Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

Laying a brick road - inkjet style.

This is a video of a crazy machine that is used to lay brick roads.  Check it out.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

How to fix Pavilion DV8t wireless button and volume slider issues

As an owner of a HP Pavilion DV8 laptop, I have generally been very pleased with the product.  After a few months, however, I began experiencing a strange issue:  the capacitive buttons for the wireless internet and the bass/treble slider would occasionally actuate themselves, cutting off internet access and sending the volume into a hissy-fit.  This seemed to happen most frequently when moving the laptop, leading me to believe it was a hardware issue.

After extensive troubleshooting, google searching, and HP support chats, there didn't seem to be any improvement, and the issue still seemed to be hardware based.  Just before resigning myself to sending the machine to HP for repair, I found a suggestion buried in a large thread on a message board, which I decided to try out.  After a couple of days, I'm happy to report that it's working beautifully!

As it turns out, theres a wire under the keyboard that needs to be in contact with the ground plate, and by default is not actually fastened to it in any way, but depends on pressure from the components above.  If the laptop is shifted in such a way that the wire loses contact with that plate for a moment, the problem triggers.  Poor design?  Yes.  The good news is that it's easily fixed!  Here's how:

Firstly, follow the instructions in this document to remove the keyboard.  At that point you should be looking at something like this:


The red box indicates the wire mentioned above.  A better view is here:


All that is needed is to secure the foil above to the plate just below it.  I used masking tape, and everything seems to be working perfectly.

A word of warning though: when removing the speaker plate, do not try to pry the silver side plates of the machine away to facilitate the process, as the clasps that hold it in place are very delicate.  I have a  broken piece of plastic bouncing off of my cooling fan now and then, and its a bit disconcerting.  Worth it though, for a working touch panel.

Good luck on your efforts, and comment below if you find this helpful :-)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The altered passage of time... explained?

According to Einstein, an object moving at phenomenal speed would experience a slowing in the passage of time.  For example, a person aboard a spaceship moving at very high speeds would return home to find that much more time would have passed on the ground than he had experienced aboard the ship.

I propose the compliment is also true:  objects moving exceptionally slowly will experience MORE time than those moving at a normal pace.  This would, for example, explain why a human mind BORED TO A STATE OF NEAR TOTAL ENTROPY would experience far more time than normal, to the point that 2:16 on a tuesday afternoon feels like it should be 5:00 ON FRIDAY!!!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Equally awesome but more readable watch

This watch is great as well.  I'm not sure how I feel about the overall form factor, but the dial itself is fantastic.  The idea is that the hands are joined into a single line, with the thick end marking hours and the thin end minutes. Simple, and perfect.  More pics at the source, click the pic.

Awesome unreadable watch

I love this watch.  You can be certain that when you can use it to tell time at a glance and no one else can see diddly, all bystanders will be suitably impressed.  Click the pic below for more details.

Monday, November 1, 2010

All that idle time to say this:

The left earlobes of mankind will be removed to sate the hunger of the giant space weasel.  That is all.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Monday, February 22, 2010

This just in:

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

Its true you know.

:-)

Monday, February 15, 2010

The future is here! Laser mosquito defense!

Whats more entertaining on a Friday night than sitting on the porch and watching the bug zapper?  How about a system that fries up to 100 mosquitoes per second, MID-FLIGHT, with **LASERS**.  Yeah.

targeting

Video below, but if you're a filthy mosquito sympathizer you may be disturbed.  And you'll deserve it.

Robots are better than you. At the rubik's cube.

Unless you are the world record holder with a seven second solve, the Lego Mindstorm robot below probably has you beat.  I'm not sure if I should be more jealous of the robot's solve time or of the robot's owner.

Robots will be killing you shortly.

Well, some idiot has given the machines the ability to make art.  They can take a picture of you, and then sketch your portrait.  The human race is officially obsolete.  Check out the vid below for evidence of your impending demise.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Metroid... Is that you?

Metroid, my beloved Metroid, is this whats become of you?  I... I dont know what to say...


Friday, January 22, 2010

The future of desktop interaction?

This is a video about a possible direction that desktop interaction could go with the recent rise of multitouch technology.  Take a look, I think it's got the right idea.


10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Monday, January 11, 2010

WANT.

USB driven and powered secondary laptop monitor.  What else is there to say?  Check it out.