From the creator of Upular and Expialidocious, here’s the Skynet Symphonic, a song composed entirely of sounds from Terminator 2.
[Via BuzzFeed]
From the creator of Upular and Expialidocious, here’s the Skynet Symphonic, a song composed entirely of sounds from Terminator 2.
[Via BuzzFeed]
Geeks have been using the Internet to meet other geeks, well, since it came around. I remember logging onto the Internet the first time, and I didn’t find information: I found a person. I believe I even corresponded with someone in Australia (this would have been in ’92, I believe) via short emails on a very antiquated computer. And after a time dabbling in AOL chat rooms (hey, there weren’t a whole lot of options) I discovered Elendor, a Tolkien-based MUSH, or Multi-User Simultaneous Hallucination.
What is a MUSH, you might wonder (well, other than that long acronym)? Long before the advent of MMORPGs, MUSHes (and MOOs and MUDs) allowed you to play around in a virtual, text-based world with other people. Essentially, that gave people like me license to pretend to be in their favorite books… which made it painfully addicting. But while the primary role of Elendor was to roleplay in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, it served a very important second purpose for many of us: social interaction.
Though I’m not in contact with everyone from Elendor, there are plenty of people who I still talk with regularly, including my husband. (Yes, the geekiest of geeky love stories happened on that game… but that’s another post altogether—in fact, the reason we started talking had nothing to do with hobbits, and everything to do with They Might Be Giants). Many of my friends from the MUSH are consummate geeks, literary nuts, and generally wonderful eccentrics.
I haven’t signed on to Elendor in years. The last time I tried to log in, I discovered that my characters had been purged (every last hobbit). Honestly, Twitter has replaced MUSHing (and chat in general) for me in a variety of ways, and taking this trip down memory lane made me realize how similar both social networks are. Consider the following:
At any rate, my rather meandering conclusion is that really, even with the Internet, nothing is new. Twitter taps in to a way that people communicate, and have been communicating for a long time. That geeks have been doing it for decades is no surprise!
Have any pre-Twitter social media stories to share? Let us know!
Tags: MUSH, online, RP, social media
At Stanford University, primatologist Robert Sapolsky offers a fascinating and funny look at human behaviors which the rest of the animal kingdom would consider bizarre. A few of the topics he speaks on include aggression, theory of mind, the golden rule and pleasure.
Warning: Video contains strong language
If you ever find yourself acting like this guy while playing Monopoly with your hot girlfriend, maybe it’s time to start thinking about changing your priorities.
[Via TechEblog]
There’s no disputing that Netflix has changed the way we watch movies. It’s been at least three years since I set foot in a Blockbuster, for example, and the only independent shop I used to frequent has closed all but one of its locations… if that’s even still around.
What’s particularly intriguing to note is the fact that Netflix has changed our expectations about DVDs. Now, we expect them to come to us. On top of that, we want it now, what with all the streaming videos and, preferably, on our XBoxes.
As you might imagine, Netflix has some pretty intriguing data, considering everyone and their mother uses it now. Data means more fun for geeks. Data means one of the best things ever: charts! Charts + interactivity + GoogleMap = WIN!
The New York Times posted some fascinating map demographics of popular titles in major metropolitan areas throughout the US. As the Times points out, there are quite a few rather intriguing patterns. I find it particularly amusing that most of New York City proper ignores Paul Blart: Mall Cop while the surrounding areas quite enjoy it. That’s quite a distinguishing difference. Come on people, no love for the fat cop?
Personally, I’d like to see this on an international level. It’s no end of fun to sort by film and get a glimpse of what people are watching. Not to mention, organizing by genre would be particularly fascinating. Like, what areas are more likely to rent sci-fi and fantasy films? Where are the biggest BSG fans? Gosh, the possibilities really are endless. I’m not sure what I’d do with all that information, should I have it, but hey. That’s not he point. You never know when you’re going to need to know which counties in Montana prefer Star Wars to Star Trek.
Anyway! Mmm… interactive maps.
Geek guys love geek girls, but geek guys can be completely oblivious to the possibility that any particular girl might have something substantial in common with them. You can drop a hint without being pushy by wearing these Computer Chip Earrings!
Genuine 8-pin and 16-pin computer chips are mounted on sterling silver posts to create two pairs of earrings suited for that elegant lady geek in your family.
When a geek you fancy gets close enough, pull your hair back nonchalantly, and be ready to discuss the merits of various chips. It’s a natural icebreaker that may lead to something wonderful.
[via Unique Daily]?
With the iPhone App Store having now delivered three billion downloads, you might think every possible idea had already been thought up. You’d be wrong. Here’s our guide to some recent releases which, while not necessarily useful or desirable, are notable in some manner.
PocketHeat: As the billing has it, this turns your phone into a hand warmer by ratcheting up demands on the processor to force the handset to heat up. It’s reported that this app originally worked exactly as originally described, though this sounds very unlikely. In any case, it’s now clearly marketed as a novelty item with no real heating power. Still, you have to give the makers some credit for satire given recent reports of iPhones overheating.
Chomp: This is one of a growing number of apps designed to help you find apps. That may feel a little Synecdoche, New York for comfort, but Chomp has earned some good reviews as the most simple yet intuitive tool of its type. (For dedicated websites performing the same task, there’s one that has to be mentioned more for its creative domain name rather than its content: app.itize.us)
Food Watch New York: This is a simple mapping tool which displays which nearby restaurants have recently failed safety inspections. While that may sound useful, it could have some drawbacks: if you eat regularly in an area, there’s a risk that using it will bring up an establishment you’ve already visited…
MyFace: Offering personalized cosmetics tips based on your ethnicity, skin tone and skin color, this is notable mainly for the fact that my mother can now no longer get her social networks confused and ask people “Do you have a MyFace?”
SecurityCam: This sets your iPhone to take a picture either at regular intervals, when it detects a sound, or both. It’s probably not going to be in the CIA budget, but should be a hit with creepy younger brothers everywhere.
iHome + Sleep: Have you ever thought it would be neat to be able to press one button on your phone the moment you wake up and have your it automatically post on Facebook and Twitter to let people know you are awake? No? Probably OK to skip this one then.
forChan: This app has already been pulled but is a great example of the tricks developers are using to get round Apple’s terms and conditions. It’s an app designed for looking at pictures of dogs from a message board. And if users decide to change the easily customizable settings so that the picture come from a pornography board instead, well the developers can’t be blamed for that, can they? This was approved and operational in under 12 hours, and then removed not much later thanks to the secret bonus level of the approval process (that being media scrutiny). Incidentally, if you do want to look at pictures of naked ladies, there’s a very useful free app named Safari.
Disney World Wait Times: This does exactly what you’d imagine, with the bonus that users can easily update it with their actual experiences to make sure the figures are as accurate as possible at any precise moment. This can only be a forerunner to the “Are We Nearly There Yet?” app.
Gunman: This is a remarkably simple idea which could prove effective. Your screen acts as a traditional viewfinder but with a target scope. You set up a multiplayer game via WiFi and take a picture of your opponents so that the app can recognize the color they are wearing. And then the game begins.
As far as I’m concerned, the first version of this commercial is probably one of the best ad of all time, but this one isn’t all that bad either.
[Via Reddit]
Just when everybody thought that the fan-made Mega Man movie announced in 2008 was going to be just like Duke Nukem Forever, some unexpected news arrives! On his blog, film maker Eddie Lebron announced that the movie will be released before summer 2010 and will run for a total of 107 minutes.
The next big question is: when will it be released? The film shall be released online 2 weeks after the premiere. Well, when will the premiere be? I don’t want to say officially when it will but I do have a specific time frame in mind and it’s soon….very soon. Without giving too much, the film will be premiered before the summer.
In the following video presentation, neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.