Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, July 31, 2009

It's not every day that you get challenged to a public "fisticuffs" over calling branding "impotent" - http://bit.ly/ueQJJ

Thursday, July 30, 2009

What to Do if You Can't Do "Old" Branding Any More - http://bit.ly/ueQJJ

The Citadel: The World's First Floating Apartment Complex [Architecture]

Since Holland is mostly under sea level, keeping houses from flooding is a constant problem. This concept fixes that problem by just having an apartment complex that floats.

The Citadel is the residential part of the "New Water" complex, which tries to embrace Holland's waterworld-ness instead of fighting it. It'll have a floating road to the mainland as well as plenty of boat docks for its 60 units. Apparently it'll also be 25% more energy-efficient than an equivalent complex on land by using the surrounding water for cooling. It looks kind of crazy, but the sort of crazy that could actually work. [Inhabitat]

A Rallying Cry Against Scummy Carrier Voicemail Messages [Cellphones]

The New York Times' David Pogue is sick and damned tired of wireless carriers wasting our time and our minutes with their intentionally drawn out voicemail messages. And he wants your help to get them to change.

You know the messages: "At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press 5. (Beep)" That's 15 seconds that you owe every time you leave a voicemail. And it's just as bad when you check your voicemail. And the entire thing is a scam.

These little 15-second waits add up–bigtime. If Verizon's 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That's your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.

In 2007, I spoke at an international cellular conference in Italy. The big buzzword was ARPU–Average Revenue Per User. The seminars all had titles like, "Maximizing ARPU In a Digital Age." And yes, several attendees (cell executives) admitted to me, point-blank, that the voicemail instructions exist primarily to make you use up airtime, thereby maximizing ARPU.

Well that's pretty shitty! So what to do? Harass the hell out of your carrier and get them to quit it. Pogue has links to places where you should yell at all four major carriers. Here they are:

Verizon: Post a complaint here.
AT&T: Send e-mail to Mark Siegel, ex! ecutive director of media relations.
Sprint: Post a complaint here.
T-Mobile: Post a complaint here.

In the end, will it work? Maybe. But you can't win if you don't play, and these are your overpriced minutes we're talking about here. So I think you know what to do. [Pogue]

Nikon D300s officially announced -- 720p/24 movie mode with autofocus and mic input

Well well, Nikon managed to keep the big secret about the new D300s under wraps even as everything else was leaked in the past few weeks: the new $1,799.95 body will shoot 24fps 720p video with contrast-detect autofocus and offers an external mic input. That's basically every would-be DSLR videographer's major wishlist right there -- sure, 1080p would have been nice, but we'll take better sound over a couple more lines of resolution any day. Other highlights include a 12.3 megapixel DX sensor, 51-point autofocus, and 7fps burst shooting, as well as those dual CF and SD card slots and a 920k pixel screen. Yeah, it's looking like a real beast -- that DX sensor probably doesn't have Canon 5D Mark II fans worried, but if you're looking to get into DSLR video this looks like the new cam to beat.

Gallery: Nikon D300s officially announced -- 720p/24 movie mode with autofocus and mic input

Update: Digital Photography Review has a brief hands-on with the camera, clarifying that the contrast-detection autofocus isn't the quickest, and like we learned with the Olympus E-P1 you'll need to use an external mic when shooting to avoid the ever-present "shhhk" sound. Also of note is continuous shooting, which has been given a boost to seven frames per second -- eight if you have the battery grip -- compared to D300 and that it has the same memory card door as the D700.

Continue reading Nikon D300s officially announced -- 720p/24 movie mode with autofocus and mic input

Filed under: Digital Cameras