Flickr has collected almost ninety million geotagged photos, and for every geotagged photo they have up to six Where On Earth IDs, which are unique numeric identifiers that correspond to the hierarchy of places where a photo was take: the neighborhood, the town, the country, and so on up to the continent in a process called reverse-geocoding.
Eventually they got to thinking: If they plotted all of the geotagged photos associated with a particular WOE ID, would there be enough data to generate a mostly accurate contour of that place?
Apparently the answer is yes, and though it’s not a perfect representation of the place, it’s definitely getting pretty close.
As a gift to the Flickr community, they’ve even made these 150,000 (and counting) WOE IDs with proper (-ish) shape data available via the Flickr API.
It might be a fun toy right now, but give it a few years and add in all of the data from geocoded cell phone photos, and this just might be the future of cartography as we know it.
Thunder Panda has been featured on DYH before, but now he’s worked with a few other artists to put together six zombie papercraft models for you to assemble yourself, called The Zombiefie Six, and they’re perfect Halloween toys to put you in the mood.
Call me an online gaming Newbie, but the concept of an Achievement Farming Server was news to me.
For those of you in the same boat, let me explain: In certain games like Team Fortress 2, items and weapons are unlocked only after a player achieves a certain number of achievements (milestones that mark goals or difficult tasks within the game). For those that can’t just wait to play through the game and earn the achievements like a normal player, Achievement Servers get set up with the express purpose of unlocking certain achievements for everyone playing.
Thus, though there might be two different teams playing, everyone is basically on the same team, and working together to earn achievements.
Need to kill 10 guys in 30 seconds?
Though this might be a tough task on a regular server, it’s easy on an Achievement Server when you have 10 volunteers join one team and then just stand still in a single spot while players on the opposing team take turns slaughtering the 10 opponents in one fell swoop like some sort of communal firing squad. Then, once everyone from one team unlocks that particular achievement, the roles are reversed, and it’s the next team’s turn.
Seem a little…unfair?
I thought so too, but apparently these types of servers are pretty common for games like TF2, as players are anxious to ‘earn’ their new toys and try them out.
Click the link to follow one man as he journeys through an Achievement Server for the first time, and witnesses the power, and the shame, of Achievement Servers firsthand.
This air pistol features a compensator, a red dot sight with 11 brightness settings, a CO2 repeater system, and a side mounted tactical flashlight with grip mounted activation switch. Lasers and other accessories can also mount to the NightHawk thanks to an additional accessory mounting system.
Specs include the ability to fire off eight rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger, and projectile speeds of up to 360 FPS.
Just remember: It’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye.
Cubeecraft is a site that features a new cube based papercraft toy/character each week.
Each toy is designed with interlocking tabs, so there’s no need for tape, glue, or other adhesives, and you simply print, cut, and fold your way to a cute and fun paper toy.
When a laptop ages, it’s easy to ponder a replacement for the outdated machine.
However, with some new software, outside the box thinking, or hardcore hacking, an old laptop can also take on a new life as a server, a photo frame, a backup, and more.
If you’re interested, Lifehacker’s got the guide to turn your old machine into a new toy, so check out the list to see what you can do with yours.
This Battery Eater might not do much, but it sure does look good while getting every last drop of juice out of your AAs. Just put your battery in the magnetic mouth, and the LED eyes blink away the remaining power.
Urban Monarch and Modern Drunkard put together two great guides about how to score free drinks when you go out. Put down the credit card, and slowly step away.
Artist Felix Beck created a non-visual graffiti project called Soundbombs, “innocuous-looking 6-inch plastic shells that broadcast short clips (lines from Shakespeare, flatulence, or anything else you record) to unwitting passersby”. He doesn’t sell them, but instead takes applications, and prospective users must tell him where they will use it and how much they’re willing to pay. Get loud.
Sodium Laurel Sulfate, and ingredient in toothpaste, blocks sweet sensors on your tongue, which explains why orange juice tastes so bad after you brush.
Stuart Haygarth created the Tide Chandelier out of man made debris that washed up along a stretch of the Kent coastline. “The sphere is an analogy for the moon which effects the tides which in turn wash up the debris”.
BallDroppings isn’t as much a game as it is a performance art piece, but if Line Rider can be thought of as a game, then so should BallDroppings dammit. The website describes BallDroppings as:
An addicting and noisy play-toy. It can also be seen as an emergency game. Alternatively this software can be taken seriously as an audio-visual performance instrument.
A series of balls fall from the top of the screen, and the “goal” is to draw lines with your mouse that the balls can then bounce off of. The balls make noise when they hit the line, and the pitch depends on the speed of the ball when it strikes. Surprisingly, no matter how you draw out your playing field, you’re almost guaranteed to have a pleasant sounding Zen device in the end. Give it a try, and I’ll get back to practicing BallDroppings, because I think I’ve almost won.
The Walther NightHawk is not a toy.
This Battery Eater might not do much, but it sure does look good while getting every last drop of juice out of your AAs. Just put your battery in the magnetic mouth, and the LED eyes blink away the remaining power.
