Because social media is such a gas, we’d like to pass this special segment onto you for your viewing pleasure. We’d like to thank Saturday Night Live for giving us a great laugh. Enjoy!
Today is the official launch of the Pepsi Refresh Project. Good Magazine and Pepsi have partnered to give away $20 million in grants over the next year. Users can submit their ideas to do good online, vote for them and share them with others. It’s like the American Idol for Good. The Pepsi Refresh Project is accepting 1000 ideas a month so get ready for March - I think February filled up in under a minute (I have no statistics to support this claim but I am sure it was super fast). Now hurry up and go share your idea or vote for your favorite. And it may not hurt if you are downing a Pepsi product while clicking the mouse. I would drink Pepsi but I was born in Atlanta and I’ll always be a Coca Cola girl no matter how “good” Pepsi gets. How about you? Are you more likely to purchase a product if the brand is known for doing “good”?
The German government warned web users to find an different browser to Internet Explorer to protect security last week. This is something that should have been issued over 10 years ago when these types of things first start to escalate. But it isn’t till now and some recent attacks, that Germany thinks it’s a serious problem. Read all about the current security hole at BBC News.
The main problems that IE has had compared to other browsers over the years, is that it is a part of the Microsoft operating system. By having a higher integration with the underlying OS it has the potential to access much more critical processes for a computer system. The plus side of this is that it loads fast (because it’s already loaded with your computer) and it can do things on your system that other browsers can’t. The down side is, if a hacker finds a way to comprimise a users computer through it, they can do much more damage. Alternative browsers to IE don’t have the same privileges, they must run in the OS as citizen applications where every move the application makes is governed by the OS which protects other applications and your computer from serious harm.
If you are still using IE you don’t know what your missing:
Firefox - This has been a favorite for alternative web browsers since 2003. It has thousands of plugins so you can customize it to do anything you want. It can be a bit slow at times when you have a bunch of plugins installed and 20 tabs open but it’s still a great browser. Pretty much everyone at Sol uses Firefox as their numero uno web browser.
Chrome - This is Google’s take on a web browser. It is incredibly fast. You should try it just to see how fast it is, it’s kind of amazing. It has a very simple interface, just what you need, like most of Googles apps. It has neat architecture, It actually runs each tab as it’s own program so if one tab fails the others stay alive. Before recently Chrome was still trying to get up to speed on trying to display all web pages but I think they are pretty much there.
Opera - Opera has been an underdog alternative browser since practically the beginning of mainstream internet usage. I think it’s a beautiful browser and works quite nicely. I use it for occationally for blog browsing because things look so nice in it and it’s easy to use. This is the browser I would recommend to my mother.
Safari - Apples new version works on PC as well now. It’s pretty neat, I use it all the time on my Ipod Touch.
Here at Sol Design we have to use IE 6, 7, 8, & 9 everyday and will continue too because we know so many people in the world do. Though we hate it, it risks the security on our development machines and it takes the fun out of web development (keeping up with web standards has been another huge fault for IE). It wasn’t always like this, IE was my love in 1996 when it was the first to handle CSS and did a better job with Javscript than Netscape. If the world bands together to leave IE maybe it will inspire Microsoft will start over from scratch and build a new web browser that we all can appreciate again.
Stewdio.org is the website of Stewart Smith, a designer from NYC that has done some great work. I was particularly amused by his Browser Pong app….basically the classic computer game Pong done with browser windows. Super fun!
Our fun, fearless, fabulous LesNouvelles ladies got nominated for Daily Candy’s Sweetest Things 2009. Go here to vote now!
It was 1963. The Beatles permeated the airwaves with “I Want To Hold Your Hand;” To Kill a Mockingbird was the Oscar pick of the year; State Mutual Life Insurance invented the Smiley Face; women wanted to look like Jackie-O and men wanted to look like John F.; and everyone drank and smoked, regardless of the time of day, location and health.
The nostalgia of 1963 is the inspiration for AMC’s Mad Men, and like many of you, we’ve been obsessed. To pay homage to our favorite television indulgence, we decided to setup a wet bar and break out the Lucky Strikes for Kirsten’s birthday party at Sol. We evoked Don and Betty Draper with perfectly quaffed hair, double breasted suits and A-line skirts, and we threw back cocktails in the conference room. If you haven’t seen it yet, we highly recommend you check it out! And check out all of us looking oh so debonair…
We spend loads of time researching Socially Responsible companies and how they creatively market to consumers for the better good. Kirsten found this today and I think its brilliant and most importantly, fun. http://thefuntheory.com/. LOVE IT.
We hand painted some chucks for our friend Daren Wang to help him earn some cool points this weekend as he struts around the 4th annual Decatur Book Fest that he’s organized. The book fest is from September 4th through the 6th. If you like books you really should stop by.
Puff is this years mascot: More on the Decatur Book Fest 2009
Just when you thought facebook wasn’t wasting more of your time already, along comes polyvore. It’s a site that allows you to put together inspiring outfits that you wish you had the time and money to buy. Most articles of clothing are linked to online retailers, generating them a little revenue on the side.
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