I've already talked about all kinds of geekware before, but this one sounds more interesting.
How about using QR-coded clothing to disguise what you want to say to the world and let only a few people to actually know what you're "saying"?
The Space Invaders-themed scarf shown in the picture on the left is a great example of QR-code based geekware.
Want to know what's this lovely girl's message? Well, install a QR-code reader on your cellphone and you'll be able to read it :-)
Had to much to eat or drink on Christmas? Well, web 2.0 can be a helpful diet programmer and provide you with the necessary tools to get back on shape and get ready to the next summer season (I know that's a few months away, but it's never to early to start thinking about it):
Are you a Photoshop geek-wannabe? This will give you the boost you need.
Check out these 60 advanced Photoshop tutorials that range from text effects to photo manipulation and video techniques.
UPDATE: a few more can be found here.
Can anyone tell? Look closer...
Still don't see it? What's holding the red ribbon to the condom? Clever, humm??
This is the kind of thing that triggers enough rage to start a world war:
One of the main problems of Firefox is the memory consumption while loading and maintaining websites in view. A few minutes of using Firefox can boost up the memory to values over 100,000 KB.
But as a new memory test review that compares Firefox 2 with the new beta version Firefox 3 shows, the new version of the well-known internet browser will greatly improve this feature.
Can't wait for the stable version. This will be a really interesting upgrade :-)
Here's an original idea that uses photos of people with cards to display the current month's calendar: the human calendar.
And the most amazing of all is that it changes everyday to adapt to the new day, so the faces of all the people adjust their look to simulate as if they're watching to the correct date.
Remember when I gave some tips on how to react if you get caught sleeping at your desk? Well, I have some new ones:
Make it look like you have to tie your shoes:
Or pretend you need absolute concentration:
There are more here.
For all of you that are now starting on the world of Web Design, have a look at what you're getting into:
Source: humour.beecy.net
In this past summer I suggested that the plastic popper gadget was the most ridiculous/genius gadget of all times.
However, I've found this new gadget that can seriously face off the competition: the Foot Mouse.
If you think that the number of buttons on your mouse are not enough and are limiting your 
potential to do great things on your computer, then the Foot Mouse is for you.
In the words of the creators, the benefits are:
- Speed up computer workflow in designing, editing, etc
- Hands-free computing and online surfing
- Enable people to multitask simultaneously
- Avoid repetitive hand/eye movement between hand-controlled input devices
- Much easier and faster shortcut entry (Multi-key finger control is replaced by 1-button foot control. Plus, no more eye/hand movement!)
- Reduce hand/wrist stress and help prevent/heal carpal tunnel syndrome or other injuries
- Keep clean/dirty hands off keyboard/hand mouse
- Give video gamers more "hands" to fight
- Offload hand work, outsmart hand mouse, outpace keyboard in shortcut entry
- A foot mouse with brain can boost your gain and kill your pain! It saves time and hands!
Digital technology has been the catalyst to the change of our way of living. Who thought that 15 years ago, when we would send paper letters to our friends to tell them about our summer vacation, that nowadays doing that task would be as simple as attaching some pictures to an e-mail and send it and our friends receive the message in less than 5 minutes?
Digital technology can also change the way we produce art. And here's the perfect example: a new paint brush that uses a built-in camera and a special canvas to allow painters to create modern-day paintings by using the textures, colors and all kinds of surrounding elements.
This gadget basically “lifts up and captures photons”, allowing artists to draw with “special ink” picked up from their immediate environment.
Check out the video below to see the paintbrush in action:
Source: ComNetSlash
It's not as naughty as it seems! This new research is aimed at people with accessibility limitations, which allows them to control the computer by simply blowing towards its screen.
The system uses the microphone as the input device and calibrates it to distinguish sounds associated to the areas at which the user is pointing the blow at. Confused? Nothing better than a demo video to let you know what it looks like:
For those more interested in the scientifical/technical details or if you're looking for an implementation of your own, here's the link for the research paper.
Source: Makezine via Walyou
5 Best Things to Say When Caught Sleeping at Your Desk:
5. "They told me at the Blood Bank this might happen."
4. "This is just a 15 minute power nap they raved about in the time management course you sent me to."
3. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the Whiteout. You probably got here just in time."
2. "Did you ever notice sound coming out of these keyboards when you put your ear down real close?"
And the NUMBER ONE best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk...
1. Raise your head slowly and say, "...in Jesus' name, Amen."
Source: Atlanta Illustrated
Have you ever noticed what you get if you put http://www.ie7.com on your web browser? No, it's not Internet Explorer 7 download page!!
Having Windows running on machines that are supposed to be running flawlessly for a long, long time, might not be a good idea (as the BSOD in Frankfurt Airport shows).
Just this week, while I was browsing around for Christmas presents for the family in some shopping mall here in Portugal, I found this odd screen for an ATM machine:
Here's a magnification of the previous picture:
If you still can't read it, this is what it says:
"Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMHardware Profile\Last Know Good menu" (I don't know if this last word is actually "menu")
"You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows NT setup using the original Setup floppy disk or CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the firt screen to start repair."
I don't even have to describe File Destructor. The words of the creators are self-explanatory:
"Want to play games on your Playstation but got a deadline for an exam or report that didn’t match your gaming ambitions? Then you have come to the right place. Send trashed files and blame your faulty computer, instead of confessing that you are a lazy bum who just wants to play videogames."
There are geeks all over the world and they all have weird ideas. But sometimes, some of those ideas can actually be very funny or useful.
Check out this experience which uses the sound of sparks coming from tesla coils to play the Super Mario Bros. theme song:
And what about this guy, which decided to create a "Minority Report"-like interface by using the infrared capabilities of the Nintendo Wii controller?
Not to brag myself, but I still think that my GELToC solution is far more simple and elegant :-)
By using two led torches and a webcam, I was able to create an application that processes the light sources (from a dark background) and maps them into mouse control movements, which in turn are converted into Google Earth control movements, giving the illusion that you are controlling the World map with just a pair of tiny lights.
Check out a demo video:
GELToC is an open source application and you can obtain more information on it here.
Remember when I talked about "Context-aware Image Resizing"? Well, now there's a free open source solution for GIMP.
Liquid Rescale plugin is a free, open source implementation of a context-aware image resizing algorithm. It aims at resizing pictures non uniformly while preserving their features, i.e. avoiding distortion of the important parts.
Check out a demo of this software in this screencast:
The iconBase.com community offers a lot of free high-quality and creativity icons. Check it out.
The thing that I love about the Internet is that you can find gadgets for every taste (check this, this, this, this, this and this). And you don't even have to try very hard. Just search a little bit and you'll find a lot of interesting items, such as:
The flameless USB Zippo lighter (source)
The Hello Kitty Toilet Paper Dispenser (source)
The Static Electricity Eliminator (source - in PT, source - in EN)
The OhMiBod - an item for the ladies. It vibrates at the sound of your iPod music. What you do afterwards, it's your business :-)
If you need to create an MP3 file with an electronic voice saying a specific sentence, then vozMe is for you.
All you have to do is write a sentence on the website's form and then click "Create MP3".
You can also add this "Hear this post" kind of feature to your blog (as this blog will have from now on), by either using the WordPress plugin or the instructions to add this widget to Blogger. You can also add this widget to your iGoogle home page.
That's right, this a real iPhone and I tested it in a Media Markt store in Portugal. Sorry for the out-of-focus picture...my hands were still shaking from the excitement.
I have to say that, even though I've seen a lot of iPhone reviews, images and videos, I still ran into a few surprises:
