Archive for February, 2010

Friday Links: The Gamification of Everything

• The Gameification of Everything: “If you make products or software that other people use, this is pretty much a must-see kinda thing…the last 5 or 6 minutes are dizzying, magical, and terrifying,” Kottke said.
• Olympic pictograms through the ages is kinda snarky and really funny.
• AdWeek Media: The new tech heads.
• Secrets of design superheroes, sadly there is no mention of a cape or lessons on flying.
• Minnesota totally needs these robot snowplows that look a little like Wow Wow Wubbzy (or Pikachu).
• 6 statements all graphic designers hear.
• An informative graphic that lays out what you get when you pirate a movie vs. what happens when you buy the DVD. DVD makers, pay attention!
• Babrie’s next career movie? Computer Engineer.
• Geek camps for MN girls and boys
• Infographic of the Week: Tommy Westphal’s Mind: A Multiverse Explored. If you remember, Tommy Westphall was an austistic character on the show “St. Elsewhere.” In the series finale it was revealed that Tommy had dreamt the entire show. Then, of course, two guys put forth a theory that most of what we watch on TV is all part of Tommy Westphall’s dream. Oh, just go look, it’s pretty rad.

Influencers of conformity

When I think about nerds, and I mean in general and not our Nerds specifically, one of the traits that comes to mind (before the stereotypical sci-fi whatnot, taped-up glasses, and computer blah blah) is non-conformity.

Wikipedia’s got my back here, saying in the nerd entry:

Although the idea of nerds is popular, those adopting the characteristics of nerds are not actually nerds by definition. One cannot be an authentic nerd by imitation alone; a nerd is an outsider and someone who is unable or unwilling to follow trends. Popular culture is borrowing the concept and image of nerds in order to stand out as individuals.

(I like to imagine an angry, embittered teenage nerd adding that line)

So when I saw this article on the ten things that influence conformity in groups, I instantly thought of our Nerds and had to share the article. Working with non-conformist nerds is exhilarating (and sometimes exasperating), and everyone should try it. Now that you have the list of what breeds conformity, you can work on doing something about it.

Government 2.0

In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln said, “. . . that this nation, under God [sorry atheists, I didn't say it. Abe did.], shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

It’s such a beautiful sentiment, that whole “of the people, by the people, for the people.” But for most us our civic duty, our involvement with government and the laws that govern us ends when we get that ‘I Voted’ sticker. They say you can’t fight City Hall, and who would want to? It always seems like a nightmare of red tape and bureaucracy (I read about half of Kafka’s The Trial and it frightened me away from local governing bodies).

But now you can make a difference right from your iPhone.

Today, ReadWriteWeb has an in-depth review of DIY Democracy billed as “the ultimate civic engagement app. It connects users to three branches of government for everything from reporting potholes to protesting federal laws.” Of course, we’re a little partial to the app because The Nerdery helped build it. You should download it now (it’s free) and give it a try.

Agency Primer Notes: 1 Up, Gaming & Advertising

If you missed last week’s Agency Primer about gaming & advertising, there’s no need to worry you get an extra life right here. We’ve got video and the slide deck from our one-hour conversation with SnowOwl Studio, a game design company on the topic of gaming as advertising. Some of the things covered in the presentation include:

• 10 reasons gaming is good advertising
• Who’s playing: an overview of modern gamer demographics
• A survey of gaming platforms and their relative development costs

Agency Primer: Gaming and Advertising from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Chili cook-off: Winner and still champion

It’s cliché but true: It’s tough to repeat. Yet Konr Ness today successfully defended his Nerdery Chili Cook-Off Championship – and he’s already talking tough about a three-peat. See him divulge some some of his secrets, and see a former chili champ divulge a secret we wish he’d kept:

Chili cook-off 2010 from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Overheard: “It’s got a bit of a wang to it; good, though.”

Winter Olympic posters since 1924

Now that the games of the winter Pentathanerd are over, the world’s attention have turned to the Olympics over in Vancouver. Good times, those winter Olympics. Watching TV where at any moment someone is going to trip in fall, is the ultimate form of entertainment, isn’t it? Falling is funny, nobody can deny it. Especially when it’s someone else falling.

To get you in the mood for tonight’s games (figure skating, snowboarding, and skiing, lots of fall opportunities), take a look at this collection for all the Winter Olympic posters from 1924 through today. Collections like this are fun to look at because you can almost guess the year (or at least get pretty close) just by looking at the design. Great fun for everyone!

Here’s my favorite from the 1948 St. Mortiz games. I like the way it appears the sun is shooting out snowflakes.

Not such a good idea after all

Over at Pop Art they have a post about Technology that Failed, and Hard. It’s a short, fun list with only a few obvious choices (the Zune, IE6). However, there’s a few on the list that I’d totally forgotten existed (do you remember beenz? I think I might have actually bought something with beenz/flooz), and one that was so ludicrous that I blocked it from my memory (the Twitter Peek). It’s a good list, go read it for a nice stroll down memory lane.

Tech Tuesday: Google App Engine for Promotions

Most online promotions, whether a new loyalty program or product launch, are short term and usually only require a massive amount of computing power during the first couple days when traffic is extremely high.

With traditional hosting and web applications you would pay for this computing power long after it is necessary. This is a problem that can be solved by using cloud computing and Google App Engine does a fantastic job at it.

GAE (Google App Engine) is a complete development stack that allows you to quickly build and host web applications that will automatically scale to your needs. It is built on the same infrastructure that runs all of Google’s web products including their search engine. 10 years of Google’s brightest ideas in scalability and performance driven systems literally given away for free. At least initially. You begin with free daily quotas for things such as number of requests, CPU time, datastore access, and data storage. Once your free quotas are up you pay for what you use. Each App Engine application comes with an administration panel which allows you to view and change the limits to increase your quotas.

This setup is ideal for short term promotions that will have a huge initial hit of visitors and then die down afterwards. The traffic from your returning visitors may even fall within the free daily quotas, in which case, you would only pay for the initial traffic hit.

App engine gives you the same cloud computing type scalability such as Amazon EC2 except there is no server configuration, maintenance or instance handling necessary. This means you won’t need to do these yourself or pay someone to do these things.

However, there are some drawbacks to GAE. You are confined to using the python or java programming languages and most of the popular frameworks for these languages aren’t compatible with the database GAE uses called Big Table. This isn’t to say that they won’t work, but that you need to build the app in a certain way which prevents it from being easily ported to a more traditional hosting environment if the need should arise.

Additionally, if your application requires connecting with a third party API through a firewall that needs to be setup with your server’s IP address GAE, like other cloud computing options, will not support this since your apps outgoing IP will change depending on how GAE is distributing its resources. However, if you control the firewall and the servers behind it you could use the Secure Data Connector for this task.

With the few caveats aside, GAE brings cloud computing to the masses in a way that is both accessible and competitive. It prevents the need to deal with servers and the hassle of setting up and choosing hosting plans. By forcing the development of scalable applications and having virtually no barriers for entry GAE is a very promising platform, not only for short term promotions, but for any type of web application whether large or small.

Pentathanerd Winter Games – best ever? Final events, closing ceremonies

The 2010 Pentathanerd Winter Games concluded with happenings that viewers of that other sporting competition up in Vancouver will not witness: software developers speedtinkering at the Hardware Teardown/Rebuild, and a Trivial Quiz finalist “winning” simply by refusing to answer the question – any question.

Spoiler alert: Greg Wurm won Hardware for dissecting/resurrecting a mouse:

Hardware Teardown/Rebuild at Pentathanerd from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Spoiler alert 2: Konr Ness capitalized on his competitors’ demerits and won the Trivial Quiz finale with a score of zero:

Trivial Quiz Finals at Pentathanerd Winter Games from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Trivial Quiz clip, Great Moments in Nerdery: Pentathanerd creator Mark Seemann named names from The Hobbit (apparently he rattled these off without using a teleprompter; I was out sick – can’t verify). Relive the Trial Quiz qualifying round here.

Spoiler alert 3: Garnering the most points in combined events, Manish Shrestha won the coveted Pentathanerd All-Around Award for The 2010 Pentathanerd Winter Games, followed by Justin Hendrickson and Greg Wurm.

This is The End: Pentathanerd Winter Games 2010 from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Astute Pentathnerd fans have noted (from leaked video, above) that the Snow Sculpture event was indeed won by Matt Tonak, and not Justin Hendrickson as earlier reported here. And yes, in previous Pentathanerd posts I’ve also cited a few unnamed/off-the-record sources. Lazy reporting? Sure, but it’s more than just that. Nobody’s talking on the record about Winter Game scoring snafus, and they (whoever they are) know I’ve stumbled somewhat close to the truth of the matter. Absent from The Nerdery for the last few events, I tried to stay on the story while fighting the flu with one hand and misinformation/injustice with the other. I even began to think, “This is no flu – ‘they’ve’ poisoned me.” World, we may never know the truth.

Anyway, plotting/training is already underway for Pentathanerd’s next Summer Games. Is there an event you’d like to see in the mix?  The Pentathanerd Planning Committee will give serious consideration to nearly any competition; by now you know this to be true.

Pentathanerd Snow Sculptors: You’re all winners

If you’re the one who hangs out at the finish line of marathons hours after the first runner finishes, all the while shouting, “You’re all winners,” please allow me to redirect you to The Pentathanerd Winter Games’ Snow Sculpture competition. Three entrees. Three medals. All winners. Top honors go to Gold medalist/Qbert sculptor Justin Hendrickson.

Having padded his total-points lead in accumulated events, Justin has to now be considered the clear favorite to win The Pentathanerd All-Around Award for the Winter Games. Let’s take a moment to view just some of the highlights that first established him as a popular yet polarizing Pentathanerd figure during The Summer Games:

Justin: A Pentathanerd Profile from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Kids, don’t eat the snow on or near Qbert.