Jeff Chausse
Digital Strategy + Design
"I Got the Drums Because they Looked Cute"
My office is about 20 feet from the Harmonix reception area, where a cheerful fellow named Phillip answers calls from anyone who happens to find our office number. Due to my proximity, I get to overhear most of these calls.
Despite the fact that we clearly instruct people they need to contact EA for technical support, and that we have absolutely no staff or process for that sort of thing, we inevitably get support calls, and Philip does his best to politely help them as best he can. Today, he received the call of the century, which he transcribed as follows (I can personally vouch for the fact that he was actually far more polite, and this has been drastically simplified for editorial purposes):
Caller: Hello, i tried plug my drums into the wall and it didn’t work.
Phillip: You need to plug the drums into your console system.
Caller: Oh, what is a console?
Phillip: A game system, like an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
Caller: Oh, i don’t know what one of those is. So, you’re telling me i need to buy something else? I got the drums because they looked cute.
Phillip: Yes, ma’am. You need to buy a console and the Rock Band game and you play it through your television.
Madame: How does the console get from the drums to your television? We don’t have a television. I see 4 buttons and one for your foot. Does the foot one plug into the wall? it doesn’t seem to fit.
Phillip: You should return the drum kit and ask a sales representative what it is that you need to play.
Who knows, it might have been a prank, but it was still damned funny.
“We Wake in Disrepair” – The Album Meme
This was too fun to pass up. Create your own album cover according to the rules set forth here and post it somewhere… This is mine. Could it BE any more emo?
I can’t stop laughing at this one though…
John Sculley: Marketing Genius
Peter Elkind of Fortune just wrote a scathing article about Steve Jobs in Fortune Magazine, but this post isn’t really about this. It’s about this included quote from former Apple CEO (and sacker of Steve Jobs), John Sculley:
“Apple was supposed to become a wonderful consumer products company. This was a lunatic plan. High tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product.”
This wasn’t just an offhand comment to the press. It’s committed for posterity in Sculley’s memoir: “Odyssey” (13 used copies are currently available for $0.01 if you’re looking for further inspiration.)
And this is why he really should have stuck with selling “sugared water”.
Best Doom Mod Ever
Beware the Rickroller.
Also, check out this video of Scarlett Johansson naked
Proof that Marketing Does not Employ Engineers
A little mechanical engineering humor for the weekend.
From vowe dot net.
No, We Can’t
Some folks at Hill Holliday put together this great satire of the Obama “Yes We Can” video.
You Can Stop Watching American Idol Now
Nothing, NOTHING, can possibly top this guy’s performance.
Well, That’s One Way to be Accessible
The West Midlands Fire Service has certainly gone out of their way to make their web site accessible – to the deaf. Kudos to them for figuring out a way to convey information to the deaf via the visual medium of the web.
The Omni Future Almanac on Inflation
A while ago, I bought one of the coolest books ever – the Omni Future Almanac. The Omni Future Almanac was written in 1982, and its purpose is to describe what life will be like, well, now.
An entire blog could be devoted to the contents of this book. Sometimes it’s spot on, sometimes it’s way off, but the most interesting parts are the ones where life could easily have turned out they way they describe if a butterfly flapped its wings in just a slightly different way.
I’ve kept this book on a table in my office that I always walk by, and I’m constantly picking it up and perusing a random page. Today, it was about the effects of inflation. So, without further ado, here are the prices we’re looking at in 2010, three years from now (p. 158).
- Hamburger (1 lb.) $22.71
- Dozen Large Eggs: $18.00
- Magazine: $30.00
- Calculator: $50.00 (he he)
- Postage Stamp: $2.25
- Cup of coffee: $4.50 (OK, they kind of got that one right, in a weird way)
- Three Room Apartment Monthly Rent: $10,000
- Three Bedroom House: $1,000,000
Oh, but wait:
- Gallon of Gas: $2.00
Well, the good news is that a factory worker will be making $197,000 a year to help pay for all this stuff (p. 159).
Gabe & Max’s Internet Thing
Thanks to Matt D.