Geek dad over at Wired has a nice write up on how useful old battery cells are from laptops. If only once cell dies, the whole battery pack is kaput. So, why not use the cells that still retain charge?
Geek Dad explains
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It was nice to see the app only asking for my birth year and month. It obviously wasn’t created to data mine. The app also has this gem:
There’s also a really neat (yet scary once you think about it) video created by Hashimoto Isao once you find out your Atomic Age reminiscent of Atari games.
It allows you to write as much as you wish and post a shortened message with a link to the full text on Twitter. Unlike Tall Tweets, TwitLonger, and RichTweets, there is no need to give Longtweet access to your twitter account. It’s safe! I’m always astounded after watching a video of Kiva Systems order fulfillment robots in action. The Roomba style robots integrate into a warehouse worker’s motions seamlessly. This is one of the most successful applications of robotics I’ve run across.
Some people may be arguing those robots are costing the US jobs, but that is precisely the point. One day we may all sport a life of leisure, as the robotic overlords take care of us like pets (and hopefully not pests).
McIntosh created a beautiful form factor for the mantle clock. The hours and minutes are shown with an analog meter and the display is lit with a cool blue LED. Elegant! The price is a bit hefty, however. via Uncrate.com A few years ago I was inspired by a navy laundry bag I saw in Men of Honor with Cuba Gooding Jr. The bag was a standard drawstring laundry bag, but it sported a nifty circular bottom instead of the simple flat stitch which creates pointed corners.
I decided to give it a try and used my wife’s sewing machine to stitch together some canvas and string. Although it was put together in about an hour and a half, it was surprisingly difficult. Sewing a round bottom is not easy, even while using pins. It also didn’t help to run out of white thread midway through the process. I had to resort to switching to a light yellow thread. The resulting quality is extremely poor, but I didn’t want it for anything in particular except hobo-ing around. So, the two toned thread and sewn cloth folds give it character. It was fun to create and it was a perfect preview for the upcoming Renegade Craft Fair this weekend in San Francisco (July 9-10th). Note: Don’t forget 2Πr is your friend when sizing the bottom circle. “You think you’re smart? Well, not as smart as this guy. Jack Eisenmann, a programmer who just graduated high school, has built his own 8-bit homebrew computer completely from scratch using an old keyboard, a television, and a ton of TTL logic chips. No, he didn’t buy some computer parts and snap them together; he blueprinted every wire and connection and then built it, wire by wire. After he finished construction, he had to teach it how to communicate, so he created his own operating system and wrote some games for it. That’s dedication.” The chiptune choice for the soundtrack is more than perfect. “The new computer is called the Duo Adept and has specs that could be dwarfed by a NES, but it gets the job done. The computer has 64K of memory, 6K of which is dedicated video RAM needed to output a 240×208 black and white image. Since writing a basic hex editor for the Duo Adept, he’s taught it how to count to a googel, and programmed several games including Pong, Life, and a Donkey Kong-like game called “Get Muffin,” where you must get the muffin to win (tip: it’s up the ladder).” via Yahoo News. continue to Eisenmann’s web page. Don’t forget to check out the Homebuilt CPUs WebRing founded by David Brooks at the bottom of the page. BoingBoing brought this device, which I’ve been wanting for years, to my attention. Anytime I find myself in a situation where I would want to record it, the moment has passed by the time a camera or smart phone can be brought out of a pocket. Afterall, those really cherished moments are the most fleeting and a recording device is far too obtrusive and distracting, much like testing quantum mechanics… the test affects the result.  What I dearly want is to have a camera embedded in my glasses which is constantly recording on a circular buffer. When I experience a precious moment, a simple tap on the frame downloads the previous hour to a smartphone (or marks the hour as non-writeable). Later I can edit the video on a computer to make it more tidy and clean.
However, I recently ran across an even better tool called Font Picker. It loads all the fonts available on your computer and lets you supply custom text for preview. This all works online (although there is an option to download a standalone app). I can assure you, I’ve added this to my web toolkit. Selecting the proper font is no easy task. Try Font Picker yourself.
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A Facebook app called 
