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Okay. This might be considered overkill in some circles to have two stories about the SI Swimsuit Issue. But I wanted to brag on my friend Chris Gibbons excellent Flash design for a project that launched today to promote the joint Sports Illustrated/NBC effort to find the next SI Swimsuit Model. A project I was involved with last year, this time around, it’s been expanded to include a six-part reality series (Wendesdays 8/7 on NBC). Viewers will vote to choose between the last two finalists in a later episode. The Flash treatment here is very slick. And the material isn’t too bad either.

Tags: Web

So my old pal Heidi Klum is gonna marry Seal (via CNN.com). So, let me clarify that. Heidi and I shared a hot tub (along with her then-husband and a bunch of other folks) in Mexico a few years back when I was on assignment for a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shoot. She’s really down to earth, and was most fascinated by the IPIX technology we were using, including getting into the spirit of things and posing on both side of the picture, as IPIX VRs are two 180-degree images spliced together. So ’snap’ Heidi poses on one side, Heidi moves to the other, and presto! Two Heidis, one panorama. I’d link to one of these, but SI.com has put most of the old Swimsuit content behind a subscription wall.

UPDATE: You can still see the VR! Here is one, courtesy of MSN Search’s cache. LINK.

Now I think Seal is a great musician. Although he has become quite a commercial success, and some of his stuff is a bit too pop for my taste, I think his first disc from the early 90s is great, and remind me of some Peter Gabriel stuff.

Anyway, Mazel Tov to the happy couple!

Link: Heidi Gallery at SI.com
Link: CNN.com story

Tags: Miscellaneous

When a company declares that one of it’s guiding pricinples is to ‘not do evil’ in their S1 filing, you would expect that their approach to promoting themselves is going to take a slightly different tact than the usual Fortune 500. To that end, Google has already used the resources of innovative agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the folks behind Burger King’s Subservient Chicken and Method Soap’s ‘Come Clean‘ campaign.

The first work by Crispin was a series of billboards in hi-tech areas of the country seeking job applicants for Google featuring the following statement: “{first prime digit found in consecutive digits of e}.com.”

Anyway, the New York Post is reporting that Google is looking to expand their conventional advertising in light of greater competition from Yahoo and Microsoft. Google nor Crispin would comment.

Tags: Web

Frank Boosman points out that, according to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times, the war in Iraq has cost $130 billion to date or $198M per day. That makes the amount committed to date by the U.S. to tsnuami relief ($350M) equal to 42.27 hours of Iraq war costs. Hmmmmm.

Tags: Miscellaneous

Despite already offering one of the slicker Windows Media Center solutions, Hewlett-Packard is announcing a Linux-based home entertainment hub at CES this week. Link to C|net report.

HP’s new media hub will run the Linux operating system, include HD TV recording and an ethernet connection to your home network for access to media files stored on other PCs. It will have a remote control, much like the MCE, but likely have an option for a full keyboard.

It’s fascinating that HP is choosing to go the Linux route when they have so fully embraced Windows Media Center. Variety is good, and a statement on Tuesday from Vyomesch Joshi, executive vice president of HP’s imaging and printing group that “customers want simplicity, innovation and mainstream price points,” seems to explain some of the reasons why they have gone the Linux route.

HP has done this before, way back in 2001, also on a Linux platform. And we all know and love another fabulous Linux-based home entertainment box - the TiVo!

I’m looking forward to seeing HP’s new offering.

Tags: windows media center