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In ur web, occupying ur URL

October 26, 2011 in fun

Along the lines of the Instant Oil Spill, now there’s a site where you can overlay a website with photos of protesters: Occupy the URL. No real news importance to this, just a fun item to play around with and perhaps foster discussion. (via @OccupyKlout on Twitter)

Speaking of which, it’s only been a little over a year since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. That seems like ages ago.

Occupy the URL Takes OWS Protests to the Internet (mashable.com)
If you can’t make it to Wall Street, Occupy the URL lets you do it from home (thenextweb.com)

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Fun Friday music edition

May 27, 2011 in fun

Image via Wikipedia

It’s Memorial Day weekend, which means people will hopefully be enjoying a few days away from the grind. To help with that, for those who are musically inclined, here’s a link to a pretty neat concert: Our Concert Could be Your Life, via NPR’s All Songs Considered:

In the decade since its publication, Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life has taken on a sort of biblical quality among fans of independent music. So it’s no surprise that this concert — 14 current bands performing the songs of 13 icons of indie rock at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan — occasionally felt like church. The lesson of the book — if nobody else is doing it, do it yourself — was repeated many times, and more than one musician credited Azerrad with clarifying the lessons of the earlier age at a moment when they seemed lost.

Have a great weekend. If you’re looking for work-related things to read on the Internet, check out the Diigo links I’ve been posting, or the CICM Twitter feed.

Cheers

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Friday afternoon fun: video

January 21, 2011 in fun

Just something to watch on a Friday – via Brian Poulter.

550D T2i Camera Test from Drew Painter on Vimeo.

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Gaming the news: Different methods to similar goals

November 17, 2010 in fun, industry news, innovation

Some decent buzz on the Internet this week about the New York Times’ recent interactive “You Fix the Budget” game. I found the game interesting (and yes, I fixed the budget), but somewhat dry. Part of the reason for that is I was familiar with a previous budget-balancing game called “Budget Hero,” introduced in 2008 by American Public Media’s “Marketplace.”

“Budget Hero” has more movement, more explanatory details when you make selections, and even some cheesy sound effects. And it has a storyline, which sells it as a game, in my opinion. “You Fix the Budget” feels like a Sunday Crossword, which may be the intended effect.

But this got me to thinking: Do people have a preference when it comes to games as journalistic explanation? Is the “Budget Hero” better than “You Fix the Budget”?

I’m sure there is a certain amount of “different strokes for different folks” involved, and I can’t imagine this:

showing up on the NYT web site.

Still, I’m curious which method of gaming does a better job of illustrating the challenges involved in the budget process. Any thoughts?

And as long as we’re mentioning games related to the news, APM has a new “game” called Future-Jobs-O-Matic that might be worth mentioning for college media audiences.

And there are a wealth of related topical games linked at gamesforchange.org. I like the idea behind Free Rice, a definition game that adds rice grains to your total that are then donated to a hunger charity. Strengthen your vocabulary while helping out with world hunger.

(Future-Jobs-Orama link found via Nieman Labs)

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Tags: Budget process, FreeRice, Game, interactive graphics, Multimedia, New York Times
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Online Communities – XKCD style

October 15, 2010 in fun

This is a couple of weeks old, but XKCD has done a second version of his map of the online world:

xkcd online communities

Be sure to hold your mouse over the image to get another piece of geek humor. (and click the link to see the full 740×850 version.

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Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography – language

October 13, 2010 in fun

For the word geeks in our midst, presented without comment:

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Friday spelling geek fun

September 17, 2010 in fun

This is not new (April 2010), and it’s not about innovation, but it’s something light and funny for a Friday, and features spelling fail. Allie at Hyperbole and a Half has the story of the Alot: The Alot is better than you at everything.

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I’m skeptical

September 13, 2010 in fun

The always thought-provoking xkcd has a suggestion for how to handle stupid comments:

I’m skeptical this would have much effect. It requires a level of self-awareness and potential for reflection that seems lacking in the populace it would be aimed at.

via Alfred Hermida

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Tags: comments
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Who do you write like?

July 15, 2010 in fun

I Write Like is an interesting little analytical tool that supposedly shows what famous author your writing is like. The funny thing is, depending on what text you submit, you will write like a different author. For instance, pasting in the text from this post about oil disaster coverage, I get this:

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Which is interesting, because I’ve never read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest book.

But submitting this post about summer projects, I find this:

I write like
Stephenie Meyer

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I don’t even know who Stephenie Meyer is. Apparently, she’s the Twilight author.

A long time ago, I noted that I would pick up little conventions from whatever author I was reading at the time. I went through a period of reading Hunter S. Thompson, so I’d use a lot of “indeed’s” in my columns. When I was reading John Irving, I’d pick up some of his conventions. I like to think I’ve broken that pattern. I hope I have.

Update: I pasted the majority of my as-yet-unfinished dissertation, and got David Foster Wallace again, for what it’s worth.

(via)