Fun to watch once or twice. Please, no one take this as a lesson in how to design a site using flash. Please.
Tab Sweep Quickies
Google search is providing enhanced flight tracking info through the ever more productive search box.
I am sure there is a reason for mouth-eyes pictures, I just don’t know what it is. Creepy.
Pretty impressive video of a guy singing a song backwards while performing actions that make it clear that he is not simply rolling the tape in reverse (at least until half way through). My second impression (after amazement) was that this guy has way too much time on his hands.
Profitable Memory Lapse
If only one of my memory lapses proved to be so profitable…
News That Makes You Go ‘Huh?’
Have we really become so politically correct that we have to screen for script-kiddie speak on license plates?
You know that you are not winning hearts and minds when you are forced to make a public statement like this:
“We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.”
This would probably make an amusing party question/activity: determining your porn star name. A quick survey via email yielded these gems from some friends: “Fuzzy Boxwood”, “Bituminous Pineglen”(!) and “Buffy Maple”. Based on those results, I could see this really working for someone ‘in the biz’.
Flag Colors
Interesting visualization of national flags by color. It is somewhat remarkable the consistency in choice of colors across the various cultures and aesthetics.
Technorati Tags:
flags, color, visualization, ideas
Sci-Fi Movie As Reverse Trojan Horse
Wired has a longish story about how the CIA used a made-up science fiction movie to smuggle six Americans out of Iran. Strange, but true (I presume).
mobrec.com Domain Sold
In a multi-million dollar deal finalized on Friday, March 31st, the mobrec.com domain name has been sold to Microsoft to support a new, undisclosed online service to be rolled out later this year. With the accompanying NDA, that is all I can really say about it at this point.
I noticed that I (inexplicably) get a fair amount of traffic from the microsoft.com domain, but had no idea that they were more interested in my domain name than my content.
Amiga Workbench in AJAX
Now this takes me back: someone has created a simulation of the Amiga GUI in Javascript and DHTML. It was fun to see ‘eyes’ and ‘juggler’ again. The Amiga was my second computer (after the Commodore 64, of course).
Man, was Amiga way ahead of their time.
Specific Things
Flickr is an excellent general photo sharing site, but sometimes you are looking for specificthings. ST is a web site that collects photos on a specific theme, some of which are kind of off the wall. Fun stuff.
Technorati Tags:
fun, specificthings, photography
Dead Parrot, In An African Styleee
Wherein a guy gets some African email scammers to re-create the (in)famous Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch in hopes of getting money “from a film making grant”. Hilarity follows (and they actually did a pretty good job of it).
Technorati Tags:
python, deadparrot, video, scammers
Kiwi Ingenuity
Building on the annals of beer can wifi extenders a Kiwi eschews a $20,000 link; instead uses a $10 wok to keep a TV station on the air. Priceless.
Technorati Tags:
ingenuity, newzealand, fun
What Would G.W.B Do?
Lego Weapons
These are probably a really bad idea of there is any likelihood that the other guy is going to be toting the real thing.
One Billion Calculators
Casio has recently celebrated the sale of its one billionth calculator. It is amazing to think about the progression of calculator functionality and form factor over that period of time as well as how they went from being an expensive novelty to an everyday item that is practically given away.
Technorati Tags:
gadgets, technology, history
How Much Does the Internet Weigh?
How much does the internet weigh? By one calculation around 2 ounces or 50 grams!
via Britannica Blog
New Word: Upgrage
I caught the above typo in an email from one of our software vendors at work. I thought about it for a second and concluded this could be a new sniglet-esque word, similar to ‘road rage’. ‘Upgrage’ could be the anger you feel after upgrading (or having an upgrade slammed on your system by helpful automated tools) which renders the application/system even more borked than it was prior to the upgrade.
Interestingly, this typo appears quite a bit on Google but I have not found anyone who has actually assigned it this meaning. History being made, right here on this post 🙂
MS Firefox
Time Waster: Cassette Generator
Cassette Generator is a fun little time waster. You remember cassettes, right? Go, now, get your 80s on…
Reno Balloon Race Video
Mesmerizing time lapse video of over one hundred hot air balloons launching and soaring at the 2006 Reno Balloon Race (via youTube). It’s fun to watch the eccentric paths that some of the balloons aloft take.
The way that it was produced is kind of interesting as well.
Just Bizarre
Two of the strangest things I’ve seen this week:
A guy who can pop his eyes 95% out of their sockets.
And a incredible story of drinking and violence from New Zealand. I don’t know what is more remarkable, the fact that one guy drank 72(!) beers then drove home or that the other guy that he stabbed had no idea that he was stabbed until he went home and looked in the mirror.
You can’t make this stuff up.