Monthly Archive

Trying to be a “Good Windows User”, I installed the last few Windows system updates. Unfortunately, I also need to be a “Good .Net Programmer”, and one of the recent security updates made it so that my local machine could not serve up ASP.NET pages anymore. I could surf to HTML pages on “localhost”, but trying to load up any of my local ASP.NET pages caused the WWW Publishing service to stop. The culprit was a conflict with COM+. I tracked it down to an error in the Application Event Log with the following message :

“The run-time environment has detected an inconsistency in its internal state. This indicates a potential instability in the process that could be caused by the custom components running in the COM+ application, the components they make use of, or other factors. Error in f:\xpsp3\com\com1x\src\comsvcs\package\cpackage.cpp(1184), hr = 80070002: InitEventCollector failed”

After trying a few solutions that didn’t work, I found out about the Windows update problem, and an approach to fix it here :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315296

I was able to repair my COM+ install using the method from that page. My machine is now telling me (again) that I have an important Windows system update to install, but I think I will hold off for a bit…I have actual work to do.

I first saw it at 9:06PM ET, Wednesday, January 6, 2010, a facebook status posted by a friend that consisted of a color "BLACK" and nothing more. I figured I missed something in her stream and moved on. Then I started to see more colors -- "WHITE", "BLACK" (again)... Humnh, does this have something to do with race?

"HOT PINK", "ECRU", "LEOPARD PRINT"

OK, well, I am guessing this isn't about race. A quick google search and I have my answer -- this (or some derivative) has been spreading virally through the ranks of my facebook friends:

"Write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. And send this on to ONLY women no men. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men wonder why the women have a color in their status.....LOL!"

So far no known breast cancer related organization or charity has claimed this campaign, so I strongly suspect that this is just another internet chain letter and not an example of viral marketing. But as a person in the industry, I am finding it an interesting phenomena to follow and consider.

What worked about it?

• Well, the thing that makes facebook fun is the interaction -- nothing gains you interaction like enigmatic or provocative status updates. Its fun to put something out there and get a bunch of responses. Its fun to be coy.
• It plays on the "in the know" versus "out of the know". It is fun to feel "in the know" by being one of the first to participate in a trend.
• As we all know -- "sex sells", so anything that borders on the intimate, is immediately interesting. I detect amongst my friends that it is fun to indicate to their networks this sense that "there is more to me than meets the eye". As well as a few honest individuals who reveal a sense of disappointment that there *isn't* more to them than meets the eye. It is reminiscent of the PETA campaigns with models and movie stars who would "rather be naked than wear fur". Its titillating (pun intended).
• I also see a contingent of folks who have been personally affected by this disease who will do just about anything to try to help the cause. [Side note - it is the earnest caring of this group that makes me get truly angry at all of the email, internet and facebook hoax-sters who choose to prey upon them.]
• Lastly, it also plays on the seemingly irresistible cultural draw of anything that sets "girls" against "boys".