Ads into testing + more things

3 minutes estimated reading time

Why we should relish putting ads into testing – VCCP – bit of an odd concept. The TV ads that I’ve worked on have all gone into testing at concept stage. Ads put into testing have their concepts polished using research from Kantar to maximise effectiveness. I couldn’t understand not putting ads into testing of some sort. More related content here.

Death of corporate media relations | WSJ – brands don’t trust or need media according to one editor. With their own social media accounts, blogs and websites, they go directly to their audience

For China, Tech Giant Tencent Is Both a National Champion and a Threat – WSJ  – Tencent, which has more than 45,000 employees, recently began moving into a new $600 million Shenzhen headquarters, a futuristic complex with skywalks linking twin skyscrapers.

The architects had a bold plan for the executive suite. They wanted to station Mr. Ma and his top lieutenants in a central command post with high visibility, like the bridge on a battleship.

That wouldn’t do, architects were told. One reason: Too many government officials come calling, and their visits need to be discreet. The executive offices were placed instead in the upper reaches of the highest tower.

Is timeless UI design a thing? | Imaginary Cloud – wait a minute this is an article about whether good design should be a fad or timeless??? WTF

Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras – The New York Times – “Reform and opening has already failed, but no one dares to say it,” said Chinese historian Zhang Lifan, citing China’s four-decade post-Mao policy. “The current system has created severe social and economic segregation. So now the rulers use the taxpayers’ money to monitor the taxpayers.”

Google Cloud changes abuse prevention process after viral customer complaint – Business Insider – Google appears a lot more vulnerable. In the many discussions about this incident on Reddit and other online message boards, a big complaint that has surfaced is an inability of Google Cloud customers to contact human customer-service reps in emergencies – not ready for enterprise use

Japan Tests Silicon for Exascale Computing in 2021 – IEEE Spectrum – wow surprised that ARM is better than SPARC for this?

bellingcat – After Strava, Polar is Revealing the Homes of Soldiers and Spies – bellingcat – it has been patched now, but worthwhile reading through to understand the journalist’s methodology

How fast-food restaurants are designed – Curbed

Millennials Favor Netflix, OTT, Not Demo-Targeted Services 07/06/2018 – interest and passion point segmentation rather than generational

Music’s ‘Moneyball’ moment: why data is the new talent scout – all of this can get gamed thru payola very easily. It recognises popularity rather than talent and begs the question, why would you go with a record label if you were already ‘making it’ nowadays?

The Cultural Context of Chinese Fan Culture: An Interview with Xiqing Zheng (Part One) — Henry Jenkins – great read on Chinese fan culture that is used to explore transgressive scenarios

Memory Loss: Prices Weaken for Chips Used in Smartphones, Self-Driving Cars – WSJ – cyclical memory chip price fluctuations

Yes, Make Psychedelics Legally Available, but Don’t Forget the Risks – Scientific American Blog Network – interesting that this is on a blog of Scientific American magazine. It feels like the next step along from the medicinal cannabis movement that seems to have gotten a lot of traction

Demo One disc that came with the early PlayStation’s had an application called V-CD that played music CDs and had a great visualiser to go along with the music. As I am not a gamer, this is why I miss the original PlayStation so much.

Negativland Interviews U2’s The Edge :Negativworldwidewebland – for many people the hypocrisy that is U2 didn’t manifest itself until some time in the noughties. Negativland’s dispute with them back in 1991 was one of the reasons why Mondo 2000 had them interview The Edge a year later and showing him up. I bet the publicist got fired for this

German Police Accused of Carrying Out Some Pretty Stupid Raids – or smart overreaching raids….

Tencent’s WeChat is now host to 1 million mini-programs | SCMP – no data on mini app usage, but this has to be hurting the Android eco-system in particular