86 Words

The “Text Ascii Art Generator ” (you’re going to love this) makes text out of Ascii. I know, hard to believe, but look at the pics and you’ll see what I mean.

The site lets you type a chunk o’text, select a font, choose colors, and it outputs your new creation. I found it helpful to just keep arrowing down in the font list to step through the choices.

It may not be useful but it’s pretty darned retro-cool!

There are lots of font choices, and color choice can makes a big difference!

Not all of the fonts supported numbers or other non-alpha characters

A lot of the font options were downright creative, though not all were easy to read

- Text Ascii Art Generator -

Tags: Virtual, Generators, Retro, Just Cool, Net Life, Geek Stuff, Software, Art / Visual, General // Add Comment »

When I found TinEye.com, I immediately knew what test to run.

In our Picture of the RTP section, we had run the “two owls” image that I LOVED, but it was only 350×233; I almost an hour looking for a bigger one, but to no avail.

I pointed TinEye at that image and told it to search. It returned nineteen pages of results! The largest one it found was 700×466, and it took under a second!

All I can say is, “Any sufficiently advanced science…”

Here’s the image I was searching on

TinEye found some pretty heavily modified versions (and can even find “similar” images)

And here is the “Indistinguishable from Magic” part… .049 Seconds?!?!

- TinEye.com -

Tags: Multimedia, Collections, Reference, Net Life, Cool Sites, Geek Stuff, Software, General // Add Comment »

A few years ago on April 1st, Think Geek had an April Fool’s listing of a Wireless Extension Cord. For those not familiar with the idea, that may not sound like much of a joke, but until… Well… Now, it’s been (basically) impossible.

Now, however, it appears that Intel has expanded on some research done at MIT and dramatically improved the original design to allow short-distance electrical power transmission (currently at 2-3 feet).

The technology isn’t quite ready for prime time, but it’s certain to change things a lot when it is!

- Original Article -

Tags: Current Events, Science, Geek Stuff, General // Add Comment »

It doesn’t have a lot of sexy curves or giant wheels, it’s not known for ultimate luxury or speed, but it may well be my vote for the coolest car ever!

The Flatmobile is a home-brew project that started with an old junker that was then heavily modified and squished as low to the ground as possible (and does take a few cues from the Batmobile).

The final result is…

I want!

Ah yes, a day on the road… Well, very CLOSE to ON the road!

If he was stuck behind that bus, he could just go under!

- Original Article -

Tags: Current Events, Weird, Gadgets, Just Cool, Life Tips, Art / Visual, General // 2 Comments »

I am one of the many, many people who always wondered what the heck was up with Firefly’s Shepherd Book character. There were a lot of hints that he had skeletons in his closet of some sort.

Well, if you’re also one of these people, you may begin rejoicing. Book’s (comic) book is on the way!

Coming Soon: Book Book!

- Original Article -

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“What’s That?” you say.

This has got to be the coolest example of pure geek furniture ever!

This coffee table, besides being geeky, stylish, and informative, also contains an actual sample of each of the elements in the chart (and actually shows them in said chart).

The table is a little on the expensive side, at well over $8,000 at current exchange rates, but hey, you’ll always be able to quickly remember the periodic symbol for Selenium!

“Geek” Rocks!

Classy furniture, geek-chic style, and handy reference! What more could you ask for?

A view of the table showing each of the element-containing acrylic blocks (each of which is also available separately)

A closer up view to give an idea of the modernistic style afforded by the mix of colors and the acrylic embedding

- Original Ad on Element-Collection.com -

Tags: Just Cool, Reference, Science, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, Life Tips, General // Add Comment »

I’ve been waiting to review this game for a while! I found it after between it’s open beta and going live, so I had to wait… And wait.

This was very frustrating because it was obvious that there were monsters that needed major killin’.

Requiem is nicely done, easy to play, and the world is huge. It can be played solo or as part of a group.

Once again, my previous favorite MMO has been one-upped!

Go whoop up on some evil!

This is the “Loading” progress bar, the stitches break open until the load is complete!

Here’s one of my early combats against a “Taurustoad”

Here’s a closer look - click it to see the larger view

This sweeping view of the town near where you start gives a good taste of the graphics.

- Requiem: BloodyMare -
(There’s a demo video on the main page)

Tags: Virtual, Weird, Scary, Net Life, Video Gaming, Geek Stuff, Software, General // Add Comment »

I’m sure you’ve heard it said before, but I’m finding myself saying it more and more, we’re living in the future.

This had to happen eventually, but it’s cool that it’s sooner rather than later! Now business owners aren’t limited to the old animated video screens (they’re sooo 2007), they can animate the “skin” of their building!

This is Flare, welcome to the future (the video after the jump is a must-see!).

This building surface is currently showing some “spikes” shooting up from the bottom to the top

Each surface blocks is controlled separately and animated with an easy-to-use computer program

This is one tile of the animated surface blocks

- Flare-Facade.com -

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KittyCam!

Mr. Lee is a cat who was the subject of an experiment. He wore a camera around all day that would take pictures of whatever he was looking at.

The Mr-Lee-CatCam webpage shows the results; most is pretty much what you would expect (peeking through high grass, hiding under a car, etc), but a couple of pictures are unexpected!

Mr. Lee went on several such missions, but if that’s not enough, the User Gallery has missions of other people’s cats!

Keepin’ an eye on things, kitty style!

Mr. Lee is apparently chillin’ with his home cats

Now THIS is pretty cool!

Um… What?

- www.Mr-Lee-CatCam.de -

Tags: Virtual, Just Cool, Cool Sites, Geek Stuff, General // Add Comment »

These days it’s common to buy a laptop that has a CD/DVD burner but gives you know way to actually use it to burn CDs/DVDs!

Well, the good news is that there are a lot of good alternatives using free software. Our current favorite is CDBurnerXP (don’t worry, it runs fine on Vista too!)

CDBurnerXP is well done, polished, and easy to use, and pretty effective.

Once again, free software that’s solidly competitive with the commercial stuff!

Ya gotta love that!

CDBurnerXp is a pretty polished product, right down to the About box!

Like Nero, CDBurnerXP gives you the ability to use your burner in a lot of different ways

The simple drag-n-drop interface makes it easy for anyone who knows how to use Windows

Several of the specialized options provide matching tools (like this simple Audio player when you’re creating music CDs)

- CDBurnerXP -

Tags: Sound / Music, Reference, Multimedia, Gadgets, Software, HowTo, General // Add Comment »