TechnoLlama » Feeling silly

Social propaganda

Andres — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:09:20 +0000

This one is making the rounds, but I thought I’d post it here as well. Soviet-style propaganda pictures for all social media.

Originally posted in Google+ by Aaron Wood.

Llama Font

Andres — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:26:13 +0000

Thanks to all who have sent me a link to this wonderful tool. You can now say anything important in llama with the amazing Llama Font.

Say it in llama!

April’s Fools in Tech Roundup

Andres — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 14:04:05 +0000

I love April’s Fools, the mischievous nature of some jokes played over the years always manages to bring a small smile to my face. Here are this year’s Top 5:

xkcd in 3D. The entire xkcd catalogue converted to 3D!

Spotify closes European operations to fund its US incursion. This one was so good because it was actually believable.

YouTube is 100. Want to see what was viral in 1911? Flughorn cats and an ancient version of the Rick Roll.

Gmail Motion. Now you can use Kinect and similar devices to read your email. Not Google’s best joke ever, but still pretty good.

The Guardian embraces monarchy. While not strictly technology-related, the page became a huge web success for The Grauniad, and their Live Blog was a thing of beauty.

Honorable mention:

Linux kernel to be released under BSD licence. This has to be the nerdiest April’s Fools joke ever.

Do you have any favourites?

Looking for buzzwords

Andres — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:55:50 +0000

I’ve been reading with interest about the keruffle involving Tech Crunch writer Alexia Tsotis and Summit Entertainment film studio about a comment published in that popular blog about a new Jake Gyllenhaall film called Source Code. Apparently Tsotis called the PR for the film a “buzzwordgasm”, as ccording to Summit their campaign was the first “cross-platform, trans-media campaign that transports audiences into the movie narrative using social media game play.”
What does the buzzwordgasm mean? Well, they are asking people to promote the film in their Facebook walls.I guess that any mention of a movie on Facebook qualifies as “cross-platform, trans-media” engagement. I guess that me talking about this in my blog would amount to “reverse clross-platform feedback loop”. Hey, I think I may have a talent for PR work!

Anyway, the story got me thinking at the apearance of other buzzwords that describe mundane things in order to make them sound more interesting. Here is a short list of some of my favourites:

Crowd-sourcing: asking others to do your work for you.
Immersive technology: 3D specs that have been around for decades. They looked silly then, they still look silly.
Crowd-funding: asking for donations.
Gamification: Trying to make your boring application/invention/idea a little bit more fun.
Freecycling: Giving stuff away.
Social tagging: Trying to determine what others are talking about.
Vox-popping: Interviewing regular people.
Social software: Anything that involves sharing between at least two people.
Cloud computing: Errr… whenever asks you what is cloud computing, just adopt a contemptuous look, wave your hand around and say “it’s complicated, it’s out there, man!”
Convergence: I can do other things on my phone other than talking on the phone!
Downsizing: Let´s fire some people, but make it sound cool.
Synergy: If the roadrunner was a word, it would be this (Hint: I always liked Wile E. Coyote).
Rich media: Oh yes, we used to call this multimedia back in the Dark Ages.
Holistic integration: Let’s hope our data will work with that database.
Workflow: Getting stuff done.

Any suggestions?

When bots go shopping

Andres — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:57:09 +0000

Habitual readers will know of my love and appreciation for xkcd, it inspires and awes those of us of lesser wit and intellect in equal measure. Now xkcd #576, entitled “Packages” has inspired a very practical application.

Programmer Paul Hunkin has created a Python script that searches $1 NZD items in the New Zealand auction site TradeMe. Paul explains how the bot works here. You can even follow the bot on Twitter.

I’ll leave potential legal questions about contract formation and the legality of bot trading for another time.

New map of online communities

Andres — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:55:03 +0000

For years, xkcd’s map of the online communities has been my favourite graphical representations of the Internet, and it has been immortalised as the cover of Edwards and Waelde’s Law and the Internet. Now there is an update, and what a beautiful update it is:

Desert of Food Updates. River Grind. Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions.

Unadulterated brilliance.

xkcd on password reuse

Andres — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:05:16 +0000

As one of the millions of people who reuses passwords, I found this xkcd utterly brilliant:

I wonder if it would be possible to program a web search that looks for the frequency of use of the words ‘xkcd’ and ‘brilliant’, ‘wonderful’, ‘utterly brilliant’, ‘amazing’ and ‘WTF?’ The results I suspect would be quite high.

Evidence we’re back in the 80s

Andres — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 08:48:53 +0000

I pity the fool!

This week I woke up back in the 80s. You do not believe me? Take a look at the evidence:

A-Team? Check.
Russian spies? Check.
Tories in power? Check.
Argentina v Germany? Check.
Fashion? Check.
Lakers v Celtic? Check.
1984? Check.

Now, where did I put my denim jacket?

Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock

Andres — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:04:58 +0000

I do not have much to talk about this morning, but I have been unhealthily amused by the game Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock. Here is Sheldon explaining the game to us:

Scissors cuts Paper. Paper covers Rock. Rock crushes Lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes Scissors. Scissors decapitates Lizard. Lizard eats Paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes Rock. Rock crushes Scissors.

You can buy the t-shirt from Think-Geek of course.

Android v iPhone

Andres — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:42:38 +0000

(via Claudio Ruiz) Loved this geeky comic book picture which, as such funny images are wont to do, encompasses the current Flash interoperability support debate with no words. You have to pay close attention, I missed it at first.

Found at NetoRatón.