The Gadget Blog » geekasm

Hell Yeah Indeed Hubble Telescope, Hell Yeah!

Rico Mossesgeld — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:30:25 +0000

Nothing reminds us of how insignificant we are in the universe more than pointing a space telescope to a seemingly dark area and finding over 10,000 galaxies!

Source

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30th Anniversary Gundam Statue Almost Done

Rico Mossesgeld — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:00:51 +0000

Remember that Giant Gundam statue, under construction to meet a 30th anniversary Gundam celebration deadline? Looks like building is nearly complete, and looks like the finished statue can emit mist, do sound effects, and execute some limited head motion! Check out the video below:

Constructing an 18 meter (59 foot) tall Gundam is quite the geeky feat. And it’s funny how a mere head turn made the onlooking Japanese exclaim in delight. Imagine the crowd’s reaction if some engineer from the future secretly converted the statue into a fully-functional Gundam! Oh yes, I know you want that to happen as much as I do!

Anyone planning a trip to Tokyo’s waterfront district? Comment with links to your own pics or videos please.

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What Sucks About the New Star Trek Trailer

Rico Mossesgeld — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:00:05 +0000

Yes, I know a sci-fi movie is barely relevant to The Gadget Blog. But the Star Trek franchise is a reason why I got so into technology in the first place, and I bet the same applies to you too.

Yes, I know the latest Star Trek trailer—which no doubt reveals a lot more about the movie—is scheduled to show with Watchmen this coming weekend. But it’s hard being patient.

Yes, I know JJ Abrams and Paramount, not to mention the people behind Watchmen, have their reasons in keeping the new trailer under wraps until this Saturday. But I want to see the trailer now!

Yes, I know JJ Abrams politely asked people attending the trailer viewing at WonderCon 2009 to not record anything and post it online. In a rare display of solidarity, no one in the audience apparently broke the rule. But, as they say, rules are made to be broken.

Yes, I know at least one website has published a summary of the new trailer, narrating the apparently awesome tableau of scenes, visual effects, and snippets through words. So readers are left to visualize the trailer for themselves. But this is a rare time where imagination fails to do the real thing any sort of justice.

C’mon Paramount, release the new trailer already! My need for geekasm is acute.

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Captain Kirk’s VoIP Phone: Guaranteed Geekasm

Rico Mossesgeld — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:06:55 +0000

Trekkies everywhere should be in love with Dream Cheeky, because the site’s apparently coming out with a Star Trek themed VoIP speakerphone soon. Constructed like that classic gadget that was William Shatner’s outlet for hammy acting, answering calls with the Star Trek USB Communicator is a simple matter of—you guessed it—flipping the cover up! Talking handsfree is of course accomplished via speakerphone.

And if EverythingUSB’s grammatically-challenged report is accurate, the USB Communicator can also play assorted Star Trek sound “bytes”, comes with independent volume control and mute, and ships with Velcro backing. Supported OSes: XP, Vista, Mac OS X (Tiger and up). No pricing or availability info forthcoming. Stay tuned for updates!

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Awesome Lego-Built Pneumatic Engines Guarantee Geekasm

Rico Mossesgeld — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:30:37 +0000

Played with Lego when you were younger? Then I guarantee you’ll go gaga over these pneumatic-powered lego-built engines! First you’ve go an inline 3-cylinder engine:

And, even more awesome, a V8!

These engines are meant to power lego-constructed vehicles, and are at least 11 bricks high. Check out lpepower.com for more details. (via)

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DIY Email Clock Ticks Down Kilobytes of Procrastination

Rico Mossesgeld — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:26:56 +0000

Complex DIY Project: As DIY-er Tom Igoe writes: “I have a lot of anxiety about email. Every kilobyte in my Inbox destroys another minute of my life, but I can’t stop checking it. So I decided to embody my anxiety in a device that would worry about my incoming mail for me.” In short, this DIY Email Clock counts down the kilobytes of email you’ve received, putting an unorthodox counter on your procrastination.

Here’s how each tick—representing one kilobyte—gets clocked down. The microcontroller driving the clock connects with a mail-server query program over the Internet, which is responsible for passing the number of kilobytes going unread.

The complete instructions to make one are available here, but even for veteran home workers, is this email clock worth the time and effort? Why go analog then? Digital indications dominate our lives for a good reason: they provide much more info at a single glance. After all, wouldn’t you rather see “2:33″ right away, instead of figuring out just how far that minute is from the four?

Still, this would be a great product idea for a manufacturer to pick-up, novelty-nature and all. How about making a wireless version? Igoe’s DIY project relies on an Ethernet connection to pull data from the net.

(image from the MAKE: Blog)

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