AI Bot plays charades
I don’t think I would have guessed any of these, but the fact people could type in normal text and then the robot could sort of act it out is pretty amazing.
Quality job being a dad
The Walton Adventures has a great set of videos of a dad and his daughter.
Mattress review sites are completely corrupt
What started as a Fast Company reporter getting a free mattress from a friend’s friend led to a web of lawsuits, corruption, and a revelation of just exactly how blurred internet reviews and advertisings had become.
The long story short? A great number of mattress review sites are often simply paid advertising for mattress companies. In other cases, the mattress company simply buys out the review site. This happened in 2016 – so you can probably expect this method of taking over review sites to have become even more popular.
Some of the worst offenders? Bed-in-a-box company Casper was known to sue bloggers that gave unfavorable reviews while promoting bloggers that gave good reviews. Casper apparently tried to use cyber-warfare tactics and even tried to buy out a review site that tried to blow the whistle on them.
- Fast Company report ‘The War To Sell You A Mattress Is An Internet Nightmare‘
Photoshop 2024
The things we’re able to do with 2D images with just a few clicks is absolutely mind blowing.
You can’t spell funicular without F-U-N
Switzerland is Life takes you on a cogwheel train that transports passengers to the top of Switzerland’s Mount Pilatus at 6,983′. It starts getting quite hair-raising around minute 10
Or maybe just go outside and live it yourself
There’s a new life simulator game inZOI that takes the idea of The Sims and updates it for modern graphics. The 4K gameplay trailer shows an incredibly detailed virtual world and with its avatars going grocery shopping, cooking fried chicken, watering plants, and going to the gym.
Or, maybe just go out and live real life in infinite resolution.
Kinetic PC case
Idea Idea wanted to make a unique PC case. Why not make one that is also a kinetic, moving piece of art.
Programmable Music Box
Most music boxes can only play one song, but why not make a music box that is fully programmable? The Muro Box can play any song by using computer-controlled wheels to pluck the metal forks. You can program it using a mobile app or a MIDI device. It has a 40-note chromatic scale, and more than 50,000 songs in a downloadable library.
It’s going for an eye watering $995 pledge on Kickstarter. I think it’s ridiculously steep for a few dozen stepper motors and an app, but they do offer a smaller $299 version.
Bugs exploitable in Payday for Speedruns
Engine exploits are great fun in games. They make the impossible possible and speedrunners love them. Payday and Payday 2 were written using the Diesel game engine and there have been a number of interesting bugs found over the years.
Here is a breakdown of 6 of the more exploitable bugs used by speedrunners.
Ultimate cosmic powers, Born into a blue collar family
If you were the President of the United States, Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, the Queen of England (or any of the most rich and powerful people in the world) and wanted to help people struggling with poverty, disease, oppression by an occupying military force, and wallowing in the results of social problems, how would you do it?
Consider how God, who created the entire universe, decided to bring salvation to us. God could have come on the clouds with hosts of angels and all the powers and awe of the heavens. Instead, He embraced our limited existence in every way. He spend 9 months in his mother’s womb and was born in a barn as a near helpless infant. He did not come in any glory nor power but into a very simple family. He had a father and a mother and grew up obedient to them (Luke 2:51-52). God. Obedient to His human parents.
This was not only to show God’s humble nature or His desire to share life like one of us in all things. It was also a resounding re-affirmation of the family – of parents and children. That the commitment, obedience, and love each family member has for each other is the perfect and happiest way to live. It’s no less than a mirror of the inner life of the Trinity itself.
This affirmation goes all the way back to Genesis which tells us being created male and female in the image of God, to be fruitful and multiply, to have authority over creation, and this pattern and order “was very good” (Gen 1:26-31)
Something to ponder on this Feast of the Holy Family.