Map of online communities 2010
Ok, so this is going to be copied, pasted, and posted all around the Internet, and I’m therefore as bad as everyone else out there for basking in reflected glory – but still … I, like many others, have been waiting for an upate to this map for ages! Very glad to see it happen.
http://xkcd.com/802/
(Love the ‘plains of awkwardly public family interactions’ and ‘Breaking! Waves’)
Kevin.
Taking all the fun out of technology …
Not much you can say about this, except nod sadly and acknowledge that techy things aren’t as much fun as they once were …
Kevin
You are here
I’ve mentioned xkcd so many times already in this blog, but then it is just so good. Sometimes very witty, sometimes very geeky, sometimes quite astute, other times quite sad actually.
Anyway, once a map of the Internet appeared in the comic, and then got mentioned all over the place, including someone printing out a real version, based on the real addresses. Well, like all maps, it is of limited use unless you know where you are – well now you can. This website will plot you (well, your PC) on the numerical map of the Internet. So, just click here to see ‘you are here’.
Kevin
Chess on a rollercoaster
The inventiveness of Randall Munroe never ceases to amaze me, only surpassed by the determination of some of his fans. Take this cartoon for instance, suggesting the idea of getting a picture of you playing chess whilst on a rollercoaster.
All good fun and a good cartoon. But then follows the challenge for people to go ahead and do it for real. Inspired.
The best entry on this page, in my opinion though, involves Jenga. Now, don’t try this at home (or on your local ‘coaster for that matter).
Kevin.
Ball pit
Is I’ve posted before, I really like reading xkcd. Well, so does this guy. In fact he followed up one of the comics and created a ball pit in his living room.
Weird. Looks like fun though.
Kevin.
Contact – Carl Sagan and pi
My previous musings about xkcd finally let me to read their whole archive … which means that I eventually found this one, which is possibly one of my favorites.
Got me thinking about Carl Sagan‘s novel, Contact. Loved the book. Film was ok, but I was really disappointed that the bit about pi never made it in.
Whilst browsing wikipedia about this subject, found a link to http://www.pisearch.de.vu/ (currently unavailable though). Struck me that this would be a good way to collect personal details about people (‘try it with your credit card number’ 
Further browsing has turned up Pi-Search, which you can use to look for sequences in the first 200 million digits of pi. Did you know that the sequence 12345678 occurs at position 186,557,266? Well now you do.
The Feynman Point is also interesting. Maybe one day, I’ll give both Richard Feynman and Pi an entry of their own.
Kevin.
xkcd
Following my last post, I’ve been browsing through xkcd.com. Not sure why I’ve not really seen this before, but its great!
Nice quote on one article – “I’m waiting for the day when, if you tell someone ‘I’m from the internet’, instead of laughing they just ask ‘oh, what part?’” (there is always a comment as a hover-over tag on the main graphic).
Here are some other favourites so far too.
Kevin.
