Category Archives: Weird

Things that are just that.

corporate entrepreneurship, Weird

Corporate Innovation – On Onassis’ Yacht

On a boat…

Who says corporate innovation has to be boring?

The office today… A yacht previously owned by Onassis.

I don’t often post about what we do with +ANDERSEN & ASSOCIATES for corporations and their innovation programs, because they don’t hire us for me to have yet another stage to talk about myself.

But from time to time I make an exception. This is one of those times.

Today, the office for the regular support and feedback session with the innovation teams of a Dutch corporate customer was a bit different.

It was on a yacht. And not any old yacht. A yacht previously owned by Onassis.

You might know I’m a huge opponent of running a corporate innovation theatre, so why a yacht as an office?

First of all, it’s important to get the innovation teams off-site, as far away from the long arm of daily operations for these kinds of sessions. (And as an added bonus, if you chose somewhere nice, it doesn’t hurt the inspiration of the teams.)

Secondly, we’re darn frugal. It was cheaper to rent the yacht than renting a off-site conference facility for the same day. Incredible!

The captain explaining the technology capabilities of the conference room…

 

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Plone, Weird

Yet Another Plone Spotting Competition

Today I was inspired by a comment left by Alexander on my last post about Plone icons in Media Wiki.

I had totally forgot that also other elements of the original Plone icon set have spread like wildfire all over them there internets. For instance this ‘Print’ icon:

Plone_Print_Icon

Chances are that you have already seen this icon somewhere on the web or in an application. I can remember even spotting it in the classic slsk (Soulseek) p2p client.

‘So, what’s the competition?’ I hear you murmur. Well, send me all your weirdest spottings of the Plone Print (printer) icon in the wild by Saturday the 22nd of March, and I’ll draw a winner that will receive an American Apparel T-shirt (in the size of their choosing) with signed version of the original Printer artwork on it.

Happy hunting!

BTW, if you’re interested in computer icons – check out some interesting books on the subject.

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Little Known Fact, Plone, Weird

IM IN UR WIKIPEDIAZ ™

If you happen to visit Wikipedia or Wikileaks from time to time, chances are you’ve seen this faceless person sitting on top of the page staring down at you:

However, chances are that you’ve probably never really asked yourself where it comes from. Then again, who in their right mind would? ;)

Closeup:

Funny thing is, this icon – among others on Wikipedia, is actually from the original icon set of the Plone CMS.

Media Wiki later as a true testament to the amazing work of the Plone CSS developer community, shall we say blatantly stole ‘borrowed’ the whole Plone CSS – complete with the icons. Then Wikipedia and Wikileaks made use of Media Wiki and the rest is – as they say – history. So now you know.

Funny thing for me is, that I am the one who actually created the Plone icon set and as an afterthought after I had finished completing the whole UX design concept. Because there were no open source icons that didn’t suck ass at the time I actually had to make some icons too.

Please leave a comment if you have seen other Plone icons in the wild.

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News, Weird

WWII bomb found close to my apartment

Yesterday on the 3rd of January a British bomb (Image) of the “zehn Zentner” (German) type from World War II was found near my apartment in Cologne, Germany. As they were defusing the bomb, I was evacuated from my apartment complex and had to stay away for the night.

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They managed to defuse it (German) during the night so I could move back in on the 4th. Many thanks to the insanely brave people of the bomb squad!

Have a look at some images of the situation as I was evacuated.

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