Tag: gameofthrones

Five things on Friday #23

Things of note for the week ending June 8th, 2012

1. Game of Thrones

This image has been kicking around the ‘net for a little while now and it is all kinds of awesome. Game of Thrones season 2 is at an end now. It was epic. Peter Dinklage has been killing it. Good work sir.

And if you’ve not got ’round to watching this show yet, what are you doing? GO!

2. Fan boy theories
I came across this thread on Reddit (via Super Punch) the other week and it is, as one follower called it, a monstrous time vacuum.

Covering off such topics as ‘Why Rugrats is completely imagined’, ‘Who Sean Connery really is in ‘The Rock”, ‘Why it’s actually quite plausible – up to a point – that R2D2 was Luke Skywalker’s father’ and finally, my personal favourite, ‘Why The Bride doesn’t actually kill Bill in ‘Kill Bill”.

Seriously mental stuff. Click through, and be prepared to lose HOURS of your life.

You have been warned.

3. Xbox SmartGlass

I did have a massive write up in my head about just how awesome Microsoft’s new ‘SmartGlass’ is shaping up to be (and I might just save that for another day, perhaps as a follow up to my other 2screen post).

But today, instead, I’m going to link to this TechCrunch article that explains it all, and then, while you’re reading that, I’d also like to post this excerpt from a post I wrote about ‘the importance of ecosystems‘ back in September 2011.

But the key part here for me is Xbox. The one thing everyone seems to be overlooking: The Xbox. There are 53.6million of these machines worldwide – already sat under televisions. Of those, 66% are connected [or at least registered] online via Xbox Live. Include in that another 10million Kinects [the fastest selling peripheral of all time] and you have one hell of a home entertainment system / internet ecosystem.

If anyone wants to hire me as a technology trend-spotter, please feel free to get in touch…
#justsayin

4. Sydney Opera House Projection Mapping
Project mapping, you either love it or you hate it – The electric car from Toyota, is awesome. I saw some live once, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, that was cool too. Then, Madonna absolutely nailed it at Superbowl 2012 and now, in my opinion at least, it’s all a bit passé.

Keeping that in mind, I thought that this effort – via the Vivid Sydney light festival at Sydney Opera House – was simply beautiful.

Talk about a building MADE for this kind of work. Just.. Wow.

5. Mad Dreams

Yeah. I should really lay off the cheese.
…for what it’s worth mind, Conan and I had a blast.

—–

Bonuses – the best response to ‘What does it feel like to be the CEO of a start up‘ will make some of my friends cry; a month old article written by Avengers star, Tom Hiddleston, on why Superheroes are important; and just a quick link to a new mobile-technology focused podcast that I’ve started with a friend, entitled ‘The Voicemail‘ – more on this, soon.

Five things on Friday #20

Five things of note for the week ending Friday May 18th, 2012

1. Mother of Dragons Disney T-Shirt
Game of Thrones fan? You’re gonna love this –

Available to buy from Etsy (warning: the model used has seen happier days)

2. The Networked Urban Environment
I have few industry heroes and, ever since I saw his TED Talk on ‘Our Mobile Phones‘, Jan Chipchase has been one of them. His latest post, ‘The Networked Urban Environment‘ is (so far) a great read. I’m about halfway through it at the moment and it’s one of the better future-gazing pieces I’ve read in a while.

Imagine never having to look for a parking space ever again. Imagine that from here on out, this problem is solved. Fast-forward to 2025. You’re driving from Brooklyn to Manhattan…because driving in New York City, and everywhere else, has become much simpler a task than it was a decade or so before… or has it?

Definitely worth a look.

3. The OTHER inbox in Facebook
Look, some of you are going to know about this and have known about it for ages. For the rest of you (like me, about two days ago), this will completely and utterly blow your mind.

A couple of nights ago, the girl casually mentions how useful it is that the ‘other’ inbox is on Facebook’s iPad app.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“The other inbox on Facebook, I’ve just found it on the iPad app. Cool.”

“Hang on, rewind, what is this ‘other’ inbox.”

“The other inbox.”

“No, you’re just repeating the same thing.. what is the other inbox.”

She shows me.
It blows my mind.

It turns out that if someone isn’t your friend on Facebook and then they message you, their messages end up in the other inbox.

This is ridiculous. First off, this is NOT obvious. I’ve missed a whole bunch of messages from people I’ve met from all over the world! Second, this will also explain why a whole bunch of messages I’ve sent to non-friends haven’t responded either (at least, that’s what I’m telling myself).

Admittedly, a fair amount of the stuff in there is spam, but still – I’m into double figures on the amount of messages I’ve missed. I’m gutted. But hey, I know about it now and will check it more regularly.

Every day’s a school day.

4. The Marketing Academy: The New Batch
Two years ago, almost to the day, I was waking up in Maidenhead to commence my first few days as a Marketing Academy scholar. Next week, the next batch of lads and ladies to go through the year will kick-off their own journey. One of them is a really good friend of mine and I’m chuffed to bits for him. Best of luck to all of the new starters.

You’re in for an amazing year!

5. Howard Stern / Sacha Baron Cohen
An extremely rare out of character interview with Sacha Baron Cohen, (thank you Howard Stern). Cohen says himself this is only the third time he’s ever been interviewed as himself (preferring to turn up to talkshows etc as his creations such as Ali G, Borat or, most recently, The Dictator) and is clearly a fan of Stern’s work.

Engaging and enlightening throughout, I’ve been listening to it while writing this blog post and it really is brilliant. Featuring hilarious anecdotes about the comedy-writing process, the dangers of filming Bruno in Arkansaw and the unforeseen perils of attempting to sneak the ashes of Kim Jong Il into TheAcademy Awards

Listen now, before it gets taken down.

___

Bonuses – This Could Hurt for iOS looks pretty good (I’ll be downloading as soon as I hit publish); this bookcase + chair hybrid just made my ‘want’ list; and these 1950’s takes on the Batman universe from artist Denis Medri are fantastic. Poison Ivy + Bane are definite faves.

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Whatley out.