Odds and Ends for Jan 29

A long-overdue episode of Odds and Ends. Fractal flames, hippos and crocodiles, octopus stealth techniques, Starcraft around the world, easter eggs in Amazon Kindle, and more.

0. Fractal flame generation is some of the most fun you can possibly have with randomization. I just found Oxidizer, which is an open source fractal flame editor built specifically for Mac OS X. Here's something I put together in just a few minutes, although a did a small amount of post-production in Photoshop:



Rampant Mac has a tutorial on using Oxidizer.

1. It turns out that the Amazon Kindle has a number of easter eggs, including a location-aware Google Maps app. I know it sounds like a hoax but it seems legit.

2. Todd Ditchendorf's Fluid app allows you to create site-specific browser instances. The result is that Basecamp, Gmail, and so on act a bit more like Mac apps. They can have dock icons and (new in 0.5) "Unread" count badges, and so on.



Todd has also been open-sourcing his code like crazy. XMLMate, SOAP Client, AquaPath, XML Nanny, and much more. A treasure trove of working examples.

3. Sean Tierney has come up with what I consider a brilliant way to outline/review a book (in this case, the subject is Made to Stick):

Rather than try to hash through everything in a long post as I did with Buzzmarketing, I figured I’d try a different approach. I captured the notable stories on a single page via doodles that trigger a memory of each story and its meaning. I’ve scanned that page and created an image-mapped graphic with a text snippet summarizing each insight.

Awesome!

4. I might be the last person to know about Teleport, but it seems pretty interesting:

Teleport lets you use a single mouse and keyboard to control several Macs. Simply reach an edge of your screen, and your mouse teleports to your nearby Mac, which also becomes controlled by your keyboard. The pasteboard can be synchronized, and you can even drag & drop files between your Macs.

Found via Karelia Software's (makers of Sandvox) mailer, in the "Good Karma" section.

5. Again, I may be the last one to know, but Remote Buddy allows you to control iTunes, Keynote, and a lot of other apps with your iPhone.

6. When I heard about Starcraft II, I thought "Interesting, a new version of an well-known RTS title." It turns out this is actually a really big deal. In Korea, fans fill stadiums to watch people play Starcraft professionally. No, wait, there's more. There are entire TV channels just for broadcasting Starcraft competitions. When I watched this video, I felt like I was peering into a parallel universe. Not only is amazing to me that a strategy game is so big, but it's amazing that there's an entire industry devoted to a 10-year-old PC game.

7. Singular finds duplicates files on your Mac (found here). Neat.

8. Nintendo has sold nearly 21 million Nintendo DS units — more than PS2's lifetime sales. I don't know the words.

9. In case you missed the TUAW announcement, TextMate Themes has, um, themes for TextMate.

10. LEGO Digital Designer now works on the Mac! Design a model and order it online.

11. There are a lot of great CSS designs at CSS Zen Garden, but this Retro Theater Design must be in the top 1% in terms of creativity. You have to see it in motion.

12. The official technote for startup key combinations.

13. I thought crocodiles were the baddest dudes in town, but there's more to the story. Hippos actually lick crocs, and the crocs just sit there and take it. The baby hippo actually gnaws on the crocs.

14. Finally, this TED Talk from David Gallo has some of the most stunning glimpses into the natural world that you've probably ever seen. The whole clip is interesting, but it gets really amazing around 1:48, and mind-blowing at 4:15. I guarantee you'll never see these creatures the same:

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