And the Winner is .... the European Union

The European Union won most medals in the Olympic games and Paralymipic summer games 2008.

In the Olympics, EU won 2-3 times as many medals as China and US.
In the Paralympics, EU won 2-3 times as many medals as China and 5 times more than US.
Compared per inhabitant China is far behind and US is slightly behind.

Now the interesting is when the media use this information. Will this trigger Euro-nationalistic feelings? The "We won" syndrome.
Does this say anything about Several countries compared to Several states compared to One large country?

Some Software

Screen Capture
BB-Flashback Express

Screen share
Mikogi
Yuuguu

PDF
Best PDF-writers
PDF Split & Merge, Gios PDF Splitter & Merge
PDF to Excel (or Word)

Transfer large files
EatLime

Software lists
Freeware lists & reviews (Gizmo's)
Best freeware sites
Open Source ALTernative
Sourceforge Software List


Other
Zipeg, Peazip, 7-zip
MultiMonitor
Media Decoder, FLV editor
Password managers
Zoho, Office live
Desktop Screen stream
Feed creator
Disk Defragmenter

Screen recorders +/-

Camtasia
+ used by many professional. Has everything
+ good Learnings center: High Quality and Small file size
~ $299 30day trial

Jing - what is it
+ On-line freeware. 5min limit
- Can not zoom.

BB Flashback - get started
+ Appear sometimes on "Giveaway of the day"
+ Simple to use
- Can not zoom
~ $225

Instant Demo - Tutorial
+ Easy to get started
+ Very small file size and still High quality (0,1Mb/min). File type .swf
+ Demo version can be used indefinitely
+ streaming playback
~ $299 watermarked endless trial

CamStudio - Blog
+ Open source/Freeware. File type .swf
- Can not zoom
- still sound problems?

Links

Quick Note:
Teach2000(memorycards)
Automatic 3D-models
How to surf sites that are blocked by your ISP or a company firewall
Fleshmaps, Bedpost
Ubiquity, 2
Teddy
Google redesigned
Report portal OLAP/OWC

Mymagazines.com

Mygazines is a site that could turn out to be too good to be true. It allows users to share magazine articles by uploading them to the site. This then allows for anyone to view those magazine articles free of charge. It is very easy, and possible, to read an entire magazine right on the site. The folks running Mygazines say that they, “take great pride in providing a platform for people and businesses to share articles and magazines in an interactive and fun format.”If you thought for a moment that this doesn’t sound like it’s particularly legal, that’s because it’s not. They are encouraging their users to infringe on copyrights.

Despite the legal issues that surround the site, it may be hard for anyone to shut them down. CNET points out that the site is registered in Anguilla, down in the Caribbean, and that it is hosted in Sweden by PRQ. PRQ happens to be owned by the same crew that runs The Pirate Bay . Given this, we imagine Mygazines could potentially be around for a while.

Source: CybernetNews

RoofRay Determines the Solar Potential of Your Roof

This is quite interesting:

"If high energy prices have convinced you that solar energy might be the ticket to cheaper bills, head to web site RoofRay to determine the solar potential of your roof.

As you can see from the video demo, the web site lets you draw the area you're interested in adding solar panels to on a Google Maps mashup, determining everything from surface area to slope.

RoofRay will then estimate the power potential of your roof. It may not be the most accurate estimate you can get, but if you're considering harnessing the power of the sun, it seems like a good starting point."

Looking forward to see a program that can use Google maps to auto detects roofs(+angles) and link that to Weather sites with seasonal light hours and starts to calculate community potentials. Same thing would be possible for other natural energy sources. Interesting spot market.

Source

Box office graph

a visualization of the 2008 US movie box office revenues. each graph shows the trends in the top 25 movies at the box office for each weekend in a year. the color is based on the movie's debut week so that long-running movies gradually start to stand out from newer movies with different colors.
Source, Artist

Discussion forum

Here is an interesting example of how to visualize the Discussion arenas:

Here is one example of a Discussions arenas, where People are willing to speak or discuss:

Facts providers
TheGapminder just released Trendalyzer - OECD Factbook 2008. Trendalyze - Classic is still available. Many Eyes has a forum for OECD Factbook 2007.
Combine the Discussion arenas, Easy access to facts and Visualizations of the effects*, and you will have a powerful Lobby machine.

*The Effect can viewed in the Presidential election chart, under Trends.

Comparison of Spreadsheet functions

This is a Comparison of Spreadsheet Functions between Excel, Google Spreadsheets, EditGrid, ThinkFree - Calc, OpenOffice Calc and Zoho Sheets made in July 2007. It consists of more than 500 unique Spreadsheet functions.

It took some time to compile this list since the quality of the Suppliers Spreadsheet functions lists are far from flawless. Also the interpretation of what category a certain function belongs to varies. Since then I have not attempted an update.

Still, I think it is the most complete Spredsheet function comparison list right now.


Update June-2008:
EditGrid just took a great leap with the introduction of 41 External Data Retrieval Functions. They now have more then twice the amount of functions compared to Google, and more the 50% more the Excel and the other competitors. Here is one example what you can do with the new external data retrieve functions.

Fredrik Härén - Del 1 & 2

Del 1
Sverige anses ofta ha en välutbildad befolkning. Men hur mycket vet vi egentligen om världens två största länder, Kina och Indien? I allmänhet inte så mycket. Det menar i alla fall Fredrik Härén.




Del 2
Mer av Fredrik Härén från Kunskapens dag. Bland annat om skillnaderna mellan oss i "developed countries" i väst och de nya ekonomierna i framförallt Asien, i "developing countries".



More: TED spreading ideas

Amazing vision

A Swiss marine biologist and an Australian quantum physicist have found that a species of shrimp from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, can see a world invisible to all other animals.

Dr Sonja Kleinlogel and Professor Andrew White have shown that mantis shrimp not only have the ability to see colours from the ultraviolet through to the infrared, but have optimal polarisation vision -- a first for any animal and a capability that humanity has only achieved in the last decade using fast computer technology.

They can move each eye independently, they see the world in 11 or 12 primary colours as opposed to our humble three.

Most animals can tell how fast the electric field in a light wave is oscillating, which is perceived as colour. (Blue light oscillates faster than green, which is faster than red). The direction of the oscillation is known as polarisation.

The two scientists have shown that shrimp of the species Gonodactylus smithii have eyes that simultaneously measure four linear and two circular polarisations, enabling them to determine both the direction of the oscillation, as well as how polarised the light is.

Each eye measures the six polarisation components that are precisely required for optimal polarisation vision. In fact, the physics we used to understand what was going on is the same physics that we use in quantum computing for optimal storage of information."

Colleagues at The University of Queensland have recently found a related species where the males reflect circular polarisation from their bodies, and hypothesized that circular polarisation vision is used for sexual signalling.

Read more


Human perception limit (Updated 2013-01)
Only for humans. ...

Source: link

Protein folding software - for free

Foldit is a revolutionary new computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research.

It will teach you:
* What is a protein?
* What are amino acids?
* Why is shape important?
* What do proteins do?
* Why is this game important?
* How does my game playing contribute to curing diseases?
* What other good stuff am I contributing to by playing?

Over the summer, they will add new functionality to the game to allow users to design brand new proteins that could help prevent or treat important diseases. Some say this "Could Earn The Nobel Prize In Medicine".

Chilirec: 300.000 songs in 5days

Chilirec is the latest Recorded to hit the internet. It is a Swedish "innovation" that lets you record a number of radio stations. I have tried the service for about 5days now and I have already recorded more than 300.000 songs. Even if the counter is wrong by a factor of x100, it is still amazing. All recorded song can be transfered to my desktop as MP3 files with a perfect id-tag.
If your still hesitate, have a look at this Demo video by Molly McDonnel over at Demogirl.com.

The attraction of art

Solar, with lyrics. from flight404 on Vimeo.
I wonder what it is that just makes something interesting.
What ever it is, this person succeeded.

Here is another interesting thing; 360desktop.

Google Motion chart

Google just announced a gadget gallery containing one gem for the business intelligence consultants. It's a motion chart, that is, an XY chart with a time dimension (feel free to play with it). The motion chart comes from Gapminder Trendalyzer.



To read the complete article, go here.

Multi Media players - TViX

I just bought this. The only drawbacks are 1) the internal fan is not as quiet as I would have like it to be. 2) I can't listen to music and up load music, at the same time. 3) It works flawlessly 98% of the time, but not 100%.

Here are a few other alternatives: 1

New way of fishing

Other videos.

Ferrofluid patterns

This is a Ferrofluid pattern. It is amazing what shapes can be made just by rotating a magnetic field. Some of the patterns makes you wounder if there is a life science link. Enjoy the movie. Here is another, more classical mystery. And another + Pool full of Corn starch - Walk on water.

Best place to live and work - A revolution

This mapping work from Department for Transport & mySociety is quite important because it provides a potentially revolutionary new way of working out the best place for people to live and work.
There are several different interactive maps that compares House prices to Travel time, Driving vs Public transport (in Edinburgh), and Bicycling vs Public transport.
This mapping will be made for all major cities, influencing how and where cities will grow.

US Election 2008 - Poll average

Democratic (above) and Republican (below) poll average.



Amendment
I just listened to an excellent speech on moral values by Obama. There are few other presidential candidates that I can see make the same speech, being bold and intelligent and in my belief so very right.

Virgin Galactic - an eye watering experience

This morning, Richard Branson’s spaceship startup Virgin Galactic unveiled the second design of its suborbital vehicles, SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two. SpaceShipTwo is what the passengers will actually ride in, and White Knight Two is the launch vehicle that carries it to a high altitude before releasing the rocket.

On the initial $200,000 price per flight, Branson notes:
Within five years of launching, we hope that price will come down dramatically. We accept that $200,00, even though the dollar is not worth much anymore, is still too expensive for the majority of people.
By comparison, a trans-Atlantic flight in 1939 between New York and England cost the equivalent of $47,000 in today’s dollars. That was one-way and coach.

The 2007 Feltron Annual Report

The 2007 Feltron Annual Report is a self measurement of Nicholas Feltons life.
"I began documenting my week equipped with the stopwatch on my mobile phone, a digital cooking scale, a set of daily survey sheets I made for the assignment, and the notepad application on my phone. "

The PRINT Magazine has made an interview with 4 people who all share the same type of obsessive curiosity. In the article The Obsessives, the four artists explain how they documented a week of consumption in their own visual medium. The Print magazine managing editor Emily Gordon asks about their work and the connection between consumer culture and their art.


So should this be call interesting or fun?

The most influencial Flashsite of the decade

2Advanced Studios have received the FWA award - the most influential flash site of the decade. The runner ups - like the 2006 award, In Sync Challenge - are worth viewing as well.
Every day the FWA posts a sites and then from them selects the Site Of The Month. Many of them are fun, interesting, or impressive. So be sure to have plenty of time before you start visiting them.

Interesting notes:
- 2Advanced Studio also features Neverrain on their v2. site. Their latest site V.5 makes heavy use of Flash Dynamic Deep Linking (DDL) and XML data cache to end the debate of the usability of Flash.
- Jeroen Wijering (I've used his free MP3 player on my site + the MappedUp news ticker) he has a good explaination of different Video compression formats on his site.
- ZamZar converts any format to any other format.
- Nice flash players from Flowplayer, imagevueX.com, discovered by the FlashGuru.
- Asual - Open software that pushes the limit
- Macromedia FlashPaper2: PDF and Flash merged

Actionscript 3.0: Use the mouse to change perspective: