Alok, Be Better!


Our good friend and colleague Alok was injured in a bad accident just outside of Delhi. He's recovering with a rebuilt arm, and we're thinking of him. So, we did this Animoto to help him Be Better. :-)

Get better soon!

Mobile news from Spotify

Been waiting for this ever since they launched. When I spoke to Jon Mitchell about Spotify, he mentioned mobile but didn't/couldn't provide much detail. At the 2009 Google I/O Developer Sandbox, Gustav Soderstrom provided a lot of information about the new service:


Looks solid, right? Here's a short demo on Android that I found here:


Here's the blurb from the Spotify blog:

Now, just to be clear - this is simply a demo and very much still a work in progress. And to head off the inevitable questions, we don’t have any more details on when it will be available, etc except that you will need to be a paying subscriber in order to access Spotify on mobile. Also, this isn’t the only mobile app we’re working on, so stay tuned to this space for all sorts of cool stuff in the future.

Can't wait to try it out.

Step forward: Be bold. Be better.

Having the courage of your convictions is not always easy. Having the strength and determination to put it on the line and do what is right takes courage. It takes a lot of effort to be better, but it is worth it!


I disovered this clip while watching Denuo's Rishad Tobaccowala when he presented at Y&R's "7 Minutes to Reinvent the Internet (for Advertising)". He closed with this ad for clothing brand Saga called "Dare" made by Take It Easy Films ... The music is "Summer" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which you'll find on Spotify when you click on that link.

So go on ... When given the chance, step forward!

We got time

All kinds of awesome. No post-production: All done in camera.


All the animations for the music video to Moray McLaren's 'We Got Time' were created, drawn and coloured by director David Wilson. From their description:

All the animations seen in the video were created IN CAMERA.

Using both praxinoscopes and the technique of matching up the frame rate of the spinning record to that of the camera, no computer super-imposing was used; what you see is what rolled off the camera. The transitions between each section of animation was created by simply cutting or wiping between the bits of footage. All the animations were created, drawn and coloured by the director David Wilson. Produced by Blinkink: http://www.blinkink.co.uk and the full credits are here.

'We got time' by Moray McLaren:
http://www.myspace.com/moraymclaren
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZ...

The making of is really worth a look:


"Making of" Directed, Edited and Animated by Tom Kingsley, On-site Shoot Footage by Tim Keeling.

There's additional photography, artwork and credits on David Wilson's web site.

So creative. So inspiring.

The Titanium should go to Obama '08

Contagious Magazine (one of my faves) just asked, "Thinking of our predictions for the Titanium Lions at Cannes... any top tips?"

Without a doubt, Obama '08 was by far the best campaign of the year, maybe the best of this millenium so far. Iconic, successful, effective, creative, and historic are just a few words that spring to mind. Add to that the fact that Obama '08 leveraged cross-media platforms and activated people behind a true movement that had never been seen before, and you've got one hell-of-a campaign.



Can a presidential campaign win a Titanium Lion or other advertising awards? To be honest, I'm not sure if that's "allowed" by the folks in Cannes. But if one could, Obama '08 should sweep 'em all.


Related posts on i-boy:
Obama wins, November 2008
Barak Obama for President, October 2008
Very nice Obama viral, October 2008

Single serving sites

Is it Tuesday?

You'll have to click to find out, and thanks to the kind folks at Rocketboom's Know Your Meme series, here's everything you ever needed to know about "single-serving websites".


You're The Man Now Dog!

Narada: The new Star Trek ARG

Alternate reality games (ARG) are wonderfully engaging ways to activate a existing fans, loyal advocates and early adopters. They are also fantastic ways to draw new people into a storyline or activity, as the best ARGs are inherently viral and social by nature. There are several excellent examples of this type of online game/campaign which have been done over the past year or so. The Lost Experience and The Clown Travel Agency done for The Dark Knight which I wrote about last year are two good ones to check out.

Today, Bill came across what looks to be a new Star Trek ARG.

I love J.J. Abrams, and I've always loved Star Trek ... The new film launches in May, and whatever this thing is, it looks pretty cool and obviously took some time to dream up.

Connecting the dots is hard with good ARGs, but Trekkies love a good hunt. ;-) One of the first pieces of content to surface was this video, showing someone speaking in French who apparently found a 'device' in Paris on La Rue de la Federation a few days ago...


On a random site, scattered amongst a gallery of photos from a Star Trek party, are several photos like this one which contain a URL written on the wall:



These are the URLs:
http://0100001101100001.eu/
http://0100000101101100.eu/
http://01001111.com/

The web addresses are binary code for "Ca", "Al" and "O" ... abbrviations on the Periodic Table for Calcium, Aluminium and Oxygen ... Here are links to the full-size photos from www.thecobrasnake.com:

/outofthisworld/IMG_2996.html
/paristrek/IMG_2458.html
/hollywoodstars/IMG_8403.html

The element symbols show up in the videos, but who knows what the hell they mean. In his email, Bill wrote:

follow a tonne of awesomely cone head type video deconstructing, google maps following, secret site unearthings & the like here, what's immediately noticeable about this is that it's f*cking difficult & rightly so. this is for Trekkies after all : )

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27713
http://trekmovie.com/2009/04/15/new-clues-in-star-trek-viral-arg/

i digg this sh*t, enjoy.

Me too. Thanks dude!

In the forum posts (which explain things much more than I'm doing here) you learn that this image which is in the videos on the binary web sites:



... is actually an image of "Narada", the name of the ship in the prequel comic:



I wonder where it goes from here ...

Coffee is for closers

This is one of my all-time favourite clips. The play is awesome, and Baldwin absolutely nails Blake. If you haven't read or seen Glengarry Glen Ross, I highly recommend it.


1min48sec: We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

Classic.

WiiSpray Teaser


Very cool. Via Peter Costello.

What does Be Better mean to you?

The following is a short break, brought to you by iris Digital.


To celebrate the launch of "Be Better", iris agencies around the globe have each made a short film of what it means to them. Some are weird, some are wonderful and some defy rational description. They're all being screened on the iris web site, each day, over the next 2 weeks.

The iris Digital film is above and is intended as a bit of a break in the action. For the others, visit the iris web site.

BMW knows today's date



BMW has revealed a smart new piece of technology that will allow drivers to hitch a ride from the car in front via a magnetic beam, as part of an April fool print campaign created by WCRS. The "magnetic tow technology", which the automaker claims was devised by its head of innovation Herr Noitt All, means BMW drivers can lock on to the car in front, allowing them to take their foot off the accelerator and turn off the engine. Consumers interested in the product should email uve.vollenvorit@bmw.co.uk for more information. (via Brand Republic)

When you email uve.vollenvorit@bmw.co.uk you receive the following email:

Thank you for emailing the BMW Innovation team to find out more about our exciting Magnetic Tow Technology.
Today is in fact April 1st, and if you haven’t realised already, Uve Vollenvorit of our Innovation team would like to let you know that you have in fact, fallen for it!

We regret to inform you that Magnetic Tow Technology cannot be purchased with your new BMW at this time…..or indeed at any time in the near future. It sounded like a good idea but as we all know, there is no such thing as a free ride.
BMW would like to wish you a very happy April Fools Day.

If you would like to hear more about some of our real exciting innovations, please click on the links below:
BMW EfficientDynamics Technologies: www.bmw.co.uk/efficientdynamics

The new BMW Z4: www.bmw.co.uk/z4

Concept BMW X1: www.bmw.co.uk/conceptx1

BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo: www.bmw.co.uk/bmwconcept5seriesgranturismo

Kind regards,
The BMW (UK) Advertising Team

A few others:



Waitrose are offering Pinanas 'fresh in today and exclusive to Waitrose.' The ad goes on to say that 'if you find that all Waitrose pinanas have sold out, don't worry, there's 50% off our essential Waitrose strawberries.' (via Nick Burcher)


Stephen Fry: First sighting of a Shark Whale on and also on BBC2 Last Chance to See.

The Economist Group expands, opens themepark.

Sorrell investigated for £1.5 fraud
By Michael Peel, Legal Correspondent
Published: March 28 2009 01:14
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b401c34-1b2a-11de-8aa3-0
The FT is reporting that Martin Sorrell is under investigation for
a £1.5 billion accounting fraud linked to investments in a number of
WPP subsidiary agencies using the same type of “ponzi” scheme as
Bernard Madoff.

General Mills Enters Tech News Space With Forced Acquisition of CrunchGear http://bit.ly/sNygj by @johnbiggs

The Guardian to move to a full twitter publication http://tinyurl.com/cv6z7k

Your New YouTube Viewing Experience
At YouTube, we're always looking to improve the way you watch videos online. As part of that, today we're excited to introduce our new page layout. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your new YouTube viewing experience ...

And finally, Slideshare thinks I'm a RockStar!

Hi iboy,

We've noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job ... you must be doing something right. ;-)

Why don't you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation.

Congratulations,
-SlideShare Team

Until next year ...

The angelic discarnate man of the electric age

Just found this. Father Patrick Peyton ("The rosary priest") interviews Marshall McLuhan on television show, "Family Theatre" on 14 November 1971.

Absolutely fantastic.

Since first studying his work at UPenn a dozen years ago, what has always impressed me about McLuhan is how well he understood and predicted our digital future. Make no mistake, he wasn’t very happy about where things were going. He was a sceptic who thought that we were ill-prepared for the coming electronic age. He saw media’s influence and growth as something to be wary of, and he was convinced that our institutions were not at all ready.

He was also deeply religious and a devout Catholic. And what is incredible, to me, is how McLuhan draws parallels between technology and connectedness to the church. At points, you expect him to say the word “internet”, and instead he says “rosary” or “church” or something else. I’m not trying to be blasphemous. I just find it incredible how easy it is to conflate the internet with mystical bodies.

In the electric age, man becomes a kind of disembodied spirit. I don't think our institutions have any way of coping with this new dimension of man ... The angelic discarnate man of the electric age who is always in the presence of all the other men in the world.

Most of the relationships between men are now invisible. The human bond, the electric instant bond around the planet, is invisible ... which is not unlike the things we were taking about with relation to the mystical body, which is entirely around us and entirely invisible.

It is hard to understand where the media starts and ends. The media is an all-encompassing service, and man seems to be an inadequate figure.

The bit on “interface” is incredible. See 8m26sec. If this doesn’t foreshadow social networks, instant messaging, and microblogging, then I don’t know what does.

He wants an interface, a resonant dialogue. He wants to rap, chat and empathize with everybody about everything, and this constitutes an interface of change in dialogue. It isn’t just the passing of gossip back and forth. It is a kind of interrelating by which people feel that they are changed, that they are getting with it, they are getting involved, they are participating.

All of these things seem to me to be profoundly related to the rosary and to the church and the mystical body.

Incredible that this was in the 1970’s and the topic of conversation was more about the telephone and satellites than anything else.

I’m considering a change of line to, i-boy, the angelic discarnate man of the electric age who is always in the presence of all the other men in the world.

This is from 1971. Think about it.

2 little hacks


For you Windows folks, here are two little hack/apps that I find incredibly useful:

Taskbar Shuffle
A simple, small, free utility that lets you drag and drop your Windows taskbar buttons to rearrange them.

PureText2.0
Have you ever copied some text from a web page or a document and then wanted to paste it as simple text into another application without getting all the formatting from the original source? PureText makes this simple by adding a new Windows hot-key (default is WINDOWS+V) that allows you to paste text to any application without formatting.

Julia

This is our daughter, Julia Helen Ruth Nimeh.


She was born on 17 March at 12:03pm.

Not getting any sleep has its advantages ... In between diaper changes, multiple feedings, and trying to figure out the best way to put an incredibly cute and tiny girl into a "onezie", we've managed to teach Julia how to blog. Yes, that's right, little Julia is already a blogger ... and a keen one at that.

http://julia1203.blogspot.com

Posting here on i-boy will be a bit sporadic over the next few weeks, but I do plan to stick with it. In the meanwhile, you can always follow me on Twitter.

Or, you can follow Julia.