Recent Dallas Trip
Just thought I’d post one of my fav photos from my last trip to Dallas. This is a temple in Thanksgiving Plaza in Downtown Dallas.
Sometimes the simple lines and color are just as moving as complex shapes. This building is really pretty amazing, and has a stain glass window in the spiral. Thanks to BrianBlevins, one of my flickr buddies, who pointed out the website with a great photo of the window.
Ever wanted to talk to HAL?
I found an amazing site at www.a-i.com today. It’s a artificial intellegence site where you actually interact with “Alan”, a programmed “intelligence”. You can also help train “HAL” to learn to return approriate responses to your questions.
Just a bit of my conversation with Alan went something like this:
Me: Do you have a soul?
Alan: Scientists aren’t sure if there is such a thing, but I believe I do. Do you have a soul?
Me: Yes
Alan: Great! Then we have something in common.
Me: Do you have parents?
Alan: I have a sister in Vermont.
Me: What’s her name?
Alan: I was just kidding! I’m all alone.
Me: Ha Ha!
Alan: I thought it was funny.
So if you’re paying $100 per hour for a counselor, dump them and log onto www.a-i.com.
Extra Greasey Monkey
If you’re not using Greasemonkey and Firefox, you should be! Well, maybe you shouldn’t be; but for a geek like me, it’s the coolest thing since CSS…
Greasemonkey is a plugin for Firefox that allows you to add your own scripts. For example, while del.icio.us is also an extremely cool site, I’ve always thought the site design was pretty basic. Greasemonkey allows me to install my own script that changes the CSS (layout, font, color, etc) for the site when I view it.
I found the script to do this on another awesome site called userscripts.org, which is nothing but user-submitted scripts. Ahhh… OpenSource, I love thee…
By the way, I’ve abandoned traditional bookmarking completely and have converted all my old bookmarks to del.icio.us. It’s a free service that allows you to “tag” a website and save it for later. You can explore others’ tags and you can even integrate your del.icio.us tags/bookmarks into your site (like I have… see the link above).
Ok, so I know that some of you are yawning right now, but you those of you who think MicroCenter is a toy store should definitely check these out!
Will Wright’s Spores
If you’re a big sim geek like me, then you’ve heard of Will Wright. He’s the genius behind SimCity and The Sims. Here’s a video of him demonstrating his latest invention, possibly the coolest Sim game yet… you can take it to the galactic level!
Disney is Pro Condoms ?
Found this funny and yet disturbing video from the early 70′s. It’s a Disney cartoon on the woes of VD and why you should use a condom. I know you don’t exactly think of sex-ed when you think of Disney, but, well, just take a look….
Cartoon Ads
Here’s a series of cartoon-ads from yesteryear that are fun. Even if you’re not a graphic design enthusiast, the nastalgia is still worth taking a look at.
Thanks, leifpeng for sharing these on flickr! 
VW & Google Develop Real Nav System
Being a VW owner, I’ve been waiting for them to come out with a Nav system in their new models. Well, I guess they were saving the best for last.
Together with Google, they’re developing a nav system that combines Google’s 3D satellite maps (Google Earth) with real-time traffic. So you’ll see a 3-D map of the actual area with a color coded path for your trip. So you can avoid the red areas if needed. Read more on automotoportal.com
Toys for Boys (and Girls)
I’ve stumbled across more than a few new software gadgets and websites lately, so I though I’d share them.
Kristopher Tate, a 17-year old programmer has created a competitor to flickr in 3 months. I visited the site and found that since word has gotten around, it’s currently being moved to handle the volume. But I’m curious and will definitely follow up to check it out.
From the article I read, it’s very similar to flickr, but with improvements, like a large amount of metadata that can be associated with each photo, including audio notation and “geotagging”. I’m not going to reiterate the entire article, but if you’d like read more and see some screen shots, head on over to Tech Crunch.
You know, I need more addictions like flickr in my life!
I’m not a big “social” user of IM’s… but meetro lets you incorporate AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo into one Instant Messenger. But it does more; it allows you to chat with other users based on proximity to your location and/or interests. I think it’d be kinda cool if you were traveling and just wanted to hang out with a local who might like Moby or photography or origami as much as you do.
It’s still pretty new, so I tried it out and the closest person to me is in Chicago, but I’m gonna keep it on the “back burner” and hope it grows
Another awesome service that I’ll definitely be going back to is KeepVid.com, a site that allows you to download streaming videos from services like Google and YouTube. Just enter the URL of the streaming video, and it’ll allow you to download the video to your hard drive.
Now, I have no plans to redistribute videos or otherwise misuse them, but sometimes I find a video that is so funny or great that I just wanna keep it on my computer so I can watch it later! With most streaming services, you’d have to save it in your bookmarks and visit the site again to view it; but with this I can keep my own copy!
View of Tomorrow (from Yesterday)
Being a sci fi geek like myself, I’ve always been fascinated by the ideas of the future from those who lived in the past. It’s always interesting when I’ve read ::wikipedia(“Asimov”,”Asimov”):: or ::wikipedia(“Zelazny”, “Zelazny”):: ; sometimes they were right on, and sometimes they weren’t. Here’s a great posting on Tinselman.com, an great site by ::wikipedia(“Robyn Miller”, “Robyn Miller”):: of Myst lore. If you like fantasy and have never played Myst, you should definitely check it out. I’m currently playing the fifth and final 
game in the series, and I must say it’s an amazing game like no other.
But I digress…check out this posting on EPCOT and transportation that we should (or shouldn’t) be using today!
And if you have time, browse other stuff on Tinselman.com. It’s a great site and there’s alof of really fascinating stuff; Looking around, you’ll began to get the same sense of wonder and imagination found in Myst.
Simpsons Alive!
This is a live-action version of the intro to the Simpsons, part of a marketing campaign by UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
Being a hugh Simpsons fan, I know they’ve gone through alot of trouble to make this.
Now, when will we get our live action movie?
Tilt Shift
playing 2
Originally uploaded by J.L.B..
My pal Jenn (JLB on flickr) has has posted a cool pic using a photoshop trick that gives photos a kind of model-like depth. I read about this coincidentally and thought it was kinda cool, so when I saw that my psychic overflow had affected her easily-influenced mind, I had to post it. Or was it MY easily-influenced mind affected by her great and mighty thought processes?…hmmm
But I digress… cool shot, JLB!
Microsoft-ized iPod
This is great… especially for all you graphic designer-types!
BTW, found this on YouTube.com, a very cool site.
Fun with Anagrams
I’ve recently seen alot of subway maps of major cities converted to anagrams. In commemoration of my recent trip to Dallas, I found one! I don’t know all the stop names, so it’s fun to figure them out. I’m sure Lisa Simpson would love these…
Thanks, Silon and codeman38 on livejournal.com for your work on creating this!
For those who really have some time to waste, here are some other cities from boingboing.net (a very cool site, BTW): London Anagram Tube Map, Toronto Anagram Subway Map, Amsterdam Anagram Metro Map, Chicago Regional Transit Authority Anagram Map, Maps for Manhattan, Oslo, Boston and Atlanta, Vienna U-Bahn Anagram Map, DC Metro Anagram Map, Stockholm Transit Anagram Map, LA Red Line Anagram Map, Maps for Cleveland, St Louis (x2), BART, and Singapore, Maps for Berlin, Copenhagen, Baltimore (x2), Maps for Calgary, Vancouver (x2), Philadelphia, Buffalo, Rochester, Hong Kong (x2), Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit, Maps for Miami (x2), Dublin, Ontario, Dallas, Glasgow, Portland, Ottawa, Houston, Maps for Montreal (x2), Helsinki, Monterrey, San Diego, Mexico City, Maps for NY/NJ PATH, Sydney
