Today, GAP was advertising "making your own Christmas video card" on Yahoo's IM. It's an interesting concept and execution called "GAP Tidings".
Check it out, it's a good way to waste time. I also think it's going to be pretty viral; especially amongst the GAP's younger target market.
What would be interesting to know is if and how they are policing it to make sure that nasty stuff doesn't end up on the favorites list (unless the favorites list is artificial; I didn't dig into it enough to see if they let regular folks rate the videos).
I mean imagine if some one did a strip tease and it got bumped up by popular opinion into the favorites list. That would, while very entertaining, quite embarrassing, corporately.
One thing I did notice is that they are using Yahoo for the streaming video. I do remember that Yahoo, like Google, purchased some one for this functionality... I just don't remember who.
By the way, there's something in this same vein that I'm looking for... Three - five years ago, I saw a Flash Christmas card from Publicis... It had their entire staff singing a Christmas carol in separate windows which could be turned on and off... It was a pretty awesome execution. If you happen across this, please send it my way.
Thanks & Merry Christmas!
- Ray.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Clean designs...
I just wanted to touch on a couple of clean designs I've stumbled across in the last few days...
I found a really nice, clean CSS-based drop-down menu system on the Deki Wiki site. Example URL's are:
In particular, I like how the one at opengarden allows you to put images in the drop downs. I'm going to look more into how they do this later on down the road.
In the mean time, I'm going to install Deki Wiki. It looks like a heck of a lot better package than the user-unfriendly (in my opinion) MediaWiki. My thoughts on that are a complete post for another time...
The other design I liked came from a friend's blog (http://www.stuntmom.com). On an unrelated note, like Wine-Girl (and for similar reasons), StuntMom is another great example of good blogging... On StuntMom, my friend wrote about CatalogChoice.org. CatalogChoice is a site where you can reduce your junk mail (snail-mail). According to her, it works. I'll have to try it.
Nonetheless, I like their design. The left navigation is clean, simple and elegant. There are some things I would do to make it better from an accessibility standpoint (i.e., the center pane doesn't scale with control+ in Firefox) but, it is very nice overall. Also, I don't know what gives with the content in the center frame. Perhaps it's included via and i-frame... Don't know.
Anyway, I just thought I'd note those two sites because I like the design.
I found a really nice, clean CSS-based drop-down menu system on the Deki Wiki site. Example URL's are:
In particular, I like how the one at opengarden allows you to put images in the drop downs. I'm going to look more into how they do this later on down the road.
In the mean time, I'm going to install Deki Wiki. It looks like a heck of a lot better package than the user-unfriendly (in my opinion) MediaWiki. My thoughts on that are a complete post for another time...
The other design I liked came from a friend's blog (http://www.stuntmom.com). On an unrelated note, like Wine-Girl (and for similar reasons), StuntMom is another great example of good blogging... On StuntMom, my friend wrote about CatalogChoice.org. CatalogChoice is a site where you can reduce your junk mail (snail-mail). According to her, it works. I'll have to try it.
Nonetheless, I like their design. The left navigation is clean, simple and elegant. There are some things I would do to make it better from an accessibility standpoint (i.e., the center pane doesn't scale with control+ in Firefox) but, it is very nice overall. Also, I don't know what gives with the content in the center frame. Perhaps it's included via and i-frame... Don't know.
Anyway, I just thought I'd note those two sites because I like the design.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Blogging done right...
So often out there, blogs are atrocious. They don't serve any purpose and they don't deliver any useful information.
They are, as I term it, literary masturbation. Writing about absolutely nothing in order to feel important or to get your own rocks off even if no one ever sees it.
With that in mind, I've found a blog which absolutely stands out from the rest of the crowd -- Wine-Girl.net.
The blog is maintained by Michelle Lentz of Write Technology. According to her business site and her business blog, she is a technical writer. While I've not seen her professional work, her blog definitely displays a well honed ability to write copy.
It's fun. It's informative. It's grammatically correct (this doesn't seem like a big thing but, man, some of the bloggers out there need to go back to high school English).
In a nutshell, here are some of the reasons I like this blog and I think that many corporate blogs should strive for such levels:
In the end, Michelle, I love the blog. Keep up the great work!
They are, as I term it, literary masturbation. Writing about absolutely nothing in order to feel important or to get your own rocks off even if no one ever sees it.
With that in mind, I've found a blog which absolutely stands out from the rest of the crowd -- Wine-Girl.net.
The blog is maintained by Michelle Lentz of Write Technology. According to her business site and her business blog, she is a technical writer. While I've not seen her professional work, her blog definitely displays a well honed ability to write copy.
It's fun. It's informative. It's grammatically correct (this doesn't seem like a big thing but, man, some of the bloggers out there need to go back to high school English).
In a nutshell, here are some of the reasons I like this blog and I think that many corporate blogs should strive for such levels:
- Professionally written
- Engaging
- Filled with on-equity humor to make it entertaining
- On topic
- Quality supporting photography
- It is integrated with other aspects that make it a holistic resource
- Love the "Tip Jar"! Great use of technology and making it support your "business" focus
In the end, Michelle, I love the blog. Keep up the great work!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Simple & nice design...
Now, I don't want you all to think I'm silly or a crappy designer, but I stumbled across a layout that I actually thought was rather nice...
Now, brace yourselves and don't be judgin' before you look at it...
The design I was actually impressed with was what I think is the default template at Network Solutions. I stumbled across it looking up domain names for a client of mine. The name I looked up was "TightHouse.com" and, no, I'm not putting together a site of ill-repute.
I'm doing work for a a company called 5 Star Home Improvements. All combinations of this name are already taken (surprise...) so I was trying some more creative domain names when I came across this template.
I like this template, at first blush, because it's:
Now, brace yourselves and don't be judgin' before you look at it...
The design I was actually impressed with was what I think is the default template at Network Solutions. I stumbled across it looking up domain names for a client of mine. The name I looked up was "TightHouse.com" and, no, I'm not putting together a site of ill-repute.
I'm doing work for a a company called 5 Star Home Improvements. All combinations of this name are already taken (surprise...) so I was trying some more creative domain names when I came across this template.
I like this template, at first blush, because it's:
- Clean
- High information content above the fold
- I like the aesthetics of the color combinations
- All text based (great for indexing and accessibility even though they don't use ALT or TITLE tags; tsk, tsk on them)
- The secondary pages would be an aesthetically pleasing and simple transition from the splash page
I just like it. Hmm...
Just some food for design thought down the road.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
A sneak peak...
So, I'm going to "formally" launch the agency on December 1st, 2007, but I thought I'd let my friends who follow my blog get a sneak peak...
Check it out here: GIBRALTARinteractive
Check it out here: GIBRALTARinteractive
Lovin' gadgets, YouTube and wacked out creative folks!!!
So, I've been diggin' into Google Gadgets, Yahoo/Konfabulator Widgets and Klipfolio clips for a project I'm working on... So, my iGoogle page is a mess with different Gadgets... One of which is the YouTube gadget.
Today, when I fired up the laptop, the YouTube gadget had this really cool video on it.
While the music is cool, I’m not that much in awe of that… I just dig the production techniques used on the video. I’d love to create stuff like this… Perhaps the reason I like it is it’s very sledgehammer-esque and that’s one of my favorite videos ever.
And here’s the making of: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BU9e-X8dlCo
Anyway, Just a random cool thought.
Today, when I fired up the laptop, the YouTube gadget had this really cool video on it.
While the music is cool, I’m not that much in awe of that… I just dig the production techniques used on the video. I’d love to create stuff like this… Perhaps the reason I like it is it’s very sledgehammer-esque and that’s one of my favorite videos ever.
And here’s the making of: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BU9e-X8dlCo
Anyway, Just a random cool thought.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Just a few random thoughts about Google...
If you follow this blog, one thing you'll find out about me is that I admire and seek to understand greatness.
That's why I'm always interested in what Google's doing. Much like MicroSoft, their individual components are good (perhaps not phenomenal, but very good) but, as an aggregate, their service is absolutely amazing.
This is more of a brain barf for my own records than anything else, but if anyone would like to add insight or spur arguments, feel free!
So Google is trying to control the airwaves and court the FCC (probably to no long-term avail). At the same time, they are talking about putting together a mobile phone framerwork based upon Linux and Java (GPhone)... Couple that with their mobile services that they are working on, and things immediately get interesting. They control your phone or smart phone and the data you keep on it (I'm sure there will be a Google Desktop for Mobile phones..).
Another interesting thought is the purchase of YouTube. So, people start using their smart phones as TiVo's and watching video on demand from the likes of the syndicated networks, YouTube and Netflicks.
Another random thought/rumor I remember hearing about a year ago; Google was building "caching" closets outside of major metropolitan areas for high speed delivery.
Then we move onto Google OpenSocial. Based upon Google's site, the JavaScript API in the opensocial.* namespace opens the following three main areas of functionality:
I mean, I've got accounts on FaceBook, MySpace, Orkut and other so called "social networks", but I really don't need the "self expression" that MySpace offers and I could really do without the porn or the spambots on both Orkut and MySpace... Anyway, this is on my to-do list. I think controlled social networking is huge both from the site and user standpoints, but I've not seen it done too well, YET.
The biggest thing I wonder is how Google anticipates social networking to change... I'm assuming that they think it's actually going to shift from a pastime to a real, essential and productive tool. Otherwise, it wouldn't fit into their mission of:
Anyway, as said before, just some random thoughts. Perhaps I'll add a dash of insight later.
- Ray.
That's why I'm always interested in what Google's doing. Much like MicroSoft, their individual components are good (perhaps not phenomenal, but very good) but, as an aggregate, their service is absolutely amazing.
This is more of a brain barf for my own records than anything else, but if anyone would like to add insight or spur arguments, feel free!
So Google is trying to control the airwaves and court the FCC (probably to no long-term avail). At the same time, they are talking about putting together a mobile phone framerwork based upon Linux and Java (GPhone)... Couple that with their mobile services that they are working on, and things immediately get interesting. They control your phone or smart phone and the data you keep on it (I'm sure there will be a Google Desktop for Mobile phones..).
Another interesting thought is the purchase of YouTube. So, people start using their smart phones as TiVo's and watching video on demand from the likes of the syndicated networks, YouTube and Netflicks.
Another random thought/rumor I remember hearing about a year ago; Google was building "caching" closets outside of major metropolitan areas for high speed delivery.
Then we move onto Google OpenSocial. Based upon Google's site, the JavaScript API in the opensocial.* namespace opens the following three main areas of functionality:
- People -- information about individual people and their relationships to each other
- Activities -- ability to post and view updates on what people are doing
- Persistence -- a simple key-value data store to allow server-free stateful applications
I mean, I've got accounts on FaceBook, MySpace, Orkut and other so called "social networks", but I really don't need the "self expression" that MySpace offers and I could really do without the porn or the spambots on both Orkut and MySpace... Anyway, this is on my to-do list. I think controlled social networking is huge both from the site and user standpoints, but I've not seen it done too well, YET.
The biggest thing I wonder is how Google anticipates social networking to change... I'm assuming that they think it's actually going to shift from a pastime to a real, essential and productive tool. Otherwise, it wouldn't fit into their mission of:
"organizing the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
Anyway, as said before, just some random thoughts. Perhaps I'll add a dash of insight later.
- Ray.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Accessing a UNIX box remotely via XWindow
I've done this once before and since forgotten how I did it.
This time, I thought it would be useful to record for myself and others.
The problem is that to access a graphical display on a Linux/UNIX box remotely, you need some sort of XWindow emulator. There are very good, albeit, expensive, XWindow emulators like eXceed, but I'm cheap and I like lighter software (eXceed loads WAY more than what you need to do what I need to do).
Net, I target open source stuff.
First, I downloaded TinyVNC. Version 1.3.9 came as a self-extracting exe file. If you are just using this to access stuff on a Linux box (like I am), then you don't have to worry about registering the TightVNC Server as a system service (an option in the setup).
To get the whole thing running, just log onto your Linux box and type "vncserver". This will create a service listening on port 5901. To connect to it, fire up TinyVNC and use the IP of your machine and ":5901". This will connect you to a graphical display of the OS logged in as the user who fired up the vncserver.
Pretty spiffy... Just like sitting in front of the box.
Now, there are a few other cool things to do:
1. Get the whole thing running over an ssh tunnel
2. Set it up so you just have to click on a TinyVNC icon (assuming that vncserver is already running)
To run it over an SSH tunnel:
Viola!!! It works.
Now to make it "easier" by double clicking an icon...
Actually, I don't think it's possible to do it over the SSH tunnel without decent amounts of work. No matter how I try to slice it, you need two icons -- one for PuTTY an one for TightVNC Viewer.
We'll leave this one for another day... Don't forget to save your tunneling stuff inside PuTTY if you don't want to reconfigure it next time you wanna do it.
- Ray
This time, I thought it would be useful to record for myself and others.
The problem is that to access a graphical display on a Linux/UNIX box remotely, you need some sort of XWindow emulator. There are very good, albeit, expensive, XWindow emulators like eXceed, but I'm cheap and I like lighter software (eXceed loads WAY more than what you need to do what I need to do).
Net, I target open source stuff.
First, I downloaded TinyVNC. Version 1.3.9 came as a self-extracting exe file. If you are just using this to access stuff on a Linux box (like I am), then you don't have to worry about registering the TightVNC Server as a system service (an option in the setup).
To get the whole thing running, just log onto your Linux box and type "vncserver". This will create a service listening on port 5901. To connect to it, fire up TinyVNC and use the IP of your machine and ":5901". This will connect you to a graphical display of the OS logged in as the user who fired up the vncserver.
Pretty spiffy... Just like sitting in front of the box.
Now, there are a few other cool things to do:
1. Get the whole thing running over an ssh tunnel
2. Set it up so you just have to click on a TinyVNC icon (assuming that vncserver is already running)
To run it over an SSH tunnel:
- Fire up vncserver as you did before on the destination machine
- Fire up PuTTY
- Connection -> SSH -> X11 -> Enable X11 Forwarding
- Connection -> SSH -> X11 -> X display location: localhost:0
- Connection -> SSH -> Tunnel
- Add a new forwarded port
- Source = 5901
- Destination = 127.0.0.1:5901
Viola!!! It works.
Now to make it "easier" by double clicking an icon...
Actually, I don't think it's possible to do it over the SSH tunnel without decent amounts of work. No matter how I try to slice it, you need two icons -- one for PuTTY an one for TightVNC Viewer.
We'll leave this one for another day... Don't forget to save your tunneling stuff inside PuTTY if you don't want to reconfigure it next time you wanna do it.
- Ray
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