Danger Mouse to release blank CD
Quite amusingly, ”’Dangermouse”’ is to release a blank CD after a dispute with his record company about the album ”’Dark Night of the Soul”’. Even more amusingly, I’ve had a copy for over a month now – it’s really good so I might even buy the blank cd along with the 100 page booklet of David Lynch photos to put my downloaded copy in.
Threw me a Curveball
This curveball visual illusion is doing the rounds today and it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.
RoboCamera
You only need to watch the first few seconds of this Eurovision Song Contest rehearsal to check out Robocameraman – using a ”’Segway”’ and a ”’steadicam”’ he makes an amazing tracking shot without a dolly or a crane.
Kondo bots
I, for one, would like to personally welcome our new robotic Kondo bot overlords. It’s gundam time!
Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus
I’ve just been sent a link which alerted me to the existence of Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus which looks like a must-see movie (of the awful kind) especially as it stars Deborah Gibson – that would be 80′s pop starlet Debbie Gibson then?
*Edit* Trailer here and it looks every bit as bad as you’d think.
Before & After
I really keep meaning to do one of these Before & After shots with big grom someday.
Here Be Heroes
We have two new(ish – I haven’t blogged them before) certified heroes at Prime Towers. Firstly you should check out Adafruit Industries a great Makers shop run by Limor of LadyAda.net – she makes some very cool stuff and helps you to build your own versions.
Secondly, & I can’t express in words how awesome ”’Jeri Ellsworth”’ is, you should check out Fat Man and Circuit Girl. Fat Man is ”’George Sanger”’ a hero to many in the gaming industry for his work in gaming audio (he’s done the music for over 200 games to date) but Jeri, oh man, Jeri is something else – she can make anything. That’s pretty much all you need to know for a starting point. She not only created the Commodore64 on a chip which turned into the C64 in a joystick but also the retro flippy clock wristwatch, a 52inch Internet Enabled etch-a-sketch, a pinball machine hacked with a leaf blower (Jeri owns over 30 pinball machines), a handbag with built-in SNES and C64, a DIY Projection Nightlight Clock for less than five bucks and a pair of mice made out of a Rubik’s cube and a Nintendo controller. Not bad for someone completely self-taught.
We salute you.
Awkward Family Photos
Another entry in our collection of single-minded blogs, Awkward Family Photos does what it says. There are some great examples through the pages and it’s well worth going through the archives to find some of the gems.
Five-Cent Battery
Ok, so it’s not the most powerful battery in the world but I like this demonstration of how to power an LED using a Five-Cent homemade Battery. If you need yet another guide on how to incorporate it into an LED Throwie here you go.
BarCamp Leeds {2009}
It’s that time of the year again – BarCamp Leeds {2009} is coming on the 30th & 31st May again at Old Broadcasting House in the centre of Leeds. I can’t make it this time but this is one of my favourite events for anything geeky. There are 40 places still available so book your tickets soon, I personally guarantee a good time will be had. Barcamp is one of the elements of Leeds 2nd Web Festival ‘LSX and this year Barcamp is running along with CupCake Camp including a bake-off.
Bakery and nerdery – what more could you ask for?
I honestly can’t stres this enough, if you are able to get to BarCamp then make the effort, every one is different, you set your own agenda but it’s the people who make it and if you read this blog then you’re the perfect target audience.
And it’s all free.
Ein, Zwei, Die!
Dead Snow looks brilliant – it’s a classic teen-slasher movie with Nazi zombies in the middle of a frozen wasteland. Lots of white snow and red blood make for great visuals. Must find a copy…
A Motivational Slideshow
This slideshow of homemade Motivationals gets bonus points for the rather cool soundtrack.
Emergency landing caught on tape
I have no details about this Emergency landing caught on tape but it’s heart-stopping stuff with a happy ending. The video captures two views from inside the cockpit and outside the plane from just before the engine cuts out to the plane stopping.
Speedball 2 Free
I used to play Sppedball on the Amiga almost 20 years ago. It’s been given away in a Polish gaming magazine – you just send an email for a cdkey, log into Steam (needs a Steam account, add the key to your account, download and play. It’s a modern update of a retro classic, not the world’s best game but some good nostalgic fun for free. Video demonstration here.
Chain Factor
I keep reading about how addictive the iPhone game Drop7 (which has a free lite version which is also worth checking out). The trouble is, I don’t have an iPhone but it turns out that it’s based on a free online flash game called Chain Factor which is only lacking a tiny bit of the graphic slickness of it’s mobile partner. Billed as ‘Tetris meets sudoku’, it has a crappy tagline but it is sort of right – great fun.
Drunken Tube
Yooouuu Tuuube lets you watch videos like you spent the day in the pub.
Programming by Post
”’Jeff Minter”’ (he of ”’llamasoft”’ fame and hero to all geeks and nerds of a certain age – like me) recently found a ”’CESIL”’ school book at a car boot sale in Wales and just had to buy it. CESIL was a goddawful way of teaching computer programming to schoolchildren which involved writing code into little boxes on pieces of paper and then mailing them off for a data entry clerk to input for you. In about 99% of cases you received a piece of paper through the mail a week later saying ‘?SYNTAX ERROR’. It’s amazing how people ever got enough enthusiasm to learn how to do it properly after being forced to endure this type of lesson.
Sugar Shakes
A handy visual guide showing in sugar cubes exactly how much sugar is in some popular Shakes and Smoothies? – the MacDonalds Chocolate shake is just staggering.
Cthulhu Crotchet Mask
Perfect for those who can’t grow a fine faceful of follicles like myself or people who wish to publicly show their devotion to our squid overlord – the Cthulhu ski mask.
cheers Kim
Budget Garage Door Opener
I love the way this guy has made his own Garage Door Opener for his motorbike – I feel like adapting it myself (and I don’t even have a garage!).
Powerthief
The Powerthief is a very cheeky idea (and a very dangerous one if you don’t know what you’re doing). It’s a lightbulb adaptor that you can make which will let you steal power from any available light socket – you just unplug the light (preferably when no-one is looking) and replace it with you homemade plug and cable to power what you please.
Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat
Has anyone not yet partaken of the Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat meme? The third one down (online breakdown) is a brilliant example.
Peggy 2 RGB
I keep on mentioning the geniuses at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and I’m going to keep on keeping on as long as they keep releasing such awesome products as the Peggy 2 RGB – check out the video in the link and you can buy the parts here.
Unintentional Hysteria
Prompted by a mention on the radio, I checked out Hysteria : The Def Leppard Story – a made-for-VH1 tv movie which is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Considering that ”’Def Leppard”’ are from Sheffield which is only a short way from here and a town I know very well, the entire movie seems to have been shot in Montana or Detroit, there’s something hilarious about seeing American roadsigns saying ‘Manchester’ and ‘Sheffield’ or the depictions of a rough working class Northern town in Britain. Check it out for a ‘what were they thinking’ kind of laugh.
Duke Nukem For Never
The longest running joke in the games industry has reached the end of yet another chapter which may turn out to be the last. 3D Realms, the makers of the greatest ”’vaporware”’ game ever, has gone bust but the publishing company Take Two will retain the rights to the name. I believe I’ve made the joke about Duke Nukem Forever’s initials being the same as the Formula One code for Did Not Finish (several times in fact).
Campaign of the Day
Comedian/Activist and old favourite of ours, ”’Mark Thomas”’, has a new campaign that we’re more than happy to get behind – it’s the Get Thatcher to pay for her own funeral campaign. Since ”’Margaret Thatcher”’ did more to destroy this country than the Bush clan ever did to the USA and made everyone who wasn’t rich poorer both financially, educationally and culturally with her policies, this will be our last chance to get some retribution. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take too long now.
Urban Cross Stitching
Oh how cool is Urban Cross Stitch? It’s part ”’Banksy”’ and part your granny. If you ever wanted to learn how to cross stitch a little badge with an intricate floral border that says ‘Bollocks’ in the middle or recreate a famous ”’Banksy”’ design or even a scene from ”’Pacman”’ then this site is for you.
Unusual beatboxer
Good Unusual beatboxer video – nice dubby tune and not really a huge amount of beatboxing, just using a loop pedal to very good effect.
The Dude
Ted has sent me a link to The Dude a free Network Mapper which can scan your network and produce a map of the network as well as the usual monitoring and alerting features. I’ve used a few tools like this before but this is a new one on me so I’ll give it a test in the next few days and see how it fares up – it’s free which is a good start though!
