Aug 21

Boats and Clouds


Boats and Clouds

Originally uploaded by RachelC.

I’m a little this fortnight. I’m volunteering at the World Rowing Championships, working in the IT section which usually means getting jounalists connected to printers. The place is pretty wired (or wirelessed) up, as long as we can keep it going when all the broadcasters really hit it.

Aug 11

Telling it All – a video diary

YouTube has all sorts. Miming, karaoke, comedy, rants and TV. But here’s something different, life vignettes from Peter, a 78 year widower from the Midlands (that’s England). He started an account with YouTube 6 days ago and has over 2000 subscribers. There’s no theatrics, screaming or posturing, just a man in front of a video talking about his life. Take a look a the most recent film, where he talks about the 4000+ emails he’s received. (Via Lloyd). And see how the internet can change people’s lives.

Aug 10

Pug Bowling

I like dogs normally, but toy dogs are generally of little brain. Here’s a video that demonstrates just that!

Posted in fun
Aug 10

Appletiser Diamond Game

Appletiser (from Coca-Cola) have a timewasting game ready for you to play – and if you are lucky you can win a diamond. Based on a cross between Tetris and another desktop game (whose name I never got but I played a lot) you get a chance to play the game and then enter a prize draw for a diamond bracelet. You don’t actually have to play the game – of you start it and then click Quit it takes you to the entry form anyway.

appletiser_diamond.JPG

Unlike many sites I’ve seen it does offer an obvious text only method of entering the competions, with out having to use the flash entry form. The text version gives a link which allows you just to email your entry (although it appears their tems and conditions don’t quite allow this)

Aug 09

Tate Collections

I like the new piece of functionality and guidance from the Tate.

Tate has devised a new way of looking at the Displays with a range of themed ‘Collections’. These suggest a number of personal journeys you could take, reflecting different moods and enthusiasms and revealing the extraordinary breadth of work on show.

It gives you some collections set up already but it also allows you to set up your own collection, although currently from a limited selection of art. Choose your favourites, add you commentary and produce your own leaflet to guide you or your friends through the gallery.

There is still work to be done on the selection tool as it stands – you can’t see larger versions of the images, there’s no information available on the work and it won’t let you choose less than 6. You can’t comment on your choices either.

Even with these shortcomings, I like this idea and can see it expanding. Give us the chance to choose more than 6 and let us choose from the whole collection. Let me add written commentary. Furthermore, how about letting us upload our own spoken tours round the choice. Add some voting for the best tours and you increase the community around this – pick a few favourites tours, load them up on your mp3 players, print out the maps and off you go. Nice start – but will it go anywhere?

Aug 09

Tumble Dryer fun

The Editors blog over at the BBC discusses some of the curiosity stories that it has shown recently, including a firemen going for a ride in a tumble dryer. The concern expressed is that it could be subject to copycat activity. But it’s not exactly new – i distinctly remember a ‘honorary’ club at college that you could only join after you’d gone for a ride in the tumble dryer.

Aug 09

Mentos, Soda and Stormhoek

Unlike Coca-Cola, Mentos mints have embraced the idea of mixing Mentos with a variety of pops to make fountains of sticky sugar water. They are running a competition to find the best fan video, which gives the rest of us plenty of fun to watch.

But Lloyd has to do it a little different. He’s used Stormhoek wine to produce a wine fountain. There’s a video showing how to do it and the various attempts. I wonder how champagne reacts?

Aug 09

Living in the wrong place – E-Society Digital Rating

University College London have been researching the digital lifestyles of the British population and put them all in a nice handy tool. There are 22 categories, ranging from E-unengaged (groups that do not have access to electronic communications or technologies) to e-experts (every confidence in their abilities to undertake on-line transactions and to make full use of electronic technologies. ) The theory is that the information can be used to help inform future policies on digital access – but of course, they could also be used to drive some advertising πŸ˜‰

The tool allows you to plug in postcodes and see what the different areas are like. And I think I’m living in the wrong place, as my area comes out as part of the E-Unengaged set – too old to be bothered. It seems to be accurate down the individual postcode, which is a group of around 50-60 houses, so it does reflect reality. I live in an ex-council flat and many of the remaining tenants are elderly.

Aug 07

Viral videos – best use of a bra in a fight

A few viral videos to look over.

The first is a scene from a new movie Dead or Alive and features Holly Valance in what i think is the best use of a bra in a fightscene ever. Funny

And it must be a week for bras…ScaryMovie 4 has a point and shoot game (called, with little with or though, BraBlasters) to support it’s release on DVD. Successfully complete each round and the target;s clothes become fewer and fewer. The target audience is pretty clear for this – adolescent boys. There’s nothing else to the site, no way to send it from the site on that I can see, no scoreboard, no challenge, just semi-naked women.

A more surreal video from Xbox 360, involving a world record attempt at something – I guess it’s a waterballoon fight on a beach in Australia. I’m left at the end of the video with a feeling of ‘what??’ I assume it is advertising some game involving waterballoons, but not too sure..it could be the release of the console in Australia as far as I can tell. Even clicking through to the main site does not clear it up. The site does not help itself my needing to download a java applet, giving this notice, ‘friendly’ message as the site loads.

xbox360.JPG

On the cute side, here’s a helpful video from the TUC (the Trade Union Council for everyone outside the UK). To promote an employer search portal they are launching, it’s a reminder to check out the companies you are applying to on the ‘internet’. Very silly.

TUCpuppy.JPG

They are running a little poll about blogging and your employer. Unfortunately the results aren’t given immediately (why not?) but it would be interesting to see the results.

Aug 07

Barcamp London

Where has the time gone..it’s been a week since I’ve been on here. No matter..here;s something you need to sign up for quickly – Barcamp London. Taking place in the Yahoo offices during the first weekend in September, there’s a limited number of spaces which are going fast.

BarCampLondon Sep 2-3

Aug 01

Open Rights Group – sign up and support

The Open Rights Group is asking you to sign up and support the work it does. Five pounds a month can help them go a long way to reach their goals:

* To raise awareness in the media of digital rights abuses
* To provide a media clearinghouse, connecting journalists with experts and activists
* To preserve and extend traditional civil liberties in the digital world
* To collaborate with other digital rights and related organisations
* To nurture a community of campaigning volunteers, from grassroots activists to technical and legal experts

So please go and contribute, read the blog, add to the wiki and spread the word.

Aug 01

Honda web only videos

Yesterday, Media Guardian (reg req) ran an article about Honda providing web only videos:

“This is the start of exploring different ways to provide content,” said Rebecca Tickle, the Honda account director at Wieden & Kennedy London.

This follows on from the success of Cog and Choir available. I went to take a look at the new content, but have no idea where it is, as the piece links to the home page of the website only, with no direct link appearing possible. And there’s no pointer to the new stuff. So I’ve no idea whether it’s any good or not. So they are missing a simple trick – if you have publicity about content on your site, please make sure that anyone landing on the site can find it easily.

Aug 01

That Girl Emily – the end of the campaign

Emily, the poster girl for Court TV (see here and here for info and explanation) has reached the end of her campaign of terror on her cheating husband. And whilst there were some interesting stunts during the last 2 weeks, the reveal is rather dissapointing.

Also, if you think someone is cheating on you, I definitely recommend the private investigator my brother used, Vinny Parco from Intercontinental Investigations. He’s a real straight shooter – he showed me what I needed to know but he did it with real sensitivity and compassion. I think he has a show on Court TV.

There’s not even a link to the show pages. It’s a weak letdown to what looked like a tighly planned operation, even if the company were surprised at the early reveal (from the New York Times, registration required)

The bad news for viral marketers who use these kind of devices: executives at Court TV said they did not really want to be discovered so quickly.

Next time, do better please!