Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Web - Dubai Demo Camp



Today's the big day, and I can't stop looking at my watch.
For some reason, time is passing too slowly and I feel it is never going to hit 7.30 pm.

Yes, I am excited about DemoCamp Dubai! - Just like anyone who lives in DXB and is a web-junkie would be (It is a mico-SF brought to our doorstep).

This is certainly one of the best initiative/event happening in Dubai. For once, "switched on" developers and entrepreneurs are gathering to showcase their latest work to "switched on" attendees - thanks to "switched on" organizers (I can't but stress on the "switched on" side of things because this is an adjective I rarely use to describe people/places/things in the region).

I personally can't wait to attend the presentations - some projects seem to be very promising. I also am very excited to meet with this crowd, share ideas and thoughts and have interesting "techie" conversations.

Today being the first event, it will hopefully be a success, leading to many more in the future.
Details will follow, post-presentations.

In the meantime, you can check the DemoCamp website for more - Or follow @DemoCampdubai on Twitter for live updates.

Note: This is yet another reason for me to love Twitter even more than I already do - I don't think I would've had the chance to meet @DrBaher , or any of the well hidden talented Dubai tech-people otherwise.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Web - Color chart




Color Chart (reinventing color - 1950 to today) is a MOMA exhibition - going on until the 12th of May.

"This exhibition takes as its point of departure the commercial color chart, an item that openly declares the status of color as mass-produced and standardized."

For those who can't make it to NY, have a look at the site - A very nice experience and beautiful navigation system.

Enjoy!

Via Chris Glass

Google - Spring!


First day of spring, Google style :) - A couple of days late (blame it on Easter break, and the families visiting)

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Thoughts - Happy 1st bday!



Today is this blog's first birthday!
One year of non-sense and fun - and hopefully, some kind of entertainment for the readers (who I thank for their constant support) :)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Random - Made me smile




Note: I can't remember where I got these from, so I can't link back to the source. Please leave a comment/link if you do!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Random - Puppy love, Mahalo style



I'm being a good girl and doing what @JasonCalacanis asked the bloggers to do!
Get an extra dose of puppy cuteness here - and make sure to leave a comment :)

Jason (if you ever get to read this), what are their names?

Web - Do the test



A very nicely done awareness campaign by the Transport for London.
Check it out here.

Note: Tweeted by @Juliaroy. Have a look at her blog!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Web - Mc attack!



An Atari/Space Invaders revival, brought to you by Mc Donald's in Germany.
Sticky and fun.

Have a go at shooting burgers here.

Twitter - 101

I've noticed on the blog's stats that a lot of visitors (mainly the ones logging on from Lebanon) end up clicking on the "Follow me on Twitter" link - But I have yet to see any of the Lebanese fellows register and use the service on a regular basis (as opposed to the UAE, the site is not banned there).

I did a quick country/city search on Twitter to have a better grasp of the situation - The results are kind of disastrous: Lebanon= 41 users, Beirut= 15 users (most of them haven't updated their tweets in months).

Having said that, I felt it was a good opportunity to introduce/give more details about one of my favorite sites:

1- A very comprehensive/cool video explaining Twitter "in plain English" (which was pointed out by the Scoble man himself)



2- A couple of very useful tutorials, posted by @Thomas on his blog:
. Twitter 101
. Twitter tips and tricks

Hopefully, this will be inspiring enough :)

Twitter - 2000



I *proudly* passed the 2000 tweets bar - not that anyone cares.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

SL - On the go



Second Life is coming to your mobile phone!

"Vollee is offering mobile access to Second Life world as an open beta free of charge. All you have to do is pre-register here and if you have a supported handset we will contact you shortly with instructions to get your mobile client. Initial roll-out will be this coming May in the US with more to follow based on pre-registration requests."

More details are available on the FAQ section of the site.

I personally can't wait to test the service - although I doubt it will support the UAE network anytime soon.

Information design - 6pli



6pli viluazises your del.icio.us tags and bookmarks in very funky/attractive diagrams.

There are three ways of viewing the data:

1- Elastic net 3D
It shows tags and bookmarks in a 3-dimensional view. Tags are in rectangles and bookmarks are circles. A list of bookmarks show up on the right when you click on a tag.

2- Elastic net 2D
It is the same principle as the 3-D; the difference is that it is a projection of the 3-D view onto a flat plane.

3- Circle 2D
It arranges tags and bookmarks into their del.icio.us bundles. Each circle is divided homogeneously and the radius of the circle can me manually modified.

The site is still in demo version. You can send an email request to set-up an account or browse through the list of registered users to have a closer look.

Check it out here.

Via Flowing Data.

Twitter - <3




A marriage proposal on Twitter! - quite original :)

Thank you @DrBaher for tweeting about it.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

SL - Tasteless encounter



No comment - except that SL fashion police should feature this avatar on their *amusing* blog.

Seriously, who runs around Berkman wearing bright turquoise Speedos?

Twitter - Quiet time



Here's another very nicely designed *error/notification* page!
Note the heart preceding "the Twitter team".

Yes, my Twitter love keeps growing day by day.

Google - Achievement #2


I know, it's childish/silly - but the fact that a Googler spent 2 minutes 46 seconds on this blog made me giggle.

Google - Bell logo



Reporting a couple of days late on the Alexander Graham Bell Google logo...
What would he think of the evolution of his invention?

web 2.0 - What is anything?


"Anything is a - fill in the blank - [collaborative magazine] that lets its contributors freely add/edit any image or text to it, as often as they wish. In each of its 64 main pages, there is an area allocated for 1 image (left side) and 1 body of text (right side). Upon registration, each contributor is asked to choose whether they wish to upload image or text, and they are permanently assigned a random page (shared with another contributor)."

The "show me anything" feature randomly combines any of the currently available images and text to create a 'new' page.

As DrBaher describes it, "this is the definition of "Random Fun"" :) - Love it!

Discover Anything here.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Random - What's your debut album?

I was organizing my bookmarks yesterday and hit this link that was shared by "someone" (whose identity will not be disclosed but will definitely recognize himself if he ever makes it to this blog - haha) sometime back.

Made me smile, had to share.
So... Ever wondered what your first album would be if you had a band?
Here's a quick/fun way to find out:

Step 1:
Go to Wikipedia (special) , then click on "random article"
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

Step 2:
Check out random quotations.
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

Step 3:
Go to Flickr and click on "explore the last seven days".
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Here's my *very successful* debut album:

I highly recommend wasting 3 minutes of your precious time on this little exercise - the results might be surprisingly good!

Note: If you end up being curious, I would love it if you could leave a comment and share the results :)

My album cover credits go to Kerry Pringle - who happens to be an excellent photographer.