Ok, I’m pretty sure that cake is totally delicious, but darn, just taking a bite out of the thing would probably make me feel nauseated.
[Via That’s Nerdalicious]
Silent Hill Nurse Cake [Picture]
Secret Morse Code Message Revealed in Mortar Board
When the Man says you can’t decorate your mortar board at graduation, what do you do? You outsmart the Man. When Victor Youk graduated earlier this month but was prohibited by his school from doing the masking tape-on-mortar-board trick that so many people do, he figured out his own way to celebrate graduation: he hacked the cap to include infrared lights that blinked a Morse Code message. Though it wasn’t visible to the naked eye, video cameras should have picked it up. Graduates who go back and watch the ceremony later (and, um, know Morse Code) will be thrilled to see Youk’s “Congratulations Class of 2011” message, I’m sure.
[via]
There’s No Basement on the Enterprise [Comic]
And of course Data replies with “I know you are but what am I?”
A little backstory from Joel Watson:
Wil tweeted a bit about watching Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. It reminded me a line in his book, Memories of The Future, where he compared a particularly indignant and slightly snottyWesley line read to the way Pee Wee informed Dottie that they would NOT, in fact, be knocking platform bar-dancing boots in the back of the bike shop. I found myself sitting at my desk, trying to convince myself to draw a comic about shotgunning the whole first season of Game of Thrones in less than 36 hours (a thing which I really did), INSTEAD of drawing the weird thing you see above. It seems that I lost my internal battle of wills, logic was thrown to the wind and common sense did not prevail.
If you like this, you’ll be happy to know that it’s available as a t-shirt over on Sharksplode.
Techy Vintage Wedding Dress Brings the Geek [Pics]
Wellesley College student designer Wendy Chen created this circuit board and lace frock for the Davis Design Contest; the first-place winner is a vintage lace dress embellished with key caps and motherboards, a combination the artist says “weaves together the old and the new, reflecting hope for a harmonious union between humanity and technology.”
[source via globalgeeknews]
My Little Serenity [Video]
Oh, the Internet. She is a mite unpredictable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P3HHpf-fZY&feature=player_embedded
This My Little Ponies meets Serenity mash-up is the latest round of hypergeeky awesomeness from BronyVids, the folks who brought us the My Little Pony/Watchmen video.
[G.TDW]
23 Years of Computer Geekery in One Place
We’ve written several pieces about computer technology of the 80s and early 90s before and clearly struck a nostalgic chord with many readers of a certain age (and those with a historical curiosity.) With that in mind, we’ve found a site that you are sure to love.
The Obsolete Technology Website at oldcomputers.net includes a comprehensive timeline of machines from 1970 through 1993. Sadly not every listing has an accompanying article, though fortunately a quick online search proves there was indeed a Wang 2200.
Among the more notable machines listed include the IMSAI 8080, which you may recognize from War Games. It’s almost a little disappointing to learn that David Lightman was using a seven-year-old computer!
There’s also the VideoBrain Family Computer which, while not a games console, did allow users to load programs from commercially sold cartridges, surely the inspiration for the BBC’s Chockablock.
Then there’s the Apple Lisa, billed as the first successful commercial computer to use a graphical user interface, and all for just $9,995. There’s the Tomy Tutor, surely an attempt to capitalize on the well-established “but mum, it will help with my homework” market. And don’t forget the Atari Stacy, an incredible chunky “laptop” that weighed in at 15 pounds.
The site also includes an entertaining collection of advertisements for old computers, including the QDP-300 that gives peace of mind with its optional 15MB hard drive and a switchable voltage supply so you can use it on trans-continental trips. And there’s a great list of 25 facts including the fact that the Apple II was available in black, albeit only through a schools licensing program.
(Picture credit: Obsolete Technology Website)
Some Reasons to Be Optimistic About Google Plus
Here’s a dirty little secret: I thought Google Wave was going to be awesome. I admit this so that you can immediately discount everything I’m about to write if you like, but wait, hear me out!
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past 48 hours or so then you’ve heard about Google’s new “Facebook killer.” Because despite Google’s serious attempts to not brand themselves that way (“It’s a project, not a product! We’re not competing with Facebook!”), media article after media article has been using a term that makes me think we’re not talking about social networking at all but instead the upcoming season of Dexter. So yes, everyone knows that it’s meant to compete with Facebook. Because Google would be stupid not to want to compete with Facebook, which is perhaps the number one source of valuable user data they’re not getting.
Of course, we have reason to be wary. Because Google Wave was impenetrable and Google Buzz made Facebook’s privacy woes look amateur. And there’s a lot working against them in terms of adoption, because so many people are so firmly ensconced in Facebook that they’d have to be dragged out kicking and screaming. Years ago I remember thinking that Facebook would have difficulty sucking the user base out of Friendster, but that was nowhere near the scale we’re talking about now – Facebook is pretty much taking over the world. And of course the thing about an online social network is, it only works if your “real” social network is there. Plus if everyone moves over from Facebook to Google Plus, just think about all those dead crops!
Still, I am optimistic that this thing could actually work. Here’s why:
- The reason I don’t use Facebook much is because every time I post something I have to think “Do I want my father to read this? My academic adviser? My boss? My friends? That guy I dated for two weeks in high school?” Yes, Facebook does provide ways to make posts selectively private, but it seems like this is exactly the problem that Circles is trying to solve.
- As xkcd points out, on one hand you’ll never be able to convince your parents to switch. On the other hand, you’ll never be able to convince your parents to switch!
- The adoption problems re: tearing people away from Facebook (and their crops!) may be mitigated in part by the ease of adding people via gmail. What’s one more Google product in our lives? Plus Google’s limited roll-out strategy seems to have been successful in the past at creating demand and buzz. I wonder if they considered buying MySpace at a low, low, discounted price to lure over the two people and some bands who are left there.
- Given the huge shift in Facebook towards games like Farmville, as well as other apps, it’s possible that Google Plus can be more of a pure social network without all the noise. I see those two functions as very different things, and for those who like to play social games, there may be room for more than one site in their lives.
- After the debacle with Buzz, Google is heavily motivated to take privacy very seriously. I am optimistic on this count, though on the other hand, I’ve heard some grumbling (unverified) that Plus makes gender a mandatory public field, and this is the kind of thing that causes problems. So we’ll see.
- Hangouts is actually something new – more similar to Skype than Facebook. The spontaneous gathering idea is interesting, but what really appeals to me is the potential to support a social practice I already have – which is watching Netflix remotely with people. For friends who live far away, we queue up a movie (usually a bad one) and then chat in IM as we watch. When I saw someone tweeting yesterday about “hanging out” in Plus watching YouTube videos with friends, I got a glimmer of hope for this.
So will Google Plus (and by the way, “Google+” is such an awful name for the purposes of writing, I can’t even express) be the “Facebook Killer”? Doubtful. But there might still be something there, and maybe I’m just too sunshine-and-unicorns, but I’m excited to find out.
Are you optimistic about Google+? And if it came down to it, what would it take to tear you away from Facebook?
Comic credit: http://xkcd.com/ / CC BY-NC 2.5
