It’s been a while since I’ve seen something well made for a TV spot, or one that gave me goosebumps. Not only was it well put but this Red Bull commercial was truly inspirational, and creative. Creative not only with the videography and edits, but also the technological collaboration with Shazam.

When a mobile user with Shazam tags the track during the commercial, they are greeted with Red Bull Launchpad:

One can then: download free music tracks; watch Red Bull TV commercials; share the experience with their friends; etc.

Overall, an awesome marketing project. Kudos!

With most of the international debut of the movie, artists & designers alike answered The Avengers’ call, and came up with these impressive works of art & design.

Source: Abduzeedo

This year, they released a bit more of an aggressive (but hilarious) design using the same style of typography:

They are available in-stores and online Wednesday, May 2nd.

Dope stuff. Let’s go Lakers!

I happen to read the following from a friend who shared it on Facebook. Please take the time to read and understand. Thanks.

Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ?

Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, you believe in GOD ?

Student : Absolutely, sir.

Professor : Is GOD good ?

Student : Sure.

Professor: Is GOD all powerful ?

Student : Yes.

Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?

(Student was silent.)

Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is GOD good?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Is satan good ?

Student : No.

Professor: Where does satan come from ?

Student : From … GOD …

Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?

Student : Yes.

Professor: So who created evil ?

(Student did not answer.)

Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?

Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, who created them ?

(Student had no answer.)

Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen GOD?

Student : No, sir.

Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your GOD?

Student : No , sir.

Professor: Have you ever felt your GOD, tasted your GOD, smelt your GOD? Have you ever had any sensory perception of GOD for that matter?

Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.

Professor: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student : Yes.

Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.

Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has.

Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Professor: Yes.

Student : And is there such a thing as cold?

Professor: Yes.

Student : No, sir. There isn’t.

(The lecture theater became very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.

(There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.)

Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness?

Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, well you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man ?

Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Professor: Flawed ? Can you explain how?

Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good GOD and a bad GOD. You are viewing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.

Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.)

Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?

(The class was in uproar.)

Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?

(The class broke out into laughter. )

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.

Student : That is it sir … Exactly ! The link between man & GOD is FAITH. That is all that keeps things alive and moving.

P.S. By the way, that student was EINSTEIN.

I don’t have the money to just buy Jordans and let them sit in my closet, collecting dust; but I am still a connoisseur of Js. Especially, the: 3s, 4s and 11s–my faves.

Then, come these new Son of Mars, in black/varsity red colorway. Sick!

They release this Summer, June 2012 with a MSRP of $160.

Photos via Marquee Sole.

So I have created an on-going collection of my personal favorites from what I’ve taken since photography became a part of my routine. A story in each, to re-still moments in the past and make it present.

re-still.

With the Holidays upon us, we are seeing loved ones that we don’t often see as distance is usually a factor. But one thing we do to recall and make those memories last are take photos and/or videos. I had my camera and just snapped away during our recent family gathering. I then uploaded the set/album to Flickr to share it.

One thing that is limiting is that not all of my relatives/friends/family are on Flickr. Even then, you are only limited to download on a per photo basis (at the moment?). As to find a solution to have my aunt download the entire set/album, as she wanted to get them printed at Costco, I dug around and fortunately found Flick and Share.

Sometimes you need to share a flickr set of one event (a wedding, a graduation or just that last friday party you had) and you want your friends to download all the pictures with just one click, we solve that. It’s like giving a pendrive with your photos!

The thing I like about the application is the efficient way to share a link that will allow friends and family to be able to download the set’s high-resolution photos. As soon as you click that “Start now!” button, you are faced with an authorization page from Flickr. Flick and Share only requires a “read” permission.¹ After allowing it, you are then forwarded to a page where you may pick which Flickr set you wish to share.

Selecting the set, Flick and Share does its magic and then forwards you to a page where you may further filter out what photos you would like to share. That is, per privacy-permission. You may have some photos marked Family-only, Family-and-Friends-only, completely Private, or by default, Public. By default, all photos regardless of privacy-permission are available for download.

After this process, clicking on the “Get your sharing link!” button will land you on a page where you may copy the share-link.

That’s all there is to it for you to get your family & friends to be able to download the set. You’ll just need to send them the link (via IM, Twitter, e-mail, etc.). You’ll see that some social-media sharing is available on the same page for you to utilize.

Last but not least, when they have received the link and open it on a browser, they will have the option to download the photo set either by:

• Java applet,
• DownloadThemAll! Firefox add-on,
• wget/curl,
• One of the thousand download managers,²
• and by hand using “Save As…”

I hope the above helps in keeping your bonds tight, your smile bright, and your Holidays safe and the best yet!

Happy Holidays!

Source via MakeUseOf.

1. If it’s the first time ever you have used the application.
2. A list is linked to a Wikipedia page.

Marked: black and white triptychs of Marines before, during and after their tour of duty to Afghanistan.

Source via PetaPixel.

Meanwhile, to help with the conversion, I needed something visual to help the other developers in our team know why I have made it like this and what I’m thinking in terms of what “view” we want to be spat out by the backend. And so, the diagrams & illustrations below came about.

You may view it via ui-view-map.pdf. This PDF includes some documentation on what I was trying to convey to other team members.

Feel free to download and share-a-like:

• ui-view-map.doc
• Zip file containing the Visio drawings (.vsd)

Please do note that it is 2011 now and the HTML structure described in the document is more geared towards early 2000s’ frontend development. I’m just putting this out there as a reference for myself, and those that think they can use something like it for their projects, and/or workflow.

Other than the many IA evangelist of the early Y2K-period, thanks goes out to Nick Finck for providing a good resource page, Visio Stencils for Information Architects. It provided a good base of visual elements to help with the project’s deliverables such as the one linked here. Those stencils are still useful.

“The Specture of User Experience” by Oliver Reichenstein of iA.

UXD Force Fields. What the different departments do well working all by themselves.

UXD Stress Fields. Where designers, tech and business people need to work together.

Last but not least, UX Deliverables as listed by Peter Morville, which are useful in the workflow. You may click on the image below to enlarge, or download.

Source via iA & Semantic Studios.