gizmos & hacks

Day 1228: Of Rocks And Rubik’s Cubes

January 6, 2009

Cousin Bina writes about a digital forensics specialist who went from modeling rock deformation to creating 53 algorithms for solving the Rubik’s cube, all of which the user has to memorize before tackling any given cube. NYTimes | Specializing in Problems That Only Seem Impossible to Solve The following  anecdote impresses me the most.  Despite being a mathematics-loving teenager, [...]

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Day 1026: Dorkasm, Vol. 8395

June 18, 2008

Just read this headline as “Japanese robots join forces to compete with South Korea.” On cue, enter visions of a cardboard Seoul in cartoon flames, anime ninjas whizzing past a steel-grey background and Yoshimi and her pink robots. Tweet

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Day 1017: Scary Cool Futurism With Prosthetics

June 9, 2008

Damien Hirst + Honoré Fragonard + JF Sebastian = Christopher Conte Wired: Prosthetist Makes Extraterrestrial Life from Limbs   Tweet

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Day 1009: Surfing The ‘Tubes

June 2, 2008

Not at work, hacking like a tuberculosis-ridden dog, dutifully not passing germs along to co-workers, and bored out of my skull despite five books that are waiting to be read, I present you with the results of today’s internet scouring: * Desi Fix: Proving that there are desis a lot less lame than me, Sameer [...]

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Day 923: Google Calendar Sync

March 7, 2008

Wheeeee, Google Calendar Sync is finally here!  This means that when I am home, I can look up my work appointments on Google and do not have to install Outlook on my personal laptop.  Although a 2-way sync is the default, 1-way syncs are also available, if, say, you don’t want your Google Calendar appointments showing up on [...]

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Day 820: The Day The Routers Died

November 25, 2007

Ultimate nerdery at the 2007 RIPE (European IP Networks) convention “So, bye bye, folks at RIPE 55 Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh But I s’pose we’d better give it a try I suppose we’d better give it a try.” N.B.: It’s a [...]

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Day 801: Electronic Geophysical Year

November 6, 2007

A just machine to make big decisions Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision We’ll be clean when their work is done We’ll be eternally free, yes, and eternally young – I.G.Y. by Steely Dan Back in 1957, the International Geophysical Year (IGY) was launched along with Sputnik and the world reached for the stars. [...]

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October 15, 2007

For all the hell we give technology-addled kids these days, this is why I still love them.  It’s not just in how much they use it, but how and why. Tweet

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October 9, 2007

Sick of pushing phone buttons until you get a human?  The GetHuman 500 database offers the phone numbers of 500 popular services and companies along with updated number punches to get through to an operator.  Me, I simply pretend to be on a rotary dial phone and press nothing until the system is exasperated and [...]

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Day 757: Science & Tech News

September 24, 2007

New Dense Zone Within The Earth’s Lower Mantle Proposed: “… research suggests that a section of the Earth’s brittle mantle about 620 to 1,365 miles (1,000 to 2,200 kilometers) deep actually is a ‘transitional zone’ where the rock turns into a strange, incredibly dense state.” Drawing On Air With Haptics In 3D: “By putting on a [...]

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