Aus aktuellem Anlass wird “schwingi.net” wiederbelebt. Weiter Informationen folgen in Kürze…

Totgesagte leben länger!

PAUSE

maybe this is the end…?

Der eine oder andere von euch kennt vielleicht die Hama Bügelperlen – vom Kindergarten oder vom Knast! 😉

Nun ich konnte nie recht viel damit anfangen, aber als ich kürzlich bei Flickr auf einen Künstler aufmerksam geworden bin, macht das Ganze auf einmal mehr Sinn. Seine Kunst besteht darin Figuren aus Videospielen – die ja aus Pixeln bestehen, und sich dadurch perfekt dazu eignen – per Bügelperlen in Szene zu setzen.

Beispiel gefällig:

Der Künstler: Pixgraff | http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixgraff/

more infos:
http://www.hama.dk/ 

Das Internet ist derzeit voll damit und falls ihr euch auch fragt um was es dabei geht – hier folgt eine kleine Erklärung:

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopa

more info:
http://reddit.com/r/sopa

Als ich gerade eben wieder mal meine Polar Trainingsdaten upgeloadet hatte, sah ich noch schnell auf die Polar Produktseite – in der Hoffnung dass diese endlich eine neue Multisport- Uhr ankündigt. Ich wurde nicht enttäuscht. Tatsächlich, Polar hat es nach einem gefühlten Jahrzehnt endlich geschafft eine neue Uhr zu entwickeln. RCX5 soll sie heißen und der neue beste Freund des Triathleten werden. Man darf gespannt sein…

Auf der Suche nach Reviews stieß ich dann auf den Blog von DC Rainmaker, der mich derart überzeugt hat, dass ich ihm einen Post widmen muss. So viel Engagement und Zeitinvestition darf nicht unerwähnt bleiben. Als Beispiel soll das Review zur RCX5 dienen: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/06/polar-rcx5-in-depth-review.html

Unglaublich wieviel Arbeit und Zeit er in seine Berichte investiert und nicht verwunderlich, dass Engadget.com ihn regelmäßig als Quelle anpreist.

Also, wenn ihr auf der Suche nach einem neuen “Trainingspartner” seid: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/

“It is our mission to accelerate learning
for students of all ages.”

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit educational organization created by Salman Khan. With the stated mission of “providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere”, the website supplies a free online collection of over 2,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and economics.

Salman Khan was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father is from Barisal, Bangladesh and his mother was born in Kolkata, India. Khan holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin Nadia in mathematics using Yahoo!’s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutorial, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the tutorials on YouTube. Their popularity there and the testimonials of appreciative students prompted Khan to quit his job in finance in 2009 and focus on the Academy full-time. Bill Gates once said that “I’d say we’ve moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job.”

As of December 2009, Khan’s YouTube-hosted tutorials receive a total of more than 35,000 views per day. Each video runs for approximately ten minutes. Drawings are made with SmoothDraw, which are recorded and produced using video capture from Camtasia Studio. Khan eschewed a format that would involve a person standing by a whiteboard, desiring instead to present the content in a way akin to sitting next to someone and working out a problem on a sheet of paper: “If you’re watching a guy do a problem [while] thinking out loud, I think people find that more valuable and not as daunting.” Offline versions of the videos have been distributed by not-for-profit groups to rural areas in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. While the Khan Academy’s current content is mainly concerned with pre-college mathematics and physics, Khan states that his long-term goal is to provide “tens of thousands of videos in pretty much every subject” and to create “the world’s first free, world-class virtual school”.

The Khan Academy also provides a web-based exercise system that generates problems for students based on skill level and performance. Khan believes his academy points to an opportunity to overhaul the traditional classroom by using software to create tests, grade assignments, highlight the challenges of certain students, and encourage those doing well to help struggling classmates.

His low-tech, conversational tutorials — Khan’s face never appears, and viewers see only his unadorned step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard — are more than merely another example of viral media distributed at negligible cost to the world. Khan Academy holds the promise of a virtual school: an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.

Several people have made $10,000 contributions; Ann and John Doerr gave $100,000; total revenue is about $150,000 in donations, and $2,000 a month from ads on the Web site. As of September 2010, Google announced they would be providing the Khan Academy with $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages, as part of their Project 10^100. Salman is aiming at making nothing less than “tens of thousands” of tutorials offering the “first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything.”

[source]

>> http://www.khanacademy.org/

Das etwas andere Spiel!

Jeder der in seinem Leben einmal mit Legosteinen zu tun gehabt hat – also jeder von euch – wird es mögen. Spielgrafik ist und bleibt eben nicht alles. Die “Minecraft Beta” die ständig upgedatet wird ist zwar kostenpflichtig, aber das “Classic” Game dessen Entwicklung mittlerweile eingestellt wurde ist weiterhin gratis und sowohl im Single- als auch im Multiplayer Mode spielbar (direkt als Browser Game – Java wird benötigt).

Give it a try: http://www.minecraft.net/play.jsp

Minecraft is a sandbox building video game which allows players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. It is currently in development, originally by creator Markus “Notch” Persson and now by his company formed from the proceeds of the game, Mojang. Minecraft has been developed on the Java platform. The gameplay is inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Infiniminer. The game is divided into two main modes, Beta and Classic; where Classic is focused entirely on construction, Beta also contains enemies, player health, and additional features and items. Beta is the currently updated version of the game.

Minecraft was developed for about a week before its public release on May 17, 2009 on the TIGSource forums, where it gained a considerable level of popularity. It has been continually updated and patched since then, and while it was still in alpha release, it garnered several hundred thousand sales and received critical notice and acclaim from many reviewers. It passed a million units sold on January 12, 2011, less than a month after reaching Beta.

[source]

Was mit dem simplen Konzept alles möglich ist, seht ihr hier:

more info:
http://www.minecraft.net/ – official webpage
http://notch.tumblr.com/ – developer blog

Liebe Filmfreunde und Cineasten: Habt ihr euch nicht auch öfters ein anderes Filmende gewünscht? Habt ihr euch nicht hin und wieder gefragt warum das Offensichtliche von den Protagonisten nicht erkannt wird? Habt ihr euch nicht auch mal gedacht, warum um Himmels Willen zerstören die Regisseure/Produzenten einen genialen Film/eine geniale Trilogie mit einem bescheidenen Sequel (JA! – Ich spreche von Indiana Jones 4 den, meiner Ansicht nach, schlechtesten Films des vergangenen Jahrzehnts!).

Nun die Jungs von HowItShouldHaveEnded.com kümmern sich genau um diese Belange der Filmindustrie und zeigen gelungene Alternativen auf. Höchst humorvoll, technisch anspruchsvoll umgesetzt und sehr, sehr wahr.

THX Oliver

more infos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HISHEdotcom
http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/

Dank Tetris Friends, der offiziellen Tetris Online Plattform ist es nun auch möglich Tetris im Browser zu spielen. Zahlreiche Modi stehen bereit (Marathon, Battle 2P, Arena, Battle 6P, Survival, Survival 5P, Sprint, 1989, uvm.) und ein Ranking/Achievementsystem trackt euren Progress. Außerdem existieren eine Menge Multiplayerpartien, um euch mit Freunden oder Leuten aus der ganzen Welt zu messen. Es macht wirklich Spaß und ein Battle 2P Game dauert gerade mal zwei Minuten. Also für ein schnelles Spiel für zwischendurch ideal! Einzig der Schwierigkeitsgrad lässt noch etwas zu wünschen übrig – too easy! 😉

Give it a try!
http://www.tetrisfriends.com

Read about Facebook’s 50 billion valuation this morning? I did but had a hard time visualizing that number. That is why I decided to create a little graph visualizing that number against the market capitalization of some other internet companies. Such as Apple (295 billion) and Twitter (an estimated 3 billion).

click with left mouse button to enlarge

[source]