Airborne Porcine
This photostory of the first flying pig is great in it’s own right but also fantastic for some great stock images.
*Edit* As Dan quite rightly points out in the comments – the stills are from the 2005 ”’mockumentary”’ ”’First on the Moon”’ (or Pervye na lune).
Friday Playlist
Here’s the first attempt at a jukebox playlist for you to listen to – let me know if you like it and I’ll run some more with guest submissions.
Site Going Down – server migration
Just a little pre-warning that the site will, hopefully, be going down for 12-24 hrs sometime in the next few days as I get it transferred over to a new server. My hosting company have offered to move me onto a new server with ”’cpanel”’ functionality which mostly gives me an up to date version of ”’PHP”’ amongst other features. This will, hopefully, allow Solomon and I (or anyone else who wants to), to try out some new features like the OpenTape online playlists that I blogged about the other day. When the site comes back up it’ll be on a new ”’IP address”’ but you shouldn’t notice any difference. (Do, please, let me know if you get any errors etc though)
40 Dark and Futuristic Photoshop Effects
I haven’t posted any photoshop tutorials for a while now, mostly as they were all getting very similar and boring. I did like the collection of 40 Dark and Futuristic Photoshop Effects which are worth looking at, especially if you’re a beginner/intermediate at Photoshop – I’ve always found this the best way to learn.
Dirty Toy Story
Well, thanks a bunch Volkswagen, I’ll never be able to sit through Toy Story with my kids again.
Opentape
Opentape is an OpenSource equivalent of Muxtape (currently down – boo hiss!) which allows you to easily host mixtapes on webpages. Yes it’s pretty easy to do yourself but this is a simple package for newbies. (One small niggle though – if it’s trumpeting it’s OpenSource credentials so loudly then where’s the source code?).
I’m quite tempted to do one myself and maybe open it up so readers can do their own guest mixtapes if there’s any interest?
VirusTotal
Quick plug for a very handy online tool – VirusTotal is a free online, on-demand virus scanner but unlike the many other ones available, it uses the engines of pretty much all the major anti-virus companies and picks up very recent viruses indeed. It is only on-demand but works a treat and is free.
Usain Bolt Celebrates Early…Very Early
Usain Bolt – what a star, I thought the Men’s 100m was funny so this rings very true.
Fantastic Contraption
The Fantastic Contraption physics based puzzle game has been all over the web this past week but if you haven’t seen it then it’s worth a lunchbreak of your time. I’ve noticed it does slow down the longer you have it open so it is worth switching to the low gfx mode.
The Disney Goat5e Collection
Regular readers will know we’ve not lost our love/hate fascination with the goat5e phenomenon. Enjoy the Disney Go4tse Collection with us.
Radio Popbitch
Just as I start to lose all patience with gossip newsletter Popbitch, they go and launch Radio Popbitch which, for the last ten minutes since I started listening is actually surprisingly good – we’ve had ”’Joy Division”’, ”’Broken Social Scene”’ and ”’Placebo”’ which isn’t a bad mix. I think they have some themed hours so I can avoid any suggestion of the dreaded dance music or ”’disco”’.
Blueprint
I’m pretty sure we’ve posted this game before but I’ve been struggling with a new work pc this week and I’m only just back up and running and this Blueprint Game is the first bit of fun I’ve had all week so no apologies if it’s a re-post.
Meet Emily
Meet Emily, she’s not quite what she seems. If you watch the video you’ll see an extraordinarily lifelike CG animation the likes of which I’ve not seen before. Pr0n version due along in 5..4..3..2..
The Code of Beach Volleyball
Since we have a lot of coders and encryption geeks who visit the site, I’ve got a challenge for you. Go and view the Beach Volleyball slideshow and try to work out the encrypted code that each team use to send signals to their team mates. Code-crackers will love the challenge (as will the majority of our male readers) – there are 53 images which should be enough data to keep you absorbed in your task for a while. I’m almost there I think, I just need to review some of the images to confirm for definite.
pixlr
Caught out without a copy of photoshop to hand? Need to do some quick artwork? Check out pixlr – an online image editor which has just enough functionality to do most jobs and is easy and familiar enough to use. You can do multiple layers, use basic effects and adjustments, in fact, the only glaring omission I can instantly find is the lack of a text input tool but apart from that it’s a stunning piece of coding to get it squeezed into a quick-loading webpage. I actually think it’s more user-friendly than the online Photoshop Express.
coign of vantage
Nope the title isn’t a typo – it’s a game called coign of vantage which tests your spatial perception. I thought it was quite easy until I noticed the imer which made me panic and I rapidly started losing it. Good, clean fun though.
The Banana Splits are coming back
Only yesterday I had a conversation bemoaning the lack of traditional Saturday morning tv shows for kids. We used to have loads of them but, in the UK at least, only a small amount of tv channels to choose from. The good thing was that it meant everyone watched the same shows so when you were chatting to kids at school, chances were, you had seen the same shows as everyone else and could join in the conversation. Nowadays there are many channels and this bonding over shows is much rarer.
Anyway, I digress, I’ve just heard that my all-time favourite Saturday morning show, The Banana Splits are coming back – not just re-runs but a re-vamped, new Banana Splits. I really hope they don’t blow it – I can already see that Snorky has changed slightly and the theme song isn’t quite as manic as it was (why didn’t they use ”’The Dickies”’ version???).
Full Disclosure: I was a proud member of the ”’Banana Splits”’ fanclub for many years (I was still a member in my late teens!).
My Come to Bed Eyes
Aren’t these freaky contact lenses just the things of nightmares – the ocular equivalent of ”’vagina dentata”’. I’m sure ”’Freud”’ would have had a field day with them. If they’re not to your liking then there are tons of other cool lenses on the same site. Or you could go for the ”’manga”’ ”’otaku”’ wide-iris lenses for that instant-photoshopped/startled look.
BarCamp Leeds 2008
I’m currently at BarCamp Leeds {2008} and this year looks like it’s going to be every bit as good as last year’s one. I’ll be updating this post throughout the day with info about the presentations I attend.
First up is a talk on ”’Geocaching”’ – an interesting modern take on a ”’treasure hunt”’. I was surprised to hear about a lot of limitations over the commercial use of Geocaching – I had previously thought it was a completely open community affair along the lines of Open Street Map but it seems that there are many limitations over who is allowed to run Geocaching events due to it being run by a commercial venture.
Next up is the evercool Wolf (Paul Key) doing a talk on ”’Ableton Live”’ – a welcome change to the more geeky code-based talks. I’m really happy that this year a lot of different types of geek are represented, it’s not just code, there is plenty of variety.
I’ve been really heartened this year by the amount of new people willing to do talks and Dean Vipond is another work colleague who’s stepped up to do a talk on design vs. ”’usability”’ in the webspace – it’s a bitter war that has been fought for many years but these days there is thankfully a lot more awareness over the issues even though no-one yet has a definitive answer. (I’ve also never heard ”’Metroid Prime”’, chocolate pudding and ”’HM Revenues and Customs”’ referred to in the same few sentences).
A great ”’sushi”’ lunch was followed by another superb talk by Tom Scott – he of removing fingerprints with pineapple and ”’Talk Like a Pirate Day”’. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Tom talk on a few occasions now and he never fails to amuse, entertain and inspire in equal doses.
The live link-up to BarCamp Omaha has just gone live – it’s early in the morning on the other side of the Atlantic but I’m going to go and stick my head in there now and see what they’ve got planned for the day.
Have just had a very odd experience for a conference – discussing issues around design, usability, accessability and testing whilst playing with a ”’ferret”’ and a ”’polecat”’ (don’t ask!).
I’m now listening to a discussion led by Ian Forrester on the Death of the ”’iPod”’ which is primarily based around a new device called a Pacemaker which turns everyone into a dj without having to cart a huge bunch of kit around. It does look very cool indeed as you can see on this video. It’s still first generation and it’s just less than £500 but I think the potential is there for it to go very big indeed with it’s built-in cross-fade, 120Gb hard drive, effects, pitch change and many more features. I’d love to have a closer look and see how hackable it is.
One of the last sessions for today that I’m attending (before tonight’s Wii-off competition) is How to Build an iPhone application in under 20 mins which I’m surprising my self by easily following despite not being a code-monkey myself.
Last, but by no means least, the fantastically named Katie Lips from Treasure my Text doing a great talk on the 12 13 mitsakes mistakes of new ”’startups”’.
It’s been a great day and thanks as usual to the inimitable Imran ‘Silicon’ Ali, Debs, Linda Broughton, Ross Brown, Dom ‘The Hodge‘ and everyone else who helped to organise this year’s event. Now I’m off for beer and the Wii-off.
There are more sessions tomorrow morning but unfortunately I’m not going to be able to make it – I hope it runs as well as today.
Pubcrawler
I can’t work out if using the fantastic Pubcrawler means that you’re lazy or if it will get you fit – whatever, it’s a funny old vehicle.
PC Toaster
I really feel that I’m missing an opportunity for a good headline but it’s late/early so I’ll let you suggest something witty for the PC Toaster 5.25″ bay case mod yourselves.
Do want.
Watchmen Poster Comparison
I’ve still got very high hopes for the ”’Watchmen”’ movie and this Watchmen Poster Comparison showing the differences, or more accurately the similarities, between the original comic and the movie posters makes me want to see it all the more.
Shaving Your Cat’s Nose
Ok, do me a favour and stop for a second and re-read the title of this post. What images/thoughts did it bring up. Well, there’s nothing filthy about this, it’s just the usual pet loving freak brigade who inhabit this world wierd web of ours with articles on Shaving Your Cat’s Nose. These people are serious and I fully expect the usual pile of emailed complaints from them for daring to suggest that they’re freaks and should possibly leave their cat’s noses alone.
Waiter, waiter…
Is this the worst sledgehammering-in of a pun ever?
Most people would be appalled to find a fly in their soup, but Drosophila researchers at the University of Washington are studying the soup in their flies
Interesting article but there’s no excuse for that opening line.
TiddlyWiki
TiddlyWiki is a very cool, reusable and simple wiki-style webpage. It’s a tiny download of a page that, suing some funky javascript, allows you to create a simple page in seconds which is instantly editable from anywhere at any time. You can keep it on a usb stick as a to-do list or stick it on a server/webspace for a quick site that you can allow anyone to alter (or you can limit permissions if you wish). With the addition of some plugins you can expand the capabilities with little effort – there are tons of plugins covering everything from inbuilt media players to full databases and calendars.
cheers anistropia
Defcon Network Operations Centre
The network that runs at the annual ”’DEF CON”’ hackers conference is famous for many reasons (like the Wall of Sheep) and though it might not look like much, I was very interested to see this First Ever Look Inside The Defcon NOC. If you need a secure network building then learn from these guys.
Star Wars Wedding
A very geeky Star Wars Wedding photoset on Flickr. I do wonder about the wisdom of having General Akbar there (he seems to be the groom – an ominous portent if ever I saw one!) And yes, Leia’s metal bikini makes a great appearance.
GoateeSaver
I originally misreadthis as the Goatse Shaver but nope, it’s a GoateeSaver and it’s for beardies like me to safeguard their facial follicles when doing their morning ablutions. Judging from the videos on the official site the early prototypes weren’t too effective.
cheers Ama
IPv4 Exhaustion Counter
The IPv4 Exhaustion Counter is counting down the days until the interweb runs out of IP addresses. 892 days ain’t too long!
Am I the only one…
… who didn’t know that Janice Long is Keith Chegwin’s sister? I ended up doing some random slurfing after coming across this excellent blog post in which Cheggers responds in the comments. I’m sure Kenny will disagree but you’ve got to hand it to Cheggers – he’s truly unique.
apologies for non-UK readers – you may skip this post
