Level One Design

You will first need to download and install the Virtools 3D Life Player. Afterward, enjoy the 3D design work of the Netherlands design firm, Level One Design. Using your mouse, go ahead and play by dragging the image around. And, be certain to click on the little red button. Nice work, eh? Nice background music, too.

(You know, there may be a good living for a few excellent composers in writing short, but unique background compositions as content-rich and music-themed web sites continue to develop. The music we will see being written might one day be the online equivalent of the now well-known TV jingle.)

Home page:  Level One Design 

Pinger

Something weird seems to be happening. And, it is YouTube-related. (Isn’t everything these days?) What is it? It appears some firms have decided that the best and cheapest advertising, viral or otherwise, begins [and ends] with YouTube.

Pinger is an excellent example. Via YouTube, the founders of Pinger.com offer this video introduction to their new business model. (Look to the lower-left portion of your screen. Then click “video” under “Learn More.”) How does The Distillery feel about using YouTube as a primary advertising medium? We are not certain. It seems both right and wrong. Let’s explore that assessment a little more.

YouTube is an excellent fit with what is suspected to be Pinger’s primary target market–younger-aged text messengers. On the other hand, and keeping recent survey findings in mind, using YouTube will not be the best vehicle for what is assumed to be another Pinger target market–older adults more accustomed to voice and phone, but have not yet adopted text messaging. (Note: Pinger combines voice with text messaging and your cell phone. It supposedly offers the best of both worlds.)

Is YouTube Pinger’s only advertising medium, other than any viral or word-of-mouth from the YouTube video? The Distillery would appreciate if its readers let it know where else Pinger ads have been found. Yes, there are the press releases and very likely some public relations work, but will they be sufficient?

 We also see Pinger aligning itself with MySpace.com–again emphasizing a younger target market. Does that mean Pinger is eschewing older users who might actually find this form of “text messaging” not only fun, but useful? Only time will tell if a YouTube-focused advertising campaign is sufficient. But until then, you might give Pinger a trial–regardless of your age.

 Home page:  Pinger

PayPerPost.com (Easy $$$ for bloggers!)

Fellow bloggers, look below at the posting for Davison Design. As you can see, it is labeled as an advertisement. But not only is it an advertisement, it’s a paying advertisement. The outcome of that singular posting is $10 US deposited in my PayPal account. Easy money, I’d say. (Update: No entries at The Distillery are now associated with PayPerPost.com.)

It’s so easy that I’m passing along how you, too, can get paid for blog postings. Point your browser/mouse/trackball/cursor/command line/etc. to http://www.payperpost.com. (And yes, I’ll even be paid for this posting. Ain’t life wonderful?) Open an account as a blogger and then look through the listings of opportunities. Those are advertisers willing to pay the indicated amount for a blog posting that meets the given advertiser’s criteria.

For example, the posting below required at least 200 words about Davison Design. Also included by specification is an invisible tracking link. (I added the visible images although they were not specified.) A link back to the sponsor was also specified. Any such links will be specified at PayPerPost and are provided for you to use. The write-up was specified to be a neutral review, but as you will see at PayPerPost, some advertisers specify if a given posting is to be just a review, only positive in tone, the blogger’s own assessment of the advertised product, or neutral in tone.

Once PayPerPost reviews your blog posting and verifies it meets all stated criteria, the offered amount is automatically deposited in your PayPal account once a month. (I am assuming that given my report states the deposit will be made to my PayPal account in 29 days.) What you see below was my first trial. I had my doubts, but it appears to be just as advertised.

In sum, what can be better than being paid to blog as you would anyway? Thanks, PayPerPost. Also thanks to another WordPress blogger who pointed me to it. As I said, it’s easy money — if you’re willing to sell-out. You can also choose to donate your earnings to charity.

Home page: PayPerPost.com
Blog: PayPerPost Blog (inc. videos)

MedJetAssist

The Distillery has been found to be lacking once again. There are some products which are never considered for inclusion here. It’s not because they are disliked, it’s just they are never considered. That’s when serendipity comes to the rescue.

What about evacuation to the hospital of your choice if you are injured or sick while on vacation? Does your Visa, MasterCard, or American Express card cover that? No. Even more, as we have seen with recent world events, even the American Embassy is often found lacking. That’s when MedJetAssist flies to your aid. (Why do I have visions of Mighty Mouse flying around in my head right now? Oh yea,… Here I come to save the day! Mighty Mouse is on his way!)

MedJetAssist is an emergency medical air evacuation insurance service which operates around the globe. (Great idea!) The company will fly you to any hospital in the world and also cover repatriation (if you are overseas), as long as you’re at least 150 miles from home. The service has even caught the attention of Fox News. Pricing? Very reasonable considering the service offered.

Home page: MedJetAssist

Davison Design

We have all had a great invention idea, right? In fact, each of us has likely had a couple of good ideas for inventions. However, bringing that idea of an invention to actual fruition is not easy. That’s where you need an established firm like Davison Design on your side. Davison Design has been featured in BusinessWeek magazine and has won two BusinessWeek-sponsored design contests. That’s a lot, but The Distillery will let Davison Design President and CEO G. M. Davison tell you more in this video.

Davison Design licenses inventions from ordinary people like me and you and helps make them available to major corporations as additions to their present product lines or as entirely new products. From research, design, packaging, prototyping, and even making samples available, Davison Design has the experience, personnel, resources, and track record. (Important note: Davison Designs cannot and does not promise your idea will generate revenue, cash, income, money, etc.)

Davison Design uses their own unique and systematic Inventegration® process. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? It is. Inventegration is a breakthrough concept developed and implemented only by Davison Design and for its inventory of inventors, possibly including you and your invention. So, why now are you waiting? You have the great idea; Davison Design may well have the wherewithal. It sounds like a match made in heaven.

Home page: Davison Designs

BlogPulse (Neilsen BuzzMetrics)

We are being watched. We have been assigned monikers and buzzwords. We have our own metrics. We have buzz. We are bloggers.

They show up in our blogs’ search statistics. They take our pulse and index our blogs to see if we’re buzzing. They assign us metrics and measures. They openly state they wish to take over the world (or at least searching the blogosphere). They are Nielsen.

I have to give Nielsen due credit. Its imminent death has been supposed more than once, each time after a major change in consumers’ content consumption channels or after various outcries by advertisers and/or advertising agencies. However, Nielsen is still here and seems to be adjusting to its changing environment — and the rise of consumer-generated content — with aplomb once again.

So if you are a blogger, you might wish to view the following explanatory videos from BlogPulse:

General Overview
Focus On Technology

And from there, point your mouse/trackball/cursor/trackpad/middle finger at Nielsen’s BlogPulse Tools Overview page where you will find additional videos worth taking a few minutes of your time to view.

Important Addendum: Bloggers, submit your blog for indexing by BlogPulse here.

Home page: BlogPulse
Home page: Nielsen BuzzMetrics

PSYOP.tv (& Blacklist.tv)

No, PSYOP.tv is not another TVoIP channel. However, this NYC design firm does focus on providing visual solutions in motion for the advertising & marketing, video gaming, broadcast and music video industries. And, they do some very excellent work.

The Distillery appreciates the manner in which PSYOP.tv provides direct links to its portfolio (e.g., http://www.psyop.tv/redhotchilipeppers) and designing the links to be copied and pasted. That significant detail is something other sites almost invariably lack, but without it intra-site navigation often becomes a nightmare — especially when attempting to point to specific content within a completely Flash-powered site. The Distillery awards major kudos to PSYOP for that nice and much-needed touch.

PSYOP also sponsors its Blacklist.tv division, a unique international and collaborative effort where up-and-coming content producers are given room to experiment with cutting-edge and often experimental ideas. (But unless you wish to experiment with finding a new job, be certain to turn down the volume before entering the Blacklist site.)

Home page: PSYOP.tv
Home page: Blacklist.tv

i2off.org (3D Engine Realtime Generator)

Yesterday, we saw the magnificent 3D effects delivered by Virtools, The Behavior Company. Today, we look at a 2006 Seattle Flashforward contest finalist 3D effort from i2off.org and generated with Flash.

Judge the difference for yourself, but I can tell you [this particular?] 3D Adobe/Macromedia Flash effort looks like something a first-grader might bring home to have placed on his/her parent’s refrigerator. If that’s the best 3D rendering Flash can deliver, I’m moving my Adobe/Macromedia stock portfolio selections to Virtools. Put differently, if this were a 15-round heavy-weight prize fight, Flash would have suffered a TKO and found itself on the canvas before the end of the first round.

Virtools, The Behavior Company

How about something I think the vast majority of you have not yet seen? Yet, you should. And why so? Because it’s really special. Trust me on this one.

First, download and install the Virtools 3D web player. (Macromedia/Adobe Flash player wasn’t good enough for the French? As usual, what is?) Then have a look at this visual-only demonstration to make certain it is working. Ready? Then let’s play. Web designers, pay attention. You do not wish to miss this.

First, have a look at this spectacular 3-D demonstration from eTinToys. Next, close the office door and have a blast with the Urban Adrenaline online game. Very cool. Beautiful 3D graphics, too.

Now click on over to ChatPark3D. Weird. Cool. Little people 3D avatars! (Just sign in with anything. It’ll work.) Now check out the all-too-real physics with the Car Arena Physics Demo. Crash! (No, not the movie.) From there, explore around on your own. Enjoy.

Okay, this time the French are on to something. This is several steps beyond mere Flash. The integration of the two means some wickedly nice web sites should start showing up. Yep, Virtools is a real winner. Web designers and viewers alike, don’t miss it or you will be sorry.

Oh, one more thing — the faster your computer is and with at least 1 GB of RAM, the better your experience. This one isn’t for sissy computers. I also now see why they call themselves a “behavior” company.

Home page: Virtools, The Behavior Company

Camenzind Evolution

Seldom have so few done so much with so little. (Sorry about the mangling, Winston C., but I needed it for this one.) That captures my first thought about Camenzind Evolution, a Swiss architectural firm. The site is as simple as many I have not praised, but just the right combinations of color, lines, movement, and music (and great buildings) turn a simple site into a gem. Anyone with a small budget, take note.

An interesting aside: There are more than 1100 museums in Finland, which means Finland has the greatest museum density in the world in proportion to the population.

Stan Steams Fine Photography

The name, Stan Steams, is very likely not at all familiar to you. However, at least one of his photographs is.

Interestingly, that photo lost winning the Pulitzer Prize by a single vote. Another photograph, that of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby, won that year. However, the photograph of a then very young John, Jr. saluting the caisson bearing his slain father is the one that has been reprinted countless times and is likely known even beyond the “Camelot” generation of baby boomers.

! Artastic Designs !

A purely obligatory entry…

! Artastic Designs ! is a very cool site advertising a rich media content creator’s services.

Sorry folks, but that’s likely it for today. I am swamped. Too many bad guys and too few good guys (luckily enough for me).