How to use Google Image Search to turn detective

Posted on Friday, July 15, 2011

Last week I was cruising through Reddit when I chanced upon the image you can see to the right. It was in a long combination image titled ‘Borderline Genius’ and as with most pictures you find on Reddit these days, it was a repost of a repost. However, unlike the last time when I came across the image, this time I was struck by the neat design of the chest of drawers. Maybe it’s something to do with being the father of a nine year old son who has a creative outlook on storing his clothes.

I was sufficiently interested in the drawers to ponder upon their origin, so I decided to see if I could track them down. This is something you can do yourself if you ever end up with an image of unknown origins that you’d like to find out more about. The first step in my search was to isolate the image of interest from the others, because searching for the montage would just result in an endless succession of sites that post reposts of images that were first submitted in 2002. Once I’d cropped out the image, the next step was to utilise the power of image look-up websites.

Google+ Profile – Are you revealing more about yourself than you intended?

Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2011

Now that the flood gates have well and truly opened on Google+ there will be lots of people who now have a full Google Profile for the first time. That being the case, it’s worth checking your privacy settings because you may well find you’re giving away more information about yourself than you had, perhaps, intended to.

This is particularly going to be the case if you came to Google+ from Facebook and expect the profile page to work in the same way. The perception of the profile page is that most of its content will only be accessible to people who you have added to your circles. This is not the case – you need to explicitly set the access levels for all portions of your profile or everything on it will be accessible to anyone searching for you on the site. If you’re happy for information about your education, relationship status, occupation, employment history, gender and nicknames (assuming you filled in those sections of the profile) to be public, then that’s fine – otherwise you may wish to edit it.

In Google’s defence, they do tell you all this when you first create your profile. Right there on the first page it says, “Your profile will be visible to anyone on the web, and anyone with your email address can discover it,” so we can hardly argue they’ve been misleading us. But if you’re anything like us then you probably just clicked through and didn’t properly acknowledge the full ramifications of that statement.

The Google Profile enables you to set access levels for each section of your profile. To modify them, just click on the Edit Profile button on your profile page. Now click on a section of the profile, such ‘Introduction’ and you’ll see the privacy settings at the bottom of the edit box.  If you’re happy for the world to see it, then set it to ‘Everyone on the web’ – we assume this does not mean everyone on the web will suddenly see your profile page’s introduction – that is probably beyond even the mighty Google’s powers. And if you want to get really picky with your settings then select ‘Custom’ and you can select just particular Circles.

Clearly the privacy settings you select will reflect the nature of your Google account – professional or personal. However if there’s anything on there you’d rather the general populace of the planet didn’t have access to, then you’d probably be wise to check your settings. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Digital DJs Get a Digital Soundbooth with Boom Boy Track Reviewer

Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2011

Once upon a time yours truly used to be a club DJ. At the height of the dance boom in the early to mid 90s I was working in the clubs in South West UK, raining down phat beats on the dance-obsessed public. In order to feed that obsession I had to buy vinyl and lots of it, which in turn meant frequenting debauched establishments known as record shops. In those shops you could pick out a load of likely looking floor-fillers and wait in turn to preview them on the shop’s Technics 1210s. Most DJs could listen to a song for a few seconds and know whether it was a keeper or not.

So then came the digital music revolution and the records shops went the way of the dinosaur and online music stores replaced them. But what about those Technics 1200s and wading through a two feet high pile of tracks searching for the next big thing? It’s this area that Boom Boy Track Reviewer aims to reclaim – it’s the 21st century equivalent of a dance record store. Utilising the SilverLight framework, it enables you to connect to the main online music stores (Juno, Beatport etc), download two minute chunks of the latest tracks in the genres of your choice and then quickly audition them, utilising a Like/Dislike button combo to educate the app’s database. The (very useable) alpha is available for free download, here.

Katango – Your Automatic Social Media Secretary

Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The problem with sites like Facebook is that your friends do not arrive in one single block – they evolve over time. You may have co-workers from decades ago on your list, former school-friends that you haven’t seen in the flesh in years, people you met on holiday, employees or bosses – they reflect the twists and turns your life has taken. The problem is that you very rarely want to communicate with all these groups at once.

Google have attempted to address this issue by creating the Circles application in the Google+ suite, which enables you to place people on your list in different circles pertaining to their relationship to you. It’s a neat system, but it’s going to take a while for Google+ to catch up with Facebook and its 750million users. And that’s where Katango comes in.

Katango is one of those deceptive applications that disguises some hardcore maths behind a simple concept and a simple interface. At the moment it’s only available as an iPhone app, but the developers say they’ve tested it with over 400 other applications. The magic that Katango works is to organise your Facebook friends into groups. It’s quite eerie seeing what it comes up with, since it doesn’t base its groupings on anything as simplistic as the number of times you message someone or how often they appear on your Wall. We suspect that Mark Zuckerberg will be extremely interested in the technology behind this app and we only hope that Katango remain independent and bring their magic maths to bear on all social networks, not just Facebook.

[Katango via Building43]

Five Star Wall – Week 2 – July 2011

Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Something cool for your desktop this week. To celebrate the latest minimalist wallpaper round-up on the site, we’ve found a very funky blissed-out split-tone aqua wall for your desktop. Airena is available in widescreen friendly 1920×1200, though given the design of the image you could crop it to any resolution. You can get it, right here.

Living the dream – the happiest DJ in the world

Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Remember this video clip? It’s called ‘The Happiest DJ in the World’ and it was uploaded to YouTube in July 2010.  As you can imagine, it wasn’t long before the video went viral and even people like David Guetta (whose track the happy DJ is playing) tweeted about it. So who is the exuberant master of ceremonies in the video and what’s his story?

Originally people thought it was some crazy professor DJing at a college party, but the truth is actually much more interesting. He’s a German, from Cologne and he’s not a college professor or father of the bride, he’s a real DJ. The man in the video is called DJ der guten Laune, which literally translates into DJ In Good Spirits and the video that marked his rise to fame was shot by a cinematographer who was a guest at the wedding DJ der guten Laune was hired to work at.

What’s interesting about DJ der guten Laune is that it’s only this year and thanks completely to the viral success of that YouTube video that he’s been able to pack in his day job and become a full-time DJ. Amazingly, the bloke’s 56 and for the last 28 years has basically been an office worker. He’s now working full-time on the nightclub circuit and enjoying lots of on-going press coverage in Germany. All of which makes him something of an inspiration for anyone who thinks they’re ‘too old’ to get into the DJ game.

Contrary to appearances, DJ der guten Laune reckons he doesn’t need any herbal or chemical stimulation to get in the mood, the music and the vibe from the crowd is what he gets off on. Clearly the party vibe he loves has mass appeal because he now has his own track out and a compilation CD titled, The Happiest DJ’s Party Mix. If you’re a fan, then drop by his Facebook page and his website (Google translated).

DJ der guten Laune is a laptop DJ who mixes entirely digitally. He utilises a MIDI controller to cue up his tracks and runs everything off a Windows laptop. In case you’re interested in following in his footsteps and throwing in that day job and becoming a superstar DJ, he uses Virtual DJ Pro, which is available in Windows and Mac flavours or try the free home version. If you want to be able to cue up your tracks in your headphones without interrupting your mix, you’ll need a breakout soundcard such as the DJ|IO. If you are interested in getting into digital DJing, I can recommend Digital DJ Tips – a great DJ blog with loads of great advice for aspiring deck spinners.

Mount an SLR Lens on Your iPhone – Take Discreet Photographs

Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I‘m a happy owner of both an iPhone 4 and a Canon EOS550D D-SLR camera and while each device has its own advantages and limitations in the photography department, I can’t say I’ve ever longed to combine the two. However that’s exactly what you can do if you purchase the iPhone SLR Mount from those nutters over at PhotoJoJo.

The concept is pretty simple. You fit your phone into the specially modified case, you attach a mount (Canon and Nikon flavours are both available) and then you attach your SLR lens to that. The end result looks frankly absurd, but I dare say that won’t stop wistful Instagramaniacs or Hipastamaddicts from buying one. If you’ve got more money than sense, it’ll set you back $250, but it’ll cost you considerably more than that to buy back your dignity.

Web Apps Threaten the Mobile App Market – BBC

Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Interesting article over at the BBC News site about the app software market. They reckon that the web app – an application that runs in the browser – will challenge the dominance of the standard installable mobile app. As the article points out, there are some compelling reasons why web apps are preferable to mobile apps, not least of which is that it wrestles control for any approvals process from the publisher (Apple, Android, Amazon, Microsoft) and puts it back in the hands of the devel0per. You can read the full article here and there’s an explaination of webapps from Apple’s point of view, here.

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CBS Interactive ‘Make it so’ – The iPad Star Trek LCars App is Here

Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2011

File this one under ’20 years too late for me’ – but the Star Trek iPad app has finally arrived, care of CBS Interactive.  The ‘PADD’ provides access to the official Star Trek database of aliens, ships, places, technologies, and episode guide. It includes a true reproduction of LCARS, the computer interface used in Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets and all the familiar sound effects and voices. It’s available in the App Store, now.

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The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Here’s a stunning looking app that’s so cool you might even go and buy an iPad just to enjoy it. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is an interactive book of a scope and quality that hasn’t been reached before. It was created by a former Pixar animator and incorporates all sorts of innovative features. Trailer is below and the book’s available in the App Store now.