Tuesday is the Most Productive Day
Posted on August 25, 2008 by S Running
Culture | Leave a Comment
I just found a link to an article posted on the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal that is another documented report that upholds our belief that Tuesday is the best day of the week. The article is titled, “Tuesday is the most productive day.” It goes on to explain that surveys demonstrate that employees hit peak performance on Tuesdays, with the least amount of performance on Fridays. Interestingly, even though the survey dates back to 2002, it was consistent with surveys dating back to the 80’s that also confirmed Tuesday to be the most productive. The way we see it, that’s about 20 years of evidence supporting that Tuesday is the best day. Booyah!
Consumer Electronics Purchasing Woes
Posted on July 23, 2008 by S Osako
Culture, Tech | 1 Comment
I recently purchased a new monitor for my home office and boy was it frustrating. The thought of buying something new is fun and exciting and I’m envious when I see others getting boxes of goodies at work. Of course I couldn’t just buy the first monitor I saw, I had to do tons of research to avoid buyer’s remorse. I started my exploration for the right monitor with high spirits. By the end of one week, my spirits were crushed. Not only was I drowning in conflicting reviews from “experts” and users, but the manufacturers seem to number their products with the goal of confusing consumers. Why can’t they just number their models intuitively and make it very clear what the differences are?
Marvel Productions and The Incredible Hulk
Posted on July 17, 2008 by J Tepper
Culture, Industry | Leave a Comment
After seeing marvelous Marvel characters such as Daredevil, Elektra, and Ghost Rider get not so great reviews on the silver screen, Marvel comics has decided to take matters into their own hands and create Marvel Productions. This new force to be reckoned with in
iPod Earbud Addiction
Posted on July 10, 2008 by S Running
Culture | Leave a Comment
I’ve noticed an epidemic of people wearing their iPod earbuds to do just about everything. Even during situations that require higher degrees of concentration, like studying, writing and programming. Go to any coffee shop and you’ll see it. As much as I enjoy music and can do many things with headphones, I feel that people are harming themselves by constantly reaching for their mp3 player when they need to focus. Case in point—imagine you are a high school student with dreams of getting into a prestigious college. You are sitting down one Saturday morning to take the dreaded SAT exam. Even if it were allowed, would you really want to strap on some headphones during the test? Unless you don’t want to attend the college of your choice, this probably isn’t the wisest move. When people are doing math homework, reading a history book, or writing a term paper, however, they don’t seem to equate decibels with lack of concentration. Trust me, your concentration is being affected. Next time you’re sitting down to do some serious work, maybe try it without the headphones. Save your battery for the gym.
Feeds: Friend or Foe?
Posted on July 1, 2008 by C Lin
Culture, Design | Leave a Comment
For those of you who are living under a rock, an RSS or Atom feed is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content from for example a blog, news site etc. in a standardized format. You have seen the little orange icon on blogs or the blue icon in the new Firefox window. Let’s say you have a favorite blog that you read everyday. You can subscribe to its feeds by clicking on the icon and then selecting a type of reader that you want all of your content to appear on. This gives people quick and at a glance access to updated content.
Women Runners Unite!
Posted on June 27, 2008 by S Running
Culture, Projects | Leave a Comment
I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about a social networking site that we released into Beta a few weeks ago called Traxee. In late 2007, I was having a discussion with a friend and colleague about how she had in her early thirties, been an out of shape chain smoker, in poor health, and a person who could hardly jog 100 yards. Even worse, she didn’t think she had the power to do anything about it. One day she thought to herself, maybe I can run 10 yards – so she did. Then she tried to run 20 yards, then 100, then 1,000 and so on. Flash forward to the present, she (her name is Beth, by the way) runs 4 plus days a week and is currently training for the
The Future of Skateboarding is Elemental
Posted on June 23, 2008 by P Tade
Culture, Design | 1 Comment
Element just “pushed” the evolution of the skate deck with the introduction of their “Push Construction Positive Negative Series;” which is a really long name for a series of skate decks…but seemingly worth every last syllable. The deck is a very intricate and scientific combination of carbon fiber and helium, weighs next to nothing and is more durable than any deck in production.
So, why is someone who hasn’t done an ollie in about 20 years, let alone ever attempted a shove-it, so fascinated with the announcement of a new deck? Well, there are two main reasons and this new deck takes both of those thoughts into consideration.
Why Creative Commons is a Good Idea
Posted on June 12, 2008 by C Lin
Culture, Industry, Tech | Leave a Comment
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization which provides free licenses to copyright holders to use when releasing their works on the web. The idea is to avoid current copyright law issues when dealing with the sharing of information. CC sort of clears the clutter and confusion of copyright infringement for web users and creators. They are also really good at visually organizing these complex copyright laws in a very digestible way. Besides, the group has a nicely designed website and their free licensing icons are beautiful. The free software and open-source web world is in need of these guidelines! “We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them – to declare ‘some rights reserved.’” – Creative Commons
MUTO: Stop-motion and Graffiti
Posted on June 4, 2008 by P Tade
Art, Culture | Leave a Comment
What do you get when you combine stop-motion video and graffiti street art in
Go Green with Red Bottles
Posted on May 28, 2008 by S Running
Culture, Design | Leave a Comment
When new employees join our company, they are presented with the expected array of health benefits, 401(k) plan, vacation, and so forth. However, one special benefit we give everyone is their very own red water bottle from Camelbak. We realized that we were going through as many as 30 cases of bottled water per month (we drink a lot), so we decided to install a water bubbler to replace all the individual bottles. Instead of creating a trash can full of disposable plastic cups, we outfitted the whole team with stylish, personal bottles. Everyone decorates their bottle so they can tell it apart (silver sharpie is a popular inscription tool). We figure this saves as much as 10,000 bottles worth of plastic per year. If only there was a way to get Snickers without the packaging…
