First of all — I don’t have a Chumby to give away, I don’t even have one for myself.

But, man, looking at Dave Winer’s description of the thing, it makes me want one.

BitTorrent to distribute updates, cool form factor, widgets, a potential webserver? Its a geek’s wet dream.

In fact, I’d give almost anything to have one.

Which got me wondering: what would *YOU* give for a Chumby?

Leave a comment, and the most inventive / funny / disgusting / charming answer wins a free banner ad on Deep Jive Interests for the next month, which is a $70 value.

There are no limit to the number of entries, and the deadline is Monday at 8pm.

So, what are you waiting for? What would *you* give for a Chumby? :)

// alternatively, you could just buy one for yourself for $179.  But they don’t yet ship to Canada, so I will continue wishing for one, and if you’re interested in participating in this contest you could merely *imagine* that you’re in Canada as well. ;)

Well, you may or may not have heard that Real has released a new RealPlayer — one that tries to shed its bloatware past, and tries to don some new lean, YouTube ripping, duds. Well, that’s what advance press has said about it anyway, in TechCrunch, Scoble, and the Wall Street Journal.

Interested in checking it out for yourself?

You’d be out of luck until the end of the month as alpha’s are hard to come by … unless you happen to read Deep Jive Interests, of course! :)

If you’re interested in checking out an alpha build of the “new” realplayer, which CNet describes as “impressive“, as it allows you to “download and organize nearly all embedded internet video content (Flash, WMV, QuickTime) including content from popular video sites like YouTube, Comedy Central, and of course, CNET” — this is what you need to do:

Leave a comment explaining what’s the very first embeded video you’d like save onto your hard drive that you never got the chance to do before.

Winners will be announced within a week (I promise).

Good luck, and start commenting!

… wow, its late — but better late than never.

The winner of the Spock.com beta invite was David Bisset of DavidBisset.com. Congratulations, man!

Spock.com, for those still paying attention, is a search engine focused on finding people. I still plan to write my own opinions about it, but suffice it to say, its kind of interesting to claim your own name.

Well, actually, I did run another small test, just for the hell of it.

You may have heard that Vator.TV launched the other day? Its a new media concern that allows companies to post video clips of their elevator pitches in hopes of securing VC funding. Webware.com, a CNet production that reviews web applications and web2.0 companies, did a small review on Vator.TV — but also featured a clip from Vator.TV as an example.

As I was watching the clip, I thought — “Man, this guy [who's doing the pitch] has a great voice. No wonder he’s the chief of communications. I wonder if he’s ever done any professional work before … ? ” So, of course I powered up Google to find out a little more about this dude, named Mil Arcega.

After all — how many “Mil Arcega’s” could there be?

Probably not as many as “Tony Hung” (almost 2 million entries), right?

Anyway, it turns out that Mr. Arcega was a former reporter and anchor for a local Washington news station, and affiliate of NBC. That, and apparently he likes Chinese food. That’s what I was able to figure out from a quick Google search. Also, by actually going to the Vator website, there are a few other tidbits, like the fact that he was the “Business Correspondent for the English Language Services at Voice of America.”

So, you might wonder … how did Spock.com fare?

Well, it showed up a Mil Arcega’s MySpace page. This one. That’s it. And to be honest, I hope that’s not *really* Mil Arcega, Chief of Communications, and award-winning reporter … because he doesn’t really look like someone you’d give VC funding to. Maybe a couple bucks for a coffee, but that’s it.

If you’re interested in a Spock invitation of your own, I might be able to hornswaggle a few extra invites in the future. Leave your name and comment below, and considered yourself pre-entered into a future Spock.com contest!

Hi guys,

Spock.com is a startup / web application that specializes in finding information about people.  I will be posting my own thoughts about it a later date (soon), but suffice it to say that it does a little more than scan social networks. It also search engines, and automagically creates a permanent page for people, along with tags and so on. Pretty nifty stuff.

Problem is that its in closed beta, and open to invitation only. Mike Arrington had 100 invites to give away about a week ago, but you can bet that they’ve dried up like his warm and fuzzies over Silicon Valley’s imminently bursting bubble.

The good thing, of course, is that I *do* have an invite to give away (maybe even more than one).

If you’d like to see Spock in action — and more importantly, create a profile for yourself (I wanted to secure “Tony Hung” so the bajillion other Tony Hung’s in the world, such as that Tony Hung at DynaFund Ventures, won’t get the first one), all you have to do is leave a message below explaining why you’d like one.

Make it funny though, as I’m grumpy as heck for having worked this long weekend and I need to be amused.

The winner will be chosen by me in another 72 hours or thereabouts.

Cheers,
Tony

Update: Seems like there are problems with distributing the invites; as soon as it clears up (i.e. Joost fixes its network problems), the winners will get their invites. Thanks for being patient!

Its a bit late, but many thanks to the 50+ entrants into the Easter Weekend Joost Contest! We have 10 Joost invites to give away (thanks to 5 additional invites courtesy of the ever-pet loving Hart).

But before I announce the winners, I’d like to recognize those entrants who have blogs/sites/social sites. Thanks for participating guys!

• Fran: http://www.cesco.it
• Ryan Libson: http://www.constantlycomplaining.com/
• Ben: http://trident.wordpress.com/
• Pablo: http://pablo.tumblr.com/
• Jhay: http://jrocas.com.ph/
• Michael Berman: http://ambermancto.blogspot.com/
• Marc: http://jcfsi.com/
• David: http://www.techzi.net/
• Kent: http://www.newsome.org/
• KC: http://insight.blogzine.jp/
• Jeremy McCullough: http://www.disidius.com/
• Cheap Sweet Wine: http://catholicmomsgonewild.wordpress.com/
• Rachel Joy: http://www.myspace.com/raychealjoy

And now … the winners!

1. Hani
2. Joan
3. Kraig Spear
4. Jeremy McCullough
5. Rachel Joy
6. Jeff
7. Aaron!
8. Jennifer Li
9. Lloyd in the Philippines
10. Alex Howard

Thanks everyone for participating!

And in the event that I get any *more* invites to Joost, or even any other closed beta’s, leave a comment so I can include you in the next contest. ;)

April 7 1620h Update: Thanks to the ever-generous (and ever pet-loving) Hart, I have doubled the number of Joost invites again! We have 10 Joost invites available, so tell your friends where they can win a chance to grab one (hint: its right here)

So, with the release of Joost 0.9, I have in my grubby paws, 5 more Joost Invites. Joost, for the uninitiated, is a new application that is from the guys behind Skype, and previously, Kazaa, and it allows anyone to watch TV from the internet in a fairly seemless, easy-to-use fashion. With web2.0 elements incorporated into it, such as sharing, chat and instant messaging within the client, it makes for a very different TV viewing experience indeed!

I’ll be honest — the interface is really slick, but content will be the key, and its something that they’ve got to work on.

But maybe you’d like to see for yourself.

Currently its in closed beta, meaning you can only get to try it out if you’re invited.

Would you like to get an invite?

Well, last month I held a comments-contest for a couple Joost invites that I did have, and it seemed pretty well received. Furthermore, it seems like the interest in Joost invites hasn’t died, but is actually growing in advance of their official release.

I have more than 40 new requests for invites from the initial post!

Well, far be it for me to ignore another grand-standing opportunity, I thought I’d hold an Easter Weekend Joost Invite Contest.

To get a Joost invite, all you have to do is leave a comment. That’s it. No skill testing question. By monday evening at 2000h EST (GMT -5) I will close the contest, and announce the 5 randomly selected winners by Tuesday.

Far be it for me to be a link scrooge, I will be also posting a full listing of participants, including links to their blogs early in the next week as thanks for playing — so if you have a blog, make sure you include its URL.

Also, if you happen to have any extra Joost invites lying around and would like to contribute them to contest, please let me know!

Well, what are you waiting for? Get commenting! :)

[and yes, as Ryan asked, Joost DOES work for the Mac, if you have OSX 10.4, and a Mac with an intel-based processor]