With advanced technology these days, do you realize how easy it has become for us to use our high-tech camera to capture and share important or just every day events  with our love ones and friends.  However our grandparents and  parents didn’t have that privilege. I don’t know what a 16mm film or 35mm slide is…I guess it is the ancestor of the VHS tape.

A few years back, I remember seeing in my parents’ closet some old VHS tapes of their wedding back in the days. To them they are priceless. Now I think it’s about time to preserve my family’s irreplaceable memories and transfer it to DVD. I asked around my local photo studios if they offer video restoration service. None of them have the required equipment to transfer my parent’s old VHS tapes to DVD.

I did some research online and I’ve found VideoConversionExperts.com. They are the leading 8mm, Super 8, 16mm film and 35mm slide transfer lab in the world. Video Conversion Experts have been transferring film and video for over 25 years and they also  have been designing and developing their own equipment for the past 10 years. They offer various services: (a) transfer Super 8 film, 16mm movie film to DVD and 8mm film to Video, AVI files, Blu-Ray DVD, HDV, HD-AVI and uncompressed HD, (b) transfer slides to DVD, JPG and TIFF files, and (c) transfer video tapes to DVD and AVI files. Their services are available throughout the United States and around the world. Not only they will be able to convert film to DVD, but they will restore it to it’s original clarity or better. With their rich experience in the business, I am confident these guys will be able to help me with my VHS tapes.

We are very lucky that today our world is captured digitally with a click of a button enabling us to secure our memories for generations to come…
…continue reading the post Restoring Precious Video Memories

Today, I invite you to meet the look-alike of the most popular U.S President. His name is Ilham Anas, a photographer that graduated from the Institut Kesenian Jakarta, the photography Route, in 2000. He was born in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia in 1974. As the side work, He is active in creating pictures for personal projects or assignment that had a journalism nature. But since Barack Obama won the Presidential Election, his life has changed..

“When Obama won, my colleagues played a practical joke on me — they made me wear a suit, a tie, and took pictures of me posing as Obama,” Anas told Reuters. “The pictures spread very quickly on the Internet. It was phenomenal. Then TV stations and an advertising agency got in touch with me.”

…continue reading the post Ilham Anas: Indonesia’s Obama Look Alike

Okay raise your hand if you have IKEA stores in your country. I might not be able to see you all raising your hands, but I would guess many hands are up. IKEA is the pioneer of the flat-pack design furniture at affordable prices and is now the world’s largest furniture manufacturer. The first IKEA store was opened in Sweden in 1958. The company has 315 stores in 36 countries, most of them in Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia. Much of IKEA’s furniture is designed to be assembled by the consumer rather than being sold pre-assembled. IKEA claims this permits them to reduce costs and use of packaging by not shipping air; the volume of a bookcase, for example, is considerably less if it is shipped unassembled rather than assembled.

Check out the video below explaining how successful the 2008 IKEA 3D Cover campaign went back in 2007:

“The IKEA Catalogue…A Bestseller! Next to the Bible and Harry Potter, it’s the third most printed publication worldwide. In 2007 we brought to life for the first time…demonstrating the innovative use of the IKEA catalogue as an ambient medium. The living room from the catalogue cover was recreated down to the tiniest detail. So the two-dimensional cover was turned into a three-dimensional installation. Passersby could have their picture taken on the photo set to become a proud owner of…a personalized IKEA catalogue featuring themselves as the cover model. Our teams made stops in shopping malls throughout 24 cities. A total of 7,120 people had their pictures taken on the set. 4,029 people later went to IKEA to pick up their personalized catalogue. That’s more than 56%! So the 3-D Cover not only boosted IKEA’s image, but also increased store traffic!”

…continue reading the post IKEA Catalogue: 3rd Most Printed Publication Worldwide

A collaboration between  Coca-Cola and McDonald’s in the promotion for drinks at McDonald’s restaurants is indeed very creative.  This is what I call ‘kill two birds with one stone’ or in other words ‘promote two products in one advertising campaign’. Regular Cola-Cola to people using the stairs and Cola-Cola Light to those who chose the escalators. What will you choose.. the stairs or the escalators? Either way, you can’t escape from McDonald and Coca-Cola. Overall, great execution!

…continue reading the post You Can’t Escape From McDonald And Coca-Cola

Like me, I am sure that the majority of people on this Earth have one goal  in common: to travel  and explore the world…climbing the famous Mount Everest, walking on the Great Wall of China, standing on top of the Eiffel towel with your significant other in France, feeling the cool mists from the Niagara Falls in a hot day in Canada…and the list will keep getting longer and longer if I don’t stop here…   Of course we can’t do all this if we don’t have a lot of money and time!  With my traveling experience thus far, I must say that it’s wise to plan out the trip in advance. Also, you can’t expect your trip to run smoothly as what you’ve planned. Unexpected events can surprise you and could possibly ruin the day, temporary or for a long while. A common catastrophic event is getting lost and the locals are not that helpful with the directions.

Introducing the Motorola Ming8 GPS to the rescue. Instead of relying on people pointing in all sorts of directions, this enabled smartphone has a GPS (Global Positioning System).  The GPS is a Global Navigation Satellite System originally developed by the United States Department of Defense for civilians to use as a common good. It was after the Korean Airlines Flight 007 shot down straying into the USSR’s prohibited airspace in 1983 that President Ronald Reagan issued a directive to have GPS freely available for civilian use.

It’s hard to believe, but the result of the war has actually brought us some great technology…like the Internet and the GPS!

…continue reading the post Motorola Ming8 GPS