Farewell 2011, welcome 2012

What did you do in 2011

As LinkedIn claims, 2011 was a year of change. Compared to past years, it was a kind of slow paced zen contemplation year, yet full of real stuff: new things, that I’d never done before, visual arts, digital signage, old and new friends, great music. I’ve spent most of the year in new products development:

Designing and producing new digital totems like StandOut for private banking, Almondo, which we installed in the largest retail malls in the country, the limited edition of Lumina and the high-end ZilverBlade. Now they call us “the totem people”…

• several branding and SEO projects (thanks to the good old word-of-mouth “channel”),
• playing old musical instruments and designing a new MIDI controller
• visiting few new countries and islands…
• plus thousands of tiny happy moments in the land of the Penguins.

There was too much contrast, not enough time for close friends and far away destinations. I’ve missed writing, playing music, more travel adventures with an enduro bike, but this will happen after the ski season is over.

Lets hope we’ll find the balance in 2012. Less time on the branding laptop and more creative time at the studio and on the road. More music in the near-field studio monitors and more near-field communication with friends, tablets, totems, allowing us to wirelessly exchange information and make transactions at stores and banks.

It’s worth to do the hard work to figure out how to make life better. Thank you for all creative and corporate presents plus a pile of notebooks to write a handful of goals that seem important

Wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy 2012 and don’t let your dreams be dreams!

So, what did you do in 2011?

Expo Green Global 2011

Brand Touch, the European interactive kiosk and digital signage totems manufacturer, will present LUMINA™ at Expo Green Global 2011 as a sponsor, exhibitor and digital media partner of the event. The luxurious digital totem will bring totally immersed interactive experience to the visitors and exhibitors at the greenest cruise ship on the planet – MSC Fantasia, where over 120 brands from more than 32 countries will meet to discuss and present their latest green initiatives.

The Power of Dreams

The Power of Dreams

First yellow leaves cause shivers up my “move” passion and dreams. As little kids, we all got those ridin-swimmin-jumpin-climbin wounds and scarves.
Cycling gives you a unique feeling beyond the frame, cycling in the wild moves your soul and personal, open-minded mobility, a guaranteed freedom. Country/ mountain roads are the best, highways/ freeways are the worst…

htc to samsung galaxy how to

HTC to Samsung Galaxy S II

How to move/ sync your contacts, calendar, emails, folders and tasks from your old HTC to your new Samsung Galaxy S II?

Select all records > copy to SD memory card > insert SD memory card > Import from card… Not working? Sure.

Here comes the interesting part / the only solutions, which worked for me: Use your Gmail account as Microsoft Exchange server source to sync your stuff between Windows Mobile and Android. WTF?!

If you try to follow the Google Sync for Windows mobile set up instructions, a lot of details and and screens are missing.

1. Leave the email address as “@”. Uncheck the option to automatically determine Exchange server settings.
2. Tap next and enter your account info: use a FULL email address, including @gmail.com, since you can also use a Google Apps account with your own domain name.
3. Leave the domain field empty. Check “use SSL” and “save your password by default”. If you get “sync None” connection error, check only the boxes to sync Contacts and Calendar.

…and you’re done with 800+ contacts per minute.

Optionally download Kies and enjoy your new Android-friendly Samsung limitless Galaxy. It’s the smartest and lightest phone to date.

…and the Best Global Green Brand for 2011 is…

See ya at the top! Yours, BrandMover

Google guitar best doodle ever

This morning Google surprised us with a great interactive guitar doodle, which you can turn in a polyphonic instrument, strummed by finger touch, mouse or best with your PC keyboard. The 96th birthday of the Jazz legend Les Paul is celebrated in an awesome way. Whether on a 9″ tablet, office PC or a 6-core high-end music studio workstation, playing today’s Google logo is pure fun! Switch on your speakers and the jam must go on!

In few countries, you’ll have even a record button, which can be used to record your performance and share the piece with the world. I just captured my first take. The only suggestion would be to improve the sound latency in the Flash, add/ overlay some keys for percussion and hope we’ll have a great music instrument in 2012!

Our next-generation midi controller UMO1 will be shipping in 40 days

See you in the jazz club tonight

white winter. warm synth

A-800PRO MIDI controller: my new -studio, -on-stage and -home friend. Great design and feel for expressive dynamic performances.

• Velocity-sensitive responsive reaction 61 keys with channel aftertouch!
• 45 assignable controls: knobs, sliders, buttons, transport
• 8 Dynamic Pads for finger drumming and MIDI triggering
• Great pitch bend/modulation stick
• Sustain and expression pedals input
• Windows 7 and and Mac OS X Snow Leopard native drivers
• ACT software control maps for Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio, Garage Band, Logic, Nuendo, Pro Tools and … yes, SONAR!

It takes 2 minutes to plug the USB cable, load an old subtractive synth VST with my favorite filter-response morphing – Pentagon I. That’s not a sound design „attempt“ at David Gilmour’s guitar tone from Pink Floyd’s Sorrow. It’s to explore the continuous MIDI controller possibilities of the new A-800 PRO by Roland/ Cakewalk. After all, it‘s a piano version, not a guitar sound, sent through a ton of Boss sustain, chorus, big muffs and SPC filters.

With just 4 simple oscillators, 2 LFO filters and powerful modulation you get a generic mid 1980s tone, routed through a digital multiband EQ, compressor, delay and convolution reverb. Setting the first filter to HP and the second to LP, with cutoff higher than the HP cutoff, you get a band-pass response with independent ADSR modulation and most importantly the response to velocity, keyboard pitch, aftertouch and mod wheel with independent VCA, each with an AHDSR envelope for real time morphing. You can try the amazing vocoder too. The parameters are tied to the dozen of A-800PRO MIDI controls with the ACT/ MIDI learn function.

Feel the warm phasy, vintage, harmonics/ portamento and formant-rich sound? I still miss a lot of expression for my music, so this month along with the web projects, the always postponed “MIDI controller of my dreams” design project is on the short-to-do-list.  Stay happy and tuned

Merry Christmas & Happy Brand New Year!

Happy Brand New 2011

Dear friends and partners,

Whether you are home or oversea,
may the spirit of Christmas bring you Peace,
the gladness of Christmas give you Hope,
the warmth of Christmas grant you Love.
all the new year through.

See the whole world bright!
(Batteries not Included

Screen time: 16h a day diet

screen time increased 2 times for the last 3 years

Leisure time? Screen time is getting close to 72% of the pie. According to few research studies released this month, on average we spend:

• 3.2 hours a day on social networking, microblogging and video sites such as Facebook and Twitter
• 2.5 in front of traditional TV, timeshifted DVRs and online video
• 4.6 with PCs and mobile devices at the office and home

Something Velly powerful is happening to me this weekend!

Outer Inner World

“We have to assume we’ll never meet again. This is the only unique opportunity!” John Kehoe is a mesmerizing inspirational Canadian guru with 33 years of experience, his books are bestsellers in Bulgaria, the only Wikipedia article is in Bulgarian, his website has a rank beyond 6 million, but is translated in Bulgarian?!. Today 970 Bulgarian idolaters were genetically and neurologically wired for success and discovered their potential to the whole of humanity.

Something very powerful is happening to me this weekend! I had 8 hours of repeating positive energy vibrations, met a lot of old friends, the gentlemen lavatory was full of gorgeous women waiting in a queue, my chair mystically disappeared after the seafood lunch and we prayed to every religion and teacher with the same CR (curing rate, not conversion rate)  in a way appropriate to us. It was a nice “Pray to whom it may concern” on a rainy sabbatical listening to Navajo “holy-holy-matrix-song” Saturday. Still not feeling blessed with grace and synchronicity? Still don’t know how to escape the 9-to-5 rat-race? Any dysfunction or limitations of your inner-to-outer-world energy sources? Still not sure where confidence, luck, fate, happiness and success are living? Who are you, where are you going and why are you going there? What was consciousness before the Big Bang?

Well, at least we have a free unused Sunday left. Let go all beliefs that no more serve you. Meditate on that Let’s set an intention in our positive thoughts and vibrate with the universe, which is here to give you exactly what you want. Our power comes in the minute we realize that we are “not limited to reality”, everything in the universe is governed by laws, and yes – you are the cause of everything that happens to you. It’s not the economy, or the virus, or the “jerks”. This is the “greatest news that you have ever been given!” Sure, the only greatest exception is that I didn’t pay €150 (thanks Tonny!) to hear this great positive news. Our mind knows our great fears and vulnerable spots, but I will still try something new and go somewhere else. Once we’re out from Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture, we begin to control our mind, relationships and communication with the universe in the most incredible way – we’ll cut all negative thoughts, observe and label them and counteract with the exact opposite. I’m sending and receiving powerful thoughts, attracting similar matches, I’m inserting anything I want in my mind. It happens when you realize that you are the artists. You have to go deep and creative way beyond books, education, etc. From mind power to Zen Buddhism – we must be “realistic”. Thanks, I’m not interested.  “If a farmer wants cucumbers, he seeds cucumber seeds“. There’s a nice Bulgarian saying: Глупости на търкалета (cucumbers on bicycles) . There’s another Bulgarian saying: На краставичар краставици ще продаваш ( Selling cucumbers to a cucumber grower)

Blessed are the believers. Let’s have some real-world stuff like our jam at DaDa last night, Dimmy’s exhibition opening tonight and a feeling for a creative spring Sunday!

Something Velly powerful is happening to me this weekend! Is it happening to you too?

Wild Ride

You can hear it here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

or in the Bulgarian National Radio Land Adventure’s interview (in Bulgarian)

Shadows on the walking path
stalled me for a minute
reminds of good ol’ friends
who burned fast still young
Sunny weeks on wide wild roads,
indian summers never ending
hours of speedy rides
and fairy clouds ‘n sky

Ch. (aborigines jabber)

I’m a rider to a world I can see
got a rhythm and a magic sound
the source of energy
I’m a rider and what you’ll want I’ll be
I’m a sophisticated exception
to your “stable” theory

Shall we strip the rusty wings
and look in our future
let’s believe in impossible things
and skip the possible pasts.
Abandon all your freakin’ doubts
career and bloody greed, babe
Trading the warmth of youth
for a drink at the bar

Ch.

Get back your freedom now
the calmness of your soul
stop gambling with your life
feel the wild wind calling
Sunny weeks on wide wild roads
indian summers never ending
hours of speedy rides
fairy clouds ‘n’ sky.

© 2010, Velly Petrov
lyrics & music

8CVQQSUW87A9

3-lane highway (to Heaven)

The Third Lane

There’s a huge traffic flow these days. Billions of people worldwide take their lane, every day. We can see three kinds of driving behavior:
The first enjoy the rat race – from the kindergarten’s square sandbox, trough the cube-shaped university and cubicle career to the weighty top management position. In the System they see a secured “happy smile of success”, someday, somehow, somewhere – after 40 years of work FOR somebody. There’s lot of isolation from your own values, family and life here.

The second type of guys manage to establish and work IN their own companies, 12-14 hours a day, until they grow, sell or quit the business. Kind of ambitious, brave, creative, innovative and “suicidal“.

The third kind enjoy an automated passive income (web service, IPOs, commissions, etc.) on the third lane, while working ON themselves, globetrotting the world in a search of the perfect mate, life, value, etc. Kind of adventurous, speedy and peaceful at the same time.

Recently, I found (by investigation) that in this high density region:

1. We often pass each other from the inner lane
2. The traffic flow in the low density region of the outer lane is enhanced and kind of “reserved” for a strange, extra-ordinary, out-of-the-box type of people
3. There is a benefit if you stick to your lane and don’t change it unnecessary.

I used to stick to the first lane for an year, switched to the second for 10 more years and now, after I tried the third one (and it seems to be my type), I’m ready to keep the pace there and enjoy the freedom of doing what you love at the time and speed you prefer with the ones you love (their smile, creative time, etc).

Whichever your lane is, I wish you a safe and twister/ tsunami-free drive!

the perfect One

the perfect One

Many philosophers have thought there is no universal, ultimate perfection – the perfect One is different because everyone has different wishes. Other argued that the perfect One is flexible enough to be able to meet the wishes of anyone or at least the wishes determined by the majorities. Evolution theories, fairy tales, magazines and movies propagate ultimate beauty as essential for well-being and survival. I have to admit, there are some “beautiful” features, which are fundamental signs of health, growth and evolution, beauty as certified quality – attractive attributes, that positively correlate to quality, healthiness and fertility (no, not the hour glass 0.7 waist to hip ratio or the ultimate celebrity features):

Wise & Intelligent – mature, insightful, trying to go beyond your exact search, seeking to get a sense of what you’re looking for and pull up the best, based on understanding, experience, trends and hot topics.

Organic & Natural – with a good sense of humor and ear for music, optimistic, attuned, deleting all things against us (like grudges, past, etc.)

Warmhearted & Broadminded – talkative, sincere, funny, patient but passionate, caring but sensual, outgoing but easy-going.

Intuitive & Creative – energetic, one who makes us feel like we’re the best one in the world and one who can complete us, encouraging to change for the better.

Diverse & Flexible – one with multicultural heritage, self-confident and inspiring, trust-worthy and surprising, mission-critical and adaptive

Beautiful & Humane - curvy and asymmetrical, kind and polite, with a sense for the most relevant actions to current challenges and problems, especially in extreme situations, where coolly observation is required.

Focused & Suggestive on the best traits and strengths, outsourcing the rest to third parties, helping to find the best way to the desired topic.

Communicative & Sharing knowledge, experience and solutions, supporting your common world of interests, goals and everything, which contribute to higher soul/body/ lifestyle levels.

Now finding the perfect and successful one is easier than ever. We can search, create, enjoy, present to the right friends and audience and archive, if necessary. She has a great voice, keeps us well organized and comprehensive, increases the assets and reduces the maintenance costs – an outstanding solution for us, our SMB or even our brand. She is multifunctional, solving problems in minutes, with a wide supporting community of friends and contributors. She offers intuitive management, fast and easy to use, without advanced knowledge, attended by detailed life-books/ manuals?…

HolyMoly - who is she: a perfect Woman, Muse, Content Management System, Search Engine, musical Composition or all of the above?

Never mind, she is always on the road to perfection. See ya at the top!