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The one DIY skill most of you don't have (according to last Saturday's poll) is tie a bowline (knot, that is). Unless you're a sailor or a Girl or Boy Scout, you've probably never heard of a bowline. But this super-useful knot creates a loop that's strong enough to put around someone's waist and pull them out of the water, or hold down heavy objects, and it's very easily undone. Hit the play button above to learn how to tie a bowline using an easy-to-remember bunny metaphor. Any knot nerds out there put the bowline to good use in regular everyday life? Any other knots you know and love? 'Fess up in the comments.

This reminds me a little of that bit Billy Crystal used to do about getting old, when his teenage daughter asks, "Dad, is it true Paul McCartney was in another band before Wings?"

Slash, who would prefer that I say is of Guns N' Roses fame and not Guitar Hero III fame, gave a Q&A to Rolling Stone this week, and had this to say about an upcoming solo album and his custom Les Paul guitar ...

Which is also what you play in Guitar Hero.

I was very specific about that because they didn’t have a Les Paul in their entourage at that time, and I said the only way we can do this is with a Les Paul.
Has the huge success of Guitar Hero boosted your rep even further?
Yeah, but the flip-side of that is I met this kid who came up to me and was blown away by the fact I was the guy in the Guitar Hero game, and he kept going on about that. Ten minutes later he goes, “Do you play real guitar?”

I can picture Slash, after recoiling in horror at this encounter with a real geek in the wild, immediately seeking to reassure himself of his rock-star status — in the bosoms of about a dozen adoring groupies wearing no underwear.

UPDATE: Oops, this went out early; I forgot to set the posting time correctly. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Slash: This Time Around We're Not Making Compromises [Rolling Stone]

We are witnessing either an epic financial meltdown or a long overdue resetting of existing business practices and the hollow markets they create. Or, perhaps we’re experiencing both of these phenomena. Either way, it has the nation gripped with fear, uncertainty, and an unsettling eruption of questionable advice confusing everyone, everywhere.

While the floor is crumbling for many industries much in the same way it did for Silicon Valley during the dotbomb years, the sky isn’t necessarily falling on the startup industry – at least not for those with marketable technology or products, dedicated and capable teams, an executable business plan, and access to the resources necessary to help it reach users and customers.

For those startups that are building and marketing something of value for consumers or businesses, there is much work to do. While there is always a need to attract mainstream users, this isn’t the time to stretch or over-commit resources to hit everyone all at once. Branding is an expensive proposition, one that requires time, capital, diligence, dedicated teams, enthusiastic customers, and patience. As counter intuitive as it may seem, this is exactly the right time to market into the echo chamber to earn the support of influentials who will create significant, concentrated brand visibility and momentum to carry you forward.

Your business can grow with the groundswell and doesn’t necessarily require the instant adoption by the masses in order to succeed in the short term.

Usually, when the economy slides, the first natural reaction is to cut expenses, conserve cash, and hunker-down to weather the storm.  All good advice.  But don’t forget also that this could be your time to shine, albeit, in a strategic and intelligent way.

Great entrepreneurs build value and market-share in down markets. They go to work seven days a week and the(y) breakout when other folks check out. — Jason Calacanis

Now’s the time to get your head in the game and focus on what it is you do, and go do it better than anyone else. You’re either on the field or you’re on the sidelines.

Any company that intentionally pulls itself from the radar screen of their customers will be absent from customer decisions and referrals. In the process, you create a frictionless opportunity for your competitors to swoop in and fill the void.

There are always customers making decisions, so make sure that you’re part of the equation and process, wherever they go for information and insight.

Influence and adoption historically have migrated from the edge to the center. Or using a more common example, customers and word-of-mouth referrals travel from left to right along a bell curve that starts with Innovators and Early Adopters, peaks with the Early Majority and the Late Majority, and finally permeates with reaction from Laggards.

If you dissect the art and science of technology marketing using a car as a simple metaphor, your product serves as the chassis, your cash as the fuel, Social Media, Interactive/Web, Sales, SEO, and PR as the accelerator, marketing strategy and execution as the gears, RPMs as a market indicator for listening and responding, the speedometer to convey inertia, and you, as founding executive, sitting in the driver’s seat, steering and controlling the entire operation.

Marketing to the echo chamber, believe it or not, is how you get that car rolling, starting everything in first gear. Appealing to those who can help spark word of mouth is how you can accelerate, gain enough speed to shift into second, and subsequent higher gears, and attract new users and evangelists along the way, growing in distance and reach at every turn. It is the echo chamber that can help you efficiently gain velocity in order to progressively reach greater audiences and command additional financing and also revenue in the process. With its support and assistance, it is almost like starting with a colossal push.

You have to start by engaging those who’ll get it, and in turn, share it with their peers. It’s an ongoing process that strengthens with each cycle.

Hopefully you are building your business in a way that is independent of the stock market.
— Kevin Ryan

The world doesn’t flock to new things en masse. It takes a focused and progressive strategy that evolves and matures over time. In a down economy, this is non-negotiable.

Digg and Twitter are among some of the best examples of how alpha users can help promote a company or service by embracing these new solutions and religiously demonstrating why they are pervasive and useful. And, emphatic users also contribute to the community building process, assisting in the translation of the value proposition for different markets as well as enticing and compelling their peers to join them, which offsets and relieves the company from carrying the bulk of the responsibility for promotion and guerilla marketing.

But, where are Digg and Twitter in respect to the adoption cycle? They’re not as far along as you think judging by the buzz and permeation of your social graph. These companies still have oceans to swim until they become household brands. But, that’s OK. They’re building a business, cultivating legions of dedicated user communities, evolving and improving their product, and still conserving cash. Remember, it took brands such as eBay, Youtube, Google, and Amazon hundreds of millions of dollars and armies of enthusiasts and partners to achieve saturation – and many would argue that there’s still much work to be done.

I would bet on any company that earned the support of innovators and early adopters and took the time to listen to feedback in order to iterate based on real world needs, preferences, pains, and new ideas.

Without influence, you’re going to spend precious resources, more than you can afford, convincing people that they should pay attention. Peer-to-peer marketing is priceless and still your best bet for having a shot, and more importantly, making a long-term impact.

But you first need a spark, something to start that avalanche that grows as it races downhill.

The echo chamber is bigger than we think or give it credit for. In fact, think of the echo chamber as its own bell curve. Most of the blogs and users that naturally come to mind, may reside on the left side, leaving a wide array of technology enthusiasts to uncover and pursue.

Innovators and early adopters are global citizens and do not solely reside in Silicon Valley. Figure out who your market is today, tomorrow, next month, and set goals for user acquisition so that you can tweak your product and tailor your messages to those very people, as they’ll uniquely connect to your story, and also share it differently among their peers, as it traverses across the bell curve.

Remember, reporters, bloggers and online tastemakers (aka trendsetters) who spotlight innovation can send tens of thousands of new and loyal users to you almost instantly. I’m not just referring to unique visits of those who sign up, test things out, and then leave to try the next shiny service. When done right, the echo chamber can generate real world interest and support. It is these very users who tell you everything about what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve. These same individuals and networks also augment and complement your marketing efforts by legitimizing you’re products, associating credibility and providing pseudo endorsements, and in turn, giving you unprecedented access to their invaluable and highly connected networks of early adopter friends.

This is the time to focus on user acquisition. This is edgework. Everything starts with an intimate understanding of the markets you’re trying to reach and an even deeper connection to the peers, voices, and other channels that influence them. Most of you are not marketing iPhones, gaming consoles, premium spirits, or new music artists. At the very least, you are redefining how people communicate, collaborate, connect, and ultimately work.

There’s a prevailing necessity to educate your markets and introduce not just new products and services, but also change the daily routines of everyday people.

Therefore the goal to race from zero to 60 and hit mass penetration immediately is not necessarily the primary goal. If we look at business development and communications as a series of strategic stages, we realize that there are focused activities that we must pursue and smaller, reachable voices we must reach and convince to help us carry and adapt our story from stage to stage – each time, addressing the needs and pain points of the individual, respective groups.

Of course, as you learn, internalize feedback, change, adapt, and engage with your markets, the foundation for your business solidifies and begins to afford and beget expansion. It is at this point in time, when you can continue to expand your focus and reach to attract and inspire users residing outside of the echo chamber.

Nothing beats a killer product idea and an impressive, objective, and focused team to carry it forward. Expectations count and will determine how you channel information and progress. Think too big and you’ll miss your target and burn through resources before you can ever earn any significant market traction. Aim too low and the market will pass you by.

In this volatile economic climate, the echo chamber can be your direct connection to success, or at the very least, help to kickstart market adoption of your products. It is a global incubator designed to help you grow, gain momentum, and ultimately propel your business across the bell curve to appeal to and attract a wider, active base of customers.

We live in interesting times and it’s up to us, and only us, to define our future.

(Photo by Wetwebworks).

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Filed under: Cellphones

We're not quite sure what Britney is trying to say here. It would help if she could be more specific about what she thinks of this guy. If only there was a word she could use to describe him, over and over and over. Regardless, she absolutely doesn't want any pictures snapped of her on Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Who knows where those might end up? Full video after the break.

[Thanks, Sam]

Continue reading Screen Grabs: Nokia 5800-branding womanizer snaps pics of Britney Spears

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Seagate has decided to enter the solid-state disk (SSD) market in 2009, starting the company's switch from hard disk drives (HDD). Their first target: corporate America. Once they've got the cubicle commanders, they'll move to consumers. Seagate senior manager Rich Vignes seems to be awfully defensive about this incredibly obvious move, stating over and over that they'll take it slow, that analysts really do think SSDs are reliable, and that this is the wave of the future. Of course, if you're reading Giz, chances are your response to the announcement is "Duh." But Seagate stepping into the SSD ring means we're one step closer to an HDD-free existence. [CNet]

In hopes to pleasing all of the people (or at least some of them), Capcom is offering not just one, but two Resident Evil 5 control schemes. RE5 producer Jun Takeuchi confirmed to Kotaku in early September that the game would be getting a new input layout. While we had heard that the new controls would be run-and-gun in the vein of a standard shooter. The new scheme does have shooter layout elements, but it's still run/walk, stop, shoot.

The new "action" layout is more streamlined and intuitive for those more familiar with Western-style shooters. And for those more familiar with, say, RE4 controls, the game offers a "standard" layout. The new action layout also lets characters strafe when they move — something that RE players have long been asking for.

However, since this is Resident Evil, it's not possible to simultaneously strafe and point and shoot. That makes the addition of strafe in the action controls seem somewhat half-baked. Sure, this is Resident Evil, but the action controls strafe doesn't alter gameplay: Players are still running to an empty corner and shooting and then running to another corner. A shame the action controls don't allow strafing and shooting.

Which does Takeuchi prefer? "I like the newer control layout better. But we're offering both layouts for Japanese gamers who prefer the Resident Evil 4-style layout. Some of the hardcore Japanese gamers probably will like the new controls as well." But Takeuchi says that it was necessary to bridge that East-West controller gap.

Action control layout below.

So we have four guys in Japan and Fahey's at BlizzCon. I walk into the Kotaku Tower today to find two things I absolutely hate. Cold, sludgy office coffee, and disabled perimeter defenses. Whatever, this is where I gotta be right now. Because if there was a global war on expos carried out terrists who hate our vidja-game freedoms, yours truly would be the Kotaku equivalent of the Secretary of HUD — the designated survivor, as they say. The downside, when all the action's going on, you're off cooling your heels in some nuke-proof bunker eating freeze dried ice cream and wondering if you could, in fact, repopulate the earth with the Secretary of Labor if it came down to it. The upside: if all hell breaks loose, you're leader of the free world. And that's cool. Just doin' my job.

For this week's originals roundup, I encourage you to take a look at our running Super Big Let’s TGS Round-Up as well as our BlizzCon 2008 coverage. Below are some highlights that are non-TGS, non-BlizzCon or at least not-100-percent-attached-to-either-event.

Xbox 360: Official Console of 2008 Recession
Halo 3: Recon, The Trailer
Banjo Kazooie's Japan Inspired Backpack
Molyneux Begs For Non-Gamer Game Review
Wii Ski and Snowboard: EXCITING
Afro Samurai Dinner Theater, Minus Dinner... and Theater
Fracture Review: Breaking New Ground
Gears of War 2 - The Non-Review Review
Mappy The Robot Runs a Maze
Suck it Down: Street Fighter IV Makes Kotaku its Bitch
Rambo The Arcade Game: Hands On
Three Developers Explain LittleBigPlanet Level Design to a 7-Year-Old
Stan Bush Wants "The Touch" In Guitar Hero, Rock Band
Fighting to Play: The History of the Longest Lived Fighting Game Tournament in the World

Discover Magazine is running a story detailing the search for planets like Earth orbiting other stars. While we've been able to locate a few "super earths" so far, none of them really compare in size or the potential for habitability with our own world. Fortunately, advances in data analysis and new space-based telescopes — such as Kepler, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the already-launched CoRoT (PDF) — have some astronomers predicting we'll find such an exoplanet by 2010, and a habitable one by 2012. Earth-based telescopes are also in the hunt, though the article notes, "even if a habitable Earth-like world is found first from the ground, it will most likely take a space observatory to search for the chemical signals that tell us what we really want to know: Is anything living out there? If the planet is one that can be observed transiting, it just might be possible to provide a hint of an answer in the next few years."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Speaking to a gathering of journalists earlier this week at the Tokyo Game Show, John "Crazy Days" Schappert seemed unwilling to say that the Xbox 360 would return to the once comforting twice a year release schedule for its updates.

"I don't know if we are going to tie ourselves to a spring fall release schedule as much," he said. "I think one of the things that I worked with the team with when I joined. Lets do a big release. Spring and fall sounds like there is a lot of distance between the two but there is an awful lot of... it's pretty hard to make a new dashboard because you have to certify it against every revision of the hardware, and there's a bunch of different specs. It's a pretty time consuming and challenging thing to do. Which is why we only did it twice a year."

"I like staying focused on bigger and more impactful releases, so maybe it will be twice a year, maybe less frequently. You know, to be determined. I think it's going to be more about: Whats the next big launch? What are we bringing? When can we bring it? How can we do it in a big way."

Schappert also said that new updates would likely include new content for avatar customization and that the company is still looking at the possibility of adding text search to the ever expanding Marketplace line up.

"Don't worry," he said. "We already have plans well into next year about what we're delivering next."

[Pic]

CNN reports that General Electric has created a giant OLED panel printer to be specifically used for lighting. The "semi-trailer" sized machine prints out thin layers of flexible plastic, covers them with chemicals, and seals them with foil, so they'll glow a frosty blue-white if an electrical current is applied. But these OLED sheets aren't exactly lightbulb substitutes.

Our current incandescent and CFL bulbs are super bright and super small, which is why we have to artfully cover them with lampshades or, in my case, a purple silk scarf, because I know what the ladies like. These new OLEDs are substantially dimmer, so they'd be used in large panels to create a softer light. Imagine a windowshade of the new lights, so when lowered at night, light still seems to be filtering in from outside. Or hell, just wallpaper your bedroom in the stuff, since no fixture is required. The caveats: they do, of course, still need a power source, their lifespan isn't up to par, and they're incredibly expensive right now. GE hopes to get the kinks worked out and the panels into production by 2010. [CNN]