Flicky awards

DSC_4627,
originally uploaded by junku.

Flickr: The FLICKYS... 6 Days to Go!!! / THEME: Excellence in SETS
The Flickr community is holding its very own Flicky awards.

There are various categories - the oddest of which I have not yet found, although the Self Portraits one was midly disturbing.

I have just cast my vote - a difficult one as several of my contacts were nominated - for Junku and his Incredible Acrobatic Cats. From Japan.

Pong flashback

I love B3ta's new challenge for creative photoshop geeks.

If computer games were real. This one is by Frogdoctor.

Btw you might not see this image if you are not using Firefox as your browser. If you are not, why not? I am now well and truly converted. Especially now that I have my Brushed metal theme.

podbat blog

Podbat has a new Bluggcaster through which you can listen to podcasts at your leisure.

Tube gossip

Talking of The Man Who Fell Asleep, I especially like his Tube Gossip captured on 23 July.

1. I saw Nigel Lawson on the Central Line today. He got off at Marble Arch. Surely he can afford a cab?
2. Shireen, are we all bopping to the same beat?
3. You should shave off your goatee... you don't want to get an uneven tan.
4. I don't want to hear another sob story about a man with no head.
5. Dilbert is the least funny thing ever.
6. It's you and me. Just the two of us. Does that make you nervous?
7. Borderline, Crazy for You, American Life, Vogue, Cherish. In that order.
8. Have you got a pen? Or a sword?
9. So, Voldemort is Darth Vader and Dumbledore is Obi Wan Kenobi.
10. Larry? Do you mind if I call you Larry?

The man who fell asleep book

The man who fell asleep
My favourite website from a N Londoner is publishing a book with the Friday Project. It is listed on Amazon. More people should do this. Check out Lulu too.

Do you find this blog "objectionable"?

Am I being stupid or was that "flag" on the Blogger bit at the top in the right hand corner not there 2 days ago?

It means you can report this blog if you find any of the content "objectionable". So much for free speech, huh? you... you... you... American people! Ooohhh !! ;0)

Men's mags overload

Men's mags,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

These are right at my eye level in my work's newsagents. I am not adverse to sexy ladies, but men's mags are getting really over the top. There are so many weekly ones now too that are trying to entice the teenage male's (or lesbian's) pocketmoney. These are the ones I myself used to buy, however. Back then, they actually had men on the front covers.

War on Splam

Doc Searls declares war on spam blogs - "splogs", says Rexblog. Shouldn't it be "blam"?

Hamster power

FINALLY someone has found a use for hamsters. Don't get me wrong, I love the smelly but soft and strangely tickly creatures, but I always did think when I was little that there must be something useful you could make them do whilst they run around and around and around.

Can't take it to Glasto though to charge the mobile.

Although, they *would* be useful if you happened to run out of power in the desert. Just wire 'em up and off you pop!

Give that Peter Ash inventor guy a medal.

Via Engadget.

Unbearable

taystuho008,
originally uploaded by Fantasyfan.

This cat so unbearably cute I think I might have to take a trip over to Finland and catnap her.

Pipe

pipe,
originally uploaded by cortland firefighter.

You do find some erm... interesting shots on Flickr. Nice pipe.

Teaser

Tongue,
originally uploaded by beanie poo.

Stunning darling, stunning.

Paws

i *HEART* Pongpong..,
originally uploaded by |_in|\|ek{ }.

Will ya look at the paws on that?!

Engadget on 1985

I am loving Engagdget's take on 1985. I especially like this Sony Discman.

Flickr jigsaw

Quite a fun, but alpha version, Flickr jigsaw puzzle. I am rubbish at them however.

Robocat: Fact or Fiction?

I don't know whether to believe that these people have seriously built their cat a robot platform to transport it after it lost the use of its hind legs, as reported in Engadget.

Apparently Robocat even has his own control panel. Now if it doubled as a Roomba, then it could do the vacuuming at the same time! Magic.

Make your own magazine cover

New Magazine,
originally uploaded by Muffet.

I love this new Flickr application from the same creative person who brought us the Flickr badge. Make your own magazine cover out of a Flickr photo. I am going to make a Lily magazine. She is coming to stay officially next week! Woohoo!

Why drinking and photoshopping do not mix....

Why drinking and photoshopping do not mix....,
originally uploaded by jege.

Compucats

P3170057,
originally uploaded by r.d.i..

I am endlessly fascinated by cats and their computers. Warm, but also a place where you can still be the centre of your owner's attention.

Kittens roller

Kittens: 6 weeks old today,
originally uploaded by javagirl.

My friend at work said these were so cute she wanted to toll them all together with a rolling pin.

She also like to squeeze very cute things rather tightly.

Cat Crossing

Cat Crossing,
originally uploaded by ascesis.e.

We came across so many of these signs in the US - er, without the cat on it actually - and I eventually had to ask why the same Chinese sign was in every town and what did it mean.

Doh.

Awful article

This has to be one of the most poorly balanced and unintelligent article I have ever read on women and gadgets.

It fails to understand gender dynamics in a typical household, to start with. If you have a typical family, with a computer in the house, how do you know if it is the kids, the dad or the mum creating their membership to download from iTunes, for example? Just because someone may register themselves as male, does not mean that it is always "he" who will use that log in to download stuff. I want to see some proper ethnographic research on this before I believe assumptions made such as "women don't download."

It also fails to recognise that there are millions of women getting on very well with technology - in all its many forms. It also fails to recognise that there are many men too who cannot be bothered with something that is in fact fundamentally poorly designed. If people have to go to a manual to figure out how something works, then design the product better. Don't blame it on gendered stereotypes.

I see women on a daily basis on the Tube nd around the country with cameras, sophisticated mobiles, laptop bags and, above all, ipods.

There are millions of women gamers out there - over 45% of mobile gamers are women. The Sims is ruled by women players.

It has nothing to do with gender. It is about making technology smarter, using simplicity to hide its complexity. It is about better design.

Dalek

Dalek in transit,
originally uploaded by louder.

Even the Daleks are coming upon hard times in London nowadays...

Pac-sharon

pac-sharon-,
originally uploaded by sharonspotbottom.

Sharon does the classics.

I left my heart...

I left my heart...,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

...on the Victoria Line. That's right. I dropped my unsent postcard from San Francisco onto the Tube track. I felt helpless. Looked quite cool though!

Perfect shoes

I want these shoes. I have always wanted perspex shoes anyway. I think it is a Wonder Woman or Barbie residual thing.

But these I want even more. They were on show at this year's SIGGRAPH the annual design convention. They are by Simona Drusa Pasque.

They have a single use stun gun embedded in the toe of one, and an audible alarm system activated by stamping the feet embedded in the other.

BBC NEWS | German sun lounger issue settled

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | German sun lounger issue settled Germans aren't legally allowed to reserve their sunlounger with their towels anymore.

Dressing the part

The latest armoury for the Citizen Journalists* of today.

It is the Report-the-World trench coat which has 10 cameras for capturing 360-degree images. The front pocket holds a small computer and a ring-embedded speaker transmits location-based audio instructions, says We Make Money Not Art.

*Actually, I prefer the term Witness Reporters.

Lilly Cat goes home :0(

Lilly Cat,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

After a week of pure pampering, Lilly the beautiful cat who came to visit has gone home. Next door came to collect her after I told them she was still here and we were worried she had forgotten her family. Apparently she had been back home for a bit last night but was quite distant. She will come snd visit again though. I hope.

I am very tearful now ;0(

I miss her.

Short term memory loss

Covered with catnip,
originally uploaded by :.

Now where did put my stash? One drawback of catnip consumption.

Amp imps

I love this from B3ta. Maybe they only come out at night.

Lilly cat

Lilly cat,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

She is still here.. We keep telling her to go home...

Yahoo video contest

Lost Remote: Yahoo kicks off video contest
I think I might enter this with Al Cat (Traz)'s video blog.

Which reminds me - out Gnomedex buddy Bre and his lady friend are coming for a visit! Bre is of Pink Bunny Is Love fame and vlogger extraordinaire.

We are thinking London vlogger/bloggers meetup?

The sinking city - Yet another shot

The sinking city - Yet another shot,
originally uploaded by *Ivan*.

I was exploring the Interestiness categorisation thang on Flickr just now and came across this incredible photo.

This Interestingness thang might well be a really quite useful way to find the best stuff on Flickr democratically. Maybe.

Still-life-with-fruit

still-life-with-fruit,
originally uploaded by sharonspotbottom.

Some art from SharonSpotBottom. She has let the Vegemite get to her nut(s). Heh.

Compelling stuff

Excellent thoughts on why "citizen media" is so compelling.

My Least Interesting Photo

TED Global dinner at Keble,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

This apparently, is the least interesting photo in my Flickr photostream.

This is a new categorisation system that the photo sharing website has put in place.

So, now you can look at a ranking of your photos in order of most commented, viewed, favourited and interesting. I think they calculate "interestingness" based on the the other elements.

Hmm... What surprised me most was that Sibsi, the Beautiful Cat, was only one up from that. Can't be right.

Syncatronisation

Synchronization,
originally uploaded by fofurasfelinas.

Beautiful.

I think my camera is a dud. I can't believe I am a dud photographer. Surely not.

I just can't seem to take those great pictures.

Look at Dawn D's for example. They are fantastic.

I met her at TED Global. She reminds me of Angelina Jolie and is a very very sharp and cool sustainable designer and thinker.

Pure Genius

I love Family Guy. It is far cleverer that The Simpsons. Yes it is.

But what made me piss my pants this week was the Family Guy movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

It is utterly brilliant. Check it out if you can.

Face off

I had a face off with a gang of do-no-good-ers* who first spat at my back then hit me on the head with a plastic bottle when I spun round to shoot them my best Teacher Stare.**

Before I could sternly give them a good telling off to, a 12 year old girl in grey tracksuit came marching up and the following dialogue occurred:

Teen: What? What you you gonna do abaaaat it innit?
Me: I am going to go home, what YOU gonna do abaaat it?
Teen: What YOU gonna do about it! You can't even protect yourself!
Me: How do YOU know? You don't know what I do for a living do ya?
Teen: Well, if you were police, you would have arrested me by now innit?

With that, I walked off.

She was Catherine Tate personified.

I now fear for my life. Really.

*Read: little local wankers.
**I am not a teacher. I have however, the Teacher Stare genetically imprinted.

Lilly Cat

Lilly Cat,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

Her name is indeed Lilly. And she does indeed belong to the neighbours. Very nice neighbours they are too.

They had been away and had returned yesterday. They had just started to wonder where she had got to.

They were very nice and said she would find her way back next door once she realised they were back. Her mum cooks her special steaks and chicken and said she would not eat catfood. Oh yes she does.

She is 17. I knew she was a she, and that she was old. I just knew it: despite Mad Aussie Mate trying to convince me she was young and sick.

Pfftt...

I suppose she will go of her own accord, which will be sad. But at least she is only next door and she knows she is welcome now.

She is gorgeous. Very talkative.

Michael Jackson and Depp

Black Hair Doll 05,
originally uploaded by GriXx.

Grixx on Flickr has a new doll. The Black Hair doll.

(S)he looks rather like some sort of accident morph of Michael Jackson and Johnny Depp. In Edward Scissor Hands.

Fandabbiedosie.

Still here

CIMG2298,
originally uploaded by camoby.

The Cat is still with us. She is making us fall in love with her. She pads you and purrs.

We must find out where she is from, what her name is, whether she is indeed a she, whether she is healthy and how old she is.

I CAN'T UNDERSTAND CAT TONGUE!

Must...tighten..it..up

CRW_8755,
originally uploaded by dispersi0n.

This appealed to me. Looks like he (she?) is winding the barb on the fence. Doesn't it.

I didn't win the Lotto again today.

Must.Win.Millions.

More catnip addiction

CATNIP!,
originally uploaded by tygress_janie.

Further blatant attempts to demonise others.

Drugs are bad. Mk?

CATNIP!,
originally uploaded by tygress_janie.

The glassy eyes. The drooling. The blatant mouth-weed fumbling. All leading to cat nirvana. This cat does not care who sees her catnip habit. But what about the children?!

The Visitor

Milk tache,
originally uploaded by The Kitten's Toe.

A nice little visitor in the shape of a black and white - very skinny - cat has come to see us. She has been hanging out here for over 24 hours now. She was very hungry and thirsty. But she seems to want to hang around. We will have to find out if she belongs to next door or not. Nice having her around though.