All Entries in the "Web" Category

Voxengo Lets You Cut A Record Without Your Own Drummer

Ready to record a demo on your one-computer home studio, but still can’t find a decent drummer?  Instead of settling for an awful-sounding drum machine sequence, you can get a real percussionist to lay down professional drum tracks with the Voxengo Custom Drum Track Service.  Yep, a working studio drummer for hire at the bargain-basement price of $69.95.  Win.
If you’ve spent any time in a studio, you’ll know the difference between a hack drummer and a seasoned artist.  Back when I used to work in one, producers will literally pick fights with band members about how much they need to kick out the guy behind the skins because they suck on record.
To order, simply provide Voxengo with a copy of your song sans drums, pay the fee and wait a week to get your drum track in unprocessed wav format.  For the low price, you get overhead, side and room [...]

Google Street View Snowmobile Braves The Slopes For Google Maps Fans

Think you can hide from Google Street View by camping in icy mountains, Abominable Snowman?  You may have to rethink that strategy with the Google Street View Snowmobile, which plows through slush terrains hoping to catch a glimpse of your snowy white hide.
Yep, that’s a snowmobile with a Street View rig duct taped to it, capturing the world of treacherous icy hills one unique snowflake at a time.  You can feel a little better, though, in knowing that they aren’t really using it to turn up evidence of your existence.  Instead, they outfitted the vehicle to get a top-to-bottom shot of the slopes at Canada’s Whistler Blackcomb, where the world’s best skiers and snowboarders will show off their wares at the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.
The results, which are now available from Google Maps, are quite a sight, allowing ordinary mortals to experience the same view that streaking athletes will see [...]

Be A Certified Virgin And Make Your Parents Proud

Still a virgin and proud of it?  Don’t stop the announcement with wearing a purity ring.  Hang it on your wall with a Certified Virgin certificate, which proudly proclaims your sexless life to the world.  Yes, you’re so cool, just like a Jonas brother (oh wait, only two of them should be virgins now – one got married).
Whether you’re a 40-year old social misanthrope, a dry-humping maestro or the biggest prude in the world, these “I’m a virgin” diplomas will put your abstinence in very clear terms.  You’re as pure as Nickelodeon (well, before Jamie Lynn), as wholesome as Disney (errrr, before those Vanessa Hudgens photos) and with an unpopped a cherry as…ummm…I don’t know, Taylor Swift?

The Certified Virgin certificate, of course, isn’t any kind of official badge.  In fact, pretty much anyone can order.   If you want to pretend to be a virgin, I suggest getting one and hanging [...]

DeepDyve Lets You Rent Scientific Journals Online For 24 Hours

Do you consume scientific papers the same way you voraciously take to music?  Maybe not, but many folks do require them for regular research needs.  If you’re among those folks who fork out ridiculous amounts of cash for copies of obscure research publications, then you’ll love DeepDyve, a new service that rents out scientific papers for the same 99-cent price as an iTunes download.
For a long time, everyone without a student pass regularly had to pay serious cash for access to articles from science journals (typically from $30 onwards per title).  That holds true whether you only need to check out a couple of details from it or actually need the whole deal.  As a result, many folks ended up having to be stingy with their research budgets, often having to write out papers or perform experiments without full access to every piece of previous research available.
With DeepDyve, that can [...]

Can’t You See I’m Busy… Busy Playing Games

Like to play a quick game while at work? Unless you have a strategically-positioned cubicle, it’s usually not that easy. Sure, you might get away with it every now and then. Chances are good that you’ll eventually be caught, though.
If your desire for mindless distraction overwhelms the need for job preservation, you should head on over to CantYouSeeImBusy.com for a solution. With games that are carefully masked as regular office software, you can waste an entire day on their offerings. Seriously, it’s your best chance to slack off without leaving your supervisor any wiser to it.
The current offering consists of three games, namely Leadership, Breakdown and Cost Cutter. Leadership has you commanding a ship that travels across a series of Excel graphs, with the goal of steering it to a landing area without hitting any of the edges. Breakdown has you controlling a [...]

Regretsy: The Dark Side Of Crafts

We love Etsy.  Heck, we’ve featured crafts being peddled around those parts in these pages multiple times.  Like many “creative” places, however, there’s about ten pieces of garbage for every brilliant item that shows up.  A site called Regretsy documents that former category.
From a Michael Jackson monkey doll to a cheese grater with a clock (called Time To Grate) to a half-fish, half-squirrel taxidermy freak, it’s a hilarious look at the questionable stuff “creative” people make.   Poring through the entries can feel like you’re reading through a pile of fake products designed for a laugh.  But, alas, they are real. Worse, they’re being sold (not that anyone’s buying, of course).

It’s tough to imagine the sellers expect people to pay for this stuff.  I mean, if they were going for $1 apiece, I’d probably splurge and put up my own Museum of Horrible Craft.  However, the price tags are bordering on [...]

Zero Baggage Lets You Travel Light Even With A Full Suitcase Of Stuff

Luggage sucks.  In fact, traveling is often a horrendous experience because of it.  From the hassles of carrying heavy bags to losing them at some point during the trip, it makes way for plenty of less-than-ideal situations.  That’s where Zero Baggage wants to come in.
The upcoming service intends to revolutionize the travel experience by letting you fly without bringing anything along.  Rather than pack two suitcases full of clothes before every trip, you can put your regular gear together once and leave them with the service.  During each trip, simply notify Zero Baggage and have your stuff delivered directly at the hotel.  When you’re done, simply call the company again to have the same stuff picked up, cleaned and readied for the next time you need it.  Basically, you travel both ways without carrying any luggage, yet having everything you require.
What if you need a pink power suit and your [...]

Swiss DNA Bank: Keep Your Genetic Record, Digital Data Under Tight Security

How would you like to keep a record of your DNA, along with your most precious digital information, in  one secure place?  I’m not sold on its actual value either, but the folks behind the Swiss DNA Bank thinks you’ll actually pay for the privilege.
The concept is simple enough.  Store a swab of your DNA in a secure location halfway around the world, for whatever purpose it may serve at some point in the future.  Say, you become a bazillionaire and die without a will.  All of a sudden, your estate suddenly gets ten random clowns claiming to be your illegitimate children.  All your estate has to do is pull up that swab sample and get them tested to verify.
Apart from the genetic record, the Swiss DNA Bank also stores digital data in secure servers.  I’m not entirely sure what kind of information you will want to entrust to a [...]

Mustang Customizer Lets You Pimp Your Own 2010 Mustang

Have some tuning ideas you’d like to see for the new 2010 Mustang?  See how your vision looks on a computer screen with Ford’s new Mustang Customizer, a web app that allows users to remodel the roadster in a large number of ways.
More than a simple graphics selector, like similar Flash apps have done in the past, the Mustang Customizer offers a wide range of personalization options that can end up  turning out an entirely different-looking ride.  Starting with a stock 2010 model, you get the option of decking your Mustang with a variety of  hoods, louvers, scoops, custom paint jobs, spoilers, grilles, wheels, stripe kits and everything else you can imagine slapping on a car’s exterior.

Of course, a sexy car looks even sexier in the proper setting.  As such, you can also change numerous environmental elements in the image, from the conditions of the sky, the length of the [...]

Funny Tutorial: Photography Rules For Complete Idiots

Want to learn photography but don’t know where to begin?  Learn the basics from The 78 Photography Rules For Complete Idiots, a mostly-factual, partly-inane and completely funny illustrated piece that details some of the key ideas you’ll need to learn before you start snapping stills.
Created by Latvian photographer Ivars Gravlejs, the pieces of advice range from the obvious (“Before photographing, take the lens cap off”) to the useful (“If you take a picture of a self-portrait, try to hold the camera in both hands”) to the downright comedic (“It is better to photograph clouds when there are clouds”).  Despite the overall light-hearted tone, some of the recommendations are actually pretty good for novices, along with folks like me who don’t really use a camera all that often.
Oddly enough, some of the “wrong” photographs look damn good, which means even the biggest dummy can manage to capture a good image every [...]

Tourist Remover Deletes Passers-By From Your Snapshots

Want to enjoy your travel photos without all the tourists and passers-by right in the middle of the shot?  Try Snapmania’s Tourist Remover service, which blasts those pesky obstacles out of the frame.
Graphic designers have been wielding the same magic with Photoshop for a while now, though it typically takes more than a single button-press to generate the results.  Tourist Remover brings the same capability to the masses, without requiring a single iota of graphic knowledge.
Of course, it doesn’t simply clear the path in some miraculous manner.  Instead, you’ll need to upload multiple shots you’ve taken of the same scene from the same angle.  Once you do, the software will flex its muscles, averaging out which items to delete and which ones to keep intact, basically keeping all the pixels that stay the same.  The results are photos without the unwanted foreground elements, almost as if you had the scenes [...]

Download IE8, Help Feed America’s Hungry

Looking for more ways to help out the needy?  Try looking into Microsoft’s “Browser for the Better” program, which donates what they claim to be the financial equivalent of eight meals to the Feeding America network for every download of Internet Explorer 8.
We all know what royal pain IE 6 has been for many developers and that is why it has definitely taken a hit with browsers like Firefox, Opera and Chrome stealing away a considerable portion of their market share.  As such, a gimmicky promotion might be their best bet at making a run to salvage the shrinking user base.  At least, the marketing ploy leads to some good, feeding a couple of people who’d probably starve a night otherwise.  Don’t count on doing a world of good with your download, though.  As it turns out, “eight meals” in Microsoft lexicon translates to $1.15.  Yep, you sure can [...]

Cryptic Canvas Clues You In On Empire Magazine’s 50 Favorite Films

Empire Magazine is celebrating their 20th year anniversary and, among other things, created a “Where’s Waldo”-type game made to commemorate the occasion.  Called the Cryptic Canvas, it involves a painting with 50 visual puns on their favorite films of the last two decades – find the clues, identify the movies and don’t win a prize.  Yes, it’s just a fun time-waster if you’re into cinemas and such.
Basically, you’ll have to look at the painting and find images that correspond to a movie.  When you guess a title right, the text box turns green and the particular image dims. The clues aren’t that hard, as long as you’ve carefully paid attention to the last 20 years of cinema.    If you’re like me, who pretty much didn’t care, I reckon your score will be near the same paltry 11 answers I got correct.
To play, simply click on any image in the canvas [...]

Kanye Vision Bookmarklet Lets You Watch The Web Through The Singer’s Specs

Want to see the web through Kanye West’s eyes?  Aside from acting like a self-centered douchebag while you browse on Facebook, you can use the Kanye Vision Bookmarklet, which places a layer of graphic that mimics the singer’s favorite sunglasses over every website you visit.
Sure, it’s going to make your surfing more difficult.  At least, you’ll get to see the web the way Kanye sees it.  Perhaps, it can help you understand why he’s such a conceited dork – who wouldn’t get pissed off when you continually have to filter the world through thick horizontal lines?
You can, of course, opt to get one of Kanye’s “shutter shades” from most every knock-off optics maker  in the world.  If you can afford it, you can probably even hire Alain Mikli, the designer who custom-made those slatted sunglasses, to craft one especially for you.
But if you just want to experience how Kanye reads [...]

PixelCase Takes You To An Aerial Tour Of New York

Curious how New York City looks like aboard an aircraft?  Take a free aerial tour of New York via this awesome interactive video from PixelCase.  If you have one of those Vuzix VR sunglasses, make sure to put them on and feel like you’re watching the cityscape while hovering on air.
Like any VR-inspired creation, the tour can induce nausea and vertigo, especially when seen through specs that make the world around you disappear.  Of course, if that world is the same drab office cubicle you toil in everyday, you’ll probably appreciate it.
The aerial shots start you off at Times Square, moving any which way you want, taking a bird’s eye-view of the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, down to those seedy Russian neighborhoods you see in Grand Theft Auto 4.  You can flank left, swerve right, zoom in and do all sorts of custom movements, almost like you’re Mighty [...]

Never Forget Your Toothbrush Again

How many times has this happened to you: you pack up everything you believe you need for a trip, travel, arrive at your destination, and start unpacking only to realize that you left something behind that you really need?  It seems something always gets left out, be it a toothbrush or your notes on your presentation to dozens of your business colleagues.  No matter what it is, there’s a new system that will make certain you never leave anything behind again: Packwhiz.
Packwhiz is a web-based trip packing list generator that makes packing for a trip a breeze.  Packwhiz is one of those sites that is very easy to use and operate, which is just what the creators of the system intended.  They want everyone to be able to use this site to create their packing list.  Packwhiz will give you a few prompts and even has pre-made lists of basics [...]