Online Observations

For me the search box on the Google home page (or my browser’s search box) has always been like a command prompt to the Internet. You can do calculations on it, you can check for the weather, the time, flight status, and a whole lot more from this little box. Someone, it seems took that thought too seriously and created a Google Shell (much like a Unix Shell). It’s called Goosh – the unofficial Google Shell.

Read More …

Here is a service which is definitely nice to check out. And at least for now, it’s free (it’s in beta). It’s called TrackMyPeople – a web based time management service which allows you to track time for yourself and your team. And since it is we based you can do it even if your team members are spread across multiple locations. So, how is this different from so many other offerings on the Internet? Well, read on.

Read More …

Since I regularly come across awesome talent with Photoshop across the Internet, and sometime I post it on this blog as well, I am going to start a new category called Photoshop starting from this post.

Today’s find is work done by Sebastien Gaucher. He took a picture of a brand new house and added his magic to convert it into something that looks straight out of a horror movie. Take a look at the before and after snaps before. And if you want to find out how he did this, go over to his step-by-step tutorial here. Of course, this is not his only work, to see other such tutorials and other great stuff head over to his home page. Finally, the pictures:

Read More …

With all these coming to life of popular animation characters (Jessica Rabbit and Stewie Griffin), it’s not hard to think that someone tried to bring to life the cute Tinker Bell below.

Of course, she is not Tinker Bell on many counts, but is every bit as pretty as Tinker Bell is. This creation is by Will Murai who is an excellent artist. Head over to his site to see many more of his creations.

Read More …

I received the following picture in an email forward today and I had to share it. Clearly someone didn’t have their thinking hat on while working on this construction site. Kudos to whoever took it and shared it.

Plurk is a new service which at its basic level does the same thing that Twitter does: it allows you to chronicle your life 140 characters at a time. This is where the similarities end, however.

Read More …

CopyBlogger issued a challenge to the world. Write a piece of literature which is exactly 140 character, not more not less. Why 140? Because this was a Twitter Writing contest. And a lot of people took the challenge. Winners got iPods and a whole lot more. The winning entries are below:

First Place:

“Time travel works!” the note read. “However you can only travel to the past and one-way.” I recognized my own handwriting and felt a chill.

Second Place:

Read More …

Here’s a blog which is not about photography at all, but the blog owner has put up some photos that he has taken with his camera. And in my opinion, these are quite good. Take a look, and click the photos to visit the blog for more of this goodness.

Read More …

Nationmaster.com has been a go to source for a long time for statistical information about the world. Here you can find data on crime, transportation, people, population, media, lifestyle, and many more categories.

However, raw data alone is not very exciting. What makes these data dumps exciting is if you try and interpret them. While you are free to start diving into these interpretations, I recommend you start with some of these interpretations already present on their website. Take for instance this little fact about Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka has the lowest divorce rate in the world.

Alone, this is a nice to know fact, but also consider this:

Sri Lanka has the highest rate of female suicide in the world.

This makes you think, is there a correlation? Do females in Sri Lanka simply commit suicide instead of getting divorced? I suppose the next thing to see is of those who commit suicide, how many are married.

Here’s another one:

Indians go out for movies 3 billion times in an year, way more than any other country.

Head over to the Nation Master facts page to read more interesting facts and move around the site to find your own.

Pixeloo has done it again. Last month he had brought Jessica Rabbit to life (and I believe nothing can top that effort). This time around he  has taken Stewie Griffin from the Family Guy and made him real. It is quite amazing how this Photoshop wizard brings things to life. Below is a quick look at the latest effort. Click the image to go to the original article and a chance to look at the high resolution version of the image:

Read More …