Roundtuit

It seems that Russell Manley’s idea for a Custom, RSS based Magazine, for the Tube has now BeenDone, by Tabbloid.

(via LifeHacker)

Shared the Roll Your Own A9 item with the good folks at MozzillaZine forum, and they immediately recommended the fantastic Firefox Search Sidebar extension. Gotta say: everyone should install this. It’s essential!

Gizmodo is reporting this product, which clearly makes “Ambilight for All” into a Been Done.

Did they get the idea here at Roundtuit? Guess we’ll never know!

Here’s another DIY version.

On my personal blog, I’ve noted how A9 screwed its users by switching from Google to Windows Live, without any notice, while providing no alternative way of getting to Google content, after having made so much noise about A9’s ability to integrate any kind of search engine as a new column.

So screw em. The only really cool thing about A9 is that you can search multiple sites simultaneously, or open a new search site as an extra column with a single click.

But you could clearly do all this with Firefox and tabs. You can open groups of Firefox tabs simultaneously, and close them this way and that. And you can add just about every search engine on Earth to good old Firefox.

So, all that’s needed is an extension, such that you can type in a search term, and automatically get tabs opened in parallel, with the results of different search engines in each tab. Then if you had a check box interface (possibly in a sidebar) to select and unselect engines (thus opening or closing the associated tabs) you’ve got everything A9 offers, in your own custom configuration.

Contributed by Rob Smith

Jason Hill reports:

Here are some links for the last one on shirt printing.

http://www.imprintsusa.com/Naturalink.htm
http://www.direct2shirt.com/

Thanks Jason!

All my friends come up with clever T-shirt ideas. At least they seem clever at the time.

One of them bought a nice printer, and some good transfer material, and with a little work (well, alot of work) he printed some pretty good gear.

But, what I want is a printer that prints directly on the shirt. So I can just have an idea, wear it out that night, and find out that I’m not with stupid, I am stupid.

Contributed by Rob Smith

Here’s an old roundtuit, that’s not only been done, but probably been done better! Roundtuiteer Julie Schulman (who has requested her email be withheld to avoid evil spammers) read my old Bibleizer post:

You know those clever web gizmos that translate any web page into the linguistic style of Yoda, Smurf-speak, etc.? If I had the time, I’d write one that provided something like the following …

As thou knowest, all ski bindings are pretty much mechanical, in accordance with prophecy.
Why does thou not mount two sets of 2 or 3 axis strain gages on a simplified binding that is electrically programmable, as it is written in the scripture?

Julie found The Faith Convertor, which does this one better. It actually translates from one religion to another: Atheism, Biopsychosocialism, Buddhism, Christianity, Communism, Confucianism, Druidism, Falun Gong, Hinduism, Islam, Juche, Judaism, Keynesianism, Linux, MacEvangelism, Mahanism, Maoism, NIMBYism, Roman, Scientology, Shinto, Sikh, Stalinism, Taoism, Thatcherism, Trotskyism and Veganism.

I’d try it out, but it’s OS X, and I’m one of Bill’s minions. Wonder if it’s a plugin architecture? Someone should write a pastafarian module, dontcha think?

Thanks Julie!

When I first saw the Philips Ambilight TVs, I thought they were the lamest gadget since the pet rock.

But then I saw one in person. And damned if it doesn’t work. Filling up the vague space of your peripheral vision with the right color really does make TV seem more real.

BTW, since women have better peripheral vision, I wonder how it is for them?

But why can’t anyone who has a home theater PC (or even just a regular TV) add on a couple of lamps (wired through a USB port in the HTPC case) that back light in the right color? Would this cause a patent problem with Philips, I wonder? If not, someone should make it, as I can imagine lots of people buying them, if they were at a modest price point.

People just don’t understand why the electric guitar must be extraordinarily loud. It’s not about some mindless sonic penis extension power trip (well, it is, but that’s not all it’s about). When a guitar is super loud, complex resonances and feedback loops emerge, between the air, the room, the wood of the guitar, its strings, its pickups, the structure and tubes of its amp, even the guitarist’s own body. All of this is part of the instrument.

If you aren’t loud, it’s like playing a violin without a bow. Sure, you can make music on it, but there’s a big difference between tinkling and soaring.

So players like me, who live in the dense population of a UK city, can’t play our real instrument at all, at least not without risking rankled neighbors and visits from the boys in blue.

Artificial solutions will never substitute for turning it up to 11, but I think I have a small idea that could simulate the experience.

There’s a neat guitar toy called the eBow.

It’s basically a magnetic oscillator with a 9-volt battery that you hold over a guitar string. It’s a way to excite the strings without touching them (the way acoustic feedback can), but with the silence of magnetic energy. It gives you bow-like effects (thus the name).

Unfortunately, the eBow is for one string at a time, and has no real control. In my experience, you play with your eBow for a few minutes, then it vanishes into your gig bag, with thoughts of how cool it could be.

But what if you mounted an eBow-like magnetic oscillator over the guitar bridge, coupled it to a mike or an input jack from your amp (so it could “listen” to your playing), and then ran some DSP to control the magnetic oscillations, using pre-specified and programmable profiles, that give simulated feedback effects?

Sort of an ebow on high-tech steroids.

I think this would be awesome for middle-aged rockers who want to be Hendrix through Headphones. It might also create an interesting new hybrid instrument for non-masturbatory performance.

UPDATE: Turns out this is a Been Done! See the comments for details of where you can actually get devices of this sort. Thanks to the commentors for the info!

You know those clever web gizmos that translate any web page into the linguistic style of Yoda, Smurf-speak, etc.? If I had the time, I’d write one that provided something like the following (example from another roundtuit):

As thou knowest, all ski bindings are pretty much mechanical, in accordance with prophecy.
Why does thou not mount two sets of 2 or 3 axis strain gages on a simplified binding that is electrically programmable, as it is written in the scripture?

Wish someone would pick this up. Hilarity would surely ensue.

Contributed by Rob Smith

Update: Been Done!