funwithstuff

If you have time to waste (and as you're reading my blog, you probably do), then check out Ms Dewey, a video-fronted "search engine" from Microsoft. As a search engine, it's not good. Search should be fast and efficient; this is neither. Flash is not fast or efficient, and I can't copy and paste?

Search is not why you'd visit, though. As Ms Dewey responds differently to different search terms, you can get some pretty funny responses from some keywords. There are multiple responses to each keyword, so you might want to try them each a couple of times. Some discussion here and originally found here at herebenotions but you could try (in no particular order): police, halo, apple, google, weird, science, microsoft, soccer, tv, video, film, Janina Gavankar (the actress playing Ms Dewey), gun, colt 45, death, phone, police (very good), politics, xbox, pub, nerd, sex, love, girlfriend, marriage, porn, ipod, zune, second life, me, backwards, france (what?), australia, hotel, global warming, intern, funk, why, ebay, star trek, gremlins, lord of the rings, friend, paper, camera, live, everything, bondage, animals, matrix, money, monster, god, photo, los angeles, new york, seattle, san francisco, gambling, eyebrows, alcohol, read, jazz, comedy, coffee.

I do this for you, people. Oh, and don't forget to start swearing.

File this automatic breakfast cereal dispenser under Shit The World Doesn't Need, yeah?

Hey Kids! Become a game developer! Look like this!

A friend of mine hit the big time a little while ago, directing the console game Mercenaries and the upcoming Mercenaries 2. Here's a video blog (#15 if it's moved) featuring him.. (Go Cam!) The reason I'm talking about that here is the t-shirt he's wearing. Full bonus points to anyone who can identify the full reference in comments. (Katakana will help you, innate geekdom will help you more.)

Haven't seen Second Life yet? Check out these pics of Second Life in Stereo, i.e. 3D images you can see if you go cross-eyed, or stare at them for a while (wall-eyed). I do have a separate blog for this stuff, by the way, but with all the recent press I thought a kind nudge towards the future of human social interaction was probably in order.

I agree with most of the recommendations in Uncle Mark's Gift Guide and Almanac, except I'd always recommend getting a higher resolution camera, with a zoom, and shooting on that higher resolution. I'm going to want the details in my digital memory substitutes when I'm old, or when I'm designing, or when making textures.

Back in 1997, travelling through Berlin, I was lucky enough to stay in a couple of amazing rooms in an art hotel called Kunstlerheim Luise. There's a hostel just down the road called The Circus (Am Zirkus) which had just opened six weeks earlier -- but it was full. Their helpful staff suggested trying Kunstlerheim Luise. Little English spoken, no advertising, and a very special find.

Every room is designed by a different artist; it's amazing and still going today. I wish, wish, wish, I could stay in this room today. Or that I had a thick black marker and a spare room to outline myself.

Nerds! You may enjoy Nerds Gone Wild! magazine, as I did. Not a nerd? You're reading a blog. Are you sure?

Olde English Comedy: One Picture Every Day is worth a few moments of your time.

Got a Mac? Inspired by Joseph Crawford's Scary iSight Trick, I've made a Scarier iSight Trick. No data is shared with the outside world, so pull the silliest faces you can. Mac only, 10.4 only, iSight only, I'm afraid. But enjoy!

So Designmycard.com.au is a great idea, right? You get to put your own photo on your credit card or bank card. Lovely. They have a long list of exclusions (no logos, phone numbers, etc.), but ANZ is all too happy to hide behind today's scaredycat copyright bullshit.

We don't want a cheesy shit photo of one of us mugging for the camera, so we sent one of our best photos, of Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone. Colour corrected and saturation boosted, because it's going to last a few years.

They just rejected the photo, without giving a reason, and stating they won't enter into any discussion about it. So... the photo looked too professional? Could maybe be copyright by someone else? We're signing terms and conditions that already say it's not, motherfrackers. Only crappy pictures allowed? Please. Making me angry, and it's too late at night to be angry.

(Earlier, my stripes were accepted for my card. I like stripes. I guess no professional artist ever used stripes. Right?)

Don't think I'm jumping on a bandwagon just because I'm embedding a video from YouTube on my blog. It's my team's entry from the recent Brisbane 48 Hour Film Project, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. Hope you like it!

Brilliant. Brilliant.