HQ wanted to know: can physics be simple and fun? OhmartVEGA, a manufacturing company specializing in sophisticated measuring devices, came to HQ requiring a simplified tool to easily and accurately configure their products. A manual and time-intensive quoting process (requiring advanced mathematics and hand calculations) was preventing their global sales and engineering teams from quickly and accurately turning around customized quotes for their clients.
To alleviate this issue, HyperQuake developed a fully customized application for OhmartVEGA called ProSize. HQ designed the user interface for ProSize with a flexible graphics library and a real-time drag-and-drop drawing module. The application was created entirely in Adobe Air, leveraging Flex as the development framework to produce a user-friendly, portable desktop application. The project also showcases our in-house familiarity of advanced trigonometry and geometry to deliver accurate field calculations.
HQ successfully transformed what was once a complex process into a user-friendly, globally-distributed application for the OhmartVEGA sales force. ProSize delivers an endless array of customized product configurations that can be shared with the Engineering teams as well as with customers. A clean, easy-to-understand report, along with flexible project files, can be outputted from the program and shared among the various stakeholders throughout the process, saving OhmartVEGA time and money.
We all know that movie releases are big business, and that social media has moved to the center of all things marketing-related, thus how social media is handled by movie studios is a core component to a modern film’s success. But let’s face it, it’s annoying to have to go to the movie’s microsite AND Facebook AND YouTube AND Twitter etc etc for your movie info. Total ugh, amiright? Not to mention it is also annoying and expensive for studios to build all that for every movie. It is this exact issue that Lionsgate Films, partnered with online media firm ThisMoment, aim to address in promotion of LG’s new film, Kick-Ass.
ThisMoment has developed the Distributed Engagement Channel, which essentially aggregates all of a movie’s social media stuff (Twitter/Myspace/Facebook/YouTube comments and ability to friend/follow/subscribe in those channels), and all of the movie’s official stuff (videos, downloads, contests etc.) into one place, which is THEN posted up onto Myspace, Facebook and YouTube in theoretical-lieu of a custom microsite/branding for each of those sites. (Although they HAVE covered all their bases with a traditional movie website as well in this case. Baby steps.)
The advantage to users and fans is obvious (so convenient!), but less apparent is the advantage afforded to Lionsgate in this move. The Distributed Engagement Channel technology is controlled by one single CMS system, allowing LG to manage their content on all the social channels at once (except Twitter, alas!) and providing consolidated metrics all in one place. Simplicity FTW!
There is a pretty confusing article on Ad Age about it, I recommend reading through the comments, there is a great dialogue going on between commenters and representatives from ThisMoment.
YouTube music video darlings OK Go have done it again, but this time they’ve traded the treadmills for a warehouse in which they have built a wonderful, wonderful Rube Goldberg Machine. Don’t miss this one.
BONUS: The answer to the question, ‘will the band make out with the machine’? Find out below!
In the case that you’re not satisfied with the amount of personal information already shared on the Internet, head on over to formspring.me.
Formspring.me is a social networking site in which people anonymously pose questions to one another. Responses can also be posted to your other networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Twitter users will probably find the functionality and aesthetic to be quite familiar, although it’s not overly complicated to begin with. As far as I can tell, the network hasn’t quite caught on yet, but if it does turn into a site similar to Twitter – full of celebrities and their fans - I could see it taking off. I mean, I’d be curious to find out what superpower Ocho Cinco wished he had.
Imagine yourself naked and cold, with only a tiny bicycle to help you navigate a post-apocalyptic world, and you have the excellently stylish Flash game Icycle.
“The next ice age has arrived and the world as we know it has peacefully frozen in time, but to one naked survivor it’s cold and lonely as hell!
Icycle is a contemporary take on a RETRO style bike game which challenges your skill and memory. Trial and error will pave the way but remembering the path might prove harder than you expect. Collect as many bubbles as possible but be prepared for plenty of amusing fatalities along the way.
About all I can say here is, NICE!!! Someone has finally created a functional jet pack (check out the video gallery.) Not just any jet pack, a $100,000 jet pack that you don’t even need a license for. Let’s review the specs, shall we, to fully understand why this is so awesome:
Engine: 2.0L producing 200HP (You are wearing this!!!!)
Travel: 31.5 miles or up to 8,000 ft!!!
Safety features: Built in parachute (completely unnecessary, why would you ever want to come down?)
Gadgets and Gizmos: Blue Tooth Helmet
The only thing this is missing is a built in video monitor in the helmet so you can watch Disney’s “The Rocketeer” while you are flying.
Did I mention you don’t need a license for this?
Anyone interested in going in on a timeshare set up with me on one of these things, feel free to drop me a line.
While it may be a bummer that there are no Sam Jackson quotes from classic movies like Snakes on a Plane, Deep Blue Sea, or Lakeview Terrace on here, you do get 100% original Samuel L. Jackson quotes, apparently recorded just for the app by Sam himself.
That’s why you should get the Samuel L. Jackson app for your phone, iSamJackson.
The developers of the app have made it easy to get your Sam quotes in 2 ways, either clean and expletive-free for the under 17 crowd apparently, and then of course, well, with expletives. That’s a good move, because the world needs these quotes no matter what their age.
Samuel L. Jackson may be one of the finest actors of our time, with a resumé that goes beyond that of many other actors. I doubt George Clooney would’ve signed on to or even been able to carry Snakes on a Plane the way Sam did. Plain and simple, Samuel L. Jackson movies make you and your TV/DVD player feel good. Now they can make you and your iphone/ipod feel good.
So, you should probably buy it or Samuel L. Jackson might just call you leaving quotes from his movies on your voicemail everyday until you do.
I just want to take a moment to point out my new favorite thing on the internets, Dropbox. It is a file-sharing program wherein you can store your files online, share a folder with a friend, and even get to files on-the-go from your fancy spacephones. What I love most is when I update a local file, or drop a new one into the DB folder on my desktop, it both automatically uploads it to their server AND updates the local copy on the computers of all the people sharing that folder. It’s like Version Cue and Google Wave had baby who only possessed the best file-sharing features of each.
Why open a bag of cat food with your human hands when you can just have the internets do it for you? Read all about it here on Engadget, or just watch the movie:
Is this the future? One commenter provides a word of caution:
JS Posted: “No way in hell am I gonna have electronics easily accessible to my cat. He’ll hax0r it and the next thing I know he’s built himself a megajoule laser.”
