The lines between real and virtual worlds blur further still

Thanks Gizmodo for this

Real Pilots Racing Against Virtual Airplanes Will Bring Simulators to a New Level

Sky Challenge wants to create a new massive sport, one that would allow you to race against real stunt airplanes, flying through virtual doughnuts and gates up in the real sky. To do that, they are using a mix of technologies that that allow real planes to be precisely tracked, as well as letting real world pilots see the course and the computer planes around them. Here's how it works:

• The real world scenario is introduced in the computer and a race course is programmed.
• The real planes use a Global Positioning System combined with an Inertial Navigation System, which is needed to compensate for the lack of accuracy in the GPS. This is critical while doing acrobatic maneuvers because the GPS can't get a clear signal at that time.
• The tracking information is then relayed to the servers, where it gets integrated in the virtual gaming grid.
• Simultaneously, the virtual planes position is sent to the real airplanes, where the pilots can see where the other planes and obstacles are located.

In the future, the company wants to make these races a major televised event, where everyone can participate from home using their computers. [Air Sports Live via BBC News]

Read More: Carcade Transforms Car Window Landscape into Arcade Game, Tuttuki Box Is Like an LCD Truck Stop Bathroom For Your Finger, Nokia's "Point and Find" Head-Up Display For Life is Launching in Beta, Amazing Magic Mirror Digitally Changes Fabrics On the Fly

A brand new day

Target in the US have responded to the current economic climate with their new TV spot entitled 'a brand new day'. Tapping into ideas of new ways to save it shows a petrol bowser racking up the dollars as a business man cycles to work with the super 'the new commute', a dad cutting his kids hair retailing a shaver, a woman using her lounge as a gym retailing the swiss ball. A nice retail ad that heros Target and envokes fun at a time when consumers are having to tighten their belts.

That's entertainment

http://www.harrodsthatsentertainment.com/

Retail theatre hits London's favourite department store Harrods this season with an amazing display of movie inspired windows. Running for 2 months the store is totally themed around entertainment both in the windows and throughout the store. Not only can customers can enjoy a red carpet makeover but they can put themselves in a professional photo shoot, visit a movie star costume exhibition or catch celebrity book signings. To involve and engage Harrods people, staff were treated to a 15 minute private performance by the cast of the musical Chicago prior to the opening of “That’s Entertainment”. Further more, there are live performances from the West End casts of Phantom and Mamma Mia! Whilst the world is panicking about interest rates, the markets and the cost of living it's good to know some retailers are taking our minds off it all.

New Media Crashes the Presidential Debate

Thanks ReadWriteWeb for this post on twitter and video making an impact on political debate

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / September 26, 2008 9:14 PM / 3 Comments

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In 1960 seventy million people watched Kennedy and Nixon engage in the first Presidential debate ever broadcast live on TV.

And not a single viewer could post a comment.

These days things are different. Tonight, far fewer people probably watched the Current.tv and Twitter collaborative broadcast of Obama v. McCain - but scores of them participated, 140 characters at a time. It worked very well. You can get some idea from the 1 minute of video embedded below.

The commentary from viewers was some times pointless and at other times impressively insightful. It was democratic - or at least for those of us who happened to find out about the Current.tv live stream. I didn't know where to watch the debate until I went looking five minutes before it started. I searched Twitter and found out about this broadcast. I'm glad I did.

Was it on par with the first live televised Presidential debate? It may not have been, but we're less able to be awestruck today than we were in 1960. John McCain, incidentally, was 24 years old and just out of flight school at the time. He must have felt the impact of TV full force.

Obama, incidentally, was conceived a month later.While many websites streamed live video, the Current/Twitter broadcast certainly wasn't watched by as many people as the first televised Presidential debate. But new these new media are expected to ripple out over the world just as far at television has.

Was tonight's live online video plus Twitter coverage of the debates a meaningful game changer? Participate in our poll to share your opinion.

The technology worked well. Tweets were repeated and browsers had to be refreshed (Kulabyte, the most effective live streaming service we've seen yet, apparently was not used) but it was a very engaging experience. It was a debate unlike any other in the history of the world. It was much better than watching it on TV.

It was a little anti-climactic and it was effective. That's a good place for technology to be these days. We won't feel the same watching talking heads banter without viewer commentary ever again.

Using Outposts in Your Media Strategy

Thanks Chris Brogan for this post on how to spread your word

September 29, 2008

Social networks are great places to meet new people, to build new business relationships, and to learn about information from non-traditional sources. But another great way to use social networking sites is as an outpost. What do I mean by this? It turns out that people getting to know you on social networks might also find your content for the first time, and/or something you post to those networks might bring you an opportunity that wouldn’t immediately come to you in other ways.

Building Outposts

Before we go too deep, as I’m talking about RSS and some of you might not be fully aware, here’s a great video by Common Craft about RSS in Plain English:

Here’s what I’m talking about:

1. Find your RSS feed URL for your blog. (If you’re not 100% sure how, right click the big orange button somewhere on your site and right-click. Select “copy link location.”)
2. Add your RSS feed to FaceBook. I also recommend Simplaris Blogcast (formerly “Flog Blog”). It’s a great app for adding blog posts into your personal news feed.
3. Add your RSS feed to LinkedIn, but go further. There’s a “what are you doing?” line in LinkedIn. Three times, I’ve had business opportunities come from someone catching something in their LinkedIn feed. (No offense to Mario Sundar, but I didn’t realize people watched that as closely.)
4. Post the occasional tweet about a particularly good blog post to Twitter. Do this at a rate of about 1:12, meaning one post about your stuff to any 12 tweets about other people’s stuff. This will keep people a bit more interested in your stream as something of value, versus a “mememememe” type of Twitter user.
5. Repeat this in any “very specific to your industry” social networks that matter to you, and/or on emails to your specific potential customer base. Do this such that you entice people to read your latest article, instead of just putting something that says “subscribe to my blog.”

Technically, it’s a simple tactic used in a strategy of awareness and / or community building. And yet, it’s one that you might not be doing yet for your media.

Any other recommendations you want to add to the process? Any questions?

Photo credit, Jule Berlin

55 business on twitter

Mark Pollard has done a great job of pulling together a load of screen grabs from businesses that are using twitter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markpollard/

Cheers Mark!