HyperQuake

So it was AOL’s 25th birthday on Tuesday last week.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who disagree with the statement that AOL was very much a major catalyst in millions of people starting to use the internet. Remember the days of coming home from school or work and finding a shiny new AOL disk in the mailbox? Now those were the days.

ALL NEW!

AOL might now be the powerhouse they once were, but it sounds like they have some plans for the next year.

Happy Birthday AOL.

Oh, I don’t know, shoot free hot dogs out at the crowds that would inevitably gather, via a Hot Dog Cannon I guess. I’m pretty sure this unexpected delivery of deliciousness would put a smile on all the Oscar Mayer Wieners fans out there.

As far fetched as that might seem, believe it or not, it really isn’t. That even goes for the Hot Dog Cannon part!

This actually exists.

That’s because as it turns out Oscar Mayer is auctioning off a Wienermobile adventure on eBay.

You too can have an adventure.

Now the term ‘adventure’ is kinda subjective here. That’s my only gripe. I’m sure this Wienermobile isn’t the easiest thing to drive, but an adventure riding in the passenger seat, I don’t know. I think I’d get the hang of it pretty quick. I was really kinda let down when I found this out because I was fully expecting to get the chance to see just what kind of power this thing has in it. I was thinking maybe if I won we could get it set up with some turbos or a supercharger and shoot the prequel to the Fast and Furious movies. One of the guys in the office has a new Mustang so we could easy throw down for pink slips like Paul Walker and Vin Diesel did…

So if you like Hot Dogs, specifically Oscar Mayer Wieners, you should probably go check this out, because I forgot to mention, in addition to the ride in the car, you might win a years supply of hot dogs (26 packages). I’m going to have to check with our resident package meat expert Andy on this count though, I think it’s low based on the recommended daily meat requirements.

The 2012 Olympics so far have not failed to entertain with each announced design choice/uber-Britishy production number, and things over in England have just gotten a whole lot crazier. Meet the mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville:

This video explains the characters’ origins…I guess?

The press have been particularly unkind to this newest Olympic development. Barry Petchesy, of the Deadspin blog, describes them thusly: “Wenlock and Mandeville, their cyclopean eyes representing England’s Big Brother police state, were unveiled today. You might as well just sacrifice your firstborn now and get it over with.” Both the Telegraph and The Independent have ridiculed the choice as well.

Waldi

Mascots were originally introduced during the 1972 Munich Summer Games with Waldi the Dachshund. Subsequent mascots have seen the full spectrum of acceptance, from the much-reviled Izzy (Atlanta 1996) to the recent superprecious Vancouver mascots. Olympic mascots are important for two reasons: the more altruistic Getting Kids Interested In Sports, and the more practical Merchandising Bucks (Wenlock and Mandeville will be sold as cyclopean digital cameras, among many other things).

Izzy and the Vancouver 2010 mascots

It will be interesting to see how the new 2012 mascots fit into the overall Olympic plan, till then my only question is, Why so angry-looking, Wenlock?

Oh yes, they did.

It’s in Brussels.

This looks photoshopped, right?

Seems to be real, though “why” is another story.

More to be read about it at Apartment Therapy.

Of course we do, who wouldn’t? But what’s with this cookie on your browser?

Edible thank you, compliments of Trumac Films.

Hyperquake is busy with creating our next film Web site for Trumac Film’s Lost Rites. Here is a quick preview of the teaser trailer from the film.

Be on the lookout for a late Spring release, coming to a Web site near you.

The third installment of our poster series is out in the world, and you can make a sweet new desktop wallpaper right now, just mosey on over to Posterquake dot com and start creating.

Want some of this sweetness to post up on your wall? Call into the office and talk to our dude Chris Strong, he might be able to rustle one up for you.

History, it’s both extremely important and often times very interesting. No doubt about it. Some would say not everyone is well versed enough in it.

The problem is, the manner in which history is presented usually isn’t that interesting: it’s b-o-r-i-n-g…. (hello high school history text books!). Even when you are watching it on TV, the monotone voice that often presents it to you in beautiful technicolor just isn’t that captivating.

Well, The History Channel wants to change that and obviously wants everyone to learn more about history of course, while also getting you to engage with their brand a bit more in the social media sphere.

So, what did they do, they’ve embarked on a FourSquare mission to leverage the social networking tool in helping to promote its upcoming series, “America: The Story of Us.”

Normally, I wouldn’t be a FourSquare advocate, I just think it’s pretty childish (i.e. “Hey, look I’m the Mayor of my office.” “Hey, I got my Adventurer Badge”), but this is a great idea because it uses the location-based mobile app to tie in with historical tidbits about over 1,000 historical locations around the county.

Example: “users visiting the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater in Chicago will discover that infamous bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death there by federal agents when leaving a movie in 1934.”

I’m a little unclear on how you’ll know to check in at these locations or if it’s just a luck thing, but either way, The History Channel appears to be making a big push behind it with Facebook pages, e-newsletter updates, etc.

Oh and yeah, if you check in at a lot of places on the list, you can get yourself a nifty virtual badge if you’re into that kinda stuff. That means you too have the chance to become a Mayor of someplace.

You know that feeling where you want some KFC so bad that you’ll do anything to get it? And if anything or anyone gets in your way, you’ll go crazy and start flipping tables/chairs or staging sit-ins right?

Well, imagine you want that KFC, you have a coupon you got off the internet and you go to get your chicken on and the staff at your local fried chicken establishment won’t take your coupon.

What else is there to do but cause a riot, right?

Hard to believe, but it happened in Japan last week. Next time someone has to be a bit more careful to ensure fraudulent digital coupons can’t be made. But hey, it shows digital couponing works if the offer is good enough!

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/nontraditional/e3i2bf7a2a5a7ec6db2ebe035d420ef018c

It was inevitable that this was going to happen someday, but it’s also kind of a bummer.

The beauty of Twitter to me has always been that it’s organic and allowed me to connect with friends, colleagues, bands and brands in unique ways.

Even as a follower of certain companies & brands, I never felt like I was being shouted at to ‘LOOK HERE! BUY THIS! CLICK NOW!’, but more that I was able to engage with someone from the brand directly in a digital conversation if I wanted to. Essentially I felt like I was getting a sneak peak at what was going on with the brand from a day to day perspective. Of course, not all brands using Twitter follow a model that embodies putting unique content out there for followers, some purely do just yell at people to buy their stuff. That’s a whole other story, but this advertising model could only enable that more.

That said, I’m not sure if the new Twitter advertising model is going to make its users very happy. The model will start out small apparently, but will closely mirror Google’s paid search advertising structure. So, when you go to look for Sue Smith on Twitter, you’ll find an ad for “Sue Smith drinks Joe’s Cola. Click here!” Well, maybe it won’t be that blatant, who knows, but that’s the model.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal: “Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams and co-founder Biz Stone have been publicly lukewarm about advertising, suggesting it could irritate users,” so only time will tell how this is going to go.

Based on that statement alone, this should be interesting…

Read the full article here.

Well, apparently you should be.

The folks over at uncrate.com posted an entry that pretty much outlines everything you need to take on the impending attack of the living dead and this stuff looks like the real-deal. You’ll be like a Zombie hunting Rambo with this stuff. Read it here.

No one knows exactly when this apocalypse will be as their are conflicting theories between numerous University research studies. But hey, it never hurts to be prepared. Remember the year 2000? All those canned goods didn’t go to waste did they?

Probably the most important part I determined after reading this was the whole book on how to fight Zombies. If you don’t know how to actually fight them, all those cool looking boots and gloves are worthless.

But anyway, you should probably go get prepared because you never know…