The Code That Ruled The World

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start


1up
+tag me+

Read more...

iSwoosh

What happens when 2 of the most innovative companies come together? An updated pedometer!!! sweeet... Well for all of you with a Nano (apparently us 3rd gen mac loyalists are out in the cold..completely) It seems to be a complete running system which allows you to track your workouts, compare and as apple says "compete" (online??) It also allows you to track performances and upload workout mixes. Basically the peeps at nike and apple acknowledged each other, and filled a nice niche here. *I only hope the product is available on my ipod bc/ this is why i got the damn thing. Also the nike shoes have a cavity for the sensor to go in (but do you really need the shoe or can you tape it to your foot?). Personally i think that apple wins out here. It seems to me nike is trying to cash in on the ipod craze. shameless nike, shameless. Why don't you release those green denim dunks and keep the family happy? Full details below on the apple site.
Airtunes
+tag me+

Read more...

What are they thinking?

Once again Google throws down the killer apps. This is old hat and im almost reluctant to throw it out, since it means more competition for me. What can i say though, data is a planner's best friend. Or beer. You decide
Whats goin on
+tag me+

Read more...

Making your Blog Relevant

The Ghost Relations Department is an awesomely deep fanatical trivia-blog devoted to the Haunted Mansion rides in the Disney parks. Mansion-otaku type material here. Thats obsessed nerd in japanese for all you commonfolk out there. Talking to a friend the other day, who wanted to do online stuff for a family business, I remembered a common problem with too many marketing solutions. Relevancy. Agencies like Powell do cool stuff, but they never reach anybody, anyone at all, except a few select critics. So if it generates industry buzz or even awards, is that effective? You can answer that one. If choosing an online or any communications messaging for that matter, it needs to resonate with the target. Much of the rise of blogs has to do with this. GRD is an excellent site not just because its cool, but it allows people to go behind the scenes in the process of creating a story. It is incredibly rich and deep. People love stories. Look at the episodic nature of Lost..Its 8 people on an island, one dies every week, and we are going into season 3 now. If this blog were run by a employee of the haunted mansion, i would hail this as a primo brand blog. Brands that can effectively engage ambassadors in this manner create tribes which will carry the brand for them. Crispin has a good job of firestarting ambassadors to start conversations of recent. Ask yourself does your brand engage consumers not merely through selling something, but by immersing them in the brand story?
Boo!
+tag me+

Read more...

How much for that Wii in the window?

Im always yammering about the existence of convergence. To the utter disgust of my gf, i have been swept up in the latest console wars. (Im a bungie/halo fan so I will leave it at that). Curmudgeon Gamer put together this above inflationary chart graphing the price of all major consoles according to relative prices. So how bad is the PS3? As you can see above, the only consoles in the last twenty years more expensive than ithe PS3 are the Neo-Geo and 3DO... Gizmodo states that the "two consoles that obviously never controlled the market. Goping back to the late 70's and early 80's, there are a few consoles that were more expensive... but that's back in the days when video game consoles were still being built out of the shattered femurs of neolithic monkey men. Also note that, despite Sony's claims, the PS2 was a good 250 bucks cheaper in inflationary dollars." I remember shelling out 300 bones for an xbox and boy was that thing worth it. Another note is that nintendo's have been 200 bucks since the dawn of time.
Running Riot
+tag me+

Read more...

See the world as it is

Worldmapper shows the world maps that resize geographical regions based on different variables, from birth rates and population to disease to aircraft flights and imports/export. This map shows the world according to freight vehicles. If you notice almost half of all freight vehicles are in North America; most of these are in the United States. Hmmmmm... Why do we have a gas problem again?? Worldmapper has an excellent cartogram collection that shows some really interesting categories in actual relevance like immigration, tourism, electronic imports and so on...Gotta love data

Mapquest
+tag me+

Read more...

My Big Purchase

I've just had it with the superrich these days. In case you didn't know submarines are the next frontier, and personal luxury subs are all the rage right now, where undersea boats are approaching the size of cruise ships with all the amenities you could imagine. Get with with it G-money. Via Gizmodo, "For example, U.S. Submarines offers the Phoenix 1000, a 213-foot personal luxury submarine that was originally custom-built for a client but is now for sale at an undisclosed price. There's 5000 feet of living space, with huge viewports on the side. It's capable of transoceanic crossings, and when the weather gets rough, the boat can submerge into a perfectly smooth and quiet environment. Take a look at the company's site, where there's a variety of submarines from which to choose." Costing only $78 million it can be yours! This totally reminds me of Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget...he had a badass sub (like me) too. Where do you even find people to pilot these things? And where are the torpedo tubes in case you need to defend yourself?
Get It Today...

Das Boot
[tagname]

Read more...

Helpful

Hate the fact you can't always email files over 10mb? No instant messenger handy? yousendit.com allows you to send files up to 2Gb. They are stored on their servers for 7 days so no more searching your hd to find misplaced files. Stuff like this points me to believe that media formats will one day go by the wayside. Things really will be stored in that big cloud up in the sky. Goodbye bulky HD's.
Isentit
+tag me+

Read more...

Spectacle

On the way to a Broadway show, the girl and I stopped in to say hi to David Blaine. In case you didn't know, Mr. Blaine has been living for a week suspended in a water-sphere drinking gatorade. He sleeps about 3 hours a day and apparently has now been waving to people in his sleep. When we showed up there were thousands of people running around and it was pretty ridiculous. Tonight he is going to try and exit the sphere and hop back in with 150lbs of chains and hold his breath for 9 minutes. Yeah right... I love his magic/stunts, but this is sounding borderline impossible. His medical team is pretty skeptical as well. Needless to say Mr. Blaine has done an incredible branding job over the last couple years and is worthy of the title of today's "houdini", which is no easy feat to achieve.
Drowned in People
+tag me+

Read more...

Cash Money

Deke McClelland introduces dekePod, his new video podcast devoted to computer graphics, digital imaging, and anything else that happens to spill out of his head. Lasting a mere five minutes, the pilot episode shows you how to scan and open money in Adobe Photoshop. Apparently the latest version of photoshop won't open money scans, but Deke (that trickster) has a secret. Its pretty wild. This podcast blows my mind for 2 reasons. Its pretty darn cool. Media is truly in the hands of the doer these days. People are going to begin plucking there media from everywhere. Getting your voice out will be relatively simple. The reason Google has blossomed is as the digital world becomes cluttered, those picking through have the real power. Unless you just want to make 1000's of fake dollars and buy that power. Take your pick.
Get Rich Bitch
+tag me+

Read more...

Big May Day

OH NO NOT MY BURRITO!!!!With all this May Day or whatever you want to call it going on, I thought it would be interesting to look at the Hispanic population a little closer. The parade was pretty (annoying) ridiculous yesterday too. I mean my grandparents were inmmigrants too, and they didn't need a march to announce their presence. But hey they are here and we can't ignore them. No matter how many times they are spilling into the streets by the BP station. We would be making a mistake though to classify them as ONE group. Influx had a great post about 6 months back on the Hispanic population subject.
"The Hispanic population in the US is forecast to increase dramatically in the coming years. In California alone, Hispanics account for 33% of the population, up from 12% in 1970. The most staggering statistic is that Hispanics now account for 50% of those aged under 24 in the state. Recent research from Scarborough identified the cities with the fastest growing Hispanic populations, those cities increasing by 30%+ over the 2001-2004 period included; Dallas (53%), Orlando (46%), Salt Lake City (43%), Phoenix (41%), Fort Myers (37%), Denver (33%), Atlanta (33%), West Palm Beach (31%) and Houston (30%). Marketers are paying increased attention to this group, but the notion of treating them as a single entity is misguided, according to Scarborough. Its research identified 5 clusters of Hispanics that make up the population.

Young Americans- 31%
Only 24% are foreign born. They have a HHI of $60k. Only 17% prefer to speak Spanish only. Likely to be the children of the Old Ways and Pioneers.

The Pioneers- 6%
Older at 65 years, but have integrated into the American way of life (only 21% prefer to speak Spanish). They have a HHI of $50k.

Settled In- 17%
Younger than the Pioneers at 43. Have the highest HHI of all groups at $68k. Only 19% prefer to speak Spanish.

Old Ways- 17%
Traditionalists. They have been in the US for over 20 years, but 61% still prefer to speak Spanish

New Lifers- 29%
New to the US, have been in the country an average of 8 years. They are the second youngest group with an average age of 31 years. Not yet assimilated into American culture, 61% still prefer to speak Spanish. Basically the segmentation suggests the market is split 50:50 with traditionalists vs. modernists. It will be interesting to see exactly how the New Lifers evolve; do they become more like the Old Ways group or closer to The Pioneers? One thing for certain, treating Hispanics as a single homogenous group, is a big mistake."
+tag me+

Read more...