Archive Category: Blog & Internet

Neatorama's Facebook Fan Page

Because I’m not Facebook savvy, Neatoramanaut Becky took charge and created a Neatorama Fan page on the popular website: Link

Be sure to go there and do whatever you Facebookers do on such a page (what do you do on such a page anyways?) Now, maybe we can take care of that Twitter thingy (who owns that anyhow?) – Thanks Becky!

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The Facebook Revenge

When "Valeria A." caught her fiancé fondling another girl’s boobs on Facebook a few days before their wedding, she decided to get even, guerilla-style!

She and a pal printed and stuck up hundreds of posters at train stations and office blocks around the city where her fiance and their friends work.

A picture – taken from Antonio’s Facebook profile – shows him nestling his head between a girl’s naked boobs.

"Thank goodness there’s Facebook! At least I’ve disovered you’re a traitor pig before the wedding! Signed, your former betrothed bride and the 548 guests of our wedding," wrote Valeria, 28.

Link (Photo: EuroPics)

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The World's Most Influential Person

TIME magazine has announced the winner of their World’s Most Influential Person poll.

In a stunning result, the winner of the third annual TIME 100 poll, and new owner of the title world’s most influential person, is Moot. The 21-year-old college student and founder of the online community 4chan.org, whose real name is Christopher Poole, received 16,794,368 votes and an average influence rating of 90 (out of a possible 100) to handily beat the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Oprah Winfrey. To put the magnitude of the upset in perspective, it’s worth noting that everyone Moot beat out actually has a job.

Link

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First Interspecies Internet Chat

Eleven years ago today, Koko the gorilla used American Sign Language to communicate with her fans via AOL chat. It was the first known interspecies chat on the internet.

Roughly 8,000 AOL subscribers joined the chat, which featured Koko, who signed her answers; Patterson, who interpreted them; and an AOL chat facilitator.

As the transcript clearly shows, Koko’s responses were a bit vague, but no more inane than some of the drivel littering Facebook pages these days.

Link

Also check out Koko’s website, which includes a transcript of the AOL chat. (Thank, Gauldar!)

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Are 2 Million People in America Professional Bloggers?

Leaving aside the Neatorama Civil War, I thought that I’d turn our attention to a controversial article by Mark Penn.

In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters [...] For now, bloggers say they are overwhelmingly happy in their work, reporting high job satisfaction. But what happens if they, too, lose work; are they covered by unemployment insurance if tastes change and their sites go under? Are they considered journalists under shield laws? Are they subject to libel suits? Are there any limits to the opinions they churn out, or any standards to rein them in? Is there someone to complain to about false blogs or hidden conflicts? At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Panasonic outfitted bloggers with free Panasonic equipment; did that affect their opinions about the companies they wrote about? There are more questions than answers about America’s Newest Profession.

I’m incredibly skeptical of the 2 million number, but Penn has provided a follow-up explaining his methodology.  Here at the Neatorama corporate HQ compound, we certainly don’t anything approaching that number of pro bloggers.  We do have a ridiculously high number of Blackwater contractors, but Alex insists that such security is necessary for “Stage 3″, whatever that is.

Link via Instapundit

Image via flickr user alexanderljung

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Wizard of Oz, the Short Version	See more T-Shirts by Mike Jacobsen »

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If Twitter Were Human, What Kind of a Person Would It Be?

If Twitter were human, what kind of a person would it be? And, more importantly, would you befriend such a person? Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum has an opinion about what she dubbed the "Age of Oversharing":

… at the risk of unilaterally offending 14 million people, I need to say this: If Twitter were a person, it would be an emotionally unstable person. It would be that person we avoid at parties and whose calls we don’t pick up. It would be the person whose willingness to confide in us at first seems intriguing and flattering but eventually makes us feel kind of gross because the friendship is unearned and the confidence is unjustified. The human incarnation of Twitter, in other words, is the person we all feel sorry for, the person we suspect might be a bit mentally ill, the tragic oversharer.

… as Twitter’s popularity wobbles at the tipping point between faddish distraction and worldwide obsession, it’s worth wondering how much of this "connecting" is simply hastening the erosion of our already compromised interpersonal skills. Are we tweeting because we truly want to communicate with a select group of true friends, or because typing has replaced talking and indiscretion has been stripped of all negative connotations? Are most Twitter posts merely inane, or do they carry the faint whiff of the insane?

Link

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My First Dictionary

Librarian Ross Horsley has a blog in which he enters words for children to learn. However, letting your children see these definitions may destroy their childhood. Link -via b3ta

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Make Yourself an NPR Name

Liana Maeby [pictured at left] is a blogger who’s fascinated by the complex and memorable names of the correspondents on National Public Radio: Renee Montagne, Korva Coleman, Lakshmi Singh, Sylvia Poggioli, Corey Flintoff.  How cool would it be to have a name like that?

Liana and her boyfriend Eric decided to try it out by devising a formula for creating their own custom-designed NPR names.  The rules are simple; here’s how it works:

"You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name.  Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited."

So Liana is now Liarna Kassel, and Eric is Jeric Bath. 

Lots of folks on Twitter devised funny NPR names for themselves, like Pamelda Fondo, Stefsan Swakopmund and Marmilyn Zug.

NPR’s Monkey See blog caught wind of the game and invited readers to leave their NPR names in the comments. 164 people did, but a lot of them just aren’t that good.

I’m convinced that Neatorama readers can come up with better NPR names.  Wanna try?

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

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Dead Pixel in Google Earth

Dutch conceptual artist Helmut Smits (blogged before on Neatorama here) came up with this idea: a "Dead Pixel" in Google Earth that is actually 82 cm x 82 cm (~ 2¾ sq. ft.) square of scorched earth – the size of a pixel from the altitude of 1 km!

Link – via mikolka

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by mikolka.

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Using the Upcoming Queue: Instructable

If you’re confounded by Neatorama’s Upcoming Queue and can’t make heads or tails out of the submission process, Instructable user DIYJosh has got you covered.

Here’s the step-by-step instruction on how to use the Upcoming Queue feature of the blog, in the typical Instructable way:

In this instructable I will outline the steps to get started using the Upcoming Queue along with some common mistakes that keep your post from reaching the front page.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by StuckeyJ.

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Swine Flu: Bacon's Revenge	Something Somewhere Went Terribly Wrong	Warning Retiree Knows Everything
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The Twittering Office Chair

Instructable user randofo outfitted his office chair with a gas detection sensor, then programmed it to publish updates on Twitter whenever a fart is detected! “Office Chair” now has 2,395 followers on Twitter. Here is a sample of the results:

# I wish I were some other chair
about 15 hours ago from web

# He farted right on me again
about 17 hours ago from web

# allow me to repeat… ppppfffffffffftttttttttttt
about 18 hours ago from web

# Ugh. That was a gross one
about 18 hours ago from web

Link to instructions. Link to Twitter feed. -Thanks, Emily Farris!

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What Type of Web Commenter Are You?

I’m amazed at the different reactions we get from the variety of posts here at Neatorama. Some items have no comments at all; others have discussions that go on for days. The same thing happens at the Neatorama forums and in the Upcoming Queue section. Some discussions are overwhelmingly positive or negative, others feature a lot of differing opinions, and some veer off-topic into something completely different. What kind of web commenter are you? Veteran journalist Michael Malone takes a look at the different types of commenters.

The Troll — Everyone knows this guy (and it’s usually a guy), who intentionally visits sites in order to stir things up, provoke a furious reaction from other posters and then disappear. Classic examples are the Free Republic types who visit Daily Kos and vice versa.

The Skimmer — The commenter, usually sour, who reads only a headline or sentence of a piece, draws exactly the wrong conclusion, and then embarks on an embarrassing rant.

The Kumbaya — These folks always show up two-thirds of the way through any heated on-line debate and ask, “Why can’t we all just get along?” They are inevitably ignored or trashed.

The Parser — What would we do without the Internet Grammar Police? These folks assiduously correct the online writings of others — never quite catching on that the Web is designed to be fast, fresh and sloppy.

There are a couple of dozen types identified altogether. Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: ABC News)

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2 Photographers: 365 Days of Random Pairings

Josh and Nina are two friends. Every day, they each take a photo. Operating under a pact of absolute secrecy, neither knows what the other is working on. Each morning, they post their photos on MintyForest side by side. The results are often surprising — not least to the photographers themselves.

They have just completed their one year project goal with 365 daily random pairings – some of the combinations are beautiful, some are funny, some are absurd, all are lovely and visually engaging…

An experiment in blind-collaboration, the coupled images of the MintyForest project are explorations of both creative and personal synchronicity — as subject matter, color palette, and technique are compared and contrasted anew with each day. (It’s also an excuse for Josh and Nina to use their shiny new cameras more often.)

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by jshayne.

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Google Car Pulled Over by the Cops - Now in Google Street View!

Remember the story sent by Neatorama reader Chris Whiteoak about Google Street View Car in Bradford, England, that got pulled over by the police? Well, the street view has been released for UK, and Chris noticed that the entire drama was caught on the all-seeing Google’s cam!

Chris walking down the street just before he noticed the police car up the road (pan left to see it in the distance) | Police in pursuit, picking up a fellow policeman | Police pulling over the Google Street View Car

Thanks Chris!

Update 4/7/09 – Seems like this story went everywhere! Besides being featured on Digg’s front page, Chris told us that a few newspapers also picked it up. Here are the articles on The Sun, The Telegraph and Argus, Daily Mail, and Metro. Of course, none of these fine newspaper even mentioned Neatorama

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Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing Spurs Productivity

Next time your boss catches you reading Neatorama instead of what your job description specifies, tell him/her about this study from the University of Melbourne.

Dr Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing, says that workers who engage in ‘Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing’ (WILB) are more productive than those who don’t.

“People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t,” he says.

“Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretense that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that’s not always the case.”

Link

(image credit: Flickr use Valerie Reneé)

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Around the World in 80 Telescopes

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, Germany presents a 24-hour webcast involving astronomical observatories around the world. Live streaming video will be available, plus links for each participating observatory and the times they will be online in Universal Time (GMT). The webcasts will start Friday morning at 5AM Eastern Daylight Time, or 9AM UT/GMT with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, then move around the world. The webcast is part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy project to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Gemini North Observatory)

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Dogs Looking Like People

There are dogs … then there are dogs looking like people. And of course, there are blogs that blog about dogs looking like people: Link

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Super Punch Blogging Secrets

Our very own John Struan, who blogs at Super Punch, wrote a very neat article summarizing the secrets of his blogging success.

3. Give more than you expect to receive

Every selfish move I made failed. As I’ve explained, I tried posting spammy comments and begging for links. It got me nowhere. But what worked extremely well was trying to help other people. I recommended countless tips to other sites. Now, this didn’t help me directly or quickly. Many sites would post my suggestion and thank me, but not even offer a link. Other sites would credit me with a "via," but I’ve learned over the years that "vias" drive no traffic at all, even when they come from the biggest websites.

However, "vias" helped in two ways. First, they improved my site’s status in Google’s eyes, and thus increased the chance someone would find me accidentally via a web search. Second, vias directed a few visitors to my site, typically other bloggers who were looking for new sources. Those bloggers then started linking to me with more vias, further improving my site’s status. Also, every once in a long while, a site I’d helped would drive traffic to me in thanks. I stuck with it, and it all started to snowball.

As you probably know, John is a blogger here on Neatorama (as he mentioned in the article), so let me add three additional things that I think contributed greatly to his success: 1) John has a keen eye in finding neat stuff in his area of expertise (custom toys, pop culture); 2) he has integrity; and 3) he blogs about what he’s passionate about (it shows in his blogging style). I know that he’s an authority on the subject, and if I have a question about custom toy, he’ll be the first guy I’ll ask.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: The Secret of Neatorama’s Success

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100 Ways to Kill a Peep

Like its name said, 100 Ways to Kill a Peep blog is dedicated to documenting the creative ways to kill the marshmallow candies.

So far they’ve got about a dozen and a half or so, but I have no doubt they’ll reach 100 soon.

Link – via Rue The Day!

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March MODOK Madness

Image: Ray Alma (who went as MODOK himself on Halloween!)

I’m fascinated with blogs that focus so narrowly on a single topic as to become a universe of their own. Take, for instance, this one called MARCH MODOK MADNESS – which as you can tell from the title is dedicated to everything MODOK (technically, artists’ renderings of the supervillain.

Oh, and for those of you who don’t know, the name stands for Mobile/Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. And so far I haven’t seen Ms. MODOK in the lineup: Link

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TIME's Most Influential People of 2009: moot of 4chan?

TIME Magazine has been compiling an annual list of the world’s most influential people since 2004 – and this year, they’ve opened the floodgates to let readers vote for their pick online. Little did the know that this exercise in democracy would yeild an unexpected result: the frontrunner – by a wide margin – is moot, the founder of 4chan:

PRO: Just about every Internet in-joke of the past few years has started on 4chan — a bare-bones, id-liberating and reliably profane image board whose Droogish users have hatched everything from Rickrolling to LOLcats. The site can also launch real-world movements, as evidenced by Anonymous, a 4chan-organized protest group responsible for several anti-Scientology rallies.

CON: Thanks to 4chan’s oft-obscene content, the reclusive moot has had trouble luring advertisers.

Link – via mental_floss

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The Blackboard Blogger of Africa

Alfred Sirleaf is a blogger. Not just any blogger – no sir, Alfred is an analog blogger. He runs the "Daily News," a news hut in the middle of Monrovia, the capital of a Liberia, a country on the west coast of Africa. The lack of electricity doesn’t even faze him:

Alfred serves as a reminder to the rest of us, that simple is often better, just because it works. The lack of electricity never throws him off. The lack of funding means he’s creative in ways that he recruits people from around the city and country to report news to him. He uses his cell phone as the major point of connection between him and the 10,000 (he says) that read his blackboard daily.

Not all Liberians who read his news are literate, so he makes use of symbols. Whether it’s a UN or military helmet, a poster of a soccer player or a bottle of colored water to denote gas prices, he is determined to get the message out in any way that he can.

Link | A 2005 article on NYT on Alfred Sirleaf – via Onelargeprawn

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Animated Websites That Kids Will Love But Grownups Will Adore

There are sites on the internet for everybody, and kids are no exception.  That doesn’t mean that sites intended for one audience cannot be enjoyed by another. This selection of sites is such that those of us who can occasionally be catalogued under adult may find the not so inner child coming to the fore. Simple pleasures are often the best. Pictured is Heromachine, where you can create your own superhero.

If your kids are a little older and like superheroes then this site will probably mean the last you will see of them until they come of age. There are hundreds of thousands of combinations and permutations available to them to create that superhero that they have always wanted to see. Of course, you may spend more time on this than the kids.

Link – via webphemera

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.

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Explaining Twitter

(YouTube Link)

This 4-minute video from Current TV’s SuperNews lampoons the Twitter phenomenon. Why would anyone want hourly updates on the mundane details of other people’s lives? SuperNews explains.

Via Gavin Richardson

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The Guys Behind the Mentos Thing

If you recall the Diet Coke/Mentos phenomenon, you already know Fritz Grobe and Stephen Yoltz, even if you don’t know their names. They’re the geniuses behind the theater company Eepybird.

Geeks Are Sexy has a two-part interview with Grobe and Yoltz about how they took six months to develop the Bellagio Fountain routine for their “Experiment #137″ video and what went into the creation of their “Sticky Notes Experiments” video the next year.

You’ll also see them do the Diet Coke/Mentos routine in front of a live audience at the Maker Fair! Link

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Glico Nikon F Miniature Toy Camera

If you think the toy inside the box of Cracker Jack is cool, that’s nothing compared that what you’ll find in a box of the Japanese candy Glico caramel. Take, for instance, this fantastic Nikon F1 SLR miniature they included back in 2002.

Akiyama Michio of Red Book Nikkor has the pictures.

Link – via charlottesinterweb

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by charlieg.

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Six YouTube Classics in Two Minutes

Israel company FLIX has Ronen, a "portly, but eager intern" recreate six classic YouTube moments in just two minutes!

– via urlesque

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by interweber.

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In Case of Emergency...

The picture isn’t great, but the hack is awesome. Apparently its origins are unknown – a friend of BoingBoing’s David Pescovitz pointed it out to him, and here we are, basking in its coolness. Anyone seen it before?

Link

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Neatorama: Blog as a Teaching Tool

You all know by now that Neatorama is a fun blog and a breezy read, but apparently, there it also has a use that I haven't expected. Neatorama reader Barry emailed me that he has been using Neatorama as a teaching tool at his local community center.

Here's what he wrote:

Hello Alex,

I teach a class at my local community center that centers on technology use and recommend your site to the students. Many of them are underprivileged youth and I have found that sites like Neatorama can sometimes inspire them into other avenues aside from what's left for them on the street. Several students have gone on to pursue a job in IT and we even had one older gentleman pursue his GED at 60 years old because he wanted to become a successful blogger like those he saw on sites like yours. In fact I have it on personal account that at least fifteen people now know what "Large Hadron Collider" means. At any rate, thank you and well done.

When I asked for more info, Barry replied:

I use blogs in class because they're such a novel form of communication. One of the students drew the parallel that, after realizing he had spent five straight hours reading, "blogs are like books used to be in the old(en) days". What he meant was that when printed publications first started showing up all those years ago, literacy rates soared and that the very same effect had happened to him right in class. He went on to say that he couldn't remember the last time he spent five hours reading anything.

Aside from most blog reading being non intensive, I encourage the students to check out the sources of the posts they enjoyed because that was where they could find out more about the topics they enjoy.

I don't think that, even with the internet at their fingertips, new users know how interconnected things are online. This can lead to the intimidation a lot of them experience when all they have to consider is that it all really is right there in front of them. Neatorama especially bridges this gap with its combination of silly, serious, and intellectual content which is what makes it so effective as a tool.

Thanks Barry! I'm honored and humbled that this li'l blog has helped your students!

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Leaving Camera Memory Cards in Public Places

The Photochaining blog is a continuous project where people randomly leave memory cards in public places to be picked up and used by others, who then do likewise.

First, take funny/original/creative photos with your own camera using a cheap memory card. Then write a note in which your explain the concept to the "finder". You also provide a name to the memory card (research on Photochaining to ensure that the designated memory card name has not already been allocated). Put the memory card and the note in an envelope. Hopefully the "finder" will pay it forward and you will be able to track images and the journey of your card online.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Ben01.

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Neatorama Shop » Computer & Office » Road Mice
	Why settle for a boring computer mouse when you can surft in style with Road Mice, a cool wireless computer mouse that looks just like the car of your dreams? Road Mice is available in various Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ford models including the popular Dodge Viper shown to the left. It's the perfect gift for the auto-enthusiast in your life!
See more Road Mice »

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