Kodak : Make Yourself or Anyone Super
One of my ex-colleagues Husani who is the former Head of Technology at RSCG New York and now Director of Technology at EVB San Francisco has just launched MakeMeSuper.com for Kodak. I went in and tinkered around with it and made myself super!
HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF SUPER
You start by selecting your gender and entering your name (there are some preset names for your selection), and if it is available for selection you then upload your photo. If your name isn’t on the list, you can choose a generic identifier like mom, girl, dad, or the like.
The next step would be to browse and upload a photo of yourself. After you have done that, you’d need to adjust the photo to fit in perfectly within the face frame of the character. There is an option to scale and rotate until you’re happy with it. When you are satisfied with the way your face is framed you can then make yourself into a super hero or a super heroin!
You are then presented a video of how incredibly super you are with your own theme song. Below is an example of what that looks like.
POSTER OF SUPER “YOU”
The system also generates a Super “You” poster which you can download for free, but what would be the whole point of it if it didn’t have a business case to support its creation? As such, there is merchandise you can buy of your own superhero character. The choices include a mug, mousepad, deck of cards, t-shirt and a tote bag, and although as of my writing the super product section doesn’t seem to be enabled just yet, it looks similar to a Cafepress.com service.
TECHNOLOGY
Strictly technically-speaking, MakeMeSuper.com is like a lo-fi version of Schick’s revolutionary website Hige-Chen.com, which is able to go one step further in transforming a 2D picture into a photo-realistic 3D animated sensation. The website is in Japanese, and if you are not comfortable with Japanese you can watch this video which talks about what JWT did for the Hige-Chen project.
Makemesuper.com is an entertaining website that is good for a laugh, gives the option of personalized gifts and would probably do well with the younger American demographic and those Gen X folks who secretly have always wanted to be a superhero. Do check it out if you’re in need of some entertainment, and in the meantime here’s Super Jacqueline!
Google: Got a $10 million Idea?
Project 10100
In conjunction with Google’s 10th birthday, the search engine gigantum is luring the world to offer their ideas for $10 million dollars. If you have an idea that can change the world and create a positive impact to as many lives on planet earth as possible, you could be awarded serious money to fund its fruition. Go on then, submit your ideas before the October 20th deadline. For more information on how to enter your $10 million dollar idea, visit http://www.project10tothe100.com
The Airbus A380 Chronicles on Singapore Airlines
Part 2: The P.C. Suite
Sept 25th, 2008 - Benefits and Usability Challenges
The good news is, with the P.C. suite introduction to air travel, the days of worrying about battery life depletion on your laptop may soon be over. In fact, if you’re on business class you even get a one-up, but I am hoping to cover business class features (from a third-person point of view) in two weeks, as a friend who flies business class as often as two-to-four times a month has promised me some pictures. While we wait for content from the business class traveler, let me just tell you about my ECONOMY class experience. 
Back to the P.C. Suite. I did not have the luxury of a USB keyboard (they don’t sell them on board either), so I have had to use the keypad exclusively to use the word processor and other office tools. Using the keypad feels a lot like using a handheld or mobile phone. I do not think it is practical if your intention is to write a 10-page report, and using the controls on the keypad for mouse-navigating is quite challenging. The controls are stiff and not particularly agile, so I got a bit confused and slightly annoyed with it. Moreover (since I was merely trying the system out and had no media on my USB drive), I am not sure how the importing of images and other media into StarOffice works. I only had enough patience to key in alphabets on the word processor on this trip, but I imagine if I did it a few more times I’d eventually figure out how to use StarOffice properly.
Anyhow, that also means that in order to use it (if you aren’t already a StarOffice user) and half a Playstation geek, you’re going to have a bit of a learning curve ahead of you. I speak as a technically-savvy user, so if you’re not a geek it might prove to be challenging.
LOADING TIME
Loading time for the P.C. suite was boringly slow. I think it took anywhere from 5-8 minutes for the suite to load, not that it makes much of a difference when you have 13 excrutiating hours to kill. However, it is still significant if it causes boredom when the whole point of InFlight entertainment is to counter boredom! Minus points for their RAM.
BENEFITS
PDF READER
Even in view of these drawbacks, the P.C. suite’s other applications like PDF reader, picture viewer, and video player can still be handy for the traveler. If you have a 300-page report to read, you can do so without printing on paper that could add weight to your hand luggage and also be very bad for the environment. If everyone read more files digitally, we can chop down less trees.
PICTURE VIEWER & VIDEO PLAYER
This feature is great if you want to look at pictures from your vacation, cute little chuckling shots of your baby (aww how your mini-me looks like you) and other pictorial and video files, be it personal or business-related.
SCENARIOS
With that in mind, I am betting that before long you’ll have people scrolling through content that are unsafe for children, and when a controversy gets the attention of watchdogs a most interesting case on censorship laws in the airspace will likely crop up in time. Singapore laws against pornography are tight but will they regulate what people are viewing on their airplanes while flying above Sudan?
Sept 6th, 2008 - Somewhere above the Middle East en route to Singapore
If you are not already aware that there is such a monstrosity of a passenger aircraft that can carry 800 passengers (471 on Singapore Airlines’ configuration) say hello to the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft sensation that boasts a smoother, quieter, greener and more comfortable way to travel. In March of 2008 Singapore Airlines (SIA) became the first to offer commercial flights to passengers on its Singapore - London - Singapore route. This aircraft’s engineering marvel and my desire to fly on business class are not within the scope of today’s effort, but I will endeavor to give you a proper experiential account over several posts over the course of the week.
Part 1: The P.C. Suite
Very few things excite me in a good way about long haul flights. Besides watching movies, listening to radio music, playing some space shuttle shooting game, DVT-combative calisthenics, and being woken up for food in between napping and drooling, just what are you going to do in mid-air for 13 hours?
Ladies and Gentleman, you would be delighted to know that I am beginning this entry entirely on the aircraft’s entertainment and activity console. My laptop is safely and quietly stowed on the overhead compartment as I play with and review the wonders and short comings of this feature of personal computing on the new Airbus A380 aircraft.
Using the word processor feature to begin a draft of this post
WHAT THE PC SUITE OFFERS
The new PC suite is powered by Sun, and it offers all passengers the ability to do word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, read PDF documents, view your photos, videos, and manage your files. It runs the StarOffice 8 system, which is part of the OpenOffice project. (Yes, MS Office can access these documents with no problems.)
SO JUST HOW DO YOU USE THIS?
In order to use the PC suite, you must have a USB stick jacked in to the socket like what is shown below or the P.C. suite will not work. P.S.: You can buy a thumbdrive on board!
USB drive jacked in to the socket
Right now, a full-size qwerty keyboard is not built into the system. A small qwerty keypad is the main word processing input interface.
The keypad
However, if you think this is a painfully slow way to do any kind of serious work there is an option to plug in a USB keyboard through the sockets shown below. Currently you can’t rent or buy it on board so you’ll have to bring your own.
USB Sockets
Stay tuned for Part 2, when I shall discuss in detail about the usability, benefits, and shortcomings about this new office in the sky!
Who?
JACKIE MIAO
Digital Consultant
PRINCE2 Project Manager
Location: London, U.K.-
