Ben Zimmer of the New York Times recently wrote a great article on the history of FAIL. That’s FAIL the interjection not the verb.
Zimmer wrote:
In July 2003, a contributor to Urbandictionary.com noted that fail could be used as an interjection “when one disapproves of something,” giving the example: “You actually bought that? FAIL.” This punchy stand-alone fail most likely originated as a shortened form of “You fail” or, more fully, “You fail it,” the taunting “game over” message in the late-’90s Japanese video game Blazing Star, notorious for its fractured English.
What has also made FAIL so popular online is the hilarious Fail Blog, a site where users submit images and videos of everyday examples of failure (like the one in this post).
FAIL has even touched us at Griffin. We were so inspired by the phenomenon that we created FAIL Maker, a free iPhone app to help you share those special moments of defeat.
I had the extreme pleasure of spending the last number of days in Seattle with a few hundred of the coolest geeks on earth.
Each year Internet super star, Chris Pirillo, organizes an incredible conference called Gnomedex. I’m happy to write that Griffin was a proud sponsor this year.
The conference mixes technology with social issues. We learn of ways people are using the power of the tubes to better their communities. The following is a short summary of some of my favorite presentations, but they were all good.
One of the advantages of attending tech conferences is that everything is recorded, streamed, tweeted and blogged. I highly recommend you take the time to watch some (or all) of the presentations when they become available. Each one was extremely relevant, thought provoking, touching and humorous.
Cyborg Anthropologist, Amber Case, spoke about the evolution of cyborgs. She showed us examples of people like Steve Mann who has created glasses to send and receive information online, so he can actually block out things he doesn’t want to see like advertisements on billboards. Every time I use my iPhone, TuneBuds and this computer now, I think about how they have become extensions of me. I am a cyborg. We all are.
Mark Horvath brought the house down by sharing stories about his and other people’s homelessness. While Mark was introducing us on stage to James, a Seattle (Nickelsville) tent-city resident, a hat was passed around the room. Together we collected $1,500 cash to help James get back on his feet. I hope he does.
Phil Plaitt, who writes Bad Astronomy, spoke about pessimism skepticism (oops, I wrote this too quickly). It was a fun presentation that made us all realize we are pessimists skeptics and that it’s actually a good thing. I ran into Phil waiting for the same flight home. He’s a great guy.
Drew Olanoff, a popular social media maven, was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer. Being the outgoing funny guy that he is, he has created a site called Blame Drew’s Cancer. The site aggregates Twitter tweets tagged with #blamedrewscancer and is linked with Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong campaign to raise awareness and money for cancer research. Go ahead and give it a try if you’re on Twitter. For example you could tweet, “I #blamedrewscancer that my coffee spilled in my lap.”
Micah Baldwin had a great presentation about building influence online, or How To Be Awesome. He had some wonderful insight in using the web to promote yourself and your business. Heck, I’m doing that right now aren’t I? Check out his slides.
Friends, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, spoke about their book, Trust Agents. Together they shared great examples of how to use the social web effectively and properly. Chris and Julien are both friends who I recommend you watch. They’re always outgoing and insightful.
These are just a few examples of how outstanding the quality of the conference was. My other highlights were the tweet up (thanks for coming if you were there), hallway, party, lunch, dinner, and walking down the road conversations that I had with so many of the wonderful attendees. I wish I could include your name here, but a) this post would become a massive list, and b) I would inevitably forget someone and then feel terrible when I realized it.
I want to personally thank Chris, Mona, Maya, Chris’ mom and dad (who help run the conference with him) and all of the Gnomedex volunteers and attendees for making this such an inspirational event. I’ll see you all next year.
Cheap Trick rocks! There’s no if, and or buts about it. The rock n’ roll band has been pumping out classics since 1977. Leave it to the group to actually record their latest album (coincidentally called The Latest) on 8-track! Remember 8-track? Don’t worry for you newer technology types, it’s also available in MP3 format too
One of our colleagues, John, is good friends with the band’s charismatic guitarist, Rick Nielsen. He thought it would be cool to create a custom checkerboard case for Rick’s beloved iPhone 3G. It’s well known that the black and white checkerboard pattern has been Rick’s signature style for nearly thirty years. Don’t even get me started on his awesome lawnmower.
As you can see in the pic below Rick really loved the checkerboard case we made for him. In fact, people around the office liked it so much, we’ve decided to make more to sell on our website. We’ll let you know first thing when they arrive – something tells me they’re gonna go quick!
Leave me a comment here and I’ll let you know as soon as we have them available.
I can’t get the song Who Are You by The Who out of my head as I write this post. No, it’s not because I just watched an episode of CSI. It’s because we want to know who you are. Who are you?
In the coming weeks we’re going to begin writing some posts about you, the Griffin Rock Stars.
