The Objective Blog

Keep up with what we're thinking, reading, and doing.

Fusion Radar: April 10, 2013

April 10th, 2013 - by marissa - Salt Lake City, Utah

Keeping up with technology is a lot of work. Luckily, we enjoy wading through the noise just to find the gems of awesomeness sprinkled throughout. Fusion Radar is our gift to you, Current or Potential Client, so that you can enjoy all of the awesome without any of the drudgery. Unwrap it each week, and know that you’re loved by the geeks and pixel-pushers at Agency Fusion.

Geo for Bootstrap

The first site we’re going to show you has a design that might make you nostalgic for the ’90s. Or maybe it’ll just make you cringe. Either way, Geo for Bootstrap is a theme for Twitter Bootstrap, from Divshot. It is, of course, an April Fool’s joke, but it did keep us entertained for a while. (The dancing MC Hammer gifs were a nice touch.)

http://divshot.github.io/geo-bootstrap/

Chosen

Chosen is a simple JavaScript plugin that we’re excited to use; it makes select boxes much more user-friendly by allowing users to type for the selection they’re looking for, select multiple items without holding down the control or command button, and grouping terms.

http://harvesthq.github.io/chosen/

IE Browser Testing

We have to hand it to Microsoft – they’re really trying. The site linked below has a few tools that could make testing sites in IE a little less painful. There’s BrowserStack, which tests sites across browsers and platforms; a free Virtual Machine, which allows users to test multiple versions of IE; and finally, there’s Windows 8 with Parallels, which is a quickstart kit for Mac developers.

IE Virtualization Tools

Em Baseline Generator

The Em Baseline Generator is a free tool that lets users instantly see how base font sizes and line heights will interact with various html elements. Just slide along the bars to increase or decrease font size and line height (which the tool lists for you in pixels), and watch the text on the right and the code on the left change in response.

Em Baseline Generator

Distance to Mars

Utilizing one of the longest scrolling sites we’ve ever seen, these guys have created a to-scale model of space travel. It shows the user the relative size of the Earth, the moon, and Mars, and includes facts about space travel as it scrolls you through pixels and pixels to finally arrive at the red planet.

http://distancetomars.com/

Jolidrive

Jolidrive is a online system that allows you to use one login for everything – Instagram, Google+, Facebook, Google Drive, Vimeo, etc.

http://www.jolicloud.com/

WikiHouse

Here’s an open-source movement that doesn’t provide code for developers or even much information at all. Instead, WikiHouse is an open source construction set that allows anyone to design, download, and “print” houses and components. And because all the pieces are designed to slot together, the houses can be assembled without tools by a few people in just a few hours.

http://www.wikihouse.cc/

Neurofiction

All right, now here’s something straight out of sci-fi books: Neurofiction is a new kind of literary experience, which combines tech, machine learning, and customized prose to deliver a different story to each of its users. A headset (officially called an electroencephalography headset) analyzes the electrical activity of its readers’ neurons, and uses that activity to create a new narrative as they read.

http://neurofiction.net/

REI 1440 Project

The 1440 Project is a site REI to showcase your adventures, 24 hours (or 1440 minutes) a day. Users submit pictures of their outdoor adventures – everything from a walk in the woods to kayaking down a river, and the site displays them each minute.

http://www.rei1440project.com/#

Google Ngram Viewer

Google’s Ngram Viewer lets users search for and compare how often terms appear in thousands and thousands of books. Google searches all the books they have indexed and graphs your search terms based on how often your words show up in the text and titles of those books.

http://books.google.com/ngrams

Facebook Home

Rumors of a Facebook Phone have been floating around for years, and last week, Zuckerberg announced the closest thing so far: Facebook Home. Although it’s not a complete phone, Home is an Android overlay that makes Facebook and mobile sharing the priority for your phone. The HTC First is the go-to device for this, but it’ll also be available for free download for Android phones starting on April 12th.

http://www.facebook.com/home