Network Manager by Day, Blogger by Night.
Archive for November, 2010
The Official Ferrari Opus Launch – Ferrari World Abu Dhabi
Nov 29th
Ferrari S.p.A. and Opus Media Group have joined forces to produce a glorious celebration of the ‘Prancing Horse’ and the success of one of the world’s most famous racing names in motor sport. Unveiled at the newly opened Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, The Official Ferrari Opus weighs an impressive 37kg and runs to 852 pages, each measuring half a metre square. Produced with the support and assistance of Mubadala Development Company, this is the largest and most luxurious publication ever on this iconic brand.
Contributors
Antonio Ghini, Ferrari’s longstanding communications and brand management director, in partnership with editor Eszter Karpati and her team at Opus Media Group, commissioned an array of specialist writers and original interviews with many of the marque’s iconic figures, including Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, Fernando Alonso, Niki Lauda, Jean Todt and Piero Ferrari. In addition, the Opus features approximately 2,000 spectacular images, including very rare or previously unseen archive pictures sourced from collections around the world, plus exclusive, commissioned shoots, including a stunning photo essay by renowned photographer Rankin.
Editions
Personally signed by iconic Ferrari legends, The Official Ferrari Opus is available in three limited editions, including the special Enzo edition (400 copies worldwide) which is offered with a specially commissioned stand by world-famous interior designers Candy & Candy. Prices start from £2,000.
- £2,000 for the ‘Classic’
- £3,750 for ‘Cavallino Rampante’
- £20,000 for the ‘Enzo’
Copy Number 1
Copy number 1 of The Official Ferrari Opus (Enzo edition) will be signed by Luca di Montezemolo, CEO of Mubadala, Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, and many other Ferrari legends. This unique Opus will tour every grand prix-hosting city in 2011 with the last stop being Maranello, home of Ferrari. During the ‘Journey to Maranello’ tour, members of the public will have the opportunity to bid for this one-off Opus, auctioned for two charities chosen by Ferrari and Mubadala.
Deep Zoom
During the ‘Journey to Maranello’ tour, Ferrari fans will be invited to upload pictures of themselves to www.ferrariopus.com and become part of a super high-resolution image, created by Shoothill, the world’s leading developer of Microsoft Deep Zoom technology. The mosaic will include a record-breaking one million images, thus showing, quite literally, the depth of passion for Ferrari. Viewed online using Deep Zoom, fans will be able to focus in on their own photograph in superb detail.
iTunes App
The Official Ferrari Opus ‘Lite’ App consists of selected content from the forthcoming Opus App, offering fans an alternative experience and insight into the fascinating world of The Official Ferrari Opus. The App is free to download from the iTunes store, purposely designed for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Furthermore, owners of Opus App are entitled to an exclusive discount on the purchase of The Official Ferrari Opus.
More info from: http://www.krakenopus.com/family/ferrari/
Manic Monday goes mobile as british use smartphones to shop
Nov 29th
One in ten Brits will do their online Christmas shopping using their mobile phone rather than a computer this year, according to new research findings from Tesco Direct. The trend of using mobile phones for online shopping emerged in a study of 4,000 consumers. This comes as Tesco Direct gets ready to face its busiest online shopping day of the year, dubbed ‘Cyber Monday’ or ‘Manic Monday’ by retailers.
Busy work schedules and hectic lives will see millions of savvy bargain-hunters use their smartphone to find the latest deals for Christmas presents, the research shows. Nearly half will shop online using their phones while watching TV, one in six expect to buy something on their phone while sat on the bus and a quarter will log on to shopping sites through their mobiles during their daily commute.
The study was commissioned to examine the changing Christmas shopping habits of the nation following the launch of Tesco Direct’s new mobile web service, designed to facilitate easy shopping for customers directly through their phones.
Ian Crook, CMO for tesco.com comments: “Tesco Direct is expecting to ship more than 80,000 items today as we face our busiest day of the year for online orders. For the first time this year we anticipate a significant amount of these orders to be placed by customers using their mobile phones, because customers like the convenience of shopping on the go.”
The nationwide poll found 78 per cent are planning to do some of their Christmas shopping online this year and seven in ten think it’s the best way to buy presents. More than a third (36 per cent) said using their mobile would reduce stress levels and mean they could fit shopping in and around their busy lives.
Ian Crook continues: “In October alone, we had over half a million people visit the Tesco Direct website using their mobile phones and in the run up to Christmas we’re expecting this number to surge as people order their gifts from Tesco Direct. Our new mobile web service makes it easier for our customers to search for and buy presents at competitive prices and as our research shows it has potential to take away some of the stress of shopping.”
Simply avoiding the Christmas crowds was the biggest reason for turning to the internet, with 71 per cent saying they can’t stand battling queues in the shops. Another 44 per cent like to use the web to search for the best price.
Tesco Direct top selling Christmas toys for 2010
- Toy Story Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear
- Lego Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer
- Kung Zhu Hamsters
The research also found that:
- In the lead up to Christmas, 73 per cent are worried about the escalating cost of it all as they face tight budgets
- Six in ten don’t know what to buy people
- Half are stressed around Christmas
- Nearly half (45 per cent) said they struggle fitting present shopping in around their job and family commitments
- Seven per cent admitted to online shopping it when they should be working, and one in ten will hit the online shops during their lunch hours
- Two thirds polled said they typically leave their shopping to the last minute
- Online shopping saves the average Brit six hours of traipsing around the high street
The Tesco Direct mobile website was launched earlier this month to make it easier for people to shop online using smartphones. It features simple-to-explore product categories, which are easily navigated through a series of expandable tabs. It allows customers to:
- Sign into /register for a Tesco Direct account
- Search through the complete Tesco Direct product range
- Read all the product features
- Add products to the shopping basket
- Explore delivery options and book a delivery slot
- Locate the closest store
- Read buying guides and product warranties
- Look at product warranties
- Add or remove products from an existing order
- Check out and complete the order
To use the Tesco Direct mobile website, visit www.direct.tesco.com from any mobile phone that can access the internet.
The last Christmas delivery date for Tesco Direct is 22 December. The last day for large Tesco Direct orders guaranteed to be delivered before Christmas is 16 December by 12 noon (for items like white goods or furniture).
Video: TweetFired – Fired from Job Because Of Twitter
Nov 28th
You may have heard of the story of Brian Maupin who got fired from BestBuy becuase of his iPhone4 vs HTC Evo YouTube Video he posted, even though the video makes no mention of BestBuy.
Well now he’s back with another video called TweetFired which is the story of Peter, a man who gets in trouble with his boss at his job because of the tweets he posts, even though they have nothing to do with the company and he was off the clock.
“I can’t believe you would write this bullshit about the company that writes your checks”
“Peter, can you imagine what our stockholders are thinking when they read these?”
“You are slandering Stacks o’ Slacks. You are painting a very negative picture of working here in 140 characters or less”
Christmas Gifts 2010: No sextoys please, we’re British
Nov 25th
Twenga, a comprehensive shopping search engine, asked Internet users about Christmas gifts they don’t want to receive. The results show that 42% of British consumers would be disappointed with a sextoy as their gift, and 38% would not like a scented candle.
The sextoy is indeed the least popular item in Europe, especially for the French, 47% of whom wouldn’t like to receive one. Classics such as gift vouchers, money and electrical appliances are more appreciated (respectively 13%, 13% and 14%).
What type of Christmas gift would you not enjoy receiving?
| United Kingdom | France | Germany | Italy | Spain | The Netherlands | |
| A gift voucher | 13% | 9% | 24% | 12% | 19% | 9% |
| Money | 13% | 11% | 25% | 12% | 18% | 20% |
| An electrical appliance | 14% | 20% | 25% | 13% | 26% | 20% |
| Chocolates | 16% | 12% | 20% | 20% | 26% | 20% |
| A book | 18% | 14% | 26% | 18% | 13% | 18% |
| A perfume | 26% | 11% | 24% | 15% | 16% | 14% |
| A tie or scarf | 35% | 50% | 42% | 43% | 53% | 45% |
| A scented candle | 38% | 36% | 30% | 31% | 36% | 36% |
| A sex toy or erotic gadget | 42% | 47% | 34% | 38% | 28% | 46% |
| Other | 5% | 3% | 6% | 3% | 4% | 2% |
| I don’t know | 8% | 6% | 8% | 7% | 7% | 8% |
Methodology
Twenga asked over 3,000 European Internet users about their Christmas spending budgets for this year and how they intend to use it. The study by Novamétrie was conducted online for Twenga between 27th September and 7th October 2010 using a representative sample of 3013 European Internet users from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
Internet Shopping Could Cost British Businesses Dearly this Christmas
Nov 24th
UK Employers Stand to Lose £300 Million a Week in Lost Productivity
Bloxx, an innovator in web and email filtering, today warned the forecasted increase in Internet shopping could end up costing the UK economy millions of pounds in lost business productivity in the run up to Christmas.
Online retail industry group IMRG and consultants Capgemini recently stated that they expected online sales this Christmas to reach £6.4 billion, up 16% on 2009 sales. According to the Business Software Alliance, 46% of online shopping takes place during working hours.
Using an average of just one hour spent browsing shopping websites or reading and reacting to shopping related emails during the working week and using an hourly pay rate of £12.50, Bloxx estimates that UK employers could stand to loose up to £300 million a week in lost productivity over the next six weeks.
“Most organisations will allow their employees to spend a reasonable amount of time shopping online or receiving shopping related emails,” said Eamonn Doyle, Bloxx Chief Executive Officer. “However, with the addictive nature of online shopping and retailers using frequent emails to drive traffic to their sites, it can be all too easy for employees to get carried away and end up spending excessive amounts of time shopping when they should be working.”
To address the problem, employers need to act now by ensuring that they have a comprehensive Internet and Email Acceptable Use Policy in place and that they have filtering that allows them to proactively manage personal use of web and email.
“Companies need to ensure that they have a clear Acceptable Use Policy for personal Internet usage during working hours and ensure that this is communicated regularly to employees. Employees need to know what is acceptable and what the consequences could be for breaking the policy,” concludes Doyle.
BitDefenders safego says one fifth of Facebook users subject to malware
Nov 24th
BitDefender, an award winning provider of innovative internet security solutions, has released statistics derived from its social networking safety app safego launched in beta at the end of last month. The application, which has scanned over 17 million Facebook posts to date, detected infections on the news feeds of around 20% of its users.
Key Statistics
- To date, safego has over 14,000 users and scanned over 17 million Facebook posts
- Infected items have been detected on the news feeds of around 20% of safego users
- Over 60% of attacks come from notifications from malicious third-party applications on Facebook’s developer platform
Third-party application threats
- 21.5% – Applications claiming to provide functionality that Facebook does not offer such as seeing who has viewed your profile and who has removed you as a friend
- 15.4% – Applications that entice users with the promise of bonus items for Facebook games such as free items in FarmVille, MafiaWars or FishVille
- 11.2% – Applications that falsely claim to offer bonus features such as free backgrounds and “dislike buttons”.
- 7.1% – Applications that pretend to be Facebook versions of popular gaming titles such as Super Mario, The Sims or World of Warcraft
- 5.4% – Applications that attract users by claiming to give away free mobile phones
- 1.3% – Applications that supposedly offer a way to watch movies for free online.
Non application related threats
- 16.3% of worms viewed on Facebook did so through enticing users to watch some kind of shocking video such as ‘the king of pop is still alive’
- 4.6% of attacks can be connected to viruses like Koobface, where a user’s account can be hijacked and malware automatically posted on the walls of a user’s friends
- The rest of the 17.2% is formed by more eccentric threats (which do not have a high spread rate)
safego was launched on Facebook in Beta stage on the 26th October 2010. Through a simple interface, the safego application checks the user’s privacy levels and identifies personal information that is visible to strangers. It also scans the user’s wall, message inbox and comments for malicious links and shared content that could be compromised such as videos and pictures.
Video: Saijo Matsuri 2009
Nov 23rd
Saijo Matsuri 2009 ???? from Brad Kremer on Vimeo.
Saijo Matsuri is a festival held every year in October in Saijo, Japan. Saijo Matsuri is a three day event celebrating the fall harvest. They carry 135 of these 700kg(1500lbs) Danjiri all over town and parade them in a very enthusiastic fashion. They will all be in one spot for 4-5 hours and then carry it to the next 10-20km away to the next spot and continue the fun. And they do this, almost non-stop, day and night for three days.
They lift these Danjiri up over their heads and present them to the Kami(God). Sometimes when they get a good bounce going the Danjiri will actually lift away from their grip several centimeters in the air and hopefully they catch them again. And then there are 7 larger Mikoshi that come from a neighboring town, Niihama, to join in the festivities. These larger ones weigh a tremendous 2.5 tons.
This film focuses on the second day, Oct. 17th. It starts at 1am, goes to three locations and ends around 8pm.
I suggest watching with good speakers or headphones to get the full effect of being immersed into this amazing event. Enjoy!
Music Video: Chelsea by Cyndi Nabozny
Nov 13th
Cyndi Nabozny has just posted a new song called “Chelsea by Cyndi Nabozny” about her dog who is unfortunately no longer with her in this world. Keep the songs coming Cyndi.
Guy Fawkes Night 2010
Nov 4th
To all those British out there and anyone else for that matter, please remember the 5th of November as it should be and remember why we celebrate it, The failed Gunpowder Plotof 1605. Don’t forget your guy “penny for the guy anyone? 
”, roasted chestnuts and of course your fireworks. Celebrate Guy Fawkes Night as it should be celebrated, celebrate it like you would all those years ago. Don’t let it be forgotten or taken over by Halloween!
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d (or by God’s mercy*)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holla boys, Holla boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!
