Category: Cool

If you haven’t installed and tried Irfanview, you are missing out. I work with dozens of graphic file formats on a regular basis, and since I don’t want to open the program that originally created the file to just do a simple view of it (like a Photoshop document, for example), I just use this program. It also has a ton of batch and command line processing features, can open dang near open any format under the sun, and even has a pile of little options and image editing tools and hacks that make life easier. All for free in an 800KB executable (there are about 4 megs worth of plugins that are needed to open some formats, but they don’t slow down the program at all).

Between this and Photoshop, I can open and convert any image I’ve come across, with one exception: really old Corel Draw files. But I’m not losing too much sleep over that.

I’d heard of folks who could solve a Rubik’s Cube really damn fast, but I’d never seen it. This lady has videos online, as well as a pretty in-depth speed-cubing page for those folks who want to try using her methods. But man, seeing somebody solve a really messed up one in 16.74 seconds is really damn cool.

To quote the site:

Web usability maven Jakob Nielsen has been writing his “Alertbox” column on web usability since 1995. His web site, UseIt.com is read by millions of web professionals and other interested parties each year.

Many people, designers mostly, it seems, have ridiculed the plain, minimally-styled web site, but no one has put their money where their mouth is, so to speak, to suggest anything more stylistically attractive. Until now.

I recently contacted Mr. Nielsen about the concept for this contest, and he gave it his blessing.

The design must use valid tableless XHTML 1.0, CSS, and it must meet WAI Accessibility level 1. JavaScript, GIF, JPG and PNG images may be used, but no server-side scripting or databases may be used. They’ll run all the entries through the W3C validator, and if it doesn’t make it through that, it doesn’t make it into the contest.

And the prizes don’t look half bad. Entries for the contents are due by October 31st, so get cracking! If you do send them an entry, let me know so I can see it, too.

She had two wonderful babies!

You get free beer with your textbook purchases. Gregg, you sure you don’t want to go back to school?

I know I’ve “borrowed” more than few items from hotels in my day (phone books, towels, coat hangers, pillows, glasses, couch cushions, ashtrays, and I nearly got a mattress once — but I never took the Bible, that’s just wrong), so I’m glad to see that somebody’s taking advantage of it. The Holiday Inn is holding a “Towel Amnesty Day.” To quote the site:

Do you have a Holiday Inn towel? Tell us how you got it and what became of it. Is it proudly displayed as a collector’s item, used in your bathroom or perhaps your favorite beach towel?

For every story shared, Holiday Inn will give $1.00 to Give Kids The World. If your story is one of the twenty-five chosen, you will receive one of our limited edition souvenir Holiday Inn towels.

This is such a great idea, and I’m glad to know I don’t have to give my towel back — though I couldn’t tell you where it is right now for the life of me. But you can bet I’ll be sharing a story or two.

Thanks to Al’s Morning Meeting for the link.

Say you make $100,000 a year, and live in Burns, Oregon. You would need to make $105,620 for the same style of living in Lincoln, Nebraska. Of course, if you make $100,000 in Bend, that’s equivalent to $94,084 in Lincoln. I don’t know how accurate this thing is, but it’s a fun little toy to play with.

If you use Illustrator, Photoshop, Paintshop, or even Freehand, this site has a bunch of good links to useful actions, styles, and more. Note that it is an About.com link, so be ready for a gigantic pop-under ad.

I’ll just quote this really cool site:

Last Christmas my Dad and me had a big argument. He’d found a picture of Enoch Powell on a pogo stick and claimed that politicians weren’t as interesting as that any more.

I’m doing politics A level and thought that he was wrong. So I wrote to lots of them to ask them what they thought, and whether they had ever been on any of the following…

(a) a skateboard;

(b) roller skates and/or blades;

(c) a space hopper;

(d) a go kart;

(e) a death slide;

(f) a non-motorised scooter;

(g) a BMX bike;

(h) or any other locomotive child’s toy?

Everyone said that none of them would write back. But lots did. And this website is the result.

There are some interesting replies there, and seeing Margaret Thatcher on a sled is really funny.

This is one amazing feet of programming: A recreation of the classic Lemmings game, done entirely in DHTML. Don’t mind me while I play this until my eyes bleed. Link via MeFi.

Quick Update: I see Neil is linking to it, too, but I did see it before I went to Neil’s site, so I’m not just spending my entire day copying his links….really….I promise…;-) .