Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Retrain Your Brain

Published
by
Ehren
on May 31, 2007
in Interests, Mentions, applications, fun and web 2.0
. 0 Comments

I discovered Lumosity on digg (someone dugg the post from TechCrunch) this afternoon and I thought it was great. Along the lines of the Brain Age game that is available for the Nintendo DS, but much much better on the big screen and not to mention on the odd occasion when you’re looking for a quick boredom fix! You can always check out what your LumosIQ is … I think speed was my problem… especially when they change the game to fit the size of your monitor! I think those with widescreen monitors are at an advantage. Anyways, here is a glimpse of one of the games below.

It essentially involves bird watching while also watching the center of the screen for a letter of the alphabet to show up briefly for a second. You will then have to recall where the bird was and click on the location (more points the closer you are), and in return you have a chance to guess which letter it was that briefly made an appearance in the box at the center of the screen. Quite difficult as they begin to have other random things pop up on screen tricking you to thinking that it’s the bird!

Bird Watch

tricky… go and try it out

They’re also currently deciding on a logo as well so hop on over and help them decide!

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Help End the Tiger Trade - Post a photo of yourself

Published
by
Ehren
on May 31, 2007
in Aspirations, Interests, Mentions, fun, nature, photographs, policy, politics and web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Tiger Mosaic Overview

My friend Rochelle sent this to me via email and I thought it was an awesome way to get the word out and have people get involved in helping endangered wildlife in gradually shrinking natural habitat, in this case, tigers in China which are also being speed bred in anticipation of government permitted sales of tiger-related products. I can understand the demand for these products but at the same time there has to be some way to stop the massive consumption–at the very least moderate it.

I think WWF was quite innovative here and made use of one of my favourite hobbies–photography! But really the WWF got people involved by simply sending in their own photograph to join the thousands of other people to come together and make a photo mosaic of a tiger. It is very impressive when I see all the different people around the world coming together in this act of visual activism (for lack of a better word).

Tiger Mosaic

Click here and join the mosaic!

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Looking for a Used Car or Mini Van

Published
by
Ehren
on May 26, 2007
in Ponderings and Unthinkables
. 0 Comments

Work’s been crazy so I’ve decided to step away from blogging what I think about 24/7 (i.e. e-marketing) just for a short bit until things calm down just to give my brain a break! So what am I planning now? Well I’d like to travel for a whole month next year (if possible) and I am looking to obtain a used car or mini van for a low price to travel across the country with. What should I be looking for? I know the usuals but perhaps someone can enlighten me on some more important intricacies? I know some people will be against getting a somewhat beat up car but I’d like to hear what others think.

Flourette on the Road

On the road …

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Why do I blog?

Published
by
Ehren
on May 22, 2007
in Aspirations, Mentions, Ponderings, history, marketing, philosophy, politics, technology and web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Ultimately, I don’t expect people to read my blog exclusively but when I run into anything that I feel others should know about I post it as soon as I can. Seth Godin posted an outrageously large list of tips on how to get traffic to your blog.  I can’t say I follow all of those, but then again the purpose of this blog really isn’t to obtain a whole lot of traffic, whereas at work, the purpose of blogging is quite different.  But I am at a point where I wonder why I keep blogging…?

Hidden Driveways

I can’t see it … do you?

Trying to encourage people to blog in the workplace is difficult. People have a lot of work to do, myself included. How did this topic come up? Well, lately I’ve been trying to encourage my fellow co-workers to blog — about anything related to what they do! However I think after blogging on and off late last year and then consistently blogging since January 2007, I can understand the obstacles. What are some of the key stumbling blocks?  Well the questions that I have heard and consistently are the following:

  1. What do I blog about?
  2. What should I say?
  3. How should I say it?
  4. Is what I’m writing OK?
  5. Would anyone even bother reading this?

I began to ask myself why I blog …

I think I blog because I enjoy sharing thoughts and bouncing ideas off of other people. In fact, when I am in need of ideas I tend to walk around the office throwing ideas at people and seeing what they think. Especially as a web worker (aka. web slave) it’s always important to determine what others think.  With a blog however, we are sharing ideas with people we do not really know and are not even aware of — that is until they write a comment.

For me, the Internet had changed how we interact with one another back in 1995 when I first got my dial-up access and discovered the richness that was the World Wide Web and IRC (Internet Relay Chat).  To be able to say hi to someone on the other side of the world and have them respond back in real time blew my mind away, I was hooked.  Fast forward 12 years, post-secondary education complete and working full time … I still look at those first days of the Internet as having one of the biggest impact of my life.  I remember running to my friends at school and telling them about it and having everyone give me odd looks as I explained to them how I had the opportunity to speak to someone on the other side of the world.   What we had then was the freedom and ability to roam from #channel to #channel and meet random people to share common interests, ideas and thoughts.

Web 2.0 is really an extension of this ideal.  We blog, we chat, we share bookmarks, websites, photographs, videos, music and much more over the World Wide Web.  However now that so many people are involved and technology has made it so much easier to become aware of the presence of another person, I can’t help but wonder if it truly brings people from across the world together or if these newer technologies merely encourages us to share amongst friends in real life and family only.

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Starcraft 2 Preview

Published
by
Ehren
on May 20, 2007
in Interests, Mentions, fun, marketing and video
. 0 Comments

I haven’t heard about Blizzard’s Starcraft series in a long time so I was very pleasantly surprised when Blizzard announced Starcraft 2 and I R Serious posted a a number of game trailers (from GameTrailers.com).  I am definitely excited to hear that Blizzard is getting back to developing something other than stuff related to World of Warcraft.  I don’t have time to play “pay to play” games so I am always interested in games that I can purchase and then play when I have time.

Blizzard used one of the best slogans to get the word out, one which really identifies with its core fans and market…

 Starcraft 2 - Hell, It’s about Time

That’s for sure!  Check out the trailers… here

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Web 2.0 vs. Good Design

Published
by
Ehren
on May 14, 2007
in Interests, Unthinkables, design, marketing, technology, web 2.0 and work
. 0 Comments

I’m in the midst of planning and setting up a website for the company I work for and one of the aspects I am encountering is exactly this. The debate between web 2.0 features versus effective design and markup. From my perspective, planning something as major as a business website involves comprehensive research and planning in order to map out what your website is going to do, what it is going to look like and how this will be achieved?

The HOW is usually where I find many businesses fail. Either through designers that really are not up to par, or companies that want to rush to provide a new product or service. In the end, it’s really not worth it unless of course you are getting a co-op student to code your site (which I vehemently am against! … unless you are paying him or her on par with the profession of course.) Here are some steps that I would recommend when getting started.

  1. Determine your needs and match it up with the overall goal of your website. Write out every single detail and organize these details into categories or sections on paper. Do you want web 2.0 features? Do you even need them? Do you want something uniquely custom made for you or would you prefer an open source alternative? Would you prefer hand-coded HTML webpages or would you prefer to be able to edit content easily through a content management system? These are only a few of the questions you should be asking yourself or your company. One thing that I will always suggest to businesses and individuals when planning a website — look far-reaching and long-term, a website is an investment. What are you seeking to gain from this website?

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  2. Find a web designer and developer (programmer) who really knows their stuff. Someone who cares more about the results of their work than simply getting paid. This isn’t easy but take a look at their portfolio and BE PICKY. It is your money and you deserve the best. Do this by seeking out the best people and examples of work you can find online and sending them your list of needs and wants along with a sample wire frame model of a site you have in mind. Then ask for a quote, an approximate time frame, an approximation of any deviation off of the former two factors, as well as their typical hourly fee for any additional work.

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  3. When you finally decide on someone, do not pay the full amount before the work is done. There should be a deposit and the designer should provide at least three mock-ups of sample layouts they can do for you, each with a different colour scheme. Take opinions from others at your work, but know who has a good eye for aesthetics and design while keeping in mind who is least familiar with the Internet.

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  4. Work with your web designer or developer. Let them do their job, but don’t let them do it blindly. Give them your feedback, but DO NOT overload them with new opinions, suggestions or new features that you would like. That really annoys them and it will just end up increasing the cost of the website because of the amount of time these designers or developers have to spend re-working your site. Plan before hand.

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  5. Once the website is done. Measure your success. How? Ask people of their final opinions. Hold a poll on your website. If you asked for the ability to track visitors or sales, you can factors these values into your measurement of success. From studying your project, you can then learn from your mistakes. Just remember that a person’s opinion is just that — an opinion.

I ran across a BBC News article listed on Slashdot and it was actually quite an interesting story that pertained to this debate between functionality and design. However it seemed to focus more on the criticism of web 2.0 as a trend rather than focusing on why and how businesses should work towards developing a website. I agree with the statement below, however make sure it’s a good balance between aesthetics and usability.

Describing Web 2.0 as the “latest fashion”, Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade.

Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.

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Animation is great!

Published
by
Ehren
on May 12, 2007
in Interests, Movie, fun and video
. 0 Comments

Yesterday a few friends and I went up to Waterloo’s Princess Cinemas to check out the Animation Show Year 3. I was definitely impressed with this year’s line up that Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt put together from around the world. There was only one animated short that was really weird even though the animation itself was quite impressive. Here are some clips of the first Animation Show:

 

Hopefully next year the Bloor Cinema will host the Animation Show for Torontonians to enjoy!

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What do online communities look like?

Published
by
Ehren
on May 9, 2007
in Mentions, Ponderings, blogging, fun, technology and web 2.0
. 1 Comment

I’m not sure who drew this, but I give them great kudos! Found this thanks to the folks at CyberJournalist. I showed this to everyone at my sales conference as an example of what web 2.0 sites and online communities look like.

Map of Online Communities

I wonder why Facebook is so small?

P.S. Look out for Google’s Volcano Fortress!

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