Ads are part of the deal whenever we get something for free, whether it’s a television show, an article on the Web, a downloaded app, or even this very paper. Even things we pay for — cable TV, daily newspapers — use advertising to defray the costs that subscribers could never hope to cover.

But what exactly is the deal?

Read the rest of this week’s column at The Hippo.

I really do want your thoughts on this topic. Comment here or tweet @CitizenjaQ.

Yes, I did everything right. It was the seller who did everything wrong.

By “wrong” I really mean “unsafely.” The deal went down without a hitch, but as often happens, the seller sacrificed some prudent precautions for expediency and convenience.

First, the seller replied to my inquiry by immediately providing her address, driving directions to her house, and two phone numbers. A cell phone conversation is sometimes the best way to arrange a transaction, but going to a neutral, public location is far better than inviting an Internet stranger to your home.

When we talked on the phone, she said she’d leave the item on the porch – presumably so I’d know I was at the right house? Sure enough, there it sat when I pulled up at the prearranged time, just waiting for me to skip out on payment and grab it.

But I am a man of honor, so I rang the doorbell and waited until the woman, apparently home alone, answered the door. She wore only one shoe, her left foot encased instead in a cast. Definitely not the state in which anyone should invite a stranger home.

Her one smart move? Leaving her dog outside. Her big, friendly, licky dog. Which she apologized for.

Craigslist has its own list of common sense precautions its users should take, as do many other sites. It’s good advice.

The music is the first thing most people notice about the IE9 commercial.

The song is “Too Close” by Alex Clare, which my (younger, hipper) cousin informs me is heavily influenced by the “dubstep” thing kids are listening to these days. The animation is literally flashy, with blinding white orbs of light ushering flattering reviews around the screen while we’re shown pictures and video of some of our favorite Web sites. Although there’s a one-minute ad online (along with a 15-second ad), the 30-second version is most often seen on TV.

Google takes a slower, more deliberate approach in its 90-second Chrome ad.

The music,“Porch Song” by The Meemies, is not nearly as aggressive and catchy as “Too Close,” but is much more obviously connected to what is happening onscreen. A woman opens an e-mail (in Gmail) from her ex-boyfriend asking her to coffee. She also opens a couple shared documents (in Google Docs), watches a video (on Google-owned YouTube), explores locations they’d visited (on Google Maps), and translates a little Italian sentence the ex-boyfriend wrote (using a Google Translate button). At least, we’re meant to assume the person doing all this is the intended recipient – we’re only shown the computer screen, not the user.

While the Chrome ad gets points for its storytelling, the Internet Explorer spot wins for pure cool. It shows up, displays a heap of mad style and gets out. That’s actually remarkably consistent with Microsoft’s marketing attitude of using technology as quickly as possible. The sentiment is most obvious in recent Windows Phone ads, in which people are depicted fully engrossed in their smartphones and oblivious to the world around them.

The impression I get of the dude on the other end of the Chrome ads, on the other hand, is of someone kind of pathetic. It’s not entirely clear, but he seems to have sent not a single but multiple messages to his ex, each one requiring a different Google service to view. He’s clearly obsessed with this girl, but perhaps equally obsessed with Google itself. Not a single Web site or application from another company is ever shown. He might want to get out more. Maybe visit some clubs, listen to a little dubstep. I hear it’s a good way to meet women.

As soon as I decided to cover browser market share this week, my brain interrupted me. “Dude,” it said, “you just wrote about browser competition. Get over it.”

So I checked, and sure enough, I had written about the four browsers installed on my computer — in 2009. Also known as three years ago, two jobs ago, and before my dog was born. Things tend to change in the tech world in that amount of time. And yes, they have.

Read the full article at The Hippo.

Once I knew of the release, I employed my standard strategy to get the best price: check the flyers in Sunday’s paper. This may seem archaic, but if anything, I would think bands that have been around since before music downloading was a thing would be more likely to hit emphasize the traditional retail channels.

Not so, apparently. Not a single local store was advertising the new Keane CD. Target had some guy calling himself Tank with an album title truly dizzying in its straightforwardness, This Is How I Feel. Best Buy featured a duo named Karmin and the even more mundane, but I’m sure secretly deep, title of Hello, along with Neck of the Woods by Silversun Pickups.

When I ambled into Best Buy – shut up, it was convenient – Strangeland wasn’t even on the New Releases shelf, unlike several albums already out several weeks. Only a single copy was available deep in the Pop/Rock rack.

Am I old? Keane was never the very hottest group on the charts, but have they fallen so far?

The title of that 1987 book by Dr. Marsha Sinetar has become mantra among a certain segment of creative people. Follow your bliss, the thought goes, and you can’t help but become successful and happy.

The best of the anecdotes espousing this theory come with a healthy dose of humblebragging, describing just how busy the authors are and how, nevertheless, they found the time and energy to be amazing. Take Jason Halstead, writer friend of a writer friend on Twitter:

So how have I managed it all and continue to do so? I work a full time job that often runs 50 – 60 hours a week, including time working from home. I have two young kids and a great wife that I enjoy spending time with. I’m mildly obsessed with power lifting and staying in shape by picking up the kind of heavy weights that makes Planet Fitness employees run screaming in terror. And up until late last year I was completing my MBA in Strategic Management.

Or how about Leo Babauta of ZenHabits, in a post forwarded to me by my own wife?

It is possible — I did it, all while working a full-time job, doing free-lance writing on the side, and having a wife and six kids.

You know how I feel after working a full-time job? Exhausted. Drained. Relaxing in front of the telly with the wife and pets – much lower maintenance than kids – is a true pleasure. But apparently even that I’m not doing passionately enough, because I could be listening to podcasts and going to conventions. Or, cripes, producing podcasts based on the books that I write about watching TV.

If, you know, that’s what I love.

That’s really the hard part, isn’t it? There’s a difference between doing stuff you enjoy and and something you truly love. A lot of advice assumes that we all know what we really want to do, we just need to be convinced to follow our bliss. Then, since we love it so much, we’re motivated to put in the work to make it successful.

At least the first step is acknowledged to be not always so elementary by writer Laura Vanderkam in a newsletter piece called “Your passion project“:

Graduation speakers often tell earnest young people to “find your passion” but here’s a different question: how, exactly, do you find your passion?

This is, of course, part of the broader struggle of knowing oneself. It doesn’t lend itself to quick fixes. Some of us are blessed to figure out our callings early on, but for others it’s a long march.

Vanderkam goes on to suggest ways to discover what you really love, and assures us that she can think of some way to make any sincere passion into a career. I’m sure she can, but just because a theoretical job exists doesn’t mean that a) someone will be good at it and b) there’s room in the economy for however many people might want to do the same job. One example she uses is video game blogger. A variety of voices on any topic is welcome, but there are a lot of people who love video games. There are already a lot of video game bloggers, and a lot of them don’t make any money doing it.

None of this means that you shouldn’t try to be happy or carve out a niche for yourself. Heck, maybe you’re doing someone else’s dream job and they’re doing yours. But neither can everyone expect to be wonderfully self-actualized. There isn’t enough demand for every passion out there; many jobs are pure drudge; and entire professions go obsolete all the time.

If you’re not in the perfect career, explore other options. Not finding perfection doesn’t mean failure.

No one can deny that computer animation in movies has come a long way since 1995’s Toy Story. Aside from looking more realistic by itself, today’s 3D animation is often tough to distinguish from the live actors, props, and sets with which it shares the silver screen.

Marvel’s The Avengers has already earned a huge $185.1 million internationally, and it opens in the United States tomorrow, May 4.

Read the full post at the Zco blog.

A few weeks ago, I answered a reader question about getting rid of old electronics responsibly. Little did I know the flood of additional suggestions that would generate.

Turns out, in addition to city dumps and big box stores, there are a ton of local places to take old computers, monitors, phones, and other gadgets — especially this weekend.

This one is of interest mainly to local (southern New Hampshire) readers, but it never hurts to check with your municipality to see where and when you can safely dispose of your old computers and electronics. Read the full column at The Hippo. (For reference, here’s the previous column on computer disposal.)

Back in November, I found the spot on the CBS Web site where one requests permission to use their intellectual property in one’s own work. (I’d link it for you, but darn if I can find it again.) Specifically, I wanted to use one frame from the Star Trek episode “The Cage” as part of the album cover for my EP, The Women!

When I didn’t hear back from them a month later – my self-imposed deadline for releasing the EP – I figured, screw it, I’m much too small-time for them to care. I wasn’t selling the album, and the argument could be made that the clumsy image editing I did to the shot made the cover a fair use “derivative work” anyway. I’m not quite sure the argument would fly, mind you, but it could be made.

Then on March 28, I received an e-mail from the Licensing Manager at CBS Consumer Products Inc. Here’s what she said.

Hi John,

I received your licensing inquiry from the CBS Consumer Products web site.

Please reach out to me directly to discuss this opportunity in more detail.

Helpful, no? Whatever. Approximately nine people have downloaded the album since November, so a per-unit licensing deal would net them less than the manager’s time to type two sentences costs. A blanket licensing deal would likely bankrupt me.

But today I wrote her back. Under the theory that music gets more exposure when you ask folks to pay for it, I’m putting it on iTunes and Spotify and the like soon. Either I get the right licensing in place or I change the cover somehow.

Now, granted, a good portion of the Internet economy runs on blatant copyright infringement. The Star Trek Facebook page frequently links to fan-made stuff and says, “Hey, cool!” with no mention of impending legal action. And the old saying does go, “Better to ask forgiveness than permission.” But old sayings are no more true than new ones, and “forgiveness” in this case might be “thousands in punitive royalties.” So I’ll go the safe route here.

Android’s app market, Google Play, doesn’t have the stringent guidelines Apple does, so it’s generally regarded as more vulnerable to attack. In truth, both operating systems have built-in safeguards, but malware has a way of learning and spreading its tentacles. Even if your phone itself isn’t brought down, it can be a carrier for desktop infections.

Fortunately there are a number of apps specifically made to combat this kind of nastiness.

Read more at the Zco blog.