Ideas, Money & Art

Project Frog Shoot

Last week we IMA-ers had a shoot with an architectural firm named Project FROG. Project FROG is a pioneering firm that integrates sustainability and customization into quick-to-deploy, high performance building environments. Our mission is to provide a transformational landscape of sustainable, friendly, and affordable learning environments that inspire creativity, collaboration and productivity. (from their site).

They have created a new type of portable classroom. In this case, the classrooms were on the San Francisco City College campus. They were beautiful, functional and sustainable. We were impressed.

One of my all time favorite flash websites

This one has been around for years but never gets old.

Matthew Mahon

IMA

Interesting site concept

As IMA gets deeper and deeper into our interactive niche and looks to our future in content creation and distribution, I'm going to post websites that I come across that look interesting and take the web in a new direction (sorry for the rambling sentence, a little extra Blue Bottle this morning).

Brand Gaurdians does some interesting things with their layout and approach, which I like, but it isn't interactive enough. All of those words should link to something.

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Daemon: Bot-mediated Reality was good

I said I would follow up if Friday night's event was a good one. Well, it was, so here we go.

The seminar focused on bots, which are the programs that run our automated world. They are a type of artificial intelligence called narrow AI and they are everywhere around us. What is disconcerting is that there are a small group of people writing these bots and wreaking havoc on "the cloud" and private institutions alike. Mr. Suarez showed a graph ofBotnets (a Botnet being an army of zombie computers taken over by bots ((really, I'm not making this up)). These Botnets can then wreak havoc by denying internet service or sending out virtual mountains of spam. In one particularly frightening example, Suarez related the tale of an Israeli network security company who was trying to protect a large corporate client from a botnet. In retaliation, the programmer aimed the attack at the security firm which denied internet access to the entire company. The company went out of business. Then the bot army refocused on its primary target. Okay...

The overall theme of the talk was grim but Suarez, who owns his own IT consulting firm, ended with a ray of hope. He suggests we build another network beside the current internet we know and love and use complete, personal transparency to deny the power of masquerading bots. If this sounds interesting check out his book (if you don't like to read it will be coming to a theater near you). If this sounds REALLY interesting, join Long Now and you can watch the video of the presentation.

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Feed the Brain

Live blog from tonight's Long Now seminar in the city (using the Typepad iPhone app which I recommend). I actually have no idea what this is about but if it is good I'll follow up.

Sometimes you don't feel creative V.1

Slogging through emails, keeping clients happy and watching cash flow does not lead to bursts of creative inspiration. Nevertheless, IMA is a creative company founded by two creative people who want to do great work. So what do I do when the spark is gone but a creative project needs to get done? Or worse, a concept needs to be birthed?

Find inspiration and watch how quickly you shift into that creative space. I use books, magazines and the Magic Box to get inspired (and sometimes envious). If you can use the existing art of the world to focus you on your own you'll be making pretty pictures in no time.

This website is one of my favorites. Art of the Title
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New iPhone Apps V.1

Here are some of the new apps I've found on the App Store. These are some of the basic ones. Next time I'll get into some of the more ridiculous ones. The screen captures are taken from the iPhone itself which is a great new feature. All in all, I'm truly impressed by new functionality of my Gen 1 phone (even if it took a while to update last Friday).

This one is Vicinity. It finds your position and tells you where the cafes, restaurants, bars, banks, grocery stores, etc are nearby. It also tells you how far away they are (in meters, no less).

The New York Times app lists the top news stories in a very iPhone friendly format (and they've already figured out how to make money on it).

One Tap Movies finds your location and shows you the nearest theaters and showtimes. You can then get directions to the theater and you can watch the movie trailer to see if you really want to see Hancock.

Last for today is the Pandora app. The beauty of this is the best internet radio stations are now available to you where ever you go. The sound quality is a little disappointing but the ability to listen to my Pandora list anywhere makes up for it. A great way to find new music.

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iPhone 2.0 test

Testing TypePads new iPhone app from the app store. So far, so good.

Soma Grand San Francisco Video

A few months ago we produced a testimonial video for the new, sleek Joie de Vivre condo Soma Grand. The Video is now live on their new website. Check it out. We think it turned out pretty well.

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Go Away

Malibu (not me)

I went on a brief vacation at the end of last week. I only missed 3 days of work and even then, with the iPhone, didn't really miss any work at all. However, I was able to relax and recharge. What a difference a couple of days make. I feel revitalized and very focused on what the company needs moving forward. Often times we lose focus on the grand plan when we get lost in the day to day. Nothing like a couple of days of surfing and playing golf to separate the forest from the trees. To everyone out there who is considering a trip, even a quick one, I say Go.

If you still don't believe me here is some science for ya.
Study says vacations make us more productive

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