Lee Dunbar

Jun

24

The Round-Up

June 24, 2008

What happens when Google and Disney get together to throw around a few ideas? You get the Walt Disney World Resort available on Google Earth in 3D. The project features over 1,500 fairly detailed 3D models of buildings and attractions in all four theme parks and more than 20 of Disney’s Resort hotels. I had a lot of fun scrolling around — what a great way to allow your guests to move around and explore the park when they are either planning or dreaming if a trip to the most magical place on earth.

Montreal is the first North American city to role out a self-service bike rental system. Users will be able to pick-up a bike at one location for a nominal fee and drop it off at another location which are dispersed around the city.

More search engine election fun. A blogger has launched a Google bomb attack on McCain. The strategy was designed to raise the rankings of negative news stories about McCain. Yes, the same strategy you use to raise the visibility of your organization, can be used by your competitors to raise rankings of negative stories or reviews about your organization, officials, staff, or product. It is a good strategy to continuously monitor your own brand, trademarks and product category keywords. It can be as simple as subscribing to a comprehensive Google news alert.

It also seems that people are messing with page views and video ranking on YouTube. In an effort to make it the most viewed video, a blogger has created a refreshing web site that is increasing the number of views of Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend video.

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Community Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Search Engine Stuff, Web Stuff
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Jun

24

Where is Matt?

June 24, 2008

I am not sure who Matt is, the story on the Stride Gum web site and also on Wikipedia is that he’s a guy that quit his job so that he could travel around the world. And this he does — dancing in some of the most beautiful and interesting places on earth. Not only does Matt dance, he has many guests that jump in and dance with him.

I am not sure if this is real, or just a buzz/viral tool developed by Stride, all I do know is that it brought a smile to my face.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Design Stuff, Funny Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Web Stuff
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Jun

17

Round-Up

June 17, 2008

According to CBC News, 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially but quietly “reclassified” as toxic dump sites for mines. The lakes include prime wilderness fishing lakes from B.C. to Newfoundland. Wonder if swimming in toxic water or catching toxic fish will be ‘experiences’ marketed by the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Genepax, a Japanese company, claims that it has invented a car that runs only on water. In fact, a litre of water will power the engine for about an hour at a speed of 80 km. Add that to the two engines that run on compressed air, and we have some promise for an alternative to fossil fuels.

 

Sony develops green flat-panel TV to woo ecological consumers. So watch your HD hockey and golf with a guilt-free conscience.

Anyone who has purchased a flat-screen TV in the last couple of years has likely been shocked by the price of the Monster Cables that the sales person will inevitably try to talk you into buying. Now, I have found something even one better – a $500 cable from Denon!

Tags: Community Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Jun

17

A long, long time ago I was working my first job after college at an advertising agency. One of the projects I worked on was designing the first ever, and subsequent issues of “Just Fishing”, Big Jim McLaughlin’s newsprint magazine. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of fun and it was great meeting Big Jim. He’s a big man, with a big heart, big stories and a big sense of humour.

Big Jim, recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, faces the toughest battle of his life, and now his old friends at Muskie’s Canada have set up a raffle to assist the big guy in his fight.

“Everybody knows Big Jim and what he has done as an ambassador for fishing,” said Matt Clay of Muskie’s Canada. Four awesome prize packages have been put together with the help of local vendors and are being raffled off at $5 a ticket. Each package is valued at more than $1,200 and each ticket offers a chance to win some great tackle, with proceeds going to help Big Jim with his cancer treatments. It is a small price to pay for a guy who has helped so many in the outdoor community, so I urge you to dig deep.

To purchase a ticket, please call Clay at (613) 723-9234 or e-mail him at mattclay@rogers.com.

Tags: Just Stuff, Sports Stuff
Comments: 1 Comment

 

Jun

17

One of my favourite movies of all time is Stephen Spielberg’s, Jurassic Park. In the movie, Sam Neill’s character, the technologically challenged paleontologist, Dr Grant says, “I think we’re out of a job,” to which Jeff Goldblum’s character, a trendy mathematician quips, “Don’t you mean extinct?”

While  Spielberg included this line in the movie as a reference to a remark Phil Tippett made after sitting with Spielberg to view early tests of CGI animation techniques that would eventually replace all of his go-motion animation, the same fate could have fallen on the full size animatronics built by the legendary Stan Winston, who passed away June 15th after a long struggle with multiple myeloma.

Stan was a lead member, and integral part of Jurassic Park’s design team. His team built the full-size animatronics that he described as being, “A perfect combination of art and technology.” It was actually Spielberg’s original intention to use these full-size dinosaurs throughout the movie, but it became clear early on that this just wouldn’t be feasible.

August 1992, the production of Jurassic Park began in Hawaii. Eager to see how their dinosaurs would perform, the first scene shot featured an interaction between one of Stan’s full-size models — a triceratops — and the characters played by Neill and Laura Dern. “It was important that we either got bloodied on our first day of shooting or succeeded,” Spielberg says, “Thankfully for Stan Winston and his team, it worked wonderfully.” Winston’s full size characters brought an element of believability and level of interaction that could not have been achieved through CGI alone.

I am one of those geeks that actually gets as much, and likely more, enjoyment out of watching the “the making of X” bonus features on DVDs as watching the feature itself. If you ever have the chance, it is a treat to see how the team brought the dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park. Along with other members of the team, Stan Winston shares some great stories throughout. On the T Rex, he shares, “It was wonderful to see this 9000 pound wonder, 40 feet long, acting.” Indeed it was Stan.

Stan Winston was a pioneer, a legend in experience design. He shocked, fascinated and entertained. He has left an impressive body of work that will entertain people for years to come.

From Wired:

“Most recently, Stan Winston Studio devised the suits featured in Iron Man. The movie’s director, Jon Favreau, said Winston brought a “childlike enthusiasm” to his craft.

“He was the king of integrating practical effects with CGI, never losing his relevance in an ever-changing industry,” Favreau said in a statement. “I am proud to have worked with him and we were looking forward to future collaborations. I knew that he was struggling, but I had no idea that he would be gone so soon. Hollywood has lost a shining star.” 

In the wake of Winston’s death following a seven-year battle against multiple myeloma cancer, Aliens producer Anne Hurd told Variety: “Stan Winston never looked at anything as a problem. It was always an opportunity. I never saw him defeatist, regardless of what may have happened. And he had an incredible childlike passion for films and for makeup effects and animatronics.”

Tags: Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Jun

13

Behind the Scenes

June 13, 2008

If you’ve been fortunate enough to see Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot, you know just what a cool experience it is. Driven by live animation technology, the Crush character actually interacts with the audience of “little dudes” and “the big dudes in the back”.

Since seeing the show for the first time, and being the geek I am, I have worked out in my head how they must be creating the live experience for the audience. Now I don’t have to imagine it. Thanks to the folks over at My Take on Disney, I can actually see how it is done.

And here it is for you to enjoy, behind the scenes with Crush:




Here’s a link over to their site … MyTakeOnDisney.com

Tags: Experience Design Stuff, Neat Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Jun

12

I own a lot of music. A lot of DVDs too. I have invested thousands of dollars over the years — if you think about it, you probably have too. The artists, producers, labels, writers have all made their money. Yet, it could be illegal for me to copy the media I have purchased onto a device so I can listen or view it? Seriously!?

An article by CP states that:

“The amendments would also make it illegal to copy a compact disc or DVD to a personal digital device such as an iPod – even if you’ve paid for it – if it involves breaking so-called digital lock to make a copy. People caught hacking digital locks or uploading copyrighted material to file-sharing websites would face penalties of up to $20,000.”

Well here’s my thought. If they are going to make it illegal for me to put my own collection on my device (does the music I already own have this lock?), I might as well download music from P2P sites, right? They are both deemed to be potentially illegal under this bill and one costs me more money than the other. So the value is in the downloading.

More money? That’s correct, more money. Most people don’t know it, but when you purchase blank media in Canada, you are paying a tariff that is distributed to music publishers, writers and performers. Since I am sending money to these people — should some sort of service not be provided? I pay a tax on media, I should be able to download music and place it on this media, no? /sarcasm

Now, potential criminals like me aren’t the only ones who object to this farce. The very musicians whose copyrights are supposedly protected under this bill don’t agree with it.

“But the Canadian Music Creators Coalition slammed the bill, characterizing it as “an American-style approach to copyright. It’s all locks and lawsuits,” according to Safwan Javed, coalition member and drummer for Wide Mouth Mason.

“Rather than building a made-in-Canada proposal to help musicians get paid, the government has chosen to import American-style legislation that says the solution to the music industry’s problems is suing our fans,” said Javed.

The coalition of nearly 200 Canadian acts includes household names Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Broken Social Scene, Matthew Good, Billy Talent, Sloan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sum 41 and Sam Roberts.”

I am often curious how well a number of these collectives and lobbyists really reflect the wants and needs of the people they claim to represent. This is a pretty good indication that there just might be fractions within this collective group.

I think most artists realize that their success is built on relationship-building. Connecting with their fans. Most record industry suits, it seems, feel that success is built upon wringing every single cent out of people (musicians and fans alike), and developing conflict rather than a relationship with fans.

I am all for people getting their due. The writers, artists, producers, labels — they should all get their fair share. But to deny a person who PURCHASES their product the right to copy it to a different device is just asinine.

Anyway, Michael Geist does a much better job interpreting the new law than I ever could.

 

Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Community Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Technology Stuff, Web Stuff
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Jun

3

The Round-Up

June 3, 2008

The City of Ottawa and ZeroFootprint, a not-for-profit corporation, have teamed-up to launch the ottawa.zerofootprint.net web tool that allows citizens calculate their carbon footprint. They also announced that they are developing a special template for festivals and events. In essence, people can calculate their carbon footprint, view tips on how to reduce their footprint and purchase an offset to become carbon neutral. The money paid to ZeroFootprint to offset your carbon footprint will be invested in companies developing green technologies.

Speaking of footprints — in today’s news an image from NASA that appears to be a footprint on Mars.

Scientists believe that we can see into the future — explains optical illusions.

Will Panama disease wipe-out the supply of bananas?

After Toshiba stepped-down (apparently) from the high def format wars, ceding to Sony’s Blu-Ray technology, many thought they were done. Now word out of Japan is that Toshiba is jumping back into the fray with a high-res upgrade to current DVD technology that provides a picture that rivals HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Is this a stroke of genius or stupidity? You could make arguments either way. The reports claim that not only is the technology backwards compatible, but it can also improve the picture of existing DVDs.

A group of students from Ottawa University is taking Facebook to task. The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), as part of a project, has prepared a brief requesting that the Privacy Commissioner of Canada investigate, what they claim, is Facebooks failure to outline how private information is used for commercial purposes.

Tags: Community Stuff, Design Stuff, Just Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Neat Stuff, Technology Stuff, Web Stuff
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Jun

2

When Luc Bourdon took off his jersey, signed it and gave it to a fan as part of the ‘Nucks’ “Jersey Off Our Backs” promotion — no one could have known that it would be the last time. At just 21 years of age, he died tragically in a motorcycle accident last week. Seemingly with the world in the palm of his hands, his bright future was cut far too short because he lost control of his new motorcycle and collided with a transport truck.

Amidst this most sorrowful time, and as more than 2000 people turned out to show their final respects for this Shippagan, N.B., native, news circulates of a considerable act of kindness. The person who won Luc’s signed jersey at the Canucks’ final home game anonymously sent it to Luc’s family. While nothing can relieve the pain of losing your child, I am sure their will be some comfort in having the jersey he wore in his final NHL game.

To the person who sent the jersey to Luc’s family, a thank you for showing what class hockey fans have — and for showing such compassion for the Bourdon family. That’s an example what being Canadian is all about.

Tags: Sports Stuff
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