Category Archives: Uncategorized

This was a paper at last year’s GECCO conference. An interesting attempt to teach a computer to paint a portrait of Darwin.

“The ultimate goal of the project is to build an Artificial Artist (a computer application able to generate artworks autonomously). NEvAr is an Evolutionary Art tool, a program that evolves a set of images, based on the aesthetic preferences of the user.”

Human competitors write small Java programs to simulate tank behaviors. The programs are run against each other to find out which one is best. Several researchers have evolved these programs instead of writing them by hand.

Fancy web-based file management. Awesome syncing and sharing features – watch the little video on the front page.

SHINY! (If you are brave, get the supermassive high-resolution 30MB JPG here: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/25/image/c/warn/)

Best building mod ever.

Barack Obama wants you to see this crazy web site.

A brand new search engine. Very interesting and visual ways of browsing search results from multiple sources. I like the “3D Photo Cloud View” and the “Video x3 View”.

Real hand-drawn sketches of early user interface concepts for famous sites such as Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo. An interesting glimpse of the UI design process!

Interesting idea – you prepay a gas card at today’s locked-in gas prices. When gas prices climb in the future, you can still buy gas at the cheaper locked-in price.

“Smash planets together, introduce rogue stars, and build new worlds from spinning discs of debris. Fire a moon into a planet or destroy everything you’ve created with a super massive black hole.” Sounds fun! “I AM GOD HERE!!”

“Scientists are accused of lessening the beauty of nature by explaining it in terms of science.Not so, according to the late physicist Richard Feynman,who says knowing about the inner structure of flowers adds to the excitement, mystery & awe of nature.”

Awesome panorama taken recently by the still-functioning Opportunity rover on Mars. I am still amazed that both rovers are still alive and well. HUGE 6.9M panorama image here: http://is.gd/OYq

“A fast, fun and effective way to take care of your brain.” I want to use this to improve my memory. But I’ll forget to do it.

Very addictive online multiplayer flash games. Blockles, a head-to-head Tetris clone, is especially fun.

I like the simplicity with which you can create complex images.

Privacy is dead. Google sold you out.

An excellent tool for browsing the stunning images captured by the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity). Available for Windows and Mac. (More info: http://midnightmarsbrowser.blogspot.com/)

A long-awaited new episode of the hilarious series!

How do you keep an adolescent gamer in suspense?

Hilarious.

This is the coolest synthesizer I’ve seen in a long time. Uses a grid of animated LED switches to play music intuitively. GIMME!! Product page: http://www.global.yamaha.com/tenori-on/what/index.html

Gamble pretend money by making predictions on news events. My friend Josh had this idea already! Thieves!!

No, wait, that’s the shadow of the Opportunity rover.

“Brain Toniq is the world’s first organic, botanical-based, non-caffeinated think drink specifically designed for those who need more mental focus and clarity.” <== I want to see experimental results!

“Awesome Highlighter lets you highlight text on web pages and then gives you a small link to the highlighted page.” Neat idea! Sample: http://awurl.com/sikuhi119667

Very sophisticated, purely web-based presentation creation tool.

Someone claiming to be the killer of a pregnant soldier sent a letter that “was signed with a symbol resembling the one connected with the Zodiac killer, a notorious serial killer in the late 1960s.”

Oops!

Look at the animation at the bottom, showing weird splotches that are growing on the lander’s leg. The splotches are getting bigger. What are they???

The internet loves hoaxes. A lot! (Be sure to contribute to the “Last Sandwich Jared Fogel Memorial Fund”)

More effective ways to spam everyone with inane details of my boring life: “Update From Anywhere! Use AIM, GTalk, iGoogle, WAP, iPhone/iPod Touch, SMS or E-mail and let Ping.fm relay your message to a multitude of social networking sites.”