A false report on BBSpot.com hit the net today proposing the popular social networking tool/time waster, Twitter has unveiled a brand new pricing structure, apparently aimed at large organizations and corporations. Your regular old Twitter account would still be free but they’re adding on special features for those users who want to shell out the big bucks. The tiered pricing structure includes oh-so-adorable names such as Sparrow (at $5/month), all the way up to Eagle (at $250/month). They also allude to a top secret special bonus tier called “Black” which I’m sure will be reserved for the creme de la creme and will allow people to tweet directly into your brain without the use of any computer at all.
This is all a big fat lie. Follow the outraged response here.
I think Twitter does need to figure out a way to monetize. I do use the service and I’d like to see it keep going. Without a real revenue stream, the money will eventually dry up. It’s time for Twitter to grow up and buy a power suit.
Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo has apparently jokingly suggested that Twitter sell the “twitterers you should follow” section when you first sign up. He said he would pay $250,000 to be on that list for two years.
I’m not sure a premium account would be such a bad idea. They could sell it to the big companies who don’t naturally fit into Twitter and they could help integrate Twitter naturally into their marketing strategies. I know Twitter wouldn’t be able to sell ads on their site since very few people I know who tweet ever actually visit the site. Most people use other applications to read and write their tweets.
Would you pay for a subscription service? I know I wouldn’t. Most previously free services, like Jott, that switch to pay models, I usually abandon. I would hope if Twitter does do some kind of pay service, it’s core services remain free.
Spacesick’s “I Can Read Movies” series
We here at the Chop Shop have a flickr account just like everyone else on the planet. I know your Mom and Dad have one too. The thing that makes us different from your Moms and Pops is that we also started a group on on flickr called the The Design and Illustration Muscle Collection. What makes this design and illustration group better than all those other ones that your aunts and uncles started is that this one is awesome. Let me break that down for you… it will leave you in “awe” and wanting “some” more.
But beware! The group is by application and we are not the only ones who can accept or deny members. We don’t do that because we think we are so cool… but if you just leave it open, then everything gets posted there. Even excellent designers will post every loose sketch in their portfolio if they are allowed to do so. So this group is curated in an attempt to only allow members best pieces to stay in the collection. So please come by and take a look at the collection or apply to become a member as well. If you do apply, please allow some time before it gets processed. The admins go through applications every few weeks, not every day. Read More…
Wishing you a Happy St. PATRICK’S DAY! And then this for the day after!
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Girl Geek Dinner in the cafeteria at Google. It was a lovely event with food, drinks, speakers and best of all, networking. I was excited at the prospect of meeting other female programmers and tech geeks.
The evening began with an hour of socializing over wine and cheese. I met several women and a few brave men who were “in the tech industry.” I was a little disappointed I did not meet a single developer but I did meet some lovely digital marketing folks.
The dinner itself was nothing to write home about (or in this case, to blog about) but it was nice to sit and eat with smart women who were up on their twittering. I met a woman, Charlotte, who was a Freelance Social Networking Consultant. After our dinner together I’m still not exactly sure what she does.
Following dinner there were a couple of speakers. The first speaker, Corinna Cortes, Head of Google Research was really fascinating. She spoke about all the fantastic things she and her team are doing at Google with language and speech recognition and even demonstrated how surprisingly well the new Google Translation services work. What struck me as the most intriguing part of her presentation was how fewer and fewer women are getting into technology. There was a boom for a while where it seemed like women were really getting to play with the big boys in the technological sandbox but unfortunately that seems to be on the decline currently. She encouraged us all to get out there, not just to young women starting in the field, but also young girls still in high school and let them know not all programmers are pocket protector wearing nerds.
I left the event with a warm but unsatisfying feeling. Again, it was lovely so many women gathered to celebrate and discuss all that is pink and tech but I really wanted to hash out ideas with my fellow programmers. There need to be more women out there who code! And I’m not just talking about the touchy feely graphic designers who know how to put a stop action at the end of a MovieClip in flash. I want to talk frameworks and design patterns with a fellow X chromosome.
So ladies, if you’re out there I encourage you to take that class, pick up that book, start that blog – whatever gets you talkin’ tech with the boys! It’s fun and believe it or not, it’s very creative. You get to make stuff into other stuff! How cool is that? I really do love what I do and I want other women to feel that joy and sense of pride that I do every day when I see something I made from scratch take on a life of it’s own.
The idea for wanderingspace.net came from postings I had made to a popular forum known as yayhooray on which I was managing three separate threads concerning current missions to Mars, Saturn and a page of other space miscellany. A number of people on the forum suggested I make my own blog of that same material rather than maintaining these threads on the isolated yayhooray community. I derived the name from the word “wanderer” which until recently was the only true definition of what made a body a planet since the days of the ancient Greeks. Recently, they went and defined everything which is how Pluto wound up getting the axe.
Planets and Moons
The theme of this blog is not only and obviously space, but in particular places in space that a person might theoretically be able to one day visit. So for the most part, nebula, galaxies and the like are not a part of the mix, I prefer “terrestrial” places or somewhere one could walk or at least attach oneself to depending on gravity. I know those “gas giants” have no surface, but they do sport some lovely moons. See, the thing is that I have just about had it with Earth and I have started to look elsewhere – sort of get a jump on things. Read More…
Made by Littlebrownbyrd
In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re big Robot fans here at the Block. I also happen to be a huge craft/handmade fan therefore a big fan of Etsy. I figured it would be great to combine the two passions into a post, Robot stuff on Etsy.
The first thing I’ve found is an adorable hand made Stuffed Robot made by Littlebrownbyrd. At $25 this little hand crafted gem is a total adorable bargain. This particular bot has been lovingly made a reserved for a specific person but Littlebrownbyrd will handcraft a personalized robot just for you. I’m thinking about it. They’re just so darn cute.
To view some of Littlebrownbyrd’s robots that have been made for others, click here
Thanks for clicking by! We have grand plans for blog.choppingblock.com. This is the first release within the much hyped ROBOTS™ redesign of the studio site. Over the years, we have created dozens (if not ten bushels) of blogs and publication tools for clients and friends — it’s way beyond time we built one for ourselves.
As we continue on our mission to become masters of the website, our goal here is quite simple. We wish to share the stories of the creativity and ideas that originate from within our studio — to post about the formal (and technical) graphic design stuff, the silly stuff, what inspires us, and the things that keep us up (usually tethered to a keyboard) at night, to innovate more so than replicate.
In our twelve year history, The Chopping Block design studio has brought together some of the most amazingly talented, and often humble, designers and developers on the web. Our greatest achievements are directly related to our affection for collaboration. We are stoked that the blog is here and we can present the team of ROBOTS™ that power the studio.
See more at 