Jul
07
With death comes the peculiar experience of seeing a person’s possessions detached from their owner. They’re like orphans. This sewing machine belonged to Nan and has now been passed down to me. She used it to mend and alter our clothes. Although it’s around a hundred years old, it’s still in working order. A video …
Jun
21
Based on Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, this melting clock rests on your shelf and costs $13.49. But, if you’re looking to give your home or office a surrealist look, you might be better off stuffing a peacock into a birdcage and feeding it methamphetamine. It’s interesting to see objects that were once dreams become …
Feb
26
This little device combined three weapons: Knife, knuckleduster and pepperbox pistol. Easily concealed in a pocket, this weapon was for close combat. Pepperbox pistols are only effective at point blank range. Though pepperbox pistols were mainly meant for civilian self-defense, this one was more likely for civilian offence. It was popular with French muggers. It’s …
Oct
12
Being written in 1998, David Brin’s The Transparent Society might be a bit dated or maybe it’s more relevant than ever. The basic idea of the book was that people had to accept the death of privacy, which probably never really existed anyway, and decide between a world where everyone and everything was under surveillance or one in which the powers …
Oct
03
Japanese artist Mio I-zawa has created a fleshy umbilical charger for the iPhone. It makes sucking noises, twitches and looks alive. This recalls her other work, like the mechanical tumor (video below) that pulsates with CPU usage. Some people consider this stuff “gross.” But a lot of tech blogging is the expression of infantile feelings about some …
Aug
25
In 2006 I posted about an interesting new tech that printed bacon using a simple inkjet printer. It’s now 2010 and printable food is well on its way to becoming a product. Allow me to introduce the Digital Fabricator by MIT. The Digital Fabricator is a personal, three-dimensional printer for food, which works by storing, …
Jul
03
the art of alex varanese – alt/1977: we are not time travelers. Alex Varanese looks at modern products through a 1977 lens.
Jul
02
I have some pretty clever comrades. One of these, an incomparable chap who probably doesn’t want his name used, has long collected my empty pipe tobacco tins in order to repurpose them into various electronic devices – most of which have something to do with music. A while ago, he hosted a little workshop where he taught …
Aug
25
I had high hopes for steampunk. By combining the technological with the hand-crafted, it might have carved a path into a pleasant future. It circled back into the Victorian era but even that was forgiveable. Sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward. Steampunk, I thought, just needs to mature. But, like …
May
18
I was spending my Saturday evening looking through a local thrift shop for owl statues when I was overcome by a sudden technostalgia. I could not pull myself away from the abandoned and useless pieces of electronica past. One thing in particular demanded to be purchased. The ELECTRODEX PLUS. This looks like it was Rolodex’s …
Mar
07
This pistol costs about 3000 pounds, is about 2 inches long and fires bullets at 270 miles per hour. You can kill someone with that. And I want one. I’m not saying that I want to shoot anyone, I’m just saying that it would be nice to have the option. Some people would be much …
Feb
12
This coffee mug PC is the best idea since . . . Well, it just may be the best idea yet. It has a touchscreen display, shows you alerts about weather etc. and you can also display your own images on a screensaver. Besides all of that, it also holds coffee. Like I …
Feb
04
Owls attracted me somewhat. With their big, all-bright eyes – seeing everything. Tendencies to sit snuggly on lofty perches, observing the world as it trundles by. Just recently I was entranced by a particular owl I found floundering in a dilapidated antique shop in my neighborhood. It was so small, I would have passed it …
Jan
08
Eureka Aereopace has developed a microwave beam that can fry a car’s electronics and thus stop it from going anywhere. The idea is to give this to the police and/or army so that they can disable cars at will. It should be available to the general public. Aside from the obvious fun, it would certainly …
Dec
13
I tried an alarm clock. It now sits unplugged beside my bed. I can’t stand the things. They’re torture devices. I’ll wake up when I wake up, secure in the knowledge that the day will get stupid and annoying soon enough. There’s no need to start by having some drug-addicted radio personality shouting traffic reports …
Dec
23
This year, when you want to bribe Santa with milk and cookies, consider the Dunk Mug. That way he’ll be able to keep a hand free while he shovels those gifts beneath your tree. There’s a couple of things that would make this better. 1) they should put a face on it. That way, it …
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
