Yet Another year has past and once again, Santa is getting ready for his big night of delivering gifts to all the good girls and boys around the world. Every Year the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) got its best and brightest workers together to ensure Santa’s airspace remains clear and safe. As in past years, the NORAD Santa Tracker has a placed all of the Santa tracking onto Google Earth on your computer and on your mobile device! That is right, there has been an app developed for the Apple iOS and Android Marketplace! As well, there are also videos and other fun games for kids and kids at heart to play in the Countdown Village.
Web
World’s Most Useless Machine
Ah, hackers. This machine is designed to turn itself off once turned on . . . Simple enough; but one enterprising hacker took it a bit further and made it so it would have a fit. Enjoy the World’s Most Useless Machine!
who were the 2010 super ad winners?
Congrats to the Saints for the win tonight, but who was the real winner in the ad war? Well, my opinion may not matter, but what do you think? Even if you didn’t see the game, you can still see the ads at youtube. Below are my thoughts and who i think were the winners this year.
First, I noticed that Sprite and 7up were not in the ads at all this year. Hyundai had a strong showing this year, and there was only one U.S. car maker in the commercials, Dodge (I assume the U.S. government-owned GM needed to spend its money a bit more wisely, so no Cadillac this time.)
Another trend that I piked-up on this year was the one of lifetime progressions. Cars.com, Dove, Dodge, Google and Monster.com all used the lifetime progression to sell their products.
Last thing I thought was that Bud Light seemed to be running on empty. One, there were fewer ads from them and nothing really hit me as great. What did you think?
Now for my winners. Bud Light, Budweiser, Coke and Doritos seemed to have the most ad dollars this year and to me, Doritos (Underdog), Budweiser (Bridge), Doritos (Snack Attack Samurai), Hyundai (Brett Favre), Coke (Hard Times), Budweiser (Fence) were clear winners. And for the loosers . . . Boost Mobile, Go Daddy, Taco Bell and 2010 Census (thanks for spending my money wisely though).
Please note that I did not consider any CBS or Movie ads in my thoughts, although the Leno, Oprah, Letterman ad was a good laugh.
In all, the days of crazy, great ads like the lat 90’s really seem to be over with. Please feel free to share your thoughts. What were your favorites and the ones you pan—and were you really offended by the Focus On Family ad that had Tim Teibow and his mother in it? One thing for sure is i registered to get a free pair of pants. I’ll let you know if I actually won a pair tomorrow.
See the ads on youtube.com/superbowl.
embrace life commercial
Every once in a while public service announcements (PSAs) actually grab your attention. This PSA for Sussex Safer Roads in the UK is artfully done and rather simple in the message; “Embrace Life. Always wear your seat belt.” This simple style also tugs at a personal level which I think is the most effective way to get this style of message across to a broad audience. It is rare to see such well done PSAs, but this one is a clear winner!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
the decade in review . . .
OK, I admit that this is really not a design post, but I am interested in your comments as to what the biggest tech, social and overall story was for the past decade. Let me take you back a while and help jog your mind.
In somewhat chronological order here are some bullet points on what went on in the past decade. Sorry if these are more U.S. Centric, but you get what you pay for. In the end, post comments as to what you think were the top stories of this decade. I am interested in your thoughts, not just politically, but also tech-wise.
- Y2K or Bust
- Tech stock bubble bursts
- USS Cole is attacked
- Human genome deciphered
- Mad Cow Disease
- NEAR spacecraft becomes first to orbit an asteroid
- “I Love You” computer virus
- 2000 Election (the year of the hanging chad)
- 9/11
- iPod debuts
- 3 megapixel cameras
- I.R.A. Disarms
- U.S. attacks Afghanistan
- Anthrax
- Enron
- Shoe bomber
- U.S. attack Iraq
- D.C. Sniper
- Saddam Hussein Captured
- Space Shuttle Columbia explodes on re-entry
- Spain terrorist attack
- Google goes public
- WiFi
- Olympics return to Greece
- Water on Mars
- SpaceShipOne
- Pope John Paul II Dies
- Web 2.0
- iPhone
- Hurricane Katrina
- HDTV conversion
- Mars rovers land on Mars
- Saddam Hussein convicted and hung
- Green Movement
- Hybrid vehicles
- Facebook and Myspace
- Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft as CEO
- Pluto loses its status as a planet
- Cloud computing
- HD-DVD vs Blu-ray
- Bejing Olympics
- HDTV conversion 2
- Housing bubble-Credit crunch
- Barack Obama elected president
- Stock market crash, DOW to 6,547
- HDTV conversion 3- . . .
- M.J. no more
- H1N1
- Hubble repaired for last time
- Water on the moon
Remember to post a comment of your thoughts.
norad santa tracker 2009
Another year has past and once again, Santa is on his way. Every Year, Santa is tracked by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to ensure Santa’s airspace remains clear and safe. As in past years, the NORAD Santa Tracker has a special site where you can track him in real-time. There are also videos and other fun games for kids and kids at heart to play.
elf yourself
The creative team at Jib Jab is at it again and now you can insert your photo into the creation to send to friends with Elf Yourself. Have a great time sending it to everyone you know as a little pre-holiday cheer!
movies on youtube?
Say it isn’t so! Well, it is, but before you get super excited; yes, YouTube does now have some feature-length movies that you can now watch on the site. This does is nice, until you see the selection . . . It really isn’t great. But, if you are a movie junkie that can stand the Good, The Bad and the Ugly of what has been produced, I urge you to try it out.
Did I mention that there are some movies out there for you Clint Eastwood fans (for a limited time only)? Such classics as, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars are out on the YouTube movies section until November 30th. All you need to do is visit the link below and please let me know what you think. I know what I will be doing this Thanksgiving break.
YouTube Movies (www.youtube.com/movies)
we choose the moon
In honor of today marking the 40th Anniversary of the first moon landing, the website, wechoosethemoon.org is reliving the journey on the web with maps models, pictures and the audio as it happened. It all is to happen in about six hours from now, so go see it! You can even follow the landing as it happenned using twitter to recieve feeds of what was going on.
sxsw 2009: stand by me
I just ran across this video that was shown at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas this past March. It is a great version of Stand By Me, spliced together using street artists and groups from around the world. The piece was produced by playingforchange.com. It is inspirational and a great listen. Enjoy!
The Triple B 