Applied thought
Posted on February 19th, 2007
In 2005 I briefly anticipated Buro Vormkrijgers’s Pong® Clock. I later forgot about it.
But I just discovered John Maushammer’s Pong Watch and have to have one. The concept may not be original, but his design is inspired. The minimalist prototype cases, PIC code that adapts to low battery levels, and aesthetic PCB layout all demonstrate enough perfectionism to ensure a quality build without paralyzing the builder.
I dropped Maushammer an email pleading for a copy, and he responded that he’s looking into salable production. I’m more excited than I could be if I ordered a mass-produced watch, because I can follow how he has thought about the build so carefully. And that’s how I define design: thoughtfulness applied to building.
(If I were writing fiction with a character that carefully designs small things, I don’t think I could come up with a better name than Maushammer.)
Tags: design, stuff, thoughts
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Fidget-friendly
Posted on February 14th, 2007
I decided it was time for a wireless mouse, and decided to finally try one of those modern button-congested monstrosities, the Logitech MX Revolution. Most of it’s superfluous buttons are easily ignored, and the scroll wheel can be set to spin freely, perfect for fidgeting.
The OS X drivers, though, suck. Contrary to mainstream reviews, the software is widely despised, and even Logitech’s own forums are teeming with complaints.
Thankfully, there’s SteerMouse. With the thumbwheel set to navigate through lists and trigger Exposé, it’s so pleasant to use I miss it when sitting on the couch using the MacBook’s trackpad.
Tags: hardware, stuff, thoughts
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Daily Bookmarks
Posted on February 3rd, 2007
Links bookmarked on 2007-02-03
- DVI and HDMI Video Cables — Switchboxes Adapters Converters
- New Scientist: In the beginning was thebit
Introducing quantum information science, and my favorite word of the week: Urprinzip
Tags: advertising, buy, calendar, css, flash, girls, graphics, ht, humor, introduction, language, links, math, microformats, movie, music, php, physics, research, science, shopping, simple, stuff, time, toy, visualization, wordpress
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Daily Bookmarks
Posted on February 2nd, 2007
Links bookmarked on 2007-02-02
- Reliably Ignores
Google translates my site to German, then Babelfish translates back to English. This is the least disruptive “translation poetry” path I’ve found, yet still surreal. - GCALDaemon — Project Home
Publish from iCal to Google Calendar! Unfortunately, it seems to duplicate events on every sync.
Tags: anoto, calendar, environment, funny, geo, language, links, metadata, osx, photography, research, science, stuff, tool, unix, web, webservice
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