3d design

Responsive design from another angle: Gizmodo goes widescreen

Gizmodo, the popular gadget site and pageview king of Gawker Media, debuted a new look last night that they’re calling HD view, and it’s big. Not big in the grand scheme of things — big in the number of pixels it takes up. Whereas most websites top out at around 1000 pixels in width, Gizmodo HD stretches like Plastic Man, with photos and videos stretching wider and wider as the browser window does too. On my 1900-pixel-wide monitor, pages like this one (photo-dominant) and this one (video-dominant) both resize all the way to blowout width. Call it the doublewide approach.

(The screenshot above is obviously less than full size; to see its full, 1920-by-1200-pixel glory, click here.)

This is the flip side of responsive design, the web-flash design idea that BostonGlobe.com’s recent launch brought to the attention of lots of news execs. In the case of the Globe (and in most other responsive efforts), the primary appeal is the ability to get small — to build a website that can look good both on your laptop and on your smartphone without having to build a separate mobile site. (The Globe’s website expands up to 1230 pixels, but not beyond that.) But responsive design works in the other direction too, and Gizmodo’s new look is an attempt to play with that — to give more space to the big photos and big videos that Gawker Media’s been trying to push over the past year.

At this point, HD view is very much a beta (it won’t work in all browsers, for instance, and there’s no place for comments), and seems more like a parlor trick than a feature. But why might a news organization be interested in a doublewide view? What might be the use cases for an HD view?

There’s still a class of user who (a) uses a desktop computer, where monitor sizes once outlandish (24-inch, 27-inch, 30-inch) are becoming more affordable and common, and (b), particularly on Windows, runs browser windows full screen. Those folks are used to seeing a bunch of whitespace to the left and right of their favorite websites, and this could fill them up and build something more immersive. With Gawker Media making bigger investments in video and art, it makes sense to play those as big as the browser will allow.
A theme running throughout Gawker’s controversial redesign last year was that it viewed television as both an important competitor and a production-value bar that Gawker Media felt it was approaching. “[W]e increasingly have the scale and production values of — say — cable television,” Nick Denton told us at the time: “[W]e’ll compete for audiences with cable groups such as NBC Universal.” Well, Gizmodo HD fits perfectly into a world where screens are shifting and the television might move from the-place-where-you-watch-Mad-Men to, simply, the biggest and best content-agnostic screen in the house. To be fair, previous attempts to bring the web to big-screen television haven’t borne much fruit. But with everyone expecting an new TV push from Apple in 2012 — and with companies like The Wall Street Journal moving from web video to TV sets — it makes sense for a big online brand like Gawker Media to prepare for that eventuality.
Advertisers are always looking for new ways to draw attention, having soured at least a bit on the efficacy of the banner ads. Gawker’s long been willing to push the boundaries with things like sponsored posts and site takeovers. Imagine the greater impact that a site takeover could have when there’s twice as much space to take over?
It’ll probably be a while before the doublewide becomes much more than a novelty, but it’s worth thinking about how a news site might look different if, instead of thinking small (that is, mobile), it thought big.

Jan 12, 2012

Nokia Lumia 900: the Web reacts

The Nokia Lumia 900, announced at CES yesterday, has already spawned a thousand blog posts and news reports. We’ve trawled the Web to see what early reactions are like from the tech pundits.

On MobileBeat, Devindra Hardawar thinks that the Nokia Lumia 900 could be the phone that changes perceptions of the Windows Phone platform: “With its sleek and unique 3D Design, the Lumia 900 could be Microsoft’s ticket to mainstream phone success this year. So far, sales of Windows Phones have been sluggish, likely because the platform hasn’t had a flagship device yet for Microsoft and consumers to rally around. The Lumia 900 could be that device for Microsoft, if it plays its cards right.”

Dan Lyons at the Daily Beast thinks we’ve excelled ourselves with recent models when it comes to design: “Indeed, when it comes to design the new Nokia flagship devices have arguably leapfrogged past Apple”. However, he cautions that, “It’s hard to predict whether the new Nokia Windows phones will catch on in America.”

Mashable’s Christina Warren loved the Lumia 800 and reckons the Lumia 900 promises to be even better: “The Lumia 800 is easily one of the best looking and best feeling handsets I’ve had a chance to review. If the Lumia 900 can deliver the goods — and on a major network like AT&T — Nokia and Windows Phone might be able to make some inroads in the U.S. market.”

Kyle Wagner on Gizmodo says it’s their “favourite Windows Phone, now bigger and faster”. He notes that, on paper, the specs, “aren’t going to blow the doors off of this generation of smartphones, but Windows Phone doesn’t lean on specs quite as hard as other OSes, as the buttery Lumia 800 shows.”

CNet‘s Declan McCullagh was hoping for more specifics at the press conference, though: “the company’s announcement wasn’t as far-reaching or as detailed as some customers might have hoped: there’s no word yet on on the Lumia 900′s pricing or availability. And there was no news of tablets or the phone’s availability on other carriers.”

Check out the new Nokia Lumia 900

All about our biggest, thinnest smartphone.

Exclusive to AT&T in the USA

Marin Perez at IntoMobile notes that while Nokia is differentiating its Windows Phone range from others in the ecosystem, it isn’t planning to fragment the platform in the way that has happened on other smartphone operating systems: “With the Lumia line, Nokia is trying to strike a delicate balance of differentiating its lineup but not making the Lumia line so different that it changes the fundamentals of the platform.”

At Forbes, Eric Savitz did a video interview with Nokia’s Karen Lachtanski but while he’s impressed with the phone, he professes “nagging doubts” whether the phone will drive widespread adoption.

TheNextWeb’s Matthew Panzarino is cautiously optimistic. He loves the phone, but notes that Nokia and Microsoft face a tremendous struggle in terms of their current American market share. “To say that the Lumia 900 faces an uphill battle in the US, a huge market for smartphones, is to state it very lightly.”

ZDNet’s Matthew Miller is impressed by the specs and tempted to switch to the AT&T network in order to use the phone. “I can’t wait to get some hands on time with the device,” he notes.

The Guardian’s Charles Arthur was keen to know whether operating on the LTE network would adversely affect battery life, something he’s been warned about by analysts. “Elop said in response that Nokia has worked with Microsoft and the chipmaker Qualcomm, which provides the basic communications chips for the phones. ‘We believe the battery performance will be very superior on LTE networks compared with other devices,’ he said.”

Lastly, Engadget’s Brad Molen was able to film a hands-on video which is well worth a look. He notes that the build quality is great: “The larger phone was still comfortable to hold in our hands, and felt just as solid as ever with its polycarbonate build.”

Any write-ups you thought were particularly interesting?

Jan 11, 2012

#3D Design

More photos of hybrid Lexus LF-LC Concept hit the web

Thanks to our friends over at Road & Track jumping the embargo gun, we received our first sneak peak of the Lexus LF-LC Concept. Now the rest of the story has been published, with R&T taking a thorough look at how Toyota’s California-based Calty Design Research facility came up with the look of the racy hybrid 2+2 coupe.

“Only a few written attributes were given as criteria: avant-garde beauty, originality, driving joy and unequaled technology,” according to the story, which says Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda himself weighed in with a mandate that the car “have the ‘wow’ factor.”

Lexus has been working on the LF-LC Concept for a year and a half, so the concept is no mere auto show roller. That kind of attention-to-detail shows in the new photos, especially inside the car. A finely detailed interior with wave designs stitched into the leather door panels is a nice touch that reinforces the car’s exterior design language, which R&T says Lexus is calling “tumbling ribbon.” The car also has a multi-layered instrument panel that looks like it could have been inspired by any number of sci-fi video games.

One thing missing from the article is any further information about the hybrid drivetrain system in the car. Curiously, while the press release on Toyota’s Japanese Web design announcing that it would be unveiling the car mentions “Advanced Lexus Hybrid Drive,” that line was omitted from the release on the American site. Apparently we’ll have to wait until the car’s official reveal at the Detroit Auto Show on January 9 to find out what (if anything) is under the hood of the LF-LC.

There’s plenty more to take in, including two new beauty shots from Autocar, so be sure to check out all the photos in the gallery.

Jan 5, 2012

GraphicDesign.com Adds New Contributors

In the final days of 2011, GraphicDesign.com welcomed an esteemed set of writers into the fold. The site, which is devoted to the graphic flash design industry and graphic design news, is growing leaps and bounds and is a product of Terran Marketing.

Nicole Spiegel-Gotsch was the final News Correspondent to be added in December. She is the owner of New Jersey-based NSG Design and has over a decade of experience in the mobile app, print advertising, and site design arenas. Perhaps most importantly, her work has spanned a variety of industries, including healthcare, packaged goods, fashion, and publishing.

No graphic design team would be complete without someone from the hair, beauty, and lifestyle industries. On GraphicDesign.com, that distinction belongs to Jo Gifford, who is the founder of Cherry Sorbet Creative. Gifford has 15 years of relevant experience and, according to her bio on GraphicDesign.com, has a very eclectic set of interests: “She is fascinated by consumer trends and is a tech geek with a passion for apps and mindmapping tools for that hyper-creative design thinking.” She’ll be a News Correspondent on GraphicDesign.com.

Good old Rocky Top! Knoxville, Tennessee native James George was also added to the writing team at GraphicDesign.com. He has been designing for print and the web for the last half-dozen years and is proficient in creating logos, printed materials, identities, and websites. He brings a unique background to the GraphicDesign.com family and will share his graphic design insights as a featured contributor specializing in content about various graphic design content and tutorials on their features.

New Yorker Matt Cannon was also added onto GraphicDesign.com’s graphic design News Correspondent team in the final days of December. Cannon’s specialty primarily lies online and his impressive client list includes the likes of Zappos, Bath & Body Works, Soft Scrub, Air National Guard, General Motors, and Staples. To top that off, Cannon is self-taught, which makes his accomplishments even more impressive.

Photographer Nathaniel Coalson will come aboard as a featured contributor. He’s pushing 25 years in the business and splits his time between England and the United States. In addition to his extensive photography experience, Coalson spent 15 years as a print and web designer.

In late November, ERACOM graduate Mirko Humbert hopped onboard the GraphicDesign.com train as a featured contributor. He’s been freelancing for the last seven years and his eclectic background includes stints in the United States, Switzerland, and China.

A few weeks after Humbert, Dave Bricker joined GraphicDesign.com. Dave is a professor of graphic design in Miami, Florida and even enjoys a little guitar. Bricker operates Essential Absurdities Press, under which he has published several books.

ABOUT GRAPHICDESIGN.COM

GraphicDesign.com is a product of Terran Marketing and a leading source of news and information devoted entirely to the graphic design industry. Graphic design customers, employers, students, and freelancers come to GraphicDesign.com to read and discuss current graphic design news, find graphic design firms and to post or search for graphic design jobs.

Jan 4, 2012

The biggest product flops of 2011

A number of incredible new products were launched this year. Apple introduced the iPhone 4S, a phone with voice command. And Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner — a fuel efficient jet built of carbon composite — finally had its first commercial flight. But not all products and services launched this year did well. Some failed miserably. 24/7 Wall St. looked at the biggest product launches of 2011 in order to identify the worst of the lot.

24/7 Wall St.: The best- and worst-run companies in America

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Products generally fail because they are either inferior versions of already successful products or they have little-to-no demand. Research In Motion’s PlayBook is the greatest example of the former. There was no room for a poorly 3D Design tablet in a market dominated by the upmarket iPad and its inexpensive cousin Kindle Fire. The Playbook was widely panned. RIM publicly blamed its weak sales on competitive shifts in the market, referring to the release of Kindle Fire.

Many companies also often fail to understand consumer sentiment and, as a result, do not accurately estimate demand for the product. When Netflix announced it would spin off its DVD-by-mail service in the form of a new service called Qwikster, customers were outraged. Nobody wanted the new site and nobody wanted to pay extra money for it. As a result, it failed before it even got off the ground. The Qwikster blunder ended up costing Netflix many customers.

These are the biggest product flops of the year.

24/7 Wall St.: 8 beers Americans no longer drink

1. Ashley Push-Up Triangle

• Company: Abercrombie & Fitch
While no stranger to controversy, Abercrombie & Fitch seemed to have crossed a line this time. In March the retailer unveiled its spring line for Abercrombie Kids, a division targeting children ages 8 to 14. Included in the line was the “Ashley” Push-Up Triangle, a bikini top with padding. The launch prompted a violent response from parent groups. Several child development experts also criticized the top because it sexualized young girls. At first, Abercrombie tried to address the concerns by reclassifying the top as padded and saying it was not intended for very young girls. It stated on Facebook: “We’ve re-categorized the Ashley swimsuit as padded. We agree with those who say it is best ‘suited’ for girls age 12 and older.” But while the bottoms are still available, the bikini top is no longer featured on the company’s website.

2. Qwikster

• Company: Netflix
In September Netflix announced that it would be separating its online streaming service and its DVD mail service. Streaming was going to continue under the Netflix brand, while DVD-by-mail was going to operate under a new website called Qwikster. The change and the accompanying increase in prices outraged customers, leading the company to kill off Qwikster before it was even launched. CEO Reed Hastings announced this decision in a blog post on the company’s website in which he began, “I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.” The blog post was mobbed with more than 27,000 comments from angry customers. The ordeal cost the company approximately 800,000 customers.

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24/7 Wall St.: States where people pay the most (and least) in taxes

3. Volt

• Company: General Motors
GM was originally so excited about the Volt that the company had announced in January it was speeding up its roll-out by six months. But by November the excitement had fizzled out. Larry Nitz, GM’s executive director for vehicle electrification, told Reuters “It’s naive to think that the world is going to switch tomorrow to EVs (electric vehicles).” Indeed, sales for the vehicle have been consistently low. Only 125 models were sold in July 2011. This was after GM spokeswoman Michelle Bunker was quoted as saying that the Volt was “virtually sold out” due to its popularity — a statement later shown to be misguided. Adding insult to injury, Chevy Volts are under investigation for fires involving the cars’ lithium-ion batteries. For concerned Volt owners, GM has offered free loaner cars.

4. HTC Status (Facebook phone)

• Company: AT&T/HTC
In June of this year, AT&T announced the HTC Status. The Status was the first, and likely the last, smartphone with a dedicated Facebook share button. At the time of its launch, AT&T hoped it would be incredibly popular among Facebook users. “We can’t wait to put the HTC Status in the hands of our young customers who will waste no time tapping into Facebook to update their friends,” said AT&T Senior VP of Devices Jeff Bradley in a statement. But sales were significantly lower than the company had originally expected, and rumors that the phone would be discontinued quickly spread. Given the ease with which users can access Facebook on other smartphones, the case for owning the Status was not very strong. Despite its low sales, AT&T has defended its product, stating, “The HTC Status is a great product and our plans for it to be part of our portfolio haven’t changed.”

5. PlayBook

• Company: Research In Motion
The PlayBook was one of the most anticipated consumer electronic products of 2011 and “one of RIM’s most important roll-outs,” as The Wall Street Journal put it. It was the company’s first attempt at competing with Apple in the tablet space. Leveraging the success of the BlackBerry, many hoped it would be the businessman’s answer to the iPad. Unfortunately, the BlackBerry App World had few well-regarded apps, critical to compete with the iPad and Apple’s App Store. Following poor sales, RIM lowered its sales target for the second quarter of 2011 to one-third of what it had been originally, according to research firm DigiTimes. In a statement, RIM blamed the poor sales on “several factors, including recent shifts in the competitive dynamics of the tablet market,” by which it was referring to the popular Kindle Fire. The company attempted to get its product off the ground with aggressive promotions, which caused it to lose $485 million in discounts on the tablet in the third quarter.

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24/7 Wall St.: 10 brands that will disappear in 2012

6. Fiat 500

• Company: Fiat
This year, Fiat released its new 500 — a three-door car that is under 12 feet long. The car was expected to be a big seller, rivaling BMW’s Mini. Even before the car’s launch, however, detractors were predicting failure. Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, stated in Panorama magazine, “I do not see large market in the U.S.A. for a smaller car than the Fiesta. Those that tried failed.” He was right. According to online magazine DailyTech, “Fiat expected to sell 50,000 500s during 2011 in North America. Through the first seven months of 2011, Fiat sold fewer than 12,000.” Sales were so poor that Chrysler Group, which manages the Fiat brand in the United States, ousted U.S. chief Laura Soave this past November.

7. Mars Needs Moms

• Company: Disney
Following the release of “Avatar” in 2009, Hollywood had a new cash cow in the form of 3-D films. This all changed with the release of director Simon Wells’s “Mars Needs Moms” — a flop of epic proportions. Disney, of course, was expecting another hit. The film cost $175 million to make. In its opening weekend it brought in just $6.9 million. According to movie data website The Numbers, “Mars” lost an estimated $130 million in worldwide gross sales, the biggest money loser of all time. Journalist Brooks Barnes wrote in the New York Times, “In the movie business, sometimes a flop is just a flop. Then there are misses so disastrous that they send signals to broad swaths of Hollywood.” “Mars”signaled that the market has become saturated and that digitally animated family films are not the sure thing they once were.

Dec 30, 2011

#3D Design

The Participation Trophy

The Participation Trophy is awarded to a game that wasn’t necessarily great, but it was great that we got to play it.

What more can you say about Duke Nukem Forever? The long-in-development game ended up being both a labor of love for 3D Design Realms/Triptych/Gearbox and a challenge to every person that said it would never be completed. And challenging it was. The game feels archaic. Animations are stiff. The environments are full of “stuff,” but at the same time pretty bare. And one of the game’s running gags is that Duke is banging “The Holsom Twins,” two barely legal pop stars named after the Olson twins.

Yet, DNF also feels too modern. For example, why is Duke’s health represented by a regenerating shield? This is doubly out-of-place as his “armor” consists of a tank top and some jeans. Although, it makes a certain kind of Hollywood sense. Duke is an uber-hero, so watching him stand up unfazed after taking two missiles to the face has a certain kind of action movie logic to it.

And that’s why Duke Nukem Forever wins The Participation Trophy, because even though it is objectively a bad game, there’s also a certain kind of magic behind its misogynistic facade.

Dec 30, 2011

Top 3 Companies in the IT Consulting & Other Services Industry With the Highest EPS Growth

Below are the three companies in the IT Consulting & Other Services industry with the highest year-over-year expected earnings per share (EPS) growth rates.

hiSoft Technology (NASDAQ:HSFT) is highest with EPS growth of 14,150.0%. hiSoft Technology International Ltd. provides business process Software outsourcing services to customers in the telecommunications, software, financial services, pharmaceutical and manufacturing sectors.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of hiSoft Technology have traded between a low of $8.02 and a high of $34.00 and are now at $9.29, which is 16% above that low price. Over the past week, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone down 2.2% while the 50-day MA has declined 0.6%.

Following is Forrester Research (NASDAQ:FORR) with EPS growth of 88.4%.

Finishing up the top three is Amdocs (NYSE:DOX), with EPS growth of 67.4%.

Dec 28, 2011

#Software outsourcing

New chippery on parade at ISSCC

The new year in IT always begins around now, when the IEEE puts out the advance program for the International Solid State Circuits Conference, which takes place in San Francisco in February. This time around, it runs from February 19 through 23, and while there are not a large number of server-class processors coming out, there are some very interesting system-on-chip and memory technologies that chip makers will be showing off at the upcoming 2012 event.

First out of the gate will be Intel with a preview of the “Ivy Bridge” processors for PCs, which are made in its new 22 nanometer Tri-Gate process and which will cram a multicore CPU and a GPU onto the same sliver of silicon. Intel will also be showing off a new dual-core Atom processor implemented in its current and well-established 32 nanometer processes sporting on-chip Wi-Fi networking. This is presumably the “Cedar Trail” family of Atom processors that were originally expected around September, then November, and now sometime next year, according to the rumor mill. Intel will also be showing off a 32-bit x86 chip that has an operating range of between 280 millivolts to 1.2 volts that is implemented in its 32 nanometer processes.

Oracle will be on hand to talk about the eight-core Sparc T4 processor that was announced back at the end of September and that just started shipping in systems back in November. Oracle might slip a bit and talk about the future Sparc T5 processor, which will be socket-compatible with the Sparc T4 processor and which will ship by late 2012. Then again, Oracle doesn’t want to screw up Sparc T4 system sales, so maybe it won’t say anything. Especially considering that the Sparc T5 will have 16 cores running at around 3GHz or so and scale up to eight sockets in a single system – yielding about 2.5 times the aggregate oomph on thread-happy workloads like databases and middleware.

IBM is not saying anything about its future Power7+ or Power8 processors for its Unix and proprietary systems. But Big Blue will be showing off a prototype 3D Design system-on-chip design that will use through silicon via (TSV) technology that it perfected with Micron Technology for hybrid cube memory. IBM will be demonstrating that the techniques that can be used to stack up DRAM chips and lash them together into a parallel memory cluster (well, that is what HMC memory is, more or less) can be used to link embedded DRAM to processor cores. Such technology will be needed to make more powerful and energy-efficient parallel systems.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Amkor Technology will be showing off a similar stacked chip called 3D-MAPS, which is a massively parallel processor with stacked memory. In this case, the chip in question has 64 cores running at mere 277MHz and 256KB of SRAM memory mated to it. This is a tiny chip in terms of raw chip performance, but it delivers 64GB/sec of memory bandwidth and only consumes 5 watts of juice, and on memory-intensive workloads with a certain degree of parallelism, 3D-MAPS could scream. The next generation 3D-MAPS chip will have two logic tiers with a total of 128 cores and three DRAM tiers instead of one SRAM tier for memory.

The University of Michigan will be stacking up chips, too, with its Centip3De project, which will put 64 ARM Cortex-M3 embedded processors into a cube. The Wolverines have been talking about (PDF) a seven-layer 3D chip that has 128 Cortex-M3 cores and 256MB of stacked DRAM all glued together, so this appears to be a chip off the old block.

Advanced Micro Devices will be showing off a “resonant clock design” for a 64-bit x86-processor towards the end of the day, and clearly there will be a need for some coffee during that one. Fudan University of China will be showing off a 16-core, 320 milliwatt, 800MHz processor it has cooked up with message passing and shared-memory inter-core communications – all cooked up in an ancient and cheap 65 nanometer process. Cavium will be showing off its latest 32-core MIPS-based processors, which sport network accelerators and which are sold under the Octeon II brand. Fujitsu will be there to show off its current K massively parallel supercomputer, powered by the eight-core Sparc64-VIIfx processor and currently the most powerful super in the world.

Hynix Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics will be showing off their respective 2Gbit and 4Gbit DDR4 SDRAM memory chips, which will eventually make their way into PCs and servers.

Dec 23, 2011

The wysi Partnership has Just Launched their Latest Website

Web designers and developers, The wysi Partnership, have recently rebuilt their own website to better reflect the type of work they do and their dedication to helping companies do business online. Wysi, a partnership built on a wealth of experience in the web industry, provides affordable and effective web solutions to small and medium-sized companies in the UK. Based in Newbury, Berkshire, they are able to easily service the south-east and Home Counties and with their branch office in the West Country much of Western and south-western England. Whilst the majority of their clients are UK-based, they also provide website and IT support services to companies in Western Europe.

wysi have recently undertaken projects for The Chatham House Group and the Department for Vehicle Licensing (through a third party client). As professional web developers, The wysi Partnership are able to offer a very wide range of professional web services, digital and online marketing, search engine optimisation, e-commerce systems and much more.

Website designers in Berkshire are well located to serve small business community in the M4 corridor from London in the east to Swindon and Bristol in the west. The wysi Partnership are well established web developers in Newbury, West Berkshire.

Some of their recent work includes a complete redesign and rebuild for the Newbury agricultural society Newbury Showground website. The project was completed shortly before the September 2011 show and web site traffic was later found to be at an all-time high. Feedback from clients suggests that The wysi Partnership are amongst the best website developers in Berkshire.

Wysi are regarded as one of the best business websites developer in the UK because of their excellent platform upon which nearly all their business websites are built. The website/e-commerce system is particularly search engine friendly resulting in high quality traffic for their many website clients. Search engine optimisation is particularly important (and more difficult) for owners of e-commerce websites.

The partnership itself is made up of three professional web developers, a specialist search engine optimisation team, dedicated project managers and graphic artists and designers. The partnership recently acquired One Step Ahead, another Newbury Web design and search engine optimisation company which was owned by one of the partners.

The company offers substantive and affordable help to small businesses in the Thames valley and Home Counties. One of their primary aims is to help more local companies get their business online, and the company regularly runs initiatives and drop-in days at their local offices in Oxford Street Newbury where business owners can learn of the latest online marketing options without obligation.

Good web developers can be hard to find but the feedback from clients seems to suggest that The wysi Partnership know what they are talking about when it comes to business websites, e-commerce, digital marketing, and search engine optimisation.

Dec 22, 2011

‘‘Flat’ tired of living in a boring, big house? Shift to an apartment!

I know that people living in their big mansions in Defence and Clifton would probably dismiss this article. After all, what do they know what living in an apartment is like? They might have the privilege to lounge in their spacious living rooms or take a stroll in their manicured gardens, but they hardly know the fun of living in an apartment.

The constant hustle and bustle in apartments means that there is always something exciting and entertaining to look forward to. Whether it’s the phaddas with the guy who broke the switch of the water pump and the grumblers who never let you play cricket outside the apartment building or the aroma of delicious food wafting from every window, life in an apartment is anything but boring.

The best thing about living in an apartment is that you know people living in the vicinity. Neighbours are truly like family members; they trust and rely on each other. You realise this when a sweet girl from the house next door knocks on your door and asks for some coriander for the aaloo gosht her mom is cooking.

And while people living in big houses are barely out of their beds at 7 am, the party at the apartments has already begun.

As the boys play cricket in the morning outside the apartment building, you see bystanders holding their aloo puris and you coax them into giving you some. And to the uncle who boisterously cheers you as you play, you request, “Please uncle, get some Pepsi for us!”

As you try to rush through the game before it’s time to get ready for school, middle-aged aunties watch you from the balconies. Some flash design gracious smiles while others scowl and angrily shout at the coterie of cricket players for ruining their beauty sleep.

With the constant hullaballoo outside the apartment building, the tranquillity inside your own home is definitely a relief. But just when you are getting used to the peace and quiet, the guy from the third floor decides to get some welding done at his place and the idiot next door causes the water to overflow after failing to fix the water pump.

Then of course, there are the flat gundas raising a ruckus at midnight outside your apartment, as you try to cram your brains with class notes on the eve of your exam. But instead of trying to focus on your studies, you keenly eavesdrop when an uncle disperses the rowdy boys with his scolding.

And when this clamour fades away, at exactly 5 am the clucking of the coop of hens owned by the health-conscious auntie who only eats desi eggs, begins.

The night starts and ends in a flash. Playing football, listening to the music and having random dinners at a friend’s place are part of it all.

And let’s not forget the entertaining competition amongst apartment residents. The flaunting of animals on Bakra Eid, competitive cricket and football matches, the scuffles amongst gangs of teenage boys and the water fights.

The community life in an apartment is a never-ending joyride and people in their gloomy and lonely houses can’t ever imagine the fun apartment people have. I truly pity those people who think that residing in an apartment is ‘low’. My advice: live in a flat and find out the fun.

And to the guys, who are going to shift from their compact flats to some bara bangla: think again.

Dec 21, 2011

Wildlife Film Festival Illustrates Global Format Change

The biennial Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival has mushroomed from an intimate Euro-North American event into a truly global gathering attended by pros in the wildlife film world from virtually every continent (except Antarctica). In 2011, there were over 500 entries from five continents, and more than 25 nations, making it a “melting pot” of video formats and a major challenge for festival organizers.

Acclaimed wildlife fi lm producer Rick Rosenthal used film, plus tape and file-based cameras on his latest project, “Hot Tuna.”

In the early days of the event, many films were still projected with 16mm, 35mm and larger film projectors and with SD video projectors fed by Betacam and DVCPRO playback decks. Then the key question for either tape format was: PAL or NTSC? Fast forward 20 years to a far more complex world with programs being originated and delivered in many, many flavors of SD, HD and upwards to 4K. Moreover, today one can add a third dimension to all of the rest with 3D.

“The good old days of Beta SP in PAL or NTSC are long gone,” said CR Caillouet, technical director for JHWFF. “Today, we live in a multiformat, multi-codec, multi-standards world and there is no putting the genie back in the bottle.”

THE ‘HIGHEST QUALITY’ MATERIAL

For Festival staff, this meant reducing playback permutations so that all could be viewed in their best light, at full quality. “We want region-free, or ideally NTSC DVDs, for preliminary judging,” said Festival Director Lisa Samford. “Then for the Festival screenings of finalists we ask for the highest quality we can get.”

With the ever expanding variety of video formats, displaying the finalist programs posed the greatest challenge for Caillouet’s team. “For best quality, we stick close to the native [output] format,” he said. “We were set up to play programs from tape, discs and drives with HDCAM SR decks, Blu-ray and DVD players and a server for file-based programs.”

All content was fed to four theatrical screens, including the 20x11-foot screen in the main auditorium. There, all sources were fed to a Sony 4K SRX-T420 (large venue) projector in HD-SDI via an Evertz X-1202H 12x2 HD-SDI router. Presentation and clip playback computers were routed through a Kramer VP-729 (analog) HD switcher and converted to HD-SDI for inclusion in the projector feed with the tape and disc media. For some sessions, a live HD-SDI switched feed was also routed to one or more projectors.

3D files and clips on HDCAM-SR and Blu-ray were converted from HD-SDI to HDMI using Blackmagic Design’s HD DeckLink and were then distributed to 3D consumer displays. All other 3D clips originated on HDCAM-SR tape or on a Dolby DCP server and were fed to a Barco Digital Cinema projector via a Dolby processor for display on the main screen, according to Caillouet.

Festival entrants were also urged to encode their programs in universal codecs like Apple ProRes, Quicktime, H.264 and MPEG-2. Material sourced from the HDCAM-SR deck was recorded either in HDCAM and HDCAM-SR formats at 24, 25 and 30 fps. No 1080p/60 content was projected, although ARRI’s Alexa and RED’s Epic with 1080p 60 capture were both displayed in the exhibit area.

There was also some 4K content, but only as part of a Sony 4K 3D technology demo. This entailed reconfiguring the Sony SRX T-420 4K projector with 8 HD-SDI cables versus only one, to accommodate dual stream 3D in 4K.

“African Wild” is an original 3D wildlife documentary series airing on the 3Net 3D channel.

TAPE, FILM STILL BEING USED

Underlying the need for this impressive matrix of playback and display technology is the fact that today, natural history docs are being shot on a broad range of digital and even analog formats at various frame rates from 24/25p to 50/60i to 60p, using various codecs. They are then edited in a variety of codecs and platforms, albeit primarily Apple and Avid.

Many wildlife shooters still originate on tape, and even film, for pragmatic reasons. Two-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rick Rosenthal used film, plus tape and file-based cameras on his latest project, “Hot Tuna.”

“I used my high-speed ARRI SR2HS [Super 16mm camera] for slow motion because we couldn’t justify renting a Phantom while in the field for weeks at a time, for just a few hours of possible use,” Rosenthal said. “Also, the Super 16 footage upconverts nicely to HD these days, and it doesn’t cost me a penny to bring my own camera along, just in case. He also used the Sony F900 for much of the underwater shooting. “The F900 and housing is my old workhorse for underwater work. Quality-wise it’s excellent and dependable. In the large housing, it is a bit clunky to handle topside, but once in the water it’s very stable and sometimes helps ward off overly curious sharks and swordfish,” he said.

British filmmaker Mark Dodd used a Panasonic HDX900 tape-based camera to shoot “The Man Who Saved the Desert” a finalist in the conservation category. “I chose the HDX900 for its film look, specifically the ‘film-neg’ capture settings by ex BBCer, Alan Roberts,” Dodd said. “They proved vital for handling high contrast in the African desert. I used DVCPRO, 50i and was amazed at the picture quality, better than 35mm film, but with no dust, scratches or gate weave!”

3D also had a pervasive presence at the festival, including “Born to Be Wild 3D,” “Flying Monsters 3D” and “The Last Reef.” During a 3D Design marketplace panel, Tim Pastore, vice president of 3Net, the 3DTV network carried by DirecTV, encouraged 3D filmmakers to think of 3Net when producing documentaries. “We’re looking to have a library of 35-40 hours of native 3D wildlife and natural history programming by the end of 2012,” he said, adding that he also seemed open to the use of new economical 3D camcorders, like Sony’s NXCAM and Panasonic’s 3DA1. “Their mobility has allowed many shots and scenes to be pulled off, on location, on budget and on schedule, without sacrificing quality.”

To that point, GoPro sponsored a 3D production workshop by U.K. stereographer Phil Streather (“Meerkats 3D”). Participants conceived and shot a video with the GoPro’s 3D Hero camera, edited it with GoPro Studio and showed it in the auditorium on LG 3D monitors at week’s end. Strangely portending the possible future of wildlife filmmaking, award-winning producer Mark Shelley (“Strange Days on Planet Earth”), said “The quality of the HD and 3D with the tiny GoPro is amazing, and even my 7 year-old could handle it.”

Cheaper, smaller, better—a familiar refrain in tech circles, even in the high Rockies at the world’s premier wildlife film festival.

Dec 20, 2011

Silicon Valley group provides tech training to poor in developing world

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — When Yon Meakchan isn’t converting publications into electronic form for customers like Stanford University, he pedals his bicycle 10 miles south from his office to the rural edges of this city of 2 million to help his family, pulling weeds in rice paddies, tending to banana trees, wading into a murky river to bathe oxen.

“Poor people work very hard,” said Yon, the eldest of eight children who grew up in a thatched-roof and bamboo house. “If they want to buy nice clothes or a motorbike, they can’t. But the rich people can buy nice clothes. They can buy motorbikes. I want to be that rich person.”

Yon, 22, now has a shot at a life beyond poverty thanks to Digital Divide Data, a 10-year-old nonprofit with roots in Silicon Valley that trains disadvantaged workers in the developing world for entry-level technology jobs. In the developing world — Digital Divide has operations in Laos and Kenya as well as Cambodia — a small amount of training can be the difference between grinding poverty and a comfortable life.

While the organization pulled in about $2.3 million in revenue last year, its core mission is to train and educate those like Yon, who works six-hour shifts while also attending a university.

During the five-year training program, he and other employees earn $85 a month, a good salary for part-time employment in Cambodia’s impoverished economy. They also get a college scholarship worth at least 65

percent of costs, health care insurance and extensive English lessons.

Graduates leave well on their way to a better life. They earn two to three times the $150 average monthly salary of Cambodian university graduates, the organization says.

The training gives them hope in a world where dreams are often crushed, said Mai Siriphongpanh, a Digital Divide Data board member.

“Dreams are not for poor people,” she said. “Today you have to worry about what will happen to you tomorrow. Will you have food to eat?”

When Yon’s 8-year-old sister recently contracted typhoid fever, he had to borrow $40 from a teacher to pay for her medicine. While life remains a struggle, he is brimming with optimism. He hopes to one day become a university professor and earn enough to ease the burdens of his family.

Digital Divide Data was launched with donations from Silicon Valley venture capitalists and receives funding from the Palo Alto-based Skoll Foundation and support from companies like San Jose networking giant Cisco Systems (CSCO). Its client list includes

universities around the globe and publishers who use the nonprofit to digitize books for the iPad, Kindle and Sony Reader. Google (GOOG) hired the nonprofit to manage its AdWords campaign in Africa.

“We’ve got kids living in the slums at night and managing AdWords during the day,” said CEO Jeremy Hockenstein, a former McKinsey consultant who cofounded the organization. “If it can work there, it can work in other countries with slums and office towers.”

Governments in developing countries recognize the enormous potential of Software outsourcing companies to provide jobs, but they are usually

Yon Meak Chan washes his village’s cow after tending to his family’s rice field at their home on the southern outskirts of Phnom Penh, in Cambodia on Tuesday, October 4, 2011. Meak Chan works at Digital Divide Data and has benefitted from their scholarship and work program. While he lives in Phnom Penh, he bicycles home twice a month to visit and help his family, who use the rice crop to fed themselves. (LiPo Ching/Mercury News) ( LiPo Ching )for “the more educated and affluent people,” said Susan Kagondu, a researcher in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa office, which supports Digital Divide Data.

A report in June funded by the Rockefeller Foundation estimated income of workers like Yon can soar as much as 200 percent when employed by outsourcing operations such as Digital Divide Data, which has about 750 trainees and full-time employees and another 400 alumni. The study said that by 2015, nearly 800,000 bottom-of-the-pyramid workers could be employed in regions like Southeast Asia and Africa, representing 11 percent of the $178 billion global market for so-called business process outsourcing.

While the report notes that global outsourcing trends are draining the

United States of some jobs, Hockenstein said the work done by his employees — tedious and time-consuming data entry and database creation and management — would be prohibitively expensive to do in the United States.

“A university couldn’t afford to spend several million dollars to digitize a library, but it can afford to spend a few hundred thousand dollars” by hiring organizations like his, he said. His model is to spread some of the work to areas of the world beyond India, China and the Philippines, which he said represent about 80 percent of the outsourcing industry. “If we can harness a huge flow of revenue that is already out there, we could get more people out of poverty.”

Many of Digital Divide Data’s services do not require a lot of analytical skills. Nonetheless, they are critical, said Cathy Aster, project manager at Stanford’s digital library systems and services department. “They are helping to make a larger portion of our cultural heritage available in an online environment to a population from around the world,” she said.

G. Leonard Baker Jr., managing director of Sutter Hill Ventures in Palo Alto and a longtime financial supporter of Digital Divide Data, was taken by the vision of Harvard-educated Hockenstein and his model to create an organization less dependent on donations by generating its own income. “It’s an incredibly cost-efficient use of charitable dollars,” Baker said. “It’s truly amazing.”

Cynthia Hauck, a former Silicon Valley programmer who is the organization’s chief operating officer, keeps an eye on revenue and gross margins. But, she said, Digital Divide Data’s bottom line is “to use the profits to reinvest in our social mission.” That includes encouraging some of her best trainees to look for work elsewhere in hopes of becoming business and government leaders.

Chhum Bunthy, a 25-year-old who has been in the program for three years, is studying to be an architect. He lives in a two-story, brick-and-concrete home with his family, which doesn’t have enough money to complete the unfinished building. His father works as a laborer and his mother is a street vendor who sells barbecue beef.

“My dream is for her to stop selling the beef,” said Chhum, who leaves home every day at 4:30 a.m. He eyed his mother, 47-year-old Chun Chhen, putting bits of beef on skewers, flies buzzing around her face. “I want her and (my father) to be able to stay home.”

At 5:45 a.m., the first shift shows up at Digital Divide Data, which is housed in a former apartment building in a warren of cramped offices crammed with Dell computers on multiple floors connected with narrow and steep stairs. Smiling employees bound into the office, happy to work in air-conditioned rooms and in what seems to them a professional setting.

Operators work on tasks such as creating e-books by converting text into an industry-standard format for e-readers, or categorizing information with HTML tags. To ensure the accuracy of the inputting information, often in languages the workers do not understand, two data entry operators are assigned to each project and, using software, flag discrepancies.

“It’s rare that two people will make the same mistake,” said Kunthy Kann, 33, general manager of the Phnom Penh office. He rose through the ranks after joining the program in 2001, when he faced a life of being a poor farmer. He now consults with clients, oversees the organization’s ranks of young tech workers and has traveled abroad.

Dec 19, 2011

#Software Outsourcing

Shelter Me Project Brings New Hope To Local Animal Rescues

When Karen Stevenson walked into Old Lyme Animal Control a few years ago, her only intent was to adopt a cat. She never expected that it would be the first step in helping raise money for eight animal rescue agencies across the state.

Stevenson owns Thumbnail Designs, a graphic and Web design business, and recently moved to New London from Old Lyme. This is the third year she has put together the Shelter Me Project, an independently produced calendar showcasing animals ranging from dogs and cats to horses and ducks.

“One of my goals is also to raise awareness, because I don’t think a lot of people realize how many rescue agencies there are,” says Stevenson. “There’s 300 in Connecticut alone.”

How it started

Upon adopting her cat, Stevenson found that the woman working at the Old Lyme Animal Control did not have much experience with digital photography. Stevenson started volunteering her services to help spread word about the animals at the shelter, taking photos and uploading them to the adoption service PetFinder.

When the woman at the shelter retired, she was replaced by a person who knew more about photography and sharing images of the animals online. Stevenson soon found she missed helping out in this way.

“It was just a lot of fun and it felt good to make a difference,” she said.

Stevenson came up with the idea of putting together the calendar and selling prints of her photos each year to help the shelters. The first few that agreed were places she adopted from, including the Meriden Humane Society and Forgotten Felines in Clinton. The scope of the project has since expanded to include these shelters and rescues:

Forgotten Felines, Clinton
Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary, Lebanon
Ray of Light Farm, East Haddam
Greener Pastures Rescue, Salem
PAWS, Norwalk
Meriden Humane Society, Meriden
Beech Brook Farm Rescue, Mystic
Hop-A-Long Hollow, Norwalk

Stevenson says she hopes to get a dozen shelters participating in the project. She tries to diversify the types of animals showcased in the calendars and photographs, and came up with a few basic standards as well. The shelter or rescue must be a privately funded nonprofit, and it must have a no-kill policy.

The photographic process

Stevenson starts taking photographs at the end of the summer. Although she only spends about one or two hours taking pictures at each site, it’s enough to rack up hundreds of images from each site.

She says it is usually pretty easy to narrow the collection down to a top 20, but it’s a more difficult experience getting those down to the 12 pictures to be used in the calendar. For this year’s picks, a poll among family and friends determined that the photo that appears in November—a cat rolled over onto his back—would make the cut.

Stevenson has adopted four cats, and discovered the joys and challenges and photographing rabbits and miniature donkeys with the latest rescues to join the project. Her favorite animal to photograph, however, is the ducks at Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary.

“I could spend hours photographing them,” said Stevenson. “They’re so beautiful, and the water and the reflections, it’s just gorgeous.”

Once the calendar is set, it goes to Copy Cats for printing. The image takes precedence over a small bar showcasing the month, animal’s name, and name of the shelter where it is staying. There are also pages describing the rescues and the Shelter Me project itself.

The results

In its first year, the Shelter Me Project was known mostly to Stevenson’s family and friends. Last year, sales spiked with a mention on the blog DailyCandy and the calendars raised $900.

“Hopefully we’ll match that or exceed that this year,” said Stevenson. “It’s still in its infancy.”

Stevenson says she does not know how much of an impact the project has on adoption rates, but she has gotten several e-mails inquiring about the animals. She said one of the most difficult parts of the project is seeing some of the same animals year after year. One goal of the project is to combat a stigma sometimes attached to animals in shelters or rescues.

“You see these animals and they’re wonderful,” said Stevenson. “I think this is the personification of the shelter animals, that they’re the rejects and no one wants them. I don’t think it’s until you experience these shelters and go into them that you realize they’re not.”

Dec 17, 20111 note

#web design

Volvo preaches safe sexiness

Volvo has been attempting to sell itself with more sports sedan style and sizzle of late – urging owners in a recent ad campaign to be as “naughty” as they want to in their S60s – in an ongoing effort to shed the dowdy faithful-family-retainer image of old.

And its new owner, China’s Geely, plans to take the brand further up-market by leveraging newly developed flash design language in future models – which will start to show up by 2014 – that will have plenty of performance from new turbo, four-cylinder engines allied with improved planet-friendly efficiency.

But don’t be fooled, Volvo still takes safety more seriously than a Swedish nanny pushing a pram full of triplets.

That, unfortunately, tends to distract from the fact that the second-generation S60 – “even” in its recently released T5 form, rather than the hot T6 and even more smoking R-Design – is a pretty nice car to actually drive all by yourself, without electronic aids getting involved in the process.

Volvo in fact seems to have become aware it might be better to let the driver get on with things unless a full-on emergency intervention is required, so maybe the electronic aids will make themselves a little less obvious – rather than mildly annoying – in the future.

The redesigned S60 was introduced for 2011 in turbocharged, 300-hp, inline-six-powered and all-wheel-drive T6 form and joined for 2012 by the 325-hp, six-cylinder R-Design version and the front-wheel-drive, five-cylinder T5.

The S60 sedan is just a little longer than a 3-Series BMW, which puts it at the shorter end of the mid-size category, although it doesn’t come up at all short in styling terms, with its particularly neat and all-of-a-piece front-end treatment and perky tail end. Volvo stylists have obviously deleted anything remotely related to “boxy” from their terms of reference.

Compact exterior dimensions and a tightly wrapped coupe-like shape obviously mean interior space in this four-door sedan isn’t overly generous, but there’s enough room to carry a pair of rear-seat passengers in reasonable comfort. The trunk is a small for the category 339 litres.

The interior treatment is Scandinavian in its simplicity but far from austere. The test car’s optional wood trim and leather looked good, but I’d prefer the aluminum trim, which works particularly well with the “floating” centre stack. Front seats are fitted to your form and locate you properly in relation to the wheel and controls and the cabin is quiet at speed.

With a starting price of $38,300, all the equipment items you’d expect are on deck, but move to the test car’s $39,900 Level II and you get a sunroof, power passenger seat, keyless entry, heated seats, wood inlays, auto-dim mirror with compass, rain sensor, leather wheel, push-button start, a front spoiler and additional exterior bright work.

Adding $13,205 in options to this – including navigation, many of the electronic driver aids mentioned above, leather trim, retractable mirrors, special 18-inch wheels and a premium sound system with Bluetooth – upped the ante to a rather startling $53,155.

The S60 T5 is powered by Volvo’s turbocharged, 2.5-litre, five-cylinder engine, which makes a muted but unique sound and generates 250 hp and 266 lb-ft of torque, all of the latter available from just 1,800 rpm.

A six-speed shift-it-yourself-if-you-like automatic gets this to the front wheels, and helps produce fuel economy numbers of 10.5 litres/100 km city and 6.6 highway. Average fuel usage after a week of highway and mainly rural driving was 8.4 litres/100 km.

With all that torque available, around-town drivability is very good, with an accelerative punch available any time it’s required. And with 0-100 km/h taking less than seven seconds, it’s a decidedly quick car.

And one with driving dynamics that, while they won’t match the 3-Series, certainly feel like they would be competitive with front-drive competitors. There’s a sense it wouldn’t relish being pushed really hard, but it steers responsively and with a nice degree of fluidity, while delivering a firm and controlled ride that handles the rough stuff with an imperturbability that is also kind to the occupants’ posteriors.

This Volvo is a well-put-together package of exterior and interior style with underlying engineering (and software development) that makes it perform well and deliver a high level of safety – and considerable driver appeal.

Dec 16, 2011

CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3D Blu-Ray Review: A Poorly Crafted, Bland Excuse For An (In)Action Film

Some films should be left alone. Some because they are simply good; some because they carry to marks of cinematic legacy and some because they occupy that special place called cult. Mostly, those that are cult are not good, and those that are good are not cult, by definition. And the trouble is, it is invariably those films that fall into that last category of cult which end up being remade by what is called the Hollywood machine for its uninspired perpetual mechanics.

The original Conan was a celebration of everything that would go on to define Arnold Schwarzenegger’s early career: it was brainless, muscle-bound and silly. But most of all, it was bloody terrible. But time, and the cult that has formed around Arnie, and indeed the film itself, have been kind to Conan and there are those who love it, and a lot more people than really necessary were upset when Hollywood started throwing around the idea of remaking the fantasy sans Arnie.

It wasn’t that great in the first place, why not have another bash? After all, it couldn’t be any worse could it?

Well, things don’t start particularly well, with Ron Perlman professionally grimacing his way through a horribly cliched opening sequence in which a nightmarish fake baby takes way too much attention. It’s a silly starting point, and it doesn’t really bode well for the rest of the film (but then, silliness is as typically Conan as furry pants and over-acting), but it turns out to be something of a misdirection, since the rest of the film is so relentlessly bland. Rather than revel in the opportunity for fun and fancy that remaking something like Conan inevitably offers, the film-makers have instead chosen to get a little too serious with numbing results.

The film lacks any magic, and indeed any of the spirit that grabbed a cult audience for the original: the direction lacks any kind of showmanship, and the script is a dilluted version of what it undoubtedly could have been. For an action film to have such a fascination with inaction is rather fatal, and the over-riding feeling is that all of the fun has been sucked out in a misguided attempt to marry the cult status of the original with a po-faced gravitas that simply doesn’t fit.

This is most obvious when you consider the difference between the action sequences, and those more dialogue-heavy which bridge them: the set-pieces look good, and are full of the kind of vim and vigour you could ever wish for in a project of this nature, but when it all quietens down and players and director are charged with telling story more subtly the cracks show terribly. Conan is a case of brawn over brains, but in such a fatally unbalanced way that the lack of brains detracts from the brawnier elements: there is no finesse, no eye for detail and when you scratch off the expensive surface you discover that the film is roughly on a par, in terms of execution, as a straight to SyFy fantasy.

Part of the problem is the casting of Jason Momoa, who definitely isn’t a terrible actor, but who unfortunately suffers here because of a poor script and poor characterisation that make his Conan curiously lacking in any sort of charm. And when you’re the titular hero that is something of a problem. Arnie’s charm, in every one of his earlier, sillier roles (even as the Terminator) was that he effused charisma and likeability in his very on-screen presence (which is eventually why he’s go on to do so many comedies), even as a villain, but Momoa simply doesn’t have that about him. Yes he has some mystique about him, and you get the sense that with the right material he might have made a much better Conan, but he is hobbled by awful direction and that anemic script.

It’s also incredibly difficult to devote any attention or effort to a film so lazily riddled with cliches: surely the only objective for a remake that matters is to offer a new look at old material, otherwise what the hell is the point? Instead of a new take, informed by more modern story-telling techniques and technology, Conan is a cliche-by-numbers mess. Almost every character feels like they’ve been taken from another film, including the Waterworld meets Battlefield Earth costume and make-up design, and the acting talents of Rose McGowan, Ron Perlman and Stephen Lang – who all have the potential to be B-Movie legends, with every connotation of the term – are underused rather cruelly.

Had this new version of Conan breathed a little life into the original material, we might have been talking something worthwhile, but that objective never seems to have occurred to director Marcus Nispel, and his final product is a bland, entirely forgettable, and totally pointless rehash.

Quality

Post-production conversion to 3D Design usually spells disaster, and here it’s no different. In comparison to the fine-looking 2D print that comes as part of the 2 disc set alongside the 3D version, the print is way too dark for the 3D to really work, and the dimensional design is largely unspectacular anyway, so it’s hardly a demo-worthy film to show off the medium. What baffles me about this sort of film, converted to 3D in post-production, is that the potential of the medium is just never realised, so you have to wonder why they even bothered? I’m not usually one for a gimmicky approach to the technology, but surely an action film offers the opportunity for 3D to flew its muscles in set-pieces – and Conan does hint at as much with a few good-looking 3D tricks, but the majority of the film just feels like it was designed to be a 2D. So why spend the extra money?

There is no depth to the image, and again the design carries the marks of the general lack of inspiration that seems to have informed the entire project. Had the film been filmed completely in 3D from the outset, the overall darkness of the print and the artificial pallettes wouldn’t have had such a flattening effect on so much of the image, but as a post-production project little works.

The encode itself is very good, there are no compromises in the way Lionsgate have ported the print to high-definition, and the only limitations and problems come from the decision to convert the film in post-production, which you might have already gathered always comes with problems. Black levels are very good and consistent, contrast likewise is consistent, and both texture and detail are fine, when there’s enough light to show them off. There is little sign of artificing on Lionsgate’s part, which is a blessing considering the problems already thrown up by Nispel’s post-production fiddling, and the studio can proudly proclaim that they undoubtedly did the best with the material they had.

With the sound transfer, Lionsgate can again be proud of themselves: the audio design and mix are wonderful, adding back some of the magic that the film’s bland material strips away. Sound effects, especially in action shots are great, and dialogue is as clear and crisp as possible, even in heavier action scenes.

Extras

Not much to shout about. Two commentaries appear, one from a slightly melancholic sounding Nispel, and the other from much more animated actors Momoa and Rose McGowan, and the latter is probably the best thing about the Extras package. The rest of the content is made up of promotional feeling featurettes and brief glimpses behind the scenes and a profile of Conan creator Robert E Howard, which lacks the weight or engaging depth fans might have preferred. It’s not a bad package, but again, it’s just not easy to get excited.

Dec 15, 2011

The Price is Write

Before we discuss the components of vendor pricing we should dwell for a moment on value rather than cost. To value something is to estimate it’s monetary worth.

As any of you who have been active in the vendor marketplace know, vendors and their products are not the same so understanding what you are getting for your dollar is as important as how many dollars are required to pay for it.

In comparing vendors it is necessary to compare several aspects of their offerings before you can determine the best deal for your organization. An obvious example is functional footprint; if one vendor’s solution includes a viable print solution but another does not then you need to factor that into the price comparison.

Similarly, if vendor A requires that you buy and install a third-party product—say an rdbms—in order to run their Software outsourcing, but vendor B does not this fact needs to be accounted for in the price comparison.

There also is the more nebulous issue of how much your organization values one function over another. Vendor A may have a more functionally-mature billing system than vendor B, but if your organization does only simple, direct billing and therefore does not need all that additional functionality the distinction may be irrelevant.

So, before you consider the actual pricing that each vendor is offering construct a framework for how you value what is being offered. And a final comment for now on value as opposed to price: Market results show consistently that carriers do not buy on price alone. The least expensive vendor does not always win, and the notion of the “best price” does not necessarily equate to the lowest price; rather it equates to a combination of understood costs, estimated value, and perceived risk. Carriers will pay more for added value and they will pay more for lower risk.

That said, it is of course important to understand the cost of purchasing and installing vendor software. Software costs have three or four components depending on whether or not the business deal involves an ASP arrangement.

License Pricing

The license price is the cost a carrier pays to a vendor for the rights to use a defined set of software for a defined purpose for a defined period of time. The defined purpose is usually more concerned with what the carrier cannot do, rather than what it can do. For example, the defined purpose will usually exclude the use of the Software outsourcing for anything other than the carrier’s core insurance business and also may exclude the processing of business from acquired carriers.

Dec 14, 2011

#Software outsourcing

Contender – Costume Designer Sandy Powell, Hugo

Hugo, director Martin Scorsese’s film about a young orphan named Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) who is swept up into a lustrous unfolding mystery is a lovely homage to the art of cinema and Georges Melies. Helping to create an enchanted Paris in the early ‘30s is costume designer Sandy Powell.

Having already been nominated for seven Academy Awards for her costume design, with three wins for Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Aviator and The Young Victoria (2010), Powell was the perfect fit for Scorsese’s story of wonder. In fact, she has already worked on five films with Scorsese, including, The Aviator and Gangs of New York, the latter for which she received a nomination in 2003.

Powell began her work, as she does on all Scorsese films, by watching films he has recommended. There were also photographs from the period along with photographs of Melies and his wife. “Also, of course, there were all the original Melies films to look at,” Powell says.

As seasoned as Powell is, she approached Hugo in a completely new way from anything else she has worked on. “Everything is seen as if through the eyes of a child, therefore I wanted to simplify the looks to just one, maybe two outfits for each character. I approached the actual costumes as if they were illustrations from a children’s picture book, keeping the looks simple, graphic and colorful,” Powell explains. Hugo wears stripes as he runs through the idealized Paris of the 1930s magically lit as through a gauze filter with his only ally, the plucky Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who also wears a striped sweater throughout the film. The result is beautiful, the consistent look for each character defining their personalities and helping to distinguish them among the crowds in the busy railway station, the location where most of the story unfolds.

The story’s setting also brought with it challenges. There were hundreds of extras in the railway station to dress and costumes had to be found for each one. “As the station was constantly busy we had to treat each extra as if they were a principal as we would never know who might be featured.” Another demanding task lay in dressing Melies (Ben Kingsley) and his wife Mama Jeanne (Helen Mcrory). As the mystery unravels, the film travels from 1931 back to the early 1900s, so Powell had to dress Melies and Mama Jeanne in both periods, making the actors appear both older and younger than their actual ages. Presenting the same actor as both a glamouros movie star and an older lady was an assignment Powell especially enjoyed. “Helen Mcrory had to look like a woman in her 60s in 1931 and in her early 20s in the 1900s. I tried to make her look small and frail in the later period and used padding to giver her a younger, fuller, more period figure in the 1900s.”

The lush realism in Powell’s costume design for Melies, his wife, Hugo, and all the characters in the film is captured most beautifully in the 3D Design format, making the story as warm and enchanting as it quite possibly can be.

Dec 13, 2011

For downtown businesses ... It's a start

There is a buzz of activity in downtown Richmond today that was not there a year ago.

There are more occupied store fronts, more foot traffic and, yes, even more shopping going on down there.

Will it last?

What’s the cause?

What will it mean to the community?

Ask the Center City Development Corporation.

It is there — in the artificially lighted board rooms and fancy training center — that co-directors Jason Whitney and Beth Fields are directing a resurrected effort to make downtown sing and provide advice, training, leadership and counsel for entrepreneurs and business owners.

“It’s a process and it’s evolving,” Fields said. “We didn’t know the role we would be taking when we walked in here.”

“We’re starting from scratch. In July we didn’t know if we would have any money, if we would be around,” Whitney said. “But, yes, we’ve had some success.”

Center City, which replaced Main Street Richmond as the downtown development organization, has begun to make waves.

Co-directors Fields and Whitney were hired in February and got $100,000 per year for three years in Certified Technology Park money from the Richmond Redevelopment Commission.

Their instructions were simple: Make things happen.

“It’s not an anomaly that our downtown is in the same situation as downtowns across the country,” Whitney said. “It’s hard to quantify but part of what we’re trying to do is create a culture that says, ‘Hey, you can open a business.’”

The agency’s main focus, Fields said, will be to find and stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit.

“You have to find the right people, people who can see that it’s possible,” she said.

Dan Dickman, vice president of BSN Sports, formerly Kessler’s Sports in downtown Richmond, is a Center City board member. He said the organization, just like the Innovation Center at 824 E. Main St., represents “a starting point.”

“This city has entrepreneurship in its blood and we have not had this service here,” Dickman said. “This is our focus because you never know who is going to walk through the door.”

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Aiming at innovation

Center City makes its home at the downtown Innovation Center. Businesses and individuals can walk in and set up shop and have office space and equipment and Internet service.

That worked for Troy and Suzanne Derengowski, who started Derco Internet Broadcasting, an Internet radio site.

“It gave us a place to be,” Suzanne Derengowski said. “We wouldn’t be this far along without the support of Center City. They provided a startup space we could afford, technical capabilities and front desk coverage. It’s allowed us to make it to another level.”

The company has four employees.

“It’s a perfect fit for this building,” Whitney said. “They couldn’t have gotten off the ground as quickly as they did if not for us. They were able to walk in on Friday and start broadcasting Monday.”

That concept of help, support and cheap space can be huge to entrepreneurs, said Chris Hardie, co-owner of Summersault, a Web design development and design company in downtown Richmond.

Hardie and Mark Stosberg started their business with similar help from Infocom, an Internet service provider previously based in downtown Richmond.

“The whole idea of incubation is a good one,” Hardie said. “Summersault was able to start the way we did because Infocom was downtown and they gave us space for free and let us use their Internet connection and their printer. It allowed us to focus on what we did best which is Website development.”

Summersault now has 10 employees.

“For any business that is an entrepreneurial effort to be able to focus on that right away is a good thing and I’m excited that the Innovation Center was created for that purpose,” he said.

But Hardie said he hopes the Innovation Center will not simply provide free space for business startups, which he said would then compete directly with downtown property owners.

“I’m hoping (the Innovation Center) is focused on incubating startup businesses as opposed to being another space someone can rent downtown,” he said. “I think (incubating is) what Jason and Beth are working toward.”

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Ray Ontko agreed. Ontko started Ray Ontko & Company, a computer consulting business, in downtown Richmond in 1992. He started a second company, Doxpop, in 2002. He currently employs 12 people.

“The main reason (Center City) started was to provide encouragement to budding entrepreneurs and not to provide low cost office space to potential startup companies, since there is no shortage of available office space for folks who want to go into any number of businesses,” Ontko said.

“The one thing I’ve really enjoyed is that (the Innovation Center) provided a space for important conversation for downtown and business and city leaders, and now for entrepreneurs.” Ontko said. “It’s a complex process to start and run a business and I would be interested to see if (Center City staff) can help with that process.”

Center City holds rental agreements with its four current clients, DerCo, Terah Faith Photography, Patriot Phone Books and Classic Colors, a graphic design and Web design company.

Judgment awaits

For now, the future awaits and that future, said Whitney, will be the judge of the program’s success.

“I would be ecstatic to start a business in this building and then see them move out into the community and hire employees,” he said. “But I don’t know if that will be in two weeks, two months or two years.”

Businesses initially can stay in the Innovation Center for three months. But that length of time can be extended for up to two years, Whitney said.

“It’s for start-up businesses,” said Richmond Mayor Sally Hutton. “It’s an incubator. Businesses start there and then eventually they move out.”

But there is another school of economic thought that says that programs such as these just don’t work.

“It’s a failed economic theory and it hasn’t worked in 100 years,” said Craig Ladwig, director of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a non-profit education foundation based in Fort Wayne. “If it works, why doesn’t it work everywhere? Why isn’t everybody successful with it?

“You should be concentrating on setting up a good economic environment that’s good for every business,” Ladwig says.

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But Tim Scales, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Center for Economic Education at Indiana University East, cautioned that if people are looking for Center City to “turn a profit” then it cannot be judged a success.

“But that’s not its role. Its role is to provide inspiration, information and support, and energy,” Scales said. “Now that you have Beth and Jason in there I believe we will have that kind of inspiration and energy.

“If we see it as a community service for businesses and individuals then I think it can be very successful,” Scales said.

One emphasis will be on assisting in the growth of high-tech businesses.

Whitney is working with the Indiana University East Center for Entrepreneurship, the Purdue College of Technology, the Ivy Tech Workforce and Economic Development organization and the Earlham College science faculty.

Fields has been working on presenting workshops for entrepreneurs and existing businesses with an accent on trends and opportunities to grow.

“It’s really business development assistance,” Fields said.

“Right now we’re networking with local businesses, schools and other certified tech parks around the state,” Whitney said. “We’re working with people who might have a patent and not sure what to do next. We’re trying to get them connected to the people who have the expertise to move that forward.”

Downtown convergence

The effort downtown has sparked activity. Erlene’s and Karnak’s Hookah Cafe have opened. So has Webster’s Bar-B-Que Heaven.

“Jason has been my financial guardian angel,” said Bobby Webster, owner of Webster’s. “He led me down so many correct paths. The people at the Innovation Center really helped me. They were the difference maker.”

John Veach, vice president at Veach’s, said Center City staff helped him stage some “play days” at Veach’s, which were such a success he is planning three more for 2012.

“They were a great help. And the play days were a great success. Manufacturers were here and we taught kids new games. It was a very positive thing,” he said.

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Veach said his store is now planning “Veach’s Summer Olympics” to coincide with Lemonade Days “to encourage kids to be more active and have fun doing it.”

“We want to do an event to promote kids being more active and to promote downtown,” Veach said. “I think things are starting to pick up downtown and I think Center City has played a role in that. They did a wonderful job with the Christmas parade.”

Chris Thompson, who with his wife, Jennifer, owns Sassy Seconds and Thompson Appliances at 801 E. Main St., said he has noticed more foot and vehicular traffic downtown in the year he has been at that location. He also said his business has increased by 25 percent since moving downtown from his former North West Fifth Street location.

“We couldn’t get the furniture and clothing to take off at the other location,” he said. “Here the traffic has been great. The people from (Center City) have been very helpful. They come over and ask how we’re doing and if they can do anything to help.

“I want to tell people that the foot traffic is very good here and you can rent buildings down here cheaper than you can anywhere in town,” he said.

But will the growth last? Since malls and outlying retail strips have taken command of the country’s retail business, here and elsewhere, downtown businesses have come and gone, and come and gone.

“But that happens at the mall as well. We hear that Hot Topic is leaving,” Whitney said. “It is our belief that the more support you can provide for these businesses and the more traffic you can generate downtown the better their chances of survival. Will they all make it? I doubt it. But we’ll help them all we can.

“Our work is cut out for us,” Whitney said. “We are going to try to help entrepreneurs develop their ideas. We are going to help businesses try to grow and add technology jobs. We are going to help empower the downtown merchants and Depot merchants and merchants all over town to grow and prosper.

“It’s a long-term commitment. It won’t happen over night,” he said.

Dec 12, 20111 note