Didnt You Hear... » Information

…LED Light Drawing Pens are easy to make?

Cory O'Brien — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:38:31 +0000

Light graffiti is a fun photography style where you set your camera up to take a long exposure at night, and then use a handheld light sources to ‘draw’ in the frame.

The easiest way to create light graffiti is with an LED pen, since they can be made in all sorts of different colors, and the small, very focused light will give you detailed lines without illuminating the rest of the image.

To make your very own set of LED Light Drawing Pens, check out Instructables, where they’ve posted a guide that will turn some plastic tubing, an LED, and rudimentary wiring into a LED pen in no time.

[Instructables - LED Light Drawing Pens]

[Photo Via: Eric Castro]

…You can fix a wet computer?

Cory O'Brien — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:00:30 +0000

Eventually, it’s going to happen: You’re going to spill something on your laptop, or drop your phone in the toilet, and assume that it’s gone to the big gadget graveyard in the sky. However, if you plan ahead and know the steps to take to save your device from a watery grave, there is a chance that you can save it from an early demise, as I recently discovered.

First, let me tell you my story: There is nothing more relaxing than sitting down with a laptop and a nice big cup of hot chocolate and reading through a few long blog posts or catching up on the latest viral videos. Recently however, the computer gods were not smiling down upon me, and after setting a full cup of hot chocolate on the table, I proceeded to reach over and try to type something, catch the top of the glass with my hand, and watch in slow motion as the entire cup poured itself on top of my MacBook’s keyboard. Normally, this would mean the hasty death of an otherwise healthy computer, but with a bit of quick thinking and an emergency, MacGuyver style surgery, I was actually able to save (and in the process clean) the laptop to let it live another day.

Since laptop deaths via liquid destruction seem to be a common occurrence, I wanted to share my experience in hopes that it will someday save you from the same situation and save a laptop from an unplanned bath. (Though I’m writing this after saving a laptop, the steps should work equally well for a cell phone, camera, or any other device that occasionally finds its way into the toilet bowl.)

How to save a soaked gadget:

Unplug the device and take out the battery IMMEDIATELY! – Liquids are not the enemy here, liquids and power are, since that’s what’s going to cause power spikes and short circuits, so be sure to remove any and all sources of power as soon as possible.
Dry the outside of the device – The goal here is to remove any extra liquid that could get into the device once you start taking things apart. Since there will already be some liquid inside, the last thing you want to do is make things worse.
Disassemble the device – Liquid can find its way into the smallest nooks and crannies, so you’ll want to take apart and remove as many pieces and parts as possible so that you can uncover any hidden areas of moisture. For a good source of disassembly (and more importantly, reassembly) guides, check out iFixIt.
Dry the inside of the device – Start with any big areas of wetness, and work your way down into the nooks and crannies. The goal here is to just start drying things, and chances are, even if it doesn’t look wet, it is, so you’ll want to give everything at least one, and preferably multiple rounds of drying. In my case, I used paper towels and cotton swabs, but towels, t-shirts, and even napkins will work as long as they won’t fall apart and leave little pieces of lint/paper/garbage in the device.
Wash what gets dirty – This may seem counter-intuitive, but as I said before, liquid isn’t the enemy here, liquids and power are, so it’s sometimes OK to wash some parts that get especially dirty once you’ve got everything disassembled. Of course you’ll want to be smart about this step, so don’t go sticking your hard drive or your motherboard under the faucet, but for components without a lot of electrical parts, a good wash can do wonders to bring them back to life. In my case, the keyboard had a sticky residue from the chocolate that made all the keys stick while typing, so I removed the keyboard and soaked it in a bath of warm water for about five minutes. When your done washing, you’ll want to dry the part as quickly as possible, since lingering liquids are what will cause rust and other problems down the road. A hair dryer turned to high speeds with low heat works well here for getting all of the liquid out of the small areas, but just do your best to get it as dry as possible as quickly as possible with whatever you have on hand.
Wait – Even after you think everything is dry, there will more than likely be a few areas that are still wet that you didn’t get to, so you’ll want to wait at least 24 hours before putting the device back together to ensure that everything has had a chance to completely dry out. In my case, I put the laptop in front of a fan and let the fan run for a day, but if that’s not an option for you, just give it a little extra time in the open before putting it back together.
Reassemble the device – Once everything is clean and dry, you just need to put it back together and see if all of your quick thinking and hard work has paid off. Typically everything is going to go back on in the reverse order of how it came off, but be sure to check back with your instructions for any details.
Test the device – Cross your fingers, close your eyes, and press the power button. In the best-case scenario, the device will turn on immediately and act like nothing ever happened. In the worst-case scenario, the device will do nothing, and you’ll now have a very expensive paperweight on your hands. In that case, you can sometimes still save some of the parts for a last ditch effort, such as a laptop screen that you can swap onto a laptop from eBay with a broken screen, but other than that, you’ve now sacrificed a device to the water gods.

If you’re not willing or able to take your device apart due to lack of skills, tools or both, the next best bet is to remove any source of power (power plug and battery) and then just let the device sit for a few days before turning it on again. I’ve also heard of situations where people put their device in a container full of rice for a day or two and had that work, since the rice draws out the moisture, so you might want to try that as well. In any case, it’s at least worth trying to save your gadget, so don’t just assume that because it got a little wet that it’s never going to work again.

…Indy racing is filled with information?

Cory O'Brien — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:17:03 +0000

The Indy 500 Car Tracker that The Indianapolis Star put together for last weekend’s race is a very interesting way of looking at racing.

As you watch each lap tick away in under a second, you can really get a feel for how the cars jockey for position, how they plan their pit strategy, and who is pulling away from whom.

[Indy 500 Car Tracker]

[Via: Kottke]

…Gizmodo has written a Pirate’s Code?

Cory O'Brien — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:55:55 +0000

Gizmodo has proposed a Pirate’s Code for those that travel the murky waters of the torrent world, and they’re a rather honest look at the way most pirates of the digital seas think about what they do.

Check out the eight articles to see if you agree, and you’ll be treated to words of wisdom like:

Ye wouldn’t be a pirate if ye didn’t download Photoshop. But for the office, such manners are frowned upon. Make your employer pay so that others may play.
TV is to be downloaded, movies are to be attended when a man returns to shore.
Every man shall upload half of what he downloads, with the saints filling in the rest.
A man shall steal as much music as he needs to quench his thirst, assuming that he supports the band by attending concerts and buying t-shirts.

[Gizmodo - A Pirate's Code Of Conduct For BitTorrent]

…Patrick Henry Hugues and his father are inspirational?

Cory O'Brien — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:24:43 +0000

Team Hoyt is still the most inspiring story I’ve ever heard, but Patrick Henry Hughes and his father have solidified themselves as a solid second.

Grab a box of tissues and see what I mean:

…One Trillion Dollars is impressive?

Cory O'Brien — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:30:45 +0000

With numbers like One Trillion being tossed around in the news lately, it’s always good to step back and try to visualize what a number like that really looks like.

To help you get a grasp on it, PageTutor has created a rendering that shows what one trillion dollars looks like as stacks of $100 bills.

The result is below, but keep in mind that when you’re looking at this and trying to give it some meaning, each pallet you see here is holding $100 million dollars, and the pallets themselves are then double stacked.

Oh, and that tiny little red dot at the corner of the pile?

That’s you.

[PageTutor]

[Via: Boing Boing]

…Models don’t always look like models?

Cory O'Brien — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:48:39 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated with the world of fashion and how it shapes and molds our sense of beauty, so it’s great to see the work of artists like Greg Kessler, who photographs models before and after the makeup artist gets them ready for the runway.

Like Dove’s True Beauty Campaign, it gives a fantastically honest look at what these people actually look like, and shows that even the supermodels can’t look like what they look like on the runway.

[New York Times - Model-Morphosis]

[Via: Neatorama]

…Flickr now allows you to upload in HD?

Cory O'Brien — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:03:15 +0000

I don’t know if the Internet needs another HD video provider, but regardless, if you’re a Flickr Pro member, you can now upload videos in sweat, sweat HD.

Regular Flickr members can now also upload two videos per week (though not in sweat, sweat HD) so it’s more video goodness for all!

The quality’s not bad either. Check it out:

[Via: Yodel Anecdotal]

…BristleBots are part of a controversy?

Cory O'Brien — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:23:07 +0000

Remember BristleBots, the tiny little ‘robots’ that use little more than a pager motor, a battery and a toothbrush head to create locomotion?

Well apparently, Klutz and Scholastic claim to have thought of the exact same idea with the exact same name at the exact same time as Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, and are making a book with the bots without giving credit to the original inventors.

It’s still up in the air as to what will happen with this whole situation, and you can follow the updates on the MAKE: Blog, but hopefully this will all get resolved in the right way, and credit will be given where credit is due.

[MAKE: Blog - BristleBot Controversy]

…There are five signs of Twitter addiction?

Cory O'Brien — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:00:20 +0000

Everyone seems to be jumping on the Twitter bandwagon lately (including Shaq, Ashton Kutcher, Lance Armstrong and Britney Spears) and it’s definitely a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, but can you ever love Twitter too much?

Here are five signs that you might be a little too addicted to Twitter:

You’ve created a Twitter account for your dog, like Ridley and Vivj.
You’ve created a Twitter account so that you can impersonate a fictitious TV personality, like Borat and Roger_Sterling.
You’ve created a Twitter account so that you can remember to water your plants.
You refuse to buy from companies that don’t have a Twitter account, because Zappos, Starbucks and Comcast just ‘get’ you.
The first thing you do after reading this post is tweet a link to it.
(Bonus points if you arrived here from a link in a tweet.)

Have any other suggestions for signs you might be addicted to Twitter? Post them in the comments below and help others on their path to recovery.

…Playboy’s playmates don’t have average BMIs?

Cory O'Brien — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:13:57 +0000

Wired put together a rather interesting bit of ‘infoporn’ that compares the BMI (body-mass index) of Playboy playmate centerfolds to that of the typical American woman from December 1953 (Marilyn Monroe) to January 2009 (Dasha Astafieva).

The results are clear: While the typical American woman’s BMI has steadily climbed over the years, the typical playmate’s has slowly declined over that same period.

As Wired notes though, the facts and figures given by Playboy for each of their playmates probably have a fair dose of estimation, guessing and exaggeration built in, but even still, it’s telling of what they think the average American ‘wants’ vs. what the average American really is.

[Wired - Playboy Playmate BMI and Average BMI]

[Via: Flowing Data]

…F1 is tearing up the rule book?

Cory O'Brien — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:41:22 +0000

In 2009, F1 will be significantly altering the rulebook to ‘spice up the racing’ and bring back some of the fun and excitement that the sport has long been missing.

If reading through a long list of rules doesn’t sound like your idea of an enjoyable day, then check out this fantastic animation from Red Bull that describes their new RB5, and gives you a good idea of what the new rules mean for car design and F1 in general:

[Via: Axis Of Oversteer]

…Twitter went wild during the Super Bowl?

Cory O'Brien — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:17:50 +0000

If you haven’t already, be sure to go play around with the Twitter Super Bowl Chatter Map on The New York Times.

The map itself shows the location and frequency of commonly used words in Super Bowl related tweets, and you can compare things like player names and emoticons to specific milestones in the game to see where people were talking about what, for how long and how intensely.

[The New York Times – Twitter Chatter During The Super Bowl]

PS: If you’re not already, be sure to follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CoryOBrien and you can even subscribe to DidntYouHear.com on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DidntYouHear

…It’s TGI Friday: The Best Paper Airplane In The World?

Cory O'Brien — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:06:38 +0000

This weekend, spend a few minutes working your way through the 35 steps involved in folding the world’s most perfect paper airplane:

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can then move on to making an alternative T-tail design, making it legal to fly in the world record paper airplane competition, making a Guinness World Records compliant tail, and more.

It’s definitely not the most advanced project, but sometimes it’s fun just to unplug from the rest of the world for a little bit and focus on the simple things in life.

[The Best Paper Airplane In The World]

[Via: Zoomdoggle]

…You can hack your brain to hallucinate?

Cory O'Brien — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:55:20 +0000

Want to hallucinate without the harsh after effects of mind-altering substances using just a radio and some ping-pong balls?

The Boston Globe has put together a few easy illusions, hallucinations and psychedelic experiences that can take you on a trip with objects you probably already have around the house and just a few minutes of your time.

The tricks include the Ganzfeld Procedure, the Pinocchio Illusion, the Rubber Hand Illusion, and Purkinje Lights, and each sounds more trippy than the last.

Plus, unlike LSD, magic mushrooms or mescaline, these phenomena can all be turned off just as easily as they’re turned on, allowing you a safe and temporary escape from the trappings of your mind.

[The Boston Globe - Hack Your Brain]

…Google will send you Gmail stickers for free?

Cory O'Brien — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:20:13 +0000

Google REALLY wants you to start using their Gmail service, and they also want to spread the word that you can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate Gmail, so they’ve created a set of Gmail stickers to you can stick to your keys to help remind you of where each shortcut is.

To get your own set of Gmail m-velope stickers, bookplate style stickers, and keyboard shortcut stickers, just send a self-addressed stamped envelope (It’s less than an ounce, so just a standard First Class stamp will suffice, and you can even include a note to Google if you’re so inclined) to:

Send me some Gmail stickers already
P.O. Box 391420
Mountain View, CA 94039-1420

It’s apparently a first come, first served offer, so be sure to send in your request soon if you want to be the proud new owner of a set of semi-limited-edition Gmail stickers.

[Google - Gmail Stickers]

…Claytorial wants to help you understand?

Cory O'Brien — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:52:15 +0000

Claytorial is the claymation version of Common Craft, and their goal is to “help people understand complicated things”.

Their first demo is for a magazine called More2Girls, and it shows off what they’ve got in store, though I can’t wait to see what they can with a concept like the Google spider, which is currently in their upcoming section.

For now though, it’s a great start, and a good look at an area that I think we’ll see a lot of in the coming year. (Explanations for complex technologies and services in simple and easy to understand ways.)

[Claytorial]

…Money Wallets can be made at home?

Cory O'Brien — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:23:34 +0000

Got $20 (in ones) and 20 minutes?

Then you can make your very own Money Wallet using the semi-easy to follow instructions on MoneyWallet.org

Sure, it’ll take you a little bit of time to make the wallet by hand (they also offer to make one for you for $49.99, but that sounds like a silly offer, so just give it a go and see what you can do on your own) and it’s not exactly the most secure wallet that you can use, but if you ever run out of what’s inside, then just disassemble for extra emergency funds in times of need.

Handy!

[Money Wallet]

[Via: Zoomdoggle]

…The 2008 Holiday Gift Guides are here?

Cory O'Brien — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:01:28 +0000

Black Friday has come and gone and now Cyber Monday is upon us, but if you still can’t decide what to get that special someone this holiday season, then take a look through this list of gift guides for some great ideas on what to get every man, woman, child and yes, even pet in your life.

(And if you know of any other gift guides that you’d like to add, just put them in the comment area below and I’ll be sure to add them to the list!)

[Photo Via: Saquan Stimpson]

…NOTCOT has a Holiday Coupon Book?

Cory O'Brien — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:16:53 +0000

If you’re looking for something unique for the gift receivers in your life this holiday season, and you don’t mind saving a few bucks in the process, then check out NOTCOT’s Holiday Coupon Book.

Featuring stores like Sorapot, Mimoco, Alex & Chloe, Baggu, Diesel Sweeties, Hulger, Maker Shed, Shawnimals and more, it’s the perfect way to shop and save.

[NOTCOT - Holiday Coupon Book]