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I wasn’t at the Le Web 3 conference partly because I thought it was made up and partly because I didn’t win a free ticket and return business class flight from New York to Paris by trying to convince the organiser I ‘needed’ a ticket in his ‘make-me-beg’ competition. It should be noted I live in London.

It seems I missed Philippe Starck talking about vaginas and furniture and using the phrase ‘90% sheet’. I have a Starck chair aptly named Eros, it’s broken and is nothing like any vagina I’ve ever experienced and why are you talking about the web Philippe? Perhaps because I am now talking about furniture!

Evan Williams, ex of Blogger and now the anointed of Twitter used this phrase when talking about how Twitter came into being:

What can you create by taking things away?

He’s not talking about Friday nights tikka masala. He’s talking about design and functionality and it should be a mantra all interactive technologists tattoo on their private parts and admire whilst sitting in unstable perspex tub chairs.

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Tis the nearly week before Christmas and all through the night Fat Men blog mischief and the odd seasonal fright.

(normal service will resume in due course)

Slap a ‘brought to you by St Nicks Acme Decongestant Lozenges’ dodge the lawsuits from Lucasfilm and sit back and let things go a sinus clearing superviral.

Got video? Think it’s viral? Get in touch.

Got a brand? Want to go viral get in touch.

Posted in Video | 1 Comment »      

So says 50 Cent (via TorrentFreak):

Q: “How are G-Unit Records doing in these times of file-sharing?

“Not so good….The advances in technology impacts everyone, and we all must adapt. Most of all hip-hop, a style of music dependent upon a youthful audience. This market consists of individuals embracing innovations faster than the fans of classical and jazz music.”

“What is important for the music industry to understand is that this really doesn’t hurt the artists.”

“A young fan may be just as devout and dedicated no matter if he bought it or stole it.”

“The concerts are crowded and the industry must understand that they have to manage all the 360 degrees around an artist. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Bittorrent, Music, New Business Model | No Comments »      

Artist microsites are a necessary facet of any album PR campaign and often a creative example of design virality, sites created to promote debate on design forums and amongst the existent fan base.

Arcade Fire’s, Neon Bible site is great example of clean, engaging functionality, a visual feast and a little hypnotic…’ must buy album, duh duh…’.

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Serial entrepreneur (as in killer, but more social) Loïc Le Meur has come up with 10 rules for anyone wanting to be successful in business, after he learned to break all of the accepted ones himself:

● Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible

● Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.

● Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.

● Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback. Read the rest of this entry »

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From I’m Alan Partridge:

[Alan is having sex]

Alan Partridge: Mind if I talk? It helps me keep the wolf from the door, so to speak [pause] Jill, what do you think of the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre? I’ll be honest; I’m dead against it. I mean, people forget that traders need access to… [aroused] Di-xons! They do say it’ll help people in… [aroused] Wheelchairs!

The future of the mobile web is voice based. Sure the iPhone has a pretty wee keyboard and the most sophisticated delete system I’ve ever encountered. You keep delete pressed down and it speeds up, but stops just shy of the http://… who thought of that? Genius, I want to kiss then, a little bit, and not with tongues. Read the rest of this entry »

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Web 2.0, dreaming of the billions? Er, yes, that’s why I’m writing this! This is so viral you can catch it even if you’re wearing a prophylactic, even two.

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Yup, I love typography. I’ve argued over fontage and lost friends over serifs. I’ve written a song (it’s a cover really) entitled ‘I Shot The Serif’. You’ll never see it on You Tube. Not in my lifetime.

It all started when I was gifted my first pornographic magazine, Mayfair, back in 1986. As I ogled Henrietta, scantily clad enjoying a sailing weekend in the Solent, I found myself drifting towards the unseemly typography and remarking aloud upon it’s lack of originality (it was Gothic I think) and lack of context to the alluring nautical theme.

I’ve moved on and so has typography:

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Monday’s Media Guardian was guest edited by ‘the man who also invented the internet’ Vint Cerf, who it turns out is friends with Biz Stone which leads me to believe I must change my name to something like Slab Barf in order to garner some serious ‘web/app founder/inventor’ attention. I won’t repeat the editorial on Tell Me The Future, but for any self-respecting creative technologist it’s a must read. One line critique: mobile internet, developing world.

There is also an interview with Kevin Rose, Digg founder (’really just an experiment that took off’). He talks about Digg in the future, about how it will learn and be able to make story recommendations based on a user’s history and interests. Great, so given the Digg cabal tend to favour stories featuring Pikachu’s vagina, we can be assured of a varied and informative inbox. Read the rest of this entry »

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