I just saw the coolest trailer for a movie I've ever seen in my life. It's also really awesome cause the plot is based in my hometown. Watch the trailer here http://www.district9movie.com. I'd embed a youtube version but it's really worth going to the site.

What's even more amazing as a developer is Sony's gone all out creating elaborate websites for companies and organizations in the movie. There are buttons below the trailer to those sites.

My whole life I watched people getting really excited about movies that come out like Terminator or Harry Potter but I always thought they were shit and silly and never understood. Now I get it. I do, and I'm genuinely excited.

This was played at the radio and television correspondence dinner. I don't know exactly why but it tickles my soul. Do the full screen, it's brilliant.

I was watching some of the Google I/O stuff on YouTube and  clicked over to this Google Chrome ad. It looks incredible, I've never seen anything so cool for a piece of software.

Firefox ads look like they'll be pretty awesome too and with 3.5 scheduled to hold the fastest browser title for a while they have a lot to promote. Check out the Firefox ad below, not as cool special effects as the Chrome ad but still really really cool..

And then there's IE8, targeted at the mentally unstable. As we all know those are the only people that would actually switch to IE, anyone else that uses it does so because it came with their computer,  and they haven't seen the above two ads or tried other browsers.

A brief history of our impact on this island in the universe. It's awing. Remarkable. Yet because it seems to say everything it leaves me wanting to do.

Watch the movie at the YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

Watch Yann Arthus-Bertrand announce the film at TED:

http://www.ted.com/talks/yann_arthus_bertrand_captures_fragile_earth_in_wide_angle.html

This is one of those videos where companies ask designers to show a concept of what life should be like and what products the company should aspire to create. Hopefully this, like the Microsoft Surface, and Xbox, is foreshadowing a day when Microsoft re-invents itself and finally gets out of the OS, web service(email, search, etc.), and browser game, and starts creating things that make life better and not worse.

I just read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael beah. It's a pretty incredible book to say the least. It's heart breaking and poetic. The author's ability to convey the utter loss and confusion of losing his family and being forced to participate in a civil war make it all the more visceral to read. There's a lot of imagery of the sights and sounds of war, but an equal amount of imagery taken from stories and folklore he  uses to vividly impart his emotional state as the story progresses.

It starts a short while after he's moved to America and quickly delves into his past. Filling in the gaps it follows a non-linear chronology but is laid out in a way that helps convey the core message of the book; Everyone is capable of truly horrific acts, and that transformation can happen in an instant.

The book shows us that while wars start for a reason, that reason can quickly become lost to a sea of violence and hate that no longer has a specific root or cause and has manifested in each participant in a different way at which point chaos can begine to sustain itself. Finally it shows us that while it's harder to create order from chaos than the other way around, people that are pulled into such chaos are still people at their core, like you and me, and with patience and love it is possible for them to find their humanity again.

Everyone should read this book, it's a valuable story. Click here to find out how you can get a copy.

Here are a few interviews with Ishmael where he talks about the book and Sierra Leone.

Wow, just wow. We live in the future. I've been saying for years that we've taken control over our own evolution but I didn't realize it was already so intense, and moving so fast.

We've put up an interactive chalk board on my company's website. Draw us something cool, fill out some optional details, and submit it for a chance to be featured in our gallery. If we like your website we'll contact you to do a spotlight on your blog/site/company.

All the artwork submitted, including those that don't make the cut for the main gallery, will be featured here on FightSkillz with a link back to your site.

Here are the links you'll need to check it out:
Draw us something: http://www.chalk-it-out.com/#/Draw/
The main gallery: http://www.chalk-it-out.com/#/Draw/Gallery/
The runner up gallery: http://fightskillz.com/chalkboard-gallery/

You can submit as many chalk boards as you like, the sooner you submit the more people are gonna see it.

While you're at Chalk-It-Out, have a look around we're a software development and consulting company. We build web, desktop, and rich internet applications, and offer a range of other services like brand creation and design, custom widgets, web sites and more.

If you want to record yourself drawing your ChallkBoard post it in reply to this YouTube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38uTZwbUHdY

http://www.prlog.org/10166524-fun-interactive-web-site-promotion.html

I should really be posting some code, cause it's been a while, but I had too...

By Devshop on Blip.tv [link]