Joel Johnson

Flip & Tumble Bag easy to stash

Just yesterday a friend and I were mentioning how often we find ourselves without a reusable bag when shopping, leaving us little choice but to bring home more plastic bags from the grocery store. These new scruntch-up bags from Flip & Tumble can be stashed inside the integrated stretchy pouch, smooshing the whole thing into something only about 3-inches in diameter. Not quite pocketable, but if you already carry around a backpack or purse — don't say it; sometimes you need more carrying capacity — then these could do the trick.

Each bag is $12 plus shipping and are available in five colors.

What tricks do you use to stash bags? You could do something similar with a light bag and a sock. I've got several of those reusable Ikea bags, but they're too big, even folded, to carry around.

Product Page [Flip & Tumble]

Joel Johnson

Best Buy Giving $50 HD DVD Rebate, Too

Howie writes:

To go along with Wal Mart and Amazon's rebates, Best Buy is offering a $50 gift card to anyone who bought an HD-DVD player from them before February 23, 2008.

They're also offering a trade-in, but for an excellent quality player with manuals, remote, and two movies, they only offer $33 (?!)

HD DVD Action Center [Best Buy]

Joel Johnson

Star Warsian Retro Vehicles

If I'm parsing this Spiegel article correctly, they're comparing this collection of 39 strange vehicles as things that look like they could have come out of Star Wars. Ironically, some of the featured retro vehicles are war machines, including some hard-edged German items, which undoubtedly affected the visual style of some of the original trilogy's design. Or maybe they're saying these things inspired Star Wars in the first place. I can suss out the meaning of words in German, but all the connective grammar is lost on me.

Die Ahnen von Star Wars [Spiegel.de] (Thanks, Monad!)

Joel Johnson

'Balance' bathtub is a full mind/body experience

My friend Harry Sawyers is out at the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show and spotted this 'Balance' tub built by Estonian makers NeoQi. It's got everything but the bacta:

You've got both steam and infrared sauna heat, a couple dozen jets pulsing out the hydromassage, therapies both aroma- and chroma-, and an mp3 player to help you get into that Deep Purple groove that's so popular these days.
The best feature of all is the DeLorean door than closes down on you, coffin-like, with a little hole for your head. This creates an "energy cocoon" to make you "feel good...fight stress, and loose (sic) your weight."

THE TUB THAT'S BETTER THAN DRUGS [KBIS Live]

Mark Frauenfelder

Cat bed clamps onto desk

Joel Johnson

Digitized Post-It Notes for Alzheimer's Patients

What a clever idea: digitizing the common, canary-yellow Post-It note to help people with Alzheimer's.

The Ixp-Note, 1mm thick, enables the user to enter the time and date of a future event by touching the paper with their finger. Using a normal pen, the user can then write the event they need to remember on a glowing strip, which can be programmed to flash or beep at the chosen time.

The memo note uses thermo-chromic ink - like that used in thermometer strips - that changes colour in response to temperature.

Better yet, they're cheapish and reusable: a pack of ten costs £10.

Clever stick-on note could replace alarm clock [Telegraph] (via Gizmodo)

Charles Shopsin

Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we look at this entertaining, though wildly optimistic vision of a future where lazy Americans are coddled by robot slaves that do everything from parting their hair and catching rats around the house to melting snow by spraying cheap "atomic heat", whatever that means. This 1936 article titled "The World's Most Dangerous Job" documents what filmmakers had to go through to get movies of tigers in their native habitat. We also looked at a talking scare crow, a slide projector that is for some reason shaped like a pistol, an automatic trap-door for automobile roofs designed to prevent bashing one's head and a curt, stylish ad for Camel cigarettes.

Joel Johnson

ERROR ED-209: Why the SWORDS Were Pulled From Iraq

This is a development that will surely strike the dispassionate rationalist like a cattle prod driven into the 'common sense' nerve cluster of the amygdala: it turns out that giving robots guns isn't a good idea.

Last year, three armed ground bots were deployed to Iraq. But the remote-operated SWORDS units were almost immediately pulled off the battlefield, before firing a single shot at the enemy. Here at the conference, the Army’s Program Executive Officer for Ground Forces, Kevin Fahey, was asked what happened to SWORDS. After all, no specific reason for the 11th-hour withdrawal ever came from the military or its contractors at Foster-Miller. Fahey’s answer was vague, but he confirmed that the robots never opened fire when they weren’t supposed to. His understanding is that “the gun started moving when it was not intended to move.” In other words, the SWORDS swung around in the wrong direction, and the plug got pulled fast. No humans were hurt, but as Fahey pointed out, “once you’ve done something that’s really bad, it can take 10 or 20 years to try it again.”

This isn't just bad news for the KillBot industry. It sets a bad precedent: human casualties are not acceptable. How will the nascent HugBot industry get off the ground if we can't accept the risk of a few early testers being accidentally hugged to death?

Non-Answer on Armed Robot Pullout From Iraq Reveals Fragile Bot Industry [Popular Mechanics]

Joel Johnson

Sprint Security System Too Clever for Your Own Good

Mike Masnick tears into Sprint's tragically weak security system that protects access to your account. Hope your neighbors don't know you very well!

The way it works is Sprint asks you a series of "security" questions that it thinks only you would know the answer to. Things like "what type of car has been registered at your address?" and "which of the following people has lived at your address?" It sounds like some data collection company probably convinced Sprint to purchase access to their data to set up these questions in the name of "security." The problem is that if you know just a little about certain people, you can easily guess the answers. Even worse, a former Sprint employee notes that, mostly to avoid "accidentally" having two right answers, it's usually quite easy to figure out the actual answers. For example, on the automobile question, the incorrect answers are usually expensive luxury vehicles.

Dumb Sprint 'Security' Questions Make It Easier To Hijack Accounts [Techdirt]

Joel Johnson

Chinese-Made 'Hillbilly' Prank Teeth Recalled for Excessive Lead

UPI reports:

The CPSC said the importer, Funtastic of Houston, initiated the recall because gray surface paint on the teeth was found to contain excessive levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard.

Chinese-made 'Hillbilly Teeth' recalled [UPI via J-Walk Blog]

Joel Johnson

Wooden Coffee Cuff

These wooden cuffs from Bentwood are made from cast-off architectural veneer and are molded to double as a sleeve for hot coffee cups. They're lovely, as wood so often is, but at $70 CAD about $60 more expensive than they should be. I'm all for not wasting paper, but something about using an expensive zebrawood cuff in lieu of a nickel's worth of cardboard seems strange to me.

Product Page [Contexture.ca via Gadget Lab via Book of Joe]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Custom Stickers – Buy two, get one free on custom sticker books from Moo.com. You can load images right out of Flickr. (Which is why much of Brooklyn is covered in tiny images of my dog.) [Dealhack]

• iPod Speakers – Logitech AudioStation iPod Speaker dock for $45, shipped, after a $50 mail-in rebate. [Dealnews]

• Batteries – 15% off coupon, no minimum, at Batteries.com. They sell rechargables. [Dealnews]

• Drill Set – Black & Decker 5-piece 18-volt drill set for $40, shipped. Comes with a driver, vacuum, flashlight, stud finder, screwdriver, and battery + charger. [Dealnews]

• Bluetooth Speaker – Today's Woot! is the Anycom Solar Bluetooth Cell-Phone Speaker System for $35, shipped.

Joel Johnson

What Would You Put in Your Perfect Backpack?

Boy, I've been traveling. It's not likely to ease up this year. I've got the short trip down to an art, if I may be so bold: I'm regularly doing two-three night stays, with full-sized laptop and often cameras, in just a standard-sized backpack. (Protip: Always wearing jeans is your new fashion.)

As well as this nylon Gravis backpack has served me over the last three years, it's starting to have some problems. Small tears — my fault, mostly — and not quite enough capacity to really meet my needs for longer trips. I think I can do a full 7-day trip with a single carry-on bag — if it's the right one.

Buying a bag would be too easy, and my new philosphy when it comes to clothing and accessories is that I'd rather spend the money to get exactly what I want, something I'll treasure. That means bespoke. Fortunately, I am also a skinflint, so bespoke means "hope to heck I can find a talented crafter on Etsy." (If you know of a crafter who could do the job, though, I'd love a recommendation.)

Here are my tentative requirements for your criticism and elucidation:

• Solar power – It should probably be hard panels, which are more effecient. I may actually sacrifice my old Voltaic solar bag for parts. (it's a great bag, but mine was a pre-production prototype that use a cloth on the back that made it majorly sweaty, since fixed.) Provided the Voltaic's storage battery still holds a charge, I'll probably incorporate that, too, although something able to store slightly more power might be worth the encubrence penalty. If I use the Voltaic battery, output to whatever voltages I need is simple — and nearly everything I use now uses vanilla 5-volt USB.

• A separate laptop section – For the forseeable future, I'll be toting a full-sized laptop around on trips. (Although, damn it, the Air is starting to call to me.) Most backpacks put the computer next to the spine, using it as a way to add stability to the frame. I like this fine. I also spend a lot of time whipping it out — as well as removing my computer from my bag — so single-zipper access is a must.

Or not. I'm easy if there's a good reason to do something different.

• Durable materials – At first I was thinking leather. That limits the number of crafters who could actually make the bag, as well as greatly increasing the price, but as a "lifetime bag" it seemed like the most durable choice. Leather backpacks, on the other hand, are kind of corny, so it would have to be restrained in design.

But perhaps there are better materials to work with. Something less expensive to purchase (and regenerate). Something with a little more appeal visually. Something with some pink. Reclaimed materials would be hot.

Metal fasteners are prefered, I think, if there is a way to make them not squeak. I'm seeing lots of metal on this thing.

• A backpack with stowable shoulder strap – It has to be a backpack, because sometimes I wear my bag for hours at a time. Messenger bags just don't cut it, although a stowable, clip-on should strap option would be nice. Even more difficult, more desirable: a bag design small enough to be slipped under an airline seat, so I don't have to pack another bag with all my in-flight toys and books or keep my computer on the floor. (I'm also just a little bit paranoid about ever letting my bag out of my sight.)

• Special features – This is where you guys come in. I've had a few ideas, like a smart selection of quick-access pockets and fairly predictable stuff like that. But if you were making the perfect bag for you, what would you add? A small pocket with a viewport for a hidden camera, maybe? A place for a water bottle? A programmable display? Speakers? A telescoping antenna tuned for 3G?

Joel Johnson

The Web is the Only Set-Top Box That Matters

Blockbuster is building a set-top, burped the web. I looked around my apartment at my three media consumption stations — or would have had I not been flying on an airplane — and considered where Blockbuster's box might go.

My laptop, a Mac, is full of a few video podcasts which I watch primarily on my phone. (Lala, call me!) I'll download the occasional torrent, although that is done primarily on my...

Desktop machine, a Windows Vista PC hooked up to a television-sized LCD monitor. I'll bring down television torrents from time to time, but as I have money to spend again (last year was a bear), I've been renting DVDs from Netflix. I watch those occasionally on my PS3, attached to the same display, instead of the PC. That's to pretend that I have a use for the PS3 besides a Blu-ray player.

In the living room is a projector connected to a DVR, or as it is increasingly known, "The American Idol Experience Box." If I wanted, I believe Time Warner has some on-demand options, but since I'm really only paying my cable bill as a way to assuage, in part, any ethical burden I feel for torrents I download, I've never used tried to use on-demand.

What I use many times a week is Netflix's web-based streaming service, available free at most subscription levels. And, to my surprise, Hulu. I pop open a browser, fire up an episode of 30 Rock or Arrested Development and watch an episode or two while I run on the elliptical. Or that's what I did at first. Now I find myself looking through the Netflix streaming listing for movies. Not just movies I've seen a million times, like Ghostbusters, but movies I keep putting at the back of my DVD queue because I'm just not quite sure I actually want to watch them. (Half of my queue is filled with movies I'm fairly sure I just have on there to impress myself. Oh, you're so well-rounded and worldly! But no one will mind if you just move Enchanted up to the top.*)

I never want to touch a piece of proprietary hardware to access content again. There's no need! We'll be able to stream HD content soon enough; in the interim, even these browser-based solutions could pre-fetch and cache it. The only reason companies like Blockbuster and Vudu want dedicated hardware is because it locks you into their service. They're recreating the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war for streaming digital media. How silly is that?

In Appledom, iTunes is the future, not AppleTV. AppleTV and other PC-based media centers only exist because no television manufacturer has figured out how to make a passable, low-priced solution to add a capable web browser to their TVs.

It would be simple and inexpensive to add a computer small enough to run a web browser to most televisions. (Even accounting for the relatively high performance cost of streaming video.) It might not even need a traditional hard drive, since data would only need to be cached, not stored. And while a custom interface to the web sites would be nice, it's not essential. (And could be done by the streaming media sites themselves by catching the browser type ID and passing back a custom CSS, like many sites now do for iPhone Safari.) A cursor and an on-screen keyboard would be enough to log-in to web pages, if slowly.

Or add a web browser to the game consoles. It doesn't matter. Just get a browser on these displays, connect them to the plain ol' web, and let them start showing content.

Of course there is one snag: DRM. And it's not even the standard DRM problem — you know, how it's a complete waste of culture's time — but that the DRM powering Netflix is Windows-based. But there's a fix for even that (besides adding the same DRM to Linux or other OSes and browsers): just use a different DRM. Hulu works just fine on my Mac. I don't know how or if they're trying to lock down the stream through Flash, but it seems to be working cross-platform without issue.

Unlike an ISP-level tax to preemptively pay for all media consumption as some have proposed, the browser-based system still empowers me as a consumer to make decisions within the framework of the market. If I like what I'm getting, I pay. If I don't, I stop paying. And there's no dead box under my television, waiting to be ground into splinters and smelted for heavy metals. There's just bored me looking wistfully at a login form, secure that all that entertainment is ready to be beamed to me again to any browser on any screen in the world.

* Loved it.

Charles Shopsin

Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we look at a 1929 round up of nutty patents including these somewhat impractical parachute pants, a bicycle built to be ridden by eleven blind men, an air purifier that looks like it would cause deafness, an aerial camera that can take pictures covering over 200 miles, a bizarre ad that has a family of four literally riding the RCA research building across the sky and the origin of windshield wiper fluid sprayers. We also learned all about the birth of Technicolor in a 1930 Modern Mechanix article which makes color film processing look like quite a pain in the ass.

Joel Johnson

Reminder: "Mafia/Werewolf" IRC Game Starts in 30 Minutes

Just a reminder, guys: we'll be hosting our first IRC event in #boingboing in 30 minutes, at 1pm EST. The game is a variant of the popular Mafia/Werewolf social game called Pre-Cogs versus Replicants.

If you want to come and observe, jump on an IRC Freenode server and join #boingboing, or just click this link to use a Java IRC client. If you want to play, check out the description and rules in our official announcement thread, then join the channel, register your nick (/msg NickServ register [choose password]) and then message John Brownlee that you want to play (/msg Brownlee I want to play!)

Hope to see you there!

Joel Johnson

Meccania DG: Another World's Perfect Steampunk Watch

Although at first blush the limited-edition Di Grisogono Meccanica DG watch looks just like a garish, glow-in-the-dark LED favored by some spaced-out raver, the whizzygig's horological guts reveal it to be something far more elegant: a mechanical watch that looks and acts like a digital one, thanks to the stupendous complexity of the 651 interlocking gears tightly compacted within.

Just 177 of these amazing timepieces are going to be made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Geneva-based horloger. Billed as the most complicated digital-analog timepiece in the world, the digital display is actually mechanical, with rolling tubes forming the digital segments.

Needless to say, a limited edition of this sort of craftsmanship is going to cost more than your average airport Swatch. I love it, though. Oxidized, made of copper and attached to a band made out of elephant leather, it would make the perfect steampunk watch: a time piece that simulates a device of the 21st century with the technology of the 19th. Someone needs to show Jake von Slatt how to make an LCD monitor like this.

First Watch with All-Mechanical "Digital" Display (Verdict: Absolutely Amazing) [Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• UGLY BOX — Dell's XP2 720 "gaming-optimized" tower of glower gets $200 chopped thanks to a coupon code. [Dealhacks]

• GAMING MOUSE — Logitech's M.O.R. G3 mouse is here at a lovely low $15 after rebates; you'll have to pony up $40 up front. [Amazon]

• FREE STUFF — VistaPrint will slap your upload on branded white T-Shirts for $2.50, or with plain custom text free of charge. Also: stationary galore. [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

Dell Joins Asus, HP In "Race To The Bottom" with Budget Sub-Notebook

A few months ago, a Sony executive, asked what he thought of the success of the Asus Eee bargain sub-notebook, leaned back in his chair, sucked on his cigar and smugly denounced the pursuit of cute, tiny, low-cost laptops as "a race to the bottom." Then, turning dangerous, he leapt like a panther across the desk, tackled his inquisitor and plunged the smoldering ember of his cigar through the vitreous of his interviewer's eye.

The message was clear: go to hell, bargain seekers. Sony will not be pandering to the nascent low-cost UMPC market. The very term is an oxymoron, Sony snorts. UMPCs should be sleek, slim and paralyzed with crapware. They should be marketed to individuals with smooth, cylindrical drainage shunts installed in their brainpans to match every digit of their post-six-figure income. They should cost more per ounce than heroin filtered through the limbic system of Tom Cruise.

Luckily, not every laptop maker is following suit. In fact, most aren't. They see money in paperback-sized laptops that are cheap enough to sell to anyone. Hot on the heels of HP's Mini-Note 2133 comes Dell, announcing their intent to release their own low cost, ultraportable notebook to the masses as early as June, lining up nicely with the release of Intel's Atom processor. The price should fall in line with the rest of the Eee-clones.

Time to stay ahead of the pack, Asus. Where's the Fff?

Compal Electronics Official: Dell To Launch Low-Cost Laptops [CNN Money]

Joel Johnson

Think Tank: Greying Japan On Its Way To Robot Majority

Tokyo — for all its wonder and surreality — is a throbbing biomass of tightly compacted flesh. Minds strain at the perpetual crush of human and soul and personality. Perhaps this goes far in explaining Japan's intricately formalized rules of social decorum: perhaps the culture has reacted explosively to the lack of personal space by building up psychological breathing room in every transaction, constructing as many obstacles as possible between two human beings actually interacting.

I suspect this same theory goes a long way towards explaining Japan's fascination with robots. Yes, robots are unequivocally awesome, but when you live in a city with a ten-to-one ratio of meat to oxygen, a man made of metal is a particularly wonderful thing. No wonder the birth rate is declining: why birth a mewling, meconium-spurting sprog when you can just have protected sex and buy yourself a cute robot puppy that flips as it yips?

But the drawback is declining birth rates and a collapsing social infrastructure. 40% of Japan's population will be over 65 in less than fifty years. And according to the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation—a robotics think tank—it is possible that up to 3.5 million jobs in Japan will be filled by robots by 2025.

In fifty years, Japan will be a curious island of anime-obsessed geriatrics, cared for by an armada of cybertronic care givers. And fifty years after that? Robo-Japan officially applies for membership in the United Nations, an event which—as all men know—eventually predicates the creation of the Matrix.

Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million in Japan [Reuters]

Joel Johnson

"Mafia/Werewolf" IRC Game, Tomorrow at 1PM EST

Tomorrow, John Brownlee will be hosting "Pre-Cogs vs. Replicants," a version of the popular "Mafia" (a.k.a. "Werewolf") social game in the #boingboing IRC channel. Remember, he who lies best lies last.

Game: Pre-Cogs vs. Replicants (a variation of the Mafia party game.)

Time: April 10th at 1pm EST

Place: #boingboing on FreeNode IRC

Setting: The sinuous, slithering bowels of Grope-Kant University: a festering intestinal track four years long in which the turgid philosophical constructs of pimpled undergrads are broken down into a semantic slurry suitable for the suckling of tenured flatworms. Within this excretionary system exists a small nodule of scientific inquiry: Grope-Kant U's Department of Bio-Chemical Engineering, comprised of twenty two researchers tinkering with the building blocks of life.

For most of these free-thinkers, the goals are modest, albeit perverse: mongrel dogs that can be milked by obnoxious assistants into ejaculating ambergris. Supple, disembodied female breasts, suitable for playing bocce on the Quadrangle. Xenuvian tomatoes that scream when they are sliced. And, of course, a wide variety of mutagenic nostrums that, slathered appropriately, allow for a variety of surprising genital enhancements especially aimed at Caligulan jousters and pole-vaulters.

But lurking amongst this constabulary of perverted old men, three academics toil on works of quiet yet resplendent genius.

Two — eager to improve their French kissing with first-person clinical analysis — have secretly grown genetic replicants of themselves, pleasure models to be sure.

The third, quite by accident, has pricked himself with a roux of chemicals with the interesting side effect of psychic pre-cognition.

And although, at first, this accidental pre-cog's aims for his new mental powers are limited entirely to trying to figure out if girls really like him, the surprise discovery of two brainless corpses crammed into a mail chute — their faces ripped off; their formulae for genetic cloning inserted into clammy, puckered orifices — will quickly transform this nebbish professor into a warrior of destiny.

Rules and how to get on IRC after the jump.

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

Amazon Gives $50 Credit to HD DVD Player Purchasers

From an email I, a lucky Xbox 360 HD DVD drive owner, received:

As someone who purchased an HD DVD player from us before February 23, 2008,* you might like to hear about a special offer available from Amazon.com.

New technologies don't always work out as planned. We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com.** Just use promotional code [redacted] when checking out. The code is valid through April 9, 2009, so you have plenty of time to use your credit. Purchases from third-party merchants on our site are not eligible

Previously • Wal-Mart Refunding HD DVD Player Purchased Made After Nov. 1 [BBG]

Mark Frauenfelder

Useless egg cracking device

However, when combined with the much-more-awesome but equally-useless Ronco Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler ($19.95), making breakfast could become as fun as a game of Mousetrap. Link

Charles Shopsin

Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we look at an article from a 1966 issue of Look magazine about the new craze among college kids for computer dating and the students at Yale and MIT making tons of money from it. Also a guaranteed way for a diner to alienate customers who are at all sensitive about their weight, a giant telephone dial designed to help unravel the "mysteries" of dialing, a see-saw bed that is supposed to help increase blood circulation, an automatic glove fitting device and a first hand account of a novice blimp driver titled "Anyone can fly a blimp".

Joel Johnson

Amazon Still Having Trouble Shipping Kindles

Amazon is still having a hard time meeting the at-the-moment-nebulous demand for the Kindle. A pal of mine ordered his on March 24th, but as of today it still hasn't shipped. Digitimes reported in January that PVI, the company that makes the Kindle's ePaper display, is having trouble meeting demand. I suspect that is still the snag.

Keep in mind this doesn't necessarily mean the Kindle is doing huge numbers overall. I requested sales about the device from Amazon several weeks ago and was met with silence (from a contact that had otherwise been happy to talk), so at this point it's possible that the overall unit sales could be low. (Or high! But usually when they're high you get some sort of response.) And they'll remain low if Amazon can't start getting Kindles into the hands of the unknown number of customers who want one.

Update: That same pal just got this email: "We now have estimated delivery dates for the Kindle order you placed on 3/24/08, #[redacted]. We are now estimating that your Kindle will arrive between 4/20/2008 and 4/27/2008."

Joel Johnson

Functional Dollhouse Television

Dok's Emporium sells these fully functional 1/12th-scale model televisions for use in doll houses. They take a standard composite input to display reruns of Jem and the Holograms (or whatever you like provided it is truly outrageous) on the 2-inch screen.

You can buy one yourself for £99, provided you live in England.

Product Page [DollhouseTVs.co.uk via Newslite.tv]

Joel Johnson

Video: Segway RMP Packbot with Mecanum Wheels

This demo "Segway RMP" packbot—yes, that Segway—uses Mecanum wheels to move in any direction. Mecanum wheels were concived by Bengt Ilon in 1973, but this is the first time I've seen them in action.

Thank goodness PT was around to snap a video. He notes, "Very creepy. You know it's a good robot when it's creepy. All the good ones are creepy." I don't think the lovebot I'm building in the likeness of PT in my bedroom is creepy.*

Segway's new RMP! [Blog.Makezine.com]

* :(

Joel Johnson

Hand-Painted Nintendo Chuck Taylors

Cole Ranze hand-painted these Chuck Taylors with a selection of the most popular Nintendo characters. He's auctioning them off on eBay. They're up to $250 so far, which is a lot of scratch for shoes too eminently radical to ever actually wear.

Hand Painted Nintendo Kicks [Deviant Art via Kotaku]

Joel Johnson

As GPS Navigation Devices Become Commodities, Profits Drop

Lower consumer spending, pressure from all-in-one phones from Nokia and company, and plain ol' competition are cutting heavily into the profits of GPS navigation devices from TomTom and Garmin, reports BusinessWeek:

Consumers bought more than 22 million PNDs in 2007 and are expected to buy more than 32 million this year, says Richard Robinson, an analyst at market research firm iSuppli. But the average selling price on a PND in 2007 was $249, less than half the 2004 average of $505. Margins are slipping, too. "These companies got used to making profit margins of 45% to 60% during the 2004 to 2005 time frame," Robinson says. "Now they're having to contend with margins that are closer to 18% to 20%. That's not ringing well with the financial guys. The problem is you can only make so much on each unit you sell."

TomTom and Garmin Lose Their Way [BusinessWeek.com]

Joel Johnson

Speedy Pedalofit Turns Wheelchairs into Trikes

The "Speedy Pedalofit"—a name which rolls off the tongue in a satisfying way that makes me think of an exercise routine for pedophiles only slightly*—is clip-on wheel and handlebar that coverts most wheelchairs into pedal-powered chopper trikes. And it's not just for paraplegics who want to be sent careening down mountain trails, limp legs churning with sinew-snapping speed. It's also good for those who have some use of their legs and need help building up the muscles again.

It gives the disabled a chance to exercise and travel short distances. When they reach their destination, they've already got their chair. What's not to like?

Speedy is a UK company, so I'm unsure if any of their products are available outside of their home country. And they make more than just the clip-on Pedalofit, producing a full range of interesting hand-powered bikes and wheelchair additions as well.

Product Page [SpeedyBikes.co.uk via Gearfuse via Oh Gizmo]

* But really, what doesn't?

Joel Johnson

Luxury Gas Masks

These bejeweled gas masks were one-offs created by artist Diddo Velema for the "Luxury Show 2008" in Bucharest, Romania. I'm not normally one to be swayed by the gold-and-crystal crowd, but I could totally wear one of these to the club, slipping it on just before hijacking the sound system with some Kompressor and releasing my own VX mood fog.

High Fashion Protection [DiddoVelema.com via DVICE]

Joel Johnson

USB Smart Cable Cellphone Strap Not Inaptly Named

The design could be a little more subtle—plus white rubberized products for the pocket always end up grody—but the "USB Smart Cable" lives up to its name as a simple cell-phone strap that unfurls into a USB cable, ending in mini USB, 18-pin, or a Nokia DC 2.0 connector. Only $9, plus shipping.

Catalog Page [USBGeek.com via Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

Women's Royal Naval Service Wore Only Underwear to Crack Enigma

From an article about the Colossus computers used at Bletchley Park, England, during World War II, the machines used to crack the German Engima high command's cypher:

Despite early worries, valves proved to be extremely reliable. Colossus’ designers realised that most valve failures were caused when machines were turned on and off; therefore the Colossi ran almost uninterrupted from the time of its installation to the end of the war. Such was the prodigious amount of heat pouring from the machine that the Women’s Royal Naval Service operators were reduced to working in their underwear!

The Birth of Modern Computing [Open2.net via Reddit]

Image: IEEE

Joel Johnson

Starship Enterprise on Google Maps

Apparently a search for "Starship Enterprise" in Google Maps brings up this office complex that looks like a place where workers boldly go. It appears to be a user tag, not an official Google prank.

"Starship Enterprise" [Maps.Google.com via Reddit]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• DONUTS! – Krispy Kreme will give you a dozen original glazed with the purchase of a mixed dozen. Get the while they're hot! (Because otherwise Krispy Kreme sort of suck.) [Slickdeals]

• DELL XPS – The slick-looking Dell XPS One desktop PC is going for $1100, shipped. [Dealhack]

• Earbuds – Philips SHN2500 Noise Canceling Earbuds for $15, shipped, or $5 if you open a new Google Checkout account. [Dealnews]

• Wi-Fi Picture Frame – Today's Woot! is the iMate Momento 10.2” Wi-Fi Digital Picture Frame for $135, shipped. Supports Windows Slideshow but not Flickr, I don't think.

Joel Johnson

Bubba Lego-Tep: Bubba Ho-Tep + LEGO Mod for Doom 3

In one of the dorkier confluences of nerd culture I've seen in a while, "trepaning" from the Game Artisans forum is building a mod for Doom 3 that models the characters from the movie Bubba Ho-Tep onto LEGO minifigs. That is laudable commitment to sub-niche fandom, trepaning. Well done!

Bubba Lego-Tep [GameArtisans.org]

Joel Johnson

Chinese-Made Gadgets Going to Get More Expensive

From Alexandra Harney's piece at Slate:

The era of cheap Chinese consumer goods may finally be ending, thanks to irrepressible inflation. Now when the Chinese present their lists, some American importers are conceding higher prices, meaning that American shoppers, for the first time in years, are starting to pick up the tab for rising costs in China. Some Chinese factories are now asking their American customers for price increases of as much as 20 percent to 30 percent.

The Last Days of Cheap Chinese [Slate]

Charles Shopsin

Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we look at this revolving tooth brush from 1938 which looks a lot like an Oral-b with one critical difference: It's spring powered. This Popular Science from 1931 explains all of the techniques engineers used to win our "Endless Fight for Water". Also check out this acoustically guided missile, a thirty-foot periscope for golfers, a method to keep a cop's feet warm and a crazy Charles Atlas ad.

Joel Johnson

Optimus Prime Sculpted from Canned Goods

"Canstruction" holds competitions to create sculptures from canned food, then donates the food to shelters. Matt Boulton created this fine Optimus Prime out of canned goods and what appear to be foil baking trays.

Optimus Prime [Flickr via Serious Eats via Neatorama]

Joel Johnson

Using Tech to Make Heating Houses More Efficient

Wired is profiling "Green Ghostbusters," their nickname for the work of San Francisco startup Sustainable Spaces, a company that uses a suite of gear to determine where a home or office's heating and cooling systems are working inefficiently.

After closing all the windows and doors, Bowers and Golden depressurize the house by mounting this blower door. [Not this picture. -Ed.] The door contains gauges that measure how much air is being pulled in through the house's envelope. This house had 36 percent air leakage, according to this test, which is equivalent to punching a 22 inch by 22 inch hole in the wall. Sealing up a house's outer shell keeps warm (or cold) air in, increasing a house's energy efficiency.

Green Ghostbusters Nab Hidden Power Leaks [Wired.com]

Image: Jonathan Snyder/Wired

Joel Johnson

Nokia Still Growing Their Own iPhone

Ever since the iPhone's release last June, Nokia has adhered to a well-formulated response strategy: pantomimed yawning, fingernail cleaning and loud theatrical humming. In short, the exact strategy I use to dissuade poltergeists from sliming the house with ectoplasm: I don't believe in you, you're stupid, go away.

But none of this stopped Nokia from announcing their own iPhone killer, code-named "Tube," in August of last year. And what do you know? Tube was a doppelganger of the iPhone down to the nucleus, its only major advantage being the jettisoning of the EDGE network in favor of proper 3G.

Yesterday, Nokia Forum's Tom Libretto announced that they are still hard at work on Tube, which is just as much of an eerie simulacrum of the iPhone as ever. No shipping date was announced, but Libretto did take the opportunity to compare Apple's 6 million iPhone ship number since June with Nokia's device shipments. "We've done that [volume] since we've had dinner on Friday," he boasted.

It's the wild-eyed, pelvic-thrusting boast of an insecure satyr confronting a slick Lothario's seduction record by typing ten digits into a calculator, flipping it around so you can read the number and then pointedly saying, "Including your mother."

But more over, it's an alarming figure: if Libretto is to be believed, at this rate, within one hundred years the atomic mass of Nokia phones will supersede the mass of the known universe, which seems to be a far more plausible threat to the fabric of space/time than any quantum strangelets produced by Europe's Large Hadron Collider. Whole planets will be consumed by Nordic automatons to produce a Kuiper belt of ownerless Nokia handsets for our extinct civilization.

Nokia's Tube is due this year according to the usual background scuttlebutt. While there's no price announced, its hard to imagine Nokia would bother cloning the iPhone's form while neglecting to clone its price.

Nokia readies iPhone response [InfoWorld]

Joel Johnson

Wal-Mart Refunding HD DVD Player Purchased Made After Nov. 1

If you bought an HD DVD player at Wal-Mart on or after November 1st and have your receipt, you can return it with or without original package for a full refund. [WSJ via Crunchgear]

Joel Johnson

On Golden Prong: History of Storage Devices

You know we love the retro tech around these parts, so it is impossible to resist Royal Pingdom's collection of now-ancient computer storage technology, like this Selectron vacuum tube that could hold up to a full 512 bytes of data when plunged directly into the exposed brain of a screaming test subject.

The history of computer data storage, in pictures [Royal.Pingdom.com]

Joel Johnson

Panzer Tank Replica Shoots Paintballs

Keith writes: "This Kettering College student built a drivable compact Panzer tank that fires paint-balls." He sure did! Ladies love the Panzers.

The 1/2-scale model was originally built for a paintball game and uses a three-cylinder diesel engine for motivation.

Joel Johnson

German Restaurant Serves Food Via Rollercoaster

"'s Baggers," a restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany, delivers all its food on winding metal tracks, ordered right from the table via touchscreen. They serve Franconian cuisine "using very little fat," which I don't personally see as something to crow about, but as they've "overtaken the restaurants of the first and second dimension" to "answer [the] global challenge," I'm pretty sure that even the most fat-less dishes will come with a great big side of hyperbole. Still, looks fun!

Company Page [SBaggers.de]

Joel Johnson

HP Mini-Note 2133 Fêted, Reviews Looking Positive

The HP Mini-Note 2133 made its swish entrance over the last 24 hours and the reviews for the stout little number are cheerfully positive. Sturdy metal case, decent nine-inch screen with ample resolution, decent battery life and an well-upholstered dusting of ports and connectors. And of course, a glittering foil tiara: the 92%-full-sized keyboard which makes using the Mini-Note 2133 for several hours a possibility for those not graced with the dexterity of a rodent gynecologist. (Is there an official standard width for "full-size keyboard?" I could not find one, but I didn't look very hard.)

There are a couple of warts, naturally. The Via C7-M processor is sluggish, as is Via processors' hallmark, but is also reported to run relatively hot. That affects both battery life—which is in the 2.5-3 hour range with the slim battery, or 4.5-5 with a form-destroying 6-cell protuberance—and increase background noise, as the 2133's fans are often running at full blast.

As I've previously sputtered to anyone who would listen, the defining quality of a sub-notebook is its keyboard. If a sub-notebook's keyboard is decent, everything else can be of middling quality; a poor keyboard spoils an otherwise perfect machine. And by all reports, HP has managed to grace the Mini-Note 2133 with a fantastic keyboard, remarkably similar in form to that of the 12-inch Powerbook, an update to which is the laptop I wished the Macbook Air had been.

It's impossible not to see the Mini-Note 2133 as a spiritual successor to the 12-inch Powerbook, right down to the way the screen hinges back behind the body of the laptop. The machine is sheathed in metal. It's got a keyboard flush with the edges of the chassis. If someone could figure out how to get OS X to run on this thing, I'd figure out how to drill out the HP logo on the back of the screen and replace it with a glowing apple.

Prices start at $499 for a 4GB solid-state version running Linux, then pop up in $50 and $100 increments as you add more RAM, a faster processor, Windows (Vista or XP), or spinning hard drives—all the way up to a $750 version with all the trimmings. At those prices you can dabble without fear of too much disappointment, but with Intel's Atom processors making their way into the channel with nothing but high praise from those who've tested them, it might not hurt to wait until the back half of this year to see if HP produces an upgrade that addresses the heat and battery life. (Via's upcoming Isaish platform might also be a possible successor.)

If you're not in a rush to buy, it's usually best to wait until the second revision. Just like with a Powerbook.

Press Release [HP.com]
Models and Pricing [HP.com]
[via Engadget, who has links to many hands-on reviews]

Joel Johnson

HTC Shift UMPC Reviewed (Verdict: Avoid Unless You Enjoy the Plague)

Gadget Lab's Danny Dumas trounces the HTC Shift, which is a bit of a disappointment to me; I'd thought its form factor obviously ludicrous, but still intriguing.

WIRED Built-in CDMA WWAN radio, which lets you access Sprint's data network when out of WiFi range. Microsoft Origami software offers a decent touchscreen experience.

TIRED Truly horrendous keyboard makes typing anything but short burst messages out of the question. Performance slower than a tortoise full of rigor mortis. No ethernet jack. One USB port. Wrapped in tacky leather. Way overpriced.

Review: HTC Shift UMPC Is Barely Mobile, Hardly Useful [Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

Your Pokémons, Let You Show Me Them Oh Hey These Are Fake

Nintendo just sent out a press release crowing about big busts against those who broker in counterfeit Pokémon trading cards.

BELLEVUE, Wash.—April 7, 2008 – Pokémon USA, Inc., a worldwide leader in trading card games, today announced the results of recent anti-piracy actions taken in cooperation with Nintendo of America Inc. to combat the production and distribution of counterfeit Pokémon® Trading Card Game products. On March 26, law enforcement officials in New York raided seven stores known to be selling fraudulent Pokémon Trading Card Game merchandise. Thousands of products were seized and several arrests were made. In early April, one action at a production facility in China secured nearly 1.2 million counterfeit cards and investigations continue.

During the past 16 months, more than 47 million counterfeit products have been seized at production facilities in Thailand, Singapore, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Australia, and China. One seizure in China in 2007 netted more than 26 million illegally produced cards. Nintendo and Pokémon will continue to target the retailers and manufacturers trafficking in counterfeit Pokémon product.

“Pokémon wants to send a message to importers and producers that we will not stand for the distribution of fraudulent Pokémon product,” [This aggression will not stand, man! – Ed.] says Pokémon spokesperson, J.C. Smith. “Pokémon is committed to ensuring our fans receive the quality product they've come to expect.”

I tease—mostly—but I just love the incongruence of a personified corporate Pokémon raising its electric yellow paw to the heavens and bellowing out a warning of "no quarter."

Image: Pokemonholic.com

Joel Johnson

RP Collier's Hand-Made Thumb Pianos

Bryan Day writes:

Here's an old friend of mine from Oregon - builds Kalimbas from just about anything, they are absolutely beautiful.

kalimba mbira sansa likembe thumb-piano lamellaphone [Flickr.com]

Charles Shopsin

Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we look at an ad for this 1902 Holley Motor Bicycle which proclaims it's usefulness in navigating "hilly districts", Frank Lloyd Wright's 1930 plans for an eighteen-story, all-glass building in New York's East Village, a man who is very excited about his new telephone holder, French plans for a 2,300 ft. "pleasure tower" accessible by car via a giant spiral ramp and an airplane propelled by pulsating wing bladders. Also check out this 1937 Popular Science piece that tells everything a civilian needs to know about poison gas, primarily that they shouldn't worry about it.

This weekend we looked at 1928 designs for a rocket trip to mars, a bizarre exercise machine, a dubious 1960 domestic/firefighting robot, a compact farm "computer", gas-masked paratroopers on skis, an entertaining ad for Dentyne gum, German cops who shoot at movies to hone their rifle skills, artificial plastic eyes, how the U.S. trained army aviators before WWII and a 1936 piece about allergies titled "Food or Poison?" which, surprisingly, mentions soy milk as an alternative for people with dairy allergies.

Joel Johnson

Eglu Cube: Urban Chicken Coop

Omlet, a UK company specializing in smartly designed chicken coops, has announced the "Eglu Cube," an even larger model than the original Eglu that can support up to 10 chickens (if you add the optional 3-meter wire run). The Eglu Cube is wheeled to make moving it around the yard simple, while the curved, nook-less surfaces make it simple to hose out while also helping to prevent infestation of red mites.

The wire chicken run extensions also feature a guarantee—"No Foxes Allowed"—by way of a fiendishly clever addition of about six inches of wire that extends flat from the bottom of the fence, making it difficult for burrowing animals to gain entry. (Unless they were smart enough to start digging a tunnel, a la The Great Escape, but my guess is most foxes aren't big Steve McQueen fans. James Garner—ironically—has a huge follow in the marmot community.)

Hens are sustainable, fairly easy to take care of, offer great natural fertilizer, and are surprisingly unobtrusive in even suburban settings. Most communities will allow residents to keep at least a few egg-laying hens (although rarely roosters). I don't know if the Eglu Cube will ever be available in the States, but even if you can't get your protein-craving hands on one, building a coop isn't all that difficult. And certainly cheaper than the £425 - £695 price of the Eglu Cube—if not quite as cute.

Product Page [Omlet.co.uk via Treehugger]

Joel Johnson

Record-Breaking "Kraken" Botnet Unleashed; Pour a 40 for Your Sysadmins

From Dark Reading:

SAN FRANCISCO -– RSA 2007 Conference –- A new botnet twice the size of Storm has ballooned to an army of over 400,000 bots, including machines in the Fortune 500, according to botnet researchers at Damballa. (See The World's Biggest Botnets and MayDay! Sneakier, More Powerful Botnet on the Loose.)

The so-called Kraken botnet has been spotted in at least 50 Fortune 500 companies and is undetectable in over 80 percent of machines running antivirus software. Kraken appears to be evading detection by a combination of clever obfuscation techniques, including regularly updating its binary code and structuring the code in such a way that hinders any static analysis, says Paul Royal, principal researcher at Damballa.

New Massive Botnet Twice the Size of Storm [DarkReading.com] (Thanks, monad, from #boingboing irc channel!)

Joel Johnson

Dyslexflix: Horribly Bad Netflix Recommendations

There's really nothing there yet, but "Dyslexflix" is a place where you can personally recommend horrible matches for movies in an attempt to create the exact opposite of Netflix's somewhat accurate recommendation system. The first example: Fight Club : Cotton Club

This could be really funny with some smart user submissions.

Home Page [UnderConsideration.com/dyslexflix/]

Joel Johnson

Slick Projector Alarm Clocks from Oregon Scientific

Both of these retro-modern alarm clocks from Oregon Scientific feature a projector that shines the current time on the ceiling of your austere sleeping chamber. The $30 RRA320 is just a regular clock/radio alarm, while for $20 more the RRM320PA brings in atomic-clock synchronization and a temperature display with a wireless thermometer that works from up to 300 feet away. It's a good thing the RRM320PA is out of stock at the moment as I'd probably buy it just because it looks nifty, despite the fact that I wake up every morning just fine with my phone's built-in alarm. (I think bring the phone into bed while I hit snooze two or three times.)

RRA320P Product Page [OregonScientific.com]
RRM320PA Product Page [OregonScientific.com]

[via Technabob]

Joel Johnson

Tell the FCC You Want Low Power FM Stations

The Prometheus Radio project reminds us that today is the last day the FCC will take public comment regarding regulation fo low-power FM radio, exactly the sort of tech that can be useful for small communities:

Greetings from Prometheus Radio!  It's coming down to the wire for Low Power FM at the Federal Communications Commission -- and we need your help!  The deadline for your comments on a crucial low power radio proceeding at the FCC is today -- Monday, April 7 -- at midnight.  Take a minute now to tell the FCC that you support Low Power FM!

File FCC Comments Now to Make Sure There's Room for Low Power Radio!

The FCC is currently accepting your comments on the future of Low Power FM -- but time is running out!  Comments are due midnight on Monday, April 7.  Now is the time to make your voice heard as the FCC decides on rules which will have a big impact on whether there's room in your town for new local community radio stations or more of the same schlock we're all sick of -- it will take only a minute of your time and will mean a lot if you want a radio station in your community!

Joel Johnson

Homebrew Electric Motorcycle

Benjamin Nelson built his own electric motorcycle from parts he got on Craigslist and from a local farm store. It only has a 15 mile range, but it gets the equivalent of 300MPG (based on current prices of gas and electricity).

"Then I mounted the motor to the frame using the existing engine mounting holes and a piece of scrap aluminum plate. I found a sprocket and chain in the tractor repair isle of the farm store."

And Mr. Nelson even admits that he doesn't own any power tools other than a drill, doesn't know how to weld and only took one metal shop class in high school.

DIY Electric Kawasaki Motorcycle [Treehugger] (Thanks, Chris T.!)

Joel Johnson

Lord British's Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk Watch

Richard "Lord British" Garriott, creator of Ultima and Tabula Rasa, is a bit of a space nut. (He owns an original Sputnik.) In October, Garriott will be taking a trip to the International Space Station—by rocket—and instead of strapping on one of the watches that already are designed to work in space, Seiko has created the "Spring Drive Spacewalk" watch, available only to Garriott and 99 other memento-seeking space or watch nerds willing to pony up the as-yet-announced price.

What does a watch designed for space do that terrestrial watches could not? It's lightweight, for one, milled from titanium. (Every ounce counts when you're pushing payloads up with a crude chemical shot put.) It glows, perhaps signifying the cosmic radiation that would roast an unshielded orbiting meat man. It has oversized buttons, in case Garriott needs to make an adjustment to his fucking watch while arcing at tens of thousands of miles an hour over the Earth. And it's powered by a spring, just like everything else on ISS.

Oh, it's huge, too. Fifty-three millimeter face, which is just over two inches across.

No clue when the 99 companion watches will be available for purchase, but I'd suspect before the October (literal) launch date.

Product Page [SeikoSpringDrive.com via Watch Report]

Joel Johnson

Nemo Gould's "Little Big Man" Robot Sculpture

Nemo Gould has created this cartoonish "Little Big Man" animated sculpture of a robot with a smaller robot that lives inside its abdomen. It'll be shown starting April 12th along with other robot sculptures at the San Jose Museum of Art. On his site, Gould lists some of the equipment he's repurposed:

Vintage wooden radio cabinet, street lamp poles, vacuum cleaner parts, industrial food processor, antlers, chair legs, dining room table top, floor polisher, miscellaneous found pieces of hardware and scrap metal, motors, lights.

Artist's Page [Nemomatic.com via Dug North]

Below is a sponsored mobile post widget from Microsoft.

Joel Johnson

Mark Sandlin, Space LEGO Builder

Clayton writes:

I've noticed you and I share an obsession for highly detailed space Legos, so boy have I got the lego "maniac" for you.  On the website Fleebnork (named for the Florescent green space scorpions that chew on power cables) Mark Sandlin shows off his super detailed space ships and mecha.  From the Taurus Freighter [pictured], to the Lumpy Condor, to the beautiful DEEPFRAH, this guy really knows how to put together a lego.  I also pretty sure his 3vil series is the inspiration for some "classic" legos you showed on your website a few weeks ago.

I need to get off my rump and build another ship. I've been pulling out my bricks and sorting potential pieces, but then running out of inspiration before actually building something. What I need to do is sketch out my idea first, then figure out how to build it instead of just holding various pieces in my hands and trying to build something organically.

Sandlin's Page [Fleebnork.com]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Internal Hard Drive — Seagate 7200.11 1TB SATA drive for $190 shipped. Looks like it'll be time to upgrade the NAS soon. (Currently using 350GB drives.) [Slickdeals]

• Rangefinder Camera – Canon PowerShot G9 camera for $425, shiped. That's about $25 off. [Dealnews]

• UMPC – OQO Model 02 for $1040, shipped. Refurbished with Windows XP. You'd probably be happier with an Eee, but I will not judge. [Dealnews]

• Garden Hose – 100-Foot garden hose from Sears for $15. Pick it up in-store or pay $9 shipping. Don't forget your lotion and basket. [Dealnews]

• Point-and-Shoot Camera – Today's Woot! is the Kodak EasyShare Z1275 12MP/720p Digital Camera w/5x Optical Zoom for $105, shipped.

Joel Johnson

More Fantastic Epcot Concept Paintings

On our "In the Year 2000" Flickr pool update with the picture of the Epcot concept painting, Willykea left this comment:

Miraculously, on the day this was first posted I was cleaning out my garage and found a box containing a thick, full-color brochure from 1982 announcing the opening of Epcot. I immediately thought of boingboing. I was shocked when I saw the headline "Incredible Epcot Concept Painting" the next morning and the associated picture that I had just been admiring the day before. The brochure was buried under a pile of old letters and memorabilia that I had held onto for almost 30 years and I found it a few hours before someone posted the picture of the painting online - amazing coincidence. I went out and bought a scanner so that I could share some additional images from the brochure with you guys

Bill's Public Gallery [Picasa]