By Simon & De Smet
Doppler goes open source
7/10/2007
Smetty’s Radio
2/12/2006
I really like Last.fm and just subscribed to their “become your own radio station” service. Welcome to Smetty’s Radio!
Gestreken mastellen
26/11/2006
Note: English translation on Flickr
Er stond op Gentblogt, naar aanleiding van de ‘week van de smaak’, een recept over ‘gestreken mastellen‘. Mastellen zijn een soort sandwich (niet de Engelse) in een specifieke vorm. De gestreken mastellen worden verkocht tijdens de Patersholfeesten (midden augustus in de Patersholwijk te Gent) en maken deel uit van de Gentse folklore (niet pejoratief bedoeld).
Dit ingeweken Denderkindje had er nog nooit over gehoord, maar voedsel strijken leek mij wel leuk. Gisteren kwam ik toevallig voorbij een bekende Gentse bakker (de geprezen Bundervoet) en het mastellen strijken kon beginnen:
Stap 1: je hebt mastellen nodig (ik kocht er met kaneel), aluminiumfolie, boter, suiker en een strijkijzer.
aXbo Schlafphasen wecker
4/10/2006
I have the coolest alarm clock in town: the aXbo sleep phase clock (sounds more impressive in German isn’t it?).
About the package: the clock comes with 2 wristbands and 2 sensors.
About the technology: “Body movements are monitored through the wristband and sent to the clock. By computing these movements, aXbo calculates your personal ideal wake-up time within a time range of 30 minutes prior to the alarm time set.”
Samar yacht Flickr group
25/08/2006
I wrote a blogpost this summer and added 2 pictures of the Samar yacht I had spotted in Stockholm.
A few weeks later, after adding another 40 pictures to that post and more than 80 to my Flickr account, I decided to close the post. It’s been a great pleasure for me and it was really exciting to follow the boat trough Europe. But after all, this blog and the blogsoftware aren’t really set up for that many content and comments. Besides the technical aspects, it takes to much time for me as well. My holiday is almost over, so it is time to start plan B.
That’s why I created a Samar yacht group on Flickr. The story can continue there (or might be taken over by someone/somewhere else).
Spending that much time on pictures, It really made me a heavy Flickr user (but not that heavy I would call myself a Flickr whore like Lama proudly does). It was fun, but it’s time to move on.
More info on the Samar yacht: Samar yacht group
[tags]Samar, Samar yacht, Samar yacht group, Flickr[/tags]
Boat fun
15/08/2006
What a boat can do to your blog.
That’s why I won’t stop blogging now.
It’s just so much fun.
Pay as you drive
12/08/2006
What happens if you have to pay (congestion charge) every time you pass a certain point with your car in the city?
This is what they tried in Stockholm:
“The controversial trial of congestion charging in Stockholm ended at 6:30pm Monday [31/07/06], with the future of the tax still uncertain. The trial, which started in January, which cost 3.8 billion kronor to set up, claims to have reduced traffic in and out of the city by 22 percent, and garnered 400 million in revenues, much less than expected”. Source: The Local
The Ikea post (sorry, Dutch only) made me think of the role an advertising agency can (and in my opinion should) play in writing a corporate/business blog. I wrote this post with Ikea in my mind.
I think a (real) corporate blog should not be written by an advertising/PR agency employee (unless it’s the agency’s blog itself of course). The main reason will be the fact that this person will lack some of most the important elements: passion, authority and credibility to represent the company to the outside world.
I’m not saying an employee or an external agency cannot be passionated about a topic. But he/she will miss things like the company buzz, other colleagues telling stories about contacts they had with clients, encounters in the elevator, rumours and stuff that happens on the company floor. The outside world will see this person as a representative from an agency, but not as someone from the company itself. It will be much easier for a real employee to become an authority, speak with a credible voice (based on inherent knowlegde) and be the face of the company.
Does that mean an advertising/PR agency cannot help a client to start a company blog? Of course not! They have been communication partners in the past, and there is no reason this should change. An agency can analyse the company’s needs and determine the goal of the blog. In the end, the set-up, layout and all the necessary tools (RSS, tags etc) are important, but not key (I don’t like blogs which are too slick, but I’m sure creatives will strongly disagree with me on that).
The most important aspects will be the company’s culture towards open communication and the corporate blog authors/bloggers.
First.
MTV on K800i
9/08/2006
Damn, I’m so jealous…
Mobile phone: Sony Ericsson K800i.
Provider: Telenor Sweden (TV free first month, 7 EUR/month afterwards).
Owner: Mobile Viking
Guess on which device DopplerMobile will work very soon 
Update 10/08 (on request): check these pictures if you want to check the quality. Example: panorama view. Read the rest of this entry »
AOL 2452032: fantasy or reality?
8/08/2006
Today, I was suprised to read (online, newspapers) how many people started minimalizing the impact of the AOL searchdata dump. Let’s see if we can make something out of 1 random data dump.
Facts:
- User 2452032 visits MySpace on March 1st and 27th of May. He searches for mail.myspace.com on the 29e and the 30e of may. Note: mail.myspace.com is only available for registered members.
- On the 4th of May the users types instantmessenger with an “a”.
- On the 15th of March, the users searches for “bsholl01″. This could be a login that has been typed in the wrong field (maybe you don’t do that, but I’ve already done it myself).
- User searches for “msu” on March 9th.
Stockholm C – Göteborg
1/08/2006
Stockholm C – Göteborg, 471 km, 3 hrs, X2000 train, maximum line speed: 210 kmh/130 mph, 1st class, 693 SEK (75 EUR).
Read the rest of this entry »
Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA)
28/07/2006
The internet is changing our world. Every country/person tries to find his/her answer. In the US, a technology-unfriendly act popped up and surprised almost everybody.
DOPA (an act to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms) was voted on july 27e 2006 by the U.S. House of Representatives. The goal (protect the minors) will be realised by making “off-limits websites” inaccessible.
What exactly are off-limits websites? Read the rest of this entry »
Samar
16/07/2006
Last year I (Smetty the yacht spotter) took some pictures of the Rising Sun. Today, I spotted this little beauty, named “Samar” (Click on the pictures to enlarge or check the Samar yacht photo group on Flickr).
* Add your own Samar picture to the Samar Flickr group *
flickrInspector
14/07/2006
Nice, just played with a new Flickr tool.
What is flickrInspector:
“flickrInspector is a non-commercial website, that displays publicly available data about single flickr users.”
Winter/Summer
14/07/2006
