Candy Corn Bag. You can put all the toilet paper you were storing in your sushi tp cozies in here and no one will suspect you're about to decorate their house.
Fortune Cookies. Scare your friends by making weird and strange predictions.
There will come a point in the evening when people won't notice you have slipped them a knitted Olive.
We felt Mochi Ice Cream deserved a mention if only because it reminds us of the "We're Not Candy" singing pills of our youth.
Once again I am entertaining myself with Google Maps Mania while drinking my tea. This morning's awesomeness? Ohio is a Piano, created by cartographer Andy Woodruff. He's turned the science of statistics into a musical experiment. Here's what the map does: Ohio has 88 counties, a piano has 88 keys. So basically this is an audio data visualization of the state. Each county represents a piano key and you program the map to play a song by assigning a county a key based upon data like kids under 5, median age, avg sz97 and sqmi (which I read as "sqee me" at this early hour and was briefly baffled until I realized this actually meant square miles).
Only in New York City will you find an international chalk art celebrity's first solo exhibit inside an old hardware store on the Bowery.
Making good on his word to experiment with light and shadow in different contexts besides the street, Ellis Gallagher's latest show at Collective Hardware, "Ocular Echoism: The Autonomy of Ellis Gallagher," features striking photographs of some of his most beautiful chalk-outlined objects throughout New York City. Curator De L'Autonomy, defines the work through the lens of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, which you can read about here. But what I thought was the most interesting part about the exhibit was how it brought the street indoors, playing around with what goes where in the same way Ellis does by bringing art onto the street with chalk.
In addition to the dozens of photographs lining the walls of the converted hardware store, the exhibit includes a chalk-outlined bicycle hung from the ceiling, a plastic crate outlined in chalk and surrounded by garbage (the planted trash was a bit much), and a lineup of newspaper dispensers covered in tags, standing to attention in the center of the gallery. It is a who's who of graffiti writers in New York at the time of the show's opening and a live (and far more interesting) roll call than the black and white, two-dimensional name-dropping you find on Gawker the day after a big party in NYC. This inanimate roll call combined with Ellis' installations, a handful of candy-colored Claws, and a fire-tag shout out to Dash Snow provide the perfect anthropological icing to Ellis' beautiful photographs.
The exhibit is only up for a couple more days, but you can check out the work below and stay tuned for Ellis' upcoming shows by keeping tabs on his Facebook page.
I've been running around like a crazy woman gathering the necessary materials for my own hydroponic system and finally...all the running has paid off. Yesterday Britta from Window Farms plus her team--Ted, Lisa and Anja--spent 8 hours in my apartment installing a home version of the window farm at Eyebeam we blogged about back in June. Sadly I bought the wrong pump so my system isn't fully operational but the new one is in the mail. I'll post a full wrap up on Monday when the pump arrives and I've installed it. In the mean time here's a bit of what we did yesterday.
I'm off to get the rest of what I need to construct my hydroponic Window Farm with Rebecca and Britta tomorrow. That in conjunction with some video troubles is leading to today's quick post: Top 10 Creature Knitting Patterns.
Bad JuJu by Zabet Stewart (I'm making this one now)
This just in...Google Maps Flash API 3D now available. The mashup demos posted are very cool and the developers have provided excellent DYI documentation if you're interested in creating your own map--which I am although it might take me some time considering I'm not a programmer. Still--totally doable. Our insect expert Lonesome Polecat's partner in crime loves arcade driving games so this one is included here especially for her: the work-in-progress Driving Simulator by Katsuomi K.
Since NYC is becoming like London with our massive amounts of torrential rain as of late, I've been pouring over weather maps. Trice Designs has a good one with cloud overlays. Here's my pick because it makes me feel like I'm in a cartoon: UK Weather Map by Ian Watson.
Dave's post on Jonathan Coulton is pretty popular so we're leaving it at the top of Nerdabout today. A few months back Joanna interviewed Spiffworld who makes World of Warcraft machinima videos using Coulton's songs. MythbustersAdam Savage says Spiff's video using Coulton's,"The Future Soon" is "maybe the best piece of machinima art evar!" We've got that one and a few others. Click here to see 'em.
Ten years ago, Ellis Gallagher began lighting his graffiti on fire because he was bored. Just like his chalk art, the trend caught on like wildfire in the graffiti world (no pun intended) and now “fire tagging,” as it’s come to be called, produces almost two million hits on Google and 19,000 results on YouTube.
Unlike some of his successors, Ellis doesn’t use lighter fluid, nail polish remover, or alcohol. He just writes on a wall, turns off the lights, and sets the wet paint on fire. The effect is brief and pretty and the result is art in and of itself (Some of his canvases are covered in layers of fire-tagging residue - a molten lava replica of his pyrotechnics).
The World Science Festival has ended but there was so many things happening that we have to share what we saw. So the rest of the week is going to be dedicated to wrapping up some of of those events. Our friend Dan, who runs the cool parenting site Kidmondo, went to the World Science Festival Street Fair in Washington Square Park where he encountered many interesting and wild things, including this ball throwing robot which was built by students in the Project Success Robotics Alliance. This organization, which Dr. Lonnie Johnson inventor of the Super Soaker helped to found, is dedicated to inspiring kids to enter the fields of science and engineering. We think this guy is pretty damn awesome.
Over 300 vendors crowded their tents around the track at McCarren Park for the Renegade Craft Fair. There was a huge variety of sundries on display. Hamburger rings, watch movement necklaces and squid tentacle sconces are a few that caught my eye but the predominant craft being peddled was without a doubt T-Shirts. Waving lazily in the wind in neon green, powder blue and basic black. They carried simple silkscreened silhouettes, ironic phrases and in some cases beautiful and complex designs that might be fetching enough to draw some glances on Bedford Ave.
One vendor who's snarky wares caught my eye was Sable Yong. She makes Tee Shirts and Tote bags that will definitely put a spring in your step. One of my favorites sports the phrase "My Tote bag is a totier tote bag than your tote bag" If that doesn't turn your sass up to eleven I don't know what does. You can check out some of her other totes and tees at her etsy shop, Sabletooth Tiger.
The highlight of my day had to be Diane Koss's booth. She makes these absolutely adorable, mostly cycloptic and totally huggable plush toys. Each has a name and a lovely story about their personality. They have the uncanny ability of completely disarming you with their charming and curious smile. I think Nigel is my favorite, he is a scientist. Be sure to catch Diane at one of the many fairs she will be visiting or just grab a doll at her etsy shop, Cutsey But Not Cutsey.
All in all I had a great time at the fair. I did feel that it was a little over populated with t-shirts that were for the most part underwhelming. I think with most fairs of this size you will always have to do a little sifting and ultimately, if you put in a little effort, you'll come out with some very unique treasures. If your a fan of the Renegade Craft Fair be sure to check out Bazaar Bizarre, another indie craft fair that always has a great showing of merchandise.
The summer's first World Wide Knit in Public (WWKIP) was this past Saturday, coinciding with what has been the excedlingly rare sunny day in NYC. Knitters,crocheters, and spinners gathered in places around the world to show just what makes crafting so fabulous. The following videos were shot at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library near Prospect Park.
I met Lexie through our Geek S&B NYC group. She shares some of the unusual things she's knitted up.
Last but not least, here's a few of the knitters I met at WWKIP.
In case you missed this weekend's festivities, you'll have one more chance to hang out and knit in public with big groups of other knitters. Visit WWKIP for more info.
If you're interested in joining one of the groups mentioned in the videos, check out Ravelry or Meetup.
A couple of weeks ago I put out the call for people to submit contraptions they've built or are building. Moose, a Nerdabout fan on Facebook, answered the call with a unique take on flight simulators.
The 4th Annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA was this weekend. My husband and I have gone every year and it keeps getting bigger. We have to go both days of the fair weekend just to see everything. For those who don't know, the Maker Faire is put on by Make Magazine, a magazine for Do-It-Yourselfers, a growing movement. Well before the economy crashed, geeks of all sorts discovered the joys of hacking Roombas to make spirographs and turning trash into art. The Maker Faire celebrates those who make, build, sew, craft, hack, and teach. It's a brilliant concept.
Creativity reigns at the Maker Faire, both in the products that are displayed and demonstrated and in the people who display and demonstrate. Walking through the fairground, you can't look at a crowd without seeing people in costume (Steampunk, furry, or superhero), people representing the rebellious fringes of society (punks, eccentrics, hippies), or those just expressing a wild individuality (hair of every hue and length, squid hats, stilts). And, of course, the ever-present Utilikilt.
The displays vary wildly. There are always a lot of robots. They're a real crowd pleaser and people clearly love to make them. There are science teachers talking about demos they do in class. There are electronics for bikes, Christmas, and entertainment. There are always lots of things that shoot fire, such as the Crucible truck and the Flaming Lotus Girls' display. And let's not forget the over-the-top displays of making, like a life-sized Mousetrap game or the big metal giraffe that tools around the fairground or the human powered amusement park rides or the giant mechanical hand that picks up oil drums as if they're soda cans.
Ecology is a big influence for many of the makers. It shows up in big things like electric cars (my husband loves the Tesla) and in smaller ones like using recycled plastic bottles to make art. There's also a group called Engineers Without Borders which helps build wind turbines and provide water to countries in Africa.
A new feature this year was a Food Makers tent. A little sparse but promising, it offered cheese tastings, home beer brewing kits, tips on pickling, great chocolate, mushroom growing, and information on vegetarianism and local food. Since this Maker Faire takes place in the Bay Area, land of serious foodies and a huge local food movement, I expect this tent to grow in future years.
It's often hard to take time to sit down and listen to the presentations by makers since there’s so much to see. But there are talks and music all day long. We always make time for Adam Savage, co-host of Mythbusters, who spins a good yarn about what it's like to be a maker. This year he talked about failure in a funny and touching way. My husband caught a talk by a 14 year-old CEO who created a chemistry-based game called Elementeo.
As ever, a good time was had by all and a great deal of money was spent. On the way out, you can stop by the Maker Shed where they sell books and kits and materials so you can try your hand at being a maker or expanding your repertoire. I always walk out inspired to create. If I got nothing else out of the Maker Faire, that's definitely worth the price of admission.
Most diff implementations remain outwardly unchanged since 1975.
-- Wikipedia
It's been over a year since david23 lent me his copy of A Quarter Century Of Unix by Peter Salus (part of the Unix and Open Systems series from Addison-Wesley) and it has sat on my shelf throughout a good 18 months of learning to hack Perl, Ruby and the GNU toolset. I should mention that, 19 months ago, I thought I knew how to manage an HTML source tree with the GNU tools and Perl; but now I know differently (and I know slightly more than I did then as well).
One thing I've learned is that, although yes some of the "old" Unix tools were (apparently) perfected back when I was coding my first lines of BASIC, there's still a lot going on in the world of command-line tools. In fact, one of the big revelations for me in the last year and a half, is that despite the growing ubiquity of multitouch displays (a friend just built one in his garage) and iPhones; a lot of people still work in the shell.
So there's really just a great, healthy, growing community of open-source command-line hackers out there, and as I've joined their ranks, I've grown more and more interested in their (our) history. After all, I wrote my first lines of code on an Osborne computer running CP/M, an OS descended directly from the DEC operating systems that ran on some of the mainframes where Unix was spawned.
So it was great fun to finally get around to reading A Quarter Century Of Unix. For one thing, the book contains lots of relevant technical information (now I finally understand that the parenthetical numbers in the names of manpages, refer to volumes of the Unix manual). And, as with any history of the open-source movement, there are plenty of anecdotes about pranks and late nights and spur-of-the-moment experiments that turned into tools that are still powering the Internet today.
This book also helped me to appreciate that the "viral" spreading of Unix systems didn't start with Linux. Salus takes a couple of chapters to fully describe the dissemination of unlicensed or quasi-licensed Unixes, on great reels of magnetic tape, from MIT and Stanford to Wollongong university in Australia.
The thing that really got me about this book though, is all the details about the tools. It's good to reflect occasionally that "basic" tools like the text editor were invented, and not that long ago. And I didn't know that one of the first industrial uses of Unix, was in preparing documents for print. It's always good to be reminded that the shell predates the GUI. As my dad told me when, at the age of 10 I asked how a computer works: pictures may show up on the screen, but underneath, its all text (OK, he really said "underneath, it's all ones and zeroes," but close enough.)
Anyway, this book is a fun, fast read, and while it contains a lot of information found online, the writing is enjoyable, and, being written by Salus, who was present at many of the events he describes, there's a lot of interesting details.
A few weeks back, Mark, gave us some tips on how to go about building your own super cool doll house. I thought it would be interesting to learn more about why Mark does what he does.
What makes you a doll nerd?
Probably the consuming need to work on my doll house. It’s one of my “happy” places I mentally go to when allowed. Like at church or the DMV. On my days off, I can get severely irritated if I have another commitment and I also have a big doll project in mind. In addition a large chunk of my computer time is dedicated to trolling about the web looking for other doll house people to see what they do. I also like to read reference books about vintage dolls and accompanying playsets. My partner who is the real doll nerd has amassed quite a collection of reference books and magazines on this topic.
While cruising the internets for some miniature LED lights, I stumbled across Super Cool Doll House, a blog run by Mark, the designer of the coolest damn doll houses on the planet.
Hey! What's clipped to your belt? We want to know so badly we're having a photo contest. You get to vote for the winner! The prize: a fabulous Nerdabout t-shirt and stickers.
Machinima is awesome. I feel cool just saying the word. But what--as a friend of mine recently asked me over chat--the hell is machinima? I wrote back with a knowing nod of my head: machinima uses 3-D rendering engines to produce computer animation. I was met with silence. She was at work and needed entertainment so I sent her the link to "Code Monkey."
Need some inspiration to make this day a memorable one? Here are some prank ideas, courtesy of our Facebook fans.
How about the cream cheese deoderant?
Roll a solid deod. up about half way, cut it off smooth, roll back down and fill with cream cheese, smooth off the top and round it off. Replace cap and wait for someone to apply. —Jonathon
When I was in Mexico, I bought nail polish that goes on clear and turns bright red in the sun. I painted my dad's nails on April Fool's Day and it took him a week to figure it out (he doesn't get out much, lol) and when he did, he TOTALLY freaked out! It was amazing :] —Desiree
expanding foam in small space. buy foam and spray lube. you will also need strong plastic bag.
step 1 empty the space. step 2 coat all surfaces with spray lube. (avoid carpets this stuff does not come out of fabric) step 3 place bag in space step 4 fill entire space with foam. step 5 let the foam do its magic :) —Edmund
Mix the salt and sugar labels up! also, put powder in someone's hair dryer so when they put it on the powder blows all over them. —Alexandria
I had a newspaper delivered years ago that went in the bushes and have only just found it,still in good nick but,it will be getting swapped with april 1sts paper. My wife should enjoy it when she's trying to poach her hard boiled egg. —Darryn
If your colleagues are using wireless mouse, mix up their signal receiver. Plug A's to C's PC, B's to D's PC, C's to B's PC etc... —Victor
Mess up your best friend's RAM, and make it to 512 MB, or less, and laugh at their lag. —Zhili
You need 4 chickens and little signs that say 1, 2, 4, and 5... —Aaron
Convince them April fools was moved to the next week. —Laura
In the course of the past year, I've been combining my love of knitting with my new-found obsession of World of Warcraft. I've been tracking down fellow knitters who enjoy spending hours at a whack questing to our hearts content--and knitting during the long flights or when being corpse camped. I decided to branch out do in-game interviews using Fraps, which I'd never used before. To my way of thinking, if I'm going to write about crafting and WoW, what better way to do so then from the inside?
Perfect for April Fool's Day! It's not what you think. Play this easy and funny prank on your friends, courtesy of Kip Kay and some Huggies.
What you'll need:
1. A Diaper
2. Scissors or razor blade
3. A Glass of water
4. An Unsuspecting friend or enemy.
OPTIONAL: A cool Zildjian t-shirt.
Step One: Get it Ready
Using the scissors or razor blade, cut through the liner of the diaper. Inside you will find the precious "pee-pee crystals" which is actually called Sodium Polyacrylate. Remove the cotton inside by tearing pieces of it out and placing them in a covered container. Also dump in any of the crystals you may find in the bottom of the diaper. Now shake the container real good for a while. Remove the cotton and you should end up with about a handful of crystals.
Step Two: Do the Prank
Store the crystals in a zip lock or other small container. When you are at the restaurant or even at home, wait for your friend to leave the table or distract him long enough to dump the crystals into his glass of water. In about 20 seconds, the "pee-pee crystals" will absorb all of the water in a full glass and turn it into a solid mushy glob of rubber. Play stupid and surprised at what could possibly have happenned to the water.
BONUS: Call the waitress or manager over and ask "WTH!!???"
WARNING: Do not eat or let your friend drink from the glass. Not sure what could happen but it certainly will not be pleasant.
I hope you enjoyed this April Fool's Prank you can use all year long.
Tired of the fighting when Dancing with the Stars is up against Rock of Love Tour Bus, and no one will DVR? Kip Kay puts and end to the squabbling once and for all by jamming the works.
Says Kip, "I've had a few scuffles in my house over the TV remote, so I decided to do something about it. I built a circuit that will block my TV and any device I choose from getting a signal from the normal remote control. I turn an ordinary remote into a jammer and the remote still works normally! Watch the video to see it work."
What you'll need:
I chose to use a Sony remote control (SR-P30) because it has plenty of room inside to add my circuit and a 9 volt battery while keeping the remote fully functional.
Step One: Install the Circuit
I hot glued the circuit inside the remote control. I also had to remove 2 posts to make room for the 9 volt battery. Tape down the LED's near the existing LED. I used the existing switch on the remote and wired my 9 volt battery to it.
Then disassemble the device to get to the recording module. You can clip the microphone connections or leave them depending on how much room you have inside the calculator.
Step Two: Test it Out
You may have to tinker with the 10k pot to get the frequency right for the device you are targeting. Adjust the pot while the remote is 'on' and test it with the original remote until the jammer confuses the device. Now, just pull out the remote whenever you need to take control of your device and no one will have any idea what's going on. You can bring this to a friends house and drive them nuts! Have fun, be safe!
How Does It Work?
This is a pretty simple concept. When you press a button on a remote crontrol for a TV, stereo or other IR device, it creates a series of pulses which the receiver in the target device; in this example, a TV, decodes into the corresponding function. This frequency is around 35-40kHz. To confuse the receiver, this jammer sends out a steady stream of binary code (1s and 0s) at the same frequency, but contains no information to decode. The receiver basically sits there and does not respond at all and the real information cannot get through to it as long as the jammer is on. Voila! You've "jammed" your TV remote!
Kip Kay continues with the April Fool's hack-fest. This time up, the case of the crazy calculator, or: your friends won't know what hit 'em when they hit the equals sign. Watch the video then follow the instuctions below!
What you'll need:
1. A calculator
2. A device that uses a recording module. In my case I found a cheap automotive memo thingy that sticks to the windshield and allows you to record up to 5 different messages and play them all back. You could use a regular single sound module like one from Radio Shack.
NOTE: You will have to find a calculator that is thick enough to hold the module inside its case.
Step One: Prepare the Recording Module
Before you do anything else, record what you want the calculator to "say" on the module. I actually ran a jumper from the microphone input to a mini plug that plugged into my audio card on my PC and then I recorded some .wav sound effects.
Then disassemble the device to get to the recording module. You can clip the microphone connections or leave them depending on how much room you have inside the calculator.
Step Two: Prepare the Calculator
Take apart the calculator and decide what key you want the sounds to play from. I chose the EQUAL sign key because that always has to be pressed. You could choose a number key that would play the sounds only when that number was pressed or the minus key ... your choice.
Step Three: Make Your Connections
Run two small wires from each side of the contact on the calculator key you decide to use. Then run those two wires to the playback contacts on the module. Run the two power wires from the module to the positive and negative ends of the calculator battery terminal. When the calculator key is pressed, it will complete the circuit for that key and also the playback button.
Close up the calculator and make sure no wires are sticking out. Re-insert the battery and your calculator prank is ready to use! Each time the "=" sign is pressed, the module will playback the 5 recorded sounds and then repeat. Have fun!
photo: nuala29
Recent Comments