Uncle Ersatz' Digital Ephemera

Fake Document / Award / Certificate Generator

2010-05-07T15:59:00.000-04:00

Fake Document / Award Generator from onlinewahn.

Start here . . .

then, here . . .

Then, you find the page with all the options . . .

and, options . . .

a few more options, then click where indicated below, and you're fake document is ready. If German is not your native language, it is easy to figure out what goes where simply by filling in the text and colors options with some test info you'll remember, then generate the image. Then, you'll see where everything fits! Easy-peasy.

Well, what do you know? I found another undiscovered Trotsky document. Wowzers.

The Sound Effect Generator (text)

2010-05-05T15:34:00.002-04:00

The Sound Effect Generator from The Surrealist. This produces no actual sounds - but rather the textual descriptions of them. Think comics. Or, the 60s Batman show. Just hit reload to generate a new sound effect.

The Mechanical Contrivium

2010-05-05T15:27:00.001-04:00

The Mechanical Contrivium; from The Surrealist. It is (as they say on their site),

"The Mechanical Contrivium is the automatic trivia generator of a thousand uses, providing facts for every occasion from school assignments to after-dinner conversation."

Start with this box . . . I of course, entered "Trotsky" to discover amazing Trotsky trivia.

Wowzers! I was not dissapointed!
(click for larger view)

Fake ID Generator from onlinewahn.

2010-05-05T14:18:00.004-04:00

Fake ID Generator from onlinewahn.

Start here . . .

Then here . . .

Then, fill-in your desired info . . .
(click for clearer image)

And, here you are! I love the bat!

Heretical Rhyme Generator

2010-05-03T09:46:00.001-04:00

Heretical Rhyme Generator from Pangloss

So, starting with this as the first line:
"There once was a fellow named Trotsky"
We get this poem:

Evil Clown Generator from Scottsmind

2010-05-03T09:31:00.001-04:00

Evil Clown Generator from Scottsmind.

Start with a pre-set clown, and then change the face elements, or go Random.

Couldn't quite make a Trotsky on this one. Probably because this is an EVIL Clown generator, and the two just don't mix . . .

Now, I know you all can figure out how to use this, but there are a couple of fun ways to play with it. Each time you click on one of the feature types, that feature will change just one-at-a-time. If instead you hover the cursor over the face feature, they zip through at a million-miles-per-hour and stops when you move the cursor. So, with that bit of knowledge, if you just move your cursor from top-to-bottom, or vice-versa, you can visualize some really amusing changes there. So there.

Oh, this is all done in flash, but there is a "print" option in the right-click flyout that they left in for you - but, I think a screen grab selection is easier . . .

Fake Coin / Medal Generator

2010-05-02T21:27:00.001-04:00

Fake Coin / Medal Generator from Onlinewahn.

Start at this screen and click on the coins . . .

. . . and you can mint the very rare 49 Trotskies coin.

There doesn't seem to be a way to properly save the resulting image (at least not that I can find; but as you see, a screen grab does just fine).

Historic Tale Construction Kit

2010-05-02T20:57:00.002-04:00

Historic Tale Construction Kit. From Adgame Wonderland. Makes wonderful, faux tapestries.

Start here . . .

Select from People "Folc," and other animate & inanimate objects. Click & Drag to the canvas. It's very easy to arrange, add & delete text and objects.

You might even discover the lost Trotsky Tapestry from 1325 . . .

Mr. Picasso Head

2010-05-02T11:47:00.001-04:00

Mr. Picasso Head; Picasso-like drawing maker.

Start with a blank canvas . . .

Then, select your face attributes. Drag them to the canvas, and arrange, color, resize, etc.

Then, make your drawing. Make a Picasso Trotsky! Be creative: there are no beards or mustaches, I used other features and enlarged, reduced and rotated them to make the beard & mustache. What's a Trotsky without them?

Minifig Toy (Lego(c) Parts) Generator

2010-05-02T11:29:00.002-04:00

Minifig Generator ; from Baseplate. This neat site lets you arrange different body parts on the little, Lego (r) people. Or, let it make completely random folks.

Start with this screen:

Then, mix-n-match:

After you've made your creation, click on the "build" button on the right, and your Minifig (c) will appear in a new window. For legal reasons, you can view your figure, but cannot download it. Still, much fun.

text

Acme License Plate Maker

2010-05-02T11:05:00.002-04:00

Go ahead, show off that special plate you had, or always wanted with the Acme Labs License Maker. Coolness.

Why aren't you posting, Ersatz?

2010-04-23T10:22:00.002-04:00

The voices inside your head want to know.

Love,

The Voices Inside Your Head

A Possible New Logo for me

2010-01-30T16:46:00.003-05:00

What do you think?

I'm going to start again

2010-01-22T12:37:00.000-05:00

Really. . .

testing

2009-10-06T14:08:00.001-04:00

hello

A Lovely Bride

2009-08-26T21:12:00.001-04:00

Who is this lovely vision?

-- Mobile Post

One more

2009-08-03T11:40:00.002-04:00

OK, one more just for funsies!

-- Mobile Post

Some OCD created on the iPod Touch

2009-08-03T11:19:00.002-04:00

The subject was supposed to have read "pics" but somehow got changed to OCD. . .

Wowzers! Who is this hottie?

-- Post From My iPhone

Woeful abandonment!

2009-06-26T13:26:00.002-04:00

My apologies Comrades! I've been hibernating an neglecting this terribly. But, I don't think anyone much sees this anymore. But, if you are one of my occasional visitors, I will be adding more content soon. Really! Thanks for your patience!

Meet the FLEPia

2009-04-13T14:02:00.004-04:00

Here is the gist of an article I read in LISnews from March 30th. Amazon’s amazing Kindle, and SONY’s amazing Reader will soon have some color competition! Meet the FLEPia! I want one of each of them. Oh, boy much fun!

From the LISNews article:

Fujitsu Launches Color e-Book Reader in Japan
March 30, 2009 - 8:20am — Blake

"Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu has stepped into the e-book fray with the a color e-paper mobile device aimed at consumers. Thin and lightweight like its competition the Kindle, Fujitsu Frontech’s awkwardly named FLEPia, is now on sale in Japan and will start shipping on April 20 for around $1,000. Customers will have the option of purchasing e-books through the FLEPia-ya Web site via Japan’s largest e-book online retailer Papyless while connecting the device to the Internet via wi-fi."

Quick Tip to Print a Directory in Windows

2009-04-13T13:51:00.002-04:00

Uncle Ersatz’ has a quick tip that you may not have known about, or have forgotten about: how to print a directory –nicely formatted- from within your favorite browser. This is pretty slick if I say so myself!

1. Go to the browser’s address bar and enter: “file:///c:/” (without the quotes). By-the-way, that’s three (-3-) forward slashes.

As in:

Then, you get something like this:

You can move around in the directories very much as you can in an Explorer window. And, they print as you see them.

Insightful Comic

2009-04-13T13:35:00.004-04:00

Hey! Look what I found at ComicStrip Generator! Wow, is this insightful or what?
Such wisdom . . .

Remember "Air Trotsky?"

2009-03-26T14:33:00.004-04:00

Comrades, just on the very off chance that you were asleep for the last several decades and don't remember the very famous "Air Trotsky" airline, you can go to RedKid's Airline Sign Generator and make your own version. Or, whatever you want. Much fun!

Build Your Own Action Figure

2009-03-26T14:05:00.006-04:00

Hey Comrades! Make your own Action Figure! Go to Vicale Corporations' On Demand Action Figure Builder Tool page and have a go. Here's mine:

Just wish I could put a big, red star on his shirt or jacket . . .

Corporate Gibberish Generator™

2009-03-25T07:37:00.005-04:00

Corporate Gibberish Generator™. So this is where it all comes from! I bet there's a legal gibberish generator out there somewhere too . . .

From the website:

Welcome to the Corporate Gibberish Generator™ by Andrew Davidson. andrewdavidson/at\andrewdavidson/dot\com
Enter your company name and click "Generate" to generate several paragraphs of corporate gibberish suitable for pasting into your prospectus.
(The gibberish is geared more toward Internet and technology companies.)

The example on the page: (click image to read it)

The Excuse-O-Mat

2009-03-25T07:26:00.004-04:00

The Excuse-O-Mat. Comrades, ever find that you have to make ammends, or at least an excuse for something that probably wasn't even your fault? Of course you do! But, what to do when your sincerity reservoir is almost on empty? Well, you go to the The Excuse-O-Mat of course!

From the website:

Things go wrong-- which is awfully annoying of them-- and then comes the really difficult thing: explaining what happened. What do you do when the old excuses (my dog ate it, it's in the mail, mistakes were made) have been used once too often? Why, you come to Metaverse for one of 3.6 million different convincing, ready-made excuses! Written by Mark Rosenfelder

An example of a random, Insulting excuse:

Whine on, Comrades!

Ebay Feedback Generator

2009-03-25T07:07:00.006-04:00

Comrades, for those of you who still "Ebay" (has this become a verb now?) your way to acquisitiveness and fulfillment, I have just the thing for those occasional mental blocks. Enter the Ebay Feedback Generator.

You can select from Positive, Negative or Indifferent. A Seller or Buyer. Vocabulary options include Basic and Frivolous, and can include specific details of a transaction. The output is composed of many feedback statements from which to pick & choose. For example:

Negative & Frivolous: (click on image to actually read it)

Indifferent & Basic:

And etc. you get the idea. Most fun!

Blog-O-Matic

2009-03-25T06:59:00.005-04:00

Comrades, tired of coming up with ubercreative content continuously? Never fear: Blog-O-Matic is here! Just go to Blog-O-Matic, and a completely random blog entry will be generated. And, dear comrades, it is stated as copyright-free! Here is one example:

Just refresh the page to generate another stunning blog entry. Just wish I could put Trotsky in there somewhere . . .

The End of the World

2009-03-13T12:52:00.002-04:00

Fabulous! Another one I hadn't seen in awhile. Make sure the sound is on (unless you're at work or in some other public space!). Enjoy, Comrades!

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting

2009-03-04T10:56:00.004-05:00

All I can say, dear Comrades is: YESSSS!!

From the Wikipedia article:
"Kung Fu Fighting" is a song written and performed by Carl Douglas and Vivian Hawke. It was released as a single in 1974, at the cusp of a chopsocky film craze, and quickly rose to the top of British and American charts. The song also is famous for its use of the quintessential Oriental Riff, a short musical phrase that is used to signify Chinese culture.
It originally was meant to be a B-side to I Want to Give You My Everything by Brooklyn songwriter Larry Weiss, and was recorded in the last ten minutes of his studio time.^[1]^[2] This song has been featured prominently in pop culture including Mott's Clamato advertisements.
Douglas states that his inspiration to write the song was affected by three factors: he had seen a kung fu movie, later visited a jazz concert by Oscar Peterson, and was suffering from side-effects of pain killers (Douglas had injured his foot playing football).^[3]Another account gives his inspiration simply as seeing two kids in London doing kung fu moves.^[1]
The song remains one of the most fondly remembered one-hit wonders. Kung Fu Fighting also was rated #100 in VH1's "100 Greatest one-hit wonders. It appeared at number one in the UK's Channel 4's Top 10 One Hit Wonders list in 2000 and again in the station's 50 Greatest One Hit Wonders poll in 2006. It also was included in another 2006 programme for Channel 4, Bring Back ... the one-hit Wonders, for which Carl Douglas performed the song in a live concert.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

2009-03-01T09:25:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite things! In case you haven’t seen it in awhile, or have never seen it, here it is again. Below the description are the YouTube grabs for the original “All Your Base,” a second version, the original short intro from SEGA’s “Zero Wing” game, and the long intro from same. Enjoy, Comrades!

From the Wikipedia article:

"All your base are belong to us" (often shortened to "All Your Base", "AYBABTU", or simply "AYB") is a broken English phrase that sparked an Internet phenomenon, or meme, in 2001 and 2002, with the spread of a Flash animation that depicted the slogan. The text is taken from the opening cut scene of the European Sega Mega Drive version of Zero Wing,^[1] a Japanese video game by Toaplan which was rushed in production and as a result was poorly translated into English. It was popularized by the Something Awful message forums.^[2]

Source:

The original:

All Your Base Are Belong to Us (original)

Second Version:

All Your Base Are Belong to Us (Version 2)

Intro (short) from original Zero Wing game by SEGA:

Zero Wing Intro - Short

Zero Wing Intro – Long:

Zero Wing Intro - Long

New blogs for me (soon)

2009-03-01T08:37:00.002-05:00

I believe that I am going to start two more blogs. Not merely to satisfy Uncle Ersatz ego, but for the sake of clarity in organization. I am going to remove the “Smileys” and “Animated GIFs” from here and move them (later) to one of the other blogs.

One of the blogs will be devoted to free fonts (giving credit where the originals were found, and proper linkbacks and all that), and the other for free graphics (“Smileys” and such). This way, I can categorize each via the “tags” feature, and use as an ersatz index.

The fonts blog will be as much for my use as a visual database as anything, but hopefully someone else will find it useful. The useful part will be because of the inclusion of screenshots of the look of the fonts (again, by category). You’ll see . . .

Stay tuned, Comrades!

-update-

Got one going: "Uncle Ersatz' Free Fonts" (see link on right)

Just when I was about to move this

2009-02-28T11:55:00.002-05:00

I was just about to scratch this whole effort on Blogger as yesterday, while attempting to update / change some things I kept getting the damnable "BX-Error" thingie. So, I made a new template on Wordpress, and then -just a bit ago- thought I'd try updating again. Darned if it didn't work. Unfortunatly, I choose a template at random (for now) that I'm not all that up with, but the heck with it. I'll keep it for now. Of course, I lost my counter & a bunch of other things and the whole appearance looks like shit, but it's running again.

ACLU Pizza Commercial

2009-02-20T15:43:00.006-05:00

ACLU Pizza Commercial. Wonderful! Brilliant! Found a copy on YouTube here.

Keyboard Message

2009-02-19T14:03:00.002-05:00

Make your own “keyboard” at Blogoscoped. As-in the world-famous Trotsky Keyboard:

Fake Dictionary Entry

2009-02-19T13:54:00.002-05:00

From Hetemeel. Ala

Magic 8 Ball Says

2009-02-19T13:46:00.002-05:00

Well, just guess what the Magic 8 Ball will say:

Fake Einstein Chalkboard Message

2009-02-19T13:37:00.002-05:00

Make your own chalkboard message as written by Einstein at Hetemeel.

Ala:

Fake Chocolate Bar

2009-02-19T13:31:00.003-05:00

Make your own simple, chocolate bar at GlassGiant.
Ala:

Fake Magazine Covers

2009-02-18T11:25:00.004-05:00

Fun (but, not very easy to use!) fake magazine cover site. Ala:

Fake "For Dummies" Books

2009-02-17T10:03:00.003-05:00

Fake "For Dummies" typ e book cover maker. Much fun, comrades!

Funny Sign Generators

2009-02-13T16:19:00.003-05:00

Funny Sign Generators at illmeyer.com. Several styles to choose from. My favorite is
this guy:

Customized Newspaper Headline

2009-02-13T16:12:00.002-05:00

From ImageChef. Very fun. Check this out:

PhotoNotes

2009-02-13T14:04:00.002-05:00

PhotoNotes is a very cool online generator that makes a Polaroid (tm) with a note or label on the “photo.” You can choose from several preselected images in their gallery, or upload your own. Various font styles and colors are available for the labels. Fun.
As-in this gem I just made:

The Grigorovich and Leon Show

2009-02-11T17:54:00.003-05:00

A witty comic made by Comrade Byron at Witty Comics:

Thank you, my fine Comrade for the insightful and witty comic. Three “Da!s” for Comrade Byron:
     Da!

      Da!
     Da!

Witty Comics: Make Your Own Comic!

2009-02-10T16:43:00.002-05:00

Witty Comics has a really neat-o, free site to create your very own comic! As in this lovely example below (click for better quality):

Atom Smasher’s Gas Station Sign Generator

2009-02-10T16:30:00.002-05:00

An example from Atom Smasher’s Gas Station Sign Generator. I will upload an example from each of the online generators I find . . . i.e.:

Windows Live Writer is Your Friend

2009-02-04T07:56:00.004-05:00

Recently I discovered and tried Windows Live Writer. Much coolness ensued thereafter. WLW is specifically a blog posting tool. It supports multiple blogs, and multiple blog platforms. It is “live” in the sense that your posts can be made immediately –or, saved as drafts for later posting. It is not live in the online sense in that it is a desktop application that you download & install. Although, I thought there was supposed to be an online method to using this too, but I haven’t looked into it yet. Here’s their front page:

This is very easy to use, and has many great features that are not present in the online blog posting tools you find on the blog sites themselves. Additionally, there are nifty plugins available – and I will post my experiences with some of them later. I highly recommend this – then, you’ll be cool like Uncle Ersatz too! Here’s how to get it up & running:

After downloading and running install, you get:

Then, it asks which blog service you use:

I selected “Other blog service” and you get this screen. You must fill-in the URL, and your username & password:

It then contacts your blog and downloads settings info:

This is asking permission to send a test post – good idea

It’s all set up, and for the sake of convenince (within WLW) you can give it a nickname (like . . . “Bob” for example)

After clicking “Finish” above, you get the main WLW compose screen, ready for your test post. It has detected the proper font and colors you use:

I was unimaginative and called it “Testing LiveWriter”

Then, I “published” it, and WLW opens-up your blog in your browser. Much coolness.

The best "Star Wars" movie ever? Maybe so!

2009-01-18T10:21:00.010-05:00

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

The following is from the creator of this, from off of www.vimeo.com
My friend Amanda had never seen a whole Star Wars film. When I asked her if she wanted to watch the original trilogy she said that she would, but that she already knew what happens. So I took out my voice recorder and asked her to start from the top.

I then created some very basic animation in Final Cut to go along with her narration.
www.fishrockit.com

Leon's Random Comic Strip Generator

2009-01-13T20:15:00.004-05:00

Leon's Random Comic Strip Generator. One of many online generators from Leon. i.e.:

Quite cerebral.

BBQ Sign Generator

2009-01-13T19:14:00.005-05:00

Atom Smashers BBQ Sign Generator. Wonderful. Check out his other generators as well!

Testing LiveWriter

2009-01-12T10:15:00.001-05:00

hello, this is a test

FastStone Capture is your friend

2009-01-11T18:43:00.004-05:00

FastStone Capture is your friend. FastStone Capture 5.3 is a free (for private use) screen capture utility that is fast, portable, and easy to use. It is probably available many places, but I grabbed mine at Portable Freeware http://www.portablefreeware.com.

It has a nifty floating toolbar, and a good configuration panel via the taskbar. Also, it has its own editor, allowing easy crops and edits.

Firefox Abduction is your friend

2009-01-11T17:31:00.013-05:00

Firefox Abduction is your friend (essential free web toolbox toys). This will allow you to save images from webpages that do not permit right-clicking options. Not only images, but text, images/text, whatever, exactly as it is layed out on the screen. In some rare instances, the webpage has been coded so that this will not work, and at other times, you might have to find a "sweet spot" on the page that will allow you to use this -- but, these are few and far between.

One of the most useful "Add-ons" for Firefox is the "Abduction" screen capture utility. It is so very easy to use, and works without a hitch! Here is a shot from my Add-ons: once installed, there is nothing to configure.

Once installed, to use all you do is Right-Click somewhere on the page (i.e. webpage), and you should see this option in the fly-out:

Then, this will happen: a new, smaller window will open with a picture of the webpage highlighted in green (you can change the color if you wish).

Now, click in the green area; the green turns white, and your cursor turns into a crosshair.

Then, click and drag the area
you want to capture.

When you are ready to save, you'll click on the Save button. But, before you do, click on the "Format" pulldown and select what type of image you wish to save it as.

Then, click on Save, and you'll get the
standard Save Dialog.