Rob Beschizza

ETG: Early Termination Gouge

Fees for terminating your Nexus One contract: up to $550. The magic part is that Google and T-Mobile each charge you an ETF, meaning you have to pay back the 'subsidy' to both companies. This suggests that one or the other is screwing customers, as the aggregate cost far exceeds the unsubsidized price of the handset. On the $180 discount price you get for buying a Nexus One with a two-year agreement, either Google eats the loss and T-Mobile shouldn't be charging an ETF, or T-Mobile eats the loss (as is normal for carriers) and Google shouldn't be charging an ETF. There is a precedent, however: carriers charge ETFs on data plans for 3G laptops that weren't subsidized by *anyone* at the point of sale. [Consumerist]

Cory Doctorow

ATM skimmer -- could you spot it in the wild?

Brian Krebs's "Krebs on Security" features an ATM skimmer that is chillingly well-camouflaged. After seeing photos of early, crude skimmers -- devices that capture your card number and work in concert with a hidden camera that records you punching in your PIN -- I assumed that I could rely on my own powers of observation to keep from falling victim to one. Now I don't think I can be so sanguine. Be sure to follow some of the links in the post for some hair-raising examples of the form.

This particular skimmer was found Dec. 6, 2009, attached to the front of a Citibank ATM in Woodland Hills, Calif. Would you have been able to spot this?

This is fairly professional job: Notice how the bulk of the electronics fit into the flap below the card acceptance slot. Also, check out the tiny pinhole camera (pictured below), ostensibly designed to switch on and record the victim's movements as he or she enters their PIN at the ATM.

Would You Have Spotted the Fraud? (via Neatorama)

Cory Doctorow

Candy-ass vice-principal calls the bomb squad over an 11-year-old's science project, recommends counselling for the student

A San Diego school vice-principal saw an 11-year-old's home science project (a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics), decided it was a bomb, wet himself, put the school on lockdown, had the bomb-squad come out to destroy X-ray the student's invention and search his parents' home, and then magnanimously decided not to discipline the kid (though he did recommend that the child and his parents get counselling to help them overcome their anti-social science behavior).

When police and the Metro Arson Strike Team responded, they also found electrical components in the student's backpack, Luque said. After talking to the student, it was decided about 1 p.m. to evacuate the school as a precaution while the item was examined. Students were escorted to a nearby playing field, and parents were called and told they could come pick up their children.

A MAST robot took pictures of the device and X-rays were evaluated. About 3 p.m., the device was determined to be harmless, Luque said...

The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.

Full story (Thanks, Steve!)

Cory Doctorow

Beautiful ice-sphere machine

This copper mechanism from Macallan's will turn your large, irregular chunk of ice into a perfect sphere, whose melting properties are somehow optimal for the consumption of Scotch (I drink neat Irish, when I drink at all, which is almost never).

The Macallan Ice Ball Machine- 01.15.10 (via Andre's Notes)

Rob Beschizza

On the Newton Messagepad

Poor handwriting recognition was just the part that became industry legend. John Gruber explains why Apple's first tablet computer didn't do so well.

Cory Doctorow

Business-card that shoots pennies

Thingverse user Clide has invented a business-card that fires US pennies, handling them in lots of 10.

The thick components get sandwiched between the two thin layers. Start by gluing the two identical thick pieces to the thin side without the magazine. Use the other thick piece (the slide) as a guide and make sure it can slide easily between the parts and close flush. Then glue the side with the magazine on top. Take care not to glue the magazine down and make sure the slide can still move back and forth. The slide must be in place before you glue it together because it can not be installed after the rest of the card is assembled. Two #32 rubber bands are needed to use the card.

Penny Shooter by clide (via Make)

Cory Doctorow

Dishwasher door as self-cleaning toddler workspace

Another sweet ParentHacks tip, from reader Chrissy -- I love the elegance of realizing that the dishwasher door, when opened, is a self-cleaning, toddler-height food-prep area:

Stumbled across this idea by accident this week when my four year-old wanted to help with the cooking. She's kind of a wild stirrer and flour has a tendency to end up all over so I was feeling resistant to having her help. The dishwasher happened to be open and I got the idea to just set to bowl on top of the open dishwasher door. It was just the right height for her to help add ingredients and stir, and the pile of flour and sugar that usually ends up on the counter ended up on the dishwasher instead, making clean up as easy as closing the door :) It was definitely one of those "how did it take me so long to think of this?!" sort of moments.

Let little kids "help" with cooking by placing the mixing bowl on the open dishwasher door

(Image: Dishwasher, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from brownpau's photostream)

Cory Doctorow

Grotesque and lovely animatronics

Roboticist film-maker John Nolan's gallery of animatronic creations is a treasure-trove of wonderful, grotesque creations in states of partial undress.

www.johnnolanfilms.com: gallery of photos (via JWZ)

Cory Doctorow

Rustbelt collapse dividend: ginormous Chrysler plant and 3,000,000 sqft worth of gear up for sale

Richard sez, "For the discerning mad scientist: the list of items up for auction by the University of Delaware from a former Chrysler plant in Newark, Delaware. The university bought the plant after it closed, and apparently got the contents as well. The coolest items are probably the 6 axis robot arms, some still in line along assembly lines. There appears to be all kinds of milling equipment as well as other mysterious devices of unsure provenance. I am sure a machine expert would be able to make sense of all of it. The place is acres large (ed: literally -- 3 million sqft), so I bet there are plenty of robot arms to go around. Oh to be an independently wealthy mad scientist with a large laboratory, perhaps under an extinct volcano, for this stuff. I suppose if there are any makers in the area they might want to check it out."

Former Assets of Chrysler / University of Delaware - 3 Million Sq. Ft. Automotive Fabrication, Assembly Plant & Distribution Center (Thanks, Richard!)

Mark Frauenfelder

Buckyballs: little magnetic metal balls that are fun to play with

Jake Bronstein of Zoomdoggle sent me a bunch of Buckyballs and for the last few days my daughters and I have been playing with them during meals and in front of the TV. They're addictive.

Each box contains 216 Buckyballs, arranged in a 6 x 6 x 6 cube. They stick together because they're magnets. The magnets are strong enough that you can make a chain with all 216 balls that won't break when you dangle it. They are so strong in fact, that my thumb is a little bruised from the effort it takes to pull the balls apart.

The fun part about Buckyballs is the way they balls arrange themselves when you stick them together. The balls have a preference for certain crystalline structures. There seems to be a huge variety of structures the balls like to arrange themselves into, as you can see in the video above. (Learn other tricks with Buckyballs.) When I play with them, I feel like my hands are a nanotechnology machine sticking atoms together.

My current goal is to stack them back together into the 6 x 6 x 6 cube, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it. I know that there are some YouTube videos that show how to do it, but I'm going to try to figure it out on my own.

(Disclosure: I'm an unpaid adviser to Zoomdoggle.)

Buckyballs on Amazon

Cory Doctorow

Prints made from typewriter parts

John sez, "I've been making using dismantled typewriter components. Each edition is made by sticking the sheet metal pieces to a magnetic plate then inking and printing like a woodblock."

typeset (Thanks, John!)

Mark Frauenfelder

Video of Perplexus 3D maze toy

Kevin Kelly shares my enthusiasm for the Perplexus, a 3-D maze toy.

We've found the puzzle to be extremely addictive to anyone who gets started. Because it's like a 3D video game without the electronics, the very physical nature of playing -- turning it this way and that -- is very satisfying. In addition, the maze is like a sculpture, the design of the route is geekily brilliant, and the elegance of the eternal return of the steel ball within the sphere is a stroke of genius. Perplexus has the glow of a work of art. It makes me happy just to pick it up.

A couple of years ago I asked Michael McGinnis, the creator of the Perplexus, to write a Make story about how he designed and produced the toy. It turns out that the Perplexus has been a lifelong obsession. He now makes giant size Perplexii for museums. You can read the story and see photos of early prototypes here.

After being out of production for a number of years, the Perplexus is back and available on Amazon. I love this toy.

Brilliant 3D Maze: Perplexus

Rob Beschizza

The postman always rings ice

Perplexed of late by people knocking loudly on the front door instead of ringing the doorbell, I finally asked the delivery man what was up.

New New Years resolution: leave the house more often.

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

"Noise-postponing headphones"

The Onion's highlights from CES. The TI-101 Graphing Bassoon, at last!

Cory Doctorow

Folding electric bike - the "mini-farthing"

The YikeBike is an electric, folding "mini-farthing" (think "penny-farthing") bike -- €3,500 gets you a 10kg electric scooter that folds up to the size of a cymbal set and travels 10-20km on a single charge at 20km/h. Ideal for short-hop commuters who are too lazy to pedal a bicycle, as well as anyone who doesn't think a Segway is dorky enough!

But it is a sweet bit of design.

About YikeBike | YikeBike - The world's first super light electric folding bike (via Red Ferret)

Rob Beschizza

The Irritation Waltz, after Nokia, after Tárrega

Behold Marc-André Hamelin's Valse Irritation d'après Nokia, the stuff of nightmares. Subtle, enduring nightmares. [via Giz.]

Mark Frauenfelder

Santa Fe man sues neighbor for using WiFi

A gentleman who suffers from "electromagnetic sensitivity" is suing his Santa Fe neighbor for refusing to turn off his cellphone and WiFi hotspot.

Mark Frauenfelder

RCA's Wifi "power harvester"

I'm having trouble believing that RCA's Airnergy, a "WiFi hotspot power harvester" unveiled at CES, can actually charge its internal battery from WiFi radio signals.

From OhGizmo!:

The Airnergy has a battery inside it, so you can just carry it around and as long as you're near some WiFi, it charges itself. Unlike a solar charger, it works at night and you can keep it in your pocket. Of course, proximity to the WiFi source and the number of WiFi sources is important, but at the rate it charges, if you have a home wireless network you could probably just leave anywhere in your house overnight and it would be pretty close to full in the morning.

A commenter on OhGizmo! offers the following:

Here's some math. Long story short, by my calculations, 100% efficiency and absorption at 5 feet away from a 100mW home router, (reasonable figures), it would take 34.5 years to charge that blackberry battery.

It's not a Dyson Sphere, so you only get the power that hits the antenna.

Surface of a sphere = 4pir^2, r = 60" (5 feet).

Surface area of a 5' sphere = 45,216 square inches.

The device appears about 2" x 3" = 6 square inches.

The device then picks up, best case, 0.000133 of the power out from the router, which is 100mW, so.. 0.0133mW

If you leave it there for 24 hours, 0.0318 mWh are stored.

According to Will's battery, it has ~4,000 mWh capacity.

So, it would take 12,579 days, or 34.5 years, to charge your blackberry battery once, presuming 100% absorption, no losses.

(BTW, What is that dent in the gadget about? Looks like someone poked it with an awl.)

RCA Airnergy Charger Harvests Electricity From WiFi Signals