Posts by Category: Awesome

Just…like….wow!

Awesome July 4, 2008 posted by

Willard Wigan – the world’s smallest and most amazing works of art?

Willard Wigan is an artist, or to be more exact a micro artist. The 57 year old sculptor, who was awarded the MBE by the Queen last year, produces pieces of work which are all but invisible unless you view them under a microscope. Put it this way, his entire 102 piece collection, painstakingly created over 40 years, could fit into a single matchbox…oh and it’s insured by Lloyds of London for £11.2 million. He calls himself a micro-miniaturist – which is…


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Awesome July 3, 2008 posted by

Atmosphere Lite – surround yourself with the sounds of nature at your desk

Atmosphere Lite is an awesome little freeware program that lets you enjoy the sounds of nature while you’re working on your computer. The program comes with a set of 10 preset scenarios including rain forests, ocean nights and woodland campfire and if you don’t like those you can create and record your own version using the samples they provide. I’ve got to say it’s extremely agreeable to sit here blogging to the sound of Woodpeckers, Barn Owls and other assorted natural sounds – it sure beats the…


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Awesome June 26, 2008 posted by

MagCloud – publish your own print on demand magazines

MagCloud is a simply superb idea from the HP Labs people. Upload PDFs of your content and these folk will turn it into a full colour, saddle stitched, 80lb paper magazine. In true print on demand style you set your selling price, and deduct the cost of production from that to make a profit (if you want one). It’s all done via Paypal, and distribution is through the usual postal sources, and it’s a fab fab idea. The service is…


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Awesome June 19, 2008 posted by

Firefox 3 – after the hype, the reality…it’s great!

Just a quickie to say that if you were put off by the Firefox 3 hype – 4 million downloads in a day is some kind of launch isn’t it? – don’t be. I downloaded it expecting very little, and have been very pleasantly surprised. It’s fast. Like fast fast! And the beauty of it is that the 15,000 small things that improve it really do add value, they’re not just there for feature bloat or to show off. Get…


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Awesome June 17, 2008 posted by

MovaMail – mobile email done superbly

MovaMail. I can’t believe I haven’t already mentioned the MovaMail mobile phone email client here. I’ve been using it for a fair while now, and have raved about it in my newspaper column, so it’s weird. Anyhoo, here’s the redress. Number one, it’s a Java app, so it runs on just about every mobile phone out there. Two, it has a superb, easy to use interface. Uncluttered, clear and easy to read, even on very small screens. Three the account set up…


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Awesome May 21, 2008 posted by

Kalkhoff Agattu Electric Bicycle – the best electric bike in the world?

Apparently this Kalkhoff Agattu is just about the best electric bicycle you can buy in the world right now. It uses a Panasonic Pedelec system (which senses how hard you’re pedalling and adjusts power assist accordingly), has a range of up to 50 miles and will charge up in 3 hours. What makes it special? Well according to this review it seems to be the combination of low weight, robustness and performance when compared with the rest of the field. I asked…


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Awesome May 19, 2008 posted by

How to Make Your Own Biodiesel – step by step guide to a cleaner burn

How to Make Your Own Biodiesel is a great step by step guide to making biodiesel for your own use. It covers just about everything you’re ever going to need, and is a goldmine of useful information. For instance the section on using biodiesel for modern turbocharged direct injection vehicles is a must read. Oh and SVO is straight vegetable oil, while WVO is waste vegetable oil (i.e. from restaurants and the like). (Psst…Elsbett makes a really cool single tank…


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Awesome May 12, 2008 posted by

The Filminator – a machine to make your own photographic film

The Filminator is a DIY project from a photography buff which will produce rolls of photographic film from sheets of plastic and some chemicals. Just to be clear, this involves layering chemicals on plastic, getting them to bond, and a whole bunch of stuff that nobody except a rampant loony would even think about. Incredible project and judging by the finished project sample below, it’s a working machine. Wow! [Via Metafilter]  The film base is off-the shelf, but the emulsion…


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Awesome May 7, 2008 posted by

Suissa Enlighten Computer – my my, technology never looked so good…

The Suissa Enlighten PC shows what you can do when you really try and think outside the box…um…circle…er…whatever. We’re talking limited edition, wood case, Intel or AMD engine, 1 TB drive, Radeon/Nvidia video, 4 GB memory. Price? Well let’s just put it this way, you don’t exactly buy this lush Canadian piece of fine art tech, as much as commission it. Get the picture?  Enlighten’s design dissipates heat through the use of aluminum around the power supply and DVD drive…


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Awesome April 25, 2008 posted by

Star Trek Communicator Replica – “bridge here, Cap’n”

Star Trek Communicator Replica. None of yer fancy stuff here matey, this is the original style Communicator with the flip top, delicious beep acknowledgement and 9 scintillating phrases from the show to keep you amused for hours. Hey and it can be configured to call you back. Awesome. We can think of no better implement to take into your next board meeting. Seriously. $29.99.  Just like the prop from the original series, only better! With sound effects and clips from the…


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Awesome April 24, 2008 posted by

DuoSIM – how to convert a standard cell phone to dual SIM in 3 minutes

DuoSIM is a very cool new conversion kit to upgrade standard mobile phones to dual SIM operation so you can have two SIM cards installed and switch between them at the push of a button. I’ve been looking for something like this for a while to make the best use of different data and call rate plans, but up till now the adapters have all required that you cut your SIM card up first, which is something I didn’t really…


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Awesome April 23, 2008 posted by

World’s Largest Abacus – faster than a calculator and a little bit bigger than a bus

This 18 foot long Thai abacus has got to be the world’s biggest non-electric calculator. It’s currently in use in a resort town pharmacy and can calculate drug bills faster than a calculator. We’re kind of wondering whether the speed includes running back and forth time. We’d love to see a video of this thing in action so if anyone is near Rayong in Thailand…?  A Thai pharmacist uses a 5.5-metre-long (18-foot-long) abacus in the resort town of Rayong, 205 km (127 miles) southeast from Bangkok,…


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Awesome April 23, 2008 posted by

Off The Grid – living eco style during Earth Week

As part of Earth Week, Steven Leckart of the very excellent DVICE site is attempting to live and work using only renewable energy sources like sunlight and…well…sunlight. It’s a great idea and something that we should all take note of, even if we live in cloudier climes than the C of A. One of the really interesting things I learned recently was that solar power is way ahead of the game in terms of efficiency and power delivery over the…


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Awesome April 16, 2008 posted by

B Corporation – the new corporate ‘do no evil’ standard

B Corporation. It’s clear that as long as companies have the maximisation of profits for shareholder benefit as the cornerstone of their existence, we will continue to experience greed, corruption and Enron type corporate ‘dislocation’. And this current fake ‘social responsibility’ hype needs to be trashed too, and quickly. So it’s extremely interesting to see the launch of this new alternative standard for incorporation which puts social and environmental responsibility at the heart of the corporate charter. This shift from shareholder…


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