America: “So let’s call like it is: Beckham coming to America is great for LA clubs and restaurants, US Weekly and The Star, Adidas, Victoria Beckham (can a slot on “Dancing With The Stars” be far off?) and, of course, the haircare industry. As for the MLS, he will clearly put [fans] in the seats, at least in his first season, but will he actually raise the level of play? Not by himself.”

Not with a bunch of other soccer professionals either (think Pele and Co. in the late 70’s that came to play in America for the NASL). Soccer won’t take hold in America until it can award its athletes with fame, money, and respect, none of which it currently can. I like the sport, but so long as baseball, football, and basketball do a better job in providing said economic incentives, athletes who play soccer early on will soon jump ship to a more enticing sport. Oh, and you gotta kill the “soccer mom” if you ever want any cred.

What you see above is a pile of 16 new credit card offers received during the week of Christmas while I was out of town. The mailman delivered this liability stack in just 7 working days. That’s 2.3 new offers per day. I realize this is in no way a record, but c’mon. Tree huggers should be going after plastic masters for this. It’s ridiculous. But alas, the onslaught must work, otherwise this post wouldn’t exist.

In a word, slick. And clearly one the more ambitious phones we’ve seen to date, with seemingly a lot of potential from the videos I’ve seen. It’s not without its problems, however. A single carrier is lame, 4Gb and 8Gb is a bit limiting though manageable, and I’m not sold on a touch screen keyboard. If anyone can make it work, it’s Apple, but I’m a big fan of physical clicks and actual buttons (tips hat to Blackberry). After all, it’s the only thing I know. So what do you think of the new, still not approved by the FCC, iPhone?

I learned a good lesson this evening while blogging a rumored story: when you’re confused (and your browser cache adds to the confusion) and everybody else is doing it (read: other big sites), go seek advice first. I was a little quick to publish the story for fear of missing out on early traffic as other sites had already begun posting. Turns out the site acquisition rumor was just a good ole version of cross-promotional branding I wasn’t familiar with, and luckily my editor caught the soon to be noticed mistake early.

So is it just me or does making professional mistakes get harder to deal with the older you get? I hate feeling like a smoe and kick myself sometimes for making seemingly obvious misteaks. “Teacher, my eraser is out…” What do you do after making a goof?

From Wired: “Everyone knows the MP3 format is used by more devices and people than any other file-based digital-audio format. Most also know that record labels prefer DRMed alternatives such as the ones sold by Apple’s iTunes, because they make it harder for people to share music. But… Evidence is mounting that major labels may start to prefer the MP3 format, as impossible as that used to seem.”

I really like iTunes and iPods, but I won’t deny that as a consumer non-DMR MP3 tracks being sold at Apple’s store not to mention everywhere else would be a much better thing.

My brother-in-law got me Freakonomics as a Christmas gift (thanks, Steve!), and I gotta say its one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a very long time. The book claims to have no central theme in favor of exploring several economic/incentive questions about why things are the way they are, but I’d say the book is really about challenging conventional wisdom. For example, authors Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner cite legalized abortion as the reason for the sudden drop in crime since the early 90’s (e.g. according to the book, a majority of women who get abortions are poor, uneducated, and don’t want the child, thus the child that would have been born has a higher chance of becoming a criminal) though mass media and other experts cited innovative policing strategies for the drop.

To give you an idea of how inspiring Freakonomics was for me, I usually jot down a few notes per book. Really, I email myself notes: ideas for further research online, words to look up in the dictionary, blog post ideas, and thoughts for further consideration. For any given book, I generally email myself about 3-5 times over the duration of either the couple of weeks or several months it takes me to complete it. With this book, I emailed myself 19 times over the course of two days which is how long it took me to read the short book. More of my specific thoughts on key ideas to follow.

While you probably didn’t know it, behind the scene server communication has brought you to this strange place. So if you are reading this, you have successfully traversed the internet to find Smooth Harold at a new location (URL | RSS).

- Management

A great video spoof on chump marketers. Hilarious, son.

I recently had a discussion with Nicholas Roussos, a good web developer friend of mine, about how some clients confuse “flashy graphics” for purposeful content that site visitors inherently value. Nic designed a very clean and professionally site for his company, but the suits above are holding back suggesting that the aesthetics “need to be more fun,” all this as content discussions are presumably pushed to the side.

When’s the last time you visited a site because of slick graphics? On the contrary, when’s the last time you visited a simpleton site (maybe even a poorly designed one) with excellent content that you either bookmarked or subscribed to for future use?

Even if your run an entertainment site (e.g. video, music, gaming site, etc) people will visit it for its entertaining content, rarely (if ever) anything beyond that. For example, humans don’t drink a glass of water because of the glass, they drink it because of the water, though the cup can help/hurt the overall experience. The same concept applies in building websites. Granted, they are much more complex than a hollow cylinder, but they still should be viewed as a container for content. That’s not to say certain sites shouldn’t use “fun,” slick, or playful design and navigation techniques, just ensure said graphical approaches stay a value-add rather than a major concern (also noting that trendy graphics are fleeting). Your primary focus as a web producer should always be content.

Simple. Cocky. Optimistic. Pays homage to the company’s 30 year history while ushering in the new year, and it capitalizes on the computer maker’s killer momentum as of late. NOTE: I’m not a Mac nerd; I split my time between a PC and PowerBook. Regardless, this is good advertising.