Designing, there's an app for that!

There's a new app out there (go figure...) called Studio. It is basically the concept of Instagram, but for "designing". You take a photo, add effects, pre-made overlayed designs on your artsy photos, then export them to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. At first I was angry that this app has come into existence, degrading the artform of designing, taking our hard work and making it into a bumper sticker you can put on a photo. In reality, if you look at Instagram, and it's the same concept – people acting like they're professional photographers.

When I thought more about it, even though we are all pretend professional photographers, it does open our eyes to the art of photography. Even though Instagram can be considered "cheating", I believe it is the equivalent of an Easy Bake Oven – It opens your eyes to the artform, and hopefully you graduate to using the real thing. If I put myself in their shoes, I realized it was a genius idea. It's not going to replace the jobs of photographers or designers. In the most basic sense, it gives people a chance to make their pictures look cool. It's a fun and social app, and nothing more... At least I hope not.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

3D Printing

It sounds like sci-fi, yet, it is exactly what it sounds like – 3D printing. It is the newest revolutionary technology that is getting more and more real every day. 3D printing has a range of uses from dangerous weapons to more practical uses like creating prosthetic limbs. With lines of code, a user can theoretically print whatever they'd like, which is both scary and inspiring. I believe this technology is as significant as the invention of the home computer. Soon enough, 3D printers will potentially be as common as your $100 inkjet printer you have at home.

In recent news, a company called DEFCAD created a downloadable 3D printable gun. Each part of the gun is a separate download. Even though the amount the vast majority of people don't have the technology to print the weapon, it is still pretty scary that anyone can potentially print these without anyone's knowledge or permit requirement. In addition, these guns are made of all plastic, therefore undetectable by security checkpoints.

See more here: 
Can a 3D printer make guns? (CNN)
I Printed a 3D Gun (Mashable)

On the contrary, 3D printers have a variety of ways for improving the world. Printing limbs, spare parts, kid's toys, really anything you can imagine. With a world of potential, it will most certainly change the dynamic of the world we live in. I have faith in our government in regulating this powerful technology–they seem to be fairly good at that whether for the better or worse, we'll have to wait and see.


See more here: 
Disabled duck gets new foot thanks to 3D Printing
3-D Printing Brings Dexterity To Children With No Fingers

With a whole new kind of design entering the game, do you think more good than bad can come from this? Let me know your thoughts.

Made in China

Just a thought...
You see it on your coffee mugs in the morning, on your cell phone throughout the day, on your stationary supplies at the office, on your child's lunchbox, on most of your clothing, on just about everything you own. The reason we produce so much there is obvious, but could these factories be missing out on a branding opportunity? Something people may not know is that U.S. law requires the country of origin to be displayed on a product or it's container. The little sticker does seem like a cruel reminder of the debt we owe. What if China adopted our business model of capitalism and separated state from economics. Each factory would hypothetically create a marketing department, promote their factory, competition would emerge. We would start to see stickers on our products saying "Made in XYZ Factory - China" instead of "China".

Power of Social Media

With the Super Bowl last night, some amazing statistics were calculated...
From: Ad Age

The final 3 minutes of the Super Bowl produced 10,000 tweets per second... What the hell.
For anyone that doubts the power of social media needs a reality check.

Also, it was noted that "if the halftime show were its own standalone televised event, it would rank fourth in terms of all-time social-TV events for entertainment. It would trail only the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, the 2011 American Music Awards and the 2011 Academy Awards."

Now you could argue that this is only because of the scale of what the Super Bowl is, but nonetheless, it is still amazing what the possibilities are.

Rewind to Super Bowl 2005. Web hosting company, Go Daddy put it all on the line and spent half of its yearly advertising budget to have a commercial during the Super Bowl. Just a week later, their market share for domain names went up by 56%. Without being specific on what kind of company they were, they just had an entertaining commercial with sexy NASCAR driver, Danica Patrick. Testosterone filled football frenzied dudes reacted positively and created a social frenzy. With some controversy over the ad, it got some of the best reviews and exposure over other Super Bowl ads.

So there you go, moral of the story, if you want to increase business, have a Super Bowl commercial, or have a wardrobe malfunction.

Menlo Moonshai

FINALLY! The beer is done!

Fermented, bottled, capped, and labeled. The only thing is the excess of sediment in the bottles... but that's what you get with a homebrew.  Other than the sediment, it tastes great... not to mention the intense malt taste because it was supposed to make 5 gallons when I only made 4 (not enough water).  Nonetheless...it's got personality haha.  Here it is all bottled and whatnot.  Hopefully the next batch is better.