Distances from Bonn

I came up with the strange idea of sorting European capitals by how far they are from the town I live in (Bonn, Germany) and found that half a dozen of foreign capitals are nearer than the capital of Germany.

City	Country	Distance in km
Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	142
City of Brussels	Belgium	195
Amsterdam	Netherlands	234
Paris	France	400
Bern	Switzerland	425
Vaduz	Liechtenstein	437
Berlin	Germany	478
London	United Kingdom	510
Prague	Czech Republic	527
Copenhagen	Denmark	659
Vienna	Austria	726
Ljubljana	Slovenia	755
Bratislava	Slovakia	779
Monaco	Monaco	779
City of San Marino	San Marino	857
Zagreb	Croatia	857
Budapest	Hungary	942
Dublin	Republic of Ireland	957
Warsaw	Poland	976
Oslo	Norway	1047
Rome	Italy	1065
Vatican City	Vatican City	1065
Sarajevo	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1143
Stockholm	Sweden	1181
Belgrade	Serbia	1195
Vilnius	Lithuania	1300
Riga	Latvia	1308
Podgorica	Montenegro	1347
Madrid	Spain	1421
Minsk	Belarus	1430
Tirana	Albania	1432
Ankara	Turkey	1447
Skopje	Macedonia	1463
Tallinn	Estonia	1474
Sofia	Bulgaria	1522
Helsinki	Finland	1530
Bucharest	Romania	1583
Chişinău	Moldova	1639
Kiev	Ukraine	1648
Valletta	Malta	1745
Lisbon	Portugal	1845
Athens	Greece	1931
Moscow	Russia	2086
Reykjavík	Iceland	2257
Tbilisi	Georgia	3034
Yerevan	Armenia	3106
Baku	Azerbaijan	3469

If you find this idea interesting what about composing a similar table for the location you live in?

Obtaining Tweeted Images in Original Size

An increasing number of tweets contains images uploded to twitter. Here is one example:

A particular example

I assume that you know how to find out URLs of images that are used on a web page.

The URL of the image you see in the tweet is https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A0BRGqGCcAEBdHW.jpg with the dimensions 600px × 428px (scaled to 435px × 310px).

If you click on the image to obtain a larger version you are presented with https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A0BRGqGCcAEBdHW.jpg:large with the dimensions 1,024px × 730px. This still isn't the original image.

I then made a well-educated guess and tried
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A0BRGqGCcAEBdHW.jpg:orig and it actually worked; I got the original size image with dimensions 2,048px × 1,460px.

So all you need to do to obtain an original size image is to append »:orig« to the URL of the small version of the image.

Note that this only works for images uploaded to twitter not for images hosted on flickr.

Here is one example: https://twitter.com/VirtualAstro/status/241683461155475456 shows a nice photo of a blue moon; the 3 MP image can be found at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A1qS3JvCQAE0QPv.jpg:orig

3D printed zoetrope

Meet the awesome 3Drehkino, an improved zoetrope. Improvements are:

• It uses flashing LEDs and the stroboscopic effect instead of a slit.
• It has electronics to sync the flashing with the rotation of the disk; the animation therefore works for a wide range of rotation speeds.
• It uses 3D objects rather than flat ones, making it look much very realistic.

3Drehkino

If you ask me the obvious next step would be painting the objects. Via A Hack a Day.

Toccata and Fugue in D minor on a Glass Harp

The Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) is a piece of organ music attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire. Hear it performed on a glass harp:

Toccata i Fuga d-moll J.S. Bacha - Festiwal Muzyki Kameralnej w Bolonii (HD)

Mr Bean and the European Anthem

Allow me to share this performance of the European Anthem by Mr. Bean who runs out of text and improvises one of his own using German loanwords and the like. I laughed so heartily that I had tears in my eyes ☺

Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean)
European Anthem - 'Beethoven's 9th Symphony'

Google Maps: From The Shire to Mordor

This is what happens if you as Google Maps how to walk from The Shire to Mordor.

From The Shire to Mordor

Notice that you do not only get the iconic “One does not simply walk into Mordor.” but also the hint that the given route has tolls.

Youtube Videos: Navigation by Numbers

You can use the number keys 0 through 9 to move to certain locations in a youtube video:

key	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
position	beginning	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%	90%

Allow me to use Big Buck Bunny as an illustration:

Skipping through Big Buck Bunny

Open Image In New Tab

Open Image In New Tab adds a context menu item for opening images in new tabs.

lolifox - Fierr MOD

lolifox - Fierr MOD replaces the error page with a lolifox appearance with additional features.

Lolifox screenshot

NetVideoHunter Video Downloader

NetVideoHunter Video Downloader is a very nice download helper tool that lets you easily collect and download videos and music from sites like Youtube, Facebook, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Break, VKontakte, DivShare and from many other sites…

Change, please!

Do you recall Obama’s Change campaign? Here is a friendly reminder from two men who would like some of the promised change.

Change, please!

The original photo has no known copyright restrictions.

Nayn Cat telnet server

So you only have telnet and want to watch your beloved Nyan Cat? No problem, simply use telnet, namely

telnet miku.acm.uiuc.edu

Nyan Cat via telnet

Nyan Cat [original]

The Secret World of Arrietty Official Trailer

If you like Ghibli movies you will love this new film.

The Secret World of Arrietty Official Trailer

Hit the Road Jack

A 50 year old song that still sounds great: pARTyzanT plays Hit the Road Jack, a song written by Percy Mayfield and recorded by Ray Charles that 50 years ago was a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

Hit the road Jack!

The History of English in 10 Minutes

The video contains ten short chapters, namely:

1. Anglo-Saxon or whatever happened to the Jutes?
2. The Norman conquest or excuse my English
3. Shakespeare or a plaque on both his houses
4. The King James Bible or let there be light reading 
5. The English of science or how to speak with gravity 
6. English & Empire or the sun never sets on the English language
7. The age of the dictionary or the definition of a hopeless task
8. American English or not English but somewhere in the ballpark
9. Internet English or language reverts to type
10. Global English or whose language is it anyway?

Add caption

Rafael Sommerhalder’s “Wolves”

This video is “an atmospheric delve into an haunting underground train system and those who pine for their lost loves within” (as futureshorts puts it).

Wolves

Pokémon Apokélypse

Quite amazing what levels fan-made films reach these days.

Pokémon Apokélypse: Live Action Trailer HD

New “Simon’s Cat” Video

Yesterday, a new video featuring Simon’s Cat has been uploaded.

Simon’s Cat in ‘Catnap’

More on Simon’s Cat:

• Homepage
• on YouTube
• on Facebook
• on Twitter

Kraftwerk: 1979 “Autobahn” Video

A 1979 animation by Roger Mainwood for the 1974 Kraftwerk song “Autobahn”

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Strange Google+ sharing behavior

I only add people to my circles who already are on Google+. You can surely understand my surprise when while being about to share a link I was presented the option

☑ Also email 1 person not yet using Google+

1 person not yet using Google+

I beg your pardon? The person in question is not in my mail address book and supposedly is not yet using Google+ so one has to ask what has happened.

My first hypothesis was that Google messed up th message and that the option in fact should read

☑ Also email 1 person currently not using Google+

The obvious next step is verifying someone originally using Google+ has stopped doing so. Said, done.

Elvis has left the buidling

Initial hypothesis turned out to be right. I guess a tactical facepalm is appropriate.