Now. I mean NOW!!!!

November 12, 2008 9:39 AM

Everything. Right. Now.Sprint presents an overwhelming, sprawling, entertaining dashboard that both mocks and plays into data overload. See how many people are stuck in elevators while you play pong, hear the latest music, and observe internet buzz - all at the same time (and yes, it is an ad for something). Overwhelmed? A more sedate text-only version of live world statistics can be found at worldometers.
posted by blahblahblah (25 comments total)

wow, that is just plain annoying....
posted by HuronBob at 9:46 AM on November 12, 2008

I think I see the number of MeFites hating this on the rise...it's right under the NASCAR widget.
posted by fijiwriter at 9:54 AM on November 12, 2008

When I was a kid first getting in to the internet I spent an incredible amount of time collecting the URLs of webcams and other images that updated live - NASA sattelites and the like. I compiled them in to a big self-updating page (or pages, so I could split them across several computers). I love to just sit and feel connected to things extremely far away through this vast network of cables and radio and brilliant feats of engineering.

This link appeals to that part of me.
posted by phrontist at 9:55 AM on November 12, 2008

(Does anyone have a link to that MeFi post where someone figured out a google search string to bring up these remote control security cameras all over the world? That was, hands down, my best day on the internet).
posted by phrontist at 10:01 AM on November 12, 2008

The internet buzz meter appears broken. Other than that, this is pretty cool.
posted by oddman at 10:09 AM on November 12, 2008

Meh. I do this already on my computer.
posted by Dr-Baa at 10:12 AM on November 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

Most of those counters are just based on previous estimates and are obviously not plugged into any actual data stream. It's also kind of hideous.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:16 AM on November 12, 2008

Seems pretty reasonable to me, though it does need a "your boss is looking this way" monitor.
posted by happyroach at 10:18 AM on November 12, 2008

They totally missed an opportunity, the space between the cells could easily have been used for a text data crawl.
posted by quin at 10:21 AM on November 12, 2008

previously
posted by hortense at 10:21 AM on November 12, 2008

"This button does not do anything. You are the 314568th person to click it."

We need more buttons with a sense of humor.
posted by aapep at 10:30 AM on November 12, 2008

Is there a steampunk version?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:35 AM on November 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have a link to that MeFi post where someone figured out a google search string to bring up these remote control security cameras all over the world?

There are a number of search strings you can use, among them - inurl:"MultiCameraFrame?Mode=" and - inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode=".
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:38 AM on November 12, 2008

Like this one, from Japan, where I think I just witnessed someone win Minesweeper and do a little victory dance at their desk.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:49 AM on November 12, 2008

also, inurl:"axis-cgi"
posted by potch at 10:51 AM on November 12, 2008

Previously²
posted by gman at 11:13 AM on November 12, 2008

What am I looking at here- Sprint's MySpace profile?

I like the "Top Words Being Used Online" widget, which leads off with "The".
posted by mkultra at 11:22 AM on November 12, 2008

"This button does not do anything. You are the 314568th person to click it."

Obviously it increments the "number of times clicked" counter.
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:26 AM on November 12, 2008

Also, Japan right now.
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:28 AM on November 12, 2008

The Google search string for the surveillance cameras:
Axis brand: inurl:"image.jpg?r="
Panasonic brand: inurl:"SnapshotJPEG?Resolution"

I wrote a Screenlet (kind of like Dashboard widgets, except in Python rather than JavaScript/HTML and for Linux instead of OSX) based on lists of camera URLs from those search strings, which you can find here if you're into that sort of thing.
posted by DecemberBoy at 12:55 PM on November 12, 2008

I wrote a Screenlet ... based on lists of camera URLs from those search strings.

Just those two search strings, or did you use more? Either way, downloaded!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:58 PM on November 12, 2008

I have seen the future, and it irks.
posted by WPW at 2:48 PM on November 12, 2008

the population meter is kind of scary.
posted by oonh at 7:29 PM on November 12, 2008

Did this thing just say "all aboard the now machine"?

Really?
posted by decagon at 10:28 AM on November 13, 2008

If they made an all-puppycam version of this, I would never leave the house.
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:43 AM on November 13, 2008