Tom Blogs » From the internet

XKCD reaches 1,000

Tom — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:54:41 +0000

Today the cartoon blog XKCD posted it’s 1000 cartoon.

Here’s six favourites of the previous 999:

Playing about with flavours.me

Tom — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:44:03 +0000

Today I resurrected an account with flavours.me after a launch of Version 2 last week.

As a social portfolio it does very well. The only obvious account mising for me was de.licio.us but apart from that all the usual suspects were there along with the ability to add your own RSS feeds.

You get a selection of designs and layout options, colour scheme options, fonts and personal backgrounds.

If you pay £12.50 a year through paypal (or not considering recent events) you can use your own URL and other design features.

I am set up at iam.tomsteel.co.uk, try your own at flavours.me

How tech giants deal with dissent.

Tom — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:03:37 +0000

A few weeks ago I saw this peice on The Register about an Apple employee who was fired as a result of privately making derogatory comments about Apple’s brand and products on his Facebook wall. His undoing was that not all his “friends” were friends, and one printed off the comments and showed them to his boss.

Story from The Register: Apple was OK to fire man for private Facebook comments

Then today I came across a very similar story but with quite a different ending. A Google engineer posted a rant about all the problems he saw with Google plus but instead of posting it privately he accidentally made it public. He wasn’t fired, he even says Google said it was his decision to delete it or not (he did, and posted this response, which some could question if it was written for him).

Story from Forbes: Whoops. Google Engineer Accidentally Makes His ‘Plus Sucks’ Rant Public.

Either way, I know which company I’d prefer to work for.

Positive and negative Google Plus hyperboyle, it’s all the same.

Tom — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:50:28 +0000

These opinion pieces are everywhere.

Why Google+ Pages Isn’t Good for Business
4 Reasons Google+ Brand Pages Will Be Better Than Facebook’s
Google Plus Finds Sweet Spot Between Facebook & Twitter
Google Engineer Calls Google Plus a ‘Complete Failure’; 5 Reasons We Agree
Why It is Wrong to Call Google Plus a Failure

Google Plus may be “not ready” for business, but it isn’t “not good for business”. It’s a beta product, the future is far from clear.

It would be foolish to right off the provider of the biggest search engine, video sharing and blogging platform. But equally daft to claim you must join in now or you’ll miss out.

Articles which launch with attention grabbing headlines like “Why Google+ Pages Isn’t Good for Business” are just as bad as the confusing rhetoric they criticise other of.

All any of these pieces needs to say is “Google Plus is interesting, but it’s not there yet, watch this space”

The last two articles linked to at the top of this peice are from the same website, so at least there’s some other balance out there.

Motion powered bike wheel lights.

Tom — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:25:11 +0000

Two industrial design students at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, have created a new bicycle saftey system that uses the bike’s movement to light the wheels. Ethan Frier and Jonathan Ota have a created a system which lights the wheels white while the bike is in motion, and red if it detects the bike is slowing down.

They have blogged their whole project on tumblr at surg2011.tumblr.com/ with photos and videos. A trailer of what there have created is below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to the guys at etre for finding this: www.etre.com/blog/2011/06/project_aura/

My new favourite tumblr is My new favourite tumblr

Tom — Tue, 31 May 2011 14:27:33 +0000

Collated by Mike Phllips, mynewfavouritetumblr.tumblr.com lists his favorite tumblr accounts.

VW Aqua all-terrain hovercraft concept

Tom — Tue, 31 May 2011 09:25:41 +0000

For work rest and play. Yes please.

From www.likecool.com, dvice.com and www.diseno-art.com

Daily Mail reveals Andrew Marr silhouette

Tom — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:53:26 +0000

What would we do without the daily Mail? Without them we’d never know what a silhouette of Andrew Marr looks like.

“Silhouette: How Marr was seen in newspapers when reports of his injunction were published”

That’s one less thing to worry about. See the shocking truth yourself at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380546/Andrew-Marr-abandons-injunction-affair-fellow-journalist.html

April fools roundup

Tom — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:04:33 +0000

Google Motion

Click here to view the embedded video.

More at mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

Helvetica

Google Helvetica search: http://www.google.co.uk/search?ie=UTF-8&q=helvetica

Playmobil

Click here to view the embedded video.

Playmobil Apple Store: http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/looflirpa/e8bb/

Richard Branson

Branson buys Pluto, reinstates as planet: www.virgin.com/travel/news/branson-buys-pluto-reinstates-as-planet/

NME – Blur and Oasis

Liam Gallagher is set to make an on-record reconciliation with Damon Albarn – with Beady Eye covering Blur for a new single. www.nme.com/news/various-artists/55836

Royal Wedding preparation

Guardian live blog every detail of the the preparation www.guardian.co.uk/uk/by-royal-appointment/2011/apr/01/royal-wedding-live-updates

Rob Brydon on Radio 2

Rob is presenting Ken Bruces’s show as Ken Bruce http://twitter.com/#!/RobBrydon/status/53743334795128832

Bronze Boris

Plans have been unveiled for a 12 metre-high bronze statue of London Mayor Boris Johnson overlooking the River Thames in London. www.dezeen.com/2011/04/01/bronze-boris-bike-statue-by-dowling-jones-stone/

Eau de Mutt

Sales of ‘wet dog’ perfume soar. Eau de Mutt, which replicates the scent of a dog’s coat when wet, has become an unlikely bestseller online. fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG8419827/Sales-of-wet-dog-perfume-soar.html

Youtube as 1911

Youtube adds a vintage feel to it’s videos http://youtubeukblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/looking-back.html

Google Autocompleter

As a Google Autocompleter, you’ll be expected to successfully guess a user’s intention as he or she starts typing instantly. In a fraction of a second, you’ll need to type in your prediction that will be added to the list of suggestions given by Google: www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/mountain-view/autocompleter/index.html

Edible Metro

The newspaper, already the first into Space, is set to become the only national you can eat after reading.
Read more: www.metro.co.uk/news/859704-have-we-got-chews-for-you-the-edible-metro

Add others you find in the comments….

Passive aggressive rocket science

Tom — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:57:57 +0000

The Passive Aggressive Notes blog is a great collection of anger fuelled outbursts from the non-confrontational members of society.

The latest contribution has to be one of my favorites:

Thanks to www.passiveaggressivenotes.com and the anonymous submitter in Huntsville, Alabama.