Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” – 20061218

Hi,

This will be the last one for the year as next Monday Jools and I will be doing the Christmas shuffle. So have a great Christmas and we will catch up in the New Year. Remember Champagne and single Malts are your friends, taxi’s are your friends, driving your own car and trying to find parking is a pain and doesn’t mix with the aforementioned single malts.

So assuming that it’s either a slow week and you are just gliding in to the end of the week lets start with the biggest time soak on the internet. MAPS.
There’s google maps, Microsoft maps and yahoo maps and NASA maps and here is Flash Earth http://www.flashearth.com/ an interface to them all. (One web page to find them all ..) It allows you to easily switch between them all checkout each one’s particular representation of satellite and aerial imagery and see what you like (translate that to “the one that doesn’t have clouds where you want to look). A huge waste of time.

Lot’s of money? Looking for a unique gift? Check out Theo Kamecke , he makes the most beautiful sculpture and furniture, lots of the finishes look like circuit boards.
Here is some of the hype.
“He saw in the graphic patterns of electronic circuitry with their endless variety the same beauty we perceive in seashells, in crystals, in the grain of wood or even in the tree itself. All these are, after all, forms derived from function, so if we find beauty in them it is not because they were designed to please the eye. He saw that the aesthetic qualities of the circuitry graphics could, like hieroglyphs, be resolved into an inscrutable language or like colors, into a palette of mood”
Yes, yes, yes we all want one.
http://www.theokamecke.com/main.html

Bill Gates on the side of angels? Naaah, it’s Christmas not the apocalypse. Bill gave this really weird interview the punch line of which was “DRM sucks. buy a cd and copy it to your MP3player”. Ever get the feeling that sometimes reality is a really movable fixture?

Bill Gates On The Future Of DRM

If you are one of the few people who actually sit and watch the credits roll at the end of a movie, you may want to check out the ILM website showcasing several visual effects veterans (including VFX supervisor John Knoll) who created the magic of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” The sites clips let you to see behind the layers of animation and see what they had to start with before the “fiddle”.
http://www.ilm.com/theshow/

What would Christmas be without Lego (a damn site safer if you have ever trod on them in barefeet)? Well here is the sort of thing you can do with it.
“It’s a kind of robot-car done with LEGO mindstorms NXT elements that can automatically park itself if it detects enough space between 2 objects. It has got an ultrasonic sensor that detects the length of free spaces. Then, when it detects enough space, it makes the necessary movments to park. And when you say “GO!” it returns to the road”
Meanwhile back at the Single Malts..

And here is the Flash Game ( and I this one is seriously brain damaging) This one has a lot going for it: Simple controls, cute character, soothing music, seriously addicting gameplay (just one more game. trust me. addictive) and a vaguely Chrissy theme. The deal is to get the cute little bunny to jump as high as possible. You jump and then use the mouse to control, lands on a bell, you jumps higher and so does your score. Birds are worth double points and the higher you go the more points a jump is worth. Easypeasy simple, you bet, challenging (and anxiety-inducing) as the stakes increase and the bells get smaller, and one missed bell can send the rabbit your bunny plummeting to the ground. Whack your high scores in the comments at thatchspace.
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm

And lastly some of the highlights from over at http://notdeadyet.com.au/duggup
Liquid Zen was yesterdays Chill piece (the album link is well worth a listen).
Jools found Danielson and Lissa Schneckenburger,
Sophe Lux, Sorta and Eglantine Gouzy were some of the others covered, stroll over and have a rummage.

As usual have a good one

thatch

{Currently listening to Vienna Teng and Enya}
{Currently reading: Head First Ajax (again)}
{Quick Status Check: Chrissy shopping coming up, I’m going to hell}
{Crop Circle Status: Over ’til next year. not long now}

Published
Categorized as Mondays

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