2011 at 9:06 am | posted by
Scott
So as of right now, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a white Christmas. If you really had your heart set on some snow, fear not. You can now make a run to the hardware store for some parts to build your very own snowmaker. Appropriately named Instructables member, MakeSnow has a very nice step-by-step on how to build it.
Snowmaker photo by MakeSnow
2011 at 10:27 am | posted by
Scott
Well folks, it’s Cyber Monday again. You know what that means… it’s time for another iteration of my holiday geek gift guides. I started this quite a few years ago as a list of gift guides to help me find gifts for the people I shop for. Most of these are geared more towards geeks and gadgets, but there are several for more general gift giving. If I run across more, I’ll keep this post up to date. Or if you know any that I missed, leave me a comment, and I’ll add ‘em to the list.
(Guides from previous years: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)
2011 at 6:19 am | posted by
Scott
This is a slick little gadget. It’s a little green ball with cameras mounted all over it. You toss it into the air, and it created a spherical panorama at the apex of your toss.
I wonder how careful you have to be when throwing this. I bet a little bit of spin would mess up your panorama. Either way, it’s a pretty cool idea.
2011 at 7:40 am | posted by
Scott
Want!
(I just need some more french cuffed shirts)
2011 at 6:36 am | posted by
Scott
Have you ever wanted to display your mood with a pair of giant cat ears? Well, the wait is now over. A Japanese project called Neurowear has created a set of robotic ears that react to your brain waves. The concept is a little odd, and I’m not sure if this is something I’d wear in public, but it’s a very interesting idea to communicate what you’re thinking using a peripheral that you wear on your body.
They need to create a dog tail to communicate happiness when it wags.
2011 at 9:32 am | posted by
Scott
Playing with Hot Wheels just got a lot more fun (not that it wasn’t fun to begin with). The Hot Wheels Video Racer appeared at this year’s CES event. It’s a regular-sized Hot Wheels car, but it has a small point-of-view camera built into it, as well as a little monitor on the underside of the vehicle. So you can feel like you’re driving the car through the ups and downs and loopty-loops of your Hot Wheels track. The car is supposed to hold 12 minutes of video, and it comes with a USB cable to hook it to your computer. It is also packaged with editing software so you can refine your racing videos. It is supposed to be out in Fall of 2011 and will sell for about $60. This almost makes me want to dig out my old Hot Wheels tracks again and “go play cars.”
2010 at 10:44 am | posted by
Scott
The digital story of the Nativity. What if Google had been around 2000 years ago?
2010 at 10:14 am | posted by
Scott
Another year has come and gone, and with it, comes another iteration of my holiday geek gift guide. The gift lists are chosen because they appeal to me, and the people I shop for. Feel free to let me know if I’ve missed any lists that you find helpful, and I’ll ad ‘em to the post.
(Guides from previous years: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)
2010 at 2:00 pm | posted by
Scott
I got a present in the mail yesterday straight from China. The tiny little macro/wide angle lens I purchased had finally arrived (apparently free shipping from China takes a while). Yes, you read that correctly. I purchased a lens for the crappy camera on my phone. I figured this was a $10 experiment to see if a lens for a camera phone would actually work, and surprise-surprise, it doesn’t do too bad of a job.
The lens came in a blister pack which included the actual lens, which is pretty sturdy with a metal housing. It also includes a lens cap and a little magnetic bottom cap with a tiny lanyard on it. The way the lens works is by attaching to the back of your phone with a small magnet ring around the bottom. If your phone doesn’t have anything for the magnet to stick to, they include two small metal rings (like little tiny washers) with peel off adhesive on them that you can stick to the back of your phone. I ended up sticking it to the case I have over the back of my phone. The lens itself is made two pieces screwed together that change depending on the type of photos you want to take. The lower, smaller piece is the macro lens, and the upper wider piece, when screwed on is the wide angle.
I was somewhat skeptical of how well a lens for a camera phone would work, but have been pleasantly surprised with my experiments. I started with a few macro shots and it does a pretty nice job. See the examples below. I took some shots of a few small items I had laying around. For the macro shots, I took a normal shot of the Old Capitol, then one with the wide angle lens. The wide angle shots aren’t as nice as the macros, but all in all, it’s a nice little tool to have.
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Sharpie Macro
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Quarter Macro
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Remote Control Button Macro
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Remote Control Power Macro
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Little Action Figure Macro
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Macbook Keyboard Macro
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Without Wide Angle
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With Wide Angle
If you want to own one of these yourself, I bought my from Deal Extreme, but they are all over ebay as well.
2010 at 11:22 am | posted by
Scott
Do you want to take random trips around the world (via Google Street View)? MapCrunch allows you to teleport around the word to some pretty beautiful places on Google Street View. It also looks like you can submit you own cool places via Twitter (@mapcrunch) to be the “View of the Day” on MapCrunch. I also like putting it into slide show mode and hitting the full-screen button in the corner. Someone needs to figure out how to make a screensaver out of this.
Maybe artist Bill Guffey can use this site to help him find places to paint.
It only took me about 25 tries to find a shot from Iowa.
2010 at 9:09 am | posted by
Scott
I ran across an article yesterday that took me for a little trip down smartphone memory lane: From Brick to Tile: We Look Back at a Decade of Smartphone Evolution
Kyocera 6035
The article walks through a brief history of smarphones, starting around the year 2000 and moving to recent phones dominated by Android and the iPhone. This little write-up reminded me of my own smartphone past. I’ve not owned anything other than a smartphone starting with my very first cellphone, the Handspring Treo 300 back in 2003, which was not only my first phone, but also my first cell phone service. I remember doing a lot of research before jumping into the cellphone world, and had my eye on several phones at that time. I remember following a couple Kyocera phones before going pulling the trigger on a purchase. The first one I remember looking at was the Kyocera6035, which was a black and white Palm PDA in the form of a phone (it was big!), and then shortly after that, the Kyocera 7135, which had a much more compact flip phone form (and a color screen!). I can also remember keeping a close eye on the Danger Hiptop (later named the Sidekick), which was a pretty cutting edge phone at that time. I ultimately settled on a Handspring Treo 300 (pdf) as my entry into the smartphone revolution. It was a great little phone, and I loved being connected to the internet wherever I was at.
It’s been interesting to watch where things have gone since the early smartphone days, and as they become much more common, it will be fun to see what the future holds.
2010 at 11:10 am | posted by
Scott
OK Go sure knows how to make a cool music video.
You may remember some of their other great videos:
2010 at 6:41 pm | posted by
Scott
It’s a shame I didn’t see this before taking our Christmas tree to the treecycle pile on Sunday… I think this would have been a lot more fun.
2009 at 4:10 pm | posted by
Scott
Now these are some Christmas lights!
This is another one of my favorites in the Christmas light department (be sure to dig into the making-of videos).
2009 at 9:20 pm | posted by
Scott
What started a few years ago as a collection of helpful gift guides for my own gift giving has turned into a yearly endeavor. Here is the 2009 list. Most of these are geared more towards geeks and gadgets, but there are several for more general gift giving. If I run across more, I’ll keep this post up to date. Or if you know any that I missed, leave me a comment, and I’ll add ‘em to the list.
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