Posted by Sarah Stokely at 8:00 AM on May 16, 2008
Phew, just in time for Melbourne's third annual Zombie Shuffle, comes Wired's handy guide for surviving a zombie apocalypse. I can't say I'm a zombie fan, personally I prefer the old days when geeks were either into monkeys or ninjas. But if you're into bandages, horror movie makeup and mumbling "braaaains" then the Zombie Shuffle may be right up your alley. Enjoy! I mean, braaaains! :)
Some folks opt for a home theatre, but in this case, a home entertainment geek opted to wire up his party space so that at the touch of the big red "Emergency Party Button", the lights are dimmed, the party lights come on, the dried ice machine kicks in, and the music starts. Awesome home automation job (we'll overlook the dodgy choice of music). :)
The creator kindly put up a website detailing the equipment used, how it was put together and the cost of materials ($US634).
Bugger it, it's Friday, let's celebrate some unproductivity time. Downtime's important after all. :) Alex Kidman has penned the "2008 Geek Movie Guide" over at PC Authority. I've heard that King of Kong is a ripper documentary, but I'm quite scared to contemplate a sequel to the X Files after all these years! One gross omission from the list is my must-see movie for 2008 - Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull, which comes out next month (w00t!). No, it has no computers in it, but I suspect that geeks and nerds of all stripes will be hanging out to see it. :)
Who knew it was possible? LOLcats just got nerdier with the birth of GraphJam - a site which mashes up pop culture references with... graphs. The site tagline is "Pop culture for people in cubicles" and I spotted some cute productivity and geek inspired graphs when I flicked through the site (Lifehackers will probably appreciate the Piechart of Procrastination).
The site was created by the team behind LOLcats, and like that venerable website, GraphJam also publishes reader's creations. The site was inspired by rap/graph mashup site JamPhat, according to a Wired interview.
Here's a silly but fun download to kill some time on a Friday - by writing in burning letters on your desktop. Napalm (Windows XP or Vista only) is a little program inspired by the Linux-based Compiz window manager. Once you've downloaded it, Napalm has a pretty simple user interface which lets you write in big scary, fiery writing, all over your desktop. That's about all it does - although if you go to the Files tab and hit "Load" you'll see a few different variations on the fiery theme for you to play with. I reckon it's fiery wrath of god effect might be good for putting reminders on your desktop too (see left). :) Napalm - Your desktop on Fire [via Download Squad]
Posted by Sarah Stokely at 10:24 AM on March 6, 2008
Here's one for the Guitar Hero fans out there - there's a free editor available which you can use to create, edit and upload songs for Guitar Hero. Logan over at our gaming site Kotaku pointed this one out - and it turns out the two developers behind the Feedback Editor are both Aussies. Onya guys. It's Windows only - 2000, XP or Vista, and requires DirectX 9 as well. GH nerds head over to Kotaku for the full story, or download the editor here.
NGTD · Here's a giggle for the GTDers out there (or the people who love them but think they're obsessive). The Look Shiny site has published a video guide to "NGTD" - Not Getting Things Done. It recommends books, TV shows, RSS feeds and YouTube as sources of procrastination material which, as an added bonus, can lead to increased stress if you leave them unattended. "For a real NGTD kick, join a bunch of social networks, then tell yourself you're going to follow everyone else's updates." I LOLed. :)
YouTube has become such a ubiquitous part of the internet it's hard to believe that it's three years old today. Happy birthday you big timewasting sucker of bandwidth. (Whatever did we do for procrastination fodder in the days pre-YouTube?). Oh, and especially thanks for Project Awesomesocks, my favourite piece of fan-created video awesomeness ever, which mashes up Firefly/Serenity and the musical Wicked. :)
APC magazine has posted its list of the Top 5 free open source games, along with a list of other free games which come highly recommended. Top of the list is a Super Mario-inspired 2D platform game called Secret Maryo Chronicles. Also on the list are a couple of strategy games, including Free Civ and a first person shooter called Alien Arena. As a bonus they've got a list of 'runners up' and a list of 'free but not open source' games including Sam and Max Episode 4. Should be plenty to chose from if you're looking for a free game to chew up some of your downtime.
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Posted by Sarah Stokely at 8:00 AM on May 16, 2008
Phew, just in time for Melbourne's third annual Zombie Shuffle, comes Wired's handy guide for surviving a zombie apocalypse.
Here's a silly but fun download to kill some time on a Friday - by writing in burning letters on your desktop. Napalm (Windows XP or Vista only) is a little program inspired by the Linux-based Compiz window manager. Once you've downloaded it, Napalm has a pretty simple user interface which lets you write in big scary, fiery writing, all over your desktop. That's about all it does - although if you go to the Files tab and hit "Load" you'll see a few different variations on the fiery theme for you to play with. I reckon it's fiery wrath of god effect might be good for putting reminders on your desktop too (see left). :)
