Windows Vista vs Linux Beryl

wow - how outdated is Vista?!

I never really considered linux until i saw this… now i seriously am.

why can’t this be a real competitor to MSFT? is it a comms problem?

via Scott’s Blog

improve your sex life

This is a really cleaver post, by Scott Adam’s (of Dilbert fame)

I’m reposting the bulk of it here because I don’t trust that you’ll click the link.

Studies show that people will ignore logic and information to be consistent. (In other words, we are moist robots.) According to the research, humans are hardwired for consistency over reason. You already knew that: People don’t switch political parties or religions easily. What you didn’t know is how quickly and easily a manipulator can lock someone into a position.

For example, researchers asked people to write essays in support of a random point of view they did not hold. Months later, when surveyed, the majority held the opinion they wrote about, regardless of the topic. Once a person commits an opinion to writing – even an opinion he does not hold – it soon becomes his actual opinion. Not every time, but MOST of the time. The people in these experiments weren’t exposed to new information before writing their contrived opinions. All they did was sit down and write an opinion they didn’t actually have, and months later it became their actual opinion. The experiment worked whether the volunteers were writing the pro or the con position on the random topic…

…This research provides a surefire method for readers of the Dilbert Blog to improve their sex lives. Go down to the local mall with a clipboard and pretend to be doing a research experiment. Offer $1 to attractive people who will write a paragraph describing how incredibly sexy you are. (Based on the research, you should offer a low dollar amount so people don’t think they did it entirely for the money.) Tell participants that the research has to do with handwriting analysis of people who are writing opinions they do not believe. Stop after you get 100 people to do it. That’s less than the cost of one meal at an upscale restaurant.

Give the participants your e-mail address and tell them they can get the results of the research study in a month if they contact you. According to the science, about two-thirds of the people who wrote a paragraph on your sex appeal will strongly believe it a month later, no matter how hideous you are. And a few of those people will remember to e-mail you for the results. You’ll still have to close the deal, but I think we can agree that I just did the hard work for you.

You’re welcome.

go read his blog, it’s full of interestingness.

and btw, you’re welcome ;)

Kids say the darndest things…

brilliant

via Hip Hop and Advertising

a gaggle of planners?

is a group of planners a ‘gaggle’?

according to answers.com a gaggle is “An unorganized group doing nothing” and that’s pretty close to what it was. I did meet some interesting people, and had an awesome milkshake (espresso, banana, milk, caramel - yum!).

see the photo from Russell’s breakfast - there were about another 30 people standing around the table - how can all these important people take 2 hours off work on a friday morning!?

(hope you don’t mind me stealing your photo Russell)

Absolut Movie Trailer

This is just brilliant. Can’t wait to see the movie ;)

try and catch all the bottle references.

via Coolz0r

You know you’re a geek if…

you laugh out loud at this:

via BoingBoing

(no, it’s got nothing to do with anything except I thought it was funny)

Bud.TV

well colour me shocked… Bud.TV doesn’t completely suck.

despite the fact that they spend US$30mil I never actually thought they’d do it right.

But… It’s actually pretty cool - you can watch some here - you can’t embed vids (yet?)

props to Bud, good job so far - now they need to get some proper content - not just previews…

what I want…

so I hope this might exist already but i’ve never seen it…

what i really want is windows that automatically resize the content when the window shape changes, rather than adding scroll bars.

i want it to work in all programs but i’ll settle for just it to work in firefox for now.

Powerpoint does it already, why not word/excel/IE etc.?

see images for a better explanation of what I mean.

Image 1: When the window is big, the text is big…

Image 2: window small, text small

genious :)

anyone know how to do it?
(I can’t even think of what search term to use to find out if it’s out there already)

Official Beta Tester

woohoo - i’m a beta tester…

and I get a badge:

don’t ask for invites yet, I don’t have any…

and I haven’t tested it out yet even (I’m at work using Windows2000 - how last century)

I’ll let you know what it’s like when I know.

(not sure if i got an invite from someone, or if my time just came, but if you gave me it - thanks!)

UPDATE: It was Mat - thanks!

Assignment 13 - Results

Ok, results are in…

See here if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Russell has anotated my presentation with his thoughts here

(Russell: hope you don’t mind me hotlinking - i don’t know how to post it with WP)

General feedback seems good - obviously he would have like to see more footnotes/sources.

Referencing is an interesting thing for me as someone new(ish) to planing - it seems almost expected that you turn yourself into an expert on a market/consumer/product/trend etc when you’re researching it, so referencing general insights/cultural thoughts seems innapropriate, or impossible due to the number of sources it’s drawn from.

either way it was an interesting project & made me think - so it did its job.

It would probably have more impact if it was presented, rather than read off powerpoint - maybe next time i should post it to YouTube….

see what other people did here - there’s some good stuff, especially from people in non-english speaking countries.