Social networking – it’s all geek to me, or not!

The 27 Geek dinner does not comprise of 27 spectacle-wearing, pale skinned, nerds, discussing the binary code of the mainframe within the Starship Enterprise, but rather of a community of online and net-savvy people, who share a mutual interest in the development and functionality of the online sphere.

The dinner is held monthly, respectively on the 27th day of each month, alternating between Johannesburg and Cape Town, offering an effective real-life social networking platform. The dinners are comprised of speeches, presentations, free wine, and good food, but most of all a gathering where people who normally converse via IM services and are in contact via various online networks, meet, discuss, laugh, have fun, and entertain the overall specific content of online.

In my opinion, the latest Geek dinner (and the first I have attended thus far) was a great success. Thumbs up to the organisers! I felt comfortable socialising and networking since I have gotten to know most attendants via the contexts of their blogs, websites, ect. Meeting people, who one normally only converses with through online social networks creates a sense of a strong, growing, and exciting online community. It is also refreshing switching phone numbers instead of URL’s.

These dinners will strengthen the ties between the local online communities and thus could have very positive and effective effects within local online start-ups and collaborative projects in future.

What ended at 1am, in Melville, with Aquila, Dave, Carly, and Victoire, was a phenomenal evening, which left me with some really exciting contacts and motivation to blog with and for an audience which I have come face to face with. Looking forward to March 27th!

Have a look on Chilibean’s (Chilibean.Chilibean,Chilibean) blog, there is more info and even a video clip of the evening. More pics also to be found on Aquila’s flickr account.

Labels: 27, dinner, geeks, social netoworking

By: Gregor | Sunday, January 28 at Sunday, January 28, 2007 | |

It's all a matter of timing

This has concerned me for a while now, not to the extent that I suffer of sleepless nights; however it is an issue that I get reminded of on a daily basis. Find yourself a glossy magazine, and look for the first watch advertisement…or just have a look at the back, normally you recognize Brad Pitt or Cameron Diaz Uma Thurman showing off a silver Tag Heuer.

Now, look what time it is on the watch and then brows through the rest of the glossy and compare the times. 99% of the time you will find that the time on watches in adverts is set between 10:07 and 10:10. The only reasoning I can find for this is that maybe that specific constellation of arms allows for the maximum exposure of the face (not of Brad Pitt, that of the watch). Or maybe it looks nice and balanced.

Whatever the reason is, it is an industry standard to present watches with this specific time constellation and now that you aware of it will haunt you for ever and ever!

Labels: Brad Pitt, Breitling, Cameron Diaz, IWC, Maurice Lacroix, Omega, Patek Philippe, Swatch, Tag Heuer

By: Gregor | Thursday, January 25 at Thursday, January 25, 2007 | |

All McGyver Ever Needs …

via neatorama

Labels: cool, macgyver, Tool

By: Gregor | Tuesday, January 23 at Tuesday, January 23, 2007 | |

Time to uncover the truth about Brad Pitt and his wrist!

I conducted some research for my last post about the watch advertisement, to make sure that it was accurate. But then I stumbled over what will possible be the worlds largest scam of all times (excuse the pun)!

My last post was motivated by an advert on the back of a Men's Health magazine, which presented Brad Pitt, wearing the new Tag Heuer Carrera watch. Then I started looking at adverts online and I stumbled over a Tag advert which had very similar attributes to the last one. The pic of Brad was identical to the ad I saw in the Men's Health. Just the watches were different. Now isn’t that just grand!? Not only is that very slack from the advertisers, using the same image twice, I also consider this being highly uncreative. But most of all, Brad Pitt is used to market this, however he doesn’t actually wear it. The watches are digitally edited into the picture, making the image firstly a complete lie, and secondly also confirming that the product is actually not worn by Pitt.

The more I write about it, the more I am shocked by this swindl! Sure, advertising to this degree is based on product placement and using public figures to promote products, but when it becomes apparent that the advert is not even ‘real’, when it becomes obvious that a product has been photo-shopped into a generic image, then that also reflects on the ethic of the company who is advertising the product.















The image of Pitt is nothing more than a false landscape beautifying the actual product. Pitt in this case is no different to the mud-ridden hillside presented in Land Rover ads, or the green background of a Kulula advert.

Brad's wrist in both pics are bare, no watch, just some Pittyful armhair...

Labels: Advertising, Brad Pitt, bull, consumerism, Hoax, lie, lies, scam, Tag Heuer, time, Watches

By: Gregor | at Tuesday, January 23, 2007 | |

iPhone, uPhone, blah blah blah – a tactic gone wrong!

Yes, yes, I also like the iPhone, I think it looks great and the features sound amazing. But enough of that, since the hype of the iPhone only to be released at the end of 2007 (inSA) is a little to much for my liking.

I was surprised by the introduction of this phone before it actually got released, but it might have been market pressure. It seems like there is some form of technological breakthrough with this product, such as the interface and its overall functionality, but since the introduction of the iPhone various other phone models have been leaked and announced to provide similar functionality and ideas.

Chilibean (thanks for the motivation to write this post) posted about the Nokia Aeon which seems to work on a very fancy looking interface as well – and it looks simply breathtaking! Then there is the Google Switch, even though it’s just speculation, this might be the next Googlephone, oh and wait, look, also based on interface technology. Furthermore LG has released a phone which apparently has been publicized as the "first completely touch screen mobile phone".

With the iPhone only being released mid 2007 and end of 2007 in SA, I think Jobs’ strategy was not all too clever. Until the iPhone is available on the market there will be a rise in new phone models boasting the same ideas, with the similar interface and functionality. The iPhone obviously has the upper hand when it comes to marketing and product placement, and the interconnectivity between Apple products - but their potential downfall with this products’ high cost, where asby the time of its release its novelty will be worn off completely.

Labels: Apple, competition, iPhone, market, mobile, technology

By: Gregor | Thursday, January 18 at Thursday, January 18, 2007 | |

The real Google AdSense infiltration

It was just a matter of time until $Google$ release its multi-billion-$-online-beast into the real world. After various speculations how the $Google$ web advertising system, “AdSense”, could be utilized with a variety of online multimedia (i.e. YouTube) the NewScientistTech reports on a patent Google apparently as filed.

Google’s AdSense, which displays adverts for products related to the page being viewed now, wants to do the same for billboard ads.

"In a patent the company has filed, it argues that however glitzy the ads that run on electronic billboards in shopping malls and out on the street, they are all but useless if local stores have not got the advertised products in stock. Google has come up with a system that only advertises products available nearby."

According to the NewScientistTech, stores can purchase advertising time on their local electric billboards which are connected to the clients’ stock-control computers. The ads are displayed repeatedly until the stock-control computer reports a product to be sold out. If this happens the ad is omitted from the cycle until the product is restocked.

One the one hand this kind of advertisement system is really smart, since consumers do like to buy what they see advertised, hoping that the specific product is in stock.

However, within an online environment, where products can be purchased globally, at any time, and at a rate which is not comparable to any local shopping mall’s retail store, the idea of advertising the actual stock seems to be of much more importance. Shops in local malls surely do not really have the vast amount / constant consumer traffic as online shops have. The above mentioned system thus seems to still be more appropriate to the virtual consumerist world.

It is either way interesting to note that the AdSense system is expanding from the online into the ‘real’ consumerist environment and will no doubt be soon visible on our local radar screen.

Labels: adsense, google, retail, stock-control

By: Gregor | Monday, January 15 at Monday, January 15, 2007 | |

Gregoogle Classifieds?

If anyone's interesting in purchasing the following:

- Nikon D100 Digital SLR + MB-D100 Grip + 1GB Compact Flash + 2x Li-Ion Batteries
- Nikon 18-35mm with UV filter
- Nikon 28-105 with UV filter

Entire Pro Kit has been used by a professional photographer (me) and are in very good condition. Included are the charger and cord, battery, manual, TV cable, USB cable.

Contact me: gregor.rohrig [at] gmail [dot] com

Labels: BuyIt, Digital, Lenses, nikon D100, SLR

By: Gregor | Sunday, January 14 at Sunday, January 14, 2007 | |

The scarce blogger

I must apologise for the lack of blogging at the moment. My notebook is still sitting at Rectron for repairs ( over 2 weeks now) and the machine I am using currently is not very user (net) friendly...

Will be back on track soon with some exciting posts and a (hopefully) great new site!

By: Gregor | at Sunday, January 14, 2007 | |