Last night, Stalelife and Adomatica joined forces to collect donations at the Dirt Derby, an Austin-based mountain bike and cyclocross race series. We offered $3 off race fees to ever rider who brought at least two items needed by the Capital Area Food Bank.

The results were great – 20 cyclists donated and a few spectators brought food just for the heck of it. We’re humbled by the generosity of the cyclists at the Dirt Derby – there’s enough there to fill a small shopping cart.

There’s still time to get on the pick-up list for Saturday’s donation run. We’re riding – with Adomatica and a few other cyclists – from North Austin to South and picking up scheduled food donations as we make our way to the HAMup TweetUP. All you need to do is email HAMup@stalelife.com and give us your address. We’ll show up and collect the food from your porch or your person.

The more food there is, the more people we can feed. And with news of Ike heading toward the Texas coast, the Capital Area Food Bank will use all the food it gets. They provide immediate disaster relief for gulf-coast hurricanes (amongst other things).

Please consider donating.

We’ve been waiting to show this one for some time. Our good friends at Klein Construction approached us looking for direct mail that would open doors for their sales team.

Three concepts were presented and what you see below is the dimensional mailer that was selected. 3D DM has near 100% open rates (who doesn’t open boxes?), and since our client is in construction we went with a blueprint theme. The tube is apropos, and rattling inside is a 256mb USB drive, pre-loaded with a splash site that launched upon insertion.

Our letter is 100% benefit driven for the developer’s who read it. The brochure showcases a diverse offering of Klein’s portfolio – everything from landmark construction to new Starbucks buildings.

We hear the reception so far is great, and it’s lead to many meetings and RFPs for Klein. If you’re looking for a commercial construction company in Chicago (and the suburbs), consider calling on our partners.

The blueprint theme is established with a teaser line above the addressing.

Once inside, the developer has an extraordinary kit – they don't normally receive 3D mailers.

The square brochure is light on copy and big on full-bleed images.

Like a good designer's portfolio, Klein's award-winning projects are easy on the eyes.

The copy we developed is all about value. For developers that means close personal service, quality construction methods and competitive prices.

Special thanks to our consumate partner, Kathy Labbe of PROforma. Amazing print and promotional capabilities – she helped make this mailing a success.

Did you know that September is Hunger Action Month?

Yeah, neither did we. That is until some of our friends on Twitter started chatting about it. Next thing you know, the local community is rallying around this great cause and supporting the Capital Area Food Bank with the HAMup TweetUP. Immediately we thought, “how can we help this social event, but with our own spin?”

A coffee’s worth of brainstorming
with Robert Gilbreath of Adomatica and several ideas rose to the top. But none stuck out as much as picking up donations on September 13th and transporting them via bicycle straight to the CAFB. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to donate if you can’t make the event yourself.

There are plenty of ways you can help feed the hungry. Here are just a few:

• Collect donations in your office, church, school or social events
• Spread the word about Hunger Action Month – here are some examples of avatars people have created for their social networking sites
• Take a “Hunger is unacceptable” image and upload it here. Then share it with your friends.
• Volunteer your time at the HAMup TweetUP on 09.13
• Attend the HAMup GrillUP Happy Hour dinner at Whole Foods on 09.11
• Grab your bike and join us on 09.13 as we take a slow stroll from North Austin to South, picking up food goods along the way

If you can’t make the HAMup TweetUP – but you know that you’ll shop for groceries this week or next – let us bring some of these needed items on your behalf. We will even pick up checks made out to the CAFB.

To schedule a pickup, please email us at HAMup@stalelife.com.

Our convoy will leave from Burnet and Justin area and pick up any donation (and riders) between the highways all the way down to CAFB. If you live East of I35 or West of MOPAC and can collect in your area and join us, that would be great.

Let’s feed even more people this year while laying down less of a carbon footprint! You can make a difference in the lives of hungry Central Texans, so please consider helping out.

Recently we completed a super blog for our friends at the Dirt Derby. They were looking for an efficient way to monitor and post complex information in-house. Each race’s results needs to build on the previous one (it’s a series), and the site also needs to generate enough interest to keep people coming back.

The biggest requirement was the ability to modify the website in a second’s notice, so we recommended a super blog, if you will. It has multiple URLs landing into one design, with three tabbed sections and 14 subpages.

It’s complex and the taxonomy was a great challenge to figure out with the group that is still trying to figure out everything that they do. Seems like Andrew Stackhouse, bike promoter extraordinaire, is always coming up with new ideas for cycling races in central ATX.

In the past Andrew’s team has posted lengthy reviews and notices, so we used a white content channel to ensure readability was kept to high level. The black border provides a nice contrast and also helps Glennon Simmons photos pop more on the page (he’s got a great eye, that guy).

Head out to the Dirt Derby – you’ll see us in our Stalelife kits every Tuesday. And at the Lone Star Cyclocross events, too.

We were having issues with the battery life on the new 3G iPhone, so we asked for advice from the Apple guru, Gary Crowell. He’s one of our clients and the CEO of Vinaire, a custom wine cellar builder in central Texas.

These two tips easily doubled the run time on our batteries.

1. Back up and restore. The ROM that ships installed on the phone is not the same as the one available for current download.  The restored ROM seems to be newer, with better power management.

2. Drain the phone all the way and recharge. Twice. Or three times even. You can run movies to make this happen faster. But the key is that it needs to be all the way dead.

Thanks, Gary. You’re a lifesaver.