Chimpomatic

News

Reviews

Articles

Surveillance

Adidas Death Star

I'm not quite sure what Adidas and Star Wars have in common, but check out the Adidas Death Star - a Google Maps mash-up that lets you destroy your friends houses with the Death Star.

#CSF
#Film
#Stupido
#Websites

22nd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Search

Morrissey's Words

Morrissey has politely written a letter to fan site True To You, rounding up the events of 2009 - which included a collapse in Swindon, a bottle throwing and both a great new album and B-sides compilation, the latter of which he resolutely apologises for. I liked it.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Spencer Grug's Moonface

Wolf man Spencer Krug has added another project to his Wolf Parade / Sunset Rubdown personalities, with solo project Moonface releasing the Dreamland EP: marimba and shit-drums.

The one man band has a one track EP out on a one sided 12" in January, but you can download it now here. Krug's following Radiohead's pay-what-you-will model for the track, which clocks in at 20 mins and is available as a high-quality Flac download. 

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Websites of the Year

Creative Review have a run down of fancy websites featured in the FWA Site of the Year competition.

Check them out here.

#CSF
#Websites

16th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Men's Health Issues

Gawker noticed a few similarities with the strap-lines on the cover of a recent copy of Men's Health, so they did a bit of checking. Turns out it's not that uncommon at all. In a response to Daily Finance, the publishing house essentially said "If it ain't broke...".

Don't even mention the rotating cast of buff black and white cover-stars.

#CSF
#Websites

16th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Goo.gl

Google has thrown it's hat in the URL-shortening arena - launching goo.gl

While all these bitly / tr.im etc services are pretty handy, they have all seemed a little shaky in terms of a business model - promoting concerns about millions of lost links if one went bust...

#CSF
#Websites

15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Tiger Tweets

Real time mapping of mentions of Tiger Woods on Twitter...

#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Stupido
#Websites

15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Invasion of Privacy

It's not just you that's been compromised by Facebook's recent change in privacy settings. Chief Facebooker Mark Zuckerberg's wasted-in-Tahoe photoset popped up, and Valleywag spread the word.... 

#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Tech
#Websites

11th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Not just for directions: Sharks on Google Maps

Check out this school of sharks spotted on Google Maps while cruising around Bondi Beach. Zoom in for the gory detail...

#CSF
#Stupido
#Websites

8th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

The David Lee Roth Soundboard

If they would only integrate a ringtone purchasing scheme, the David Lee Roth Soundboard would score a perfect 10.

#marmot
#Music
#Stupido
#Websites

27th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Pitchify

PItchfork + Spotify = Pitchify!

#chimp71
#Music
#Websites

27th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Darkweb

what's on the rest of the net? (response from the Freenet creator here)

#chimp71
#Tech
#Websites

26th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Shit My Dad Says

Twitter hashtag to sitcom in 160 short steps...

#chimp71
#TV
#Websites

11th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

IMDB

Some new features popping up over at IMDB - including sorting results by date, box office and rating. They also seem to have cut back on the nightmarish pop-up ads that have dominated the site this last year.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

6th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

U2ube

U2's 96,000 capacity gig at the Rose Bowl this Sunday is set to be streamed live on YouTube - in something of a first. Watch it here I guess.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

21st Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Sky On Freeview

looks like the online TV world is going to keep expanding - Sky are working on a Freeview box with the ability to show Sky over the internet

#chimp71
#Tech
#TV
#Websites

19th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Map The Editors

Clever, if slightly pointless website up to promote the new album from the Editors. Using a hacked version of Google Street View, you can travel the streets and stumble accross the band hanging around in the sites that inspired tracks on the album.

editorsofficial.com/streetview/

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

16th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Slash // sorry

Tim Berners Lee - the dude who decided on internet conventions has admitted he shouldn't have bothered with the double slashes // at the start of everything...

#chimp71
#Tech
#Websites

14th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

All Your YouTube Are Us

100 greatest hits of YouTube in four time-saving minutes. Mind you, you've probably already sat through them all already

#chimp71
#Websites

13th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Inventory

expect this in an Xmas stocking near you: Inventory from The Onion's AV Club is a book of lists featuring...

+ 6 Keanu Reeves movies somehow not ruined by Keanu Reeves
+ 22 great songs inspired by heinous true crimes
+ 13 particularly horrible fast-food innovations
+ 8 great films made by directors after they turned 70

#chimp71
#Books&Comics
#Websites

1st Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Spell With Flickr

another entry in the pointless-but-fun files - Spell With Flickr which pulls letters off Flickr and writes words for you with them

#chimp71
#Photography
#Stupido
#Websites

29th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

The 4 Hour Work Week

I'm aiming for a new zen-like existence after reading Tim Ferris' excellent book The 4 Hour Work Week. In fact, I've been living such an existence for many months now, meaning I didn't get round to writing this up.

The basic concept of the book deals with streamlining your work life to make you more efficient, giving you time to pursue recreational ambitions and further yourself. Luckily, it just about stays on the right side of being a self-growth, believe-in-yourself type load of spiritual mumbo-jumbo and focuses on practical applications, many of which are easily done, most notably checking your emails only once or twice a day, turning down troublesome work and sub-contracting many tasks - even to the point of hiring an assistant in India.

A major focus is the 80/20 principal, where 80% of a lot of things is unnecessary waffle, while 20% is the useful core. I imagine it's applicable on chimpomatic too, with 20% of our readers being loyal followers, while 80% are just here for the early word on Torchwood.

Once you're on top of your game, the fun begins - letting you blow 80% of your time on more fun pursuits, with Ferris having become a kick-boxing champion, a speed swimmer and even built up 34lbs of muscle in 4 weeks. Check out his excellent website for occasional tips on speaking a new language in 1 hour, sleeping better, travelling the world with 10lbs of luggagespeed reading, never forgetting anything, holidaying by twitter, getting a good table at top restaurants and more.

Ferris has become something of an internet personality in the wake of the book's success, making maximum use of the likes of Twitter and Facebook to rustle up followers and crowd-source content for his next book - and even knock out a possible TV show, where he learns a new skill per episode. All that stuff can actually get a bit annoying, and he sometimes seems so obsessed with efficiency that the writing can be a bit dry ("Post reading time: 15 minutes" etc.), and his collaborations with Digg founder Kevin Rose tend to make one of the two seem strangely closed-minded...

#CSF
#Tech
#Travel
#Websites

17th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

PYO Books

Thanks to the Google Books service, which has digitized several million out-of-copyright books, you can now print your own editions. Throw in the $100,000 expresso printer and you can even pop into a book store and get a nicely bound version of an out-of-print rarity for around $10. Wired has the details.

#CSF
#Tech
#Websites

17th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Listen To Folk

The forthcoming Monsters of Folk album - from Jim James, Bright Eyes and M. Ward - is up in full over at Myspace.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

16th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Hello, Nasty

The Beastie Boys re-release juggernaut continues, with masterpiece (aren't they all?) Hello Nasty getting a de-luxe remastering. This one also has a considerable amount of actual rarities on the disc two.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

16th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Vampire Weekend: Contra

Details up for the next Vampire Weekend, which isn't set to be released until January 11th/12th 2010.

I Think U R A Contra

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

16th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Gil-Scott Heron

Suitably mysterious website up for Gil-Scott Heron's forthcoming new album - I'm New Here - out next year on XL.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

15th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Everett True

You may have heard about the war of words between Courtney Love and Grohl/Novoselic last week, but one good thing to come out of it was the discovery of the website of music journo Everett True, the man often credited with promoting Nirvana and grunge's big break-through.

Here's a run down of his Last FM page.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

14th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Google Timeline

Nice timeline for the Google corporate history over here. Why am I not surprised that Larry and Sergey were off to Burning Man in 1998? 

#
#Tech
#Websites

14th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Google Map Monopoly

Looks like Monopoly is coming to a Google Map near you, with a new online version of the game allowing you to play across the entire world and let you buy your own road.

The official site isn't isn't live yet, but there's a blog - and Wired have seen a demo.

UPDATE: It's now live, but overloaded...

#CSF
#Tech
#Websites

11th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Airline Seat Review

With marmot and I heading off to NYC for a team tour in December, I stumbled across the handy V-Flyer website, rating every seat of the plane for access, TV viewing angles, lean-back-potential and more.

#CSF
#Travel
#Websites

9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

HTML 5

You'll need a VERY up to date browser to get this high-tech website working, as it makes heavy use of the upcoming HTML 5 standard. Safari 4 / Firefox 3.1+ should do it.

#CSF
#Tech
#Websites

3rd Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Pearl Jam In Reverse Order

Examiner.com has an epic run down of 160 Pearl Jam tracks in order of fan favouritism.

It's an epic undertaking and a bit tricky to follow, but here's three big sections: 1 | 2 | 3

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

2nd Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Street Mattress

Nice collection of photos of discarded mattresses at Street Mattress. Maybe we should think about a Dead TV spin-off?

#CSF
#Photography
#Websites

2nd Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Greatest Chase Ever

A fun video up at Greatest Chase Ever - all part of a semi-subtle Converse marketing campaign. You can find an index of all the linked up sites here.

#CSF
#AdNauseum
#Film
#Websites

27th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Twitterfy

The media mash-up continues, with Spotify adding Twitter capabilities, to allow you to post a link to the playlist/song/artists that you are listening too. Handy, if not as well presented as the excellent blip.fm

#CSF
#Music
#Tech
#Websites

27th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

What Bus

Handy London Bus route planner at What Bus?

#CSF
#Travel
#Websites

27th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Unclap Your Hands

Talk about making life difficult for yourself. After rushing out their dissaointing second album, Clap Your Hands have vanished off the face of the earth, presumably into torment and potential collapse. Meanwhile, frontman Alec Ounsworth has recorded an album under the name Flashy Python, which you can already buy online or listen to below. It's not bad, and unsurprisingly Clap-Your-Hands-esque.

Ounsworth also has an album due on October 20th under his own name...

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

25th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Stuck In A Rut

Some good tips from Photographer Chase Jarvis on how to escape that mid-life career crisis.

#CSF
#Photography
#Websites

24th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans

WIRED have roped Brad Pitt into contributing to their guide to modern living - and by the brevity of his answers you can almost believe it's really him....

Here's some favourites:

- Fleece and company logos don't mix
- Kill your zombie brother. He's not your brother. He's a zombie.
- Keep music mixes for friends to 60 minutes or less.
- Back up your hard drive. Right now.
- Don't send out a follow-up email apologizing for a typo in a previous email
- For marital peace, keep separate Netflix queues
- Never post a picture of yourself shirtless in your dating profile (men only).

#CSF
#Tech
#Websites

21st Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Today, in Hip Hop News

Free Mixtapes galore:

Those generous cats at Strange Famous Records have two awesome mixtapes available absolutely free. Sick Of Wasting is by the man himself Sage Francis and is the fifth in this series which collects songs written between 1996 - 2009 and B. Dolan's House Of Bees Vol. 1 is well worth it. Choice cuts include Be A Star on Sick Of Wasting which uses a neat little Joy Division sample and B. Dolan's ode to Vin Diesel, which is quite touching.

While we're on the subject of free mixtapes if you haven't checked out Buck 65's Dirtbike series you haven't lived. 3 One hour tracks featuring everyone you can think of and all for zero dólares.

#HHG
#Music
#Websites

19th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Untwisted Words

That new Radiohead single we blabbed about last week is official - and it's available for free right now, at both their webstore and Mininova, just in case even getting it off the man for free is too much to bear. 

#CSF
#Music
#Tech
#Websites

17th Aug 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

New Improved, LIVE

Bay area blog The Bay Bridged has Yoni Wolf of Why? doing a few tracks for their monthly "New Improved, LIVE" session. Yoni and his piano are in by themselves for for this rare session which features two songs form the forthcoming Eskimo Snow, one from Alopecia and a cover of Pavement's "Shoot The Singer".

#BC
#Music
#Websites

7th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Dave

Turns out Dave isn't just the son of Mr Mohumbai, but a stand-up comedian in his own right.

Check out Arj Barker's website and Twitter page.

#CSF
#TV
#Websites

6th Aug 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Out Of The Shadows

New DJ Shadow website up, featuring a download store with tons of classic radio shows, mixes and what not - as well as beefed up editions of his classic, and not-so-classic albums.

#CSF
#Music
#Websites

6th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Radiohead: Harry Patch (In Memory Of)

The charity singles are coming thick and fast this morning. Radiohead have a new single available at their website in tribute to Harry Patch, the last remaining WWI trenches veteran who died last week. The single costs £1, with all proceeds going to the British Legion.

The Guardian has the details. More info at Radhiohead's website.

#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Music
#Websites

5th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

iPhone 3GI

Another new iPhone on the way....

#CSF
#Tech
#Websites

5th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

25 Things You Didn't Know About Me

I'm not entirely sure what a meme is, but this could be one. The 25 Things You Didn't Know About Me craze has been sweeping the net for a while, and I've been meaning to rustle up a list for Chimpomatic, but haven't had time. More suggestions in the comments please.

1. I don't know what a meme is.

2. I like Pearl Jam.

#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Websites

30th Jul 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Purefold

Strange goings-on from Ridley Scott's AG8/Free Scott partnership, as they try to group think entertainment and marketing through the Purefold project. If you get a handle on it, please explain in the comments.

#CSF
#Film
#Websites

29th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet