Jeffrey Stephenson, maker of extraordinary wooden PC enclosures, writes in that Datamancer's turned 20th century.
My friend Richard Nagy (aka Datamancer) is famous for his Steampunk creations. Well, I think the Steampunk fad may have run its ourse. He has come over to the dark side and created an Art Deco keyboard.
In a review of the Lehr Eco Trimmer, a weed whacker that uses (sadly proprietary) propane canisters for fuel instead of gasoline, comes this disheartening bit of trivia:
Most impressive to me is the fact (vetted by the EPA), that American homeowners spill 17 million gallons of gasoline annually in their uncoordinated attempts to fuel lawn and garden equipment.
In this recession, companies aren't the only ones who should be downsizing. Trading in a McMansion for less spacious accommodations may not be your decision, but if it has to happen, you might as well make sure your new abode is humble -- and cool. But even if you're just looking for a shabby-chic tool or writing shed, you can dream bigger, er, more interesting...
Basic resources, plans, and workshops after the jump...
But why not go for the gold and create the mini-house of your dreams?
You can pay any number of these companies to create a basic set of plans. One option that appeals to the lazy guy in me is to get someone to build the timber framing for you, then just fill in the blanks. Kind of like paint-by-numbers, only with a lot more sweat. And possibly blood and tears.
Or you can swipe any number of the free plans and PDFs posted to Tiny House Design. (all you have to do is agree to hang a CC license logo in the window*). I'm not going to advocate you build a "Earthbag" house, mainly because it involves living amongst dozens of dirt bags, but go ahead if that appeals to you. [insert joke about deep V-neck tees here]
If you want more guidance than a book, photos and web links. Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed hosts $200+ one- and two-day workshops across the country that are supposed to be helpful, especially for beginners (via This Tiny House).
Here's one guy who learned to build a "tiny house on wheels" and swears by Tumbleweed (note: it is not me).
Taking tight control over what gets on the iPhone and iPod Touch doesn't come without consequences. After all, everything approved is there because of a decision that someone at Apple made.
Bear this in mind next time you head to the App Store, where you can't swear, can't compete with Apple, and can't sell racy novels, but where you can shake a baby to death for fun! [CNET]
Improvements abound in Peek's latest email-only handheld, the Pronto. It has push email, can check up to 5 accounts, and is now compatible with Microsoft Exchange. It can now view PDF files and Word documents, has an improved search function, and can send and receive unlimited text messages through Peek's SMS gateway.
Best of all, its cheaper: the no-contract handset is only $80, and the $20 monthly subscription falls to $16.67 if you buy four months of service. The original Peek is now an impulse-buy $50.
Otherwise like the original -- a slim machine that does not make or receive phone calls -- it has a straightforward user interface, a superb QWERTY keyboard, and accessible controls.
Given the basic hardware, only so much is possible performance-wise. Speed improvements are touted, but deleting emails is still frustratingly slow, and it only downloads then in small batches. It's best not to leave it off for any length of time if you get lots of email.
The monthly subscription is the cheapest way to get decent unlimited email in your pocket. Peek sold lifetime subscriptions with the original, at Costco, and savvy shoppers will be waiting for a similar deal.
Though the focus on simple email is what makes it special, the client could do with more features. Without folders or IMAP, you can't organize email well enough to use it for information management or planning.
Though some might rankle at being stuck with just one application, it's fun to discover what's possible with email and text messages alone: Twitter and Wordpress both let you post with it, while Ent will serve maps, local searches and movie times on demand. Fans maintain a list of useful text-based services at the Peek forums.
The Pronto refines what was already a good device and makes it cheaper, but still lacks the oomph and feature set that would make it a complete (rather than merely budget-friendly) alternative to a smartphone's email services. For people who want on-the-go email but don't want contracts with expensive data plans, though, it's a complete no-brainer.
This is the most indulgent yet elegantly beautiful room lighting design I've seen in a while--it's a series of hanging mesh sacks of varying lengths with Swarovski crystals in them. The creators are actually longtime chandelier designers Diller Scofidio + Renfro--they presented this at a Miami design show last winter. [via Yanko Design]
Behold! the Obama Drive from Active Media, a 2GB USB flash drive that has a custom Obama hologram on the front and publicly available documents pre-loaded:
The Obama drive comes preloaded with over 30MB of bonus material including Barrack Obama's Inaugural Address and his landmark "Race Speech" in MP3 format - a total of nearly one hour of audio, text of several other significant speeches in PDF format, and an official White House Obama photo. The bonus material occupies less than 2% of the drive's capacity, and can be deleted by the customer if not wanted.
Enjoymentland has published their sales data for the first month of Locovore, their produce awareness application for the iPhone. It looks like if you can score a modest sales success (#64 in "Top 100 Paid Apps" for that month) and get featured on the front page of the App Store, you can pull in about $12k net. A healthy amount, but only if it keeps up.
As you can see, even the best press wasn't as effective as being blessed by the Apple Marketing team. Not sure what that means in terms of how to best market apps... basically, it leaves all of us at the unbeatable first law of marketing and promotion: build something interesting.
Kristin sent us a link to these puffy speakers which will probably be available from a crapvendor at some point in the future, but for now exist on what appears to be a Chinese-language blog. I'm posting them here just because I think they make that Shuffle look like a pretty little flower.
Jeff Bliss is temping at Autodesk and has been tasked with getting people to link this phone design contest from LG and CrowdSpring. (Autodesk is a sponsor.) It's hard out there for a temp, so we'll help him out.
Predict what's next. What do you think mobile phones should look like in 2, 5, or 10 years? We are asking for your help. We're NOT looking for a long list of specs or phone ideas that already exist. We're looking for a cool new concept or "big idea" supported by usage scenario illustrations. Understand how your idea will be judged, and increase your chances of winning. Keep in mind, the LG logo must be included somewhere. Use the logo files provided (one is for light background and one is for dark).
You can win a fair chunk of change, up to $20k for first prize, but you can also get a trial version of Autodesk SketchBook Pro (only a 15-day trial, sadly) just for entering. May your Wacom serve you well.
Music Radar found a clever thing: the "Guitar Hanger", which lets you hang up your axe in the closet. (You could also put a guitar in it.)
According to the manufacturer's site, it's only available from a few retailers at the moment. But it's a new product, so give them time and I wouldn't be surprised to see them online. The price? No clue.
Here's an Earth Day action I can get behind: Last Year's Model, which encourages you to buy good gear—and then just use it. It reflects my own preferred method of consumption, which is to spend a little extra to get something that is exactly what I want, then try to use it for as long as possible. (I often fail, but I'm better than I used to be.)
I've got an HDTV that I bought two years ago that should hold me for years. My Canon Rebel XT DSLR, just back from a cleaning, still has more functionality than I ever use. My Kindle 1 still supports words. My iPhone 3G is doing great until they come out with a new one in June which I will instantly buy. (Moderation!)
There's a panic that I feel when something I own doesn't quite perform as I'd like it to, which sets off an escalating and enjoyable process of shopping and comparison, fueling daydreams of how wonderful my life will be with my New Thing. I've been trying to replace "Purchase" with "Projects", though, so that I've always got a few things that are in a state of repair.
My turn signals stopped working in my old BMW yesterday while I was driving back from the hardware store. (I was shopping for a reel mower, which I ended up buying from Amazon after comparing prices in-store with my phone, although I'd needed to go out there anyway for more charcoal and fertilizer.) I caught my brain spinning up, spitting a litany of excuses why I should go buy a new car: I need at least one reliable vehicle; it's a good time to buy a car, with interest rates very low; the Nissan 370Z exercises the corpus cavernosum.
But I'd bought Ruby in part because I knew she'd break down and I wanted to learn car repair. So I pulled into the garage, ran upstairs to spend 30 minutes reading the BMW 2002 FAQ forum, priced turn signal replacement parts on eBay, and went back to pop open the hood. I took out the #6 fuse, wiped it on my pants, and put it back in. The turn signals work just fine now, and I just saved myself $35,000.
Designer Mark Pohlkamp's LIT Urban Underglow is a long LED tube that changes color via remote. 16 colors and four preset "light shows" can be yours for $200... Or you could save $44 and book a seat on Virgin from NY to London. Tough call in this economy.
⌦ Monitors – Two Dell monitors are on sale, a 23-inch for $176, and a 22-inch one for $148. Both are 1080p. [Slickdeals]
⌦ Tiny TV – Haier 7-inch portable LCD TV with digital TV tuner for $106, shipped. Seems like it might be a nice little unit for an R/V or something. I'm kind of half-looking at it for a car PC project that I'm going to dig into soon, but I think I need to stick with a touchscreen. [Dealhack]
⌦ Empire of the Sun – The free iTunes Single of the Week is "Walking on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun, whose hilariously over-the-top cover is above, having more to do with carnival airbrush artists' fever dreams than J.G. Ballard. If you thought we were done reliving the '80s...we aren't. (You can blame me. I like the song on the first pass.)
⌦ Digital-to-Analog TV Converter – If you've got your NTIA coupon, Meritline is selling and shipping this Airlink 1010 converter box for free. [Dealnews]
⌦ AAA Batteries – Yes, rechargeables would be better, but if you need 100 AAA Rayovacs for some reason, you can buy them for $15, shipped. [Dealnews]
...but only, of course, if you set your computer's clock forward! (Click for the full-size graphic). Camillo Miller writes in:
Wanna see what Apple will do at the 1Billionth download mark? Set your Mac's clock to friday 24th and head to www.apple.com
Now here's a great piece of blogsanity: the source has watermarked its screenshots of this, as if it were some sort of exclusive not available to anyone with a web browser and a clock. Great find, though!
Update: Commenter GabrielM wonders why we've got it classified as a "fuck up." It's not because of the existence of the page itself, but because Apple's set the "billionth app" threshold as a client-side date rather than a server-side number--meaning that it's very easy to trick! (The actual counter is, as commenter Youngbrendan points out below, probably reasonably accurate)
We won't see a production model for another couple of months. It will be a little more square when viewed from the front, a concession made to increase interior room and allow the windows to roll down. That's a smart move, because the car we drove could be called "cozy" and the windows don't open.
The engineers have reworked the battery pack, which is located in a sealed compartment under the seats, to move it forward and shift the center of gravity toward the front. Wilbur says the production car carries 70 percent of its weight on the front wheels, which "is excellent for traction and handling." They also brought the front wheels eight inches closer to the body and raised the ride height a bit.
Despite the tweaks, the car became more aerodynamic, and Wilbur says the production car will have a drag coefficient of 0.15. That will make the 2e the most aerodynamic production car in history, topping even the General Motors EV1.
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