Watchmen Photographer Talks about Life On Set

The official still photographer for the Watchmen movie, Clay Enos, talks about his 106 days on set in this Wired video...

Graduate School of Digital Media Being Contemplated For Toronto

Three Ontario universities - Ryerson, Waterloo and the University of Toronto - are contemplating the creation of a graduate school of digital media to be located in downtown Toronto and which could be up and running within two years.

Ryerson President Sheldon Levy said that the idea is to create a centre where industry can bring their most challenging problems in this field and where graduate students can gain real experience, according to the Globe and Mail. The 3 universities are said to already be collaborating in the area of digital media and the 2 years is really required to locate a physical home for the program.

5 Tips For Surviving Halo Wars

The Game Life guys at Wired have put together some strategy tips that might help you to survive the Halo Wars... Check 'em out!

Finalists Named In "Best Job In The World" Contest

Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle received nearly 35,000 applications for what was described as the "best job in the world". Using a viral marketing campaign to get the word out and a contest that offered compensation of $150,000 and the use of an oceanfront home for six months, Queensland has narrowed the field to 50 applicants for the job that involves living in exclusive Hamilton Island for six months and blogging about your experiences their.

“The campaign has largely relied on public relations and social networking activity,” Boyle said after announcing the finalists. “It's captured the imagination of the world and to date it's generated more than $70-million in publicity value.

“Apart from brilliant television, radio and newspaper coverage, the campaign has been the catalyst for special online discussion groups, bulletin boards, blogs and websites, with applicants critiquing their competition, having detailed discussions and swapping ideas and tips,”

Applicants relied on Youtube to post their application videos and Facebook and Twitter to rally support making the experience a truly social campaign.

According to the Globe and Mail "Eleven finalists will be flown to Hamilton Island for interviews before a winner is selected this summer. Queensland tourism officials will select 10 finalists and public voting will determine the final candidate. Voting ends March 24. After the first days of voting, a finalist from Russia is in the lead, followed by Canadian Mitch Moffit, a contestant from Guelph, Ont."

Study Says 60% Of Worlds Population Has Cell Phones

The International Telecommunication Union estimates that by the end of last year there were 4.1 billion cell phone subscriptions globally, representing 6 out of every 10 people on the planet. According to the Globe and Mail "The Geneva-based agency recorded the sharpest rise in mobile broadband subscriptions. The technology, which allows users to access the web at high speed with mobile devices, was available to 3 per cent of people worldwide, increasing to 14 per cent in developed countries." What affect will the global economic downturn have? “In terms of consumer demand and uptake, there will probably be a little bit of slowdown in the growth, but we are not expecting any decline,” she said. “People who have a mobile phone are unlikely to give up on it.” said Susan Teltscher, the ITU's statistics lead.

US Army Invests In Sticky Foam Weaponry... Again

According to Wired's Danger Room blog the US Army has issued a contract to Albuquerque, New Mexico contractor Adherent Technologies for the development of a "foam-based vehicle arresting system," which is intended to stop a vehicle in it's tracks before it puts soldiers or civilians in harms way. According to the blog "In theory, the foam would "instantly disable" the oncoming vehicle by clogging up the engine intakes and blocking the steering mechanism. The foam would absorb the vehicle's kinetic energy, bringing it to a stop. "Lastly," the company says, it "will leave the driver trapped inside an encapsulated vehicle, with no means of orientation."" This sounds like one of those attempts to stop the Road Runner by Wille E. Coyote. Meep meep!

Living Life On The Whims Of Others

A young Chinese lady, Chen Xiao, decided in December that she was done making decisions for herself and has taken to the online community to decide how she should spend her days. Refusing only to do anything illegal, immoral or violent, Xiao charges about $3 per hour to carryout the requests of others. "If somebody asks you to do something, something simple, and you do it, it can make you very happy. You can change from a gloomy person to a very bright one. It can help give you a new sense of self-esteem," she told CNN. She's been asked to do all sorts of tasks from spending time with the homeless to photographing the birth of a child. Her motivation? "Every time I had a plan for what I wanted my life to be like, nothing would come of it. It was very disappointing. I figured if other people came up with things for me to do, I might stumble upon something new and better,"

Facebook To Ask For Members Opinion / Vote On Major Changes

A week ago the Facebook user base to offense to a new terms of service and the company was forced to react by reverting to the old terms. On Thursday Facebook announced "that all significant policy changes on the site would be subject to comments from members and, if they prove controversial, a popular vote." according to the New York Times. Facebook founder and Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a conference call that “If we are trying to move the world to being more open and transparent and to get people to share more information, having an open process around this is ultimately the only way to do that,” The company is however reserving the right to roll out new features without the consultation.

Apple Shareholders Press For Information About Jobs

At Apple's annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday many questions were raised about the health of Steve Jobs. Board member Arthur Levinson told several hundred shareholders that the company expects Jobs, to return to his post at the end of June. "Nothing has changed," Levinson said. Despite the uncertainty surrounding Jobs, the company had a good year relative to many in the industry reporting a profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 a share, up from $1.58 billion, or $1.76 a share, a year earlier.

Source: USA Today

Canadians Can Twitter Via Cell Phone... For A Price

Since November Canadians have not been able to receive tweets from Twitter on their cell phones via SMS as Twitter cut the service citing prohibitive costs. Yesterday however Bell announced that it would now allow the SMS tweets but there is a cost. "Because Twitter is a third party service, the messages are considered premium and not covered by our plans. This aligns with industry standards regarding third party premium messaging," said Bell spokeswoman Julie Smithers. Bell will charge users of the service 15 cents for each incoming or outgoing tweet, even if the user has an unlimited texting plan.

Source: CBC