Pure Eye Candy

Music video for the band zZz.
Apparently done in one take before a live audience. Very original.

Hibiscus online

Someone sent me a link to an online case study from Webmasters, the company who has built the new Hibiscus website for the 2007 carnival. Although I dislike Flash for the sake of Flash, I'll start by saying that the site appears to be well organised and it's nice to see something updated on a regular basis. I don't care much for the festival after the experience we had working on the organising committee last year. Without going into all the details, the chairperson and a few others agreed to pay for some maintenance work (in writing), lied, didn't pay, and then just ignored us. This happens occassionally and there's very little we can do about it and it wasn't really worth our effort. They came back to us this year wanting the domain (www.hibiscus.com.fj) and we asked them to simply pay off the money they owed and they can have it. Not suprisingly, they took another route.

Anyway, the case study on Webmaster's says this:

"Unhappy with its previous website, the Suva Hibiscus Festival committee came to Webmasters to come up with a totally new logo, domain name and website for the Festival."

No one seemed overly unhappy with the multiple hours of free work we did for them last year. More interestingly, here's our original logo which we developed free-of-charge for the Hibiscus Organising Committee after going through a pretty decent design process:

Below is Webmaster's "new" logo:

Uh-huh. Okay...
I suppose there are two issues here. First is the fact that Webmaster's case study is poorly communicated and the wrong angle to take when promoting work, especially when they have no idea what they're talking about. Second is taking credit for other people's work or rather, passing off someone else's work as your own.

Faceball

True sporting genius does not come often but when it does, you just know it. Faceball is one such sport. We at Oceanic will be developing this sport further in Fiji. I haven't told everyone about it yet...but I will. First, I'll need to practice on...errr..with my kids.

An introduction to Faceball from Face Ball and Vimeo.

Make sure you visit the official website.

Phillipine Prison Thriller

...and now for something completely different.
1500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center perform the ultimate punishment, having to re-create Michael Jackson's "Thriller" routine. This begins to approach the heights of weirdness but is an absolute joy to watch.

Digital Talanoa : Websites - A work in progress

Oceanic has been working with Vodafone Fiji for some time developing a new website to better present their range of products and services as well as to help build upon their online customer support. I obviously have a business relationship with them so my words here could be considered bias but the reality is that they’re doing some very cool things. I’d write that even if they weren’t my client. After all, we are also customers. The online support, in particular, is notable and very welcome. Vodafone enhancing some of these functions online is an obvious step for the company and an important addition for its customers.

A bit of background information about their website, though. Vodafone.com.fj is probably the most heavily used corporate website in Fiji. The main reason for the site’s popularity is simple: free vmails. It’s something a lot of people want. Over fifty thousand registered customers, in fact. That’s a pretty big number of repeat visitors and very much demonstrates the power and draw of free, useful website functionality. At the end of the day, users on Vodafone’s website get value from their experience and they return over and over again for that value. That’s where we began our redesign and redevelopment efforts.

2007 Internet Crash

The Onion offers up something gorgeous.

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

The Wind

Among the most creative and well-done TV spots I've seen in a while.
The writing is just perfect and the message is so important.

Digital Talanoa : Not-too-distant Future for Fiji

Walking around town the other day, I slowed myself down around Ratu Sakuna park and watched a group of men sitting in a circle laughing so hard their stomachs appeared to be hurting. I had to stop and watch that scene for a bit because it’s been feeling as if there has been less around to laugh at. It was a cathartic moment. Humour and optimism really do make a difference and it’s worth going out and finding it whenever we can. In Fiji, thankfully, it’s nice to see I rarely have to venture very far.

Lots happening in the world of Fiji telecommunications and it’s impending impact on business as well as our digital lives. For general users, it seems that all this talk also has the tendency to confuse. I’ve received a handful of emails during the past couple weeks asking questions about these developments. Some samples: “Is Skype really offer free telephone calls? What’s this streaming TV stuff all about and will it replace my television?” My guess is as good as anybody's as to how these services will ultimately change Fiji but I can talk about my own experiences.

Voice over Internet Protocol (more commonly referred to as VoIP) is a good place to start.

Cadaver Calculator

I'm hoping this is US$ rather than Fiji $.
Nifty little calculator which determines how much your body is worth to science. A bit dark, I suppose, but it's probably information you didn't have before. Politicians should immediately take an extra $75 off, though. $150 if you're a Republican in the United States.

$4125.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth

Mingle² - Online Dating

Addict Alert : Boomshine

Some of these little Flash games are so wildly addictive.
This one, called BOOMSHINE, is just awesome and visually stunning, too. Beat my score of 350 if you can (or was it 300? 250?).

Link to BOOMSHINE