Web Site Story – CollegeHumor video pokes fun at trendiest Web sites

Story of our lives, huh?

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SF renames Bush St – aptly

So this rippled through the Interwebs today but I had actually stumbled upon it rather organically (or, ignorantly, as the case happened to be) and got a huge kick out of it – perhaps greater than if I had seen it online first then sought it out after – the beauty of a perfectly-executed stunt!

I was on my way to an appointment after watching the new Pres be sworn in this morning. Of course I was very excited, but also running a little late. As I biked quickly up the hill toward my appointment on Bush Street, I squinted toward the street sign to see if I’d met my destination (I don’t know this part of town well so was trying to get my bearings). I wasn’t wearing my glasses, either, but I swore – and as I got closer – did it really say? It looks like… OBAMA St!!

I stopped my bike at the corner and pointed toward a sign, exclaiming to a random man. English wasn’t his first language, so it took a second for us to get on the same page, then we smiled at each other, laughed and went our separate ways. It was beautiful. I snapped a photo on my phone and posted to Twitter.

 

Obama Street (at Hyde St), SF

After my appointment, I saw some students snapping photos but no one knew at the time who had executed this stunt. It was fun, though, watching people react to it – drivers honking, yelling, pedestrians smiling, snapping pics, etc. So super cool.

A friend of mine IMd me once I got back to my desk to inform that it was the work of Laughing Squid – how appropriate!

Well done, guys! This thoroughly made my morning. :)

~Jes

UPDATE: Apparently I assumed this was done by Laughing Squid, however just learned that a group called Survival Research Laboratories (they have a Wikipedia page) was behind the stunt. Thanks, Derek, for the tip! http://sfcitizen.com/blog/2009/01/20/survival-research-labs-changes-bush-street-to-obama-street/

The White House launches its new blog!

Today was certainly exciting. And amid all the excitement – and following up on the heels of Obama’s near-flawless digital campaign, including his YouTube weekly addresses which I’ve vowed to watch regularly now! (NY resolution #43925732890!) – the re-vamped Whitehouse.gov site (did anyone visit the White House Web site when Bush was in office? I sure didn’t) launched its new blog!

Heading up the blog is a new name (to me, anyway) – Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House. Macon explains the new Administration’s goals for the blog in one of the first posts.

 

I find this all very, very cool, as I think I’ve blogged about previously. Can’t wait to see all that comes out of this Presidency and our Government, moving foward.

Would be interested in your feedback on the site – what would you find most valuable from your government on its Web site and blog? Engage!

 

Also – some fun trivia for the day from Mashable via the CNN/Facebook alignment for inauguration day coverage:

1. There were 200,000+ status updates through the Facebook integration on CNN.com

2. at that time, 3,000 people commented on the Facebook CNN feed per minute

3. Obama’s Facebook Fan Page has more than 4 million fans and in excess of 500,000 wall posts 

Did anyone tune in to this live streaming? I personally watched on the big (old school) screen with the office. Do share thoughts if you tuned in!

 

Peace! Enjoy your inaug celebrations!

Wi-Fi-enabled digi cameras, for chrissakes!

OK, so many of you heard my tirade for wi-fi-enabled digital cameras. I did some searching after our meeting and found a David Pogue article as far back as Sept 2005 hammering on about the “obvious” pairing of wi-fi sharing and digital cameras. Duh! What’s taking so long, I wonder (as did Pogue, then).

WELL. You will be happy to know that a few cameras do exist with wifi – Kodak, for one. I have a Kodak EasyShare camera that I absolutely LOVE though I had no idea they offered cameras with wifi! (OK, so it was a gift, so I didn’t have much choice in the matter, but still!) I noticed they only offer 4 and 6 MP varieties, so I wonder if that has something to do with the price-point with Wi-Fi, etc. (keeping low enough to still generate demand, perhaps)

I can’t wait to see what comes out of this category. And if you find anything else cool in the category of wi-fi-enabled digital cameras, please let me know!

Like this – completely utilitarian – wi-fi camera UMBRELLA. Ah, the Japanese consumer electronics industry is awesome.

This is totally impractical, but AWESOME