Monthly Archives: June 2010

Awesome June 5, 2010 posted by
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Automatenverlag � buy a book, not a cigarette pack

Fact: Smoking cigarettes is not good for you. Next fact: Vending machines are geeky and wonderful. More facts: You should really read more books, and luckily all this will come to a good end. How is that? Entrepreneural Germans have put up a publishing house, re-using the beforementioned vending machines, but for selling words on paper. The Hamburger Automatenverlag is using old, trusted and refurbished cigarette vending wonders from the past (hand-forged molded recesses, electronics-free action) for offering books from…

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Automatenverlag � buy a book, not a cigarette pack
Gadgets June 5, 2010 posted by
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Tefal Actifry – deep fat frying with just one tablespoon of oil?

This Tefal Actifry thingummy apparently can deep fry your foodstuffs using a mere tablespoon of oil. So now they’re calling it a low fat multi-cooker. Isn’t marketing awesome? It took 10 years to develop and it will probably take a mere year to pile on the pounds as you stuff yourself with low fat French Fries (can we call them that again, Martha?). $299.95.  ActiFry is the result of 10 years of research and development. It has a unique stirring paddle and pulse heat…

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Eco Friendly June 4, 2010 posted by
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Hydro Powered Calculator – is dihydrogen monoxide the new miracle chemical?

This Hydro Powered Calculator combines electrodes, alloys and a mysterious new chemical and manages to create electricity in the process. Not only that, you can use said power to calculate things, like the mortgage arrears, tax bill or your chances of meeting Angelina Jolie next Tuesday down the chippie. (hint: slim). $10.99.  The water-powered batteries consists of two electrodes made of special alloys, which, when immersed in water, produce electricity through a chemical reaction. Simply refill the battery as the water evaporates,…

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Awesome June 4, 2010 posted by
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Steal This Product! – 21 of the Coolest Open Source Hardware Projects in the World

Open Moto X. Fancy being part of an open source electric motorbike racing team? Now’s your chance. Greasy hands optional, knowledge of community protocol (and battery tech?) essential. Ben NanoNote. Ultra small Linux handheld computer with full GPL license and some super cool specifications for hackers everywhere. Great example of what you can do with an enthusiastic and knowledgable team behind you.

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Fun & Games June 4, 2010 posted by
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LEGO Minifigure Ice Cube Tray – Cool and cute

This LEGO Minifigure Ice Cube tray looks like a bit of fun. It’s silicone so getting the pesky blighters out should be easy. If you’re really clever you could stick two halves together and make fat, double-sided minifigures. Or minifigure candles, or chocolates or whatever else you can pour into silicone moulds; ABS, cement, molten lead? Whaatever, you can pick one up from the LEGO shop for about US$7.99. Keep cool with LEGO minifigure ice cubes! / Makes 8 minifigure-shaped…

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LEGO Minifigure Ice Cube Tray – Cool and cute
Bookmark This! June 4, 2010 posted by
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Moo0 Audio Effecter – super fast audio file tweaker freeware

Moo0 Audio Effecter is a neat little freeware utility for tweaking audio file settings very quickly. Want to boost bass, reduce vocals or customise your tracks for your MP3 player? Just drag and drop the tracks onto the box and watch the program go to work. You can pre-set the amount of tweaking that each setting does, which is very useful if you’re one of those types who likes to set all their music to a particular style (we like…

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Awesome June 4, 2010 posted by
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How to fix your dud laptop battery – in one simple lesson

This short video gives an excellent tutorial on how to fix a dud laptop battery. The footage assumes you have a battery which contains standard Lithium cells which can be easily replaced with a minimum of soldering, so if your machine doesn’t, you’re probably best advised to go out and just buy a new battery if you can afford it. It never occurred to me that laptop batteries would contain easily replaceable cells (duh) so this is really interesting. Of…

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Gadgets June 4, 2010 posted by
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iLuv iAD115 – Micro Sized USB Car Adapter

Why don’t cars come with USB ports? Seriously? Is there a more prevalent standard in the world? If you’ve asked this question, and you don’t really need your car’s cigarette lighter socket then the iLuv iAD115 Micro Size USB Car Adapter can help. It might look like just another USB car charger, but it’s very short and sits almost flush with the car dash so it looks built-in and hopefully won’t get knocked about as you flail around looking for…

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iLuv iAD115 – Micro Sized USB Car Adapter
Awesome June 4, 2010 posted by
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Free Solar Videos – 12 things you must know before building a DIY solar panel

This excellent Free Solar Videos site offers up a bunch of free video tutorials to teach us all how to roll our own solar panel arrays and generate power for free. Once you’ve watched the videos and learned your stuff, you can then go on to use the awesome ‘worksheets’ to calculate exactly what you need to buy/build in order to craft the solar system you require. What’s really awesome is it’s laid out in totally easy to understand words, no jargon…

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Gadgets June 3, 2010 posted by
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Waterproof DVR Spy Watch – perfect for sneaking up on some oil spill shenanigans

This Waterproof DVR Spy Watch is apparently safe down to 100 metres, and what’s more comes with auto-recording motion detection tech on board. Good luck finding a motionless part of the ocean, by the way. The gizmo sports 4GB of memory, records at up to SVGA resolution at 20 fps, and can also be used as a webcam, which’ll be great for your underwater Skype chats. Or not. $69.99.  Summer is coming. Bringing an amazing camera to breach will let you…

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Eco Friendly June 3, 2010 posted by
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Republic Bikes – the one stop online DIY bike shop

Fancy a lime green fixie bike with clashing red tyres? You’ve got it. Republic Bikes is your genuine one stop, online kaleidoscopic bike shop. Choose your colours, frighten your friends. There’s a selection of models on offer to customise, ranging from skinny shod Lycra loving scream machines to more sedate Dutch cruisers with fat tires and lazy cool, complete with handlebar baskets. Priced at $399 and up.  Republic Bike assembles custom bicycles based on shared design. We develop designs and offer components…

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Bookmark This! June 3, 2010 posted by
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Red Button – freeware program optimizes Windows with one click

Red Button is a small freeware utility which lets you set up a large number of optimisation options for your Windows installation and activate them with one click on the ‘button’. The settings cover a number of things ranging from boot up speed to registry optimisation. Tick the boxes (but beware on some settings which cannot be undone!) for the options you want, and then click the button and everything is done at once in a matter of seconds. It’s fast and…

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Awesome June 3, 2010 posted by
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Researching the efficacy of the Pay it Forward syndrome

Apparently Pay it Forward kindness actually pays off. Researchers have demonstrated a direct correlation between an initial act of kindness and a ‘waterfall’ effect which initiates other benevolent acts in a ripple effect from person to person. The research, conducted by James Fowler of UC San Diego and Nicholas Cristakis of Harvard Medical School, documents this social contagion as spreading further than you’d think –  what you do can influence people 3 degrees of separation away from your initial act….

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Gadgets June 3, 2010 posted by
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QuokkaPad – hands on with the open-source multi platform tablet

I had an interesting chat today with Mike Ottoy, designer of the QuokkaPad, an open-source, iPad-esque ebook reader with an awful lot of potential. The idea of the QuokkaPad was conceived 10 years ago as an alternative medium for critical documentation such as military or aircraft manuals, where the distribution and version control is paramount. Gradually it evolved into its current form: a Linux powered, open source ebook reader/slate/tablet. It’s not quite as svelte as the current crop of pads…

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QuokkaPad – hands on with the open-source multi platform tablet