Self-capping cork pushpins
Clever concept design from Israeli designers Studio Ve: Keeps all your pushpins together in the same place, and keeps the sharp ends covered. [via NOTCOT]
Computers & Mobile
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Phonekerchief blocks cell signals
This new product called the Phonekerchief is meant to be wrapped around your phone during a romantic dinner to show your respect for your dining partner. $15 at Uncommon Goods starting Nov 25: We may be sitting at the same table, but we are not together: a common condition of our over-wired world. It is […]
Pet Rock 2.0
North Carolina area Etsy member GreenTape’s iRock Dock for the iPhone/iPod is an elegant, zen-like functional sculpture worthy of the most discerning and savviest of users. Improvements over the classic model include inlay Paduak cradle and USB charging cable. Groovy pet carrier packaging not included.
Android controlled cat feeder
I’ve got to build one of these. I usually leave out gobs of food in a couple of bowls expecting my cat to exercise his free will, but this seems like so much more fun. Usually it’s the cat that’s playing the games. And who isn’t interested in Arduino, Android, and 3D printed parts? It’s like some perverse Internet-connected feline vending machine, but instead of some elaborate scheme involving payment gateways and QR codes, it relies on toxoplasmosis-induced mind control. Who’s the robot now?
Make a desktop-embedded USB hub
Wires, wires everywhere. I don’t like looking at wires, wires everywhere. Even though I have a USB hub, it’s a bit of an eyesore sitting on top of my desk, plugged into devices up top, and my computer down below. I decided it was time to embed the hub directly into the surface of the desk. Using the Dremel Multi-Max to plunge-cut the wood desktop, I fit the USB hub into the desk, and attached the hub to the underside using brackets. It’s now stable, stylish, and out of the way.
Help put Ladyada on the cover of Fast Company
Fast Company magazine, which has a pretty good track record of trying to give women a fair shake in the often-testosterone-heavy world of the technology business, is seeking nominations for “the most influential women in tech” to put on the cover in 2011. Past “cover girls” have included Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Rashmi Sinha, (Slideshare), Morgan Romine (Frag Dolls), Jill Tarter (SETI), and Clara Shih (Hearsay Labs).
I hereby nominate Limor Fried.
MIT Media Lab alum, Eyebeam fellow, recipient of the EFF Pioneer award, entrepreneur, open source advocate, bad-ass engineer, founder of adafruit industries–Ladyada belongs on that cover if anyone does. To chime in with your support, go leave a comment over at Fast Company, or on their Facebook page, or tweet #wit11. Better yet, do all three!
The mechanical elegance of the pop-can stay tab
If you’ve been around long enough to have ever actually blown out your flip-flop, stepped on a pop top, you’ve already got one great reason to appreciate the 1975 introduction of the stay-on tab or stay tab: No more little metal razors littering the beaches.
Now, “Engineer Guy” Bill Hammack helps us appreciate the stay tab for another reason: It’s a little gem of mechanical poetry. There’s a lot going on when you pull that little ring. Bill’s video exegesis of that action, like all Bill’s videos, is a little piece of poetry unto itself. I can’t get enough of ’em. [Thanks, Bill!]
