One of the most original ideas I’ve seen in a while. Get a wall, draw one frame of a complex animation on the wall, take a photo, erase, then repeat. Hats off to Blu (http://www.blublu.org/) for his genius.

I know its nerdy, but I really really do want one!

It’s a pretty obvious concept, really: take a semi-transparent dome and project an image on it. Then, stand in the middle and surround yourself with 180-degrees of gaming action. John Nilsson went and patented the concept and is now developing the jDome with an estimated cost of around $125-200.

Lumeta’s PowerPly panels use traditional roofing adhesives and save the process from drilling holes and bolts associated with the regular rack systems required to mount solar panels. Right now this process is targeted at commercial projects, but hopefully residential applications won’t be far behind.

Multitasking is less a game and more a skill many would say, but check out this simple and infuriating Flash game.

At any one time you will have to perform 2 tasks involving a small blue square. The controls are all on the keyboard and will really test your multitasking skills.

 
We’re remodelling the studio. As usual the staff do it all themselves. Not sure what these two are up to but the wall was completely gone this morning…

Don’t let this opportunity to be a part of something incredibly special go by. Pangea Day is a special, global event to bring the world together through film on one day. The idea is to help people see themselves in others and in their stories. Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.
Participate online or better still through one of the community events. You won’t regret it. You can also show your support on Facebook, MySpace or YouTube. I’m proud to say that Avenue A | Razorfish played a small role in the Pangea Day effort by designing and building the website. We talk a lot about social media and online communities, well there’s nothing more special than showing we’re part of a global community that cares.

Scary as it sounds Emotiv Systems (http://emotiv.com/) is working on the next generation of video games where your thoughts will influence action within games.  The game will be played with both conscious and non-conscious input; they are adding another element to the digital world which in my opinion is a bit unfathomable.  The machine and human interaction will be connected past the physical into the mental…to think your mind can be mastered with science/research is scary and could raise a philosophical and religious debate.

If you want to take part in the study and research phase sign up at the link below.  For 30  minutes you will be hooked up to electrical profile (EEG) and studied for the release of this new world of gaming, which is projected as early as Christmas this year.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Y2cijKw8372Y0F3CknWMkQ_3d_3d

  Well done to Vodafone to be first to announce deal with Apple in Australia. It appears it is not exclusive but with the launch of the 3G Iphone around the corner it is a key win given the successful launches in the USA and UK.

The winners of the 12th International Webby awards have been announced and we’re jumping for joy… because our rather different Lynx Effect website is the winner in the Beauty and Cosmetics category against some stiff competition.

Thanks to the Amnesia team - and especially to Unilever and Lynx for putting faith in the idea

“CREATIVE is opening up the August Innovation Issue cover to creative concepts designed by the industry, for the industry. We want the wow factor, which will coincide with the August feature theme of Innovation. Apart from the necessary design guides, we are leaving the rest of the idea totally up to you!”

Learn more and submit your work here:

http://www.yaffa.com.au/creative/covercomp/

Sony has created a prototype fuel cell system that fits in the palm of your hand.

According to a company engineer, “We have been aiming to mount (a fuel-cell system) in mobile devices and finally reached a level of commercial design.” The tiny power-pack uses methanol as a fuel and controls supply with a hybrid pump, which allows it to regulate the amount of power used based on a system’s needs. The company claims that just 10ml of methanol can power a mobile device through 14 hours of 1seg movie watching.

Germany’s ConVisual partnered with the Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing to develop scent-delivery chips for cell phones.

They just received a patent on the tech, and the goal now is to start building the chips into phone within the next two years. The chip is initially supposed to have 100 different smells on it, and ConVisual says bad smells are a possibility as users will be able to reject certain messages.

Smelly phones? - I am not sure if I would like that.

“Piece of Me” or “Piece of meat”? wasn’t surprised to find someone has made a funny clip with alternative lyrics from the latest Britney Spears single. This has had a 1000 views at time of posting - let’s see where it goes… video below.

I recently received this in my inbox…

The first time I saw this, I was probably about 16-17yrs old popping pimples onto the mirror.

Almost 10 years on, and its back in my inbox (albeit now on youtube.com).  In my opinion, it was probably one of the original videos being sent around virally.  So my question is : how long does a viral link/vid/email (etc) take to get around the world and back?  Does an instance of something sent virally ever end?  How far around the world will it go before it comes back?

…

A team of scientists and researchers hell-bent on developing an “autonomous, multifunctional collection of miniature intelligence-gathering robots that can operate in places too inaccessible or dangerous for humans.”

Doesn’t it make you feel safer at night knowing a swarm of metallic spiders are looking out for you?

Not a new technology, but rarely used. Pink Floyd’s ‘The Final Cut’ and Pearl Jam’s ‘Binaural’ used it with great results. Here are some interesting tests…

MUST WEAR HEADPHONES!

Virtual Haircut - example of a 3D environment.

Matches - up and down and all around.

Could have some real fun with this, however the unit retails for US$6000. A holophone is used for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound recording (depending on the model you have), the trickery comes through the output of only two speakers.

One of the most unique dining experiences ever! Dine on a magical meal while suspended 50 meters off the ground.

Available in Europe and South Africa.

Check out the pictures and more information. + Video below.

“Iraq is currently the most dangerous location on the planet for photojournalism, and one thing I’ve always admired about Reuters is their powerful collection of images from the eye of the hurricane by truly hardcore photojournalists, filmmakers and their crews.

Regardless of your political views, this feature is a tribute to them and an insider’s view at 5 years of a war that might seem distant to many of us but is quite real, crude and brutal. History in the making.”

http://iraq.reuters.com/

Engrave provides pretty great service. They can make a laser engravings on your laptop or your favourite Moleskine. All you need is a great design. Shouldn’t be to hard.

http://www.engraveyourtech.com/

http://www.engraveyourbook.com/

Imagine…

a lot of computers, let’s say several million. They can include desktop PCs and workstations, mainframes and supercomputers, and also data vaults and instruments such as meteorological sensors and telescopes.

Imagine these computers are all over the world and belong to many different people (students, doctors, secretaries…) and institutions (companies, universities, hospitals…).

And imagine that you connect all of these computers to the Internet.

So far you have imagined nothing new: this is pretty much what the world looks like today.

But imagine if all of these computers could be connected to act as a single, huge and super-powerful computer. Wow! Now that really is different. This huge, sprawling, global computer is what many people dream “The Grid” will be.

More about The Grid

Who stands behind this?

CERN has a reputation for being at the forefront of networking technology - “where the Web was born” is the lab’s motto. When it comes to Grid technology, this is particularly true: CERN is leading some of the most ambitious Grid projects in the world.

More about CERN

Oldie but a goodie: Japanese Tetris!!!

I usually get my quick fix at Viceland. Comments such as

and

really give me the giggles. (I usually end up in foetal position laughing till I can no longer breathe when I see them with their accompanying snapshots.)

HAHA, funny funny now read on…

Today however, my monitor was suddenly attacked by a weapon of mass annoyance.

Landing to the Dos and Don’ts section of Viceland, every time I moved my mouse, a gunshot would fire off blasting the page. All I wanted to know was why you can’t go out in your homemade rave overalls…

About to have a skitz attack, I decided to test my douche radar. In a teeny tiny nutshell, I think this game is genius. Applying the dos and don’ts pics to the classic Time Crisis games, the goal of the game is shoot down the don’ts and not the do’s.

Confused, go have a play! Submit your details and the highest five scores win a Time Crisis 4 pack.

Nokia appear to be taking a big bash at the dominance of  iTunes in the local market. With high hopes I tested it out by attempting to download the free single of the week. Unfortunately It didn’t go quite to plan. I’m quite a Nokia fan (since getting an N95) as most people in here know so this held some promise, I’ve also been waiting for a challenger to iTunes (even though I do mostly like iTunes) but I’m afraid it’s not good news…

First you have to register then install the ‘Nokia Media Bar’ - which is not the best experience. I did not really like the intimidating message below “To Play or Buy music you need to install the Nokia Media Bar”

Here’s the deal. I don’t want any more plugins. I don’t want proprietary players and I don’t need any more music player software… I just want to download my tracks and use them how I want with the software I want! Especially when what I’m installing does not work…

   It took ages to download the track and when I finally got it - this is what I saw…

Then this…

Sorry Nokia - although it looked promising …20 minutes later and I still haven’t been able to listen to anything…you just lost me.

While you can argue that Windows Mobile is feature-for-feature and spec-for-spec superior to OS X on the iPhone, Apple’s mobile UI is certainly more fun to use. So if you’re running WinMo with a hankerin’ for rubber band-like scrolling, jiggly icons, screen flicking, SummerBoard themes, and even simulated multi-touch pinching of photos then you’re in luck. Flick Software Research is set to release its iSwish interface and iZoom pinch software in beta come “early May.”

Sick of your iGoogle theme? Now you can funk it up with the works of world renowned artists such as Akira Isogawa, Jackie Chan, Jean-Charles de Castelbajc or The Wiggles.

Check it out..

For more info, clickety click here!

From our global search newsletter. http://searchmarketingtrends.com/features/smtrends/17.aspx 

What is Google’s Double Serving Ad Policy?
Google’s Double Serving Ad Policy was designed to monitor the landing pages of affiliates, partners and dealers to ensure that there is a good customer experience and added value from landing page to landing page – even when everyone involved is selling the same basic thing. Google has always been concerned with the best possible user experience, so this policy comes as no surprise. Everything is viewed from the eyes of a searcher that does not understand the relationships between Company A and their partners. If from the searcher’s view there are 5 ads on a page that all appear to be Company A and offer the same basic thing, it does not create the best user experience. In fact, it will likely create confusion.

Google’s solution is to link all of the impacted parties into one account behind the scenes. This means that only one ad from the group can serve at any one time. The winner will be based on Quality Score, bid and all of the other items in Google’s arsenal. If you are not enforcing an affiliate bidding policy, especially on brand, you could run into issues where your ad does not appear for critical search terms like your brand name.

There have also been instances where one company will register multiple domain names and just slightly tweak the look and feel of their landing pages and offers in an effort to capture the paid search results from competitors. This will also fall under the Double Serving Ad Policy’s domain.

Keep in mind that this is not a new policy. It is, however, being actively enforced. Typically, a complaint would need to come in to have Google’s Policy team review the experience and make a verdict on who is impacted. This complaint could come from a competitor or an actual searcher.

Who is affected?
The decision-making process lives solely with Google’s Policy team, and you cannot talk with them directly about the decision. More than likely, you would receive a call from your Google representative with the date you will be impacted, the affiliates or partners involved and a request to redesign the customer experience on all of your landing pages for a new review. No real specifics will be shared on what needs to be changed.

What can I do to make sure that this does not happen to me and/or my affiliate partners?

• Make sure that customer experiences are unique between all landing pages. Pay special attention to your corporate pages, and ensure there are differences in product or customer experience that are not copied on affiliate sites.
• Develop an affiliate policy and enforce it – If you do not have one in place currently, reach out to your AA|RF account team for direction. If you do have one in place and you need help enforcing the current policy, reach out to your AA|RF team for help with strategy.

My competitors are offenders. What can be done?
They can be reported to Google, and Google’s Policy Team will perform an official review. This could improve your search results if a decision is made in your favor, as the competitor would be less likely to appear in a variety of searches.

I have been contacted by Google and my account is scheduled to be linked. What can be done?
Remain calm. Google’s Policy team can be swayed by evidence if you have a strong case. Their decision can be overturned or an extension may be granted. Exceptions, although rare, are possible.
When reviewing requests for exemption, Google focuses on the preservation of a unique user experience for each site, and also take into account the following:

• Destination site for each ad offers different products or services AND each destination site has a different layout and design.
• Destination site for each ad features unique site content, features, and/or services that are highly significant to users and create a distinct user experience.
• Product overlaps for each ad’s destination site are minor and don’t affect user experience.

The following criteria are generally not considered for exceptions:

• Different target audience such as B2B, B2C, and gender.
• Different pricing for similar products. Exact same products cannot be advertised simultaneously on two sites based solely on price difference.
• Different branding of websites. Websites advertising similar products with different branding will be reviewed against user experience criteria.
• Accounts handled by various third parties such as agencies and SEO companies.
• Business structure - i.e. different divisions within same company or group.

Article by Michelle Kelly