A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
A couple of days ago, somebody mixed Craiglist’s house listings with the elegant interface of Google maps.
Today Engaget shares the secret of hacking Google Maps. I have to say, this is extremely cool. I suppose you could read that as, “this is extremely geeky”, but whatever I think it’s great.
Every year the University of Lethbridge has an awards night for all the athletes on all of the sports teams. Last night was the awards night for the 2004/05 season – and a pretty crazy night. I have to say, the awards themselves were probably the most boring part of the evening.
We met at a pub for a pre-party swim team gathering where some of the girls gave out presents to the other swimmers. Brock and I got (in my opinion) the best presents. We each got a framed Speedo with our names engraved on the frame. It’s kind of hilarious because I would never wear such a small suit, but at the same time – technically it would fit me.
I guess a couple of the girls had a few shots of absinthe before they came and consequently they were very intoxicated. One of the girls was particularly drunk and as we left the pub she asked everyone in the room if she could get a “woo woo”. Then after high-fiving everyone in the bar twice we were finally able to leave.
We then headed to the University for a buffet and awards. I’d like to say the University splurged on the athletes and gave us a free meal, but then again I’d also like to say that the University isn’t anything more than a glorified money grabbing machine. (It is though, in case you never caught that).
After the ceremony was over we hung out at the Zoo (the University Pub) for a bit. That got old so I loaded up my Jeep with a bunch of party animals and headed to the Roadhouse – a bar on the Southside. I have to say, I normally don’t take that many people in the Jeep, but they were anxious to party and I was the only one able to drive.
On the way, while we were stopped at a traffic light we watched as an AMA tow-truck hit a pedestrian! We couldn’t believe our eyes. I wasn’t sure if he really had been hit or if he just fell over but when the tow-truck turned on its flashing lights and we pulled off the road to investigate, it turns out the guy really had been hit. He had a little bruising and some scraps but he was okay. I guess the saying that there are only two types of pedestrians may have some merit…. (ie. The quick and the dead). A ghost-car pulled up to the scene with lights flashing about two minutes later and seeing as everything was under control, we bolted. Besides, I didn’t want to get busted for not having enough seat belts.
Next we made a quick stop by my house so I could change into something less formal and to take a look for a gift certificate that I won a while ago. I never found the gift certificate but when I came back outside I did discover one very drunk girl running up the street sans shirt. Crazy. I’ve seen her a little drunk in the past but this was incredible.
All in all it was a fairly fun night. I guess I should probably get out more, but rarely going out makes nights like last night all the more memorable.
Google is acting more like Ask Jeeves in that you can now type in questions and get fast facts. It’s about time they did this.
Would you settle for an island that sort of looks like a part of a continent? Well now you can – assuming you have several million to buy it.
It’s a collection of (soon to be) man-made islands designed to look like the world. Construction has begun on the $1.8 billion(US) project that is scheduled to be completed late 2005.
The World will consist of between 250 to 300 smaller private artificial islands divided into four categories – private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet in size, with 50 to 100 metres of water between each island. The development is to cover an area of 9 kilometers in length and 6 kilometers in width, surrounded by an oval shaped breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine transport.
Here is a report from The Emirates Network. While you’re there, check out their interesting promotional video.
Not everyone is happy with the islands, with complaints about harm to the ocean’s natural eco-system and eroding shorelines due to current changes.
Soccer players David Beckham and Michael Owen don’t seem to be worried about it, because apparently they each bought apartments in one of the archipelagos. It’s also been reported that singer Rod Stewart bought the island designed to represent Britain. (link to divernet.com article)
Also check out ‘The World’ Official Site.
Jason Kottke attended the Adobe Ideas conference today and has some interesting updates on the new Photoshop.
New update on the backmasking page. It’s a clip from “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Nature Trail to Hell.
The following picture shows the location of Super Shuttle’s fleet at the time of this posting.
The search giant Google is tracking participating shuttle and taxi services using technology from their Google Maps. So far the list of participating cities is small and even then the services within each city is limited, but I’m betting this will catch on – BIG TIME. In New York, as pictured here for example, these marked points represent the locations of each of Super Shuttle’s vehicles.
I think this concept is great, are other real time services just around the corner? When does all this easily accessible information become “too much information”?
In other Google news, it’s been a year to the day since Google announced Gmail and in a continuing effort to keep everyone happy with the free service, they are now offering 2GB of free storage for their web based email service. Happy April Fool’s Day!
This is an interesting interview with Brad Bird, where he talks about his success, The Incredibles, and getting fired from Disney:
I got fired for quote rocking the boat unquote. They were basically saying that if I’d stop complaining about quality, I could hold onto my job. I said, “I’m complaining about stuff your master animators taught me to complain about. So either I’m getting fired or I’m selling out everything you guys supposedly stand for.”
He also has advice for young animators trying to break into the industry.
So I’ve created version 1.0 of my F.A.Q. which answers the top 4 most frequently asked questions. It’s a work in progress so I’ll probably come up with some better answers when I’m feeling up to it, and there are probably other questions worthy of being entered, so maybe I’ll do that one day too.
