This “Papervision” creature is quite possibly the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a long time. I kid you not that when I first got it to work, I felt like I was playing around in the future.
To get your own, just visit this page and download and print the required symbol. Then, point your webcam at the symbol and watch the creature spring to life.
It works in real time, so you can move either the camera or the symbol all around and the creature will react accordingly, and it’s even aware of depth, so you can move the symbol close to or away from the camera, and the creature will grow or shrink as if it was a real object.
Newspond has dubbed itself “the most advanced news site on the planet”.
Quite a claim, eh?
The idea is that a “tireless electronic brain” finds and sorts news in real-time based on global popularity. This “self-sufficient news engine” “continually watches over and reads hundreds of different websites, including everything from major news portals to the tiniest blog, or forum”.
When it finds new news, it notes, sizes and gauges that news based on things like how fast a story spreads throughout the internet, the amount of discussion surrounding the story, the rate at which people click on or bookmark the article, and even the size of each of the sites reporting it.
The result is a Buoyancy Rating that tells you “the exact upward force exerted on a news story by the internet, in real-time”.
To view the news, you can sort Newspond by what’s hot at that moment, or you can sort stories by the highest popularity rating that they ever attained to see what’s hot for the day, week, or month.
As with any new site (it made its public debut on Tuesday) Newspond is still sorting out a few last minute bugs, and the volume of stories isn’t at the levels of the other social bookmarking sites (which could actually be a good thing) but my initial impression is a positive one. The site looks fantastic, has a wonderfully intuitive layout (including an easy to use commenting system), and features stories that I actually want to read. The timeline of sources is also an interesting idea, and the “real-time”iness of it all seems to work well, so I’m definitely going to be checking back to see how the site progresses.
Can this computerized Digg take on the social bookmarking kings?
Only time will tell, but it’s looking good so far.
When Digg added an Images category to the site, they also added a new program to their Digg Labs called Pics.
As images are submitted or Dugg, they move from the left to the right of the screen in columns by category.
Though, as with all Digg Labs products, it’s of limited use in terms of speeding up the Digg process, it does give an interesting look into the always changing, evolving, and updating world of Digg, as well as Digg trends in real time, so it’s definitely worth a look.
Splashup is “a powerful editing tool and photo manager. With all the features professionals use and novices want, it’s easy to use, works in real-time and allows you to edit many images at once. Splashup runs in all browsers, integrates seamlessly with top photosharing sites, and even has its own file format so you can save your work in progress.”
Basically a free, online version of Photoshop, I was instantly impressed by how well Splashup works.
Open the editor, and it feels like a desktop application. Response is quick, it has a proper menu, and it integrates with your computer like it’s supposed to.
One of the best features of Splashup is the ability to import images directly from flickr, Facebook, Picasa, the web, and your computer, With a few simple clicks, you can import a photo, make the necessary edits, and then save/export the photo back into your site of choice.
With the ability to edit multiple images at once, pixel-level control, layers of depth, and more, there’s not much that you’ll miss if you’re stuck in an online editing world.
Though it’s still in private beta mode, Mod My Life has some definite possibility.
Described as “a unique way to view and interact with the world. It’s kind of like ‘Second Life’ mapped back onto the real world.”
Basically, mods are suggestions for future actions. (Example: Bargain for a half-price Big Mac.) Users submit mods, and they’re [...]
