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At the 2010 Game Developers Conference, artists, programmers, and designers are sharing their best ideas on the future of gaming.

Sarah Haskins is part of InfoMania’s line up of commentators that pokes fun at mainstream media. Sarah’s biggest contribution is her recurring segment “Target Women.”

“Target Women” is a video commentary that takes a satirical look at television adverts that target women. As we can see above Sarah doesn’t hold back when discussing the rather broad generalizations that these commercials assume.

Watching a satirical commentary on television adverts exposes one of the major contrasts with broadcast media and the internet. Broadcast media is riddled with assumptions while the internet by its very nature is void of assumptions. Take for example the ads discussed above, they are completely based on the assumptions of the ad executives that created them, and as a result they fall victim to the risk of being irrelevant, ineffective, and annoying. Now, don’t get me wrong, mainstream ad agencies spend millions of dollars on market research, and demographic studies, all so they can make calculated assumptions. But, in the end they are still assumptions none the less!

The internet on the other hand, by its very nature makes very little assumptions. We visit websites that we want to. We digest information that we have requested. 98% of social media is an opt-in medium. And, unless you are visiting a site like Hulu, there are no commercial breaks on the internet. Instead the vast majority of the ads online are topic specific to the sites they are on. I could be reading an article about how to build a bird house and find an ad in the margin for bird house plans.

Effective internet marketing is void of irrelevance. Effective internet marketing is void of assumptions. Effective internet marketing should provide the user as much, if not close to as much, value as the content they are promoting. Effective internet marketing isn’t about gambling away marketing dollars on false assumptions but strategically promoting ideas and information that value the consumer as well as the merchant.

If your internet marketing efforts are based on assumptions, you are doing it wrong.

After the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, it is not surprising to see countries are updating their disaster contingency plans. As part of these plans, a range of different ideas and technologies are being considered to reduce the destruction caused by earthquakes.

Changes in the global climate are imposing additional stress on hundreds of species of migratory birds in the United States that are already threatened by other environmental factors, according to a new Interior Department report.

Toshiba shows off a two-wheeled autonomous robot than can roll over ramps and balance a tray of food. Wheelie might make a decent waiter.

As the Web generation descends on the South by Southwest Interactive show in Austin, several location-based start-ups try to put themselves on the map.

Hunch, a buzzy start-up that answers questions using crowdsourced recommendations, has lined up at least $10 million in funding, according to sources.

One of the Environmental Protection Agency’s early projects was Documerica, an effort "to photograph America’s environmental problems" from 1971 to 1977. Now they’re releasing the 15,000 photos from the vault at the National Archives and posting them on Flickr.

We might never know if a Twitter feed purporting to be by a woman left behind on her anniversary weekend by her SXSW-bound husband is real. But it's very funny stuff.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski lays out a plan for 21st century digital access, citizenship, literacy, and safety.

VoxOx's claim on a robust feature set makes it a powerful, if slightly unstable, multi-protocol chat and VoIP client--now with free universal translation for all IMs and tweets.

The case of a "runaway" Prius in San Diego demonstrates how claims about electronic flaws requires investigators to look carefully at the human element too.

Ian McEwan approaches the climate crisis in comic modeClimate change is chiefly an engineering problem to Michael Beard, the central character in Ian McEwan's new novel. In a different sense, it is to McEwan too. A practised manipulator of his readers' expectations and responses, he has plainly

After 13 years with the UN, former Irish president Mary Robinson is coming home to her debt-ridden country - not to retire, but to fight for 'climate justice' for all the world's poorIn 1993, three years into her presidency of Ireland, Mary Robinson paid a visit to west Belfast. The trip was controv

A new high-speed rail line could play an important role in UK efforts to tackle climate change, but the proposed scheme is forecast to have only a minimal impact in cutting transport emissions - and could even lead to an increase (Report, 12 March). If the UK is to meet its legally binding targets f

Will global empathy save us from the catch-22 of climate change? John Gray is sceptical Whoever hacked into the emails at the University of East Anglia fired the opening salvo in a new kind of dirty war. The Copenhagen conference met on the basis that dealing with global warming was in everyone

An investigation into expansion of London City Airport has been launched.

Go-ahed given to release of psyllid insect to combat Japanse Knotweed

A type of degradable plastic bag that was supposed to be better for the environment may not be completely biodegradable, a Government-commissioned study has found. The bag is made with metal salts that are supposed to accelerate degradation, but scientists found the material was not fully biodegradable and might contaminate the way plastics are recycled.

It could be a job for the Flying Squad, or perhaps The Bill.