Jake of the Web

http://www.thingsthatmakeyougoaahh.com/
http://cuteoverload.com/
http://www.thecuteproject.com/
For those who need a little something to make them smile and/or realize
there is good in the world. Some of this stuff is pre-conceived staged
saccharine, but some of it is the right amount of cute.

http://www.freerice.com/
Recommended by Asa Reynolds
This site, through funding provided by advertisers (small ads at the bottom
of the page) donate rice to the UN World Food Program. The place where we
get involved is we go to the site and answer questions to help strengthen
our vocabulary. Each correct answer buys 10 grains of rice. This has the
two-fold intention to educate us and feed the hungry.

This site began on October 10th of this year, and it is very cool to see the
total grains of rice and how the daily totals are growing
exponentially:
830 Grains on October 7th
42,153,550 Grains on the 28th

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/solar.htm
Critique of solar power and solar power enthusiasts. This was actually
written in the late 70s before Solar Power had really gained any manner of a
foothold in the market. The claims are even funnier and more outrageous
today. (Don't tell anyone, but this is satire.
It's funnier if people think it's real).

Do-It-Yourself toys that you print out from PDF files and "cut 'n'
paste" together.
I brought 'PAL 9000', 'Do-deca-heathen' and a Geisha. Collect all 22!

http://readymech.com/

http://www.jott.com/
Allows you to have your speech converted into text and sent via text message
or email to yourself, friends, or groups.
After setting up your account, you can call their toll-free number, say who
you want to contact, and dictate any needed message. These messages are
actually dictated by real people - the same people who dictate medical
dictations.
You can also add posts to your Blogger blog, add appointments to an online
calendar called 30 boxes, or work with a handful of other sites and
applications.
They also have a downloadable desktop tool called 'Jott Express' or an
online Google widget for your Google home page.

What is RSS about?

RSS, in its most simple terms, stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' and is a way for you to view updates to all of your favorite/important sites in one location. News sites, blogs, podcasts and more and more other sites are using RSS, as it also gets their content out to people in a more effective way.

To view RSS feeds, you need an aggregator, which can be a web based app or a downloaded application. Google has 'Google Reader', Yahoo has an aggregator on 'My Yahoo'. Outlook 2007 will also have an RSS reader/aggregator built in. There are Firefox extensions for RSS Feeds, including;

Sage:

http://sage.mozdev.org/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/77

Wizz RSS:

http://www.wizzrss.com/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/424



KlipFolio is a free downloadable RSS aggregator

http://www.download.com/KlipFolio/3000-9227_4-10653710.html

(Atropos note: You can subscribe to the blog's RSS with http://radiofromhell.livejournal.com/data/rss)

http://www.colawp.com/colas/400/cola467_recipe.html

http://sparror.cubecinema.com/cube/cola/

Open-source cola recipe.

NOTE:

"Caffeine can kill people in relatively small doses. The median lethal dose for an adult human is around 10 grams, or approximately one third of an ounce."

So don't overdo it with the Caffeine. You've been warned.

Bill asked last week about synchronizing bookmarks or favorites between multiple computers using firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5525

Bookmark-synchronization add-ons for Firefox. The first, Foxmarks, is one of the most popular of all Firefox add-ons and is the de-facto standard for synchronizing favorites between two machines. Any addition or deletion you make on one computer will be automatically done on the other computer. You can also log in online and make changes while not on one of your usual machines.

Box.net has similar features, and may work for any out there who don't find they like Foxmarks.

www.everyvideogame.com

Recommended by Damon Liddiard, this site is similar to virtualnes.com, except it has games other than Nintendo games and it also allows you to save your games and come back to finish them later!

http://www.brandonbird.com/walken_letters.html

'Children' writing letters to Christopher Walken as though he were Santa Claus.

"Dear Chris, My Daddy says I'm too old to believe in Santa. Please come to our house on Christmas Eve and put the fear of God into him."

Search 'Walken Letters' or 'Letters to Walken'

http://zoomquilt2.madmindworx.com/zoomquilt2.swf

Freaky series of pictures that are continually zoomed in upon. As you zoom in closer to the center of the first picture, you begin to see the next. Although technically it is 88 pictures strung together, the experience is like zooming in to microscopic level of a picture, seeing everything with frightening clarity along the way.

There is a fader bar to the left with which you can control the speed and direction of the zoom.

If you want your coworkers to think you are completely insane, you can use the animation as a screensaver: http://zoomquilt2.madmindworx.com/

http://www.uneetee.com/

A T-shirt company who, rather than sticking with puns or 50's illustrations with ironic captions, makes artistic and visually appealing images. It's not so much a t-shirt as it is pop art that happens to be wearable.

http://www.earthalbum.com/

A map of the world – wherever you click on the map, a row of images from that location that are found on flickr will appear at the top. Click on the images for more detail. Moves very smoothly and quickly.

http://www.pidgin.im/

http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

Both Trillian and Pidgin (formerly GAIM) are free multi-protocol IM applications. You can use one application to access AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN messengers. The free version of Pidgin and the Pro version of Trillian also allow you to use it for Google Talk and Novell Instant Messenger, which is why I have recently switched from Trillian to Pidgin.

http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/

A color wheel that will find the pictures on Flickr that most closely match any color you wish. There are sub-categories you can choose from as well, including: Color fields, Flowers, Squared Circle, Graffiti, Doors and Windows, Textures, Urban Decay, and others.

http://wikiwax.com/

A different way to search Wikipedia. As you type in a word, real-time matches begin to populate below the search field. It also returns related items quicker than Wikipedia's ordinary search. Another different Wikipedia search is at http://wikiseek.com/

The Cloak

By Jason Steele

http://www.filmcow.com/

or just do a web video search for 'the cloak'.

Jason Steele has made quite a number of popular 'viral' videos. One of my favorites is 'The Cloak', about a Communism-fighting private eye who happens to be a talking, floating cloak. His sidekick is the disembodied head of 'film noir legend' Robert Mitchum.

http://www.blockposters.com/
Will take any image under 1 Mb and blow it up to poster size for you, with the poster consisting of 8 1/2 X 11 sized 'blocks'. It generates a PDF file with as many pages as necessary, which you can then print them out on your own and tape together. You can save it in digital format and print it out as many times as you like. You can click on the 'gallery' link at the top to see what people have used the site for. One kid used it to make his own cardboard cutout of a stormtrooper.

http://www.rottenneighbor.com/
Intended to help warn people about bad neighbors and places to avoid buying a house in. This is a new site, and there are not very many entries for Utah on it. I want people to log on and say something mean about their neighbors.

It does require an email address in order to post, but you can use the next web site to get around that.

http://www.guerrillamail.com/

http://www.temporaryinbox.com/

http://www.pookmail.com/

Much like what numbr.com & privatephone.com do for phone numbers, these sites will create a temporary email address. Guerrillamail, for example, lasts only 15 minutes, but will tell you if you receive any emails at that address during that time. These sites are intended as a tool against spam caused by obligatory registration when buying online or registering for some free web sites. Now you don't even need to have the 'spam email account', you can simply create a new temporary email address when needed, and then walk away.

http://www.google.com/goog411/

1-800-GOOG-411

You can call 1-800-GOOG-411 anytime for free, give them your zip code or city, then say the business name or category of what you're looking for. It can then audibly tell you the address over the phone, can send you a text message with the info (address phone number, etc.) or can send you a map if you have an internet-enabled phone. It can also then forward your phone call to the company in question.

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

This site is completely geeky. If it sounds boring, then don't go to it – you'll find it boring. If it sounds interesting, then check it out.

Through simple but clean animation along with a narrator, the intent is to help us envision what the tenth dimension is like.

Fans of 'A Wrinkle In Time' will recognize some of the concepts presented here.