Knife Block

I saw this knife block (on the Vice Versa site, and thought it looked really good, if a bit macabre. Actually it reminded me of some of the Alessi products, which have always had that slightly rounded, tactile look about them.

The best are those that, similar to the knife block above, slightly humanise what are everyday products. Personal favourites are the garlic press, the gas lighter, the nail brush and the toothpaste tube cap. Inspired.

(Via BoingBoing).

Horse

This anoyingly addictive basketball flash game will consume more time that you care, but it's fun to try out all same. The most testing challenge is against the computer, where you will need to make shots off the garage, off the floor, or out of the screen (a moonshot). Best of luck. Post your best times for Around the World below. I got 26.5.

Town Planner

This cool little game is like a cut down version of the Sim-style games, that allows you to build a town from scratch, lay a road network, build housing, factories, schools etc.

The great thing is that it takes about a hundredth of the time it takes to play one of the full-blown games out there, and will amuse you over a coffee break.

iPod Hacks

You know I love talking about the iPod. Not only is it too expensive, compared to its better sounding competition, but Apple are charging too much for downloaded tunes in the UK, and not only that they are including restrictive DRM on downloaded iTunes songs, so you can only play them on the iPod.

One good outcome from this kind of corporate arrogance is that whole hordes of people spend all their time looking for ways round these restrictions. The same happened when Microsoft declared their web servers as secure, forcing hackers to try really hard to break that security. This ends up damaging the company's reputation, and highlights some of their less trustworthy practices.

Well, what's hacking on the iPod all about? Go to this site, and check it out. Every day he posts tips about the iPod range, including how to gang several iPod shuffles together as a raid array (ok, not necessarily that useful), how to record on your iPod for free (could prove useful), to putting linux on your iPod (opens up other software hacks). It also reassuringly mentions the JHymn hack to remove the DRM from your iTunes MP3s. But even if you're not a hardcore hacker, you may just want to change the graphics and or fonts on your iPod, just to personalise it. If so, this site's the place.

Stick it to the man!! (Jack Black in 'School of Rock')

Color Fields Color Picker

This is extremely cool - its a Color Picker page. You select a colour (phew, back to proper spelling!) from the colour wheel, and photos are displayed in that particular hue. You can even lighten the shade of colour, and it will bring up even more pictures in that shade.

As usual, I nosed into this a little more, and found that the pictures are all hosted on Flickr. Most of you, I'm sure will be aware of Flickr, the website set up to host pictures. The service is free, and allows you to upload your pictures to their web site, and make them available for viewing as individual pictures, or indeed themed albums. In fact, I use it to host my blog pictures.

But here the plot thickens. You can also submit photos to global pools (universal albums, if you like), and then others can view the entire collection, even though there may be hundreds of contributors. Color Fields is one such Group Pool. And then it made me realise what a great idea the Color Picker is; all the featured photos are selected from the Color Fields pool, dependent on their hue. Not sure how it's done, but I like it .. I like it a lot.

The Egg Song

Uh oh!! A Shockwave song about eggs. Clearly Japanese inspired, this has all the er.. quirkiness that you'd expect. Actually it was made on behalf of a company called iloveegg (be careful how you spell that, you may get a slightly different variation on the theme!). On closer inspection, the eggs in the video are different characters:

Hi! The seven eggs of 'I Love Egg' are not normal ones. They express feelings through seven cute expressions. They always attempt to change, since they feel that they cannot stay in the refrigerator as normal eggs. They wish to be reborn.

Rightio!

Self Defence with a Walking Stick

The web clearly has everything - just when you thought you'd seen it all, there's a site here explaining "The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions".

Actually, the text is very detailed, and there's some sensible advice there, like Guard by Distance: this involves not Guarding by Resistance, by blocking, but pivoting on your feet, such that your opponent cannot easily strike you. Makes sense.

The nature of the text, and the fabulous pictures of Victorian gentlemen sparring in such a civilised way make this a treat. After all, fore-warned is fore-armed. Quite where I'm going to find a walking cane, a tweed suit and a boater in a conflict situation, heaven only knows.

3D Maps

A company called Mount Maps have come up with fold out paper maps. They were designed initially to help people in ski resorts properly visualise their position, and the best way to navigate their way down the mountains.

The company describes the design thus:

Our design engineering team first explores how a map can work in 3-dimensions. In effect, we apply two-thousand year-old origami techniques to modern materials. There's a lot of mathematics and science involved and this is at the heart of our Pat. Pending technology.

(Via JWalk).

What's it Worth?

Is your finger on the pulse? Do you actually do your own shopping? Let's see if both is true. Try this little quiz out on the BBC website, and test yourself. I got 8, but don't let that intimidate you!

According to the report behind this quiz:

A survey has suggested that teenagers lack a grasp of the price of some common household items such as a pint of milk, while they know exactly the cost of an iPod Mini.

Flea Circus

Go to this cool site, where you can watch animations of Flea tricks.

The best thing is, you can submit your own graphical flea tricks, by submitting a small transparent gif. The site is German, but if you run it through babelfish, it will give you a best-guess translation.

(Via Kuklas).

Hapland

Here's a great game where you have to work things out by trial and error, until you arrive at a solution. Infuriating.

(Via Ursi's)

Book Review: Chronicles Vol.1 - Bob Dylan

Normally, when you read an autobiography, you are taken from the early childhood days of an individual right through to the present day. Of course, if you buy a book about a famous film start, their childhood is normally only of interest to give a context, it's not actually what made you buy the book. Most people want to read about the 'career' aspect of a person, that element of their life that made them famous, that is, the reason you bought the book in the first place.

This is not a normal autobiography. Instead of tracing a whole life from early beginnings, Dylan drops us into 1961, when he arrives in New York as an aspiring musician with a few Woody Guthrie songs, and little else. But then, far from describing a series of events in the way of a story, Dylan sems to have collated a bunch of notes spanning factual events, places, thoughts, influences, reading material and so on. In this respect, it often reads more like a notepad than structured prose. But a lyrical notepad nevertheless, one with rhythm that skips along, and always informs. Then, just as you're enjoying the style, and progressing down the timeline, he whisks you away to another time in his life, when he is a bit more established. Initially, I found this frustrating, because I was enjoying it so much, but it allows him to maintain the style about different aspects of his life. There are five such pieces, spanning 15 or so years, and their focus is different each time.

But these aren't the only frustrations. Those expecting to read about how he writes his songs, his drug use, his relationship with Joan Baez or the day he went electric will be disappointed. He seems more intent on describing the books he has read, and how he really wasn't a protest singer, in so doing protesting a bit too much. But even though his own destiny seemed clear from the start, he speaks with genuine affection of others who influenced him, including Daniel Lanois, who seems to have exasperated him as much as influenced him on the recording of Oh Mercy.

That criticism aside, this is a very personal account, and makes a compelling read. To read the same lyrical style on paper that has made him one of the greatest songwriters of modern times is a delight, and his own idiosynchrasies only add to the intrigue. I eagerly await volume 2, and have no doubt that it will be every bit as revealing, thoughtful and maddening in equal measure. 8/10.

Where are all the women rock stars?

In this Guardian story, the writer bemoans the fact that there are no longer any great women rockers:

In a year when the NME is idolising the mix of crack addict and doe-eyed woodland creature that is Pete Doherty, it makes me yearn for the Kim Deals and the Courtney Loves of this world, who did it all so much better.

Film Review: Sideways

Sideways is directed by Alexander Payne, the same director who bought us About Schmidt - what that movie proved is that he is not afraid of tackling people's frailties with honesty and insight. And so he does here, with a funny and sometimes uncomfortable film about mid-life mediocrity. Just like About Schmidt he manages to take some unlikeable leads, and tell a funny but touching tale.

Miles (Paul Giamatti) takes his friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) away in the Californian wine district for a week prior to Jack's Wedding. Miles is an English teacher who has been unsuccessful in getting a book published, and his character reflects these seeming underachievements; although he is clearly intelligent, he has low self-worth, and buries himself a little too deeply into his wine interest, clearly to cover up his own disappointment in himself. His friend Jack is an out-of-work actor, who, desperate not to feel like he is losing his masculinity along with his feedom turns into some sex-mad maniac desperate to get his rocks off.

This leads them to hook up with two local girls, Maya and Stephanie, and follows their progress, which is funny and tragic. Both men appear sad in their own ways, because they are portrayed as so very ordinary. This ordinariness runs though the whole movie, which has the look of a low budget affair, making it easy to forget how difficult it is for people to act in a non-Hollywood naturalistic way. To this end, there is a delightful subtlety about the film. There is a scene where the foursome are picnicing, and the sun is flaring in the camera, the trees and Maya's hair. It's simply lovely, and imbues the picture with the gentleness of touch that is Alexander Payne's trademark.

The script also manages to nicely balance some of the situational comedy with scenes that are almost uncomforable in their honesty. Giamatti is excellent as the downtrodden Miles; he manages to use the trip to explore all his fears and his failings, and every one of them is painted in his eyes. Church gets most of the laughs as the superficial Jack, but really only has his charm as a redeeming feature. Despite the fact that neither are really likeable characters, there is a decency in them that emerges, for all the bluster and misery they both exhibit. The audience are left only really liking Maya, the local girl that Miles befriends, played brilliantly by Virginia Madsen. She manages to epitomise what little hope there is, and helps to point the way for Miles.

If you're unconvinced that a movie can't entertain without big stars, over-egged special effects or slapstick belly-laughs, I recommend you see this movie. If you already know this to be true, I recommend you see this movie. 8/10

Fridge Magnets

If you wanted to play with a web version of Fridge Magnet words, go to this link.

If you don't like the set of words you're provided with you can select others, ranging from Britneyesque to Shakepearian. Good fun.

Via Kuklas Blog

Film Review: A Very Long Engagement

This is a film about hope and despair in equal measures. The story revolves around Mathilde (Audrey Tatou), a lame outcast, who becomes best friends with Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), a boy in her village. The two become inseparable, and as they become older, their relationship becomes physical, and they eventually get engaged. During World War I, Manech gets the call-up to the trenches, and it's here that the mood shifts in the film. The sheer horror of the experience is beautifully conveyed in muted colours, and the direction skilfully captures the humanity amidst all the inhumanity.

In the blood and guts of the combat, troops would do anything to return home to their loved ones, including shooting themselves through their hands. Manech is one such soldier, but the French army is intolerant of these actions, so the offenders are sent into No Man's Land without weapons, surely to their death. Mathilde hears about his fate after the war, but unlike others never believes that her fiance is dead. She subsequently starts a search for him, which sends her seemingly everywhere; she is both cunning and determined in her quest, never giving up on her love.

This is a very powerful movie, and it's amazing in containing both shocking war footage alongside gentle humour and the obvious romantic thread that runs (in Mathilde) through the movie. But the director (Jeunet) manages to put his own flavour on every scene, so the war scenes border on surreal, and every soldier falling in the trench mud seems faintly whimsical. The quirkiness that Tatou had in Amelie is now apparent in the film locations themselves, which have a picture postcard look about them. The lead character herself shows a determination and hope that is both inspiring and sad, and Tatou's own contribution is with an enchanting performance even surpassing that in Amelie.

Like all Jeunet films, all the central characters seem lonely or outsiders, yet he cleverly manages to eke charm and complexity out of every single one. The visuals are stunning throughout, and aside from 5 minutes in the middle where my memory for French surnames was severely tested, and despite some of the harrowing subject matter, it is a uplifting experience. Recommended 8/10.

Film Review: Meet the Fockers

This is the sequel to the 2000 original Meet the Fockers, and is actually the same movie in all but name. Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) and Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo) need to again Meet the Parents, but this time, it's Ben's hippy Floridian parents who come under Pam's father's scrutiny.

Unfortunately this represents all that epitomises lazy Hollywood. It's not enough that they've just remade "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Flight of the Phoenix" because they've run out of ideas: it just seems that if you hit paydirt, crank it out again. Meet the Fockers is no exception. For a starter, there's the same gags - so you can expect the same disasters: the inevitable awkward dinner, the dangerously misjudged sporting event, unfortunate pet mishaps, and countless "focker" puns.

But where in Meet the Parents, everything started ok (ish), but then started getting slowly and slowly more out of hand, the sequel needs to set the scene pretty quickly to enable the same jokes. So this time the central characters are more extreme than ever, and they hate each other again. Ben Stiller's father-in-law-to-be Jack Byrnes doesn't just use spy cameras in this movie - oh no - this time, he has customised an RV (mobile home) with a whole set of surveillance equipment that the Pentagon would be proud of. In this way Robert de Niro plays a complete caricature - it just pains me, knowing the greatness he has achieved before to see him ham a comedy role in this way.

That's not the say the movie is without merit. Formulas are constructed around success, after all. It's still quite funny in parts, and the general hapless chaos is Laurel & Hardy slapstick updated for the Playstation generation. Dustin Hoffman is great fun, Barbara Streisand (despite my prior reservations) is quite natural, and of course Ben Stiller handles the slightly bemused out-of-control son role quite well. The performances help the movie when it really needs it. The fact that Jack Byrnes learns a little something about himself and his marriage add the tiniest bit of contour to his otherwise 2 dimensional character. Plus there's the added bonus of Little Jack, Pam's niece, who has the best scene of all.

The visual gags keep coming quick and fast, but it is only a snigger movie, whereas the first one made me laugh out loud. No new ground, but have a few beers, go see it, and while you'll laugh, forget about your life, and work through a large popcorn bucket and a litre of coke, you won't help but leave a little disappointed. 6/10

Do you know your wristbands?

From the BBC:

"When Nelson Mandela distributed Make Poverty History wristbands at a London rally, he hammered another safety pin in the coffin of the socially conscious ribbons. Bracelets are now the fashionable way to show you care about a cause. But do you know your anti-bully bands from your anti-racism ones?"

(Via Kukla's Blog).

Cat Car

This game will amuse for 5 minutes at least. You have to get the cat to pick up the barrow, then wheel it over increasingly narrower paths to get through the levels.

Post the level you get to in the comments below.

Sleeping in Airports

Thanks to JWalk, I found this link to a site showing you where you can sleep in airports.

"For travellers who are REALLY on a budget and are looking for a way to skim a few bucks off their travel expenses, why not consider sleeping in an airport? Many airports are actually better than local lodging. And to top it off - IT'S FREE! Your friends and family may look at you funny when you return with your airport stories, but that's only part of the fun."

Couldn't Stomach His Beer

An Australian nearly died during a drinking game staged at a party in Perth, according to the West Australian. He made a device to force the beer into his stomach, but ended up ripping it open, causing beer to pour directly into his abdomen.

(The device) "is believed to have consisted of a helmet fitted with a jug from which a hose was attached to a pump that was powered by a power drill. Another hose from the pump was placed in his mouth and the pump was switched on, pushing beer from the jug down his throat."

Little Erde

Click here for this cute little game, although, you might need to read the instructions more than once! Your goal is to .. er .. "toss the sausage" (not what you think!).

(Via Kukla's Blog).

You're Breaking Up!

Toysoft sell this great software for Treo smartphones called Lightwave. If allows you to play WAV files, MP3s etc on your handheld device. The coolest feature though is called CoverUp Sound. It allows you to play a WAV file over your phone conversation. This means that you can play sounds to make it sound like you are somewhere where you're supposed to be (when you're really somewhere else!). Examples could be a train station, the sound of traffic, a noisy pub etc. Or you could always play the sound of a noisy phone line, pretend you're breaking up and hang up.

Aint Got No Spit obviously does not condone te use of such technology, but still wants one anyway. Via Boing Boing)

I Hate My Flatmate

This is the title of a pretty funny blog describing how his flatmate winds him up every day. Yesterday's moan:

	Today's prize for the World's Stupidest Flatmate goes to you, for using an oven mitt to turn 'chicken fingers' (in the process filthifying the mitt), instead of using the pair of tongs that were in the drawer!

Google Browser?

Last year, Google registered the domain name gbrowser.com, fuelling speculation that they would enter the browser market and compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Well, Technology Review go on to say:

The buzz meter ratcheted up a few ticks last week when Ben Goodger and Darin Fisher, two key players in the development of the Firefox browser, each announced on the MozillaZine blog that they were now employees of Google.

This ZDNet article suggests that it would be foolish for Google to develop its own browser, and that it should instead develp add-on components for Mozilla's excellent Firefox browser. Firefox has now surpassed the 20million downloads mark.