Philip J Mikal

The oldest currently registered .com domain name

Philip — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:09:48 +0000

The oldest currently registered .com domain name is ‘symbolics.com‘, created 3/15/1985

You there? I have a question about credit that I think you might be able to answer.

Philip — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:14:44 +0000

Aardvark couldn’t have found anyone better to answer this one:

aardvark:
You there? I have a question about *credit* that I think you might be able to answer.

(Type ’sure’, ‘pass’, or ‘busy’.)
me: sure
aardvark: (From Timothy G./M/ManhattanBeach,CA)
How can I pay my mortgage with my credit card to earn points when my lender doesn’t accept credit cards as payments?

(Type ‘pass’ to skip, or ‘more’ for extra options.)
me: chargesmart.com
aardvark: Great — I’ve sent that to Timothy. Thanks for the fast answer!
(Type ‘Timothy:’ followed by a message to add something, or ‘more’ for options.)

(Tip: would any of your Facebook friends be helpful on Aardvark? You can invite them easily at http://vark.com/a/qUyQ15G)

Dr. Scholl’s is Wasting Their Marketing Budget. Foot Mapping Fail.

Philip — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:35:25 +0000

In the last few weeks, Dr. Scholl’s has been buying prime-time advertising to promote their new orthotic product. It supposedly starts with a kiosk that recommends one of fourteen products based on a computer weight distribution of your feet that they call Foot Mapping. While nothing beats a pair of my Toschi dress shoes with carbon fiber inserts for comfort, I’ve plenty of other shoes that could the same treatment. So after seeing four or five commercials, I pulled up the website, entered my zip code in San Francisco and found no results in the city. Looks like they are only available at CVS. No problem, plenty of CVS stores in the east bay.

Plugged CVS into the car’s GPS and found myself at an Alameda strip mall. Walked around the store a few times, but no sign of the kiosk. But the website said it’d be here…. hmm. I asked an employee and got the low down. Out of the 10 or so CVS stores in the Bay Area, only two have the kiosks and both are broken. Customers have been regularly asking about both the product and the kiosk, but it’s not available, even despite it saying so on Dr Scholl’s website.

Hopefully it’s not this bad outside Northern California, but certainly they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, on driving customers into stores to frustrate them with no product availability or worse yet for the 2 stores that have the kiosk, a poor user experience.

Calvin Harris & The Humanthesizer

Philip — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:25:32 +0000

Humanthesizer, a joint creation between electronic musician Calvin Harris, Sony Music UK, and Bare conductive body ink, which turned 15 bikini-clad ladies into a giant human synthesizer capable of playing Harris’s latest single, Ready For The Weekend.

Attaboy @ 1AM SF

Philip — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:17:10 +0000

Riding my bike home today – ran across Attaboy updating the 1am SF store mural for his upcoming show at the gallery this Friday, August 14th.

On the set of NBC’s new show “Trauma” in San Francisco.

Philip — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:20:54 +0000

Pine and Battery Streets

Spent some time on the set of NBC’s new show “Trauma” while at lunch. Lots of actors with head wounds – ouch! Hi-Res on Twitpic.

Iridium 9555 | Smallest Portable Satellite Phone

Philip — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:24:47 +0000

Iridium is the big poppa of mobile communications. If you are the type that might find yourself in a sailing vessel in the Yucatan Channel and wanting to call back to the States, you’ve little options but a sat phone. The new 9555 is 30% smaller than my old Iridium phone – just losing that old bulky antenna is enough of a reason to upgrade. Can you hear me now?

Japan: VISVIM shoes

Philip — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:23:57 +0000

Hotness from Japan for all you sneaker freaks that still want to be let into the club while sporting your kicks. High tech materials and an attention to quality are marks of this upscale streetwear brand.

If you are stuck stateside, HUF in San Francisco normally carries a few. NB, plenty of fakes on eBay – you’ve been warned.

Artist: Kehinde Wiley

Philip — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:38:54 +0000

Wiley is the modern day sampler of portraiture – making an old art relevant. Take for example Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ Portrait of Napoleon on the Imperial Throne from 1806. Wiley flips it with Ice-T, looking like his pre Law & Order thuggish self.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

Philip — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:28:38 +0000

If you are a photo geek at heart, but don’t want to look the part, perhaps you’d be best suited to check out the DMC-LX3. It’s basically the Leica D-Lux 4 for $300 less.

The LX3 is the rare compact camera that photographers can get excited about. Design, control, and quality.