The Scenery cancels out the ache

Okay really, who wants to hear about some arb’s bicycle ride around the cape peninsula? It was beautiful and inspirational but who wants to hear me pontificating about Cape Town, cycling, lycra, fresh fish and the like?  However, and this is not just to please the boss, I did discover that it is nigh impossible to do almost anything these days without engaging with the internet.  Like riding a bike, for instance (did I mention that I rode my first Argus?).  As mentioned, I did register for the race and pay my entry fee online.  I did this because it didn’t even enter my mind to write to the race organisers and request an entry form to be posted to me, then fill out said form and post it back with a cheque attached – the only way I could enter without using the internet at all!  Apparently there are some people that still do this – a bunch of folks missed the Comrades Marathon cut off time this way.

Right, so now I have entered, how do I get there?  I live in Joburg and that’s about a thousand miles away.  I will not drive that distance for a weekend stay in the Mother City, I’m not twenty any more.  So guess what?  I turn to the internet once again to investigate flight costs and timetables.  After much research I book and pay for my flights online.  Same for car hire and same for the small matter of getting my bicycle to and from Cape Town.

I don’t want to bore you with the details but here is a list of all the ways that the internet played a role in my little adventure:

• My race number was emailed to me
• I received pre race updates via sms
• Used my mobile phone’s map application to find my way to my accomodation
• I left my cycling shoes in the car after being dropped off and my thumbs worked frantically trying to get them before the start!
• MMS’d my wife a picture of some flowers to thank her for finding her way back through unfamiliar streets to get me my shoes (I couldn’t ride 110km in slops)
• Took photo’s of the magnificent views and sent them to family and friends using my iPhone
• Video’d my ride along Boyes Drive and Chapmans peak (I would add them to this post but my puffing and wheezing in the audio is quite frightening)
• SMS’s my food order for my post race lunch
• Sent incremental updates of my whereabouts so that my four year old son could be at the finish line to cheer his daddy on (he still thinks I won the race because I got a finishers medal)
• At the post race lunch I updated Facebook and Twitter and sent my photo’s to friends via email before the fatigue set in
• Confirmed my return flights online
• Tracked my bicycle’s journey home through the courier company’s web site.

iPhone shot of Hout Bay taken from bicycle

Wow! If you can’t even ride your bike, can we do anything these days without using the world wide web?  I’m guessing the answer is pretty much NO!  Not if you live in the real world.

Right, I can now tick the boxes – blogged about my first Argus and kept the boss happy coz it was about “all things internetty”.

Ciao!

The golden era of 3D cinematography was in the early 1950’s led by producer Arch Oboler. He lead a second wave with Space-Vision 3D technology in the 1960’s following through to the 1970’s great quality and technological advances were made . Another 3D burst of films followed in the early 1980’s. A continuous small stream of #d movies followed until 2003 when #d re-entered mainstream cinema. Recent big hits such as Avatar, Beowolf, Coraline, Monster vs Aliens and Final Destination.

It would appear that 3D will now be the primary release format for major Hollywood films going forward. Television companies have been quick to acknowledge this new momentum and all the major producers will be bringing out 3D televisions for you to view at home this year.

Panasonic hope to sell 1 million 3D TV’s this year with their 3D full plasma home theatre systems. These start at $3000 and include a 50 inch VT25 plasma 3D TV, 3D capable Blu-ray player and a single pair of active shutter glasses. Alternatively it’s $2500 for the TV on it’s own. This will be officially launched in Manhattan today

Samsung will have 3D capable plasma TV’s but has dropped plasma as it seeks to push it’s LED LCD TV’s. 3D capable LCD TV’s will also be available later this month with a product range rollout to July, including a 46 inch 750series in May for $1700. Samsung 3D LCD’s will initially start start at $2000 but won’t include glasses. However from 21 March starter kits including 2 pairs of glasses, a Blu-ray player and a Monster vs Aliens disc will be available. Such starter kits are seen as essential to kick start an industry that currently only has a limited inventory of movie titles to choose from.

Sony launches in July and LG in April, Toshiba and Phillips also have plans for this year but dates are unspecified. So it would seem all the major manufacturers have pinned the sights of 3D to push sales this year, however with competition hotting up before the first manufacturers even launches, we as consumers are sure to benefit from the already reasonable prices. Not sure when they’ll be hitting our shores, but I for one can’t wait!!

Wikipedia, the mother of all information, explains that cyberslacking refers to staff that use their work internet access for personal reasons while maintaining the appearance of working. Sound familiar?

Like any good topic there are pro’s and con’s. There are those who argue that facebook’ing, tweeting and other similar activities done at the office are “an exploitation of company resources for personal gain”. Yikes! And that using your working hours to arrange your mid-week social engagements aren’t exactly contributing to your company’s productivity or bottom line. Then there are those that argue that employees who cyberslack are more productive since they take time off to relax.

If you’re still reading this then I’m safely assuming that you are an avid supporter of the latter argument. But what if you’re like me and completely over the facebook hype and dumb-ass status reports? Where can the surf take you to indulge in some form of relaxation?

Well, I recommend checking out www.annoyingcoworker.com. Here you can bitch and moan about those in the office who have lead to you taking high-blood pressure meds! And hey, you might even realise that your life isn’t that bad. Listen to these:

“Shut up already about your so called diet, which you’ve been on at least as long as you’ve worked here (5 years). You’re still as disproportioned as you were on your first day so obviously the “diet” is not working. And the loud noises from the vending machine alert us all that you’re not sticking to your “diet”.”

“Could you possibly be the biggest moron on the planet? I just heard you, through my headphones, no less, shouting out your credit card number to someone over the phone. Next time this happens, I will copy down the number and order you some gay porn, OK?”

But I bet you have a better story to tell! So go check it out, no point in denying you’re a cyberslacker. Atleast this time you’ll get a good laugh out of it!

There is a chap called David Armano. He talks a visual language.

I would describe him as the man that takes really complex concepts and makes them clear and understandable, using pictures.

His blog is here – http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion

He describes himself as

I’m the product of Italian immigrants who made their way to this country to find a better life—and I consider myself to be living proof of the realization of that dream. Originally from the New York area (I grew up on Long Island) I had the privilege of attending the Pratt Institute where I studied computer graphics, minoring in visual communications.

I am currently a senior vice president at Edelman Digital, the interactive arm of global communications firm Edelman. I have 14 years experience in the industry with the majority of my time spent in digital marketing and user experience design. An active participant in the industry, I write Logic + Emotion which is ranked in the top media + marketing blogs according to Advertising Age. My writing and visual thinking has been cited by Forrester, The Boston Globe and has landed me in BusinessWeek on several occasions including their “Best of 2006”. I also write at the Harvard Business Review.

Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery

So as you may or may not know, many companies have been experiencing with this, using it as marketing tool, running campaigns around it basically trying to bring their products to life.

OK, so how it works is that you download a small program (or get it with your product) and install it to your computer, baring in mind that you have to have a web cam, in order for it to work. Then what they do is ask you to print out a logo, picture or whatever it is they have chosen, so that the web cam recognizes the design. Then it tells you to place the piece of paper in front of the web cam so that the image that has be printed is facing the web cam and is visible on your computer screen. Then what happens is magic!

Here are some videos to see it working in action…

Here we see the Adidas campaign they have run, check it out, pretty cool.

Next we have the BMWs augmented campaign featuring their new Z4, very cool I must say.

Now lastly what I would like to show you, is what LEGO did with it, they set up kiosks inside their shops and customers, while using the augmented technology were able to take their LEGO box of choice and hold it in front of the kiosk and see exactly what the final build of that product looked like.

Check it out….

So is this going to be the way forward when we shop, is our reality going to eventually be entwined into the digital world. Are we heading towards the matrix? It seems very much so!

We are surrounded by this amazing thing called design all the time, it’s everywhere and anywhere!

For my ilearn I decided to focus on an area in this crazy but wonderfully awesome world of Design!

Typography, the art of arranging type, type design and modifying type glyphs, is often considered as a major part of promotional material and marketing. If you use typography properly, you cannot meaningfully convey the message, but also strengthen the brand of your company.

Typography has always been very inspiring and nowadays many artists experiment with type treatments to achieve inspiring, unusual and beautiful results.

I feel that a design is not quite complete without the use of type; it brings life to a design!

Please click on the Link below and you will see a few examples of what I mean

http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/gorgeous-typography-examples-in-advertising-design.html

Apparently, I am the office Acronym queen! WTF, I have no idea why I was called that! But could have been another name all together so I best settle with this title then! ROFL!

 So in a world where things are developing at an exponential rate!  Who knows, maybe acronyms will form a part of our everyday diction?  We have rushed everything nowadays, 5 minute facelifts, nutrition in a bottle, easy-heat meals, it kind of leads me into the topic of what a ‘quick fix’ junkie-nation we have become! Imagine a conversation in 100 years time being something like this:

 ‘OMG LAT – IHNSSLTB! WOW!’  Instead of saying: ‘ oh my gosh, look at that, I have never seen something like that before – wow!’ Pretty neat hey! To the point and we all understand! People are already using acronyms in our eveyday ‘speedy’ convos and communucation all around – sms’ing, emailing, msn, and now even in our everyday conversations! I tell you, it’s become a real hit and soon the world will be using acronyms in speech like a virus!

 How cool are these examples:  CD9 – Code 9 = Parents nearby  -  hectic, now we know that kids have their own secret acro’s too!  & PAW = Parents Are Watching! LOL!

I quite like this one: SMETE  =  Smiling from ear to ear   -  nice one!

 If you think about it though, acronyms have assisted us through our earlier lives in many ways, notes when studying, note taking in meetings, think of short-hand typing (using acronyms and symbols – Now theres another one – symbols!  So you see we are just advancing as naturally as I would like to think…

 You kind of cannot help but wonder – what next!?? No sound? Telepathic devices? This is all to much for me! BTR =  (back to reality!)

 Here is a list of acronyms for your leisure – go on then, be a cut above the rest!

 AIM ACRONYM DICTIONARY

The web is a mine of information for brands who want to get honest thoughts and opinions as to how their brands are perceived. It’s been a bit of a mission though to collect this data from different sources and then present it clearly.

Brandtags is a great initiative that associates keywords with brands….and now MyBrandz.com has launched in Beta.

MyBrandz is a website for brand lovers, where they can share their passion for certain brands – this feedback is then plotted on a ‘love’ matrix.

To help the memory a bit, check out wikipedia.

1978: Space Invaders

1979: Galaxian

1980: Pac-Man

1981: Frogger

1982: Zaxxon

1983: Deathchase

1984: Pajamarama

1985: Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom

1986: Gunship

1987: Double Dragon

1988: Kings Quest IV

1989: Space Quest III

1990: Ultima VI

1991: Lemmings

1992: Wolfenstein 3D

1993: Doom

1994: Sim Tower

1995: Warcraft II

1996: Quake

1997: Tomb Raider II

1998: Motocross Madness

1999: Age of Empires II

2000: Diablo II

2001: Grand Theft Auto III

2002: Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas

2003: Prince of Persia – Sands of Time

2004: Gran Turismo 4

2005: Dungeon Siege II

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

2007: Call of Duty 4 – Modern warfare

2008: Grand Theft Auto IV – Liberty City

2009: (still deciding)

And the best game of all time: Grand Theft Auto IV – Liberty City