No one's got time to read in-depth reviews of everything. '100 Word Reviews' is here so you can know just enough about everything to make an informed decision.
You'll find that all the reviews at '100 Word Reviews' are 100% accurate - on word count, that is - actual opinions may vary.
If you've got anything to say, or something you want me to review, just drop me a line at 100wordreviews.net@gmail.com
It might not be art, but some of the visualisations that Wordle creates certainly are interesting to look at. Wordle works by creating a word cloud based off a text input. The more often a word appears, the larger it is in the cloud. The image on the left is a section of the one for the 100 Word Reviews archive, but you can see others I’ve created from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ and the King James version of the Bible. Wordle’s not going to change your life, but it’ll give you something to look at and think about for a while.
I recently got my hands on a Google Wave invite, and I have to admit that I’m not that impressed. Don’t get me wrong, I think the technology is great, it’s a bit of fun, and I do subscribe to their idea that Wave is “what email would be like if it were invented toady”. Unfortunately, I can’t see it garnering the broad use that they’re looking for. As a development experiment it’s a good proof of concept, but unless it completely integrates with current email protocols and becomes seamlessly cross-platform, it’s never going to be more than a novelty.
What exactly is “next weekend”? Is it the “next” weekend that we’ll get to, or is it the “next” one after that? If Ivan Cash and Jeremy Knight have their way, this conundrum could soon be a thing of the past. They’ve created the phrase “oxt weekend” to refer to “not this weekend but the weekend after.” It’s a lofty goal, aiming to add a word to the English language, but I admire their endeavour. I certainly know I’ve needed to clarify “next weekend” many times in the past. Plus, I’ve already used it to make plans for oxt Friday.
Google Maps is good for many things, but if you don’t exclusively run on the road, then mapping out and tracking runs isn’t one of them. MapMyRun adds to the functionality of Google Maps by allowing you to create and save off-road runs, and then track your workouts for distance and time. Most importantly, it does all of this whilst being completely free (if you don’t mind a couple of ads). It’s fantastic for anyone working to a training program (like me for my upcoming half marathon), or anyone who just wants to keep track of how far they’ve run.
The idea behind FlickChart is to get an idea of movie rankings by having people continuously pick their favourite from a pair of displayed movies until these comparisons turn into a relative ranking. It can take quite a while to get a decent list (I’m still not happy with my Top 20 after 300 ranks), but I can assure you that it’s a lot of fun to go through the motions. How do you choose between ‘Se7en’ and ‘Office Space’? As long as you don’t take it too seriously, you’ll enjoy remembering what you enjoyed about lots of different movies.
Back in February, I decided to start up my own website. I thought about things that I liked doing (‘telling people my opinions’ and ‘not writing too much’ were the big ones) and through this I came up with ‘100 Word Reviews’. It’s been a lot of fun so far, and with reviews of movies, music, books, restaurants, comics, TV shows, websites and more, I’ve managed to make it to 100 reviews. And with a website dedicated to the number 100, I thought this was a good time to celebrate. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading – I know I’ve enjoyed writing.
If I had a dollar for every time that “Lifehacker” has been the answer to, “Wow! Where’d you find that?” – I’d have lots of dollars. I don’t know for sure, exactly how many dollars, but if I wanted to find some free software that’d help me to calculate it easily, you can guess where I’d look. Lifehacker is the best kind of blog, it’s productivity focussed, but doesn’t restrict itself to computers, or even technology (you only have to see their suggestions about using a Moleskine). As they say on the site, “Think of Lifehacker as self-help for power users.”
