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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Boomerang Talk Show Segment

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CATEGORY: JUST FOR FUN!

So today I was chatting with a friend via e-mail who mentioned that he was laughing pretty hard at the David Blaine post from a few weeks ago. And then I was all like "well if you think that is funny did you check out this post?" And then I was thinking that this site's tag line is "A Blog About Neat-o Sites, Software, Silliness, and Other Awesome Thingy's" and how I think I need to have a little more of the Silliness. So today I give you a video clip from the French talk show "Boomerang". This episode features a guest and her husband who lost his family jewels. They are here to talk about it; the host is here to... well, you'll see. So here it is: another Awesomer Thingy!
via YouTube »







Your Voice:
Does this look like it's an authentic talk show or does it seem like it's all just a set up to do a fake segment? Let us all know by clicking "comments" below.








Monday, June 25, 2007

The 50 Best Limited Release Films of 2006

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CATEGORY: MOVIES

A brief post for you on Awesome Thingy of the Day today, but a good one. You'll make up for the twenty seconds on this site by spending your time over at Rotten Tomatoes. They've put together a list of the 20 Best Limited Release Films of 2006, which I think is an awesomer idea. I know that there have gotta be a fair amount of movies that I would have a good chance of enjoying but have never even heard of. And it's not like I even had a chance - many of the advertising/promotional budgets for these kind of films are in the neighborhood of what I take home every year. And by that I mean pretty much non-existant.

Lists like this save me a huge amount of time searching around and trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. There have been one too many times that I've gone to the movie store and come home with a few hopefuls, only to turn them off half way into the flick. Well NEVER MORE! I have this list and I SHALL NOT FAIL!!!




Your Voice:
So what kind of movies do you generally prefer: Art House/Independent, Big Studio, Documentary? Others? Let us know by clicking "comments" below.










Sunday, June 24, 2007

Robby The Robot - Exclusive In Home Appearance





Remember Robby The Robot from that sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet? Wasn't he cute, loveable, and cuddly? (in a cold, steel, robotic kind of way, I mean.) If you are one of those who still can't get Robby out of your head even after all these years, you now have the chance to own him.

Before you make the jump, how much do you think he costs? Got a number in your mind? Alright, then click to see The Genuine 7-Foot Robby The Robot.

After you get back from the jump you godda let us know how much you really expected Robbie to be! Click here to leave your comment.







Friday, June 22, 2007

Price of Gas in Caracas?


Prices of gasoline around the world. Actual numbers have been blocked out until
you complete the quiz below (if you so choose) as to not give away the answers!



According to this news story, the price of gas in Caracas is just 12 cents a gallon! The price of gas in Caracas. Sounds like a bad attempt at Venezuelan gangsta-activist-rap. So anyway, whilst reading my trusty Wired Magazine a few days ago I discovered an article that reported the purported (oooh! more rap!) price of gas all around the globe. Some of it shocked me, some of it not-so-shocked me. I thought the info itself was blog worthy, but I spent the last few hours attempting to make your interaction with the data a bit more interactive than I experienced myself. Were my efforts just a waste of time? I don't know. Please leave a comment below to let me know. (Dang! More rhymes!)

I made a quiz using SurveyGizmo.com to test your knowledge and a bar graph using DabbleDB.com to reveal the answers. I was actually considering writing a post about SurveyGizmo as well but I don't think it has much of a "wow factor", even though it is flexible, useful, and free. I was also considering writing about DabbleDB but then concluded that although it is one of the most useful Web 2.0 apps around, blogging about it would be akin to blogging about that one cool company called Google. So instead of reinventing the wheel with DabbleDB, I'll just point you to an excellent demonstration video explaining what it is and why you need it.

I was trying to think of something that I could give away to those who answer all ten questions in the quiz correctly, but with a promotion budget of, ummmmmm......, zero, I had to get creative. (I was actually going to give away a real lass, only because of it's obvious value to the rap community: "Guess the Gas, Win the Lass!") but was subsequently reminded that it is now illegal to sell or give away such things.) So rather than objectify something legally unobjectifiable (an objectionable practice, to be sure), I decided to give each winner a chance to pick from a few web links to some certain awesomer thingy's. They are things that have real value (the first one costs $20 usually) but the links to most of the deals/items/services are not commonly known about. If you win and you find one of the items to be useful, then you had fun and you got something of value! But if you lose, or if you win and don't need what's being offered, I sincerely apologize and hereby offer up my head on
a stake or a platter, winner picks. Now there's a prize!

Contest rules:

1. Contest rules are guaranteed to not be as ridiculous as our previous contest's rules.
2. You may not use information obtained after learning of this contest to answer any
questions.
3. You may not play the quiz more than enough times as is necessary to win. huh??
4. You may may not redeem more prizes than are actually linked to on the winner's page. huh???
5. Oh, I don't know. Some other rule.

This is all based on the honor system, which, if you know nothing about, then, well, I suggest you just, umm, go, and like, learn about being an honorable person or something...

When you finish you may come back and read the original story in the June 2007 issue of Wired Magazine. Remember, that link has all the answers, so don't do the clicky-clicky until you try to beat the quiz.


Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Hyperwords Project - A True Time Saver!


Hyperwords

Am I the only one around here who hasn't been using Hyperwords? I remember reading about it in the past a time or two and thinking that there were already a hundred other things that can do what it claims. Well, it recently presented itself to me again and this time I took a closer look. And I am glad that I did! Hyperwords will definitely save you a bundle of time once installed in your Firefox browser. But what's this you say?? You don't use Firefox?!? Anticipating that possibility, I've already taken the liberty to begin preparing a new post highlighting the many reasons why you would want to use Firefox if possible. (I realize some work environments or older computers might frown upon such a thing.) If there is no way to get Firefox on your computer, The Hyperwords Project will have a standalone version for PC and Mac available later this year.

But what exactly is Hyperwords? Simply put, it's a menu that appears when you select any text in your browser that allows you to take your next action with one simple click. Let's say you're reading an interesting news piece from Reuters and you want more information about the article's subject matter. Normally, you might go to CNN, Google News, or another news site, then type in some keywords from the story in hopes to find more coverage on it. You would then repeat this whole process until you were sastisfied with the amount of information you read. So how would this process work if you had Hyperwords? You would simply select a word or phrase from the story (the title, key figures, etc.), and a menu would appear. If you then selected "search - news" you would be presented with about 10 news sites to use for your search - all with that one click. This process also works with linguistic translations, monetary conversions, nutritional information, shopping, maps & directions, blogging, e-mail, stocks, and much more. The items that populate the menu are also customizable, as well as their behaviours. There's a lot to like here!

If you find yourself loving the concept of Hyperwords but are craving more, you may want to give Adaptive Blue's Bluemarks a try (future post pending). Although I really do love Bluemarks, sometimes I feel a bit lost in it's mammoth environment. Incidentally, Hyperwords' most attractive feature becomes it's simplicity when compared to Bluemarks. Everything is in one easy menu. In fact, the only gripe I can muster up about Hyperwords is a feature that it lacks - you cannot arbitrarily add sites to the menu. However, the choices that are available are likely to cover at least 90% of the situations one would encounter in typical browsing session. In a way, I am actually glad that they drew the line between "useful" and "bloated" where they did. If there were any more features, we'd be looking at a Bluemarks wannabe (and failure!); any less features and it would function just like the hundreds of other context-menu tools available for Firefox.


Visit the
Hyperwords blog here.
Hyperwords homepage here.
Hyperwords extension here.Adaptive Blue's Bluemarks



Screenshot of Hyperwords' context menu














Saturday, June 16, 2007

The Easy Glider - a Segway Killer?



Ooohhhhhhhhhhh man, do I want one of these! The videos say it all (in German, anyway). I'd take an Easy Glider over a Segway any day! AND I'd use the money I'd save to buy me... well... MORE EASYGLIDERS!!! (Price of a Segway=$4,000 ... price of an Easy Glider=$1,800!)



Today's question: Would you ride it like the chick and use that platform (they call it a "Chariot") or like the dude?















Friday, June 15, 2007

Buy Yerself a Badonkadonk!!!

Imagine walking down the street on a nice summer day. As you get closer to the main strip in town you hear the excitement. "Get yer picture taken!" "Peanuts... Popcorn!" "Who wants to buy a Badonkadonk!!!?? .... " huh? What did that guy just say?? Ba-donkey-what? Going back, you see him peddling a vehicle straight from a Star Wars-esque movie. Oh my God! "How much is that thing!?" "Twenty grand", comes the confident reply. Sticker shock gives you a firm whack across the face, then, as you have time to process the situation, you start thinking that it's not that unreasonable of a price. What other cars can you buy for $20,000? A 5-year old minivan? Subaru? Ford? No way, dude! Ima be drivin' a Badonkadonk!!!

Just promise me one thing: if you buy this thing, make sure you do it from here. A little kickback to the guy who told you about it.












Thursday, June 14, 2007

What's the 9th Largest Planet in our Solar System?

If you answered "Eris", you are right! In a story titled, "Sorry, Pluto, You're Not Even The Biggest Dwarf Planet!", Will Dunham at Scientific American reports of Pluto's latest fall from stardom. Or planetdom.

Planetdom???
















Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Clickster - Free MP3's on the Web (legally!)





So you went through your Napster phase nearly 10 years ago and amassed 10,000 mp3's (some of which you still haven't listened to). But a few years later you realized that those songs were so, like, dated or something so you downloaded and figured out how to use Limewire, or Bearshare, or one of the other million P2P apps. So then you had 30,000 mp3's (and now hadn't heard half of them!) Then a few more years pass - you get into torrents and amass a collection of 100,000 mp3's. By now your friends are all asking "Where do get all these tunes, dude?" When you answer, you realize you do so with a little bit of embarrasement. When they ask how many you have, you come to terms with the fact that, yes, you feel guilty for having the equilivant of 10,000 cd's on your drive that you've paid exactly nothing for.

Wanting to be intellectually honest, you realize that keeping those mp3's doesn't gel with your other views of whatever it is you've said you stand for. "Well", you think to yourself, "it's not like I listen to even half of them. And even when I do, the songs all kinda just run together. Ya know, I think I actually loved music more when I had like 10 cd's." You actually had to save up for 2 weeks just to buy one cd back then. Armed with this newfound conviction, you say goodbye to all of the mp3's you don't actually have the physical disc for, which turns out to be a Kenny G Christmas cd that you won at your dad's company Christmas party, and Target's "New Rock Favorites" release that they gave you when you bought that replacement for your lost remote control 3 years ago. After listening to those 20 songs a few times, you realize that they aren't really fulfilling you in the way you were envisioning when you took that moral stand of yours. A light bulb goes off in your head; you click 'shuffle' in hopes of mixing the songs up enough to tolerate, but the music still stinks.

So what's a mother to do? Go back to your old ways of criminal disenlightenment? Nawh, that's just not an option. How about buying 10,000 cd's you really like? You're already pretty sure there aren't more than a few hundred you actually like enough to buy. Oh yeah, you don't have $100,000, either. So you click this cool blog you just found - "Awesome Thingy of the Day" - and start reading this post. "Wierd", you slowly and silently respond. "How'd this guy know all this stuff about me?" Reading on, you see that he talks about a cool piece of software called "Clickster" which he describes as a simple way to locate the rumored millions of free mp3's out there. You read that it's not P2P software - it actually downloads from fixed URL's on secure sites This gives you a subtle sense of security as you let out a sincere "Cool!", even though there is no one near enough to hear. "This is like sooo what I need right now!" But instead of slipping into your old ways by downloading every single band at once (and thus preventing your entire neighborhood from doing anything on the web for the next three days), you decide to check out just one band at a time, reeeeeally paying attention to the songs as if you had to save two weeks to get em. You get the first band, who has a name that you can't really remember, and think, "they're okay; not bad, not great", but curiously, you find a new, deeper satisfaction in the process you've just gone through. You realize that your mind is subconciously 'lighter' in some unidentifiable, yet totally tangible way. Could it be because of the new way you're approaching your music collection? As you ponder the question, you download another band who is purported to sound like that one band you totally dug in school. You press play and... voila! You like it! What??? This song is free! How in the world...???











Saturday, June 9, 2007

The Attack of the Malformed Popsicles! AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!





A blog I peek my head into from time to time is the popular BoingBoing.net. They've had a reoccuring incident with a bunch of popsicles that are simply messed up. How can the popsicle manufacturers get away with such a travesty? I'd be askin' for my money back if it was me. "I wanted to feel like I was eating a real live tweety bird, not one who jumped off a 20-story building then forgot how to fly! Come on!! Doesn't anybody care about the customer anymore???" And not only that, they've got Super Mario posing as a circus clown, Ninja Turtles with their souls sucked out, and Darth Vader (spewing BLOOD out of his nose!) actin' like there ain't no problem - like he's the REAL THINGY! (O.K. I admit that's kinda awesome.) This 'popsicle phenomenon' (doot-doo, doo doo doo) has even created an advertisement parody trying to ease your mind about getting some "work" done yourself!


Anyway, click the pic - make the jump. Each pic takes you to a new page.














By the way, Exhibit F: Johnny Depp.



Huh?



You can support our site by doing yourself or someone else a favor and buying the Johnny Depp cookies! Perfect for gifts, work or parties! (I know... you wanted the popsicles. You sure wouldn't be thinking that when you found that warm, syrupy, slimy package sittin' there on your doorstep!)












Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Street Magic - Full Of Surprises!


You guys know who David Blaine is, right? If not, just know that the stare that guy does back into the camera is dead on! Still, you can't fully appreciate these without seeing some of his stuff first. This really connected with me for some reason - I was crying!!!












Monday, June 4, 2007

Top 25 Best Movies You've Never Seen


Top 25 Movies You've Never Heard Of


I ran across this awesomer page at Movies.com titled "The Top 25 Movies You've Never Seen". I always find it interesting to see what others consider "underground", or basically only the things the uber-hip and well-informed are supposed to know about it. Now I wonder how they knew we've never seen these? Maybe they have carefully and strategically placed spies all over the country! Just to be safe, I suggest we all do this. Just to be safe...

But Movies.com also call these
"the box office left-behinds" which makes more sense. So let's see who has watched the most of the movies on this list. I'll start with me. Out of all these movies, I have seen (drum roll ...............) six! They are:

1. Falling Down

2. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
3. Bubble Boy (I even own that one!)
4. Time After Time (surprisingly)
5. Idiocracy
6. The Boondock Saints
7. I'm a little hazy on Three O'Clock High. I want to say I've seen it but when I read the plot it just didn't trigger anything in my mind (which happens more and more these days...) So I guess I'm not gonna count that one. Plus it'll give you guys a better chance of winning!

I really shouldn't be too hard to beat on this one. Just post a comment here and tell us how many movies you've seen from the list and tell us the titles. The winner will receive a $500 cash prize! See the easy contest rules below.


Contest Rules

1. The cash prize will be given to the person who posts in the comments of this posting the actual number of movies from the list that they have actually seen before reading this blog.

2. Each movie watched must be verified by providing me with recordings of you watching each movie, complete with time-stamping features embedded in the video (to verify date). Verification must be in real-time and must show the entire process, including your initial thought about deciding to watch the movie in the first place and the course of action taken to watch the movie (i.e. trip to the theater or movie store, which must also be submitted as video to me.)

3. The verification video must be in BetaMax format. You must supply me with a new, in the box, never before opened BetaMax player to view the
verification video on.

4. The
verification video containing all movies you have watched must be able to fit onto one BetaMax video tape.

5. You must have enjoyed each individual movie to the point of not only going out and buying a copy of it for yourself, but also for everyone that you knew at the time of viewing. Anyone you met after the viewing of the movie is also included in this and considered someone that you knew at the initial time of viewing.

6. You must have enjoyed the movie so much that you also went so far as to buy the actual reel from the movie house/theater that you initially saw the movie at. If you saw the movie for the first time at home, you must have subsequently purchased the ORIGINAL movie master from the distributor of the film which they used to make transfers given to movie theaters.

7. You must have also enjoyed the movie so much that you went so far as to change your legal name to the name of the movie star who received first billing of each movie you claim to have seen from the list, whether their gender is similar to yours in any way or not.

8. You must also provide to me
a verification video of the application process of item 7 above. I will also need a verification video of the mailman/maillady delivering the approval letter into your mailbox, whether you were home or not.

9. All verification videos mentioned above must be delivered before the end of the contest, whenever that is, and must be given directly to my secretary (which I do not have) at my present location, wherever that is. For help on locating my present location, see the link above, or in leiu of there being no link above, simply click here.

10. Entrants may not be employees of the film distributor, ad agency, management company, or employees of any company related to the film industry or not related to the film industry. If you are not employed at all, you may not participate in this contest. Basically, if you are alive, have ever been alive, or are going to ever be alive, you are ineligible to receive previously mentioned cash prize. In lieu of receiving the cash prize, you may receive a big bowl of stupid, but not from me, my company, my representatives, my associates, my friends, family, or anyone else on this planet or that abides in the same solar system, galaxy, universe, or other possible universes, known or not. Any person, place, or thing existing anywhere, ever, may not be eligible to participate. Please see rules above for more details.


Good luck!!!