LiTha-Paint Quality web-based vector drawing in effect. Check out LiTha-Paint, a promising new online vector drawing tool. The software is currently in alpha, yet is already full-featured and easy to use. LiTha-Paint steps beyond the paltry selection of Flash/VML/SVG online drawing tools, providing versatility and universality via HTML and JavaScript. Perhaps all this Web 2.0 business is worthwhile after all..

Update: Unfortunately, LiTha-Paint crashed due to lack of funds (welcome to the club). However, this particular post has now served its purpose by providing insight (via the comments section) into the wonderful world of mikons.com, a very inspiring online vector graphic site that enables users to create visual symbols and share them with a growing network of other vector artists. In their own words:

Welcome to Mikons.com, a new form of self-expression that connects people through visual symbols (personal tags). Our mission is to give you a fun and easy way to create these symbols that tell your story, let you decide how you want to share them, and use them to connect with people anywhere in the world.

Update [ January 10th, 2007 ]: Well, apparently LiTha-Paint is back in action and looking better than ever. Apparently, they found a way to make it happen — good for them! With any luck, this will be the last time I have to edit this post ;)

I found this interesting:

• Enlighten
• Encode
• Decode

Apparently, I am defined as:

GFA d-@ s:- a C++ U@ P@ L@ E@ W+++ !N !o K--? w@ O@ M@ !V PS@ PE@ Y@ PGP@ t !5 !X R@ tv-- b+ DI !D G@ e+ h@ r+++ y+++

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a trip into the online past, offering glimpses of ancient website relics. Reaching back through the virtual dark ages of 1996, the Wayback Machine chronicles over 55 billion pages. Although many of the pages appear incomplete due to missing images, the Wayback Machine provides an invaluable resource, enabling users to experience and learn from the arcane internet of yesterday.

Check out these archaic online offerings:

• netscape.com, circa December 31, 1996
• microsoft.com, circa October, 1996
• The first Google website, circa late 1998

Within the last few years, the convergence of satellite imagery, digital technology, and the world wide web has spawned a host of sophisticated online navigational applications. Perhaps the most significant development involves Google's relatively new map technology, which brings users Google Maps and Google Earth. Whereas Google Maps provides an online navigational resource, Google Earth is a free, fully downloadable software application that brings that literally brings the world to your desktop. A few minutes after downloading and installing Google Earth, we found ourselves amazed, surfing the globe from Seattle to Paris, zooming in from thousands of miles above the earth, checking out old haunts, and reeling in the years. Google Earth enables users to label key points, add extensive notes, and seamlessly integrate the power of the internet. There are more features than there is time to explore them all. Such an incredible tool is definitely a must.

Other useful "mapplications" include GeoURL and TerraServer-USA. GeoURL is an online service providing a "location-to-URL reverse directory." GeoURL enables users to "find URLs by their proximity to a given location." This is useful for bloggers, who may wish to rally together in meatspace. As of this posting, GeoURL lists over 217,658 sites. Click here to see GeoURL-listed addresses near the Perishable Press Headquarters. Although not nearly as robust as Google Earth, "the TerraServer-USA Web site is one of the world's largest online databases, providing free public access to a vast data store of maps and aerial photographs of the United States." Here is a 1996 satellite-view of my neighborhood via the TerraServer-USA database. Fascinating.

There are also several online mapplications providing website visitor tracking. Although free versions of these tools are available, they are typically limited in statistical scope, which theoretically encourages users to promptly upgrade to the full, "paid" versions. Right. Anyway, there are some prime aps available, including gVisit, ClustrMaps, and even Frappr. Whereas gVisit and ClustrMaps provide similar tracking services, Frappr is more of an online community through which users may create and share map-related information through digital maps, photo galleries, and chat rooms. Fine if you have the time to invest in all of that. Otherwise, nothing beats gVisit and ClustrMaps for free geographical visitor tracking. Although both of these services provide similar features, ClustrMaps apparently provides a greater degree of analytical insight than does gVisit. Both services involve pros and cons, and both are worth checking out.

Check out these newly created Frappr and gVisit maps for Perishable Press. Finally, for a different application of modern online map technology, check out National Geographic's MapMachine or even Wikimapia, a wiki-map hybrid inviting and enabling users to "describe the whole earth" by adding interesting geographical information. Well now, …if you have read this far and are still wondering what exactly "meatspace" is, follow this link and discover the truth.

Looking for the perfect dedicated server? Well, “Don’t Just a Dedicated Server!” — “Have Peace of Mind!” with Daily Razor Hosting.

Have a Peace of Mind

Gangsta lean. Gangsta tuff. Da Gizoogle Search Engine & Translator delivahz da roofless bidniss fo' da previous post:

Osseus Website Yo Multimedia artist extraordizzle Kenneth Paul Schrag — betta known as Osseus ta his fellow DLa posse — is currently in tha process of updat'n his personal design portfolio website (Flash required) aww nah. Ken's aww nah. work is diverse, wit online samples cover'n both graphic design n illustration.

We finally met up wit Ken n Yasuko several months ago before they Japanese tizzle. They call me tha black folks president. We shared coffee in tha Desert Oasis n shared recent experiences n creative happen'n where the sun be shinin' and I be rhymin'. Ken n Yasuko hizzy bizzy busy work'n as Graphic Designa in tha Seattle area, n have big plans ta start a potentially lucrative design-based service business so bow down to the bow wow. Beyond this, they have worked several interest'n freelance jobs rang'n from model'n & sculpture ta illustration & design.

In related news, tha possible releaze of DLa #20 — The Elusive Texture Issue — has resurfizzles wit potential ta catalyze tha swift develizzle n re-establizzle of tha Dead Wanna Be Gangsta Art empire fo' sheezy. Website plans is in tha works, n several DLa-related graphic-dizzles projects hizzy been discussed with the gangsta shit that keeps ya hangin'. Especially rhymin' is ideas involv'n rappa press n archaic doggy stylin' methods. Stay tuned..

Sweet. But as if that weren’t dope enuf, repeated Gizoogle translations seem to increasingly multiply da def shizzle. Check it out cold gangsta: retranslate this translation and compare the results. Strictly fo' my nizzle…

Use this link to translate any page via Gizoogle »

Or, sizzle dizzle:
(limited number of lookups per day)

I love reading these things..

Good times.

Ahh, the joys of stealing from people…

Good times.

For a good laugh, consider the following email message:

Good times.

The Millennium Falcon speeds through deep space, closely followed by a firing Imperial Star Destroyer. A large asteroid about the same size as the Falcon tumbles rapidly toward the starship. The tiny Falcon banks to avoid the giant asteroid as smaller rocks pelt its surface. Then the small craft roars under the asteroid which explodes harmlessly on the hull of the vast Star Destroyer.

Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!

Clutching desperately at his throat, Captain Needa slumps down, then falls over on his back, at the feet of Darth Vader. Two stormtroopers pick up the lifeless body and carry it quickly away as Admiral Piett and two of his captains hurry up to the Dark Lord.

Modernista!

File under: Inspiration, Creativity, Graphics, and Flash: Modernista!

Electric Sheep

Paying homage to Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? via collective screensaver morphology: electricsheep.org.

Plus, be sure to experience this moving ASCII rendition of the “bullet-dodging” scene from The Matrix: ASCII Matrix Scene (I wish this idiot would quit changing the URL!).

Shouts out to Freakish Carnival Utopia for capturing this clip from a very popular Japanese television show (right-click and save to computer):

Japanese Insanity ( ~1.5mb | zipped .wmv file | 909 downloads )

For a good laugh (or reason to be even more depressed), check out the so-called “triple-aught-dot-com” domain sale, www.000.com, which makes no apologies for its blatant capitalistic piggishness. Seriously, it’s no joke when somebody is asking “…$500,000 U.S. (firm) on a first come basis” for a domain name. But then again, “the name itself has an extraordinary advantage in alphabetized site listings,” and after all, “the three zeros makes it an excellent choice to be used as a PDA or WAP portal for the wireless web” — so it’s all good, right?

Yep, we have officially lost my mind:

Tom & Jerry

• The Cartoon Network’s Tom & Jerry Episode Guide
• Tom & Jerry Online Resource
• Wikipedia Information