Moma – Design and the Elastic Mind

If you still haven’t seen the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition at Moma, I would strongly recommend you do so. I was there about 2 weeks ago on a Friday night and the exhibition was packed. Here is a brief description of it:

The exhibition will highlight examples of successful translation of disruptive innovation, examples based on ongoing research, as well as reflections on the future responsibilities of design. Of particular interest will be the exploration of the relationship between design and science and the approach to scale. The exhibition will include objects, projects, and concepts offered by teams of designers, scientists, and engineers from all over the world, ranging from the nanoscale to the cosmological scale. The objects range from nanodevices to vehicles, from appliances to interfaces, and from pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

What’s Next in Marketing & Advertising

Dashed through it quickly. Lots of good quotes:

What’s Next in Marketing & Advertising

Technorati Tags: next, in, marketing, advertising, slideshare, future

Gmail login problem

I am having difficulty logging into my Gmail account all day. The error I had been given is username and passport does not match. Thank god I can still log in to my main Gmail account.

A lot of people seem to be having the same issue and have started numerous threads at the Help Forum. The issue is not limited to online. Some people reported issues gaining access to Gmail via their portable devices (my iPhone is denying access). The best answer I’ve got so far is simply to contact Google via this link. Yet, I had submitted my request to them and still hasn’t got a response. If it is my main account that is having this issue I would probably go crazy…

Technorati Tags: gmail, login, problem, error, incorrect, username, password

VW Spot about Volkswagen.com

Well, VW is certainly not joking around when they want to promote their website. Instead of slapping the URL at the end of the TV Spot, they actually use the entire spot for that. It is very cool indeed. The TV spot still maintain the assembly idea common to some automobile companies, but they actually show the assembling process of the website. When I say assembling process of the website, don’t expect to see designers in front of their Macs or programmers coding away. Watch it below:

The spot is extremely entertaining for me, and I resonate with it on a strange level. Those guys putting the site together in the spot just has a bizarre resemblance of us information architects putting the site skeleton together. As I watch in the spot when it begins with a blank page to putting in buttons to interactions, I just got this weird deja vu…

Technorati Tags: volkswagen, vw, tvspot, tv, advertisement, video

Recession…Ouch!

I didn’t thought (or at least hope) that the recession will have a negative impact on my life anytime soon. But I just felt it this morning.

I signed up for the HSBC Online Savings account about 2 months ago and had been enjoying their high interest rate. An unwelcomed HSBC email arrived at my inbox this morning announcing the new plan of reducing the interest rate to just 3.05% due to the credit crunch:

Influencers vs. the Average Joe

There is an interesting article over at Fast Company by Duncan Watts titled “Is the Tipping Point Toast?“. The main argument from the article is companies are wasting money pampering those Influencer trying to create a viral effect for their products. He compares his theory with that from Gladwell’s (author of Tipping Point) and states that just about anyone can spread a contagious idea, not just the Influencer. In the article, Ed Keller, co-author of the book Influentials and the antagonist to his idea, opposes his view by stating he will go through Influencer rather than the mass to spread the idea simply for a broader reach in the shortest amount of time.

London bus with GPS Technology

Pretty cool:

“As a bus travels its route, the advertising message will change so marketers can target their messages geographically. For example, it might advertise “Find a gym in Marble Arch” and later “Discover a restaurant in Charing Cross.” Marketers will now be able to highlight product promotions near their stores. These include interactive screens highlighting local stores, restaurants and bars. Each execution is customized for the location and pedestrians can interact with the poster to reveal a local map showing the shops, restaurants and bars within walking distance.“

Article

Technorati Tags: london, bus, gps, advertising, marketing

Apple, we are OVER

To: Apple

Here’s a list of things you have caused me a great deal of trouble lately:

1. My iPhone got bugs, so you asked me to send in for repair. Two times, FedEX gave you an empty box. You asked for a $31 charge the first time and will be credit back to me after investigation. Totally fine. Second time you secretly charged me $432. That is even more expensive than a new iPhone! Of course, your “helpful” customer relations staff never return my calls or emails. Talk about customer relationships.
2. The date/time is not showing up correctly after I upgrade to Leopard. Fine, I have no time to call technical support, so I have to set to another timezone to get it to display correctly. BUT! the clock will change itself once in a while even while I am using my computer! Not to say it screws up all the time in my iCal. Somehow iCal is smart enough to change the times I set to match the timezone I am in.
   

Checking Multiple Hotmail Accounts After Upgrading to Leopard

If you are one of the old schoolers like me who still hangs on to your hotmail, upgrading to Leopard will be a huge inconvenience since the HttpMail plugin for Mail is not compatible with Mail 3.0. I have over 6 email accounts, each serving a different purpose. Without the hotmail plugin for Mail, checking my 3 hotmail accounts daily became an extremely hideous task. For those feeling the exact same way, I found a temporary solution. It is no way a replacement for the HttpMail plugin, but Fuser is a web application that lets you download mails from many providers, even Hotmail!

Technorati Tags: multiple, hotmail, accounts, email, leopard, check

Leopard Bug – Can’t Wake Up from Sleep

Like every other early adopter, I rushed to the Soho Apple store to get myself a copy of Leopard. I am impressed by all the improvements so far, especially the search option when running applications.

So far I only spotted one bug, and after browsing through the User Discussion Forum on Apple, a lot of people seem to be having the same problem. Like every other OS I used, I set to not let my computer go to sleep ever. Surprisingly, I have returned every morning to a computer who can’t seem to wake up. Although a hard reset fixes the problem, it is still really annoying. There is a long thread on the forum on this issue, and people seem to be having this problem when an external HD is connected to the computer. This is a temporary solution posted by a user named Sonicjay: