May 2009
WatchI recorded some of the storm, because British storms are lame, and this seemed like the apocalypse in comparison. It was just starting to wind down at this point, but it was still pretty impressive. (Vimeo’s encoding seems to have made the video a lot darker than it was, but the contrast seems better, I guess.) If you pay attention, you can see a fork at 49 seconds for about a frame or two....
Hulu Desktop →
As far as I’m concerned, this makes Boxee or Boxxy or whatever just about useless. The interface is way better, and 90% of what I ever stream is on Hulu.
Dayvan Mini
Due to (surprisingly) popular request, I’m finally getting around to putting the very first Tumblr theme I made into the Theme Garden. (It doesn’t seem right that I still approach this with the same trepidation as developers must approach the iPhone app store. Still waiting for another theme I submitted months ago to be approved.)
However, it was made quite a few Tumblr dev cycles...
“I knew you would reblog that! you know what I’m talking about. Wait, you...”
– The first few paragraphs of Heather’s first e-mail to me, our first person-to-person contact, just over a year ago.
Looking back, I have absolutely no idea why I even replied to it.
Practices of Pre-Gaming →
Apparently, the practice of pre-gaming (drinking before going out) has been researched and studied.
This is the kind of important research more people should be doing.
Flo Rida - “Right Round (feat....
Emiliana Torrini - “Me and Armeni”
Shoesonwrong...
You may beg to differ. You will be wrong, but you...
indefensible:
Agencies use their own style guides, and I guarantee* you that ‘spit-up’ does not appear in the AP manual of style.
So it’s either sloppy editing, or shadow editorialising. Neither of which we should be pleased with.
In my opinion, it’s a dog whistle.
*I may not honour this guarantee. I am a turd like that.
They call it the AP stylebook, and you’re right, it...
Shift 4 →
Speaking of flash games, one of my favourites has just had its 4th episode released. (I recommend starting with the first if you’ve never played, it has a fairly steep learning curve.) The first one is also available on iPhone now.
Seed of Destruction →
The desire to ride on the back of a giant sperm and crush civilians, helicopters and tanks has never weighed particularly heavy on my mind, but this game is surprisingly satisfying. It’s just fun to not have to worry about beating a level or boss and just, well, destroy stuff with a giant sperm. The art in this game is also fantastic (watch all the cutscenes, seriously).
Look at This Long Word!
[Chemical/Welsh place name]!
[Omission of a) note that word was artificially constructed, b) anything even remotely interesting]
Via Wikipedia
Threadless Voting
Twitter Tees was the first time I’ve used Threadless’ voting system — I’ve browsed the site, and knew of the voting mechanic, but not specifically how it was employed — and I think it might be the best voting system I’ve seen online.
Each entry’s vote count is hidden, and the entries are presented in a completely random (as far as I can tell; there may well be some...
Managed to get hold of a pre-release copy of...
“SO ALSO IN KINDERGARTEN I APPARENTLY THOUGHT THAT THE KIDS IN MY CLASS...”
– TIME FOR SOME STORIES
David on the Directory →
David responded to my post with a lot of useful feedback (and was very nice, despite my fairly accusatory tone in parts). If you read mine, you should read his. Thanks, David!
Here are a couple of highlights:
I’m also really interested in the feedback we’ve received about letting followers tag your blog, and using that to organize the directory, rather than your own tags.
The Theme...
“Steve is using Google to troubleshoot Wolfram|Alpha”
– Some guy in the Wolfram|Alpha livewebpodvidlaunchcast on justin.tv
Directory
I stayed away from the Tumblarity conversation on Tumblr — except for one justly criticized post — this long for a few reasons. Only one of which needs to be articulated here.
I actually like Tumblarity. I think it’s a great at-a-glance indicator of how well your blog is doing. That kind of feedback isn’t too important for this blog — I do this purely for fun — but I have rather more...
“Today, I was having sex with my girlfriend. She yelled out the name Tommy. My...”
– MyLifeIsAverage
WatchI stumbled across Xtranormal today, which uses text-to-speech and rudimentary animation to let you create your own movies. I fed it this exchange between Heather and me, and this was the result.
I declare this awesome.
Joker - “Solid State”
Pogo - “Bread and Butterflies”
From...
More on Awesome
I would like to renege on my earlier observations about “awesome” on Flickr and Vimeo and amend it thusly:
The “awesome” tag on Flickr and Vimeo returns almost exclusively utter trash, and might be one of the most oxymoronic — not to mention moronic — collections of bullshit I’ve seen for a while.
Here is a video of a man peeing in a Gatorade bottle while driving....
Pizza City →
This is going to be addictive. Drive around the city, deliver pizzas, don’t run people over. Kind of like an 8-bit GTA.
Focus
Sometimes I get really, irrationally angry when I’m browsing the web and some pop up ad steals focus in another window. Or some banner ad that seems to advertise emoticons starts giggling through my speakers. Or an advert for a watch slides right across the whatever I’m reading and makes me click a tiny x to lose it. Or I accidentally click or mouseover some text and I’m...
Akon - “I Wanna Fuck You (ft. Snoop...
Note Filtering
You’ve been able to include post notes in your themes for a while now (more info here on the custom themes help page), but here’s something that I haven’t seen documented or mentioned by anyone else.
Each note that is output on your theme has a number of classes attached to it, making them easy to filter. Examples! Here’s the basic markup of a note, edited for clarity,...
Awesome! →
Awesome Tag is a new thing I’m doing.
I’ve been subscribed to a feed of everything on Delicious tagged “awesome” for a long time, and have found some — fittingly — awesome stuff. Which made me wonder if other “awesome” tags are as awesome. (Spoiler: they are!)
And thus we have a hand-picked (by me) selection of stuff tagged “awesome” on various...
The Lonely Island - “Lazy Sunday”
...
The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved →
The Kentucky Derby website has Hunter S. Thompson’s story about the derby printed in full on their website (minus Ralph Steadman’s excellent illustration). If you haven’t read it before, now’s as good a time as any.
Listen →
I had no idea this existed, but it’s awesome. I didn’t realise until a few days ago that typing “listen” on the dashboard no longer worked, but this is even better. No idea if this is a feature or an easter egg or whatever.
The Brains Behind Plants vs. Zombies →
An interview with George Fan, the genius behind Plants vs. Zombies. Among numerous other interesting tidbits is this:
Though it began life as Weedlings, one of Fan’s friends suggested the incredibly brilliant rename of Lawn of the Dead. “I got really attached to it, but for legal reasons we couldn’t use it,” he says.
Lawn of the Dead would have been a far superior...
The Stranger's 2009 Sex Survey Results →
The answers to “Before You Die, What’s the One Thing You Want to Accomplish Sexually?” are where the gold is in this. A sample:
Fuck a unicorn.
Have gay sex, stoned, naked, with an eco-terrorist in an anarchist commune on a bed of thyme.
Peg a straight boy while he’s tied up in Nintendo NES controller cords.
(via Waxy)
tumblarity
The Word Journal editors are very interested in your definiton of this now ubiquitous word. How would you define tumblarity?
noun • ?
(via wordjournal)
Posterous →
Here’s one of numerous alternatives to Tumblr that don’t have a Tumblarity page. Feel free to use it.
It also lacks constant development and new stuff, awesome community-involved developers, a huge, talented community, and the freedom to do just about anything to your tumblelog.
Getting a Posterous blog requires significantly less effort than complaining about a feature that is...
