“Congratulations, you’ve just won a trip to the Bahamas, Florida, or Cancun. Please press nine for further details.”
9.
“Hello, is this Jeff I’m speaking with?”
“Yes, this is Jeff”
“Hi Jeff, I’d just like to confirm…”
“oh, just a second, where are you calling from?”
“I’m calling from Orlando, Florida… oh um, mumble mumble travel agency”
“oh, ok…” whatever.
“Can I just confirm your phone number in case we get disconnected?”
“Well actually, your company has called my house before, and I’ve asked very nicely on several occasions to be taken off your list, but everytime I ask, I get hung-up on. Is there anyway you could please take me off your phoning list?”
“Oh, well actually because you’re in Cancun, I mean… um, Canada, the computer just dials the numbers and I have no way of removing them from the computer”.
“I see, well do you think it would be possible for me to talk to your manager and see if he or she could remove me from the list?”
“Actually, if I put my manager on, he won’t remove your number either, I’ll get in trouble and he’ll probably just hang up on you too.”
“Why do you work at a place that hangs up on people?”
“oh, I don’t know, it pays the bills—I guess. Have a good night.”
“Thanks, you too.”
Click.
Backseat Playground
The Interactive Institute in Sweden has created an in-car, virtual reality gaming system called Backseat Playground that uses GPS to integrate the actual location of your vehicle into a game. It’s currently a prototype designed for kids stuck in the car on long rides. Players can, for example, solve murder mysteries and search for clues in meatspace as they drive around. It has some great interactive features such as characters in the game will actually call the player’s cell phone (hand held receiver) to give him or her clues.
Details from New Scientist:
The Backseat Playground consists of a GPS receiver, a handheld computer and headphones, all connected to a laptop in the trunk of the car.
The laptop uses the GPS data to maintain a three-dimensional model that keeps the car correctly positioned within the virtual world. A database of geographical information is used to match events in the game to suitable locations. Players interact using the handheld computer.
The game begins with a radio newsflash, relayed by the handheld computer, which places a passenger at the start of a murder mystery or a werewolf thriller. As the car travels along its route, the player receives further phone calls and walkie-talkie messages from characters in the game.
For now, the game only works over an area of 35 square kilometres in Stockholm, but you can check out the video of a couple of kids giving it a test run.
A Trip to the Courthouse
Aaron Swartz narrates his afternoon at the The United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as Larry Lessig attempts to reform copyright law. I found this to be a very interesting look into US laws, the rights of copyright holders, and the challenge of changing the world.
Something to Stress About
If you’ve ever lost your dog, I’m sure you can totally relate to Heather Armstrong’s latest mishap with Chuck. This is some of her most heartfelt blogging to date.
Mr. Citymen
Mr. Citymen is a series of five wonderful short animated pieces by Eric Lerner. It seamlessly combines computer rendered characters inside live action environments.
Coupled with the avant garde soundtracks, these animations work on a variety of levels and evoke various responses from the viewer. Also the combination of live action and animation is incredibly effective.
Moo Cards
Last month a company called MOO Print Ltd gave out ten free “moo cards” to any Flickr Pro subscriber. Since I didn’t have anything to lose, I ordered up my ten free cards and was pleased that there really are no strings attached and the cards look great.
I was excited to jump on the “take pictures of my moo cards and post them on flickr” bandwagon, however, at the time I got mine in the mail, my camera happened to be inconveniently getting a free massage by the nice people at Nikon. (They replaced the shutter and aperture, not to mention gave it a nice software upgrade—it fixed the problem so despite the wait I’m happy again).
Anyway now that I have my camera back and without further ado, here are a few of my moo cards:
The thing on the left is a roll of magnetic tape. I’m in the process of turning the cards into magnets moo-gnets.
Potapych
Why is it easier to make friends than to keep them? Check out this great 3D animated short, Potapych.
Modern Day Robin Hood
A modern day Robin Hood was giving out free money and almost causing riots in New York. They claim it’s all in the name of making people feel good.
From the BBC story:
Three Britons dressed as Robin Hood and his Merry Men caused a small stampede in a park in New York after throwing $4,000 (£2,110) into the air.
The pranksters—from Sheffield in England—said they hoped their stunt would encourage New Yorkers to be more polite and “give something back”.
However, the plan reportedly back-fired after passers-by pushed and pulled at each other to grab the free cash.
The men who called themselves the Modern Day Robin Hoods, threw the $4,000, made up of $1, $5,$10 and $20 notes, into the air, sparking the frenzy. Even children were reportedly stepped on, although no-one was seriously hurt.
Greenhouse Gases – Did You Know?
Here are some tips from the Canadian government on saving energy, reducing green house gases, and all the while saving you money too. My friend Linnsie Clark sent this to me in an email a long, long time ago. I’m not sure I ever actually followed any of these links, but by golly I posted them to my website.
Global Warming Potential (GWP)
“The GWP is an index that compares the relative potential of the 6 greenhouse gases to contribute to global warming ie. the additional heat/energy which is retained in the Earth’s ecosystem through the release of this gas into the atmosphere. The additional heat/energy impact of all other greenhouse gases are compared with the impacts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and referred to in terms of a CO2 equivalent (CO2eq) i.e. Carbon dioxide has been designated a GWP of 1, Methane has a GWP of 23.” “Nitrous Oxide has a GWP of 296.”
Tips for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- “A 15–watt compact fluorescent bulb produces the same amount of light as a 60–watt incandescent bulb. If every Canadian home replaced just one 60–watt light bulb with a 15–watt compact fluorescent bulb in a heavy use area, we would collectively save $63 million annually in energy costs and reduce our GHG emissions – equivalent to taking 66,000 cars off the road!” link
- “Improper tire maintenance unnecessarily costs Canadians about $500 million for 643 million litres of wasted fuel [each year],” says Neil MacLeod, director general of the Office of Energy Efficiency of Natural Resources Canada. “The extra fuel burned also releases an additional 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the environment.” link
- “You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure.” link
- “Proper tire care is simple and easy. Measure tire pressure monthly, including the spare, with a good-quality pressure gauge.” link
- “Every litre of gasoline that your car burns produces 2.4 kilograms of CO2.” link
- “Replacing a clogged air filter can improve your car’s gas mileage by as much as 10 percent.” link
- “Restarting the engine uses less fuel than 10 seconds of idling and produces less air pollution.” link
- “Fix leaky faucets—that little drip can add up to 95 litres of water per faucet per month, and cost you seven kWh per month.” pdf link
(Thanks Linnsie)
The Honda Hate Song
I really like this animation that Honda used to announce their new diesel engines last year.
Check it out.
Updated with Youtube video:
Grrr, created by Weiden + Kennedy for Honda, is an animated 90-second film. Garrison Keiller sings a song with the lyrics ‘Hate something, change something, make something better’, and a new, silent and clean diesel engine is created. The ad ends with the flowers and trees forming the Honda logo and the words “Diesel i-CTDi”, and the screen fades to white and Honda’s “The Power of Dreams” tagline appears.
The ad was written by Kim Papworth, Richard Russell, Michael Russoff and Sean Thompson, won a number of awards including, Best Commercial Grand Award, Best TV Commercial Grand Award, Automotive Gold World Medal and Best Original Music/Lyrics Gold World Medal at the New York Festival 2006 The Winners.