Stritar's chronolog

5 reasons why Star Wars 7 will become the highest-grossing movie of all time

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 13:51:20 GMT

We’ve finally seen it! And by we I mean everybody. It turns out the thing that can really break the Internet are not a few pictures of a big ass, but a movie trailer that's been anticipated like none before it. And it came with a bang! Even though a lot of people watched the trailer on iTunes (where statistics are undisclosed), the movie already managed to attract more than 40 million views in less than a week on YouTube, beating the previous record holder by miles. This time, it’s all in, Star Wars - The Force Awakens began its journey to become the greatest movie ever. You don’t believe me? Here are five reasons why this will happen.

The original movie’s success

Did you know that when Star Wars came out way back in 1977, it became the highest-grossing movie of its time (according to Wikipedia). Neither did I, but there’s more. If you adjust the earnings for inflation, the original Star Wars turns into the third biggest box office hit in history. The movie was super huge, but we were too young to notice. Actually, most of us weren’t even born at that time, which means this one will appeal to two generations of geeks. But we’ll get to that later.

The 90s/00s sequels didn’t do bad as well in the box office, two of them managed to get on the Top 50 movies of all time list as well. Not a bad starting point for Episode 7.

The original cast

Star Wars 7 represents one of the greatest cast reunions in the history of Hollywood. More than 30 years later (the last of the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, was released in 1983), everybody’s back in action. Except James Earl Jones, but Darth Vader is dead anyways (and will hopefully stay that way), so no biggie there. Can you even look at this picture and not get excited about it?

This photography of the cast of Episode 7 already became one of the most iconic in movie history. Source: Daily Mail.

It will be interesting to see how chemistry between the actors works after so many years. On one hand, you have the superstar Harrison Ford, on the other hand you have Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, who didn’t manage to make outstanding careers. But if you ask me, the anticipation of the character dynamics makes the whole thing even more intriguing.

J.J. Abrams

It’s too bad George Lucas won’t return to direct the next few episodes, but he was very involved in the making of this movie nevertheless. J.J. Abrams surely is the right choice for the job, he has the spectacle material this movie needs. Of course, this means that the worlds of Star Wars and Star Trek will finally entwine for good, but who cares anyways. The ultimate no-no already happened when Ben Affleck was casted his second high-profile superhero.

Back to J.J.. The trailer he made for Star Wars 7 looks simply fantastic, and based on his other recent achievements, we surely have a lot to look forward to.

Disney

When Disney paid $4 billion for Lucasfilm in 2012, some people thought they must be mad. Think about it again, Disney means business. They're a marketing machine which calculated even bigger piles of money can be made from the Star Wars franchise. As the second largest media company in the world, they also know how to do it. Their biggest box office hits so far include The Avengers to The Pirates of the Caribbean, but in 2015, they're out to take the gold.

The Force is already strong with Mickey - X-wing in Disneyland Paris.

The geekosphere

On friday, the new Star Wars trailer was all over the internets. The geek community collectively orgasmed while watching the 90 second teaser. The cult and fandom that’s present around this scifi classic is enormous, and after the “disappointment" of the second trilogy, we finally have something new to look forward to.

On friday, top three posts on reddit were about the Star Wars trailer. Soon, things started taking their own course. The YouTube trailer received more than 40 million views in less than a week. And it’s still one year before The Force Awakens will be released. There are so many opportunities available to Disney it’s almost ridiculous. With proper marketing, Star Wars could actually break the Internet.

Reddit after Star Wars trailer revelation.

But it’s not only about you. It’s about your dad as well. The original cast will surely appeal to the original geeks who were drooling over Leia way before you were born, while Facebook will help to deliver the message. Our parents are the ones who will tip the scale for the next Star Wars.

The Force Awakens

Almost 40 years after the original Star Wars, the stars have aligned again. Millions of fans are patiently waiting to see how Luke, Leia and Han will combat the Dark side of the Force. Unlike the pale second (first) trilogy, Disney now holds all the cards to create the biggest movie of all time. The target audience is huge, and the means for virality and distribution are better than ever. All we need to do now is to allow Disney to seduce us for a year, and after we are all wet, deliver the promise. The world is ready for the next supermovie.

But for how long? Avatar 2 is scheduled for 2016.

Hey developer, here's something that will make you sound smart

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:21:02 GMT

I've met many developers in my life, and quite a few of them share a similar problem. Being mathematical geniuses and all, but not being able to put into words what the hell they are doing. At least so it would sound marketable and awesome. After all, it's not their job to sound smart, the developer's role in the Hipster - Hustler - Hacker dream team is a bit different. But talking like an MBA can have it's advantages, specially when it comes to individuals communicating with their clients.

Launch

Take my example, half of the time my customers don't fully understand what I'm saying even though I'm trying really hard. But I've noticed some phrases have a better effect than others, some simply sound like special awesome things are happening (which they are) and that everything is under control. The funny thing is that the recipe to speak like that is very simple: say hi to the MBA developer talk.

[MBA verb] + [technical noun] = [#mbadev]

The equation for the #mbadev talk is elementary. Take a power verb that has a really active meaning. Like "structuring", "evaluating" or "utilizing". These are often used to make an activity sound way cooler than it actually is. Then, take a noun that is very hacker-specific, something that non-technical people don't fully understand. Like "metadata", "framework" or "encapsulation". Put them together, and you have a winner. Developers, face it, no one really understands what you're saying, so you might as well make it sound cool.

"Dear client, I'm very busy structuring metadata, thank you for your understanding".

The MBA developer talk seems such a great concept that we've even made a generator for it. Feel free to take it for a spin, you'll be amazed by how such a basic combination can yield such interesting results. Now all developers can sound really smart.

http://mbadev.neolab.si

What's hot on the web - Part 7: The greatest metameme ever?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:49:02 GMT

By now you've probably already noticed Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" is a pretty amazing song. It's actually one of the most played songs ever on YouTube (currently on 17th place with around 260 million plays), and already has plenty of great remixes and variations. One of the covers that is really worth mentioning is the performance by Walk Off The Earth, where five people play this song on one guitar.

This great cover already has more than 120 million plays itself, enough to get its own parody by The Key Of Awesome. This funny adaptation of the cover has more than 7 million views, and the puppet interpretation of the adaptation almost 400 thousand. But wait, there's more. A few other guys, inspired by the parody, converted it into a Tetris theme song version, with around 50 thousand views, and a parody of the puppet version of the parody version exists too. Enough to create one the the greatest metamemes in existence, and to make it to What's hot on the web series.

You'll enjoy this, and don't get too confused.

The original

Views: 259,894,229
Published: Jul 5, 2011

The cover of the original

Views: 121,555,950
Published: Jan 5, 2012
Inception level: 46.77 %

The parody of the cover of the original

Views: 7,524,547
Published: Feb 8, 2012
Inception level: 6.19 %

The puppet version of the parody of the cover of the original

Views: 396,868
Published: Feb 8, 2012
Inception level: 5.27 %

The response to the parody of the cover of the original

Views: 49,580
Published: Feb 16, 2012
Inception level: 0.66 %

The parody of the puppet version of the parody of the cover of the original

Views: 642
Published: Mar 18, 2012
Inception level: 0.16 %

Pretty impressive stuff, isn't it? Man, I love the interwebs.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

The great aquarium cleaning dilemma: should you be removing or replacing water?

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:44:18 GMT

Everybody that owns an aquarium probably came across this decision at one point. The water is filthy and needs to be replaced. All you have is a jar. And you ask yourself: should you be emptying the aquarium first, adding new water later on, or should you be replacing filthy water with clean water? The first choice seems more rational, but sometimes you can't fully empty the aquarium (e.g. you have fish), and you need to do more runs since you're not taking water both ways. The other option seems interesting since you're efficient both ways, but at the same time you're taking back fresh water mixed in the aquarium. So, what should you do?

The situation

In reality, you do have other options. A water pump, a larger intermediate basin or other things that can make this task easier. But believe me, sometimes you don't have the time to do it properly and you just want to clean the water a bit. And that's when you'll wonder what to do. It happened to me, and that's why I've made myself a model that would answer this question, a model that would determine the breaking point (where both options are equally effective) between the two techniques.

The model described contains the following parameters:

the aquarium volume (V - volume)
the jar volume (d - change)
number of two-way runs (x)

And it looks something like this:

The aquarium cleaning situation

The initial model

The original view I made in Excel is based on simple mathematics, where each one-way run is represented by one line in the table. Adding and removing water both-ways constantly reduces filthiness, but makes each additional run less effective. On the other hand, removing water first and adding fresh water later takes more runs (since your jar is empty in one direction, you require four one-way runs to replace an additional unit), but you're not removing clean water. Here's a preview of how this looks:

The basic calculation

The advanced model

The basic model is more understandable, but not appropriate to make a full mathematical equation. That's why I made a second model, which is based on two-way runs and exponential functions. Here's what I got:

The advanced calculation

The results

The results show that if you don't have much time, it's better if you're replacing water, taking it both ways. This accounts for faster cleaning, which is slowing down in the long run. But the point is that no matter what the parameters are (aquarium and jar size), the breaking point happens more to the end of the cleaning. So, if you're not prepared to fully empty the aquarium, it's generally better if you use the the first option, removing and adding water at the same time.

The graphical results displaying water filthiness based on number of two-way runs for different jar and aquarium sizes

The breaking point equation

The results are there, and I managed to make the following equation which would calculate where both ways are the equally effective:

This makes calculating the number of runs so complex it can't be calculated in basic Excel (because of the Lambert W or product log function).

But luckily, you can use Wolfram Alpha to calculate the breaking point of two-way runs by entering the aquarium and jar size in the boxes below. If you're prepared to make less two-way runs than the result, take water both-ways, otherwise, one-way.

Aquarium: Jar:

If you want to play around a bit, you can even download the complete model in Excel format.

Conclusion

Perhaps there's an easier way to calculate the great aquarium cleaning dilemma, which speaks in favor of water replacement (taking water both ways). There's also a chance I've made an error somewhere (please let me know!). But the results seem correct, and I hope you find all of this amusing and / or helpful when you need to update your water. Aquarium cleaning will never be the same again.

Update (26.11.2011): While this may have been a fun experiment, I've just read it's not that smart to fully remove water in the aquarium, since it disrupts the balance of bacteria.

Solid-state drives (SSD) are the biggest win in hardware ever

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:01:42 GMT

Guess what? My new computer has a Solid-state drive. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, that's the new super fancy high-tech computer storage unit. And I must say it's so amazing it's almost silly. Extra fast boot times, complex applications opening up in seconds, less power consumption and no humming from the hard disk. What else could you wish for in your new sexy computer? I love it, and I love it so much I had to tell the world.

In my laptop career, I went from from Centrino to Core 2 Duo to i5. Never noticed much difference in performance. Well, with the last one, I also got the mentioned SSD and it blew my mind. And I was wondering, besides the famous Samsung SSD in RAID movie, I haven't heard much about it, nor seen impressed geeks writing poems about its awesomeness. Sure, people are testing how faster it is and arguing about the fact if it consumes less battery or more. But who cares, what you really want to know is if it makes a significant difference or not.

So trust me on this one: nothing will make more difference in personal computer performance than a Solid-state drive. By miles. Lightyears even. And while I know they are expensive as gold, I still think you should consider getting one with your new computer. They are worth every penny. If you're not a hardcore gamer, make movies or process calculations with thousand of parameters, you really don't need an extremely capable processor and a state-of-the-art graphic card. Memory, you need that, but it's cheap. What you need the most is a Solid-state drive. Casual user or one of the mentioned.

There's always a downside. After some time, Solid-state drives supposedly start to behave a bit slower and are still not as reliable as hard disks. Luckily, most of these problems have been taken care of with the current generations, so we'll see what happens. At this point, all I can say is that I'm very very impressed and think that SSDs deserve much more than just this post. They're pure win. And another item for your wish list.

What's hot on the web - Part 6: The most amazing unique music acts

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:32:17 GMT

Welcome to the next episode of the fantastic What's hot on the web series. It's been a while since we did this, and since one of the previous posts was focused on fails, I think it's only fair to give memes with a positive attitude a chance too. This part of What's hot on the web cover various unique music acts, each amazing in it's own way. I've been gathering these videos for years and these are the greatest I've noticed so far. You've probably already seen a few, but hopefully missed a few too, so enjoy the show.

11-year-old boy covering Lady Gaga's Paparazzi

When I heard this boy play his interpretation of the hit song from Lady Gaga, I was simply speechless. Greyson Chance become the hottest stuff in an instant, his performance taking him to as far as the Ellen Show. See for yourself, and while you're at it, observe the girls' faces in the background. It's obvious that something magical just happened.

Dude plays trance on an acoustic guitar

It's safe to say that Ewan Dobson is a guitar god, and his song Time 2 fit for any local dance party. This video clearly proves his fingers have a life of their own, making this act one of the most awesome things ever. Prepare to be amazed.

Blue Man Group and Drumbone

Blue Man Group are well known for their amazing (and interactive) out of this world acts, ranging from music to theater (if you have the chance, go see them!). One of their famous performances features their cover of The Who's Baba O'Riley, but at this point, we will rather focus on an act of their own, the Drumbone.

Pale kid raps fast

Busta Rhymes probably felt a bit awkward if he ever saw this video. One dorky kid. White and pale. Kicking everybody's ass in speed rapping. Priceless.

Bobby McFerrin doing his thing

Meet the original beatboxer. Yup, this is the guy that sings all the vocals in Don't worry be happy, and this is one of his solo acts.

Axis of Awesome - The ultimate four chord song

This one was quite a hit some time ago. An awesome band with and awesome name proving that all the hits songs in pop history are actually the same. Four chords is all you need for being a rock star. Or an internet star.

Hang drum solo

You may not find this video as fascinating as I do, but take a closer look. This guy is actually producing magical sounds on a barrel of some sort. Ok, two barrels to be exact. Which is pretty cool if you think about it.

Obadiah Parker putting emotions into Outkast's Hey Ya

I've always though that Hey Ya from Outkast was this funny song (the video probably had me fooled). But then I saw this guy. And it made me feel happy and sad at the same time. Beautiful.

The iPhone band

When the band Atomic Tom got their instruments stolen, they got this amazing idea. They performed one of their songs called Take Me Out live on a NYC subway, using only iPhones. The performance is not technically perfect, but we can still wonder if this the start of a new trend.

local: Perpetuum Jazzile - Avsenik Medley

Perpetuum Jazzile's Africa should've been here, but I've already included that one in one of my previous posts. But this other one is pretty cool too, and very Slovenian. Polka kicks ass.

This is it for now. Did you find anything you like in my selection? Do you have any other favorites I may have missed?

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

The Web is going rogue. The Web is going mainstream.

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:16:40 GMT

Times are changing, and the World Wide Web isn't any different. You've probably already noticed your mother on Facebook and it's not too hard to understand that interests of specific generations can be a bit different. The same goes for young people, who are obviously growing up in a world of their own, a confusing world overwhelmed with infinite amounts of information.

In the USA, already 93% of people under 18 are online. A massive group, which is probably the main driving force behind changing how the Web looks, and they are actually doing quite a good job in making it mainstream and pop. The Web used to be a part of the geeky subculture, but lately it's becoming just one of the mass media, another television on steroids.

YouTube

A great example of this pop transformation are top videos on YouTube. Star Wars Kid, David After Dentist and other classic home-made videos are starting to look unimpressive compared to Lady Gaga's and Justin Bieber's music videos. If you check the current list of most viewed videos, you can see that YouTube is really becoming more of a PopTube, where record labels are dominating the chart with high budget music videos. Lady Gaga managed to be the first pop artist with the most viewed YouTube video, but was quickly dethroned by Bieber. A sad fate for the biggest online video sharing tool.

Twitter

When people who actually have something smart to say are getting less followers on Twitter than pop princesses, you know something's gone wrong. Ashton Kutcher, the king of Twitter and the guy who beat CNN to one million followers, was overtaken by Britney Spears in the number of followers just a few moths ago. This is just the beginning - the following list provides information about top Twitter users, where you can see more and more pop stars whose accounts are emerging and taking the lead. Perhaps I'm not the correct target group, but Britney's Twitter account with her 423 tweets pretty much sucks!

Google

Google is kind enough to allow us insight into it's most popular searches of every year, which offers great overview of the culture of a specific era (Google Zeitgeist: 2007, 2008, 2009). This is The spirit of the times, as seen by world's biggest search engine:

In 2007, there were no people or other pop brands on the top 10 list of searches.
In 2008, Sarah Palin became 1st and Obama took 6th place, but that was mostly because of the US presidential elections, which can't really be considered pop. Pop star searches included Heath Ledger on 5th (because of his death) and the band Jonas Brothers on 10th place.
In 2009, the trend of pop searches continued. Michael Jackson became 1st (due to this death), New Moon (Twilight movie) finished 6th and Lady Gaga 7th. Creepy enough, but wait until Justin gets on the list in 2010.

These are some of the cases showing the evolution of the World Wide Web, currently ruled by it's undisputed queen, Lady Gaga. The scary part is that all of this is probably just a virtual portrait of the real world of today, where Pop Stars and Supermodel reality shows are helping to create new values and a wannabe society. And the Web is not just a victim of this trend anymore, it became an active player helping to promote this new and strange culture.

All of this saddens me a bit, and this is my puny effort to change this trend. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

What's hot on the web - Part 5: Cool and funny webcomics

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:52:32 GMT

There are probably millions of different webcomics online today. A few of them actually made it to the mainstream, with a bit of help from the social media and the cyber community. If you examine the most popular ones, you can see that they actually have a lot in common. They are short and to the point, providing great and funny content within usually simplistic drawings, with a focus mostly on geeky topics. After all, this geeky community is probably the driving force behind the World Wide Web and if they like it, the comic has a great chance to succeed. This part of What's hot on the web will display some of my favorites and help you spend a bit of your valuable time doing useless things.

Amazing Superpowers

This comics has a great sense of humor, covering themes based mostly on weird situations and self irony, usually with a great twist at the end. It's up to you to decide if you'll laugh or cry.
URL: http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/

Cyanide and Happiness

Another very popular webcomic feeds on dark humor, often focusing on offensive topics some could describe as insulting and tasteless. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop it from being one of the most well known and most praised by the cyber community and the social media.
URL: http://www.explosm.net/comics/

Dilbert

One of the most successful online and offline comics is Dilbert, a satyric office humor comic that made it everywhere – books, merchandise, cartoons, video game, etc. If you don't mind it being a bit commercial and if you work in an office, you'll probably be amused by witty portraits of real life situations.
URL: http://www.dilbert.com/

Penny Arcade

Focusing mostly on geeky themes, such as video games and technology, this comic has also gotten its fair share of fans on the web. Because of its success, the authors were able to make other projects connected with it, also because Penny Arcade is supposed to be the first gaming oriented comic.
URL: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

A bit twisted and dark, this comic mocks practically everything it can get its hands on, specially religion. A good and light reading if you don't have problems with that sort of things.
URL: http://www.smbc-comics.com/

The Perry Bible Fellowship

This amazing comic sadly stopped coming out back in 2008. Before that it was one of the most popular around, appearing also in newspapers and books. Because of it's great surreal humor and experimentation with different drawing techniques it definitely still deserves a mention.
URL: http://pbfcomics.com/

White Ninja

With a plot set around weird and funny everyday experiences of white ninja and more than 1,000 different parts already written, White ninja became an online success. Short and simple stories provide great casual reading.
URL: http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/comics.shtml

XKCD

This famous stick man is one of the most popular online comics, focusing mostly on geeky topics, such as computer sciences and mathematics. This webcomic became so popular that the author got a book deal in 2009. Yes, with a stick man.
URL: http://www.xkcd.com/

local: Paradise Misplaced

Written and drawn by one of Slovenia's most talented comic artists Izar Lunaček, this emerging webcomic puts Adam, Eve, God and other biblical characters in Eden, doing crazy things and getting acquainted with different sins. As the authors puts it, 'Every sin is original', so why shouldn't it also be funny.
URL: http://www.paradisemisplaced.si/

Hope you enjoyed this part's selection and had fun browsing the mentioned sites. These comics and artists can truly make your day, so they are worth checking out. Face it - comics are no longer considered to be just for geeks and children, so you might as well embrace them without having a guilty conscience.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

What's hot on the web - Part 4: Performances gone wrong

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:03:09 GMT

A lot of time has passed since our last What's hot on the web broadcast, so I bet you are already eager to see more. The series is doing quite well, but the time has come to do a bit of specialization. This part will be focused on weird (and therefore funny) performances from around the globe, turning into epic fail. Looks like some people think they are ready for the spotlight, but they aren’t. Youtube, you can make our day.

Model takes a tumble twice

I don’t know what's funnier about this one, the commentators who can't stop laughing or the model who does the boogie woogie. We all know fashion has it's price, but the price for this one is a new type of dance nobody can reproduce.

Staying on stage fail

If you have a public performance and you actually do choose to play on playback, make sure you stay on the stage. Otherwise, everybody will know what you're doing...

Ken Lee

This one already became a legend. A girl, performing at a Talents competition in Bulgaria wanted to sing Mariah Carey's Ken Lee, a song which nobody heard of. It turns out she got the lyrics of Without you a bit wrong, which is amusing the jury. Later on she tried to repeat the performance and do it again with the right lyrics, but the original version took the most applause. The extensions of this meme went so far that even Mariah herself made a comment about it.

Is Europe a country?

Stereotypes have it that Americans suck at geography and that blonds are a bit, well, you know... This one proves them right. In a show where people compete against fifth graders, this girl fails miserably when she thinks Europe is a country.

American educational system

On beauty contests, answers of the competitors are always a bit interesting. In this case, it looks like Miss South Carolina didn't quite understand what the question on American education was and she answers a totally different thing. Besides, even if she answered something, nobody knows what that was. A sad irony.

Exclusive nightclub fail

There are a lot of interesting moments on TV shows and quizes, so we won't even try to go through all of them. We’ve all seen The wheel of fortune, where people have to guess the right letters and words. The following competitor almost had it, but not quite. Check your spelling capabilities before you go playing a game like that.

Wrong price is right winner

Another cool quiz that produces a lot of awkward moments is Price is right. This one is twice funny. First, this woman makes a really stupid bet, putting her in a situation where she has almost no chance of winning. Besides, when the price is told, she thinks she actually won. Twice. Triple fail for that one.

Coconut breaking

People do all sorts of crazy shit to get noticed. Like this guy, who sets out to break a few coconuts with his hand. Hm, even before you see the footage you can tell this was a bad idea...

I hope these perfomances make you think before going public. Once it’s online, you’ll be marked forever.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

What's hot on the web - Part 3: A peek into obscurity

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:39:25 GMT

You know the drill. The world wide web is a beautiful thing filled with cool and funny stuff. A lot of that stuff gets unnoticed by most of the people, so consolidations are needed. I like weird and unexplainably attractive things, things that are differently funny and geeky. Because we've already went through the classic ones, this part of the series is a bit more obscure. Presenting What's hot on the web, part 3.

The Techno Viking

The Techno Viking is supposedly the only guy who could kill Chuck Norris. The story is happening on an open air party where this guy tries to pickpocket a visitor. Little does he know that around the block the Techno Viking is lurking. Once he get into his element, the dominance doesn't end until the end of the movie.

All your base are belong to us

This one is based on a lousy translation of a video game. The cyber community and gamers found this so hillarious that somebody actually made a song out of it, video included. All your base are belong to us!

local: reporter Andrej Stare drunk

The legend has it that all Slovenian TV reporters are a bit drunkards, because their job demands spending a lot of free time while on the set. One the funniest is a sports reporter Andrej Stare, who magnificently commented on a hockey match between Slovenia and Croatia. Totally drunk, of course.

Hope you had a good laugh. But beware, you don't want to piss off the Techno Viking.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

Stunning Lego applications, creations and art

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:33:26 GMT

Lego started producing the already iconic toy in 1949. Since than, a few variations of the brick have been designed, but all made after 1958 are compatible. More than 50 years of models, themes, worlds, colors and fun for the young and the old. Yup, you heard it right, the old are mad about Lego. Because Legos are cool, Legos are pop, Legos are viral and Legos are really loved by the web society.

A blend of availability, tradition, flexibility, compatibility and creativity stimulation helped Legos become more than a toy. They became a platform, a concept, an artistic medium, and mostly, they became a cult. There are a lot of creative applications and creations around, but a few of them are specially worth mentioning.

The minifig society

Supposedly there are billions of minifigs in the world. Pretty impressive. They come in thousands of types and some of the greatest fans were actually able to make a detailed timeline of the minifigs. The Star Wars edition alone has more than 150 different minifigs, and this poster just makes you want to have 'em all.

Lego photography

There are a few cool pages that combine Legos with photography. If you're interested in that sort of stuff, you should check out album covers in Lego, or this amazing classic photography reconstructions.

Video edits

Perhaps even more popular than pictures, the video edits range from Star Wars videos, arcade games simulations and funny films, such as The Dark Knight trailer. One of the most popular is The Simpsons intro. I've said it before, people have too much time.

Robotics

Since Mindstorms came around, Legos gained eyes, ears, hands and programming logic. This means that things such as a money safe, Rubic cube solver or even the Touring machine (a primitive computer) are possible to build. The only limit is one's creativity and sadly, budget.

Amazing constructions

Artistic and giant Lego sets are being built by many people. Diversified lists can be found here, here and here. Other sculptures worth mentioning are the aircraft carrier and the Space Shuttle. Some other freaks made a 5 million brick boulder, which accidentally crashed into a car. The number of bricks is unconfirmed, because in England they made a 30m tall tower using just 500.000 of them. Below you can see Barack Obama's inauguration.

The Millenium Falcon

The Ultimate Collector's Millenium Falcon (that's Harisson Ford's space ship in Star Wars) is the biggest Lego set ever made. You can describe it in one word: Awesome. 5.195 pieces and a price tag of 500€. Ouch. Still, it is probably every Lego fan's dream.

There you have it, Lego fun for the whole family and all the different tastes. I told you Legos were cool.

At least we have the Discovery channel

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:14:05 GMT

I think television is bad. Besides making you a brainless zombie, watching without thinking, it channels all the bad things on this world into the little box in the living room. Of course, there are also positive broadcasts, but they are still heavily overwhelmed by the negative. The news brings mostly bad news, making mass paranoia and hysteria. Reality shows are making the youth confused and are building a wannabe society. Sure, there are a few interesting series going on, a few good movies, but otherwise, it sucks. Thank god for the Discovery channel.

The Discovery channel is one of the most interesting channels we get. The way I see it, the whole watchability stands on two different concepts of shows, clothed into numerous different versions. The real-work reality shows (not to be confused with "reality" reality shows, such as Big brother) and the pop-science shows. We have the Discovery channel (probably) East Europe, so this post may not be up-to-date with the US or European versions, but here are the shows that are cool.

The real-work reality shows are actually reality show in the most literal meaning of the word. They cover real people, doing real jobs, without (m)any scripts or scenarios. Those that are worth mentioning are American Chopper (a dad an two sons building motorbikes and having a spicy relationship and vocabulary), The Deadliest Catch (Alaska fisherman hunting crabs in hellish environment), Ultimate Survival (someone named Bear going through different uninhabited regions and eating bugs) and Dirty Jobs (a guy trying out how hard and dirty some jobs are).

The pop-science shows bring an interesting overview on how things are made, how they work and what they are. The Mythbusters are the best in this category (two geeky guys making weird experiments), their English almost copy Brainiac, Time Warp (recordings of things using a high-speed camera), a few different shows on how things are constructed (How It's Made, How Things Work, etc.), and a ton of documentary shows on construction, cars and technology (Mega Builders, Built From Disaster, etc.).

In some cases there's a thin line between the categories, and I think the best ones are actually those that are able to combine the concepts of both. These shows are at the same time working well on our curiosity, but still keep a contact with our social senses and humanity.

There's an honorable mention, a show that we don't get anymore, which is a bit sad, because it was really cool. Scrapheap challenge, or in it's worse US edition, The junkyard wars. It's about two teams, who have one day to build something using just materials from a junkyard.

There you have it. A solid proof that Discovery channel is one of the best TV channels around. It's fun and it educates at the same time. So kids, don't watch MTV, it just makes you feel bad.

What's hot on the web - Part 2: The classics

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:03:20 GMT

Wheee, the second part of the very cool and funny series What's hot on the web. This time I bring you three more viral things from the beatiful World Wide Web. Hopefully there is enough information in the post to get you up and running, in case you would like to see more.

Literal Versions

We have already noticed that a lot of people have too much time. Luckily a few of those people actually found something useful to do, and so came literal versions or literal music videos. Literal versions are edited versions of music videos where lyrics talk about what's going in the video. There are quite a few of them, but in my oppinion, Total eclipse of the heart is the best one.

Demotivators

Motivational posters are originally intended for schools and offices and work with a motivational punchline that helps people through the day. Well, the cyber community wouldn't be normal if it didn't abuse that to the maximum, thus demotivational posters were constructed. You can notice them by a picture with a thick black border, a punchline and an explanation under it. They are funny, cool and most importantly, there's thousands around the web.

local: Perpetuum Jazzile doing Africa

Perpetuum Jazzile is a Slovenian vocal band that is getting global publicity these days. One of the reasons is their interpretation of Toto's classic hit, Africa. It is just inspiring and awesome, with more than 5 million views already.

Hope you enjoyed the selection.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

What's hot on the web - Part 1: Know your meme

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:54:12 GMT

I am one of those geeky people who are always up to date with what's going on on the web. I surf a lot of recommendation sites, blogs, cool portals, etc. and collect useless knowledge. You could say I am one curious dude. Therefore I often get asked by friends about What's hot on the web.

Well people, there's a lot going on. A lot of bizzare and freaky stuff, online mocking between Diggers and Redditors, narwhal worshipping and girls playing with cups. Some are made epic, some are too boring to make it. The cyber community is making some things viral, and yes, Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird. Too bad that is so last decade...

Here is the first part of hopefully a series of cool internet memes I stumbled upon. Not actually so new, but still funny stuff to see.

Rickroll

It looks like Rick Astley's Never gonna give you up became one of the most popular music videos on the web. Why? Because it became the most important part of a really popular prank, called rickroll. The way it works is that you send somebody a link to a cool video, which turns out to be a really cheesy 80's music video. Backuped by radio, television, basketball games and the geek community, Rick Astley almost got the Best Act Ever award on MTV Awards. He likes it, but hopes his daughter won't get embarrased.

Btw, check out this hot video of drunk girls having a drinking contest.

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a plane is probably the most web hyped movie of all time. Even before it was shooted, there were already thousand of blogs, web pages and articles written about the movie. It wasn's a real success, but concerning it was a low budget film, did pretty good. The reason for it's buzz was mostly because of the expectation of main line in the movie, done by the cult actor Samuel L. Jackson. Pretty cool.

local: the Arsonist (Požigalec)

This is a local slovenian internet phenomenon. Some guys were supposed to make a citizen's arrest on an suspected arsonist and were later on interviewed by the news. Besides having a funny southern accent, the story begins with the guy explaining to the news that he tried to steal some guy's bike and noticed that he had a gasoline can. Therefore he got the idea he was the arsonist that did some fires in the area. The funniest thing about it is that he asked the guy "Why do you need a bag if bought a bike?". Well, the thing got so viral that some guys made a reconstruction of the story, a music video and also an online merchandise store. Pretty funny (and weird) stuff indeed.

Stay tuned for the next part of What's hot on the web.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

Emoticons - a new form of art?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:12:13 GMT

Emoticons are becoming quite a serious form of enriching (web) communication, as picture can tell a thousand words. The truth is that a word can tell a thousand pictures, at least when emoticons and other "digital" forms of speaking are concerned. The way of using short and to-the-point statements, such as short messages, tweets and emoticons, is here to stay. Congratulating the internet, welcoming emoticons. \o/

I've heard about a trend between urban artists to make sketches using just one line. I think emoticons are acting upon a similar behaviour, as twenty years ago nobody could imagine what a few characters could portray. Design is about keeping it simple and clean. And you can't get much cleaner than using letters, numbers and other basic characters.

An interesting "artistic" application of this phenomena was designed for an advertisement for a weight loss programme. I don't like the overall look, but still it is a creative way of bringing modern techniques into classic advertising. Simple shape, a meaningful story. And the characters look like design, even though they are really just plain simple characters with ordinary typeface.

I can't imagine where this trend will end. I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the future newspapers, poetry and prose will get more emoticonal, as this approach is very simple for inserting drama-type essence into non-drama based art. Our youth is totally wired, will they wire the real world too as their time comes?

This short film kicks the Matrix's ass in a way

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:44:13 GMT

There are a lot of people who worship the Matrix (specially the first one), and I am one of them. It is just awesome. My coworker has not seen it yet (wtf!), and I envy him a lot, as I would really really love to relive the existential feelings, doubts and questions I have had for days after seeing the movie. If you ask me, the movie somehow changed the world and the way we look at it.

Besides the amazing plot there are a few other approaches that made it a cult. It's dark and gothic, everybody is wearing cool clothes and glasses, and the movement and slow motion bits are just plain sexy. And of course, we all love Trinity's first jump, as the camera moves around her in the air.

This technology is called Bullet time and it has been used in different variations. The guys in the following film took this approach to another level. Ok, two levels up at least. I don't know how they did it, but they did it. Behold the Carousel.