June 2008
30 posts
Indie platformer extravaganza! →
Andy Baio points us to the mother lode list of indie platform games on Metafilter, most of them for Windows.
Some brilliant stuff here, often innovative, always fun.
[another gem via Waxy Links]
Distraction by Bruce Sterling →
As reviewed in Goodreads:
4/5
This book was a fun ride, combining a tight political thriller with a far-out future scenario that remains fresh (and uncomfortably close to home) nearly a decade later. Mr. Sterling is a brilliant writer, with a great sense of humor and sharp insight into the impact of technology on our world and society. He depicts a world that has gone beyond the global-warming...
Free Language Lessons from the BBC →
That venerable sage of inexpensive travel advice Arthur Frommer recently blogged about the wonderful (and free) language tutorials available on the BBC’s web site.
Right now they have extensive lessons for French, German, Spanish, and Italian, plus they’ve started adding materials for Greek, Chinese, Portugese, and more.
WALL-E →
It’s always a good day when a new Pixar film is released. This weekend their latest work, WALL-E hits theaters (the link above will take you to the trailer), and it promises to be yet another incredible computer-animated film. I’m quite partial to robots, too, and can’t wait to check it out.
I’ve been a Pixar fan since Luxo Jr. hit the animation festival circuit in the...
Chromophobia by Gui Boratto →
I just came across this outstanding work of electronic music by Brazilian producer Gui Boratto.
It features a wonderful mix of ambient and dance textures, deep hooks, and at times harkens back to the work I loved back in the early days (late 80’s, early 90’s).
Standout tracks: Mr. Decay, Chromophobia, Arcostico, and Beautiful Life.
How to Nap →
Phenomenal info-graphic from Boston.com about the benefits of and best practices for napping.
[via Laughing Squid]
HotelsCombined →
This is a killer travel tool, saving both time and money — it sorts through thousands of hotel rooms at dozens of sites across the ‘net and displays them in one massive, combined, sortable interface.
Extremely easy to use, it has comprehensive listings (including hostels, five-star hotels, and apartment rentals) from around the world.
This site just went in my “must-use”...
Interview with Alan Taylor, Creator of Boston... →
More in-depth information about one of my favorite new blogs.
Andy Baio of Waxy.org has done a great job interviewing Mr. Taylor, and I’m glad to see that lots of other people are also excited about this new photojournalism format.
Blogopticon →
Vanity Fair has posted an interesting page with a large collection of popular blogs placed on a “map” of sorts.
One one axis they have News vs. Opinion, and on the other it’s Scurrilous vs. Earnest.
Some of my usual haunts are in there, but plenty more aren’t. Here’s a good place to start exploring.
[via RojoBlog]
The Big Picture →
The Boston Globe has started a phenomenal new photo blog called The Big Picture.
It’s quality, large-scale photography and eclectic topics have quickly made it one of my top online destinations.
The most recent post includes this incredible photo of Earth and its moon seen from Mars, which gives me goosebumps.
bomomo →
This new web toy is tremendously fun to play around with. Create abstract patterns weaving color, line, and shape into something uniquely yours.
I particularly like that you can save high-resolution versions of your work when you’re finished.
[via Lifehacker]
Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds →
Wordle takes text and visually represents it in various appealing and interesting ways. The example above was generated from the text on my about page … larger words have greater “weight”.
[via Waxy Links]
Be A Part of History
Well, perhaps that’s a bit over-dramatic.
Nonetheless, tomorrow the real-deal Firefox 3 will finally be available for download, and they’re trying to break the Guinness World Book of Records entry for the most downloads in a day.
You can be a part of this (hopefully) historic occasion simply by downloading the program anytime tomorrow (Tuesday June 17th).
Our friends at Lifehacker...
Lifehacker's Top 10 Amazon Power Shopper Tools →
I’ve been hooked on Amazon ever since my first purchase back in January 1996, about six months after it opened.
If you enjoy shopping at this online giant too, check out these tips from Lifehacker to get the most from your experience.
IE7Pro [Windows] →
While my favorite browser is Firefox, hands down, I also use and like Opera and Safari, and have heard great things about Flock.
It used to be fun to trash Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, back when it was insecure, slow, and feature-starved.
With IE7, however, they’ve made some good strides toward joining other 21st century web surfing tools, and free add-on IE7Pro helps take the...
An Overview of Firefox 3 →
This brief screencast provides a nice visual overview of some cool new features you’ll find when you upgrade to Firefox 3.
[via Slashdot]
SafeManuals.com →
I’d love to ditch (er, recycle) all of my paper manuals and keep electronic copies instead. It would be vastly easier to store, find, reference, and search them that way.
I also would love to have a manual handy when a friend buys something used off of eBay and has no idea how to use it, or my mom asks how to program the bread machine she uses twice a year.
This site promises to hook us...
Google Doctype →
This pick is admitedly rather high on the geek scale, but it’s really useful so please bear with me…
If you’re interested in learning more about web design, or would like a great reference to help with current web projects, Google’s new Doctype site is a phenomenal source of documentation about various open web standards.
What’s particularly nice is that, in the...
Vintage Japanese Robots →
This gallery, provided by the fine folks at Wired, features thirteen beautiful examples of classic Japanese toy robots.
The color, design, and overall aesthetic beauty of these children’s toys blows me away.
[via BoingBoing]
280 Slides →
This presentation tool just went online this week, and offers an impressive set of visual themes and functionality.
Why have all of the overhead of a program like Keynote or PowerPoint for building simple presentations when you can do it online from wherever you have an Internet connection? You can even save it as a PowerPoint if you need to.
It also fully integrates images, audio, and video...
Mr. Lessig Goes to Washington →
This excellent article from The Nation profiles Lawrence Lessig and his current Change Congress initiative, a movement I believe in quite strongly.
Warning: there’s one swear word in this article, but the overall article is so good that I’ve decided to let it slide this time.
[via BoingBoing]
Online TV Channels →
This certainly looks like something cool to check out, but I question how long it will last… Online TV Channels features thousands of free streaming video channels for television stations across the world. [via TechCrunch]
In a Letter to His Kids, Wired's Founding Editor... →
A thoughtful and interesting restrospective on the 15th anniversary of Wired Magazine, from its founding editor. [via Waxy Links]
