Comments on: European Film Maker a Fan of Action Names Datebook

I'm so famous that I wish to remain anonymous.

I use Datebk5. Why doesn't PIC do an interview on me?

This is an effort to restore Iambic credability and it reeks of endorsement.

I thought you were better than this Ed.

Im off to PDABuzz.

I made a search as well - the result:

Year: 2002
Award: Bronze
Entry Type: Television/Cinema
Category: Campaign
Advertiser/Product/Service: Oesterreichischer Tierschutzverein
Title: Unabashed
Title: Restaurant
Title: Shopping
Advertising Agency: TBWA, Berlin
Production Company: Mican Film, Vienna
Music Company: Soundtrack
Creative Director: Christoph Klingler
Copywriter: Helge Bloeck, Christoph Klingler
Producer: Ernst Mican
Director: David Ruehm

Contrary to the mainstream - find the story very interesting and the movies very funny indeed.
The Palm idea can only benefit from that. On the other hand PIC is loosing non-posting visitors 8they leave in disgust) if the ongoing brainless iambic beating shall continue.

So please see the story calm as what it is, as a good free advertisement of the international Palm idea – and appreciate the fact that another stone proves the competence of Palms in the industry

My two sober cents

Mr. Ruhm said, "My success is partially due to iambic’s Action Names Datebook, which is truly the best contact manager and organizer I have ever used. I have been using the program to plan my films, coordinate castings worldwide, schedule meetings with studios and investors, and, of course, to keep my contacts up-to-date and easily available wherever I go. For a film director with such an intense schedule, using Action Names Datebook is like having a personal assistant at my side, any time of day."

LMAO ... I just cant' stop laughing at how stoopid this sounds. It sounds like such a fake testimonial ... from someone who no one has ever heard of. So what he uses AN????? SO WHAT??? Give me a break!!!! This is just free advertising for Iambic for a 'news' item that's not even worthy.

We have indeed proudly published in nearly every Palmtop-Pro magazine in the last years articles from David.

David is rated as a very competent expert here in Europe on professional Palm and Psion software – besides having completed a bulkload of extremely successful films for cinemas in Europe.

Besides doing commercials for non profit organisations as like in that very case for the protection of wild animals.
He donated his work as in many other cases related to wildlife and humanistic projects absolutely for free – we know, he even sponsored these efforts financially.

So he is geared with his ideology in the same direction as the makers of Datebook 4&5– to protect wildlife.

I do not see anything wrong with this.

And I duly hope the majority of silent readers do as well.

Boris Michael Luhovoy
publishing editor
Palmtop-Pro magazine

No it is not. And here is the prove:

Our magazine is in German only - now how many of you are fluent enough in German language to follow a highly technical dedicated magazine?

Now - I consider that point as clarified.

You see - we do not win anything commercially - we are just proud having such an indeed international figure on board- by the way David worked in the Hollywood studios for a few years.

And the three movies we show on our page are very funny indeed.
So – what’s wrong with having a little fun?

We simply want to get the Palm idea around – even in cases we do not profit.

Excuse my humble English - it’s not my mother-tounge – and I would not be fluent enough to follow a highly technical magazine in english.

Just get over it and have fun (also with Palm) instead of dark ideas!

BvL.

Now you're even bagging on Palm Pro Mag. for using some guy's opinion you don't even know, for stating what he personally thinks of a piece of software. Using your logic, Palm TipSheet is merely a long propaganda rag! I don't think so.

It seems nothing will please you, that you will always find something to complain about or criticize. Criticism is beneficial when done constructively, but I see no constructive suggestions here, only diatribe.

What's the matter, didn't your mommy ever teach you? If you don't have positive input, don't give input (also quoted by mothers the world over as "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anyting at all").

Do the rest of us a favor and SHUT UP! Your constant whining is giving us headaches and making us ill.

_________________
Sean

It is not very comfortable to have the gift of being amused at one's own absurdity.
-Somerset Maugham-

Even if this would be true - I state i'ts not good manners to rate people qualitys on basis if they come from certain areas of the world or belong to certain groups. I do not want to elaborate further.

And my friend - the world is a lot bigger as your comparable tiny home known map.

Have a look at a good globe...

BvL

I sign off for good - there's all said

Uh... no.

Iambic's stupid arrogant mistake just happened, and it is nowhere NEAR time to forgive and forget.

But you often see a film directed from someone not knowing who really made it.
For example the newest t-mobile spot (biggest mobile and internet provider in Europe) running in all TV stations all over Europe from Spain to Austria this week (the one with soundless b/w episodes) was for example directed by Ruehm – did you know that?

To question now the competence of Mr. Ruehm in filming industy (as a scapegoat to have a lame argument to hurt iambic) is as silly as cheap.

I simply cannot believe that Ed willingly included this story. He was either pressured by Iambic to do something so as to save future advertising revenue, the site was hacked by Iambic or Ed has totally lost his sense of editorial skill!

Who cares?

Boris Michael Luhovoy
publishing editor
Palmtop-Pro magazine

The article does not explain that he is a pro Palm user. Even if he is a pro Palm user with a wide ranging experience, then tell him to join the club - there are thousands of us on the planet, and not all of us use Action Names.

The problem here is that his voice is being given such an unusual airing: his testimonial is just one big sound byte. What next, will we get articles every day from mediocre professionals (and yes, he is mediocre by international standards) telling us how amazed they are by each and every app they use? I certainly hope not because it is irresponsible journalism and quite frankly a waste of space and time for readers.

I clicked on the story expecting some deep insight or a revelation by a top European director. Put it this way, I work in the film production industry in the UK and I've never heard of this guy, so I empathise with anyone else whose scratching their head thinking 'David Who?'. There is no way you can defend this story Boris. I should imagine you're only responding because you're also getting publicity out of this and are keen to defend the story to keep it posted here. As another poster said, it's pathetic.

You mean... they don't?! :(

"Let's pretend this never happened."

Does this apply only to PIC, or can we use this towards iambic too? :)

The first result is called "The Elephant's Psion Page" and the URL suggests that it is Mr. Ruehm's personal web space from his ISP, www.chello.at. On that page, a program called "LottoWizard V2.40" for the Psion is featured. There is no indication whether the application was written by Mr. Ruehm and the web page was last updated July 28, 2001. No references to Palm whatsoever.

The Google sub-result to the above is Mr. Ruehm's listing in Chello Members' Webspace and a link to the above Elephant's Page.

The third Google result is just a re-direct from Mr. Ruehm's former personal home page on CompuServe to Chello.at.

The fourth result appears to be a film event in early December 2000 that lists a short (3 minutes, 15 seconds) 35mm film named "SPAGHETTO" made in 1993 by Mr. Ruehm.

The fifth and sixth results are web pages listing Psion software and having a link to Mr. Ruehm's LottoWizard page at Chello.at. No links to Palm here, either.

The seventh and last result from Google lists a 1996 film entitled "Azzurro", by Mr. Ruehm. It is listed in the Filmography page of a web site about actress Babsy Artner. I would assume that Ms. Artner appears in "Azzurro."

Google did not find hundreds of results. FYI.

Maybe Google targets their search engine based on
your country? Because my searches do not come
ANYWHERE near that many hits, and I'm located in
Canada.

At any rate, the point of this is that most of
North America, Asia, and I can probably say, Australia
has never heard of this guy.

:/

Last year there were several pieces (on several sites) about a polar expedition taking along certain programs. I don't recall as negative a reaction, but then I don't recall them sounding so much like a commercial.

I would have expected a comment from Ed on a story getting so much attention, but I believe that this is a holiday weekend in the US, so maybe he's not aware of the debate as yet? Maybe we'll get a reaction during the week...

Dryden

Some people like to sound self-important.

Have no idea what you means but its exciting to know
Dr.Frasier Crane posts here.

It's a silly story, and coming right after the iambic fiasco, it seems even more so.

Lighten up on the criticism, sheesh.

The problem is that it really does read like an advertisement, like an attempted product endorsement. For me, it has nothing to do with which product it is. I'd rather click on PIC and find that there wasn't any news that day than be "mis-lead" into reading an article with no informational value. There have been other "articles" in the past that also were guilty of this, but none ever seemed so blatant to me.

At a minimum, I hope Ed sees that PIC readers in general would rather not see product endorsements masquerading as PIC articles.

If your fluent in German this site proves:

http://www.palmtop-pro.com/onltexte/ruehm3.htm

1.) The story came from the magazine Palmtop-Pro
2.) The German text is focused on personal matters besides Palm & Psion OS

To understand this and the history of this thread you have to know German - otherwise your just talking around something you do neither understand nor know about.

In other words -- thats bad manners.

http://www.palmtop-pro.com/onltexte/ruehm3.htm )

and then click "Press Release" under the Iambic "ad" on the left, you'll be directed to an English web page showing that the "news" article is indeed a promotional press release from Iambic. Iambic's Press Contact is listed on the left. The last half of the press release plugs Action Names, Iambic, and Palmtop-Pro.

This comment has to be written by an Iambic employee...

Raise your voice (for iambic) and you get troubles - be in line (Datebook) and you get candys.

And you want to bomb Hussein for being a bad boy?

BTW I have heard that the University of Botswana and the College of Higher learning in Uganda both prohibit the use of Action Names within their campuses citing loss of important data by poorly written code. Armed guards travel in pairs throughout each campus checking all Palm pilots for the insidious software...

Um, you're actually comparing people showing a disgust over a company's clumsy, underhanded attempts at PR with a murderous dictator who has deployed chemical weapons against his own people, literally butchered (aka chopped up)dissenting members of his own government, and is constantly threatening to invade neighboring countries?

Amazing.

You're right, WE'RE the unreasonable ones. More power to Iambic.

PIC has a long history of fair and even-handed reporting which its readers have come to expect. A story such as this reads like a fluffed-up press release, or worse yet, some kind of PR media guide. Readers do not expect this kind of tripe from PIC. Your suggestion, Psikotic, that readers "don't read it" if they "don't like it" is reductive and childish (and in this case, also impossible: you can't exactly 'unread' the article after you've finished it). There are deeper issues here than liking or not liking a particular story--Palm InfoCenter's integrity is somewhat in doubt, if just for a moment. That Ed hasn't yet responded to these legitimate issues is further troubling.

And I'm sure Ed does care about his readership, despite your protestations to the contrary.

It looks like this issue is played out, so I guess I won't be coming back to this thread, but let me just say:

1) *IF* Ed accepted some form of compensation for publishing an article, that'd be disappointing. More to the point, it would be de-legitimizing--most respectable news media clearly distinguishes between news, editorial content, and advertising. Advertising, under any guise, isn't really news, and to pass it off as such is a cynical abuse of the Fourth Estate. When Sony's fake movie critic was exposed, the ensuing uproar was over the passing-off of paid advertisment as legitmate criticism, even though film criticism is hardly the frame of civilization. If Ed did take payment, he sure didn't disclose it. Citing sources and disclosing should be a natural part of reporting the news.

2) The article in question reads like an advertorial. Ryan even responds that it was taken from a press release.

3) If you accept 1) and 2), it logically follows that compensation may have been involved. Do I believe that? No (and Ryan's reply denied it). But surely you can understand the concern that it was true.

What we are interested in is what was said in THIS online magazine.

I guess the question for me still remains: who wrote the blurb itself? It so reeks of marketeeze it is hard to believe it wasn't copied verbatim from some iambic press release.

Just to assure myself I wasn't imagining what I was reading, I went back through a dozen or more pages in the PIC archive trying to find a similar story about another product. While I found plenty of single-product announcements, they invariably contained some element that was new to the community, and there was certainly none of this insipid "like having a personal assistant at my side, any time of day" nonsense.

BTW, not all the people asking the questions did so anonymously. The insertion of that word into your update seemed to be an attempt to dis your critics.

Let me close by saying that I am an extremely unimportant engineer in a tiny Canadian software engineering company and I use DateBk5! I figure that statement ought to be more than enough to balance out this plug for AN from Mr. "Important-And-Oh-So-Busy-Director-That-Makes-Ads-That-Win-Bronze-Clios" Ruehm.

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I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers.