Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar!
Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar!
ROBOT DINOSAURS THAT SHOOT BEAMS WHEN THEY ROAR!
The Map Envelope site is a nifty little utility that does, well, pretty much what it says. Using Google Map, the site finds virtually any address or landmark in the world, and places an aerial photograph of the location along with a message of your choice. Then, it gives you a printable template so that you can print out the shape, fold it into an envelope, and the inside flap will show your map and image!
The motto of Woot! is "One Day, One Deal". Every morning at 12:00 AM Central Time, the Woot website updates to reveal a new product. That product, and only that product, is available until they run out, or until 11:59 PM that day, whichever comes first. A new product is then available at 12:00 AM. Woot! offers a huge variety of products, including computers, speakers, gadgets, toys, and more, and often at extremely low prices. Of course, when a good deal comes along, it isn't uncommon for items to sell out. If they do, you just need to wait a day for another offer to come along.
Freecycle is a a growing online network of members whose entire purpose is the giving away of free stuff. It's like Craigslist where everything is free (and classier). You can enter your zip code, sign up, and then browse to find people giving away clothes, bikes, washing machines... the possibilities are endless. True, just like hunting through yard sales, there is a lot of junk, but after all, it's free!
As a side feature, you can also request items to be given to you. As you might expect, this portion of the site is crammed full of unreasonable requests and the site moderators tend to discourage extravagant requests (not that it stops people). But who knows, you might get lucky!
Every computer these days tends to come with a decent variety of fonts pre-installed, but I tend to find they all blend together and none really stand out. For day to day projects this might be fun, but sometimes you need something that stands out a bit.
Enter dafont.com, a website with a seemingly endless library of strange and exotic fonts. There are dozens of categories to choose from, each with dozens of fonts. You can find find fonts to match most any movie title (my personal favorite search), as well as many custom creations.
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Recently I stumbled across a blog named There, I fixed it. Think of it as a sort of Darwin award for home repairs. The blog has multiple updates daily that showcase the lengths people will go to avoid paying a professional to do the job right. Some of the pictures are actually fairly ingenious, but more often than not they make me fear for the future of humanity.
xkcd is an webcomic by Randall Munroe. With simple stick-figure art the comic touches on comedy, romance, and mathematics. It's certainly a comic for nerds, but enjoyable by all.
The Free Video Games Project gathers together the very best Flash recreations of classic arcade games, such as Tetris, Pacman, Space Invaders, and more. The games load up almost instantly and will run on virtually any computer with no downloads necessary. They run smoothly and, being Flash, scale to any resolution.
Gunnerkrigg Court is a webcomic about two girls attending the titular school. It's a bit like Harry Potter, with various houses, young students, and magic abounding, but in this case technology plays an equal role in the world. In fact, the comic has developed quite a complex mythology of its own, which gives it quite a bit of depth. Definitely worth a read.
GROW is a series of puzzle games where the player must select one of several objects, one per turn. Each turn, the objects already in play will "grow", often interacting with each other. The point is that to win, you must select the objects in the correct order, so many replays are in order.
Foldit is a puzzle game. Players must attach different sorts of pieces into different patterns, all while following certain rules. The key is the find the most stable folds possible for a given set of pieces. The catch? You're doing science! The game models protein folding, and is an attempt to show that humans are more capable than computers at figuring out the most complex and stable protein chains. Have fun doing a puzzle, and help the progression of science!
If you've ever played an MMO of any kind, heck, if you know somebody who does, you ought to be watching the Guild. This online series starring Felicia Day (of Doctor Horrible fame) broadcasts episodes, totally free, one a week, and is currently on it's third season. It is full of humor targeted towards gamers and geeks, certainly, but broader audiences will find appeal as well.
TSP Solver is a website that attempts to solve the so-called "Travelling Salesman Problem". You can add in a series of addresses via Google Maps, and TSP Solver attempts to find the most efficient route to hit all of those points. Have a long trip to plan? Need to run errands all over town? Use TSP Solver to plan the best round trip so you won't have so much backtracking.
Creator Mazapan describes his creation You Have to Burn the Rope as a game without the usual "600+ hours of grinding." Indeed, it is brief, but the controls are simple, and it presents a powerful ending with a climatic final battle. Make sure to play with the sound on, and stay for the end credits to be treated with a Portal-esque treat.
Supercook is an online database of recipies. You fill in the ingredients you have available, and it sorts out all the recipies that are possible with your ingredients. You can even save an account to keep track of your kitchen, adding and removing ingredients as needed.
Ted's Caving Page is an oldie but goodie from the Internet archives. It records the trials of one anonymous "Ted" and a few others in exploring and excavating a cave, and the unbelievable things they witness there. It's a lot of reading, but very entertaining. An excellent way to kill some time.
Minus is an online comic by Ryan Armand. It's been completed, but is well worth the read. It tells an odd story of a young girl with strange powers. Each comic was hand painted, creating a refreshing art style.
Chat with strangers! Omegle is an online application that connects you to a random, anonymous stranger with whom to have a chat conversation. There are users from all over the globe, so you never know to whom you might be talking. There is also an iPhone app available.
Auditorium is a puzzle game that uses light and color to fill up a series of boxes. It sounds simple, but the puzzles can be solved in many different ways, each with a progressively more complex tune and more dramatic light show. Make sure to turn up your sound.
Badass of the Week is updated every Friday with a biography of one badass in history. Resident badasses range from mythological figures to disgruntled workers, but all make for an entertaining read.
The Majesty of Colors is a short story told through an interactive game. You are a massive, primordial being under the sea that encounters humans for the first time. There are multiple endings to be found so be sure to play more than once.
Errant Story is a fantasy webcomic created my Michael Poe. It has been in development for years now, but is consistently updated and maintains a great art style and humorous writing. It is very story intensive, so you'll have to start at the beginning. Be warned there is a lot of violence and more than a little crude humor.
Based on Valve Software's Portal, Portal: Flash Version lets you think with portals in your web browser. You must navigate your way through dozens of levels using only two interconnected portals. The portals are distinguished only by color. One leads to the other, and you must use the portals to solve various puzzles. Such a simple premise, and on a 2D game, seems like it would be easy, but you'' wrack your brain trying to solve the later levels.
