Created by the horological artisans of Switzerland’s Jaquet Droz, this analog clock is a true thing of wonder. La Machine à Ecrire le Temps (The Machine that Writes the Time) took thousands of hours of hand and machine craftsmanship over nearly a decade to build.

The clock uses over 1200 mechanical components to work its magic including 84 ball bearings, 50 cames and 9 belts. Crafted primarily from metal, the unusual clock is hand-wound and then activated by a single touch.

And if you don’t believe how truly amazing this mechanical contraption is, check out this video of the clock in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

And now that they know how to make one, they’d be happy to create one (of a limited edition of 28) for the low, low price of 400,000 Swiss Francs (appx. $351,000 USD). So mortgage the house, pawn the Bentley, sell some internal organs on the black market, and place your order now.

[Jaquet Droz via BornRich via The Awesomer]

The Pocket Shark pen ($6.99 USD) might look innocuous enough, but it’s actually made from glass-reinforced plastic and designed to act as an self-defense weapon in the event of an emergency (or if you’re just a lunatic). And while its normal day job is as a permanent marker, this is no ordinary Sharpie.

According to it’s maker Cold Steel, the Pocket Shark  “features walls that are 4 times thicker than similar markers. This means it’s built for impact and, in a self-defense emergency it can become an efficient Yawara stick for driving off an attacker. Plus, the screw-top cap will stay in place and won’t pop off like a regular marker’s cap would when you strike a percussion blow, or when obtaining joint locks or submission holds. “ Yikes.

So the next time you head down to the accounting department and complain about their bureaucratic purchasing process, you’d better pay careful attention to the pens in the hands of the CPAs. You never know.

[via The Awesomer]

Designed by Adafruit (in collaboration with Jay Silver), Drawdio is an analog synthesizer circuit that straps to any soft-leaded pencil, and lets you crank out electronic sounds while you sketch. The kit takes advantage of the conductive properties of the graphite in the pencil lead, and produces a veritable cacophony of sounds as you put pencil to paper.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So maybe you can’t call those otherworldly bleeps, beeps and squeaks “music”, but with enough practice you might be able to carry a basic tune… or you could give one of these a try the next time you have to fill in all those perfect little circles on your SAT or GMAT exam. I’m sure the test administrator would love that.

Adafruit sells the Drawdio kit for $19.50 (USD), including the circuit board, all necessary hardware and a 2B pencil. You’ll need basic soldering skills to put Drawdio together, so don’t expect it to work without some experience building electronic kits.

You’ll need to be able to source your own stories, and be able to write with wit, sass, attitude or at least be slightly charming. You’ve also got to be consistent. I’m looking for people who can write 7 to 10 posts a week, maybe more if the readers fall in love with what you have to say. A solid grip on the English language is also a must. You should also have at least some experience using blog software such as Wordpress, Blogger or Movable Type – and basic image cropping and sizing in Photoshop or other image editing tools is required.

Now before you get dollar signs in your eyes, I’ll tell you that blogging for Technabob won’t make you a millionaire. But it’s a great opportunity to expose your literary talents to hundreds of thousands of readers each month.

Want to give it a shot? Pick a topic that you think will appeal to Technabob readers, and send along at least two appropriate writing samples to tips@technabob.com. Be sure to include your contact information, and a brief note on why you’d be the perfect addition to the Technabob crew.

I look forward to reading your submissions.

The most practical of the bunch is the Information Central pad, which helps you track things to do, people to call/e-mail, and other miscellaneous to-dos.

A little more whimsical option is the Daily Mood Tracker mouse pad, which keeps your mood swings in check from day-to-day. Now you can finally figure out if you really are an A-hole on Mondays and everyone’s best bud on Fridays. I get bad memories just thinking about having to fill in all those standardized test-like bubbles – and I forgot my No. 2 pencil, so I can’t erase!

Last, but not least is the Random Dawdle, which gives you a place to scribble down miscellaneous ideas, websites, drawings and other random stuff. I’m not sure what the point of the dotted-outline letters are, but I figure that just contributes to the randomness.

All pads ship with 60 tear-off sheets, giving you about 2 months of everyday use before you need to invest in a new mouse pad. You can grab all three designs over at Perpetual Kid for $9.99 a pad.

Whether you’re ready to head out on a cross-country road trip, or just around the corner to the grocery, all you need to do is surf over to to Google Maps, print out the directions, transcribe them onto this GPS-enabled pad, then hit the road.

The Paper GPS notepad lets you write up to ten turn-by-turn directions per page, including little arrows you can circle for turns, and boxes for how many miles you need to travel. When you’re all done, you can check off whether you made it to your destination, or got hopelessly lost. Given the fact that my Magellan GPS told me it was 370 miles from Milwaukee to Chicago, maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all.

The Paper GPS is available from Perpetual Kid for just $6.50 per pad.

Now you too can put down your laptops, Blackberries and iPhones and go old school with these fun paper e-mail pads. Simply fill in your To:, Date:, Time: and Subject: fields to get your message started. When you’re ready to send it along, simply fold it into a paper airplane and throw it across the office to your intended target. Got lots of recipients? Just fill in the CC: or BCC: fields, then lather, rinse and repeat.

Each pad comes with 50 sheets, and will set you back $3.99 — or about 8 cents per e-mail — such a deal. Available now from ThinkGeek.

The device is comprised of a small wireless receiver that clips onto any notepad, along with a special digital pen that takes ordinary ink cartridges. The pen has its own internal memory for storage, and can upload captured data to your computer via USB 1.1 or 2.0 for later editing, annotation or coloring. In addition, when connected to a computer, it can capture directly into the PC in real time. Expected to be released sometime in Spring 2007, the wireless version will run $130, with a wired version expected to run about $80.

[via Wired Gadget Lab]