Not Your Grandpa’s Legos

Legos may have lost some of that box of blocks charm over the years, but they have become a toy that, rather than being left behind as a child, will continue to grow with you. The Mindstorm series of Legos is a serious step into the world of robotics and computer programming.

(via GeeksAreSexy)

See also:

Mindstorm Madness

Smart Tweezers

Whenever I go into a store like Radio Shack (great marketing on the name guys), I’m always a little shocked at how low tech it has remained. Behind the cell phones and overpriced video connectors that obviously are all that keeps them in business, there is a small section of simple electronic components and tools that look like they were some kind of Chinese surplus from the 80′s. Somewhere in the mix there will be a boxy over sized multimeter with a few functions on it and some giant tangly contacts. This is not an acceptable way to deal with modern electronics.

Enter the Smart Tweezer. The tips measure  capacitance, resistance,  inductance, and voltage. It will even graph out time varying voltage on the built in screen and identify components.

Unfortunately they aren’t cheap. They run about $300, when they are in stock.

Honorable Mentions for Jan 09

A few things that caught my eye but didn’t merit a post to themselves:

How to use butane and fire to mount a tire that has come off its rim

The Ibex has now set two huge scientific records. It was the first animal to be cloned after extinction, and subsequently the first animal to ever become extinct twice. Better luck next time guys, this has great promise.

USB drive that masquerades as a floppy drive for those annoying things like bios updates that still tend to require them.

Salad Sunrise: Oil and vinegar container that takes advantage of their relative weights to serve them from a single container.

Flashlight hose nozzle. Why you would garden in the dark is beyond me. Most people have lights in their yard. This thing needs to be water powered at least.

Barbie digital fingernail printer. Pick your pattern, stick your finger in the printer. Instant manicure. Buy one here.

Washing machine built to take the whole basket. It looks great, but the more I think about it the less impressed I am.

Toaster Trebuchet catapults your toast with great accuracy.

Please consider this to be an open post as well. Feel free to post a link to your blog, throw up a link to something you think should be featured on this site, or talk about what is on your mind. All comments will be moderated, so don’t be spammy.

HUD for Billiards

These are some top notch geeks. They built a setup to compute and project the trajectories of pool shots directly onto their table. It doesn’t work terribly well, but I think it is mostly a problem of low end hardware and strange setup. Why didn’t they put the webcam by the projector, pointed at the mirror?  By having it in the corner they make things immensely more difficult to compute.

I think once Surface goes mainstream, innovations like this will come in a flood.

Cold Heat Alternative

Instructables just posted an awesome DIY Cold Heat Soldering Iron project. If you haven’t heard of these irons, they use the heat caused by electrical resistance to heat the work directly, rather than heating the iron. I think I actually happen to have everything required for the project lying around the house, and unlike the original, there are no batteries to replace. It runs off of an old computer power supply.

I think the only thing I see that I would change for my first attempt is the conductor for the tip. I’d switch out the mechanical pencil lead for carpenter pencil lead. It is wide and flat, and much stronger. It would likely heat less at the copper connections and could be sharpened to near any tip shape. How to get the graphite out of the pencil? Throw it in the fireplace. They use the stuff in cooling rods for nuclear reactors, I hardly think a little fire will hurt it.

Or, if you are too lazy to build your own, get the original ColdHeat soldering iron here.

Waistband Stretcher by Inch-Master

It seems like every year after thanksgiving I’m going through my favorite old clothes and none of them seem to fit any more, which leads me to an unfortunate conclusion: The best clothes shrink with age!

If I were a retailer, the first thing I’d be putting on my cyber-monday sale flier would be this waistband stretcher by Inch-Master. It takes care of those shrinking clothes by returning their waistbands to a size that fits, just like they used to.

The Egg Cuber

Just think of how much more efficiently you could store your eggs if they were square! All neatly stacked. No more eggs rolling off of your plate, and they fit perfectly on a triscuit. Amaze your friends with tales of your new genetically engineered chicken. all this for a mere three dollars.

To use it, just hard boil your eggs and remove the shells. While they are still warm, drop one in the (preferably chilled) cuber and screw down the lid until the egg becomes square. Unscrew the lid and push up on the base plate to remove your now cubetacular egg. Repeat until you have a nice stack of eggs.

Crowdsourcing Your Arguments: Sidetaker

You know those arguments that keep coming up and you just can’t seem to come to a resolution? You both think you are right? Sidetaker allows you to write up your argument and send an invite to the dissenting party. Should they choose to accept the invite, they will be able to write up their own side of the conflict, at which point the argument will be posted (anonymously) for all the world to deliberate. Readers can take a side and add their reactions, comments, and suggestions for a resolution. Even if it isn’t for everyone, it is a brilliant idea. A few examples:

His unemployed ass drives the newer car

Never offers to cook clean or shop

My dad wont let me date a black guy

Decoy cookies in the cabinet so annoying

Ultrasonic Fog Maker

Every year when Halloween comes around, I carve a watermelon. I don’t have anything against the carving of pumpkins, I just find the watermelon to be a superior choice.

They are easier to carve.

They are more directly edible.

The green on the skin contrasts nicely with the red interior.

The interior looks awesome when lit.

The biggest flaw I’ve found with the watermelon is that it doesn’t take the heat of a candle very well. This year I tried this little ultrasonic fog maker with LED. Even with a windy Halloween, the results were impressive. The interior had a shifting glow in the swirling fog.

When submerged, the device uses ultrasound to resonate the surface of the water and break it into extremely tiny droplets. The fog feels cool to the touch, but not very damp. In my tests, the effect worked through thin solid materials, so you could hide it in a device. It also worked with some success on other liquids (including Vodka). You may have seen these in use in small fountains, or for reptiles, terrariums, or humidifiers.

Update: Here is my watermelon carving for 2009:

For 2009 I had a small melon. I did’t have much room inside for a water reservoir, so I just put the fog maker in a jar of water. I could hear all of the trick or treaters coming because of all of the exclamations ver the smoke coming from the teeth of my watermelon. The empty eye socket was carved to a thin shell so it lit up nicely without being open to the interior.

How an Engineer Folds a T-Shirt

Good design doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to be hard to make, or use difficult to come by materials. I hope this video is a design inspiration to all of you, even those of you who never fold your shirts. I don’t see much to be improved in this device. It is inexpensive, easily manufactured, recycled and recyclable, functional, does its job easily and well, and takes up very little space.

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