firestartr

Google tells users to drop IE 6

First Apple, now Google. Google officially announce that IE 6 will not be supported by gmail and other apps moving forward; which means, that certain new features will not work in this cursed browser. Now, usually, I am totally all about graceful degradation and fault tolerance. But not in this case. Only give credit where credit is due and IE 6 is such a terrible browser that I say, ditch it and spread the word.

Thank you Google! Never thought I would hear myself say that.

Course, they do have a bit of a vested interest in dissing Internet Explorer. But hey…we all do!

http://tinyurl.com/9hyqqy

Starring Pablo The Drug Mule Dog

This is one of the best ads I have seen in a while and in this series. Engaging, amusing, entertaining and yet hard hitting.

[Talk to] FRANK provides a website aimed at to raising awareness about drugs and a helpline for people to call to get help by those affected by drugs. There’s a FrankCoacaine’s YouTube channel: http://uk.youtube.com/user/FRANKCocaine where the other adverts can be seen.

We’ve all seen public awareness announcements (YAWN!) before and most of them push us over the edge by either being alarming,complete downers when basically we want to be entertained or just another government big brother blah blah blah.

But the FRANK campaign manages to stay relevant and compelling. Nice one!

The 2009 email brevity challenge

It is a truth universally acknowledged by all that we all send and receive too much email. Email has seriously transformed our (working and personal) lives over the last 15 years (approx) but it has also officially become a complete pain in the b^@kside because we all receive too much of it.

Twitter, and to a lesser extent other social media status update messages, have transformed how we communicate effectively online again recently. In particular, tweeting forces us to think and then communicate succinctly and effectively in 140 character or less. Brilliant! Essential information only please – all others need not apply.

So, in recognition of this global problem some clever peeps have decided to take a stand and have come up with a novel New Year’s resolution. The adoption of micro-emailing; a commitment to scaling back work communications to as close to 140 as possible. And it’s an open challenge – thus, the “The 2009 email brevity challenge” was born. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/97kz82 to see who has taken the challenge; and you may even wish to consider taking it yourself. I have.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Cliff edge

It’s 2009.

OK here we go…