Is is possible to create and air your own ad? Well, it’s now a lot easier thanks to Google. Interesting Now with the correct video and everything! Oops:
One of the blogs I read all the time is JOHO (Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization). He was live-blogging a talk given by a CMU professor, and I was drawn into this awesome use of Captchas:
He says that about 200M captchas are typed every day. He was proud of that until he realized it takes about 10 seconds to type them, so his invention is wasting 500,000 hours per day. So, he wondered if there was a way to use captchas to solve some humungous problem ten seconds at a time. result: ReCAPTCHA. For books written before 1900, the type is weak and about 30% of the text cannot be recognized by OCR. So, now many captchas ask you to type in a word unrecognized when OCR’ing a book. (The system knows which words are unrecognized by running multiple OCR programs; ReCAPTCHA uses those words.) To make sure that it’s not a software program typing in random words, ReCAPTCHA shows the user two words, one of which is known to be right. The user has to type in both, but doesn’t know which is which. If the user types in the known word correctly, the system knows it’s not dealing with a robot, and that the user probably got the unknown word right.
Pretty cool use of everyone’s time! Check out the entire article here
I’m still getting caught up on videos and such from the last month. This has it all, it is a must, absolute must watch (just don’t forget it’s from May 6):
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Family Research Council’s European Gaycation | ||||
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Via Andrew Sullivan, here is a fantastic quote from Douglas Adams, in 1999:
So people complain that there’s a lot of rubbish online, or that it’s dominated by Americans, or that you can’t necessarily trust what you read on the web. Imagine trying to apply any of those criticisms to what you hear on the telephone. Of course you can’t ‘trust’ what people tell you on the web anymore than you can ‘trust’ what people tell you on megaphones, postcards or in restaurants. Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do. For some batty reason we turn off this natural skepticism when we see things in any medium which require a lot of work or resources to work in, or in which we can’t easily answer back — like newspapers, television or granite. Hence ‘carved in stone.’ What should concern us is not that we can’t take what we read on the internet on trust — of course you can’t, it’s just people talking — but that we ever got into the dangerous habit of believing what we read in the newspapers or saw on the TV — a mistake that no one who has met an actual journalist would ever make.
Honestly, 1980 surprises me. I understand the incrase in television, although the jump in radio seems odd to me. Read the whole article, here.
Well I’m back. Well I never really left, so here’s a giant update for everyone, enjoy!
I somehow missed this commercial the first time around, and I really like it:
For all the music folk out there, Slate has a cool article about playing in tune. I remember going to a concert of Catham Baroque in College, they had major issues because where they were performing was a cold space, except the floor was heated. It wreaked havoc on all their instruments.
Also in Slate, an article about the AP Styleguide and how changes are made. I need a new one, I’ll have to check out their store to see if the 2010 version is available.
And again in Slate, a cool article about PowerPoint. It can be awesome, it really can be, just don’t do what most people do!
The first part of Star Wars Uncut is up. The project brings people from all over the world to do small segments of A New Hope and then splices them together:
Star Wars Uncut “The Escape” from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.
Also, I’ve watched this video a couple times, and it’s amazing, an Octopus steals a diver’s camera while it is still on. The diver chases and finally gets it back:
octopus steals my video camera and swims off with it (while it’s Recording) from Victor Huang on Vimeo.
Want to know what kind of hell happens to your mind when you stay inside a Wal Mart for 24 straight hours? Read the hilarious report here:
An employee yelled “Shut up!” to me after I stood in the middle of the lingerie section and screamed “Spring Break!” at the top of my lungs.
I know it’s over, but I meant to post this while the contest was going on, but this Lost video was made by a local guy. It didn’t end up winning, although when I watched all of the finalists, I really liked it the best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiKABfaQsbY
Ok, some more about Lost. Here are the characters are summarized by cats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-DShnvNNv0
And Sally Wiggin (yes, that Sally Wiggin) talks about what the finale meant to her.
There was a theory that the eruption and subsequent ash cloud of Mt. Eyjafjallajokull would cool us down a bit, or maybe even stave off summer. Sadly, it’s been warm here. Read the article here, and I’ll be glad that my friend Kyle was finally able to make it back from Europe after all kinds of delays getting there (and the possibility of becoming stuck)
NASA captured this amazing photo of clouds over Africa:
I fully realize that this would probably clog anyone’s arteries in about three seconds after putting the first bit in your mouth, but it still looks really good: pancake, cheesecake, pancake, strawberries whipped cream. I’m assuming the strawberries make it healthy, right?
Let’s play a fun game. It’s called “Imagine.”
Here’s a good follow up:
Maybe the national media wouldn’t be blindsided by things like Arizona’s new anti-immigration law or Virginia’s racially tone deaf governor if it took attacks on gays and lesbians seriously, if the media saw them for the outliers they are, and stopped giving politicians like Brewer and McDonnell a faith-based pass when they attack sexual minorities. Because governors and legislators who attack sexual minorities today invariably go on to attack other minority groups tomorrow. Hate is hate is hate.
And also on that note:
Leviticus 19:33-34 (NIV)
When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.
Moral of this story, don’t celebrate a win before the game is over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb2UME1fBYo
Hold on. they can’t be serious. Apple is saying they are more open than Adobe? Excuse me while I go catch my breath from laughing.
Want to see some cool sand art? Here’s an example, and here are the rest.
Well this is awkward:
Aussies are safer in a strip club than a church, suggests new government data. According to the latest figures compiled by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 1600 people were charged with committing a range of 27 offences in the state’s “places of worship” in 2008. Astonishingly, the data showed only 282 people were charged with the same offences in adult entertainment premises.
I think I have a new favorite blog, it’s called The Big Caption, bringing together images and typography
Thanks Newsweek. And in other news, the Gulf: oily
I’m angry at Arizona for so many things, including their ban on willingly creating a human/animal hybrid (How will I amass my Centaur army now?!), but this is always heartbreaking, Arizona is now firing or moving teachers that don’t speak English properly, which makes sense to me (granted, how they frame that bill and everything associate with it was kind of underhanded), but I’d like to bring attention to what ope of the Secretary of Education’s advisers said:
Teachers should speak good grammar because kids pick up what they hear
And thanks to Jezebel for putting together this awesome guide to traveling in Arizona:
Thank you, that is all.
Ok, it’s cool, but the bicycle wheel is just showing off:
Gravité from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.
I’m just going to go ahead and declare this a total win:
This also rocks a lot, and continues the Star Wars theme (if not a bit creepy and direct):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snp3rHDHwPg
Ok fine, one more Star Wars related item:
Need some help picking some colors? I haven’t played around with it, but this site was suggested to me, let me know how it works!
This is just amazing, check out the art installation that puts you into a dry pool.
This ad is awesome, one because it’s the first motion-sensitive billboard that I’ve seen, and second, the format works great for the venue. A coworker of mine is in D.C. this weekend and even though I’ve never been there, I recommended the Spy Museum, I’ve only heard people rave about it, next time I’m down in Washington, I’ll have to check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1FeR54F-Y
Just because it’s funny:
I don’t want to say I told you so. But I told you so (well, at least maybe).
Student newspapers at private schools are sticky business, I should know. From where I stand, the school is in the clear to do this. Should they? Well that is another matter entirely. My heart goes out to the writers and editors, I know how hard it can be, without the administration threatening the jobs of faculty members (good grief).
For your reference (full size here):
Panera is testing a “pay what you think it’s worth” store, and if it works (the money goes to charity), will open more. It’s fun, since I’m writing this in a Panera. With moronic teenage girls running the bakery counter. I’ve heard them argue about the unfairness of driving, and how they are stapling napkins. I’m not sure why either.
Ever want to know how the stop sign was created? Slate investigates here. And here’s what would happen if a corporation had been charged with making it:
And Slate takes a look at this year’s Clio Awards.
This is amazing, and the first building reminds me of Myst Island. I know, huge nerd, but we all knew that, didn’t we?
Projection on Buildings from NuFormer Projection on Vimeo.
This is worth a read. I never realized that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was made into a political controversy. Sigh.
Good gravy, this might be a record for me! Hope you enjoyed it, catch everyone soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sySLy4Q8gXg
TDP Banner 2
This is the banner for the second roll-out of changes for the TDP (Transit Development Plan) by the Port Authority. Something about it was bugging me,
and for the longest time, I couldn’t figure it out. Then it finally hit me. The banners, especially the first iteration, remind me a lot of the artwork used in the card game “Beer Money.”
Beery Money boxart
The first round of changes was ushered in by a purple banner, which matched the Beer Money cards and box (shown below).
But I do like them a lot. The movement, although more understated, matches the banner at the top of their website and I do love the choice of bus that they used (one in good repair, with their name all over it), but I digress.
These are seen on the side of buses, as well as inside (think ads in the NYC Subway, above everyone) as well as online. I’m still trying to locate the first banner, and if I can find it, I’ll put it up here.
And now for a shameless plug: want to read more about PAT? Check out my (almost regular) weekly column, PATransit Tuesdays, over at Pittsburgh Metblogs.
Slate takes a look at the new system of “Like’s” that will be all over the Internet, feeding information back to Facebook.
Yes, lots of other firms mine our online activity, but Facebook’s system will be all the more powerful because it is voluntary.
