Blendor
it’s like hitting a piñata filled with exciting blog posts
Archive for Gadgets
December 23, 2008 at 10:28 am · Filed under Gadgets, Health, Science
Inventor’s 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world’s poorest see better:
Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.
The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.
Such an amazing idea. With self-adjustable glasses cheap enough, and with the right distribution networks, sight could be restored to massive numbers of poor people in the world.
June 11, 2008 at 12:04 pm · Filed under Gadgets, mac
So I’ve finally bitten the Apple, and I got myself a Macbook Pro. I wouldn’t say I’ve “switched,” because I plan on installing Windows XP with Bootcamp soon. One of the reasons I hated my previous laptop was its truly terrible battery life, even when it was new. I didn’t realize that batteries suffer what is commonly referred to as a “memory effect” (in reality, voltage depression), that can essentially be overcome by allowing the battery to discharge and cycle. With a Macbook Pro, use the following instructions:
- Fully charge your MacBook/MacBook Pro.
- Once fully charged, leave it plugged in for at least another 2 hours.
- Remove the MagSafe power adapter, and use your computer until you get the battery level warning message.
- Ignore that message and keep working.
- Eventually the machine will go to sleep.
- Do NOT plug it in. Instead, let it sleep for at least 5 hours.
- After the time has passed, plug it back in, and let it fully charge.
- Once fully charged, your battery has been properly calibrated.
High temperatures can also decrease a battery’s life span, so keep your laptop well-ventilated during use, and don’t put it in any ovens, ever.
April 10, 2008 at 3:01 pm · Filed under Gadgets, Photography, diy
It’s pricey, but it’s cool:
Simply a perfect couple: The breathtaking charm of the legendary Holga, encouraging you to dive into experimental photographic effects and the amazing advantages and features of the Polaroid instant Photography including the Image Transfer Technique when using the 88 or 669 Film. With this set you have all the options, deciding whether you take medium format pictures, 35mm Shots or simply load your Holga with overwhelming Polaroid material.
They also have just the back, if you have your own Holga 120.
April 8, 2008 at 11:45 am · Filed under Gadgets, Humor
What’s weird about The WineRack isn’t that it exists as a product, but that it is marketed as an alcoholic beverage container, rather than, say, a convenient CamelBak replacement that would hold water. I don’t know a whole lot of active ladies that really need that swig of wine when they’re running around in a sports bra.
OK, well I know a few.
March 11, 2008 at 11:02 am · Filed under Film, Gadgets, TV
I watch a lot of downloaded and streaming content. Often I copy files to the PS3 in the living room, and playback control is no problem. But if I’m watching on my computer, if I want to pause or rewind, it means I have to physically get up and go to the computer to do so. No more! I’m setting this up today:
You can control Netflix Watch Now playback with your remote. All you need is a remote control, a infrared receiver like the USBUIRT and a program like girder. I’ll show you how I’m doing this and share with you my girder gml file which you can download as well.
February 28, 2008 at 10:04 am · Filed under Gadgets
This is pretty cool. I only wish they made one for older, non-SATA drives.
January 29, 2008 at 9:32 am · Filed under Gadgets
This is so cool. I must make it.
All you need is washers and rivets, and you have yourself a quiet, compact set of keys.
January 17, 2008 at 10:58 am · Filed under Gadgets
It’s a pretty cool idea, but I wonder if people would still want to boil it anyway, not trusting that it’s truly clean:
December 11, 2007 at 3:17 pm · Filed under Gadgets
If only it were a little cheaper, I’d be very tempted to get one of these.
October 31, 2007 at 1:24 pm · Filed under Gadgets, Photography
Well, for now only any camera that uses SD Memory:
Eye-fi is a magical orange SD memory card that will not only store 2GB worth of pictures, it’ll upload them to your computer, and to Flickr, Facebook, Picasa (or 14 others) wirelessly, invisibly, automatically!
This little guy looks like a normal 2GB memory card and works with any camera that takes SD memory. There are no antennas, no protrusions, no subscription fees, and no cables.
For $99, this is pretty cool – especially the auto-upload to Flickr feature. It’s not really practical for me, since I usually send things through Lightroom before uploading, but it might be really useful for some.
