If you haven’t yet seen the newest viral video sensation “Thank You Facebook,” you must watch. It’s…amazing.

The video features some curiously satisfied Facebook users waxing rhapsodic about their favorite site, singing over an adult-contemporary track about everything from notifications to tagging photos to “Liking.”

The song is super cheesy, and the video looks so stock footage-y, with different lyrics it could’ve been a commercial for Shutterstock. (Because, you know, it’s completely normal to log-in into Facebook while frolicking on the beach…) But what makes this a true viral video gem is that both song and video appear to have been made in earnest, not as an intentionally funny comedy clip. As in, these guys just really like Facebook. That, or they want to use the site’s IPO as a way to promote their “musical group.”

Either way, no introduction could compare to watching — nay, experiencing – ”Thank You Facebook” itself. Sing along with me now, w-w-w-dot-f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k-dot-c-o-m…

Nathan Pensky

Nathan is the managing editor at PandoDaily. He has written for Forbes, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and Boing Boing, among others, and was previously an associate editor for PopMatters. He Tweets, Tumbls, and Facebooks. He does not own a smartphone.

Remember when your company consisted of ten people in a room, sharing Chinese food off each others plates? When you knew everything there was to know about your co-workers and the synergy and energy that came from that was contagious?

Start-up mode. My favorite.

But then the inevitable happens. All that passion and energy allowed ten people to morph into thirty, and those thirty became fifty, and once that ball is rolling things change fast. Before you know it, you’re walking by someone in the hallway, wondering if he’s a co-worker or just another interview candidate passing through.

A few years back, I was at a company lunch, and I sat down next to a guy I’d never seen before. Since we had a client on-site that day, I assumed he was with them. So I introduced myself and asked if he was with our client. Nope. Turns out he was a co-worker of mine who had been with the company for more than a month! So freaking awkward.

To ensure that type of interaction never happened again, we knew we had to get creative about building name-face recognition between employees. We had to give them an easy way to connect with their co-workers. So we went digital and built an internal platform called Who Dot.

The main Who Dot page has a picture of every Modean listed in alphabetical order. I can also search for an employee by department or by entering their name in the search field. If I click on Brad’s picture on the bottom left hand side of the screen…

I’m brought to his personal page which has his name, title, contact information, and links to his social media accounts. It also has his top 5 Strengths from the Gallup Strengths Profile and an Ad-Libs style biography. Under his picture I can find badges that represent different aspects of who Brad is. His badges define him as an Apple loving, southpaw, line-crosser, inked up beard artist who likes wine, photography and coffee. If I want to learn more about this wine interest that Brad has I can click on the Wine-O badge.

And I can see all thirty Modeans who also like wine.

This tool is just one way that we continue to build name-face recognition around Modea. As we grow we encourage employees to build relationships across teams because we understand that these relationships are what give a business the energetic, passionate, contagious start-up feel.

How is your company using technology to help foster an engaged, passionate workforce?

Marisa Keegan

Marisa Keegan got her kick-start in the culture and engagement space as the Culture Maven for Rackspace, one of Fortune's "Best Places to Work." She has since worked for several nationally recognized great places to work and currently helps organizations improve their culture. She founded Culture Fanatics and actively writes about corporate culture at Fistfull of Talent.

You’re going to want to want to watch this five-minute demo video “Kara” by Quantic Dream, the studio behind new 3D motion capture tech for the Playstation 3. More than the fact that the video is just mindbogglingly gorgeous, its most interesting aspect might be that it was captured on the Playstation in real time. “It’s not CG, [and] it’s not pre-rendered. It’s really the game,” says Quantic Dream boss, David Cage, as reported by GameFreaks.

Uncanny valley bridged?

[via Laughing Squid, GameFreaks]

Nathan Pensky

Nathan is the managing editor at PandoDaily. He has written for Forbes, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and Boing Boing, among others, and was previously an associate editor for PopMatters. He Tweets, Tumbls, and Facebooks. He does not own a smartphone.

Ding dong, the Cupcake Craze is officially dead… If you don’t believe me, then look no further than the fully-functional 24 Hour Sprinkles ”cupcake ATM,” now serving all your designer cupcake needs with the convenience of a machine that no one actually uses anymore.

Yes, really.

Customers punch in their preferences on the ATM’s touchscreen, and then a robotic arm retrieves the cupcake(s) from a supply of over 600 freshly-baked treats. Judging from the demo with Lucy Blodgett from the Huffington Post, which you can watch below, varieties of cupcakes include red velvet, dark chocolate, Black and White, vanilla, chocolate marshmallow, Irish chocolate, and others.

The 24 Hour Sprinkles cupcake ATM is located in Beverly Hills, CA, because of course it is, with additional locations soon popping up for New Yorkers in midtown, downtown, and the Upper West Side.

But speaking of designer cupcakes being “dead,” for those of you who prefer a more DIY approach, Boing Boing reports on these snazzy, skull-shaped cupcake molds called Nomskulls. (Ha!) The kit costs $11.95 and comes with instructions on how to make your own “brainy frosting.”

[via Laughing Squid, Boing Boing]

Nathan Pensky

Nathan is the managing editor at PandoDaily. He has written for Forbes, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and Boing Boing, among others, and was previously an associate editor for PopMatters. He Tweets, Tumbls, and Facebooks. He does not own a smartphone.