Cideko Wireless Keyboard

For ages now, I've had a computer hooked up to our flatscreen, and we've slowly transitioned off of cable and mainly onto internet-based content. It's a pretty sweet deal for us, but only because we don't care much about sports or the shows being offered on basic cable. 

The other night, I sat up to grab our wireless keyboard and mouse, which are unwieldy things, and wondered if there was an easier way than using full-sized input devices. I was picturing a small keyboard that plays well with my thumbs, like the one that comes on the Sidekick or the Google TV remote. And sure enough, someone thought of it already. In fact, several someones have.

I'm an impulse buyer, so I ordered the first thing that came up, the Cideko AVK-02-915 Black RF Wireless Mini Keyboard (available on Newegg for $40). I've seen some good reviews online (here, for instance). It's working for us so far, although the construction seems a little flimsy (for instance, I expect the letters to rub off the QWERTY keyboard), and the buttons are less than intuitive. But it serves the purpose I bought it for (namely, to keep from having to get off my duff, which is a terrible inconvenience).

Start looking around in other places for the same type of thing, and you'll find more options, like the Koolertron Air Fly, the iPazzport Fly Air (a name that surely got someone fired), and the FAVI SmartStick, some of which have me feeling a little bit of buyer's remorse. 

The Cern Hadron Collider is Coming!

Radiohead As Played by 1980s Tech

Via Geekologie...

Not actually recognizable until about 1:10 in (wait for it to load and skip to it), but absolutely mindblowing from there:

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

A DIY Drumming Robot!

From Let's Make Robots!

String Theory Explained in a Hilarious Accent

Shockwave Traffic

It turns out that traffic is not just caused by that lady on her cell phone... but I will continue to think so anyway. Life is better when there is someone to blame.

Adobe Photo Lens

Ever been so tipsy that you have to cover one eye to see straight? I think this lens is based on the same principle.

John Koza's Invention Machine

"What Koza has done is to automate the creative process. To begin, the invention machine randomly generates 75,000 prescriptions. It then analyzes them in KOJAC, which assigns each a fitness rating based on how close it comes to a desired set of specifications-in this case, a wide field of view with minimal distortion. None of the 75,000 members of the first generation will be usable wide-field telescopic eyepieces. But a few of these primitive systems will be marginally effective at focusing a wide field of view, and a couple others might slightly reduce distotrtion in one way or another.

From there, it´s Darwinism 101. The invention machine mates some systems together, redistributing characteristics from two parent lens systems into their offspring. Others it mutates, randomly altering a single detail. Other lenses pass on to the next generation unchanged. And then there are the cruel necessities of natural selection: The machine expels most lenses with low fitness ratings from the population, kills them off so their genetic material won´t contaminate the others."

Continue Reading...

XO Laptop

Wired: Hair Apparent

"Today, surgeons are able to harvest and reimplant as few as two hairs at a time, making the transplants look more natural. Still, the supply-and-demand problem remains. In the early 1990s, Colin Jahoda, a researcher at the University of Durham in England, took a step toward solving it. He stripped a few cells off the root of a mouse's whisker follicle and implanted them into its ear. Out grew a whisker. Next he took a section of follicle cells from his own head and implanted it between the fine, pale hair on his wife's arm. A thick, dark hair emerged, complete with male DNA. This demonstrated that the cells at the base of a follicle can and do regenerate into self-contained, preprogrammed hair factories."

Continue Reading...

Johnny Lee, Will You Marry Me?

Joli and I just bought a Wii, and we have been playing the games nearly every night, marveling at the function of the machine. In tennis, if you tilt your wrist inward on a return shot, you hit cross-court, something that has recently amazed me in its accuracy. (Sadly, I am unable to do such things in real life.) Yet I haven't spent much time wondering what's inside the thing. To me, it has just been a magical white box that allows me and Joli to go bowling in our living room.

But Johnny Chung Lee, a PhD-seeking graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University has already hacked the device to use in other applications, such as an interactive white board and a head-tracking display device, which makes a 3D display possible (videos of both projects are posted below).

It's guys like this who make computer science seem like punk rock.

Head-Tracking VR:


Interactive Whiteboard

Animal-Inspired Robots!

DIY Robot!

A PORTRAIT-DRAWING ROBOT!

Comcast DVR Hack - 30 Second Skip!

Joli and I got the Comcast DVR when we moved into our new place, and it's kind of changed our [TV-watching] lives. We've found so much quality programming that the truly great shows have actually elbowed out the shows we previously considered good: no more Scrubs; no more Sex and the City; no more America's Next Top Model (a former favorite Joli's, not mine). No, now it's Frontline, Top Chef, and Wired Science.

But the DVR realm is not a level playing field. Some people prefer the Tivo interface (Joli and I both felt like we were being pandered to with all of the goofy sound effects), and others like the Dish Network DVR. I am one of the latter, simply because of the skip ahead feature. When we first got Comcast, I missed it so.

But thanks to a guy named Moe, there is a hack to solve the problem. Make sure you skip step 4.

While I am grateful for the ingenuity people have, I wonder a bit about this type of discovery. I liken it to the fact that a credit card with a "dead" magnetic strip can be changed into a working credit card by placing a plastic bag over it and sliding it through again. Who thought to try that first? These people should be placed in history next to the person who first ate an egg.

Superconductor Anyone?

Get your own HERE.

Geekologie: Cut A Bottle With String, Acetone, And Fire

From Geekologie:



"You can cut a beer bottle using string dipped in acetone and then setting it on fire. The video is a demonstration. I like how the guy in the video shows you some great uses for the bottle after you've removed the top. Apparently it makes a great toothbrush holder or place to store desk supplies. While I did enjoy this novel approach to glass cutting, I already have my own bottle cutter. It's called the sidewalk. You may not be left with a toothbrush holder afterwards, but it will significantly decrease foot-traffic in your neighborhood."

Consolidate Your iTunes Library

I can't say how many hours of my life I've spent obsessing about the location of the music on my computer. I have a relatively tiny primary hard drive and a larger secondary drive, and I prefer to keep large files on the secondary for better performance. Those who use laptops don't have these issues.

Before now, I thought one had to transfer each file manually, and I've spent a good amount of time doing just that. Well, iTunes has a tool for that, and it actually works like it's supposed to.

I'd still like to have those hours back.

Song File Migration

Snap-O-Lantern!

Tesla Coils, Mario Bros.

I can't help it. When I first got my Nintendo, I nearly peed I was so excited. (This has partially to do with the fact that it was my only present I hadn't found that year, and the Nintendo was the only surprise I hadn't ruined for myself.) I loved Mario Bros.