tracking santa

north american aeronautical air defense tracks santas progress across the globe.

the death of architectural criticism

bob the lamp

lamp that reacts to a news feed, good or bad news makes him react differently.

nervous energy bouncing balls script

The Economist will create social networking site

Part of a re think on their digital strategy, The Economist seem to be moving to a networking and conversation based information model. 3 million readers will benefit heavily from this new service.

agency republic christmas lights

get your Christmas message up in lights.

word clock

simon hey's simple word clock is marvelous. Action scripting tips galore here also.

junk the junk

Some one asked me if I recycled my junk mail the other day. I said 'no' they looked at me in that I don't approve manner that eco nazis do these days.

I smugly replied I cancelled my junk mail, by registering for MPS and also stopped all sales calls by registering for TPS at the same time. That way you don't get the problem in the first place.

M/TPS are not widely publicised. I still can't believe that our DM handling houses still take 28 days to take us off their databases when I didn't give them permission to put me on there in the first place. Surely instead of opting out you should have to opt in. When response rates are 1-2% surely there's a better way to have a relationship with your customers, like looking after the ones you have already.

Stockhausen dies Dec 5th aged 79

'push it real good' Salt & Pepper

Another grp94 site for PUSH who also do some nice work out of Florida.

howies

howies have some wonderful illustrations on their site.

sightspeed

New real time video calling, skype have been left behind on this as theirs is still slow and jumpy.
You can also record video calls to reference back to.

Occam's razor

Alistair Beattie sent this around today and it reminded me of John Madea's 'laws of simplicity' and how you really need to boil things down to get to the purist solution.

Sometimes things need to be complex but hidden complexity is always best as long as the user doesn't feel lost at any point in the journey.

group94 are very good

94 are one of the best digital creative shops around. They deserve their fwa hall of fame.

Their CMS is simple and elegant, they understand the use of typography and grids
(rare in the 'centre every menu' school of digital thought) illustrated in their own site and the msk gent site. Just simple things like most of their loading bars are a line that then gets slightly fatter to show progress. Their continuing video excuse for not doing their own site keeps me coming back for more. Make's you want to move to Belgium, well visit it anyway.

lovefilm.com

After being with love film for a year now I can't fault their service. I was skeptical to the quantity and speed of films being delivered but I haven't run out yet and still have 130 plus films cued up.

As my supersize me experiment (i'm watching a film a day on the eat as much as you like tariff) progresses I haven't tired of the 120mins diet of story telling by film. I have only become very picky about what I watch.

Top picks this week. Ozu Vol2 (Record of a tenement gentleman), Grizzly Man, Arvo Part 24 Preludes, This is England and My Architect all good.

elves and stuff and this and that

Cadbury do some joined up thinking for Christmas. Each door on their advent calendars has a secret code that you can crack online. Revealing another game, story or puzzle. If you can excuse the dodgy video, poor brand name dropping in the story and clunky animation (bad action script) the rest is good.

FMCG has been slow to develop proper digital properties Wrigley Candy Stand being one of the exceptions. The power of the 'back of pack' is well used to push people online.

They have used the site to create activities off line which again sees a smarter way to use their site as 'facilitator' instead of as the end experience.

max haus

Virtual decoration, not sure about more DIY than I already have but I love this site navigation and design.

splash up

splashup beta is storming for a browserware piece of basic photoplop. This is basic stuff but will get better with every update. Works really fast from the site.

Batman campaign

NicSpic sent this one. Batman goes down the viral fake site trail.
See the viral garden link here

radio4 books

Are books under threat from online versions?
Mariella Frostrup on Open Book believes not as you can't beat a
real book to read.

Radio 4 arts and drama channel
gets plenty of traffic, but this seems to
create more awareness around books which
must be good for the printed version.