Tuesday Trivia: What's in a name?

From today we can register .nz domains! This means we no longer need to include the "co" and "org" when we choose a domain name for our websites. We can also choose to be plain old .nz, for example spiral.nz, trademe.nz or stuff.nz

$35 million for a domain name! Domain names have come a long ways since their beginnings in 1985. It's hard to believe that one would be worth US$35 million though!

Never forget a name again. Dale Carnegie's trick for remembering names. More useful for people's names I imagine as we have Google to help us with domain names.

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya..." - Inigo Montoya

Tuesday Trivia: Swans and Black Swans

Image: Marek Szczepanek

Crown Lynn Swan Vases on TradeMe. That iconic piece of Kiwiana.

Swans inspired a whole theory of sudden surprises based on swans (well, sort of). Thought up after Black Swans were found in the southern hemisphere after Europeans assumed for thousands of years that all swans were white.

How dangerous are swans? When swans attack it pays to be careful.

"rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno" - Juvenal
("a rare bird, very like a black swan" i.e. extraordinarily unusual)

Tuesday Trivia: Weird art and other such creations

The Twitter logo. Just a bunch of circles really.

19 of the 100 diagrams that changed the world. Or had some major effect at least.

Unusual business cards. I think the lego one is my favourite.

Kaiju and other assorted beasts put into classical landscapes.

"How bizarre" - OMC

Tuesday Trivia: Technology Marching Ever Onwards

Image: http://www.nieuweheren.com/products/beauty-and-the-geek/

Just a few examples of the truly great heights technology is reaching these days...

Ever feel the need to be handling your phone even when you don't have it with you?

Get woken up by complete strangers from across the globe. A great improvement on the alarm clock.

A wireless mouse and keyboard integrated into a pair of jeans. For those times when having a keyboard printed across the front of your jeans is easier than using your laptop.

And there is so much more out there...

"Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them." - Steve Jobs

Tuesday Trivia: Tools to change the way we see the world

By Tom Burke from Morgan Hill, CA, USA (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In a world of increasingly large numbers it can be hard at times to gain a sense of perspective. Thankfully the Web is full of tools that can help. Here are just a few examples that:

What's happening in one second on the Internet? A great list of what happens in one second online. Make sure you scroll to the bottom to see how the number of emails sent compares with the other stats.

How much money are the big Internet companies making right now? I was a little surprised at some of these, particularly Amazon's profit.

Watch the Earth breathe. See the world showing births, deaths and carbon dioxide production in real time country by country.

"Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose." - Douglas Adams