The launch of the computerized CAT involved the delivery of exams by Prometric into more than 360 testing labs at 104 individual locations. While a significant majority of the candidates successfully completed their exams on Day One, various technical issues arose at selected computers in approximately 50 labs that prevented approximately 2,000 exams from being delivered. Prometric has generated new appointments for these individuals and they are in the process of being contacted through SMS and email messages. Prometric technicians have been dispatched to address these isolated problems. To avoid candidate inconvenience and to allow for the necessary repairs to be completed at the impacted labs, Prometric has scheduled a closure of these labs on Sunday, 29 November 2009. Candidates affected by this closure will also be notified by Prometric in the manner described above and provided with new appointments within this year’s testing period.

City	Test Centre	Lab (referred to as Site Code on your Admit Card)
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IIL98
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IIL99
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILA0
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILA1
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILA2
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILDR
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILDS
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ6
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ7
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ8
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ9
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL06
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL07
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL08
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL09
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL10
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IILCE
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IILCQ
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IILCR
Bhubaneswar	Silicon Institute of Technology	IILB1
Chandigarh	Rayat and Bahra Biotechnology Centre of Excellence	IILB4
Coimbatore	Karpagam University	IILD3
Ghaziabad	Hi Tech Institute of Engineering and Technology	IIL29
Ghaziabad	HR Institute of Technology	IIL59
Ghaziabad	IMS Engineering College	IILCT
Ghaziabad	IMS Engineering College	IILCU
Hyderabad	Siddhartha Institute of Engineering and Technology	IILE2
Hyderabad	Vidya Vikas Institute of Technology	IILV4
Kolkata	Heritage Institute of Technology	IILH9
Lucknow	Sahara Arts and Management Academy	IILAP
Lucknow	Sahara Arts and Management Academy	IILAQ
Lucknow	Sahara Arts and Management Academy	IILAR
Lucknow	Saroj Institute of Technology and Management	IILCC
Lucknow	Saroj Institute of Technology and Management	IILW0
Lucknow	School of Management Sciences	IILI3
Mumbai	Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College Of Engineering	IIL46
Mumbai	Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College Of Engineering	IIL48
Mumbai	M H Saboo Siddik College of Engineering	IILQ0
Mumbai	Thakur College of Science and Commerce	IILBF
Mumbai	Thakur Polytechnic	IILEA
Nagpur	Priyadarshini College of Engineering	IILBQ
Navi Mumbai	Saraswati College of Engineering	IIL56
New Delhi	Asia Pacific Institute of Management	IILEB
New Delhi	Asia Pacific Institute of Management	IILK9
New Delhi	Delhi School of Professional Studies and Research	IILX4
New Delhi	Management Education and Research Institute	IILX1
New Delhi	Management Education and Research Institute	IILX2
Varanasi	School of Management Sciences	IIL81
Varanasi	School of Management Sciences	IIL82

Seems like Prometric has made a complete joke of CAT 2009. Funny stories and incidents are surfacing across the internet. I’ll post some selected ones here below. PLEASE note that these comments do NOT reflect my opinions / view and just indicate what students across India are posting on the online forums.

1)  So CAT 2009 started with a big crash. Today the server which was supposed to conduct the online CAT exam, crashed due to heavy load. It was the first time the CAT was conducted across India on online computer systems. Students are surprised to see the behaviour of much hyped Prometric online site. Now experts are questioning the technical feasibility of the online CAT. CAT 2009 exam was canceled at the centres in these cities- Bhopal, Lucknow, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkatta Indore and New Delhi. An American firm, Prometric, which has developed the online examination system for CAT, said it would be able to disclose the problem only after 2 P.M.

2)  … my friend in pune got 2 n half to answer… coz the paper dint strt at the same time… the invigilator told them to skip the tutorial if they want… so she got 2 n half hrs ….. and i am quite sure shes knows to read the time… the invigilator was not really bothered…… i spoke to another fren who told me tat the paper took 15 mins to load n therefore got 2 hrs to answer…

3)   They were around 200 ppl in Garden City college. Initially they were seated in an auditorium and divided in 6 slots. 3 slots didnt have names in the list of candidates. The rest of them were sent in and for them either the computer crashed or they were not able to login.

4)  …. Came back from my test center at Bandra, Mumbai, first day first show slot. The test registration started off almost smoothly (if you discount malfunctioning biometric devices and digital cameras used to profile candidates). After registration, the staff had no clue as to when the test might start. My room eventually started test roughly 20 mins behind schedule. The test ending showed just how poorly trained the Prometric/NIIT/center staff was. After the test was over, we were kept seated at our places for 1 hour extra because the staff didn’t know how to end the test. People started getting frantic, some people who had to catch trains left without saving the tests, signing a declaration that they didn’t care if their scores were lost. All in all, I was disgusted at how badly it was handled at my center. But after seeing how the situation is nationwide, my center looks like an ace show ….

5) At a centre in chennai some of the systems were not accepting the end of the exam after prolonged trying the end of the exam was finally accepted by the systen….LOLZ talk about fiascos.

6) … given the magnitude of the test takers its bound to happen.. but dint know it would be “first day first show”….. and i feel the guys who ve taken the test ll ve got a true feeling of cat… what to expect…… hope prometric gets into damage control mode real fast….. its about lakhs of lives they re dealing with …

7) … being a CAT aspirant doesn’t mean shutting your mouth up, and letting them test you any way they want. Yes, one wants to be a future manager here, and THAT would mean an ability to distinguish between right and wrong irrespective of your standing (in this case, we are test takers, and PROMETRIC is testing service provider). They are NOT gods to test aspirants on their fate. prometric has done a mistake (rather mistakes since registration till testing), and aspirants should definitely come out, blame them and tear them apart, so that next time one takes up a project to decide one’s future in India, he better be well prepared …

Are the Servers and Infrastructure meant to crash or tackle such disastrous situation bravely? PROMETRIC is not a novice institution in this field, in fact it bagged the contract only because it has been conducting GMAT & GRE worldwide. This is a FIASCO……really, not expected from them. They could have undergone demo tests for judging themselves…

9) … one of the headlines read “FIRST DAY FLOP SHOW”.How embarrassing for IIMs …

10) … THIS IS A FIASCO OF MAGNONIMOUS PROPORTIONS. I just want to put down whats happening with cat in the past 4-5 years….

• CAT 2003 exam paper leaked.reexam.
• cat 2006 an utterly ambiguous VA section a disaster to the students.No clarifications on why a particular answer was the right one.
• cat 2007 an encore w.r.t cat 2006
• cat 2008 a decent APTITUDE paper relative to previous years
• cat 2009 A FIASCO

11)  one of my friends was supposed to give cat exam at jankapuri centre , new delhi and what is being told by prometric to him that your exam will be rescheduled either next week or next year …

12) they should have given contract to TIME instead of prometric aimcats were pretty well handled, never got any problem….

13) Kapil Sibal: No rescheduling of CAT for students who were not able to give today. They can appear tmrrw…

14) We are being used as lab rats for their ‘experiment with pride’.

15) Nothing that the IIMs have said till today has convinced me about the CAT going online. As far as ‘Going Green’ is concerned I seriously doubt that the amount of paper used in the CAT is large enough to call for an online CAT. And, by the way the centers now waste more electricity, so that argument’s gone down the drain.

16) We all read the mail sent by prometric and also about their contingency preparations…when they had plans for earthquake and terrorist attacks..what the hell is this now….

17) jus saw NDTV side of the story, apparently people are discussing while writing the test!!

18) Who knws may b this is just a publicity stunt?lolz..

19) .. Fingers crossed…. ..  Ditched my engineering college (RVCE) and took Garden city college.. God bless me on the D- DAY… rather God bless the SERVER..

20)  Guyz among all the chaos there is another news that is raising its hairs that.. In Lucknow centers students were discussing their CAT exam…. wtf man ..  how can u discuss while giving the paper …. 

21)  … some students names were not there in roster and were not allowed to take test  … some cud not login and some cud not even see the options after logging …  all came on NDTV ..

22) … This is what we can expect from an extreme Autonomy of the Institute….They cant feel apathy of the students who are travelling across the different cities with their relatives and after that came to know that the exams are cancelled and rescheduled….i think in india the IIMs and IITs are are too much of autonomy….Govt should have control on this…. Restrict the actions of IIMs….Its because of some foolish people in the committee who decided to go for CBT CAT with an excuse of Time saving…. but where is time saving…previously in paper-pencil based CAT it takes almost 50 days to have results and now i will take 55 days to get the results….GOD Bless IIMs from such People …

23)  .. Prometric screwin up.. I like that.. i never thought they deserved to be chosen in the first place… how do american guys know the challenges in INdia.. WAKE UP PROMETRIC! ..

24)  as per CNN IBN …..11 centers cancelled der test… center in jasola south delhi 25 studentz could’nt giv da xam becoz der individual comp. were not workn…. more than 250 students affected…

25)  .. What next !! have they seen the Q-papers and then cancelled in between..if so then the paper is already leaked to them !!! if they appear for rescheduled Exam again then they already have the idea of format and Questions… which was not supposed to be disclosed as per Prometric instructions…

26) THE PROBLEM IS WID THE CENTER SERVERS. Now for this PROMETRIC IS RESPONSIBLE. So, did the centers not run any LOADING TEST?? Prometric dint trained centers???? Unfortunately the answer is YES. One more thing the quality/reputation of Test Centers in UP(particullarly LUCKNOW) is not good. Hav IIMs asked PROMETRIC to choose these type of centers???NO!!!!!!!!! Prometric could hav choosen top government colleges / top private colleges.  Anyway, I wish that IIMs come up wid a solution. I hope everything would b alright.(aur kar bhi kya sakte hain?)

27) There doesn’t seem any clarity. I can tell you that in Mumbai the exam was delayed by an hour, and to make things worse, my exam got hanged for about 20 minutes.

28)  Now, really all this wasnt expected. Have been following the news on all channels(CNN IBM, Times Now, NDTV) nd they r reporting a centre each in Kanpur, Bhopal, Bangalore, Chennai, Lucknow, Mumbai as of now. Though we should be waiting for concrete information nd candidates to second that. But this is really shocking. Is there a guarantee that the server problems will not happen in the future exams.. For how many candidates or centres can Prometric keep rescheduling d exam..

29) How do u reschedule d exams of candidates who have not been able to give it today? Every1 had preplanned nd booked d slot. They r office goers, engineering students who have their exams atleast in Mumbai university starting next week. They r guys who wud have planned official or leisure trips which cud go for a toss. I for one have to give this exam on Monday and my official presentations nd meetings have been planned for every dam day through this week. If i dont get to give it in my slot on Monday, i cud get screwd in Office..

30) What about students who started d exam nd mid way had technical problems. They wud’ve seen d paper pattern, markings, questions etc. Nd wudnt ut be unfair that when they give it again they will have a good idea abt what questions to expect.

31) It really does a lot of harm to d mental preparedness of d candidate who goes to d center experiences problems for no fault of his nd has to reschedule nd give it again.. All mental build up goes for a toss.

32) I’m really appalled at d preparedness of the IIMs and Prometric for the biggest exam in Asia atleast. They shud’ve rather continued with d paper pencil format than create these problems for students..

33) It is better CAT authorities tone down their language because in a democracy anybody can discuss anything and CAT is not some military secrets and the Indian sub continent is going to come down if somebody discusses CAT examiantion in public. The Pakistanis could enter Mumbai and kill with a useless Indian security and is CAT such a secret document or an examination?

34) The major drawback is the candidate will hv 2 click 60 times to go from ques 1 to 60…… Confirmed by a frnd who took d test frst day, frst show …

35) …  its realy pity thing to hear that these sorts of things happening to one of the most competitive exam across the world. ..

36) … first they messed up everything with online registration. then they extended the deadline to purchase the cat voucher ( i don’t know for what reason they felt like extending the dates ) and then editing options. then cat server failed … and problems are still coming and coming….. ppl were having username problems….ppl were leaving n entering… it was annoying….pages kept stuck for one person…

37)  Everything was fine in the process until the part that used technology arrived. They took 10 minutes to register me due to a server snag while allocating me a terminal. It was like waiting at an airline check-in counter with a failed computer. Anyway, once they got the network up, their biometric device and digital camera failed.

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SOURCE: Compiled from various Online Forums !!!

DISCLAIMER: The comments above are collected from various discussion forums online, and we are not responsible for whatever has been stated here. If you are related to IIMs or Prometric, and feel that any of the above is a violation of your instructions, please notify us. We would take the post down!

<Last updated at 5:00 PM IST  i.e. GMT + 5.5 ….   KEEP Watching this Post for UPDATES>

As the news of CAT Servers crashing spreads worldwide, forums all across the globe are laughing at India. Here is an article I just stumbled upon.

Today is CAT 2009 first day in India and for the first day of the online exam itself, servers in Bangalore, Chennai, Bhopal and Lucknow have crashed! India being a very advanced country when it comes to technology really needs to stop making fun of itself like this.

CAT which means Common Admission Test is an exam which must be done by MBA aspirants aiming the top Business Schools in India. The exam has always been a paper and pencil one. However for this year, India decided to introduce an online exam for CAT!

A majority of students were not really convinced of this amateur online system and finally it showed on the first day itself how AMATEUR their whole network is! On the first day itself servers crashed due to the huge number of people participating in these tests. In a nutshell, this means bad planning and poor equipments!

Update: Apparently the whole network for this exam was set up by an American company “Prometric”. And we wonder why to allocate this job to a US company when India itself can do this work!

Many students prepared their exam having in mind that the exam will be a paper-pen one and only 6 months ago they were informed that the exam will be an online one. Finally many students were not able to do so as the system itself was unavailable due to server crash.

The number of students for CAT exam has also decreased this year in India due to the SUDDEN introduction of this online exam. Many poor student were mentally preparing for the normal pen and paper exam. However after hearing that the exam is online, some did not move forward for it.

And as the cherry of it all, these server crash is a sign of being a total clown on the international level. In the coming days we’ll say “India can’t even do anonline exam”. (Which is not true but is what many people out of India will think!)

Source:  Island Crisis

NEW DELHI: As the Common Admission Test or CAT went online for the first time on Saturday, servers crashed across the country at several centres. Hundreds of students in cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Lucknow and Chandigarh have not been able to take their exams and there is uncertainty as to when they will be able to sit for them again.

The test is being held between Nov 28 and Dec 7 in 32 cities at 105 testing centres connected to a main server. The CAT committee will meet in Ahmedabad or Kolkata later in the evening to decide whether the students will be allowed to appear for the exams in the days to come or will they have to wait for a year.

Nearly 250,000 students appeared for the test. The scores of this test will determine a student’s admission to a management institute, including the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). There had been a major change in the CAT this year as it has become a computer based test from an optical marker reading test.

Related: NDTV, Economic Times, Times of India, CL Blog !!

This is amazing…

5 Star Wars Status Updates on CollegeHumor

The movie Toy Story had a profound effect on me as a child – for a little while, I had my doubts that toys were really inanimate objects, much like the same doubts about the validity of Santa Claus and god. I was pretty sure that they didn’t exist, but who knew for sure? Thus, I made sure to take very good care of what I had, lest they awaken in the middle of the night and try to exact revenge. Almost fifteen years on, and I know that’s an amusing quirk, but I did gain some useful skills out of it: treat what you own with some semblance of respect, and they last longer. As I grew older, I found that I applied this philosophy to other things – namely books. I made sure that they were kept in prime condition, even going to great lengths to ensure that friends didn’t abuse them while in their care. Even today, I’m still wary of lending books to people.

Thus, book stripping day is particularly troublesome for me at the bookstore, and even more so now that our store is closing for good. Recently, it was announced that Borders was closing 200 of their Waldenbooks stores in a response to the economy and to focus more on the bigger box stores that they have littered around the country. Our humble store is being shut down, and part of that entails scaling down our inventory in preparation for that. The Christmas season is a logical time to do that – there’s a boost in sales, and I’m sure that a lot of inventory will go. Still, there is a lot of books that we are returning, and even more that we are destroying. Mass Market paperbacks are those that the store has us destroy, rather than mail back to a central holding area in order to resell them. Other chains carry a similar practice, and books are stripped of their front cover and thrown into recycling or the trash, with the covers mailed back to be accounted for.

This bothers me, a lot, because I absolutely hate the idea of both books being tore up, but also that a perfectly good book is otherwise tossed in the trash. As I’ve written many times before, I’m an avid reader, and I hold onto my books. I like the idea of having floor to ceiling shelves packed to capacity for that occasional time when the power shuts off and I’m left with nothing to do but read. I rarely give away or resell books, even if I’ve read them before – there’s that niggling ‘What if’ in the back of my head when it comes to re-reading things, and I figure someday, I’ll have a great collection of books to give away to a library or something like that. The corporate policy in this instance particularly grates with my own beliefs when it comes to books, especially when these books could easily be donated to those in need of a good read, or to struggling libraries somewhere.

What is even worse, in my mind, is that many of the books that are being destroyed are books that would likely be sold in the next month – I pulled a number of reputable authors off the shelf and from overstock to put into the pile, only to leave a number of other books that I don’t think that I’ve ever sold or moved. It boggles the mind that we’re reducing the number of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books to make way for David Weber. The end result is that our Science Fiction section is being diluted with crappy books, which will likely hurt sales even more. It’s frustrating to begin converting some of these genres to tie-in stories with huge, dedicated fan bases, away from some of the more ‘original’ SF/F that is far better in terms of quality and personal interest. I can understand the reasoning behind it, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a better.

The other problem that I have with this situation is that it’s an incredibly wasteful symptom of commercial policy that demonstrates a lot of the excesses that got the country into financial trouble in the first place. Borders sent our store too many books with every shipment – something that I’m assuming falls under the notion of: “if the customer wants it, it should be there”, rather than ordering the book for them, and having them either come in again, or pay for the book there and have it mailed to their home. The end result is a store that is packed to capacity – and most likely violating several fire and safety codes – with too much merchandise that is not going to move. This makes me wonder how much of Border’s budget is devoted to the shipping of books back and forth, not to mention the amount of money that is spent on books that will ultimately never sell.

The large chain stores are really not doing well, especially in the face of major sellers such as Amazon.com, and it’s no wonder, when you look at just how inefficient their business practices are. It’s even more of a shame when it seems likely that excesses such as these have helped to contribute to the closing of stores – it’s no longer cost effective to keep them in operation, but only because they have such a high push of merchandise that is designed to boost sales.

I’m annoyed that this is happening, and in a way, glad that I’m no longer going to be employed with the company anymore with the shutdown (or earlier, if some middle-management desk jockey decides that he/she’s offended by this) because I dislike the sheer industrial and commercial grinder that these stores have become. There’s no love for the books, for stories or for really retaining customers. It’s a business in a place where there should at least be some pretense of an institution that is at least interested in what they’re selling.

Der Geek in mir konnte es einfach nicht lassen

Qwerty keyboards suck for bolgging….

I know I’m months behind the Kool Kidz, but I finally had a chance to watch the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot.  (Minor spoilers ahead, just in case you’re even less hip than I am, and haven’t seen the new Trek yet.)

Liked:

• The visuals were amazing, as is to be expected of current-day CGI.  The space battles were fantastic, exciting, fast-paced stuff.  Favorite shot: the unlucky female crew member of the Kelvin getting sucked out into space through a hull breach, and careening off past the phaser battery that’s firing back at the Romulan ship.
• The set design was also well executed.  The bridge of the new Enterprise makes the Apple Stores look like they were put together by the Amish.  The uniforms approximated the original series’ velvet pajamas without looking either cheesy or like a bad homage. 
• The actors mostly got the characters’ idiosyncrasies down, and created their own interpretations without just doing Kirk/Spock/McCoy/Scotty imitations.  The only one that grated a little was the guy who played Scotty—he had a hard time keeping up a convincing Scottish accent.

Flinched at:

• The science, particularly the “red matter” business.  Ouch.  The stuff is so volatile and powerful that it can generate a singularity, yet you can keep it contained in a Vulcan ship, siphon it off with a needle, and bottle it?
• What was the point of Young Kirk trashing that ‘Vette, other than establishing that James T. Kirk a.) has a severe issue with authority, and b.) really likes hanging off precipices by his fingertips?  (He ends up in that position three or four times in the movie.)
• The Enterprise being put together in a dry dock in the middle of Iowa?  How are you going to get the whole thing into space when it’s done?  Every bit of technobabble related to Trek makes clear that the Enterprise needs her transporters because she can’t make planetary landings.  It made for some awesome CGI shots, though.
• The villain.  I’ve liked Eric Bana since Blackhawk Down, but he doesn’t come off as very menacing or convincingly motivated in this one. 
• Academy cadets staffing a commissioned vessel (the flagship of the fleet, no less!), because the rest of the fleet is busy somewhere else?  Does Starfleet have such an abundance of ships that they have to resort to filling them with trainees in an emergency?
• Kirk being evicted from the Enterprise, shot down onto the desolate ice planet…and ending up literally on top of Old Spock?
• Do a three-man HALO drop with Kirk, Sulu, and a Red Shirt…and give all the detonators to the Red Shirt?  (Hands up, all of you who didn’t see Red Shirt’s fate coming from a mile away.)
• Amazingly creative field promotions—putting cadets above Fleet officers into command positions.
• Promoting a maverick Academy cadet straight to Captain, and giving him command of the flagship of Starfleet?

Overall, however, it was a fun ride, and a mostly well-executed (and much-needed) reboot of the franchise.  I did like how they mostly pulled off the whole “alternate reality” thing, to wipe the slate clean regarding continuity.  It’ll be interesting to see where they take the whole thing from here.

Yesterday, the Graphic Designer produced this artwork which was required to be in One Hour.

My question: How do you find it?

For me, personally, I could not stop ROFL!!

Not to offense the designer or any bad thing like that, but it was strange to see an artwork like that.

Via this blog post, I wanna open the discussion on:

how a Web Designer’s and Web Developer point of view on a web work differ!

I have installed WordPress on my own web host and I’m moving my blog…

Please visit http://www.digibard.org/blog for new updates.

Well Google revealed their Google Chrome OS. My take? Meh. It’s a web browser running on Linux. So if you have no Internet connection you have no usable computer.

It would be great for somebody like my Grandma whom would only need a web browser. But I certainly wouldn’t be too happy using it. Fortunately Google admits I’m not the target audience so I’m not going to say much.

There is something about submarines that fascinate me. Therefore when I hear interesting news about them I read away with impunity. Well researchers have found the purposely sunk I-201 submarine.

The I-201 was a Japanese submersible aircraft carrier. Since cruise missiles didn’t exist during World War II the only really effective way to bomb something by delivering those explosives via airplane. Of course anybody can see a massive aircraft carrier approaching a coast line, but few can see underwater. The idea of these submarines was to deliver bombers stealthily to enemy targets and within minutes surface and launch a surprising bombing.

Of course the war ended before the Japanese could use the I-201 so it ended up in the hands of the United States Navy. The Navy studied it and her sister ship then sunk the shit out of them when the Soviet demanded access to them.

Anyways just some cool shit.

It all started with the  Connected Venturesvideo… lipdubs! Not just lipsynch on webcam numa numa boy style… but a group of people staging a lipdub all together, that what I call SPIRIT LIPDUBS. And they exist in various forms…

Lip Dub – Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger on Vimeo.

First, Office lipdub, whether they are one-take or not, a couple years ago it really felt like it was the team building activity of the holidays celebration, some were at the initiative of a few employees and some were definitely sponsored by the company management (and professionally set up), as if any company that wanted to be considered a cool company (to recruit or to sell more) had to upload company lipdub on youtube or on their press website… At first as most internet meme it was mostly Internet/Communication companies but it has quickly widened to any type of companies.

 A few examples, sorry most of those are French, but I guess the meme is worldwide

- AOL : this one is the first famous French one/big one done Venture Connected style, and that has been massively shared among online French companies.

- Groupe Beumanoir : a multi-brand clothing company, so its basically a lipdubbed fashion show, its definitely sponsored by the management as a team building event, its perfectly staged, choregraphed, synched.

- Toys R’Us : I think this one particularly good as well : location all the rows of the shop give really good movement and the shop itself provide funny accessorizes, the genuine fun & average Joe style of the participants is heart warming, its prepared but its not staged like the Beaumanoir one, they are both great examples of the 2 different types of company lipdubs.

- zaOza : this one is interesting as its a multi location one, across Paris Berlin Marseille offices, but transition are flawless and you can barely noticed its 3 locations,  you can identify Berlin by all the beers.

- Kia Motors : this one is not a One Take, but its very well edited and synched, and the choice of the song is great for this kind of editing.

- RTL radio group : one of the reason why this one was somewhat famous is because among the employees that participate several are radio host, of the various radios of the group, who are also famous TV show host in France, it would be like having a lipdub with Jay Leno, David Letterman Oprah and others at the same time, at the small French level of course.

- Poulets de Loué : I selected this one for 2 reasons to show that lipdub trend has reached every industry, and to show that from just lip-singing more and more lipdub project try to promote messages as well, here traditional poultry farming (no battery/ only outdoor), the song says “no no nothing has changed, every thing keeps going the same”, the footage is compared current farming with a few old footage of the company, but most of the black & white videos have been shot for the lipdub “old style”.

2/And after company lipdub… University lipdub, if you can build team spirit in a company, just imagine how much you can do with student to show school spirit…

- UQAM – University of Quebec Montreal : A very big hit on youtube with more than 2.5 millions to date as it’s a very good lipdub : a lot of people (172 students), location is perfect for the one take movement, the song is great as it’s the current big hit from Black eyed peas I gotta feeling , staging is professional and creative… at the end of the lipdub you basically just want to go party with them. 1 month of planning for the organizers, 1 day preparation for the students, 2 rehearsals, 2 take, 2d take with no edit…

but the UQAM  lipdub actually comes 3 years after the first HEC Montreal lipdub (though not one take) , and they have produced several since the latest one already quite big in views on youtube and quite well set up one take.

So its to wonder if there is going to be some kind of rivalry for the best university lipdub on Montreal streets? Well considering the list of business schools, universities and even now high schools producing lipdub during orientation week, student board election campaigns or just for the fun of it, the contest for the most viewed university lipdub is definitely on and its with no surprise there is now even websites dedicated to the phenomenon http://universitylipdub.com/

The UQAM lipdub has been so huge, that already a dozen of other I gotta feeling  lipdub have been made in a few weeks. The song is particularly fit and fun for this. Would there be a sub² meme to this sub meme, called I gotta feeling lipdub?

3/ As lipdub are all about showing together our spirit and unity around something it’s not surprising that some took it to the next level: Demonstration Lipdub! Whether it is to claim for changes or show your support and opinions!

- Castres – Mazamet Highway  : Hell we are French we love to have political or labour claims and demonstrate and here the lipdub has been very nicely used to show why and how much south of Tarn region needs a new highway to connect the people, help them grow business, develop their cities without leaving their region. The song Toi  + Moi (You + Me, by an online discovered & produced artist Gregoire) has been rewritten to explain all the benefits expected by getting the highway like any usual demonstration hymn

- Quebec City mayor Regis Labeaume : In Quebec city mayor election was held on 1^st November and following the success of the UQAM lipdub, NRJ Quebec radio and a supporter group of the current mayor created a lipdub during the campaign before the election, also based on the Black eyed peas song but rewritten to list all his achievements and projects for next mandate

Lipdub of all Lipdub “Rock Collection”

It all started back in 1977 with the release of Rock Collection song by Laurent Voulzy, the song tells how everybody have great memories linked to great rock songs, and so the song itself is a medley of famous songs… So a big web 2.0 event has been set up on youtube where the singer invites any group of people to produce a lipdub on one of the rock extract of his original song, and then all those are put together to create a new music video for the Rock Collection song. Well the latest edit is now 19 minutes long and shows many different group of people lipdubbing from primary school classroom to fishmarket traditional companies rugby teams and hair salon…

I think it’s a clever and honest way that this singer found to surf on a meme …

With news stories like Microsoft Bans Live Accounts For Modded Consoles and first virus hits jailbroken iphone is it worth hacking or modding devices for the enthusiast in all of us?  Many of you may be wondering what is a mod or hack and why would I do this to a device I paid good money for. Since the beginning of time people have felt an almost undeniable urge to tinker with stuff. This urge is present today and fueled by information available on the internet it has spread like wild fire. This has both good and bad consequences. On the good side many times people hack or mod a device to add functionality that the original designer may not have thought important to include and that functionality is included in future updates. On the bad side many people mod or hack a device to get around limits purposely put in place by device manufactures to combat things like piracy. I don’t want to debate weather modding / hacking is a good thing or bad thing but is it worth the hassle? Many device manufactures are cracking down on the modding community. This is made easier by the fact that many of today’s devices are connected to a service that allow the manufacture to update the device like and Xbox on Xbox live or and iphone. So I urge anyone who wants to mod any device to think of the consequences do you really want to brick that iphone or get kicked off of Xbox live and is there a way to reverse the mod and how easy is it. This can have effects even outside the modding community, I foresee a flood of cheap Xbox 360’s to hit e-bay soon as many people who did not have a lot of technical skill modded their Xbox and now can’t fix it so why not put it on e-bay and use the money to buy a new one. Bottom line is the fun you get out of modding out way the hassle of trying to keep one step ahead of the manufacturer, it’s getting less so for me by the day. As always till the next time I surface from the depths of the interwebs be safe and have fun.

OK this is only for the seriously geeky out there. But I present for your viewing pleasure 3D Mandlebrot sets.

The computer keyboard, whose layout was inherited from the typewriter, has not changed much since the launch of the IBM-PC. There are however some unusual options, if you want to complicate the act of data-entry on your PC.

[Cool Computer Keyboards for Geeks]