HOME / Fun
Your next music instrument: a text editor
In the video Sébastien Rannou is using Sonic Pi (free on Windows, Mac, Raspberry Pi) to reproduce Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic”. Unlike classical approaches to generate sound on a computer, he generates sound by writing text: instead of adding tracks, instruments, samples on a timeline, you can express those in code and play music. Learn how [Continue reading]
SWDchallenge: A low carb story
The theme of this month’s Storytelling with Data challenge is “artisanal data“. E.g. data collected personally by each participant, then analysed and visualised in a meaningful manner. I collect quite a lot of data on a daily basis tracking habits and activities. For my submission I used weight and nutrition data stored in MyFitnessPal. Particularly [Continue reading]
Emulating bubbles and shadows
Storytelling with Data is a popular data visualisation blog by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. Every month Cole sets up a challenge for her readers. This month, the theme is “Emulate!”, inspired by the book Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things No One Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon. The idea is to recreate a [Continue reading]
This future is cool
For someone that once had to limit his program’s code to 32KB, it’s quite amazing how easy it is do a video like this in about 5 minutes on your mobile phone. Here’s how it goes. My Garmin smartwatch records GPS distance and pace data (among other things), sends it to an app, which sends [Continue reading]
Be positive to be healthy to be positive
Positive emotions, positive social connections, and physical health influence one another in a self-sustaining upward-spiral dynamic. From a 2013 paper: The mechanisms underlying the association between positive emotions and physical health remain a mystery. We hypothesize that an upward-spiral dynamic continually reinforces the tie between positive emotions and physical health and that this spiral is [Continue reading]
Vivoactive vs Vivoactive HR: First 3 days
So as of last Friday I’m the happy owner of a Garmin Vivoactive HR (will refer to it as VAHR, shown on the left on the photo above). Already owning the original Vivoactive (VA, shown on the right of the photo) model, here are some impressions between the two. This isn’t meant to be a [Continue reading]
Currently reading: The Motivation Hacker
I’ve been reading this while travelling today and it could possible be for productivity what was for me the Hacker’s Diet for weight loss. E.g. a gateway to a different way of thinking and what one can achieve. That said, and following one of the suggestions of the book, consider this a public commitment to write [Continue reading]
The crime of getting the cheaper Apple product
The prices for the Apple Watch have been announced, and in typical Apple fashion, the standard version ($550) of the Watch can use any kind of strap, including the sport one, whereas the sport version ($350) can only use the sport strap. Because, you know, FU dear customer for wanting to get the cheaper option [Continue reading]
14 Days of Garmin vs Fitbit: the numbers
I’ve been testing for the last couple of weeks a Garmin Vivofit as a replacement of my Fitbit Force (see previous posts here and here). As a final part, here are some numbers from two weeks of continuous use of both devices. All in all, the differences vary from day to day, and fluctuate between [Continue reading]
12 Days of Garmin vs Fitbit
As previously written, I’ve been testing a Garmin Vivofit as a replacement for my Fitbit Force (and before moving on to a Garmin Vivoactive that is yet to be released in Europe). Here are some more thoughts. Pro Fitbit: Vibrating alarm: waking up with a vibration in your wrist is extremely better for me than [Continue reading]
9 Days of Garmin (vs Fitbit)
I’ve been a big fan of Fitbit ever since a Fitbit Force back in January 2014, as it has helped me lot in my fitness goals. But times are changing and I’m planning to get a Garmin Vivoactive this spring. Still, the band on my Force has been in terrible shape for months, getting unstuck [Continue reading]
On failing algorithms
For some perverse reason, despite being my job to write algorithms, I love it when algorithms try and fail. For the “year in review” feature, someone at Facebook thought that just matching a phrase like “it’s a boy!” in a status text meant that this was about a newborn, so obviously it should be in [Continue reading]
The human knoweldge graph expanded?
Is this what the #web was created for? Croud-sourced #metadata (comments, photos and news links) on rap lyrics? :) Source: Rapgenius.com
OHMYGOSH THE INTERNETS!
The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman) sums up everything that is wrong with today’s internet culture Surely you agree with me, right? :)
Never say what technology can’t do!
“You wouldn’t download a car”?? Learn how to 3D print an Aston Martin h/t +Dimitris Agorastos
This is not how HTML/CSS should be used! Part II
// Is this getting silly? I’d say probably not, we need to push the boundaries of tech, even if it means we end up in hyperspace :) Following “Tunnel Vision 3D” by Peter Westendorp, here is another example of HTML/CSS mastery by Noah Blon. Enjoy this in full screen! http://cdpn.io/GKflw
Just because you can: GUI icons with pure CSS
// Inspired by an elegant piece of CSS code by +Lea Verou, creating the WiFi code (see it here http://bit.ly/wificss), I searched for other examples of this and found this little gem: A demo of 84 icons created with just CSS by +Nicolas Gallagher. Nicolas calls it’s a "technical exercise" but given that this was [Continue reading]
HTC cloned Jony Ive!
// The “evidence” :) 1) Video of Jony Ive on Apple’s unibody process http://youtu.be/lJx6cF-H__I 2) Video of HTC’s zero-gap process http://youtu.be/pDjfh5mFWUc
Public service announcement
// Then again, I’m afraid the internet would be half empty if we followed this rule… :)via +Kay Kulkarni
The Ultimate Browser Detection Fail
// So here’s a screenshot from #Google #Nexus , running Google’s #Android browser, showing a page on a Google service (Google Groups). We notice two things happening: 1) Google’s page can’t identify Google’s browser correctly and instead mistake it for #Safari2) Google engineers can’t (or wont?) make a page of relatively simple (in terms of [Continue reading]
So this is Bill Gate's monitor
// Bill showed off his monitor during his AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit http://redd.it/18bhme It is actually a 82" multi-touch display intended for presentations but I suppose it can work as a decent personal monitor as well :) If you have the pockets for it, click here http://bit.ly/YYOfYV The AMA received a lot interest with almost 29,000 [Continue reading]
Married people who like prostitutes
// The new #Facebook Graph Search was an awesome idea +Mark Zuckerberg, bravo! :) The internet is going to be laughing (while being scared about it) at this for a few days (until we forget about it and continue publicly sharing our data without much thought) More fun searches at http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com/
15 Years of Apple.com
// A collection of #Apple ’s home page layouts since 1997!http://www.slideshare.net/choehn/15-years-of-applecom-15990876
Must download: Best of Quora
// If there is a site that you could say "let’s convert this into a book", it is probably #Quora . So it’s great that they just come out with a collection of 100 of their best responses form the last 2 years. The 400-page #book is available for download as a free #PDF [Continue reading]
Does writing in the WSJ mean anything?
// Short answer: probably not. A bit longer answer: I just had the pleasure of reading this article by +John C Dvorak on the Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch http://bit.ly/WfVf1V In it Dvorak determines that #crowdsourcing will soon be over and provides 3 examples: 1) He went on a site and got a popup (which he didn’t know if [Continue reading]
Nerds are destroying America
// Bloody nerds using their brains to destroy this great country because they hate everybody… :) Have a nice weekend! :)
A Laconic History of the World
// Simplifying history is of course… simplistic, but still here’s a #fun #typographic #map designed by Martin Elmer of maphugger.com This map was produced by running all the various countries’ “History of …” Wikipedia article through a word cloud, then writing out the most common word to fit into the country’s boundary. The [Continue reading]
Behold the Beauty of Bash
// This dangerous and #fun piece of #code (called a "fork bomb") would make a great t-shirt :)You can try to find out what it does, do a backup first. Or read the analysis here http://bit.ly/VYACFcVia +Geek Humor Google+: Reshared 1 times
Romney Self-Googlebombed!
// Apparently if you search on #Google images for "completely wrong" you get tons of photos of Mitt Romney. It’s not an old-style #googlebomb but just a regular search engine… feature. This result comes probably from Romney’s recent statement that he was "completely wrong" on his characterizations of 47% of americans… Google search link: http://bit.ly/VQqLGtLink to [Continue reading]
Awesome Google Maps fail
// Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on #Apple’s #map failures… :) Link to the see it for yourself http://goo.gl/maps/4bh3mAnd Bing getting it right http://binged.it/QQMkkf Reshared post from +Sharon Strandskov I am usually pretty pleased with Google Maps, but surely there has to be a faster way… I know there were border issues, but I thought they [Continue reading]