Transparent screens

I have seen this in a few places, and cannot remember specifically where (sorry that I can't credit you properly), but these are a set of photos where the desktop backgrounds in Windows shows the area behind the computer, making the screen look transparent.

It's a pretty cool effect, and some of them are stunning. It must take quite a bit of fiddling around with scaling, cropping and light levels etc.

Book Review: The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman - Bruce Robinson

This book is set in post-war Kent in the 1950s, and is written by the author of Withnail and I. To that end all the characters have a quirky eccentricity about them, but all have a detail and depth too that brings them alive. The great thing about the way the book is structured is that although things do happen, the plot is really about Thomas leaving the misery and misundertandings of his childhood, and entering adolescence.

This is punctuated with several events. His grandad is ill, and appears to have gradually worsening odoema. The old man is presented as an interesting off-the-wall character, and represents the one person that Thomas loves dearly. In addition, his grandfather fuels Thomas' natural inquisitiveness by hinting there are secrets out there that he may never know. The more Thomas pries to discover information, the more devious he becomes, and the more snippets of information that come out. These are accompanied by his increasing awareness of sex, and his decreasing interest in the classic rebellion behaviours that dominated his childhood (he poos himself, smokes with his friend, and blows up beach life with home-made bombs).

Although there seems to be a lot going on, the story is a lovely funny account of the things that go on in most families (secrets and lies), and the inevitable disclosure and problems that comes with them. It's one of those books that you don't want to end, the whole reading experience is so whimsical that you really enjoy the journey with Thomas. That's not to say that there isn't some serious matter dealt with here, but his rites of passage is handled so delicately, that you feel for Thomas with warm affection, and a few tears too.

Nothing really happens throughout, yet for Thomas, it all happens; he comes of age, and is thus saddled with the burdens of enlightenment and responsibility; his life will never be the same again. 8/10

Buy the book here.

Britains Worst Named Hairdressers #1

I don't know what it is about hairdressers, but they can't just name them after the people who own them - they need to make a play on the words, and come up with a cringingly bad pun. Names like "a cut above", and "fringe benefits" are two such criminals.

I have decided to start collecting the names of the worst hairdressers, and publish them to the blog. This picture (left) was taken on my phone while I was driving down Merton High Street. Feel free to contact me if you have similar pictures, and I will post them too.

WordNews

This is very cool. This guy has set up WordNews, a site which encapsulates the world news stories on one page (current example left).

The bigger the word, the more often it appears in the gathered stories. It's also been done in a way that means you can get a sense of the story without having to read the whole thing.

(Via JWalk).

Ben Ryves

Here's a guy who just likes to play. He's quite a talented fellow, and some of his animated gifs (under the "Magical Ben" link) are really fun.

I also like his treatment of some classic music LP covers, animating them, and bringing them to life. Like his animation of the Pink Floyd album Ummagumma (shown left, unanimated!)

(Via JWalk)

Kite Photography

This site is pretty cool. These guys have attached an array of cameras to different kites, and have tried to take aerial photos with this gear.

Initially, I thought, what a simple idea, that must be something most of us could do. Then when I looked into the kit they were using, I could see that they needed pretty good equipment, remote control shutter mechanisms etc.

You can see their pictures here, like the stunning picture (left) of some yachts at a jetty during sunset.

(Via Kuklas).

Yikes!

You just don't understand the gravity of the situation!! These nutters took an ordinary room, then turned it on its side. There's a sequence of pictures on the site showing how they achieved it from scratch. Brilliant!

(Via Kuklas).

April Fools Gag

One of yesterday's best April Fools gags were these fake gadgets on ThinkGeek.com, including this USB fondue set, pictured left.

Other fake gadgets include the iCopulate, a device that allows you to mate two consenting iPods!

(Via Kuklas).