Cover Pops
Having spent a large amount of my childhood reading science fiction it was with wonder and delight that I found the Cover Pop website.
Imagine sitting at a table covered with thousands of science fiction magazines and being able to look at the cover of each one.
Thats what this site does - the science fiction cover explorer allows you to mouse over a very large number of magazine covers - showing a small thumbnail of each cover.
At the click of a mouse finger you get a larger image.
Way cool - it took me ages to find the cover of a magazine I still own - screengrab here.
Each of those tiny magazines you see behind the main picture have their own picture ...
It would have been quicker to head over to the Visco Project, a "visual catalogue of the cover art of the science fiction, fantasy, weird and horror fiction magazines from the early twentieth century to the present day", but not so much fun.
The Cover Pop website has many more coverpops like this, including the excellent MAD Magazine coverpop.
The man responsible for all this magazine cover inspired genius, Jim Bumgardner, is also responsible for MetaScope a screen saver which is "an interactive software toy that can search the Internet for pictures, and make millions of different screensavers".
It really is quite amazing to watch as you type a search phrase such as "dollar bill" into the screensaver and have it download 20 different images related to dollar bills - which are then promptly turned into a kaleidoscope type screensaver.
I really like it when clever people do clever things with computers and the web - seeing human beings in their playful and creative modes helps to restore my battered faith in human nature and intelligence.