July 01, 2008
Drive Your Bike to Work Day - missed it this year, but enjoy the pix. [thx dennis] [more inside]
June 06, 2008
Awful License Plates - if you enjoyed hearing from the complainants against this scourge on our streets, or the couple of sightings by alkalineearthlings, you'll get a kick out of these first and second hand pix of awful license plates put together by SA. [link is fully safe for work, stay within the well-marked path]. Time to go browse through the TXDOT collection for your own "EATTHE" masterpiece?
May 31, 2008
KnickerPicker - I have nothing more to add.
May 07, 2008
Human Brain Cloud - like a free-form crowdsourced visual thesaurus.
Also in the category of "Building huge datasets though fooling people into thinking they're doing something else (playing games, looking up info)" like CoverBrowser's tagger and the Google411.
March 24, 2008
Eye-clops - Rob Cockerham has been having great fun with the Eye-clops, a childrens toy that blows an image up 200x and displays it on a TV screen. Since there's no way I would have already posted and then forgotten about it, I'm clearly linking again to point out the expanding gallery of zip-loc bags, yarn, secret big-brother monitoring schemes and bedsheets writ large that have gone up since.
February 23, 2008
January 30, 2008
$1 Image Stabilizer for any Camera - awesome. My trick has always been to frame the shot, hold it against my face (even when not using the viewfinder) and look at a distant object, but this looks even better, and highly portable. [thx df]
January 06, 2008
Fun game If you're allowed to play computer games, that is. [more inside]
December 28, 2007
December 20, 2007
Studillac - Thanks to the AV Club, I've found out I live in a world that has a car called the "Studillac": "Combining the graceful continental styling of the new Studebaker Starliner with the power and performance of the new 210 HP Cadillac engine". Now you know what to get me for Ludachristmas.
December 12, 2007
Cracked's most baffling toys list. "Surprisingly, not all of these are from Japan."
December 01, 2007
How to Buy Eyeglasses Online - and save a hundred dollars doing so.
November 29, 2007
November 07, 2007
Your monitor looks a little dirty. Here, lemme get that... Ah, much better. If you need ongoing maintenance and don't mind being marketed at, you can find regular maintenance solutions (for mac and pc) here.
November 04, 2007
Self-Righteousness + Word Rage + Blackmarket Electronics == Cell Phone Jammer. Is this you? DIY Plans here and here (first one much better). One might integrate the TV-B-Gone (DIY) for full cyberluddite power. There's also reports of hotels jamming cell service (and assumedly wifi) to force use of their high-margin copper service.
October 19, 2007
One Laptop Per Child computer available for developed nations. For $400, you buy two laptops: one for you, and one for a child in a developing country. Pogue's review is enthusiastically positive.
Who else will put in a share of the $200 donation required to pay for and deliver one XO laptop to a child in a developing nation?
October 16, 2007
Just a little iPod accessory that some might enjoy. Turn it up!
October 12, 2007
So, want to play Portal but don't want to shell out $50 (or $60 for Xbox 360) for Orange Box? Check out the flash version of Portal here. [more inside]
October 02, 2007
The Days and Knights of Tom Murphy Chess hustler / erstwhile street person Tom Murphy is the self-appointed Professor Emeritus of the "Chess University of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.". Much like the Great Zucchini story, this article gives an engaging picture of a talented person leading a complicated life. (The Great Zucchini article is the best short work I've read in the last few years -- go read that now if you haven't, we'll wait.)
The best quote in the article actually comes from another faculty member, who recounts
The proudest teaching I ever had was I taught a pimp in New York. His name was Comfort, as in 'comfortable'. ... He said, 'Step into my office,' which was a pink, long Cadillac. I got in. It had a bar in the car and everything. I started thinking, 'Now how in the world am I gonna show this pimp how to play the game of chess?' So he asked me, 'What do the queen do?' I said, 'The queen do all the work.' He said, ' Ohhhh, now what do the king do?' I said, 'The king don't do nothing.' His eyes lit up when he heard that. He said, 'Man, I like this game already.'"
September 28, 2007
DIY Traffic Calming - Rob Cockerham uses a Fisher-Price radar gun (it actually works) to quantify various traffic-calming schemes.
September 11, 2007
Nice photoessay of the 10 worst cars of all time as voted by some rich collectors and whatnot. The quotes are fun. The study was prompted by one guy noticing that hipsters are driving the prices of "nerd cars" up.
September 06, 2007
I randomly stumbled on a nifty little video feature named Zero Punctuation today. I don't know how to describe it except to say it's hilarious fast-paced video game reviews. There are only four at this time but start now and you can say you were a fan way back when.