Rolling up the homepage, Katamari-style

Ever wanted to completely destroy the University homepage? Of course you haven't! But now you can if you like, just for fun, Katamari-style.

Tech blog Engadget has a story about a genius bookmarklet that transforms any web page into a rollable Katamari landscape. If you've never heard of Katamari Damacy, it's a Japanese video game with a plot too bonkers to describe but which involves rolling up ever larger objects in the manner of rolling a snowball (see youtube for visuals). This bookmarklet lets you do likewise to a web page, and even features the same jaunty music as the game.

How is this relevant to a Web Office blog? Hardly at all, but it's fun :) On the technical side, it's a very powerful demonstration of what can be done with Javascript and advanced CSS transforms in a modern browser.

Check out the video below of me having a go, or see the Engadget link for the code to try it yourself (you'll need a decent browser - Chrome or Firefox4 are recommended by the developers).

Exhibition knives and homepages

During my recent attendance at the IWMW conference in Sheffield, we paid a visit to the Kelham Island Industrial Museum and I spotted the Exhibition Knife pictured below.

As Paul noted when he posted the now infamous XKCD homepage strip, we’re currently planning some homepage changes. I thought the 365-blade knife was a nice metaphor for what a homepage would turn into if everybody with an opinion had their way: a blade for every possible user and every possible task, but all rendered useless by the sheer volume of surrounding alternatives. We’ll try to avoid that trap as we design our new page :)

(Click the image to see a larger version and to appreciate the detail. It’s an impressive piece of craftsmanship, created to showcase the talent and expertise in Sheffield’s manufacturing heyday. Also on display were other Exhibition Year creations, including a yard long saw and an oversized, intricately decorated file).

What to put on a university homepage

We're currently looking at making some changes to the University homepage, so today's post from xkcd is rather timely:

Hopefully we'll remember to include the things that people go looking for!

Update

A couple of higher education blogs have gone into more detail on the subject:

• No Laughing Matter (Inside Higher ED)
• This is my truth, tell me yours (Shall Make You Odd)

Visualizing the last six months of work

A few of us in the office use the Tick time tracking application to keep track of what we're working on. I recently noticed that it was possible to export all the data it held into a handy Excel file (mmm, data) for further analysis. So it was a logical next step to take that data and create a Wordle word cloud out of it. Here's what has been keeping me busy for the last six months:


Not surprisingly, the CMS is keeping me busy!