tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125307082024-02-07T21:44:53.248-05:00BLOG.EXEReturn to <a href="http://stopwilson.com/">stopwilson.com</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-49243893191125575422014-12-18T11:11:00.006-05:002014-12-18T11:12:16.223-05:00Bad Company Party<br />
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<span class="s1">'Tis the season for bad company parties. We designed this browser-based HTML5 platformer in conjunction with <a href="http://ponywolf.com/">Ponywolf</a> and <a href="http://drakecooper.com/">Drake Cooper Advertising</a>. </span></div>
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<a href="http://blog.drakecooper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/game-blog.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://blog.drakecooper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/game-blog.gif" height="352" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">Play Drake Cooper Bad Company Party and Drake Cooper will donate $1 to the Idaho Food Bank up to total donation of a $1000 between now and December 31st, 2014.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.badcompanyparty.com/">Click here to play!</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-62435948931940325242013-07-17T14:34:00.000-04:002013-07-17T14:34:32.723-04:00melon.js Logo DesignI've been using the sweet <a href="http://melonjs.org/">javascript game engine melon.js</a> for a while now. With the latest release the project founders wanted an updated new logo. Citrus colors and slightest hint of a melon shape I think work well for this <br />
abstraction. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6orYIhlc9p4Ok6gsELVGzEKB5iWF6BucWoJNi2V10xgVa0iNuPl5cdj3-xmeVFZfataD1Rpi2nH5Mr_FWd3HtOd7_KdwSJ_G9v2xZkTBs81cehrDSFxkWjfQ-h9wsPs7wcu6T/s1600/melon-logos-update1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6orYIhlc9p4Ok6gsELVGzEKB5iWF6BucWoJNi2V10xgVa0iNuPl5cdj3-xmeVFZfataD1Rpi2nH5Mr_FWd3HtOd7_KdwSJ_G9v2xZkTBs81cehrDSFxkWjfQ-h9wsPs7wcu6T/s600/melon-logos-update1.png" /></a></div><br />
What do you think?<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-88006398950339342142013-05-23T10:03:00.000-04:002013-05-23T10:04:30.987-04:00Space Monsters Love BulletsIf you're looking for a casual mobile game that has resource management, virtual pet style mini-games and lots of explosions, you should check out my latest work-in-progress project. <a href="http://http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1050089585/space-monsters-love-bullets">Space Monsters Love Bullets</a> is a casual mobile game for iOS and Android devices designed in a modern-pixel style. It combines a few different game styles in a fresh way that makes it a game you can pick up and play instantly, but has a depth that will keep you coming back.<br />
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<center><iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1050089585/space-monsters-love-bullets/widget/video.html" frameborder="0"> </iframe></center><br />
The idea was sparked by watching my kids play all these virtual-farming-pet-breeding games. They really liked the interaction, but they hated waiting around for something to happen. I thought shooting monsters would make for a fun "farming" mechanic.<br />
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I chose Kickstarter because I wanted to get some validation that this is a good idea. The concept smushes two very different genres together, so if people get it they are likely to support it. If they don't get it, I don't want find that out after its finished.<br />
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Please, check it out and share if you want to make this project a reality.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-26113826044339065822013-04-01T09:44:00.002-04:002013-04-01T09:44:25.711-04:00Portfolio Quest!After teaching my class on <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/stopwilson/gamification-youre-doing-it-wrong">Gamification at General Assembly</a> this past fall I really wanted to work on an example of how gaming principles could make a mundane task fun. I also wanted to put together a unique portfolio for this year's Game Developers Conference.<br />
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In a two-birds-one-stone fashion I spent the better part of a week experimenting with the HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript to create <a href="http://www.michaelwilson.tv/pq/">Portfolio Quest</a>.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXwuRvhmfELkNwRSwut84FtonIVoSeuuVpYdH-x0bz54rdyspAnLWBjw6_Q-VxwyzF05HYhdffiHRPs3jIvYQMsF2raZMCZeGcW2dsN-4c9-7Esn19SaH2hyphenhyphenhQGwUHCTP_KqCZ/s1600/pq-screen-1.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXwuRvhmfELkNwRSwut84FtonIVoSeuuVpYdH-x0bz54rdyspAnLWBjw6_Q-VxwyzF05HYhdffiHRPs3jIvYQMsF2raZMCZeGcW2dsN-4c9-7Esn19SaH2hyphenhyphenhQGwUHCTP_KqCZ/s320/pq-screen-1.png" /></a></div><br />
The premise is simple--like most adventure games--the pages of my portfolio are lost and it's your job to find them. As a game it's painfully linear, lacks conflict and has no reason to engage past the single five minute quest; however, as a portfolio it beckons more than just a passing glance.<br />
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Getting people to engage becomes a secondary challenge. At a conference like the GDC you are overwhelmed not only with visuals and sounds, but more business cards than you can imagine. I chose to 'borrow' some equity in keeping with the theme of my portfolio and created minimal business cards.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFXH4EtUi72xhj8zFxbAHBlGxiXxht4HfaaFmlyL1-wylBSPZdFGwtAXZdlONAgarmgoKnfTXDUBTJYFKhYMzLT8-mlk1FMYlbzha-dgN9IubY4bXl3_ultcxy5EvWSCVuVUh/s1600/pq-cards-cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFXH4EtUi72xhj8zFxbAHBlGxiXxht4HfaaFmlyL1-wylBSPZdFGwtAXZdlONAgarmgoKnfTXDUBTJYFKhYMzLT8-mlk1FMYlbzha-dgN9IubY4bXl3_ultcxy5EvWSCVuVUh/s320/pq-cards-cropped.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I regretted not putting more contact information on the cards as I found myself jotting my email down quite a bit for people you wanted to reconnect during the show. (I also did similar cards for my start-up, and had similar regrets...)<br />
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All in all, I believe the project was a success and has had a steadily rising visitor rate even after the conference. If you want to try it out, go to the <a href="http://www.michaelwilson.tv/pq/">Portfolio Quest</a> site. If you want to see what the non-gamification version of my portfolio looks like, visit <a href="http://www.michaelwilson.tv/">www.michaelwilson.tv</a>.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-50986389784443665502013-03-11T18:10:00.000-04:002013-03-11T18:10:12.527-04:00Timelines, jQuery and PortfoliosOver the past few weeks I've been Gamifying my portfolio (more on that later) but I found that I needed to have something out there for opportunities that are happening now.<br />
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I have a non-traditional body of work--spanning film, advertising, interactive and games--and showing all of that in a way that flows seemed like daunting challenge. Oh, and I'd like it to work in pretty much any browser including the one on the iPad.<br />
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I've been playing around with desktop and touch interfaces in <a href="http://jquery.com/">jQuery</a> and I've been quite impressed. Throwing together a slick interface isn't a month long project anymore--in fact many developers have put together various pieces into frameworks or UI builders for you.<br />
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One such framework is <a href="http://timeline.verite.co/">Timeline.js</a> that makes a touch responsive timeline available from a simple data series. Add a few menu controls, custom stylesheets and of course, the content, and you have a easy to navigate timeline-based portfolio.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFZprmuE_NS30tnPQ5ST8VOZu90DdQ_t2TWPaceaBS5QEmdT5R4OQ4P_CYJWF1JfYxLWeqCP7DFWwADeWP5Z0e-OuVT9OZD3_n_GnhFeGyTvzndFhvKki13H_W3adqtGrWae0i/s1600/timeline.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFZprmuE_NS30tnPQ5ST8VOZu90DdQ_t2TWPaceaBS5QEmdT5R4OQ4P_CYJWF1JfYxLWeqCP7DFWwADeWP5Z0e-OuVT9OZD3_n_GnhFeGyTvzndFhvKki13H_W3adqtGrWae0i/s320/timeline.png" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.michaelwilson.tv/">Check it out here</a>, I'd love some feedback.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-21731868126411905092012-08-22T09:48:00.003-04:002012-08-22T09:50:40.175-04:00Gamification: You're Doing It Wrong--The SlidesHere are the slides from last night's class on Gamification that I gave at <a href="http://generalassemb.ly">General Assembly</a>.<br />
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<center><iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/14039754?hostedIn=slideshare&page=upload" width="476" height="400" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></center><br />
The class went very well (IMHO) with an engaged audience of about 30 people. There were lots of people working on active projects, and some just curious about game design theory.<br />
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If you were unable to attend, hopefully you can get some value from the slides.<br />
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Enjoy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-15291505375514490982012-08-06T10:28:00.000-04:002012-08-06T10:28:04.291-04:00Gamification: You're Doing It Wrong<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3812282640/ga" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="192" width="192" src="http://fogest.net16.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/pacman-with-pellet.png" /></a></div><br />
I’m teaching a class on how to incorporate game methodologies into web and mobile applications for the general market. The class is called "Gamification: You're Doing It Wrong" and covers the basics of game design and structure while applying those principles to modern digital design for the web and mobile.<br />
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It’s a good class if you are thinking about game design as a career or if your team is trying to incorporate game principles into a current application. <br />
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The class is Tuesday, August 21st from 6:00 - 7:30 pm at NYC-based General Assembly, a global network of campuses for individuals seeking opportunity and education in technology, business, and design.<br />
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More info and how to sign-up for the class at <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3812282640/ga">Eventbrite</a>.<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-34292200022959265782012-07-02T11:22:00.002-04:002012-07-02T11:22:52.727-04:00Rethinking Game Categories for App Stores<i>This is a post I wrote for the <a href="http://blog.playnome.com/">Playnome Blog</a>. <a href="http://www.playnome.com/">Playnome</a> is an in-game rating, review and recommendation engine for developers across all popular environments -including iPhone, iPad, Android, PC, Mac and Flash. If your a mobile developer, you should check it out...</i><br />
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When we interviewed game developers and asked them how we could make reviews better for both the developer and the gamer, one of the common themes was the narrow view that app stores took when classifying games. Developers have access to maybe 20 categories, and usually get to pick a primary and secondary category.<br />
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This has two consequences. First, you may be competing for category dominance with tens of thousands of games that loosely fit a genre like action or puzzle. Secondly, these overly broad categories make it difficult for gamers to find niches that they may enjoy. For example, I'm a fan of retro games and I also like sports games. A game like <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tecmo-bowl-throwback/id438868308?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4#">Techmo Bowl Throwback</a> might be perfect for me, but alas it competes with all the sports game in the App Store and isn't even in the top 100 for searches on football.<br />
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We knew there was a better way, so we've chosen to implement categories as a combination of a "Descriptor" and a "Genre" giving us over a thousand categories to narrow into what are the best games of any particular niche. <br />
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How does it work, you ask? Terms like Retro, Arcade and Action are no longer categories, but descriptive terms that get applied to a specific genre like Puzzle, Platform or Shooter. The graphic below just scratches the surface of how Playnome games will be categorized.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_zxpL72dOm_nYHVjMoE4S6KDuES760rGSPddZ3KC1CaQyztsoZ1uYz9N_-0UISizPJMrw9SW4nn77jCfHOnblqsAvmtCH98xjAI-Pz40CdN_U5KzmF5nXcRSCltB1soWcIt4D/s1600/rethink-cat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_zxpL72dOm_nYHVjMoE4S6KDuES760rGSPddZ3KC1CaQyztsoZ1uYz9N_-0UISizPJMrw9SW4nn77jCfHOnblqsAvmtCH98xjAI-Pz40CdN_U5KzmF5nXcRSCltB1soWcIt4D/s400/rethink-cat.jpg" /></a><br />
Click image for a larger view...</div><br />
So get ready to see categories like "Horror Maze" and "Retro FPS" that deliver on games that match those specific qualities. Also our Descriptor/Genre database will be a work in progress--adding new keys all the time. Each new Descriptor or Genre will unlock many new "best of" lists and give your game the spotlight it deserves.<br />
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The full list of descriptors and genres are available when you <a href="https://www.playnome.com/registration/developer">sign up as a Playnome developer</a> and register your app.<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-25429039023824665632012-06-14T12:33:00.000-04:002012-06-14T12:35:25.687-04:00Make LinkedIn Recommendations Fun to Get them Done<a href="#" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://iwebbit.com/images/linked_In_Square_260_x_260_Black_BCGRND.png" width="260" /></a><br />
There's nothing more excruciating than writing a LinkedIn recommendation for a colleague. I've worked with plenty of talented people, but when it comes down to writing a recommendation, they all pretty much sound the same and convey very little additional information beyond what's included in the profile.<br />
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Don't get me wrong. LinkedIn recommendations are an important step that helps to confirm that a person had the job he or she said they did. But outside of that, I have yet to read review that makes me go, "Hey, I should contact that person, pronto!"<br />
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In fact, the recommendations sound so simmilar the folks at <a href="http://endorser.org/">endorser.org</a> built pseudo-random recommendation generator to make the process somewhat painless. I love solutions that are "one click and you're done," but this pushes the boundaries of being impersonal.<br />
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So, I took a cue from <a href="http://woot.com/">woot.com</a> product reviews and have decided from this day forth to use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_view_(literature)">the narrative mode</a> to both entertain and convey the required information in my recommendations.<br />
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My first victim is a project manager I worked with in both digital and film.<br />
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<blockquote>The choice to hire Kelly was simple--the other candidate, let’s call him “Steve,” was pretty much full on zombie. Don’t get me wrong, both Kelly and Steve had a certain attention to detail that was immediately obvious in their past work, but Kelly had that little extra something our company looks for in its employees--a fully functional brain. <br />
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Kelly brought with her years of diverse business experience. Steve brought with him a half eaten possum that was undeniably still twitching. Kelly showed us how she had championed simple processes and aided in effective resource management. Steve showed us part of his skull that was being ineffectively covered by his scalp. <br />
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Three interviews later, Steve withdrew his candidacy for personal reasons, and Kelly went on to become a valuable member of our operations staff. <br />
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A simple choice indeed.</blockquote><br />
Kelly and I happened to work on a <a href="http://youtu.be/09i5FAJ1_as">short Zombie film</a> together, so it's a bit of an inside joke and gets three of her strongest qualities out there while implying that she's creative--which she is.<br />
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More so, I enjoyed the 5 minutes I spend writing this, and I have a feeling it will be much more likely to be shared--which is good for Kelly.<br />
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You can find me on <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelewilson">LinkedIn here</a>, but be forewarned that I already have a pretty full inbox of recommendation requests. :)<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-54235231472336412882011-06-03T21:59:00.002-04:002011-06-03T22:00:45.937-04:00What have you been working on?Okay, I'm breaking a long radio silence to announce that I've caught the game development bug again. And after a "while" of development, I have a brand new iPhone/iPad game to show for it.<br />
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<a href="http://www.tilt-a-bowl.com"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://tilt-a-bowl.com/images/tilt-a-bowl.png" width="320" /></div></a><br />
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Tilt-a-Bowl is a game idea that dates back to the original NO2 Games days in Cincinnati. At the time I pictured something that was a cross between a bowling alley and a pinball table--in fact, the original name was PinBowl, but someone beat me to the name in the AppStore.<br />
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Check out the <a href="http://www.tilt-a-bowl.com">Tilt-a-Bowl website</a>, and if you are a friend of mine (real or Facebook) <a href="http://tilt-a-bowl.com/promote.html">check this link out to see how you can help me promote the game to the masses</a>.<br />
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Thanks!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-56682625314013168332011-04-03T11:44:00.001-04:002011-04-03T17:50:23.353-04:00Your Personal CloudNow that Amazon has launched their <a href="https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore">cloud storage solution for users</a>, I think there will be a return to the classic home file server to access all your stuff on the go, but the term for it will be a much fancier one--your Personal Cloud. The word "cloud" might be overkill for something you run at home, but getting at your stuff wherever, whenever certainly provides cloud-like benefits.<br />
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If you are a <a href="http://db.tt/wCA3Lvo">DropBox</a> user you already have some of this behavior. In fact I've been tempted to upgrade the storage space, but I would never pay to store all my music on it. Now, I've had various home files servers, <a href="http://stopwilson.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_archive.html">Personal Video Recorder</a> servers, etc. but the idea of a server that goes beyond just "serving files" and starts to make all your important files and media available on your laptop, desktop, mobile and even iPad has so considerable merit.<br />
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After looking at a few options I settled on adding <a href="http://www.tonido.com/">Tonido</a> to my home Linux server. Tonido is a really impressive option that runs a server on your Windows or Mac Desktop (in the background), on a dedicated computer or on a cute little $99 computer that looks more like a power adapter than a PC.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOElSWVCx1mpiuSIeDhrlnminBZrsiNRggrWV0Ri5x5GAp0eswLpjB3IximPvRFBfuOcNKC3dnhNDnTt1Dwe7-jgKjT2oGSLhq6nxE6HDlJRP6qC_w2T_hXs9TDfjktzlGlvFU/s1600/tonido_plug_hw.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOElSWVCx1mpiuSIeDhrlnminBZrsiNRggrWV0Ri5x5GAp0eswLpjB3IximPvRFBfuOcNKC3dnhNDnTt1Dwe7-jgKjT2oGSLhq6nxE6HDlJRP6qC_w2T_hXs9TDfjktzlGlvFU/s1600/tonido_plug_hw.png" /></a></div><br />
No matter what you choose, adding a terabyte to your personal cloud as a simple USB drive. At the time I wrote this, you could get a <a href="http://goo.gl/ObAJs">1.5TB USB drive for $70 on Amazon</a>. If you would have told me even 18 months ago, I could have a 1.5TB networked drive accessible from my cell phone for $170, I would have more than chuckled.<br />
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Now this is pretty volatile storage. Only accessible when your home has internet and power, so I would put it in the 98% uptime arena depending on your ISP and other factors. Add a second drive (for real-time backup) and run your server on a netbook (so you get a built-in battery backup) and your uptime could approach 99% and we're still under $400 total. The dual-drive netbook option is what I'm configuring as I write this.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMrF_ylpEuY_XJTOVQWlpcdQwu0WlRicC9WI1IGsW7_3eQEQ9_Q6bydf7B1LxL2WaJzfYcxahGv3Os3xyEleB1DcAtWfc44I6oFHu2FAdsPoQKXgig3g3mjG0-Kmm8RQsc6Ev/s1600/mzl.kyoviajx.320x480-75.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMrF_ylpEuY_XJTOVQWlpcdQwu0WlRicC9WI1IGsW7_3eQEQ9_Q6bydf7B1LxL2WaJzfYcxahGv3Os3xyEleB1DcAtWfc44I6oFHu2FAdsPoQKXgig3g3mjG0-Kmm8RQsc6Ev/s320/mzl.kyoviajx.320x480-75.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><br />
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The desktop software is free, but certain add-ins could have costs associated as they are trying to build an App store like everyone else on the planet. The photo, music and file plugins are free as well as the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, so it's hard to go wrong simply trying it out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-56090039955416919122011-03-15T19:37:00.000-04:002011-03-15T19:37:23.356-04:00Playmobil TSA Checkpoint User ReviewsNot unlike the <a href="http://amzn.to/eFCIrn">Three Wolf Moon T-shirt</a> that made its way on to Amazon and provided hours of enjoyment reading the user reviews and looking at doctored photos of Kim Jong Il sporting the fashionable shirt--today I stumbled upon the <a href="http://amzn.to/h8VuvJ">Playmobil Security Check Point</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41j9-+IcV8L.jpg" width="320" /></div><br />
Classic reviews contain one-liners like, "This toy would be a lot more realistic with about 350 people standing in line for an average of an hour." And, "I bet al-Qaeda is training the next generation with this very product. I am saddened to learn that Playmobile hates America."<br />
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I think it's interesting that even the lowly user review has become a source of comedy writing.<br />
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Of course, it's hard to beat the <a href="http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/">Best of Craigslist</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-46976521920089725862011-03-01T10:35:00.000-05:002011-03-01T10:35:50.145-05:00New site and identity work...If you saw the post below, you would have seen some new business cards I'm using to promote my consulting work in 2011. The cards came in this week and they good, but not as good as I hoped. Don't get me wrong, they will do the job for $20 and they are much better than I could print myself. I know business cards are a dying breed anyway, but I still find myself using as a stop gap until that person makes it into my contact list.<br />
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So, I went with a clean two-tone design that's a little easier on the eyes than the "green screen" look that this blog shares with my text based hub page at <a href="http://stopwilson.com/">stopwilson.com</a>. This however, left me in a quandary as my business cards look nothing like the site the cards tell you to visit.<br />
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<a href="http://stopwilson.com/">stopwilson.com</a> is a great site--in fact I want to enter it into some award shows (like the Webbies ) this year, so I do want people to experience a bit of that site before they get my sales pitch. I needed a transition between the two designs to make things work.<br />
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Luckily, I own waaaay too many URLs, so I spun up a quick site at <a href="http://www.michaelewilson.com/">www.michaelewilson.com</a> (note the middle "e" for my middle name--Eugene) to have a similar look as my cards do.<br />
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<a href="http://www.michaelewilson.com/"></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.michaelewilson.com/"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0e43auUNr994qzvMqlGaTdBQ74IvFW__kz8pUd3TbD5QV0g5-qiOjEuA1y1B631PPvw7MX8yx0-e2As-WXyLL6kOfQUUjcaccMEPuaWx3Y4mGwbB_e0lhKWx6z5bx3ZSG9M0G/s400/consulting-screen-grab.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Insert a stock bio and drop in some icons for my other presences on the web, and now I have instant content. This will certainly be a work in progress, as I will want to include information about my consulting practice, but for now a on-line biography is just fine.<br />
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Now I needed a way to link people who visit <a href="http://stopwilson.com/">stopwilson.com</a> to this page. It has a good amount of traffic, almost 250,000 page views in 2011, and it still gets tweeted about every few days.<br />
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I decided to carry over the "voice bubble" look into the lower right hand corner of the site. This area has pretty much nothing going and sits polar opposite of the top navigation. All I needed was a quick mock-up of a an alert bubble over a rounded button to the site.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://stopwilson.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNBDcRerkBoAfpRUaGyvqODC_D9scWRsbjLHRzsFd_6QeN9FyCdbFdroM2uagemZ9FSeugBFw7Te83MtAjvOLjTvc9Y2pPWNQpNHUL7NwQAEgKrtTelds292EoivnQwOXltytn/s400/stopwilson-screen-grab.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
The code to make that bubble stay in place (with resizing) and allow you to click to launch the site was not easy. However, a few hours of playing around with it seemed to get it to work across all major browsers, including the iPad (which doesn't really run the site because of keyboard input, but now you can click on the menu items.)<br />
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Now, if I can only get the pop up bubble to fade away after a few seconds my evil plan will be complete.<br />
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:)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-78648411069445667262011-02-21T16:02:00.002-05:002011-02-21T18:08:31.166-05:00Business CardsIt's been forever since I had to make business cards, so I was surprised how many on-line resources there we're out there to design and print what seems now like a relic in the business world.<br />
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I went with a simple design based on a template at <a href="http://www.overnightprints.com/">Overnight Prints</a>. Mocked it up and it was wrapped in less than an hour.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO0ChCjD677cvH6Hha5R4bXzBQ8X680elBB6dmaRjhSeIbWZ07u9IPy9CWbozeMR_PvxbOty7QAvsx6-gvmvmqzYR5LUCMi_vPmkPgxpN6_2fJJ3GGltWC-BhiXCGaozkfrJQU/s1600/b-cards-back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO0ChCjD677cvH6Hha5R4bXzBQ8X680elBB6dmaRjhSeIbWZ07u9IPy9CWbozeMR_PvxbOty7QAvsx6-gvmvmqzYR5LUCMi_vPmkPgxpN6_2fJJ3GGltWC-BhiXCGaozkfrJQU/s320/b-cards-back.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlH0kZm5rfu3M9T5-3Nz1MrMaT4oUYcSzMuJlyOaDaS7BVctv-scZhezLSTBqdim6pbwvw7JJZplK7zkZ1zBmOrMKQUXMKYl8G9mEL1Il_1c5sc05nGVRoasJIVw72UO71wO52/s1600/b-cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlH0kZm5rfu3M9T5-3Nz1MrMaT4oUYcSzMuJlyOaDaS7BVctv-scZhezLSTBqdim6pbwvw7JJZplK7zkZ1zBmOrMKQUXMKYl8G9mEL1Il_1c5sc05nGVRoasJIVw72UO71wO52/s320/b-cards.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>These will have rounded corners to mimic the voice balloons, the front (the top image is technically the back, but I'm calling it the front) will be glossy and the other side not so much. The cards were about $10 and so was shipping. Crazy I know, but I think shipping is where these on-line printers make their margins.<br />
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Now to make some for <a href="http://whatsinitfortina.com/">What's in it for Tina?</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-54021783443543446372011-02-17T08:48:00.000-05:002011-02-17T08:48:30.273-05:00Waiting on SuperphoneI find myself in a bit of a quandary, the iPhone 5 is maybe just a few months away and I just had my iPhone 4 pulled from my cold dead hands. At first I had considered the Verizon iPhone with it's (hopefully) better coverage and reception in the greater New York area. My wife has the iPhone 3GS on AT&T and they were nice enough to give us a MicroCell3G that makes calling in and around the house a fairly pleasurable experience. <br />
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What's a boy to do?<br />
<br />
I could lock in for another two years with AT&T for a phone that drops connections every time I step two feet to the right. Do I begin a similar relationship with Verizon and hope it's better?<br />
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Out of principle I should own an Android device. A no-contract smartphone on that platform could be a decent hold over device until the next shiny bobble comes from the Land of Jobs. <br />
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iTouch + Google Voice + MyFi? Crazy I know, but I think that's where things are eventually going.<br />
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So, here's what I'm trying out. Virgin Mobile has a very cheap android phone now, the LG Optimus V. Their plan is $25 for 300 minutes, and get this, unlimited data over the Sprint network which is rock solid in NYC. (Now it doesn't work at my house, but that's another story.) No contract too, so the most I'm out is a $149 phone.<br />
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At home I talk mostly via Skype's SkypeOut while working, so I don't plan on going over those minutes. The only bummer is Virgin Mobile's known issues connecting to Google Voice, but that's a post for another day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-18623519410775133092011-02-02T16:04:00.002-05:002011-02-02T16:09:39.628-05:00Most Things Go Out of Control Slowly<blockquote>How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.<br />
—<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Brooks">Fred Brooks</a></blockquote><br />
I read a book (forever ago) called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959/turbo">The Mythical Man-Month</a> written by the man quoted above. The gist of it is "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." But how do we get to the point where we're simply tossing resources at a problem to fix it?<br />
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Even smart people can misrepresent how much much work they think that they can do. There's a process of where one imagines their most productive hour and multiplies that by 40 hours, then by four weeks, then by twelve months. One minor slip in that logic (for example, you may only have four productive hours a week) and the effects are staggering.<br />
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Communication, organization and other pieces of daily work life are all transaction costs in delivering any sort of project. It's very hard to estimate how much time these kinds of tasks will take.<br />
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I'm tackling a few personal projects over the next few weeks and I'm trying to limit them to things I can do by myself in 48 hours over a weekend. This process is one I learned <a href="http://whatsinitfortina.com/">doing films in a weekend</a> for the 48 hour film festival. When you start planning a few hours at a time it's amazing what you can get accomplished.<br />
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So, now I'm thinking small+fast=done.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-66633559926633981732011-01-26T15:34:00.004-05:002011-01-27T10:20:24.626-05:00Back to Blogger (or Blogger does DOS)As much as wanted a self-hosted Blog solution, I decided that keeping all my older (possibly worthless) content in the same system was important. When you blog consistently from 2005 on it's a bit of street cred to keep all that in one place. Also, it's nice having RSS feeds, spam resistant comments and a generally nice look and feel on the site.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>I know "real bloggers" don't like Blogger and particularly the BlogSpot hosting service. Believe me, I was as mad as anyone when they moved from their FTP publishing system which was nice for spinning up quick blogs and plugging into larger sites. I had more than <a href="http://www.mrbigshot.com/">one</a> <a href="http://www.stuntmom.com/">site</a> that broke when that change happened.</div><div><br />
</div><div>But blogger has been a solid service for well over 10 years, and I think a lot of practical knowledge comes with that amount of time in a digital platform.<br />
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In fact, I opened my blogger account in 1999 when I was running a game development blog called <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/*hh_/turbo.gamedev.net/">turbo</a>. The Wayback Machine has posts starting in 2000, but I remember pushing out well before that.<br />
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So, here is as close as I could get to a CSS based DOS-like design running in Blogger's blogspot system.<br />
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Enjoy.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-63453202159017843162011-01-10T15:17:00.001-05:002011-01-26T15:18:31.221-05:00A DOS-like CMS is a Go!Thanks to Kure I now have a very light weight CMS/Blog system that mimics the DOS side of my website. No comments, RSS feed or other fancy-pants stuff yet, but it's a start. The big deal is the <a href="http://stopwilson.blogspot.com/2011/01/five-things-i-learned-about-being.html">PERMALINK</a> to the main article everyone retweeted changed, but other than that we should be good to go.<br /><br />No doubt I will upload my DOS template for the <a href="http://findthekure.net/">Kure CMS</a> (nerd alert) once I work out all the bugs and implement the commenting system.<br /><br />I’m looking forward to updating my DOS website from my iPhone on the train.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-74232393992926284032011-01-05T19:15:00.000-05:002011-01-26T15:16:22.644-05:00The Day AftermathThe party is officially over and now I'm stuck cleaning up this mess. Hundreds of red plastic cups are everywhere. I would like to say thanks again for all the <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ew1nq/my_friend_got_tired_of_all_these_fancy_blog/">Reddit</a> readers that stopped by yesterday. I don't really believe that you're a poor man's <a href="http://www.digg.com/">Digg</a>, it was just Internet fame getting the best of me.<br /><br />Now for the numbers--what is a page one, top of fold spot on Reddit worth?<br /><br /><li>138,224 unique visitors in about 18 hours<br /><li>196,390 page views (the site had only one page for the first 12 hours)<br /><li>8,297 views of my belated blog post<br /><li>100+ new Facebook friends<br /><li>70+ new Twitter followers to @stopwilson<br /><br />Enough with the quantitative, on to the qualitative.<br /><br />Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. It was more fun than it should have been staying up late and watching the Internet swirl. As the day progressed, awesome people awesomely tweeted about both the site concept and my writing. Some internet ladies claimed to have crushes on my site design! My wife would claim that that site design is spoken for, but she's not reading this.<br /><br />I'm sure you are so bored that you want to read <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/stopwilson">each and every one</a>, don't you?<br /><br /><strong>What's next?</strong><br /><br />The meat and potatoes of this site are these blog posts (like the one you are reading now) and are hastily hand coded HTML. So there are no comments, no blog archive, or anything we've come to expect from even the worst blog platform.<br /><br />I will be thinking over the next few day how to DOS-ify commenting most probably using the Twitter JSON API which powers the "tweets" command on the landing page. Any other ideas are welcome.<br />Everyone keeps yammering for Easter Eggs and I think I have one good idea, so we'll see how long it takes to get that going.<br /><br />So for now, tweet your comments to <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/stopwilson">@stopwilson</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-70959286202388521052011-01-04T20:11:00.000-05:002011-01-26T15:14:27.594-05:00The Five Things I Learned about Being Internet Famous for a DayJust my luck that this first Blog post will go live after the largest single day of site traffic I will ever get. I guess I shouldn't complain, seeing how I don't know too many other bloggers who have graced the front page of <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ew1nq/my_friend_got_tired_of_all_these_fancy_blog/">reddit.com</a>. For those of who don't know Reddit, it's a poor man's digg.com. For those of you who don't know Digg, it's USA Today meets the National Enquirer if all the editors had Attention Deficit Disorder. <br /><br /><br />Alas, I made it there with only the idea of how my content would be presented and a little help from my <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/jonmrich">friend</a>(s). So if you are one of the few people who will stumble upon this site after its 15 minutes of fame, I present to you the five things I learned about being Internet Famous for a day.<br /><br /><br /><strong>ONE / Don't become famous on a day that you're super busy.</strong><br /><br />It was our first day back in the office after the holiday break. Also it was a brand new office we had just moved into a few weeks before--crap everywhere. And my calendar was chocked full of stuff that didn't include surfing the internet or fixing spelling mistakes that were tweeted to me like a thousand times. Seriously, I was so busy that I tried to squeeze an extra day out of a deodorant that was two days past needing to be trashed. To my nearby co-workers, I apologize--to the spelling police on the interwebs, not so much.<br /><br /><strong>TWO / Why don't I have any cool pictures of myself?</strong><br /><br />This was my chance to be discovered as the next big--something. I needed to have a cool picture of myself doing something cool. Both my Facebook and Twitter profile pictures are pretty lame, I've got some corporate photography that my work uses for speaking engagements and such, but that is somehow lamer. From now on, I will keep a picture of <a href="http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/women-laughing-alone-with-salad/">me alone, laughing and eating a salad</a>.<br /><br /><br /><strong>THREE / The internet is fickle.</strong><br /><br />I like to think I know stuff. For example, I've been called out of important business meetings to setup a projector. Knowing this, it is logical for you to believe that I have a firm grasp of nerd irony. But what surprises me is that "comment people" could agree that I was smart enough to put together this web site, but not smart enough to know that "<strong>ls</strong>" was a UNIX command (not DOS) and therefore should be removed from my fake website and stricken from the public record before Google finds out.<br /><br /><br />Also there was a guy that hit me right in my sweet spot by saying, "Your blog layout is genius. Literally. I mean, it takes a genius to design a genius layout, thus making you a genius. Or genie. Like the one in Aladdin. His name is Genie. But he's played by Robin Williams. Therefore, you are comparable to Robin Williams."<br /><br />Make up your mind, Internet.<br /><br /><strong>FOUR / Originality is for suckers.</strong><br /><br />When I thought this idea up, I almost peed my pants I thought it was so original. Then I searched around the internet and saw 50 other nerdtastic guys in their 30s had thought it would be cool to retro up the web with a DOS-like look and feel. In fact, some of the code for this site was borrowed from various forum posts on the same subject. That's right I said borrowed, I plan on giving it back when I'm done with it.<br /><br />The really sad part is that these people have done it as <a href="http://thrind.xamai.ca/">good</a>, if not <a href="http://www.michaelv.org/">better</a>. But most a little <a href="http://www.westofhouse.com/">suckier</a>.<br /><br /><br /><strong>FIVE / When your website has nothing on it traffic is not an issue.</strong><br /><br />I really sweated having 30,000 people an hour visit my site since I have the crappiest server in the world. It is held together by Bubblelicious and dreams. But then I realized that my whole site is one page and that one page is 10 times smaller than an animated GIF of James Van Der Beek crying.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.gifsoup.com/view/192809/dawson-crying-o.gif"><br /><br />So, I managed to keep the site content free enough to stave off the onslaught of new readers who came to read nothing. 129,345 page views never looked so wrong, but felt so right.<br /><br />Enjoy the blog, I hope there's more to come.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-57987907564279291912010-04-19T11:11:00.002-04:002010-04-19T11:18:42.343-04:00More love for Pringles Can HandsPringles Can Hands has been nominated for The 14th Annual Webby Awards in the Banner Singles category. As one of only five nominees in its category, the my agency is eligible for the Internet industry's two most sought-after awards: The Webby Award and The Webby People's Voice Award. <br /><br />While the Academy selects The Webby Awards' winners, the online public selects The People's Voice Award winners. Webby People's Voice voting starts April 13th and ends April 29th.<br /><br /><a href="http://webby.aol.com/category_groups/interactive_advertising/categories/banner_singles">Vote Here!</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-4102797184723933062009-10-14T11:32:00.003-04:002009-10-14T11:40:33.272-04:00Classic MST3K on Netflix Watch It NowIt's about time. Classic 90's show (or movie) Mystery Science Theater 3000 now has about 8 episodes--including one of my favorites Laserblast--available to stream via Netflix on your Xbox 360, HTPC or regular old computer.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://8.media.tumblr.com/Koy029oL3q6owhkvnJ53DCu8o1_400.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 375px;" src="http://8.media.tumblr.com/Koy029oL3q6owhkvnJ53DCu8o1_400.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />These <a href="http://www.netflix.com/WiSearch?lnkce=iwsceOf&v1=mst3k&search_submit.x=0&search_submit.y=0&lnkce=acsNoEnhRt">search results</a> have all the videos available, look for the blue "Play" button for streaming titles.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-33521439036202530832009-09-27T18:50:00.002-04:002011-01-26T15:23:58.133-05:00Xbox CuredSo the Xbox 360 is back and working a promised. Seems to be as good as ever.<br /><br />Although, I loved the Hulu Desktop so much that I will put a small quiet desktop PC in my entertainment center for video streaming. More on that in another post...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-55816253695385537542009-09-16T08:23:00.005-04:002011-01-26T15:25:16.343-05:00Xbox Repair Completion Time Just 14 Days?That's that. My Xbox Red Ring of Death has been repaired and the Console has been shipped back with a scheduled delivery date of 09/21/2009. I'll post to confirm that it's working, but if it delivers on time that would make the entire repair 10 business days or 14 calendar days--well under the original six week estimate on the site.<br /><br />Under promise and over deliver I always say.<br /><br /><dl><dd><br /></dd></dl>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530708.post-83935989620461976772009-09-13T11:36:00.002-04:002009-09-13T11:39:58.787-04:00NFL Sunday Night Football Streaming via WebCable challenged Packer's fans and I will be able to watch Sunday Night Football tonight via an Web based HD stream on NBC...<br /><blockquote><br />Content for SNFExtra is presented in hi-definition through a technology called Smooth Streaming, part of Microsoft Silverlight. When watching a video with Smooth Streaming, the Bit Rate indicator (signal strength meter) on the right end of the control bar will indicate the quality. When the video is playing at optimal definition, the HD icon will appear.</blockquote>Here's the <a href="http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26393211/">link</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1