Mentos Fountain World Record

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$pageInfo in /home/techoryc/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/fluid-video-embeds/fluid-video-embeds.php on line 681

Warning: Attempt to read property "totalResults" on null in /home/techoryc/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/fluid-video-embeds/fluid-video-embeds.php on line 681

On May 24th, at Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio, a new Guinness World Record was set for 504 simultaneous Mentos Diet Coke fountains going off at the same time. Mentos and Eepybird (the crazy guys who make the elaborate Mentos fountains) put the event together. They invited participants to show up, who were provided with Mentos goggles and a Mentos rain poncho. The countdown began, and 500+ Mentos fountains were set off at the same time. I was on my way to Ohio that night, and if I had known about this, might have adjusted my plans to take part. Oh well, maybe next time (600 Mentos fountains?!?).

–View photos from the event–

PlayMyGame

Have you ever wanted to box me? Well, the wait is over, step right up to my PlayMyGame boxing match, where you can (virtually) beat the crap out of me. I even used a smug-looking face that you want to punch!

PlayMyGame.com gives you the ability to build a game of your very own. There are several games (boxing, cake fight, super me, hideout), ecards, and clips (mostly crazy dancing) to chose from. All you have to do is upload a photo of yourself, crop around your head and you’re set. Put the link to your PlayMyGame in the comments.

The Hype Machine

I’m not a huge fan of traditional radio. I don’t listen to it very often (usually listen to podcasts in the car). I guess I just don’t like the hear the same 20 songs played over and over again. With that being said, I still do want to find sources for new music. In searching for a song the other day, I ran across a site that will help me in that quest. The Hype Machine is a site that keeps tabs on music mentioned in blogs across the ‘net. It tracks them and rates them based on how many times they come up in blog conversation.

The Hype Machine tracks a variety of MP3 blogs. If a post contains MP3 links, it adds those links to its database and displays them on the front page.

I’ve actually run across several new artists and songs via ‘the machine.’ Thank you Hype Machine for keeping me away from traditional radio.

The Cinematic Orchestra (via hype machine)

Andrew Bird (via hype machine)

Broadcast Your Skills with Sclipo

As their tagline suggests, Sclipo is a site where good folks can upload videos of their mad skillz. I like this site because it isn’t just a collection of youtube-like random videos. It has the specific focus of demonstrating skills. There are some tutorial videos on here, and there are some pretty impressive “look what I can do” videos as well. At the very least this site should give you 15 minutes of entertainment, and maybe teach you a thing or two.

what is Sclipo?
Sclipo is a website to share videos about everyday knowledge among everyday people. We believe that the beauty of online skill-videos is discovering the really hard to find answers to those quirky bugs that life throws at you. Sclipo makes finding them that little bit easier in the current tidal wave of online video content, but keeps the whole process dynamic, fun, and completely user generated and assessed. We hope you like Sclipo!

New Japanese Mentos Spotted

Another shipment of Japanese rolls from Mentos Ambassador Roth arrived last week. There were a couple surprises in the package. There was a Juicy Cassis, Japanese Mint and a Citrus Mango. Of all those are flavors, I’ve got at least one roll of in the archive. The best part of the shipment is the curiously named Pine Fresh. Luckily there is a picture of a pineapple on the wrapper or one might jump to the conclusion that these would taste like an evergreen tree. I tried a roll, and can tell you they definitely do not.

The color of the pine fresh is a bright orangish-yellow, not a pale yellow like the lemon in the American fruit rolls. They have a strong flavor like a very sweet pineapple. These Mentos are very good and have quickly moved near the top of my favorites list (right next to grape and peach – with peach keeping the top position). The Pine Fresh Mentos have a slight mediciney aftertaste, and reminded me of the sweet kid-flavored cough syrup I took as a child. The aftertaste is very subtle though and definitely doesn’t ruin the candy. Pine fresh isn’t as unique as it would have been if it tasted like a Christmas tree, but they’re pretty darn good!

I ran across this interesting video on the Mentos Japan site of some crazy Mentos-headed guy dancing on a psychedelic pineapple backdrop. Based on his super dancing, he must really love pine fresh too!

Package Mapping

I’m waiting on a couple packages to arrive (one from DHL, and one from UPS) and I like to follow their progress on the tracking sites. OK, I check it about every other hour. I ran across a pretty cool site that maps (via Google maps) progress of a package as it travels across the country. Drop the tracking number into PackageMapping.com and you can see your packages make their way to your door. If only it made them show up faster.

The Latest Mentos Ambassador Shipment

Last week I discovered a big old box with Asian stamps on it in my mailbox. I pulled it out and thought to myself, “what on earth am I getting from Hong Kong?!?” Then I looked at the return address, “of course… (newly badged) Mentos Ambassador Stoll!” Ambassador Stoll had been working his way around the world since last August. And I, just as I do whenever I hear someone is going out of the country, asked him if he’d keep his eyes open for new/crazy Mentos flavors not available in the US. He certainly didn’t disappoint. Included in his package were some old standards: foreign labeled Mint, Strawberry, Apple, Fruit (or Rasa Bua!), Grape and Pink Grapefruit. There were also a few surprises with some flavors I haven’t seen before. There was Red Orange, which I have, but in a different wrapper. The other two new ones are Lemon Yoghurt and Ice Mint. The Lemon Yoghurt is totally new to me, but I’m guessing it is similar to the Strawberry Yoghurt I got last summer, fruity flavored with a little bit of yoghurt tang. The Ice Mint I’m guessing is similar to the Mentos Strong I had several years ago. It is an Altoid-like strong mint flavor. Thanks for the shipment… your Mentos Ambassador Card is on the way!

Thunderbird 2.0 Released

The Mozilla Foundation has an early birthday present for me, Thunderbird 2.0! I’ve actually been using the latest Release Candidate for the past week or so and have been pretty happy with it. There is nice collection of new features.

Message Tags: Create your own tags for organizing email. Messages can be assigned any number of tags. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.
Visual Theme: Thunderbird 2’s theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability and maximize screen real estate.
Session History Navigation: Back and Forward buttons allow navigation through message history.
Advanced Folder Views: Customize the folder pane to show favorite, unread or recent folders.
Easy Access to Popular Web Mail Services: Gmail and .Mac users can access their accounts in Thunderbird by simply providing their user names and passwords.
Improved Support For Extensions: Extensions can now add custom columns to the message list pane in addition to storing custom message data in the mail database.
Improved New Mail Notification Alerts: New mail alerts include information such as the subject, sender and message preview text.
Folder Summary Popups: Mouse over a folder with new messages to see a summary of the new messages in that folder.
Saved Search Folder Performance: Search results for saved search folders are now cached, improving folder loading performance.
Find As You Type: Finds and highlights message text as you type.
Improved Filing Tools: Recent folder menu items for moving and copying messages to recently used folders. Move / Copy again functionality.
Updates to the Extension System: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.
New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.
Windows Vista Support: Many enhancements and fixes for Windows Vista.

Some of my favorites are the new message tags. I can keep things organized a bit more now. No more keeping a message marked as new to indicate I need to act on it. I can now tag things one way or another. I’m also pretty happy with the new search/filtering tools. They’re kind of along the same lines as the tagging, but I can now create a search folder that automatically fills with messages based on whatever search criteria I give it. All in all a big step in the right direction for this release.

Download Thunderbird 2.0Â

Google 411

Tired of getting charged for 411 information service from you cell phone provider? Now you can get the same service from Google for FREE! Just call their automated 800 number (1-800-GOOG-411) and ask for information on… anything! You can also get similar service without wasting your minutes (you have to waste text messages instead) from Google SMS, which has been around for a while now.

Nintendo in Your Browser

This is somewhat along the lines of my previous old school compute r games posts. Now it’s not just old computer games, but you can now play old school console games right inside your browser too. Nintendo 8 offers a nice list of your favorite NES games via java from inside your web browser. They all seem to work pretty well, but I did have a few issues getting used to the controls. Using a computer keyboard is a lot different than using a Nintendo controller!

You Don’t Know Jack

Jack is back! The crazy pop-culture game You Don’t Know Jack is online again. These were originally CD-ROM party games back in the day. I can even remember playing an early Netshow version of these games in the mid 90’s, back before the dot.com boom (it took quite a while for them to load on dial-up). If I remember correctly, it used to be a multi-player game where you could screw your friends while playing. This new one is just the single-player version, but hopefully now that they seem to be releasing new episodes somewhat regularly the good ‘ole multi-player version will be back again soon.

I played a round, and it is a lot tougher than I remember! Maybe I’m not as quick as I used to be.

May the Force be…

…on your next postage stamp. The good ole USPS will be issuing Star Wars postage stamps in late May. Nobody likes that postage rates are going up (except for the USPS – duh!), but at least this will make the price hike easier on the eyes even if it’s not as easy on the wallet. There will be 15 stamps in all featuring characters from prequel to original displayed on a nicely styled full sheet.

Mentos Berry Mix

The Candyblog has a nice review of Mentos Berry Mix, that apparently came from Guam, but were made in China.

They come wrapped in a clear plastic outer wrapper and the box is about the size of a deck of cards. The flip top makes it easy to share, and with a flavor mix like this, easy to pick out just the flavor you want at the moment.

I wish I could get my hands on some of these in the US!

Mentos Helpline

Have you ever had a problem with… well, anything really? Well now there is a service dedicated to finding the answers to all your problems. This wonderful service is brought to you by none other than Mentos! The Mentos Helpline has operators (executives) standing by to help you with problems in the following categories.

Work problems
Love problems
Parental problems
College problems
Medical problems
Cricket problems
Day-to-Day problems
Seasonal problems

Find the route to your problem, and you will be connected to a highly-trained Mentos-popping CSR ready to fix your problems. If for some reason, your problem isn’t covered, you can submit your own special problems to the site, and they’ll happily provide you with an answer.

This lovely (and helpful) site comes from Perfetti Van Melle (the company responsible for Mentos) in India.

“We are creating endearment around Mentos. The initiative is akin to a CSR (corporate social responsibility) exercise. The Mentos helpline aims at showing the Mentos Way out of uncomfortable situations to poor souls in distress.”

I really can’t think of a better equipped company to fix any variety of problems. I know there have been many cases where Mentos have certainly fixed mine!

“Thank you for calling the Mentos Helpline, because if you have a problem, we have the answer!”

SXSW Notes

We’ve set up a notes blog where we’ve been collecting all of our notes from South by Southwest Interactive Conference.

http://sxsw.techory.com

Most of these posts are just disjointed note-taking from our sessions, but they’re probably more valuable online than in some notebook stuck away on a shelf somewhere.