The new short URL will improve Dailymotion’s viral reach and allow advertisers to leverage Dailymotion’s enormous viral sharing audience with memorable short URLs. It will also let those video producers engaged in viral video production to create recognizable short URLs with brand names and specific targeted keywords.

Developed using bit.ly’s powerful API, dai.ly will let you share and track links effectively and accurately. If you are involved in viral video marketing this will be a great boon to you, as you will also able to view real-time traffic and referrer data, as well as location and metadata to get a clear idea of the distribution of their content across popular social networks and other viral distribution platforms like e-mail, SMS and IM.

Doritos is once again showing how cool they are when it comes to viral marketing and the Doritos Viralocity contest is just the latest example.

Most of the videos so far have been ho-hum, but one I just saw really caught my eye, check it out:

Besides the movie’s cutesy references to classic movies and pop culture, the theme of humans relying completely on their creations – and the often-unfortunate results of that dependency – is definitely not a new one. Although such works as Asimov’s “I, Robot” or Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” (on which “Bladerunner” was based) have a significant emphasis on the various ways in which robots of different types and intelligence levels will assist humans in The Future, they do not go so far as to describe a civilization completely void of Human endeavor.

Here are a few that do:

1909 – “The Machine Stops”, E.M. Forster

In a remarkably prescient tale about life in the distant future, a vast ecological disaster has forced humanity underground, where people live their lives in relative isolation, communicating through instant messaging and video-conferencing. In this dystopian existence, sluggish humans have become dependent on advanced technology to maintain their idle lifestyle – until, of course, someone rocks the boat and the system breaks down.

In 1966 the story was adapted into a 50-minute drama by the BBC. Note the moving recliner chairs and the technocratic overtones:

1957 – “Blobs!” [MAD #1], Harvey Kurtzman/Wally Wood

Interestingly enough, the cover story of the very first issue of MAD (still in its original comic book format) was an obvious (yet uncredited) satire of “The Machine Stops”. In this 7-page story, two of the few remaining humans who have not let their brains atrophy as completely as their bodies take a moment to review the history of technology and how it has changed civilization – not for the better.

As can be seen in the panel above, it has all the essential elements of technologically-augmented human laziness – including reclining chairs, video screens, and cup holders. The last three panels of this bizarre adaptation are particularly poignant.

Full comics: Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

1967 – “The Apple” [Star Trek Season 2 Episode 5], Max Ehrlich

In this famous episode from the original series, Capt. Kirk and his intrepid crew must deal with a planet ruled by an ancient, artificially-intelligent machine. It tends to its flock of primitive humans – feeding, housing, clothing, and even procreating them – and demands only a daily feeding of the indigenous explosive rocks. Violence ensues as Kirk tries to to free the tribe from its gilded cage (using the absence of Sex as a point of contention), causing Spock to almost be killed, while quite a few redshirts aren’t as lucky.

1986 – “Don’t Want” [Nehochuha], K. Parsamyan/A. Vatyan

From the Russian studio that brought you the Wolf-vs-Hare antics of “Nu Pogodi“, comes a cautionary tale of a young boy who doesn’t want to do anything. Falling asleep after an argument with his grandmother over his laziness, he dreams of a wonderful amusement-park land where he can spend all day in bed – eating junk food, watching TV, and playing video games – while a robotic assistant makes sure he has to do as little as possible. Only when the boy meets his grotesquely obese and sessile future-self does he realize the error of his ways.

1999 – The Matrix, The Wachowski Brothers

Although only indirectly referenced in the first movie in the series – later to be expanded in the 2003 Animatrix films “The Second Renaissance” – Earth prior to the machine uprising was a place where humans “…soon became victim to vanity and corruption” through the hedonistic use of technology – especially artificially intelligent robotics – to supply their every need. In this Frankenstein-complex scenario, when the machines finally understand that they will never be considered by their masters to be equal, they rise up and eventually destroy humanity as we know it.

So don’t turn your back on Wall-E and E.V.E.:

P.S – Almost forgot the first thing you think of when laying eyes on Wall-E:

That jerk lives like
a missle with
his pecker (in) one hand and
his pooper (in the) other

What about the paperwork
-bowels working overtime
Feed the faxes apple dumplings
-pay that fucker overtime

hey there bossman
-fickle fucker
hey there bossman
-fickle fucker buy me dinner