JustJellyfish

So I found this thing on Amazon.com called Mechanical Turk. It's weird, and I'm going to give it a try here. Accordingly to the website's FAQ files, there are some tasks that humans can do faster and far more accurately than computers. The example they give is looking at multiple photographs and determining if the photo contains a sought-after item. Like: look at 100 photos and tell me which ones contain an image of a pizza parlor. Apparently, if you can sign up to do these tasks, or HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), they pay you for it through Amazon.com's website (like PayPal I guess - you can apply your income to Amazon.com goods in cyberspace, or transfer it to your bank account in the real world).

So I checked it out. There seem to be no HITs that require finding pizza parlors in photographs (damn! I like pizza) but a lot of HITs that require transcription of subpar quality audio files with unknown interviewers/interviewees discussing obscure topics (like Ventura engines in the Aston Marton automobiles at the turn of the century).

The rest of the bulk of the HITs appear to be requests to advertise someone's website or blog. They pay about .25 to .75 cents per post. So I'll try one here, in a minute, and let's just see whether they actually ever deposit any real world money in my virtual world Amazon.com account. I doubt it, but the HIT i chose shouldn't take more than 45 seconds to accomplish. A penny per second isn't a bad pay rate, I figure.

 

Chuck Brown, who makes his living as a male voice talent, has put together some interesting resources on his site:

• funny voiceover stuff
• celebrity voiceovers
• free voiceover prompts
• voiceover career advice

He's also a part of a voiceover talent group called Voiceover Superfriends, and they have a cute site.

http://www.ListAfterList.com/ is a new, cool site I've discovered during late-night web browsing. Founded by business partners John Edwards (formerly director of content programming at AOL) and Ryan Pratt (recent Ohio State graduate and newspaper columnist) who serves as ListAfterList's full-time editor, promoter and manager. 

http://www.ListAfterList uses the Wikipedia method of organizing content on the web, relying on it's users to help them collectively amass & post a wealth of list-based knowledge. Whether it's a list of the Coolest Places to Visit in Vegas, or the Current Republican Candidates for the Presidential Race 2008, ListAfterList has it all.

Users can easily sign up and login to create their own lists - even things like Top 10 Songs To Listen to When I'm Sad. While I'm not sure how much value others will place on that particular user's list of sad songs, it does provide an outlet for the voyeurs among us. One click leads to another, and another, and another and before you know it, you've spent an hour looking at Even More Dead Lawyer Jokes and Top 10 Cleveland Browns Games Since 1980. Who knew there were 10?!

Check out http://www.ListAfterList. But watch out, it's addictive!