So I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about twitter the other day. It was an enlightening experience for me; I guess I sometimes assume that everyone is on twitter and that they understand the benefits of the platform. This is why people always say: “when you assume, you make an…” well you get the picture. In any case, the discussion was about what people tweet about. My friend is of the opinion that twitter is just a tool to broadcast the thoughts of millions of people who have nothing to say. I’m less cynical. I have found twitter to be quite a useful tool in researching what people are talking about. If you follow the right people, you can also tap into other online tools that provide insight into a wide array of topics. In short, I believe that – when used properly – twitter is a great tool to gather and spread information (not to mention the positive impact it can have in driving traffic to a website or microsite).

What I forgot to point out during that faithful conversation is that twitter can also be fun. I have read some pretty funny stuff on twitter. Having a limited number of characters to express a message truly brings out the creativity in people… at least that’s my opinion. I think that’s what we tend to forget when we talk about social media; sure it’s an effective tool that can increase Search Engine Optimization and help you create dialogue with your clients/customer/stakeholders. But they’re also fun. I believe that when people who are tasked with leading social media efforts embrace the element of fun, they’ll find the tools much more effective.

With the topic of fun in mind, here is a video that I came across on YouTube that I just had to share… the lighter side of twitter:

Enjoy!

Rupert Everett | I wouldn’t advise any actor thinking of his career to come out | Film | The Observer.

Within the week we will be releasing custom furniture designs by MD. The designs are inspirational & clean hall tables that would make anyone speechless.

Stay tuned!

Woohoo

Krylon: Leaves Of Grass Wall Art.

L’autre jour j’écrivais :

Je me suis intéressé aux cristaux de neige gamin. Il n’y en avait que pendant une période très limité chaque année à mon Athènes natale, mais j’étais fasciné par ces objets qui à partir d’une structure très simple, hexagonale, présentent une telle variété et dans la grande majorité des cas une absence de symétrie flagrante en apparente opposition avec la première intuition qui nous fait voir des objets réguliers.

Aujourd’hui, mon frère est probablement en train de jouer avec son scanner. Il vient de m’envoyer cette photo. C’est mon grand frère

It’s really interesting how you can watch stuff thru the laptop, on the TV. Now I know how suaku I really am haha.

Entrepreneurial » Blog Archive » The hidden meaning of the hidden Starbucks logo | Blogs |.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will replace accelerator pedals on 3.8 million recalled vehicles in the United States to address problems with the pedals becoming jammed in the floor mat.

As a temporary step, Toyota will have dealers shorten the length of the gas pedals beginning in January while the company develops replacement pedals for their vehicles, the Transportation Department and Toyota said. New pedals will be available beginning in April, and some vehicles will have brake override systems installed as a precaution.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, announced the massive recall in late September and told owners to remove the driver’s side floor mats to prevent the gas pedal from potentially becoming jammed.

“The safety of our owners and the public is our utmost concern and Toyota has and will continue to thoroughly investigate and take appropriate measures to address any defect trends that are identified,” Toyota said in a statement.

Popular vehicles such as the Toyota Camry, the top-selling passenger car in America, and the Toyota Prius, the best-selling gas-electric hybrid, are part of the recall. It includes the 2007-10 model year Camry, 2005-10 Toyota Avalon, 2004-09 Prius, 2005-10 Toyota Tacoma, 2007-10 Toyota Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES350 and 2006-10Lexus IS250/350.

On Tuesday, Toyota announced a recall of 110,000 Tundra trucks from the 2000-03 model years to address excessive rust on the vehicle’s frame.

The recall involving the accelerators was Toyota’s largest in the U.S. It was prompted by a high-speed crash in August involving a 2009 Lexus ES350 that killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three members of his family near San Diego. The Lexus hit speeds exceeding 120 mph, struck a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.

A family member in the runaway Lexus made a frantic 911 call moments before the crash, telling emergency responders that the accelerator was stuck and the driver couldn’t stop the car. The call ended as someone was overheard urging others to hold on and pray, followed by a woman’s scream.

In Japan, Toyota President Akio Toyoda called the fatal crash “extremely regrettable” and offered his “deepest condolences” to the California family.

Investigators with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined that a rubber all-weather floor mat found in the wreckage was slightly longer than the mat that belonged in the vehicle, and could have snared or covered the accelerator pedal.

The government has attributed at least five deaths and two injuries to floor mat-related unintended acceleration in the Toyota vehicles and has received reports of more than 100 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck. A Massachusetts-based safety consultant who has investigated the Toyota cases, however, has found more than 2,000 incidents involving 16 deaths and 243 injuries potentially tied to the Toyota gas pedals.

To fix the problem, Toyota and the government said dealers will shorten the length of the accelerator pedal on the recalled vehicles and in some cases remove foam from beneath the carpeting near the pedal to increase the space between the pedal and the floor. They said owners of the ES350, Camry and Avalon would be the first to receive notification because the vehicles are believed to have the highest risk for pedal entrapment.

Toyota plans to install a brake override system on the Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES350, IS350 and IS250 models as an “extra measure of confidence,” Toyota and NHTSA said. The brake override system, commonly called a “smart brake,” will ensure the vehicle will stop if both the brake and the accelerator pedals are applied simultaneously.

Toyota also plans to make the brake override system standard equipment throughout the Toyota and Lexus lineup starting with January 2010 production of the ES350 and Camry. Most new models will get the equipment by the end of 2010.

Dealers will be instructed on how to modify the pedals before the end of the year and will begin shortening the accelerators in 2010. New replacement pedals are expected to be available for some models beginning in April and will be provided even if the vehicles have already received a modified pedal under the recall.

The automaker and government regulators have been discussing a potential fix for several weeks. In late September, Toyota announced the recall and told owners to remove driver’s side floor mats and not replace them until the company had determined a remedy for the problem. The automaker said unhooked floor mats or replacement mats stacked on top of the originals could lead to stuck accelerators.

In early November, Toyota issued a statement saying NHTSA had confirmed “that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured.” But in a rare rebuke, NHTSA accused Toyota of releasing misleading information about the recall, saying removing the mats did not “correct the underlying defect.” Toyota said it was not the company’s intention to mislead anyone.

If a vehicle accelerator pedal becomes stuck and a driver can’t dislodge it, Toyota advises drivers to press on the brake with both feet and then shift the vehicle into neutral, which will disengage the transmission. The automaker says drivers should continue braking until the vehicle comes to a stop.

A driver can also try shutting off the engine or turning the key to the “ACC” position on the ignition. Drivers will not lose control of the steering or the brakes. But once the vehicle is turned off the driver won’t have the benefit of power brakes or power steering. For vehicles that have a start/stop button for the engine, drivers are advised to hold the button for three seconds to turn it off.

For more information, owners can contact Toyota at 800-331-4331 or the NHTSA hot line at 888-327-4236.

~check it out!!

this topic here is all about the concept of the world of cybernet, it teaches us that we could alot of things through the internet, such as how it was first made through the use of making an html and tweaking to make a better webpage or any other programme on the internet. Modernization has changed all of these into modern techniques in creating these innovations that we use everyday.

This to me is really interesting so if you guys want to check it out here’s a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Posterscope SA hosts an annual 2 day conference on Out of Home Media. Next year it will take place on the 4th and 5th of March 2010 at the Riverside Hotel and Conference centre, Vaalriver, Johannesburg.During these two days Posterscope will feed your brain with all the new developments and opportunities in the OOH industry as well as give you insights into local and global trends and digital developments.

With guest speaker David Knipe, leading UK Research Manager.

You will get hands on experience in planning and strategising with the workshop we offer as part of this conference, allowing you to work with a variety of media types to conceptualise great innovative ideas for day to day brands.

For more information or to book your seat contact Lana vd Walt at lana@posterscopesa.co.za or on 021 794 0860.

Wahaha. Trying not to make so much noise so that I won’t disturb my pooing neighbour. Hope he leaves soon…..

What do you think?

Taken on 400 iso film this time, not as good I don’t think.

Blogging blogging blogging

Je veux essayer quelque chose…If I do a whole bunch of text right here…. and try to put quotes around it,

I wonder what would happen

 

Black Friday is rapidly approaching, and with it some big bargains on tech gear. A number of items have already gone on sale, such as these Dell laptops; Amazon, meanwhile, is featuring deals on everything from GPS devices to hard drives. We’ve got several stories up around our network to help you find the best gear at the lowest price:

Go Green. Whether you’re buying for yourself or getting a jump on holiday shopping, why not go green? See Earth2Tech’s “10 Green Tech Gift Ideas for Black Friday,” which includes technology that can help you reduce your home energy consumption to digital goods that also cut carbon emissions.

Web Worker Shopping. WebWorkerDaily’s “Finding Web Worker Gear Deals on Black Friday” rounds up bargains on external storage devices, monitors, Flash memory, digital media, keyboards and mice, printers and much more. Among them are an OfficeJet HP printer for half off (shown) and ultra-low-priced wireless routers for your Wi-Fi set-up.

Apple Gets in the Spirit. As TheAppleBlog’s post “Apple’s Black Friday Tease” notes, the company has confirmed that this Friday will be a “special Apple one-day shopping event,” with deals available online. While Apple is mum as to which products will be on sale, The Boy Genius Report suggests that iPods will be up to 30 percent off, and Macs will be 25 percent off. All shipping will be free on Black Friday.

~Enjoy!!!

With a slowly recovering economy, retailers are looking for ways to lure wary customers into their stores on Black Friday.

Some retailers are attracting shoppers by staying open on Thanksgiving Day, in addition to extending their hours on Black Friday. Wal-Mart leads the pack, with most of its stores remaining open for 24 hours on Thanksgiving Day as well as Black Friday. On Thanksgiving, the Gap will open at 9 a.m., Banana Republic at 11 a.m., and Old Navy at noon. Toys “R” Us stores will open their doors at midnight before Black Friday. Others are employing social media contests to draw in customers, like J.C. Penney Co.’s Facebook sweepstakes, in which winners will receive a Penney’s $500 gift card, assistance from personal shoppers, and a limo ride to the store.

Here’s where you can score some impressive Black Friday deals:

Wal-Mart will allow customers to camp out next to their desired items beginning on Thanksgiving Day, and Black Friday specials will last from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Featured items include a Magnovox Blu-ray player for $78, a Sanyo 50-inch plasma 720p HDTV for $598, a Tom Tom GPS for $59, a reversible fleece jacket for $7, and a Barbie Power Wheels Ride-On for $88.

For the young at heart, Toys “R” Us will give 250,000 free Crayola 64 Boxes with any purchase, along with an $18 Crayola coupon on Black Friday. The store will also have thousands of the popular Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster in stock, along with doorbusters like a $50 gift card with the purchase of an iPod touch. Toys “R” Us will extend sales from Friday to Saturday, with deals that include select Nintendo games for $9.99. For more sneak peaks at the specials, visit the Toys “R” Us Facebook page at midnight on November 23 or take a look at 100 additional “Mystery Deals” on Toysrus.com at midnight on November 25.

Those looking for fashion items for less will have quite a selection. The Gap will offer a buy-one, get-one-free sale for adult sweaters, kid’s fleeces, and pajama pants beginning November 25. Old Navy will offer doorbusters, including a free Rock Band guitar for the first few customers in line on Thanksgiving Day, $15 sweaters, and 50 percent off outerwear. On Black Friday, you can buy one cashmere sweater or scarf and get one free at Banana Republic.

Victoria’s Secret will have “Pink Friday” specials beginning at 5 a.m. on Black Friday, with select stores opening at midnight, and will offer a free Victoria Secret tote with a $60 purchase. Meanwhile, Bath & Body Works will offer a VIP Bag that contains over $100 worth of products for $15 with a $40 purchase in its stores. The bath products retailer will open the doors at 6 a.m.

In the home appliance arena, Home Depot will offer $400 worth of savings on a pair of Maytag washers and dryers, a RIGID Dry/Wet vacuum for $19.88, and a Makita 18-Volt Hammer Driver Drill & Impact Driver combo kit for $199. These deals will begin on Thanksgiving Day online and in stores at 6 a.m. on Black Friday. Meanwhile, the deals at Lowe’s last from 6 a.m. on Black Friday through Monday, November 30. They include a Whirlpool Cabrio washer and dryer for $998 and a Whirlpool 24.8-cubic foot French Door Refrigerator for $898.

Target will release its specials on November 25 at target.com/weeklyad and will have an online-only Thanksgiving Day sale. Customers looking for Black Friday deals will receive maps listing the store’s specially priced items. They will also receive a $10 gift card when they spend $100 or more from 5 a.m. to noon on Black Friday.

Deals on electronics will be a big hit on Black Friday this year. Staples plans to offer an HP laptop with Intel Celeron processor for $299.98, a Garmin Nuvi 225W GPS 9 for $119.99, and an HP 8GB flash drive for $12.99. Also, electronics retailer Best Buy is currently offering deals on TVs before Black Friday, which include a 32-inch Dynex LDC HD TV for $299.99 and a 40-inch Dynex 1080p for $499.99.

Shoppers looking for jewelry discounts should stop by JCPenney stores. The general merchandiser’s Black Friday specials — which last from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. — include Timex watches starting at $27.50, 1/5-carat T.W. diamond stud earrings for $49.99, and ½-carat T.W.diamond necklaces, bracelets, or earrings for $79.99. JCPenney will also have big sales on clothing and footwear for kids, teens, and adults.

Macy’s will also offer specials on jewelry, apparel, and luggage from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Black Friday, as well as 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 28. Deals include diamond accent earrings for $34.99, ½-carat diamond studs for $199, and Victorinox Swiss Army watches for $139. Also, all kids’ coats and sleepwear are 60 percent off.

At Kohl’s, shoppers will find more than 300 savings offers online and in stores from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Black Friday. Kohl’s shoppers can get a $10 gift card for every $50 they spend in store or online. Their specials include a 7-inch portable LCD TV from Digital Labs for $69.99, 50 to 60 percent off apt. 9 sportswear for misses, petites, and women, 50 percent off name-brand children’s toys, 40 to 80 percent off kitchen electrics after rebate, and 55 to 60 percent offsterling silver jewelry.

For shoppers who don’t feel like combating the mind-numbing traffic and meandering lines, most stores will offer the same specials on their websites. Amazon.com will offer its Black Friday specials from November 23 through November 30 at amazon.com/blackfriday. Deals include up to 70 percent off diamond stud earrings, a KitchenAid Pro 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer for $299.99, and Fujifilm 10 megapixel J28 for $79.99.

~Enjoy and have a nice long weekend!!!

This week’s articles are a varied bunch – enjoy!

• Marketing Profs talks about how data can be segmented into different types of conversions based on different types of users.  The takeaway here is that there isn’t necessarily one single conversion for all your customers, particularly if they are in different stages of the AIDA, or purchase process.
• Usability is considered an important part of the customer experience, and can impact the potential sale (or not).
• Rupert Murdoch, media mogul, is trying to control his online media properties by charging for them.  In the process he’s trying to prevent Google from ‘profiting from’ this information (by indexing pages) and allowing users free access through search.  So he’s decided to remove his sites from Google’s indexing.  Instead he’s most recently decided to work with Microsoft (Bing) exclusively.  While it’s clear Murdoch doesn’t understand the new online media world, it will be interesting to see if his attempts to control and corral his websites actually works. 

[update] Tiens, “warf warf” adopte la même méthode que son pote Staune : boulette suivie de “c’était pour rire”.[/update]

Mettre du talent à massacrer une lecture et rapporter de travers nécessite soit une bonne dose de vice, soit du talent. Je pense que le pire massacre que j’ai vu de lecture de travers d’un papier scientifique est signée Vincent Fleury. J’espère que ses collègues physiciens n’avalent pas ce genre de clarifications.

Sa lecture des rapports du travail de Gardner et Benner qu’il résume par “donc les E.T. devraient avoir un ADN codé avec 4 bases” est à peu près du même type :

Gardner :

But six-base RNAs could have survived if they had evolved a way of putting right the errors introduced by mutation.

---

“We found the margins between four- and six-letter alphabets to be low, so a percentage of independent lifeforms might incorporate six, or a different four.

Benner :

“One of the ways scientists try to understand life as a universal concept…is you try to make life on your own in the lab,”[…]“We try to put together chemicals that do that.”

et il semble y arriver, plus ou moins bien, Enzymatic incorporation of a third nucleobase pair, Yang Z, Sismour AM, Sheng P, Puskar NL, Benner SA., Nucleic Acids Res. 2007;35(13):4238-49.

Puis, depuis quelque temps, il en veut à PZ Myers. Alors il n’y va pas avec le dos de la cuillère. Celle-ci est mignonne tout plein.

Ca commence avec un physicien, Stephen Granade, qui poste sur son blog un billet intitulé “How To Generate Scientific Controversy“. Granade se fout de la gueule des anti-vaccionistes et de leur stratégie éprouvée pour générer de la controverse auprès du public (voir Jenny McCarthy & Cie). Myers réagit au billet de Granade en répondant avec un billet intitulé “As if they need help with this” :

Clearly modeling his strategy after the anti-vaccination campaigns, Stephen explains how to cobble up your own homemade controversy on just about any subject. All you have to do is ignore all the evidence and invent a non-existent danger, and people will believe anything you say.

Ce virus terrible de la grippe porcine dont je vous ai prévenu qu’il pouvait recombiner, rentre en scène, interférant avec la lecture de Vincent Fleury qui nous rapporte fidèlement les propos de Myers

Ca finit avec un autre physicien, mais pas du même gabarit que Granade.

Vous allez vous dire que je suis obsédé avec Rosetta-man. Pas vraiment, mais il s’est manifesté aujourd’hui en m’envoyant un mail plutôt laconique : “Time is telling.” avec en pièce jointe un papier de Manli Chuai and Cornelis J. Weijer, “Who moves whom during primitive streak formation in the chick embryo” sur lequel je vais revenir d’ici quelques jours, par là. Parce que j’ai lu bien (c’est ce qu’il me conseille), il y a plusieurs mois, et que je l’attendais au tournant En attendant de voir L2/R2… Chuai & Weijer n’en voient que deux votrex pour l’instant. Mais c’est normal, ils voyagent dans le temps (L2/R2, pas Chuai & Weijer) .

La question de la semaine – 1, chez Jean-Michel, le début de ce que j’espère voir devenir une longue et fructueuse série

The Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech, in partnership with the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission and Blue Ridge PBS, has created a unique educational resource specifically for the sesquicentennial: a DVD for teachers to use in the classroom as a supplemental instructional tool in the teaching of Civil War history.

http://www.virginiacivilwar.org/education.php

These are not only available for educators, but each of you might be interested in seeing these videos… and helping out the Center at the same time.  Just go to the website and order now.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — When people think of Black Friday shopping, they usually think of things like flat screen TVs, toys and sweaters. Now you can add cars, trucks and SUVs.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the best day to buy a car, according to car pricing researchers at the Web site Truecar.com.

Analysts looked at day-by-day car pricing for the last several years. That data revealed that discounts on Black Friday are, on average, the biggest of the year.

“The discounts from dealerships, as well as manufacturers’ incentives, generate the highest discounts of the year on Black Friday,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst for Truecar.com.

Unlike typical Black Friday sales where customers know exactly what they’ll pay for an item, car prices are individually negotiated the day of the sale, so it’s difficult for customers to know ahead of time they’ll be getting a deal. But there’s been a clear trend, Toprak said.

The average new car discount on Nov. 27 is projected to be 7.5%. The average discount the day before and after is expected to be just over 6%. On a typical day throughout the year, car shoppers usually pay about 4.7% less than the sticker price.

Truecar.com projected particularly large Black Friday discounts on certain models. For instance, consumers should be able to pay about 28% off sticker price for a 2009 Suzuki SX4 compact car, 26% off for a 2009 Nissan Titan or Ford F-150 pick-up or 20% off a 2009 Hyundai Sonata sedan.

etting in on the Black Friday Madness

Car dealers are trying to get a piece of the Black Friday shopping frenzy, Toprak theorized, and that may to lead to the bigger discounts found in the data.

“There’s a lot of noise in the market that day, and we have to stand out,” agreed Brian Benstock, general manager of New York City’s Paragon Honda.

Paragon Honda will send bicycle riders dressed in gorilla costumes to a nearby Best Buy store, Benstock said. The gorillas will be draped in sandwich-board signs advertising car deals available just down the road.

Paragon Honda will also be relying on more traditional advertising methods to pull customers in, Benstock said, including TV and print ads touting a “$5-a-day” Honda Civic. (That’s a $149 a month for a 30-month lease with $1,999 down.)

Michelle Primm, managing partner of Cascade Auto Group in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, said her dealerships don’t usually do big, splashy ads, except on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving.

“Those are the only two days when we buy full-page ads in the paper,” she said.

Primm says her dealership does get more business on Black Friday although according to Truecar.com’s Toprak, average dealership traffic doesn’t tend to be particularly high that day, said Toprak.

“Dealerships always spend a lot of money on marketing for that day,” said Toprak “but for some reason it’s not a particularly big day for car shopping.”

That may be part of the reason for extra-big discounts, Toprak theorized. Dealerships that aren’t getting the business just keep trying harder.

Not everyone is playing, though. Bob Goldberg, general manager of Premium Nissan in New Rochelle, NY, denied that Black Friday is particularly special at his dealership. “Every day is important to us,” he said. “I don’t consider it different from any other day.”

Crunch Time for Car Dealers

Adding to the sales pressure, Black Friday this year happens to fall very close to the end of the month. Car deals typically sweeten as the month goes on because many dealerships are approaching quotas they must meet in order to get additional manufacturer incentives.

“I mean the push is on as we get close to the end of the month,” Nissan dealer Goldberg conceded.

Besides monthly deadlines, dealers are also under pressure to clear out 2009 model year cars and trucks before the end of the calendar year. Those cars will be much harder to sell after Dec. 31, when they become “last year’s” models.

~Be first to get there if you’re looking for new car!!!

I used to drive past this place every morning on the way to work and I always wondered what it must be like in there.

Now my questions are answered.

And if you’d like to add to their workload, my Amazon wishlist is here: