Waxy.org: Links Archives: May 2006

X-Men III pays tribute to viral YouTube video? (the video was released online in February; is that enough time for the line to appear in a summer blockbuster?)

Six Apart to launch Vox on June 1 (the social blogging platform formerly known as Comet) [via]

Second Life adding embedded web browser (invoking a browser window will be first; later, mapping onto a surface)

Adobe phasing out GoLive (Freehand remains a standalone product, but won't be part of the suite)

The Pirate Bay taken offline by Swedish police (the MPAA put out their own press release; also, a short interview with the Pirate Party leader)

Google announces Adsense API (they're heavily moderating the sites allowed to use it, for good reason)

New Google Adsense API to allow ad revenue sharing (potentially huge news; I want to see Ning implement this)

Google Adsense sparklines (put your daily earnings on your blog)

MP3s: Conquer the Video Craze (strange LP of arcade game tips from 1982) [via]

MMO Charts updated to current data (World of Warcraft is destroying the competition, but the growth curves for some others are amazing)

Slashdot CSS redesign contest winner (here's a writeup from the creator, with a Greasemonkey script using the new stylesheet) [via]

Video: Steely Dan on the making of "Peg" (a complete breakdown of the underlying track with the studio master and original players) [via]

Tim O'Reilly's thoughtful response to the Web 2.0 trademark debacle (sometimes the blog world likes nothing more than a good old-fashioned pile-on) [via]

Flickr widgets in Second Life (next, there needs to be a way to upload Second Life screenshots to Flickr while in-game) [via]

Rebecca Mead's followup to "You've Got Blog" from 2000 (quite a bit can happen in six years)

Wired on Tringo, the most popular mini-game in Second Life (the game has a life of its own, with a retail GBA release) [via]

Google Gapminder (Flash infoviz of World Development Indicators from The World Bank) [via]

Pitchfork's long profile of current and future music recommenders [via]

NYT profile of IMDB's founder (I'm grateful that Amazon hasn't tried to change it) [via]

Katamari creator not impressed by Nintendo Wii (also, some very vague comments on his new project) [via]

WEP key as living room artwork [via]

Doug Bowman hired by Google (big congrats to both)

Cory Doctorow on O'Reilly's "Web 2.0" trademark (by encouraging ubiquity of the "Web 2.0" meme, O'Reilly diluted the proprietary meaning of the mark)

Video: Gnarls Barkley on Conan O'Brien (electric performance; could they have been honoring Towel Day a day early?)

Websites as Graphs (or try the visualization yourself with any site)

Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth (fan-made Scumm game in the style of the old Lucasarts games; start the countdown to C&D) [via]

the broken laptop i sold on ebay (disgruntled buyer gets elaborate revenge by posting photos from seller's laptop hard drive) [via]

30 Boxes adds event and feed mapper (nice implementation built on top of Upcoming and Dodgeball)

Nine-minute Waxy widget (Mat uses Dashcode to built a complete Dashboard widget pulling my remote feed in nine minutes)

Watercooler Games on the good, bad, and awful media coverage of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG (don't miss Kotaku's coverage, including interviews with a Columbine survivor and the game's creator)

Video: Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers (found audio goodness via Robot Wisdom, who I've really enjoyed lately) [via]

ExtremeTech's roundup of 8 free music recommendation services (Last.fm destroys the competition, with Pandora next in line) [via]

Roomba hacked into MIDI instrument (I won't be satisfied until all my appliances can play the Super Mario theme songs)

O'Reilly responds to Web 2.0 trademark debacle (they were called out by Arrington and others for cease and desisting an Irish Web 2.0-branded conference)

WWW 2006 - Retroactive Answering of Search Queries (Google's paper suggests ways to recommend interesting new pages based on a user's search history)

Flash: TagLines, visualization of interesting Flickr tags over time (the WWW 2006 paper is interesting stuff, though a bit over my head) [via]

WWW 2006 - Random Sampling from a Search Engine's Index (new method to benchmark relative sizes of search engines; only about 45% of Yahoo's index is in Google, and vice-versa)

"Dead in Iraq" virtual protest in America's Army game (instead of playing the Army-sponsored shooter, he's typing the name of every American killed in the war)

FC64, Commodore 64 emulator in Flash (incredible) [via]

Game-based errors in "The Wizard" (you can almost feel the disgust emanating from the page; the DVD will finally be released in August)

The Morning News' 2006 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence (long name for a good list of links) [via]

Torrentspy lawsuit accuses MPAA of hiring hacker (they claim he was asked to steal internal Torrentspy documents by any means necessary)

Half Life 2: Episode 1 goes gold (the first in the episodic gaming series will be released on June 1) [via]

Del.icio.us Hotlist (redesigned homepage highlighs fresh popular links, and a minimum threshold for the recent page)

Nicholas Carr on Wikipedia's gradual shift toward moderation (Nick and Jimbo Wales wage battle in the comments) [via]

Teens using high-frequency ringtone out of adult hearing range (here's an MP3 of the Mosquito sound and a clip of just the tone) [via]

Tim O'Reilly on Virtual Magic Kingdom (some screenshots of user-created rooms)

Google pushing borderless AdSense by default (since launch, they've resisted blending ads with content; an interesting switch)

Smackbook Pro (switch virtual desktops by smacking the side of the laptop) [via]

The Sheep Market (10,000 sheep drawings created by Amazon Mturk workers for $0.69/hour) [via]

Oblivion dominoes (like the Half-Life 2 mousetrap, but using the Oblivion engine)

Crushing Competition (tax preparers lobby to make California taxes more difficult to prepare) [via]

I Liked It Better Live (MP3 bloggers collect songs with better live performances than the recorded original)

Ultrastar, open-source port of karaoke game SingStar (the original judged your vocal performance by analyzing pitch and duration)

Graphic Novels for People Who Hate Comics (I'd also toss in Seth's It's A Good Life)

Video: Mr. Rogers addresses the U.S. Senate in 1969 (essential watching, this guy was a hero; plus, he could breakdance) [via]

Bay to Breakers Katamari (my, Earth really is full of things! )

Berkeley's "Naked Guy" commits suicide at 33 (I always heard about him, but never saw him in my four years on campus) [via]

Random Pokey the Penguin generator (funny, doesn't affect the readability of the original) [via]

Leonard's primer on Nintendo DS Lite homebrew (worth it for ScummVM alone)

Super Happy Dev House 10 tries a new idea (a weekend-long contest to build a "money making machine," with Paypal revenue determining the winners)

Snooker maximums on YouTube (don't miss John Higgins' lucky shot at around 6:40 in this video)

3D milling service to be offered for Second Life avatars (at E3, I saw that the Spore team was 3D printing their character creations from corn starch) [via]

San Francisco scar tissue ("a piece of San Francisco healing around now-gone railroad tracks") [via]

E3 Crabtacular (apparently, Half-Life 2 gave the entire gaming industry crabs) [via]

Flickr's hiring (you couldn't pick a cooler group of people to work with, aside from maybe Upcoming)

Flash: 10 ways, "information" (outstanding recursive photo mosaic browser) [via]

Eric Kleptone speaking at next Web 2.0 conference (I've been obsessed with the Kleptones' 24 Hours album lately; try Sixteen Sisters for a taste)

Wireless Guitar Hero mod (okay, I'm slightly obsessed)

37signals e-book earns $175k in first 75 days (incredible argument for self-publishing online) [via]

Freetar editor preview (Guitar Hero clone for the PC, still in development)

Nielson/NetRatings study on growth of top social networks (note that Typepad and Classmates are the only ones charging)

Video: World Trade Center, the movie (I predict two years before there's a scifi time travel movie with 9/11 as the backdrop)

Last chromosome in human genome sequenced (yay! I want my next child to have a prehensile tail and wings) [via]

Visceral song moments (MP3 bloggers isolate parts of songs that made them feel)

Beating Traffic (OCD commuter collects a year's worth of traffic data during his daily commute)

History of Videogame Console Prices (absolute and adjusted for inflation; is it any surprise the Neo-Geo and 3DO flopped?)

Flickr goes gamma! (wow, the new Scrumjax Organizr is neat; no more Flash!)

Yahoo launches new homepage (also, it looks like they're changing the size of the left-hand navigation links based on your own personal activity)

Dilbert on Google

Google Notebook launches (like a personal wiki space, but with options to share publicly (search coming soon)) [via]

AOL launches UnCut Video (a YouTube clone with a focus on local video) [via]

Paying for camouflage (the new black MacBooks cost $150 more than identical white ones with an upgraded hard drive)

PS3 could be homebrew friendly? (I'll believe it when I see it)

Video: E3 morning stampede (everyone bolted for the Wii, including me)

Siskel and Ebert behind the scenes (when Gene gets liquored up, things get interesting)

Video: President Al Gore on SNL (missed this while I was out of town) [via]

GameSetWatch's nostalgic look back at the first E3 (with memories and maps of the convention floor circa 1995)

Guitar Hero Trainer for Windows (scrolling tablature and speed control using the Guitar Hero disc) [via]

No dancing at the Parthenon! (good to know)

Video: Duck Hunt on the Nintendo Wii (nuts, they should've added the gloating dog)

Jason Scott on the Best and the Interesting (I predict Jason Scott will be crowned a saint of the Internet era)

Plasma Pong (pong with fluid dynamic) [via]

Emily Short's observations on using Inform 7 (writing interactive fiction with natural language)

New Sam & Max game back from the dead (stop toying with my emotions, people) [via]

Google Trends (compare frequency of particular search terms over time, but without exposing actual numbers) [via]

Flickr releasing big UI changes next week (new nav, new search, and a redesigned Organizr)

Love Lines (tracking the daily loves and hates of the blogosphere)

Video: Daily Show on Bush's Hayden/Goss deja vu (he used the same phrase to describe his new CIA director nominee as he did two years ago with Goss)

Video: Uwe Boll's Pac-Man, the Movie ("he appears to be some sort of man...") [via]

Nintendo E3 press conference live video stream (just started; liveblogged on Kotaku)

MP3s: Feist, Live at the Park West in Chicago (great sound quality, great set)

E3 2006 Hidden Gems to Watch Out For (I'm attending Friday, and I'll post my yearly roundup of great underdogs)

Warner Bros. to distribute movies and TV over BitTorrent (no word on the DRM scheme yet) [via]

EV1 merges with The Planet (my current host and the old host for Upcoming, now one happy family) [via]

Video: Stairway To Heaven Sung Backwards, The Forwards Version (yes! I was hoping someone would reverse the reversed video) [via]

Scoble on Croquet, multiuser P2P 3D space (looks strikingly like the VRML cybermalls of the 1990s, but P2P and cross-platform are both good) [via]

E3 Buzz (E3-specific niche news aggregator) [via]

How to cure asthma or hayfever by infecting yourself with hookworm (simply go to Cameroon and walk barefoot in the toilets of the local residents, and pray you don't catch dengue) [via]

Time's five-page exclusive preview of the Nintendo Wii (the controller is aware of position, velocity, and tilt) [via]

Dogs trained to sniff out counterfeit DVDs (sure, but can they smell the difference between letterbox and pan-and-scan?) [via]

Beatles lose Apple court battle (now, kiss and make up)

GameLife's E3 predictions (if you can spare an E3 pass or two for Friday only, GET IN TOUCH)

Video: Journalist rides with the Blue Angels (he passes out three times, making this very entertaining) [via]

Bearshare shut down by $30m RIAA settlement (whack a mole)

Kottke on IndieKarma micropayment gifting (penny per visit, but only works well if everyone's using (and not reading feeds)) [via]

Jim Woodring started a blog (one of my favorite illustrators posting unreleased art regularly) [via]

Annalee Newitz on the RFID Hacking Underground (also: RFDump reveal the data stored on RFID tags) [via]

Breakout, Donkey Kong, and Frogger polo shirts (still waiting for a product line of 8-bit neckties) [via]

Zen Bondage (also, this Something Awful review highlights some other good indie games) [via]

Waxxi offers moderated group podcasts at scheduled times (neat idea, but the name's gotta go)

Jason Scott announces Arcade documentary (along with Get Lamp, these are the two movies I'm most looking forward to in the next couple years)

Pre-E3 MMO roundup (orcs, Hello Kitty, and cartoon sex; sadly, no orc sex MMOs yet) [via]

"Piece of My Heart" cover songs with MP3 (great version by Dusty Springfield and the less famous original by Aretha's sister, Erma Franklin) [via]

Original Star Wars to be released on DVD (finally, I can replace my bootleg Laserdisc rips with bootleg DVDs) [via]

John Gruber digs up the real story on the Apple Aperture firings (the only people fired were the terrible managers)

Myspace blocks Buzznet (you think they would've learned from the YouTube PR disaster)

The Day The Lawn Wasn't Mowed (it looks like the local paper for this large Chicago suburb changed their headline)

On Bots (analysis and great visualizations of Yahoo, Google, and MSN crawler activity for a year)

Soda distributors to end most school sales (I fully expect high school students to riot to get their Coke machines back) [via]

IRC on the Nintendo DS (l33t) [via]

Apple cease and desists Something Awful (for a service manual they're not even hosting; the thermal grease thread is great, too)

Six Apart's downtime and Blue Security, the idiots that spam spammers (a great post sums up how these two stories from yesterday are related)

Quitting YouTube (they're cracking down on copyrighted videos, their biggest attraction by far) [via]

The A.V. Club's 2006 Summer Movie Preview (the headline sums it up as "Why Bother?")

Wired profile of chef Grant Achatz and Alinea restaurant (scientific foodies pioneering molecular gastronomy) [via]

Guitar Hero tablature (also, this video of the hidden track is insane)

Skypecasts (like free party lines, but without the phreaking) [via]

Can I use velcro on the Shabbat? (also: Shabbat elevators, glow in the dark toys, and no origami!) [via]

Flashmob recreates banned Xbox 360 commercial (bang!) [via]

Daedalus, N64 emulator for the PSP (not enough buttons on the PSP, but badass anyway) [via]

ASCII Maps (silly ASCII art proxy for Google Maps, with map and satellite options) [via]

WSJ on Hollywood's goofy portrayal of the Internet (with a great gallery of movie clips) [via]

Vectorama (old, but good; multiplayer vector illustration playground)

The Saddest Thing I Own (epic and destroying; see My Firstborn, Daddy, and Mom's Ring) [via]

The Web Design Trend Obituary and Death Clock (what, no drop shadows or rounded corners?) [via]

The Whole Night Sky (great 365 Tomorrows entry on the future of music) [via]

An analysis of 8,468 Pitchfork Media reviews (the followup pokes into individual author biases) [via]

ABC adds full streaming episodes of Lost, Alias, and others (good quality Flash video with commercial breaks) [via]

Xbox Voice auto-blogs your Xbox 360 gaming activity (completely bizarre, but entertaining, form of historical activity in natural language) [via]

Sphere blog search engine launches (a good alternative to Technorati and Icerocket, but has the same spam problems)

Introducing Inform 7 (good introduction to the interactive fiction natural language) [via]

Apple's Get A Mac campaign (their new "Switch" campaign is funny and biting, but playing up the youth angle might be too limiting)

OS X to get BitTorrent client for iTunes Music Store? (great rumor has users getting download credit for sharing video and audio)

Greg Knauss' An Entirely Other Day is back! (the original blogger returns after a five year break! I was reading Greg's writing in 1994)

I Dream of Cake (amazing couture cakes, like the Jamba Juice cups made entirely of cake)

Inform 7: Interactive Fiction from Natural Language (jaw-dropping approach to both programming and IF; check out the examples and download it) [via]