The incredibly fun and rather tough “We All Look the Same” test to differentiate between images of Chinese, Korean, or Chinese people that I posted about before has expanded their face test to several other cultural tests in their “Exam Room“. Besides faces, the test now includes Modern Art, Architecture, Photos, Urban Scenes, Food, and Architectural Details. I took the food test and scored 14/18, but I failed miserably at the Art test with 9/18. Go take the tests and feel proud or miserable about your eye for asian culture.

FYI: If you prefer not to create a login account, use one I created:
login: designverb
password: designverb

SlingShoting is a MUST do activity sometime in my life!!! Besides the fact that my screaming lungs will be catching up to my bodies slinged off body, it looks like way tooo much fun!

Do you have relatives that haven’t quite transitioned to the email world yet? If so, you might want to try out PixelLetter which turns any PDF or online created letter into the good old paper snail mail and delivers it to anyones rustic mailbox for a small fee. At first you might say “why”, but then again, we live in a world where the crappy quality of a fax machine still rules for odd reasons even though I send and receive using my laptop. Hand written letters are always great to receive, but perhaps you’ll be getting handwritten letters in you inbox soon . Anyhoots, a friend and I had this idea with a bit of a twist last year, so there goes that idea! One day all communication devices will talk to each other. Fax machines, emails, snail mail, text messages, IM’s, voicemail,  post it notes, voice IM’s, etc.

As a designer I generally gear up to watch the SuperBowl for their new commericals while the game remains as background noise as I type away on my laptop. One trend that I’ve noticed from TV stations is the ability to watch their content online right after they air on TV. Before, users would TiVo content then throw it up on YouTube or DailyMotion, then the broadcast companies would try to sue users. Anyhow, without getting into my thoughts about DRM and how I think TV should be integrated with the internet, enjoy the SuperBowl Commericals (SuperAds) after each quarter of the game, though the game does not seem to be part of the streams. (Half time ads just finished and nothing really caught my attention..hmm)(I’ve also seen a few of the ads online before the SuperBowl)

Here’s a nifty little USB gadget that reminds us how bad our posture gets as we naturally lean into computer monitors, especially laptop users. Basically it sounds an alarm when your head’s too close to the monitor. I actually had a geeky solution back in grad school for this. I put an adjustable metal shelf on my desk where my laptop was then used the lower shelf with padding as a head rest.

The above image reminded me a of a note a manager once told me 5 years ago while discussing the digital age in the internet and TV: “If you lean 15 degrees forward your using the internet(interacting), but once you lean 15 degrees backwards you watching TV(absorbing)”. This can be applied to many other activities as well.

Anyhoots, if you buy this, I’m sure you’ll find more than one use for it.

via UberReview
Buy here USB Brando($26)