Link of the Moment

World Statistics

grexter — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:46:39 +0000

http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.htm

Source: UserFriendly LOTD

What is it: I’ll just quote the page: “This World Stats Counter shows current statistical figures for world population, births, deaths, deforestation, and much more. Except for population and earth temp, all stats reflect the growth since the beginning of the selected time period. You can choose to show growth since the beginning of the year, month, day, or from the moment you click the Now button”.

You see, some nice piece of web-stuff but is it really worth a bookmark if you can find it here at any time? ;-)

Being User-Friendly…

grexter — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:42:58 +0000

http://www.userfriendly.org/

Source: browsing in the dawn of time

What is it: Easily one of the oldest webcomics around, UserFriendly has provided a daily comic (without any interruption whatsoever) since Nov 17th, 1997. that’s almost 10 years, folks. It may take a little time catching up but what else is there to do if ever you should find yourself lonely, aching and depressed on a 10-day strech of heavy rainstorms? ;-)

The comic usually is satiric, funny, bean-counter-phobic, evil (ask Erwin) and - in the case of Dust Puppy and the cat - totally cute. On many occasions current events are commented on, inducing wide grins all round at tech offices. UserFriendly also comes via RSS, including the “Link of the Day” that provides me with some of the stuff here.
Go check it out! Now!

eXtreme Knowledge Comically Distributed ?

grexter — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:21:04 +0000

http://xkcd.com/

Source: *shrug*

What is it: I’ll just cite the tagline: “A Webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language”. Very often Randall Munroe simply hits right on the mark with a witty remark, a funny line, or the “alt”-text of the image (Hover your mouse on the comic). He has quite a following, usually totally crazy people. Also check out the “blag” linked on the comic page.
Btw, lately XKCD has been featured on Ehrensenf .

Guess the Movie!

grexter — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:38:14 +0000

http://theburgg.com/

Source: Browsing

What is it: The guy who does ALP (will be coming up here when it’s updated more regularly again) has a second project up and running where anyone can draw a scene from a movie and the viewers have to guess which movie it is. It’s tons of fun,
really :-) . it’s even been featured on a Japanese TV show.

Submitting a drawing is on definitely my list of “Things To Do When I Have Time”. It’s interesting to see the talent that some people already have or gain there and it’s amazing how little you need to recognize some movies (is that a sign of quality?, I wonder).

Bashing the bugs…

grexter — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:25:31 +0000

http://www.bugbash.net

Source: browsing

What is it: A webcomic themed around a software company. Lots of funny insights about not only the technical side of bug-bashing but also about strategies for office survival in all it’s facets. From time to time it takes a swing at the blogging culture and conferences and such so there should be a lot of fun in there even for non-techies :)

More Free Books

grexter — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:54:13 +0000

http://www.readprint.com/

Source: UserFriendly LOTD
What is it: Another site giving you free books. This one is concentrating on classics, like Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Orwell’s “1984″ and Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”. Stuff you normally don’t buy on impulse I’d say :)

Get your classics!

Websites as Graphs

grexter — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:35:57 +0000

http://www.aharef.info/2006/05/websites_as_graphs.htm

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list

What is it: A site that renders a web page’s HTML as a colored graph, i.e. a tree. Interesting to see what structure the HTML of a site has underneath, if it’s structured or wildly assembled. Most CMS’s have visible “signatures” if you know what to look for. Sometimes the Site is down for bandwidth reasons, so if it’s gone check again a few days later…

One Sentence…

grexter — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:32:54 +0000

http://onesentence.org/

Source: Browsing

What is it: I’ll best quote the about page:

One Sentence is an experiment in brevity. Most of the best stories that we tell from our lives have one really, really good part that make the rest of the boring story worth it.

This is about that one line.

This is about telling the most interesting or poignant story possible in the least amount of words.

This is about small bite-sized pieces of extraordinary lives and ordinary lives alike… the happy, the sad, the funny, the depressing.

The few times I remembered checking the site there was always something that I found … well.. deep, in a way. Has an RSS feed btw.

Get a life!

grexter — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 15:52:31 +0000

http://www.getafirstlife.com/

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list

What is it: You know Second Life? Why get a second one if a first one is free and you can “fornicate using your actual genitals”? Yes, it’s a parody :)

Free books, anyone?

grexter — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:15:41 +0000

http://www.baen.com/library/

Source: browsing

What is it: A publisher realized some time ago that giving books away for free is not the same as forfeiting all revenue :) The Baen Free Library contains (at the time of writing) 104 free S/F and Fantasy books by 22 authors, regularly adding more. They are all downloadable in a varity of formats, such as RTF and HTML but also Rocket/Ebookwise, Palm/Mobipocket and Microsoft Reader. Worth a visit if you like free stuff ;)

Webcomic: PHDComic

grexter — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:32:50 +0000

Piled Higher and Deeper

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

Source: Tapestry Comics

What is it: A webcomic about grad students and their work, their problems, their… well.. life. One of my favourite strips that I can really relate to is this one.

1001 ways to visualize…

grexter — Sat, 19 May 2007 22:50:20 +0000

… ok, I cheated, not 1001 but still a lot.

http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list

What is it: It’s a periodic chart of visualizations. Just mouseover on the entries to see an example. If you need to visualize something it’s a great way to find better or simply different ways of displaying data.

How the Lord of the Rings Movie…

grexter — Sat, 19 May 2007 22:42:35 +0000

… should have ended

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xWBnzxZPGk

Source: a youtube-related-video-clicking-binge

What is it: Originally a Flash-animation, youtube is actually one of the best and fastest archives for that stuff. You can search for the flash film on Google to get a bigger version. I think Pippin’s comment (or is it Merry?) at the end is the funniest thing about it :)

Viewport-Sensitive Flash Web Site

grexter — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:27:49 +0000

.. with a long load time :-/

http://www.bascule.co.jp/

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list

What is it: A japanese company website built entirely on flash. It’s fascinating how the music changes as you scroll down the page. Hint: If you scroll right to the bottom you can click the genie :) Enjoy

Do You Jump Around On Your Own Bed?

grexter — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:06:56 +0000

I guess most people don’t for fear of damage. Damage to whatever :) . Well, people actually do jump on hotel beds.

http://www.BedJump.com/

Source: UserFriendly

What is it: It’s a blog where people submit their pictures of themselves jumping on hotel beds all across the world (German hotel beds seemed to be especially good for jumping for some reason - and some time ago…). First I couldn’t believe it but people seem to be having so much fun I found myself smiling and grinning just by browsing. Go get your smile there. Now!

Do What You Want. Just Don’t <Click>!

grexter — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:45:41 +0000

I mean it!

http://www.dontclick.it/

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list

What is it: An interesting project that tries to make you stop clicking all the time when navigating information. Built in flash with a nice look and feel. It follows through the idea even to the point when you click you get asked why you clicked :).

Looking for a certain music video?

grexter — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:09:39 +0000

Here’s a helper:

http://beta.musicmesh.net

Source: the site’s authors

What is it: Do you ever search for music videos on YouTube and its brethren? Well, results always vary a bit, especially because people often tag (and name) stuff stupidly or sometimes tag not at all. Well, a guy at CDTM built a website (one of those ‘beta’, web-two-point-oh-ish, mashuppy things) where you just enter a search string and (if you don’t type “Joshua Kadison” to find Metallica videos, duh!) it presents you with the videos, album/artist info etc.you searched for (100% hit rate for me in 20 searches). Also it gives you a small cloud of similar albums (via audioscrobbler, the same data service that powers last.fm) so you can broaden your knowledge on one hand and be reminded of music you had forgotten on the other.

Note (2007-04-18): When testing the site please keep in mind that it is not in any way “production grade”, the beta is just for load-testing, evaluating and so on. Log in as ‘beta’ with password ‘beta’ and search away. Do the guys a favor and fill out the feedback form linked on the page or to be found here.

When National Flags Represent Data

grexter — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:55:13 +0000

e.g. statistical facts

http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/index.htm

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list

What is it: This site has some of the flag images created by a campaign called “Meet the World”. What’s so special about the images? Well, the thoughts behind them. It goes like this:

think about measurable demographics (best are percentages) of a country
measure the surface area of the various colors or features of the country’s flag
check if the (numeric) values of that data somehow relate to one of the values mesaured in the flag
match and map the found relations

What do you get? You for example get to see that the blue area in the EU flag represents the oil consumption of the EU if the golden stars represent it’s oil production. Nice way of putting relations into focus.

Are You Distracted Easily?

grexter — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:18:32 +0000

Well, easy to test:

http://www.tokenarcade.com/play-575-Distraction_Game.html

Source: can’t remember, most probably UserFriendly’s LOTD

What is it: Basically ist just another “stupid flash game”, but one of the cute ones. Lots of things try to distract you, but stay concentrated and grab fruit without getting hit by rockets and without leaving the playing area.

Give it a try :)

Dark Roasted Blend

grexter — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:18:07 +0000

Thrilling Wonders of the World, frequently updated

http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list
What is it: “Dark Roasted Blend” is a blog posting all those little astonishing things you never look for and are amazed by when you receive them by mail. People converting commercial airliners into homes, extreme close-ups of gemstones, weird musical scores and so on. I was sent a link to this one (the reason for this post showing up in “visualization”), some world maps distorted to show the size of countries as a function of e.g. house prices, war deaths or alcohol consumption. Nice perspectives in that, but I think the whole blog is worth a visit.

update: I’ve become a frequent reader in the last week or so…

Cats, Small Cats and Stuff On Cats

grexter — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:27:55 +0000

This post actually has three links, all cat-themed, ordered by my rating.

[1] http://www.icanhascheezburger.com

[2] http://www.dailykitten.com

[3] http://www.stuffonmycat.com

Source: Netstumbling, UserFriendly, lost in the dawn of time

What is it: ICanHasCheezBurger is a blog where people submit modded pictures of animals, mostly cats. Modded means no distortion and such but only adding text or very seldomly items. Lots of funny cat pics and surely a laugh a day. On of my current favourite RSS feeds :).

DailyKitten is a blog posting submitted pictures of kittens “every day at 3.07pm GMT”. Basically a daily portion of cuteness delivered by RSS. Found yesterday on UserFriendly’s LOTD and I’ll see if i keep looking or if it numbs be concerning cuteness.

StuffOnMyCat is quite an old page. People usually take their sleeping cats and cautiously heap stuff on them, then take a pic and submit it. I stumbled upon that when it was like 2 months old or something and was tremendous fun. I didn’t visit for a long time and ICanHasCheezburger brought me back. In the meantime it got pretty commercial with calendars and contests and more pics of cats dressed up that stuff on cats. But it may still recover.

Check it out :)

Update: IcanHasCheezBurger had a link to LiveJournal that was informative. There are more “cat macros” out there than anyone could want:
[4] http://allonymist.livejournal.com/9208.html
[5] http://community.livejournal.com/cat_macros/
[6] http://www.acc.umu.se/~zqad/cats/
Ouch.

How Long is Your Home Town’s Name?

grexter — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:33:15 +0000

Don’t Try, you’ll loose. :)

http://www.llanfairpwllgwy[35 chars more]gogogoch.co.uk/say.php

Source: The Internets

What is it: The page of the website with the longest “valid” domain name that tells you how to pronounce it. That place is a welsh village and the name means “St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave”. I guess I’d rather come from A in Norway or from Y in France. Maybe even L.A. or S.F. . Or Munich! But that thing up there stretches it a bit far :) . There even is a Wikipedia entry.

Where The Hell Is…

grexter — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 12:47:49 +0000

… Hell, for example, part of Pinckney, Michigan, that is (ZIP 48169). Why did I choose this one? Because you can check online if it has frozen over, of course.

http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/fry/zipdecode/

Source: the internets

What is it: a visualization of USPS ZIP codes. You type in the zip code and on the map the tool narrows the location down. Pretty useful if you only know a ZipCode and want to check where it’s located. Of course, it’s not Google Maps or something but Google Maps and it’s brethren zoom in too far to see the location in context. For quick reference this a lot faster and it’s also a neat visualization.

Also it helps to find out what ZIP area to consider when looking at classifieds or such. Do you know how far ZIPs are spread out geographically? Using the tool, I found these values in under 4 minutes:

3 digits given: 840xx spreads ~200 miles
4 digits given: 8402x spreads ~125 miles
3 digits given: 841xx spreads ~20 miles
4 digits given: 8417x spreads less than 1 mile

So if you’re moving somewhere and want to look for used furniture beforehand, checking 841xx may be ok, looking for furniture in 840xx means costly transport. Also adding a digit can reduce the spread by 37.5% or by 95%.

Finally: you can quickly find out that in the US (yes, or in the tool’s database…) the lowest localized ZIP is 00210 (Portsmouth, NH) and the highest is 99403 (Clarkston, WA). Neat. :)

I’m Gonna Send You to Outer Space…

grexter — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:01:56 +0000

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Source: browsing

What is it: “Astronomy Picture of the Day” this page provides you with a high quality image a day to make you think and wonder what’s “out there” as well as explaining what you see in the sky day and night. Images are a great mixture of NASA images (from a whole bunch of sources like e.g. telescopes), images from other official sources and also submissions from people like you and me. To give you some more examples : comet McNaught on Australia Day, ISS on the Horizon, Mars rover Opportunity . Definitely worth a visit.

The Earth in Flash

grexter — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 21:19:18 +0000

http://www.flashearth.com/

Source: UC Berkeley iSchool mailing list

What is it: This site basically gives you one flash interface for several map sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, MS VE, Ask,com, OpenLayers and NASA. very interesting to see the differences in displayed imagery between map sites. Also it’s a nice UI for the job, albeit sometimes a little slow when panning quickly.