AnandTech recently had a chance to go behind the scenes of Newegg’s newest New Jersey facility, and with a stated goal of getting packages into customers’ hands within two days of ordering, you can bet that there’s a fair bit of automation going on inside of this billion dollar company, which, in my opinion, makes the tour all the more interesting.
From the picker and the peanut gun to the box maker and the wizard, it’s a look at what makes Newegg tick, and also a look at the future of product management.
Plus, haven’t you always wondered what goes on after you click that “Confirm Order” button?
I’ve talked about Chuck Palahniuk’s Snuff before, but now that his some of the book’s marketing is starting to see the light of day, I thought it was worth a revisit.
If you remember, Snuff is about Cassie Wright, a porn priestess who intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication.
To give Cassie’s character a little more believability, two videos were created to promote Cassie’s previous work:
The Wizard of Ass - Dorothy is Not a Virgin Anymore:
and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Bang:
Don’t you wish every book’s advertising was this…interesting?
Well he’s back, and this time, his art dives into the insides of a gummy bear and a Dunny, in pieces he calls “Immaculate Confection” and “Visible Vinyl”.
I emailed Jason to find out a little bit more about his work, and asked him, “What inspires you to create these amazing pieces of art?”
He replied:
You pose a question I have been asked before and one that is not easily answered. I could give you a long dribbling artist statement on all the symbolism and meaning I am trying to portray to make the world a better place but the simple fact is, these pieces are mostly a combination of my interests, 3D modeling, pop culture, illustration, surrealism, cartoons and a taste for the off center. Ultimately I create these images for me to enjoy as well as my 5 year old son. I also enjoy releasing them into the wild (internet) and see the reactions people have to them. I am thrilled that people enjoy them and that keeps me making more. I actually get a bit down when they don’t go over well, but that makes me try harder the next time. Its become a challenge for me create work that tickles the small piece of the brain that enjoys these twisted guilty pleasures.
Twistori is an interesting and ongoing social experiment “based on Twitter, inspired by WeFeelFine and drawing data from Summize, hand-crafted by Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs”.
Just click on one of the words, and a stream of random tweets will poor out with your chosen word playing a central roll.
Blank is Like Blank is a simple site that provides the occasional analogy to live by.
With quips like:
“Facebook is like a gossipy friend with no interesting information”,
“Using Helvetica is like owning a Mac: It looks so cool that you never bother to stop and think if you really need to”, and
“Starbucks is like that crazy ex-girlfriend you still get together with: You hate yourself for going back, but the familiarity makes it convenient, and until you find something better, it’s all you’ve got”,
Justin Feinstein is firmly establishing himself as the king of the one liner.
Kyle Van Horn’s Camera Mail idea is an interesting one: He sends a disposable camera through the mail attached to a postcard and asks the postal workers to take pictures along the package’s journey.
On November 30th, 2003, an oversized postcard holding one disposable camera and a roll of 800 ASA, 27-exposure film was mailed from Lafayette, IN to Santa Monica, CA. A few days later, the postman knocked on the door of my friend and found him answering in his underwear. He did not understand the statement: “The Post Master wants to know why you are mailing cameras.” as he had no prior knowledge of this delivery. Approximately 14 of the 27 shots arrived intact, all of which were taken at the Lafayette post office.
The Titan Exhaust Air Jack in an interesting idea in that it uses your car’s own exhaust gases to inflate a bag that then acts as a jack, lifting one side of your vehicle off the ground so that you can work on it.
The Titan Exhaust Air Jack is designed to lift your vehicle is seconds by its own exhaust gas. The one-way back valve can keep the jack inflated for up to 45 minutes and will deflate in only 5 seconds. The Titan Exhaust Air Jack is inflated via hose which connects to the vehicle’s exhaust and can be used to lift cars, trucks, trailers and boat trailers in unstable areas of mud, sand & snow.
It was originally designed for off-road use, so it’s plenty versatile, and there are no negative side effects from using the air jack on your car, so you don’t need to worry about what it’s doing to the engine.
Motive’s article, To Catch A Predator, which is all about the current trend of factories bringing their hot rod building in-house, is another example of why Motive is quickly becoming the place to go on the web for interesting automotive information.
The full range of tuners is covered, including AMG, M Division, John Cooper Works (JCW), Nismo, SVT/Ford Racing, SRT, Quattro GmbH, F, SS, GXP, V-Series, Super, Alpha, STI and Mazdaspeed, so if you’ve got a brand, they’ve got a tuner for you.
Perhaps the muscle car wars aren’t over after all…
Twistori is an interesting and ongoing social experiment “based on 
The Titan Exhaust Air Jack in an interesting idea in that it uses your car’s own exhaust gases to inflate a bag that then acts as a jack, lifting one side of your vehicle off the ground so that you can work on it.
