I love the ABC’s creative use of tax payers money…

“Telstra and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation will announce shortly that they have established, separately, a presence in the cult virtual world of Second Life.”

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/30/1169919283914.html

Amazing Crate Art in Melbourne!

http://www.woostercollective.com/2006/03/crate_art_in_melbourne.html

Office 2007 Training Portal & Free E-Learning Classes

For everybody who is thinking about or already using Office 2007!

It is a bit different than the older versions and below you can find help in case you don’t know how to do something.

Especially the Reference guides are pretty useful when you know how to do something in Office 2003 but you can’t find it in 2007.

Office 2007 Training Portal & Free E-Learning Classes

 

The 2007 Microsoft Office System – Learning Portal -  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/office2007/iworker/default.mspx

 

First Look 2007 Office System (PDF format) - http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/5/a/35a8cb9f-1349-4645-ac2a-49ba61834826/First-Look-2007-Microsoft-Office-System.pdf

 

 

Useful Tools:

 

Word 2003 to Word 2007 command Reference Guide  -  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

 

Powerpoint 2003 to Powerpoint 2007 command Reference Guide - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101490761033.aspx

 

Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 command Reference Guide - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx

Have Fun!

Earthquakes. Coming to a town near you real soon…

The end of the world is nigh… (especially if you read Bill Brysons book).

Well - we’re probably about as safe as you can get in Australia (apart from the sharks, snakes, box jellyfish, blue ringed octopus, funnelweb spiders) since we’re a long way from a techtonic plate*.

Now you probably think earthquakes dont kill that many people? WRONG! See the list of deaths since 1900 here.

This is a great website for seeing quakes and boy, there’s a lot of them every day. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/

This is a map of quakes from the last 7 days…

PLUGIN: Firefox Equke alerts (puts it in the ccorner of your browser)

A quick prediction - there’s a biggie coming to Alaska soon. Too much activity going on there over the last few weeks so watch this space.

* New Zealand is a techtonic accident in waiting and a big quake could potentially trigger a mega-tsunami aimed straight at Sydney within a few hours. Sleep easy Sydneysiders…

Amazing Flash sites showcase: The FWA

It’s not new and most designers use it regularly, but the site (and the sites it showcases) are so impressive it’s definitely worth blogging.

The number one place to start when seeking inspiration for designing Flash based sites has got to be…

www.thefwa.com

Microsoft to test analytics tool

Biting into Google Analytics cake:

MSN Tests Analytics Tool

MICROSOFT IS CURRENTLY TESTING A keyword analytics tool, code-named “Gatineau,” to compete with Google’s free analytics offering, Google Analytics. News of the early-stage alpha test surfaced late last week on blogs of two of the project team members–Ian Thomas, who heads the Gatineau project for Microsoft’s Digital Advertising Solutions team, and Reeves Little, program manager with Windows Live Europe. Thomas wrote that the technology is based on that of the Gatineau, Canada-based DeepMetrix Corporation, which Microsoft acquired last year. In the coming months, Microsoft expects to launch an invitation-only beta to test the tool, Thomas wrote. The product is slated for release later this year, but Microsoft intends to gradually add users to avoid the system instability that initially plagued Google Analytics, Thomas wrote. “We hope to release this product during 2007; however, we’re extremely keen to avoid a repeat of Google’s experience with Google Analytics, so we will be ramping up our user numbers gradually to make sure everyone has a good experience from a performance perspective,” he wrote. Shortly after it launched in October 2005, a surge in demand overwhelmed Google Analytics, leading the company to briefly stop accepting new users. David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for 360i, said the planned offering seems needed. “There’s a lot of room for thought leadership, and a lot of room to basically reach out and provide transparency for advertisers and agencies,” he said. “When the traffic comes in and as they provide better ways to target their users, then they can provide more value than just the raw numbers.”

Get on the Map this Australia Day

This Australia Day in Sydney, both Microsoft and Google are taking high res photos to be included in Google maps and Microsoft Live Maps.

http://www.lookupandsmile.com.au (Microsoft)

http://www.google.com/intl/en_au/events/australiaday2007/index.html

Wear something bright to be seen

Amazing Facial Animation Technology

Say goodbye to the creepy computer generated characters in Polar Express!

Have a look at some amazing facial animation technology that could bring past movie stars back to life and get them working again. Could be a trip into the Uncanny Valley or leap over it altogether.

Channel Ten introduces downloadable TV episodes

Ten (Australia) are now offering downloadable episodes for Supernatural:

http://supernatural.ten.com.au/default.aspx

Notes:
It uses windows DRM (media player only).
You need to install a Ten download app.
You can only play the episodes for a 48 hr period only.
Not available for MAC.

It’s a step forward in the right direction, but still not up to the offerings US consumers are getting from ABC/CBS/FOX.

The Viral Learning Center. You too can make viral videos…

I hope these guys don’t put us out of business when it comes to viral marketing…

Watch the video here:
http://www.ziddio.com/oneVideo.zd?dispatch=fetch&artifactId=301#

Quote: “Viral videos - you’ve seen them on the world wide web, spreading like wildfire from inbox to inbox.”

Must not laugh, must not laugh… no they got me…

The future of Disk Drives, Blue Ray and HD-DVD: SSD

Bill Gates has stated that HD DVD and Blue Ray will be redundant in the not too distant future because flash memory will become the method for transporting digital media. We think it’s a pretty good prediction. To add credibility to this, here is the 32 Gb solid state flash drive (SSD) from Sandisk - just announced (Jan 4)

The immediate use would be within laptops to replace the existing hard drive.
Looking at street price in excess of $600 (US). Sounds expensive, but consider this - it’s 100 times faster than conventional hard drives.

As prices fall in the next few years, flash memory will start to turn up in many physical forms and be available to watch on all sorts of devices (handheld to  bigscreen). The convenience of sticking a tiny flash drive direct into the TV to play your HD movies is certainly appealing. Optical mediums such as Blue Ray and HD DVD should ultimately fall victim to the size, reliability and performance of solid state.

The Sandisk ssd will be out mid 2007. Samsung and TDK have also announce similar products.

SANDISK SSD
http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/PressRoom/PressReleases/PressRelease.aspx?ID=3654

World Visitor Map MySpace Mod

There are a lot of mods these days for myspace.
I quite like this mod that shows where people are coming from.
More interesting than a counter

http://new.modmyprofile.com/tools/world_visitor_map.php

Worlds best sign. Seen at Cricket match. England Vs Australia. Jan 07.

I took this photo off the TV last night during Twenty20 cricket. What a Gem.

I love the look on the kids face too
Good on ya!

Coke Light calorias queimadas

If you can be bothered waiting for the thing to load, this banner has a well executed use of video interaction:

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2007/01/coke_light_calorie_b.php

Fun Sunsilk banners

Liking the simple concept and clean illustration style…

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2007/01/sunsilk_butt.php

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2007/01/sunsilk_poofy.php