August 26, 2004
Every generator you've (n)ever wanted
After a short break in Cornwall (avoiding the flash floods) and Wiltshire, I'm just getting back into the swing of things - and trying not to feel *too* guilty for neglecting to blog. Actually, things have really got quite busy what with the NO2ID campaign, a couple of my other projects / ventures starting to take off, and an imminent house move...
Still, there's always time for a bit of fun (thanks to Mucho Sucko):
Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator.A Nigerian 419 creator - set these two on each other & watch the sparks fly.
The George W. Bush Conspiracy Theory Generator - I suspect we've seen this before ;)
Generate your own Anarchist's Cookbook - it can't be any worse than the real thing.
See your name in hieroglyphs - does what it says on the box.
Create your own 3-panel cartoons - absolutely fantastic (check out the galleries) but don't forget to get a free login if you want to save yours.
Stitch your own Bayeux Tapestry - no, really! The peasants *are* revolting...
Some might say that this site shouldn't be here because it uses a human being to generate drawings. I don't care - they're great!
For those unexplained expenses when you've lost your (real) receipt.
My God, there really are some sick puppies out there. I'm sure you can make a better countdown.
Etch-a-sketch meets Paint - not sure who wins.
Don't laugh. It's serious.
Followed immediately by this and you've almost got the whole package!
Hours of fun making a computer say naughty things. And the French bird doesn't sound half bad...
July 02, 2004
Ninja penguins
Thanks, b3ta, for getting me addicted to yet another penguin game! The Malibu 9 - Rescues Mr Malibu [mirrored at Koreus.com] has the funkiest soundtrack / SFX I've heard yet in a Flash game, simple but fiendishly compelling gameplay and panders to what I realise must be a previously undiagnosed penguin obsession. Kudos to the folks at Club Malibu in Stockholm, and Olle Hemmendorff in particular :)
First Yeti Sports, and now this...
June 21, 2004
Penguins on safari
Chris Hilgert strikes again, with the latest in his increasingly bizarre series of penguin-smacking games:
PART 5 FLAMINGO DRIVEThe Yetisports World Tour 2004 comes to Afrika. With the help of flamingos, Yeti undertakes a absolute funny and incredible amusing safari in the African savanna. Underneath giraffes, over elephants and acacias, catapulted high up to the sky by snakes and carried by vultures, the penguin demonstrates clean flying tricks on advanced level.
Enjoy :)
June 18, 2004
Give him a sign, Lord
Left click on the pic to check out the No2ID campaign site,
right click to "Save Image..." and pass it on.
June 15, 2004
Tongue firmly in cheek
Berlin, Germany -- June 14, 2004 -- The dotcom days are with us again as Adam Wern and Eric Wahlforss, two students from the Stockholm School of Economics and the Royal Institute of Technology, descended upon the Wizards of OS Conference in Berlin with the aim of creating a dotcom business from scratch in 24 hours.The two charismatic Swedes succeeded in putting together a multi-disciplinary international team within a few hours, and went on to implement dozomo.com, a revolutionary entrant into the search engine market.
The service, which acts as a meta-search engine, has ambitious plans to take on the incumbent google.com and believes its innovative technology will help it become the market leader within the coming year.
The business is now being auctioned off on eBay as a form of IPO and reached almost $1000 within a few hours and is expected to skyrocket by the time the auction finishes on Tuesday 1700 GMT.
They made $2026 and seemed to have a lot more fun doing it than some of the sad money-grubbing b******s I knew (of) back in '99! Not sure their meta-search engine's much cop - e.g. you have to type in the name of the engine you want to use as a part of the search - but then how many dotcoms actually built *really* good code, especially on seed / first round funding?
Nice one, guys ;)
June 12, 2004
Cannabis and crowd control
Paul Kelso's article in the Grauniad yesterday, It's OK to smoke dope, England fans told, reveals an *enlightened* approach to policing:
Lisbon police confirmed yesterday that England fans will not be arrested for puffing on joints on the streets of the Portuguese capital, following a recommendation from the Dutch authorities responsible for policing the English during Euro 2000.Four years ago England's match in Eindhoven, ironically against Portugal, passed off peacefully as many supporters took advantage of the Netherlands' liberal drugs laws. By contrast the game against Germany in the Belgian town of Charleroi was marred by violence, much of it fuelled by alcohol.
Still illegal over here, but now Class C, with (pain control) trials for Multiple Sclerosis and now arthritis underway - might we see a reconsideration of THC vs. CH3CH2OH?
June 10, 2004
Satire in good form(s)
Check out the UK Department of Social Scrutiny's National ID Application Form.
I particularly liked,
Do you have a partner?YES: Please send us some of their skin
NO: Please tell us about your pathological
inability to trust others on a seperate sheet
Parts 2, 3 and 4 also available:
About your ethical standpoint.About your Majesty, Ma'am - for the Royal family!
Thanks to Adam for the pointer ;)
May 28, 2004
The BBC gives us back our stuff
Wednesday's Press Release, BBC Creative Archive pioneers new approach to public access rights in digital age, shows encouraging signs that this autumn the BBC are going to open up at least some of the archives that we, the license payers, have been funding for decades.
This is somewhat gratifying for me as, when I worked for BBC Digital Media Education in the late 90s, I proposed something along these lines (namely assets for schools and colleges being made available under an academic license, possibly from a bbc.ac.uk service) as a stimulus to growth and development of digital education content across the UK.
Of course, that never happened and it's unlikely that the education archives will be made available now either - especially in the light of more recent developments, i.e. the £150 million Digital Curriculum initiative.
There's still some evidence of 'Auntyish' thinking in this interview with Paula Le Dieu, Joint Director of the Creative Archive, 'Providing the Fuel for a Creative Nation':
Was it because the decision content has been paid for by the public, so should be there for the public to use?We didn't start from that premise. We started from the premise that we had this fabulous archive and we had a requirement in our last charter, the one that we're currently operating in, that expressly asks us to open up our archive. There had always been a strong feeling that we hadn't done that as well as we could.
But I applaud whoever (Greg Dyke?) provided the final push within the Corporation to get this long-overdue process rolling, and look forward to playing with the results :)
N.B. This also looks like a bit of a triumph for the Creative Commons project, chaired by Lawrence Lessig, as it looks like access to the BBC Creative Archive will be based on the Creative Commons model. I just wonder what the lawyers at Henry Wood House will make of the license...
UPDATED 14/6/04: Rupert Goodwin's Creative Commons gives the BBC uncommon creativity covers some of the history and context and his previous article, Auntie opens her drawers, outlines some of the risks.
May 16, 2004
Disembowelling your car
As I was driving back from Kent this evening, I couldn't get that ad where bits of a car were used to construct a choreographed sequence of events out of my head. I guess I was also linking it to some of the more complicated performance art pieces I helped create back in college (hey, Martin!), and the not-quite-subconscious knowledge that the car is due for its annual check-up...
 | Well, through the joys of the web and a brief Google, I now happily point you at both the UK Honda Accord ad, 'Cog' [click on the cog on the table once it comes to rest] and a clip from the 1987 short film by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss that (probably) inspired it, 'The Way Things Go'. Available *now* at Amazon and assorted online retailers... |
April 21, 2004
Where do hobbits come from?
Something I've always wondered - especially if junk DNA turns out to have something to do with species memory or the collective subconscious - is where the hell do the 'mythical races' come from?
Are Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, etc. actually harking back to the race memories of early man - CroMagnon, Neanderthal, et al.? As we developed an oral culture were we still co-existing, even interbreeding, with other Homo types - and, if so, what would a Neanderthal be to early us... and what would we be to them?
Of course, this is pretty batty - its far more likely that stories arose from experiences of people who suffered but survived genetic (and dietary / environmentally-induced?) disorders.
Or maybe someone had been eating badly-stored grain - (h)er(e we )go(t) on rye, anyone?
April 15, 2004
Penguin malarkey
Its definitely old news by now, but I do keep finding myself drawn back to the wonderfully politically incorrect Yeti Sports site. Penguin smackin' has obviously struck a chord as there seems to be a bit of a craze for creating derivatives, some of which even improve on the original!
Kudos to Chris Hilgert and all at Edelweiss Medienwerkstat for wasting untold thousands of personhours, and single-handedly reviving the 'cute furry ice-dwellers' clubbing industry ;) Seal pups, beware!