Last week they invented the Jedi Force. This week it was that holographic library from "Time Machine", a compendium of all human knowledge. Of course we're talking about Google:
Could the Jedi's Force actually be real? This technology says it can. Imagine that: your motions already trigger actions on touch screen devices. What if they could do the same to every object? You look somewhere, the object moves, you make a move, the light changes. Touché, Force, for me it's the same. How long til the light saber comes up?
Qualquer objeto se torna sensível ao toque com Touché
Interfaces “touch” estão em vários lugares: smartphones, caixas eletrônicos, tablets, totens interativos. Mas se depender da Disney Research e da nova tecnologia apresentada por eles há alguns dias, qualquer objeto pode se tornar sensível ao toque. Inclusive líquidos. (!) Confira no vídeo abaixo como funciona a tecnologia:
14 Lessons From Benjamin Franklin About Getting What You Want In Life
Dumb Little Man, April 29, 2012, 12:09 PM
Benjamin Franklin was a man of action. Over his lifetime, his curiosity and passion fueled a diverse range of interests. He was a writer (often using a pseudonym), publisher, diplomat, inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
His inventions included the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. Franklin was responsible for establishing the first public library, organizing fire fighters in Philadelphia, was one of the early supporters of mutual insurance and crossed the Atlantic eight times. Self-development was a constant endeavor throughout his incredible life.
Benjamin Franklin was clearly a man who knew how to get things done. Here are 14 action-inducing lessons from him:
1. Less Talk, More Action
"Well done is better than well said.” Talk is cheap. Talking about a project won't get it completed. We all know people who constantly talk about the things they are going to do but rarely ever take that first step. Eventually people begin to question their credibility. Taking action and seeing the task through to completion is the only way to get the job done.
2. Don’t Procrastinate
“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.” This is probably one of the first quotes I remember hearing as a teenager. With an impressive list of achievements to his credit, Benjamin Franklin was not a man hung up on procrastination. He was a man with clear measurable goals who worked hard to turn his vision into reality. What are you putting off till tomorrow that could make a difference in your life today?
3. Be Prepared
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” You need a plan to accomplish your goals. Charging in without giving any thought to the end result and how to achieve it, is a sure way to fall flat on your face. Think like a boy scout. Have a realistic plan of attack and a systematic approach for getting where you need to be.
4. Don’t Fight Change“When you're finished changing, you're finished.” Whilst many of us don’t like change, others thrive on it. Either way change is inevitable. The stronger we fight against it, the more time and energy it consumes. Give up the fight. Focus on proactively making positive changes, instead of having change merely thrust upon you. Wherever possible, try to view change as a positive instead of a negative.
5. Get Moving
“All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.” There’s a reason we use the expression, movers and shakers. Movers are the ones who take action, the people who get things done, while the immovable are sitting around scratching their heads wondering how others could possibly be so successful. Which group do you want to belong to?
6. Avoid Busywork
“Never confuse motion with action.” We are always running around doing things. We rush from one meeting or event to the next, sometimes without achieving a great deal. At the end of the day, how much of our busywork are we proud of? How much of that running around improves anyone’s life (including ours) for the better? Make your motion mean something.
7. Give Yourself Permission to Make Mistakes
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” If we fear making mistakes, we become scared to try new things. Fear leaves us nestled in our comfort zone. Staying in your comfort zone rarely leads to greatness. Taking risks and giving yourself permission to make mistakes, will ultimately lead you to whatever your version of success may be.
8. Act Quickly on Opportunities
“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.” Opportunities are everywhere. The trick is being quick enough and smart enough to seize them when they arise. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that something won’t work or can’t be done, allow yourself the freedom to ask what if?
9. Continue to Grow
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” We all have vices of some description. The key is to keep them under control or preferably eradicate them entirely. Be kind to those around you, whether they are neighbors, family, co-workers or friends. Never accept that you have finished growing as a person.
10. Keep Going
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Have you ever looked at a successful entrepreneur or business person and thought how lucky they are? Most of the time, luck has nothing to do with it. Hard work and sacrifice on the other hand have everything to do with it. Successful people deal with failure. They tackle their demons head on. They pick themselves up and keep going.
11. Know Yourself
“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.” Understanding ourselves is not easy. Sometimes we just don’t want to see ourselves for who we really are. It’s much easier to hold onto a romanticized version of ourselves or to simply view ourselves through other people’s eyes. Start by being brutally honest with yourself. Follow through with understanding, compassion and acceptance.
12. Don’t Self-Sabotage
“Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?” We spend so much time worrying about other people hurting us, yet fail to comprehend the damage we inflict on ourselves. If you are using negative self-talk, lying to yourself or indulging in addictive behavior you are self-sabotaging. Life can dish up enough challenges without us adding to the mix. Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself like you would a best friend.
13. Don’t Give Up
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Achieving our goals can be downright exhausting. There will be days when you want to give up. There will be times when your energy levels flatline and you wonder why you bother getting out of bed. Yet you push forward, day after day because you believe in yourself and you have the determination and strength to back up that belief.
14.Wise Up
“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” Benjamin was definitely onto something with this one. Who hasn’t had the thought - I wish I could know then, what I know now? Unfortunately there is no time machine; there is no going back. The key is to wise up as early as you can to start forging a life of purpose, achievement and happiness.
Stat of the Day: Why Brands Should Enable the New Dad
Fathers at Least Think They Make Decisions. Why Not Let Them?
By: Matt Carmichael, March 07, 2012I got a press release this week titled, "The Myth of the Mancession," which I almost dismissed outright because I believe that despite its cutesy name, there's some real truth to the mancession as we've covered in this blog from time to time. It's not hard to see that the professions that have typically been male-dominated are getting hardest hit as the employment picture reinvents itself. This isn't going to magically reverse itself, no matter how much focus politicians might put on rebuilding the manufacturing economy.According to the Census Bureau, there are two women in college for every guy. Overall a greater percentage of the male workforce is unemployed -- 10.5% to 8.6%, according to Bureau of Labor Statics data for 2010 (released in December 2011). The splits are more pronounced for the 20-24 age group. That makes sense considering the higher percentage of women in college, but there's still a nearly 2-point gap in the 25-34-year-old age group. Younger women are also closing the wage gap with men at a pretty rapid rate. So, yeah, the manscape is changing.
But I digress. That's not what the press release turned out to be about. It focused on fatherhood. That's a subject kind of near and dear to me these days, so I read on.
The Parenting Group, which publishes Parenting magazine, among others, teamed with Edelman to conduct some research on the current state of dads in advance of the Dad 2.0 blogger conference in Austin. Dads, especially new dads, think the deck is stacked against them, according to the research. Eighty-two percent of men whose oldest child is less than 2 years old believe an anti-dad societal bias exists, compared with the average of 66% among all dads.
Those are some pretty big numbers, but let's talk a little about what they mean for marketers. We'll ignore the fact that 40% of kids are born to single moms these days -- granted, many have live-in, but unmarried guys in the house, too.
I think most new dads who have ever taken their kids to a park on a weekday afternoon have realized they don't really fit in with a cohort of moms and nannies. It's a weird dynamic. And don't get me started on "Amazon Mom." Dads are expected to do their part around the home and take care of the kids, but often aren't given equal credit.
The data collected by Edelman's Strategy One offers some hints why that might be.
One part of the study asks dads how often they are responsible for various tasks. The sample is broken out by the age of the oldest child and by the age of the dads (under- or over-45).
What's interesting is how little variation you see. There is no clear trend. No matter the age of the oldest child or the age of the guy, the dads clearly feel they are evenly splitting the grocery shopping. This holds true for many of the other tasks the study covers, including diaper changing, discipline, getting the kids ready for school, etc. It's even true for disruptive tasks like staying home when the kids are sick. You also see a near majority of dads who say "mostly me" or "always me" when asked if they're responsible for these tasks. Between 40% and 55% of dads think they're bringing home the literal bacon. The base on this part of the survey, by the way, is dads with at least one kid under age 12. That's really important.
Why?
With any research like this, it's all about perception. In another part of the study, for instance, the surveyors asked a similar question to both moms and dads. Guess what they found? In that survey, the question was worded more generally, so a whopping 70% of dads said they did the grocery shopping. But only 36% of moms surveyed said that dad did the grocery shopping. You see similar disconnects in perceptions about taking care of sick kids, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. The dads have a very different notion of their role in things than the moms do. Dads almost universally think they're earning the money and buying the cars, but so do roughly three in four moms.
That survey asked the same battery of questions about how the respondents own parents divvied up the workload. Those results are fascinating. Only 32% of dads -- 70% of whom say they do the grocery shopping -- said their own dads did the shopping.
So this tells me a few things.
First, in just a generation (maybe two) the role of dads has changed dramatically -- we don't come home anymore and enjoy a glass bourbon in the den while The Mr.. finishes cooking dinner. You hear plenty about the changing role of women, but dads get a lot less ink.
Second, we dads have gotten over it and adjusted ourselves, at least that's my read on the even responses to some of these questions no matter the age of the dad or the children.
Third, dads really don't feel that we get any credit for what they do around the house -- and clearly they think we do more than the moms think they do. Dads also have a societal chip on their shoulders when the kids aren't riding on them.
Finally and most importantly, this perception gap is something marketers should really be speaking to. There's certainly an argument to be made of "Well, dads only think they have any input, but we know it's the moms who do all the work and make all the decisions in the end so we'll focus a bajillion dollars on marketing to them."
Yeah, great, say the dads.
But suppose you were to spend just a portion of that effort enabling the dads to make some more of the decisions that they already think they're making. One in four dads in the survey don't seek out any parenting advice from anyone, although that's less true with first-time dads. Fifty-nine percent of dads use four or more sources of information when selecting brands.
So marketers, dads have dealt with their changed role. When are you going to?
Will You Adopt Facebook Timeline or Just Migrate?
Facebook Has Shifted Its Model to Reward Brands That Understand the Platform and All It Now Offers
(...)
Brand timelines such as those of Captain Morgan USA, which eschewed old ads and brand assets in favor of recreated period scenes, and The New York Times, which, anachronistically, documents behind-the-scenes newsroom happenings, come off as inventive. Likewise, that was the goal for client Fanta, whose brand characters are trapped in a lost-in-time game. In contrast, brands that displayed no clear adoption strategy were notable for the dual column, text-based timelines that felt visually reminiscent of a phone book.
The obvious change is the forced evolution of a brand to tell their story visually and chronologically. Taking full advantage of timeline will require increased time and attention from strategists and creatives who understand social narrative. Companies that heavily invest in this and use timeline as an opportunity to mature their approach to the platform will see Facebook start to produce real business results, in the form of conversion, change in preference and lead generation. Companies that resist investing will continue to see only minor business gains.
Beyond strategy, the new feature puts multimedia content at the core of the Facebook experience. The look of the new cover/profile photo, the hyper-visual layout, the pinned posts and the front-and-center placement of applications will reward brands who can not only develop a meaningful timeline strategy but "feed the beast" with a regular stream of content. With one fell swoop, Facebook is forcing brands to become publishers. Brands with a nimble view of social content and established planning processes will find it easy to dial up multimedia within their existing frameworks. However, those still figuring out what social publishing and planning entails may find their system stress tested by this influx of multimedia.
Finally, the Reach Generator premium-advertising option places true emphasis on quality editorial content and real-time media planning. Reach Generator will promote an actual post to 50% to 75% of a brand's existing fans via newsfeeds online and in mobile. However, the post becomes the ad, an important distinction. As such, the most successful brand pages will be run by a community manager who is an all-in-one moderator, editor, copywriter, analytics pro and media planner. In the near term, this individual and position may not exist, and the community-management bench will need to deepen to accommodate more expert voices. Irrespective of the Reach Generator product, this evolution to the community manager of tomorrow is one that is required if a brand is to truly embrace the new feature set -- and business opportunity -- that Facebook is making available.
