Once again the creative forces behind Monty Python’s Flying Circus proved themselves innovators.  Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars suing people for sharing their ground-breaking comedy online, they decided to beat them at their own game.  They created a Monty Python YouTube channel with high quality versions of their movie and TV work available for free!

And now for something completely different: their DVD sales on Amazon.com went up 23,000%!  That’s not a typo.  23,000%!  So the group has proven that instead of being bitter about new technology maybe it is better to always look on the bright side of life.

Every once and awhile you get a project that makes you reflect upon the impact technology has on our lives. Recently, we interviewed Eugene Polley, a retired mechanical engineer at Zenith (now LG Electronics), who invented the wireless remote control back in 1950. We were hired by LG to tape an acceptance speech by Mr. Polley who was to receive an IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for this work at C.E.S.

During the interview, Mr. Polley commented on being dubbed the “Father of the Couch Potato.” Yet if you think about it, he actually blazed the trail for a more recent wireless device that can hardly be considered passive: the Nintendo Wii Remote Controller.The Wii is getting people off their couches and using their televisions actively and collaboratively in ways unimaginable in 1950.

So who knows where the remote control will take us in the future?

The Holiday Card

Now that ‘Holiday Season ‘08’ is in the bag, it’s probably as good a time as any to wax philosophical about our holiday E-card. This year’s concept stemmed from a colorful conversation that included a retelling of some of the more infamous moments from Manning parties past, as well as a discussion about office party clichés. With a little Photoshop magic and a few hundred hours of work, what emerged was a bizarre virtual party that combined celebrities, pop-culture references, employee debauchery, and more than a little alcohol. But we got there aided by using content that was ‘borrowed’.

Continue Reading →