At a concessions stand at Boston’s Logan Airport here in Massachusetts, I spotted this wonderful engineering fix to a broken bottled drink dispenser system. The mastery of rubberbands as a fix-it-all medium as shown here is truly sublime. I’m a huge fan of rubberbands, especially Animal Rubber Bands (click to see what I’m talking about) which make the perfect toy for any future young engineer-artist.
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Dec 17, '06
I don’t use an iPod, although I tend to talk about them a bit and the iPod vote grows ever slightly each day. This is all in spite of the fact that I stopped using my iPod a while back. My MIT alum buddy at Samsung, Paul Kim, asked me to look at the K5 to think about how it compares to the iPod.
Well, it’s hard to compare mp3 players to Apple’s iPod because in my mind the iPod = iTunes. Given that iTunes has become increasingly (and painfully) complex, I’m sort of feeling tepid on the iPod’s concept nowadays.
The K5 is unique for it’s “slide and tilt” mechanism; it also sports the new trend in invisible interfaces like its front face that has no obvious or visible buttons a la reduce. There’s a great deal of attention to the fancy animations that accompany each of its screens — counterbalancing the mystery of reduce with a healthy dose of emotion. After playing with it for months, I still haven’t learn-ed how to use the device though most of the time I can get it to play music.
Do I like it? I think the litmus test here is that it still sits on my desk for now. Let’s wait and see.
I ran out of business cards recently so I’m printing a new set today. There are so many high-tech ways to print things today, but I prefer the anachronistic practice of printing them by hand. The easiest way to do this yourself is to get a Print Gocco. I discovered this machine while living in Japan. It’s a self-encapsulated miniature silkscreen-printing press with reduced mess, and a high level of convenience.
This machine was invented for the market in Japan where there’s an old tradition of sending special personalized “New Year’s Day Cards” called nengajo (pronounced “Nehn-Gaw-Joe”). I figure that before the Internet and e-cards, the Japanese postal system must have made the bulk of its annual revenue from this national custom. It probably still does. To me, the most amazing aspect of this custom was the fact that all nengajo from your friends (sent asynchronously of course) would arrive pre-sorted in your mailbox exactly on New Year’s Day!
Although we don’t have this custom here in the States, the Print Gocco makes a great creative toy for anyone that is curious about the process of screenprinting. Due to the prevalence of color inkjet printers today for making flawlessly perfect nengajo, I would imagine that the Print Gocco will eventually meet its demise so pick one up (with supplies) while they’re still around.
Roger von Oech sent me his Ball of Whacks to experience first hand (sic). Each of the identical pieces of plastic have a magnetic signature to them that creates unique constraints when sticking the puzzle together. I have very little patience for puzzles, but nonetheless had fun playing with a few “whacks.”
Roger felt that his puzzle embodied the ideas of simplicity. I could see his point. Easy to take apart, feels good, creates a quick emotion-al bond. But this toy is definitely not for small children in the house because each “whack” is perfectly shaped for a journey into the mouth (of course there is an explicit warning on the box).
I’ve been watching the slow and steady accrual of votes to the iPod interface poll. The leader right now by a wide margin is the current interface for the iPod. However from comments I’ve received during speaking engagements, I’m convinced that the data I’m seeing here might be misleading. Some people really don’t like the current interface, and instead prefer one of the previous design options. I suspect that this minority may not be as vocal as the majority.
The same can be said about digital cameras. I know that I much prefer the interface of the older, 2004 Canon SD200 to its newer brethren like the SD700. The simple horizontal lever on the SD200 makes it easy to choose between: play, movie, or camera; on the SD700 I get lost in all the menus and the tiny mode-dial with five options instead of three.
There must be some sort of business opportunity out there like “Pimp My Ride” where the opposite gets done. Call it “Un-pimp my Gadget.” I’ll be first in line.
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