Archive for November 2012

I’ve seen some pretty awesome videos involving Tesla coils over the years, but I have to say this is my new favorite. This video was captured at the recent Belfast Festival at Queens, Ireland, and it involves a couple of dudes going all Raiden on each other, firing bolts of electricity at one another.

I love candy. Any color will do; candy is candy. But some of you entitled consumers seem to think only one color is good enough for you. Brian Egenriether seems to be one of these discriminating snackers, because he’s built a device that can sort Skittles according to color.

Most of you are probably too young to remember what the original Apple computer looked like. The few of us who do, recall it looking like a wooden box with a keyboard built into the top.

If you’re waiting for me to say something about “This is the scooter you’re looking for,” don’t. I’m doing my darnedest not to use that overused droid meme ever again.

If you’ve ever tried to put out seed for birds, you know how much of a pain in the butt those pesky squirrels can be – hogging the feeders and stealing all the birdseed. If you want to get revenge on those meddling little rodents, then here’s a solution. While the Big Head Squirrel Feeder won’t stop squirrels from eating in your backyard, at least you’ll get some amusement out of the deal.

Advancements in biotechnology continue to amaze me. We’re rapidly approaching the point where human/cyborg combinations are becoming more and more plausible, as is evidenced by this recent accomplishment by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. This past sunday, a man wearing the first “thought-controlled bionic leg” used the limb to help him ascend 103 floors of the skyscraper formerly known as the Sears Tower.

I firmly believe in digital formats, and as such, I actually haven’t had a TV in a decade. I’ve had plenty of high-resolution computer monitors though, and I guess they will be great to read all of the National Geographic issues that have been printed from 1888 through 2009. That’s over 120 years of magazines on a 160 GB drive. 

iPhones can take plenty of abuse, but they get scratched up pretty quickly, which is one of the reasons why cases are necessary. Unlike some, I prefer to keep my phone in as good condition as possible, so when I inevitably upgrade and resell it, I get maximum value.

Halloween may have already passed us by, but there’s never a bad good time for a zombie apocalypse. Though if we had to be attacked by the undead, I’d at least like them to be delicious gummy bear zombies.

Due to its lack of durability, it’s not often that gadgets are made out of paper. Sure, you might get the occasional cardboard boombox, but I can honestly say this is the first flashlight I’ve seen that’s made out of paper instead of plastic or metal.

Look at this Galaga arcade machine. Wait, that’s no arcade cabinet. That’s a delicious and realistic cake just waiting to enter the bellies of Galaga-loving gaming geeks.

While I never figured Darth Vader to be a man of faith, he definitely had enough of an ego to start his own church – but instead of religious figures and scenes on the stained glass, he’d much more likely go with something like this.

In case you haven’t noticed, everything is a remix. Good artists and inventors stock up on influences and material from other sources. If you’re a musician or if you want to make your own sound effects or if you just want something to listen to when you’re wasted, you can compile sounds wherever you go with the Kaleidoloop.

With TVs getting smarter and computers getting smaller, Internet-connected TVs and home theaters will only become more common. So will peripherals designed to be used for couch computing, like this wireless glove mouse from Thanko.

I’ve always wanted to make my own TARDIS console, with the rest of the controls around it, so when I saw this awesome TARDIS control room, it blew me away. Crazyfoalrus (aka Jayman White) did an amazing job creating his own TARDIS-themed room.

Ah, the old SNES controller. How many hours have you spent mashing buttons and entering cheat codes on this controller? Me, I can’t even begin to count them. Now you can have your controller and eat it too, with this awesomely geeky SNES Controller cake.