noinput.net | plug it in

I kept forgetting to post this video from our trip to NYC, thanks for the reminder deep. By the way, I know I haven’t posted anything all week. The other half of our web-department is gone for most of the week, so I’ve had a lot more work then planned.

This is something I’ve been meaning to post for a while now. Amazing idea, and I’m really glad to be part of it. A few months back Flickr was contacted by Tate Britan about collaborating on a 100% user contribution exhibition. The concept is people tag and submit photos to the “How We Are Now” group, and when accepted will show at random on 4 plasma screens in the Tate Modern exhibit.

So for the fun of it, I submitted a few photos, and they were all chosen. It’s a really awesome concept to embrace the ease of technology with the standard of modern art, but to allow user contribution and push that to a place that has never been done before, that deserves a thanks.

If you’re interested in seeing some more on this, heres the link to the tate.co.uk site, and the dump of photos from everyone. Poke around and you’ll find some good stuff.

Office speak can be fun yet challenging, and it makes me want to pop my copy of Office Space in the DVD player almost instantly. Awesome snips from this book on amazon: Brazen Careerest

Let’s think out of the box: Really means, “Can you creatively anemic people please come up with something?” The person who says, “Let’s think out of the box” is usually desperate for a new idea and surrounded by people who are not known for generating ideas. So the phrase is actually an announcement that says, “I’m in trouble.”

I need someone who can hit the ground running: Really means, “I am screwed.” Because no one can hit the ground running. You need to at least assess what race you’re in and who else is running.

Do you have the bandwidth? Note that bandwidth is not time. It is something else. If you ask someone “Do you have time?” you mean, “Am I a priority?” If you ask someone “Do you have bandwidth” you mean, “You seem like your brain is fried. Can you pull yourself together to do this for me?”

Let’s hit a home run: “I’m desperate to look good. Even though the odds of a home run are slim, I’m banking on one because it’s the only thing that’ll save me.” Something for all your sports fans to remember: If you have a bunch of solid hitters you don’t need a bunch of home runs.

You and I are not on the same page: “Get on my page. Your page is misguided.” No one ever says, “We’re not on the same page, so let me work really hard to understand your point of view. If you want to understand someone else, you say, “Can you tell me more about how you’re thinking.”

I’m calling to touch base: “I want something from you but I can’t say it up front.” Or “I am worried that you are lost and I’m sniffing around for signs to confirm my hunch.” Or “I’m calling because you micromanage me.”

Let’s run the numbers and see how they look: “I know they look bad on first blush. But the true use of Excel is to keep changing the formulas until you find a format that makes the numbers look good.”

My plate is full: “Help I’m drowning,” or “I would kill myself before I’d work on your project.”

Let’s close the loop: “Let me make sure I’m not going to get into trouble for this one.”

Let’s touch base next week: “I don’t want to talk to you now,” or “You are on a short leash and you need to report back to me.”

Keep this on your radar: “This will come back to bite you. or me.”

Good times in the heart of Hollywood, that pretty much sums up the last few days. Sam, Steph and I all went to the CS3 conference hosted at the hollywood rennissance hotel right at hollywood & highlands. We had a top-level room at the classic Roosevelt hotel (niiiice) and lived up the fun for the night and couple days.

Overall the conference was good, seemed to be geared more towards people deciding weather they should still buy the software at times, but we came back knowing a lot of good tricks, what all the programs are supposed to do, and how we can use a lot of the new features for workflow and projects.

Hat tip -> dad.

Rule Number 4,201
Your newsletter should never look 300% better then your website.

So, I realize, this is my blog and I talk about pretty much everything except for the work I’m doing. I really should change that logic.

Monday I launched an interactive Flash Piece for a client, Vineyard Falls. The client came to us with a need for a system that was fast, dynamic, flashy and fun to move around and view the phases of their development. The finished result is here.

I’m really proud to say I did almost the entire system, Tim covered me by helping with some of the crazy XML stuff and insanity of parsing integers through object loops.. but hey, it slides in and out right! No seriously, I got damn close and it works pretty sweet. The whole system is fully dynamic, the client has an admin tool where they can mark the properties as sold, change the pricing, sq. footage, usage, et c.

Check it out and let me know what you think.