« May 2012 | Main | July 2012 »
I spent several months on a project in Holland in the late 80s. That meant several drives and train rides along the countryside and tulip fields like the one below.
This blog feels as lush, and as diverse. Through June, there are 325 posts this year, across dozens of technology categories. This month, there are several entries around how our summers have evolved. Next month will bring several around the London Olympics.
Enjoy the abundance!
My bad…should have posted this earlier. But drop everything and enter this contest by tomorrow to honor Union Pacific’s 150th anniversary. You could win $ 15,000 - your challenge is to create a contemporary version of its TV commercial from the 70s. The great news is the site has plenty of resources lined up – see below.
Even if you do not enter, explore the site and see how even a complex production can be crowdsourced.
And while you are at it, take a tour of the Union Pacific timeline and all the technologies they have pioneered and the role they have played in U.S. history
Giant companies such as Sony Corp.and Red Bull were there to promote their well-known products, but most fair participants were far smaller operations, including start-ups hoping to hit it big by introducing their inventions and other wares to the crowd.
"Just to be associated with the X Games and extreme sports, that's exactly what we want," said Steve Kraus, director of sales for Sbyke.
What's an Sbyke? It's a BMX bike in the front and a skateboard in the back, naturally. The franken-scooter was on display at a booth about the size of an office cubicle. It was in a row of identical booths, each divided by white plastic sheeting.
But no matter how humble the showcases, they were on view to a crowd that numbered more than 25,000 on Thursday, according to ESPN, which owns the X Games.
Photo Credit Brett Affrunti
When I blogged recently about a growing list of mobile services, someone pointed out that Austin, TX had more mobile food vendors per capita than any other city. Cannot confirm that but very believable with over such 1,500 vendors in the city. Actually, the number may be much higher as mobile businesses tend to have plenty of turnover.
In a high-tech city like Austin, no surprise there is a mobile app which lists these vendors. And many of the vendors use Twitter to inform their fans of daily locations. Most also have websites with their mobile numbers listed.
And, these are not your usual mobile hot dog or ice cream sandwich fare. There’s Chi’Lantro, (in photo below) which serves Korean/Mexican fusion items like Kimchi fries and there’s G’Raj Mahal which serves Indian food with a twist – majority organic ingredients.
Another reason to go to SXSW next year:)
Are You a Human replaces CAPTCHAs with mini-games called PlayThrus, a number of which are demoed on its site. In one, for example, you see a stack of pancakes and various floating objects. You drag the appropriate bottle of syrup and butter pats to the pancakes (not the saw or metal gear), and voila! You're human (or at least, you know your breakfast foods).
“To mark the 125th Anniversary of The Wimbledon Championships, HSBC commissioned the Sports Technology Institute at Loughborough to give us a glimpse of what the 150th Wimbledon Championships may look like; the players clothing, the rackets they use and even how we might be watching the Wimbledon Final of 2036. Whilst these ideas may seem like flights of fancy today, we should just ask if 25 years ago anyone would have believed Centre Court would sport a retractible roof or that we'd use missile technology to judge if a ball was in or out!”
I went to school at TCU in Ft. Worth then spent a couple of years with PwC there and later in the Dallas office in the 80s. As you can imagine, the CBS show “Dallas” was pretty popular. I remember winning the office “Who shot J.R.?” square contest (yes, as in football squares). I had to sheepishly admit I had no clue Bobby was his brother and Sue Ellen his wife and it was sheer, pure luck I won.
J.R. Ewing is back, evil as ever, in a TNT reboot. And this time I have seen a full episode and other snippets on the show’s website.
Well, I am pretty sure there was no website in the 80s. And no digital cameras for the hundreds of daily tourists to SouthFork ranch.
What else is different?
The show focuses more on the younger Ewings so there are more HD TVs and smartphones and new Ford trucks on the ranch. There are plenty of nuances like:
Oh, there's plenty more. Watch an episode. Not sure this version will run 14 seasons!
The audience in the Court as the Chief Justice read the majority position on the Obama Healthcare ruling clearly had a roller coaster ride. It looked like the individual mandate would be ruled unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause. but survived as a tax.
The rest of us are getting the news and analysis in dribbles. It brought home how low-tech the Supreme Court feels:
“With a ban on cameras in the courtroom and a prohibition against cell phone use in the room where opinions are handed out, journalists will be scrambling to relay the verdict in a timely fashion—and that's before they get a chance to parse what the ruling really says. Cameras in the courtroom could disrupt the court's proceedings or even change the behavior of Justices and lawyers alike, some critics point out.
Lyle Denniston, the veteran court reporter from SCOTUSblog, will be the person that many will turn to for the first analysis of the decision. The 81-year-old has become somewhat of a courthouse celebrity in the days leading up to this history-making opinion. But before he can even dial up his colleagues with the news, he'll have to dash to his desk in the press room, he tells Yahoo News. Once he gets in touch with them, they will in turn pass his reporting along to the outside world.
Sure, the oral arguments aren't available immediately, but written opinions go up online right away and a recording of the court proceedings will arrive within a few days. Still, the ban on news flowing straight from the courtroom to the people gives an old school feel to the reporting, heightening the drama.”
One thing I really admire about this old-school is how secure the Court is, especially in a leaky city like Washington.
Most Creative People
FastCompany’s annual list includes designers. entertainers, venture capitalists, founders, chief marketing officers, sustainability executives and many more from around the world.
June 30, 2012 in Creativity in Product Design, Globalization and Technology, Industry Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)