Links of interest

This is a very nice gadget, which could become an instrument of tomorrow - today! Just remember when one day you will tell your grandchild "Dj Reactable", where you first saw his turntables: evergreenlinks.blogspot.com :) " The reactable, is a multi-user electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving physical objects on a luminous table surface. By moving and relating these objects, representing components of a classic modular synthesizer, users can create complex and dynamic sonic topologies, with generators, filters and modulators, in a kind of tangible modular synthesizer or graspable flow-controlled programming language." Part 2:

Based on an essay by Mary Schmich

This guy is amazing. 45 minutes in a helicopter and he can draw a detailled picture of the city of Rome from memory.

Normally I don't post very many videos here. I do that on my funny blog . And there, normally I would just post the video directly and give a link to the website with it. But this time I post a video as a link only, just to make sure you check out the website as well. This guy has truely earned the honor. Inspiring! Check it out: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/ * credits for the title of this entry go to Matt , too.

Imagine the following: an experienced DJ sits down with you over his records. You name a song you like, he puts on a song he thinks you might also like. You listen, say if you like it or not, and, based on that, the DJ picks song after song closer, or in fact exactly to what you like. He even can tell you why he decided on a particular song. A brilliant service, www.pandora.com holds music for free, the best radio-ish webservice I experienced so far. I'm lazy right now and busy listening to this wonderful music, so please read here and try out here now. Just trust me, you won't regret it. If you wanna know what I listen to, check out the right side, below the "Feed Readers Digest " section. Edit: Pandora is closed for users outside the USA at the moment. I'll let you know when this sad time is over.

This program is really sweet. I will work on this post later, for now just a description from the website itself. Only so much: it is well worth exploring, I just know you WILL enjoy it. "Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go." www.stellarium.org

Another astonishing piece of Shockwave media art. http://www.flyingpuppet.com/shock/legato.htm

Did you ever think it would be great to have a tool, just like the ones on your computer, to squeeze the little extra performance out of your life, to clean the registry, or even fiddle with the setup? Well, that don't exist, friend. But at www.lifehacker.com , you get the tips 'n tricks, the how-to's and walkthroughs you need to do just that. Hack your life. My recommendation: put it straight in your feed reader, and you will get a hack a day (or so). On an almost completely unrelated sidenote, and just because I didn't know where else to put it, if you just thought "well, what's a hacker anyway?", the "How to become a hacker" guide on Eric S. Raymonds website tells you just that . BTW: Although I disagree with the author in many ways not regarding these documents, I do like these documents. As we know now what a hacker is, the following tells you how to ask favours from them: For many people, Internet, technics an' all that is a bit much....

My other mp3 is a Mercedes Benz... Starring: Mercedes Benz Mixed Tapes. That's music for keeps. First of all, the web interface is a definite "yes". You can either listen to the latest Mixed Tape on the page straight away, or download the album for your collection (yes, its free!). Every two months a new edition. You can't access the ones from the past, so make sure to be on the newsletter to be alerted when the fresh music arrives. Now THAT'S a good deal - my next one is a Benz (just maybe - please go mainstream hybrid real soon, or I listen to your fine music in this nice car ).

This one is for the technically interested. Sony CSL (Computer Science Laboratory) presents DataTiles. DataTiles: A Modular Platform for Mixed Physical and Graphical Interactions. http://gprime.net/video.php/sonyrevolution explained here: http://blog.ziffdavis.com/etbooks/archive/2005/06/10/7669.aspx and here: http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rekimoto/datatile/ Multimedia Tiles, eh? More nifty Sony gadgets here .

Confess to the Internet what you've done - and come clean . Or just see what others have to confess. An expurgatorial experience, also available as screensaver!

At http://www.storynest.com/ , you'll find Flash animations that are more poems than graphical animation, let's just say they are graphical poems. I think I like this one the most. Rain has its nice aspects, you know.

Listen to the ocean if you try to predict the next wave. We are listening. Listen to the Universe if you want to unwind. On spacesounds , you can. This 2005 Webby Awards winning website lets you hear the sound of stars, the world a few million years ago, whales, storms and much more. A hearing experience, mui gusto! Let the sound run in the background for a while, and you find yourself surrounded by a virtual soundworld. And note how dinosaurs sound a lot like experimental jazz...

...or its Earth Edition , to be exact.

Do the (rather long) test and verify if you are a geek. I for instance scored 33.13609 %, which means I am a "total geek" on a scale from Geekish Tendencies (≥09%) to Dysfunctional Geek (≥75%).

On http://dontclick.it/ you will find a whole new experience: navigate websites without a single click. Just move your mouse where you find something you'd like to explore. I'm really looking forward to the time, when this is common sense on the Internet. Until the speech commands are finally worth while at least.

Why not do something nice today! http://www.generosity.org

This czech Flash-Game/Movie/Poem/Puzzle/Dream by Jakub Dvorsky is best to be seen in a calm surrounding to be fully enjoyed, because it is into detail and earns to be played (?) with attention to it. But whereever you are, it is worth a look. Or even better two looks, because there also is a sequel of Samorost1, Samorost2. And for more information, here is the Wiki link for it. Enjoy. Samorost 1 http://www.samorost2.net/samorost1/ Samorost 2 http://www.samorost2.net/

Hooray for Google! Its a deal: you let me put up the nice videos from video.google.com, I in return feature the Google Factory Tour from the Google Press Center that I found (well, to be honest it is a bit of a test on how well this feature works with large files on blogs). And that this blog, as well as the video itself is hosted on Google just goes to show you how nice people in Google are. :-) Seriously, Google just introduced a new feature to Google Video that lets you put videos directly onto your page. Isn't that nice? If the connection is not the best where you are, why not download the NEW Google Video Player , which lets you build up the video until it will play without interuption. And to celebrate this great feature a bit more, here is a site that features lots and lots of video footage from Google Video, fosfor video.

Jajah.com, a company from Austria, is offering phone2phone calls via the Net. Simply put the your own and your desired landing number in the form, press "Call" and wait till your phone rings. Pick up, wait for the other to answer and talk away for prices that will propably beat your local service anytime (unless you are from Germany, and even then I have my doubts). So waste no time and call someone on www.jajah.com . If you get through that is, because after recent mentioning in the press this service obviously has experienced some increase in traffic.

Here you will find things like "How to preserve a Snowflake forever" and such . http://www.popsci.com

Let Einstein write your message on the blackboard! Help Albert!

Color Code is a full-color portrait of the English language. The artwork is an interactive map of more than 33,000 words. Each word has been assigned a color based on the average color of images found by a search engine. The words are then grouped by meaning. The resulting patterns form an atlas of our lexicon. --Martin Wattenberg http://loop.aiga.org/resources/loop/loop9/colorproject/index.html

Google Language tools can be used to translate words, whole sentences, complete sections of text and even entire websites. They also can be used to get a laugh out of it. This link is all about the latter.

The answer is at hand. In this well done Flash animation, you can either make a web out of connections of CEOs, Chairmen and such, or you pick two companies to find out how they are connected. http://www.theyrule.net For instance, look for the predone map "Two phonecalls away from Bush".

You don't have a PDA, but you like the idea of having a palm sized notebook? Well, go on, get a piece of paper and make your own! How to? Follow the link! http://www.pocketmod.com/

With this nice little Flash, you can produce spheric sounds by moving around sticks. Sounds boring? Not at all! http://nukes.org/santos/construct/construct0.swf Sounds a bit like Bjork, actually. Which is better than the old "tastes a bit like chicken", I suppose.

Here you can paint your own pictures and store them for others to see. You also can see the paintings of others. And the best thing: you can see the others paint this picture - the motion of the brush is stored with the picture, so you can actually see how they did it. http://artpad.art.com/ Enjoy, Vincent!

Give your imagination a kick and be your own comic editor. You don't even have to draw a single line, just drag, drop and fill the bubbles. http://www.thirdframestudios.com/adgame/stripgen Never mind the archived ones, most of them are gibberish, crap or both.

Let the internet dream. Put in a couple of keywords of a dream you'd like the internet to have and watch in astonishment...for hours. http://www.solaas.com.ar/dreamlines/index.htm Tip: Try combinations like "tree, lake". Don't be too specific. If the internet doesn't find that combination of words, it can't dream about it.

The first link of interest ever is something to let your mind relax. http://www.forests-forever.com/ Go hug a tree, will you?

...and this is the first time I'm blogging! A warm welcome to everybody visiting my blog! Enjoy.