I was somewhat relieved to find out that I wasn’t the only one who would describe the Palm Pre commercials as odd, but neither did I think others would describe feelings of “happiness” and “inspiration” when viewing them. Surprise, surprise:

A nationwide study of 305 viewers looked at response to the new Palm Pre ads. While comments at our site and others seem to have an overwhelmingly negative response to the ads, that was not the case with the study group. In fact, half of the viewers chose inspiration or happiness as the emotions they felt while viewing the ad.

The report didn’t specify whether any of the study participants noted the commercials were “vaguely creepy.”

There’s a lot to love in this news report about online newspapers from 28 years ago. Dialing the rotary phone to connect to the modem, citing a whopping 2,000 – 3,000 computer owners in the Bay Area, waiting two hours to download the content of a newspaper (and paying $5 an hour for the privilege)… Still, they weren’t far off in predicting how most of us get our news today.

Who knows where we’ll be in another 30 years?

I was glad to hear a new site called My Damn Channel, founded by real, live Hollywood filmmakers and performers, will bring high-quality video content to the Web. Better yet, they’ve signed a distribution deal with YouTube to syndicate their content, which is such a no-brainer I can’t believe other companies haven’t followed suit.

I have been hearing more and more about similar syndication deals, however, and if technologies such as Joost are well received, it may encourage other, more traditional content providers to make their programs available across more platforms. For many of these platforms it means giving up a bit of control, which is scary. However, the music industry has once again shown everyone the writing on the wall, and giving up that control just might be what it takes to grow and thrive in a “three screen” world.

I feel for both of them, in a way, since the interviewer looks like she’s just been thrown to the wolves, and Holly Hunter remains such a good sport about it. Nonetheless, if you can get past the first 30 seconds without blushing, you’re a better man than I.

In a letter to “Jericho” fans that opened simply with “Wow!,” the president of CBS Entertainment, Nina Tassler, praised the “impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion” evident in the effort to save the series. She added that the series could be extended further if fans help recruit more viewers. The letter is posted on the message board at CBS’s Jericho Web site.

The reversal and Ms. Tassler’s reaction were in response to a campaign that led to thousands of pounds of roasted nuts being delivered to CBS executives by viewers of the show. The nuts were a reference to the first-season finale, in which Jake Green, the character played by Skeet Ulrich, uses the somewhat outdated expression to refuse his enemy’s suggestion that he surrender.

I was actually motivated to pick up the first (and only) season of Firefly simply due to how hardcore the series fans were. I’ll probably do the same with Jericho, because if the fans are this insane the show must be doing something right. Never underestimate the power of the Internet to organize an angry mob, eh?