So what would you do if your brand showed up in an awkward situation? Like this maybe?

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Vitamin d’s virtual security guard will even email you an alert when someone opens the door to your server room and walks in, but it’s smart enough to ignore anyone just walking past the door or opening the closet next to it.

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OTTAWA – Summer in 30,000 Frames from NiWoTa Studios on Vimeo.

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• Love Me Tenderloin
• The Princess Dairies
• Saved By The Cow Bell
• Monster Bull
• Blazing Cattles
• The T-Bone Collector
• To Sirloin, with Love
• Blue Velveeta
• I’ve Herd the Mermaids Milking
• The Farty
• La cows aux folles
• Eraserherd
• This Is Shit!
• Guernsey Girl
• Get Shorthorn

What a fantastic way to write a book. Whoever can collect the top 1000 humorous ideas and publish it.

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Here’s the scoop:
Drinking Bud?

Budweiser drinkers are 42% more likely to drive a truck than the average person, 68% more likely to choose a credit card with flexible payment terms and 42% more likely to use breath-freshening strips every day.
Yikes. Apparently they’re really keen on unions too.

Bud Light?

Bud Light drinkers profile as lacking in carefulness. Bud Lighters can also have frat boy-like personalities, particularly when it comes to personal risk-taking. Bud Light drinkers are also 48% more likely than the average person to play the lottery every day and 34% more likely to never buy organic products.

Corona?

“Where’s the party?” is probably an oft-asked question by Corona and Corona Light drinkers. Corona drinkers are 91% more likely than average to buy recycled products and 38% more likely to own three or more flat-screen TVs.

Heineken?

There’s a slang term that could sum up Heineken drinkers: posers. These self-assured people believe they are exceptional, get low scores on modesty and high scores on self-esteem. People who choose Heineken as their favorite beer are 58% more likely to have American Express cards, 45% more likely to be early adopters of new mobile phones, and 29% more likely to drive sports cars.

Abstainers?

They are socially conservative and see many issues as black and white. Teetotalers honor tradition and authority and prefer a less-hectic social life. People who turn down beer are 50% more likely to call themselves Republican, and are 30% more likely to never buy organic products.

Ah… but so many beers missing. Guinness. Cinquante. Stella.

Does you beer of choice really reflect your personality attributes, and consumer behaviors????

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The only thing I liked about punch clocks was Elvis Costello’s 1983 Punch the Clock. But that’s different.

After a couple decades of high-tech culture and startup zest, the very idea of punch clocks seemed rather grotesque.

I was wrong.

You and your team are dedicating so much time and effort to product and business development, that you’re not bothering tracking those hours. This early work is important to track – in terms of contribution, but more important to possible R&D tax credits. In Canada we have SRED, the US has R&D tax incentives… etc.

So how do you track? SaaS comes to the rescue. Timesheet vendors offer hosted solutions. One of the top companies is Dovico which offers packages for about $10 per user / per month. There are dozens more.

Why should your startup implement this early on? To capture the incredible effort it takes to start a company and build software. Don’t sell yourself short!

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The Pixel Awards – Erick & Lisa Laubach’s pet project since 2006 celebrate the leading edge of web design. One nomination this year features Taser International’s new X3 stun gun. Sure, the flash animation is well crafted – but the depiction is chilling. Judge for yourself.

The latest Taser can “zap” multiple people it seems, it can also shoot an electrified dart into the chest of a suspect. Considering how misused these devices have been used, this is **chilling**. Here in Canada, we’re still dealing with the death of Robert Dziekanski…

As for Taser’s new Industrial Design – it looks like a penguin! That’s right. Who’s afraid of a penguin??

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According to MyCentralJersey.com, back in 2002, Anthony Armatys accepted a job at telecom firm Avaya, but soon changed his mind before even starting. Meanwhile, Avaya’s brilliant HR software decided he should remain on the payroll. 7 years later and $470,995.53 in direct deposits for a job he never took, Armatys was sentenced to 6 years in jail for the theft on Monday.

Since Avaya makes lots of VoIP stuff (phone lines that don’t really exist) is it really fair that they’re upset about an employee that doesn’t really exist?? Of course not! In fact, if Avaya hired more ghost employees, perhaps they’d get better results in those Best Employers surveys!

Also, what’s up with that crappy HR software?? Here’s an opportunity to sell Avaya some slick SaaS employee verification software. That, or some handy ghost detectors!!

Happy Halloween!

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Like so many Nortel products, the Millenium was THE best product in its class, but…  the payphone business was going to rapidly decline to near-zero!  Last in a line.  Doesn’t matter if you’re the best.

It’s sort of like designing the absolutely most awesome HDVD player. Doesn’t matter.

Netscape 9.  Doesn’t matter.

The most incredible Second Life destination.  Doesn’t matter.

The absolutely insane Windows Mobile 7 OS.  Doesn’t matter.

Meanwhile, back in New York, infamous PosterChild is repurposing some useless public tech installations.   This says it all.  Nature does reclaim.

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if you aren’t embarrassed by what you launch with, you waited too long to launch.

Reid Hoffman is of course the founder of LinkedIn. Launched in the spring of 2003, it reached profitability in March of 2006. This is what the original site looked like June 4th, 2003. Oddly, those people on the right look like they’re about to be abducted by aliens!

By sheer serendipity, another goofy networking site launched the same month. Here’s the launch page of The Facebook – you can’t miss that this is a “Mark Zuckerberg Production ~ now available for popular consumption at Harvard University”. He probably underestimated “popular consumption”!

A web-generation before Hoffman and Zuckerberg, the goo-goo dolls launched an experiment… Note the cluttered home page, and Yahoo! wannabe punctuation.

If these three startups were presenting at a BarCamp near you, what would be your advice?

UPDATE:
Ottawa-based Luc Levesque’s TravelPod already looked pretty awesome in 2003

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Take me now I’m ready!

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There’s also some question whether this is even a real Symantec ad – or a rogue fake ad (as discussed by Copyranter.)

Fake Ads seem to be a trend that advertisers aren’t fighting too hard. They can’t lose. Risky ads make them look cool. For those offended, they deny making them.

Last year we featured this brilliant JC Penney fake-video titled “Speed Dressing”

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At a local DemoCamp last Monday, a presenter got rudely questioned on her “crappy UI”. In fact the UI was well designed from a functional perspective. It wasn’t all “Vista-glossy” or anything. Since the commenter believed he was a UI expert, he assumed that the lack of superficial gloss would make the app unappealing to users. Not so.

The most usable web UIs are the most simple.

When usability is not actually a requirement, weird web UIs can be a lot of fun! Consider the Wonder Wall. (warning: doesn’t work on some browsers) – this is awesome visual navigation coupled with a “trickle drop water” sound effect.

Every discipline has a conceptual side and a practical side. UI is no different. As enjoyable as the Wonder Wall is, it would get a bit tiresome for say, Google results.

Everything has its place!

BTW – it’s ok if you want to trash other people’s UIs – just make sure you’ve actually used it first, and be prepared to offer a fix!

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Instead of focusing on the movie itself, it’s asking people to DEMAND that it plays in a moviePlex near them. So far, 1 million people have “demanded” the movie… clever trick. But like all tricks, this will backfire fast if the movie is a dud.

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30 years ago today, Rapper’s Delight hit the airwaves! The first “rap” song to hit chart success and engineered by Sugar Hill Records.

While sampling Chic’s disco hit, and interposing urban repartee… the hit changed music and the creative process… So dance!

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In my version, there would also be Three Wise Leprechauns!

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BTW – my son found this – sorry no source, but this LOLcats rebellion is too good not to share.

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His The South Butt brand and logo obviously mock The North Face brand. Beyond mockery though, he’s actually selling product. For $60. you get a SouthButt fleece jacket! To their credit, North Face is treading lightly on this one – needing to legally protect its brand, yet not hammering down on a college kid.

If you owned the brand, what would you do?

BTW – I’m a big fan of North Face. I think South Butt is a nice complement! I’d wear both!

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By chef Bill McDaniel at Red Cat in New York City.

12 strips quality thick-cut bacon
Canola oil
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups club soda
Salt

1. Seperate strips of bacon, then lay half the slices in a large skillet in a single layer. Cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, until lightly browned but still pliable, about 10 minutes. Let bacon drain on paper towels. Repeat process with remaining bacon. (Save rendered bacon grease for another use, if you like.)

2. Pour oil into a heavy medium pot or a wok to a depth of 2” and heat over medium heat until temperature registers 375° on a candy thermometer.

3. Meanwhile, whisk egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold one-quarter of the flour, then one-quarter of the club soda, at a time into whites, folding thoroughly after each addition until batter is smooth.

4. Working in batches, dip bacon into batter, then deep-fry, turning once, until bacon is golden brown and crisp, about 6 minutes per batch. Drain on a wire rack. Season to taste with salt and serve immediately.

via LoyalIdiot.org

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Very nice web app from NetFlix to flaunt the re-release of Wizard of Oz on October 3rd. Upload a face picture of yourself and within seconds you’re Scarecrow! Instantly uppload the video to Facebook! Yep. That’s me. Scary, huh? Oz Yourself here.

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