31/12/07
Marcus:
When Will Amy Winehouse Die? Sweepstakes website. You can win an iPod touch. Taste that bad taste. (via)
dave: how do I select "not soon enough"?
30/12/07
Marcus:
Video: Ingenious device that pays crows peanuts to drop in loose change they've picked up off the floor.
Marcus:
YouTube: Weird human-faced ornamental koi carp. A product of selective breeding, apparently. (via)
29/12/07
28/12/07
Justin:
Blue Angel (American version of the Red Arrows, an armed forces display flight team) breaks the sound barrier very low over water. It looks cool.
justin: Correction - it's probably not super sonic, but still faster than you've ever gone, so shut your face.
Justin:
Shapeshifter is a completely online animating application that allows you to create short movies without ever downloading or installing a thing
27/12/07
26/12/07
25/12/07
Marcus:
I've just checked, and according to that "Is it Christmas?" website Gareth linked to the other day, today is in fact Christmas Day. Merry Christmas!
Marcus: 
Marcus: (Readers with photographic memories who have been stalking us for at least two years will notice this is the same tree I rolled out in 2005. If you noticed, consider yourself scary.)
justin: Merry Christmas everyone! and happy birthday or whatever to Gareth the other day.
justin: Happy birthday to you! happy birthday to you! happy birthday dear Jesus - happy birthday to you!
24/12/07
Marcus:
Chinese government launches website to report corrupt government officials - which then crashes within hours due to the huge flood of complaints. (via)
Marcus:
Walldogs: terrific post on MetaFilter about walldogs, the guys who paint advertising signs directly onto brickwork.
23/12/07
22/12/07
Marcus:
Parody blog Fake Steve Jobs is being threatened with legal action by Apple, and they're being sinister *ssholes about it in the process.
Marcus: At least one conspiracy theorist claims the whole thing's a spoof, but it's a bloody odd one if it is.
Marcus: Update: it now seems pretty obvious that the whole thing is a hoax. What a pointless waste of time, and what an *sshole.
Gareth:
Is it Christmas? Just so you don't get confused. Subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on whether it's Christmas or not!
Chris:
The trailer for Hellboy II is out, and it looks amazing. Ron Perlman's delivery of the last line of dialogue in the clip is priceless, and pure Hellboy. Roll on next summer.
21/12/07
Marcus:
Soviet Christmas cards. A lot of them are space-themed - reminders to the people of Soviet space achievements, no doubt. (via)
20/12/07
Justin:
22nd of December GMT is synchronised global orgasm day 06:08 GMT to be precise.
Marcus: Such a great idea. There's no bigger turn-on than the thought of lots of other sweaty people shagging (or, let's face it, more likely having a w*nk) the same time you are. And it really sticks it to The Man too.
Marcus: Er.
Zanna:
Daily Mail story about Chastity Bono's increasing weight. Made worthwhile by the readers comments at the end of the story. Including 'Chastity! - looks more like Dave to me. I expect it's her glands, that and stuffing her face with good old American food.'
Zanna:
Remember RoboSapien? This page is dedicated to owners that want to get more out of them, including adding flame throwers and coil guns.
Marcus:
Flash: How is babby formed? Oldie but goodie from Something Awful, taking the piss out of an illiterate Yahoo! Answers post and reply. Not entirely safe for work, possibly. (via)
Dave:
Happy Birthday Gareth
Marcus: Yes, happy birthday! The youngest linkbunny is growing up so fast *sniff*.
gareth: Thanks!
zanna: Wow, Gareth shares his birthday with spoon bending freak, Uri Geller.
gareth: I'm proud.
Marcus:
Think Secret has essentially shut down. (It is/was an Apple rumours site which got into legal trouble with Apple for publishing credible rumours of Apple stuff which then got released. That's all.)
Marcus: Apple's preoccupation with control freakery and unpleasant legal action somehow gets a free pass most of the time, and it shouldn't.
justin: No, you Mac users are one day going to pitied for being the simple-minded marketing-swallowing fools you are.
Marcus: Erm, only in the same way you "swallow" Dell or Microsoft's marketing. Just because you own a product made by a company doesn't mean you automatically worship their marketing department and think everything they do is awesome.
Marcus: In fact, by continuing to use Windows despite regularly encountering the fact it is sh*t, you are consistently acknowledging you are Microsoft's b*tch.
19/12/07
Marcus:
wiSync: auto-synchronise a folder of files onto an iPhone using wifi. Doesn't (yet) handle a full iTunes-style sync, but could still be a handy tool for backups.
18/12/07
Marcus:
Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of 2007. Obviously Amerocentric, but some decent choices in there.
gareth: Rihanna? Seriously? Atleast they fit some Radiohead and Okkervil River in there.
gareth: Nickelback as #100? Wow.
gareth: But they have Panda Bear! That kinda redeems them.
Marcus:
Photos taken by a Russian online community who stage various bizarre scenarios to order. If they're asked to photograph a guy hanging off a third floor balcony while another guy aims a gun at him and a woman looks on in despair, then that's what they'll make. Even better, there are multiple submissions for each scenario.
Marcus:
Pitchfork's Top 50 Music Videos of 2007. (via)
Marcus: I must be getting seriously old and unhip - I didn't recognise the majority of the artists featured.
Marcus:
How To Spot a Cylon poster. SuperGeekyCool. (via)
Marcus: "Do they exhibit sociopathic behavior around other humans, especially defenseless children?"
Marcus:
Download the screenplay for The Darjeeling Limited (PDF), completely legally, from Fox Searchlight. Sweet. (via)
17/12/07
Gareth:
"OMI is abbreviation of Open Mind Index, and mirrors the bandwidth of your taste in music." It's pretty cool. My OMI
Gareth:
The proper Dark Knight trailer. Looks good.
gareth: The Gotham Times is also worth looking at.
Gareth:
Reader James wrote us about a book he wrote, Cooking With Booze. It was looking good until he mentioned the rum rabbit terrine and then we deleted the email.
16/12/07
Justin:
Duelity - from the Vancouver Film School, shows animations of two versions of the creation of the universe. The Christian Biblical version given as a science lecture, and the most commonly accepted scientific version given as a religious treatise. A third video shows the two animations shown side by side.
gareth: This is really well done.
15/12/07
Marcus:
The reviews on Amazon for Bic biros are surprisingly numerous and in-depth.
Marcus: "I had assumed from the image on the Amazon site that the Bic was a portable quill, with a travel inkwell, in which the pen could be dipped."
Justin:
Tracking Your Fingers with the Wiimote Using an LED array and some reflective tape, you can use the infrared camera in the Wii remote to track objects, like your fingers, in 2D space. This lets you interact with your computer simply by waving your hands in the air similar to the interaction seen in the movie "Minority Report".
Justin:
Wow - here's a newsflash - a trailer for the new Batman film - The Dark Knight - it's a pirate trailer so quality not amazing mind.
14/12/07
Gareth:
How many five year olds could you take in a fight is a question that everyone should ask themselves.
gareth: I can supposedly take out 28 of them. I think once I got a good head-kicking motion down, I could do pretty good.
zanna: I could also take out 28. Interesting.
Dave: Apparently only 20
justin: Pussies. I can take 34.
Marcus:
Polybius is an alleged early 80s arcade game that became the subject of a sinister urban legend. Which might even have some basis in fact. (via)
13/12/07
Marcus:
Video: Zero Punctuation puts the smackdown on Guitar Hero III. Apparently it's really, really hard. Getting it for Christmas anyway. NSFW.
justin: I just want our readers to know that Marcus not only has access to a real guitar where he lives, but access to someone who can teach him how to play etc.
gareth: I thought GH3 was pretty boring, all the songs are really just frustrating and not all that fun to play. I've heard good things about Rock Band though.
Marcus: Christmas... ruined?
gareth: Oh, the Who-manity.
12/12/07
Marcus:
Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's. That really, really sucks.
Marcus: "I know it's a very human thing to say 'is there anything I can do', but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry."
justin: That's really sad, he is a very funny man and a great author,
chris: Back in the early days of alt.fan.pratchett I got to spend an afternoon in the pub with him and a couple of dozen fellow "refugees from Star Wars" as he put it. So I can say with some authority that he is a really lovely bloke, and that this news really, really sucks.
Marcus:
Dad catches son smoking pot, auctions son's Christmas present (Guitar Hero III) on eBay as punishment. Score one for modern parenting methods. (via)
Marcus: "I am still considering getting him a game for his Nintendo. Maybe something like Barbie as the Island Princess or Dancing With the Stars. These games are in stock everywhere I go, and I know he will just love them."
11/12/07
Dave:
The Wire Season 5 Set invitation. No spoilers, really, but if you want to know NOTHING about the new season. Don't watch.
Dave: Let McNulty be McNulty promo.
10/12/07
Marcus:
What's new in Blade Runner: The Final Cut? (via)
Marcus: One for the fans - contains spoilers.
Marcus: I double posted this; Gareth got in first earlier today. Whoops. Good job I've removed his earlier post, Stalin-style. Nobody will ever know.
gareth: We have always been at war with Eurasia Eastasia.
gareth: I love Big Brother.
Marcus:
Scary/weird proof-of-concept hack for Second Life. When the victim comes into range of a hacked QuickTime video, it causes them to throw their hands up in the air, yell "I've been hacked!" and give money to the hacker. Virtual reality's gone all Neuromancer. (via)
09/12/07
Marcus:
BBC: "A car repair firm has been taken to court accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work." This is contemptibly insane, but it is actually happening. More commentary.
Marcus: Justin was talking to me about this - apparently his firm (he works in an office, mind you) received a nastygram from the same people recently.
justin: We received two from two seemingly different companies - or our landlord did. I thought it was BS and asked to see the letters - and it does seem like a bunch of chancers trying to scan money
Marcus: Clearly the Performing Rights Society are a bunch of chancers trying to set a legal precedent to rake in huge loads of easy cash, but the worst thing is that the judge is refusing to just throw this case out of court.
justin: As the PC Answers commentary above stated, surely the radio stations have already paid for this licence. Additionally, since pretty much all high -fi equipment have loud speakers attached, and have done for almost 100 years do we all owe some serious back pay?
justin: Here is a e-petition to her Majesty's government to have the face blown off of this extortion racket. It takes less than 30 seconds to sign it!
justin: More on this! Charity Forced to Pay Copyright Fee So Kids Can Sing Carols
Marcus:
Top 10 Craziest Star Wars Tattoos. All of these are plain ridiculous, and there's an extra helping of "scary weird" for the number one slot. NSFW. (via)
Marcus:
CyberLover is a sex chatroom bot developed by Russian cybercriminals. Its purpose is to fool one-handed typists into handing over credit card details and visiting malware sites. And apparently it's pretty good at doing it.
Marcus: This article is being linked to all over the place, but details seem rather vague and it's hard not to see this as alarmist "OMG buy our antivirus progz!" fearmongering by PC Tools.
Marcus: Still funny though.
justin: This is why you should never trust women on the internet - they could be robots. Soon they will have Mum-bots pretending to be your mum and telling you to get a nice girl and settle down and give them your credit card details.
Gareth:
Muse's Knights of Cydonia video has unofficially been declared The Best Music Video Pretty Much Ever by me
gareth: the official page
08/12/07
Marcus:
Cool multitouch Minority Report-esque demo for the iPhone. Zoom a map image around and simultaneously rotate it using two fingers. (Flash video of the demo in action.)
07/12/07
Marcus:
MMS: iPhone app that finally enables MMS. Haven't had the chance to test yet, and there are warnings of it being an "early beta", but could be a killer iPhone app if done right.
Justin:
Lost Border - A photo journal and gallery of the 'iron curtain' - and the Berlin wall and all that.
Justin:
A gallery of on-set photos from Twin Peaks
chris: Taken by Richard Beymer, who was Benjamin Horne in the show.
chris: Before Twin Peaks, he was probably best known for playing Tony in the film of West Side Story, you know.
chris: You know, those are some damn fine photos...
Marcus:
BBC: "Sainsbury's and Asda have admitted fixing the price of milk, cheese and butter following an inquiry by the Office of Fair Trading". They're saying this was to "help dairy farmers" but I'd love to see the evidence that all of the extra money was going into farmers' pockets rather than the supermarket shareholders'.
06/12/07
Marcus:
Three short (two minute-ish) prequels to The Wire can be found on Amazon's season four order page. Awesome. (via)
Chris:
Morgan (Supersize me) Spurlock's next film is about Osama bin Laden. Rumours are flying around today that he might have managed to find and interview him... It's an interesting way of drumming up publicity for your movie, but whether this turns out to be true or not is another matter entirely.
Marcus:
Charlie Brooker on Heat magazine: "This is what the misanthropic serial killer in Se7en would've done if he'd been running a magazine instead of keeping a diary."
05/12/07
Zanna:
Police arrest 'missing canoeist'.John Darwin was presumed dead after the remains of his canoe were found washed up on a beach in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, Teesside, in March 2002.
justin: They reckon it could be a life insurance scam - but why would he hand himself in?
Gareth:
If you like drag racing crashes or things flying around in slow motion in general, you should watch this
04/12/07
Marcus:
Buy cans of Brawndo, the stupid energy drink from Idiocracy. I'm torn between thinking this is awesome and it just being yet another horrendous "hilarious" post-modern cash-in. (via)
03/12/07
Marcus:
"The outrageously politically incorrect adverts from the time equality forgot". Bloody hilarious, in the most outrageously patronising Mr Cholmondley-Warner misogynistic fashion. Women - know your limits! (via)
Marcus: Also: Women - for pity's sake, don't drive!
Marcus:
The English Bridge Union is making bridge players dress up smartly for games, instead of turning up in "shorts, smelly T-shirts, sandals, no socks". Crikey. Talk about a drop in standards.
Marcus: I used to play bridge with housemates at university and was surprised by what is in fact a complex and highly tactical team game, undeserving of its fuddy-duddy image.
Marcus:
Mummified dinosaur discovered. Apparently not the first either - but this one may even have preserved muscles and internal organs. Incredible.
02/12/07
Justin:
"You're talking out of turn. I don't normally do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them. So you should not talk now unless... you know..." - video compilation of of Mike Tyson's 'funniest' quotes.
Dave: He's nucking futts.
Marcus:
Television Tunes: thousands of TV theme tunes available to download as MP3s. (via)
Marcus: There's an interactive Name That Theme Song quiz, too.
Marcus:
MobileScrobbler: LastFM client for the iPhone/iPod Touch - automatically uploads the tracks you've been listening to.
Marcus: Comes down through Installer.app, so no need to go scrabbling for a new XML source.
Marcus:
PongSaver: Mac OS X screensaver which displays the time as the score from an on-going game of Pong. Sweet.
Marcus: ScreenPlay Pong seems to be a similar screensaver for Windows, but a comment on the download page says there is embedded advertising.
01/12/07
Marcus:
YouTube: behind the scenes of the new Michel Gondry-directed music video for Björk's Declare Independence.
Marcus: (Might not last long as it's supposed to be an AOL-hosted US-only "exclusive".)
Marcus: Live version of the song performed at California's Coachella 2007 festival.
Marcus: Gondry and Björk have to be the ideal oddball combo. Just check out the videos for Army of Me and Human Behaviour.
Marcus: Chris Cunningham's video for All Is Full Of Love has to be my favourite though. He's done plenty of other awesome stuff too.
Marcus: (Last year Justin linked to a Squarepusher video directed by Cunningham.)
Marcus:
Facebook is removing the prepended "is" from status updates. Marcus is happy to hear about this.
Marcus: Update: apparently Facebook enabled this change a few days ago in the API, then promptly disabled it again because it was buggy. Doh.