My Host, Media Temple, has informed me that they’re doing scheduled (major) maintenance tonight on their Grid-Service. The site may be down from 9:00pm to 1:00am PDT, and possibly longer.
MAINTENANCE ACTION: (mt) Engineers will be making significant changes to the back-end network used for the (gs) Grid-Service. This maintenance will improve reliability and assist in the speed of resolving network related incidents.
Sounds great! I don’t like the site going down, but if it means improving the Grid I’m willing to live with it. Apparently Cluster.01 and Cluster.02 are getting the most attention. That’s good news since I’m on Cluster.01.
I really love Apple’s new iPad 2 commercial. Unlike their competitors, Apple tends to avoid spewing specifications that most people don’t understand anyway. This is a shining example of good advertising. It promotes a user-experience over gigahertz and megabytes.
If you’re a freelancer or small business owner you should check this out. It’s a great talk by Mike Monteiro, Design Director and co-founder of Mule Design Studio, on the benefits of having a contract. It was filmed on March 25th, 2011, as part of the Creative Mornings (San Francisco) sessions. There’s a followup blog post, here.
This talk is specific to the design industry, but it’s good advice for everyone.
In the previous post I mentioned, Elvira. If you’re unfamiliar with who she is, this video will help a little.
As a teenage boy in the early 80’s, I watched Elvira’s Movie Macabre on late-night TV with just one hope… that she would spontaneously fall out of her dress and somehow it would make it on the air. I was convinced if I watched long enough it was bound to happen eventually.
Wondercon 2011 took place this past weekend in San Francisco, just 1 block from my house. Now I’m wishing I had gone. :(
If you watch closely at about 4:09 in this video you’ll catch a glimpse of Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark). I swear that woman doesn’t age. She looks exactly the same as she did when I was a kid.
This “billboard” for Hot Wheels is simply brilliant! Unlike most advertising which tends to concentrate on a specific product, this iconic loop is simply designed to evoke a pleasant childhood memory. It’s brand-building at it’s best.
Trexels, is an awesome limited edition print by John Martz and Koyama Press, featuring 235 pixelated Star Trek characters. I want this!
The print measures 8.5 x 11 and is printed using an 8-colour archival printing process on 100% cotton rag museum-quality paper. The print will go on sale here on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011. There’s no price mentioned, but I’m guessing it’s not going to be cheap. And, they’ll probably go pretty fast.
There’s also a contest to win a free print for the 2 people who can name the most number of characters. Details are on the site.
A couple weeks ago I posted a video about an amazing new project called, The Invisible Camera. As it turns out, the thing was a little too amazing. It’s a fake, and they totally got me. I went as far as signing up to be a field tester.
I was pretty disappointed, and felt a little foolish, when I read the news. But, I don’t have any ill-will against those guys (Chris Marquart & Allan Attridge). It was a good story, and they told it well. After reading their explanation as to why they did it (below), I would say the project was a success. I did indeed have a sense of wonder when I first watched the original video. Good job guys!
It’s not polarized. It doesn’t amplify anything. It’s not bulletproof.
Sorry, it’s not even a camera.
But we did it for a reason.
We all still have vivid memories of those first times. The first time we held a Walkman, the first time we saw the Space Shuttle launch, the first time… In this day and age with daily new miracles on YouTube, it has become really hard to find a new sense of wonder and amazement and those do-you-remember-the-first-time moments seem to become less and less.
So instead of building a camera for a few lucky ones, we decided to create a story for all of you.
We did not do this to mock you. The Invisible Camera is our humble attempt to bring back wonder and amazement.
If you were one of the skeptics who unmasked the Invisible Camera right away, we applaud you for your razor-sharp smarts.
If you realized what we did and participated on your blog or with your tweets, we deeply bow to you and profoundly thank you for helping us tell the story.
If you believed in our story, congratulations on being an openminded individual who still can dream and be amazed. That is a wonderful ability to possess.
And there is no reason to feel bad, as you are in great company.
We received unexpected applications. From teachers. Pro photographers. SFX Specialists. Even scientists. We were a bit surprised. But rest assured, we won’t name names.
As much as we ourselves wish it were, the Invisible Camera is not real.
But we are. And our story is… as much as you want it to be.
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites.
But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity?
This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.
This looks really cool, I would love to see it. Unfortunately the screening dates and locations are a little limited right now, and there’s been no announcement of the DVD release date. You can, however, save it in your Netflix Queue. It should be automatically added when it becomes available.
