ArcStonian Ryan Brown celebrated a productive Monday of programming by letting his coworkers decorate his desk!

The traveling Star Wars exhibit “Star Wars — Where Science Meets Imagination” has finally come to Minnesota. I had the opportunity to check it out, and I can say it certainly lives up to the hype.

Patrons are invited to view original movie costumes and props, examine the incredible detail of model ships, watch exclusive behind the scenes clips, meet storm troopers, and even climb into the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit for the jump to light speed.

To get a small glimpse of what’s in store for you, see my photos above. I used Wonderfile’s tag sharing feature to create the interactive slide show. To start making and sharing your own slide shows for free, sign up for Wonderfile.

I helped a friend move some furniture this weekend. Up at 7:00 am! Earliest I’ve been up on a Saturday in several months.

Reed DeLapp spotted quite the photo opportunity near the IKEA furniture pick-up, and his iPhone came to the rescue. The quality of iPhone and Treo photos is quite impressive. I don’t think I would even attempt a photo like this with my Motorola Razr, and when these photo opps com along, it’s nice to be prepared (ask Nick Longtin if you’re not convinced).

Check out this tool!

Here at ArcStone, we only dream of the kind of corporate office angst that spawns entertainment like this:

• ^ ^ ^ Crazy and hilarious video compilation of corporate peons going postal to the tune of Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day.”
• Five Minutes to Kill Yourself. A flash game where you have only five minutes to kill yourself before a mandatory meeting.
• The USB Rocket Launcher. Nick has one of these and can testify to its usefulness in dispelling office tension. Now that he’s found the USB extension cable, he’s twice the threat.
• Scott Adam’s Blog. Who better to get you through the day than the evil genius behind Dilbert? (I should mention that ArcStone has not one cubicle and nary a Dilbert comic pinned up on the wall.)
• Corporate Gibberish Generator. In case you’re stumped for copy on your website. (Joking. You were tempted, weren’t you?)
• Online Anger Management Classes. Maybe it’s safer this way — no risk of beating up your classmates.

Edit: I forgot one. Get Yourself Fired. For those who *really* hate their jobs.

One of my favorite days of the year. Endless possibilities for marketers, and so much fun.

Highlights in the ‘net-o-sphere today:

• If you’ve got a Google Docs account, sign in and open a new document. Under the file menu you should see an option for New Airplane. As Nick says, “Be careful. It’s in beta, so it may crash.”


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Every once in a while I come upon a site so unique, so interesting, that I simply must share it. Indexed is one of those sites. Jessica Hagy has taken blogging to a another dimension with her faux-math graphing posts.

While others (me included) struggle to convey complex thoughts and opinions with hundreds of words, she cuts strait to the point using only a few lines. Jessica’s hand drawn creations may not stand up to scientific scrutiny, or be testable on your TI-80, but they are genius in their own special way.

She also has a book coming out that will no doubt become an instant coffee table classic among nerds everywhere. It’s sites like Indexed that renew my faith in the Internet’s ability to offer up quality content for an unbeatable value.

Don’t miss this site, it will change your perception of blogging, graphs, and math forever.

“Geek Industry Insights” is my series of posts exploring the inner workings of a technology company. I will discuss the unique culture, politics, and challenges that permeate the industry.

In this installment we will explore the lighter side of ArcStone’s company culture, and how humor can bring a boost of morale and productivity when it’s needed most.

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There are so many ways Google can be used beyond research, stalking, and finding the quickest route to the primaries. For example, Googlewhacking and Googlebombing.

Googlewhacking is a time sucking game where the goal is to find a two-word search term that returns only one result. It sounds easy, but is remarkably difficult. Thankfully, I seam to have an unnatural talent for it and can field this example to you.

Googlebombing is a little more sinister. In a Googlebomb the goal is to manipulate Google’s search results for fun or profit. The most famous bomb had the terms “miserable failure” linking to George W Bush’s biography.

Here is an interesting image Googlebomb I discovered. When searching for “Word” a seemingly official photo of the Word 2002 box appears. Upon closer examination however, it’s a clever parody.

A fellow word-lover of mine tipped me off to Scrabulous, the Scrabble-esque app for Facebook. You can play casual games with your friends over any span of time. (Name of opponent removed to protect the innocent.)

You know I’m already addicted.

I spent a good portion of my holiday weekend sifting through the documentation for Papervision3D (let this load, it’s worth the wait!). Papervision3D is robust, open source ActionScript class library that aims to simplify the process of creating and animating 3D objects and effects in Flash.

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