Check out VectorMagic it’s a fantastic online vectorization tool (I’m not sure why but I like vectorization better with a z than an s – I’m sure I’m not allowed to choose willy nilly like that, but this time I’m just going to).
Basically what it does is take a photo, like so:
And vectorizes is, thusly:
You can set the levels and things online and then download the file to use as you want. Very slick online app.
Thanks Xplane Blog
Asi’s gone and done one of his mega posts. Now he’s moved from looking at the top 100 YouTube clips to looking at the top 100 FaceBook apps.
Nice work. And very useful for lots of people…
I love Pani Puri. So I was really delighted to see this presentation on SlideShare.
My prediction for the day: Online viewing of slideshows set to overtake video by 2010. Nah, not really. But there are some really good, interesting, funny, informative slideshows on Slideshare, it’s worth just having a random potter about. I’d not really done it before and I found some dead good stuff.
David McCandless has been doing bits and pieces for Poke as long as Poke’s been around. In fact he’s written lots of the funnier words on the funnier projects that we’ve done. So it’s nice that someone gave him a book deal.
And if he can put the internet in a book. I can put his book with the internet in it into a video…
As you can probably see the book is packed full of stuff. Thankfully it’s funny stuff. Well it certainly made me laugh out loud in places.
It might not be everyone’s cup of tea. You’ll get a taste of the content by looking at the site: http://www.theinternetnowinhandybookform.com/ – but to be honest I think the book is funnier, but that might just be me.
Even if it’s not your bag. I’m pretty sure it is a perfect Xmas gift for the nerdy web geek who has absolutely everything. It’ll save them dropping their laptop in the bath. And they can look at ‘the internet’ without fear late at night in shady places. After all no one ever got jacked for a book (as far as I know).
If I had to describe the book in a sentence its like Viz did a hostile takeover of Web User Magazine.
I’m not getting any kind of kickback for plugging this. Apart from a free copy. Which I hope I’d have got anyway. If you’d like one you can buy it from Amazon.co.uk here: The Internet (now in handy book form!)
Image pilfered from here.
A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from “rooms” in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.
It’s slightly more sinister than you might first think. It’s basically a bunch of kids that have used dodgy Phishing techniques to steal other people’s passwords, login and steal all their furniture (which has been paid for with real money). So it is a real crime and they probably should get into real trouble.
The story kind of reminded me a bit of the whole “will bobba for furni” story that was around a couple of years ago. That was ‘kids’ performing virtual ‘sex-acts’ in exchange for furniture. A kind of low-level virtual prostitution. The reason “bobba for furni” came about as a term is because of the bad-words filter on Habbo Hotel.
Pretty much any place that has any kind of economy ends up with its own version of thieves, rascals and hookers. Sad but true.
What about setting up the Crimternet? A kind of Australia where all the bad Internet people get sent.
Do you live with a nerd? Do you have friends who are nerdy? Do you sometimes wonder what’s going on inside their heads?
This blog post is perhaps the definitive glimpse inside the brain of a nerd: The Nerd Handbook
I nodded too many times. I think I must be at least a partial nerd. I think Sophie would agree.
From the same author, two other great posts:
The video from yesterday of the fire got a link from the Guardian’s News Blog.
Their embedding of the video in their blog meant that the clip had over 6,000 views yesterday which meant that it got the following ‘honours’ on YouTube.
I was stunned. The most viewed UK news clip of the day. And the 10th most viewed UK clip of the day.
A couple of things worth thinking about:
I guess it shows the power of connectedness, searchability and speed.
Which we should all know about by now ;-)
This is great. Improve your vocabulary and donate rice to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
Really simple interaction. And it’s double compelling: you want to play more (if you’re a word geek) and it’s a really easy way to give to charity. The rice is all paid for by the advertisers on the site.
Not 100% original. The click and give mechanic paid for by advertisers has been done a few times before, but I’m sure it’s fresh to lots of people. And it’s still a winner.
Or alternatively just shout really loud bad words in public.
This morning I’m not going to cry. I’m going to shout.
CAMPAIGN MAGAZINE PARTS THE SEA OF ONES AND ZEROS AND LEADS THE ADLANDERS INTO THE NEW LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. WHERE THERE’S OBVIOUSLY A NEED FOR REAL GROWN-UP-BIG-BOY TALENT TO TRANSFORM A SHITTY BACKWARD COTTAGE INDUSTRY THAT’S FULL OF PURILE PONY ADVERTISING MADE BY PIXEL-PUSHING PROLES.
HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS PEOPLE, THE ‘PROPER’ INTERNET’S COMING, JUST AS SOON AS THAT GUY WHO MADE THE AWESOME TWIX AD IN 1986 CAN FIGURE OUT HOW TO LOG-ON TO ONE OF THOSE WORLD WIDE WEBS.
I should stop reading industry rags. Actually I don’t read them. But sometimes I see the cover in reception, and that’s enough to raise the temperature of my urine.
Anger over.
Aaaahh.
Calm now.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the meritocratic world of the web. Good stuff floats, average stuff gets suspended in the sea of mediocrity and bad stuff sinks without trace. And that’s the way it ought to be.
It used to be really easy. Back in 2002. There was a lot less good stuff out there, so getting seen was much easier. But we’re now entering a world where something has to be doubleplusgood in order to get noticed. (Or have a big media / seeding spend behind it).
In an idealised online world influence is something pure. Something that gets earned over time. A few years ago you couldn’t really buy online influence, that’s why ‘viral’ became such a hot topic. If you could find a few of the influencers and get them to mention your thing, the job was done (or at least kicked-off in a decent way).
But now the population is so much bigger it’s much harder to get out there (at speed) without using mass-media style techniques (buying your way in, or lunching people like a PR pro). Getting any kind of cut-through quickly is tough.
Don’t get me wrong, the long-tail is great, it drives the right kind of people in a sustainable and genuine fashion. But getting to a point where you’ve earned a sufficient degree of link-love quite often takes time.
And sometimes time isn’t on your side.
We’re stuck in one of those situations right now. The climate change bill is creeping ever closer in parliament and we’ve not got the time or cash to accelerate the Get On Board campaign for the WWF.
We need more people to get stuck in. The guys at the WWF are doing a great job of getting their supporters involved. They’re pushing as many media buttons as they can. But the story just hasn’t picked up like we all hoped it would.
It didn’t sound so hard, we just wanted people to sign-up to push for a stronger climate change bill. And we thought that using a story around aviation and shipping made sense and wasn’t too complex (or too dumb). Maybe we over-stretched? Maybe we over estimated how much capacity people have to care about the world? Or maybe we just came up with an idea that wasn’t good enough?
But you can’t say that the idea of creating a decent climate change bill isn’t a good one. That’s just a fact. However you look at it.
We need more sign-ups.
Go here to add yourself to the petition.
Go here to visit the blog to find out what’s coming next.
And here’s a nice little video showing some of the people who do give a shit messing up. Everyone likes out-takes don’t they? Featuring David Nussbaum (CEO of WWF), Sarah Beeny, Terry Waite, Lewis Gordon Pugh (the guy who can swim in really cold water) and my personal favourite Chris Packham (who used to be in the Really Wild Show with the one and only Terry Nutkins). It’s not massively funny, it’s just quite nice.
Having said all of the above we’re not doing all that badly considering that everything we’re doing hardly costs a penny and there’s been no paid for media whatsoever :-)
I’m not doing this out of any kind of loyalty to Poke, I’m doing it because I’d like more people to sign the petition.
If you’re looking at this whole thing and thinking – “you guys are being a bunch of idiots, there’s a really simple way you can make this work, all you have to do is xyz…”. Then please leave a comment or get in touch. I’ll make sure that you get fully recognised and lauded as a saviour of planet earth sometime in the future.
All thoughts and opinions welcome…
