TECH - free 32 meg USB drive
fill out the form with "real" info and a valid address, and they will supposedly send you a 32 meg thumb drive. My friend said, "32 megs, that's nothing!" True, but it's still 32 more than 0.
25.6.05
fill out the form with "real" info and a valid address, and they will supposedly send you a 32 meg thumb drive. My friend said, "32 megs, that's nothing!" True, but it's still 32 more than 0.
CULTURE - Explanation of l33t zp34k
I'm n00b when it comes to l337, so I looked it up, and it seems it's been around forever and it's much more main-stream than I thought
22.6.05
ROBOT - Robosapian V3
T3 has a good mention on the next-next generation Robosapian "Art Janis, Vice President and National Sales Manager at WowWee told T3 that “as Robosapien grows we want to add the ability for it do tasks around the house, help a person and live with them… he can help a mother around the home, help a guy pick up things, maybe turn on the television, maybe wake you up in the morning.”
To accommodate such tasks he also reveals “Robosapien V3 has to be bigger. You’re looking at maybe a foot taller.” So considering that the current Robosapien is 24-inches tall..." coming to your living room in 2007
GAME -fighting games for your browser
Ahhhh, who doesn't enjoy the fine art of fightin'? Looks like this site has enough fighting games to make you fingers bleed. About 100 of them. They got the White House Joust, (use George Bush or Others and joust your way through the competition to get the vote) and T.U.S.F.G.E. The ultimate stick fighting game just to name exactly two.
21.6.05
ROBOT - Alaskan 20' Mecha
Here I was thinking I was all bad-ass making a tree swing in my back yard for Sonia's nieces and nephews, then I find this guy in Alaska making his own twenty foot tall exoskeleton. Why is he building it? For the military? To rob banks? No. He want's to bring it to the local race track and smash things! This guy is my hero.
TECH - surf the web from the neighbors back yard - home made WIFI extender
Using nothing more than an old shoe box, tape, aluminum foil and about 30 minutes, you can double or triple the range (in a single direction) of just about any wireless access point with an external stick antenna.
CULTURE - Study Says Future Workers Will Have More Flexibility, More Hours at Work -YAY!!
"In the future, workers will have more flexibility to do their jobs from wherever they want, but, at the same time, jobs will increasingly encroach into people's private lives."
Sweet, that means we'll get to "play on the computer" all freakin' day long.
ANIMATION - Barely alive with technology - Citroen spoof
"Those talented chaps over at X-Bam have been up to no good again with this hilarious spoof Citroen ad. It's pure genius!
Update: Rumour has it the spoof has made it as far as the people who do Citroen's web site!
Update2: Citroen themselves have asked for the logos to be removed - this version is now the 'legally ok' version! Top kudos to them for allowing it!"
via xania.org godboltblog
TECH - Interview with Scott Sigler: Author of "Earthcore" podcast novel
"Business Thoughts: Tell us about you and the "world's first podcast
book" EarthCore!
Scott Sigler: I've been writing for about seven years. I originally landed EarthCore with AOL/TimeWarner and the book was due in stores in April of 2002. Unfortunately, the 9/11 recession hit AOL/TW pretty hard and they scrapped a lot of projects, including EarthCore. The book was tied up contractually for a couple of years - AOL/TW didn't want it, and didn't have the staff to process all the legal work, so it kind of languished in limbo until my agent could get it free and clear. Since then, we haven't been able to find a publisher. So when I discovered Podcasting, it seemed like a great way to create a brand name as a writer and entertain some people. I had no idea it would get as big as it has; it's been a ball...
I've been listening while commuting for a couple of weeks and I'm hooked. It's about a mysterious mountain that hides a deadly secret that no one can seem to stay away from, at least until they get hacked into little pieces. Scary and entertaining, and surprisingly, full of tech.
18.6.05
TECH - free ring tones
I've been hearing that ringtones is a HUGE business now. So popular, that a ringtone has recently topped the music charts.( Ring Tone Tops UK Singles Chart ) I also heard that the only way to get a ringtone into your phone is to purchase one. Not according to the folks at Freeloader. They supply you with the tools to not only download ringtones into your celly, but to actually create your own too.
ANIMATION - popping robot transformer car commercial
Rob says, "Best. Commercial. Ever." This commercial has been circulating the web for a while now but it's popularity has resurfaced since a cable program recently aired a short expose on the company behind it. It's a Citroen transforming into a dancing robot on the rooftop of a Canadian city building. The cool part about it is not only does the realism of the dancing car look flawless but the fact that they actually digitally reconstructed the environment that the car is dancing in. The Canadian based FX company behind it is called "The Embassy" and other cool stuff they've made can be found here The Emabassy
GAME - gamers blog for the NEW systems
Description: "The source for all next-generation console news, including: PlayStation 3, Revolution, Xbox 360 & More!"
ANIMATION - Flash auto site with video
This Japanese Suburu site incorporates some pretty seamless video footage of people hanging out and walking around the car in this Flash based website. Watching the people walk around the car and behind the text It breaks up the popular monotony of having content and motion separated in their own distinct buckets.
ROBOT - Ultra-Lifelike Robot Debuts in Japan
"We developed Repliee Q1 in collaboration with KOKORO, Inc. Repliee Q1 has a humanlike appearance and 31 degrees of freedom in the upper body, so the android is able to reproduce humanlike motion. Repliee Q1 Expo has been upgraded to 41 degrees of freedom, allowing for a greater number of humanlike motions. All of the joints are controlled by air actuators. An air actuator has the damping characteristic, so we can control the android softly without compliance control. "
"...An android needs to possess the same motion mechanisms as a human to perform humanlike motion. If an android has such mechanisms, however, it is difficult to balance with humanlike appearance." In other words, the more lifelike you make a robot, the more creepy it gets. They see this in computer animation too. When they made the movie "The incredibles", although they wanted a more realistic looking representation of the main characters, they made a conscious decision not to make the characters too realistic looking, they didn't want to spook the little kiddies. One of the biggest complaints of the Computer Generated movie "Final Fantasy" was that although it was some of the most advanced computer animation of it's time, the characters looked like walking dead people. They were awfully realistic, but still missing the massive amount of facial detail and movements found in real life faces. That's because our brain is hard-wired to pick out unconsciously perceived details in other people. When making computer animation and robotics, no matter how realistic the construction of the robot or the graphic detail of the CG character, it's not enough detail to capture the subtleties a real living breathing person. Recreating tiny body movements like minute balance correction and breathing or the the muscles below the skin surface effecting the surface still eludes the artists and engineers of our time.
17.6.05
GAME -point and click software for making 2d sidescroller games
Stop playing games and start making them! "Power Game Factory applies the latest technologies to the proven 2D platformer game genre. Games made with Power Game Factory can combine high resolution sprite graphics and realistic physics with authentic old school gameplay, making this the ideal system for constructing compelling, truly playable Macintosh games."
ANIMATION - Pulp Fiction in 30 Seconds and re-enacted by bunnies
From the animators that brought you The Exorcist in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies, The Shining in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies, Titanic in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies, comes Pulp Fiction in 30 Seconds re-enacted by bunnies.
15.6.05
ANIMATION - from comic book to movie, and it aint Batman
A looooooong time ago, before I got into computers, I drew by hand, and I liked to look at other stuff drawn by hand. I picked up this comic book (manga) called Appleseed back in '88 and thought to myself "Self, this would be "gangsta" if they ever made a cartoon out of it. Well they did, and it turned out far beyond my expectations. The movie is total CG. The backgrounds are photo realistic and the characters are done in cell shading, which means they move like 3d but look hand drawn. It makes "the incredible" look like a saturday morning cartoon. The story? I couldn't tell ya, I was too blown away by the visuals.
TECH - Make NES Pad work with a Pocket PC
via MAKE - thanks Steve - "I use my Pocket PC quite a bit for games, mainly old NES titles on the PocketNester emulator. But the hardware buttons on the iPAQ are too small, and it can be hard to use certain combinations. My solution for this was to interface an original Nintendo controller to my PPC."
10.6.05
TECH - shape shifting nono-clay
"TINY robots that can turn into any shape - from a replica human to a banana to a mobile phone - are being developed by scientists in the United States.
The new science of claytronics, which will use nanotechnology to create tiny robots called catoms, should enable three-dimensional copies of people to be "faxed" around the world for virtual meetings.
A doctor could also consult with a patient over the phone, even taking their pulse by holding the wrist of the claytronic replica, reports New Scientist.
And the nano "clay" could be carried around, shape-shifting into virtually anything when required. Your claytronic mobile phone could turn into a hammer for a spot of DIY and then a pair of shoes to go jogging. The creator, Dr Todd Mowry, director of Intel's research labs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said: "You could have a little lump of this stuff you carry around and it could be a million different things. It's like the world's ultimate Swiss army knife." His partner, Dr Seth Goldstein, of Carnegie "
found a mpg video of the more-than-nano prototype.
TECH - RSS reader for the PPC (get podcasts too!)
Since we're on a PPC theme this week, and since I gave away my evil windows laptop this week, I needed an easy way to get my blog and podcasts mobile-like. I downloaded FeederReader, "a full-featured RSS Aggregator with podcast listening ("podcasting" or "podcatching") and enclosure support, running on Windows Mobile. It is designed for downloading and reading RSS feeds on a Pocket PC run without the assistance of a host computer." It's in alpha, so it's not very polished, but it works well. And a big BONUS, I don't have to sync up to the craptop.
9.6.05
ANIMATION - free superman cartoons download
I've found 3 superman cartoons from the early 40's that you can download and watch for free. One of them, "Superman: The Mechanical Monsters", has a shot that clearly shows where Kerry Conran got his idea for introducing the giant robots in "Sky Captain".
TECH - turn your PPC into an iPod :)
I own a Dell. A Dell Axim PDA. I've used PDAs since the Newton and and I have to say that the Windows portable platform has only one thing going for it, it's connectivity to a desktop Windows machine. Syncing up to the work machine is pretty flawless when it comes to email, calendar and everything outlook. But that's it. I mean that's all. The writing recognition is awesome as long as you don't have to write V's and G's. Everything else pretty much blows. It's media player stinks to the point where it's almost unusable. It's browser is so bare bones that I can't even load a flash enabled site without having the browser crash. So you can imagine how happy I was when I found a bootleg iPod simulator that runs on the PDA. FINALLY, I can switch songs without having to use two hands and a stylus. It just goes to show how strong apple design is. It can even make a crappy windoze machine enjoyable to use.
5.6.05
TECH - LED signage for your wheels
Who doesn't need these? LED lights that attach to your wheels that, using the magic of persistence of vision, tricks your eye into thinking that there is a wheel sized image planted level on your rims. I'd get a set, but my biggest gripe is that you have to pay to download different images and they don't supply a way to create your own.
TECH - custom chrome car lettering
Kinda cool idea, self adhesive chrome car lettering to customize your car. Only one font though.
CULTURE - All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Video Games, Part One
Funniest tip out of the 10, #"2. Always, always be moving - This is a great technique to apply to the office. Walking around, everyone sees that you are there, but you always look busy, on your way to doing something else. " He uses these techniques to excel in the office environment.
4.6.05
HOUSE - art of splice the rope
I'm building a tree swing for the back yard. Trying to find the most effective way to attach the rope to everything was driving me crazy, until I found this nifty HOW-TO. 4 types-o rope and 19 ways to connect them all, just like a sailor!
1.6.05
CULTURE - batmobile-o-rama
This page will lead you through a journey that spans over 50 years and 60 iterations of the Batmobile.
GAME - altoids staxx
Good online game that'll suck up some of your time. The object of the game is to stack the minty tins. what I like about it is the learning curve is pretty darn smooth. It starts you off with having to stack 3 vertical then as you level up, you have to stack horizontally and eventually diagonally which isn't as simple as it sounds.
28.5.05
TECH - mind control is upon us
The device currently being tested is in a 25-year-old Massachusetts man who cannot use his arms or legs. Using the system, called BrainGate, the patient can read e-mail, play video games, turn lights on or off and change channels or adjust the volume of a television set using only the power of thought.
TECH - copy to iPod shuffle without iTunes
This software will allow you to copy stuff over to your iPod shuffle without the bulk of having to use iTunes. BONUS! it's only 8k. WHAMMY! you have to run a layer of Python in your OS. Python is a layer of functionality implemented into the operating system similar to the way JAVA is. Get the Mac version here. All you other folks not using mac can track down the appropriate version for yourselves here.
27.5.05
MOVIE - star wars III easter eggs
This site picks out the interesting bits of information about the movie that have nothing to do with the movie, well mostly. For example, they point out when you can see a tiny establishing shot of a tiny Millennium Falcon before it fell into the tiny hands of either a tiny Lando Calrissian or tiny Han Solo. There are some spoilers, so you may want to put off going here until after you see the movie.
CULTURE - future writings
"Futurismic is a website for people interested in the future and the effects of science and technology on the present. Futurismic comes in three parts: the blog section consists of short, well-written, opinionated introductions to content that exists elsewhere on the Internet. The essays section covers the same ground in more detail. In Futurismic's fiction section you'll find innovative, exciting new stories that use the tools of speculative fiction to examine contemporary issues and take a look at what's just around the corner."
MUSIC - chikka wakka
Free album ready for you to download
"Various Artists - Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka - Porn Music For The Masses Volume 1 - This CD represents 17 individual artists' interpretations of the 'Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka'; each providing their own unique cultural and geographic spin on the vibe that is "Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka'" Better than the white stripes.
26.5.05
GAME - topple the doors
LOL, i don't know what's funnier, the fact that this guy set up a thousand doors in an unreal videogame environment so they can be knocked down like iron dominoes, or the mulitlingual flame war below it.
25.5.05
TECH - is that movie in your pocket?
Need to add a little motion to your phone? Pda? PSP? This site has taken the time to compress flicks just for you. They have movie trailers, indie shorts and animation for you to download directly into your device. Including this little gem by those wacky, not afraid to show boobies on TV, Germans. Leo's Sports Club
CULTURE - wanna win? wear red!
"A paper published today in Nature suggests that athletes wearing red uniforms experience a slight advantage over those decked out in other colors."
24.5.05
GAME - play robotron-ish Puppytron
Remember the good old days when beating a game meant gettin' your twenty five cents worth and your three letters on a high score board? No? Then you have your chance to experience the excitement of an endless barrage of enemies with the only thing to look forward to is harder levels.
"The last human family is already dead! Now only endless swarms of evil killer robots remain. The only question is - how long can you hold out before they get you?"
TECH - hands on apple tablet?
"I have no less than 5 sources saying an Apple Tablet announcement is due soon. Or something, as some of these press people (Apple diehards at that), who normally cared not about Tablets, and thought it was all just Microsoft vaporware, are suddenly so interested in the Tablet PC concept, and asking tons of questions. Pretty easy to read those tea leaves, so somethings up."
23.5.05
MUSIC - white stripes streamed
I just clicked the link and listening to the new WS album, in it's entirety, streamed. the first 30 seconds good different. 2nd song... xylophone!
TECH - history of the PDA
"1973 - HP-45 - Calculator with timer, users can ponder programs with schedule functions". I always thought the apple newton started the whole PDA era. I was wrong, they just coined the phrase.
22.5.05
TECH - backup your brain (defrag first)
Futurist predicts that you will be able to digitally preserve your experiences.
""Realistically by 2050 we would expect to be able to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it's not a major career problem"
What would the rules be? Would you have to be declared dead first or would you just, willy-nilly, replicate your consciousness at will. Would certainly help out when cramming for that test. Your digital consciousness might run exponentially faster than it's biological counterpart, experiencing far more than you could in the same amount of time. Great for doing research. From it's perspective, you would appear to be standing still.
IMAGE - blues bros.
old dilapidated falling apart antique store and out of the corner of my eyes were these two guys lounging on a bench.
21.5.05
GAME - video games as fine art
what they say is "Ultimately, as the real and virtual worlds increasingly intersect, many artistic questions are raised: What is art in the digital world? How does digital art affect how we see reality? What place does digital art hold in the realm of art as traditionally understood?"
heh, sponsored by SPIKE tv
DESIGN - web designer resource
Great place to be if your looking for an arbitrary bit of code or tidbit of information to help you out of a mental jam. I got stuck trying to remember how to border a picture using HTML and I found exactly what I was looking for in under two minutes.
ART - didn't i meet you in a bar... code?
This Scott takes a bunch of different barcodes, assigns a value to them based on their gray scale equivalent, then uses them as pixels to create his portraits. But there's more than just portraits, he's got t-shirts, flip-books and tattoos. Be sure to check out the "science behind barcodes" page
20.5.05
CULTURE - ring tone dancer
almost spontaneous, but ultimately contrived, ring tone dancer is always entertaining. brought to you by the culture jammers at contagious media
GAMES - evolution in gaming?
I am definitely excited about this game being released, not because of the graphics or the hype, but because it represents a massive shift in how games are developed. They used
Excerpt from Game Spy : "For inspiration, Wright looked to the "demo scene," a group of (mostly European) coders who specialized in doing a whole lot with a little bit of code. Their procedural programming methods were able to, for example, fit an entire 3D game in 64K, using mathematics to generate textures and music, etc. "I just found this incredibly exciting," Wright confesses, describing the kinds of work that he saw come out of the demo scene."
Game Play? You start as a microorganism, then evolve up through the chain into a space faring civilization. I'll see if I can track down the original interview with the developer. It'll blow your lid.
UPDATE:
VideoBomb links to a video of the gameplay with the developer covering the highlights. It's about 30 minutes long and fascinating
19.5.05
18.5.05
IT"S BEEN A YEAR??!!
Holy Blog-Lazy!!! I just realized I haven't posted in almost an entire year. what has happened since then? New car, new job, new house, new pda. All those years of living poor paid off. I remember running an extension chord to my neighbors apartment to "borrow" electricity because I didn't have the loot to pay the bills.
GAMES - The Evolution Of Mario
A visual exploration into the evolution of the infamous Mario sprite. From the pixelated early days to the illustrated quasi modern paper Mario.
26.5.04
Throw out that Pocket PC
One tiny full featured computer. If it's cheap enough, It could be a laptop killer.
14.4.04
CULTURE - Washington’s new crackdown on pornography
"Zicari has a lot of similar questions, if it comes to that. For example, why is pornography held to a higher standard of decorum than other genres of pop culture? Are the two amateurishly simulated murders in Forced Entry somehow more offensive than the dozens of expertly simulated murders in Jason vs. Freddy or Gangs of New York? Is the difference between eating semen-spattered dog food in a porn movie and eating raw pig rectums on Fear Factor really so pronounced that the former deserves a jail sentence while the latter becomes a prime-time major network staple?"
12.4.04
ROBOT - wheelchair... uhm... Legchair
Scroll down towards the bottom of the page to watch the walking chair demonstrations.
11.4.04
ROBOT - robo-nurse
An interesting situation arising with too many elderly and not enough caretakers.
"To some scientists, robots are the answer to caring for aging societies in Japan and other nations where the young are destined to be overwhelmed by a surging elderly population.
In one of a budding series of robot-therapy sessions at Japanese hospitals and senior citizens' homes, the elderly patients suffer from severe dementia, but their faces light up when they see the dog-shaped robot, swaddled in soft clothing, waddle around the hospital floor. Some clap; others break into feeble smiles. Urged by nurses, a few cautiously reach out and touch it."
6.4.04
SCIENCE - a worm a day will keep the doctor away
It says here, "Regular doses of worms really do rid people of inflammatory bowel disease. The first trials of the treatment have been a success, and a drinkable concoction containing thousands of pig whipworm eggs could soon be launched in Europe". Now if only they'd package tape worm, I wouldn't have to hit the gym.
INVENTION - Really Low Tech Fridge
Mohammed Bah Abba "takes a smaller pot and put it inside a larger pot. Fills the space in between them with wet sand, and covers the top with a wet cloth. When the water evaporates, it pulls the heat out with it, making the inside cold. It's a natural, cheap, easy-to-make refrigerator."
4.4.04
FILM - I thought 2001 would be like this...
Here is an extremely comprehensive site that analyses the film in great detail. Cool.
1.4.04
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