How much info can a retail tag hold?

Even though the retail price tags used at stores like Wal-Mart, Target etc are archaic they were very cleverly designed.  It is pretty "awesome" actually how a little piece of paper can hold so much useful info.

Yes, I have a habit of saving media that I find amusing/extraordinary.  Can't recall the source link, sorry. 

Hachiko - Amazing Story of Dog's Loyalty

From Wiki source below - Hachikō was an Akita dog born on a farm near the city of Ōdate, remembered for his loyalty to his owner, even many years after his owner's death.

In 1924, Hachikō was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. During his owner's life Hachikō saw him out from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a stroke at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting.

Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for nine years, with Hachikō appearing only in the evening time, precisely when the train was due at the station.

Hachiko:

Akita Inu Current Picture

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachikō  

The Stoning of Soraya M - I Will Never Forget.

Today I watched a movie, based on a true story, that I will never EVER forget. The stoning of Soraya M portrays how lust driven selfish men can twist religious and judicial laws to achieve their goals of murdering an innocent victim.  The stoning was brutally real, I had to fast forward a bit...never done that before during any movie. I'm not going to write anymore about the movie to not give away more than I already wrote but these religious hypocrites and the mob really enrage me...  God will serve justice to these man (?!), this behavior is not of human nature and RIP Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow... 

The Stoning of Soraya M and The Cove are a must see films of 2009.  

Most Awesome Podcasts on the Net!

Among other things I really enjoy listening to informative and educational podcasts and about 6 month ago I discovered the Mekka of such podcasts http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/.  Generally people listen to or watch programs that cover the subjects of their interest.  But in Radiolab's case everything that the hosts, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, talk about becomes subject of interest... even if I didn't care about the subject beforehand.

The best thing about radiolab podcasts (besides their hosts) is the use of audio that immerses me (the listener) into the environment which makes me feel as if I’m right there. It is really rare to find such quality casts that utilizes sound and sound effects to create a virtual environment by using acoustics.  Its a gem!

Some of my favorite podcasts in no particular order include Animal Minds, After Life, Numbers, Choice,  Laughter, Morality and Time.  All of the podcast are well worth your time to listen to, I highly recommend it and if you like it please consider donating so that the team can keep producing these wonderful casts. 

My Fitness Goals

"I know if I missed a day and nothing happened, then it would be much easier to miss another day. Pretty soon I wouldn’t have much of a schedule, and then I’d have less motivation. It’s a downward spiral that I want to avoid, so I keep the schedule sacred." - Chris Guillebeau

Back in November after watching my wife’s favorite movie series Twilight New Moon, I was shocked and inspired by a physical transformation of an actor Taylor Lautner. The guy gained over 30 pounds of lean muscle in less than a year. He went from being a scrawny teen in the first episode of the movie to a muscular man/werewolf in the second episode (google it). In fact he did so well that Men's Health asked him to be on the cover of the magazine in December 2009 and share his story. In case anyone is interested, here is the article

Now I consider myself physically fit, 5 years of wrestling and casual soccer and various other martial arts training kind of helped. However weighting 150 lbs @ 5ft 11" I looked nowhere near like those buffed gym rats :) Taylor Lautner changed my attitude towards fitness. I thought to myself if he can do it, why can't I? So the quest begins...

I did my calculations, signed up @ Gold's Gym, & wrote my action plan. To reach my fitness goals I would have to gain about 33 pounds of lean muscle. To do that I will need to train at least 3 times a week and consume 2430 reasonably healthy calories a day (including 180 grams of protein, 90 grams of fat, 225 grams of carbs in 3 meals + snacks).

I have to admit, until recently I did not track my progress which is a big NO-NO with these types of goals (or any other goal that a person wants to achieve really). Below are my projected weights that I want to hit every 2 weeks. When I started training I weighted 151lbs right now I'm sitting at about 160, which is about where I should be at this point. I'm content with the progress so far just have to make sure not to get sidetracked.

Downloadhelper and Xmarks Topnotch Browser Add-ons

If you love to browse through creative content online (youtube vids/flikr pics etc) and would like the ability to store it locally in your hard-drive there is an amazing little Firefox add-on "downloadhelper" that allows you to do just that. I just hope by now you have Firefox browser installed on your machine, there is absolutely no reason not to have it. Even though its a bit slower than Google's Chrome, FF is a lot better than most other browsers in terms of security, speed and level of customization.

In addition to capturing videos & images from your favorite website, downloadhelper also allows you to automatically convert those files into most commonly used extensions like WMV & mp3.

You can download the add-on here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

P.S.
There is also a great add-on for Chrome, FF, IE, & Safari called Xmarks. It allows you to save your webpage bookmarks in the cloud and sync them across all of your computers.

Evolution of In-Store Advertising at the Point of Sale

It’s a researched fact that about 70% of customer decisions in retail are made at the point of sale and not because of some interrupting commercial you saw on TV. Due to this, retailers are trying really hard to advertise and convey as much information as they possibly can in as little space as possible in-store. Some do it well like Wal-Mart, Apple, & MSFT retail stores, others not so much.

Back in the 80s it used to be just posters and handmade signs. In 90s it was customized color printed banners. In early 2000s TVs installed 12 feet high with unrelated infomercials that nobody cared to raise their head to look at. Now it’s digital signs and interactive solutions that inform a target audience about a specific product of interest at the right time and in front of their eyeballs (and not up in the no-attention zone). Generally that information is relevant, and if its interactive, engaging and permission based its a WIN and I love it!

Case in point a recent project that our team worked on here at Nanonation: http://www.nanonation.net/casestudies/quickglance/room_and_board.html

There are many other REALLY cool & impactful projects that Nano team is working on. Like heuristic product finder kiosk or iPad related solution that I unfortunately can’t share :/