Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

Somewhere along the line Comcast upgraded speeds in my area…

I dunno what’s going on with Comcast but here’s a plot of the signal levels from my cablemodem… the downstream power level is bouncing all over the place… so far, it doesn’t seem to affect my connection but its a bit odd…

I love Penn & Teller… and this is one of my favorite episodes of their show… I still chuckle every time I think about all the different recycling bins that roll out… 😀

(This is a full 30min epsiode – so you may want to earmark it to watch the whole thing)

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

I made it on Hack-A-Day today! cool!

[Richard] tipped us off about converting an iPod from a hard drive to a Compact Flash card. We actually did this a few years ago. Because we frequently buy broken electronics we had an old iPod 20GB with a broken HDD. Knowing we had seen one wire-porn type diy adapter and reported on another, a quick search produced a ready-made solution.

Roundup: simple hacks

Bouncing water – who knew?!

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

Note to self… next time I’m cranky, start making some major choices about important things!

In a bad mood? Don’t worry – according to research, it’s good for you.

An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly.

Feeling grumpy ‘is good for you’

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

So sad for the American car makers…

Paying more for a new car doesn’t guarantee better reliability. As a group, inexpensive small cars and midsized family sedans are the most reliable. That’s one of the findings of our 2009 Annual Auto Survey, based on our subscribers’ experiences with 1.4 million vehicles.

New Cars

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

My favorite part of this article is where it says that there’s no hope of a new single plug that will work everywhere in the world… funny… and sad. :/

Ok, maybe not every country, but with at least 12 different sockets in widespread use it sure as hell feels like it to anyone who’s ever traveled. So why in the world, literally, are there so many? Funny story!

Giz Explains: Why Every Country Has a Different F#$%ing Plug

Oh man – you’d think that modern fork-lifts would have rear-view cameras or something. 😀

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

The hard drive on my old 20gb iPod died and I figured I’d just upgrade it to flash instead of throwing it away.

I bought a 32gb CF card and a CF card to 1.8″ ide converter.

The toughest part was opening up the iPod (which wasn’t all that hard – plenty of how-to’s on the ‘net). After getting the card in the adapter, and the adapter into the iPod, I closed up the case and plugged it into my PC for its sync. After it re-sync’ed my music all was well.

32gigs of solid-state space on my oldie-but-goodie iPod! 😀

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

This would have saved me hours back in my bachelor days… 😀

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba

The amount of effort to get this to work must have been insane… it uses a video camera to watch the screen to decide what to hit on the guitar – crazy

This is a HUGE time saver when installing… not only is it faster to install, but its easier to carry, and silent!

Apparently this is how Google Streetview is done:

I’m glad someone did the research on this – I had a hunch but wasn’t sure… those new 4-watt LEDs run super hot!

Let’s start this off with a quick clarification. When I say “LED light”, I’m not talking about the nifty, little blinky things that are frequently part of the ingredients list in Make projects. I’m talking about the Big Show: An LED light that can replace the incandescent bulbs and/or CFLs you have lighting up your home right now. To do it right, you don’t just need a single LED that works, you need an array of them…and you need them to produce enough light, and the right color of light, reliably enough that people can buy an LED bulb and know what they’re getting into.That ain’t easy. But it is getting easier.

Trouble is, they’re being oversold, like whoa. For about two-and-a-half years, I’ve been reporting on LED lighting for a trade magazine called Architectural SSL*. During that time, I’ve watched mainstream press and enviro blogs tout LEDs as the green energy miracle light. Often, with a level of enthusiasm seldom seen outside rooms full of puppies. Don’t get me wrong. LEDs are pretty cool. There are places where they’re useful now, and places they probably will be soon. But if you’re just hearing about the awesome, you aren’t getting the full story. And, as more LED products start showing up on store shelves, that really starts to matter.

LEDs: Throwing Some Light on the Hype

Posted by richardyoo on Natuba