Spore Creature Creator - Decades of fun by itself!

You’re probably aware of the upcoming release of “Spore ” in September

Well, EA has released the Spore Creature Creator to let you build and customize your creatures to your heart’s content.

With its simple controls, you can spend hours lovingly crafting your creature to your specifications.

Once your critter is ready, you can share it in number of ways from pictures to recorded animations.

Creature Creator is only $9.95 and can be downloaded immediately.

Why are you still reading, go get it already!


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Here’s a very early view of my “gackal” creature. All I’ve really done is chosen the mouth-face thing (note that this is the very first creature I’m creating).

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Here my gackal is beginning to take on a “feel”. I’ve sized the nose and mouth, added nostrils, eye-stalks, and ears. Whenever I’m not directly changing him, my gackal is looking around, playing, making curiosity sounds, etc.

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I decided to try some weird things with legs and feet, and then let my creature meet her first baby. She got very excited followed by this moment where she and baby nuzzled one another (which doesn’t come through so well in the screenshot, but when it was live, there was no doubt!)

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While playing with different color schemes, I tried this one out and my gackal found it hilarious. She cracked up, complete with boisterous laughter and even snorting!

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And after all of that, here she is in all her bizarre, evolutionary glory, my gackal. (I actually had to retake the picture because she happened to have her eyes closed! I HATE that!)

- www.Spore.com -

Guy Robot(s) : Junk turned cool!

GuyRobot.com is a display/sales site for some very cool junk-turned-robots art.

The unnamed artist(s?) turn junk into something very cool looking - kind of a cross between 50’s pulp fiction and the 2005 movie “Robots”.

The robots are charming but expensive, with the cheapest one sitting at $500.00!

Even if you can’t afford J.B. ($925.00) (pic below), they’re worth a look anyway. Maybe you’ll be inspired to build your own Joe, Kathy, or Smith Bot!

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The “About” page explains that the parts for each Guy Robot come from a large variety
of sources from swap meets to industrial refuse to neighbors curb trash.
Can you think
of a cooler recycling idea?

 

 

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This is Cosmo. He’s apparently a teenager (whatever that means in robot art).
Like all “Guy Robots”, he is not only one-of-a-kind, he also comes with a background history!

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This is J.B. (which, presumably, stands for something). He’s impervious to lots of stuff, and apparently
likes to joke that after the big one, all that’ll be left are him and the cock roaches.

- GuyRobot.com -

Wordle - Your Words as Art!

Wordle is a Java applet (you’ll need to have Java enabled in your browser - Java has come a long way since the early days, if you haven’t checked it out lately, give it another chance!).

You can choose things like the layout, color scheme, font, etc., then let it place your words (you can tell it to re-layout or re-color to your hearts content).

Now your favorite words can become cool posters! Wanna guess how many words are in the images below?

 

 

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Here’s a pretty random image made by just letting Wordle choose options for you

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I find that I generally like the “Mostly Horizontal” or “Half and Half” layouts best
Still totally random, but the colors just don’t scream “Grim Darkness of the Far Future” to me!
(As always, click the image for a close-up)

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And my finished work! I used the same layout as above (which took several passes of “Re-Layout”),
but changed the colors to “yramyrP” and “Wild Variance” (and told it to re-color several times)
Notice that the word “holy” ended up in the zero of the 40! (as always, click to enlarge)

- Wordle.net-

Make your pics stand out!

Dumpr.net let’s you do cool things with your snapshots (or phototgraphs if you’re a camera snob, which I am!)

See the examples below for a small sampling of what is available. Note that a (fairly small) number of the services are pay-only services. The rest are free and don’t even require registration.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some friends and family to impress with my artistic brilliance!


Dumpr1
A sampling of the options on Dumpr - note the circled one is a pay-only service.

Dumpr Museum
This is one of the options for the “museum” effect.

Dumpr Rubik
This is among my favorites; the Rubik effect!

 

- Dumpr.net-

FIREFOX 3 RELEASED TODAY - HELP SET THE RECORD!!!

Mozilla’s FireFox 3 final released today, and they’re trying to set the record for most downloads in one day. If you download the (excellent) new version by 10:16 AM tomorrow, you’ll entitled to a certificate of participation (to show your support)!

FF3 fixes problems that have been around for a long time on ALL major browsers, and adds a lot (over 15,000!) of innovative features (all with a smaller footprint and faster response!)

Support FireFox 3 and download now!

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FF3 1

ff3 2

- Support World Record Attempt -

- Just Download the Darned Thing -

Virtual Bookstore, Real Browsing… Er… Real Bookstore… Er… Oh just look at it!

Amazon has sold books since nearly the beginning of the internet, how can you make it more “real”?

How about browsing books the way you do at the book store? You casually browse the sections, see a section of interest and start paying more attention to the books. Now you look at some of the covers and authors, maybe pick up a few, etc.

Well, that’s what Zoomii.com gives you (and they process your order through Amazon, so you still get the great prices!)


 

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Your view can be as far out or as close as you like for browsing. You can drag left, right, up, or down, etc.

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When you see an area that interests you, you can zoom in for a closer look.

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And you can keep zooming in until you’re as close as you want to be (limited by the image resolution, of course)

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When you click on a book, it takes you to the books detail screen including user ratings, prices, descriptive text, etc.

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There are over 20,000 books “on the shelves”, but over 150,000 in the library! A search will return the images even if they aren’t shown on the shelf (Note that the NEW D&D Monster Manual that just came out last week is in this list, though it wasn’t on the shelf view)

- Zoomii.com -

Alter Ego: The great games never die!

In the eighties and nineties I was a big C64 fan. I used it for programming, socializing on sites like Q-Link and Compu$erve, and playing a whole lot of games!

Some of my favorite games were Elite, Standing Stones, and, of course, Alter Ego.

Alter Ego is a life simulation game. It doesn’t have a lot of graphics, but it doesn’t need ‘em.

If you’ve never played this game, this web version will give you your chance!

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The original game was designed by PHD Psychologist Dr. Peter Favaro based on hundreds of personal interviews with patients, personal research, and some stuff he “just made up”!

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Here you choose your next “adventure” in life from the icons representing various spheres of personal development (social, intellectual, emotional, etc). This is the beginning screen from the first age (birth).

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Each life “adventure” will present you with a situation and your choices of reaction. It may not sound like much fun, but each choice affects your growth, development, and future options, and the game becomes very involving!

- Alter Ego at www.TheBlackForge.net -

- Mirror at Polemik.ch -

Bomona Lets You Make Abstractish Art that is the BOM!

Okay, so that headline was cheesy, and the “artwork” makes isn’t usually great, but it’s fun to play with, and it can make some pretty neat stuff!

Bomona is a webapp that gives you a lot of guided randominzing brushes that sorta make things happen while you draw (with your mouse). The results can be surprising, interesting, and admittedly, sometimes disappointing.

Fortunately, it’s easy to erase and restart, so give it a try!


 

BOM1
A slew of randomizing brushes make abstractness kind of automatic!

BOM2
You could be the next Pablo Picaso (or mentally deficient third-grade art student)

BOM3
With a little effort, you can do some reasonably… Uh… Visual stuff!

- Bomona.com -

POTRTP : You kinda had to be there!

POTRTP = Picture Of The Random Time Period, I.E. I’ll put ‘em up when I find ‘em!

Enjoy!

CatWithRiceBowl
Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that are difficult to explain to others…

POTRTP : It’ll Wait…

POTRTP = Picture Of The Random Time Period, I.E. I’ll put ‘em up when I find ‘em!

Enjoy!

Procrastination
‘Nuff said