Fun On Friday #155: Running Out Of Music

I accept that this week's offering is fun only for a slightly bizarre definition of fun... that definition being: "stuff that I find fun". I hope that you, at least, find it interesting.

Unfortunately, the video can't be embedded, so you'll have to go off and watch Will We Ever Run Out Of New Music? on YouTube.

I like the way he entries to make the mind-bogglingly big numbers accessible. Some of the links with the video are worth a look too.

And tangentially related is this video, which I can embed!

Fun On Friday #154: Stacheify

It is now more than half way through Movember and both my Mo, and money raised, are coming along nicely. But thanks to Daughter Number One, my attention was drawn to an app that provides a hint about the shape of Moes to come:

It is called Stacheify and it reminds me a bit of CrazyTalk in the way it let's you identify key features (eyes and mouth) in a still photograph and then manipulates the image to create an animation.

• Mo-bros: your Moes should already be well established.
• Mo-sistas: Show your support with Stacheify.

And don't forget to donate to Movember.

Fun On Friday #153: Fun with Google

My Higher class were swapping Chuck Norris jokes. Most could only be described as "joke" with a very loose and technically inaccurate definition of the word "joke". But then they Googled, find Chuck Norris, and hit the I'm Feeling Lucky button and... well, follow the find Chuck Norris link, use the I'm Feeling Lucky button and see for yourself.

It amused me. Strictly speaking, it is not a Google trick. I guess the creators of the page use a Google bomb technique to make sure they are at the top of the results list but it made me start looking for Google Easter eggs. It turns out there are loads of them. Here are some of my favourites:

1. I've already posted here on the search: answer to life the universe and everything but it bears repeating.
   
   
2. This is a bit obscure unless you follow the Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode firm review programme or podcast. If you search for Jason Isaacs, immediately above the search results, it says, "Hello to Jason Isaacs".
3. You may have heard of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. Search for the Bacon number of an actor and Google will work out links for you. A search for bacon number Jason Issacs reveals he has a bacon number of 2:
   
   • Jason Isaacs and Charlize Theron appeared in Sweet November.
   • Charlize Theron and Kevin Bacon appeared in Trapped.
   
    It is extraordinarily difficult to find someone who isn't a 2! And how's this for synchronicity: as I was typing up this post, what comes on the TV but an advert for a phone company:
   
   
4. And finally, one for the geeks. Search for binary and the number of results found is displayed in binary.

Have you any favourite  Google Easter eggs?

Fun On Friday #152: Movember

Another very late Fun on Friday!

TacheBack - Day 29, a photo by DavidDMuir on Flickr.

A few years ago... 2007 to be precise, I took part in what was then called Tacheback. I was surprised to discover that, just by growing a moustache, I managed to raise £270.50. Well, to be more accurate, by growing a moustache and pestering a lot of people until they sponsored me, I managed to raise £270.50!

So, five years later, here I am growing a moustache for charity again. Tacheback has morphed into Movember but otherwise, it's much the same as the last time. I grow a moustache, grow awareness of male cancer charities and try to encourage people to donate money to cancer charities.

It would be good to raise at least £300 but things have changed since I last tried this. First, when I did it in 2007, it was still relatively unknown as an event, so I was the only person I knew who was growing a tache. That meant it was relatively easy to approach people and demand money knowing that they were unlikely to have already donated. By now though, it is much more well known, there's even another teacher in the school who is also growing a Mo for Movember. And, second, I've changed jobs. Last time I had about 600 staff and students I could extort money from. This time I am in a small school and I believe it is frowned uponto extort money with menaces from pupils.

Anyway, I've made a start. Check out:

• My Movember page
• My donation page

...And a video of progress so far. (Silent at the moment - what would you suggest for a theme song?)

This time, I'm probably going to have to rely more on Internet chums for donations, so is £300 doable? I hope so. With 200 facebook "friends", over a thousand Twitter followers, and many visitors every day to this blog it's not impossible. If twelve hundred people each donate £0.25, that's £300. More realistically (perhaps) if 60 people donate £5 each, that would be £300 too. Last time though, I only managed 34 donors... so it's going to be tricky.

What do you think? Is £300 possible? Send a donation, and help me on my way.