Google’s new browser - quietly launched on the holiday Monday of a long weekend - brought about a few concerns from the blogging public - most of the “Google is Big Brother and the new browser is going to track everything single keystroke and thought we make from now on” variety.

But it seems ok from where we stand. I mean - what does Google not know about you at this point anyway? They seem to want to know everything about internet users searching. And maybe they do - but… so what? I don’t live my entire life on-line… If the best thing they can come up with is how to more effectively sell me something that I might actually buy… then maybe it’s not such a bad thing…

I don’t know. Chris likes the way it renders pages with flash and that’s good enough for me to like it - but until it has all 15 webmaster extensions that I have plugged into Firefox, it doesn’t really do me any good.

I thought it was funny how it came out close to another “End of the World” type event though - the Hadron Super-Collider is going live Wednesday!

I for one am excited to see what kind of data comes out of those experiments. I have always understood physics as another form of poetry - basically - we are describing and understanding the things around us in new ways. If the super-collider works and they can produce ‘big bang’ type environments - the information coming out of the experiments could advance physics in such a way that the language in which we speak of and understand our universe might advance.

All physics as we know it could be likened to poetry in the days of strict rhyme and verse.

And the fears that it will cause tiny black holes that could swallow the earth and everything around it? I don’t think its possible. We don’t have the knowledge to create that kind of power yet.

Now if Google started building a super-collider… then I would be worried…

posted by M. Nedell 9-08-08

We love the Smart is Sexy campaign from the UVM Room- Check out this Mission Statement

“Smart is Sexy� celebrates the inner beauty and confidence that comes with the pursuit of knowledge. We feel that there’s nothing more beautiful than recognizing your potential. We define a student as anyone who takes learning into their own hands. The idea of intelligence as being sexy came from three college students who wanted to spread the word that being smart is something to be proud of.

Here is a link to the facebook group.

And here is a link to another blog entry about Smart is Sexy.

I am all about the pink shirt too. Personally, I think they should have had a pocket so I could show off my pocket protector with style.

posted by M. Nedell 7-22-08

Sure - It took me all of 45 seconds to break the newest challenger to Google - cuil.com - which was built by some ex-Googlers and boasts being the World’’s largest search engine. So - like some blogs have already mentioned - Cuil isn”t so cool.

But - hey - it takes time to get cool. Fonzie didn”t ride a motorcycle until he was like what… 12…

And hey - you can”t be cool forever. At one point the Fonzie character was cool . Put him next to Jay-Z now-a-days though… So let’s try to remember that when we speak of Google’’s cool factor.

What is - might not be what is - later on down the road. Google wasn’t even around however many years ago - the internet is still in diapers - so while 40000 bloggers are rushing to jump on the bandwagon of denouncing the next Cuil thing I would like to kick back and say hey - be cool… give it a couple of years… coolness on the web is not a factor easily measured out of the box - especially when the box is placed next to the main industry goliath.

And I do like the black screen. If the Internet went all black for a week I think we would save 2 billion killowatt hours… On predominantly black screens… “Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.” Roberson et al, 2002

posted by M. Nedell 7-22-08

Seth Godin is a genius. I know I”m not alone in thinking that, but nearly everything the guy writes seems to have a revolutionary tone to it, as if to say, “this is the way things are, but why aren”t we thinking about them in this way instead?”

On his blog, Seth announced a while back that he was looking for interns to work for him this summer (if you”re in college and interested in anything related to marketing or media, you”d be nuts not to look into it). His post two days ago leads me to believe hes getting a lot of run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter resumes with nothing really tangible to them. No meat and potatoes.

He basically states that we live in an world where the people reading your resumes are so saturated by uniformity that to get noticed you have to break the mold. You have to hook them before you can show them what you can do and unless you can do that, you”re dead in the water.

In his post, Seth asks if you don”t have something special to show why you”re different from the competition, why should anyone else think you”re remarkable? A great question that seems to get down to the core of what we do in every facet of our work for a client. You have to set yourself apart from all others to get ahead. This includes everything you do for marketing, including your organization’s blog.

I see blog after blog from organizations around the world attempting to market themselves by talking about their new product and how they “get it” over the next guy who is trying to sell you the same thing. What I continually find is that they really don”t “get it” at all. What they get is that “blogging is ”in” right now.” They don”t seem to comprehend that blogging for the sake of blogging could actually hurt the way people feel about the authenticity of your organization.

To me, its a distress signal when I see an organization blogging about something that isn”t compelling. It shows me they need help. If you”re blogging and its not of any importance to anyone outside your organization (and maybe not even people within your organization) it is time to put the keyboard down.

We live in a world where people are so web-savvy and media-saturated that they can spot a fake without taking much more than a glance. Never forget how much competition there is out there. You may only have one chance to make an impression. Keep this in mind before you hop on the bandwagon of “the next big thing” that comes along.

Don”t put up videos on youtube just because your competitor did; don”t launch a facebook page just because you know your core audience spends most of their day friending and poking people; and most importantly, don”t blog unless you have something worth saying. Its a waste of your customers time, it makes you look careless, and like a standard resume on a heavy stock paper, it tells people you”re just like everyone else: easily forgettable.

Be different. Be compelling. Know you’re who you”re trying to sell to and make them want to know you in return.

posted by D. Mason 3-19-08

I spend a bit of my brainpower figuring out the design challenges that lay ahead for me. For me, web languages are like building blocks, and the challenges that come with making dynamic and fluid websites becomes a matter of weaving and joining these languages together in seamless interaction to reach the goal - all while working within a set of semi-flexible and changing parameters.

The other part of my brainpower is spent thinking about making structural art forms for my various artistic hobbies .

The long and short of this is - people send me links to various awesome design projects. These are the two that have me enthusiastic this week. Shouts out to Colleen and Steve!

This is Theo Jansen’’s “Strandbeest” - or “Beach Beast”. He wants to build many of these and have them ”living” on the beaches.

How awesome is that!

Next is the Cardboard design innovation of Bloxes. These things are interlocking cardboard fun. Mega-Legos for the office set.

These different ideas do have something in common. The Beach Beast is built of many parts, but the many parts are similar. The bloxes too are built that way - six sides, but only one “shape” of cardboard makes the intricate blox. This design philosophy is similar to the recent thoughts I have been having with different programming languages. Now… with all this awesome design integrating into my thoughts… back to building the internet!

posted by M. Nedell 3-13-08

People take in a LOT of information these days. Think of how many different images and words you are exposed to in a day – from magazines to web banner ads to text messages, everybody’s got something to say. To keep from being overloaded by these messages, many times we will “tune them out�, especially if it is a message we feel we have identified previously.

Bearing that in mind, when it comes to Press Releases, you are essentially competing with a lot of different messages in many forms. Since the ultimate goal is to get your release published or at least noticed, here are a few tips of how to leverage what you do have on your side to hopefully get some buzz generated.

1. Get to the point – quickly. Make your point in the quickest, clearest way. Boil down the information to its essentials, and then arrange it so it makes sense. A press release is not the place for clever or flowery language, unless you have the rare skill of writing with brevity and wit. Save the commentary, opinions and clever observations for your blog – like I am!

2. Avoid Jargon. You know what you mean, and I may know what you mean, but the general public may not. A large part of boiling things down means to put them in terms that most will easily understand. Using confusing jargon is an easy way to lose a reader. Many people have access to and read press releases that have not been filtered by the media. Keep this in mind.

3. Make it Timely. Modern culture moves at the speed of light. What’s interesting to a reader one day will change the next. Keep your releases as current as possible. A good way to get into this habit is to write press releases on a consistent basis, even if you don’t feel like it is news. You never know what will be published, and this will keep you in the practice of completing releases in a timely manner.

4. The Web is your friend. The Web is not only your friend; it’s the dependable friend that you can call for a ride home. Most everyone uses it on a near-daily basis, space is unlimited, and many times you can control the content. What a great tool! Leverage this as much as you can by writing releases that contain keyword-rich copy and placing links in releases to deliver potential customers to landing pages on your Web site. Another idea to consider is adding social media tags to the release, such as DIGG, del.icio.us, and Technorati, to enable your release to be found easier on the web.

So in short: get to the point, make it clear, make it timely and leverage the web.

Good luck!

posted by K. Viles 1-12-08

The question is not “Is print dead?�

Steven Heller got bummed out about more folks reading news online, not in print. But when I checked this out at Editorandpublisher.com, I found that, at least in mid-2006, more people were reading news online, but spending less time online than they did with a newspaper, TV or radio.

Just an aside, since its existence, TV has trumped print.

What combination of print and digital marketing is most effective?� is the question. And the answer is different for everyone.\r\n\r\nThe fact is, an integrated marketing strategy is essential. Print and online efforts must both be used in order to mirror how modern people live modern life. These efforts must find people in the right places, as well as be in the right form, to get a response.

According to a Deloitte survey , “…People across all generations are using multiple channels – traditional and online media – to source the information they want or need,”

People still have strong connections to newspaper reading in their favorite armchair, clipping coupons for local stores. Kids read kid’s books. Professionals hand out business cards more than they scratch their 411 on napkins. And product packaging wraps the consumer in an experience unparalleled by anything online.

As long as we’re human, and as long and we have our senses, we will emotionally respond to the tactile.

That said, online can cover a limitless space and strengthen the reach of the product’s reputation. But increasingly, it had better be surprising and new, and preferably integrated into a tool for research, information, news or social networking. Or be a funny video.

We’re talking about two animals here. Both can benefit from working in tandem, and neither one is going away.

I was once at a lecture given by Bridget DeSocio of the design studio SocioX . At the conclusion, she was asked “Is print dead?� to which she replied, “When I eat pixels for breakfast, print will be dead.� Inspired, I went up afterwards, thanked Bridget and asked for a job. Got it.

posted by M. Wamsganz 1-15-08

We strive towards having a green office. We talk about how we can reduce, reuse, recycle. We suggest (and use) recycled paper for our print work. We are housed in a re-purposed building with southern-facing windows. Many of us ride bikes when we can. I am not sure having plants is ”green” or not, but we do have a few plants and they do add quite a nice feeling to the office.

Chris had set up all our machines to make use of the XP power settings and we wanted to share those with the green-striving world. I am including the OSX settings as well. Even though we are a mostly pc environment, Tom and I are not giving up our Macbooks any time soon. Both OS X and XP offer a variety of features to reduce power consumption and save energy. Power consumption is not only important because it saves power, but it can prolong the life of your hardware as well. For laptop owners, power consumption helps to prolong battery life. Both operating systems support putting the computer to sleep and waking on network activity. They also support uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and can display estimated capacity. For the networked world this is becoming increasingly essential. In the event of a power loss, the UPS kicks in to supply the computer with power for enough time to shut down. Some can even supply the computer with a few hours of power.

Windows XP

Energy settings for XP are found in the Control Panel under “Power Options.”

Under the “Power Schemes” tab, you can select, create, modify, or delete power schemes. The following default schemes are available: * Home/Office * Portable/Laptop * Presentation * Always On * Minimal Power Management * Max Battery “Portable/Laptop” is available on all computers — including desktops. This is in case you want to take your desktop on the road. I am kidding. You can create and save multiple power schemes.

Create multiple power schemes for different situations Users can set when to turn off the monitor, hard disks, or standby/hibernate the system. These options are pre-defined, however; the user cannot set custom amounts of time for these events. If you have a laptop, you can set separate times for battery and AC power for turning off the monitor, hard disks, system standby, and hibernation. The Advanced tab gives the user options on whether to show the power icon in the taskbar (useful to show battery life), prompt for a password when the computer resumes from standby (although it only does so if fast user switching is disabled — otherwise, it displays the Welcome screen), and what to do when power buttons on the computer or keyboard are pressed (Shutdown, Standby, Restart, Hibernate, Do Nothing).

Configure advanced power options for your XP machine The “Hibernate” tab allows the user to enable XP’’s zero-power mode, called “hibernation.” Hibernating will save the state of everything currently open, and then shut down the computer. When returning from hibernation, XP will return to the state it was in previously, with all open windows and programs available as they were. Hibernate functions essentially the same way as sleep or standby; the difference is that it fully shuts the computer down instead of just putting it into a low-power state. Since the computer is literally turned off in this state, you can unplug it, move it to another location, and turn it back on without having to boot up again.

The UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) tab allows you to monitor your UPS status and configure its settings. XP can be set up to communicate and execute commands with the UPS.

Click “Configure” (if you have a serial connection to the UPS) to set up these options. You can configure XP to notify the user, execute an application, or shut down the computer when the UPS switches to battery power or the internal battery is getting low. You can even set up a convenient optional delay, so if the UPS kicks in for only a few seconds and then returns to AC power, your configured actions will not run.

Here are the short-cuts for the power settings

Shut Down (prompts to save documents) Control-Option-Command-Eject Power key, or press Windows key-U-U Restart (prompts to save documents) Control-Command-Eject Windows key-U-R Sleep Command-Option-Eject Windows key-U-S Hibernate Not Supported Windows key-U-Shift+H Dialog to choose Shut down, Restart, Sleep, or Cancel Control-Eject Alt-F4 or Power key (if you modify that key) Windows XP , with its superior UPS power options and ability to hibernate in addition to sleep, rocks pretty hard. Mac OS X, however, does directly support scheduled start up and shut down times, which XP users will need to configure through their computer’’s BIOS (if it is supported) — not nearly as elegant - which is the age-old Windows/Mac issue. These issues start to cross over into hardware, so let’s not get into that here.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X’’s Energy Saver pane of System Preferences contains two tabs: Sleep and Options.

The “Sleep” tab allows you to place the computer, display, and hard disk into a low power mode to conserve energy. Drag the sliders to configure when the computer/display enter sleep mode. Cleverly, OS X will notify you if your display is set to sleep sooner than when your screensaver would activate (which would negate the point of having a screensaver). The “Options” tab contains more advanced power settings for your computer, such as waking from sleep for network administration; restarting after a power failure; or adjusting CPU performance. Clicking the “Schedule” button in the lower right-hand corner of the preference pane lets you schedule automatic start up and shut down times for your computer.

T

urn your computer off and on automatically

If your computer has more than one power source (power adapter, battery, or UPS), you will see a “Settings for” menu that will allow you to customize your energy settings (sleep, CPU performance, etc.) for each source. This lets you specify, for example, different energy settings for when your laptop is plugged into its power adapter versus when it is running off its battery.

Customize your energy settings for each power source If your computer has a data connection to a UPS, the Settings For menu will display a “UPS” item. Choosing this option allows you to configure power options specifically for your UPS device.

At the bottom of the window is a checkbox labeled “Show UPS status in the menu bar”. If this is checked, a small icon will appear on the right end of the menu bar at the top of the screen indicating the amount of charge remaining in the UPS (this menu item will combine with the battery menu item if both are set to display). This laptop’’s battery has 96% of its charge remaining, while the UPS is at 100% Laptops get an additional menu option in the Energy Saver panel: Optimize Energy Settings. These are energy profiles you can quickly switch between depending on the circumstance: Optimize Energy Settings menu

We hope this helps with your green efforts!

posted by M. Nedell 12-9-07

I have been a fan of commercials for as long as I’ve been watching television. And ever since I have been working on the web I have been a big fan of commercials that direct users to a web-based experience. Nowwhat.com, or Taco Bells’ ‘fourthmeal.com’ are good examples. I am not in the market for insurance, or a late-nite taco meal, but the commercials did their job; I went to the site and checked out the experience.

\r\nWhile the amount of brand reinforcement had a negligible effect on me, I did like the sites. They were providing a fun and educational way to get to know more about their products. Cool. I get it.

Then I saw the commercial for WhopperFreakout.com. The commercial points out that people will ‘freak out’ if Burger King stopped selling the whopper. Why would they stop selling the whopper, you ask. It is, after all, the ‘Home of the Whopper’. It made me ask the same question. And while I didn’t exactly “freak out�, it did, I suppose, do what the commercial intended for me to do - make me think about the whopper sandwich. The people on ‘Whopper Freakout� did exactly what the commercial implies though. They freaked out! And it’s a pretty funny video… and they all seemed to ask the same question as I did. Why would you not have the Whopper when that is, basically, your brand. Again, that’s what they want to make us think about. The strength of the Whopper. It’s an unusual but effective way to get people to think about something they know so well they might take it for granted. And it has that viral quality BK’s ad team is famous for - not only in the online world of sharing the video, but in people ‘buzzing’ about BK’s marketing technique.

While the amount of brand reinforcement had a negligible effect on me, I did like the sites. They were providing a fun and educational way to get to know more about their products. Cool. I get it.

posted by M. Nedell 12-19-07