Tag: WEIRDWEDNESDAY

Notologist is a simple idea that's beautifully executed. Phil Zelnar leaves pretty paper notes lying around, each one containing a code and a handwritten question. Someone finds the note, goes to the site, enters the code, and writes their reply. The rest of the world gets to see the replies and enjoy the site's beautiful design. This is obviously a PR stunt, but it works. It's a great way for ...

I'm more of a Festivus guy, but apparently there are weird and wacky holidays every day of the year -- and that's just in the good ol' USA, where we can find a reason to "celebrate" anything. If you chart global weird holidays you have to zoom the chart out an order of magnitude. So in this holiday edition I'm going to stick to weird US holidays, the dates for which are lovingly curated by the ...

John Haller is pretty well-known in software circles - he's the guy behind PoartableApps.com. What you may not have known is that he's a big Billy Mays fan. And like a lot of Billy Mays fans, John was a little misty when Billy shuffled off this mortal coil earlier this year. What better way for a coder to commemorate a fallen icon than with an awesome app? Enter BILLY MAYS CAPS LOCK! While it ...

Welcome to a special "hump day" edition of Weird Wednesday (pun very much intended). An iPhone can do a lot of things, but can it make you better in bed? A new app called Love Vibes says it can. It works like this: Install Love Vibes on your iPhone, set the firmness of your mattress, and then, ummm, engage in activities. The app uses the iPhone's accelerometer to measure vertical and horizontal ...

You thought the music to "It's a Small World" would drive you crazy? Try the careening refrains of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a blacklight-ridden motorized kiddie ride at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. At least, you could try it until 1998, when the Mouse saw fit to toss the toad and replace him with a cute, cuddly, one-crayon-short-of-a-sharpener bear named Pooh. Enter obsessive compulsive ...

Remember back in the early days of the web when all you had to do was punch a monkey to win? Millions of pummeled simians later the online ad industry had to evolve... And evolve it has, with two distinct paths for display advertising: 1. In-your-face gigantic ads or ads that "do something" significant to distract you. Common examples include full-page "interstitial" ads that interrupt your ...

Ok, so maybe you don't have access to all the necessary equipment to pull this off, but if you did...It would look a lot like the contents of this Flickr gallery. Professional race driver Stef van Campenhoudt, typographers Pierre and Damien of PleaseLetMeDesign, and interactive artist Zachary Lieberman collaborated to create iQ font using a compact Toyota hatchback and an array of computer and ...

Between the sundial, the dawn of digital watches and now cell phones taking a big dent out of the watch business, I'm not sure why you would need a clock in a browser, let alone one requiring an internet connection. Perhaps you sleep with your netbook by your bedside, complete with relaxing pzizz or other ambient noises. Or maybe you have an Ozymandias-style lair complete with dozens of monitors. ...

In some ways the olfactory (aka "smellable") web began 10 years ago. In other, more real ways, not so much. How many of you are able to smell your favorite websites today? Of course, among all the protocols and basic hardware required of modern computers, the ability to produce smell never quite earned a spot in the spec sheet. Too bad, maybe, as smells are powerful triggers in our brains. I ...

If you've tried to register a domain name in the last decade or so you're probably aware of the "cromulent word scarcity syndrome" (yes, I just made that up). In other words, most of the good names are gone. Scratch another off the list with purplemonkeydishwasher.com, a reference to a line in The Simpsons. As is my wont, I typed this random URL into my browser and was pleasantly surprised to ...

Before there was Weird Wednesday, we had Freaky Friday Find -- a crazy app every week. Nearly 3 years ago I wrote a piece on an app called Tele Hypnosis, and guess what? That app still exists. Yes, you too can remotely control whomever you wish, all for the low, low price of $99. Unlike those darned fairies, this thing has no rules; you can make someone love you, cheat at math, or get your kids ...

This morning, Brad wrote about one enterprising individual's success with getting lightweight Linux window managers running on an Android handset. That's cool and all, but a user at Polish site FrazPC has taken things to a whole new level of nerdiness. His project: getting Windows 3.11 to run on the Symbian-powered Nokia N95 (link to site via Google Translate). Sure, the graphics look better on ...

Everyone knows you can't swing a dead lolcat without finding weird stuff on the internet. Before the web, the internet was a haven for all sorts of crazy "underground" information that was difficult to get published and distributed. Fast-forward to the present day and you can indulge your weirdness with the push of maybe 5 or 6 buttons, tops. You don't need a real name, address, phone number or ...

Until we can finally allow robots to craft everything via iPhone CAD/CAM apps, you'll have to get your fix of fake tombstones and dress-up robots online. Here's a roundup of some helpful tools -- maybe. Honestly, several are horrendous to use. Others are merely fugly. One frightened my hamster. Still, if you are looking for a way to express yourself on the cover of TIME magazine, this may be ...

Each Wednesday Download Squad takes a look at the weirdest software out there. From future tech being cooked up in the lab to bizarre shareware, we'll cover the offbeat and off-the-wall. If you have a suggestion for a strange application, leave it in the comments. Scientists are working on ways to read your mind using software. It makes sense that if you know how to read brainwaves you'd be able ...