Sony video channel continues to amaze

Sony's YouTube channel is an unbelievable and slightly worrying shrine to how not to make corporate videos. I'm a big fan of Sony - but they really need to stick to making good quality TVs and solid consoles instead of trying to be hip and 'social'. In this case, it's just going make them look old and embarrassing, like your mate's parents when they dance at a wedding.

Exhibit A: Mylo video makes skateboarding look less fun than maths



Exhibit B: 'Behind the scenes' interview unveils Sony's secret weapons



Exhibit C: Anti-packaging skit makes us yearn for a clamshell comeback



Watching these makes me feel like I've slipped into a parallel universe. What are they thinking? Am I being unfair?

Three conversations in one day

One.

Me: "What do you mean I can't order the chairs until they've reached the warehouse? What would be the point in me ordering them?"
Habitat employee: "It's company policy. We just can't let you. You can order them on the day they arrive."
Me: "OK, fine. When's that?"
Habitat employee: "I don't know. We're not told."
Me: "Bye."

Two.

Me: "It's almost as if they didn't want us to buy anything."
American person: "I tend to find that's true for most companies in England."

Three.

Me: "Can you let me know what you can do about it?"
Griffin Technology employee (in the US): "Email me your address and we'll send you the product immediately."
Me: "Does it matter that I'm in the UK?"
Griffin Technology employee (in the US): "Not at all, sir. We want to do everything we can to ensure our customers are happy."
Me: *faints*

UK SBS Guy goes Crimbo

You know when you're driving around town and you see people that have gone crazy with the Christmas decorations? There's always a street near where you live where the neighbours get locked into furious competition. The result is stuffed Santas shinning up drainpipes, animatronic reindeers in perpetual motion and snow-covered gardens despite it being 7 degrees and drizzling.

I've always wondered who these people are. I want to meet them, and see if they're anything like Clark Griswold.

Well, I've just found one that I happen to have met - David Overton, Microsoft's big UK blogger and all-round small business tech-head. Check out his house!



Fine work, David. (And no, you're nothing like Clark Griswold.)

@StickItToTesco and the 48-hour rampage

A lot of my Twitter buddies and I have been approached, flattered, hounded and teased by a brave day-old Twitter user, @StickItToTesco.

Closer inspection revealed a particularly aggressive and inventive representative of charity Action Aid. Apparently, she/he has got 48 hours to change the world.

Not sure why - maybe Action Aid's agency is on a very short retainer?

Nice try @StickItToTesco. You're up to over 17,500 views of your YouTube video at the time of writing. Good luck with the campaign.

And, by the way, the reasons we're all putting up with you are twofold:

1. You're representing a charity and flaming you would mean we would end up in hell
2. We all believe in fairness, particularly when faced with unfairness towards the vulnerable from massive, wealthy corporations.

Get involved yourself if you feel the urge at http://www.actionaid.org.uk/5p/

Follow the Twitter chatter here.

clipped from www.actionaid.org.uk

George Bush + irate Iraqi journalist + shoes = obvious gaming potential

Aside from Kevin (see post comments here), feedback on our Bash a Bush game has been very generous. Thanks all. Now go play it for the rest of the afternoon - tell 'em I said it was OK.

Bunch of Whoppers

I love the Whopper Virgins campaign. It's cringeworthy stuff, but you can't help admire the creative team that sat around, blue-sky thinking, and came up with: "I know! Let's, like, take a Burger King Whopper and, like, give it to some Eskimos and shit. It'll be, like, awesome."

As I'm an extremely suggestible consumer, I enjoyed the viral video so much that I thought I go get myself a Whopper tonight. Please note, it was 10.30pm, I was drunk and I'd had no dinner. It seemed like a good idea.



Here's my reaction, having not had a Whopper since 1994 (and therefore my views are as valid as a Romanian farmer 'having a hamburger for the first time'):

The thing smelled like rotten lamb, but with the texture of dried dog food mixed with hamster faeces. The bread was hard and sweet, with slightly less taste than the insulating foam I just sprayed in the air gap around my new patio doors. The 'salad' was soggy, covered in mayonnaise that was off, and was worryingly brown.

I'm off to make myself sick. Don't believe the hype.

Firebox on fire

Love this piece of direct marketing from Firebox. D'you think it's really real?

Lights, Cameron, Action!

It may have been an attempt to show that Damian Green was 'guilty only of doing his job' on a 'dark day for democracy'... But the webcameron footage of police 'rifling through' the Shadow Immigration Minister's stuff is a coup for political blogging.



One can only imagine the decision-making process behind the idea to send in the webcameraman... Since it was published on the webcameron site today, there has been blanket coverage on the news.

The one constant? The snazzy purple logo in the top left of the screen. Wonder how the site traffic is doing?

The Rich list

Like all PR bloggers, I'm a sucker for a good list. This list, from my US colleague Rich Young and published on our corporate blog, is a good one.

Bonus seasonal Rich Young fact: I introduced Rich to bread sauce at the LEWIS 2005 Christmas party. I do a good impression of his reaction.

Whitney is Undefeated

This has to be a hoax.

Despite one of my fave blogs Photoshop Disasters picking it up and showing us the drastic special effects supposedly used for the album art, it just seems too ridiculous to be real. (Hope it is though.)

clipped from photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com

Look Lively

Google has shut down it's Second Life-style virtual world service Lively. It'll be gone by December 31.

Not a massive deal really - at some point Google was going to have to start shutting things. I imagine the open / shut rate is still 100 / 1.

clipped from www.lively.com

Star Trek movie looks *quite good*

Enough to give a geek a heart attack - akin to when the Transformers trailer came out...

Via Gizmodo.

Accepting our Computing award

How dare they blatantly leave me out of their picture caption... I'm the fourth most influential UK PR person on Twitter!



Thanks to Computing and the judges for the award by the way. Well done to all the other shortlisted agencies, and a huge 'thanks!' to everyone at our place. We had a great night and were thrilled to win.

Mince pie tryouts

We had five different types of mince pie in the house today. (This was thanks to the fact that our kitchen was playing host to a festive photoshoot, not because we are greedy.)

For your Christmas convenience, here are my thoughts on this year's crop of mince-filled morsels:

Asda: Featuring a detailed snowflake design on the pie lid, Asda's effort promises a lot from first glance. The result isn't bad – under a well-balanced crust is plummy mince with a nice variety of fruit and porty taste. I tried it hot and cold just to make sure. 7/10

Tesco: As you'd expect from Britain's biggest supermarket brand, the Tesco pie is all things to all people. The crust is average, the filling is nothing special and the overall experience is inoffensive. This is the safest bet when it comes to your Christmas pie choice. 6/10

Mr Kipling: The most disappointing of the bunch, this 'exceedlingly good' effort just isn't. The filling is sparse, verging on mean. The pastry is dry, and disintegrates instantly in your mouth, merging with your saliva and forming wallpaper paste. Sorry Mr K - you lose. 3/10

Waitrose: Posh people shop at Waitrose, so they pay more for quality. But their mince pies are a little alienating for me. While the filling makes the most of fancy ingredients like nuts and peel, the pastry's butteriness is overpowering and ruins the entire experience. 5/10

Selfridges: This is one tiny pie. It's a third smaller than any of the others in the test, and a bit beaten-up looking. But one taste and you're instantly won over - the pastry literally melts in the mouth, while the mince is generous, fruity and sweet. Happy Christmas. 9/10

Fun House. It's a whole lot of fun.

I'm watching the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008. (To be honest, it's no Computing Awards for Excellence 2008, but no matter.)

Anyway, I didn't realise Pink's new album – home to the Worst Song Ever Made – is called 'Funhouse'. This is because I am old. It reminded me of wonderful 80s UK children's game show Fun House, hosted by the... erm... irrepressible Pat Sharpe.



Taking part in the fake go-kart challenge was one of my dearest childhood wishes. (Aside from meeting the Fun House twins, Melanie and Martina.)



It never came true.

Mouse? What mouse?

Full marks to the PR person at Arnold's Bread for their crisis management strategy of 'relentless denial'. Read the wonderfully detailed report here.

clipped from www.wcnc.com

Are you LIMP?

Loving this parody - particularly as more and more naff netbooks hit the shelves...

One Laptop Per... Erm... Supercar-driving Supermodel?

Asus takes its Eee computer - originally more aligned with One Laptop Per Child - to new levels of cool with the launch of the S101 'fashion computer'.

clipped from www.engadget.com

Apple vs. Asus - a traveller's tale

I had the rare opportunity last month to travel to Geneva for two film shoots, one week apart. The flights in and out (same day) were exactly the same, the location the same, the venue the same. No, I didn’t screw up the first shoot. We had to film two different people.

I took the opportunity to run a little geek experiment. For one trip, I took my Asus Eee 901. For the other, I took my 15” MacBook Pro. Which one would win for business travel? The diminutive-but-almost-impossible-to-type-on Asus, or the glows-red-hot-when-you-open-Word Apple?

TRIP ONE: Asus Eee 901

Travelling in and out of a country in a day for business means hand luggage only, which also means a dislocated shoulder, radial bruising and severe shoulder strap burns. Not today. My Eee rattles around in my rucksack, alongside a notebook – made of paper – and my travel docs. I can barely feel it, and my bag is so light I start to panic that I’ve forgotten something.

Even when I stop off at City Airport’s airside WHSmith and cram my rucksack full of crisps, chocolate and expensive, lifestyle-enhancing bottled water so I don’t get poisoned by the in-flight cuisine, my back barely registers an ache.

Waiting at the gate, I quickly review a document in OpenOffice’s Word-like thingy. This is easy as I’m now almost used to the two-finger typing that the Eee’s tiny keyboard requires. The document renders well and I dial up some 3 Broadband and send it back to the office. So far, so awesome.

On the plane, the little Eee fits nicely on the fold-down tray, even when accompanied by a cup of hot brown water, two exploding milks and The Driest Cheese Sandwich Ever Made. Again, typing is passable – my special Eee typing style also requires tucked-in elbows and odd, bird-like wrists (think ‘pecking’) so there is no chance of bashing arms with a neighbouring traveller and becoming just another air rage statistic.

The little screen does mean I have to hunch forward to see it, though. Thinking about it, that’s probably a good thing as it means nobody else can see it either. The bundled Linux OS ‘Xandros’ (forced to remain forever in Fisher Price ‘Easy Mode’) looks far too One-Laptop-Per-Child. It’s embarrassing.

At the location, the Eee does its thing and attracts the normal amount of ‘ooohs’ from a surrounding throng of technology fans. Then, when I try and connect to some local wifi, it throws what I can only describe as a ‘fit’ – the screen flickers and strobes and the speakers emit a high-pitched beeping. The thong disperses in shock.

In the afternoon we’re done so we head into Geneva in search of Large Hadron Colliders. We don’t know where one might be so pop into Starbucks, surf their wifi (without any fits this time), neck a latte and cinnamon swirl, and find CERN on Google Maps. (We got there – here’s proof.)

The way back to London is much the same – a bit of typing, some emails and no bother. I feel good about my Eee. And d’you know what? The battery indicator shows that I’d only used half a charge on the whole trip. Now that's frugal.

TRIP TWO: Apple MacBook Pro 15”

Compared to my first laptop ever, the MacBook Pro is light, thin, portable and impossibly powerful. But when placed alongside the Asus it’s a giant slab of hot, noisy, indestructible metal. It’s heavy too – not when compared to what it does, but when you’re carting it around City Airport you certainly notice it. To avoid neck injury I had to put the rucksack on both shoulders and risk looking… European.

On the plane, typing is a breeze on the full-size, softly-sprung keyboard and the big bright screen means I can sit back as I work. The MacBook does, however, overhang the tray table so much that a) it keeps sliding off it into my lap and b) I have to commandeer the table next to me to store Air France’s foul facsimile of a breakfast.

And then it runs out of power.

I’ve got a battery that isn’t even three months old. I had wireless turned off, energy saving mode on and the screen dimmed. And yet, not two hours into my voyage, I’m dead.

At the location, some bartering with the locals eventually turns up a Swiss adapter (warning to travellers - it's like nothing else on Earth) to wake things back up. I leave it to charge while we get on with filming. Once that’s done, I hook up with that local wifi – seamlessly this time – and catch up on some email over a croque monsieur. I’m back up to full power, and so is the MacBook, for now.

On the way back to Blighty I clear out my inbox (from over 6,000 messages to under 1,000 – still some way to go until inbox victory) and write a 600-word article on open source vs proprietary software. On the MacBook, writing is a pleasure.

In contrast, writing things on the Asus is still a chore. I couldn’t imagine rattling off 600 words without a nervous breakdown. The 1,000th time I hit the wrong letter and go for the delete key, which I then miss and hit something else like a plus or a backslash, I'd turn insane and hurl it out of the nearest window. Not a good idea at 10,000ft.

Once home, I let the MacBook warm my legs (one positive thing from its tendency to run hot – no need for central heating) as I finish off some final emails and check over a few final documents that have come in during the day. I glance longingly at the Asus in the corner, and wish is was as usable as the larger, better-endowed MacBook.

Which then runs out of power.

Verdict: Next time I go, I’m taking the Asus. Far less hassle, way more usable, despite the ridiculous keyboard. With an OS actually designed for adults and some tweaks to email and wireless to make them work better, it’ll be great. I still love you MacBook, but you're too thirsty to travel well.

Links on 10/20/2008

• YouTube - Microsoft Windows - "I'm a PC"

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.