Weblog

Posted at 11:09am on 21 Nov 2007

Cheeky Mac Banner Ad

Captured on YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRAUlK8_2VE

Note that I say this as a long-term Mac user:

1. It is a very bad idea to advertise yourself by saying how bad your competitor's product is. People don't buy something just because an unrelated product is shit.
2. It is especially pointless since the Mac platform doesn't directly compete with Vista - they even advertise the fact that you can run Vista on a Mac as a selling point.
3. Leopard could have been a lot better - they really dropped the ball on that one, promising a lot and delivering very little (at least from a consumer standpoint).
4. The ad was still funny.

Posted at 9:12am on 15 Nov 2007

Software Thievery

'Virtual theft' leads to arrest

A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from 'rooms' in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.

It's not that strange if you think about it, "stealing" virtual property is no different from "stealing" an mp3 file or a copy of Photoshop, and there are people serving jail terms for doing the latter.

In fact one might reasonably argue that the term "theft" is more accurately applied in the former case, since the rules of the game world make it impossible to copy someone’s sword without depriving them of it, whereas in the real world one can duplicate digital goods without depriving their original owner of their use.

Posted at 11:31am on 14 Nov 2007

Human Pong, Tetris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QNI3W8UB-s

(Headphones or speakers needed for full effect)

Posted at 9:32am on 14 Nov 2007

Facebook Ad Profiles

Coca-Cola, Dove and The New York Times are among a cluster of brands who have signed up to a new ad system on Facebook which enables advertisers to have their own profile page.

Apparently, the future of advertising is being repeatedly "poked" by a company until you agree to buy their product.

Posted at 4:10pm on 08 Nov 2007

The March of the Avatars

http://www.collings.co.za/2007/11/the-march-of-th.html

Gives some credibility to the prediction by Gartner Consulting that by 2011, 80% of active Internet users will have an avatar.

Okay, try to set aside the idea of Gartner having credibility for a moment. If 80% of people will have an avatar, does that extend to brands as well?

I have a sudden mental image of a virtual Ronald McDonald getting cornered in a dark alley in Second life and having the shit kicked out of him by the Burger King mascot.

Posted at 1:29pm on 08 Nov 2007

Domino village

New Guinness advert - Domino village

I thought it was a bit disappointing to be honest. I much preferred the Honda ad, which was filmed as a single shot.

The Guinness one just seems to be a collection of loosely related sequences - it doesn't even appear as if there is any attempt at continuity.

It also completely spoils the message - "Good things come to those who wait... but we couldn't be bothered to wait so we'll just cut to the final scene".

Posted at 1:04pm on 07 Nov 2007

Stick Shift

A driving instructor had a 12-inch carrot in his trousers when he gave a woman a lesson, a court was told yesterday.

The woman, who accused him of groping her breasts on three occasions between August 2005 and February last year...

He must have been a fantastic instructor if she got in a car with him again after he'd groped her on two previous occasions.

Posted at 2:31pm on 06 Nov 2007

Three Legged Legs animation

It's not exactly An Inconvenient Truth, but it's very nicely produced:

http://www.threeleggedlegs.com/repertoire/humans

...we hate the human species. Really we do.

You've gotta love militant environmentalists!

Posted at 3:31pm on 05 Nov 2007

3D TV becomes reality

3D television without glasses or headsets

It’s annoying that there’re no pictures to go with the article.

I mean, I understand if Orange didn’t let them take photos, but they could have at least put in some pictures of an ordinary TV as an illustration – it’s not like we’d know the difference…

Posted at 1:15pm on 02 Nov 2007

Rimvertising

Let no empty space go unsponsored:

http://ledwheels.com

...and a similar idea for bike spokes:

http://www.ladyada.net/make/spokepov

Posted at 1:38pm on 01 Nov 2007

Sci-fi Wi-fi

You can now buy a 2GB SD memory card with built-in wi-fi to upload/download your images:

Eye-Fi Card, Wireless 2 GB SD Memory Card

Did I miss a couple of generations of technology or something? I mean, seriously, how is that possible?