If you’ve ever seen something you’ve really wanted in your cubicle I’m sure you’ll find it here. The workplace looks like a paintball arena, there are weird waterfall things, colors, lights, and of course it’s in a cavern. I always thought Google was the best place to work, now I’m having second thoughts!

The place has backup power from two submarine engines, a “small” 1.5 megawatts of energy are used on cooling the servers, and there is just so much coolness to this I can’t begin to explain. Oh, by the way, you could supposedly hurl a hydrogen bomn very near the place and it would withstand the effects! Now that’s a safe datacenter! Take a look at Royal Pingdom for some pics and an interview the CEO of the company who built the place.

I had some troubles locating it first but once you know where to look and what to do it turns out to be extremely well done. The easiest way to access this new feature is by opening Piclens by clicking on the Launch Piclens button in the browser toolbar. This opens up Piclens in full screen mode with an option to search seven of the supported websites including Youtube.

Once you have entered a first search term and picked Youtube from the list you will be presented with a 3D image wall of Youtube videos. The usual Piclens controls apply, you can move around with the mouse and a click loads the video in an instant.

The videos usually take a second or two to start playing but this is probably the coolest and best way to enjoy Youtube. It’s definitely easier than browsing on the Youtube website. If you can live without comments and ratings then Piclens is the right choice for Youtube addicts.

One side effect that I noticed though is that Piclens seemed to have removed the urls from the location bar. Not only from one tab but from all tabs and that it is not possible to load URLs by copying and pasting them in the location bar. Could be that another Firefox extension is interfering but I only have a few installed right now. The most likely candidate would be Tiny Menu.

The site itself is pretty resource intensive and takes some time to load, even on my broadband connection. I suggest to turn of the music once you are there unless you really like the atmospheric sounds that play in the background.

These actions directly control the topological structure and parameters of the sound synthesizer. A projector, also from underneath the table, draws dynamic animations on its surface, providing a visual feedback of the state, the activity and the main characteristics of the sounds produced by the audio synthesizer. Enjoy the show.

After that you have to configure weather for me by adding the city that you want the weather forecast for and some other settings. You can choose between English and Metric units and opt to save the forecasts. You will have to supply a city code to the program which can be obtained by visiting the my forecast website and entering the city of your choice. Every city has a code in its url that starts with city= ; the number behind that is the city code which needs to be added to weather for me.

The last step would be to click on the button download weather now to my ipod which will download and add the weather information to your iPod. Weather for me has a autosync option which is a command line parameter. To be able to autosync the iPod with the latest forecasts you have to create a shortcut of the file and add the parameter -sync to it. You still need to add it to the autostart of windows to be able to do it automatically.

I’m not sure if I may post the images to the emoticons and that is why I will only post the commands to add them to your chat and add a link to the website where I found this information. Beware this is a huge list which contains only the new skype emoticons.

List of country flag emoticons:

(flag:AF) Afghanistan
(flag:AL) Albania
(flag:DZ) Algeria
(flag:AS) American Samoa
(flag:AD) Andorra
(flag:AO) Angola
(flag:AI) Anguilla
(flag:AQ) Antarctica
(flag:AG) Antigua and Barbuda
(flag:AR) Argentina
(flag:AM) Armenia
(flag:AW) Aruba
(flag:AU) Australia
(flag:AT) Austria
(flag:AZ) Azerbaijan
(flag:BS) Bahamas
(flag:BH) Bahrain
(flag:BD) Bangladesh
(flag:BB) Barbados
(flag:BY) Belarus
(flag:BE) Belgium
(flag:BZ) Belize
(flag:BJ) Benin
(flag:BM) Bermuda
(flag:BT) Bhutan
(flag:BO) Bolivia
(flag:BA) Bosnia and Herzegovina
(flag:BW) Botswana
(flag:BR) Brazil
(flag:IO) British Indian Ocean Territory
(flag:VG) British Virgin Islands
(flag:BN) Brunei Darussalam
(flag:BG) Bulgaria
(flag:BF) Burkina Faso
(flag:BI) Burundi
(flag:KH) Cambodia
(flag:CM) Cameroon
(flag:CA) Canada
(flag:CV) Cape Verde
(flag:KY) Cayman Islands
(flag:CF) Central African Republic
(flag:TD) Chad
(flag:CL) Chile
(flag:CN) China
(flag:CX) Christmas Island
(flag:CC) Cocos Islands
(flag:CO) Colombia
(flag:KM) Comoros
(flag:CD) Congo
(flag:CG) Congo
(flag:CK) Cook Islands
(flag:CR) Costa Rica
(flag:CI) Cote D’Ivoire
(flag:CU) Cuba
(flag:CY) Cyprus
(flag:CZ) Czech Republic
(flag:DK) Denmark
(flag:DJ) Djibouti
(flag:DM) Dominica
(flag:DO) Dominican Republic
(flag:EC) Ecuador
(flag:EG) Egypt
(flag:SV) El Salvador
(flag:GQ) Equatorial Guinea
(flag:ER) Eritrea
(flag:EE) Estonia
(flag:ET) Ethiopia
(flag:FO) Faeroe Islands
(flag:FK) Falkland Islands
(flag:FJ) Fiji
(flag:FI) Finland
(flag:FR) France
(flag:GF) French Guiana
(flag:PF) French Polynesia
(flag:TF) French Southern Territories
(flag:GA) Gabon
(flag:GM) Gambia
(flag:GE) Georgia
(flag:DE) Germany
(flag:GH) Ghana
(flag:GI) Gibraltar
(flag:GR) Greece
(flag:GL) Greenland
(flag:GD) Grenada
(flag:GP) Guadaloupe
(flag:GU) Guam
(flag:GT) Guatemala
(flag:GN) Guinea
(flag:GW) Guinea-Bissau
(flag:GY) Guyana
(flag:HT) Haiti
(flag:HM) Heard and McDonald Islands
(flag:VA) Holy See (Vatican City State)
(flag:HN) Honduras
(flag:HK) Hong Kong
(flag:HR) Hrvatska
(flag:HU) Hungary
(flag:IS) Iceland
(flag:IN) India
(flag:ID) Indonesia
(flag:IR) Iran
(flag:IQ) Iraq
(flag:IE) Ireland
(flag:IL) Israel
(flag:IT) Italy
(flag:JM) Jamaica
(flag:JP) Japan
(flag:JO) Jordan
(flag:KZ) Kazakhstan
(flag:KE) Kenya
(flag:KI) Kiribati
(flag:KP) Korea
(flag:KR) Korea
(flag:KW) Kuwait
(flag:KG) Kyrgyz Republic
(flag:LA) Lao
(flag:LV) Latvia
(flag:LB) Lebanon
(flag:LS) Lesotho
(flag:LR) Liberia
(flag:LY) Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
(flag:LI) Liechtenstein
(flag:LT) Lithuania
(flag:LU) Luxembourg
(flag:MO) Macao
(flag:MK) Macedonia
(flag:MG) Madagascar
(flag:MW) Malawi
(flag:MY) Malaysia
(flag:MV) Maldives
(flag:ML) Mali
(flag:MT) Malta
(flag:MH) Marshall Islands
(flag:MQ) Martinique
(flag:MR) Mauritania
(flag:MU) Mauritius
(flag:YT) Mayotte
(flag:MX) Mexico
(flag:FM) Micronesia
(flag:MD) Moldova
(flag:MC) Monaco
(flag:MN) Mongolia
(flag:MS) Montserrat
(flag:MA) Morocco
(flag:MZ) Mozambique
(flag:MM) Myanmar
(flag:NA) Namibia
(flag:NR) Nauru
(flag:NP) Nepal
(flag:AN) Netherlands Antilles
(flag:NL) Netherlands
(flag:NC) New Caledonia
(flag:NZ) New Zealand
(flag:NI) Nicaragua
(flag:NE) Niger
(flag:NG) Nigeria
(flag:NU) Niue
(flag:NF) Norfolk Island
(flag:MP) Northern Mariana Islands
(flag:NO) Norway
(flag:OM) Oman
(flag:PK) Pakistan
(flag:PW) Palau
(flag:PS) Palestina
(flag:PA) Panama
(flag:PG) Papua New Guinea
(flag:PY) Paraguay
(flag:PE) Peru
(flag:PH) Philippines
(flag:PN) Pitcairn Island
(flag:PL) Poland
(flag:PT) Portugal
(flag:PR) Puerto Rico
(flag:QA) Qatar
(flag:RE) Reunion
(flag:RO) Romania
(flag:RU) Russian Federation
(flag:RW) Rwanda
(flag:SH) St. Helena
(flag:KN) St. Kitts and Nevis
(flag:LC) St. Lucia
(flag:PM) St. Pierre and Miquelon
(flag:VC) St. Vincent and the Grenadines
(flag:WS) Samoa
(flag:SM) San Marino
(flag:ST) Sao Tome and Principe
(flag:SA) Saudi Arabia
(flag:SN) Senegal
(flag:CS) Serbia and Montenegro
(flag:SC) Seychelles
(flag:SL) Sierra Leone
(flag:SG) Singapore
(flag:SK) Slovakia
(flag:SI) Slovenia
(flag:SB) Solomon Islands
(flag:SO) Somalia
(flag:ZA) South Africa
(flag:ES) Spain
(flag:LK) Sri Lanka
(flag:SD) Sudan
(flag:SR) Suriname
(flag:SZ) Swaziland
(flag:SE) Sweden
(flag:CH) Switzerland
(flag:SY) Syria
(flag:TW) Taiwan
(flag:TJ) Tajikistan
(flag:TZ) Tanzania
(flag:TH) Thailand
(flag:TL) Timor-Leste
(flag:TG) Togo
(flag:TK) Tokelau
(flag:TO) Tonga
(flag:TT) Trinidad and Tobago
(flag:TN) Tunisia
(flag:TR) Turkey
(flag:TM) Turkmenistan
(flag:TC) Turks and Caicos Islands
(flag:TV) Tuvalu
(flag:VI) US Virgin Islands
(flag:UG) Uganda
(flag:UA) Ukraine
(flag:AE) United Arab Emirates
(flag:GB) United Kingdom
(flag:US) United States of America
(flag:UY) Uruguay
(flag:UZ) Uzbekistan
(flag:VU) Vanuatu
(flag:VE) Venezuela
(flag:VN) Viet Nam
(flag:WF) Wallis and Futuna Islands
(flag:EH) Western Sahara
(flag:YE) Yemen
(flag:ZM) Zambia
(flag:ZW) Zimbabwe

List of new Skype emoticons:

(mooning)
(finger)
(bandit)
(drunk)
(smoking)
(toivo)
(rock)
(headbang)

Genres are displayed below the graph starting with rap which has a red color in the main window and ending with disco in a light green color. Clicking on a genre loads only songs of that genre. You may also remove certain genres from the overall map, so if you don’t like rap and latino you could remove them.

That is not all – you may define a time period which has the result that only songs of that period are displayed. The graph has a second display which is simply called dance. This graph has tempo + on the top, tempo – at the bottom, dance+ on the right and dance- on the left.

I was not able to find a way to stream the music through a media player, if you know if that is possible contact me. Songs are played in good but not brilliant quality. You could select HiFi but this would mean you would have to pay for the service. ($2 for 30 days at the moment).

I would be willing to pay this amount of money if they would offer a way to stream the music.

Update: I did play around with their website and found out that the songs that you see are connected with lines. The first song that you clicked on is the starting song. Once this one finishes all songs along the line are played one after the other which means that you do not have to click on a new song once the old one finished playing. Great feature. Still miss streaming support.

The game was using vector graphics and someone decided that it would be a nice idea to scale the vectors to offer a high res version of the game. You can see and download the results at the another world fanpage. Downloads are only available for pc but that should not be a problem for most. (with the Amiga system being nearly dead and all)

Stem to stern the model is 97 inches long and 47 inches wide, weighs over 150 pounds and is created using over 35,000 pieces!

The model is currently on sale at ebay with the current bid at 31000$. Take a look at the ebay auction and see for yourself: Incredible piece of lego-art.

That’s pretty lucky that aliens with advanced technology still use some old mac from earth to power their shields. You find more of those stories at living the geek life, its a recommended read for everyone who is in for a good laugh.

Most involve movement which you can alter using buttons to change the effect. The illusions are divided into eight categories: Motion and Time, Luminance and Contrast, Color, Geometric- and Angle Illusions, Size Constancy, Cognitive- / Gestalt Effects and What’s special about faces?

Just head over to michaelbach.de and take a look at the optical illusions, you can also take a full tour.

Review of Michael Bach Page

The Michael Bach page comes packed with information on one side and various images for you to look at on the right side of the screen. The first thing that you will notice when you are scrolling through the page are a pair of eyes that follow your cursor everywhere it goes. It is kind of neat and at the same time kind of annoying especially when you are trying to read content and don’t realize that it is following the cursor and don’t know how to get it out of the way.

If you don’t like websites that can fit in your screen then you won’t like this one as it requires you to do some amount of scrolling to get to the bottom. It also has the patterned background that shows up first which makes you wonder for a couple seconds if you will actually land on a website page or if this is the only illusion.

Apart from the illusions to the right side you will also find lists with a link to each illusion below the informative piece on the left of the page. As mentioned before you have to do a bit of scrolling so you may not even realize that there are more illusions that you can look at. And as you scroll those eyes follow; if you scroll fast, they follow fast and if you scroll slowly they follow slowly – especially annoying if you are already having problems navigating the website.

One you click on illusion two menu buttons pop up at the top so you can go to the next or previous illusion in the list. This is especially good if you are not looking for anything in particular or if you would rather not go back to the home page after each viewing. The latter will prove to be tedious if you want to look at a number of illusions so using the next and previous buttons will help you get through the list quicker.

Talking about the list, it is quite a large list of illusions. They not only give you a visual but they also give you an explanation. Also some of the illusions help you to get the picture by giving you the opportunity to change the colors, contrast, speed and other settings of the visual. This is very cool since you do not usually get the opportunity to do that for visual illusions. You usually only are allowed to look at them and if you see it, you see it and if you don’t then you simply don’t but this website provides you with an interactive way of looking at a visual illusion and gives you a real chance of seeing the illusion.

All in all it is a good website if you are interested in optical illusions and usually use them to pass the time. You will find an ample amount of these illusions on the Michael Bach page and you can find useful information there as well. Whether your interest in optical illusions has recently sparked or these are things that you have been studying for a long time this website is really neat and is worth the visit; putting aside the annoying eyes.

I´am not sure about the technique used to show this impressive ascii movies, if you know let me know please. But know, take a look for yourself and enjoy this fine piece of technology. Everything is available at romanm.ch.

You see a puppet with clothes, by moving the bar to scroll the page you unclothe the puppet. Head over to biocandy.dk for this.

Update: CSS Naked day, or CSS Nudity, is a day long event where websites turn off their CSS for a day. The basic idea behind the day is to “promote web standards”.

There are actually several initiatives on play. The official day for the event is April 9. All that needs to be done on the day is to turn all Cascading Style Sheets off for the day. This may break some sites that rely on CSS for functionality. Webmasters with the intention to participate in the event should test their site’s layout first before they turn it off.

Websites seem to have been changed for the event. The event site for 2011 is here, the one for previous years here.

It is not really clear if the event will take place in 2012 as well. It is likely that it does, but I was not able to find any information about it on the Internet.

You obviously do not need organization to turn your website’s CSS off on April 9, but it certainly would feel better if other webmasters would do the same on their sites.

Twitter, usually buzzing with news, is quiet right now.

Update: The video clip is still available on the Angry Alien website. Please note that you need the Adobe Flash plugin installed to watch it there. If you do not have Flash installed or prefer not to watch it on the linked site, you can watch it right now on this blog. A user has uploaded the video to YouTube and we have now embedded it here on the site for you.

As you can see, it recaps some of Titanic’s most memorable moments. The core difference is obviously that actors have been replaced by bunnies which ads to the absurdity of the situation. You may also be interested that the developers of the cartoon have created other Bunny conversion movies, including Bunny Harry Potter, Twilight, Spiderman 3 or Brokeback Mountain.

I suggest you head over to YouTube to see all the movies available. This link lists all 66 of the first season in a playlist. Just click on the play button on the YouTube website to play them all in one go.

The bunny movies are highly popular, with views usually in the hundreds of thousands which, even for YouTube, is quite the feat. You can alternatively open the developer website instead to see all the bunny movies directly there. Keep in mind that you do need Flash to view them there.

The site may offer some exclusives that may not have been uploaded to YouTube. Even if they have been, you may like to use their titles to search for them on Youtube.