October 07, 2004

GOP Convention mantras

Someone did a nifty job of stringing together the keywords & phrases from the GOP convention (things like "9/11" and "global terrorism"). I'd already seen this via an email forward before it showed up on BoingBoing.

Actually my real reason for this post is to see if MT still has a problem with posts containing links to .mov files.

Link to QT movie

I guess it works.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 10:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 24, 2004

Figures large and small

Pulp Fiction figures

For some reason a number of action figures and "collectibles" showed up in my Amazon.com recommendations (btw, I appreciate the recommendations feature, I think it does a pretty decent job, especially considering I'm a relatively infrequent shopper) today. "The Bride" from Kill Bill, yeah okay but these beauties really caught me off guard. It's the Pulp Fiction Geoms Set: The Gimp, including Butch, Zed, The Gimp, and Marsellus. There's a larger picture the more clearly shows their features including the bloodied visages of Butch and Marcellus. Yes, it's called "The Gimp" set because there are 3 other sets.

I'm not really complaining because some of it is kinda cool but this collectibles stuff is getting out of hand. This company (or Association, whatever), NECA, has figures and other items based mostly on movies and comics but also from other elements of pop culture. They have The Christmas Story figures and bobbleheads, which are stupid, but also a 40" Leg Lamp, which is awesome! Anyone would be proud to have this in their home, I mean, it's a major award!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 01:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 22, 2004

Electromechanical Pong

This is super-nerdy, super-cool. Pongmechanik is Pong "reimagined" with the paddles and ball moved around by strings on pulleys and controlled not by a modern computer (transistors, microprocessors) but by a series of telephone relays manufactured in 1958! It even has sound effects, one wooden block is tapped when the ball "hits" the wall and another is tapped when it hits a paddle.

Watch the video, it's really well done. I found the low-bandwidth version to be "good enough" but if the site is currently Slashdotted, check the comments from the Slashdot's story about it for mirrored sites.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 09:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 02, 2004

Spamusement

LOOK AT ME IM RICH

This is pretty funny, they're cartoons inspired by the subject lines from spam mesages.

p.s. Happy 100th entry!
p.p.s. Well that's pretty lame, leaving the URL out and on my 100th entry too!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 10:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 28, 2004

AYB - Up Set Sombody

Someone mentioned this on Slashdot so I found the "source."

<Geno> Dude...
<Geno> I was wearing my All Your Base shirt...and someone pointed out the craziest thing
<Geno> "Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb", when read Backwards, is "Bomb the US (united states) Up Set (upset) Somebody"

For those who don't know, here's the "official" All Your Base... site. But if you don't already know, it probably won't help.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 01:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 25, 2004

Eye Jewelry

From a Reuters story:
"Dutch eye surgeons have implanted tiny pieces of jewelry called "JewelEye" in the mucous membrane of the eyes of six women and one man in cosmetic surgery pioneered by an ophthalmic surgery research and development institute in Rotterdam."

Yes, there's a photo with the story but I'm too lazy to copy it here. I'm generally not in favor of cosmetic body mods but this is a whole new category of wrongness.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 02:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Khaaan!

Khaaan!

Khaaan!

requires Flash

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 01:57 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 16, 2004

The Electric Company archive

The Electric Company logo

The Electric Company Digital Archive has a whole bunch of mp3s and QuickTime movies from this wonderful children's show. I think I need to add "HEY YOU GUYS!!!" to the shuffle in my iTunes library.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 02, 2004

Thorax Cake

Thorax Cake This is really cool and gross; it's a cake made to look like guts. Actually it's many cakes, one for each organ, and each oozes a different colored & flavored sauce. The ribs are white chocolate!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 12:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 18, 2004

How to get free iTunes from Pepsi with every bottle

It looks simple, just tilt the bottle enough so you can see inside the yellow cap. Of course I can't try it because my local grocery store and Kwik-E-Mart still don't have any! Don't mistake the yellow NFL caps for iTunes caps!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 02:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 02, 2004

Zombie Infection Simulation

This is a zombie variation of the classic computer game of Life. Pretty entertaining and it reminded me of an entertaining book I leafed through while at B&N, The Zombie Survival Guide : Complete Protection from the Living Dead.

Zombie Infection Simulation screenshot

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 12:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 26, 2004

"No court would convict me"

Just your run-of-the-mill annoying person vengance fantasy but it's still funny.

madonna wannabe

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 03:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 24, 2004

"Hey Ya," Charlie Brown!

I hope you're not sick of the super-infectious "Hey Ya" by OutKast Hey Ya! because this is a beaut.

A couple of fellows made a music video for the song using nothing but clips from A Charlie Brown Christmas

HeyYa.jpg

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 02:29 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 23, 2004

from the obvious dept

(Happy New Year)

Doctors removed a 175-pound tumor, almost double her body weight, in Romania. That's not even a close to being a record breaker but this quote from a doctor should get some kind of award.

"'She is very well, the lack of the tumor really suits her,' Ion Lascar, head of the plastic surgery department of Floreasca Hospital in Bucharest, told reporters on Wednesday."

When they find a woman whose tumor does suit her, watch out Cindy Crawford!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 22, 2003

Technothriller defined

Bruce Sterling and Cory Doctorow both crack me up. Saw this on BoingBoing today:

"One of my plane-trip books for tomorrow is the bound manuscript for Bruce Sterling's new technothriller (Me: 'What's a technothriller?' Bruce: 'It's like a science fiction novel, only it's got the President in it')..."

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 12:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 11, 2003

CompGeeks.com humor

I've never purchased anything from Computer Geeks Discount Outlet but I've seen the site a few times. I was just looking at it and a number of things struck me as humorous. On the front page there's a PC case with a handle on top. The copy says, "Why didn't anyone think of this before?" Yeah, I can't imagine. Then there's the Gift Guide which includes sentimental favorites like "2-Foot Round Floppy Disc Drive Cable." Also on the Gift Guide is the "Red and Blue Flashing Adjustable Ring" which looks like a fun little thing but the funny part is in product details. Product Requirements: Finger. I suppose it is to be expected from a site that uses a propeller beanie as it's icon.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 07:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2003

Too Late

Man, I wish I had seen these a week or so ago. Homestar Runner pumpkin stencils.

October 24, 2003

Octodog

Octodog
I had forgotten about this but it popped up again on BoingBoing. I know a lot of people think the octodog looks gross but I like it. I think food should come in more shapes, including cephalopods (yes, I had to spell check that), as long as the food isn't an actual cephalopod. Ick.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 11:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 19, 2003

Super Barrio!

Super BarrioI was 'blog browsing and came across a post about London's Angle-Grinder Man. Angle-Grinder Man isn't much of a superhero but he reminded the blogger of other "single-issue" heros including Super Barrio! While most people could come to blows over who is the greatest masked Mexican wrestler, everyone can root for Super Barrio!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 02:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 04, 2003

Dead or Alive?

Reversal of Fortune is on right now and we were wondering whether Sunny Von Bulow was still alive. Google turned up a great site DeadOrAliveInfo.com.

The web design isn't great but they have a decent number of people listed and have interested groups of info (People Alive Over 85, Died on this Date). I like the Dead or Alive icons, too.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 06:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I Was a Slashdot Zombie

This Slashdot Zombie flash animation is great. I think I mentioned this to some people before but I was pissed because I couldn't find it again. I rediscovered it because it got an honorable mention as a Slashdot t-shirt design (it's not that animated.)

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 04:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 11, 2003

Cool FX demo video

I guess this wasn't created for anything other than to show how awesome this company's CG-fu is. It depicts a humanoid robot peacekeeper/cop in action in a "developing" nation.

Tetra

local link

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 06, 2003

Daffy & Marvin on NASA Mars Patches

These are so freaking cool. NASA is launching 2 Mars expeditions this summer and NASA missions always have patches so they got Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian! Unfortunately I don't think NASA merchandises their mission logos so only those working on the mission teams will have Daffy or Marvin swag.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 02:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 08, 2003

Transfers between MP3 Players

[Damn, I need more categories or something.]

Someone mentioned this on Slashdot so I went to see if it was true. You can copy MP3s directly from one Nomad Jukebox 3 (or Nomad Zen) to another over FireWire. That's pretty cool. I know the FireWire spec was written to support device-to-device communications but you so rarely see it used. It does mention, however, that it won't transfer DRM'd WMA files. The Slashdot comment was in response to someone desiring iPod-to-iPod transfers and presumably if Apple made such a thing, they would have similar restrictions on DRM'd files.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 06:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A "Super-Crasher" Web Page

There was recently a story about a little bit of web page code which can crash Internet Explorer for Windows. Today I came across a bit of code which can crash Mozilla on multiple platforms. I thought, "hey, combine the two and you've got one super-crasher web page!" Clicking this link will crash either browser. If you don't have an unaffected browser, here's the code.

<html>
<form>
<input type crash-ie>
</form>
<fieldset style="position:fixed;">
<legend>Crash Moz</legend>
</fieldset>
</html>

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 06, 2003

New Animatrix Short Online

Part 2 of "The Second Renaissance" (that sounds funny) is out now. If you're on-campus, you might want to download from here but otherwise, AOL has so much bandwidth, you're probably better off going to the first link. Plus the campus link is straight to the large version and the official site lets you pick the size you want.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 07:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 05, 2003

May 15, Mark Your Calendar

William Gibson was right when commented on linking to this story, "Nobody, but nobody does cults like the Japanese." Members of a cult named "Panawave Laboratory" believe, amongst other things, that humanity will be destroyed May 15th by massive earthquakes. They also think saving Tama-chan, Japan's "celebrity seal" will save humanity. Saving Tama-chan from what, I'm not sure, but there is a separate story about Tama-chan getting hooked in the eye by a fishing line. Tama-chan has more than a passing resemblance to a number of anime characters which I think better explains the characters than Tama-chan's celebrity status.

Gibson tried to link directly to a story but appears Mainichi Daily News uses some kind of dynamically generated URLs so his link didn't work. Currently there a couple of stories on their front page, including a nice photo essay layout, but it appears you can use their search box to look for "panawave" and have good results.

A number of other snippets of text caught my eye, most of them because it's suprising to me that they're considered "Top News."

"Hard-up gangsters turn to Tokyo to flex muscles" [I'm not picturing what a down-and-out Yakuza would look like]
"Naked teen-age boy dies in apartment fire" [Why did they include the "naked" part in the headline?]
"Grass-eating hikers fall ill" [That's odd to see anywhere]
"Schoolgirl goes on deadly arson spree" [ditto]
"Tokyo Electric Power has been forced to shut down all of its nuclear power plants pending safety inspections." [Now that's news! Scary on a couple of levels, especially to someone like me who's more pro-nuclear power than most people]
"'Project Kaisei' A mystery novel on Japan's nuclear conspiracy." [This is weird because it's a link to Amazon appearing right below the above story!]

"Congratulating the people of Poland as they celebrate their National Day. (May 3) ... Congratulating the people of the Netherlands as they celebrate their Queen's birthday. (April 30)" [No way would a U.S. media outlet be that international and polite. Holy crap, this is like a regular thing, congratulating nations on their National Days and having blurb written by some representative of the state in response! That's kind of nerdy but cool.]

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 06:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Star Wars Lightsaber Kid

I feel bad for this kid, but not enough to not post this link. Make sure to watch the original and the one with added visual and audio effects. Seriously, I'm sure we've all done equally dorky things in private but damn, don't leave evidence of it laying around!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 08:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 01, 2003

Daily Show: Bush vs. Bush

Here's a funny clip from The Daily Show pitting President Bush against Candidate Bush. Requires RealPlayer.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 05:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Strindberg & Helium

Here are a few Flash movies featuring a dour Swedish playwright and a happy little baloon. Enjoy.

August Strindberg & Helium


Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 12:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 24, 2003

"Most Wanted" Iraqi Treasures Cards

Instead of the U.S. military's Most Wanted Iraqi's cards, these are cards showing missing historical treasures. I think it's a good idea to highlight what a loss to humanity the looting of Iraq's museums. I also think it's a good idea to "de-criminalize" the looters and to offer rewards for the treasures, no questions asked. It's our best chance of getting some of them back. It's not like we need to "send a message" to would-be looters so when the U.S. overthrows, their government, they know they'll be hunted down.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 08:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 19, 2003

Liquid Bandage Usability

I was browsing around the site of a usability wonk and came across his assessment of Band-Aid Liquid Bandage. Usability is cool and so is idea of liquid bandages so article was right up my alley. The short version is the current experience of using a liquid bandage leaves much to be desired but it does have its advantages.

I recently had to have my skin professionally opened. I thought the procedure would culminate in stiches but I was hoping, it being the 21st century and all, that it would be more like building a model airplane than hemming pants. Unfortunately it was neither, it was more like construction workers covering a pothole with a steel plank except this pothole oozed and stuck to the "plank." This made removal of the plank rather painful but subsequent, self-applied planks were of a non-stick variety.

Send me a S.A.S.E. for a translation of the paragraph above.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 03:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Colossal Colon

From Wired:

Curious about the colon? Wondering about colorectal cancer prevention, early detection and treatment? You're in luck! As part of the National Cancer Education tour, a giant colon replica will be traveling to 20 cities in the United States from February 2003 to November 2003. The "Colossal Colon," a 40-foot-long, 4-foot-high replica, was modeled after a real colon taken from colonoscopy film footage.

Exhibit visitors who crawl through the colon will see various stages of disease from polyps to full-blown colon cancer. The Colossal Colon was created in honor of Amanda Sherwood Roberts, who died from the disease last year. "We're trying to educate as many people as we can so nobody has to go through what we had to go through," said Amanda's father, Bernie Sherwood.

I'm sorry Bernie but a 40 ft. simulated colon is something else I don't want to "go through."

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lego Church

I believe these are photos from Kevin's next workplace ;-) I bet the all-Lego construction makes running conduit a snap!

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 10:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 15, 2003

Masked Wrestler Wins Japan Assembly Seat

BoingBoing pointed me to this Reuters story. Click on the story's picture to see a bigger version.

A professional wrestler who fought his way to victory in local assembly elections under his ring name and wearing his trademark mask has vowed the mask will not leave his face even after he enters the staid halls of Japanese politics.

"This is my face," the wrestler -- known as "The Great Sasuke" -- was quoted by the Nikkan Sports newspaper as saying of his black and white full-face mask with bright scarlet streaks and golden wings by the eye holes." American politics is so boring. Jesse Ventura never even wore a mask.

American politics is so boring. Jesse Ventura never even wore a mask.
Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 02:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 08, 2003

Bizarre Record Covers

As you can imagine, I got this link from the April Winchell site.
Bizarre Record Covers

Here are just half of the categories!

Nice Ladies
Making Like Easier
Riding the New Wave
On the Road Again
Going Native
Fire Fire
Christmas Cheer
Wild Drums
Music for ...
Music to ...
Teen Dance Party
Golden Throats
Nice Organ
Dance Lessons w/ the Arthur Murrays
Sexy Ladies
Meeow
Studly Composers
Mmmmmm
Fashion Plates
Stars
Child Prodigies
Stretching the Truth

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 04:16 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

"Music"al oddities

April Winchell: Multimedia

This is a great site, this page has a bunch of MP3's of the most horrible, wacky and funny audio ever recorded, most of it was at one time called "music." Bad renditions of songs, along the lines of William Shatner's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, dominate but there are also TV show outtakes, "original" songs, and various kinds of spoken word pieces.

Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun by Steve & Eydie

Leonard Nimoy "singing" Put a Little Love in Your Heart

Johnny Cash singing I Walk the Line in German. There's a whole "in German" section.

You might have heard of "mash ups," where someone strips the vocal track from one song and replaces it with the vocals of another song. I've only heard a couple and didn't think too much of them until now. This is Eminem lyrics over some classic ragtime music. I almost wet myself laughing.
Eminem vs. Ragtime (Uncensored) by Freelance Hairdresser

Eminem With or Without Me has a whole collection of Eminem mash-ups that based on their descriptions I must listen to very soon.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 10:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 07, 2003

SARS-a-licious

This caught my eye A) because it mentions Taichung (where my brother and his wife are) and B) has a picture of a cat wearing a "surgical mask." Awwww. Everything's actually ok in Taichung, right guys?

I'm not sure how fast the SARS bug is spreading, but the meme's pretty infectious

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 02:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 04, 2003

New Animatrix short available

The latest animated short set in the world of The Matrix is now available.

If you're off-campus, you'll probably want to just view/download it from their web site but if you're on-campus you'll probably get it faster from my machine.

Detective Story

On campus, click "detect_640_dl.mov"

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 03, 2003

ABC - The Reality Network

You can't quite call this an April Fool's joke because I don't think it fooled anybody but it's pretty funny.

ABC - The Reality Network

My favorite "new show" is The CAT .

Who is... THE CAT?
From the producers of The Mole comes a new challenge. Eight contestants, working together for a million dollar prize. But one of them is secretly.. THE CAT!"

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 11:20 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 31, 2003

Iraqometer

The Iraqometer provides all the basic statistics of the war in one place. Numbers of casualties, surrenders, burning wells, bombs dropped, they're all here in a single, eye-pleasing (but ironic) display.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 12:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 28, 2003

American Military Operation Name Generating Device

Not all are funny. You get new names every time you click the link.

Here's a sample:

5 Randomly Generated American Military Operation Names

1. Operation Strong Monster
2. Operation Ready-for-CNN Beaver
3. Operation Destructive Privet Bush
4. Operation Don't Piss off the Imperialism
5. Operation Bloodthirsty Republican Administration

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 05:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Ditherati: Hide the Salam

This list delivers some pretty funny stuff but I thought this headline was particularly choice.

D I T H E R A T I see the digerati dither, daily

HIDE THE SALAM

"Salam, if you're reading this, you've developed an awfully high profile lately. You might want to drop out of sight for a while."

Blogger Glenn Reynolds, clearly threatened by the idea that someone like Salam Pax, an Iraqi blogger apparently posting from Baghdad, might be attracting more traffic than him, Instapundit.com, 25 March 2003

http://www.instapundit.com/archives/008465.php

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ditherati appears daily on weekdays. An archive is online at http://www.ditherati.net/archive/

Quotes of note? Send 'em to <quote@ditherati.net>.
Want to advertise in Ditherati? Write to <sponsor@ditherati.net>.

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 08:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 27, 2003

UN: The Real-Time Stategy Game

This is a pretty funny Slashdot comment but if you've never played a Real-Time Strategy game (like Warcraft), maybe not.

Excerpt:

Computer: UN Resolution... building....

Gamer: Cool. Just wait till those chumps see this doozy!

Computer: Motion... Blocked!

Gamer: Where? In the international trade forum??! Dag nabit!

Gamer (chatting): We are saddened that the motion to maintain our steel tarrifs has been blocked in its current form. You must understand that while we love free trade, we must protect the rights and conditions of our workers and yours from a race to the bottom. Would you consider reconvening in about a weeks time at my private retreat for further multilateral talks?

Posted to Wide Web World by extra88 at 10:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack