Boston - Hi Rez Style

Check out this insanely high resolution image of Boston.

You can zoom in and in and in and you just get more and more details.



It's a nice! (that was in Borat's accent)

Coke Commercial

This coke commercial uses a cool technique where many actors all play different "frames" of the same character in a scene.

It's kind of like a stop motion video, only live (I hardly understand what I just said :).

Just check it out and you'll understand this cool effect.

Ultimate Carwash

If you want to give your cool Ford Escort a treat then why not have this guy wash it for you? It will cost you a bit (more than $10,000!) but it must be worth it:



The 67 step process is actually quite unbelievable!

Flying Boat

This has got to be one of the coolest toys I've seen in while:

Mario On Guitar

This guy does a pretty good version of the first level of Super Mario, on electric guitar.


The sound effects are the best part:

Play Online Games

Who doesn't like to waste a few minutes (or hours in some cases) playing online games?



By installing the free online games toolbar that I created you can play online games directly from your browser whenever you want.



It lets you play lots of popular games like Tetris, Zuma, Lemmings, Connect 4, Backgammon, Bejeweled 2, Sudoku, Chuzzle, Alchemy, Atomica, Pacman, Mahjong, Beetle Bomp, Battleship, Insaniquarium, Air Hockey, Space Invaders, Mini-golf, Luxor, Cubis and lots of other board games, arcade games, puzzles, card games....



It's free, just takes a few seconds to install, is entirely safe to use, and is totally addicting (trust me, I spent hours "researching" games to include in it ;).



Spread the word guys!

Pole Position Commercial

This is an original commercial for Atari's Pole Position (one of my favorite games back in the day, before they came out with Outrun).


Check out that guy at the beginning of the commercial:

"HEY!"

"Yeah?"

"You look like a real jerk!"

"Well, I *am* a corporate executive."



Pure classic!

Blind Spot

This simple site demonstrates what a big blind spot we all have in our vision.

Turns out that our eyes fill in what's missing so that we normally don't notice our blind spot.

There's a simple exercise on this site that shows you exactly where your blind spot is.


Weird ah?

Petals Around the Rose

The name of the game is Petals Around the Rose and the name is important.

Here are the rules: the computer will roll five dice and ask you to guess the score for the roll. The score will always be zero or an even number. Your mission is to work out how the computer calculates the score and become a Potentate of the Rose.



I can give you one clue: the name of the game is important.



After the page loads click on your browser's stop button to stop that annoying background music.

How Fast Can You Type

Test yourself to see how fast you can type...

I got 70 words per minute.

Chinese Restaurant Prank

Listen to what happens when a radio station calls two Chinese restaurants and makes them think they are ordering from each other:

Download Call

McSundial

McDonald’s latest move in the fast food breakfast battle is a new billboard in Wrigleyville.

The new billboard features a real sundial whose shadow falls on a different breakfast item each hour until noon, when the big M shadow is in the center.



Check it out:

Lego Art

Turns out that not only is knitting an art but in the right hands a bunch of Lego blocks can also turn into masterpieces.



Nathan Sawaya is a professional LEGO artist who has created quite a few Lego sculptures.

And we aren't talking about your standard Lego spaceships and towtrucks.

This guy has created a Lego human head, Lego globe, Lego Ferrari, Lego Xbox 360 and PS2 controllers, Lego Death Star...



He's even created some pretty big Lego sculptures of things like the Brooklyn Bridge, a huge Monopoly Box, and a life size Han Solo in Carbonite (the guy really is a geek :).



Check out his site.

Papa John's Cool Ad

Papa John's Pizza came up with this innovative idea to get people talking about their pizzas:

VirtuSphere

VirtuSphere is a new solution for total immersion in a virtual reality world.

Once you step inside the VirtuSphere and put on the VR goggles you can actually walk around in the virtual world.

This thing could be pretty awesome for military training and virtual touring of different locations but the killer application would most definitely be gaming.



Bring on Doom...

Socket PC

This socket is actually an entire PC that includes a VGA port, 4 USB ports, an audio and a microphone port. The CPU is an AMD RISC processor which is the equivalent of a 1.2GHz Intel processor.


And get this: this computer is so energy efficient that it is powered solely over ethernet!

If they could squeeze in a decent hard drive it would pretty much be the ultimate "desktop"



And you thought the Mac Mini was small :)



[Via Gizmodo]

Hole In One

Check out this unbelievable hole in one:

Love/Hate

Dog Walker

The latest in dog technology:








Don't you just love new innovations?

(I'm sure Fido will just love this)

Launchy

Launchy is a new utility that I ran into that has made its way into my list of must have applications.

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.
Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

This little app saves me the need to reach for my mouse every time I want to launch something on my PC. Using Launchy all I need to do is hit ALT+Space, type the first few letters of what I want to launch, and Launchy does the rest.


Very small, very cool, very useful, and very free!



Here's a little tip that I came up with for those who use Launchy: create a folder in your Start Menu with shortcuts to folders that you often use. That way you can easily use Launchy to open a file explorer directly in the folder that you want (your downloads folder for example).

Use something like this in shortcut to open the Windows file explorer in a desired folder:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, C:\Downloads

Super Mario Bros Re-enactment

After that awesome real Simpsons intro clip comes this very cool re-enactment of Super Mario Bros.



Check it out:




This was part of a talent show at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.

Maze Scare

Recently there's been this maze game circulating online where during one of the levels this scary image pops up when you least expect it.

The latest craze that this has started is that people film their friends getting scared by the maze game. Let me tell you: some people really get startled by it!



Check out these clips of people totally loosing it while playing this "game":

Clip 1

Clip 2

Clip 3

Clip 4

Clip 5 (this poor kid)



If that's not enough for you (and you're really into this kind of thing), check out this compilation clip.



Thanks goes out to Erica for this!

Looking Baggy

Company Names

Did you ever wonder how companies like Apple, Google, and BMW came up with their names?
Neither did I :)



But it was still kinda fun to go over this list of how companies got their names.



Here are my 10 favorite company name "stories" from that list:

• Adidas- from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.


• Adobe- came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the houses of founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke .


• BenQ- Bringing ENjoyment and Quality to life


• Cisco- short for San Francisco. It has also been suggested that it was "CIS-co" -- Computer Information Services was the department at Stanford University that the founders worked in.


• Fanta- was originally invented by Max Keith in Germany in 1940 when World War II made it difficult to get the Coca-Cola syrup to Nazi Germany. Fanta was originally made from byproducts of cheese and jam production. The name comes from the German word for imagination (Fantasie or Phantasie), because the inventors thought that imagination was needed to taste oranges from the strange mix.


• Fiat- acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Factory of Cars of Turin).


• Mozilla Foundation- from the name of the web-browser that preceded Netscape Navigator. When Marc Andreesen, founder of Netscape, created a browser to replace the Mosaic browser, it was internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) by Jamie Zawinski.


• Pepsi- Pepsi derives its name from (treatment of) dyspepsia, an intestinal ailment.


• Samsonite- Samsonite was launched as a brand in 1941, receiving its name from the Biblical character Samson, renowned for his strength.


• Sun Microsystems- its founders designed their first workstation in their dorm at Stanford University, and chose the name Stanford University Network for their product, hoping to sell it to the college. They didn't.

The Art Of Knitting

I never really understood knitting, it always seemed boring and kinda old-school.



All that changed when I ran into this site about the art of knitting.



Forget the usual stuff like scarves and sweaters, here you can find a collection of unique, um, knitted sculptures...



You gotta check out that site.

Let's just say that you wont see grandma knitting anything close to what you see there...



Respect!

Puzzle Alarm Clock

The Puzzle Alarm Clock is a gadget that I could really use: it's an alarm clock with a puzzle (big surprise there, ah?).



It wakes you up by firing four puzzle pieces up in the air, and then it is your task to get the pieces and put them back in the alarm clock - it won't turn off until then.

At $42 it's a bit pricey but still a great idea.

More T-Shirts

By now you all know that I love funny t-shirts. It turns out that lots of you guys also like them and send me links to sites with funny shirts.



Here's a site that was sent to me that has quite a few funny shirts.

Most of them are not safe for work so I won't quote them here, just click on over there and check them out...



If you find any more cool sites like these send 'em over my way and I'll share them with everybody.

123456 US Date

Here's an interesting fact:



On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.



That won't ever happen again in our lifetimes...(maybe once more if we travel outside the US and use dd/mm/yy date format).



Let's all get together and have a "pretty date" party...


Who's with me?

Lenovo Tapes

This guy ran into some test tapes from a Lenovo research facility (the company that took over the IBM Thinkpad).

He saw some amazing stuff going on there and posted some of the highlights that he ran across.



Among the footage that he has on his site is a laptop that automatically protects itself a split second before a liquid is spilled on it and a laptop that saves itself when it is dropped (by quickly turning on these built in fans and hovering in mid air)!



Check out the awesome video clips on his site...


(even if these aren't real they are pretty cool ideas)

Are You Autistic?

This short test was developed to measure the extent of autistic traits in adults.

The average score in the control group was 16.4 and eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher.



I'm proud to say that I scored a 27!

I knew all along that I'm more autistic than normal :)



Let me know how you did...



I'm an excellent driver, an excellent driver.

Pimp My Rim

Forget those spinner rims for your ride, you gotta go with these cool color LED rims.

These rims let you display a digital image on your rims while you drive and you can even change the image that is displayed while you are driving!



You can see them in action in this video...

The Selk'bag

I know someone who would enjoy this sleeping-bag/jacket:








If you plan on going somewhere cold and don't mind walking around all day in a sleeping bag (or maybe you are a narcoleptic) then you can actually buy this thing.


"That's hot!"

Nice Costume

Anybody have a matching Batman cat costume?

Words Of Wisdom

Some words of wisdom:

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country." - George W. Bush


"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - George W. Bush


"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'." - George W. Bush


"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." - George W. Bush


"The future will be better tomorrow." - George W. Bush


"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world." - George W. Bush


"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." - George W. Bush


"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe We are a part of Europe." - George W. Bush


"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls." - George W. Bush


"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur." - George W. Bush


"For NASA, space is still a high priority." - George W. Bush


"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children." - George W. Bush


"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." - George W. Bush


"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system." - George W. Bush




Do you see a pattern here?



(Thanks Or)

Real Simpsons Intro

Sorry I've been posting a lot of videos lately but I just can't help myself, I keep running into cool videos.



This time it's a video of a real-life version of the Simpsons intro.

Somebody redid the entire intro using real people and real scenery.



Very accurately done (aside from the car Maggie is "driving" where the steering wheel is on the right instead of the side).

Super Mario Race

Check out this video of two guys racing head to head through the NES version of Super Mario Bros.


Ah nostalgia....

The N-Word

Check out this video of some school teacher who got caught saying the N-word.

This is the real deal!

Life in the Googleplex

Those poor saps who work at Google are forced to take haircuts and swim at work!

Just check out this tour of the Googleplex...



Suckers!

Self Parking

You gotta hate parallel parking, right?

Just get your hands on a self parking Toyota Prius and you can forget about parallel parking for the rest of your life (or at least the car's life).


Check out the clip...

Madonna Video Coming Soon

Look at what I got when I tried to view a Madonna video on iTunes (don't ask me why I tried to do that :).





You just have to wait a few years...

Super Bowl XL Commercials

In case you missed the Super Bowl this year you definitely don't want to miss out on the best part: the commercials.

Google Video is hosting all the ads (you can even watch them back-to-back) so they're real easy to view (don't have to wait an hour for them to download...).


As always, the Bud commercials rock, the Ford Escape Hybrid was cool, and Sierra Mist was ok.

The MacGyver ad was nice but whoa, talk about 80s!

Space Worms

Space Worms is an online game that is kinda similar to snake (you know the annoying cellphone game) only much more fun.


In this game you need to control your ball so that the other balls don't hit you.


The trick is to break free and then get the balls to orbit around you.



Simple but fun!


BTW: I made it to level 8.

3D Painted Rooms

Check out these cool rooms that are painted so that when you look at them from the right angle you see an optical illusion.



Very cool stuff!

Teddy Bears

I ran across this nice "alternative to flowers" site: Vermont Teddy Bears.



The bears there are dressed up in different outfits, like a biker bear, bear in jeans, skateboarding bear, Elvis bear, playmate bear...and the list goes on and on.



Seems like a really great gift idea but too bad the bears there cost WAY too much (we're talking about teddy bears that cost around $100!).



Cool gift but too rich for my blood.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes is a collection of photographs where you can mix and match the top and bottom parts of different portraits.



The results look very good and are really seamless.



Give it a look, it's worth it.

Mute Karaoke

Do you ever get that urge to sing Karaoke in the middle of the night, but are worried that you'll wake up the neighbors?

Me too!



Apparently many Japanese people also have this problem so they invented this ingenious device:






"start spreading the news..."

Holophonic 3D sound

Quick get your headphones and check out this awesome demo of true three-dimensional sound.

It's totally cool and you've probably never heard anything like it (especially not without at least 5 speakers).



You'll find yourself tracking the sound with your eyes...

Segway Centaur

Everybody knows how cool a Segway is.

But if you really want to turn some heads then you gotta get a Segway Centaur.



The Segway Centaur is a concept ATV made using the same technology as the regular Segway.


That makes one cool ATV!

Since it's electric then it's very quiet and thanks to the Segway magic stuff in it, it's quite agile and very maneuverable.



Put me down for one when it comes out (if it ever does)...

Cellphone Song Identification

The best way to use an application that identifies songs that it hears, like Tunatic, is to always have it with you in your cellphone.



AT&T Wireless is offering exactly that in the US (this type of service has already been available in Britain).


It's very simple: when you hear a song and you don't know who it's by just dial #43 (#ID) on your cellphone, hold the phone near the speaker for 15 seconds, and they'll send you an SMS with the name of the artist and the name of the song.


For now it's free but later on they'll start charging $0.99 for each time you use the service.

Windows Live Mail

Thanks to this trick I was able to get a Windows Live Mail account for free - no invite needed!

(Windows Live Mail is the new (FINALLY!) version of Hotmail)



My first impressions of the new interface is that it doesn't look as slick as I'd expected it to look and (currently) it's not nearly as fast as Gmail.

The entire site looks a bit premature and not yet ready for use.



It does have a calendar there, that Gmail is currently missing, but I'm sure that the Google Gmail guys are working on that as we speak.



The one thing there that is a breakthrough, especially coming from Microsoft, is the right-click context menus that have never before been used in a mainstream web application.



Other cool features that I noticed are drag and drop of emails into folders and automatic spell checking when writing an email, like in Word (the coolest new thing that I noticed).


Bottom line: nothing there made me really say "wow!" (except for the trick I used to get access there ;).

Chocka Ca-Ca

Nothing like starting off the new year with some toilet humor :)

Chocka Ca-Ca is a real baby diaper with a piece of chocolate fudge inside.

(The fudge is shaped like a... uh... well, just look at the photos.)



I didn't want to scare away any first time visitors here so I didn't post any pictures of the unique diaper, but take a look for yourself...