31/08/05
Marcus:
Satellite photo which shows just how scarily huge Hurricane Katrina actually is.
Marcus: From NASA's coverage of the hurricane.
Marcus: This video entitled "Birth of a Hurricane" gives some interesting insights into how hurricanes actually start. Apparently it's all to do with the African mountain ranges.
Justin:
Looks like apple are about to make the ground-breaking announcement they will be selling iPod phones that store between 512meg & 4gig of music. I totally already have a phone that can do that.
Marcus: I posted on this last week with pics and stuff of the iTunes phone. Like I said at the time, it's a bit rubbish - the only interesting thing is it interfaces with iTunes instead of dragging and dropping from the OS. Which isn't all that interesting.
Marcus:
Ridiculously thin house on sale in London for over £500,000.
justin: Maybe they should advertise it as a "flat"?
Marcus:
"Spoof American news broadcast The Daily Show is to be screened on Channel 4’s new digital offshoot More4." (Via)
Marcus: I'd never even heard of More4, but apparently it's coming in October.
Marcus: More4 info - it sounds like they're going for a more "highbrow" E4. With nooz and things!
Marcus:
Stuff from a TV preacher. (Via)
justin: He looks like he's telling everyone to wait while he lets one go. - read this - apparently a load of Christian detectives found loads of prayer requests in a rubbish bin outside his bank with all the donations removed. Nice.
Marcus:
Winamp 5.1 beta 3 was accidentally released and then withdrawn by Nullsoft, but some wily users got hold of a copy and you can now download it.
Marcus:
Bookmarking and tagging songs heard on BBC radio using your mobile phone.
Marcus: Kind of interesting - anybody remember those little electronic gadgets where you were supposed to click a button when you heard a song you liked, then access a website to find out what it was later?
Marcus:
A website featuring a Chinese girl who really, really wants to marry Tom Cruise. (Thanks, B. Butch!)
Dave:
A whole host of movie quizzes where the characters are made invisible. Good work. Some are tricky.
30/08/05
Justin:
Lethalo - the most ridiculously advertised martial art - ever.
Marcus: "If terrorists try to spray your local shopping center with AK-47 fire, you can call the police and watch hundreds die, including maybe you and your family. OR you can kill them." With Lethalo!
Marcus: There's also Cardio Lethalo if you want to exercise before killing the terrorists.
Marcus:
Egg Babies. (Via)
Marcus: That's enough b3ta.
gareth: You know, I can just picture that in the living room of some uber conservative pro-life American.
Marcus:
As we all know, it's been twenty years, so AIDS is now funny. Take this amusingly-similar named 70s UK advert for Ayds slimming pills, for instance. (Via)
Marcus:
AQHost have upgraded us to Movable Type 3.2 - lovely!
dave: 
That's so interesting I gave you a medal.
That's so interesting I gave you a medal.
Marcus:
Weebl's take on the Scissors Paper Stone game. (Via)
justin: Why do they have to put loud music on websites?
Justin:
Looks like file sharers are moving over from BitTorrent to eDonkey - I recommend using Shareaza, it accesses BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella.
Dave:
A list of "Church of Euthanasia approved" ways to kill yourself. Some other Cool ways of ending it all. I'm in a great mood today.
Justin:
I recently won the 3D World Creative Challenge for the third time in a row - here is my winning entry as posted on CG Talk.
Dave: Well done. Does look pretty good too.
gareth: Not much for Gundam, but that's quite nice. How long did the model take you?
Gareth:
Age-maps: a fusion of two photographs of the same person, stuck together. Scary as hell.
Dave: That is freaky. I don't like it.
justin: It is a bit disconcerting.
29/08/05
Dave:
Whilst trying to remind myself of the previous series of BBC 1 drama Messiah, I came across this little quiz. I got 13. It's time I spoke to someone.
Marcus:
Marcus: Riding back today from a Bank Holiday spent in Bristol I passed by Avebury and a prehistoric earth mound called Silbury Hill. Apparently it's a bit of a puzzle - nobody knows for sure why this huge thing was created nearly 3000 years ago, although there are theories.
Marcus: A bunch of us went to a free jazz festival over the weekend too. If you want to see some fairly uninspired photos of us looking cool in sunglasses, walk this way.
Marcus: Sorry to turn this into a personal weblog. Normal service will return shortly.
gareth: I think the fact that you own the domain gives you a bit of leeway in the personal weblog department.
Marcus: You're absolutely right. Several pictures of my cats being adorable to follow shortly.
28/08/05
Gareth:
Asterik@home: a very nifty (free!) VOIP program. A few small bugs, but still a lot better than huge long distance phone bills.
Gareth:
The Bible in lego.
dave: Evil dual posting git.
gareth: Oops, sorry. Hadn't seen this one about.
27/08/05
Gareth:
The official website of Kurt Vonnegut Jr, one of the funniest authors in existance. Besides Douglas Adams, of course.
Gareth:
The US Constitution: I wonder how many Americans actually know it? (I admittedly do not know the Canadian one front to back)
Gareth:
Mp3car.com - a forum dealing with in-car computers. Very interesting stuff. There are people on those forums with instant messengers, etc running in their cars. A bit of a driving hazard, wouldn't you think?
Justin:
This is a support site for real vampires.
gareth: Apparantly vampires can't design websites properly.
Marcus:
Sodium Party: commentary, pictures and videos of a guy who likes to drop large chunks of sodium into water. (They go boom.) (Via)
dave: huh huh huh Yeah, that was pretty cool huh huh
Marcus:
Make sudoku puzzles out of images on flickr. Like pictures of hamsters. I don't get it, but it looks very, er, useful. (Via)
Marcus:
"The Army will join a gay pride parade for the first time on Saturday, as soldiers march with lesbians and gay men at Manchester's Pride Festival."
Marcus: "About 10 uniformed soldiers will parade and man a recruitment stall."
Marcus: That's a massive leap forward on "don't ask, don't tell" - actively recruiting homosexuals.
gareth: Wow, that is quite the jump indeed. Although I don't imagine they'll be getting many recruits at a gay pride parade.
26/08/05
Gareth:
Some absolutely awesome designs for various cars, ships etc.
gareth: Apparantly he's done a lot of design work for Volkswagen.
chris: Nice stuff. I love concept car designs when they're done well like that. I used to be a huge fan of Luigi Colani back in the 80s - he came up with some very sexy looking designs for cars including a completely bonkers version of the Corvette
and I remember reading in OMNI about him creating a shell for a VW Polo that had a lower drag coefficient than a Porsche - a bit like this. Okay, I'll stop drooling now.
gareth: Wow, those are some curvy cars. I wouldn't mind one of those.
Justin:
I was quite amazed by how dim-witted Jessica Simpson came across in the Metro 60 Second interview today.
60 second interview: Do you read the gossip magazines?
Not really but I do like looking at the pictures.
Not really but I do like looking at the pictures.
Gareth:
Gum blondes: images of blondes made completely out of chewed-up bubble gum. Very, very strange.
Justin:
BBC political correspondent Andrew Marr takes his shirt of and walks around a political meeting shouting "let's f*ckin' 'ave it!"
Dave: That's misleading.
Marcus: Nice mental image though.
Marcus:
N is a cool little Sonic-esque platform game with a sophisticated physics engine. You play a ninja running around picking up gold, and it's pretty tricky right from the word go.
Marcus: You can find out more and download a newer version of the game (and a level editor) at Metanet Software.
Laura: Have been playing this for a couple of weeks, it's pretty darn addictive.
Marcus:
Google requires your mobile phone number for new signups to its Gmail service.
Marcus: Whatever their justification for this, it is a clear attempt to get yet another important piece of personally identifiable and exploitable information from a trusting public. Using text messages to verify that a signup is a "real person" is a flimsy pretext if you ask me.
Marcus:
A somewhat gushing but enthuasiastic review of Serenity, a sci-fi flick that hopefully doesn't feature camp vampires.
Laura: He was rather too gushy if you ask me. You can't compare the Whedon-verse to Star Wars and LOTR, that's just sick and wrong. It does look rather good though. Marcus, seriously, you should watch the show, cos it has no fake english vampires, and it has a lot of guns, and lots of women with loose morals. Okay, shall shut up now.
25/08/05
Gareth:
Wow, this video card from colourgraphic supports VGA output to EIGHT monitors. EIGHT. That's f*cking mad.
justin: To be honest, I doubt there are even 8 monitors in the world.
Marcus: I calculate that one day there might be a market for about five computer monitors in the world.
Gareth:
The Chinese government has stepped in to help online gamers limit their time spent online.
gareth: "The new system will impose penalties on players who spend more than three hours playing a game by reducing the abilities of their characters.
Gamers who spend more than five hours will have the abilities of their in-game character severely limited.
Players will be forced to take a five-hour break before they can return to a game. "
justin: And they talk about a nanny state in the UK!
Justin:
Looks like Europe is going to shoot another robot at Mars - no Beagle bid being considered this time.
Laura:
New trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire released. Not sure what I think. Looks a fair bit darker than the past three films, but also reminds me slightly of a predictable action movie.
gareth: I have to admit, Harry Potter isn't exactly an intellectual series in the first place - no surprise it looks like a dumb action movie.
24/08/05
Gareth:
Looks like a Halo movie is confirmed. The quest for more money continues!
gareth: The official Bungie story on it.
justin: Man this is gonna be good if Alex Garland is writing the script. I liked the premise of Halo, reminded me of Ringworld, Rendezvous with Rama, and The Lotus Caves.
dave: Alex f*cking Garland, are you having a laugh!? The Beach!? Maybe Danny Boyle can direct it!? f*ck off.
justin: 28 Days later was well good.
Dave: Watch it again. It really isn't very good at all. The opening 10 minutes of a desolate London were fantastic, but the rest of the film was pretty dire. I bought this film on DVD because it had the potential to be my favourite film of all time, but things like David Schneider crapply playing a scientist and a London cab driving over a cars in a blocked tunnel were just too much.
It was also just a blatant 90 minute advert. "Ooh I can't live without Terry's chocolate Orange". The Acting was poor and the characters were one-dimensional and unbelievable. Don't even start me on The Beach.
It was also just a blatant 90 minute advert. "Ooh I can't live without Terry's chocolate Orange". The Acting was poor and the characters were one-dimensional and unbelievable. Don't even start me on The Beach.
justin: Well, I liked it. I thought the setting was supreme, I dind't mind any of the acting at all. In fact, does it not have Chris Ecclestone in it as well. Pretty scary really. But then I'm a fan of the zombie movie genre, and London, and I don't want the terrorists to win, unlike you.
gareth: Time will tell whether it's good or not.
Marcus: Wasn't The Beach (the movie) a terrible travesty of The Beach (the novel) anyway? Not that I've watched/read either.
justin: Way to just go ahead and wade in anyway Marcus.
Marcus: Well, people liked The Beach (the novel) didn't they - so maybe that means a Garland-scripted Halo movie will be good. I don't keep in touch with you young people and your "popular culture", you know that. Who are the Rolling Stones?
justin: Exactly!
Chris:
What the cast think is going on in weird new TV series Lost. It doesn't look like we'll find out any time soon...
Gareth:
Have you ever wondered what a quintillion of pennies would look like? Yes? Well if so, then you're really weird.
justin: Features one million cows!
gareth: "Over 750,000 tons of grass-munching, milk-giving
animals on 4,008,960 hooves."
Gareth:
I would just like to say that this Ferrari of a mouse is in my hands right now and I am a very happy boy.
Gareth:
Looks like one of the July 7th bombers had second thoughts about being a suicide bomber. Atleast, thats my interpretation of it.
Marcus:
North Korean Random Insult Generator. (Via)
Marcus: "You sycophantic militarist, you are sadly mistaken you think you can browbeat the DPRK!"
Marcus:
God: A Career Retrospective. (Via)
Marcus: "Like many creative types, God fit the classic pattern of a manic-depressive and the fossil record clearly indicates this: bursts of intensely creative activity followed by fits of rage where he decided his previous works weren't good enough and wiped the slate clean."
Marcus:
Engadget time-travel back to 1985. Oh, the crazy gadgets of 1985. Amiga 1000. Big mobile phones. Etcetera. (Via)
Marcus:
iTunes phone: official FCC photos and five pages' worth of the manual. (Via)
Marcus: The pictured phone looks kind of rubbish, but apparently "Motorola's ROKR line of iTunes music phones are expected to span several models and designs". So maybe there'll be a cool one too. Maybe.
Marcus: From the looks of it, all it means is that you can drag and drop music from iTunes into the connected phone (no iPod-style automatic syncing between phone and your massive music collection, obviously).
Marcus: So, er, not much different to any other memory-card based phone where you can drag MP3s onto it and play them. And the phone MP3 player interface doesn't look very iTunes-ish either.
Marcus: It would be marginally more interesting if they included the (rubbish) iPod Shuffle feature of sticking random tracks on the phone, but no mention of that.
Laura:
Google Talk has landed.
Marcus: Crikey. Google is getting its fingers in so many pies, there won't be any pies left before too long.
Marcus: I'm going to try out this new Google IM client and report back.
Marcus: Ok, initial thoughts: it's kind of basic. The bad news: there's no user pics, emoticons (I like them - shut up), ability to change your username to anything or transfer files.
Marcus: The good news: it does an MSN Messenger-style link to your Gmail account, and there's an internet phone chat thing as a core feature. Also you can have custom status messages.
Marcus: I don't think MSN Messenger needs to worry quite yet, but if Microsoft keeps ladling on the crappy advertising it might start a migration. And as Google Talk is only in early beta, I'm sure that plenty of features are yet to come.
Marcus: Apparently it's just a restyled Jabber IM server/client and you can use IM clients like GAIM on the Google Talk network. (Via)
Marcus: Here's a quick review with screenshots.
Marcus: And here's how to unlock an Easter Egg in the Google Talk client to play an old IRC game.
Marcus: Okay, I'm done with Google Talk now.
Laura: To be honest, I'm shocked I knew about it before you did.
Marcus: I got up kind of late.
justin: If it doesn't let me chat to people off MSN, it can kiss my ass.
Laura: I got round to trying Google Talk last night and had a very amusing voice conversation with someone. All in all, I think I could grow to like it.
23/08/05
Justin:
US religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has called for the US to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
justin: Reminds me of what Jesus said: "But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also and have him whacked."
Marcus: I wonder how the US would react if a prominent Venezuelan called for the assassination of the US President? Out of the two, I know which one I'd rather have "disappeared".
Marcus: It's quite scary how the US thinks it has a legitimate right to bully and intimidate anybody who it doesn't regard as "cooperative" in its personal agenda.
Marcus: I'm talking on a governmental/right-wing f*ckhead level here, rather than accusing every single individual in the United States.
Dave: Woah there. It's not the Bush administration calling for the assasination of some Venezuelan c*nt. It's some loopy Christian fundaMENTAList.
Marcus: Yeah, but they haven't actually gone out of their way to reprimand him have they? "Private citizen's views" blah blah.
justin: You can't reprimand someone for their beliefs - unless they are religious leaders preaching murder and hatred that run contrary to the values of the country they reside in... oh, hang on...
justin: update: apparently the US State Department did say his remarks were inappopriate. More.
Gareth:
A lot of weird words, and a bit of history behind them.
chris: Pah! I've used weirder words than that before breakfast. No skimble-scamble waffling's going to impress me!
Chris:
Just to prove that the world has moved on from "101 uses of a dead cat," the web brings us bunny suicides.
gareth: You know, I hoped you were joking about that dead cat thing, but apparantly not.
chris: It was all the rage last century, you know. Even the Prime Minister got in on the act.
Laura: My boyfriend has entertained his family with this, and probabily is still doing so as I type. We have such exciting social lives in Yorkshire.
Justin:
A couple of features on Women & CG: CG Chicks, what's up with that? and From pots and pans to polygons - Women in CG
Marcus:
"A pile of thousands of woollen tassels symbolising chastity has been set on fire in Swaziland to mark the end of a sex ban imposed by King Mswati III."
Marcus: "The ban was started by the king in 2001 to fight the spread of HIV/Aids. Some 40% of Swazi citizens are HIV positive."
Marcus: But, er, "just two months after imposing the ban, the king fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by taking a 17-year-old girl as his ninth wife".
justin: More poor African leadership.
Marcus:
Into tracing your family tree? As well as genealogy, you can now trace your DNA roots with genetealogy.
Gareth:
Some chrome Mercedes Benz. (say, what is the plural of Mercedes Benz? Mercedes Benzes? Benzi?)
Gareth:
A live webcam of the Beluga whale tank at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. It's running at around 24 fps for me - very good for a webcam.
22/08/05
Gareth:
The world sunlight map. A map of current sunlight conditions on a global scale.
Marcus: According to this, it should be kind of dark in England right now. And looking outside the window, by George, it's right!
Gareth:
Sometimes you have to wonder where society would be if we didn't waste so much time and resouces.
Marcus: All the poorer for not having people stick eyeballs on their fingers and do weird puppet DJ things.
Marcus:
Dustin Hoffman with breasts. NSFW. Not safe for your lunch to remain in your stomach either.
gareth: I don't see much difference.
Marcus: I'm pretty sure this was from I ♥ Huckabees, but for some reason I don't remember seeing Dustin Hoffman with breasts. Probably had my memory erased just to make sure.
gareth: Meet the Fockers had Robert De Niro with fake breasts - Dustin Hoffman was in that one though.
Marcus:
Church Sign Generator.
gareth: 
gareth: Well then, no remote linking then.
Marcus: 
gareth: Oooh, I am so bugging you for FTP stuff now.
Dave: I like the real church signs section.
Marcus:
Advanced Lawnmower Simulator.
Marcus: If this whets your appetite, you'll be utterly ecstatic, weeping with joy as you try to thank me by shoving money in my shirt pocket, to know that there's also Advanced Lawnmower Simulator 2: The Revenge Of King Zord!
Marcus: This will probably only be funny if you ever read Your Sinclair back in the 1980s.
gareth: Wow, I was born in the 1980s.
Marcus: Oh god I'm old.
Gareth: Weren't you born in the early eighties though?
Marcus: 1977.
gareth: 28 is hardly old! I mean, you only get semi-decent car insurance at 25.
Marcus: I'm 27. Twen-tee-sev-un. I'm not 28 until September. That's when the red light starts flashing in my palm.
Marcus: (I'm so old I'm making Logan's Run references.)
gareth: Well forgive me, Mr.quarter-life crisis!
justin: I'm so old I keep forgetting my age - I'm pretty sure I'm 28 now though. I keep thinking I'm 27.
Jesus? or am I?
Aimie: You lot are making me feel ancient - I'm older than Justin and Marcus (although only by a few months). The trick is to hang about with people older than yourself - then you always feel young compared to them. But then why am I living in a house where all the housemates are younger than me?!?!?
Dave: You're only as old as you feel. BTW I'm only 18. ;)
gareth: Mwahaha, I've you all beat! I'm seventeen.
Laura: They say you're onjly as old as the man/woman you're feeling. I certainly drew the short straw, as I should apparently feel 31.
Marcus: Dave isn't 18. He's, er, 25? I think. Or 24. But not 18. Definitely.
Marcus:
"The BBC News website has dropped its look at the day's front pages of the national newspapers because of fears it could be sued." (Via)
Marcus: With newspaper scoops like this one, I'm sure it would only have been a matter of time.
Marcus:
Decent laptops are fast moving towards the "ridiculously cheap" end of the spectrum - you can now buy an IBM Thinkpad for $600. (Via)
Marcus: Except they're made by Chinese firm Lenovo now, not IBM.
Marcus: The same model costs over £500 in good old Rip Off Britain. Whilst that's not exactly the worst example of extortionate UK pricing, it would still be under £350 if they did a fair conversion.
Gareth:
I thought this picture was priceless.
Marcus: Apparently Morans is a family-owned eating house in Cheltenham. Perhaps he didn't like the food?
Gareth:
Phrase finder: for when you have no idea what people are talking about when they use an obscure saying. Or inobscure, if you're just not that knowledgeable sayings-wise.
Aimie: They don't seem to have any of the ones my grandad used to say, i.e. "Draw swords and cut up a side street" and "PT kit and spurs, spats and football boots". Probably because he made them up himself. God knows what they mean.
gareth: If you think about it, thats probably how all sayings come into being. Someone makes it up, and it gets popularized from there and spreads.
Dave:
Remember the Piano man (marcus please fill in this link I can't be ars*d)?? Well he's free! And it seems that his freedom has raised more questions than it's answered. Something very very odd has gone on here.
Marcus: "Newspaper reports now suggest he was only able to play one note continuously."
Marcus: At last, after extensive internet research, I can reveal the true identity of the Piano Man.
Marcus:
Think cheese! Think mobile phone! Think cheese mobile phone!
Marcus: Would you be surprised if I told you it was Japanese and promotional material featured a stern looking guy in a mouse suit?
Marcus: Didn't think so.
Marcus:
Robert Moog, creator of the Moog synthesiser and arguably the guy who started the electronic music revolution, has died. (Via)
Marcus: Wikipedia entry on Robert Moog.
Marcus:
CNN on the Google Dance.
Marcus: I didn't realise it was an actual event as well as a metaphor for trying to stay at the top of ever-changing search rankings.
Marcus:
A menstruating Barbie doll as hacked together by a German guy who must be great fun at parties. (Via)
Marcus: Complete with miniature tampon. Uses Campari. Feel sick.
Dave: error 404: Datei nicht gefunden!
Justin:
No way, there was a transvestite kickboxer, and now he is having a film made about him.
Marcus: I remember seeing Nong Toom/Parinya Charoenphol on some godawful novelty TV programme, probably involving Grub Smith and on FTN.
Marcus: The film Beautiful Boxer was actually made in 2003 - it's just being released in the UK now.
Laura:
And the world keeps on getting weirder and weirder.... Courtney Love is reported to be having Steve Coogan's love child.
justin: Knowing me Steve Coogan, knowing you.. my love child.
Marcus: Dave told me about this yesterday and I thought he was winding me up.
Laura: Yet oddly enough it's more believeable that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
21/08/05
Marcus:
Old American hobo symbols.
Marcus: Wikipedia: "To cope with the difficulty of hobo life, hobos developed a system of symbols. Hobos would write these symbols with chalk or coal to provide directions, information, and warnings to other hobos."
Marcus:
The Pirate Bay, a well-known BitTorrent tracker that specialises in taking the piss out of copyright lawyer threats, recently received legal threats from Apple regarding an OS X for Intel torrent. Here's their written response, and here's what their front page logo currently looks like (the image links to a search for OS X). (Via)
Marcus:
"Oxford to turn away child prodigies: Children can no longer live in student accommodation, because the university could not carry out a criminal record check on every other undergraduate sharing the same premises."
Marcus:
Pirate DVD street trader in London is slapped with an ASBO. (That's an Anti-Social Behaviour Order, non-Britishers.)
Marcus: This doesn't seem an appropriate use of an ASBO to me - more like copyright cops getting creative with the law.
Marcus: "Many [pirate DVD] sellers previously worked in restaurants and in factories but following the government's clampdown on the employment of immigrants without work permits, took to the streets. On a good day many make less than £50. On a slack day or when it rains they may make nothing."
Marcus: 
Marcus: Yeah!
Marcus:
Monobrow.com - "Celebrating the Unity of Your Eyebrows". (Via)
Marcus: How to pluck eyebrows.
Marcus:
Having just noticed a link to "Sainsbury's To You" amongst the usual "play online party poker" detritus in the linkbunnies referral logs, I donned my self-righteous hat and e-mailed the following to their support people:
Marcus: "Please stop spamming website referral logs with your site URL. If you don't stop doing this I will come over to your head office and give you a practical demonstration of why this kind of thing is tantamount to me coming over to your offices and shouting unsolicited adverts at you very loudly through a loudhailer."
Marcus: Yeah, it isn't exactly Oscar Wilde meets Shakespeare, but it's also 2:30am. And a massive supermarket firm should know better than to try this kind of idiotic link spam. w*nkers.
Justin:
The OSSwin project: Open Source for Windows!
justin: Comprehensive list of Windows Open Source software.
Marcus:
Adblock Filterset.G is a Firefox extension which automatically updates Adblock with the latest advertising URLs.
Marcus: Simply download the XPI and drag it into the Extensions window of Firefox.