Alonline

A comeback is imminent!

Al — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:38:50 +0000

Hi,

Iâ€ve been missing for almost 2 years, but Iâ€ve just reinstalled the latest version of WordPress, downloaded Windows Live Writer (which is the best blogging tool Iâ€ve ever used), and Iâ€m about ready to start posting again.

I must apologise for my long absence, but I got fed up with the Internet due to the American election, and the incessant coverage of the Obama-McCain contest. In the end the best man won, and Obama has done wonders for America both in the USA and abroad; however, the continuing American bias of the Internet really got to me 2 years ago. This barrage of US-centric news was combined with the rise of other aggregators of interesting Internet links, such as Digg and Reddit, and with a new job in work which has kept me pretty busy ever since.

Digg and Reddit are still there, the job is still busy, but I keep finding the occasional link that Iâ€d like to post, but Iâ€d prefer not to share via Facebook (mainly due to the number of younger relatives in my friends). So, give me a short while and Iâ€ll start churning out the stuff Iâ€ve found interesting and worth sharing.

Amazing Yo-Yo skills

Al — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:17:29 +0000

This guy is good – and he’s only about 12 years old! Watch and learn what a Yo-Yo can do. I found some good tricks at http://The-Silencer.com/ that I’m going to try for myself.

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You might have to watch this twice

Al — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:27:17 +0000

Wow! This is so clever that the first time you watch it you won’t understand it until the end, but from then on it makes perfect sense. A really clever, well thought out and produced advert.

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Octopodi – short and clever animation

Al — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:25:12 +0000

This is quite nice, and shows what can be done with a simple subject matter and a little bit of time.

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Amazing card tricks from Lennart Green

Al — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:16:27 +0000

Now here’s a guy I’d like to see more of. This act is clever, intelligent, well thought out, targeted at his audience and incredibly well performed. When you first start watching you might think he’s a bit of a bumbling fool; but it doesn’t take long for Lennart to impress you with his skill, and once he gets you smiling you won’t stop until the end of the show. I’m going to look for more of his stuff, as I think he’s brilliant.

Things you can do with sticky notes

Al — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:12:28 +0000

This is cool: I like the ingenuity behind linking sticky notes so that they make Slinky’s. The whole video is also well presented with good music – which always makes for better viewing.

EepyBird’s Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

3,000bhp Chevy

Al — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:08:56 +0000

Take an old American car, completely rebuild it with a space-frame chassis and then fir a 3,000bhp Merlin engine from a Spitfire. Do this and you have a nice car, but when you spend that extra time in getting the bodywork and artwork just right then you end up with an amazing car. I’d love to see a video of this car in real action, but this video shows how well prepared it is.

V12 Powered Chevy

Why we’re in the financial mess we are now

Al — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:50:56 +0000

If you were wondering exactly why the world’s financial markets are collapsing, then I would suggest you pay attention to this short, but useful Sub-prime primer. It’s amazing that people still don’t understand that the current financial model, that has been built over the last century or more, is actually flawed, and that continued growth is not a given. It’s also ridiculous that some of the largest financial institutions in the world were willing to lend money to people who would never be able to pay it back, had no security for the loan and then other large financial institutions bought these unsecured loans for far more than they were really worth. One day someone will manage to stand up to these institutions and point out that a radical rethink is required.

Buffalo Ladyboy gang terrorises Chiang Mai

Al — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:15:22 +0000

If you’re visiting Thailand, and you end up in Chiang Mai, then you ought to avoid sleeping in parked cars. Although the Infamous Buffalo Ladyboy Gang have now been arrested, it is possible that another gang may attempt to copy their modus operandi and rob you whilst also offering weird sexual favours. Quite bizarre, really, and possibly only ever likely to happen in Thailand.

Flash spider toy

Al — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:34:21 +0000

This is a very realistic looking spider. All created in Flash and capable of following your mouse pointer, or of being controlled by you. I think this is a very good piece of animation, and it just shows how far we have come to be able to have such a realistic piece of animation running inside an ordinary browser.