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ComputerTan Viral

How many people spend hours behind the computer screen. I do, but I also face a window so I get some sun during the day as well. (Speaking of which I really need to clean my window. Very dirty.) In any case REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY has now allowed computertan.com to give people tans by a computer monitor! Actually it is a viral for Skin Cancer in the UK, but funny none the less. Go see how many friends download the iPhone app or try it out. I'm going to the park down the street to get some vitamin B, but I will put on some lotion first.

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PowerPoint Karaoke

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/files/images/ppt_karaoke_0_0.png Have you played PowerPoint Karaoke yet? Ok this is one for the real nerds and geeks. The rules are simple. 1. Have a powerpoint or slideshow that no one knows yet. 2. A presentor tries to present the Powerpoint or Slideshow and make a coherent (and often humoruos) presentation. 3. (Optional) Presentor must take a shot after every second slide or other interval for drinking game varioation.

I first saw this played at Kinnernet09. I realised this is an excellent game to use in my presentation techniques course at the HKU. Unfortunately there is a lack of powerpoints created for Powerpoint Karaoke. so I had my students make a bunch of them. Here is a whole slew of free Karaoke presenations that you can use with your friends or co-workers that they made. Just click on one of the links and start playing.

Free Karaoke Powerpoints online: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16220300/postit http://www.slideshare.net/bartArtist/cats-and-rubbish http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=AuYcrjFv2QM%3d http://www.slideshare.net/wallece/explanation http://www.slideshare.net/pyrojester/barney1 http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=31l6lZZ7GNY%3d http://www.slideshare.net/kiwein/what-if-1548745 http://www.slideshare.net/job.jutten/karaoke-job-jutten-1548431 http://www.slideshare.net/Jajaben/dieet http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=rEiUri5sSZg%3d http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=ib8OupLbxdU%3d http://www.slideshare.net/guest08c0aca/presentatie-gabe-v-liesther http://www.slideshare.net/cedecode/sokken http://www.slideshare.net/rajivkrijnen/karaoke-rajiv http://www.slideshare.net/ramirpascal/guess-the-conmnection http://www.slideshare.net/Rikderooij/toes-they-carry-us http://www.slideshare.net/Hobsbawm/tony-victorian-dvtg2 http://www.slideshare.net/trancilian/10picstory http://www.slideshare.net/eric423/bussen-buschauffeurs http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=54E8a2F7zbg%3d http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=CQ8oxveTF%2bk%3d

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GAMES GAMES GAMES!!!

Next week I am attending the HKU Design for Virtual Theater and Games EXPO in Utrecht at the Huis aan de Werf. It will be a great show on June 18 and 19. Don't miss it!

For an example there are a couple free games to try out that some of my students made. Felisberto de Brito has made eggCademy and Ziggy Naumann has made Hotel Luma. Both are in the running for the Festival of Games 2009 award from the NLGD. Go and check them out if you can't handle the humpday this week. Enjoy!

UPDATE:

Felis just emailed me that he has an english version of his game online to enjoy. http://eggcademy.com

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Toy Story 3 Teaser Pixar History

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

I admit I was excited to see the Toy Story Teaser from Pixar. I'm just a huge animation fan, and Pixar is one of the most amazing stories in animation. It started out as a research group with George Lucasinside ILM. Because Lucas was getting divorced he had to sell some stuff from his empire, and the research group (which was looking into computer generated animation techniques) was one to go. Steve Jobs stepped up then and bought the company. Actually Ross Perot almost bought it first. When Pixar was finishing on Toy Story, Jobs, who had a lot of free time on his hands and was going through a bit of a crisis after Apple and Next, became slightly obsessed with the project. To his name, he struck a 3 picture deal with Disney, but more importantly made sure that the Pixar Leader came in the opening credits . This created Pixar as the name in 3D animation when Toy Story was released in the early 90's. So much so that other movies following that used 3D animation, such as Dream Works, were in the public's eye attributed to Pixar. Good branding. If you would like to read more about that part of Pixar's history, you should check out the book The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. But he was a real tyrant as well. He almost moved the Pixar animation Studio acros the state so that his commute for the meetings would be shorter. This in the final months of production with a huge deadline, and the first time a 3D Full Length Feature was ever created by Pixar. Luckily this didn't happen.

Seeing as today John Lasseter is now running Disney Animation (Principal Creative Advisor), it will be very interesting to see how this movie comes out.

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It's Caturday!

Today is Caturday, so I figured I just post a bunch of awesome Cat pics. At least it will cheer me up over the whole Twitter ordeal.

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A bike ride to Guggenheim in bilbao

video by Amsterdamize

Last month when I went to moderate a session about online video in Bilbao for the nonick conference. the day after the conference, Marc from Amsterdamize and I rented a couple bikes from the hotel to go explore the city. This video Marc edited as a part1 of that wonderful day we had together. I know he is working on more, with some fun action shots through Bilbao, but this sets a nice tone for the day.

If you do goto Bilbao, I highly recommend checking out The Guggenheim Museum. Besides being an amazing building, I really loved the exhibitions they had there. Marc and I spent close to 4-5 hours in the museum hanging around and checking out the work. At the moment they have some amazing Video Art pieces that you can sit and literally loose yourself in for hours. If you were not stoned before going in, the effects of these films will transport you to that state. Then head up to the top floor to see Murakami. An awesome artist that has been highly influenced by popular culture in Japan such as Anime, Manga as well as traditional artists. If you are into Anime, contemporary art or Asian culture, this exhibition is for you!

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Free Audiobooks for summer

LibriVoxImage via Wikipedia

Many of you may be planning a vacation, or maybe staying around town for vacation. One thing I love during vacations or long drives is audiobooks. It's nice to listen to podcasts, but sometimes a nice audiobook for a longer period is better. Although you can buy many audiobooks on Amazon and Audible.com, there are a lot of FREE audiobooks at LibriVox. Also great for you students who have to read some books over the summer! Have a look, and have a listen. It is opensource, so that means if you really like a book, you could create an audiobook from it as well (as long as it is public domain). Yes that is the catch. Only public Domain books, but there are quite a lot of classics amoungst them. Enjoy!

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Trip to see Nuno and Nikki

Nuno and Nikki in Waterloo - 04 by you. While at Webcom, I added a few days to stay the weekend so I could see my good friends Nuno and Nikki. I love those 2! When I arrived Nuno and I promptly started geeking out and catching up on the latest apps and tricks about vlogging, internet, and also talking about life. He talked about selling his place, staying in Waterloo, how google is moving there, and things are starting to pick up again.

Nuno and Nikki in Waterloo - 08 by you.Nuno and Nikki in Waterloo - 12 by you.

Within a few hours of arriving we hit the pub where we met up with some of thier friends, and then hit a club. Lots of drinks, lots of dance, lots of fun, which eventually ended in an afterparty at Jenn's place (a friend of Nikki's). It was absolutly hilarious fun time. At one point people huddled onto the couch and started listening to all the stories I was telling about Hollywood, New York and Europe. Real fun.

Nuno and Nikki in Waterloo - 56 by you.

Next day we hit the Diner where Nuno and Nikki met. Nuno read his comics, then we started making drawings, chilling talking, then someone ordered 2 Godfather Burgers. OMG! These things were massive! As you can see very only 40 something people have actually finished this massive burger. It reminds me of the steak in the movie "The Great Outdoors". when I asked if they had to finish the fries as well, Jenn said, "We let that slide nowadays. But I will tell you that it seems to be asians that always finish it. LOL?"

That night we initiated Nikki to The Big Lebowski. Halfway through we got hungry so Nuno and Nikki took me to Harvey's and gave me this complete artery clogging meal. Delicious!

The next day I drove back to Montreal and caught my flight back to Amsterdam, but I relived every moment the 2 days before. So much fun, such good ideas, Thanks Nuno and Nikki! U 2 ROCK!!

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ATTN Universal Music Group, Lady GAGA wants 2 be Open 2 Viral!

I really loved the new campaign that Universal Music Group has put out. It starts with a segment from Lady GaGa "Poker Face". When you see the video on youtube it explains very easily that you must try to play the game. What is the game?

Watch 20 sec. of Universal Music Videos of artists and answer a trivia question of what you saw.

There are some great roots in the Viral and I suspect that the agency saw some viral hits like this awareness test video.

Test Your Awareness: Do The Test

Did you enjoy that? UMG feels it can capitalize on that idea and sell records. Great, do it. However It would be a HELL of a lot easier to spread this if they allowed people to at least embed the first video (the entry level) onto thier blogs, facebooks, etc. I'll put it in old school marketing terms for ya UMG so you understand. The first video in this sequence of interactively linked Youtube videos which create a game needs to have a point of entry. Not just people search Lady GAGA on youtube. Allow the mebed and it turns into an old school banner! You will not endanger the copyright more, you will not be loosing out. You will gain by opening up. Of course I admit I am proud of you for taking these first steps. Very good, you have your training wheels on now. Time for dad to take them off and push you down the hill. What are you afraid you will get hurt UMG?

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Baby, Baby, Baby

So people think it is strange that I dance out on the street in the middle of the morning. If you do, then you must not be French. Check out this music video for "Make the Girl Dance". Although I am rather disappointed that none of the girls actually dance. Even still, I suspect it will go Viral. Why? Viral Recipe for Video: 1 shot Simple VFX of um... tracking... (I wonder where the uncensored version is) 3 naked women A juxtaposition of reality Plus I think I saw Tony Hawk's name there somewhere

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