TwentyThreeSeven

WordPressed

2007-01-31T15:25:00.000-05:00

As of today I'll be hosting my blog at my web site. See http://www.derekvaz.com/tts/ for all future posts.

Obama vs. Clinton

2007-01-20T12:43:00.000-05:00

Actually, I'm just comparing their respective web sites. Sorry for the juicy, leading title.

www.barackobama.com -> less is more?
www.hillaryclinton.com -> video chats, guest blogs and more, oh my?!

PS / My vote is for David Palmer...

Spender vs. Tightwad

2007-01-16T12:29:00.000-05:00

Researchers have discovered the particular brain activity which will predict whether a person will buy or not buy a particular item.

FYI / I'm the latter.

The Ultimate Jack Bauer Phone

2007-01-10T14:41:00.000-05:00

Apple launches their iPhone. There's many reasons why I'm getting one but I think I was sold when I realised that this phone is something Jack Bauer wouldn't leave the house with.

Food and the City

2007-01-08T13:58:00.000-05:00

One thing I love about Toronto is the food. Toronto Life breaks down the best of it.

Katrina Cabin Project

2006-12-21T11:31:00.000-05:00

Saw a report on this amazing project last night on Dan Rather Reports (which is quickly becoming the only news broadcast I watch).

In lieu of permanent housing, minimal and structurally sound cottages are being built at a low cost to give Katrina victims a home and more importantly, a sense of community after last year's devastation.

Kudos to Marianne Cusato, the architect and visionary behind this concept.

Broadband TV

2006-12-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

Robert Lemos of Wired gave up traditional (HD)TV for a month and instead watched (legal) broadband media.

Helloooo Cleveland

2006-12-05T22:46:00.000-05:00

Checking up on NBA scores and standings and I noticed Yahoo! Sports has already crowned the Cavs as division champs despite being only 17 games into the season and having a worse record than Detroit. The power of LeBron or just good gambling sense?

Lean Back

2006-11-28T20:02:00.000-05:00

A new study suggests that sitting up straight isn't the best sitting posture after all.

Amen Mark Hurst: Motorola's aren't so hot

2006-11-15T10:57:00.000-05:00

I've been saying this for years: Nokia offers a superior UI experience on their phones. Samsung probably comes the closest but Motorola, for all it's effort in making great industrial pieces, falls horribly behind with regard to the interface and ease-of-use their phones.

http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001066.php

The Way to be Interesting is to be Interested

2006-11-09T10:07:00.001-05:00

Probably one of the best quotes I've heard recently and it was from my boss. Then today I see Russell Davies' blog entry (via Kottke) and now I'm even more convinced.

"The way to be interesting is to be interested. You’ve got to find what’s interesting in everything, you’ve got to be good at noticing things, you’ve got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they’ll find you interesting."

Bad Banks of America

2006-11-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

An excerpt from this weeks Good Experience newsletter reminded me of my experience with a certain US bank.

I had my assets frozen in 2003 by Washington Mutual in Santa Clara, CA due to "fraudulent activity on my account". What was my fraudulent activity? Depositing cheques in the ATM and withdrawing cash right away. Apparently WaMu (as their affectionately known in the States) has a *strict* 'do not withdraw funds until 14 days after your cheque is cleared' policy regardless if, in the end, you're not overdrawn. Of course, the first time I heard about it was when my assets were frozen and it took the backing of the corporate legal team at NVIDIA (my employer at the time) to unfreeze them. Result: NVIDIA internally discouraged banking at WaMu. Probably not good for WaMu....

Why can't companies just be nice to their customers?

Glowing buttons not a usability issue

2006-10-23T10:26:00.000-04:00

Gonna call shenanigans on Mozilla's marketing team here.

"Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering the familiarity of the browsing experience. For instance, toolbar buttons now glow when you hover over them."

I've never thought to myself "what toolbar button am I hovering over? I wish this browser would give me a visual cue -- like, glowing!!" and I doubt many of you have. This isn't a knock on Firefox at all (I'm using it right now and I use it everyday on both my Mac and PC). Just humorous as even technical savvy marketing-types seem to miss what real usability is about.

- Derek

It's not easy being green

2006-10-22T12:30:00.000-04:00

It's been about 2 1/2 years since I've been to a proper sneaker show. Last Friday, Sneaker Pimps rolled through town with exhibitions from international and local artists.

Samuel L. Jackson even stopped by to show some love, rocking the "It's not easing being green" track jacket, brown cords, and Adicolor Kermit's. The baddest mf in show biz also looked like he was the stylist mf as well.

Needless to say me and the boys (and lady) at Blast tried to sneak in some off hand paparazzi shots. Enjoy and support your local kick artists.

I got off my butt and replaced MTV for real people

2006-09-11T23:39:00.000-04:00

I lied. I'm a liar. I totally didn't get around to blogging during my vacation. But then again, I totally didn't expect to not be able to find an open wireless network outside of the Apple store in NYC. (By the way, thx to the guys at the Fifth Ave. and Soho stores for not booting my ass out even though I would blatantly come in almost everyday, crack open my Macbook and check my email).

Anyhow, I did do more than geek it up with my laptop. Staying on the Upper West Side, there were a couple days where I got time for serene walks through Central Park. There's a lot to be said about a city that has a peaceful escape build right into it's core.

Then there were the trips to Pravda, the somewhat-overpriced-but-well-worth-it-terms of-atmosphere vodka bar in Soho, a blind drunk tour of the Meatpacking district on what my buddy Jay called "Fudgepacking" night (no explanation needed, I hope) and a tour of the hallowed Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts.

The highlight however, was stumbling into the Evelyn Lounge on Saturday evening (Sunday morning actually) for an unexpected chat with the lovely barmaid Lauren from Virgina who "absolutely loves Canadians" and Helena the "aspiring model" who just moved to NYC all the way from the Caspian Sea. And to think I was just sitting on the couch that evening watching MTV before I got up, got dressed and pushed myself out the door. The stories of how those people end up in NYC were just fascinating.

It sure beat sitting at home and catching the 14th rerun of the 2006 MTV VMA's.

NYC Vacation (No. 5)

2006-09-01T05:48:00.000-04:00

I'm in Pearson International airport on my way to New York City. This is the second time I've come to an airport with courtesy wireless Internet. Now that I'm a little bit awake, I thought I'd start blogging this trip for the hell of it.

First, a few shout-outs. Thanks to Jeff for lending me his kick-ass Canon point and shoot which I hope I will do justice with on my trip (up-skirt pics?). Secondly, to the company for giving me this sweet, sweet Macbook Pro. I think they thought I was going to do work on my vacation or something. They don't know me very well, I guess. Also, thanks to my good friend Reshma who, while blogging her own vacation in South Africa, is letting me crash at her "pimp" pad in the Upper West Side. Being so close to Central Park I thought it would be good to take a run on Sunday, so we'll see how that turns out. (Hint: I'll probably be sleeping)

Anyhow, it's time to board. If you're free this weekend check for photos and more posts as the weekend progresses. Although that would make for a sad weekend for you, eh?

Cheers.

D.

Me Write Book

2006-08-10T11:49:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not writing a book, but if you're interested, Bigfoot has.
Me Write Book is probably the funniest things I've seen at the book store and is worth picking up. Only Canadians can be this obscure and witty.

Dandelife

2006-07-17T13:26:00.000-04:00

I've been super busy over the last few weeks looking for a condo in Toronto and spending time with my newborn niece, Ava.

I was just thinking, being that her Mom is a web-geek like her brother, this child's life will be completely documented and available online. If, like Mama Vaz assumes, Ava grows up to be a famous actress all her 'invaluable' celebrity gossip goodies are at the world's fingertips thanks to Blogger, Flickr, etc.

Even cooler would be to document her life via Dandelife, an app I just saw today. (Thx SvN!).

Pretty cool times for a pretty cool kid.

Ice Creeeeam

2006-06-01T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I left Las Vegas (last post). I would like to say I've been "busy" (prototype work for OfficeMax, friend's wedding, condo hunting, watching every game of the NBA playoffs, counting down the days to becoming an uncle) but considering I'm averaging a solid 7.5hrs of sleep over the last few weeks, I can't say that.

Anyhow, the only thing I can think of lately is the heat. And nothing beats the heat like ice cream. Enjoy!

Headed Home

2006-05-01T02:01:00.000-04:00

Mccarren airport has free wi-fi!

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but I'll be posting pics from SF soon.

Back, Back to Cali...

2006-04-22T20:31:00.000-04:00

After my first FITC run this weekend I'm off on a much-needed vacation to San Francisco. It'll be my first trip back since 2003. Hopefully the great stuff I saw at FITC this weekend and the visit to the West Coast will inspire me to crank out some new work.

I don't normally do shout outs in the blog but, Eric and Ed, I'm on my way homey!

Why can't I own a Canadian?

2006-03-14T09:26:00.000-05:00

This has nothing to do with my religious beliefs or opinions on sexual preference. This is just downright, smart-ass humour.

Writely

2006-03-11T11:48:00.000-05:00

Google has purchased Writely, a lightweight word processing web app that I praised a few months back to the Content Strategists at my office.

I think it's almost household knowledge that Google is on the verge of offering a simplified, web-based suite of apps that will rival Microsoft Office, to some extent. These apps target users who don't use the full MS Office feature set but are great for personal and small (think <50) business use, in my opinion. I think Writely, being a beta-user myself, is a great little addition.

So let's recap for a second here. Blogger, Writely, Picasa, Gmail, 'CL2'?, and more. I'm curious as to how they'll bring it all together.

I've read articles about Google creating their own browser or even a Google 'appliance'. I don't really want to get into the business (or the hobby) of speculation but I am slightly interested as to how it will unfold, just to see how they handle the challenge of integrating these applications together in a nicely wrapped box.

One Year at Blast

2006-03-07T20:03:00.000-05:00

Of all people, my mother just reminded me that today was the 1 year anniversary of me joining BlastRadius. Thanks Mum ;)

The last year has been filled with some awesome experience both in and outside the office.

Anyone there will tell you that Blast's people are what make it such a great studio. They're funny, creative and downright intelligent folks. It's been motivating to say the least working with such talented minds. (We're not too shabby when it comes to style either.)

Cheers to a great group of people at Blast who've helped make this last year more than I ever expected. There are some big changes coming up for me over my next year at Blast and I'm truly looking forward to it.

Blog Monster

2006-03-07T16:46:00.000-05:00

Publishing these posts has become much more quicker for me thanks to Google's Blogger Widget...and possibly even more accessible soon thanks to the City of Toronto's interest in city-wide WiFi.