Havok May Locate New Team in Dublin

Havok, the Emmy Award-winning Irish software company (owned by Intel), responsible for some of today's top games, is currently deciding between San Francisco and Dublin to locate their software development team for the next gen of games consoles.

After ruling out lobbies from agencies in Britain and Singapore, David O’Meara, Havok's managing director looks certain to locate the new team in one of its current centres. Unfortunately David has warned that Ireland's tax rate of 55% makes it an unattractive location for software developers. Havok's headquarters are currently located in Dublin, and the firm has confirmed that it has no intentions of moving out of the capital.

“We need world-class talent so that means we either go to the universities or get it from abroad,” said Mr O’Meara. “This talent is mobile so a high tax rate here makes California more attractive to them. Effectively we will let our staff decide where we locate.”

Havok’s special effects tools are used in production of both games and movies by the world's largest developers. Initially the company developed a physics engine that ensures the laws of the physics are maintained by digital objects, however Havok has confirmed their intention to develop a complete games development engine.

“Developers would not have to use any technology other than Havok’s,” said O’Meara. “The system will be modular so they will be able to use their own or third-party technology with our games engine.”

Twitter: The Movie

Filmmaker Frank Kelly has announced his plans to create a feature-length documentary inspired by Twitter users' experience. The film, 140, will consist of 140 different filmmakers, each shooting 140 seconds of film that represent what connects the filmmaker to their home. Overall the film's theme is connection.

Frank described the project, saying "I'm asking the filmmaker what it is that connects them to their home. It can be anything they want, a landscape, cityscape, a sunrise, a wife, husband, child... doesn't matter. But it has to be captured in 140 seconds and at the same time as everyone else." Adding, "The idea came from being able to communicate with a lot of people at once, and the fact that you could actually synchronize something: You put a message up, and everyone who's following you gets it instantly."

The project is currently recruiting it's 140 filmmakers through various Social Networks and Twitter, obviously.

"There are a couple of students, one in Utah who is 18 years old," Kelly says. "It goes from him all the way up to commercially successful, award-winning short filmmakers and documentary filmmakers. I wasn't going to tell anyone no, because the main thing is to get across the filmmaker's point of view. Just because they weren't established didn't change the fact that they had a personal connection with something."

Read the full story here, or tweet Frank yourself.

Sophos Release Klingon Anti-Virus Version

I can't really explain this one to be honest. Sometimes things simply defy explanation.

Sophos explains, "Use Sophos's Klingon Anti-Virus to quickly perform an on-demand scan and find viruses, spyware, adware, zero-day threats, Betazoid sub-ether porn diallers and Tribbles that your existing protection might have missed. The software can be run without deactivating your current anti-virus software. Phasers can be left set to stun."

I think it makes more sense to just watch the video!

No 'Call To Action' Display Ad

This is a first for me. Sprint ran the below ad for an extended 8 week campaign. It does not feature a 'Call To Action' - there's no clickthrough. I have never seen anyone do this before. Is it the stupidest idea ever or perhaps brilliant. It certainly has the potential for massive engagement times and huge amounts of offline and online conversation, but could it achieve real results?

Let me know what you think.

BBC Blast Studio

I'm not sure why, but I hate when I wind up with lots of post that have videos. I dunno, it seems like cheating or something. Anyways, this one had to be shared because it's pretty incredible.

Fallon London and The BBC have just launched, what they call, "a simultaneously digital and experiential event". Blast Studio is a mix between an art installation and an online interactive experience. In real time, children engaging with the site will be able to control the studio itself. The whole thing will then be filmed to create TV ads. At the same time actual artists are going to be invited to express themselves in the studio together with the online audience.

So check this out...

Google News

Seems google has come to my attention on several fronts in the last week, so rather then write about them too much, I'm going to give an overview of the three developments that I think are most interesting.

Google Supports Newspapers
In a recent letter to the Office of Fair Trading (in the UK), Google has called for a relaxation of the rules governing newspaper mergers. Quoted as saying, "the present laws do not reflect the increased competition publishers face from search engines and internet companies". The letter went on to say that Google would be completely supportive of publishers such as Trinity Mirror or Johnston Press, were they to investigate merging their operations with local or regional newspapers.

Google's call has been seconded by senior executives at the Local Media Alliance, who are also asking for a relaxation of merger rules. Their own opinion being that present laws do not take account the large impact the internet has had on newspapers. Ultimately, they have said, a relaxation of the merger rules would allow newspapers to diversify their offering, increase their reach, enhance their content and reduce their overall costs.

Google's stance is understandable considering that it currently provides one of the largest news services in the world, through search listings, that it pays nothing for and receives advertising revenue (in the form of PPC ads appearing alongside the listings). Only a month ago Rupert Murdoch publicly asked, "Should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyrights?". In an extremely harsher statement, Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson recently said, "Google devalues everything it touches" and "it divides content quantitatively rather than qualitatively".

The Office of Fair Trading currently has these rules under review as part of the Digital Britain report. An announcement is expected in June.


Google Search Options
Google recently announced the addition of search options to your Google search results. This is their way of allowing users to refine their search results through an easy to use interface, without any knowledge of the standard Google search definitions. Google describe the new options as "a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier. Search Options helps solve a problem that can be vexing: what query should I ask?"

The easiest way to understand what Google Options has added is with this nice video:



For the general public I think these are great additions, but beyond the novice user I'm not sure they've add anything that I haven't already been able to do. Though I do like to write my blog posts directly in HTML so maybe this was never aimed at me.

Interactive Display Ads Hit Target Market Perfectly

To promote the New Zealand tv show Girl Racers, Tribal DDB created the following two ads. I'll be honest I was very much in two minds as to whether they were a bit too much to post, but when it comes down to it I considered the target audience that the tv show probably attracts and realised that these may be some of the most suited ads I've ever seen.

Seriously.

Think about who watches a tv show about girls who wear tight spandex onesies and drive really, really fast cars. In my opinion these ads hit the target market nail firmly on the head. I hope you agree....