Destroy Your Website Or Someone Else’s

Well temporarily at least. NetDisaster gives you the opportunity to create chaos on any website on the Internets.

When you arrive your greeted with few text fields to fill in. Web site URL, the type of disaster you would like to inflict there are many to choose from and include flood to “acid pee” and dinosaurs. Once the type of disaster is selected you can choose a few other options as well, like sound. Select if the process is self healing or “massive”. Then “GO”! Simple time waster, but then the best ones are simple.

The page loads with the website you entered and the mayhem starts in either automatic mode or mouse control mode. You’ll notice also that there is a toolbar at the top of the page. This allows you to change the type of disaster at any time without reloading the page. This is thanks to the fact that the page is rendered in flash. Because of that it is just an image and the links etc won’t work.

If you want to send the page and settings to a friend via email you can do that as well. Finally you can cancel the animations and the options and load the webpage as per usual. There are also some other options available via a pull down menu on the right hand side, it is all pretty self explanatory.

Great time waster and a bit of fun. The animations are well done and as I said, simple but heaps of fun. Go ahead and wreck your site. Heck aliens attacked mine! Although I liked the flooding one as well but due to my colour scheme it was a bit lost on it.

I suggest that you get to your workmates’ PC load up their current page and set to work invoking some disaster, timed right so that almost total destruction is complete on their return to their desk.

Skydiving in Second Life

Listeners of the podcast would know that I have been delving into Second Life recently. The GGP number 69 Special edition just came out also, recorded entirely in Second Life. I am really enjoying Second Life, the chatting and the interaction has been great. But this week I went looking for some excitement… I found it.

Second Life gives people the ability to do just about anything they want to. I am slowly discovering how far that can go. I have always wanted to go skydiving, when a Second Life (SL) friend offered to take me in SL I jumped at the opportunity, we had a blast!

First up I was given a free parachute. Now the free version is not that great but it works. It puts you into a freefall pose and stops you hitting the ground with an auto deploy. On your float down you can see the canopy wires and nothing else. There is also no control over flight direction. So we did a bit of jumping from high objects in SL. These came in the form of floating platforms that we flew up to. If you want to give this a try in SL you will need “The Flight Feather”. Without it you won’t be able to fly very high, you reach a ceiling and go no further, with it the ceiling is 4000 meters.

One thing worth noting is that the spatial awareness of the voice communication in SL really added to the experience. Imagine the diminishing volume coming from an avatar that just jumped off a building! Adds to the reality and the fun of it all.

Now while the jumping from objects was great, it was hard to find ones that were high enough and at great locations. So in our search for better locations, we found the jump pod. Wow! The pod is able to seat four people, it is powered and can get you up as high as 4000 meters in seconds. Before this we were jumping from, at most 500 meters. Woot! Ignore the funny pose of the avatar in the photo, some stupid faulty script about an hour earlier. Although I laughed every time I saw him…

Now we had the ability to get to a greater height we started to review our parachutes and figured that there had to be beter ones out there. For a small price there is. The Mark III chute is the next step up and we got ours for about 200 Linden (One US dollar will get you 269 Linden dollars, or there abouts). Now this chute gives you many more options:

• Visual chute
• Flight control
• Target
• Wind noise
• Plus it will keep track of your in world scores

There are a few other features, but can’t remember them

So we did a few drops with our pods and our new chutes. I laughed so hard and so long I had tears running down my face. My jump buddy was likewise impressed with the experience, we got some awesome photos, especially since they were taken with the new beta version of the viewer; WindLight. Another day dawns on SL.

One of the absolute funniest things that happened during this time was that we found a great dropzone and went from the pod at 4000 M. In SL you can build in the sky, as long as you stay on the alloted area that defines your land. Seems we found a wayward building on this jump and smacked straight into it at Terminal Velocity.

You might see it in the photo, but yup that is a graveyard, it seems we were not the first to discover it. Note the structures in the back ground (you can’t see them at 4000 M!).

Yesterday, we found that there was a model up from ours and we went ahead and bought the “Pro” version for an extra 100 Lindens. Money well spent and we should have got this one in the first place since it was a bit over one US dollar!

Now as well as the features above we now have added stuff that really does make this an experience worth having:

• Deployment control
• Altimeter HUD
• Stunts
• Realistic controls like flaring; don’t do it and you fall over and get knocked for the “hard” landing
• Customizable textures (colours and look)
• Extra animations in the script like a pool of blood when things don’t go right

Using the new chutes we found that we were able to also do co-ordinated stunt work, have heaps more fun and even attempt some base jumping. Although the base jumping has it’s issues, note the above example. The closer you are to the ground the more sky junk there is, we discovered a lot of it. I have also base jumped from the new HQ of The Podcast Network in SL, I think that is a first. We are on the lookout for more sites to jump from so let us know if you find anything in SL that you think is worth a look.

There is a lot more to this than I have included here. It is damn fun though and if you would like some help getting started then look me up in SL. My name in Second Life is “Rooster Rubble”. Say hello and how you know me. Don’t forget to get the viewer and register first!

Finally this is the best photo that was taken by CannedTuna on our first dive into Skydiving in SL, impressive isn’t it? Also thanks to Gary for being by jump buddy and exploring skydiving in Second Life.

Image by CannedTuna

Twitter Poster, How Influential are You?

There is a bit of buzz on twitter about a new site called twitter poster. The sites purpose is to visually represent the degree of influence that twitter users have. The size of the image relates to the number of followers. I guess that would mean it is better to have fewer followers and more influence, not sure.

There are different editions of the site, a twitter poster (.com) but also versions for Australia and Mexico (?). I checked out the Aussie one and it turns out that I am in the poster, as well as characters like Michael Specht and Kodo. Yet Cam Reilly is on the .com. I think that the dot com might be a global poster, so I guess that is good. But Cam doesn’t rate a mention on the Aussie version. It might have something to do with your profile.

If you use twitter it is pretty interesting and might get you connected with some interesting people. Yet I am not sure what gets you on the poster, I am not a heavy user of twitter yet I am there. There are obvious ones on the poster like Scoble who tweets everything. So go hard and try and get on the list, if you find out how then let me know. Diversion finished.

.com version here

Angus’ Ant Trap

My eldest son built this contraption this morning. After a very long explanation I got out of him that it is in fact an ant trap. After it traps them it kills them. I have labeled the image on Flickr in case you want to know what the components are to build your own.

Beware ants, Angus is onto you… I am pleased to see that he not only has a vivid imagination but also some emerging architectural and building skills.

I am scared looking at it. Dunno what the ants think!

Make Your Own Dodecahedral Calendar

Found this cool site today that allows you to select an download a PDF of a dodecahedral calendar. Obviously you have to print it and build the dodecahedral yourself. I thought what the heck I can do that, so I did.

There are two types of dodecahedron that you can choose from; the regular or the rhombic. I just chose the regular. Then you can select the year you want, the language (anything you care to name here) and the day the week starts on and hit the download button.

Download the PDF and print it out onto regular A4 paper (not letter - it does not fit). It is recommended that you use regular 80gsm paper. But for the extra challenge I printed it out on 110gsm Parchment Paper. It added a nice touch and I don’t think it made it more difficult.

Once printed cut it out, the instructions are on the print out.

Now the tricky part, fold it and glue it. Stapling just won’t cut the mustard so don’t attempt that. Now there a a couple of tricks here that will help you out.

1. When you fold the tags in make sure they stick out not in. That way it makes it easier to press them in, especially considering the next tip.
2. There is one “side” or “face” that you will notice has no folded tabs on it. Leave it till last. The reason being is that you need to stick your finger through it to press on the last few sides.

Once the glue dries, set it on your desk and admire it. I was surprised at the strength of it. I would guess that a lot of that lies in the actual structure and not much on the glue, but pretty cool.

Okay so that’s the art lesson for today and a great way to waste 1/2 hour. You could always get creative and edit the PDF to create something other than a calendar; here are a few suggestions:

• Print some photo’s on the sides
• Make your own RPG dice
• Get the kids involved and have them “decorate” them before you make the dodecahedral
• Make about 5000 of them and line a room to make your own studio
• Attach pins from the inside to make a lethal office warfare weapon

Here is my effort, now go make your own!