End the War on Freedom - Gadgets

Hear Better on Your Cellphone

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:36:50 +0000

Candice Chan at Wired - to hear better on your cell phone in a crowded place, cover the microphone, so that the ear listening to the phone hears only the person on the other end, not the background noise. Haven't tried it. Sounds like a good idea.

Christmas Harp 2008

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:07:29 +0000

My daughter has been playing the harp for a quite a few years now. She started out with a rented full-sized harp, then got a Dusty Strings 26-string harp of her own, which she now takes to school on the bus once a week. My wife has been looking for a full-sized harp for many years. She finally found one, on eBay, a few days ago. It's a Dusty Strings FH36B in Bubinga wood. She won the auction on Tuesday afternoon, and drove to a pawn shop in the Bronx yesterday, in the rain, to pick it up. What a Christmas present!

With our Christmas Tree

Dusty Strings FH36B in Bubinga

The Dusty Strings Logo

Label inside the harp

The Pawn Shop

Conspicuous Coffee Consumerism

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:38:26 +0000

I waxed eloquent a few days back about making Capulin Coffee in my Aeropress. Well, I've been using an old old blade coffee grinder to turn my beans into powder, and I got tired of it. So I ordered a brand new KitchenAid Pro Line Burr Coffee Mill. Works good. Only took a few tries to get the grind size and amount ideal for how I like my coffee. 10 pounds of stainless steel and glass. It will probably survive me. The photos below are after grinding some beans, ready to mix with hot water, plunge, and enjoy!

Capulin Coffee + Aeropress = Heaven

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:01:14 +0000

I reported over two years ago about my acquisition of the Aerobie® Aeropress™ coffee maker. Well, about six months ago I discovered an incredible coffee, Capulin Coffee. Shade grown in the jungles of Mexico, processed by hand without water. Best coffee I've ever had. Not cheap, but easily worth every penny. Well, I left my Aeropress at my sister-in-law's place at Thanksgiving of 2007, and didn't get it back until Thanksgiving of this year. Tried the Capulin Coffee in it. What can I say? Putting the best coffee in the world into the best coffee maker in the world makes Bill a very happy hacker. Yum!

New Hand Drill

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:51:25 +0000

I bought a hand drill at Sears nearly thirty years ago. It still works, but it's gotten a little loose over the years. I decided to get a new one. The new one is bigger, tougher, has two gears instead of one, and is screwed, not riveted, together. Haven't drilled any holes with it yet, but I think it will work well. $15. Made in China by Great Neck Saw Mfrs, Inc. of Mineola, NY. Click the "read more" link for photos.

Samsung S730 Camera

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:14:15 +0000

I bought a Samsung S730 digital camera at Target the other day. Was there looking for a birthday gift for my daughter to give to a friend of hers, and it jumped out and grabbed me. $100. There were hundred dollar cameras from HP, Nikon, and Kodak there, but they were out of stock, and this one has more pixels. Haven't played with it enough to know how good its lens is, but it takes movies, audio, and still photos. Comes with very little memory, but $25 got me a gigabyte SD card, which holds over 700 full-resolution (7.2 megapixel) images. Nice to have a better camera than the one in my iPhone.

Self-portrait, no flash

Denali camera case

Coke machine at laundromat

Sony® Portable Reader System PRS-500

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:39:20 +0000

Sony - the electronic book is born. E-Paper screen. 20 gig hard drive. Windows, unfortunately. $350. Available at the end of October. Me want one. [/.]

How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World? One. And You're Looking At It.

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:41:29 +0000

Charles Fishman at Fast Company - compact flourescent lightbulbs (CFLs) have gotten cheaper and better. If you use them to replace your incandescent bulbs, not only will you save energy, you'll save money. Lots of it. [cafe]

Quote:

Last year, conversations started in Wal-Mart around the potential of swirls to save customers money on utility bills. "Somebody asked, 'What difference would it make if we changed the bulbs in the ceiling-fan display to CFLs?'" says Kerby. A typical Wal-Mart has 10 models of ceiling fans on display, each with four bulbs. Forty bulbs per store, 3,230 stores.

"Someone went off and did the math," says Kerby. "They told me we could save $6 million in electric bills by changing the incandescents to CFLs in more than 3,000 Wal-Marts. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know I was paying $6 million to light those fixtures. I said, that can't be right, go back and do the math again." The numbers came out the same the second time: savings of $6 million a year. "That, for me, was an 'I got it' moment."

Broken Axle

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:23:31 +0000

We knew that the right front axle on my wife's car needed replacing. It was scheduled for repair on Thursday. What we didn't know is that it was so near failing and that it would fail so spectacularly. Fortunately, it happened 100 yards from our house and she was driving very slowly. Looks like big bucks to me. Sigh... We'll find out tomorrow.

Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 11:47:44 +0000

Joshua Davis at Wired - Martin Eberhard has created the Tesla Roadster, a no-excuses electric sports car that does zero to sixty in under four seconds. Wouldn't want to pay for regularly replacing its battery pack, however. [/.]

Quote:

He releases the brake and my head snaps back. One-one-thousand: I get a floating feeling, like going over the falls in a roller coaster. Two-one-thousand: The world tunnels, the trees blur. Three-one-thousand: We hit 60 miles per hour. Eberhard brakes. We're at a standstill again -- elapsed time, nine seconds. When potential buyers get a look at the vehicle this summer, it will be among the quickest production cars in the world. And, compared to other supercars like the Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo, and Lamborghini Diablo, it's a bargain. More intriguing: It has no combustion engine.

The trick? The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries -- the same cells that run a laptop computer. Range: 250 miles. Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed: more than 130 mph. The first cars will be built at a factory in England and are slated to hit the market next summer. And Tesla Motors, Eberhard's company, is already gearing up for a four-door battery-powered sedan.

From Slashdot discussion:

Quote:

Re:Global "Dependencies" (Score:5, Insightful)
by rainman_bc (735332) on Wednesday July 19, @09:49PM (#15747391)
(http://costas.dyndns.ws/)

I consider our reliance on oil much more "evil" than our reliance on electronics. PDA's aren't killing the earth quite as fast as cars are ^_^

Until something replaces Coal power plants as the main method of generating electricity, you're just replacing one evil for the other.

Yes, I'm aware of Nucular, Hydro, Wind, Tidal, Natrual Gas. Doesn't matter. Coal is the most popular choice today.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]

* Re:Global "Dependencies" by bman08 (Score:3) Wednesday July 19, @09:57PM
*
Re:Global "Dependencies" (Score:5, Funny)
by kypper (446750) on Wednesday July 19, @10:29PM (#15747552)
(http://slashdot.org/)

Nucular

George? Is that you?

Pontiac's Roadster

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 13:07:54 +0000

I saw a Pontiac Solstice on the way to work this morning. Nice-looking convertible roadster. $20,490.

Magnetic Power Modules(tm) and Quantum Dynamos(tm) - Update

Wed, 03 May 2006 11:20:04 +0000

overtone at zpenergy.com - Magnetic Power, Inc, expects to have commercial zero-point energy devices by the end of next year. Hype? Don't know. Their life expectancy if true? Short. [jomama]

Quote:

We now see commercial products emerging from our prototype program during the last half of next year.

First will be Demonstration Devices. These will provide irrefutable evidence that the Quantum Dynamos can be a practical source for the conversion of an inexhaustible supply of energy. The target time frame for pre-manufacturing prototypes is the Summer of 2006.

By the end of 2006, prototype 1 kW Magnetic Power Modules are expected to be available to the first few potential licensees.

During 2007, one of these modules will replace the need to plug-in, a plug-in hybrid, -- in order to herald the end of dependence on fossil fuels.

Hydrogen Fuel Systems

Tue, 02 May 2006 09:51:44 +0000

United Nuclear, besides selling chemicals, was building a hydrogen fuel system for automobiles. Their conversion allowed the engine to automatically switch between hydrogen fuel, from a metal hydride tank, and gasoline. They were near commercialization, with systems planned for sale for $7,000 - $10,000, when they had to switch their efforts to fighting the feds, which I blogged last Friday. Part of their system is a solar hydrolysis machine, allowing you to make your own hydrogen, from water and sunlight, for nearly free. Unfortunately, the machine isn't very efficient yet, so it takes two days to fill one tank with hydrogen. Read details about their system on the Hydrogen Fuel Basics page. [clairefiles]

Teeny Reactor Pumps Out Biodiesel

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:43:56 +0000

Associated Press via Wired - Goran Jovanovic of Oregon State University has created a device that greatly simplifies the conversion of vegetable oil and alcohol into biosiesel fuel. [wired]

50th Birthday Present

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 02:13:30 +0000

I pass my first half century on the planet tomorrow. My mom gave me some money. I bought a toy tonight. Click for hi-res version (1161x327, 51K).

It came with two books:

The Russians do like their stamps: