Win a Speedo LZR Racer

The Speedo LZR Racer games have a competition attached to win a LZR Racer suit. This is being drawn on Sunday so why not enter yourself and send to your friends and get the chance to win? http://speedo80.com/lzrtrials/ Just think, you could be the next Michael Phelps, or you could sell it on Ebay and buy a Playstation 3.



If you miss out - don't worry, there is a second draw in December.

Good luck!

Designer router

I was so impressed by this router design that I thought it was worth a post.



It's a router, it's also a vase, it looks good! Of course I'm not sure mixing water and electronics is such a hot idea. But finding ways to double up on devices has to be a good thing. Like BT's all-in-one router which is phone dock, router, and modem.

Check it out : http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/wireless-router-vase.php

I wonder what else your router could be?

I'll be back... on your screen this wednesday evening

A very interesting comment from here http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2008/11/when-bad-things-happen-on-good-tv.html

TV is traditionally a protected domain. It is governed by the convention that governs much of children's literature: bad things do not happen here.
When bad things does happen on TV, it is merely to give the protagonistic the occasion to triumph over an antagonist. In this case, bad things exist only so that good things may flourish.
This means TV can't ever entertain tragic knowledge. TV can't ever entertain the possibility that some part of the human condition as flawed beyond the possibility of redemption or amieloration. TV Land is benign.
But on theThe Sarah Conner Chronicles, life's a nightmare, then you die. There is something fantastically dour about this show. The characters know they are doomed in the short term or the long. Even if good wins out over evil, the world will still be reduced to rubble. But the hope of triumph is slender at the best of times, and incredible all the rest of the time.
I don't remember this tone in the originalTerminatorfilms. And this might be proof of Robert Thompson's argument that TV, once the bastard child of film, is able to take on bigger question. It would also be an interesting study in Henry Jenkins' notion of transmedia.
In a recent episode ofHouse, Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) kills a patient in his effort to save her. There is a horrible scene in which he begs her forgiveness and she refuses it. Normally, of course, this is an opportunity for the exercise of "human understanding and redemption." On TV, generally this means quite a lot of string work and tears as we all take a moment to reflect on how much fundamental goodness there is in the human spirit. Not this time. In this episode, the patient says something like "You fucked up. You killed me."
In general, this sort of thing says that not only is popular culture getting more complicated. (See the argument of Steven Johnson here.) But that it is now prepared to take up seriousness and even darkness that generally speaking never made it into any of the many episodes ofMurder, She Wroteor those B movies that end with a monkey doing something comical while everyone laughs a rather too heartily.
This would argue for the argument that says that popular culture is getting more like culture.
Post script. In a recent Conner Chronicles there was a reference to a tortoise that sounds very like the reference to the tortoise that appears in Blade Runner. Can anyone confirm or elicidate?
Post post script: The Sarah Connor Chonicles is on today at 8:00. Please do check in out. It's numbers are down and, as I say, it's really just tremendously good fun.
Post post script: Anyone interested in what feminism means for popular culture must watch this show.

Coal Finger

It's the latest offering from Greenpeace in their give coal the boot campaign.

It's nothing to do with my agency, boo, but still fun:



Sign up and show your support at at: http://www.coalfinger.com/

Speedo

It's Speedo's 80th year, and they've marked it with a number of micro-sites my agency has been working on: http://www.speedo80.com/hub/

And I've just launched a whole bunch of games I've been project managing for them as one of these microsites: http://speedo80.com/lzrtrials/

Apples are just a big lump of aluminium

I was eavesdropping on a conversation about the new macbooks this morning. I admit, yes, they are very sexy looking... but still no delete key (and I'm a right mouse button addict) so I'm still not convinced.

Nonetheless I thought you might find it interesting to know a bit about the ethical impact of them.

The verdict in short is, the latest model is having a better impact:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/new-macbook-pro-whats-the-eco-impact-of-building-a-laptop-from-a-single-piece-of-aluminum.php

BUT obviously smelting alumnium in the first place isn't the friendliess process (remember basic chemistry lessons?) - are there alternatives? Yes is the answer get a bamboo computer which is of course made of biodegradeable elements - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/asus_bamboo_eco.php.



I wonder what the average life-span of these and other laptops is? And how many people do recycle their plastic, bamboo or aluminium laptops and PC's at the end? Sadly I don't think I ever have.

I didn't write this

I didn't write this - someone else at work did; but it's insightful

The bullets below are from a report in Netimperative. They’re looking at some research commissioned by sapient (a digital marketing agency) who claim that there is a big shift to digital from traditional agencies and among marketing managers.

These are the things that they’ve mentioned on their wishlist:

Digital Marketing Needs to be Offered as an Integral Services Offering
Digital Marketing Knowledge is Crucial
Be Creative and Understand the Brand
More Use of “Pull Interactions” and Virtual Communities
Practice What You Preach

see the link for the full 411.
http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/october/1st/agencies-of-the-future-top-five-wish-list

Nokia up, Apple down

Nokia have announced the launch of their Nokia Music service. This is a iTunes rival they've been developing across the road for about a year now (and my mate has been ranting about as part of the test team). The service, for those not in the know, is free music for a year when buying a Nokia phone (although the deal is only exclusive to the carphone warehouse which I consider a mistake). Presumably you then pay after that year. I believe there are certain advantages above iTunes; such as the DRM is different, I believe you're able to transfer the track to any device you want, i.e. your PC, PDA, MP3 Player, even your iPlayer or god forbid your Iphone (though as you already have a Nokia I'm not sure you'd do this). Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7649060.stm

Interesting stat I've been bouncing around, although this is second hand information so I can't gaurantee it's validity, but apparently last year in Europe nokia accounted for 45% of the top 100 phones sold. The iPhone (surprisingly I'm sure to us niche techie market folk) did not come into this top 100.


Also, as if the fates were conspiring, the BBC has also reported that iTunes may shut down. The evil music companies are trying to charge poor sweet innocent single mum... I mean multi-national empire of evil Apple more money for the songs distrubted via iTunes. As such Apple is suggesting iTunes may shut-down. Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7645537.stm