86 Words

Tags: Multimedia, Reference, Make, Weird, Virtual, Art / Visual, Just Cool, General by Jai
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If you’ve ever wanted to be an actor, (or watch noob actors), check out Beckinfield.com!

Beckinfield, California has lots of weirdness happening. Someone started a school project for people to vlog their impressions of day-to-day events.

New events are announced weekly by the admins, and anyone can add their videos to the story.

Everything is organized to make the video blogs work together as small parts of a whole.

Very, very cool!

Each week, clips are taken from some of the blogs and stuck together in a "Previously on Beckinfield" review!

Important places are marked on the main map, but there are many other locations in the town where details can be filmed (vlogged). New places are added frequently as they are created by participants (for example, one guy created a new book store in his character intro).

Each aspect of the town (in this case, some of the locations) are described in summary. Click on any one of them to know more about the details (or make up more of your own as long as they don’t contradict previous canon).

Each actor or actress (you, if you decide to participate) will have a page dedicated to them that looks like this. I’m thinking about a character, but I haven’t quite decided yet - I definitely want to do something… Unique if I participate.

- Beckinfield.com -

Tags: Weird, Multimedia, Collections, Reference, Current Events, Virtual, Cool Sites, Art / Visual, Net Life, Just Cool, General by Jai
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I tend to use Google Image Search as my first stop when I’m looking for pictures of something and they’ve just added a really interesting new feature: the ability to specify (via url or drag-n-drop) an image to search for.

What you get back is an image that tends to have the same subject matter, but will definitely have heavy visual similarity.

Check it out:

This is a picture I dropped onto the search box from my desktop…

In response, this is what Google found - note that it even identified the dog as the topic and recognized the breed!
Also note that, while it correctly identified the picture topic, it didn’t assume that you only wanted images of that topic, but other, visually similar images as well (apparently based on balance of colors, negative space, etc).

Here’s another example that shows a failed topic identification. Note that Google suggests (just under the search box) that I add "a descriptive word" to my search. I entered "fire" and here is the new result set:

Now that’s more like it! Note that this is NOT the same result set I get if I just search for the word "fire" without the image - this result set used the combination of the two to return what I was looking for.

- Google Images -

Tags: Just Cool, Multimedia, Collections, Reference, Net Life, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, Software, HowTo, General by Jai
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"We Feel Fine" is a web app that tracks how people are feeling all over the world.

There are several filtering criteria, including age group, emotional state, location, gender, the weather conditions, or the timeframe of interest, and the displays are graphically very interesting

You can even "catch" people’s comments (the animated circles), or pictures they’ve included (the animated squares).

Overall? Very cool!

The launch page gives a good idea of the spartan, relaxed, but still technical feel of the app.

This screen shows all of the moods (spot colors) flying around. You can grab any one and see the comment left by the specific user (the circles) or the picture they uploaded (the squares).

There are numerous views for looking at the data. This one (called "Murmurs") shows a continuously scrolling list of comments left that match the details of your mood search.

- WeFeeFine.org -

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Tags: Weird, Current Events, Multimedia, Collections, Reference, Just Cool, Net Life, Software, Geek Stuff, Cool Sites, Life Tips, Art / Visual, General by Jai
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Well, this is quite cool, but there’s not really a whole lot to say. It’s art, right, made on a typewriter (by artist Keira Rathbone in this case)!

(Okay, I’ll add one thing - it looks HARD!)

This is my favorite piece shown in the article - the topic matter just "WORKS, man"!

Here’s a zoom-out view showing the whole thing. I’m diggin’ it!

Here’s a simpler piece (and I don’t mean simpler to do - those circles must be MURDER! I wonder if she’s done a typewriter…

- Original Article Here -

- Artist’s Personal Site Here -

Tags: Generators, Multimedia, Collections, Retro, Reference, Weird, Virtual, Geek Stuff, Life Tips, Art / Visual, Just Cool, General by Jai
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I don’t know how well Shadow Era competes with the venerable Magic: The Gathering (I haven’t played in a while), but this game is fun, and your skill really matters.

You start with a free, prebuilt deck (of your choice). You can buy 15-Card booster packs (though you never have to, and you can also earn them in play).

I’ve played about 8-10 games, and a couple of them have been pretty epic.

I’m diggin’ it!

This is one of the heroes - they’re the only ones that get to use the shadow magic shown in purple on the bottom left. If your hero dies, it’s game over.

This shot shows Jasmine Rosecut attacking Moonstalker (not the sword slashing through Moonstalker). Nice animations add a solid atmosphere to the game.

As with any CCG, buying booster packs (or more prebuilt starters) is an option. You can earn points in game to buy them, or you can pick ‘em up at 99 cents a pop.

- Play Shadow Era Online Here -

(I played using Google Chrome, with other browsers, your mileage may vary)

(Note: it’s also available for iPad, on which it’s brilliant! It’s soon to be released for Android, Mac, and PC for stand-alone downloads)

Tags: Just Cool, Net Life, Virtual, Multimedia, Reference, Art / Visual, Life Tips, Geek Stuff, Software, Cool Sites, Gaming, General by Jai
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The Google Labs developers have created ANOTHER amazing web app - this one intended for anyone interested in human anatomy (in the medical sense).

I suggest Chrome for the smoothest experience.

The app has two modes; one simple, and the other more advanced for detailed viewing. You can also use the search box, of course.

The model rotates and pans in full 3D.

A definite must for medical students!

Here’s the full view, zoomed almost all the way out.

A closer view using the "simple" slider to show details from the skeletal level down to the neurological systems.

This is an example of the more advanced option, not that I have everything off except "skeletal" and (partially) circulatory systems.

- BodyBrowser.Google.com -

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Tags: Just Cool, Virtual, Multimedia, Reference, Net Life, Science, Geek Stuff, Cool Sites, Art / Visual, General by Jai
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I don’t know how useful the concept is, but it’s definitely a creative one.

IsleOfTune.com lets you make music (three channels / cars max) by drawing roads. The objects around the roads are notes, and the cars play those notes by driving past the objects.

It’s a "has to be seen to be understood" kind of thing.

Let me know what you think!

The intro page, KINDA showing how things work.

This is, believe it or not, Smoke on the Water.

There are lots of songs people have posted, but most of the good ones are in the first 100.

- IsleOfTune.com -

Tags: Weird, Virtual, Multimedia, Sound / Music, Reference, Gadgets, Just Cool, Software, Geek Stuff, Cool Sites, Art / Visual, Net Life, General by Jai
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Lasagna Cat. They do these videos that…

I can’t quite…

There’s really no way to convey the…

It’s just… I…

I can’t do this. Just go look.

 

The three pictures here are from one example (out of about 30).

You have your live action bit, your original comic bit, and then a freaking musical highlight!

This site is absolutely awesome in its "can’t look away from the train wreck" appeal!

- www.LasagnaCat.com -

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Tags: Humor, Collections, Scary, Reference, Multimedia, Weird, Art / Visual, Net Life, Virtual, General by Jai
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Let’s be clear, this post is about this book’s implementation technology, not it’s content - most of you will find the content to be as simplistic as it’s apparent audience (babies).

That said, Google has just put up a very cool children’s book about basic web stuff.

It’s a great demonstration of how much control you have with HTML 5.

Runs without Flash in Firefox 3.6 and Chrome (at least).

Check it out:

 
As I said, it’s modeled as a book for babies (which I think is totally cool!)

The page turning is accomplished in numerous ways, the coolest of which is to grab the page and pull it with the mouse! (Remember, this is HTML, NOT FLASH!)

Here’s a brief view of the contents of the book - basic, but adequate to show off the tech.

- Google’s "20 Things I Learned" web book -

Tags: Virtual, Just Cool, Current Events, Multimedia, Reference, Net Life, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, Software, Cool Sites, Life Tips, General by Jai
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