Here’s the tech behind Google’s new Street Maps photos
I was very intrigued to find out how exactly Google had done the images for their new street maps feature which we blogged yesterday and Boingboing have just linked to What the Immersive Media Photo-Car Looks Like! – doesn’t the camera look like the Jedi Lightsaber Training Remote?
$400 – a snip!
I thought I’d already posted this classic craigslist story about the Priceless Vasectomy but I can’t find it in the archives so thanks KD for reminding me to post it. He is, indeed, a b45tard but it’s still funny (as long as you’re not personally involved).
What about getting a tattoo while skydiving?
Not exactly something that strikes most people as a sane thing to do but the ‘WFFT’ is now a reality – it stands for ‘World’s First Freefall Tattoo’ (and yes, it’s as poor as you’d expect).
Rudest Trampoline on TV
We don’t follow the Apprentice here at Prime Towers so I’m indebted to ‘our kid’ for sending me this clip of The Apprentice UK – Simon + Trampoline – it’s a cracker.
Pac-Man’s Skull
Nice representation of Pac-Man’s Skull but where on earth is his digestive system?
OOTTINLTO – superb one!
I’m very proud to have accidentally stumbled across a perfect One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others Image Search today – a GIS for tesco value will give the expected results plus a solitary bonus (VNSFW) image. Result!
Monkey Journeyz by Train
Isn’t the Virgin train design by Jamie Hewlett a thing of beauty. It’s based on his forthcoming circus/opera collaboration with the Chinese State Opera and Gorillaz called Monkey: Journey To The West.
The Ice Bulb
How simple is the Ice Bulb to make? One balloon/latex glove, some water, an LED, a battery and a couple of wires for a superb party piece – I’m gonna make a few of these for lil grom 2.0′s birthday party soon.
Idol goes Metal
I can’t work out what the funniest bit about this Black Metal entry to Austria’s Pop/American Idol is – I think it’s got to be how pathetic he looks when he runs out of breath at the end – he looks utterly deflated. YouTubers have done some even blacker versions, all of which are much funnier than the much lamer American Idol version.
Psst! Wanna buy a band?
Remember Rednex of ‘Cottoneye Joe’ fame? You can buy them from the Pop Band For Sale site. The cheesiness of the band aside, it’s interesting to show how a lot of these sample-based bands work in that it is actually feasible to buy a band since the performers are merely paid employees – it seems that the one thing you don’t get for your money is the song-writing skills (skills being used very loosely in this instance) although there is a record ready to be released and a record deal to go with it.
New Google Street Maps
Google have an excellent new feature available in a select few cities in the US. Check out the photgraphic street maps of San Francisco, Noo Yoik, Vegas, Denver (seems an odd choice to me – what’s in Denver?) and Miami (nice checking out the famous Art Deco hotels on South Beach – you might know them from GTA ;o) ).
Classic eCards
I’m loving these free eCards and think I’ll be sending mrs grom one of these (being a bit too late for this one and not having a reason for this one).
This one is from all of us here at prime towers to our lovely readers.
LaCie – 12Gb USB Key
Wow! My favourite USB key (yeah, I know it’s sad to have such a thing) by my favourite portable drive maker has just got better – LaCie have just brought out a 12Gb USB Key for only £80. I’ve had two of the 8Gb ones and found them invaluable as they fit in a wallet and yet store a huge amount of data. (One word of caution, I had to get one replaced as I didn’t use the extension cord it comes with so the little lead snapped after 6 months of daily use but the other two are still working perfectly at over 6 months of daily use each).
Fractal Food
Freaky Fractal Food.
LOLCODE
Even someone who has only ever programed in BASIC can understand the new 1337 programming language – LOLCODE. Scarily, what there is, actually works and I’m a fan of using ‘OH RLY?’, ‘YA RLY’ and ‘NO WAI’ for IF/NOT/TRUE/FALSE. Other cool proposals include ‘GIMMEH’, ‘KTHXBYE’ and ‘IM IN YR/IM OUTTA YR’.
FlowSheet
I know that FlowSheet is aimed at Excel Powerusers but I’d have thought most powerusers didn’t need it, more intermediate spreadsheet users will like the simple, clear, visual way it helps to show how formulas are worked out and help debug them. Check out the quick start demo for examples of how to use it.
Not the Nine O’Clock News
A couple of classic Not the Nine O’Clock News sketches for you today – first up the superb spoof interview about the controversy over The General Synod’s Life of Christ, then the American Express sketch but how could we also forget Constable Savage and Gerald The Gorilla. For non-UK viewers you might be interested to see Mr Bean when he was funny.
cheers John
Sexy GPS Shoes
What an oddly creative idea – The Aphrodite Project have come up with the ‘Sexy GPS Platform shoe‘ (which really isn’t sexy at all IMHO). The shoes have GPS built in and a small screen (for showing adverts or other info) and are intended for use by ‘sex workers’ (or prossies to the layman (sic)). I kinda think the safety aspect is both cool, interesting and flawed. Flawed as I can see the first thing anyone in trouble will do is loose a shoe thus rendering them pointless but interesting as it was inspired by something that’s fascinated me since I was studying Latin aand Ancient Greek at school – that ancient prostitutes (that in ancient times, not just very aged whores) would wear sandals with words printed on the soles of their shoes with phrases such as ‘follow me’ left in the dirt as they walked – a rudimentary form of temprorary grafitti advertising.
Ubuntu Comes to the desktop
If you’re thinking about buying a new computer, it might be worth bearing in mind that Dell have started to sell Ubuntu desktops now so now is a good time to make that move to Linux since you have a major coproation willing to give you support (just checking the site again, it seems to be just in the US so far but let’s hope they extend this to Europe soon).
Proof That 4 Equals 3
Proof That 4 Equals 3 – that’s one for the maths geeks to ponder over. (Looks valid but isn’t – many more invalid proofs here if you’re feeling very nerdy).
The Zimmers “My Generation”
Hope I die before I get old indeed! We’ve featured the Zimmers before but here’s the video for their version of “My Generation”. The lead singer, Alf, is 90 at the moment but several of the band are even older than him with the current oldest member being 100. The guitar smashing and Abbey Road tributes at the end are just superb.
The Death Star Exhibition Centre
The proposed giant RAK Convention and Exhibition Centre for the new city at Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates seems to have been deliberately moddeled on the Death Star. Let’s just hope that they’ve sorted the exhaust port issue to make it terrorist proof!
Remove Car Dent With An Airduster
Here’s a handy tip that might save you a small fortune, it shows how to remove a car dent with an Airduster.
How to break Up
This is pretty much the most succinct description of How to Break Up I’ve seen.
Your Daily Throttle
We’ve featured many highly specialised blogs before and you can add the throttling site to that list. They say ‘There is no sight finer than a man throttling another man, except for maybe an ape throttling a man, or a woman throttling her child.’. We say ‘erm…’
cheers Kim
LATAWYNA the naughty horse
I am now forever in the debt of John for pointing me to the amazing story of LATAWYNA the naughty horse who learns to say NO to drugs. Unfortunately, Amazon has sold out of it.
Let’s all go to…
One suggestion for a meeting place for the afore-mentioned OpenCoffee group was here but there are many other choices too.
OpenCoffee Leeds is starting
Good news for geeks in Leeds – an OpenCoffee Club is starting in the area. It’s an informal group based around drinking coffee and chatting about geek things. It’s a great way for start-ups to network, bounce ideas around and speak to VCs. If you’re interested then sign-up at the Upcoming Group and if I see you there I might even stand you a latte.
Urban Stickman Sniper Game
This is a pretty cool game once you get the hang of it – it’s pretty self-explanatory too – Urban Stickman Sniper Game.
Warm & Scratchy – a free album
ADult Swim, the adult cartoon channel has a new album called Warm & Scratchy available for free download. IT features some rather good bands indeed – The Good, The Bad and The Queen, The Raveonettes, TV on the Radio, The Rapture etc.
