Ads via The Deck
October 31, 2006
Minesweeper built in Pixelblocks! (the finished product is 38,240 blocks standing six feet tall; it cost over $900 wholesale!) [via]
Wired buys Reddit (I didn't see that one coming)
Google acquires JotSpot
October 30, 2006
Anonymous insider's details on the YouTube deal (fascinating read about collusion between Google and the major media companies)
Long New Yorker profile on Will Wright (The Sims was partially inspired by his daughter's dollhouse and his own house burning down)
NBC's Heroes comic book tie-ins (they're releasing a comic book after every episode with additional backstory; clever!)
Sketch your furniture in the air (3D fabrication of freehand drawings in space) [via]
Fake Warrant Generator (clever commentary on the boarding pass generator fallout) [via]
Thou Art Early, But We'll Admit Thee (wonderful breakdown of the many ways to die in Nethack)
Video: On the Edge of Blade Runner (excellent BBC documentary on Blade Runner, with an unreleased scene at the 40:00 mark) [via]
October 29, 2006
Telephone Conferences: Phreaky Boys Collection (collection of phone phreak voicemail messages from 1990; glimpse into a quirky subculture)
FindMeOn (identity aggregation; still way too hard to use, but a step in the right direction ) [via]
Myspace phishing attacks using customized Myspace profiles (it took me a second to realize how this was a phishing attack)
FBI raids "Fake Boarding Pass" programmer's house, seizes computers (blaming a web programmer for inadequate airport security)
ebay: The Worlds Largest & Best Saved By The Bell Collection! (0 bids) [via]
October 27, 2006
Hell.com goes on auction (a mirror of the art site from 2001; background drama here) [via]
Comedy Central DMCAs YouTube (South Park, Colbert, and Daily Show clips removed en masse) [via]
Tetris Weightlifting (throw these in a geek gym with Doom treadmills) [via]
October 26, 2006
Guitar Hero 2's Hidden Tracks Revealed (Strong Bad's Trogdor and Dethklok hand-in-hand with Buckethead and Voivod)
Vox launches publicly (yay! drinks are on Ben and Mena)
WFMU's vintage Halloween MP3 roundup (tons of great stuff here)
Geocoordinates from Wikipedia for Google Earth (beyond Google Earth, this CSV of lat-long coordinates for 55,00 Wikipedia articles has tons of potential; thanks, Tom)
Evan Williams and Biz Stone buy Odeo and Twitter (the new company will follow a similar philosophy to Robot Co-op and 37 Signals)
October 25, 2006
Fred Eerdekens typography with light and shadow (incredible type built with trees, wire, and clouds; more here and here) [via]
Norman Bridwell's "The Witch's Catalog" from 1976 (a children's book I adored when I was little)
Stock letterhead from 1963 (Web 3.0 will look like this)
Lifehacker's top Firefox 2 config tweaks (the default behavior for 2.0's tab UI was frustrating, but this cleared it up in 15 seconds)
October 24, 2006
Weird Al performs "Eat It" on Japanese TV (Al seems completely lost, but it makes the clip that much better)
Scott Adams cures self of speech disorder (take that, brain!) [via]
Sony shuts down Lik-Sang (the most popular distributor of grey market and import gaming wares)
October 23, 2006
Bush uses "The Google" (not the most tech-savvy guy, it seems) [via]
Qooqle Video Clippers alpha (Digg-style site promoting the best Japanese videos on YouTube, like this Pocky commercial) [via]
Sorry Blockbuster, But I love P2P (graffiti on the window of a closed video store)
Computer Game World archives (Ziff-Davis opens up the vault, offering free PDFs of every issue from December 1981 to November 1992!) [via]
ndsvisuals (using the Nintendo DS as an interface for mixing live video performances; watch the video for a demo) [via]
October 22, 2006
Video: Bjork's "Bachelorette" (directed by Michel Gondry, this is my favorite music video of all time)
Coyle and Sharpe prank MP3s (insane pranksters accost strangers on the streets of San Francisco in the 1960s; also: official homepage and some video)
October 20, 2006
Rapid Adjustment (Metafilter user blogs during a 90 day sentence in jail) [via]
Russell Weller finally convicted in Santa Monica Farmer's Market crash (89 year old man gets 18 years in prison; I wrote about the fatal accident from the scene)
Violet Blue on Japanese nose-holding fetishists (wonderfully weird find; this gallery is safe for work, if you're curious)
October 19, 2006
iFilm launches super-sekrit beta site (infinitely better, with Flash video, better navigation, and licensed content from MTV)
Transcript of Clinton's Georgetown speech, with video clip (once upon a time, we had a coherent, thoughtful President)
October 18, 2006
Lady Sovereign Hits Number One on "TRL" (Def Jam's really throwing their weight behind her; love the Tetris video, though) [via]
Polyorama, combinatorial artwork viewer (an updated version of vintage illustrated card toys, made by Metafilter and Flickr members) [via]
Universal Music files lawsuits against Grouper, Bolt.com (this could set the precedent for a wave of lawsuits against web video sites)
Amazon launches Askville answers community (private beta, but interesting extension of their community)
My printer, my social letterbox (remote social printing for friends and family; absolutely brilliant idea, but especially for photos)
Small Number of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus ("we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses")
The View from the Top (hardcore World of Warcraft junkie breaks his addiction and writes about it) [via]
A Year Full of Kick-Ass Movie Pitches (#1. "What if the Internet turned into a Were-wolf?")
October 17, 2006
Spy Magazine's How to Be Famous (rare clips from the early '90s; the Seinfeld-hosted science experiments are great)
FoleyBot (pretend to be a 16-year-old congressional page boy) [via]
New Bravia paint commercial (this observer video makes more sense now)
Backstory of the questionably diverse resume of Yale senior Aleksey Vayner (you might want to watch the video in question first) [via]
Paul Graham on the mistakes that startups make (I usually avoid lists like this, but this is a thoughtful one)
Best Dreamcast games for today's gamers (I would love to see thoughtful lists like this for other platforms; I've found many underrated gems for the SNES, for example)
Coleco Toys & Games catalog from 1980 ("we're the one.")
Two Gallants frontman tazered by police at Texas show (the SF-based folky indie band is an unlikely target for violence) [via]
Wired News reviews the new Sam & Max game (positive review on the first episode of the new series)
Online Confessions of a Childhood Murderer (origins and fallout of a hoax on Kuro5hin; here's the Mefi thread)
Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece on predicting box office hits with algorithms (the problem with their technique is coming up with every possible meaningful variable)
October 16, 2006
Conflict of interest leads two to resign at Seattle's The Stranger (someone from ad sales was writing record reviews, which is a dangerous mix) [via]
Wallflower at the Web Party (in-depth NYT profile on Jonathan Abrams and the demise of Friendster) [via]
Scarlett Johansson releasing album of Tom Waits covers? (she has a Marilyn Monroe quality to her voice) [via]
E3 reborn into summer show in Santa Monica (PAX is the new E3) [via]
Virtual economies attract real-world tax attention (note that the end of the article mentions Reuters' new virtual news bureau in Second Life) [via]
Patti Smith plays CBGB's last night before closure (as always, the Flickr and YouTube coverage is great, including Blondie on Thursday night)
Real Beauty vs Photoshop (the Dove film shows a vivid example of the Photoshop whitewashing of models)
Giant Bubble Helmet Gives 360-Degree View (I like to think that it's Jaron Lanier hiding in there)
Wired News' editor catches MySpace pedophile with Perl script (note that the author is Kevin Poulsen; also, I saw a very relevant banner ad below the Boing Boing post)
Bubble Bobble game for Nintendo DS ships with empty level (nice play testing! every cartridge shipped with this fatal bug, blocking gameplay beyond level 30)
Top 10 ad-tricks in Tokyo's train stations (Ikea realized the only way to attract attention is by sponsoring whitespace) [via]
Comic Book Cover Browser (over 5,500 covers available, extracted using a number of available web APIs) [via]
Bill Murray attends late-night college party, washes dishes (also, note that CNN is soliciting for photos adn video from people who attended)
The Filter, Windows iTunes recommender plugin powered by All Music Guide (for OS X users, try Soundflavor or beaTunes) [via]
Elite Beat Agents track listing announced (I'm a sucker for rhythm games with interesting UI) [via]
Honda GPS to include social networking features (reviews make sense, but seeing the location of your friends en route can't be far behind) [via]
October 15, 2006
Children as text adventure game parsers (an anecdote that made me laugh)
October 13, 2006
NYT on YouTube's quiet third co-founder (Jawed Karim left the company to continue his education at Stanford, but maintained a large stake) [via]
Illegitimate (Caterina encounters some technical difficulties because of her surname, with similar stories in the comments)
Blogs and God's Youth (hilariously backwards religious rant about the moral dangers of blogging; "no one should have a blog or personal website") [via]
Guy Kawasaki interviews panel of young adults on technology (I've seen panels like this before, and they're always insightful and interesting) [via]
October 12, 2006
Jobless man robs bank to get into jail (he asked for three years behind bars so he could get food and shelter) [via]
This American Life to offer free podcast (consider me subscribed)
October 11, 2006
Blip Festival (incredible chiptune music festival in NYC)
Counter-Strike Weapons Market (multiplayer shooter adds variable weapons pricing based on global weekly demand)
B. Kliban cartoon gallery (occasionally inexplicable, Kliban is one my favorite cartoonists ever; don't miss some of the analysis)
Future versions of Eudora will be built on Thunderbird (I've been using Eudora for a decade; guess it's time to switch)
Comparing Microsoft Flight Simulator X to reality (the detail level possible in the new game is staggering)
Video: Mick Bianchi's Youtubers (while the media focuses on copyrighted content, an entire blogging ecosystem is thriving)
October 9, 2006
Video: YouTube founders on the Google buyout (they seem giddy... I wonder why?)
YouTube users respond to Google buyout (nearly three times the Myspace deal, this is just madness; more video responses here)
October 7, 2006
Google Book Search increased book sales (hugely obvious, but most publishers are short-sighted, paranoid luddites) [via]
October 6, 2006
Video: Sensational news report on World of Warcraft addiction (complete with crying moms and scary voiceovers, WoW is the new D&D)
Video: Make Love, Not Warcraft (South Park's wonderful Warcraft machinima episode)
51 Birch Street (new film by Doug Block, director of Home Page) [via]
Video: Battle of the Bands (classic album covers fight to the death; brilliant work) [via]
More than half of MySpace now 35 or older (Slashdot says, "The truth: More predators, less victims.")
Video: For Your Consideration trailer (the new Christopher Guest film, a la Best in Show and A Mighty Wind) [via]
David Hasselhoff Says "Knight Rider" Car Was Gay (headline of the year)
October 5, 2006
RU Sirius interviews Neil Gaiman (a great coherent interview, available in MP3 or text)
Google Code Search (extremely useful search for open source code; for fun, search for profanities)
October 4, 2006
Line Rider Jumps the Shark (inspiring run from the addictive Flash toy)
Google Groups redesigns (first change since their last design in December 2004; this one is a big improvement)
Ask Metafilter on Steve Wozniak, and Woz responds! (he signed up for Mefi just to respond, which makes me love him all the more)
October 3, 2006
Google Gadgets For Your Webpage (add Google Desktop widgets to any site with a Javascript embed)
WFMU's The Reel Night John Lennon Died (nice followup with the unedited NYC FM radio dial scans from the night of December 8, 1980)
What Is This Creepy Site Advertising? (Ask Metafilter investigates a viral marketing campaign; great read)
Who Killed TivoToGo in the TiVo Series 3 HD? (the EFF explains how CableLabs and Hollywood are deciding for us) [via]
Pitchfork reviews Jet's "Shine On" (I don't think they liked it)
More details on the unnecessary WarGames sequel (in which WOPR gets defeated by an iPod)
Tasty Drive, using Del.icio.us as a filesystem (brilliantly evil hack uses data: URLs and blind redirectors to store raw data as bookmarks)
MP3: Leonard's excellent (unused) Open Hack Day mix (153 megabytes of good stuff)
World of Warcraft hits South Park (in one swoop, the most mainstream use of machinima ever) [via]
Video: Saved by Patrick Stewart at Yahoo's Open Hack Day (sometimes, delivery is everything)
Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living (harrowing first-person tale of surviving a mid-air collision)
October 2, 2006
Texas dad wants Fahrenheit 451 banned (he demands a book about book burning be banned during Banned Books week)
Jonathan Keller's 8 Years of Daily Photos (the most extensive I've seen in this recent trend of self documentation)
The A:F6 fad on YouTube (Dane Cook lazywebs YouTube in an SNL joke, and hundreds of people respond)
US bill to ban online gambling (offshore gambling companies were hit hard, as the bill is expected to be signed into law in two weeks)
Digg Black Market (awful "service" pays users to promote advertiser links on Digg)
vNES, web-based NES emulator in Java (this is excellent lawsuit bait, especially since the Wii will be reissuing NES games)