Viewing Category: Shiny Things
I was at Target a few weeks back, wandering the kitchen section to see what cool "new, affordable, and well-designed" gadgets were in stock for the holiday season. I immediately noticed the Back to Basics Egg and Muffin toaster, and made a mental note to check it out when I got home. Of course I forgot, but today I stumbled upon Paul Mayne's website, where he gives us the scoop on the demo model took home after a photoshoot (Paul's site is nice too, btw).
But back to the muffins! The Egg and Muffin Toaster has a built-in hotplate for simultaneously cooking eggs and sausage patties. Now, I love Sausage Egg McMuffins, but I'm not so keen on going to McDonald's. If I wasn't on this confounded diet and saving money, I would be eating one right now, out of my new Egg and Muffin Toaster. I would never leave the house.
Ok, I really don't need one, but it's so cool. And the egg come out perfectly round and sized to fit! Perhaps I will go the kitchen store and buy some kind of "egg ring", if they make such things.
BTW, the Flash animation is a pretty effective demonstration of how the device works in theory. There's also a video demonstration: it looks like it uses steam to cook the egg and warm the (pre-cooked-only) breakfast meat.
I was in the shower and had a ton of ideas that just slipped away...the chill New England air blasted them right out of my head. Most irritating.
I was thinking maybe I could put a white board in my shower, but then I remembered seeing underwater writing tablets on a documentary. That would be perfect!
As it happens, other people have had this brainstorm before. Check out this Cool Tools entry. The device is called a dive slate. It has a "golf pencil" (whatever that is) attached to it via surgical tubing. I also saw that there are "quick erase" magnetic dive slates that use magnets to write---I'm guessing it's like one of those children's toys. I am curious whether the resolution of the slate allows for fine writing.
I mentioned this idea to my buddy Jeff, and he said, "You need a waterproof journal". It's a spiral-bound notebook for use "in the field" in all kinds of weather (by bird watchers, for example). Use your Fisher Space Pen to write in it; it's pressurized and writes upside down and in wet conditions. Outdoor Activity stores might carry the journal; you can get space pens at Staples. I like to touch stuff before I buy it, personally speaking.
For you DIYPlanner and PocketMod fans, do a search on waterproof paper to find the good stuff for your printer. You could make the ATW version of your productivity system! Booyah!
Shopping Links (via Amazon)
Too many days have gone by without pictures! Here's something I picked up a few weeks ago at Restoration Hardware in Peabody: a 1955-style Pocket Warmer. I remember my Dad having one of these, probably from his days as a grad student in Chicago. He kept it in his "drawer of goodies", which was always locked. I have always lusted after it...I had just forgotten that until I saw it again at the mall. Grabbed it for a mere 6 bucks. Booyah!
The hand warmer about the size of a deck of cards and made of some kind of chromed metal. You fill it with lighter fluid (there is an absorbent material inside to keep it from sloshing around), and after you get it going slide it back into its red felt pouch and into your pocket. it will stay warm for up to 12 hours. I can personally vouch for this; the amount of time seems to depend on how much oxygen you let get to the device.
Some words of warning: This device gets pretty hot. Not hot enough to set paper on fire, but hot enough to give you a nasty burn if sustained contact against your skin occurs. It takes maybe 15 minutes of contact for this to occur, but even then I have ugly splotchy burns on my stomach (I fell asleep clutching it on my stomach, which is a big no-no) and on my left leg (where it worked itself out of the pouch into my pants pocket). The felt bag is supposed to prevent direct contact, but it doesn't stay closed. I would put the device in a wool sock (I think that's what felt is made of), or maybe replace the pathetic string with a more robust closing mechanism. If you put it in your coat pocket---not a pocket that's directly on the inner layer of your skin---you probably will be OK.
The construction of the device is very simple: there's a rolled wire mesh (very fine) that fits on top of the reservoir body. After you fill the reservoir with lighter fluid, let it sit for a few minutes so the vapor pressure builds up. Then ignite the device by heating the grill with a match or lighter until it glows red. Remember that the hottest part of the flame is just above the yellow part, not in it.
It takes me about 40-60 seconds of applied heat before I see the glow (it's pretty faint), and it fades quickly. The amount of soot generated by the lighting process also makes it difficult to tell.
There is no open flame, and the mesh is not a wick. I think the device works by starting some kind of lower-temperature oxidation process from the lighter fluid vapor (as opposed to open flame combustion), but I really don't know. Still, you want to make sure that there's no excess lighter fluid sloshing around in the container; the sponge inside should keep the fluid contained. It may be that the heat produced by the oxidation process is lower than the ignition point of the lighter fluid.
Once you get the thing going, it's awesome. It stays warm. I wish I'd gotten two, so when I'm waiting for the car to warm up I can keep both hands warm. On the down side, you can get burned if you're not careful, and it smells like lighter fluid. That can't be good for you. Next time I go snowshoeing, I'm planning on bringing a couple of these along. Can't wait to kit up for that!
I was getting some work done on my car at the local VW dealership--they have a really excellent service department--and when it came time to pay up I actually had to walk to the BMW showroom cashier. While I was waiting, I spied the 2005 BMW Mobile Tradition Catalog and flipped through it. It's stuffed with pictures of classic BMW cars and history. For example, the BMW Isetta "Bubble Car" (celebrating its 50th year anniversary) is described as follows:
The BMW Isetta was the most successful microcar in the 1950s after the Glas Goggomobile. There were both rational and emotional reasons for this success. The vehicle design was practical and the price of DM 2,750 set it apart from the competition. Low consumption and versatility even put it ahead of the more powerful Volkswagen. The spirit of the car was expressed in its inimitable shape, and it was affectionately known as “Bubble Car” or “Rolling Egg”. The BMW Isetta became part of the in-scene, being purchased by a string of celebrities including Cary Grant, Curd Jürgens and Stirling Moss.
I want one! But alas, the pragmatic side of me says that it would be a death trap on the wintery New England highways. But...I can buy a little piece of history through the catalog!
Like this "BMW Isetta mit Campinganhänger"...
or this small toy "BMW Isetta Export"...
or this awesome "BMW Isetta Speedometer Watch", "a high-quality cover made of natural crystal glass and a case designed in nickel-free stainless steel. The ingenious container watchcase allows the watch to be transformed from a sporty wristwatch into a classic fob watch. The watch is shockproof and waterproof up to 4 bar."
The Isetta isn't the only car covered either...it's a good browse. Here are some direct links that may work: BMW Mobile Tradition Website and the 2005 Katalog in PDF Format.
The BMW site subpages are rather hard to direct-link, so if these links are broken just use their search and look for "mobile tradition", then browse to "publications" then to "accesories" to download their catalog. I'll have to go back and see if I can score a printed version for the library. The other BMW historical publications, I'm told, are well worth looking into if you are a classic car enthusiast.
Continuing with my obsession with giant screens, bear witness to the elumens visionstation. It's based on technology similar to what's in use in digital planetariums, except it's sized for one person. Wow! Why didn't anyone tell me before? This thing has been out for 3-4 years!
HowStuffWorks has some additional information: Although you can plug your PC right into the projector unit, you need to use software to pre-distort the imagery so it looks correct on the dish-like screen. This is pretty easy to do with their software for static images, but real-time 3D probably requires some trickier processing.
UPDATE: This elumens whitepaper says that you have to modify your 3d engine to use a software module they provide. Other interesting facts about designing content for the system are in there too, like the amount of light splashback you get from the curved screen washing out colors. A basic system, including projector, will set you back about $25,000...ouch, but not bad.
What's also interesting is that the virtual reality market was worth some $24 billion in 2000, according to this article in Mechanical Engineering World. What, there's a VR market? I thought that went out of style with Mondo 2000, but today mechanical engineering is the big buyer of these systems. Car manufacturers, for example, have giant "WorkWalls" capable of 1:1 scale display of prototype automobile models. Yum. There's also an offshoot of VR called CAVE originally developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Electronic Visualization Laborator:
CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment can also be defined as a "VR Theatre Display" or a "Spatially Immersive Display (SID)". Using multiple projectors, the CAVE ™ display is configured with stereo, rear-projected graphics (3 walls and the floor) and viewed with stereo glasses (shutter glasses).
Very interesting. I would love to see one of these things in action.
Buddy Duncan forwarded me this link to nixieclock.net, where they are selling the insanely-cool CHRONOTRONIX IN-18 NIXIE CLOCK. Nixie tubes are an old vacuum tube technology that predates the CRT and LED. There are 10 wires, each in the shape of the digits 0 through 9, stacked on top of each other inside the tube. When electricity is applied, the selected digit glows in shimmering neon light. Yum!
You can read more about the history and construction of nixie tubes on the nixieclock home page. And if you've got $499 burning a hole in your pocket, you can even buy one! This would be a nice complement to your new iPod Nano!
Ths iPod Nano is the first iPod that I really really really want. It's so unbearably cool, I thought it might be a hoax from some talented underground industrial designer. For $199 I could verify the truth of the matter for myself...
Yum.
A High Speed Camcorder Just about every camcorder out there records 60 fields per second. But, when you want to slow down the action, you need to overcrank. I'd like 120 progressive frames every second (as opposed to fields) at a minimum, so I could slow down action for motion analysis AND dramatic effects. Oh, and I don't want to pay $25,000 for it. Apparently some cameras available only in Japan that can do this with a "high-speed recording" option: the JVC GR-DVL9000 series, from what I can tell.
A High BTU Wok Burner I'm continually disappointed with both the anemic cooking power and sluggish response of my electric range. Despite claims to the contrary, it is possible to stir-fry on these things: you just need to scale the portion to the available heat, and be ready to move the pan when you need to turn off the heat completely. In my dream kitchen, I'd have a stand-alone 60K BTU Wok Burner with a giant convection hood. I wouldn't mind having some of the commercial gear either, like the griddle top. But do I need it? NO.
A Wide Format Inkjet Printer Every once in a while I want to make a giant printout of a diagram, poster or sign, and I want it right now. It would be nice to have a 24" wide Ink Jet printer like an Epson Stylus Pro 7800. But hoo, the expense of the media, the maintenance, and the problem of where to put it? It's the size of a gas grill!
A Projection Screen Workstation Remember that scene in The Incredibles when Mr. Incredible sneaks into the database? There's this huge screen that must be the size of a football field. Wouldn't it be nice to prep a computer room with a 16 foot wide, 9 foot tall treated wall and a high-resolution projector. The JVC DLA-QX1G, which NASA uses, is $225,000 MSRP, but has a native resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. Most mortal projectors crap out at 1280 x 1024, which just isn't cutting it compared to big LCD panels. Maybe two projectors side-by-side would be OK, but I imagine the noise would suck. Why have a projector when you can buy a big LCD? I'm thinking of it in terms of eyestrain...moving your focus back and forth between your computer and something 10-20 feet away must be better for your eyes.
My sister Emily and I like to eat very quickly, inhaling vast quantities of food in short periods of time. I'm not sure why she remains skinny...it probably means that I'm winning. If winning means getting fat. A company in New Hampshire has developed a device to help modify such behavior through the use of blinking LED technology...100% solid state!
The PowerSeed is a small electronic timer of some kind that emits noises and lights to help pace yourself as you eat. From their website:
While eating, activate your coach and place it at inconspicuous location on your table. Every thirty seconds the Powerseed silently flashes a small green light (or it can beep softly if you prefer).
[...]
Every five minutes the Powerseed flashes a different signal as a reminder to evaluate your level of hunger or food satisfaction. When you detect the first twinge of satisfaction, you simply quit eating. Most likely this will be well before the point where you normally quit.
Behavior modification through simple technology, tied to the hugely lucrative weight loss industry. I like! It must be incredibly cheap to manufacture...it's the system that's the value-add. It'll be interesting to see if this takes off.
I have a lot of junk in my house. Been cutting back a lot, but I finally broke down and got that Zojirushi Hot Water Dispenser. As I made my first pot of tea from it, I realized it was one of a very few objects that give me the warm fuzzy feeling every time I use it. These are the things that make me feel good practically every day:
My Zojirushi Hot Water Dispensing Pot, which bring "hot tea on tap" back into my life!
My 900MHz wireless headset that does NOT interfere with my 2.8GHz wireless network, as it should and ever shall be, A-men!
My Zojirushi Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker
My Chinese Tea Pot and Cups from my Dad, and the funny tea divot that I bought for it to sit on.
My Tivo, my friend.
My Wusthoff Classic Chef's Knife and Honing Rod
My Volkswagen GTI, bouncy and always ready to go.
My vintage IBM Space Saver "Model M" keyboard(s)...tactile typing
pleasure, with less arm strain.
My Alessi bottle opener. It's bright yellow and has ears!
My Canon G2 Digital Camera. Older, but has served me well.
But back to the muffins! The Egg and Muffin Toaster has a built-in hotplate for simultaneously cooking eggs and sausage patties. Now, I love Sausage Egg McMuffins, but I'm not so keen on going to McDonald's. If I wasn't on this confounded diet and saving money, I would be eating one right now, out of my new Egg and Muffin Toaster. I would never leave the house.
