Google in the UK has “turned its lights out” today in support of Earth hour. Nice. But the best thing, Blackle is most definitely put in its place for once and all.
As to why we don’t do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
Does look quite good in black, though it shows up every last piece of stuff on my nice new screen.
Just catching up on my feeds and this popped up - a glimpse into what teenagers love and hate reading. Some interesting stuff in there, if a bit random - including the fact that reading “My own blog or fan fiction” comes in at number 4 most loved and that Facebook is number 9 most hated. How odd. What is encouraging is that “80% of the teenagers surveyed write their own stories and keep up-to-date with current affairs by using sites like BBC Online” but then again, it seems books with more than 100 pages are a big no-no.
Looks like it’s part of the National Year of Reading 2008 (me neither) and is tied into Piczo where you can get more of an insight into da yoof - including this little gem “i ♥ anne frank bookz. i hav been twoo the anne frankk house && it wozz rlly interesting :D”
Most loved reads
1 Heat magazine
2 Bliss magazine; online song lyrics
3 Online computer game cheats
4 My own blog or fan fiction
5 The Harry Potter series
6 Anne Frank’s diary
7 Film scripts
8 Books by Anthony Horowitz
9 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis
10 BBC Online; the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison
Most loathed reads
1 Homework
2 Shakespeare
3 Books of over 100 pages
4 Magazine articles about skinny celebrities
5 Books assigned by school/teachers
6 Encyclopedias and dictionaries
7 The Beano
8 Music (scores); the Harry Potter series; maps/directions
9 Facebook
10 Financial Times; Anything in another language
Don’t really know what to say about this, other than, check out what people have made using Tampons. There’s step by step instructions for each item and even a video of someone playing Ode To Joy on a pan pipe made of Tampons!!!? Nothing is off-limit when it comes to the interwebs. All a bit random but something I feel compelled to share. Sorry about that. This is definitely the oddest post yet. Wonder what Tampax make of it? Is this site helping to break down those taboos?
Here’s a selection of some of the things featured on Tampon Crafts and a snippet of some of the copy from the site:
The Menstrual Militia is now recruiting! Arm yourself with a Tampon Shooter and report for target practice and tactical tampon maneuvers. Safe for indoor or outdoor use, this air-powered gun fires tampons “bullets” up to 20 feet. Our Tampon Bandolier insures that you’ve always got a supply of ammo at the ready, plus you’ll never have to hunt around for a spare tampon in case you really need one.
Jason Calcanis is interviewed in the piece and besides calling himself a “nerd who builds websites” he predicts that “The worst moment in almost everybody’s life is going to be captured on film”.
I’m offline for a few hours and look what I miss - what must surely be the first ever marriage proposal done via Twitter. Congratulations Emily and Max! Quite literally everything is happening on Twitter these days.
There’s something a bit odd about this (just check out the video, me thinks they look a bit silly) - but, I just can’t resist even more music and DS action. This time Guitar Hero makes it’s debut on the DS using a nifty little plug-in-device-type-key-thingy. Looks a bit clunky if you ask me, but then again, I guess it means you can rock out anywhere. I think I’d be too conscious of looking like a bit of a tit with that thing plugged in. With something like Electroplankton or the Korg DS 10 (covered before) at least you can go a bit covert. Hmmmm, see how it goes - it’s out later this year. Video below of it in action.
Nice interview by Shel Israel with Hugh Macleod about social objects, social markers, social marketers, social marketing and other interesting stuff. Some old stuff covered but still really nice to see Hugh talking about it himself. (Hugh, you rock BTW)
No embed (boo!), click through to watch at Fast Company.
Right now (and I mean as I type) there are some guys in Norway spraying the Qik logo on a wall and broadcasting it via a mobile phone using Qik. People are watching as they “talk” to the Norwegian police and generally have a laugh doing something very cool using mobile technology. They’re also using their laptops connected via 3G to keep a check on comments and also engage with people further. Paul Walsh even got them to spray segala.com on the wall too. (Nice hijacking there for him). Live and engaging guerilla activity for a brand. It’s the way forward.
PS I asked for a smiley face too and by the sounds of it, they’re about to do one (will update if it happens).
Which reminds me, have you seen this blog - Stuff White People Like. Japan is in there, which I pointed out to Ged over at RC! But then I’m just as “guilty” of loving Japanese stuff so there we go. Anyway, enjoy. There’s so much more to come from Twitter. We’re only just at the beginning when it’s all a bit noisy and people are starting to itch for the next level.
By now you’ll probably know I have a thing for sheds. So when this popped up in my feeds I just slipped into auto pilot to blog about it. I think (as I remember an email from a fellow Biter) it was featured in the Metro this week too. But, just in case you haven’t seen it - this is one of the finest tech sheds I’ve seen, built by Alan Cook here in England.
Cook has managed to squeeze an astonishing amount of kit into a 9ft by 6ft wooden box. Aside from the essential big-screen TV, there is a gym, an unspecified games console (probably not a Wii), a refrigerator full of beer, a coffee maker and an HD satellite box (the dish is on the roof).
