I know sometimes we look at art and say, "What motivated the artist? Why this canvas? What does it all mean?" Well, here's a website lovingly and intricately created to show that art can provide the platform for an engaging puzzle of logic. Spend a few minutes here and see if you can solve the puzzle of the Treasure Box. Fun!
Treasure Box
One of the things that is so nice that comes with owning an iPod is that, when you get tired of listening to music, you can listen to podcasts or audio books instead. Wired News picks up this thread thusly:
This summer, Hugh McGuire was searching for free audio books online from his home in Montreal. He didn't find very much.
So McGuire launched LibriVox by recruiting amateur readers to create audio files of works of literature. The project now includes almost two dozen complete works, including Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Jack London's The Call of the Wild and other classic novels and poems.
Over the years, something I've found humorous are the various collections of misheard song lyrics put together in book form (The "'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy" collection), and all over the internet (just Google 'misheard song lyrics' sometime).
The fine folks at Snopes.com present their collection each year, something they call "Mondegreens" (for an explanation, see the page) of misheard song lyrics relating to holiday traditional carols and songs. There's even a link to send in your own misheard lyrics. I like Snopes because, in my day job working at a help desk, I am frequently sent emails on our company listserv from users wondering if a certain email they received is legit. I refer them to snopes.com and invariably the scam is there. Bookmark their site yourself for easy reference, if you haven't already.
Presented here, though, is their homage to Christmas lyrics misheard -- enjoy!
The Red and the Mondegreen
Here's a small holiday gift for you. If you're looking to spend a few minutes (or more) wasting some quality time online in a game, look no further. Mark Hurst has listed some of his favorite online games that, in his opinion:
[...]offer a "good experience" - good game design with an overall attention to quality. Unless otherwise noted, they're all free, online, and available right now.
Here in Ohio, snow is not just an occasional event in the winter; it's a way of life. If you live anywhere around the snow belt (Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown, etc.), you see "lake effect" snow that is produced from cold air whipping south and east over the Great Lakes, the result of which is to produce snow by the bucketful as the winds pick up slightly warmer air from the lakes and convert it into snow. Lots of snow. If you're a snow fan, yippee! After 40 years living around it, ehhh -- not so much.
But, witness the beautiful snowflake. A perfect crystal structure. What we see for the brief moment on our gloves or coat is beautiful, if fleeting. Also very, very small. What do these structures look like close up? I'm glad you asked. SnowCrystals.com has the scoop on snowflakes, and the close-up views are fascinating. Plus, they even go the home-brew route and grow their own flakes in the lab!
NOAA Question of the Month: What is Lake Effect Snow?
Snowflakes and Snow Crystals
If you're one of the lucky folks out there that recently got a new iPod, you were probably overjoyed at first (who wouldn't be? I sure was when I got mine!), but then wondered exactly what the inside story on this little wonder was. Is there more to it than just getting my music onto it and playing some tunes? Well, Apple launched a new website to deal with questions from newbies and pros alike.
From the intro page:
Whether you're a Mac or Windows user, iPod 101 contains tons of information that'll help you enjoy your iPod to its fullest and guide you on your way to becoming iTunes savvy (we're using iTunes 6 in our course materials). Get ready to walk through the virtual aisles of the iTunes Music Store; learn how to sync your music, contacts, calendars, and more; admire your pretty pictures (and force others to do the same); watch TV shows and video; and find out what to do when things don't go as planned.
I've visited Wikipedia before, and even blogged about it, in my previous blog. The basic idea is that Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia about everything and anything, with the articles being written by the general public. The articles themselves are constantly editable, as new information is learned, or people with expertise in a topic show up to burnish the edges. But, the concept always suffered from one flaw, in my opinion -- how am I to ultimately know whether what I'm reading has been fact-checked, and is as unbiased as possible? Well, that flaw is exposed in a big way in the following USA Today article, about an assistant to Robert Kennedy, Attorney General in the '60s . Form your own opinions, but this points to why I think there needs to be better research and fact-checking involved, somehow.
A false Wikipedia 'biography'
[Courtesy of USATODAY.com]
Wikipedia.com
Hey gang, sorry I'm a day or so off in posting this -- got busy at work. As you can see by the banners along the right side of my blog, I'm a Mozilla fan. Mozilla, creators of Firefox (stand-alone web broswer) and Thunderbird (stand-alone email client), have been my apps of choice for at least the last two years. They are fast, good with security, and cross-platform, too.
Well, the big news this week is that the latest release brings the Firefox browser to version 1.5. Go and grab it ASAP, especially if you use that security-poor, bug-ridden browser called I.E. for short (no bias here, LOL). And try out Thunderbird for your email, while you're at it. If you want it all, Mozilla ties web, email, IRC client and more all together in one app.
Firefox v1.5
[courtesy of Mozilla.com]
Today, back in 1972, Atari released the seminal arcade video game, Pong. To think of all the quarters I went through in arcades during the '70s, especially on family vacations. But it all really starts here.
All the best, Pong!
PONG-story
From the BBC News article:
The world's first global communications system for exchanging text messages was not the internet nor the mobile phone.It was the great engineering project undertaken 150 years ago to put wires across the globe.
Interesting read about how telegraph cables were laid around the time of the Civil War. Any techie worth their salt should know where all this wonderful technology comes from...here's a start.
Brand-new to the Mac platform? Perhaps you're a 'switcher', trying out a Mac for the first time after using a Wintel PC for lo these many years? If so, you may have a new Mac Mini (a low-cost Mac where you provide the monitor, keyboard, and mouse). In any case, here's a page with helpful hints and tips for the new Mac user...enjoy!
10 Things Every New Mac Owner Should Know [courtesy of 123macmini.com]
From the About:
GRIN is a collection of over a thousand images of significant historical interest scanned at high-resolution in several sizes. This collection is intended for the media, publishers, and the general public looking for high-quality photographs.
OK, for those of you who don't remember from previous incarnation of my blog, I am an avid Google fan. Google Mail (GMail)? Check. Google Individual Homepage? Check. Frequent visitor to the bubbling Google Labs? Check. Another cool Google offering is Google Maps. I was a Yahoo! Maps user and used a few other sites as well, but Google Maps topped 'em all.
The next evolution were individuals messing about with the code for Google Maps to provide results based on all sorts of criteria. Apartment listings by city, crime stats by city, et al. Well, here's a cool new blog that offers cool Google Maps offerings titled, appropriately enough, Cool Google Maps. Go check it out!
Cool Google Maps
Thinking of going into business for yourself by providing some service through the web? These ten tips will give you something to consider as you formulate your business plan. Very well done, these are offered by the CEO of Odeo in San Fran, and CEO of Pyra Labs, now owned by Google, which created the Blogger site. Great info.
Ten Rules For Web Startups
Open Source Mac
From the About:
Open Source Mac is a simple list of the best free and open source software for Mac OS X. We aren't trying to be a comprehensive listing of every open-source mac app, instead we want to showcase the best, most important, and easiest to use. This page should be a handy reference and a useful tool for getting more people to start using free and open-source software. If you think we're missing any great apps, please let us know. If you're a Mac user, this site is a treasure.
Ok, so engines aren't your thing, but you're quite the woodworker and are itching for a new project? How about constructing your very own pipe organ? Looks easy!
http://www.rwgiangiulio.com/
It is handcrafted with ruler, white glue and X-acto knife. It took approximately one year to design and construct.
Unbelievable...I remember when one of my older brothers put together a Wankel engine plastic replica down in the basement of our parents' house. It was fascinating. By the above standards, now he'd have to whittle it out of soap to make an impression...
http://www.yeesjob.com/v8engine.htm
Hello, and welcome back. This blog highlights some of the more interesting or unique websites and tech stories that I come across on the internet. I had maintained a similar blog until late spring, but found that I didn't have the time to keep the content freshly updated. I think that a blog should be timely, or you shouldn't have one, so I deleted it. However, I find that I missed it...the posting, the sharing of new finds that I sometimes make on a daily basis. So, here I am, back again. I hope you find this site interesting, and entertaining.
As for the name, Kachup, see my profile for an explanation. Occasionally I may comment on other topics, but by and large this will be me sharing websites that I think are different or cool for some reason. I peruse many sites in my off-time spent online...let's see what I can dig up for you.
~Kachup
