Backwards Cars
The premise is simple. Fire up Photoshop, chop off the roof of a car, flip it and put it back on top.
Beach Balls
I find this oddly calming.
Free MP3 from Sondre Lerche
Mostly this is an excuse to show off my “Photoshopsmas” skills — notice the ornament dangling from the belt loop! (Original photo here.) But if you click it, you get a free MP3 of Sondre Lerche covering Owen Pallett’s “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt.” So there’s that, too. And that’s pretty awesome.
Enjoy! Especially you, Amanda. 
Christmas concert performed entirely on iOS devices
I approve of Christmas music performed entirely on iPads and iPhones.
ClickToFlash
I don’t know if Adobe Flash on a PC is as much of a CPU drain as it is on a Mac, or even if there is an equivalent plug-in for a PC, but last night I installed ClickToFlash, and our laptop is running quick, fast, and quiet. It’s amazing how one piece of software can be so poorly written, and so ubiquitous, as to make every action on a computer feel equivalent to swimming in quicksand.
When you install the plug-in, flash video looks like this:
Simply click the image, though, and play the video you want. No annoying Flash video ads taking over an entire web page you are trying to read, ever.
Ask a law librarian
Woman at Westlaw terminal gives Librarian a menacingly dirty look and holds it, lingering.
Librarian [makes eye contact, raises shoulders with upward palms out]: “What?!!!”
Woman wears a clip-on-bun hair accessory and has the crazy-eyes. She begins to talk to her invisible friends, pointing and saying, “I want nothin’ to do with it!”
Librarian walks over, and woman turns to her: “I want nothin’ to do with that software!”
Librarian: “What software?”
Woman: “Adobe.”
Librarian: “What do you mean?”
Woman: “When that Adobe begins to generate, and populate, I know that it’s still doing it.”
Librarian: “What’s it still doing?”
Woman: “It stole my identity. And it’s still stealing from me. All my documents were stolen between September 28th and September 29th 2010. Everything I worked on – I was in litigations for many years. I know what’s going on. When Adobe starts generating, and populating…”
Librarian: “Um-hm.”
Woman: “I worked in litigations for many years. For 3 years.”
Librarian: “Um-hm.”
Woman: “I’m a notary.”
Librarian: “Why don’t you use Word or Wordperfect?”
Woman [suddenly more optimistic]: “But now I know what’s going on. I’m in the right place at the right time!”
The Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them
Further speculation about the Stuxnet virus that seems to be targeted at Iran’s nuclear facilities:
That use of the word “Myrtus” — which can be read as an allusion to Esther — to name a file inside the code is one of several murky clues that have emerged as computer experts try to trace the origin and purpose of the rogue Stuxnet program, which seeks out a specific kind of command module for industrial equipment.
QueueUp
Yesterday BitBQ, my little side business, released a new iPhone application called QueueUp. It’s a Netflix client for iPhones and iPod Touches designed around searching for movies and adding them to your Netflix queue very quickly. If you’re a Netflix subscriber and an iPhone owner, I’d invite you to check it out.
image out of context
Stuxnet
Stuxnet is a computer virus that requires no action from the user other than the insertion of a memory stick. It is encrypted and complex, able to exploit security vulnerabilities across multiple levels, and may be the first virus intended to transition from the digital to the physical world.
But it gets worse. Since reverse engineering chunks of Stuxnet’s massive code, senior US cyber security experts confirm what Mr. Langner, the German researcher, told the Monitor: Stuxnet is essentially a precision, military-grade cyber missile deployed early last year to seek out and destroy one real-world target of high importance — a target still unknown.
“Stuxnet is a 100-percent-directed cyber attack aimed at destroying an industrial process in the physical world,” says Langner, who last week became the first to publicly detail Stuxnet’s destructive purpose and its authors’ malicious intent. “This is not about espionage, as some have said. This is a 100 percent sabotage attack.”
A Blind Man’s Life Forever Changed by the iPhone
“Can he get text messages on this?” she asked. “Well, yes, but it doesn’t read the message.” the salesman said. Mom’s hopes sunk, but mine didn’t, since I understood the software enough. “Well, let’s see, try it.” I suggested. She pulled out her phone, and sent me a text message. Within seconds, my phone alerted me, and said her name. I simply swiped my finger and it read her message: Hi Austin. She almost cried. “Leave it to Apple.” I said.
More amazing things about what the iPhone can do for the blind on Austin Seraphin’s Weird Blog.
but i don’t WANT to see gaga vidz
Not to be outdone by a piker organization like Google, a Stanford student creates YouTube Instant.
The Accidental News Explorer
A search can yield hundreds of articles and bring you down rabbit trails you can only begin to imagine. This is a fantastic iPhone app for $1.99.
[iframe http://player.vimeo.com/video/14114299 640 360]
headline of the day
App Store Director Revealed to Be Former Fart App Developer
Sejnowski says he agrees with Kurzweil’s assessment that about a million lines of code may be enough to simulate the human brain
Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near, thinks we are twenty years away from reverse-engineering the brain.
“The singular criticism of the singularity is that brain is too complicated, too magical and there’s something about its properties we can’t emulate,” Kurzweil told attendees at the Singularity Summit over the weekend. “But the exponential growth in technology is being applied to reverse-engineer the brain, arguably the most important project in history.”
headline of the day
Playboy app for Apple iPad only shows content from the neck up
Online Game Players Solve Science Problems
Top players — many of whom had little or no formal biochemistry background — outperformed Rosetta, an automated computer algorithm designed to figure out protein structure. Players were willing to push through conformations that were energetically lousy to get to a good conformation on the other side, a strategy that an algorithm won’t take, Cooper says.
I love that phrase — “a strategy that an algorithm won’t take.” Andrew — do you play this one?
This is the app that makes me want the iPad.
Apple Donates MacPaint Source Code To Computer History Museum
Released in 1984 with the Mac, it is fondly remembered not only by those who used it, but also by computer scientists for numerous first-of-a-kind innovations. Those who spend a lot of time using Adobe Photoshop constantly use such features as the lasso tool for selecting non-rectangular shapes, and the paint bucket for filling closed areas with a pattern, and later, color. Both first appeared in MacPaint. The program was unique at the time for its ability to create graphics that could then be used in other applications.
Do You Care Now?
In today’s underwhelming news, Google voice is now open to everyone.
LEGO Felt Tip 110
There’s an FAQ on the YouTube page.
(Via Adam Parrish)
Jason Fried: Why You Can’t Work at Work
(Via @PabloD)
Let a Professional Do It
When I posted this, the phrase “insert in post” caught my eye.
Indie+Relief
Tomorrow, January 20th, a group of 135 independent Mac and iPhone developers will be donating the sales for the day to assist Haiti in their recovery from last week’s earthquake. Each company is listed with their main application and what charity they will be donating to. My company, BitBQ, will be participating and donating to Doctors Without Borders.
There’s a lot of great software on that page, as well as great charities. If you’re the in market for any of it, tomorrow would be a great day to buy it. You get software, Haitians get help.
the first legal male prostitute
I think for a male, if you want to be successful in this type of venture, you’re not a prostitute. You’re a surrogate lover. You encompass everything that’s required of you—not only emotionally, physically—but psychologically. Because women are wired differently. They’re much more sensitive creatures. You actually have to enjoy what you do. You can’t necessarily say, “Oh, it’s just a job.” You actually have to say it’s a passion. I think it’s the same situation as with anything that happens when you break apart a social institution. There has to be some kind of change in terminology to describe persons like myself. And it’s more of a civil rights thing now. Basically this is the first time in the economy of the United States that a male has actually stood up and said, “I want to do this for a living.” And be protected under law to do it. It’s just the same as when Rosa Parks decided to sit at the front instead of the back. She was proclaiming her rights as a disadvantaged, African-American older woman. And I’m doing the same. I’m actually standing up now, and hopefully I can be supported by the male community and be understood as a person. This actually isn’t about selling my body. This is about changing social norms.
Congratulations.
(via marginal revolution)
