Umamiblog

Sony has brought out another Colour like no other advert for their Bravia range of LCD televisions. The first, you might remember, involved the launching of thousands of bouncy balls down some of San Francisco’s steeper streets. It was one of my favorite adverts ever and I remember seeing it at a cinema for the first time and being absolutely mesmerised by it. The ad also helped to launch Swede José González with his beautifully acoustic song ‘Heartbeats’.

So how do you follow that up? Explode 70,000 litres of paint all over a rather bland looking residential area In Glasgow. Spend 10 days setting up and filming, then a further 5 cleaning up.

I like it, it exudes the same original and creative thought that the first does. But, I still think the bouncy balls are better

Watch it and decide for yourself – View the Bravia paint ad »

I’ve finally found that MySpace profile that I’ve been talking about and getting all those hits from.

Stefani is a 5’6″ 17 year old Sydneysider with blue eyes and dark brown hair. She likes house/club music (who doesn’t) and her favorite TV show is the O.C.

The image of the vodka jellies strikes again! Maybe I should replace that particular image file with something nefarious (maybe Goatse?) Or maybe I should just stick my blog logo and URL on it, this could tie in well with my 42 Below sponser offering

Retinal warning: prepare to be prepared to gouge your eyes out after looking at this site. Mind you, most MySpace pages are of the same or similar visual appeal as this one.

Stefani’s Myspace profile »

I was in a meeting yesterday with Nick discussing a particular site’s design when the client said “don’t worry about the ‘bee lawgs’ for now, they’re in phase 2″. Of course, not knowing what he meant I started staring at him while my brain was trying to work out what it was.

*SNAP* went my brain as the gears clicked loudly into action. He meant blogs… I just hope he doesn’t think I was being some elitist geek tosser. :-S

There was a big increase in both traffic and visitors in September over the previous month. What surprises me (in a pleasant way of course) isn’t the growth itself but the continued exponential trend I’m seeing. Cool!

The most popular entry written in September was the Visualising data usage entry about those really cool inflatable USB drives. But the most popular entry visited in September was the Inspiring travel video. I still really love watching that video a month later.

Again for September, the biggest referrer to my site was someone’s MySpace profile, I really wish they’d refer in a way that let you see which actual profile or profiles were linking through.

Also again, the most popular search term used by visitors was “vodka” followed in second place by “umami”. Vodka, as far as the eye could see… is the offending entry. I’m seriously thinking of getting in touch with 42Below about that page now

The vodka jellies image on that page seems to get linked to from far and wide, it even makes a guest appearance on this Espanol forum. What are they talking about Pablo (apart from my superb photography skills)?

The ticking time-bomb that is the obesity epidemic, sigh… Check out this delightful (and skinny) website for the American Obesity Task Force. The website serves two purposes, the first is to reinforce the viral campaign with the video paced front and center on the page. The second purpose is to link people to information should they want to know more. I love how the website hasn’t tried to be anything more than that. Brilliant.

The video is more than a little bizarre on first view – what do you think?

Seth Godin points out something I fear we are all too eager to forget. An example:

88% of all users have never heard of RSS.
1% of internet users use Digg on an average day.
20% of the world speaks English.

This is especially relevant to all of you who are (like me) young Wellington IT professionals. We live in a very insulated environment and can sometimes forget how much of this isn’t “normal”. Let me add a few more of my own specific for Wellington:

Wellington has the highest average income of a city in New Zealand.
Wellington has the highest percentage of people with tertiary qualifications.
Wellington has the highest amount of people who walk to work and use public transport.

As Seth points out, the point of this list isn’t to persuade you to give up your new media quest and become another Auckland drone driving your oversized SUV to work. “No, all the growth and the opportunity and the fun is at the leading edge, at the place where change happens.” It’s just worth remembering where you are on the bell curve in contrast to where a lot of other people are. Keep in touch with this side, you have as much to learn from them as they do from you.

Brilliant shot, extremely good at communicating a simple but vitally important idea.

(via)

More on the original photograph at Wikipedia.

The most popular entry written in August was the Inspiring travel video made by the “Where the hell is Matt?” guy. However the most popular entry visited in August were the notes I scribbled down about Rowan Simpson while I was at Webstock back in May. Maybe there was renewed interest in him after his recent presentation at TechEd.

The biggest referrer to my site was someone’s MySpace profile. I wish I knew who’s as it’s definitely not mine

The most popular search term used by visitors was by far was “vodka” which I suspect leads to the entry: Vodka, as far as the eye could see… Maybe I need to see if 42Below are interested in sponsoring that specific page

What (un)usual and (un)interesting stats came up in your blogs for August?

I want you to have a look at this site (Post Expression) for two reasons. Firstly, I like the design and I think you will too. It’s the first time I can remember the use of dark brown and light blue as a colour combo on a website and I think it works well.

Secondly, I want to know your thoughts on the idea behind the site. Leaving multi-media messages in trust for your loved ones seems to me like a really great and touching idea.

It makes me wonder how the site’s owners/operators will feel when their first actual message is released and delivered. Geekish joy at seeing the system working? Sorrow in the knowledge that someone has just lost a loved one? I’d imagine it could play with your mind quite significantly.

In saying that I think it’s a great idea and will be seen as an invaluable service by those who receive last messages of love. I’d say with the 385 messages that have already been created at 19 Euros each, they are well on their way to breaking even. Not bad for two months of operation.

One of the areas of economics that has interested me the most was the concept of Microfinance. Put very simply, they are very small loans (not gifts or grants) that are typically given to individuals who are unemployed and living in poverty in a third world economy who would otherwise not have access to any kind of credit. Wikipedia has more on it here.

Evidence suggests it is an extremely effective method of helping lift people out of poverty via self-employment and putting them in charge of their own destiny. Not only that, it is also suggested that from a financial risk point of view the idea works surprisingly well. Repayments are actually made and in some cases microcredit programmes have lower bad debt/failure rates than traditional banks and lending organisations in those countries. And usually those very same organisations refuse to lend to these people.

Those same repayments are then typically poured into more microloans and thus the process repeats itself.

I had often thought that this type of framework would be excellently served by the internet. A website has the ability to detail, categorise and organise the giving of loans and the receiving of payments. It was an idea that excited me a lot and here are the notes I scribbled down a long time ago on the subject:

* Sponsor real needs
* Categorised on site
* See exactly where it is going
* Actively engaged
* No passive monthly income giving
* Just project, need by need
* Micro-enterprise => micro-donations
* Not committing for any length of tme
* Updated on progress of project
* Has the need been met
* “I helped a 25 y.o. brother pay for his siblings primary school tuition because his parents aren’t alive. It cost me $80.”

I remember at the time thinking if I was ever going to get real about it and take it beyond the idea stage that you would need to partner to an existing organisation operating in these communities.

I am heartened to see that banner being taken up by Kiva. You can view individual cases and donate loan via services like Paypal from as little as USD$25. When that money is repaid, you can reinvest it or take it out. Beautiful, simple and effective.

Just in case you needed, Wikipedia has a list of songs featuring cowbells.

It’s important stuff y’know. More cowbell!

Web 2.0 t-shirts