I was walking through a not so busy area in Paris yesterday when I noticed the above plaque next to a billboard advertisement for coffee. Here’s a translation:
??You are in front of an interactive advertisement.??
??To get a free multimedia offer from the brand shown on the poster??
??1. Activate your Bluetooth connection??
??2. Accept the mobile request??
??3. Get your media??
I’ve included below the “gift” below and it was depressingly lame. Just a small digital version of the billboard ad itself. The whole experience does make me wonder about all the fun ways this technology could be used to better advertise other things. Just one idea: What if the advertisement had been for a concert or an album being released? The “multimedia offer” could have been a free mp3 track or something equivalent. Of course, that wouldn’t help for coffee, but there’s always “smell-o-vision”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-o-vision.
Green web hosting
http://alexherder.com, is hosted by "Dreamhost":http://www.dreamhost.com/aboutus-green.html, which, I was pleased to learn is completely carbon neutral. It turns out there there a number of "green hosting options":http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/plethora_of_opt.php out there, and Dreamhost is just part of a growing number of tech companies (see "recent post":http://duenos.net/article/266/AGreenerApple about Apple) with ecological aspirations. Check out Dreamhost's "green credentials":http://www.dreamhost.com/aboutus-green.html or look at all the "other options":http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/plethora_of_opt.php at "Treehugger.com":http://www.treehugger.com/.
Chinese green policy
One of the first articles to run on duenos.net was “this story”:http://duenos.net/article/43/a-different-approach-to-greening-the-countryside-in-china about officials in Fumin, China who went about greening the countryside by spray-painting a bare rock cliff with green paint. At the time the news was so recent that there were no pictures to be found, but here I was combing the “Treehugger”:http://treehugger.com pages and I found one. I just thought I’d post it in the interest of all things funny (in a sad, destructive kind of way).
Move Over Wikipedia
For those of the conservative persuasion, you no longer have to be polluted with “Wikipedian biases”:http://www.conservapedia.com/Bias_in_Wikipedia. “Conservapedia.com”:www.conservapedia.com is a site dedicated to a lower “liberal quotient”:http://www.conservapedia.com/Liberal_quotient {LQ=L/(L+C)}, which defines the percentage of “liberals”:http://www.conservapedia.com/Liberals existing amongst a population. Members proudly submit “reliable” articles “without false claims of neutrality” in order to uphold “certain principles which [they] adhere to.” The following quote details the origins of the site: ??”Conservapedia began in November 2006, as the class project for a World History class of 58 advanced homeschooled and college-bound students meeting in New Jersey.”?? With such a reliable beginning, we can be rest assured that “these top 100 articles”:http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special:Popularpages&limit=100&offset=0 effectively purge liberal thinking. For other info on the conservative movement from “duenos”:www.duenos.net, check out “conservatives with sea legs”:http://duenos.net/article/164/CreationistgroupfundraiseswithAlaskancruise.
Conservapedia has been profiled before on duenos “a long time ago”:http://duenos.net/article/69/conservative-answer-to-wikipedia, although at the time the servers were so overloaded Alex couldn’t learn much. He did produce a funny “screen capture”:http://duenos.net/article/69/conservative-answer-to-wikipedia. Thanks to “QT”:http://www.suntimes.com/news/quicktakes/index.html for the reminder.
¿Quieres Música Latina?
I recently returned a mi casa de México and was introduced to a bunch of songs that I wanted to listen to. Unfortunately, the local “P2P”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2p network for “Lime Wire”:http://www.limewire.com/ doesn’t work all that well if nobody nearby is sharing these songs on their computer. So if you’re cravin’ for latino (or other international) music, try either “E-mule”:http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/general.cgi?l=1 or “Ares”:http://aresgalaxy.sourceforge.net/. Both programs are fairly straightforward and completely gringo if downloaded on English speaking soil. ¿No te gusta música latina? Try the Spanish reggae song “Mis Ojos Lloran Por Ti”:http://big_boy.letras.hostgold.com.br/hospedagemsites/musicas_songs/32506-Mis_Ojos_Lloran_Por_Ti.html by Big Boys. It may start out slow, but it’s popular for a reason.
Wookieepedia: the Star Wars wiki
Not since I first read “Shadows of the Empire”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shadows_of_the_Empire have I been this excited. Like most Star Wars nerds who discover the “expanded universe”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Expanded_Universe, I jumped at all the extra plot anywhere I could find it. Whether it was the “many novels”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Books, the “video games”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Computer_and_video_games, or the “Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_New_Essential_Guide_to_Vehicles_and_Vessels, I had everything.
In fact, I was looking for a specific piece of information today (the planetary location of Incom Corporation, makers of the X-Wing, if you must know) and stumbled upon “Wookiepedia”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page. This Star Wars wiki has absolutely everything. I’m not exaggerating, it really has everything, from “The First Battle of Kashyk”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/First_Battle_of_Kashyyyk_%28Galactic_Civil_War%29 to all the fighters in the “TIE series”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE_series, Wookieepedia is your go-to guide to everything touched by the Force.
Looking for a place to get started? Read about the founding of the “Alliance to Restore the Republic”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alliance_to_Restore_the_Republic (aka the Rebel Alliance). It’ll drop you right into the original trilogy and carry you through to all of the greatest parts of the expanded universe of Star Wars.
A Greener Apple
This is a slightly older story, but I felt I needed to update everyone on Apple’s reaction to the perception that they are “the least green”:http://duenos.net/article/120/greenpeace-releases-latest-green-electronics-rankings computer company. A few weeks ago, Steve Jobs published a position paper laying out Apple’s environmental measures and aspirations. It turns out that, at least according to the very biased CEO Steve Jobs, Apple is not the 5th horseman of the ecological apocalypse. Jobs asserts that Apple is actually leading the way in terms of reducing heavy metals use in computer manufacturing. Apple’s recycling program is also supposedly world class, and the only one to use only US-based facilities for the job.
Is any of this true? I don’t know, but it seems like there’s a lot more research to be done to reconcile Jobs’ vision of his company with “Greenpeace’s”:http://www.greenmyapple.com/.
Facebook launches Marketplace
Could “craigslist”:http://craigslist.com/ be in trouble? Social giant facebook’s new “marketplace”:http://facebook.com/marketplace feature will combine the social function of its site with an internet-based community marketing forum in which individual users can buy and sell anything from each other. Of course, this function is perfect for facebook users who are already self-organized into local city, company, or university networks. By combining the business functions with the social network, facebook could bring even more people into internet bartering/trade, assuring everyone on both ends of the transaction accountability. If you’re a facebook user, check out your local marketplace “here”:http://facebook.com/marketplace and see what’s for sale.
Graphical goodness
http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/ (fakeisthenewreal.org) is full of great maps. For example, the above pictures are to-scale drawings of subway systems in New York, London, and Madrid respectively. More cities can be found at their "world subways":http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/subway/ page. I like it when people reorganize information and maps in new ways. Other cool cartographic remixes found on fakeisthenewreal are "Chicago Mile by Mile":http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/milexmile/ in which one picture representing every square mile of famously grid-like Chicago is shown on the city map, and "Public Schools in Order":http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/ps/ (shown below) in which all of New York's public schools are connected in numerical order.
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Askville, a new website from Amazon
http://answers.google.com/answers/, "Askville":http://askville.amazon.com/askville/CIndex.do?id=5#answers is a community-based general question and answer forum. I found out about it this morning by e-mail from Amazon, and already they have some great questions that have been answered. For example, one person asked "How long does it take to heal a sprained ankle?":http://askville.amazon.com/askville/ClosedQuestionViewer.do?requestId=1502847&avctx=index.greatanswers (it depends on a lot of variables) and this other woman asked "how to brush her cat's teeth?":http://askville.amazon.com/askville/ClosedQuestionViewer.do?requestId=2158075&avctx=index.greatanswers (very carefully). In answer to both questions, the answers seemed very competent, well-researched and not at all flippant (like mine). Also, for added kitsch value, question respondents can link to Amazon product pages for items that could help in solving the question at hand.
Have a few spare minutes? Help someone out by logging onto "Askville":http://askville.amazon.com/askville/Index.do#answers and lend your expertise.