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Monthly Archives: February 2008

Subprime Works

This is really kind of brilliant: a good, clear guide to the subprime mess, in a pretty funny and direct style. http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1 (Via David Levinger)

Prefab housing rich in the history of the Congo

“The Maison is plug-and-play: there was never any plumbing, and it is wired for electricity. It ships in six containers. Christie’s is compiling a short list of potential bidders with substantial properties in Mustique, Antigua, the Hamptons — name your playground — who might like a 59-foot-by-32-foot–by-16-foot-tall folly/outdoor sculpture/guesthouse/vintage metal toy to park on the [...]

Works for me! (from the black swan guy)

Random tinkering is the path to success. And fortunately, we are increasingly learning to practice it without knowing it–thanks to overconfident entrepreneurs, naive investors, greedy investment bankers, confused scientists and aggressive venture capitalists brought together by the free-market system. We need more tinkering: Uninhibited, aggressive, proud tinkering. We need to make our own luck. We [...]

Some future Nerd God fixes 3D on 2D screens. Permanently.

Just… watch it. It’s huge. I think this could be done using eyeball tracking without the sensor bar too.

Vacuum-insulated windows patent

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5005557-description.html Notably it’s about the how, and references older work on the basic concept. Odds-are that means the diode, if it’s covered at all, is under the Australian patents for the Solar Kettle design.

The Heineken World Bottle (beer bottle designed to be reused as a brick)

People keep posting stuff about this. Maybe it’ll actually be reissued if they keep it up. Probably won’t sell any better this time either… http://www.designverb.com/2007/11/10/heineken-world-bottle-beer-to-bricks/

Brilliant architectural touch: using stairs as a book case

Basically, the space below each stair is storage for books. Very nifty picture at the link below. http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/19/library-built-into-a.html

Go read this cartoon

http://www.viruscomix.com/page382.html Nifty, nifty.

Open Manufacturing – the issue is patent law doesn’t support viral licenses easily

The issue is patents. Open Source derives it’s power from copyright law – they use the property right of “copyright” and then pool it by using the GPL and other such licenses which rest on copyright. Patent is a huge pain in the ass. You could do an open source patent pool, but that’s a [...]

Lazyweb, I also want a Solar Energy Diode

This is a bit more complex to describe. Here’s how it works. Take two disks of glass, one black, one clear. Let us say they are 4″ in diameter, of indeterminate thickness. Now take a ring, say 1″ thick, 4″ in diameter, made from a strong insulator. Separate the two disks with this ring, enclosing [...]