Uncategorized | Greg Takayama

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Grill a Bratwurst iPhone App

Posted by Greg T. on August 19th, 2009 in Uncategorized

Ran across this beaut today. You can “grill” a bratwust in real time by blowing on the phone mic to stoke the flames. I said to a friend, “Cool, you can try blowing on my sausage tomorrow at the movies.” Apparently that statement has more than one meaning than playing with the latest iPhone app whilst watching dumb local bail bond ads before District 9.

I just cooked a bratwurst. I’m hungry and the app is great. This is a way better gimmick than the zippos lighter.

The meat is from Bell, a German meat company, and the app by Rod Kommunikation. It’s free in the app store (iTunes link).

via swissmiss.

Raging sausage of hell.

Post tags: Food, iphone app, sausage

Objectified and Art&Copy

Posted by Greg T. on August 19th, 2009 in Uncategorized

I saw Objectified and want to see Art&Copy.

Objectified is a design geek’s design movie. There wasn’t really a thesis to bring the movie together, but it might have been that the lack of a thesis was the take away: design is many things to many people and because of its highly subjective unquantifiable nature, who’s to say who’s right.

Art&Copy is a film I haven’t seen. But it pulls at a side of me that is buried away just waiting to get free–something along the lines of profitable creativity. Advertising is, on the surface, fascinating.

Post tags: art&copy, films, ifc, objectified

Peter Bjorn and John – Nothing to Worry About

Posted by Greg T. on August 8th, 2009 in Uncategorized

This tickles me to the core. I think I’ve found my Halloween costume. The U.S. needs more weirdness.

Sea of Japan vs East Sea

Posted by Greg T. on August 6th, 2009 in Uncategorized

There is a strange full page ad in the Personal Journal section of the WSJ today. “We Are Spreading the Truth” took out an ad unconvincingly explaining that the Sea of Japan should be called the East Sea. This is an ongoing debate. I tend to side with “Sea of Japan” because 1) I’m Japanese and 2) That’s the status quo.

Here’s an idea, however. Let market forces determine the name. They should put naming up on the auction block with the highest bidder claiming 300 year naming rights. The proceeds of the sale will fund the production of stickers which will then be distributed to school kids around the world so that they may update their maps and globes. Or…even better, let corporate entities bid, maybe the world needs a “Samsung Sea” or a “Cisco Systems Ocean” (formerly Pacific Ocean).

Maybe it should say "To anyone who reads this text"

Post tags: east sea, japan, korea, sea of japan, wsj

Netflix and Company Culture

Posted by Greg T. on August 5th, 2009 in Uncategorized

Netflix’s internal company culture deck, which made the blog rounds today, is an awesome piece of business aspiration.

It’s motivationally masturbatory to read all 128 slides of the deck–pleasureful but perhaps pointless unless put into action. My question is…how do you effect change if you work for an organization that is stagnant, bureaucratic or traditional?

Even in a small, dynamic web company, altering company culture is extremely difficult. It’s like trying to make someone quit smoking–it’s difficult to externally alter human routine.

On a separate note, I liked Tony Hsieh’s tweet today:

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” -Winston Churchill

Post tags: business, company culture, netflix, zappos

TED Talks

Posted by Greg T. on August 4th, 2009 in Uncategorized

Man I love TED. I wish I was constantly bombarded with the inspirational morsels of life-encouragement that each of these talks carry. Every time I watch one, it makes me want to stay up all night and throw myself at some sort of worthy self-improvement project like updating my “why I’m late tracker” or learning ruby or filling out my calendar with tech networking events.

Here’s one of my favorite talks by Ken Robinson. I can fully relate to Robinson’s declarations about creativity and the eduction system. I was one of those kids who couldn’t ever sit still in class. I’ve found that at work, I need to plod and pace around conference rooms in which I’ve holed myself up in to actually focus. I need to change locations every 30 minutes, or change positions and kick my feet up on a file cabinet or window sill. I like being stimulated ways that make me consider how I fit into the jigsaw puzzle of humanity.

Post tags: creativity, TED, video

Right to Left Reading = Right to Left Websites

Posted by Greg T. on August 3rd, 2009 in Uncategorized

I thought this was interesting. Languages that read right to left employ web design that originates from the upper right of the page. I know, duh, but it’s interesting to see functional design mirroring. Ramkol, an Israeli Yelp, is a good example — logo in the upper right, header nav in the upper left, search below the header nav, primary content on the right, editing stream on the left. Individual review pages are interesting as well.