Logic Locks: The Secret Of Eliza's Heart (Online Game)

This post was written by Daniel M., who we had the pleasure of playing this game with. He has played escape rooms all around the world and one of our best teammates!

This was our first experience doing an escape room remotely and it definitely scratched my escape room itch while sheltering in place! The physical room is in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and was completed via video call with our game master/companion holding a camera as we instructed him on what we wanted to do in the room. The game master was in character throughout the escape which really added to the experience. We played as a team of four from two different locations which worked well. From their website:

"Greetings Investigators! My name is Richard Fimblewood and soon we will meet face-to-face - or at least screen-to-screen. I am quite relieved you signed up for the task of helping me to explore the study chamber of the infamous explorer Elizabeth van Leeuwenhart. I do have to admit that I am still a bit nervous. We have only one shot and a limited time to make this work… However I'm sure that with your assistance it should all work out."

Set Design, Technology & Puzzles

One of the biggest downsides of doing a physical escape room remotely is that you lose a bit of atmosphere by not actually being in the room. That said, our game master’s narration (and trepidation!) as he interacted with the room and puzzles, and his quips and humor did help keep us fully engaged. Technology and set design were similar to what you’d expect in higher end generation one rooms. The puzzles were clever but overall there weren’t very many of them. However this is probably required since you can’t divide and conquer different tasks or even search due to the remote aspect of the game.

Memorable Moments 

This room will always stand out for me as our first endeavor with remote escape rooms. It's amazing to be able to experience an escape room halfway across the globe from the comfort of your home. Additionally the finale of the room definitely built suspense and left me satisfied.

Room For Improvement

The only slight complaint was how the video was filmed. While the GM tried their best to keep the camera steady one of our team members became nauseous and wasn’t able to complete the game. However, the rest of us felt ok.

Overall Thoughts

Eliza’s heart was a great introduction to remote escape rooms and I love the fact that we can now play rooms that we probably would never get the chance to go to. One other pleasant surprise is that they mail you a few additional puzzles for completion at home. 

Envelope with a bunch of goodies!

 These were fun and on par with upper end puzzles from box escape games. These were a great way to revisit the theme and have some more fun!

• Set design: Fun and in line with Gen-1 rooms
• Difficulty: Medium
• Price: 23 Euros per person/private
• Number of players: 2-7 (recommend 2-4)
• Duration: 80 minutes
• Overall Rating:  ★★★★ (½★ bump for extra gameplay at home)

See their website here:  https://www.logiclocks.com/live-video-escape-rooms

Logic Locks graciously provided complimentary tickets

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ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (Tennis Buddies Nominated)

Star Wars: Tech Museum @ San Jose

For all you Star Wars fans, check out San Jose's Tech Museum Star Wars Exhibit. Pretty awesome stuff with life sized models used in the filming of the original Star Wars series and fun tidbits.

Click the link to see all 88 photos.

Star Wars Museum San Jose, a set on Flickr.

Black Friday Computer Deals (Dell eCoupons + eCoupon Promo + Discount = :)

So I've been hunting for a new PC/laptop and was wondering what a good deal would be. I'm the type to wait around a month to see if anything pops up and I must say that I am pretty happy with what I found.

My uses:

• Watching HD videos (without lag)
• Potential HD video editing
• Light gaming

I already have a laptop, so portability was not a main factor and for now, the old school desktops has a much better bang for your buck in terms of specs.

Naturally, with Black Friday around the corner, one would think to wait for that but after seeing all the flyers, only the low end stuff was going on sale. I was set on either the Dell XPS 8700 beast below from Costco or the Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p laptop.

Today I Learned How To Make A Gif

Fun at Sawyer Camp Trail :)

A Look Inside Facebook's Campus, Part 2

Are you a Pirate, Ninja or Jedi Master? Another cool piece of art at Facebook's HQ

Part 2 of 2. See Part 1 here.

This is the second of a two-part article about my visit to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. I must say that it's pretty impressive. I can't think of many other companies, (maybe Google but I've never visited them), that offer the same level of benefits and perks. 

The Food

Sweets Store
Baked goods, ice cream and froyo...all free. I'd gain 100 pounds if I worked here. Seriously. I imagine that the people who work here have developed some sort of internal mechanism to avoid eating ice cream and brownies every day. 

Facebook has a lot of  free food on campus

A Look Inside Facebook's Campus, Part 1

Map of Facebook's Campus

Part 1 of 2. See Part 2 here.

I had the opportunity to visit Facebook's campus and I must say that it's pretty impressive. I can't think of many other companies, other than Google (from what I've heard), that offer the same level of benefits and perks. I took some unprofessional pictures (all on campus) to try and show off what I saw, but I didn't want to be too much of a burden for my host, Chiao. 

Facebook campus panorama

Transformers Costume: 2 Years and $2,000 Later...

Here is a really cool costume that Marc Derepentigny created himself. It seems that he was an ex-machinist and has a lifelong passion for making costumes and the results are certainly incredible. Well done!

ad:tech San Francisco 2013 Key Learnings

Pandora's Keynote

Technology is changing the way that people behave and at the same time, forcing a change in how brands try to distinguish themselves from the herd. Think about this: When was the last time you clicked on an online banner or even remember what banner was shown? I think I intentionally click on one banner a month and I probably views thousands of web pages. I sat through a few sessions and keynotes and I've highlighted the most interesting parts below.

The recurring themes that were communicated by various panelists were as follows:

·         Old school online advertising, like banners ads, have lost much of its effectiveness

·         Brands must be experts at storytelling

·         Marketers must learn to tap into advocates or influencers (not the same thing) when trying to build their communities

ad:tech Digital Marketing Conference April 9-10, 2013

[Update: Exclusive OddBubbles ad:tech coupon code at end of article]

The next tech conference on my list to attend is ad:tech San Francisco. If you're wondering what the show is about here is what they have on their site:

"ad:tech is the leading digital marketing event for marketing and technology professionals from all over the world – a marketplace for buying and selling, a community for networking, a forum for exchanging ideas and an opportunity for contributing to industry trends and initiatives."

There are a lot of sessions that can help shed some light on how to better understand upcoming tech trends and I've highlights a few below:

Google Shopping Express, Free Delivery in San Francisco

Google launched its shopping express service today for select test users in the San Francisco bay area. They are offering a free 6-month membership for unlimited same-day delivery. Participating retailers include:

SXSWi 2013: Innovative Start-Ups and Random Stuff

I went to my first SXSW Interactive Festival last week to see what the fuss was all about. I heard that the city of Austin becomes a zoo with massive line ups everywhere. I was pleasantly surprised when I showed up to the convention center on Friday morning to get my badge. I was in line at 8:45am and the doors opened at 9am but man was the line fast. There were 42 workers manning the registration booths so yeah, pretty awesome and I was out at 9:15am. Kudos to SXSW for predicting this huge rush.

Chrome Super Sync Sports: Google Uses Your Mobile As a Second Screen

The Google Creative Lab and some partners created this interesting sports game that connects your mobile device to your computer. Your mobile becomes the controller for your athlete in the running.swimming and biking mini-games. You can choose between 50 cartoon athlete and even race against up to three friends.

Super Sync Sports uses the latest browser technologies like Canvas, CSS3, HTML5 audio, SVG, the Touch API (for your mobile touch screen) and WebSockets to sync your devices.

Moving To San Francisco From Montreal: Cost of Living Comparison

I haven't posted in a while because of all the craziness: I moved to San Francisco from Montreal, Canada.

I wanted to share my thoughts on some basic costs for those who want to move here. First of all, I come from Montreal, Quebec, and I have to tell you that the cost of living in la belle province is significantly lower than the rest of Canada. I hear rent in Vancouver and Toronto is extremely high ($2,000 for an average one-bedroom apartment) so the shock of moving to San Francisco might be lessened if you're from one of those cities.

2013 Australian Open: Djokovic defeats Murray 6-7 7-6 6-3 6-2

In a repeat of the last Grand Slam final (2012 US Open) Novak Djokovic faced Andy Murray in the Aussie Final this year. Novak had an easier route to this final, not having to face Roger Federer or other power players like Tsonga and Del Potro. He did have to face #4 David Ferrer but Ferrer just can't seem to ever beat any of the top 3 ranked players. Novak's toughest match came against Stan Wawrinka, a gruelling 5-setter which saw Novak win 12-10 in the final set.

Unfortunately for Murray, the last set was a blow out at 6-2. Murray's movement was hampered by blisters and as much as they hurt, it's hard to use that as an excuse in a Grand Slam final.

Ubuntu For Android

There's a new challenger arriving on the computing scene that wants you to use your smartphone as your primary desktop/laptop: Ubuntu for Android, the upcoming free and open source version of Ubuntu.

Now the concept of using your phone for all your digital needs isn't totally new as Motorola tried to get you to do the same two years ago with its Atrix smartphone and laptop dock. The Atrix didn't catch on, just like most Motorola smartphones out there, despite positive critic reviews. I guess people don't trust putting all their eggs into a Motorola device that probably won't get updated a year after its release.

Nexus 4 Review: Pros and Cons [HD Video and Picture Samples]

I was lucky enough to get my order in for a Nexus 4 during the second round of sales in Canada and it was delivered before Christmas. I was extremely excited to try it out and I've been posting about the various Nexus phones on my blog (& on MobileQuirks) just over a year ago. Now that I've had some time to properly use the device here is my review [HD Video, Photo and Photo Sphere samples below].

My Nexus 4 came in package below. It's a snug fit and as you can see there isn't much in the box other than the phone itself, the charging wire and the adapter. Good things come in small packages. :)

Instagram: 18 Months + Some Luck = $1 Billion

I came upon an interesting Inc.com article about Instagram and it's rapid rise to success. The start-up, was just over a year and a half old when it sold for $1 Billion to Facebook and here are some interesting highlights:

- Instagram had zero revenue when it was sold
- The app took only eight weeks to build
- After two and a half months, the app was downloaded one million times
- There were 12 employees at the time of sale
- Founder, Kevin Systrom, studied and worked in Silicon Valley (Stanford, Twitter, Google)
- Kevin randomly met his first investors at another start-up company's cocktail party, got $500k and quit his job to focus on Instagram

Here's the part that I like the best. The first interation of Instagram was called "Burbn" and it was similar to what Foursquare is today. There were a ton of features and if there's one thing you should keep in mind in product development it's that if you can't explain what your thing does in one line, it's probably too complicated.

MUST SEE Awesome Mashup of Top 50 Pop Songs [Video]

*Updated with "The Making Of"

So, I'm not sure how you get around all the copyright issues on YouTube but Daniel Kim has created a really awesome mashup of over 50 top pop songs from 2012.  He's actually been doing this for a few years so I've put in his previous mashups from 2011 and 2010.

Daniel must be learning from his previous tries as 2012 does seem to be the best one yet. His "making of" is quite interesting as the process he used to make the video is quite technical and if you don't know anything about audio engineering techniques, it would be close to impossible to replicate.

Check it out, they sound really good. Well done Daniel Kim!