Kanye interrupts Arrington at TechCrunch50
(In case you didn't catch Kanye West's antics at the Video Music Awards this weekend, here's some context.)
comic posts
(In case you didn't catch Kanye West's antics at the Video Music Awards this weekend, here's some context.)
Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Web
Scarygirl: a magical, illustrated platformer - Time Waster
by Jay Hathaway Apr 21st 2009
You get help and clues from animal characters like Bunniguri and Blister (who is a giant octopus), as you proceed through treehouses, eel-infested water, caves and other fun levels, completing various mini-tasks as you go. Scarygirl is entirely free to play online, and you can register to save your game. You're going to want to do that, because Scarygirl's world is so gorgeous that you won't want to leave. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bicycle to assemble in level 3.
Filed under: Fun, Internet, Photo
SuperLame is KindOfFun, and makes comic bubbles
SuperLame isn't exactly a name that inspires confidence, but it's actually a fun web app. If our review of Comiq Life Magiq caught your eye, but you don't run OS X or don't have a need for so many features, SuperLame is perfect for you. It creates customized dialogue bubbles with no fuss, and it's flash-based, so anyone can use it.
One of the most obvious things we liked about SuperLame is that it lets you place bubbles outside the borders of your uploaded image. If your dog has a lot to say in that picture, SuperLame isn't going to get in his way. The other features you'd expect are all there: background and border colors, font selection, different styles of balloons ("the thinking one" and "the action one," naturally), and resizing. If you have a picture that needs the superhero treatment, you could do much worse than SuperLame.
Filed under: Design, Fun, Macintosh
Comic Life Magiq: heroic comic-building app from Plasq
by Jay Hathaway May 12th 2008
Comic Life Magiq is the latest and greatest version of the familiar Comic Life app you've probably seen bundled with some Macs. It takes the Comic Life concept of building comic strips using your own images, and gives you a fully-loaded toolbox that makes the job easy and a lot of fun.
To build a nice-looking page, all you have to do is grab one of the many pre-loaded layouts and drag it to your new page. The panels drop into place, and you can begin dragging in images, which fit your panels by default. Then you can add some text, using a wide range of speech balloons. Voila! Easy comics!
Comic Life Magiq is definitely not hard to use, but it also doesn't force you to color inside the lines. You can do everything by hand, if you're so inclined. Plenty of advanced options (grouping panels and adding reflections, for example) are included, but we found no need to use them to pack the recommended daily allowance of POW! ZAP! and BLAMMO! into our test comic. If you liked the idea of Comic Life, but found its lack of image editing and customization a bit boring, Magiq won't fail to impress.
To build a nice-looking page, all you have to do is grab one of the many pre-loaded layouts and drag it to your new page. The panels drop into place, and you can begin dragging in images, which fit your panels by default. Then you can add some text, using a wide range of speech balloons. Voila! Easy comics!
Comic Life Magiq is definitely not hard to use, but it also doesn't force you to color inside the lines. You can do everything by hand, if you're so inclined. Plenty of advanced options (grouping panels and adding reflections, for example) are included, but we found no need to use them to pack the recommended daily allowance of POW! ZAP! and BLAMMO! into our test comic. If you liked the idea of Comic Life, but found its lack of image editing and customization a bit boring, Magiq won't fail to impress.
Filed under: Fun, Games, Internet
Fifteen Web sites to surf when you should be working
Although some folks affectionately call them "time wasters," we prefer to think of our little jaunts into the far reaches of the Internet as "exploratory ventures that perhaps lead to a greater understanding of the world in which we live."Not buying it? You're right, they're time wasters.
FreelanceSwitch.com thinks so too, and they've compiled a great batch of Web sites to check out when you have some free time (or even when you don't). There are a couple oldies-but-goodies (Desktop Tower Defense and movie trailers on Apple.com) but there are also some new ones. Be sure to check out Very Funny Ads and Duels.
Then get back to work!
Filed under: Audio, Fun, Web services, Freeware
RiffTrax - Download funnier DVD commentaries
Okay, this post is admittedly off-topic, but I'm willing to bet that we have a sizable number of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans here at Download Squad. If I'm right, then all of you MST3K fans will be thrilled to find out that Mike Nelson - the comic genius behind MST3K - has launched a new site called RiffTrax, where he provides an audio commentary track to mainstream films that you can download and listen to while watching the movie. This is pure genius from where I'm sitting, and I can't wait to try this out. The great thing about it is that it's actually going to drive rentals of some pretty terrible movies... I mean seriously; who among us was about to go rent "Roadhouse" any time soon? I know I will, now that I can hear Mike's commentary alongside it.
And for you Sci-Fi fans, the next movie he'll be riffing on is The Fifth Element. Leading the poll for the next one after that appears to be The Matrix, which I truly hope happens. It's one of my favorite films, but it's also perfect for something like this.
Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Filed under: Fun, Web services
ChatFu: Cartoonify your IM chats
Here's a weird little toy: ChatFu "cartoonifies" any IM conversation that you paste into it, by which I
mean it'll turn it into a comic strip. It's pretty hokey—the artwork isn't great (and characters for each side of
the conversation are chosen at random) and the text has a pasted-in feel to it, but it's an amusing little distraction
and a fun way to immortalize those delirious early-morning chats.Filed under: Design, Photo, Text, Utilities, News, Windows
Beta testers wanted for comic book creation app
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Sep 12th 2005
Anyone who has seen Comic Life in action knows how cool turning those photos into comics can be. Taking boring photos and adding a few strategically placed word bubbles brings out the Charles Schultz in all of us. Now a company called Centercode is looking for some Windows bretheren to beta test a very similar app. Except Centercode's offering will capture in-game graphics. "Red vs. Blue" the comic book? Hurry before they fill all those spots, and feel free to churn out some Download Squad commemorative issues. Is it just me or does Centercode sound a little like a CIA front company?
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
