Weekly Tech Links » Confusing

Link Dump 49

Lapper — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 05:00:21 +0000

I am currently between projects and, unfortunately, cannot continue Weekly Tech Links at this time. Hopefully, in the near future, I will begin posting again. Thank you for your patience. Leave your email if you wish to be contacted regarding the reinstatement of the blog.

Wordcamp in San Francisco: Lectures, demonstrations, and… barbeque? It’s the Wordpress convention being held later this month. Everyone’s invited, except for, you know, those with no means to get to San Francisco.
Twenty iPhone shortcomings: We were all looking forward to the iPhone, but unfortunately, like the first-generation iPod, it’s not as perfect as we would have hoped. The one everyone’s talking about is its mindnumbingly slow internet, rather than the wifi-speed we were anticipating.
Warp: Like the classic Windows 98 screensaver, Warp lets you fly through a starfield when you leave your computer for long enough. Not to say Windows 98 was good, but the screensavers will always be in our hearts and minds.
Kongregate Badges: After months in the making, Kongregate has finally released “achievments”; tasks in games that get you both points and miniature badges that appear in your profile. Some of these just bring back nightmares, though. Like Particles.
Howard Forums Wiki: What can I say? It’s a wiki documenting mobile phones. It’s not very complete, but I’m sure you could find something of interest if you cared to look. The forum is far more interesting.
Will it Blend?: This guy’s supposedly part of an advertising campaign completely unique from other PR tactics. Watch as he uses this high powered blender, conveniently available from the online store, to blend… well, everything. From Transformers, to credit cards, and even iPhones. They’re all reduced to dust.
Microsoft Surface parody: Microsoft Surface is supposed to be the future of computing as we know it, complete with the Tangible User Interface that is, itself the next level. However, with consumers seeing business-targeted commercials, these guys have made up a frustrated voiceover.

Link Dump 45

Lapper — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 05:01:17 +0000

Health Bolt: This health blog is different from all the rest. The articles are interesting and don’t preach nutrition or exercise. He’s just telling you facts a la Damn Interesting, if you will.
Colorstrology: This site makes minimal sense. Check your birthday for your “true color” and a horoscope-like description of yourself.
CSS dock menu: This is one of the most clever uses of Javascript and CSS I’ve seen in quite some time. It emulates the Mac OS X dock we all know and love, while holding the functionality of a menu.
TripleJack: Watch out for this site; it’s completely addictive. Choose a cute avatar and get playing in this very fun no-stakes multi-player poker game. Increase your points by winning hands, and increase your cash by banking it instead of flashing it.
Web 2.0 logo: We all know that Web 2.0 is just a big buzzword, overwhemingly defined by visuals. This logo is the essence of that, complete with an optional mirror finish and Beta sticker.
WikiHow: How do I do this? How do I do that? Wikipedia doesn’t always have the answer if you’re looking to do a step-by-step, but WikiHow does.
Beat box: I find it fairly amazing how accurately and precisely this guy can keep a beat going. Can you do that? No, you can’t.

Link Dump 41

Lapper — Sun, 06 May 2007 05:00:50 +0000

Polar Clock Screensaver: You can now view the date and time in classy circular-style with this polar clock screensaver. The seconds tick by at sixty degrees a piece, then retracting as the minute circle inches forward. The aesthetic properties of this flash are just brilliant.
Yahoo! Answers forum: Suggestions, ratings, questions… and here I thought Yahoo! Answers was already a forum. A forum on drugs. So here’s the forum for the forum, if you will.
ToasterClone: At first I thought this was my beloved underwater screensaver for Mac OS 6. But no, this is a recompilation of flying toasters, which apparently used to be a common theme across Macintosh in the nineties.
Test Twist: This game is crazy. Find as many words as you possibly can out of a six letters, but you only need a six-letter word to go on to the next round; you control how many points you get beyond that.
ThinkGeek: These guys have got the greatest tech gear on the planet. Everything from high-power laser pointers to binary pillows to quick-heating soddering guns is sold at ridiculously resonable prices. Their descriptions make you want to buy everything there.
Wiki revolution: Mac|Life posted a full explanation of how to install MediaWiki in this issue. Honestly, I think they’ve been overstepping their bounds a bit lately; showing things you thought fewer people knew how to do.
Mac Beautiful: HappySlip, one of the more down-to-earth vloggers of YouTube, composed and sings a parody of James Blunt’s falsetto-laced You’re Beauitful to honor her Macintosh, her favorite hardware and operating system ever. Cough cough.

Link Dump 39

Lapper — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 05:00:22 +0000

Life Imitates xkcd: A fan of xkcd apparently bought Richard Stallman a katana in homage to one of the strips, where he defends himself against “Microsoft Lackeys”. Did they send Linus Torvalds nunchucks?
SlaveHack Forum: This is the simple forum accompanying SlaveHack, the hacking simulator. The noob-to-human ratio is astoundingly high, so be wary. You can get all kinds of help here, however, from riddles to trade-offs to giveaways.
iStat Pro 4: iStat Pro got a complete makeover for version 4, now with rearrangable slides and a nice blue frame. I simply enjoy this widget in general, for all its diagnostic functions. Not to mention… new color themes.
Bubble Tanks: Join the small world of bubble weaponry. This game has one of the steepest learning curves possible. But if you stick to it, you can finally get to the… end. Or however you want to call wandering around forever.
Peekaboom: In a style similar to The ESP Game, Peekaboom is an image-guessing game with points based almost entirely on cooperation with your anonymous partner. It gets pretty frustrating when they give up without guessing, though.
Redwall wiki: I used to really enjoy this series back in the day. The wiki apprently gets little representation on Wikipedia, but it’s a abbey of information.
FunTwo: This savant teenage guitarist hit viral status in early 2006 with this astounding rendition of Pachabel’s Canon. Also viewable are both Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

Link Dump 38

Lapper — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:00:31 +0000

Etch-A-Sketchist: This guy’s an Etch-A-Sketch maniac. He draws various pop culture icons and logos with two knobs and magnetic fibers nearly every day.
Last Place Comics forum: The comic’s hilarious, and the forum’s a breeding ground for humorous nerds and the like. Definitely a great hangout place.
MediaFork: Legally, if it’s your DVD, you can make an archive of it. But what if you want that archive on your iPod? Hand Brake/MediaFork allows you to resize and style nearly any DVD to optimize viewing right on that small screen.
Slave Hack: Helping break the temptation around the world, Slave Hack is a very eleborate hacking simulation where you compete against hundreds of other hackers to obtain the best programs and earn the most money possible.
The ESP Game: Another fine webapp by Carnegie-Mellon University, The ESP Game pairs you with another player as you both race to find a term you can both agree on to label the image in front of you. The more images you solve and the faster you solve them both contribute to your point level, which accumulates over time.
House Wiki: House, currently in the middle of its third season, is most likely one of the most spunky medical dramas on television. The disagreeable Hugh Laurie is always good for a laugh, too. Now, there’s a way to show your fandom like never before.
Derrick Comedy: If you are not on the floor laughing after you watch these sketches, you can sue me for everything I have. Derrick Comedy is a team of post-graduate actors with the sense of humor you wish was on SNL. Watch and be amazed.

Link Dump 37

Lapper — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 05:00:27 +0000

Wordpress 2.1.3 and 2.0.10: Honestly, I miss when the Wordpress updates used to include features. 2.1.3 is yet another security update that they hope wasn’t compromised as was 2.1.1.
VIRB: This appears to be a modern, less communistically perverse version of the widely beloved Facebook. I don’t get what’s with these places; they’re just buffed-up forums.
CallWave SMS: This is an inter-widget that allows you to send SMS text-messages to any provider without trying to tap it out on your own phone’s number pad. It’s really useful for contacting friends on the go, but you can’t hide your computer in your hand during class.
Zwok: In a time when there is no war… people throw snowballs. That pretty much being the storyline of this strange game, you’ll still have a blast launching snow at the other team and racking up points as quickly as possible.
The Perry Bible Fellowship: This is the kind of webcomic that just makes you sit back and think about how you can exploit life to the fullest, or interpret it in the strangest and most surreal way possible. It doesn’t update too often, but it’s some worthwhile reading.
Citizendium: In belief that Wikipedia no longer fits the essence of being a true encyclopedia, the co-founder of Wikipedia has created a new encyclopedia. Citizendium is designed to be far stricter version of Wikipedia, where all articles must be cited and checked by experts in-the-field for them to become approved.
Craziest: As the video link replaces the IRC link, we bring you the story of a Scrabble extremist. Believing that the tiles themselves depict the future, she goes on an evangelical escapade to make everyone else aware of the truth. All the while biding her time for the legendary 311-point “triple-triple” word: craziest.

Link Dump 36

Lapper — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 05:00:20 +0000

The Pirate Bay and Kim Jong-Il: After years of problems with the Switzerland government, The Pirate Bay has thrown up their hands and allied with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. Somehow The Pirate Bay is even more illegal than it was previously.
College Humor has expired: This “expired” GoDaddy page is the first thing hundreds of people saw upon visiting the funny-video site College Humor. Unfortunately, instead of the domain being up for grabs, a click transported them back to the normal homepage, where they received a resounding “Psych!”
Blue Screen of Death screensaver: The less the prankee happens to know about computers, the better, with this amazingly realistic BSoD screensaver for Macintosh. Note that this works even better when you then disable the keyboard and mouse.
iStepMania: Now this is what I’m talking about. StepMania has dropped all Windows support to focus on the Mac; the fruits of their labor already include iPod support and integration with FrontRow. They duly note, however, that StepMania may not run so well on the screenless iPod Shuffle.
Google TiSP: Now don’t tell me you didn’t ever want a broadband toilet. Google, ever so generous, has created a system in which you flush the cable of a router down your home toilet and become instantly connected throughout your home. Also note the convenient Gmail Paper.
4.1.2007 hoaxes at Wikipedia: Although you may have made a point to parade around your favorite sites today, making sure you see all the pranks being played, you probably missed a few hilarious ones. Wikipedia has a constantly-updated list you can check out.
The WiiHelm by ThinkGeek: Sure, the Wiimote is fun, but what’s the point if you can’t eat and drink at the same time? WiiHelm seeks to fix this with their revolutionary WiiHelm, a helmet that allows you to use the Wiimote with only a few nods of the head.

Link Dump 35

Lapper — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:00:53 +0000

Jay is Games: Personally, I’m very impressed with the robustness of this blog. Its two owners post lengthy reviews of various games across the internet nearly every day. And since it’s been running for a couple of years now, that amounts to at least a couple hundred games. I’d get started.
QuadBoard: Honestly, you don’t get the feeling that too many people play Quadradius en masse. You only see about 5 people in the lobby at any given time. But these boards can give insight, strategy, and sometimes just cool names for even cooler maneuvers. Except for Beneficiary + Teach Row… ugh.
AP Grapher: When you’re in your own house it’s most likely that the only wi-fi you care about is the one coming from your own router. But out in the big city, you’ve got signals coming from left and right. AP Grapher can simultaneously graph the speed of multiple signals to help you determine which one is the best.
Tonypa flash games: The menu on this is a tad baffling, but you’ll quickly find an array of simple games that get you playing for hours. My recomondation? Shooot. You can also check out this guy’s great flash tutorials for tile games.
PDPC Design Contest: Apparently a site for Freenode’s Peer-Directed Projects Center has been in need of design for some time now, so a contest for this purpose has been constructed. I’d give it a try, but their specifications seem kind of vague…
The Wilhelm Scream Compilation: Ever remember hearing a sound in a movie then used in another movie not two years later? The “Wilhelm Scream” was originally a sound effect from the 1951 B-movie “Distant Drums” and has been used hundreds of times since. Check to see what movies you recognize on this clip video.
Everything2: Wikipedia may be the wiki equivalent of an encyclopedia, but Everything2 is the wiki equivalent of Slashdot. It’s like Uncyclopedia, in a way.

Link Dump 34

Lapper — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 05:00:54 +0000

Google Summer of Code: Wordpress is now an official GSoC open-source project, so any university student can apply to make over $4,000 tinkering with it for the summer. Sounds simply grand.
European Gold Finch: After seeing the large yellow banner displayed across the top of Michael Scofield’s PDA, I’m sure at least some people went to check this place out. After a few minutes of scanning it becomes clear that it’s a very elaborate, but fake, forum. Reading anything but the bottom-most post will surely result in excruciating boredom.
Monolingual: Although your iTunes music collection most likely breaks the tens of gigabytes, you can still save a nice pinch of hard drive space by removing all but your native tounge from the localization files embedded in every application. I personally saved a cool 2.2GB.
Dwarf Complete: Everyone’s been waiting for a while for the next Eyezmaze game, and it turns out On’s been working on a project for a different company. Don’t worry about compromised quality, however, as this cartoony labyrinth game will leave you scratching your head for 4+ hours the first time through.
#summer-discuss: I’m not entirely sure where the GSoC channel was located last time; it might have been on Freenode. In anycase, your Q&A can get done here.
Plugin directory: One word: finally. Wordpress.org has finally created a repository for plugins that can actually be indexed and linked-to. I mean, sure, wp-plugins.net was there, but it was pretty bad.
RandomJunk: This is from a guy over at #freenode-social. Apparently it caters to various philosophies, but you’ll just have to read into it.

Link Dump 33

Lapper — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:00:01 +0000

Gravatar Properly Syncing Again: Well, it’s been over two weeks of hell, but Tom Werner finally pulled through and fixed everything. Gravatars, as implemented here, now work properly. The only question left is… where did he go?
Xkcd blag: The creator of this hyper-nerdy web-comic also maintains a “blag”, where he has amassed an enormous following for his ponderings. For example, which is bigger? The Clarkkkkson, or the xkcd number?
Ventrilo: This has been around for a while, but it has recently been implemented for Wikimedia Foundation discussion, bringing it to my attention. Ventrilo, as in ventriloquist, is VoIP gone IRC. In other words, you can create fully functional network chat rooms… that communicate by microphone.
Quadradius: You haven’t ever played multiplayer quite like this. Quadradius is, in effect, a board game; a simplified chess where all pieces can move in four directions. But as the intro video states, “this would get pretty boring”, so the board is riddled with powerups of all sorts. You have to play it to believe how addicting this is.
#fedora: This channel is simply gigantic and is always buzzing with troubleshooting Fedora Core 6 of Redhat Linux. Get it? Fedora… Redhat… eh, it’ll come.
Wordpress at SxSW: Apparently Matt’s gotten some childhood nostalgia and set-up a Wordpress meetup close to the South by Southwest conference in Austin just yesterday. And apparently, everyone was there.
Prison Break Wiki: The wiki with pretty extensive information on one of the most plot-twisted shows on television: Prison Break. It warns about spoilers, but forget that; you need something like this to follow the plot. Who would have thought the corrupt president would step down from her post after being blackmailed from both sides of the law?

Link Dump 32

Lapper — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 06:00:04 +0000

Wordpress 2.1.2: This new version brings new meaning to “security update”. Apparently the integrity of the 2.1.1 download was compromised by a server cracker, leaving hundreds of blogs vulnerable. Immediate upgrading is advised.
Folding@Home: Stanford lets you lease them the power of your idle processor to them to search proteins that may one day cure various diseases. Your proteins processed are sent to the Stanford server where they rack up in the form of points. The combined power of hundreds of thousands of processors is more powerful than any supercomputer.
Darwiin Remote: Wii remote + Intel-based Mac didn’t used to mean anything, but now it means “Darwiin”. This application hijacks the infrared sensor that normally would pick up a FrontRow remote and uses it to find a Wii controller, which can be configured for use. This is joystick-squared.
Gamma Bros.: This is just about one of the best space shooters you’ll ever come across. Shoot your way through the darkness so that you can reach Earth in time for… dinner. But who cares about the storyline anyway?
#python: Python is a very dynamic coding language, but just like any language, it can be confusing as heck. Stop by here for some help with your… Pythoning. Doing… the Python.
Apple’s New Thing: Hey, don’t blame me for stumbling upon this one. Read in awe as six-year-old predictions unfold for the fate of Apple’s newest release, the iPod. Most were skeptical, but some saw the explosive potential for the device that now rules the music market.
Ubuntu Wiki: You can contribute information about one of the most popular open source operating systems, Ubuntu linux. Watch out for FiestyFawn, becoming available in April.

Link Dump 29

Lapper — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:23:51 +0000

Dead Trees & G-Strings: You’ll have to pardon the title; this post is actually about an upcoming Damn Interesting book, filled with the brightest and best of all the articles on the blog. A 35 USD donation to the site ensures that you get one shipped to you as soon as the day it’s published.
Club Penguin: The ever-growing Club Penguin is a humorous scene for kids and teens alike to release their inner… penguin. Play games, buy pets, and just hang out.
CrossLoop: Let’s face it. Troubleshooting with your computer-savvy relative is worthless unless they can see what you’re doing. CrossLoop offers free screensharing and remote control, simply by typing in an access code. That’s a problem solved.
Lugaru: One wouldn’t normally think of murderous ninja rabbits as a topic for a video game, but that’s exactly what Lugaru is. Control the gray hare Turner as he avenges the deaths of his family and friends while unravelling a wolf conspiracy. Tracheotomy!
#adium-devl: The new channel for discussing Adium development. As you may know, version 1.0 came out not a month ago and everyone’s rushing to fix new tickets.
All About SP: By far the most heavily maintained and complete South Park episodes site out there. You’ll find 95% of all the episodes plus the South Park movie: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
Lugaru wiki: An uncannily helpful strategy guide to the curious game of Lugaru, this wiki comes complete with pictures of every attack, reverse, and stealth in existence.

Link Dump 26

Lapper — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 03:49:48 +0000

Wordpress 2.0.7: Okay, seriously you guys, this is the last one. 2.0.7 is a minor update fixing a newly-found security vulnerability and would probably be better suited as "2.0.6.1".
Kiki the Nanobot: This game is a huge brain-buster. Control your nanobot around several 3D stragety-infused levels where up/down orientation is out the window. Various forums around the internet procure novelties such as python loopholes and and new levels.
iStat Pro: This little widget can do everything from monitoring your disk space to your RAM usage. And now in the newly-released version 3.3, iStat can monitor your Intel-based Mac’s internal temperature and fan speed. Not to mention how classy it looks.
rRootage: rRootage is quite easily the best, not to mention most addicting, bullet hell shooter out there. Not to mention that yes, it’s both cross-platform and free. rRootage sports four game modes with forty levels a piece, each mode modeled after a different video game like Ikaruga or Giga Wing.
#southpark-epsiodes: The distribution network irc.TVEps.net makes a point of delivering you all your favorite shows, including 24, Scrubs, American Dad, Futurama, Heroes, and obviously, South Park. Sure, it can be confusing, but that’s why you can join #operhelp.
List of paradoxes: Wikipedia presents a near-complete list of logical paradoxes that simply boggle the mind. Remember to stay alive when thinking about them, though.
Wookiepedia: One of the most popular wikis on Wikia, this Star Wars knowledge base has extensive information on their favorite science fiction series. The lengthy articles in great numbers rival those of the early Wikipedia.

Link Dump 9

Lapper — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:58:32 +0000

Clever Hack: They’ve got tech news, RSS Thursdays, and even fantasy football stats. No matter how far back you go, this blog is full to bursting of great info.
Myg0t: The original clan of cake-baking, flash-making, Counter Strike-playing fiends with a private community. And definitely watch the flash – can you say “0mg 1337 h4x”?
AA-project: A plugin that allows you to run some programs entirely in ASCII; graphics and all. Strange but awesome.
H*R Games: The classic collection of Homestar Runner games. Cherry get! If you haven’t heard of these, you’re probably dead… or in jail.
#motas: An assistance channel for the infamous Mystery Of Time And Space game. No, it’s not bad to get help; we all get stuck.
Yugop: Bunches of miniature flash activities. If you run out, just look in the archives. So minimalist, but so awesome.
Uncyclopedia: The absolute parody in all of us, on one wiki. Anything you can praise, Uncyclopedia can make fun of with a completely random spin. It’s entirely inaccurate and completely hilarious.

Link Dump 6

Lapper — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 05:04:10 +0000

Nobody Here - Just Me: A surreal and slightly depressing collection of a man’s thoughts and solitary life. Some in diary form, some in a sort of game.
AIM Fight: Forgotton by most, this AIM buddy-list charter relies on a set of branchs to see who has the most friends. The more friends you have online within three generations gives you a higher score.
Audacity: A quite handy beta sound recording program for all operating systems. It has good control over the feed, can have multiple running tracks per file, and even does .ogg.
Dyson Telescope: In a strange form of advertising, Dyson vaccum-cleaners has prepared a nifty logic game. Can you get the ball into the hole within the par?
##overflow: Ever been sent here before? Many channels choose, when set to +f or +J, send extra users to this overflow-directed channel. Sometimes you may even witness a small IRC war. This is a ## channel; an unofficial channel. Fix the field in PJIRC.
IE Capture: Need to see your site in Internet Explorer 7 but work on a Mac? IE Capture takes a screenshot for you from a remote computer and gives it to you. Also available: iCapture for Windows developers who need to see their site in Safari.
WikiFur: A major furry encyclopedia directed at all those interested in Furry Fandom.