Programming Blog » San Diego

Twilight at Comic Con Has Fans Camping Out All Week

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:28:13 +0000

Comic Con just kicked off in the Gas Light District of San Diego, as people have been camped out waiting to get into see the Twilight Panel. WebProNews happened to be in the neighborhood and thought we’d snap a few …

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Twilight at Comic Con Has Fans Camping Out All Week

Facebook-Web-Design — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:27:35 +0000

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Yipit – All the Best Daily Deals, Coupons & Discounts

Facebook-Web-Design — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:38:46 +0000

Yipit aggregates and recommends the best daily deals in your city.

We collect all the great daily deals from Groupon, LivingSocial, Scoop St, Tippr (and about 130 others). We recommend the best ones to our users based on the preferences they have expressed to us.

We’re available in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego and San Francisco.

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Yapsie.com – The Best Places To Take Your Pet To

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 20:52:45 +0000

Presented by a startup company which is based on San Diego, Yapsie aims to make it easier for pet owners to find places and events they can bring their pets to. The site lists all these restaurant and venues that are pet-friendly, and it also details the coolest parks and beaches to take your four-legged companion to. These are all commented and discussed by other users of the site, and the idea is to arrive at the best venues that could be visited collectively.

Learn more about Yapsie.com in Dataopedia.com

Find out how much Yapsie.com is worth with Stimator.com

Have a business question? Ask Startups.com

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Trailer Tron Legacy

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:42:51 +0000

Après le second trailer lancé début mars, Walt Disney Pictures vient de sortir une nouvelle bande-annonce de “Tron Legacy” à l’occasion du Comic-Con de San Diego. Une réalisation de Joe Kosinski pour un film qui arrivera sur les écrans 2D, 3D et IMAX 3D le 17 décembre 2010.

Previously on Fubiz

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Why Qualcomm’s Lauer Joined Little-Known Memjet

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:26:26 +0000

: Memjet; Len Lauer

It was a bit of a mystery when Len Lauer resigned as chief operating officer of Qualcomm last month. It was equally puzzling when he surfaced a couple of weeks later at Memjet, a closely held company most people have never heard of.

Lauer has a reputation as a communications-industry heavyweight. After more than 10 years at IBM, he took jobs like chief executive of Bell Atlantic-New Jersey and COO of Sprint Nextel before joining Qualcomm in late 2006. In becoming CEO of Memjet, he is changing industries to lead an ambitious effort to shake up the printer market.

What’s so different about Memjet’s approach? For starters, conventional inkjet printers have a print head that moves back and forth across the page. Consequently, they tend to be slow, noisy and shake your desk. (Not so laser printers, of course, but they tend to be relatively expensive).

Memjet hopes to market it calls a “page wide” print head, which remains stationary and lays down ink across a page as the paper moves past it. That increases printing speeds by eight to 10 times, Lauer says. He estimates its technology will print 60 pages per minute; while some conventional inkjet printers advertise 30 to 32 pages per minute, they more often complete six pages or so in that time, he says. Lauer also estimates that Memjet’s ink costs will be 30% to 40% lower than current inkjet technology.

Memjet’s assertions carry a bit more weight than your average startup’s. The technology is the brainchild of Kia Silverbrook, a prolific inventor in Australia who was once a chief technology officer for Japan’s Canon, one of the longtime kingpins in printer technology. Silverbrook has been working on the page wide approach for more than a dozen years; Memjet says it holds more than 2,600 patents, with 2,000 more pending.

The company–based, like Qualcomm, in San Diego–has more than 600 employees, with about 400 of its engineers in Sydney, Lauer says. Memjet has never disclosed precisely how much it has raised, but Lauer says the amount comes to “hundreds and hundreds of millions” of dollars. Its biggest investor is Argonaut Private Equity.

Memjet doesn’t plan to make printers itself. Rather, it plans to sell print heads, ink and other components to companies that will sell printers. Potential customers could include the big companies that dominate the market–think of names like Canon, Hewlett-Packard and Xerox–as well as new companies that have never before been able to make printers.

In that way, Lauer says, the company could function a bit like Qualcomm did in cellphones–supplying chips to help scores of companies enter the handset market, which was once the exclusive preserve of giants like Nokia and Motorola. He says Memjet could help restructure the printer industry from a few vertically integrated giants to a broader “horizontal” ecosystem, with companies specializing in components, complete printers and so on.

“It’s a pretty vertical industry,” Lauer says, “and we come in with this horizontal play.”

Charles LeCompte, president of the printer industry research firm Lyra Research, describes what Memjet is attempting as the most interesting thing going on in printers. But the gestation period has been lengthy. Silverbrook announced the technology publicly in 2007 but Memjet still is not shipping any products. “They’ve missed a bunch of deadlines,” LeCompte says.

Lauer says Memjet expects to start delivering products in the second half of this year, initially targeting office printers, label printers and other business applications. It will take some time to generate the volume needed to drive costs down and approach the consumer printer market, he says, but he expects that to happen eventually.

In the meantime, all those patents could come in handy if some big company wants to use its own intellectual property to try to hobble the new competitor. “Is it helpful from a defensive standpoint to have those patents?” Lauer asks, rhetorically. “Yes, it’s very helpful.”

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Free Music Monday: 10 Downloads For Your Listening Pleasure

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:37:49 +0000

Greetings, music fans! After a bit of holiday hiatus, we’re happy to report it’s another Free Music Monday for your listening pleasure. If you’ve tuned in previously you’ll know we’re celebrating the #musicmonday tradition on Twitter.

We pick 10 tracks from around the web and offer you either links to the downloads or streams, or embed the streams when possible. Our last feature was a special Video Edition, and this week we’re catching up on the backlog of all your great submissions. Each entry this week includes at least one free MP3 download for your listening pleasure.

1. Brian Ray: “I Found You” — When not busy touring with Paul McCartney’s band, guitarist, bass player, songwriter and native Californian Brian Ray pens solo rock tunes like this. Stream it for free from the previous link and snag a free download too (right-click to save it to your desktop).

2. Róisín Murphy: “Momma’s Place” — Irish producer and singer-songwriter Róisín Murphy is perhaps best known as the former frontwoman for electronica duo Moloko, and has gone on to a critically acclaimed solo career. Right-click for a free download of her latest single, out now with an EP of remixes on iTunes [iTunes link].

3. Impediments: “You Want a Square” — Four teenagers from Oakland are responsible for this fun post-punk garage rock song with surf and psychedelia highlights. Snag a free download by right-clicking, grab another track from the Free Music Archive and check out the band on MySpace.

4. Jump Clubb: “A Frozen Hug” — A little bit of techno, a little bit of disco, a little bit of electropop and some various genres to taste. Grab two free MP3s from their site.

5. Matt McCloskey: “These Times Won’t Last” — Get Austin singer-songwriter Matt McCloskey’s full album as a free download for a limited time — just enter your e-mail address to receive the download link.

6. Milkman: Lactose and THC — San Diego-based mashup artist and producer Milkman has his sophomore release up for sale, but is offering his debut album for free streaming and download.

7. Kirsten DeHaan: “1984″ — Indie singer-songwriter Kirsten DeHaan offers Mashable readers a free download: right-click to snag the MP3 for “1984.” This New York-based artist recently put out the Thorns on a Crown EP, available from her website.

8. Elspeth: “Old Age” — Irish rockers Elspeth are a five-piece indie group who have been gigging widely in the UK since coming together in March 2009. Right-click for a free download of the “Old Age” MP3 and check out more about the band on their MySpace page.

9. Caroline Herring: “Tales of the Islander” — The fourth album from Atlanta-based Mississippi native Caroline Herring invokes Americana roots and iconic folk females with a mix of originals and covers showcasing Herring’s strong and complex vocals. She offers Mashable readers a free download of “Tales of the Islander” (right-click to snag it).

10. The Brothers Streep: “Anna Paquin” — Equal parts humorous and harmonious, The Brothers Streep serve up this tribute to the True Blood and X-Men star for your free download pleasure (right-click to get it). More free tunes are available on their website.

As always, thanks for tuning in! If you like Free Music Monday, please give us a push by sending it to your music-loving friends. You can find the latest edition of this feature by hitting up the Free Music Monday tag page, so please check back. We’ve appended the list of past Special Edition themed Free Music Mondays at the end of this post in case you missed any of the back catalog.

Thanks huge to everyone for the great submissions we’re getting. If you sent us tracks and we haven’t featured them yet, stay tuned for a future Free Music Monday. If you’d like to submit tracks for yourself or an artist you represent, give us a shout at barb AT mashable DOT com. Be sure to send us either a link to an embeddable stream or an MP3 or two we can use (no more than 25MB file size total please) and/or let us know which track(s) you’re willing to provide as a free download. Thanks everyone!

Free Music Monday Back Catalogue

– Alternative Rock Edition
– Covers, Remixes, and Mashups Edition
– Electronica Edition
– Hip-hop Edition
– Labor Day Edition
– Live Edition
– Rock and Pop Edition
– Singer-Songwriter Edition
– Video Edition
– Your Submissions Edition

Reviews: Mashable

Tags: free music monday, mp3s, music, social media

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Foursquare Changes the Game … Literally

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:46:04 +0000

Earlier this week the much-anticipated Foursquare everywhere release came to fruition, making the location-based mobile game available to all regardless of their physical location. Details behind the everywhere launch and how it affected the overall game experience, however, were sparse. Until now.

Foursquare everywhere changes the check-in game as we know it. So take what you know and throw it out the window. This just got more interesting.

The City Shake Up

The whole Foursquare experience used to be centered around your city, so badges and check-ins were city-specific, and anytime you’d find yourself in another city you’d essentially need to start over from scratch. Foursquare everywhere turns that model upside down, so now you can place yourself anywhere in the world (instead of Foursquare locking you down in the nearest city).

You’ll also notice that adding new venues is now address-optional. Instead, Foursquare finally got smart: If you opt to skip the physical address entry step when you check in at a new venue, they’ll automatically attach your GPS location — as pinpointed by your mobile device — to define the venue’s location. Given how tedious it is to manually enter the address of a new place, especially with the knowledge that your GPS-enabled phone knows where you are, we find this to be the most welcome development of all.

Badges of Honor

Duplicate badges are donzo, which means gone are the days when you could earn the Newbie badge for each new city you traveled to. When it comes to badges, think of them as no longer constrained to a particular city, but worldwide badges of honor you carry with you. In fact, you can earn badges anywhere in the world and take them with you as travel. So, if you’ve unlocked the School Night badge in San Diego, there’s no need to try to stay out all night in New York (on a week night) to repeat your previous coup.

For those of you who love a challenge, Foursquare everywhere now includes a whole new set of badges for you to try to unlock. There are a total of 10 new ones (three pictured above), but we also know that even more are on the way. Since there is such an allure around unlocking mystery badges, we won’t spoil the fun, but we know that some of you at CES have managed to unlock a few of these new treasures.

Who’s on Top?

I personally play the Foursquare check-in game for the mayorships, badges and tips from friends, but some of you take rising to the top of your city’s leaderboard very seriously. If that’s you, pay close attention, because the rules have changed slightly.

With the city-lockdown lifted, Foursquare now organizes local leaderboards by your proximity to other Foursquare users. Now you’ll be ranked against everyone who has accrued points within 25 miles (40 km) of your current location. You probably won’t notice the change too much, but we think it’s a smart play and opens up the competition elements to Foursquare users on the fringe of larger playing fields.

Coming Soon

With money in the bank, Foursquare is pushing out improvements at lightning speed. In the coming weeks you can expect a spiffy new version of the iPhone app — version 1.5 — to be released in the App Store. While there won’t be tons of cosmetic changes to this update, you can expect 1.5 to be more sophisticated when it comes to locating and serving up more accurate places nearby. Eventually the iPhone app will also support more “Trending Nearby” functionality to call out hot places. We also know that the team is working on drastic UX improvements to the iPhone app, so you can expect a major redesign in the coming months.

When it comes to other mobile devices, the beta BlackBerry app is being tested by 5,000 users and Foursquare plans to push this to the public in about a week. And of course, Palm Pre users can already get their hands on that app now.

[img credit: MariShelbley]

Reviews: App Store, Foursquare, iPhone

Tags: foursquare, Mobile 2.0, social media, trending

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Qualcomm Chip to Power Verizon iPhone [RUMOR]

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:23:18 +0000

Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs has openly expressed interest in inserting a Qualcomm chip into Apple’s popular iPhone. New rumors reported by TheStreet.com indicate that Qualcomm’s endeavors were successful: A Qualcomm chip will power a new version of the iPhone on Verizon in the summer.

While official confirmation from Apple and Qualcomm is still pending, Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar serves as the source for this particular story. He claims to have confirmed the partnership with iPhone manufacturers and suppliers.

Yesterday we learned that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip is powering the super speedy Nexus One. Although the Qualcomm iPhone chip in question is different — reportedly a 3G wireless technology chip for EV-DO — this is still a massive get for the San Diego-based chip supplier, should the rumors be true.

Tags: apple, iphone, qualcomm

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When Social Media Gets Athletes in Trouble

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:11:04 +0000

Sportscaster Len Berman is author of The Greatest Moments in Sports. You can subscribe to Len’s daily e-mail highlighting his Top 5 sports stories of the day at ThatsSports.com

Professional athletes, like many celebrities, are using social media to connect with fans and share their personal lives in ways they never could before. But because of some strict rules and professional faux pas, many athletes are finding themselves in hot water after their poorly timed or controversial status updates. Here are a few examples.

In the NBA

Milwaukee Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings got excited when the Bucks beat Portland in double overtime. He tweeted:

As an exuberant rookie excited about a thrilling win, he wanted to share it with his fans. What’s wrong with that? It turns out it violates NBA policy. Jennings was fined and had to cough up $7,500, all for a positive tweet.

Players aren’t allowed to tweet during games. Well duh — you wouldn’t want to see your favorite point guard dribbling down the court with a BlackBerry in his off hand. But the policy extends to 45 minutes before and after the game as well. First the players have to satisfy their obligations to the media, then they can tweet away.

For me, I think it’s cool that players want to connect with their fans. Brandon Jennings has 12,000 followers on Twitter. Of course that pales in comparison with Shaquille O’Neal, who has over 2.5 million. After Jennings got fined, he tweeted “I understand I got fined, but 7500? For being happy over a win, you would of thought I said something bad. I mean it was a big win for us.”

The NBA came up with its tweet rules a couple of months ago, and several players have already run afoul of the new regulations. The Phoenix Suns’ Amare Stoudemire and Charlotte Bobcats’ forward Tyson Chandler were both hit with $7,500 fines because their Twitter accounts were updated during games. It’s assumed they didn’t personally do it themselves, but it makes you wonder. Are there special referees out there monitoring the social media sites and whistling fouls?

The owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, holds the record. Even before the NBA came up with its policy, he was socked with a $25,000 fine for complaining about the officiating on Twitter. Cuban has 116,000 followers. $25,000 is a drop in the bucket for the outspoken Cuban. He’s been fined more than a million dollars for his various critiques. It’s just that he’s found a new medium in which to get in trouble.

In the NFL

The NFL has a policy similar to the NBA’s. A player is in violation of league rules if he uses a social media platform within 90 minutes of kickoff or the standard postgame media time. But in the strict world of the NFL, you can get in trouble at any time. Antonio Cromartie is a cornerback for the San Diego Chargers. He didn’t care for the food at training camp, so he tweeted about it. He suggested that the “nasty food” that the Chargers serve up may help explain why the team hasn’t made it to the Super Bowl. His over 21,000 followers might have been amused. The Chargers weren’t. They fined him $2,500.

But that was nothing compared with the Kansas City Chiefs’ running back Larry Johnson. His tweets helped get him fired. After a game, he tweeted to his 2,000 followers, ripping his coach. He later used a gay slur. First the Chiefs suspended him, then they cut him. He landed in Cincinnati.

On Campus

Even before they get to the pros, players have to be careful. Just about every college athlete has a Facebook Page and schools are concerned about image. Athletes who hope to make it to the pros are not only accountable for what they post, but what others post on their walls. Pictures can be particularly damaging. Just ask Michael Phelps.

Schools like the University of Arizona demand that athletes make their profiles private on Facebook, MySpace and other social media platforms. At least two colleges, Kent State and Loyola of Chicago, took it one step further, banning all athletes from using Facebook, period.

The Good Old Days

How things have changed. When Babe Ruth and the Yankees traveled by train, the newspaper writers knew the score. Babe wasn’t exactly a saint. But the writers protected his image. Nowadays, every public and private move is exposed on the Internet.

The old ways of thinking “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” or “just as long as they spell my name right,” no longer apply. And you can thank social media for that. I think the Babe would have embraced Twitter. I’m sure @bambino would have even surpassed Ashton Kutcher’s 4 million followers. The good news here is that athletes can now affect their own image. They no longer have to rely on team publicity or old media like newspapers and television. They just have to be smart about it.

More sports resources from Mashable:

- 5 Predictions for Athletes on Social Media in 2010
- Sports and Social Media: Where Opportunity and Fear Collide
- 5 Most Memorable Sports Tweets of 2009
- 5 Best YouTube Sports Moments of 2009
- 15 Resources for Finding Jobs in Sports

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, iStockphoto

Tags: athletes, facebook, NBA, nfl, social media, sports, twitter

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NBA Player Fined $7,500 for a Tweet

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:40:23 +0000

Brandon Jennings [@YUNGBUCK3] has made headlines for his unconventional road to the NBA — after skipping college he played professional basketball in Europe before getting drafted by the Bucks in 2009 — but now he’s making headlines for his tweets.

Last weekend Jennings tweeted 15 minutes after the Bucks game against the Trailblazers ended. That’s a big no-no in the NBA, as the league’s social media policy spells out that players aren’t allowed to tweet post-game until the team has finished talking to the media. The cost for Jennings’ Twitter hiccup? A hefty $7,500.

The tweet in question is rather benign. It reads, “Back to 500. Yess!!! “500″ means where doing good. Way to Play Hard Guys.”

But that’s clearly not the point. Jennings broke an established rule, and the NBA needs to follow through with the fine in order to set a precedent and make a statement to other players who are all-a-Twitter.

Of course Jennings was none-to-happy about the amount of the fine, and he turned to Twitter to voice his malcontent about the price of his preemptive tweet. “I understand I got fined, but 7500? For being happy over a win, you would of thought I said something bad. I mean it was a big win for us.”

He later apologized for the behavior, said it wouldn’t happen again, and even talked about deleting his Twitter account. Given that he deleted his original account after a YouTube incident earlier in the year, and then took to his Facebook Page to share with his fans that he had a new account, we have a feeling that Jennings will stick around on Twitter for awhile longer.

Now that we’ve seen a plethora of athletes penalized for their poor Twitter behavior — Antonio Cromartie, Larry Johnson, and members of the Texas Tech football team — these occurrences are starting to become commonplace. So who will be the next athlete to say too much on Twitter? Who knows, but we do expect some Twitter sparks to fly this weekend when the Chargers and the Bengals (Ochocinco’s team) face each other on the field in San Diego.

[via SI.com]

[Img credit: Bekah stargazing, Flickr]

Tags: brandon jennings, NBA, sports

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This Is the Guy Behind Reddit’s Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:27:05 +0000

Webmonkey got the chance to sit down with Dan McComas (aka kickme444), creator of the amazing Reddit Secret Santa program, for an exclusive interview. Since launching redditgifts.com a month ago on November 16, around 5,000 participants from the Reddit community have taken part in what is believed to be the largest Secret Santa program ever.

We spoke with Dan, who by day is a systems architect from Alameda, California (and a camera shy one at that, hence the portrait), and got some details about how the project came to be, how he built and launched the website in such a short amount of time, and whether he’s going to do it again next year.

The Story:

Dan thought up the idea on November 10. He posted on Ask Reddit wondering aloud if anyone would want to participate in an anonymous gift exchange.

Ideas began flooding in, so Dan created a Secret Santa subreddit and encouraged other users to subscribe to it. Within a couple of hours, over 1,000 users had subscribed.

The community quickly flushed out a set of rules — you had to have signed up as a Reddit user before November 10, for one, and they set a $15 cap on gifts.

Dan realized something this big couldn’t be administered by hand, so he created a quick site in Django and parked it at RedditGifts.com. At first, all it did was provide information and the rules and take sign-ups through a form.

The site launched on November 16th, less than a week after the idea was proposed.

The back-end was fully automated, so all Dan and his wife had to do was provide customer service via e-mail. In total, they sent out over 30,000 e-mails — an aggregate of different bulk e-mails to different subsets of users who each had different issues or needs. But still, lots of e-mails.

Around 5,000 people signed up to exchange gifts. By the night of Tuesday, December 15th, all but 300-500 had followed through. That’s a success rate of around 90 percent.

Reddit users spent over $114,500 on gifts. Yes, many people broke the $15 rule. The real gift was to FedEx and UPS — over $47,000 was spent on shipping. View the full stats here.

Reddit users were matched up with strangers, so they had to casually stalk one another on Reddit to learn as much as they could about their recipients’ personalities.

During sign-up, people were given a blank text field for special requests. Most left it blank, but others put book titles, food allergies or other special requests.

Most gave one gift and received one gift, but some people gave two or three gifts.

Participants were encouraged to document the gifts they received, and you can see the various unboxing shots on a Gift Gallery. In true Reddit fashion, you can vote up the cooler gifts.

Dan was matched with a 17-year-old from San Diego (his only request was that he received something his parents wouldn’t freak out about) and an avid Reddit user who was a bit older. Dan walked around the shops in his home town of Alameda and put together some packages of novelties like Space Invaders ice cube trays and sci-fi memorabilia. The avid Reddit user got a rare Upvote Breakfast poster.

Dan received two gifts. He got an ancient wooden ring from Ireland from one person, and a Gameboy Advance from somebody else — either from Sweden or Finland, he’s not sure. It came with a Donkey Kong game and a European power plug, so he can’t use it without an adapter.

Will he do it next year? He’s not sure. He and his wife are exhausted from all the work. Much of the informational copy, the sign-up form, the database and the rest of site he built are all reusable, but this project pulled in more traffic than any website he’s ever created during his professional career.

Wednesday December 16th will mark one month since the site’s launch. All that in a month! Amazing.

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Study: You’ll wolf down 34GB of data today

Facebook-Web-Design — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:06:13 +0000

Researchers at UC San Diego say Americans have a voracious, and growing, appetite for information. And yes, you still watch a lot of TV.

Originally posted at The Digital Home

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Information Overload: Americans Consume 34 GB of Data Daily

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:17:38 +0000

They say the soul weighs 21 grams, and now we have a measurement of the American mind on any given day: 34 gigabytes. According to a University of California, San Diego, study highlighted by The New York Times, the average American consumes 34 GB worth of content a day, including a whopping 100,000 words of information.

The report clarifies that we don’t necessarily parse a full 100,000 words per day, but that that rather astounding figure does cross our eyes and ears each 24-hour interval via multiple channels: the Web, TV, text messaging, radio, video games and more.

The study goes on to break down which of those media tend to occupy most of our time. The big winner is still television at almost 45 percent of our daily allowance, but the computer is a not-too-distant second at about 27 percent. In all, we spend about 11.8 hours per day absorbing mass quantities of information, sometimes multitasking in front of multiple screens simultaneously.

Video games saw the biggest leap in recent years; we now spend 2.5 percent of the day on computers, consoles, and on an increasingly popular selection of social networking games like FarmVille and Pet Society. And although pundits and sociologists have been quick to decry the decline of print as a corresponding decline in literacy, the increase in time spent on the Web actually means people are “reading more than ever,” according to co-author of the study Roger Bohn.

Do the results of the study seem realistic to you? Would you classify yourself as above or below the American average in your data consumption diet?

[via Lifehacker]

[img credit: iStockphoto, enot-poloskun]

Reviews: Lifehacker, iStockphoto, pet society, video

Tags: america, data, information, internet, study, tv, video games, web

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Architect Day: Antoine Predock

Web-Design — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:51:37 +0000

His projects have impressive moves, the volume and the materials of the buildings make it seem part of the landscape with fascinating inserts. The architecture of Antoine Predock is a unique experience for its users.

Antoine Predock was born in 1936 in Lebanon, Missouri. He studied at the School of Architecture at the University of New Mexico and graduated from Columbia University. But it was in New Mexico where he cultivated his early concepts, learning to respect the cultural roots of the site, which serves as a principle for all his works.

Learn more at predock.com

“ New Mexico has formed my experience in an all-pervasive sense. I don’t think of New Mexico as a region. I think of it as a force that has entered my system, a force that is composed of many things … Lessons learned in the American Southwest apply anywhere in the world – my “regionalism” is portable.”

In addition to the natural conditions of the site, such as prevailing winds and movement of the sun that are basic to any project, Predock believes in the existing aura of the space, a transcendental power that emanates from the earth. Too philosophical? Looking at his work not so much.

Influences

During his period at Columbia University, Predock got involved with dance and body in space through the work of Jennifer Masley, Merce Cunningham, Yvonne Rainier, and then Anna Halprin.

“This influenced my work profoundly. I think of my buildings as processional events, as choreographic events; they are an accumulation of vantage points both perceptual and experiential.”

His early education was based on modernism and considers the influence of of a young Louis Kahn, very important for his career. The intensity and attention to Frank Lloyd Wright’s details were also important for him.

Projects

Some of his projects seem more to be acts of nature, as if the ground shifted for a moment and stopped again. However, other projects seem to be in constant motion, telling a story in each detail of the building. All these elements added up to a line of simple raw materials, makes a mere look at his work become an indescribable experience.

In 2006, Predock was awarded the AIA Gold Medal, joining a select group of award-winning architects. The office Antoine Predock Architect PC now has 3 studios: Taipei, California and identified as its base, New Mexico.

School of Architecture and Planning, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Trinity River Audubon Center, Dallas, Texas, USA

Highlands Pond House, Colorado, USA

Rice University South Plant, Houston, Texas, USA

San Diego Padres Ballpark, San Diego, California, USA

Cornerstone Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Mesa del Sol Town Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library, Pueblo, USA

Student Activity and Recreation Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Austin City Hall and Public Plaza, Austin, Texas, USA

Flint RiverQuarium, Albany, Georgia

Logjam House, Rio Blanco, USA

Gateway Center and Plaza, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

“Critical to the spirit in my work is the enigmatic quality of the desert. You think you’ve got it, you think you understand; then you turn
over a rock or crawl under a larger rock and you discover other worlds, other realms within.”

Venice House, Venice, California, USA

West Mesa House, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Dance Studio, San Diego, California, USA

Social Sciences and Humanities Building, Davis, California, USA

Mesa Public Library, Los Alamos, USA

Rosenthal House, Manhattan Beach, California, USA

“I personally retain a hands-on connection to my design process working with clay, ink, pastel and collage, but I feel deeply connected to
the digital realm at the same time. Computer technologies and the expansive internet only make my studio’s process richer, more complex and more complete
than ever before. I have extraordinarily talented, young colleagues who have grown up in cyberspace.”

Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, Canada

National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Chiayi County, Taiwan

National Archive of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

About the author

My name is Marcelo Seferin, I’m an architect from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the chief architect at Seferin Arquitetura, an office that works with architecture, interior design and sustainability projects. You can check our work at http://www.seferinarquitetura.com.br and you can follow me at twiiter http://www.twitter.com/mseferin.

Talented Mixed Media Illustrators Anthony Harmon and Kode Abdo Share Valuable Wisdom

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:41:00 +0000

When you work a story into your eye candy filled design or illustration something becomes possible that otherwise would not have: you get a chance to really touch the viewer.

I’ve asked two of my favourite up and coming designer/illustrators to talk to me about mixed media illustration, specifically about the importance of telling a visual story with your pieces and what makes them tick. I’ve highlighted some of their best pieces and asked them to explain the deeper meaning behind them.

This multi person interview is a new type article on Designfeedr, if you want more of this stuff you know what to do, comment and let me know!

Thanks for taking the time to do this feature article. For starters please introduce yourself to the readers.

Anthony Harmon

First, a big thanks to designfeedr for having Kode and I for this little dialog. My name is Anthony Harmon, I’m 25 and currently living in San Diego, California. I surf, snowboard, fly fish, eat a ton of chile relleno burritos, do my best to stay up on the latest discoveries with science, enjoy philosophy and discussions revolving around consciousness and claim The Big Lebowski as my all time favorite movie.

Kode Abdo

Names kode, I’m 23 from melbourne australia i run the company BossLogic. I have been a graphic designer well over 5 years now but I’m also studying Communication design and photography to expand my skill set.

Consciousness is a representation of how I imagine energies flowing in and out of the body during meditation. I incorporated the image of the Buddha for clarity of the concept. This was a really fun piece to make and has gotten a great response within the community. – Anthony Harmon

Respect is part of a 2 part series I did with the talented anthony. It depicts a powerful figure standing above the bleeding earth on the day of decent – Kode Abdo

It seems the line between design, illustration and art keeps on blurring. Blogs are calling illustrations “designs”, illustrators are referring to themselves as artists and artists are suddenly all over design sites. What is your take on this?

Anthony Harmon

I think a distinction in language is important especially from the artist/client perspective. There needs to be a mutual understanding of what the client is asking for and what he/she should expect from an artist. That being said, I think this “blurring” of terminology is stemming largely from the fact that many artists, illustrators and designers are themselves putting their hands in several creative cookie jars. The dynamic flexibility offered in today’s applications lends itself to experimentation and the crossing of creative fields. It’s a natural and necessary progression that is/will continue to produce fresh approaches to design.

Kode Abdo

I agree with Anthony on this though I also believe that clients need direction at times and as designers and creative minds we should listen and paint the picture of their image, be that design, illustration or anything in between. That way we can go from pitching to actually producing.

What did you see is the image of the man that is left alone in this world. He saw all the wars, the agony and poverty yet could not change a thing – Kode Abdo

New illustrators often focus solely on style and forget to imbue a piece with a concept or story. What advice can you give in this respect?

Kode Abdo

That’s where I found myself when I started. These days I can only do design if it means something to me or the person viewing it. Style is what divides us from other artists but I can’t do a piece anymore without incorporating it with story.

My advice is that eye candy design is great to look at but with a story behind it you’ll feel something which puts the work on a whole other level.

Anthony Harmon

I think lots of people view coming up with a concept as the expendable cherry on top while it’s actually the essential foundation for any successful piece to stand on. I’m not saying there aren’t plenty of aesthetically rich pieces without a concept, but when we “separate the men from the boys” the great designers consider every aspect of a design. The concept ties a piece together. It stitches the individual elements into one cohesive piece. It gives a sense of richness and completeness sometimes even on a subconscious level.

Getting into the habit of coming up with a concept as part of the initial design process will pay off in spades as you progress as an artist. It’s something that won’t go away and is certainly worth your effort, so do it!

Once you’ve found the inspiration for a new piece how do you proceed to flesh the concept out?

Anthony Harmon

I’ll usually start with a very rough compositional sketch. Then I spend hours upon mind numbing hours searching for good quality stock photography (the fun part!). Next I crop out the elements of each image I’m going to use (the other fun part!). I then put the piece together layer by layer like a delicious 7 layer bean dip. After that I work on blending, the lighting and end with coloring and color correction.

Kode Abdo

See, Pen and paper for the win I too always start with my best friends the sketchbook and the pen. I basically draw out what I call blueprints, kind of like how movie makers do story boards. I then get the resources I can find online and bring out my Canon 5D MKII for the ones I can’t find.

Eden came about after reading a book on the indigenous shamanistic cultures in South America. In the book it discusses the Shaman’s ability to control the elements and in particular the weather. The concept was to have someone summoning the spirit of the earth. – Anthony Harmon

Need for greed symbolizes the higher power in the world today. Money is the only thing on their minds while we await the savior that will never come. – Kode Abdo

Follow the white rabbit obviously revolves around the Alice in Wonderland story. A little cliche, but whatever. I tried to join unusual perspectives from the stock to give a disjointed surreal effect. – Anthony Harmon

What is the one piece of advice you’d like to give struggling illustrators? Struggling how?

Kode Abdo

I know they’ve have heard it a million times before but don’t give up if you love doing it. Trial and error is what makes you great in the end, even if you keep getting bad feedback on your work build off that point and challenge yourself to do better on your next project. I have done hundreds of pieces I didn’t like in the end but still learnt a lot from since trial and error is key.

Anthony Harmon

If you are struggling for ideas, can’t quite get things to look the way you want or are feeling plum out of creative juices (no pun intended) it may be time for a break. I have days where I’m so utterly upside down in what I’m doing that I drastically overwork a piece or waste hours upon hours “polishing a turd”. Sometimes the best thing to do is take a step back, take your mind off of art and go do something that makes you happy. Sometimes I drop everything and go surfing for an hour or two, come back and gasp at the monstrosity I thought was a stroke of genius hours earlier. Take a break and come back to it later.

World Domination shows the earth has reached it’s demise with evil being the victor. This version was straight out the mind of anthony – Kode Abdo

How important are trends in design and illustration? In your opinion does embracing the hot new thing as it comes along get you more exposure or can it actually work against you?

Anthony Harmon

I think trends are an inescapable part of anything creative and they have their place and value. Trends help to propel the industry forward particularly from the consumer stand point. Personally I enjoy keeping tabs on the mainstream circuit. Experimenting with popular techniques and aesthetics keeps me in touch with what I am often asked to produce from clients. I see it as another trick in my bag, but am careful to not become absorbed or lose track of personal style. Depending on how you walk the fine line, trends can either put you in the lime light or sink your battle ship. Watch yar step mateys.

Kode Abdo

Exactly. It’s a double edge sword, you can get exposure out of it or you can be labeled a trend follower. In my opinion it’s the trend setters that shine in the end.

Fast forward five years into the future: What will illustration be like and how will you have adopted to this?

Anthony Harmon

I think we are on the cusp of some serious revelations within the world of technology. I’ve been seeing more and more on the multi-touch screens that Microsoft claims will replace the need for keyboards and mice. Obviously this would open up a pandora’s box for software developers everywhere. I foresee much more hands on, interactive, animated design taking the front lines. I hope the good people at Adobe are having some serious brainstorming sessions as how to best utilize something like this.

Kode Abdo

A lot of designers are converting to 3D which is seeing more and more use. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, just that it will possibly be what design is in five years.

Thanks for the time guys. Be sure to check out the portfolios of both Kode Abdo and Anthony Harmon.

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BIG DEALS: Airlines Slash Fares for Cyber Monday

Facebook-Web-Design — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:26:44 +0000

It’s officially the holiday season, and one thing that most consumers associate with this time of year is exorbitant airfare prices.

This year, however, a few of the major airlines are using Cyber Monday to offer deeply discounted airfare prices to consumers.

United, JetBlue, and Virgin America have all just announced special one-day prices, with all of them practically giving flights away to select destinations starting at $39 each way.

If you’ve been putting off a trip to visit the in-laws or contemplating a winter vacation, now is the time to snatch up these insanely low deals and travel on a holiday-friendly budget.

United Airlines

This deal is extremely time sensitive, so we’d advise you to act fast, but United is offering Cyber Monday sale fare prices starting at $39 each way. Of course there are some limitations to these deals, and your travel dates are limited to January 5, 2010 – February 11, 2010, but there are certainly great deals to be had.

Virgin America

The trendy airline is having a huge Cyber Monday sale with a number of different flights that start at $39 each way. You can book now through December 8th, 2009, and even start traveling as soon as December 3rd, 2009, or up through May 23, 2010.

Of course, you’ll be treated to the night club-esque atmosphere, and most flights also include fun perks like WiFi and movies. The bottom line is that Virgin America has you covered whether you’re looking for cheap, last-minute holiday travel or spring getaways.

JetBlue

Never one to shy away from special fare sales, JetBlue has taken to Twitter today to start promoting their latest big flight steal: The Great Trio Sale.

For today only, you can purchase $39, $69, and $99 non-stop one way flights (though prices are good for both directions) to practically everywhere that JetBlue flies for travel between December 1 – 17, 2009. Considering that you can fly from San Diego to New York for $99 each way, this just might be the incentive you need to switch coasts for a few days.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Deejpilot.

Reviews: Twitter, iStockphoto

Tags: cyber monday, cyber monday sales, jetblue, united airlines, virgin america

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Tila Tequila Continues Her Ustream Video Meltdown [LIVE VIDEO]

Facebook-Web-Design — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:25:05 +0000

Social media is a double-edged sword. Due to its unfiltered nature, it can be a powerful promotional tool. However, it can also publicly expose our problems. Former reality TV star Tila Tequila is an unfortunate but prime example.

Some backstory: Tila Tequila is one of the most popular artists on MySpace, was the subject of an MTV reality show, and most recently filed assault charges against San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, which were subsequently dropped.

Fastforward to Wednesday, November 18th. That night, Tila had a very public meltdown on her Ustream page. She waved around a gun, played around with a knife, ranted about Shawne Merriman, and stripped naked, all live for thousands of people to say (the video was immediately taken down).

Despite claiming that she would never use her Ustream ever again, Tila is back on live video, and this time it’s even more bizzare. She is streaming as “Jane Cordovez,” which seem to be her alter ego for the evening. She is not only waving around a gun once again, but is dancing around with a sword. Yes, a sword. And that’s only half an hour into the live stream.

It’s unfortunate that she’s allowing her breakdown to be publicly streamed. While her brand has always been racy, the last few days have been simply bizzare. If she indeed has issues, we hope she gets some help.

The live, unfiltered video stream is below:

Reviews: MySpace, ustream

Tags: live video, Tila Tequila, ustream, video

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Will Qualcomm Power the Next iPhone?

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:26:42 +0000

For as long as we can remember, there have been rumblings that a Qualcomm chip would find its way into iPhones of the future. The speculation was especially high around the time that the 3GS was released. While that future date isn’t here just yet, there is an increasing likelihood that the day will come.

In statement to Bloomberg, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs confirms that there is ongoing interest to become a chip supplier for Apple’s iPhone.

The remarks were made during a television interview in Hong Kong earlier today, and continue to paint the picture of an eventual marriage between Apple and the San Diego-based cell phone chip maker.

Jacob’s words leave the door open for a deal. He says, ““We continue to discuss it, but haven’t made it yet … Hopefully, in the future, we will have the opportunity.”

For a little background on why the deal would be a huge win for Qualcomm, Bloomberg writes:

“Qualcomm seeks to join suppliers including Toshiba Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG to win chip orders for the iPhone, one of the two top-selling smart phones in the U.S. in the second-quarter, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. The San Diego-based company already sells semiconductors for handsets that use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile technology, and Google Inc.’s Android software, Jacobs said.”

The iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Curve were the best-selling smart phones in the U.S. in the second- quarter, NPD Group said in August.

While it’s still speculation, the strong statement from the CEO is definitely an interesting tidbit worth paying attention to. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if Qualcomm was able to make the deal happen in time for the next big iPhone release.

Image from San Diego Shooter on Flickr

Reviews: Android, Flickr

Tags: iphone, qualcomm

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Twilight New Moon Social Media Mania Nets 81,000 Tweets Per Day

Facebook-Web-Design — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:10:24 +0000

Earlier this morning, I went on NBC in San Diego to talk about the online hysteria surrounding Twilight Saga: New Moon. The segment is embedded below, but given that both Crimson Hexagon and Trendrr were kind enough to provide exclusive (and astonishing) data surrounding New Moon social media mania, we thought it best that we expand on a few of the interesting findings here.

By now you’re well aware that the MySpace/Ustream partnership to live broadcast the red carpet premiere to the web was a record-breaking win for both companies. Amassing 3 million viewers, and 2 million uniques is no small feat, and it happens to be a first for Ustream. It’s quite the coup; after all this was just a red carpet event.

Data from Trendrr also shows that tweets, around the time of the premiere, peaked at more than 12,000 tweets per hour. And the hysteria is just getting started. As you can tell from the graph above, New Moon related tweets are now climbing at an exponential rate, with over 81,000 tweets on Tuesday, November 17th.

For those of you already sick of online chatter, you’re not alone, but you are outnumbered (so be careful out there). Crimson Hexagon analyzed the content of more than 13,500 tweets and found that 8% of you are sick of the hype and somewhat shocked and dismayed by the attention the movie is getting.

The rest of the tweets, 92% in total, paint a very positive picture for New Moon ticket sales. 13% of tweets include twitterers who are trying to plan ahead for their New Moon events, going so far as to use the medium for coordinating viewing parties. As to be expected, the majority of tweets, 59% to be exact, are expressing excitement and counting down the days and the hours until they can catch the flick in theaters.

Clearly New Moon mania is in full force online. If you’re looking to pre-order tickets, you better act fast, as movie sites like Fandago and MovieTickets.com are reporting huge demand and sellouts.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LeggNet.

Reviews: MySpace, iStockphoto, ustream

Tags: new moon, Twilight: New Moon

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Weekly Web Design and Development Inspiration – N.16

BlogPoster — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:45:27 +0000

The single page portfolio/bio sites is becoming more and more popular, a trend started by Tim Van Damme, with Marvin Y. Thomas and Oscar Barbers sites excelling in this style, this week. Overall, it has been a strong week for great web designs, keep them coming. Oh, happy fifth birthday Firefox!
Send us a recommendation for next weeks Weekly Web Design and Development Inspiration (for our review), by clicking here: Submit News.

Five Years of Firefox

Burciaga

San Diego Italian Film Festival

Bottled Sky

Creative Spark

Medicon Media

IDRAWALLDAY

Marvin Y. Thomas

Fourfather

Oscar Barber

pips à la carte

Jack Cheng

The Art Institutes

Alex Carabi

Design View – Andy Rutledge

The Pixel Blog

You might like… previous Weekly Inspirations

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Plastic Surgery Marketing Strategies – How to Write Google Ads that Get New Patients

BlogPoster — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:19:51 +0000

If you’re using Pay-Per-Click advertising to promote your plastic surgery marketing practice online or if you’re even thinking about using PPC then you need to read this article right away.

Why?

Because you can’t just buy the first spot anymore! There’s something called a quality score that Google uses. And if Google doesn’t like your ad or website, it will punish you by lowering the rank of your ad burying it so very few prospects will see it. Now, if you don’t write your Google Ads the right way, you can be spending thousands of dollars and not get one single new patient.

Why Most Google Ads Fail to Bring In New Patients

Imagine you are seated in a room, shoulder to shoulder with your fiercest competitors.
In the middle is a prospective patient for your plastic surgery practice.

This asks, “Why should I choose YOUR PRACTICE in 15 words or less?”

What would you say?

Would you waste any of the 15 words? Would you waste 3-6 of the words on saying your name once or TWICE???? Would you waste a few words on “Board Certified” or “Free Consultation” that everyone else offers?

Well, believe it or not, the scenario above is basically your Google ad. It’s a preliminary 15-word interview of you versus all of your competition. And, most people doing pay-per-click advertising online stumble by adding words that are a complete waste. People add words that do not make people want to click and visit their website. By not writing an effective Google ad, you can kiss tens of thousands of dollars in new patients goodbye.

How to Write an Effective Google Ad That Brings In New

Each word in your Google ad must earn its spot. If there’s not a strong persuasive element to every word you select, then you are wasting space and missing out on new patients. And, this includes inserting your name and the practice’s name within the ad. In fact, this is the pay-per-click advertising mistake that is committed everyday. People are obliviously taking up precious Google ad real estate.

For example, look at these to ads under a search for “San Diego Plastic Surgeon”:

Ad #1:

Smith Cosmetic Surgery
Dr. Ray Smith offers cosmetic
procedures for body, breast & face
(URL was placed here)

(Actual ad but name was changed here)

Ad #2

Facial Plastic Surgery
“Only Face; Only Superior Results” San Diego
San Diego Plastic Surgeon (CA)
(URL was placed here)

Notice the difference between the two ads?

The Difference Between a Good Google Ad and a Poor Google Ad

The first ad forgets that the most important part of the ad is the headline. Put your name there and you might as well leave it blank.
The first ad in contrast tells the prospective patient nothing about why they should choose or even consider Smith over every other plastic surgeon out there. Everyone else “offers procedures for body, breast & face.” He’s positioned him self as just like everyone body else.
The second ad tells people we only do face. This eliminates people they don’t want– so they’re only paying for clicks from their target customers. The general public has been taught that specialists are “better.”
The second ad confirmed they are in San Diego, in two different spots. This bolds “San Diego” in the ad and it makes the ad stand out from the rest. Plus it assures someone looking for a surgeon in San Diego that in fact this is in line with what they are looking for.

The only fault that I find on the second ad is the use of “Only Superior Results.” What does that really mean to a prospective patient? Not a whole lot. Every patient is expecting superior results. Some have expectations set more towards miracles then “superior.”

On your Google ad, you want to describe what a patient is after and hit on some emotion. You want to have some psychological or emotional trigger within your ad copy that grabs prospective patients by the eyeballs and pulls them to your website.

Your Next Steps…

You can continue to do pay-per-click advertising your way and waste thousands of dollars or you can consistently beat your competitors and get new patients even in a recession. And, you can have Google think of you as a long-term business partner they can count on. They give their long-term partners preferential treatment like:

Higher position with a LOWER cost. It is possible to get a #1 spot for #3 prices or less.
Your ads will show more often.

The end result is more new patients and a lower new patient generation cost.

For more information on plastic surgery marketing that generates a flood of new patients visit www.clicksandpatients.com for our free report: “Recession Proof Strategies That Are Bringing In Scores Of New Patients For Plastic Surgeons In The Most Fiercely Competitive Plastic Surgery Market In The World – Beverly Hills.”

Paul Rakovich helps aesthetic practices get more new patients by focusing on the entire online patient generation process from website design, website usability, traffic generation and phone call conversion. This allows his clients to bring in new patients while cutting out poor and non-performing advertising that can save them thousands of dollars per month. Visit www.clicksandpatients.com to learn how with his free plastic surgery marketing report now.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Plastic Surgery Marketing Strategies – How to Write Google Ads that Get New Patients

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Stay Classy San Diego: Mashable’s Got a Blogger for That

BlogPoster — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:21:23 +0000

A popular subject at Mashable has been how mainstream media is adapting to the world of social media. Our recent feature – 4 Ways News Organizations Are Using Twitter Lists – is a great example of how much more responsive at least some outlets have become to the always evolving Web.

Now, some exciting Mashable news to announce along similar lines: Associate Editor Jennifer Van Grove has joined NBC’s San Diego affiliate as a social media correspondent for the network’s morning show. Jenn will be contributing periodically to the channel’s on-air programming, while continuing in her role at Mashable.

Here’s Jenn’s debut from this morning’s broadcast, using some of the tools we rely on at Mashable like Trendrr and Crimson Hexagon to illustrate how the social media world responded to this week’s massive T-Mobile outage, Twitter lists, and the App Store’s latest milestone:

Reviews: Mashable

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The Cost of Larry Johnson’s Gay Slur on Twitter: $213,000

BlogPoster — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:27:05 +0000

It was inevitable: a big time pro athlete has been suspended for comments made on Twitter, and the price tag is a big one.

The player is Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs and the cost of his offense is $213,000, the amount he would have earned for the game he’ll miss due to being suspended by the team.

Johnson was suspended for the gay slurs he directed at a Twitter heckler earlier in the week, a comment he apparently repeated in the Chiefs’ locker room.

We’ve seen a few similar albeit smaller incidents in the past, like when Antonio Cromartie of the San Diego Chargers was fined $2500 for tweeting about his team’s less than stellar food at training camp, and when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban used his account to criticize referees.

The lesson here is fairly clear: Twitter and other social media are going to be viewed the same any other medium, with the messages carrying the same amount of weight. While some stars are capitalizing on that, others are seemingly struggling to come to terms with it. Perhaps now that the steep price tag of poor Twitter behavior has been revealed, the lesson will be quickly learned.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tforgo

Reviews: Twitter, iStockphoto

Tags: football, nfl, sports, twitter

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Larry Johnson’s Twitter Tirade Targets Coach and Heckling Fan

BlogPoster — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:45:59 +0000

Anyone can find themselves in a world of trouble if they tweet something their employer or followers deem inappropriate. But when you throw in the high visibility of professional sports leagues like the NFL, Twitter becomes a platform for media fires that are sparked by words tweeted in the heat of a moment.

Larry Johnson [@Toonicon] of the Kansas City Chiefs is the lastest victim of his own Twitter doing. After a loss to the San Diego Chargers, the running back turned to Twitter to insult the team’s head coach, Todd Haley. The comments sparked an exchange between Johnson and Twitter user @jaredlaunius, with the latter bringing up a nightclub incident that Johnson plead guilty to, and Johnson, in turn, responding with a very clear homophobic slur.

Why Johnson felt compelled to use Twitter to unleash his frustration after the loss is anyone’s guess, but despite the Twitter account being made private, and the offending tweets deleted, we do know what was tweeted.

Here are the first few tweets from Johnson that started the heated exchange (as reported by Yahoo! Sports):

“my father got more creditentials than most of these pro coaches. … google my father!!!!!!!

My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”

Then Twitter user @jaredlaunius chimed in (his tweets are still are public) with the following:

“Interesting comments by Larry Johnson ( @toonlcon ) about “coaches.” Hey LJ, is it Haley’s fault you fall when D-Linemen blow on you?

Apologies. His Twitter alias is @toonicon whatever the hell that means. Probably something about spitting in women’s faces.”

This is where things started to get a little carried away, with Johnson’s responses escalating to the point of calling Launius a “Christopher street boy,” and his Twitter avatar a “fag pic,” as evidenced in the screenshot above from the Kansas City News Blog.

Clearly both parties were out of line, but given that Johnson has his team and the NFL to answer to, we’re pretty sure that there will be repercussions for his Twitter behavior. In fact, we think, despite his own words, that he probably will regret his tweets once he’s slapped with a fine or encouraged to issue an apology. We’ll update this post when we know more.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, space-heater.

Reviews: Twitter, iStockphoto

Tags: larry johnson, twitter

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BART Checks In on Foursquare for Mass Transit Promotion

BlogPoster — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:34:56 +0000

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) in San Francisco has just made history as the first transit agency to partner with Foursquare, the location-based application and game that we think has the potential to be as important as Twitter (they also just launched 15 new cities).

We’ve already seen local businesses take the plunge, offering up special location-based deals that Foursquare automatically serves up to users as they check-in, but now BART is getting in on the action to encourage more public transit use.

Regular BART commuters will now be able to unlock a BART-themed badge, and also become eligible for $25 in promotional tickets that will be awarded randomly to Foursquare users who check-in at stations during the months of November, December, and January.

From the official BART announcement of the deal, we also learned that this is just the beginning of the partnership. The transit agency is also looking for even more creative ways to tap into the location-based potential that Foursquare offers for promotions, and highlighting local businesses.

We think it’s genius and hope to see the idea get spread to other metropolitan areas. In fact, this biased writer, who just so happens to be the mayor of many local San Diego venues, would love to see the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System strike up a similar arrangement.

Reviews: Foursquare

Tags: BART, foursquare, public transportation, transit, transportation

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AM & PM

BlogPoster — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:54:12 +0000

“This packaging submission is for a nutrition company based out of San Diego, California called Aviara. The products are an AM morning health drink and a PM evening health drink. The designs were silk screened ink on frosted glass.”

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52 jaw-dropping photo manipulations

BlogPoster — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:41:38 +0000

No stone was left unturned as I prepared this next installment in the photo manipulation inspiration series and it paid off. I wanted the best of the best for this showcase and I dare say that’s exactly what I found.

Whether you like the new skool digital media illustrations, the more abstract designer flavoured work or the typical commercial photo manipulation we’ve got you covered today. I’ve searched high and low for new work from established and unknown photoshop artists alike and I must admit, what I found left a smile on my face. Enjoy and be inspired, if you like what you see remember a Tweet or any other type of social support means a lot to us.

Skamworks

I can tell you very little about the man that goes by the name of Skam online other than that he lives in Zagreb, Croatia, that his real name is Max and that his work is extremely inspiring. He rightfully leads the pack in this collection.

DeviantArt

Anthony Harmon

Anthony Harmon has a permanent calcified bump on his right ring finger from the amount of drawing he did at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. It was a regular occurrence for Anthony not to sleep from Sunday morning until Monday around midnight in order to complete assignments. In two years he filled ten two-hundred page sketchbooks cover to cover. For more info on Anthony check out the below linked to Psdtuts+ interview.

Angel Rivera

Angel was born on August 14th, 1994. He has many interests, but one of his favorites is art. He was introduced to photoshop around 2007 and has been hooked since. He mainly does digital art with a little bit of photography here and there.

DeviantArt

David Waters

David Waters is a student/freelancer currently studying Graphic Design with the University of Idaho. He’s looking to hook up with interesting creatives to work with and help further his art an design skills.

Dave Hill

Dave Hill is a well established commercial photographer living in Los Angeles. He was born in 1979 and grew up in San Diego. His love of photography has evolved over the years, and now seems to have branched out to the extreme sides of the spectrum.

Sullivan&Lane

Sullivan&Lane is a two man team consisting of Photographer Brandon Sullivan and Illustrator Kyle Lane. They integrate the unique aspects of each others work to form unique stylized compositions.

Homepage

Craig Sprecher

Craig Sprecher is another mystery talent, his Behance has a four liner that tells us he’s 21, lives in Portland, Oregon and that he designs… Other than that there’s not much to be found about the man, so we’ll let the images do the ~~talking~~ driving.

Behance

Kjegwan Leihitu

Kjegwan Leihitu is a 21 year old Designer hailing from the Netherlands. Kjegwan likes to think that while he might be modest in posture his design and illustration work more than makes up for it. Who are we to argue?

Koen de Muynck

There is little information online about Belgian photographer and Photoshop mastermind Koen de Muynck. Perhaps he’s too busy doing excellent commercial work to set up an about me section?

Homepage

Marco Escobedo

Peru based Marco Escobedo makes it hard for bloggers to write about him, his bio is written in something that seems to be Spanish. I couldn’t care less though since his Micheal Jackson manipulation more than makes up for any lack of info.

Homepage

Hock

Singaporean Photoshop talent Hock is another artist that shares little about himself, that is, unless you read Malay. Since I don’t and you probably don’t either I’ve hooked you up with his Behance profile below.

Behance

Elena Nikiforova

I’m starting to think there’s a conspiracy going on. Creative talents are hiding their personal details so we can’t find them when the truth comes out. Russian based Elena Nikiforova shares nothing about herself on her Behance and one page portfolio site, she leaves us with a collection of gorgeous pics instead.

Platinum

Platinum is a Brazillion studio that specializes in combining 3d, photography and anything else they can get their hands on to make eye-popping imagery.

Homepage

Jan Oliehoek

Jan Oliehoek is a photo manipulator residing in Leiden, the Netherlands. If you like the zebra frog below be sure to check out Jan’s other work, he’s got lots more clever creature manipulations.

Sergio Vichique

Twenty-eight year old Sergio Vichique is a designer based in Mexico. He’s an active member of the DigitalFlow art group and can be found socializing on Behance and DeviantArt.

Mariano Villalba

Mariano Villalba is a self-taugth photographer and digital artist born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He started to have interest in photography when he was 16 and began to experiment with digital techniques in Photoshop when I was 25.

DeviantArt

Olli Pekka Jauhianen

Olli Pekka Jauhianen is a 27 years old graphic designer and illustrator who’s currently living in Helsinki, Finland. He’s finishing his studies for the TAMK university of applied science, where he specializes in Digital Media.

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Google Squared gets more data, better filters

BlogPoster — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:26:05 +0000

Google Squared is still having trouble with accuracy, despite new enhancements released Friday.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET

Google has released a few enhancements to Google Squared, its attempt to build spreadsheets out of search results.

Google Squared is a Google Labs project first unveiled in May at its Searchology event and set loose on the world a month later. The idea is to take the search results for a given query, such as “U.S. presidents” or “European countries,” and present the results as a table with facts and dates helpfully sorted for easier research.

The company announced on Friday “a number of improvements to the amount and quality of information you can find with Google Squared, as well as new tools to sort and export the data,” it said in a blog post. For example, Google Squared can now return 120 facts organized in rows and columns, as opposed to just 30 at launch. The filters have gotten better as well, which was a definite problem with the first batch of Google Squared results.

It’s still not ready for prime time, however: according to Google Squared, the Milwaukee Brewers play home games in both Milwaukee and San Diego. It had no idea what city is home to Yankee Stadium–let alone which New York borough–and it also seemed to miss the grand opening this year of a new Yankee Stadium to replace The House That Ruth Built.

Google said Squared is an experiment in “understanding structured data from across the Web to build new tools for organizing and presenting information.” Despite plans to offload its back-end search technology, Yahoo is trying to keep its name in the game as a search company by conducting much of the same research.

Originally posted at Relevant Results

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Chicago Sells Out

BlogPoster — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:33:34 +0000

An Event Apart Chicago has sold out. If you wanted to join us in Chicago on October 12–13 for two days of design, code, and content, we’re sorry to announce that the show has completely sold out. There’s not a spare seat to be had.

That means, if you don’t already have a ticket, you won’t be able to watch Jason Santa Maria, Kristina Halvorson, Dan Brown, Whitney Hess, Andy Clarke, Aaron Gustafson, Simon Willison, Luke Wroblewski, Dan Rubin, Dan Cederholm, and your hosts Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman share the latest ideas in design, development, usability, and content strategy.

We’re sorry about that.

But, hey. If you can’t be with us in Chicago next week, please join us in San Francisco later this year. Or come see us in 2010 at any of these fine cities:

Seattle (April 5–7, 2010)
Boston (May 24–25, 2010)
Minneapolis (August 2–3, 2010)
Washington DC (Sept. 16–17, 2010)
San Diego (Nov. 1–2, 2010)

Tickets for all our 2010 shows go on sale November 2nd, 2009, and are first-come, first served.

To keep up with the latest AEA doings, become a fan on Facebook, join our Ning social network, or subscribe to our mailing list.

Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=2651

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CONFIRMED: AT&T Announces VoIP Over 3G for iPhone

BlogPoster — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:40:02 +0000

UPDATE (1:48PT): AT&T confirms that its network is ready for VoIP. In a statement, they write, “AT&T* today announced it has taken the steps necessary so that Apple can enable VoIP applications on iPhone to run on AT&T’s wireless network. Previously, VoIP applications on iPhone were enabled for Wi-Fi connectivity.” The ball, it would seem, is now officially in Apple’s court.

Tomorrow marks the start of CTIA, a wireless conference in San Diego. In attendance will be key AT&T executives, two of which are slated to give keynote speeches. So, what will they announce?

Rumor has it that AT&T may use the event to reveal that their 3G network will now support Google Voice and Skype for all AT&T phones, including Apple’s iPhone.

A source tells the Washington Post that while deliberations are still in progress and no final decision has been made, executives have been contemplating “the decision for weeks and … have said they were close to accepting voice over Internet services on all AT&T phones, including the iPhone.”

While we already know that AT&T blames Apple for the original rejection of Google Voice, should AT&T announce support for VoIP applications on their wireless network, it will be a landmark moment.

The rumor implies that AT&T and Apple would finally allow Google Voice as a native application in Apple’s iTunes App Store, a decision that could be the result of heat both companies received surrounding a recent FCC investigation of the matter. It also means that VoIP applications, like Skype, which already works on the iPhone via WiFi, would actually be able to be used on-the-go, via AT&T’s 3G network.

While we await official word from AT&T, tell us what you think of the potential Google Voice for iPhone announcement in the comments.

UPDATE (1:48ET): AT&T confirms that its network is ready for VoIP. In a statement, they write, “AT&T* today announced it has taken the steps necessary so that Apple can enable VoIP applications on iPhone to run on AT&T’s wireless network. Previously, VoIP applications on iPhone were enabled for Wi-Fi connectivity.” The ball, it would seem, is now officially in Apple’s court.

Reviews: Google Voice, Skype

Tags: apple, att, CTIA, Google Voice

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Google Gives Local Businesses New Way to Advertise

BlogPoster — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:12:45 +0000

Google has introduced a new type of ad for local businesses called Local Listing Ads. They are designed to display when users search for a business in its local area. Google says it’s the easiest way to advertise your business to local customers on Google, because they require no maintenance.

The ads just consist of a business name, contact information (with a unique phone number from Google for tracking purposes), and a link. The units will appear on Google.com in local results at the top of the results page, and in Google Maps.

"Unlike Google AdWords, Local Listing Ads require no management of ad creative, keywords, bidding or budget management," the company says. "After you select a standard category that best describes your business, Google determines the cost that ensures the ad is seen by the highest number of people looking for businesses like yours in your location."

Google says local listing ads provide advertisers with:

- Ads shown on Google.com and Google Maps

- A flat monthly fee based on your location and business category

- First 30 days free

- No bid or keyword management

- Free call-tracking, announcing each forwarded customer call (‘This caller brought to you by Google’)

- Full report on the number of calls, clicks to your ad, requests for driving directions, and clicks to your info window on Google Maps

- The option to cancel your ad at any time

Following is how your ads would look on Google.com and on Google Maps:

According to Google, over 80% of people look to Google for local information, and this is a way to make you listing stand out. The ads are targeted only to people who are near your business.

As an added bonus, so you know when the ad has been effective, Google says you’ll hear "this call brought to you by Google" with every call made from your ad.

Payment for Local Listing Ads is a flat monthly fee, which varies by location and business category. Advertisers pay the same each month no matter how many times people click or view your ad. Google says advertisers will be given the chance to confirm the monthly flat fee that is unlikely to change frequently or be notified of the change 30 days in advance via email and your LBC account message.

Local Listing Ads are only being tested right now. For the time being, they’re available in San Francisco and San Diego. It’s hard to say when they will become available for all.

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Football Tweets: 20 Must-Follow NFL Players on Twitter

BlogPoster — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:07:39 +0000

Gail Sideman is a publicist that specializes in generating exposure for sports and authors. She is @PUBLISIDE on Twitter and can be found on Facebook.

Players in the NFL, if not the league, have embraced Twitter moreso than athletes in any other sport. There are over 150 NFL players on Twitter, and most of those players have remained fairly active. Recommending just twenty, must-follow gridiron stars from that talented and tweet-happy pool of NFL players was certainly no easy task.

Most of these guys eat, breath and sleep football, whether it’s about their own club, or the university for which they played before advancing to the professional ranks. A select few have passionate interests outside of football which likely bodes well for them when they decide to hang up the cleats. Players that earned a spot on the my own NFL Twitter roster were not only active (they post most every day, or at least every couple of days), but also engage with fans/followers, provide information and insight into their lives on and off the football field, and for the most part, keep their tweets relatively clean.

So, without further ado, here are the NFL players I consider the best on Twitter and why (in alphabetical order):

Nick Barnett

Position: LB

Team: Green Bay Packers

Who: One of Twitter’s most popular NFL players with more than 30,000 followers, Barnett often tweets about his activities in and out of Lambeau Field and talks directly with his followers. He told a follower on September 24, “I think it’s so cool to be able to interact with the fans..”

Drew Brees

Position: QB

Team: New Orleans Saints

Who: Though early, Drew Brees is in the midst of great season: his team is off to a perfect start, he’s tied for the league lead in touchdown passes with nine, and he is one of only two quarterbacks with a QB Rating over 105. Even so, Brees finds time to regularly update his Twitter stream for his more than 24,000 followers about life both on and off the field, and the charitable causes in which he is involved.

Reggie Bush

Position: RB

Team: New Orleans Saints

Who: Bush is one of the most popular players in the NFL and one of the most popular Twitter users, period, with over 400,000 followers. He is very active, converses with followers, talks about football, and often tweets inspirational or religious messages.

Chase Daniel

Position: QB

Team: New Orleans Saints

Who: He might be backup to the backup, but you can really feel the thrill of being a rookie through his tweets, such as this one on being activated on September 26: “Just found out I’m traveling and activated for tomorrow’s game! See you in Buffalo Saints fans!” He also has more than 10,000 followers. Not bad for a NFL newbie.

Darnell Dockett

Position: DE

Team: Arizona Cardinals

Who: In reading his posts, you know he values his fans/followers and thanks them often. He responds to tweets and offers fun fan insight when writing his own thoughts. His anger and frustration has come through, too, at times.

Lee Evans

Position: WR

Team: Buffalo Bills

Who: Evans interacts with his followers, posts links to photos and video on his Facebook and personal web pages, and talks about what it’s like to be in the NFL playing against your friends.

Jay Feely

Position: K

Team: New York Jets

Who: Yes, there are a few kickers on Twitter! Feely has a descriptive profile that shows all of his interests; he shares game thoughts, retweets (more sharing), posts about general football news and guides followers to his media interviews in print and electronic outlets.

Larry Fitzgerald

Position: WR

Team: Arizona Cardinals

Who: One of the most active and popular NFL players both on the field and virtually, Fitzgerald is very conversational, with much of his Twitter stream taken up by @replies to his fans and followers.

Ryan Grant

Position: RB

Team: Green Bay Packers

Who: Ryan Grant is a super active and engaging Twitter user who gives his followers and inside look into the day-to-day life of NFL players. Grant has a sense of humor and it shows in his tweets, which are often amusing.

Matt Hasselbeck

Position: QB

Team: Seattle Seahawks

Who: Though he’s recently caught grief from fans for his long Twitter name (@MatthewHass008), the popular quarterback uses Twitter to engage fans (even doing things like helping fans track down where to buy team merchandise), and often shares links, pictures, and retweets things he links.

Maurice Jones-Drew

Position: RB

Team: Jacksonville Jaguars

Who: The popular Jaguars running back has a fun profile that reads: “nothing is given to you in life. You have to take what you want and im not talking about stealing…..” Jones-Drew uses Twitter to respond to media criticism, but also uses it to explore the challenges faced by an NFL player.

Shawne Merriman

Position: LB

Team: San Diego

Who: With over 70,000 engaged followers, super popular Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman is an engaging Twitter user who often responds to followers, talks about life on and off the field, and has even participated in some tweeted trash talking with other NFL players (or one in particular — the next player on this list)

Chad Ochocinco

Position: WR

Team: Cincinnati Bengals

Who: Perhaps the most entertaining player in the NFL, the talented Chad Ochocinco (formerly Chad Johnson) is also one of the most followed with over 200,000 followers. He responds to his fans, whether they compliment or criticize him, gives away prizes to followers, routinely angers the league with his behavior, lobbies fans for roster spots on their fantasy football teams, and trash talks with other players. Ochocinco loves Twitter more than the average person.

Terrell Owens

Position: WR

Team: Buffalo Bills

Who: One of the most well-known athletes in any sport, T.O. has more than 200,000 followers on Twitter and he really does interact with them. As one might suspect, he’s not shy about sharing his opinions, either. Owens shares insights into what being a football player and celebrity is like.

Antonio Pierce

Position: LB

Team: New York Giants

Who: Pierce posts fun information about his life as a professional football player with the Giants, leads followers to his interviews, and kindly answers lots of tweets. He also likes to use Twitter as a way to pump up fans prior to game time.

Sidney Rice

Position: WR

Team: Minnesota Vikings

Who: Rice’s tweets are about life on the road and often include Twitpics of the places he travels with the team. He talks with his followers, blogs, gives insight into the life of a pro athlete, and clearly bleeds Vikings purple.

Tutan Reyes

Position: G

Team: New York Giants

Who: The Giants’ guard is a super Twitter user and clearly a fun guy. He tweets mostly about his life off the field, talking about the clubs and restaurants he goes to, the music he listens to, funny links, and other things he does for fun, as well as interacting with followers. He’s also clearly a big sports fan, and tweets about fellow athletes (such as about tennis during the US Open).

Craig Terrill

Position: DT

Team: Seattle Seahawks

Who: Terrill’s tweets are genuine, such as his excitement about his daughter’s first steps on September 22. Does a great job promoting his music career, converses often with followers, and gives his fans an inside look into the locker room by commenting on observations about his teammates.

Stephen Tulloch

Position: LB

Team: Tennessee Titans

Who: The Titans’ dreadful 0-4 start could be the reason more people don’t follow Tulloch (he has just more than 1,700 followers), but he is one of the most thoughtful and thankful NFL Twitter users, and provides insight into the game as well as his experiences playing professional football.

Vince Wilfork

Position: DT

Team: New England Patriots

Who: Wilfork’s profile bio describes how he wants to be known: “husband, friend, father… greatest things in life.” One of the things he does most often on Twitter is promote the Vince Wilfork Foundation, a very worthwhile organization that funds the search for a cure for diabetes.

BONUS: Preist Holmes

Position: RB

Team: Kansas City Chiefs

Who: The former Pro-Bowl running back for the Kansas City Chief, Priest Holmes walked away from football in 2007 following a neck injury in order to pursue his new passion, promoting the Priest Holmes Foundation, an organization that focuses on education and enriching children’s lives. Holmes interacts with followers regularly, and still talks football. Though retired, Holmes is definitely a must-follow for football fans.

I’m sure you have your own preferences of which NFL players you like to follow and commiserate with on Twitter. Feel free to add to this list and tell us why you like that player’s Twitter presence by leaving your thoughts in the comments.

More Twitter follow lists from Mashable:

- Musicians on Twitter: 100+ Artists That Tweet
- Tasty Tweets: 55+ Foodies to Follow on Twitter
- Green Tweets: 75+ Environmentalists to Follow on Twitter
- 15 Must-Follow Comedic Film Actors on Twitter
- 20 Developers to Follow on Twitter

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, skodonnell

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, iStockphoto

Tags: follow, football, List, Lists, must follow, nfl, twitter, Twitter Lists

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Status Plug: Should Facebook Page Admins Sell Their Status Updates?

BlogPoster — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:40:57 +0000

Regardless of our personal feelings, it’s clear there are a growing number of social ad networks, like Magpie and adCause, that capitalize on status updates. We now know that advertisers will pay and some users will gladly accept cash to Tweet about their products.

We don’t think these ads are wise without disclosure that they’re ads, since your followers might see them as a personal endorsement, breaking down the trust relationship. (Some followers might also find them annoying and stop following, but that’s another issue.)

Status Plug, an ad network just for Facebook pages, is one of the newest entrants in the space and hopes to appeal to page admins looking to cash in on their social capital, and advertisers who want to reach page fans and their friends.

Both advertisers and page admins — you must have 10,000 fans or more — can sign up with Status Plug. Interested admins share a bit about their page, audience, and minimum ad buy rates. They’re then listed in a page directory, where advertisers can browse, opt to bid on prospective buys, and create their ad.

Advertisers control the content of the ads which can include text, video, audio, and images. They can also specify the publish date and any additional special instructions. Should the page admin accept the offer, their page will post a rich-media update with said content. Status Plug will pay 70% of the agreed upon amount via PayPal (they keep the rest) within 5 days of the ad being published. You can see demo ads on the Status Plug page.

In true Facebook fashion, Status Plug ads are published as status updates and Facebook users can engage with them — share, comment, like — just like normal status updates. Since advertisers control the content, the boundaries between actual update and sponsored update could easily be blurred. In fact, we see no requirement to disclose that the update is an ad, which puts this on shaky ethical ground: would you trust a page admin who puts ads in his feed without disclosure?

Status Plug is currently not available to regular Facebook users; you must have a public page with more than 10,000 fans. Those same admins, however, can completely sell out and turn over page administration to the right buyer for the right price.

Right now the directory of hopeful page admins consists of region-specific pages. Denver, Tucson, Oregon, St. Louis, and even my hometown, San Diego, have put their updates for sale. Since most of these are pages for users by users with a shared interest, one could take the stance that the admins shouldn’t sell ads to communities that have previously existed ad-content free (outside of Facebook’s more obvious ads). But there’s always two sides to a story, so we’ll let you weigh in on this hot topic.

Should Facebook Page Admins sell their status updates?(answers)

Reviews: Facebook

Tags: ad network, ads, facebook, facebook pages, status updates

Studio Spotlight: Visual Asylum

BlogPoster — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Some great recent and past work from San Diego based design studio, Visual Asylum. Visual Asylum is a firm with an array of design expertise ranging from print, environmental, branding and of course packing.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Fires Back at Newspapers

BlogPoster — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:48:27 +0000

The Associated Press (AP) announced this week that it’s working on a system to "protect" its content from being "misappropriated" online. WebProNews CEO Rich Ord posted a thought-provoking piece on the subject giving some background into the situation.

Yesterday, the Newspaper Association of America’s annual meeting was held in San Diego, and the AP was there along with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, whose search engine giant has largely been the focal point of discussions regarding the AP’s announcement. Here are some of the things Schmidt had to say:

He told newspaper publishers, "I would encourage everybody: think in terms of what your reader wants. These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you piss off enough of them, you will not have any more." (via Guardian)

He also discussed a lack of innovation on the part of the newspaper industry. For example, he talked about improvements for taking better advantage of mobile.

"It’s obvious to me that the majority of the circulation of a newspaper should be online, rather than printed. There should be five times, 10 times more circulation because there’s no distribution cost," said Schmidt.

Schmidt’s comments bring to mind a recent study from Gartner looking at how newspapers need to be using social media more effectively. "In the wake of the economic challenges facing the U.S. newspaper industry, publishers are losing focus on the crucial imperative of how to capitalize on those consumers who remain loyal, engaged online and print readers," Gartner research vice president Allen Weiner recently noted.

On the subject of tweaking Google’s algorithm to lean towards "credible brands," Schmidt reminded people, "We actually do that in the case of Google News. Google News uses a relatively fixed set of sources which are selected based on exactly the kind of trust that you’re describing." (via paidContent.org)

He also made the following comments regarding Google’s Web Search:

"We’ve been careful not to bias it using our own judgment of trust because we’re never sure if we get it right. So we use complicated ranking signals, as they’re called, to determine rank and relevance. And we change them periodically, which drives everybody crazy, as or algorithms get better. … The usual problem is you’ve got somebody who really is very trustworthy, but they’re not as well-known and they compete against people who are better known, and they don’t—in their view—get high enough ranking. We have not come up with a way to algorithmically handle that in a coherent way."

…

"We don’t want to do the kind of thing you’re describing unless we can do it across the board and for all categories of trusted institutions, not just newspapers."

Google also posted an official blog post about how Google helps the newspaper industry. Meanwhile, other newspaper industry executives refer to Google as a parasite.

Veoh Adds Contextual Video to Twitter Search

BlogPoster — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:07:40 +0000

Even though Veoh’s Video Compass browser plug-in is just six weeks old, it’s quickly reaching maturity. If you’re not familiar with the tool, it’s simply an add-on that lives in your browser.

When turned on via the blue play button, you can search your favorite sites as usual and Veoh will automatically display an inline window of videos either related to your query, or based on the viewing behavior or other online video users.

Already fully functional on search engines like Google and Yahoo, online shopping sites like Amazon, eBay and Craigslist, and even information hubs like Wikipedia and IMDB, Video Compass now supports both Twitter and MySpace to round out the social side of the video recommendation experience.

Videos can be watched without leaving the page you’re on, and since videos include content from CBS, Viacom, and the WB (they’re Veoh partners and they share in advertising revenue), you’re more likely to find something interesting or better suited to your search than searching on the site alone.

Where we see today’s news being particularly useful is when you’re searching Twitter for past or present trending topics. With the plug-in enabled, videos based on your search terms can be viewed, ignored, or quickly flipped through, and just might provide added context to those tweets flying by.

With search being an important fabric of the Web, and Veoh’s browser add-on adding a layer of contextual video results to standard search behavior, this could be key to keeping the heavily funded San Diego startup competitive. Plus, according to Veoh’s founder and CEO, Dmitry Shapiro, they’re getting about 25,000 new Video Compass users each day, so it’s already looking like a winner for the company.

Reviews: Craigslist, Google, MySpace, Twitter, Wikipedia

Programming Blog » San Diego

Twilight at Comic Con Has Fans Camping Out All Week

Twilight at Comic Con Has Fans Camping Out All Week

Yipit – All the Best Daily Deals, Coupons & Discounts

Yapsie.com – The Best Places To Take Your Pet To

Trailer Tron Legacy

Previously on Fubiz

Why Qualcomm’s Lauer Joined Little-Known Memjet

Free Music Monday: 10 Downloads For Your Listening Pleasure

Free Music Monday Back Catalogue

Foursquare Changes the Game … Literally

The City Shake Up

Badges of Honor

Who’s on Top?

Coming Soon

Qualcomm Chip to Power Verizon iPhone [RUMOR]

When Social Media Gets Athletes in Trouble

In the NBA

In the NFL

On Campus

The Good Old Days

More sports resources from Mashable:

NBA Player Fined $7,500 for a Tweet

This Is the Guy Behind Reddit’s Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Study: You’ll wolf down 34GB of data today

Information Overload: Americans Consume 34 GB of Data Daily

Architect Day: Antoine Predock

His projects have impressive moves, the volume and the materials of the buildings make it seem part of the landscape with fascinating inserts. The architecture of Antoine Predock is a unique experience for its users.

Influences

Projects

School of Architecture and Planning, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Trinity River Audubon Center, Dallas, Texas, USA

Highlands Pond House, Colorado, USA

Rice University South Plant, Houston, Texas, USA

San Diego Padres Ballpark, San Diego, California, USA

Cornerstone Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Mesa del Sol Town Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library, Pueblo, USA

Student Activity and Recreation Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Austin City Hall and Public Plaza, Austin, Texas, USA

Flint RiverQuarium, Albany, Georgia

Logjam House, Rio Blanco, USA

Gateway Center and Plaza, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Venice House, Venice, California, USA

West Mesa House, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Dance Studio, San Diego, California, USA

Social Sciences and Humanities Building, Davis, California, USA

Mesa Public Library, Los Alamos, USA

Rosenthal House, Manhattan Beach, California, USA

Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, Canada

National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Chiayi County, Taiwan

National Archive of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

About the author

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