SensoryMetrics

So here is my favourite iApp for 2009 – Brian Eno’s Trope. Try thinking of nothing. Blissful empty space. There’s an app for that. As some of you know Brian Eno has been a master of minimalist ambient soundscapes for 4 decades. One of my favourite albums is Another Green World. The minimalist part comes perhaps from his full name ‘Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno’. That would be a really bad Twitter name!

Trope is best described as interactive aural yoga. Strokes on the screen build the composition. I use Trope when writing – it’s a background. When the urge hits, I hit the screen to create a more frenetic sound.

What was your favourite app this year?

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Thinking of revamping your website’s colour palette? From the geniuses at Pantone, the colour to be next year is PANTONE 15-5519. AKA Turquoise. Rhymes with noise. Unbelievably, this warranted a press release! According to Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®.

“It is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. Through years of color word-association studies, we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”

Tropical paradise? Hardly. When I think of turquoise I try to control a gag reflex. I think of old Chrysler K cars. I always wondered what made people buy turquoise cars? I also think of Hillary Clinton who spent much of 2008 parading around in turquoise pantsuits. On sale at Winners, presumably.

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Update: *editorial corrections marked in brackets [as such].

It has been decided by the SensoryMetrics marketing advisory sub-committee (SMMASC) that Google Adsense will be turned off on this site.  Um, that is, turned off and deactivated, (just as soon as we figure out how to close our account).

I know, so many of you will miss our colourful random meaningless [-ful] ads provided by Google Adsense.
Well to remember them by, here’s a post to say goodbye [thank you] to Adsense, it’s been nice! but, bye, bye.

I know, you must be wondering, “Why would we turn down free cash?  It’s delivered in the mail for crying out loud!”

Well, there are a few [two minor and somewhat insignificant] reasons.  For one, Google Adsense seems to exist in a weird unconnected business silo bubble or black hole.  We have never [not yet] been able to resolve linking Google Analytics to our AdSense account.  The Analytics support won’t talk to the Adsense support or is it the other way around?  Who knows, we give up on it.  It’s funny [been useful] to read the posts in the Google support forums, a bunch of people have this problem, but no one from Google Adsense support seems [has had the opportunity] to read this stuff.  Um, is there an Adsense support group?  Do they even exist or are they just virtual Google bots?

I guess the second reason, is that we’re sick of fat chick [weight-loss] ads.  Go away, leave us alone with the fat chick “how to lose a ton of weight through a secret we will sell you” [lose weight] ads.  Enough’s enough.  [We'll happily endure more crazy ads since we like weight loss advertisements as much as the rest the ads].  It’s just not [so] worth the free money to put these annoying [fun] ads on the site! [Thanks, for the tips, yes, logging into our account and blocking the ads we don't want is just too obvious a fix, thx.]

If you are a member of the Adsense support team and just can’t live without our participation in your business.  Here’s what it will take to win us back:

Please help us fix our broken account link between Adsense and Analytics.  Then we’ll update this post with joyous praise or delete it as you wish.

Forever in your debt-itude. Your humble servants @SensoryMetrics.

Posted on behalf of the SensoryMetrics marketing advisory sub-committee (SMMASC)

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Ages ago we wrote about the wonder of a little java app called Wordle – which creates stylized word clouds from text or urls. This year we got the idea to use Wordle to create a family game for our upcoming Christmas gathering. Simply search the lyrics of your favourite xmas tunes and create Wordle clouds for each. Print them out individually and number them. Have people guess the name of the song from the wordled lyrics! BTW, ‘wordled’ is not YET a word in the Urban Dictionary…

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Today’s feature Apple patent application is number 20090292993:

Graphical User Interface Having Sound Effects For Operating Control Elements and Dragging Objects

Abstract
Systems and methods for providing an enhanced auditory behavior to a graphical user interface are described. Control elements portrayed by the graphical user interface on a display are associated with at least two states. When transitioning between states, a sound effect specified for that transition can be provided to provide further user or designer customization of the interface appearance. Movement of objects can be accompanied by a repeated sound effect. Characteristics of both sound effects can be easily adjusted in volume, pitch and frequency.

As annoying as this sounds in an iPod, imagine how annoying Microsoft will make it for the Zune??? {shiver}

Fade to black. Cue sound effects. Blurrrp.

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Ok, so Wave is either the ultimate replacement for email or just a new tool to use for communication; not that different from instant messaging, Skype or Facebook.

Truth is it depends on what you use your email for. If you like writing emails now, you will no doubt continue on using email. On the other hand if you’re using email to work with several people at the same time, thank God for Google Wave. This new generation of email protocols will cut the back and forth and multi-copy-hell that you might be currently facing especially if you message more than one person at a time. Hun?
What I’m saying, is that if you just email back and forth with one person, email works, for the most part, but even then, how many emails fly back and forth? Did you catch them all? Did you remember that one about the important deadline? Well, fret no more, as Google Wave is about to change the email messaging paradigm.

With Wave, emails are transformed into living conversations that are updated. Ok, now is the time to stop thinking ‘email’. Email is no more. Google Wave is a targeted bulletin board. You put your message up and you either get a reply or someone can add to your message or they can even delete it. If you’re thinking this is chaos, you’re absolutely right! It’s chaos, it’s mayhem, it’s better than what’s in your email inbox right now.
There’s really no sense guesstimating how Wave will impact our lives. It simply will and I wish I already had it.
Whether or not Wave is for you depends on what you’re currently using your email for. Ok, I’m repeating myself  or did I? Who can keep track of these long threads? Just get to the point! With Google Wave the point is the content that is created by the participants. Have a thought to express? Put it down in a Wave and see if it grows into a full fledged argument or a collaborative experience that is both weird and wonderful.

Um, email will never die.

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The above photo wall (Flash plugin required) will show all images being posted live on Flickr that are tagged ‘Ottawa’.
Click / scroll to the right to see the more photos taken in Ottawa.

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Hopefully by the time you read this, you will be able to download your iTunes play-list as an XML file then embed an interactive Flash animation that displays your songs on your Facebook page or website.  Um, you probably won’t get this mashable app from Apple, but instead from some clever basement developer doing it for fun.  The embedded application could perhaps look something like this picture (but actually work).  Would it play the songs?  Perhaps not, most likely it could simply bunt you into the iTunes store where you could listen to part of the song and buy it if you like it.

The unfortunate thing seems to be that Apple and Adobe haven’t played nicely together since the release of the iPhone (or has it been longer?).

You can easily understand why Apple has not supported Adobe Flash on the iPhone.  If I designed the product, I’d do the same thing, there are just too many Flash applications on the web that do far too much (like play music or display stock quotes or you name it).

The thing I don’t understand, is how Apple has missed so many opportunities with viral embedded apps?  To be honest, I’ve never subscribed to the Apple web services (iWeb? iDisk? iMobile? whatever it’s named)  So, perhaps Apple has all sorts of APIs use with their web services, I just haven’t noticed.  Off on a tangent, I once had an Apple eWorld subscription, I miss that odd little virtual village!  It’d be funny if someone replicated that service on a fansite.  mAppleshup!  Sort of tastes like ketchup with apple sauce.  Yum.

Update: Apple lets you share your favourite songs with Twitter and Facebook directly from within iTunes.  Unfortunately, it’s a pretty dismal sharing eXperience.  Somehow you’d expect a bit more.

Here are the Facebook results when you share from iTunes, somehow the Rolling Stones album cover got mixed up with John Lennon.

Update 2: Flash CS5 will soon be able to create apps for iPhone and iPod touch.

Sneak Peak: Flash CS5 exporting to iPhone (the code hinting/completion feature is so sweet).

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