Marcoullier.com

“Meta” jokes only delight people with obscene amounts of domain knowledge. That’s why mashups are the domain of music snobs — the more context you build around individual songs, the more excitement when they merge.

(I still can’t get embed to work in this template. I fucking hate CSS.)

This video could have been a trainwreck, a “Yeah, Rivers, I like YouTube too” moment. Instead, when Chris Crocker starts lip syncing one minute in (followed by the Numa Numa kid and Tay Zonday) the video becomes a celebration of the people involved and the “fuck yeah!” area of my brain lights up.I imagine the last scene is what ROFLCon looked like this year.

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We talked about this a lot last year but I never expected to see something this good. When MyBlogLog 2.0 goes live later tonight, take a few minutes to savor this. You’ve built something really, really cool.

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After seeing that Todd had linked to Johnny’s awesome DIY multi-touch display demo, I felt it was only right to link to his mind-blowing head tracking demo. CMU doesn’t have quite the same cachet as MIT or Caltech, but every Carnegie Mellon CS and Engineering grad I’ve met has been scary smart. Keep up the great work, dude!

Low-Cost Multi-touch Whiteboard using the Wiimote
Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

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Chris Charla turned me onto a cool little service at GDC called Kwiry that helps you remember all the cool little things you come across in your daily life.

1. Learn about something interesting, like a book, band, place, person, whatever
2. Send an SMS to KWIRY with the thing you want to remember
3. Receive a reminder email with a link to a google search for said thing

Dead simple. Dead useful. I’m in love.

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I finally ordered Moo Cards a few days back. The order confirmation said the cards would like ship in about five days. I thought this was a reasonable time frame. Thirty-six hours later I was notified that the cards were shipping.

What an easy way to delight your customers. Under-promise and over-deliver. Just keep in mind that if the delta is too great, you’ll lose their trust moving forward.

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Oh, sweet baby Jesus, this game is pure crack. Spin the Blac Circle sounds innocent enough:

Lead a ball through a rotating maze full of deadly traps.

But don’t let its simplicity fool you. Alejandro Guillen’s little puzzle box will steal your free time, then your sleep and finally your sanity. Stay away! STAY AWAY!

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So it’s been three weeks and I’m still here. In fact, my posting frequency is accelerating. I’m still figuring out what content works best for me, but the 100-word limit is a surefire winner for me:

• I write 90 words, realize I haven’t made my point, delete everything and start with the point.
• My writing gets tighter when I’m forced to pare six superfluous words.
• I don’t have to spend four hours researching an idea.
• I’m not obsessed with proving I’ve thought out every angle.
• I can still cheat when absolutely necessary

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Pottery Barn sells mass-produced MDF furniture at craftsman prices. As a lazy yuppie bastard, I shop there.

Last year I bought a charging station, which broke during installation. I finally called customer service; they promptly sent a replacement and asked me to send the old one back in the new unit’s packaging.

The replacement just broke and I never returned the original. Called customer service:

• They’ve scheduled UPS to pick up the first broken unit tomorrow.
• They’re sending another replacement.
• Upon arrival, they’ll schedule a UPS pickup for the second broken unit.
• I’ll keep buying Pottery Barn.

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