Facebook + Asteroids = Clear Your Schedule.

You remember the game Asteroids, right? You're in a super-cool rocket ship, blasting bad guys with a laser beam? Okay, maybe it is not super cool by today's standards. But it would be if you could use it on Facebook to blast all of your friends profile pics, videos, and those ads you don't like but keep showing up anyways, right? Here's the deal. Click, drag and drop the big Asteroids picture below into your browser's Facebook tab. Then use ALL the arrow keys, and press the space bar RAPIDLY to fire. Hit ESC to exit. Look in the right-hand corner for your score. The rest should come back to you. You can also click on the picture and shoot up this page right now, or click, drag and drop into any other tab in your browser. ~ p

Lose Your Wallet. Keep Your Cool.

Jeans got tighter. Cell phones got bigger and smarter. Credit cards, gym cards, video cards, and loyalty cards multiplied like gremlins jumping into a swimming pool. And, with that, the George Costanza wallet no longer fit into our world…or our pants.

It’s sad, but I’ll admit that I’ve lied awake at night ideating ways to stop the ‘let’s give consumers a card for everything’ madness, an alternative that would be safe, practical, and run through my mobile device. Well, apparently a guy named Randy Smith from Aliso Viejo, California couldn’t sleep either, and has been dreaming about a solution since 1996. It took a while, but by George, I think he’s got it.

The company called is MobilePayUSA. In their words, it makes ‘paying for purchases with your mobile phone in the REAL-WORLD…a reality’ (more in the video below). This is awesome news for everyone with a wallet. Bad news for the guy who invented the Visa payment chip. If you're a honcho at a retail or loyalty company, you need to jump on this idea. ~ p 

Will Google Drive Your Car?

At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that this was 'the golden era of breakthroughs'. True. He also said that 'smart phones were the icon device of our time'. True. Also, that in the near future, 'if you are awake, you are probably online'. Umm...true? And that 'humans shouldn't drive cars, computers should'. Watch your mouth. 

This is when I realized that when your bank account has more zeros than a googolplex, you can theorize about, well, everything. And when you mix that wealth with above average intelligence, you can quickly turn a theory into an idea, and then you can take that idea and...Google it.

You see, I have a theory of my own. When the rest of the world says, 'Google it', we are talking about typing something into Google Search to find out more about it. But when Eric Schmidt says, 'Google it', he is going to turn a fart-in-the-wind theory, put it into his Google Lab, and pepper it all over the Internet. As we've seen with many, many Google Lab products, it doesn't always work. But when it does...bam! The Internet shakes. 

So, when Eric suggests putting me in a beautiful sports car, on a sunny day, down a perfectly paved road, and then tying my hands together...maybe I should just take up knitting, and enjoy the ride. ~ p 

Office for Mac '11 Overhaul Kills Entourage

It was announced today that Microsoft is launching the Office for Mac 2011 next month on October 26th. The standout line for me in the launch video can be paraphrased as 'Office is something that people feel like they need. We hope this version is something they'll want, too.' After watching the video, I gotta say, it worked. I want it.
 
This overhaul version promises to be a lot faster, and includes cool new aesthetic features, including a new full screen option for Word. It has also dropped the often-frustrating Entourage and opted to include Outlook. For the reasonable price ($120 for a single install and $150 for 3-install Family Pack) it'll get some immediate attention...including from me. ~ p




(Source: Mashable, The Office for Mac Blog)

What's the game plan for Blackberry's Playbook?

The world as I know it has been split into three types of people: Blackberry users, iPhone-ers, and everyone else. I am a hybrid of groups 1 and 2. I use a Blackberry but still have a MacBook, iPod, and an Apple email. With my loyalty of two companies, I’ve been asking myself, what am I going to do once Blackberry’s tablet is in market? That question became a bit more real yesterday.

If you didn’t hear, the Blackberry tablet was officially announced. It will be called Playbook. I’d like to say here that I’m really glad it wasn’t named the often-rumored ‘BlackPad’. With that name, they might as well have called it ‘Our version of the iPad’. Playbook makes me think of a 'game plan'...never a bad thing. Anyway, with little to no true information leaked, it was hard to know what RIM’s, ahem, Playbook was for their new device. Would they go after the business market? Would it have a camera? Why would I want this thing?

That, too, became clearer yesterday. The Playbook seems to have taken all the negative press about the iPad and used it to develop their features. It is 0.4 inches (9.7 mm) thick, making it thinner than the iPad’s 0.5 inches. It will have two cameras, a 5-megapixel one at the back, and a 3-megapixel one at the front. It has a video-recording function. It’s half the weight of iPad, at just 0.9 lbs. It’s flash-friendly, provides multitasking capabilities, and supports 1080p HD video, giving users a ‘full Internet experience’. It also includes an HDMI video output and USB port. To top it off, it’s on a very cool new OS from QNX that promises to be way faster than anything out there. Playbook also adds credibility by targeting the business crowd, as shown in the video below. I mean, if it’s reliable enough to run a presentation, I can count on it to surf the web, right?

The way I see it, this could go two ways. 1) I get excited about all the features iPad doesn’t have and get the new Playbook and be totally happy with the decision, 2) I wait for Stevie Jobs to put his counter move in market with the 2nd generation iPad next year. Not that’s he’s announced his plan to do so…yet. ~ p

(Source: www.wired.com)

BlockBUSTer, How'd You Let This Happen?

There's a scene in Austin Powers, where Austin is driving a steamroller right towards a security guard. He waves, 'Move! Move!' and yells, 'Watch out!', but the security guard is frozen with fear and can only yell, 'STOOOOOOOOOP!!' it what seems to be a last-ditch plea for his life. It is then hilariously revealed that the steamroller is about 50 yards away, giving more time than a snail would need to get out of the way. But he doesn't, and the steamroller keeps going, ultimately right him over. (You can watch the scene again below).

This movie moment came to mind when Blockerbuster filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy last Thursday. Let's be real, we all saw this coming years ago, as did they, but nothing was done to stop it. Instead, they sat back and watched the competition gain strength and power as the video business continued to shift online, and now...here we are. 

Jim Keyes, Blockbuster’s chief executive, said “After a careful and thorough analysis, we determined that the process announced today provides the optimal path for recapitalizing our balance sheet and positioning Blockbuster for the future as we continue to transform our business model to meet the evolving preferences of our customers." 

So...the transformation starts now? Seriously? I gotta admit, for the past few years, I thought Blockbuster had something secretly cooking. I mean, this was Blockbuster! They were the only game in town in most towns. There was no way they were going to let Netflix and Co. take over the show. But that's exactly what just happened. 

As a place that's given me tons of great memories, as much as I would like to, I can't feel any remorse for Blockbuster. They had lots of time to move their business model out of the way of the proverbial steamroller and shift service online...but, instead, they just let it roll right over them. ~ p  

Funny Friday: Dogs in the Wind

I was told that this morning's post was a 'thinker'. Yes, it was. But now it's officially Friday afternoon, so no more thinking allowed. It's time to take you into the weekend with some Funny Friday brainless-ness-ness. I bring you...Dogs in the Wind. Enjoy! ~ p  

{This last one is crazy...}

(Source: BuzzFeed)

Could You Survive Through a Peep Hole?

In Chile, 33 miners have been trapped 2,300 feet underground since August 5th, and they aren't getting out anytime soon. Beyond the mental pressure, do you think you could make it if your only connection to the outside world was through a peep hole? Everything the miners need to survive must fit through a hole about 3.20 inches wide (click here or the picture below to zoom in on the image). So, tonight, when you reflect on the crappy week you had, or when your football team loses this Sunday...think about these guys, and be thankful. ~ p 

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare...Poig?

First, there was 'What are you doing?', then came, 'What's happening?', 'What's on your mind?', and finally, 'Check-in'. Now, there's a new kid in town. And what they want to know is...'What do you want to do?'. Well, that's a good question, new kid. But first, let me find out a bit more about you. 

The 'new kid' is a site call Poig. In their words, 'Poig is a new way to create spontaneous get-togethers. Add some friends and watch the magic happen.' 

I signed up and realized that the 'adding of friends' part was critical to the 'making of the magic'. I had no friends using the site, and with a closer look, no one in my city, so my experience fell a bit flat. But Poig is smart enough to leverage Facebook Connect as a log-in option, which also prompts you to invite your FB-friends to join, so that problem should quickly resolve itself. 

Beside the minor ramp-up time, and the linguistical brain-bender, Poig looks really cool. Like, the next big thing kind of cool. It gives you categories to choose from: Food, Drinks, Coffee, Meet-up, Shopping, and Custom. By looking at the 'feeds' page, it seems like you can join in on an event with friends or other random people in your city, or pick a category and start your own. 

I gotta say, I love this idea. It's the best execution of the Mass Mingling trend that I've come across. Check it out. ~ p  

An Unsubscribe Tactic that Might Work

Many companies try to convince you to stay on their email lists by flashing 'limited-time offers' and 'last chance opportunities' in your face as you are trying to leave. Personally, I don't think they work. If I'm unsubscribing, it's because I've seen little value in the service, and convincing me otherwise with offers and savings just makes me wonder why I wasn't given those to begin with. Anyway, a colleague of mine recently tried to unsubscribe from Groupon, a great online site that gives you daily coupons for stuff in your city. She was already signed up for another site with the same offering and didn't want two of the same thing. While she was trying to unsubscribe, a video appeared on her screen with the message, 'We're sorry to see you go. How sorry? Well, we want to introduce you to Derek. He's the guy that thought you'd enjoying receiving the Daily Groupon email.' She was then asked to 'Punish Derek'. And, when she clicked the button, as you can see in the video below, Derek is punished. Playing off your guilt, Groupon says that you can make up for what you just did to Derek by staying on their email list. Good on Groupon! This tactic is funny, different, cool, and it just might work. ~ p 

Do Brands ‘Like’ Your Loyalty?

When Facebook got rid of its ‘fan’ functionality and replaced it with ‘like’ buttons, frankly, I thought it was stupid. Fanship was a perfect way to talk about a group of people who advocated your brand. ‘Liking’ a brand seemed more fleeting, more random, less committal, less quantifiable, and…it just sounded much smaller. But since it launched with Open Graph in April, I’ve started to see that the ‘smaller’ impression I had is exactly what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s had in mind.

As a consumer, you only engage with so many brands, and would then become a fan of a limited amount of times. But when you think about how many products you might like from each of those brands, well, it could be in the thousands. And there it is. Instead of becoming a fan of, say, the NBA store, I could now ‘Like’ 1238 things within that store. Or instead of my sister or fiancé becoming a fan of Coach, they could now ‘Like’ 5 kazillion Coach purses.

Why is this important? To start, it creates more data points for Facebook to capture, which creates a more detailed picture of who you are, and gets them closer to taking over the world. It also gives brands the opportunity to tap into this data and learn what makes you tick so they can offer you better and more ‘likable’ stuff. This is a good thing. With further integration, it’ll help brands strengthen their loyalty to you in more relevant ways, and in turn give you a reason to be more loyal.

“Facebook is becoming the loyalty card of the internet, just like your key chain,” said Tom Wentworth, VP-web solutions for technology company, Ektron, which is busy developing products for corporate websites to tailor visits based on the user's social graph. Mr. Wentworth says Home Depot is considering Ektron's technology to better send its consumers down the paths that suit their interests, whether they be gardening or contracting. (via AdAge)

As I said in a recent post about Facebook and Augmented Reality, it won’t be long, in my opinion, before this online functionality is introduced off-line. It’s not unrealistic to think that you could walk into Banana Republic and ‘Like’ a pair of pants on the rack through an app on your iPhone in the near future. ~ p 

Ban of Social Networks at University doesn’t work

If you missed it, about a week and a half ago, Pennsylvania's Harrisburg University of Science and Technology imposed a campus-wide, weeklong ban on Facebook, Twitter and IM’s. (Full story here.)

Ban all Social Media access at a University for one week? Now that’s a Social experiment! See what I did there? ‘Social’ experi…anyway, who thought this was realistic? I didn’t. Like I mentioned in my report about Social Media in the classroom, kids are smarter and sneakier than us – they will find a way.

Eric Darr, who is conducting the experiment, pretty much admitted to that fact before it started, saying that he was curious about what lengths people will go to in order to stay connected. “From a technology perspective, there are ways to get around the block that may expose them to spyware and adware, as they try not to go through the firewall. We'll see how clever people were and what they tried.” Well, several days into the withdrawal, Darr said that by his own observations, the group of students who are following the rules of Social Media abstinence falls within the 10 to 15 percent range.

Hey, I’m not knocking this Darr guy. It was more ambitious than the making of Inception to try and pull this off. And, I’m sure in ‘failure’ we can all learn something. Like, maybe teachers, schools and classrooms should have more of a Social Media presence. Maybe Facebook should offer functionality to support educational systems, such as the uploading and downloading of coursework. Facebook, after all, started in a dorm room at Harvard. ~ p

Next Pads to the Party: Blackberry 'SurfBook', Samsung Galaxy

Hold on to your iPad. The Tablet revolution has only begun. So, yeah, I don’t have an iPad. This was a conscious decision. Sure, I’m not going to lie. I wanted one. But now, I’m waiting. In the next two months, we are going to see a flood of Pad/Tab devices hit the market. Here are nine Pads listed by Mashable that we can expect in the next year or so, but this list could actually be in the high teens. It doesn’t even include Blackberry’s device, which has been given lots of buzz on the street with the name ‘BlackPad’. But, as engadget reported earlier today, it might actually come to market with the name ‘SurfBook’, as RIM has filed that trademark in Canada (image above).

Another device making waves today is the Galaxy Tab by Samsung. Pumping up their marketing machine ahead of launch, the video (above) shows off some of its functionality. The two key features that are unique in a current market of one (iPad), are the video chat and Flash compatibility. More importantly, I just wrote ‘Flash’ and Steve Jobs didn’t mystically appear and wipe out my hard-drive. Cool. ~ p

First Look at the Facebook Phone?

I love the war building between Facebook and Google. First, Facebook knocked Google and Search off their high horse and took over as the #1 thing people do online, making up 27% of their Share of Time, as reported by Nielsen. Now, according to TechCrunch, Facebook is building a phone to compete with the likes of the Google Android. To follow the Android model, they apparently plan to build the software for the phone, and then work with a third party to build the hardware. I'll be interested to see how open they will be with the platform. This would be big for Facebook. It’s a move in the direction, building circular growth versus linear growth. After all, you gotta think the saturation point for Facebook site users, currently over 500 million, is coming to a head. The Facebook phone would give them the ability to integrate further into contact lists and scheduling; two important functions to enhance their newest geo-targeting venture (Facebook Places) and, of course, to provide a richer offering to their advertisers. So…what will this thing look like? No one knows. But this picture (above) was leaked over the weekend (via laughsquid). It could be the Facebook Phone, or it could just be someone having fun with PhotoShop. You can be the judge. ~ p

Fat Cat in a Small Pot

I grew up with cats, so I know they like being hidden away in blankets, boxes, shoes, laundry baskets, etc. But I've never seen a fat cat try to hide in a small pot... 

Attempt #1



Attempt #2


~ p 

9 Facts about Gaga's VMA Meat Dress

If you saw it, you probably had questions. Well, here are your answers in 9 interesting factoids: 

1) It was made of 100% real meat 

2) The meat came from a local family butcher in Los Angeles

3) It had a ‘sweet’ smell 

4) The dress weighed about 50 lbs. 

5) The meat was ‘cheap cuts' 

6) It was the most comfortable dress she wore all night 

7) The meat was 100% natural 

8) There was no blood running off 

9) The dress will eventually dry out and turn into beef jerky

(Source: MTV & BuzzFeed)

Lebron's Unpopular Rating (Seriously?)

Bringing up ‘Lebron James’ at a dinner party or at the water cooler has been at par with religion and politics. In other words, it’s probably best to keep your opinions to yourself. Anyway, whatever camp you’re in after Lebron’s Decision, more heat has just been added to the fire.

The Q Scores Co., which conducts popularity polls, reported on Tuesday that James is the sixth-most-disliked figure in American pro sports. Topping off the list: Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, Terrell Owens, Chad Ochocinco, and Kobe Bryant.

Think what you will about Lebron. But did his actions really justify being grouped in with adulterers, dog-killers, and, ahem, ‘other criminals’? Come on.

According to the report, James is viewed in what the company considers a negative light by 39 percent of the general population. In January, while still a Cleveland Cavalier, he was viewed positively by 24 percent of the population, negatively by 22 percent, according to the figures from The Q Scores Co.

“LeBron's positive score at that time [January] was the highest we had ever seen it," Henry Schafer, executive vice president of Q Scores, told CNBC.

The company’s current tally puts James’ drop in positive rating in the past seven months at 41.5 percent. Q Scores considers James to be viewed in a positive light by only 14 percent of the people polled.

Following James on Twitter, I know that he is using this as motivation for the upcoming season and for the foreseeable future. And I can’t wait to watch. Until then, here’s a video of Lebron working out with the Miami Heat coaching staff. ~ p

Tryvertising: 3 Best Ideas (so far) of 2010

Tryvertising is starting to pop up in cool new ways all the time. Thanks to new apps and technology, what started as a privilege for the elite (as seen with expensive, premium cars given out to ‘special’ guests at high-class hotels), and big brands like Starbucks (with their highly successful ‘Try & Buy’ in-store promotions) is now open to the little guy, too. Entrepreneurs have been jumping on the tryvertising bandwagon with innovative new ways to get their products into the hands of customers. Here are the three best that I’ve seen this year:

Nuevo Watches. This Montreal-based company has launched an iPhone app that lets you ‘try on’ their selection of watches without actually touching them. (If only Rolex could make an app that made it look like I was wearing one of their watches.)

Tatmash. This site lets you see what a real tattoo would look like on you before you get it done. (This should be made a requirement for every bachelor party going to Vegas.)

Shiseido Digital Mirror. This company from Japan has found a way to use Augmented Reality to show you what different types of their make-up would look like on you. (I can’t personally associate with this, but it sounds pretty cool.) 

(Source: springwise.com)

Pepsi to Show Consumer-Made Ads during the Super Bowl

PepsiCo announced today that they are going to once again put the power of persuasion into the hands of the consumer for both its Doritos brand and its Pepsi MAX brand. This year, through their 'Crash the Super Bowl' contest, Pepsi is going to offer an unprecedented amount of six 30-second Super Bowl spots to be created by Average Joes. Not only will winners have their commercial aired during the biggest football game of the year, if these ads sweep the top three rankings on the USA Today ad meter, the winning creator will win an ad contract and a $5 million payout! The re-born actress Betty White, whose Super Bowl ad for Snickers (below) topped the Ad Meter chart earlier this year, will also be involved in the contest to help inspire ad creators.

Lauren Hobart of PepsiCo Beverages America said, “We are excited to return to the Super Bowl this year to drive mass awareness that Pepsi MAX has Zero Calories and maximum taste through a consumer engagement program like Crash the Super Bowl. We believe that great ideas can come from anywhere and we're excited to give Pepsi MAX fans the chance to showcase their creative talents on one of the world's biggest stages. With our colleagues at Doritos, we're confident fans of both brands will put it all on the line this year and that the experience will help catapult their careers in many new and exciting ways.” PepsiCo stock has risen 3.6% in the past 3 months.

As I mentioned in a portereport this week, we are increasingly seeing consumer-generated material takeover the mainstream media space. And, as Mashable reports, brands are forgoing high-budget, agency-created TV commercials to pursue more interactive opportunities with consumers. Last year, Pepsi decided against airing a Super Bowl ad in favor of a $20 million social media campaign, dubbed Pepsi Refresh. Pepsico brand Mountain Dew has similarly forgone more traditional routes with its social media-heavy Dewmocracy project as well. Amazon has also jumped on the consumer-created ad trend with its “Your Kindle” commercial contest it launched for the second time this year. The bigger trend here is the Integration of Consumers and Brands. We are just not being asked for feedback from companies, we are getting a chance to represent those companies in the public eye. ~ p

Branded with Sheepish Transparency

David Kahn, President Basketball Operations, Timberwolves

In the past two years, we’ve steadily witnessed brands from all categories trying to flip a switch in their customer-facing organizational philosophy as a way to jump on the trend of transparency. Moving from ‘What they don’t know won’t hurt them’, to ‘It seems like they’re going to find out, anyway, so let’s tell them something to make them happy’, to finally, ‘We surrender, here is everything we know, please still like us’. While the latter is still on the upswing, as customers and brand loyalists, we should be proud. Like Jake Bauer in an interrogation room, we have collectively broken down some corporate giants. We can thank ourselves and, of course, the Internet, technology, social media, and the constant exchange of information online for giving us the power to stand up and scream, ‘We’re not going to take it anymore!’ Even if we’re actually sitting instead of standing, and texting instead of screaming. Regardless, the Corporate World has responded with everything from Nutritional labels on food, to openly run company forums and, in some cases, full-blown web sites that are dedicated to listening and implementing customer ideas (thank you, mystarbucksidea.com). We have even been more open and transparent with each other, through our Tweets, Yelp reviews, Flickr pictures, and the latest to join the party, Geo-tracking apps like Foursquare and Facebook Places.

The trend of transparency is not going away. And, I believe, it will lead to a more competitive corporate environment that will result in better innovations, more sustainability and a stronger economy.

That being said, can someone take brand transparency too far, and possibly use it as an excuse to not succeed? Let’s say that a popular local brand or sports team tells you that the product they’re selling you this year is going to flat-out suck, and if you want to engage in a different, better product, you’re going to have to pay big to get it or watch it. This would make you angry, right? Question management, your loyalty, and the money you’ve spent with this brand over the years?

This is life as a Minnesota TimerberWolves fan.

The team sheepishly took out a full-page ad in Monday’s Star Tribune sports section, featuring a long open letter to fans that acknowledged the negatives, pointed to the positives, and spelt out plan for improvement. Included in the letter are these words: "So will we challenge for the NBA championship this year? Not likely."

Read the full ‘long-winded’ ad here.

As the AP reports, Chief marketing officer Ted Johnson said that it was part of the team's attempt to establish a new relationship with fans, and bring some transparency to how it operates.

It goes to show in a world of increasing transparency between brand and customer, somethings are still better left unsaid. ~ p

Internet Killed the Video Star

Between Facebook and Twitter, we have all become quasi famous, if only amongst our followers and friends. Now with the Internet convergence of television, anyone is going to be able to get into your living room, and vice versa. The company called Blip.tv jumped on this trend before we knew it was a trend. They recently reported that its ‘Original Web series are finding a niche at night, getting nearly 100 million views a month, and directly competing in prime time, from 8-11pm, with the big networks.’ If that sounds huge, it’s because it is. This site is getting 10% of the audience of network television shows from ABC, NBC and FOX combined! (Hulu does about 950 million video views per month). On the Social side of the fence, according to Facebook, ‘half a billion users were uploading 20 million videos each month, many of which are shared through mobile phones. These same users were consuming more than 30 billion videos online each month.’ If we look beyond Facebook, research from ComScore found that 135 million Web surfers are consuming 13 billion videos on YouTube each month, most of which are user generated. To top it off, a report released by Nielsen found that consumers are watching video on their mobile phones and computers on an increasingly regular basis. Meaning that this trend isn’t going away. So, what does all this mean? Get out the video camera and sharpen up your acting skills from grade-10 drama class. Your career as an Internet-TV and Mobile-Video star could be coming soon. ~ p

(Photo caption: iJustine is a self-made 'lifecaster' who has made more than 360 videos. She has over 1 million Twitter followers and 300,000 YouTube subscribers, and USA Today estimated that her videos have attracted 64 million viewers.)

Live on YouTube for Two Days Only

In 2008, YouTube live-streamed a special concert to 700,000 viewers. Since then, we’ve seen live streams of a U2 concert, Presidential speeches, and the Indian Premiere League. YouTube’s political blog/channel CitizenTube has also featured live streaming. But, with the exception of CitizenTube, these have all been one-off events that have given no real indication of a permanent, game-changing feature.

Until now.

Starting this morning and running through Tuesday night, four select YouTube partners — Next New Networks, Howcast, Young Hollywood, and Rocketboom — will be streaming live footage on YouTube. Check out the show listings with the widget above. For years, it’s been talked about. Though this is only a test, and only available for two days, the company has confirmed that it plans to offer live streaming to all its content partners. This will put them in direct competition with the likes of Ustream, Justin.tv, and Livestream. It's only two days, but I know this puts me one step closer to joining the ranks of cable-free TV and watching all live sports online. ~ p

(Source: TechCrunch)

You 'Like' What You Eat

Photo credit: Alejo Malia

How much easier and cooler would it be if Google Maps could be seen in a 3-dimensional way right through your car’s windshield? Or if you could pull up holographic Yelp reviews from restaurants you walked past. Plus, if I knew who 'liked' things before I ate them, I probably wouldn't have been sick off of that Smoked (mystery) Meat sandwich at the football game yesterday. As a step in the right direction, Facebook just launched a new web app called 'Discover Facebook’s Popular Pages'. It’s designed to help you find more pages to 'Like' based on your past selections, what’s popular and what your friends like. While watching Back to the Future 2 this afternoon, it made me realize how far we’ve come since 1985, and how much closer we are to that futuristic society. With Augmented Reality (AR) becoming more and more usable, we can’t be that far away from this stuff coming to life. Until then, we still have classic movies and the imagination of people like Alejo Malia. ~ p 

P Diddy is Forrest Gump

I follow Diddy on Twitter. If you don’t, I suggest you do @iamdiddy. He’s motivating, smart, funny, and he’s wired for sound. Last week, he tweeted while running on the treadmill about tweeting while running on the treadmill (yes, you read that right). He ended the tweet, as he does many, with a ‘Let’s GOOOO!!!!!!!!!’. Hilarious? Yes. Crazy? Like a fox. At that moment, it hit me: P Diddy is like a real life Forrest Gump. Sure, take away the learning disability and general awkwardness; keep all the energy, passion, luck, success, and talent; then add in some GQ-ness, and…Bam! You’ve got P Gumpy. Here’s your homework: 1) Follow @iamdiddy on Twitter. 2) Watch the scene in Forrest Gump when Forrest runs right through a high school football game so fast that he passes every player on the field. 3) Now picture P Gumpy going on his morning run, motoring across three states, still going strong, charging right through a Boise State game, cell phone in one hand, movie script in the other, three assistants on super-charged Segways trying to keep up, as he kicks the game-winning field goal without breaking stride and simultaneously ties his shoe. It could happen. ~ p  

Tom Lehrer's Instant Elements

To end a week full of Instant, this is one for all of the scientists out there. And, really, for anyone who ever took a science class. I tell ya, if this video existed when I was a kid, it would've been a lot easier to...oh wait, I should really wait another 10 years before I start pulling that line out. Enjoy. ~ p

Funny Friday: Dancing with the Dogs

I can't dance. When I try, I resemble something between a drunk chicken and a wounded grizzly bear. But now, I have no excuse not to learn. Dancing with the Stars, here is your first spin-off...'Dancing with the Dogs'. If every performance was like the one in this video, I'd tune in every week. My money says that you would, too.  

Prank Your Coworker With Google Chrome

Do you have a friend or coworker whose been pushing your buttons lately? Yeah, you know who I’m talking about. Well, here’s a cool prank that’ll get them back, without turning you over to the dark side. FYI, this will only work if they use Google Chrome.

1)    Wait for them to step away from the computer.

2)    Open or click on their Google Chrome browser.

3)    Click on a popular, non-work related site, like Facebook or Twitter.  Let’s use Facebook for this example.

4)    Right-click and choose ‘Inspect element’. This will split the screen into two or three sections. 

5)    In the bottom area, you’ll see a bunch of code mumbo jumbo. Find the line that says, ‘<div class="WelcomePage_MainMessage">Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.</div>’. You might have to down click on some of the arrows to find it.

6)    In that code, click on the copy that says, ‘Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life’ and change it to whatever you want. As an example, ‘Mark, Facebook thinks you spend too much time on this site and wonders how you still have a job!’ You can even change the measurements, etc., if you’re crafty with HTML.

7)    Click on the X in the top left-hand corner of the ‘code box’ to put the page back to normal.

8)    Sit back and laugh as your buddy wonders how Facebook knows their dirty little secret. 

Happy pranking. ~ p