Ludovic Copéré

Ho! Ho! Ho! marketing

As it is "this time of the year" once again, one can but pay some respect to the red-clad Santa, who has been sucessfully running his Christmas present business for quite a long time now. I was therefore delighted to read Sean D'Souza's article on Why Santa's Marketing Works Better than Yours!, a witty and well-writen foray on how Santa Claus Inc. jingles all the way  with its great customer-centered philosophy.

"The reason why Santa's marketing works is because he intimately knows your individual needs. If you want a drum kit, you get one. If you want a Barbie, you don't ending up sulking with a xylophone".

Enjoy the reading under the holly, and merry Christmas (alternatively, Happy Holidays, to remain politically correct)!

Speak to your blender

Thanks to some very serious research at the MIT Media Laboratory, everyone on Earth (or almost) can enjoy the indispensable added-value of a voice-controlled blender, thank to the Blendie 2000. As the inventor behind it writes, such high-tech kitchen utensil is bound to "bring about personal revelations in the participant, because in sounding with the blender one is likely to perform gesture and sound expressions not previously accessed which may open up hidden emotions or thoughts or feelings".

I heartily recommend the video, not only for a good laugh, but also as a reminder that innovation lurks everywhere: what's dumber and plainer than a blender? Yet I'm sure there is some "out-of-the-box-thinking" changes to be made to such century-old devices (and by that, I don't necessarily mean reading your e-mail or surfing the Web with it...).

Sushi, USB-flavored

Straight from Japan (honestly, where else could one expect that to come from?), SolidAlliance, a hardware manufacturer already renowned (ahem) for its funky-colored duck USB keys , is proudly presenting its latest product line, the SushiDisk. Too bad they don't have the shrimp (蝦寿司) version, It would have looked even cooler!

Modern computer design? Well, not really...

In the past few days, I was exposed to this quite striking photo of what claims to be RAND Corporation's vision of the contemporary computer in 2004, looking back 50 years ago from 1954. Intrigued by the eerie presence of a massive steering wheel as part of the massive hardware footprint (although it might have very well been a very physical way of scrolling through pages) I made some quick research. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that the said picture is a hoax, a digital composition made out of the control panel from a nuclear submarine alongside an old printer, as explained by a fellow blogger.

Too bad actually, a steering wheel desktop would definitely be an innovative design! Who knows, maybe Apple will include its iPod click wheel in the next iMac revision?