Archive For October, 2009
I read this post yesterday: Spammers, Evildoers and Opportunists by Derek Powazek with much interest.
Derek discusses SEO, and suggests that anyone offering SEO services is a conman and that SEO practices are damaging the web. While I think the first assertion is false (because many websites need a dose of SEO before they get significant [...]
Yello – Touch (2009)
Incontrovertible proof that there is a god! After nearly a decade of silence, the awful notion that there may not be another Yello album was beginning to nag with irksome persistence. There were wild rumours of a studio collaboration with Kraftwerk that could only have been started by a desperate hi-fi salesman; [...]
Last week, The Partner was chatting to his friend on the phone. They were obviously trying to make an arrangement for something, as he kept asking me when we were free (yes, I am the walking diary). A date was agreed and they hung up. The Friend and hi…
Last week, The Partner was chatting to his friend on the phone. They were obviously trying to make an arrangement for something, as he kept asking me when we were free (yes, I am the walking diary). A date was agreed and they hung up. The Friend and hi…
If God was still alive he’d have done a Reggie Perrin yesterday, such was the mayhem of Brighton seafront. I challenge anyone to enjoy a game of volleyball when, a. Concorde 2 is playing host to a thrash metal screamathon involving bats, babies and quite possibly lesbian vampires, b. there’s a hairy bikers’ convention in [...]
Spaghetti Western Orchestra – Live, Brighton Dome
In which five australian multi-instrumentalists take on the music of Ennio Morricone and adding generous helpings of bizarre instrumentation, tape loops, radio comedy sensibility and excellent sight gags, produce a splendid evening’s entertainment that might in another universe be called…. jazz. Musically, these guys shine, the fact they also [...]
PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.
Described by Mashable as ‘just mind-boggling‘, this ingenious piece of software comes out of China – an interesting sign of the place becoming a future source of great innovation. Although it doesn’t seem to be publicly available yet, the video above demonstrates quite clearly what it can do.
Mashable defines it like this:
Step 1. Draw the outlines of the figures you want in your picture – anything from seagulls to a Mercedes, whatever tickles your fancy,
Step 2. Add labels for each of the items, as well as for the background.
Step 3. PhotoSketch will then find real-life images to match your doodles and put them together in a Photoshopped image that will make your jaw drop.
The Telegraph describes it more simply as a piece of software ‘which transforms basic stick-figure drawings in to a photograph’, not quite doing it justice but an effective summary all the same.
The site for PhotoSketch is here, but such was the initial interest in it on the web that it crashed their servers. Goes to show perhaps, if you have a really good idea and can present it well enough, there’s no better platform than the Web for getting the word out and building huge demand.
It looks to me like it has the potential to be a powerful disruptive technology that could go massive. Rather than me speculate about how it could end up being used by people and the social implications, I’m inviting comments below to see what readers think.
Monday 26th October, 7-9 pm at The Skiff. 49 Cheltenham Place, Brighton BN1 4AB Not for the faint hearted. Challenge yourself. This writing workshop will put you on the spot – you have no choice – you have to write a poem or short story for a set amount of time, and you HAVE TO [...]
A lot of talk recently about using Social Software to increase ones visibility. This is a positive step forward from the amusing stories about people being sacked for injudicious observations about their employers, or in a twist on the old story about being snapped participating in a riot while supposedly ill in bed, posting observations [...]
