Test pattern girls

"The power of photography both to bestow celebrity and mock it inspires ''Girls on Film,' a sly, cheerfully unsettling exhibition put together by Julie Buck and Karin Segal at Harvard's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts..."

Fun article, as it also includes a slide show of about 30 sample images from the exhibit. There's a great variety and hight retro factor. Oh, and what product of the 80's couldn't dig the Duran Duran inspired title?

Flash 8 poised to take on Web video

"Macromedia plans to unveil its Flash 8 software early next month with an emphasis on video capabilities that some think could up-end the Web video market..."

Those who argue too strongly, on either side, that Flash will overtake popular stand alone media players aren't really understanding the situation. It's not that Flash will replace Windows Media player etc, it's that the breadth of video experiences on the web is growing thanks to Flash. The opportunity to experience video within the context of other related interface and page content elements - all within your browser window - will go beyond the vanilla 'box with video floating above all windows' paradigm. It already is. This is really great for _some_ purposes, but not all. Where media players annoyingly don't integrate smoothly into the web experience, Flash can bump them out. When you want to view DV quality full screen video indepedent of other peripheral content, you'll have your player apps...

Try on Gap jeans, get free iTunes song

"From August 8 to 31, each customer who tries on any pair of Gap's new jean fits - three new fits for women and one for men - will get a complimentary song from Apple's iTunes music store."

Here we go, GAP 'gets it'. Legal music downloads are great bait, like free wi-fi in a cafe. When targeted properly, giving out free downloads could be a powerful and relatively inexpensive promo. Early movers will enjoy lots of word of mouth. Is this worth a special trip to get a $.99 certificate. Probably not, but if you're already at the mall...

Extensis Sells Plug-ins to Third Party Software Developer

"onOne Software purchases popular line of productivity enhancement products for Photoshop and QuarkXPress...Products included in this purchase are pxl SmartScale, PhotoFrame, Intellihance Pro, Mask Pro, PhotoTools, and QX-Tools Pro from Extensis and the Genuine Fractals product from LizardTech. Extensis and LizardTech will continue to support these products until July 31, 2005 when onOne Software will take control of all aforementioned titles."

I posted this because I still use Intellihance sometimes, and GF PrintPro for scaling to large hires images.

The Making of A Video Game Console Interface - Xbox 360

"Taking two years to design an interface may sound like a long time, but not when it’s for a media product. For the iPods and Tivos of the world, the difference between success and failure often lies in how quickly a person can learn the interface and begin using the device. As a result, such projects have lengthy timelines and budgets that would astonish the average Web designer..."

Nice reminder that notable UI's don't usually come to being within a few weeks or as an afterthought to an established spec.

Certification for E-Mail Senders

"In a move to instill confidence in e-mail, TRUSTe will offer a 'We Don't Spam' seal that will appear on opt-in e-mail sign-up pages. To obtain the seal, e-mail senders must pass a certification process. The seal is intended to serve as a trust mechanism, not spam prevention. It demonstrates the sending company conforms to standards set by the non-profit organization."

Mercedes-Benz Offers Up More Free Music with 'Mixed Tape 08'

"Mercedes presents an exclusive selection of musical talents from around the world - right now Mixed Tape 08 with 15 brand new tracks available for free download!"

Ajax Tools Get Green Light

"Several major software companies aim to cash in on the growing use of AJAX by delivering tools to help developers build applications that take advantage of the popular style of Web development... AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a development technique for building interactive Web applications using a combination of HTML, JavaScript and XMLHTTP"

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Microsoft Windows' new Vista

"By naming the next version of Windows 'Vista,' Microsoft may have stepped on the toes of another software company just down the road in Redmond. That would be Vista, a business software and services company..."

Yahoo Buys Maker of 'Widget' Applications

"Hoping to pave a new path to its popular Web site, Yahoo Inc. has acquired Konfabulator, a tiny software maker that provides a computer platform for monitoring the weather, stock prices and a wealth of other customized information without opening a Web browser..."

It's nice to see that these guys didn't wind up fading into oblivion after Apple introduced its own take on widgets - with "Dashboard". BTW this means that Konfabulator is now FREE, helpful if you are not yet running 10.4.

Armstrong Ends Career With 7th Tour Win

"Lance Armstrong closed out his amazing career with a seventh consecutive Tour de France victory Sunday - and did it a little earlier than expected."

Cool! This has inspired me to go for a bike ride & grab some lunch.

J.Y. Blog will return next week

Hi, I'll be back to posting starting Monday July 25th.

Digital Media Top 50: What's Hot and What's Not?

"Have you been wondering what is truly hip in the world of digital video editing , content creation and beyond?..."

Not sure what "Libertarians" have to do with DM, but overall an interesting take on things.

Future-Proofing Flash Player Detection Scripts

"Does your player-detection script prevent early adopters from seeing your site? Mend your code so you don't inadvertently shut out visitors..."

Macromedia Flash Player 8 Public Beta

"This Public Beta is a pre-release version of the next major release of Flash Player. It is being made available for developers and consumers to test their content to ensure existing content plays back correctly and that there are no compatibility issues..."

Midyear Report: (Flash on) Mobile and Devices in 2005

Nice summary report listing and linking to the various milestones and resources surrounding Flash Lite - paints a good picture of how much Macromedia is investing in targeting the mobile platform...

WOMMA releases standards for word-of-mouth marketing

"The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) released standards for tracking and quantifying word-of-mouth marketing at its Measuring Word of Mouth conference in Chicago, which runs this week.

The standards were developed by more than 30 marketing analytics experts, and they include terminology for defining and measuring word-of-mouth marketing..."

No one told me about this conference, I wonder if they measure their own campaigns. Also, I can't wait for the 'Brand Aura' detector based on upcoming Karma-etric standards and practices :-P

How to Make the Most of Your Business Card

"Everyone knows Networking Rule Numero Uno -- Don't go out without your business card -- although I'm constantly amazed by how many people don't bring their cards to professional events. (Some kind of self-sabotage, I think.) Your card plays a major role in your prospect's first impression of you, and you don't often get more than one chance..."

Can never be said enough. BTW I'm blogging this for selfish archival reasons.

A Survival Guide to the Near Future

brandchannel.com: "Anyone hoping to survive let alone be a success in the near future requires a clear understanding of the major forces reshaping our world. The three major converging forces can be categorized as change happening to Human Values, Business Structure and Technology..."

blinkx Makes Podcasts and Video Blogs Fully Searchable

"In addition to offering a wealth of news and entertainment content, blinkx has added Podcast and Video Blog channels to blinkx.tv, making these two sources fully searchable for the first time..."

Mobile net is go with .mobi approval

"The new domain is backed by the main mobile phone manufacturers and operators, as well as Microsoft and the GSM Association, all of whom have a single purpose according to one of the team - to make the web on your phone a reality..."

All signs are pointing to the end of a tax-free Internet

"State governments, tired of seeing an estimated $15 billion in revenue go uncollected, are organizing themselves. And that doesn't bode well for companies selling goods over the Internet..."

Photoshop UI history

"Photoshop UI history: Marcin Wichary collects version-by-version screen captures of the image-processing tool."

"googlebar" emulates Google's IE-only toolbar in Firefox or Mozilla

This is a pretty faithful emulation of Google's IE toolbar. It is rumored that Google will be coming out with its own toolbar for Firefox, however until that time Google actually recommends googlebar as an option.

Dividing or Uniting the U.S. by Design

The Palm Beach Post has posted a new map-based chart representing U.S. service men, women who have died in Iraq, Afghanistan. It got me thinking about the 2004 election maps showing blue and red states and what a polarizing graphic that became. However, you stack that blue and red map up against this map honoring the fallen and you see a much more united country in terms of the loss shared by all states in this conflict...

Lance In France Podcast Served Up By Sirius

Starting July 2, Lance Armstrong goes for a record-breaking 7th consecutive Tour de France victory, and no one gets you closer to the yellow jersey than SIRIUS. "The fans have been so supportive of me over the years," says Armstrong, "and having them along for my last race will make this experience that much more special." - Fun idea

Real-Life RSS Marketing

"How are marketers using RSS right now? Branding, deals, offers, PR, IR, classifieds, and couponing - for starters..."

This helpful article goes beyond the hype and highlights some practical business use-cases.

Rumored Microsoft Adware Deal Raises Red Flags

"Published reports that Microsoft is in discussions to purchase high-profile adware vendor Claria for as much as $500 million have set tongues wagging in the security sector, with analysts and vendors questioning the software giant's motives and whether the deal will actually occur."

Its's My Internets, Me Preciousssss!

U.S. to retain control of Internet domain names | CNET News.com: "The Bush administration announced Thursday that the U.S. government will not hand over control of the Internet to any other organization, a surprise move that could presage an international flap."

UPDATE: The Register adds additional perspective