Poodwaddle.com

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Poodwaddle.com

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Poodwaddle.com

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via YouTube

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Poodwaddle.com

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Terrific new technology offering from the brainiacs at Google, allowing you to search precisely one day into the future.

Q: What about insider trading?
A: Let me search tomorrow's Google news to find out!

Excerpt:

A new Google program powered by artificial intelligence allows internet users to search web pages 24 hours before they're created, the company said today.

Google Australia said the new beta search technology which drives the gDay search feature can accurately predict future internet content – and even future events.

The gDay technology – developed in the company's Sydney engineering centre – uses machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques from a system called MATE, or Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation.

The feature then creates a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from a given point by using the company's index of historic, cached web content and a combination of recurrence plots and "fuzzy measure" analysis.

(rubbing hands gleefully together) Excellent !

>

Source:
New Google search tool 'can see into future'
News Limited, April 01, 2008 06:30am
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23460961-5014239,00.html

Posted at 05:51 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Here's a pretty smart idea, via Microcaps Speculator:  Search over 100 of the top financial blogs at once, without any of the spam blogs (splogs) that clog results on typical blog search engines.

http://microcapspeculator.googlepages.com/home

Posted at 06:52 AM in Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Swedish graduate student Emil Ernerfeldt created the program Phun, a 2D physics playground, and has made it free to download for non-commercial use. He demonstrates it in a zenful YouTube video, where he creates devices like cars and piston engines in seconds using simple shapes.

Cool!

via boing boing

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How wicked cool is this:

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READ CAREFULLY. By reading this blog, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

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Click for hours of endless fun!

http://www.flong.com/storage/experience/meshy/index.html

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Click for hours of endless fun!

http://www.flong.com/storage/experience/floccus/

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Pretty freakin cool:

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I love this:

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Rex has the best of 2007 lists up -- its huge!

Go check it out

http://www.fimoculous.com/year-review-2007.cfm

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Amusing!

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Rex Sorgatz of Fimoculous, answers the question: Among the scores of sites devoted to Google-watching, sympathetic and skeptical, which are the best?
  

PRO-GOOGLE

Google Operating System
By  far the most comprehensive destination for all-things-Google, this site  consistently reads between the lines of the press releases, teases out hidden  features, and scoops tech reporters without even trying. The name derives from  the notion that the operating system as we know it is dying–and moving  online.

Blogoscoped
Taking a  slightly more newsy agenda, Blogscoped tracks new product releases, privacy  concerns, and releases from Google competitors.

The Official Google Blog
You  might think that Google could be the one company that uses blogging as more than  a PR platform. You’d be wrong.

The  Google Public Policy Blog
Also  penned by Google insiders, this controversial site abandons public relations in  favor of lawyerly reflection. Some call it propaganda; others, a transparent way  of being a PAC. Either way, it’s an eye into what Google’s lawyers in D.C. are  working on.

Google News Blog
As  Google tries to figure out where it stands as a content company, this blog from  the Google News team shows some of their thinking.

ANTI-GOOGLE

Just Say “No” To Google
This  might be the most popular blog of all time that has only one post. Originally an  email circulated by Microsoft employees, the site’s solo post posits the pluses  and minuses at working at Google versus Microsoft. Although it tilts slightly  toward Microsoft in its estimation, it’s still an evenly argued examination of  what each company offers its employees.

Google Watch
Google has  plenty of problems — privacy concerns, PageRank gamers, and its policy China  policy, for starters. Google Watch articulates several of these, but an  unsurprisingly backlash-to-the-backlash has sprung up:  Google-Watch-Watch.org.

Scobleizer
Since leaving  Microsoft last year, Robert Scoble’s blog has become considerably more  pro-Google and anti-Microsoft. But the archives contain a wealth of “why do I  get no respect?” rants.

Calacanis.com
When you hear  this former Weblogs, Inc. founder speak about Google, it’s all about how the  robots aren’t winning the battle against the spammers. Looking for a hotel in  Paris? Just type in “Paris Hilton” and see what happens. His solution is to put  humans back in control by launch Mahalo.com, where actual humans are crafting search  result pages, rather than algorithms.

Source:
the best blogs about Google
By Steve Perry
October 30, 2007
06:07 am
http://www.dailymole.com/wordpress/2007/10/30/their-world-and-welcome-to-it-rex-sorgatz-picks-the-best-blogs-about-google/

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ginormous version:   Worldurlmaps1200.jpg

via Strange Maps

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Longtime NYT and Macworld tech columnist David Pogue has been keeping a list of nagging questions: Pogue's Imponderables:

* Why is Wi-Fi free at cheap hotels, but $14 a night at expensive ones?

* What happens to software programs when their publishers go out of business?

* Would the record companies sell more music online if it weren't copy-protected?

* Do cellphones cause brain cancer?

* What's the real reason you have to turn off your laptop for takeoff?

* Why can't a digital S.L.R. camera record video?

* Wi-Fi on airplanes. What's taking so long?

* Who are the morons who respond to junk-mail offers, thereby keeping spammers in business?

* I'm told that they could make a shirt-pocket digital camera that takes pictures like an S.L.R., but it would cost a lot. So why don't they make one for people who can afford it?

* How come there are still no viruses for Mac OS X? If it has 6 percent of the market, shouldn't it have 6 percent of the viruses?

* Do shareware programmers pay taxes on all those $20 contributions?

* How are we going to preserve all of our digital photos and videos for future generations?

* Why are there no federal rebates or tax credits for solar power?

* Why do you have to take tape camcorders out of your carry-on at airport security, but not the tapeless kind? Couldn't you hide a bomb equally well in either one? (Actually, I have about 500 more logic questions about the rules at airport security, but I have a feeling they'll remain answerless for a very long time.)

* Laptops, cameras and cellphones have improved by a thousand percent in the last ten years. Why not their batteries?

* SmartDisplay, Spot Watch, U.M.P.C., Zune… when will Microsoft realize that it's not a hardware company?

* Why don't public sinks have foot pedals?

* Why don't all hotels have check-in kiosks like airlines do?

* Five billion dollars a year spent on ringtones? What the?

* How come cellphone signal-strength bars are so often wrong?

* Do P.R. people really expect anyone to believe that the standard, stilted, second-paragraph C.E.O. quote was really uttered by a human being?

* Why aren't there recycling bins for bottles and cans where they're most obviously needed, like food courts and cafeterias?

* Why doesn't someone start a cellphone company that bills you only for what you use? That model works O.K. for the electricity, gas and water companies —and people would beat a path to its door.

* Why doesn't everyone have lights that turn off automatically when the room is empty?

* What's the deal with Palm?

* Why are so many people rude on the Internet?

If you know the answers, by all means—fill us in at nytimes.com/pogue.

Posted at 06:05 AM in Current Affairs, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

via the Long Tail

"Admit it - back in the 20th Century, none of you imagined that World War III would be Robots vs. Muslims. Seems obvious now."   

Posted at 07:26 AM in Current Affairs, War/Defense, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

DrumPants are a set of pants that enable the wearer to produce drum sounds by hitting various parts of the pants with his hands. The wearer thusly becomes a cyborg musician, his body assuming the roles of both player and instrument, allowing for spontaneous electric hambone solos or even collaborations with other musicians in a band setting.

via odbol

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Way cool: The 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective: 

Larger version: WebTrends_2007_2_1600x1024.gif

via Information Architects

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via Geek Culture

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useful flowchart  via pebkac thoughts

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After playing around with Google's Advanced Search Made Easy, I came across two great pages on using Google's Search features better:  via Dumb Little Man and Sell IUS, I culled this collection. These are my favorite Google search engine tips:

1. Use quotation marks to search for the exact phrase “co-op board rejection"

2. Movies. Use the "movie:" operator to search for a movie title along with either a zip code or U.S. city and state to get a list of movie theaters in the area and show times.

3. Music. The "music:" operator returns content related to music only.

4. Use the pipe (|) for an either/or search (or use the word “or”): fsbo|by owner.

5. Use two periods (..) to find information within a number range, including years: worst housing markets 1980..2006.

6. Not. If you don't want a term or phrase, use the "-" symbol.   will return pages that contain "little" and "man" but that don't contain "dumb".

7. "Not X"  Exclude search terms with a minus sign (-): worst housing markets 1980..2006 -best. (since the prior search usually includes best and worst, use the minus sign if you only want the bad news)

8. Find similar terms with the tilde (~):  ~cheap homes.  You get auctions, foreclosures, etc.

9. Use the wildcard symbol (*) if you don’t know the missing word:  a man’s home is his *.

10. Location of term. By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as:

     "inurl:"
     "intitle:"
     "intext:"
     "inanchor:"

Those search for a term only within the URL, the title, the body text, and the anchor text (the text used to describe a link).

11. Get a list of definitions with “define:”  define:foreclosure.

12. Site-specific. To search a particular site use “site:”. Useful if a website or blog doesn’t have a search box:  site:bigpicture.typepad.com. 

13. Backlinks. The "link:" operator will find pages that link to a specific URL. You can use this not only for a main URL but even to a specific page. Not all links to an URL are listed, however.  link:http://bigpicture.typepad.com

14. Type in the area code to find out the city: 212.

15. File types: If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use the "filetype:" operator.

16. Vertical search: Instead of searching for a term across all pages on the web, search within a specialized field. Google has a number of specific searches, allowing you to search within blogs, news, books, and much more:

    * Blog Search

    * Book Search

    * Scholar

    * Catalogs

    * Code Search

    * Directory

    * Finance

    * Images

    * Local/Maps

    * News

    * Patent Search

    * Product Search

    * Video

Numerical related searches:

17. Numrange:  This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).

18. Use Google as a calculator: 472*92. Full calculator instructions are here

19. Unit converter: Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: 12 meters in yards

20. Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for:

    * Vehicle ID number (US only)

    * Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equipment numbers (US only)

    * UPC codes

    * Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airplane registration number (US only)

    * Patent numbers (US only)

    * Even stock quotes (using the stock symbol)

     * weather forecast regarding the next five days

21. Advanced search. If you can't remember any of these operators, you can always use Google's advanced search.

>

>

Sources:

Google
Advanced Search Made Easy
http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/refinesearch.html

20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches     http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/20-tips-for-more-efficient-google.html

10 Essential Google Search Tips http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/sellsius-real-estate-blog/10-essential-google-search-tips/2007/06/23/

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The iPod has become a target for theft. So how can you take your iPod out of your home without fear?     Hide-a-pod!

Posted at 06:54 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Quite amusing:  SarcasticGamer.com presents a twisted take on one of Microsoft's latest and greatest announcements. Truth be told, We actually WANT a Surface Computer, but since we can't afford one, we thought it might be fun to make fun of it . . .

Posted at 06:03 AM in Design, Humor, Television, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How cool is this? 

MIT's Technology Review: Mapping the Internet.

According to a novel study mapping the structure of the Internet, the increased use of peer-to-peer communications could "improve the overall capacity of the Internet and make it run much more smoothly."

Bandwidth and throughput issues aside, what really makes the study interesting is the visualizations they did on what the internet looks like: Its a tangled web of hierarchical structures, based on the connections between individual nodes (such as service providers).
>

The Internet: Your speed may vary
(I don't see any tubes...)

>

The Inner core of highly connected nodes
Still no tubes . . .

>

The outer periphery of isolated networks
Is that a . . . ? No, I guess not.

>

Source:
Mapping the Internet
Duncan Graham-Rowe
MIT Technology Review, Tuesday, June 19, 2007
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18944/

Posted at 06:36 AM in Design, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Very amusing:

iPhone: Simple to use.
Paris Hilton: Simple.

iPhone: Well-protected against viruses.
Paris Hilton: Has herpes.

iPhone: Critics complained battery life too short.
Paris Hilton: Critics complained prison life too short.

iPhone: Provides driving directions.
Paris Hilton: Knows how to drive. (Sort of.)

iPhone: Responds to touch from multiple fingers at once.
Paris Hilton: Responds to touch from multiple fingers at once.

iPhone: Wants to be held by everyone.
Paris Hilton: Wants to be held by her mother.

iPhone: Sexy footage leaked onto the net.
Paris Hilton: Sexy footage leaked onto the net.

iPhone: Appeared in multi-million ad campaign.
Paris Hilton: Appeared in "House of Wax."

iPhone: Everyone wants what's in the box.
Paris Hilton: Everyone knows what's in the box.

Source:
Hype Smackdown: iPhone v. Paris Hilton
By Jeff Diehl
June 28th, 2007
http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/06/28/hype-smackdown-iphone-v-paris-hilton/

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A few amusing ditties about the Zune and iPhone:

Posted at 06:04 AM in Music, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The blogosphere is the most explosive social network you’ll never see. Recent studies suggest that nearly 60 million blogs exist online, and about 175,000 more crop up daily (that’s about 2 every second). Even though the vast majority of blogs are either abandoned or isolated, many bloggers like to link to other Web sites. These links allow analysts to track trends in blogs and identify the most popular topics of data exchange. Social media expert Matthew Hurst recently collected link data for six weeks and produced this plot of the most active and interconnected parts of the blogosphere.

Source:
Map: Welcome to the Blogosphere
Charting the network of jocks, gadget hounds, political junkies, and porn aficionados
Stephen Ornes
Discover Magazine, 04.20.2007
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/map-welcome-to-the-blogosphere

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Is that a real number?

via Unbeknowst

Posted at 06:07 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

People will apparently bid on just about anything at EBAY:

Before reading further, let us first establish if either of the following accurately depicts your current state of being:

• I am planning to produce a TV or Internet game show
• I am a complete TV Game show nut with a Cosmo Kramer-esque zeal for visual memorabilia

To further qualify your interest in this anthropological icon, have you at any point been in love with the following people:

• Richard Dawson
• Wink Martindale
• Bob Barker
• Chuck Woolery
• Bob Eubanks

If you answered yes to the aforementioned questions CONGRATULATIONS!  You are qualified to bid for ownership on this one-of-a-kind masterpiece of

Hollywood

game show lore.  
Channel the glorious personas of Richard Dawson, Ray Combs, and Louis Anderson from pop culture's finest familial battleground.  Use it to produce your own internet or TV game show.

I LOVE THE DISCLAIMER: 

**Please note this is a MASSIVE set.  It takes up approximately 2,500 sq ft.
**Please also note this will cost about $5k to move.

Posted at 09:57 AM in Humor, Television, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amusing new toy from the Popular British high-street sex shop Ann Summers: The iGasm

COMPUTER giants Apple are really worked up—over an Ann Summers sex toy that hooks up to your iPod.

Women all over Britain are saying yes, yes, yes to the £30 iGasm that plugs into a music player and delivers good vibrations that pulse to the beat.  The neon-pink ads feature a curvaceous girl with wires coming OUT of her MP3 player and INTO her knickers. And it's definitely turned on. The sales guff teases: "Go at it hard and fast with a pounding drum 'n' bass track or chill with ambient classic."

But shocked iPod bosses are iRate—demanding stores take down all posters for the gadget or risk a fight in the iCourt. Apple lawyers claim the poster is a blatant rip-off of their own famous silhouette images used to flog iPods. Their legal letter to the shop chain adds: "We hope this request to remove it immediately will prevent us having to consider further action."

Despite that, Ann Summers boss Jacqueline Gold is saying no, no, no and joked: "Perhaps I can send them an iGasm to put a smile back on their faces!"

Looks like this requires some more study . . .

>

Source:
POD IT AWAY!
By Polly Graham
News of the World, 
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/ipod_1405.shtml   

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Judy goes postal on an eBay scammer:

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click for larger map

via XKCD

Posted at 09:59 AM in Humor, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Uh-oh:  Looks like the lawyers are going to get involved:

COMPUTER giants Apple are really worked up—over an Ann Summers sex toy that hooks up to your iPod. Women all over Britain are saying yes, yes, yes to the £30 iGasm that plugs into a music player and delivers good vibrations that pulse to the beat.

But shocked iPod bosses are iRate—demanding stores take down all posters for the gadget or risk a fight in the iCourt.

The neon-pink ads feature a curvaceous girl with wires coming OUT of her MP3 player and INTO her knickers. And it's definitely turned on.

The sales guff teases: "Go at it hard and fast with a pounding drum 'n' bass track or chill with ambient classic."

But Apple lawyers claim the poster is a blatant rip-off of their own famous silhouette images used to flog iPods.

Their haughty legal letter to the shop chain adds: "We hope this request to remove it immediately will prevent us having to consider further action."

Despite that, Ann Summers boss Jacqueline Gold is saying no, no, no and joked: "Perhaps I can send them an iGasm to put a smile back on their faces!"

Source:
POD IT AWAY!
News of the World
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/ipod_1405.shtml

Posted at 06:29 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Too true:

Source:
Pepper . . . and Salt
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117789289113586485.html

Posted at 11:58 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Posted at 11:55 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A friend emails this (I don't have the original)

1. A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES ARE BEING TRIED
We are still pi**ing in the wind.

2. EXTENSIVE REPORT IS BEING PREPARED ON A FRESH APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
We just hired three kids fresh out of college.

3. CLOSE PROJECT COORDINATION
We know who to blame.

4. MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH
It works OK, but looks very hi-tech.

5. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS DELIVERED ASSURED
We are so far behind schedule the customer is happy to get it delivered.

6. PRELIMINARY OPERATIONAL TESTS WERE INCONCLUSIVE
The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.

7. TEST RESULTS WERE EXTREMELY GRATIFYING
We are so surprised that the stupid thing works.

8. THE ENTIRE CONCEPT WILL HAVE TO BE ABANDONED
The only person who understood the thing quit.

9. IT IS IN THE PROCESS
It is so wrapped up in red tape that the situation is about hopeless.

10. WE WILL LOOK INTO IT
Forget it! We have enough problems for now.

11. PLEASE NOTE AND INITIAL
Let's spread the responsibility for the screw up.

12. GIVE US THE BENEFIT OF YOUR THINKING
We'll listen to what you have to say as long as it doesn't interfere with what we've already done.

13. GIVE US YOUR INTERPRETATION
I can't wait to hear this bull!

14. SEE ME or LET'S DISCUSS
Come into my office, I'm lonely.

15. ALL NEW
Parts not interchangeable with the previous design.

16. RUGGED
Too damn heavy to lift!

17. LIGHTWEIGHT
Lighter than RUGGED.

18. YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT
One finally worked.

19. ENERGY SAVING
Achieved when the power switch is off.

20. LOW MAINTENANCE
Impossible to fix if broken.

21. FEATURE:
We can't fix the bug so we've documented it and are calling it a "feature".

22. NEW RELEASE:
We're too cheap to beta test our code so we'll sell it to you as a new product and let y'all beta test it for us.

23.  SYNERGY:
Management doesn't have a clue as to what this product is or what they are doing, so they're slinging buzzwords like there's no tomorrow. See also PARADIGM, REVOLUTIONARY and OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Posted at 06:02 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cool infographic of NY regional commuter lines:

click for jumbo graphic

graphic courtesy of NYT

However, given 9/11 and what happened in Spain, I am wondering how smart tghe bullseye was . . .

>

Source:
The Commuting Conundrum
KEN BELSON
NYT, March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/18RTRAIN.html

Posted at 06:05 AM in Design, NYC, Travel, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Can't argue with this:

Posted at 06:35 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There are things individuals can do," says Charles Wood, an information-security consultant in Sausalito, Calif. "You're going to have to work on it, it's going to take some time, and we're going to have to wait for better laws. This isn't something they need to throw their arms up about."

How consumers can remove themselves from popular online people-finder services:

• 555-1212.com
555-1212.com

Policy: Will remove a person's residential listing from the site on request.
To opt out: Fill out form at http://www.555-1212.com/support/contact.jsp?type=R

• Intelius
Intelius.com

Related sites: PeopleFinder.com, People-Lookup.com, PeopleRecordFinder.com and others
Policy: Will allow a person to "temporarily" opt out of the results of an Intelius search. The listing may return when Intelius refreshes its database with new records. For the full policy, go to find.intelius.com/privacy-faq.php#5

To opt out: Fax or mail name and address as it appears on the Web site, along with proof of identity, to: Intelius Inc., 500 108th Ave. NE, 25th Floor, Bellevue, WA, 98004. Fax number: 425-974-6194.

• PublicRecordsNow
PublicRecordsNow.com

Related sites: PrivateEye.com
Policy: On request, will block records from being shown in some, but not all, search results. See the full policy at http://www.privateeye.com/terms.asp

To opt out: Send a letter with first and last name, middle initial, aliases, current address, former addresses going back 20 years and date of birth to: Opt-Out, PublicRecordsNow/Privateeye.com, 15332, Antioch St, Suite 713, Los Angeles, CA, 90272. It also helps to include a printout of all the records to be withheld.

• ZabaSearch
ZabaSearch.com
Policy: Zaba's privacy statement says it doesn't offer a way to opt out of the service.

• US SEARCH
USSearch.com

Related sites: InstantPeopleFinder.com
Policy: Offers limited ability to opt out of search reports. US Search says it will "use good faith efforts" to prevent distribution of information from nonpublic records, such as magazine subscriptions, but says it can't guarantee that information from public records, such as court filings, will be withheld.
To opt out: Mail a signed request with full name, email address, mailing address, Social Security number, date of birth, past addresses and aliases to: US Search, Opt-Out Program, 600 Corporate Pointe, Suite 220, Culver City, CA 90230.

Source:
How to Protect Your Private Information
Your life is an open book online. It doesn't have to be.
MICHAEL TOTTY
WSJ, January 29, 2007; Page R1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116974822657887925.html

Posted at 06:02 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

terrific graphic depiction of the internet via hello eboy:

Posted at 06:36 AM in Art & Design, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

An example visualization of Internet topology produced by Walrus:

Source: Courtesy of Young Hyun, CAIDA

The image above is a screengrab of a Walrus visualization of a huge graph. The graph data in this particular example depicts Internet topology, as measured by CAIDA's skitter monitor [3] based in London, showing 535,000-odd Internet nodes and over 600,000 links. The nodes, represented by the yellow dots, are a large sample of computers from across the whole range of Internet addresses.

Walrus is an interactive visualization tool that allows the analyst to view massive graphs from any position. The graph is projected inside a 3D sphere using a special kind of space based hyperbolic geometry. This is a non-Euclidean space, which has useful distorting properties of making elements at the center of the display much larger than those on the periphery. You interact with the graph in Walrus by selecting a node of interest, which is smoothly moved into the center of the display, and that region of the graph becomes greatly enlarged, enabling you to focus on the fine detail. Yet the rest of the graph remains visible, providing valuable context of the overall structure. (There are some animations available on the website showing Walrus graphs being moved, which give some sense of what this is like.) Hyperbolic space projection is commonly know as “focus+context” in the field of information visualization and has been used to display all kinds of data that can be represented as large graphs in either two and three dimensions [4]. It can be thought of as a moveable fish-eye lens. The Walrus visualization tool draws much from the hyperbolic research by Tamara Munzner [5] as part of her PhD at Stanford. (Map of the Month examined some of Munzner's work from 1996 in an earlier article, Internet Arcs Around The Globe.)

via Mappa Mundi

Posted at 06:22 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The only function of the Suspicious Looking device is to appear as suspicious as possible, whether carried in hand or placed indiscrimately in public places.

The SLD contains LEDs, a LED array, a character display, an optical distance sensor, capacitive touch sensor, buzzer, and motors.

Click here for a video of the Suspicious Looking Device.

via boingboing

Posted at 06:14 AM in Politics, War/Defense, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nice aggregator of several different services:  POPUrls

Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, flickr, newsvine, metafilter, tailrank, youtube, Google News, Yahoo News, netscape, iFilm, shoutwire, slashdot, wired, odeo, fark, nowpublic, furl, heavy, videosift, etc.

Posted at 04:39 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

We mentioned this list before, and now there is a web site dedicated to fighting thru the nightmare of phonetrees:  Gethuman 

The site gets 20k hits per day, but was overwhelmed when they ggot a SquawkBox mention; Get Human also has a nice collection of customer service tips.

Here's the specifics of getting out of phone tree hell: