Triple dose of Warhammer 40K goodness

It's been a while since I've blogged about Warhammer 40,000, so today's three good things for you to enjoy.

1) Dawn of War II Video out
If you even remotely enjoyed Dawn of War (quite possibly the best Warhammer 40K game to date, ever), then you need to check this out. It's quite the awesome video of what's to come in the gnarly sequel.

In case you missed the link, here it is again.

2) Games Workshop Design Studio podcast!
I'm especially pleased with this. I listen personally to a glut of good gaming and tech podcast on a daily / weekly basis and I'm quite pleased that Games Workshop has decided to embrace the social and be a lot more open with the thinking behind the games.

The first episode is pretty good with Alessio Cavatore talking about 5th Edition and what he was thinking when he was designing the thing. Kudos to Games Workshop, a very good PR move indeed.

Grab it here.

3) My Eldar Avatar



Here's my latest (un-finished) painting project. It's got about a week's worth of painting on it (whenever I can squeeze a bit of time) and I'm pretty pleased with the layering and blending on it. My best so far.

The technique I used was pretty simple, just watered down Scab Red to wash over the black undercoat and then progressive layering with 50-50 mixes all the way up to Blood Red. I'll post the finish pic once I finally get around to finishing it.

Flackery or real conversation?

As both a guy with a blog and a PR dude in real life, I've had the incredibly joyful experience of pitching and being pitched to. Of course, I don't understand why some companies would want to pitch to a small fry like me whose got absolutely no theme to his blog, but, "hey!" if its an interesting product or thing, I'll listen.

The thing is more companies are beginning to see the importance of the blogosphere for their political marketing campaigns, thanks (in no small way) to March 8. But the attitude and reaction many marketers are taking towards engaging bloggers is summarised by the GMOOT syndrome - in the words of AdAge columnist Scott Donaton.

To paraphrase Scott, GMOOT is short for the "Get Me One Of Those" syndrome that company heads adopt when they don't really understand the new-fangled trends but want in on it for marketing gain anyway. Read Todd Defren's post on how dangerous but widespread this syndrome is.

But my point is this: more and more companies are now looking to reach out to bloggers. Each is doing this in a vastly different way and there are definitely more than one way to succeed. But then, you start coming across posts like this, this and this.

Did we miss the point?

So I was having a conversation with someone who works admittedly closely with the local blogging scene and he's adamant that blogs are the "new media." And that marketing efforts should be directed at bloggers as this is the new channel for clients to get the message of their products and services out. After all, teenagers a reading less and less newspapers these days (yes, US stats I know).

Yes, I'd agree that we should be talking to bloggers, but I'd also disagree that we see bloggers for anything less than what they are - people. Blogs aren't just a "communications channel". They aren't just media for you to push messages thru. They are people who have something interesting to say, the right tools to say it (the blog) and the audience who's interested in hearing what they want to say.

When I get pitched, I'm really interested in starting a conversation. I'd like to know what's great about your product or solution and why it would matter to me or people like me (who, coincidentally, might read my blog). I don't want to be pushed information and be expected to "publish." That's just flackery.

Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean you shouldn't email me about your interesting product. It just means that you should:
1. Talk to me as a human being. Don't expect a bot on the other end that auto-publishes news releases as they are sent across. I've got feelings too. I've also got a healthy dose of opinion and common sense.
2. Understand what I write about and my motivations for writing. Don't assume. If after reading a couple of my posts you're still unsure, hey, just ask :)
3. Be prepared to dive into the conversation. Because what I'm going to want, if I'm interested in what you're saying, is to actually talk and discuss the subject matter with you.

If you're reading this and you've pitched to me before, I assure you, I don't mean you in particular. This post is a summary of interesting experiences past, present and possibly last week. Please do pitch to me again and let's have a proper conversation this time round.

Busy. Busy.

I'm a bit overwhelmed at work at the moment. Will come back and post shortly, have lots of things to share including:

1. Warhammer 40,000 5th edition
2. Painting projects
3. Geek cred
4. An interesting conversation I had about blogs, marketing and conversations
5. Gaming on my Eee PC.
6. Moving to Share on Ovi.

But work beckons. Please wish me well as I try to survive these next few days.

The Bottle Neck

There was a famous old saying in the tech industry: "Design the software, the hardware will catch up." Hardware used to be the bottle-neck for computing. Processor speeds weren't fast enough, RAM wasn't enough, powerful computing was the size of a classroom.


Today, IMHO, there's a new bottle-neck: internet speeds. Think of the wonders we could achieve. We dream of so many applications - live-streaming video, hi-definition movies, instant download services etc. etc.

Dreams. But the reality is we're stuck waiting 45 minutes to download a 60 MB patch. I'm just waiting for another solution to come along so I can ditch Streamyx already. (And I heard, an alternative might soon be on the way.) :/

All about Lydia

*Addendum* - this post should have gone up yesterday, but for various technical reasons (i.e. the lousy connection I get from TMNet Streamyx at home), I wasn't able to post.

Today Yesterday, is was Lydia and my first anniversary together, so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures throughout the year to remnisce and share with you a couple of great moments (well, every moment was great actually) together:


Lydia and I waiting to get onto our plane to Cambodia for our Honeymoon.


At the Angkor Wat in our Honeymoon. Seeing ruins wasn't as exciting as we thought, we got bored after the first three temples. But it did make us feel like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.


Together at church for one of our Petra Youth meetings.


At Seng Wai and Wai Chin's wedding dinner. Yes, we attended very many wedding dinners last year.


On Valentine's Day, our treat was Carl's Junior. A RM 50 meal too! Okay, so we're not that big spenders...have never believed in giving free money and profits to restaurants who cash in on "celebrations" like Valentines Day.


Us, going to the Gold Coast!


We took a picture with Sylvester the Cat. Shame about Tweety though, we really wanted to take that picture home.


And again, with Batman and friends.


So this is a solo picture, but one I can't resist putting up! Lydia chomping on insects in Cambodia.

Happy Anniversary, dear! Here's hoping for 70 more years just like this one.

A brilliant idea

Notice how irresponsible parkers love to park at parking lots reserved for the disabled? Some parking lot in Bangsar had an innovative solution:



And for a closer look:



Problem is, I'm just wondering how the disabled person is going stop the car, wheel down to remove the skittle (with one hand, while wheeling with the other) and then get back onto the car to park.

Genius!

Does Cristiano Ronaldo make you want to buy chips?

Just a random thought that struck me about sponsorships:



Does sticking Cristiano Ronaldo on the packaging of Mr. Potato chips make you want to buy the product more? Don't get me wrong, I love Mr. Potato chips and would buy them (on occassion) anyway, but I'm just wondering if printing football stars pictures on the packaging would actually make consumers more likely to buy the product? Or would it make you want to purchase a mobile phone plan even more?

This isn't a rant actually about Mr. Potato (I love their chips and buy them regardless of who's face is on the packaging) but just a musing about how sponsorships are quite, very rampant today. And that sometimes, in the rush to be associated with the latest and coolest, a lot of thinking on relevance gets left behind.

Then there's the audience. I'd like to think that the majority people still make sensible purchase decisions based on what they are getting for what they are paying instead of the mug that gets printed on the packaging.

Yes, sometimes, "special edition" items do get a higher emotional value rating like that red iPod a couple years back from U2, so there's actually a science to how sponsorships can make products worth more than the sum-total of its parts.

Still, I'd like to think consumers are getting more and more intelligent and the simple printed logo or character image doesn't mean as much as it used to.

What do you think? Would you be more likely to pay more for a bag of chips with your fave football star's picture on the packaging?

Off to the Gold Coast!

Dear readers,

Just dropping a note to tell you I'll be off to the Gold Coast, Australia with my wife for a long awaited second honeymoon kinda thing. This means I'm not entirely sure when I'll be posting again - it all depends if I can find some free Wi-Fi over in OZ.

Like now. Amazingly, our Low Cost Carrier Terminal has free Wi-Fi! So, I can share this parting picture with you.



At the very latest, this blog will resume usual service when I get back next week. I plan to do some really geeky stuff over at Australia like geo-tagging my routes and such so I'll blog about it as and when I can.

So, till the next post, have a bash!

There be Bloggers

We all pay lip-service to it: bloggers are people of all sorts. Yet somehow, in the glitz and glamour of generating traffic, attending big events, raking in money and becoming celebrities in our own right, the picture we often get when we mention the word "blogger" is that of this star celebrity.

Yesterday's humbling Happy Moments event was a jerk back to earth for me. Often, communications people get caught up with a blogosphere that's only made up of popular reads. Yet sharing the table with some of the bloggers who came made me think: "these are just very regular people."



Mr. Lim and family were at the event because his daughter Jasmine, made it to the top ten with her blog post. Sitting down with the family was interesting because I discovered that Jasmine and her sister Jennifer, were both BRATS. So we chatted a bit about journalism and communication, with Mr. Lim being quite interested in my job. Of course, in turn, I was really interested in Mr. Lim's big camera and mentioned more than once - you should start a photo blog too!



Tham Wai Hon showed up with his family and really cute baby boy. He'd shot a video of his baby and posted up on his blog. It was really interesting meeting this family as they reminded me of the sort of family gatherings I get to experience with my own and somehow, with your family around, it feels like blogging is much less glamourous.



I've got a couple more photos to add to the event, some people were just good friends, others, though considered "famous" were tremendously down to earth.

In the end, bloggers are just people. Different people with different lives.

Addendum: Why was I at this Happy event? I helped organise it.

The "Guess what am I coming as?" game

Coming up this week is... Camp Transformation 2008: BigGER Camp.

That's right, about 150 young people and I will be heading down to Port Dickson for five days and four nights in what looks to be a very, very packed programme. Still, I look forward to this to be a good time of spiritual refreshment.

What's more, I've recently started constructing my costume and hope to finish it by tomorrow night. The theme's Sci-Fi night, but I doubt anyone would be able to guess what I'm coming as. Anyone? Clue: I've scrapped the Anakin Skywalker idea. And see below:

Maps on Ovi

Client had another interesting video crossing blogs today. Personally, I'm impressed (nothing to do with me working on the account), this is just what I need when I'm planning a holiday in Australia :).

Proper stories here and here. What do you think?

Maps [check], GPS [check], Internet [check] this is what I'm gonna do in Brisbane.

This is awesome. I'm inspired. When I go to Gold Coast and Brisbane next month, this is what I'm going to do.



Okay, first off, Stavros is a fictional character Nokia created for this pretty (clever) online advertising campaign. But the technology is real. Yeap, you can download Nokia Sports Tracker, use the built in GPS on your N95 or N82, and send the routes you've walked and photos you've taken online. Perfect for chronicling your adventures. You can even create the map and embed it on your blog; check here.

So what I'm gonna do is try doing this whilst I'm in Aussie-land with the wife and see if it's really as simple as its made out to be. Hopefully, I'll come back with lots of pictures and interesting routes to try.

Jason, Robin, Ernest, interested in seeing if we can map a couple of mountain bike trails and post them online?

Of course, in case you didn't already know, in the interest of full disclosure, Nokia is one of my clients but I am not writing this post for anything remotely job-related.

So did you study blogging in Uni?

Read a funny story in the New Straits Times today about Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) might soon allow students to take blogging courses as part of their subjects.

Vice-chancellor Datuk Seri Prof Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah said something interesting, and I quote:

"Anyone can become a blogger now," he told reporters after a seminar here yesterday.

But this did not mean bloggers could write about anything, as they first needed to master several aspects of writing, such as language, ethics and accuracy of reporting.
Ibrahim said he supported any proposal to offer courses on blogging and that it was the most suitable time to do so.

I find this statement self-contradictory. First, Dr. Ibrahim is right by saying "Anyone can become a blogger now." That's absolutely right. Your plumber could be a blogger. Your mother could be a blogger. And don't be surprised if one day the pope starts a blog.

So if this is right, then why add requirements to becoming a bogger by saying that "they first needed to master several aspects of writing, such as language, ethics and accuracy of reporting?"

Does this mean if my English, Bahasa Melayu or Mandarin sucks I can't be a blogger?

Or if I don't hold on to the same "ethics" you subscribe to, I'm not credible (maybe in your eyes, not that of my fans)?

Or if I report on rumours and wild speculation, that I cannot be a credited as a blogger? Tell that to these guys - their blog is practically a rumour mill! And a very good one at that.

What does it mean to be a blogger? Some very enlightened people I listen to put it very well: blogging is just a publishing tool. Just like how anyone can write a book, anyone can blog.

Furthermore, not all bloggers are journalists. Some a diarists (they use the blog as their personal diary), some are story-tellers (ever read a blog that was pure fiction), some are commentators (they put forth their opinion on whatever subject they see fit), some are fanboys (they blog about their hobby, their pets etc) and very, very few bloggers will claim to be journalists.

Tom Merritt (links to episode 720 of Buzz Out Loud where comments were made) has a good solution for this. If a blogger wishes to be accorded the rights and pr0tection that's afforded journalists, then they must adhere to the same ethics and regulations that journalists adhere to.

If a blogger says, "hey, I'm not a journalist, just someone who writes!", then they are pretty much free to do what they want, but then they can't expect the protection journalists get (like the ability to "protect sources" even while subpeonaed).

One thing is clear though, this blanket definition of bloggers has to end. Not all bloggers are media. Certainly not some of our most famous political leaders (who have or recently started blogs).

(I mean, at least I won't consider those bloggers media).

Update: Thanks to the wonder of Twitter, some feedback with Twitter-people led me to this thought: Would being a degree-holding blogger entitle you to more money from blog-advertising?

Blog is the new CV?

Lee just exclaimed as we were chatting about a potential hire: "Does he / she have a blog?"

He does have a point. And in fact, I'm sure it happens. So do potential bosses read your blogs like they do your CVs? If so, which becomes more important? And, how do you optimise your CV in order to be a more attractive hire?

Digital Music Revolution: Free music, richer artistes?

First off, I am not in any way involved in the music industry nor have I ever had any experience in it. Neither am I well-versed with music genres and am most likely to confuse hard rock with heavy metal. I'm just an armchair internet junkie who loves over-analyzing anecdotal information.

So in my last post, I blogged about Nine Inch Nails releasing their new album "The Slip" for free on the internet. What I glossed over due to lack of blogging time was that they made the downloads available in multiple formats including FLAC (CD quality) and High-Definition Wave files (super-high quality that only trained audiophiles can tell the difference of). It seems the digital music revolution might have just taken another step.

The point is this: for the first time, a top band has made available for free an entire album in a non-crippled way. Nope, it isn't just "high-quality" MP3 files you can download. It isn't just hte first nine tracks of a 36 track album. You aren't welcomed by a splash screen that tells you to pay as much as you want so you COULD get it for free, but you'd be kind of a jerk to. This is different. It's just "take our whole album, as high quality as you'd like, oh and take the PDF'ed album sleeve too" free.

If the old idea was to get the audience to download a (kinda) crappy MP3 album, fall in love with the song, then scoot out to get it in glorious CD format; the new idea is about just giving away music and hoping "we'll make money through shows, endorsements and support from the fans."

And it's not an unfounded idea. Enough coverage in the media has clearly demonstrated the fact that musicians make the bulk of their money from live appearances (concerts or otherwise).

So I'll posit this argument. My analysis is that the internet is now allowing artistes a freer hand in experimenting. Eyeris had a good point when he commented in my last post:

Giving it away for free just means that the band won't have to worry about irate fans banging their door down after paying RM40 for a completely crap album. haha.

Exactly what I meant about artists not having to worry about the "quality" of their songs anymore. Granted, that's a crude way to put it because artistes DO care and the DO have a reputation to uphold. What I meant was them no longer having to cater to the tastes of the masses simply because the digital medium allows them to cost-effectively put out much more material than before. All those tracks that used to end up on the cutting room floor can now end up in full collections online, given away for free!

What this then translates to (hopefully) a wider-fanbase that's sampled their music and bigger crowds when they go on tour. Could they then trade their amplified popularity for sponsorship or endorsement deals? Possibly. Will this make more of the better artistes richer? Hopefully.

Iron Man: Did you see the subtitles?

Iron Man is GREAT! Yeap, I predicted this way back when the Iron Man suit made its debut at CES. If you haven't watched it yet, please feel free to watch it now and contribute to the more than US$ 100 million it's grossed already.













And while you're at it, pay attention to the hilarious Malay translation. There's this one scene when the character Stane tells Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego): "Tony, now we've got the board right where we want them..." (referring to intrigue with Stark Enterprises board of directors)

Our happy Malay translators helped subtitle this phrase: "Tony, sekarang kita sudah letak papan itu di mana kita mahukan." (Tony, we've put the plank where we want it.)

Context people, context! And Iron Man becomes Orang Besi?

Finally, yes, I'll confirm it's real. That final one minute of footage after you've waited through the seven minutes of credits when everyone's left the cinema? Yeap, it's real. You can probably find it on YouTube somewhere if you succumbed to peer pressure and left the cinema too. Although the link I found yesterday night seems to be down now.

I... quite proudly....despite Lydia's protests... made my wife stay back alone in that empty cinema to catch Samuel L. Jackson's appearance as Nick Fury! Which was awesome.

Random Nokia stuff

The client's keeping me busy with work, so I might as well post these here.

Firstly, in case you haven't heard already, there's a Nokia Independent Artists Club (IAC) gig happening this Saturday. Scroll down and click on the scans of the flyer for details. Given that I'm obviously no expert in the local music scene, I'm told that the acts are actually pretty good. So do drop by and have a listen.





Secondly, the smart people over at the Nokia global marketing team have come up with a fun aside to help us spend some more time in the office. It's actually a teaser for N-Gage , Nokia's new gaming platform / service. Go check it out by clicking this link: www.get-out-and-play.com.

Oh, and... the arkanoid clone is not the teaser, it's just to help you kill time while the flash animation loads. So play a while whilst you wait.

Considering Ubuntu

I finally did it, on the night of Labour Day. And the whole process took approximately 53 minutes to complete. On my Dell Inspiron 8200 (yes, it's old).



As far as test runs and familiarisation projects go, this went fine. At least my great (now proven unfounded) fear of Linux is quelled. Really.

All I had to do was go download Ubuntu's latest distribution package (the 8.04 Hardy Heron), burn the .iso into a CD, pop the CD into the laptop and get it to boot, click install and Wah-Lah! it's done.

If you don't really want to destroy your Windows installation, you can even select a "try Ubuntu while keeping your current OS" option.

Really, I'd even consider this a simpler job than getting Windows (XP or Vista) installed.

Once installed, you don't even have to hunt for additional apps to install as the distribution comes with OpenOffice (think open-sourced Microsoft Office, well, StarOffice actually), FireFox, integrated Anti Virus and Firewall.

I think I've pretty much settled on installing Ubuntu on my Eee PC and will probably do a more in-depth review on that when I get it.

Meantime, if you've considering Linux for a long time but have been, like me, afraid of "complications", then I say "Fear no more", Ubuntu is really as simple as it gets.