Ever heard of the Google Web Fonts API? Stumbled across this while looking for something else.
Could be useful when trying to find that “perfect font” for your new website. Oh and the new font selector website is pretty cool.
Tag Archives: google
Google Goggles, CSI like technology on your phone.
I’ve read about it before countless times before, but I haven’t had a phone capable of running it. This morning while drinking my tea I read yet another post about Google Goggles and decided to install it on my HTC Wildfire.
I have only one word to explain it… “AWESOME”.
It reminds me of the handheld gadgets they use in shows like CSI where they take a photo of something (fingerprint, shoe print etc) and then click a button and the phone magically does some recognition and comes back with the info. It’s not perfect… and doesn’t recognise all the logos I had in the office but it does a pretty good job none the less.
And now with Google Images supporting reverse searches (search for an image using an image) it could only get better.
Bookmarks for April 27th through May 7th
These are my links for April 27th through May 7th:
- GameFAQs: Wii Sports (WII) FAQ/Strategy Guide by BSulpher
A guide to playing all of the Wii Sports games - DIY AUDIO PROJECTS – Do-It-Yourself Hi-Fi for Audiophiles
Could come in handy in the new place when I want to start setting up the TV with decent sound - optiboot – Project Hosting on Google Code
Replacement for the standard arduino boot loader, smaller and faster. - Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About
I've probably put this up before, but this is an awesome website… very funny for those of you involved in a relationship. - Wyvern Quadrotor Helicopter
Would love to build one of these, although I think it could get expensive quickly - Emulating a Z80 computer with an AVR chip – Hack a Day
The Hack A Day article on emulating the Z80 cpu on an AVR chip - Sprites mods – CP/M on an AVR – Intro
Awesome project to emulate a Z80 CPU on a AVR microcontroller, this could be very interesting as the Z80 was used in quiet a number of early computing devices. - DPAC
Awesome alarm clock – The clock has a wifi connection and connects and looks up events on your Google Calendar. It also has an FM radio and built in amplifier and switch system that allows you to play music from iPods etc. - Bonfire – interactivity using pico projectors and cameras – Hack a Day
Awesome interactive interface for laptops or computers. - Simple, reliable 2.5D photography
- Volkswagen Scirocco 2009 as a game controller – nippe.teknopapu.net
Turning a VW into a game controller by hacking into the CAN bus. - Durian » Blog Archive » Special delivery
Blender Cluster in a filing cabinet - haroon baig | projects | twitwee clock
Twittering cuckoo clock – Clock with a screen in it to display tweets. - The BWD Scooter
Details on building an electric scooter, complete with a custom built hub motor - Aerial video with a Canon 5D , 7D helivideo.com on Vimeo
Video clip of the RC Helicopter with HD camera attached. - Photographer Rigs A Canon 7D To an RC Helicopter (Kickass Video + Short Interview) | DIYPhotography.net
RC helicopter with a HD Camera (Canon 7D) attached to it. - Elektronika.ba – IR light dimmer v1
IR Remote Light Dimmer – Might be useful in the new place? Thinking of using it to control down lighters. - Elektronika.ba – Dual channel IR remote control v1
IR remote controlled lights (light switch). I really would like to build something like this when we've moved into the new place.
Bookmarks for April 21st through April 23rd
These are my links for April 21st through April 23rd:
- How to Set Up a Mail Merge in Gmail for Personalized Mass Emails – Mail merge – Lifehacker
This might come in handy in the future if I need to send out mailing lists again, I wish I knew about this when I was organising our wedding. - Stalled Printer Repair Cancels Print Jobs Without Waiting Years, No Batch File Required – Printers – Lifehacker
A little app that gets rid of those "stalled" print jobs in your print queue. - Take Better Interior Photos by Kneeling – Photography – Lifehacker
Neat info on how to take better photo's of the inside of your house/apartment/flat this could come in handy sometime. - PIC based USB input devices – Hack a Day
I don't know if I'll need this anytime soon, but its interesting none the less and could come in handy one day. - MIDIbox SEQ V4
This is an awesome opensource MIDI sequencer, not that I'm into music or MIDI but its still pretty cool. Looks awesome too. - Square Large Numbers in Your Head Quickly – Shortcuts – Lifehacker
Cool tip… although I don't know how often I'll need to do this and without practice I'll probably forget the trick to do this. - Unlock a Sliding Chain Lock with a Rubber Band – lock picking – Lifehacker
One of those silly skills that might come in handy one day… think I'll go try this out sometime. - Fancy Towels w/Pockets! « Dinner & Discourse
I love this, not sure I'll ever do it… but if I had a guest bathroom I might. - Increase Your Card Shuffling Chops – Shuffling – Lifehacker
Learning how to shuffle cards properly… very cool should try learn this for when I restart poker nights. - Axis Of Awesome diss pop \ Music \ Entertainment \ FHM
Very funny, awesome clip of some guys singing all the hit songs.. - SocketsLight – Silverlight Sockets Framework
- Deep Dive Into WCF Part 2: Serialization on the speed of light with Google Protocol Buffers
- Silverlight 3 as a Desktop Application (Out-of-Browser Applications)
- Chipbase
Place thats been recommended to me where I can buy various cupboard hardware. - Firefox add-ons you should consider | Jonathan Giles
- SnapStream's monster DVR records 50 channels at once, even when nothin's on — Engadget
- Photorealism Tutorial by *markcrilley on deviantART
Bookmarks for March 25th from 10:12 to 17:31
These are my links for March 25th from 10:12 to 17:31:
- YouTube – Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peek – Sneak peak at some of the new features in the new version of Photoshop, very cool.
- Official Google Blog: Collaborative bookmarking with lists – Should look into this, perhaps as a replacement to Delicious? Not sure?
- Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Rsync – Must look at trying to implement this or something similar to this between my various machines.
- Dennis Forbes on Software and Technology – The Impact of SSDs on Database Performance and the Performance Paradox of Data Explodification – Interesting article, not sure how useful it is but does highlight a few things about how to speed up SQL which could come in handy.
- Microcontrollers and Electronics Project Blog – Blog about electronics and microcontrollers, has a nice article on how to use a comparator that needs some further reading and studying.
- Sieg SX2 Mini Mill – I would love one of these little mini-mills. I wonder if something like this is available in South Africa? and I wonder how much it'll cost?
- Engineer Thinking » Matt Legend Gemmell – Good article about how we should be striving to make GUI's (and I guess by extension software) easier to use.
- Enso-now.com – Revolutionary devices based on Google Android and open source software – This is kinda like the iPad but it runs Android… I'm rather interested in getting my hands on one of these, just need to find $200 (+/-)
- Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World’s Most Ingenious Thief | Magazine – Awesome article about a master thief, I love these kinds of stories.
- Cardboard Record Sleeve Doubles as Record Player – Cardboard record player – Gizmodo – I really love this idea.
- Nivo Slider – The Most Awesome jQuery Image Slider – Awesome jQuery Image Slider found via Reddit going to have to see how I can incorporate it into my site.
How to hide the Buzz from your Gmail inbox.
If you’re like me and have been playing around with Google Buzz then your inbox is probably filling up with entries from your friends as they comment on your buzz’s. ?I like to keep my inbox clean and use the notifications for the inbox to alert me if there is mail that I actually need to read.
So what follows is the steps that will allow your buzz updates to skip your inbox, you could do something else with them if you liked but this seemed the simplest. Buzz notifications are automatically tagged by Gmail with the buzz lable so they’re easy to spot, you just need to create a filter for them and then either move them away or hide them or whatever you want.
Click the create filter shortcut in Gmail
On the next step fill in the “Has the words:” field the text, label:buzz
And then finally tell Gmail what to do with it, in my case it keeps the inbox and gets archived straight away.
Super Secret Project Pt 2
As I explained in Part 1, I’ve been working on a super secret project (Christmas present for my wife).
Don?t worry my wife hardly ever reads this site so I doubt she?ll read all this and anyway she?s unlikely to puzzle out what I?m up too, but because I don?t want her to know what I?m building I?m going to stick to describing the technology and tools I?m using and show snippets of code but try not give it all away.
Google app status dashboard
Not sure if you know about this one, came across it a while back. This link gives you a dashboard view showing you the current status of the Google Apps and if they’re experiencing any problems along with details of when the problem will be fixed. Useful if you rely on Google Apps a lot.
Note book Applications
Not Notebook as in Computer… note book as in a thing you write your notes in.
Google Image Search – Similar Images
If you visit Google Labs often, then you’ve probably seen the new Similar Images Image Search entry.
I use Google Image Search alot, normally to find an image of something quickly or to see what a person, car, item etc looks like. The new Similar Image search is a step in the right direction, although there are alot of things they could do to improve it.
I would love to find out if they’re comparing the images or if they’re comparing the surrounding META data? Or is it a combination of both? I don’t think its based purely on the image, because occasionally a false positive shows up that doesn’t match the other images at all.
The similar image search is a step in the right direction, but I think they could improve the image search function alot more. It would be cool if I could upload my own image for them to search for, but of course the problem with that is if they’re using the surrounding meta data the uploaded image wouldn’t have that.