Hasta La Gadget!

Life moves in mysterious ways. (And yes, you caught me, I totally stole that line from a song.) One moment you might feel like you’re on top of the world, then something happens to bring you down to your very lowest.

Before you start thinking that your life sucks or that your world is about to end – take a second to look at the world and life through someone else’s eyes.

Why? Because it just might give you the perspective you need to push past whatever it is you’re going through right now. And also to show you that hey, the world’s still spinning around, and whatever problem you have – no matter how big or small – doesn’t spell the end of it.

You can do just that by checking out This is Now, a site that displays Instagram photos from five major cities of the world as they’re posted in real-time. The project was thought up by Marcio Puga, Mauricio Massaia and Per Thoresson and uses Instagram’s API to access and display them for the whole world to see. Here’s how they describe their project, in their own words:

The This is Now project is a visual composition which uses real-time updates from the ever popular Instagram application based on users’ geotag locations. The tool streams photos instantly as soon as they are uploaded on Instagram and captures a city’s movement, in a fluid story.

Get out of your shell and see the world in other’s people’s eyes on This is Now.

[via CNET]

Every nation, broadcast network, and news site on the planet have a way to keep track of the medal count at the Olympics. But why wade through all that other ancillary crap—like stories of athletes overcoming adversity and political drama—when all you care about is what nation has the most medals, and by extension is the greatest country on earth? More »

Google has had a calculator integrated into its search results for a long time. Using the calculator was as easy as typing a math problem such as 2+2 into the search bar and hitting enter. Google has made that calculator much more complex and useful with the addition of a new scientific calculator with 34-buttons.

The calculator promises much of the same functionality of a real calculator. The best news is that the scientific calculator is available not only on your desktop computer, but via your mobile phone and its voice search enabled. When on the smartphone, the scientific functions can be seen when you rotate the phone into landscape mode.

To use the calculator in voice mode just click the mic icon and speak your equation. This might be the perfect thing for the times you need to work out a complex equation and your calculator ran out of batteries. You still have a calculator, right?

[via TechCrunch]

Not content to sit on their laurels, nor the $65 million they pocketed
from their lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their
Facebook idea – the Winklevoss twins have launched their own network,
named Zurker.
Part investment opportunity, part chic-magnet, part-democratic social
community, their innovative new wrinkle is to convince members they can
become joint owners of their company.

We’ve established very well over the years that geeks love LEGO. The problem with LEGO bricks and me is that I never put them away and they always end up getting sucked into the vacuum cleaner or poking a hole in my foot in the middle of night. What I need is access to is this new 8 trillion LEGO brick set that you can play with virtually using Google Chrome.

Google has partnered with LEGO Australia on a project called Build. The partnership kicks off in Australia, but a rollout to the United States and the UK among other countries a later date. To start with, you to pick a location from the LEGO map of Australia and build your own virtual brick construct to place on any street you want or any landmark you want.

Before your construction goes live for other people to view, it has to be submitted to LEGO for approval. The approval process is to ensure no one builds questionable objects that would be inappropriate for children – or for life in general. The good news is that anyone can play with Build, it’s not limited to use by Australian users at this point. You can check it out here.

[via The Next Web]