What's Your Blog Looks Like in Words ?

Ever wonder yourself ? Well, here's zlythern in words via Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds !


This little fun tool will generate the so called 'word clouds' from any given url ^_^
Actually there are 3 input type that Wordle can accept ;) You can give url, text, and a del.icio.us username :)

As with any good tool, it must be simple to use, yet it gives wonderful result ! :D


After you provide the text / url / del.icio.us username, wait a while for the java applet to run it's job, and voila ! You can play around ! Experiment with the Layout and Color menu ;) Or simply hit the Randomize button if you're lazy enough :P

But be sure to put your work into the gallery ;) Just like i did with mine :D If you'd like leave a link to yours in the comment ;) I'll take a look of your art :D

Go ahead, make one Wordle yourself ! Have fun with this one ! I sure am having fun ^_^ I think i'm gonna print this one and stick one up on my desk :D

And a little donation to Jonathan Feinberg will keep this nice tool up ;)

ASCII Art Have LEVELED UP !!

Even though Ned Batchelder is in his mid-forties, the creativity and the brains sure aren't old !

Ned bring ASCII Art to the next LEVEL with this CSS Homer, animated !!



Ned took the inspiration for the animated from the work of Román Cortés, the brain behind the brilliant Homer Simpson ASCII.

o o o o ( O O O \ L ( O O O O O \ L ( O | | \ \ | | \ \ \ \ ( ( 8 o o o ( ( 8 o o o o ) ) b o O o o o o o o ) b o O o o o o o o o o o / / / • • • • • _ _ _ • • • C C O ( -

Ned took the beautiful Román Cortés's ASCII above and animate it ! A pleasant to see ^_^

Hopefully we'll see Ned's animated version of Román Cortés's George Bush ASCII Art

KUDOS to both ! ASCII Art surely have LEVELED UP ! Brilliant stuff !!

Browser History Timeline

Eric Meyer made a nice Browser History Timeline :)

Simplicity at it's best :) Nice... and all this structured time was done using a table ;)

Information is decent enough, just hover the time versions, and you'll know the month :) Actually if you're good enough, you can guess what month it is by looking at the year timeline :P


This one sure is far more better then this boring looking one :P

If you wanted a really detailed history of browsers, then, as always, quirksmode is the place to find everything about web ;)

Take A Look. Click The Book.

Lookybook is a really nice concept in bringing books for parents and kids. They bring you nice illustrations from all around the world ^^

We know that nothing will replace the magic of reading a book with your child at bedtime, but we aim to replace the overwhelming and frustrating process of finding the right books for parents and their kids.

You can also create your very own bookshelf ;) What is a bookshelf for ? Well, to put your favourite books of course :D


Another interesting idea is that if you are a new or self-published author or illustrator, or a publisher and you want more eyes on your book, you can send it to them ;) And hopefully they will put it on our shelf for everyone to look at ;)

Lookybook currently features over 200 titles and is growing daily.


And here's another catch, you can EMBED the books to your blog, myspace, friendster, or anywhere on the net ! NICE ! :D

But of course, you can always consider to buy the book ;) After all, what picture books is bad for a gift ?! ;)

And it's almost Christmas too :D

Well, then, here we go, i've embed one for you ;)

First Snow
Written by Bernette Ford | Illustrated by Sebastien Braun
9.875 x 10.75 | 32 pages | Ages 4-8 | Holiday House | Published in 2005 | ISBN 9780823419371

(RSS reader, click through my post to see it)


[via: Drawn!]

Vector Magic (Beta) IS AWESOME !

Few days back, i was posting a screencast on How to Enlarge Vector Picture Easily Without Losing Quality, this is one way to be able to enlarge an image IF you DONT have the original vector image !

Today when i go through my feed, Simon Willison posted an AWESOME tool to CONVERT ANY IMAGE TO VECTOR ! Brilliant ! And you know what ?! It's Flash ! Flex to be precise ;)

Vector Magic is the result of a Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory research project by James Diebel and Jacob Norda.

Vector Magic is capable of tracing images and convert to a vector file, and with a PRECISE results ! Just upload your image and Vector Image will do the converting :D

I will try to give a few Highlights of what this Vector Magic is capable of (it's still even in BETA and am already very impressed)

1. Image Classification



First thing after you upload a picture if will automagically detect your picture's type. Currently they still only have 2 types, photograph and logo. This is not 100% accurate, so be sure to double-check, after it do the detection. But it should get the choice right most of the time ;)

2. Bookmark !



This simple information is brilliant ! If you had big picture to vectorize, and you can't even see the progress bar running, usually you leave the page open. But not anymore ! Just hit Ctrl-D and do somethin' else with your browser ;P

3. Zoom and Swap Your View !



After you get the result, the only thing you can do to check whether this Vector Magic did the job right or not, is to ZOOM in the result ;) Because you can see the quality of the vector more accurately if you can ZOOM in ;) And of course you have to compare it with the original image. And the Bitmap button did was a useful button ! Just a click, then you can view the original image :D NICE !

4. Geeky Enough ?



If you're curious, then play around ;)

5. Still Not Enough ?



Learn more about Vector Magic, they have a very descriptive screencast ;)

___________________________________________

The result is very nice :) maybe because the original image is nice too :P It might not look very good here (because i scale-down the image) Try to see the real size result by clicking me :D

Bottom words, you should really give Vector Magic a try ;)


[via: Simon Willison's Weblog]

Build Your Wild Self

I'm an Ibex-po-sha-ger-li-flam-peacock

Ibex horns - Your Ibex horns can grow up to three feet long. Unlike antlers, which are shed every year, you get to keep your Ibex horns for life.

Polar bear ears -It gets cold in the Arctic (down to 35°F below). For warmth, your polar bear ears are small and covered in fur—even on the inside. When diving, the ears close to keep cold water out.

Sand tiger shark teeth - Your smile is deadly. Your spiky sand tiger shark teeth are perfect for gripping fish and other slippery prey.

Siberian tiger paws - It's no fun getting stuck in the snow. That's why your Siberian tiger paws are extra large. They work just like snowshoes and prevent you from sinking.

African lion legs - Your African lion legs are extremely powerful and have long, retractable claws to help you bring down prey. Careful not to poke your eye out with those things!

Chilean flamingo wings - Your Chilean flamingo wings have dark feathers on their underside. Males use them in courtship displays by flapping their wings to make black flashes that attract the ladies. Ooh la la!

Peacock male tail - Your peacock tail feathers can grow to be 60 inches long. Each feather has what looks like an eye on it. They help scare away other animals that might want to eat you.

Build Your Wild Self !

And have a Fun WILD weekend ^^

[via: The Presurfer]

The Infinite OZ

A little while ago, i guest-posted on RGS about The Zoomquilt Series.

The Infinite OZ. features the artistic visions of nine acclaimed international artists, a collaboration that brings to life the world of L. Frank Baum's classic adventure, as re-imagined by the SCI FI Channel miniseries event Tin Man.

Inspired by the Zoomquilt 2, The Infinite OZ have a more realistic feeling of being in another world ;) with all the snow, the windmill spinning, etc. Nicely done !

And in case you wanted to get the images for your wallpaper, i'll give you a hint, there are a total of 60 images (from image0.jpg to image59.jpg) being used in The Infinite OZ ;)


[via: Ursi's Blog]

Write Your Name in Arabic

[Update 2007-10-09] The link to Efendi in Arabic is back again ;) Thanks Reem :D

A little while ago i posted about My Name in Arabic.

The site have gone through a lot of changes. Reem had a long break on providing the service for free. Then Reem decided to take a small fee in exchange for the service, which make sense for me, since Reem provided your name with a nice font with a beautiful frame, and even provided it with a .pdf .doc and .jpg :)

But now Reem is announcing that My Name in Arabic is free of charge again ;)

And the site is really is Undergoing Changes. Previously the Archive have many many names, including my own (dead link now), which is now disappear. Efendi in Arabic is up again now ^^.

I recall there are quite many of western name have been done back then, so you can always find it first. But right now, it's like going back to zero again. And am still not sure if Reem still working about this.

Meanwhile, Nomadturk left a comment, pointing out to a nice Arabic Name Generator ;) Thanks for the hint Nomadturk :)

Arabic-o-matic will the job for you, all you hafta do is enter your name, and voila ! The arabic version of your name will be prompted just as you type ;)

While the result are not in the arabic letter at all, which mean you cannot copy paste the result, but still this is quite handy if you need a free arabic name ;)

There are some notes about this though

This gadget may be used to write your name in Arabic letters, but be careful... Arabic has only three vowels, a, i and u. That's why the "i", "y" and "e" keys here just trigger the same Arabic letter. So do "u", "o" and "w".

Such contraptions cannot work very well, first because you need to know a lot of things about the sounds of the Arabic letters to cast your name into Arabic letters the right way, and second because the font is not very good.

So Reem's My Name in Arabic provides more accurate result, since Reem knows real well on how the sounds of your name is, and write it precisely on arabic letter.

You can see my name in arabic which Reem did for me إفندي (note that i can copy paste it ^^)

I think those of you who can understand Arabic will definitely choose Reem's My Name in Arabic version ;)

__________________________________________________

So, if you really need it fast and free arabic name generator, then Arabic-o-matic will do just fine while you wait for Reem to do your name ;)

Grow a World from Network Traffic

Packet Garden captures information about how you use the internet and uses this stored information to grow a private world you can later explore.

With each day of network activity a new world can be generated, each of which are stored as tiny files for you to browse, compare and visit as time goes by. You can think of packet gardens as pages from a network diary.

Each time we use a computer and connect to the internet, there are ports that were open and sending out tiny little packets all around your network.

It can be Peer to Peer applications, Instant Messaging applications, checking an email, browsing on the web, uploading a file through FTP, or even playing games online.

All of that generates information which is used and presented with a beautiful visualization called Packet Garden.

Packet Garden was developed by Julian Oliver, originally an experimental artwork that seeks to provide an alternative and accessible approach to visualizing daily internet use. It runs on every platform that we had Windows, Linux, and even OS X computers :D

You will have a unique 3D virtual world that built to your network usage :) For example, if you download something, then it will be represented as valleys with the size matching how big the data are ;) and vice versa for uploading which represented in hills :D


For each type of traffic, you'll see a different type of plant for each type of traffic ;)


After you installed the Packet Garden, you need to capture a traffic first, and then you can grow a world :) you can load it the next time you wanted to visit this world :) if you go inside the world, you'll become a little ball :P and can move around, too bad you cannot zoom out/in :P

Anyway, if you have a decent PC, this will run pretty smooth ;)

Have a try :) it's fun :D




[via: o'reilly radar]

Howtoons is FUNtastic !

Howtoons is a bloody FUNtastic comic cartoon style strips, which is easy-to-follow, story-driven instructions on DIY projects using simple stuffs ! Even a kid can do this !

Joost Bonsen and Saul Griffith, grad students at the MIT Media Lab are the brains behind all of these :D Both were inspired as kids by the imaginative power of comics and cartoons. And they hope to make Howtoons so intriguing that kids tear themselves away from television and computer screens in order to learn the old-fashioned way--through hands-on experimentation.

Howtoons is available via the official Howtoons page. DIY projects have never been this fun ! They provide the idea behind, list all the materials, guide you on how to DIY, and all of this was presented in a comic strip, thanks to professional DC Comics artist Nick Dragotta ;)


But the best thing of Howtoons is the .pdf they offered for FREE! ^^ you can print all of 'em :D

And if that's not enough there's an Instructable's Howtoons version too, an addition to the official site :P also here we get to see some movie too :D


And if you do like this kinda thing, they have a book too ;) Howtoons: The Possibilities Are Endless! Perfect for your kids or your nephews birthday gift :D

Hm... gonna spend the weekend launching a Soda Bottle Rocket :D or maybe play some Tabletop Hockey

Who knows ?! The possibilities are endless ! ;)

Have a nice weekend folks ^^

Print Your Own Free Software Sticker Book

This one is for those of you who wanted to paste a cool sticker on your laptop or pc ;)

The .pdf Sticker Book includes a set of stickers related to free software projects. Now, you may remove Microsoft sticker from your computer ;) and choose some sticker of this book to replace it.


For around 6++MB, there are lotsa nice one :) this surely is a Sticker Book :D there are pages with one design of sticker, this were made to save your time on printing ;) well, maybe after you print these things, you can distribute and give 'em away for free to your friends too :D


Sure looks good on your laptop :) I'm gonna get one myself :D

Lastly, you can also participate in Sticker Book Project too, just send your sticker/s to stickers@pikao.org ^^

My Name in Arabic

[Update 2007-10-08] There's a simple Arabic-o-matic to generate your arabic name, if you need one quick and fast ;) (Read Arabic-o-matic blog post here)

If you ever curious about how is your name in Arabic looks like, then Reem from My Name in Arabic, is the right person to do the job ;) Ever since May 2007 Reem have made lotsa Arabic name for peoples ;)





My Name in Arabic is offering you the service of writing your name in Arabic letters. All you need to do is send Reem an email, write your name, and explain how your name is pronounced. Since the writings will be based on the pronunciation of your name ;)

And Reem, have made me one, a beautiful one ;)

My name is Efendi, and in Arabic is إفندي

Nice eh ;)

And turns out, that Efendi was originated from Turki. Reem pointed me out for this, and here are some quotes from wikipedia.

Effendi or Efendi (from Turkish Efendi) is a Turkish title meaning a lord or master. It is a title of respect or courtesy, equivalent to the English Sir, in Turkey and some other Eastern countries. It follows the personal name, when it is used, and is generally given to members of the learned professions, and to government officials who have no higher rank, such as Bey or Pasha. It may also indicate a definite office, as Hekim efendi, chief physician to the sultan. The possessive form efendim (my master) is used by servants and in formal intercourse.

I never knew that before :P

So, have yourself an Arabic Name ;)

Polar Clock 3.0 Released !

If you still remember the beautiful Polar Clock, well just so you know, since then, there have been many improvement going on ;)

And now, we have it, the new Polar Clock 3.0 is Released from Gabriel Bucknall!


The core logic itself was a total remake, porting it to ActionScript 3.0 which is more optimized ;)

So without further ado, here are the New Features :

• Language Selection (28 languages so far)
• Text alignment (outside, centre or inside of arc)
• Font size 12 - 30pt
• Flipping of text when it’s in the lower half of the arc (to stop it being upside down)
• Guidelines behind arcs

• 24/12 hour clock modes
• Arc properties (thickness, padding, radius )
• A spacer Arc for padding between Date and Time ( movable to be between any arc)
• Continuous/Stepped motion (continuous was requested a lot, so that you can see a minute slowly stretching each second to become the next minute etc).
• Ordering of the arcs. You can put the arcs in any order that you want.

• Colours: Luminance, change the lightness of the arcs
• Colours: Saturation, change the strength of the colour
• Colours: Hue offset, change the hue of the arcs to between 0º and 360º.

This is a very great improvement for Polar Clock :D Kudos to Gabriel Bucknall for such a marvelous job ^^
.

word[is(not equal to)]art

I do[n't] like: Words, colors, irony, sarcasm, puns; all of the above, not necessarily in that order.

A beautiful collections of arts ! Who would've imagine such simple words, have a meaningful, more than a word explanation ;)




Have a new refreshing thought on Monday ;)

Visit more at word!=art


[via: Neatorama]
.

CleVR - Shoot. Stitch. Share.

CleVR is a "Free and easy panoramic images, photo stitching software and virtual tours"

They have a simple motto.

Shoot. Stitch. Share.

Yes, all you hafta do now when you're travellin, is Shoot ! Wether using your cellphone's camera, a digital camera, whatever. Even if you're not a pro ! ;)

Coz with CleVR you can Stitch all those pictures, and Share it with your friends and family ;) Nice eh :D

All you hafta do is sign up (in order to be able to upload and share ^^) and then after that you can launch the program.

The steps ? Simple and easy as 1,2,3 ! You just choose the picture from your computer, and then click the Continue button, go grab some coke, and voila ! You have it ! Your panorama, nicely stitched :D And you can even mark some spots ;)

You'll see on your home page at CleVR there's a panorama of your pictures, and there's a code too, in which you can paste it everywhere ;)

Well, lemme share my panorama, this one i took it with my S88 ^^ at Toa Payoh, Singapore :)

And this is the Nusa Dua Beach at Bali ;)


.

Star Wars ASCIImation

Fun old stuffs ^^ This is waaaay cool when I 1st saw it :D

For FAQ go read it here, lotsa interesting things ;)

Polar Clock

Pixelbreaker made a beautifull clock called Polar Clock. I'm stunned by the beautifull concept of a clock, not the same old boring analog or digital clock ! It was simply just beautiful !

And so, i searched for this Polar Clock terms, and i just knew it today, the definition of Polar Clock :P

a tube, containing a polarizing apparatus, turning on an axis parallel to that of the earth, and indicating the hour of the day on an hour circle, by being turned toward the plane of maximum polarization of the light of the sky, which is always 90° from the sun.

When the first version came out, the author released a screensaver version for it ! But a pity that it was only for Mac :P

But recently, due to the overwhelming request :P the author decided to made a PC version for the screensaver ;) isn't that sweet ^^

Guess what ? I'm using it as a screensaver now :P replacing that old pipes runnin round my screen :P
.

From The Nanoworld to The Universe !

We are able to view all entities, from the microworld to the universe, from a single perspective. By setting them up against a scale, we are able to compare and understand things which cannot be physically compared.

Today, using the electron microscope and astronomical telescope, we can see the objects which we have not been aware of its existence before. Are you able to fathom, or even roughly grasp, these sizes?

This is a beautiful project by Nikon from Japan. All information about the scale and size are made accurate, in a way we can figure it out instantly ^^ with the basic principle of Comparing ;)


We can estimate some range of scale and size just by comparing it with other object :) and Nikon brought this in real nice ! And (my favourite part) it was in Flash ! ^^


The interface are real nice ! Just point and click ! And you get all the information, with real size and scale, and the rendered image is good too :D

Surely this is a must have on your bookmark ;)

Fun + Science :) what could be more fun in learning science like this ? ;)


[via: The Presurfer]
.

Zelda ReORCHESTRATED !!

Ever dream of hearing the sound track of Zelda in an Orchestra version ?

Well, time to wake up, coz your dream is coming true !!


There are over 200MB++ songs to listen and downloads.

This is truly an amazing project ! And to host over 200MB++ like that, i wouldn't mind pouring $10 or so for them :D Let's keep the site alive, it's a huge money to pay for those bandwith right ;)

Nothing is more relaxing than an orchestra music ^^ and collecting a new wallpapers of Zelda :D
.