So i'm in San Diego ~ wandering the gaslamp district, and for the first time i'm actually STAYING in the gaslamp (i've lived in sd for years in so many different places, but never really stayed downtown much)... and as soon as i was cruising towards the convention center white picket fences caught my eye ~ then i saw the big Cafe Diem sign! (Yes! the fictitious Eureka cafe) And cardboard cutouts of the Eureka cast! And huge Syfy logos.... and had to swing back over. (Unfortunately the Cafe Diem main sign had JUST fallen over when i got back with a camera, so perhaps an update with that later!)

So as far as marketing/sponsorship opportunities go ~ i'm impressed! Last year there was a Eureka ice cream truck ~ and this year they really stepped up the food serving idea and took over a cafe across from the convention center. The branding is impeccable as expected... from the picket fence, to the signage, to the purple gumballs, to the backs of all the counter seats, coasters, and more... and brilliant idea as far as fun places to have Syfy meetings? Or meet for drinks? or have parties? And talk about a captive audience, it's still a fully functioning cafe... Love the versatility of branding a full service space. Take a peek at more pics on the next page!

p.s.
What's next? Will we get to explore a life sized S.A.R.A.H?

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Tags: advertising - eureka - food - SDCC09 - syfy - tv

Beauty in Technology post series sponsored by Samsung’s new LED TVs! Post #2 of 6 in this series exploring random beauty in technology, NOTCOT style.

Remote controls - they come in so many shapes and sizes, yet i'd never seen one quite like the extra mini pebble one that came with my Samsung LED TV. (For full disclosure - Samsung's LED TV campaign is sponsoring this post series, but they in no way knew that their ads got me looking at the new TVs enough to love it and buy one... and make the pebble remote the subject of this post! So perhaps this is less a conflict of interest, and more of a convergence of interest?)

This tiny pebble remote has a jeweled center piece which for the 7 series is blue, and the 6 series is red. It is mesmerizing how it subtly sparkles in the light... and the weirdest thing is how nice the small indented pebble shape feels in your hand, it actually reminds me a lot of those Worry Stones that originated in Ancient Greece - thin oval pieces of stone that are held between the thumb and forefinger with the thumb in the indentation... and the rubbing is said to help take your worries away. Basically its hard not to rub this remote as odd as that sounds? Now as far as practicality, it only does power, volume, and channel, so its the opposite of the huge remote that also came with the tv, but nice when you just want the basics. Unfortunately the channels don't work for my DVR, so its a bit useless, but i just love the what the design looks and feels! Isn't it about time we take more steps away from the traditional grid layouts of remotes? Take a look at more images of the pebble remote on the next page!

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Tags: gifts - Samsung Beauty in Technology - shopping - technology - tv

Ok, i LOVE the design details in science fiction. This morning i was so half awake, i started things off catching up on the new Syfy show Warehouse 13 to ease into things... and couldn't help but fixate on the STEAMPUNK WACOM TABLET! I mean i love all the bizarre archaic gadgetry (Wired has a nice look at them)... but its the tablet and keyboard that got me first. Also... i love how small the internet is, while looking up past steampunk keyboard, found out that the keyboard was made by Datamancer - "prestidigital datamancery & paraphrenalic technofetishism" ~ and the exact keyboard in the show is "the Sojourner keyboard I built for my girlfriend 2 Christmases ago" - and he "hope[s] the show becomes very popular so they commission me to build them some more elaborate contraptions for future seasons (I'm actually designing a Version 2.0 of my old Computational Engine PC right now with them in mind)"... So fun to hear how these shows pull in awesome design for even the tiniest details... see more pics on the next page!

p.s.
it was driving me a little nuts when they made it look like the wacom was a giant touch sensitive tablet though...

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Tags: steampunk - technology - tv

I keep hearing about SciFi/Syfy's Caprica recently ~ so got curious and checked out the DVD on directv tonight ~ and i love the designy details of this alternate reality. Particularly the tennis court!!! And the architecture of the main house, the bookshelves, and the computer sheets... take a peek at some screenshots on the next page!

p.s.
i must admit i haven't really watched battlestar yet, but it has come up so many times in the last week alone, definitely need to do some catching up?

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Tags: architecture - dvd - home - tv

I interviewed a fictitious house! Ok, well that's the one liner i've used for people who either don't know Twitter, Sci-Fi's Eureka, or both. For those who know ~ I twitterviewed a self actuated residential automated habitat! (aka S.A.R.A.H.)... and perhaps the most unexpected and exciting part of the whole experience was getting a sneak peek at the creative background for this television wonderhouse ~ while twitterviewing, S.A.R.A.H. shared some blueprints, set photos, and early sketches of what the house was planned to look like. Definitely some fun creative food for thought...

So first, here's a little background ~ Eureka has been one of my tv indulgences for some time now... there's something so playful and creatively inspiring about how they've managed to mix some very smart, sciencey ideas with some very pretty, glossy, innovative gadgetry in their magically hidden town of geniuses (you can watch full episodes on the Eureka site now if you want to see what i mean). Much of what shows up, often reminds me of crazy designer concepts and prototypes we dream up and read about constantly... So when i found out they decided to go all web 2.0 and have both a twitter (written by the house AI) and a tumblr (Eureka Unscripted - the behind the scenes blog), i couldn't resist reaching out to see if they were willing to take it one step further and let me interview the AI over twitter! Afterall, we seldom do interviews here, and definitely focus more on design than people, so how perfect is it to interview the design versus the designer? So as you can see, the idea quickly blossomed, and last night turned into a fun hour long ramble between us over twitter, which even exposed some visually inspiring behind the scenes sneak peeks (including one of my messy desk)!

See the full transcript as well as some of the reactionary tweets on the next page ~ and if you need some catching up first - jump to the background of S.A.R.A.H. and a quick visual overview!

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Tags: architecture - art - eureka - interview - tv - twitter

It's noon on Friday, and this week has been so much design/dev/catch up ~ i somehow ended up staying up all night catching up on emails (i was a few hundred deep... now down to somewhere around 100! yay!), so about to crash, but wanted to first show you guys some exciting new fall launches coming from Belkin. I hope you don't mind, but i'll keep it brief, and give you lots of pics on the next page:

1. Fly Wire - this was one of the things i've been waiting for since CES, a super sleek simple way to mount a receiver to your flat panel TV, and have no wires showing when its wall mounted, while all your devices are connected elsewhere. Gorgeous design, awesome implementation!

2. Break Free - a great little magnetic break away jack for all our guitarists out there, or for those who trip on their cords!

3. Laptop Cool Strip - fun idea for getting your laptop some room to cool, while also having space to let cables not get crushed under the laptop.

See larger pics of all of these on the next page!

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Tags: accessories - gifts - guitar - hddvd - laptop - shopping - technology - tv

On interesting PR emails i received today, this one was pretty funny... i have no idea whether this was a contrived spot, it does seem plausible it could have been an accident, but none the less it has that Blair Witch/Cloverfield panicked "attack of the crabs!" feeling to it... and it's a fun friday video (embedded on the next page for your viewing pleasure!)... So what do you think? And does it work? Behind the scenes footage of Discovery Channel shows are definitely fascinating... this one of the Crab accident is from the Discovery Channel show, Deadliest Catch.

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Tags: advertising - animals - nature - tv - video

Browsing IKEA's latest today... they've jumped on a few trends i've been liking for a while... so naturally much like the laptop station that they made 10% of the original price... funny to see that they have taken to the vinyl stickering (i had kind of expected them to get on this one sooner since its so cheap/easy to produce)... and one trend i've been loving for apt dwellers that move frequently and don't want to worry about damaging the walls, yet want to mount that flat panel tv - the floating wall tv shelves, i'm kind of liking this Stiby one above that is $500... and there is also the Benno after the jump that is a mere$120. Now for the one piece i'm really really wanting - the Trollsta Sideboard... granted the whole series feels like a cheap jaime hayon knockoff... i'm still tempted. It looks really fun to add some subtle vinyl stickers to also.... few more pieces that grabbed me after the jump!

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Tags: furniture - gifts - ikea - shopping - table - tv