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Dezier Folio has created a fantastic resource, The Ultimate Web 2.0 Gradients, a free download containing well over 100 free gradients.

Website: Ultimate web 2.0 gradients (DezierFolio.com)

I recently found that Supercars, that classic Amiga, PC and Atari classic available online to play via EasyRetro.

Although the game is a bit buggy, for example – on one level you’re stuck in a tunnel complex and there’s no way out. However, it certainly brought back childhood memories of buying forward rockets / backwards rockets and trying to deal with that slimy car sales person too.

Links:

• Supercars (EasyRetro.com)
• Supercars (LemonAmiga.com)

For the past 2 weeks, like many other viewers, I’ve been watching the new series of the UK apprentice with Sir Alan Sugar, and up to now its been okay – but there are several themes that are running throughout this series which I find slightly disturbing.

Up to now, this series has been pitched as “cool kids vs. toff kids”, with a majority of the entrants being University graduates with 1st class degrees, or master degree owners, or they’ve ran a business; or are running a business.

That’s fine. But the hidden message of a “class warfare” only narrowly disguises what I see as a thinly-vielled attempt to make you, the viewer, hate certain people because of their background or accent. (more…)

Former tabloid editor Piers Morgan recently won the US Celebrity Apprentice (watch on youtube). I’ve been watching random clips on the entire show on youtube (clips of US Apprentice on youtube) and it certainly has been entertaining; much more than I originally thought it would be. (more…)

I was recently at the NCGE Flying Start event in Durham and met with some very intelligent people looking to set up a business; some of whom have already set up a business and are well on the way of getting along in their prospective careers.

One of the many start up businesses that caught my eye was Finalcrit, an online portfolio very similar to carbonmade and others. Created by Ollie Hunt, Finalcrit is a web 2.0 style website which allows you to create your online portfolio for free and allows users to search for and apply for jobs.

Whilst the idea of online portfolios has been done before, finalcrit has a distinctive edge to it that I’m sure will help students, graduates, artists, etc from around the UK (if not the world) get a small profile website and help them get a job.

Website: finalcrit.com

Springwise’s latest article on real estate going web 3.0 talks about how various the web 2.0 real estate website “Love that place” is increasingly using social networks (whether third-party or internal) to help users search, discuss, rate, and register their interest in a property; regardless of whether it’s for sale or not.

As Springwise adds,

Property owners begin by creating a page and uploading photos of their place—simply to gather feedback and advice, or to test the market and see what other people think. Members of the site can leave comments or send private messages (forums are coming soon), and admirers of a particular property can even send a virtual “door-knock” to see if the owner would consider selling.

Love That Place is definitely more of a social network than a specific real estate website with features centered around conversation, facilitation and networking and essentially builds a relationship between people, regardless of whether they have something to sell or not.

Read more about this topic from Springwise’s original article.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=qL8T2IQHy8M]

The guardian recently posted an article on “slamball”, a combination of basketball, hockey, gymnastics and American football where the participants use modified trampolines to score baskets, or “slams”, adding that the new sport is “coming soon”, however the sport has actually been around for well over 2-3 years – it even was on TV in America and in some satellite stations in the UK.

It isn’t shown as much now, but you can still get clips of the “new” sport on Youtube.

Links;

• Wikipedia entry on Slamball
• Slamball clip (Youtube)
• Coming soon… slamball (Guardian)

The infamous Tom Cruise video which has been shared, sent and seen across the world has given rise to a number of copy-cat spoofs. The parodies are incredibly easy to do. Wear black turtle neck, have camera, start acting loony.

Radaronline has compiled a short list of Tom Cruise parodies on Youtube. Although the Craig Ferguson (of the Late Late Show) one pretty much nails it, there are others that Radar doesn’t show; like the one where it inter-splices Will Smith’s “freaked out” reactions to Tom Cruise’s rantings.

My personal favourite (the one I can’t find any more) where it plays the interview clip as normal, but then interrupts to show a guy who adds an extra line (pretty much like MST3K did). For example, when Cruise says “When you’re a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one who can really help…” only for the video to cut to a guy, adding “And I have my friend here, Mr Glock who will testify to that”.

And, remember in the Simpsons where Homer is on some TV show to answer claims of his “sexual harrassment” of a girl who was sitting on a Jelly Baby, and the TV show cut audio and spliced video clips together with the clock randomly moving between cuts, giving a totally different account of what Homer actually said? Turns out, someone used this idea on the Cruise video too!

Anyway, here is a link to Radar’s collection of Youtube Tom Cruise spoofs.

Other links;

• Tom Cruise parodies on Youtube.
• Youtube Tom Cruise spoofs
• The Scientology Game (delisted)