happykatie :: katie rocks out the interwebs

Readymechs = fun for your printer

Cool thing of the day:
Readymechs are super-cool free 3-d toy templates that you can print out and build for a fun cubicle play experience.

Black holes of the WWW

Reporters San Frontieres has an interesting/sad visual on the global 'black holes' of the Internet - parts of the world that do not allow their citizens free access to the World Wide Web.

Specifically these are: Belarus, Birma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Visualizations as far as the mouse can click

For all of you visualization nerds out there (*coughcoughEDcoughcough*) check out this drop dead gorgeous Visualization Methods Periodic Table (found via Guy Kawasaki's blog).  My favorite is the pie chart (just kidding).

Strangers on the sidewalk

DSC_4138.JPG, originally uploaded by Amit Gupta.

Photojojo (a completely rocking photo site) has a super tutorial on shooting impromptu street portraits - in addition to other cool new year's photo resolution ideas.  I especially like Amit Gupta's NYC stranger shoot.

Would you stop your afternoon for a picture taken by a stranger in exchange for a Blow Pop?  I definitely would.  I just wish I was brave enough to be the one handing them out...  maybe that's a new year's photo resolution for me - take pictures of people I don't know and make them smile - or at least raise a mocking eyebrow.

iLoveyou

The iPhone is here.  And it is glorious - a cell phone / iPod / camera / rocking Interweb magic email connector tube all in one uber-thin shiny package designed as only an Apple device can be.

Well, it is sort of here.  It has been unveiled to the salivating public and that is half the battle - no telling when we'll finally be able to cradle one in our arms and give it the loving home that it deserves.  Until then, we'll just look at pictures and dream.

Death by...

I love these Drop Dead Gorgeous photos by Daniela Edburg.  Such a beautiful way to die (particularly the Nutella and gummy bear way).

TagTime - Five Things You Don't Know About Me

Britt Bravo of NetSquared and Have Fun :: Do Good tagged me last week for the 5 Things You Don't Know About Me meme.  I am slow, so here's my response :)

1. I used to be an air junkie and took flying lessons (both motorized and glider) for some time.  My dad, who flew B-52s in the Air Force, is certainly my inspiration on this and we spent many a blazing summer's day squinting up at the sky at air shows and laughing when our ears buzzed after standing too close to Harriers on the runway  I miss those days.
   
2. I grew up in Belgium speaking Flemish and eating vast amounts of Nutella and pommes frites with mayo.  One distant day I'd like to move back and give my children European memories of eating raclette on the slopes of the Swiss Alps, stone castles in the fall, tulips in the spring and McDonalds that serve beer. <grin>  // Also, I think jokes about the word 'Flemish' are all incredibly annoying.  Just saying.
   
3. My literary passion is for all that is Russian.  I have devoured more depressing Soviet novels than I care to mention - with overflowing bookcases and a weird habit of getting Lara's Theme from Dr. Zhivago in my head to show for it.  My favorite book of all time:  Crime and Punishment.  I have read War and Peace five times, once in three days flat.
   
4. When I was very young, I really really wanted to be an anesthesiologist.  Like really really badly.  Needles and putting people to sleep were fascinating to me (which does make me sound like a rather sick child...).  It was also during this period of my life that I was pretty sure I was going to marry Rambo when I grew up.
   
5. My absolute favorite place in the world is Rome - well, technically Vatican City.  The first time I walked into St. Peter's Basilica was one of the greatest and most life-defining moments in my life.  I dream about this quite regularly.

So what are your 5 Things?  What don't we know about you?  Fill us in the comments or, better yet, on your Blog with a link in the comments.

Somehow someone still thinks banner ads are a good idea

I'm sure my fellow Web marketers / Internet geeks will share my frustration when speaking to recent college advertising/marketing grads who made it through school thinking that banner ads are even remotely effective.  Although I think that they should know better from their practical Web experience, it is pathetic that schools are so behind and impart this knowledge onto their students.

So that was a semi-tangent, but what really brings this up is Verizon's recent decision to allow banner advertising on their mobile phones.  The idea stinks and is an annoying way to start out the mobile content 2007 year.  The last thing I want when I'm looking at a page online from my [enter mobile device here] is to be pestered by a dumb banner ad that my cell phone company wants me to look at.

Mobile advertising is, no doubt, going to be big.  But hopefully later adopters will be a little more creative and thoughtful.  Opt-in advertising - yay!  Campaigns that benefit me (give me something) and are insanely targeted for all my consuming needs and habits - okay, maybe.

Screen real estate is precious - even more so when it's a teeny cell phone or Crackberry - so any mobile advertising I'm subjected to better be the most gorgeous and beneficial advertising of all times.  Oh yeah, and I am SO not okay with even the most remote idea of pop-ups.  Heads will roll Verizon, heads will roll.