Thursday, July 19, 2007

Web 2.0 - Flock, the social web browser



I'm quite happy with my latest "discovery" (but I'm also wondering if things are starting to get out of hands)

A social web browser?! Sounds exciting!

As described on the site: "Flock is a free web browser that makes it easy to connect with your friends and express yourself online"

I haven't tested fully, so I'll give my experience feedback later.
In the meantime, you can download your Flock browser here.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Random - Speechless...



... But only because I'm laughing so much!

Google Eau de toilette..
"will help you will find the girl that you are searching for."

There is unfortunately no information regarding the price or the place where it's sold.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Thoughts - EK 953



I really wanted to post something (anything) from the airport - for no specific reasons.

I wanted it so much, that I now find myself stuck at gate 21, waiting for the "technical engineers" to fix the plane. I don't like delays because of technical reasons.

I don't like them at all.

I wonder what the problem is. Overweight? Maybe.. The plane seems to be full.
Anyway, I doubt we will ever know... :)

The wireless connection is not as good as I expected it to be.
Am I nagging too much or what?!

Taz, just in case...Muluwunukuau-fe.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Web - Tiny URL



Twitter is growing on me, and I'm starting to find it quite useful.
By monitoring the public timeline, you can actually come across some fun links that people are posting.

One of them linked to this website, which i find totally brilliant and convenient!

"Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires."

The site's look and feel is not very sexy, but who cares as long as it's functional...
Have a look, it's definitely worth it.

PS: The only thing that scares me is that if so many people are using it, how come I only found out about it today? Am I loosing my browsing/discovery skills??!

Random - Flip me!



¿ʞuıɥʇ noʎ op ʇɐɥʍ 'uʍop ǝpısdn ƃuıƃƃolq ʇɹɐʇs oʇ ƃuıoƃ ɯ,ı
¡uoıʇɐɔılddɐ sıɥʇ ǝʌol ı
¡ollǝɥ

Are you confused?

Check out this really cute/cool application.
You can write anything that you want upside down!

I guess it doesn't have a specific purpose, but it made me smile - and that's good enough, as far as I'm concerned :)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Random - Mega flask



I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this huge flask.

If you ever happened to think "I need a gallon of vodka to go through my day", then you should definitely log on to Orvis' website and buy one - to carry around (and it does contain a gallon of liquid).

I love the fact that the man holding it has a wedding ring. It might be a message directed to all married men out there - haha.

I think I know someone who would want one (and no, I'm not talking about Ezzat... Ms P*nani, you should check my blog more often ;) ).

Buy the flask here, for 198$

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Google - 411 now has maps



Do you remember the 411 business (and the mega depression I went through because of my Voogle lost cause?? - No?! No hard feelings, I wouldn't expect anyone to remember anyway - haha)... Well, it's back.

Memory booster:
"Google 411 is a free telephone service that lets you search for businesses by voice and get connected to those businesses for free."

Google announced on their blog that the service now offers a new feature: "Just say ‘map it’, and you’ll get a text message with the details of your search plus a link to a map of your results right on your mobile phone.”

I find it quite brilliant.
I just wish they would give me a call so I could tell them how to push things further.
I still don't understand why the mobile services are not linked to the web services.

I would like to have the same info sent to my Google account as well (if I have an account then my phone number is listed in my profile and the system recognizes it), just so I can store it and organize it for future reference. People have a tendency to delete sms messags in their inboxes after a while.

Hmm... Whatever. I know.

Thoughts - The magic number



I'm kind of excited!
100 users actually took the time to log on this blog and read my non-sense.

I hoped to know everything about this special 100th person thanks to my tracking tool, but unfortunately, no specific info was captured (except that it was a Facebook referral).

I was disappointed for a second, then I got over it - haha.

P.S: Sitemeter is a very cool tracking tool, and I highly recommend it if you're looking for one .

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Google - Grand central



Google just acquired Grand Central, "a web-based voice communications platform that helps you manage all your phones and phone numbers through one simple interface".

The service lets people use a single number for all their phones.

"GrandCentral users can also create a single mailbox, accessible over the Internet, for all their phone messages, Google said on its Web site.

Exciting!!

Click here for more details

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Thoughts - Coffee with myself (© DiablogCafe)

I am not done yet talking/writing.

I need to get a couple of other questions out of the way, so I am interviewing myself:

Q: "So, how come you decided to shift to the other side???!!"

A: I've always been a geeky art director, passionate by the architecture of sites, and the techniques used to build them. I got to a point where I stopped perfecting my design skills.
A point where I was so good at what I was doing, I would always design "the safe way".
And I never wanted to learn flash.

I am not creative director material, because I lost the passion for design. Not design in general (I will never loose that and I spend hours looking at everybody else's work!), but MY designs.

In parallel, I never stopped being curious. About everything: the trends, the technology, the analysis, the metrics, the new stuff.

So I decided that it was time for me to follow my dream, change careers, and have some young talented person replace me as an art director.

Q: "Don't you think you'll regret it??!!"

A: NO. Not at all. And the beauty of it, is that I know I'll have great power point presentations as a planner, because I'll have pixel perfect slides, with really cool looking graphs and colors :)

The only thing I will miss is cracking the content and architecture of never ending complex portals. But we never know, I might do it again soon.

Q: Will you be up to it?

A: I took the challenge, and will fight hard, learn/teach as much as I can, give it all I have to be the best, no matter what and make a difference.

Thoughts - So... what do planners do exactly??!



Today is my third official day at Lowe, as a Channel Planner, my dream job (well, for the time being at least, until I hit silicon valley for some hardcore web stuff - which might actually never happen, and will definitely be a huge loss for Google, Wikipedia ;) and the rest).

For anyone getting into the advertising business today, the new buzzword is "Channel Planning".

And I am one of the very few lucky people in the region who were chosen to be trusted with the title on their business cards. Yeeey!

So let's get it out of the way... What is channel planning?
I don't have a proper definition, but I'll give it a shot anyway: it's about deciding what are the best relevant channels of communication that should be used to support a traditional advertising campaign, and coming up with fun ideas (online, one-to-one, mobile, new media etc..).

So it's about browsing, reading, keeping up with the trends, tickling my brain beyond its potential and engaging consumers with the brands, in a different way.

I LOVE IT.

I promise I'll post a real description when I have one, but this should do in the meantime.

It just hit me.. Does that mean I'll have to start posting "planning" news as well??

Monday, July 2, 2007

Thoughts - Did you think this blog was shutting down?

If you did, well you were wrong.
I was on a blogging sabbatical.

June was quite an intense month.
Saying goodbye to the Arc/Leo Burnett family was hard, but friendship is friendship, regardless of the geography.

I discovered for about two weeks and a half the joy of doing nothing.
Doing nothing: a concept I had completely forgotten about.

I wasn't really doing nothing... (I was doing what "normal ppl" do):
Going to the pool, baking cakes, buying shelves from Ikea, reading litterature books as opposed to technical/business ones.

My brain didn't completely shut down; I was keeping up with the trends online, I just wasn't posting them.

Lazy Geek...

P.S: I would like to thank all the visitors who kept my Labbit pet entertained while I was - virtually - away.