Color Coordination

I'm not the best (or so I'm told) at coordinating colors so the Internet Gods have led me to some online tools to help me with my handicap.

Color Schemer and The Color Coordinator both let you pick a color and then they show you other colors that will go with your color.

Color Maker lets you preview what you page will look like using different colors for different elements.

Color away...

Software Anyone?

Looking for some software?
Looking for some great software?

Then check out the great software list.

This list has lots of "high quality" programs that have the following features:

• Ease of use with a well-designed user interface
• A generous array of keyboard shortcuts (preferably customizable)
• High degree of customizability where applicable
• Affordability

The programs there are organized according to categories like "Word processing", "office tools", "utilities", "image viewers", "system tools",...


BTW: check out the image viewers category....(what's going on there?)

Limp Lamp

And just so you don't say that my previous post doesn't count in the daily total here's a real post ;-)

The Gravity is a lamp that reacts to your presence.

When it's alone in the room it lays down (it just goes kinda limp) and when it detect that somebody has entered it "wakes up", stands up, and turns itself on.
Check out the picture of that lamp, it looks pretty cool (especially when it's sleeping).

[Via Engadget]

Missed a Few

Sorry guys, but I've missed a few days of posting since I've been a bit swamped.

I'll be back to normal soon (don't worry this isn't the start of the end of Guy's World).

Thanks for hanging in with me.

5 Spots

Today we have another game but this time it's not as small as yesterday's post.

In this game you are shown two pictures and have limited time to find the 5 differences between the pictures.

Every time you make a mistake you loose some time off the timer.

The game ends once your time runs out before you managed to find the 5 differences.

I got 9095 points (don't know how good that is...).

Have fun!

Kkrieger

Kkrieger is a 96K Doom-like video game.
Let me repeat that: 96K!

That's about the same size of this HTML page (actually its less if you include all the images on this page)!

Talk about impressive.

Just look at the screen shots on the main page to see how impressive this really is.

Good job guys!

GRsites

I ran into GRSites.com a while ago when I was looking for some free textures.

Not only did I find lots of free textures there, but the site also has lots of web graphics, fonts, a button maker, and even sound effects.

Bookmark this one folks, it's sure to come in handy some day...

Facts Facts and More Facts

For people who enjoy facts and like hitting the refresh button, check out hooked on facts.

Every time you load the page you get a different random fact.
They claim that the facts are real (otherwise they wouldn't be called facts) but some are hard to believe.

Here are some of the fact that I got in the 30 seconds that I repeatedly refreshed the page:

• Spiders have transparent blood
• If you took a slinky and stretched it out it would measure 87 feet
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men
• A completely blind chameleon will still take on the colors of its environment
• A recent study at Harvard has shown that eating chocolate can actually help you live longer (you'd like to belive this one ah?)
• All polar bears are left-handed
• Anteaters prefer termites to ants
• Jimmy Carter is the first U.S. President to have been born in a hospital

Strange Ads

Some strange ads have been popping up at a Cambridge, Mass. subway stop and at Harvard Square.

The ads state:

{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com

The answer to the problem leads to a web site that has another puzzle.

After solving several of these puzzles (or so I'm told) the solver arrives at a Google page that asks for the solver's resume.

Cool idea for a way how to hire talented engineers (or engineers that have talented friends)

Firefox Extensions

For those who aren't familiar with Firefox, it's a browser that's slowly becoming more and more popular (some sites even claim that IE has dropped from 95% to 57% of all browsers used to visit the site and Firefox is up to an amazing 18%).

One of my favorite Firefox features is the ability to add browser extensions to it.
Firefox extensions are basically free extensions that you can add to your browser that add additionally functionality (usually extended functionality that doesn't exist in any other browser).

Here's my list of favorite Firefox extensions (this list will probably grow):

• All-in-One Gestures - lets you control your browser by using mouse gestures
• BugmeNot - seamless integration of BugmeNot.com into forms that require registration to access
• IE View - open the current page in Internet Explorer
• Firefox View - add a context menu item to IE that lets you view the current page in Firefox
• LinkPreview - shows thumbnails of link targets
• Web Developer - tons of web developer tools (editing CSS, disable forms...)
• Down Them All - download all links in a page
• TargetAlert - shows a visual indication of a link target (whether it is a link to a pdf file, RSS file...)
• TabBrowser Preferences - add additional control to Firefox tabs (like the default page to load in a new tab...)
• LiveHTTPHeaders - another web developer extension. Lets you view and edit the http headers that the browser sends
• Session Saver - saves all the open tabs when the browser closes so that the next time you open the browser all the sites you were surfing will reopen
• Aardvark - lets web developers easily view information about elements in the page

Useless Info

The Useless Information Site is a site with information about stuff you never needed to know but you life would be incomplete without.

There's information there about "pickle power", where plastic pink flamingo came from, sawing off Manhattan, bat bombs, and lots more...

Somehow after reading some stuff there I feel like I have an information overload!

Usenet Monster

I just signed up for a new Usenet account at UsenetMonster.com.

For about a year I had an account at Sonic-News but my account expired a few days ago and I could find out how to renew it!
I sent them several emails asking how I can renew my account (that costs $3.99 per month) and those dumb-asses didn't answer me!

So I started searching for a Usenet provider and decided to go with Usenet Monster.

Not only do I get more gigs per month (5 gigs per month with rollovers for any remaining gigs vs. 100MB a day at sonic-news) but it also costs me less ($2.95 vs $3.99).

I already downloaded several hundred MBs and everything seems good (I hope it stays that way...).

Wireless Tokyo

They have all the fun in Japan!
This time it's the Wireless Tokyo 2004 convention and check out these picture of cool gadget that were spotted there.

I have no idea what most of the things there do, but they sure look cool (and I'm sure each and every one of them has some cool [useless?] purpose).

Wait ten, fifteen years and you'll these thing will start appearing in the rest of the world...

Searching The Haystack

Ever wonder what other people are doing online?

This site may help you get a feeling what people are doing online and slightly satisfy your need for voyeurism by showing you what people are searching for.
(that link is to the unfiltered version, you can also check out the filtered version)

In the few seconds that I checked it out I saw that people searched for:

• Mazda parts
• Auto insurance agent (I hope that doesn't have to do with the Mazda parts :)
• drum lessons
• marriage counseling (well sure if you're taking up playing the drums :)
• hugh jass (heh heh :)
• crossection of volcano
• historical hurricane paths (somebody is interested in natural disasters)

This thing can be quite mesmerizing to look at...

Makeup Mouse

Not much to say about this one, the picture says it all:
http://1funny.com/makeupmouse.shtml

Most likely that the picture is not real, but I'm sure that some people (ok, some girls) would find that feature quite useful...

Maybe they could make a hi-tech version of it that has a web-cam instead of a mirror. That way you could see yourself on screen instead of on the tiny mouse mirror.

Joy Work

If you're like me and you like video games and get bored while working out then here's an excellent new invention (you can probably guess where I'm going with this): it's a special joystick that makes you work out.

For $700(!) you get a joystick that more than doubles your oxygen consumption and increases your heart rate by about 50 percent.

The article doesn't say anything about what kinds of systems this can hook up to, but I'm guessing that it will work with the major game consoles.

Kyocera Ads

Marketers are at it again: they're catching on to the fact that unless you create compelling commercials people are just going to skip over them.
But if you create an excellent commercial then people will hunt down your commercial on the net and send it to all their friends.
Honda, American Express, and Budweiser have all created Internet cult commercials and now Kyocera is giving it a try.

They've come out with three commercials for their cellphones and they're pretty funny.

I doubt that they'll reach cult status but at least they'll get a chuckle out of you.

Gold Miner

It's been a while since we've had a game here so here's one for today: Gold Miner.

In Gold Miner you have a hook on a chain that swings around and you need to release it when it's over the gold.

Each level has a limited amount of time in which you need to collect a certain amount of gold in order to advance to the next level.

Not the best game in the world but fun to waste a few minutes on.

Looking for a pal?

Feeling lonely?
Looking for friend?

Look no more: this dude Paul is willing to be your pal for rent.

According to this site this isn't a joke:

Rentapal.com always has a friend available to meet with you (either in-person, by phone or by email) for any kind of legal activity.

And now you can get your own pal for just $19.95 per hour.
The site looks like business is actually flourishing for this guy.

You may want to bookmark this site, you never know when you'll be feeling a bit lonely...

Put Some Sauce On That

I discovered another RSS/Atom feed reader: Sauce Reader (currently version 1.7).

Sauce Reader is first of all free, has a great Outlook like interface (similar to FeedDemon), and is quite stable.

It does have some minor problems (for example: it saves its settings when you exit the program so if Sauce Reader happens to crash for some reason then your settings wont be saved).

But hey, it's free, cool, and does the job!

Overall it's a free version of FeedDemon.

iMac G5 Summary

If you want to make sure that you didn't miss any of the news coverage regarding the new (super cool) Apple iMac G5 then check out this cartoon.

In one picture Joy Of Tech has managed to cover all the issues about the iMac G5 that have been discussed in the media.

Whoever said that a picture is worth a thousand words was right (ok this picture contains some words but we'll let that slide...).

[Via Engadget]

Micro-ISVs

Just in case you don't know, ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor (that's ok only true geeks know this kind of crap).
Anyway, Erik Sink has written a great article about micro-ISVs which are basically one-person ISVs (that means: one person who has written a program and is trying to sell it).

As part of the article Eric has started his own micro-ISV that has created a game called Winnable Solitaire in order to learn about micro-ISVs and how to run one.

In the article he examines the world of one person software shops (and will also write about the process he is going through with his own micro-ISV).

CSS Tricks

This article has ten CSS tricks that you may not know.

There are quite a few tips there that I'm sure will come in handy (and probably sooner than I expect).

Happy CSSing...

What You Are Sharing

SeeWhatYouShare.com is site about files that were found on P2P networks.

It features many files (mostly personal documents) that people are sharing on P2P networks, probably without knowing about it.

The personal documents that are found there are quite scary to have floating around the Internet, although the site does cover up any names and personal information so you don't have to worry about your personal stuff ending up on the site (just on the P2P networks).

I'm going to double check my computers to see that I'm not sharing anything that I don't know about...

Cartoon Videos

Microsoft has delevoped (actually: is developing) some interesting technology that lets you convert video footage into cartoons.

Althought the system is not quite finished yet and still requires manual intervention, the results are quite good.

That site has some still pictures of the results and a clip of the resulting cartoon.

Now all that's left is to find something useful to do with this technology....;-)