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Archive for the ‘Ingenuity’ Category
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December 26th, 2009 by joey | 1 Comment | Filed in Ingenuity, Life, really coolJenga Blocks for big Kids
December 19th, 2009 by joey | 3 Comments | Filed in Ingenuity, really coolToday, I spent the afternoon in Perry’s shop and we emerged with 3 complete supersized Jenga sets for big kids.
Supersized Jenga
We made two different sizes. Two sets with 2×4′s, and one set with 2×3′s. Total cost is about $15 – $20 per set for the wood.
The 2×3′s are the correct proportion for the blocks. We did sand the edges down (a nice bench top belt sander from Harbor Freight ($60) made quicker work of those steps).
The game is awesome. It plays a lot like the small version, only it is more obvious when the tower is falling. I think it is way more fun.
AND! The blocks are good for more than just Jenga…
A Simetrical Multi Story block building.
My beutiful wife behind our picaso of blocks.
Instructions for building Jenga Blocks for Big Kids from 2x4s
Jenga consists of 18 rows of 3 blocks each. So, you need a total of 54 blocks. 2×4 dimensions vary slightly from state to state, so you will need to measure the width of 3 2×4′s to get the exact length you need, but for us, it was 10 1/2″. This meant we needed 7 8′ 2x4s. Cut all the 2×4′s to the same length. (You NEED a chop saw to do this) Set a stop on the saw so that you don’t have to mark or measure each cut. With the stop in place, you can cut all 7 2x4s in about 10 – 15 minutes. Once you have cut all the pieces, sand the edges to remove splinters and you’re done!
Instructions for building Jenga Blocks for Big Kids out of 2×3′s
Repeat above procedure, our length came out to be 7 1/2″.
Why you NEED sunlight lamps
November 24th, 2009 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Happy Living, Ingenuity, Life, really coolLightbulbs… A wonderful invention that’s been around for over a hundred years. Did you know how many different times Edison tried to make the lightbulb and learned how not to suceed? The numbers vary from 100 to 10000. I suspect it’s somewhere in the middle. Imagine, something as simple as the lightbulb we all know just waiting to be discovered.
A few years ago, I begin investigating different ways of overcoming a bad mood. I was in Salt Lake during a winter, and felt absolutely terrible. I did some reading and learned that the sun makes us happy. Amazing. Someone told me it is because the Sun creates Vitamin D, which affects seratonin uptake or something like that. Anyways, there is lots of supporting evidence that sunlight make people happy.
Enter… The sunlight lamp… Light is usually measured by it’s “temperature” see: Color Temperature. In a color temperature scale, you have incandescent lights at one end, and sunlight at the other. Incandescent light is yellow… (Because the light is generated by a glowing hot piece of wire, duh). Whereas sunlight bulbs are bright white light. They vary from 5000k to 6500k in color temperature.
Sunlight lamps are so good at re-producing sunlight, that when my wife and I first got one (A 200W huge desk lamp), we plugged it in and my brain said “Whoa! Where’s the window that all of this light is coming from?” And I turned my head to look out the “window” before I realized it was the lamp… Now, I feel my mood lessen when I walk from a room lit by sunlight lights and a room lit by regular lights.
So, how much does it cost?? Home Depot has a good selection of lights. Look on the box, and try to get ones that are 5500k, they have a lot of cheaper 5000k, these are good, but 5500k are better. It’s about $5 for a 60W equivilant 5000k light, but they are CFL’s, so they last forever anyways. If you buy one light a month you’ll have all the lights in your hose replaced before long! I suspect that as they get more popular (which they will) eventually they will be almost the same cost as regular CFL’s and the good 5500k ones will be just a few dollars each.
So, are you stressed? Wish you were a little happier? Or, just curious? However you feel, you’ll feel better with sunlight lamps, and you’ll never go back.
Nerf Dart Gun Drum Magazine
November 16th, 2009 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Hacks, IngenuityI looked over my left shoulder at the CRM team today at work and my eyes rested upon a marvelous piece of engineering… A nerf gun drum magazine…
Check it out:
Now, I want to build an air gun that will accept this clip and not destroy darts like my others…
Emotiv, Allows you to control your computer with your mind.
November 14th, 2009 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Hacks, Ingenuity, Life, really coolImagine being able to control your game character with your mind. Or, fly an airplane by thinking. Well, the enabling technology to do this can now be purchased and used by anyone.
I first saw this technology when I was about 10 years old, on an episode of NOVA. A man had built a special EEG headband and a wireless link that allowed him to steer his yacht just by thinking. The military has investigated the technology but deemed it not beneficial for their uses.
I did a few simple experiments myself to try to make it work, but I didn’t have sensitive enough equipment. But! Emotiv invested in the technology and has made it work. Interestingly the headset is much better at detecting emotions then specific thoughts or intentions. I imagine games may emerge that allow your character to fly when you are happy, and be a terror when you are angry. Whether this will help people learn to control their emotions or create a generation of murdering psycho paths is yet to be seen. Emotiv has also added gyroscope controls similar to the Wii so that your computer can tell where your head is.
The Coolest Spud Guns You Will Ever See
September 12th, 2009 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Hacks, Ingenuity, really coolSpudfiles.com hosts an annual competition with prizes for the coolest and most innovative spud gun design. This years top five are sweet!
Spudfiles.com winners.
Tactical Interballistic Tennis Ball System
The Challenger
(This is essentialy a powerful large caliber rifle.)
Details
14mm Automatic Air Rifle
(Another Large (Larger) Bore Air Rifle)
(No Video Posted Yet)
Details
Cobra Striker
MMSIPH-10 MK 1
(This is an ultra high velocity air gun.) 1500+ fps… Will Shoot AA Batteries, or Big Nails, Or whatever else you can put in it… And, because it’s muzzle loading, it is not a firearm. This one gets my vote.
(A AA at 1000 FPS againsta milk jug.) Faster and MUCH More Energy than a 12Ga Slug.
Details
Infusionsoft in the news.
July 21st, 2009 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Infusionsoft, Ingenuity, LifeThe major challange with getting a new technology out there is always sales and marketing. You can have the slickest, coolest pieces of technology in the world, but if it isn’t presented properly, no one is going to buy it. And then, sometimes you get early adopters that aren’t willing to put up the investment to put the technology to it’s fullest potential. That’s why it’s totally awesome to see a sweet un-solicited review about the product you contribute to. See Making Money while you sleep for full text.
“My business changed on August 7, 2007,” Mack told me. That surprised me. How did he know the specific date? “I remember it because it was so important. That was the day we got some software and started automating our business. We have seen serious growth since as a result. I can’t forget that day.”
Mack explained to me that his first foray into automation was so successful, so powerful, that he became a quick convert. “I now try and automate everything,” he told me, “so now, whether it is billing, making appointments, follow-up reminders or what have you, I don’t have to spend my time on it. I automate those sorts of things and they happen routinely.”
There are all sorts of separate programs that do this sort of thing, but Mack raves about a great Web-based application called Infusionsoft which smartly combines customer relationship software (CRM) with email marketing, e-commerce, and automatic follow-up, so that Mack’s marketing, sales, and customer management “runs on autopilot.”
–Mack, ornwer of VIP Auto Appearance
And, it’s only getting better! This next release is almost exclusively focused on increased usability and helping all our customers put the software to work with less effort.
Tags: Infusionsoft
How to lie with Statistics
May 24th, 2009 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Hacks, Ingenuity, LifeThis has been one of my favorite reads of all time. At first I bought it solely as a book to get a laugh from people with, but as I began to read it I discovered there were lots of ways to lie with statistics that I hadn’t thought of myself yet. As always, I am not a proponent of activities such as this, but I feel it is very valuable to be aware…
Use images instead of graphs.
Lets say you want to illustrate that salleries have doubled in 10 years. But you want it to make an impact… So you prepare an image that has a dollar sign over a label that says “Then” and then you have a dollar sign that you have scaled by 2x with the label “Now”. This is very misleading, because when you scaled the money bag by 2x, you didn’t just make it 2x as tall, you made it 2x as wide… Effectively making it 4x it’s original size! This makes for a MUCH better impact than just a simple bar graph.
When presenting a graph make the scale very small or don’t include one at all.
You can make almost any “growth” look phenomenal if you pick the right scale. Lets say your sales grew $100 dollars. This is huge if you are a ten year old running a lemonade stand, but insignificant if your a fortune 500 company. So, draw your graph like you are a lemonade stand… Make the bottom of the graph be last years sales, and make the top of the graph last years sales + $100. It’s easy! Be careful with this one though, because if you go too far, it will be obvious.
Never play when the odds are fair.
One of my favorite Star Wars characters once said something along the lines of “Never play if the odds are fair.” (He said this prior to fixing an election on a small planet.) The same is true with marketing. You never ever want to commission a survey with the intent of publishing the results without first doing something to ensure your own success.
There are lots of ways of commissioning this study with the odds in your favor.
- First, send salesmen to 100 dentists and give them hundreds of samples of your toothpaste. Explain to them all the benefits of your tooth patse, and then ask them if they would recommend your toothpaste to clients.
- Ask your sales dept for a list of all the dentists that have ordered your toothpaste and send them surveys asking them what toothpaste they recomment.
- Hire four dentists on your staff, and after 3 months ask them which toothpaste they would recommend.
- Send lots of your toothpaste to a small third world country. Then, send surveys (with promises of more toothpaste for each returned survey) to each of the dentists that received the paste.
Pick the average that suites you best
What most of us (unless your a marketer) have forgotten from high school math is that there are 3 different ways to get an average… (Watch the video.)
Mean Median and Mode
As that video illustrates… When you say “Average” you actually get to take your pick from one of three numbers (mean, median, and mode)… And you aren’t required to say which! So, just pick the one that looks best, and stick with it.
What does this mean for me?
Dig behind the numbers. Never take a statement from an untrusted source at face value. (and never trust an advertisement) If it’s true, there will be evidence to support it. In the words of a very very very smart person… “By their fruits, ye shall know them.”
Good Ol’ Boys Having Fun
March 16th, 2009 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Hacks, Ingenuity, LifeNothing qill quite bring a tear to your eye like a good ol’ boy… You put a redneck out in the sun too long, give them one too many drinks, and something akin to temporary brain damage takes hold… Fortunatly, this odd behaivor is HIGHLY entertaining.
This one will have you ROLLING ON THE FLOOR.
The “Roller Coaster Car”
Bedliner Sled… I SO WANT TO DO THIS. Although I’ve always thought a sheet of plywood being pulled by a car on a road would be fun too.
One of my All Time Favorites
Random Redneck Rides
Um…
Another Um…
Tony Hawk, Eat your heart out…
Container Housing for $10-$30 / sq ft.
January 5th, 2009 by joey | 6 Comments | Filed in Ingenuity, LifeSo I heard somewhere I long time ago that you could get Sea Land Containers (weather proof modular shipping containers that can be easily transported by ship, rail and truck, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization) for almost nothing. I looked into it about 2 years ago and discovered that in port cities a 40′ x 8′ x 8′ used container is available for about $1000 delivered. Do some quick math, figure you are going to loose 1′ on each dimension and you get about 273 sq ft per 40′ container. Or about $4 / sq ft. Cheaper than quailty hard wood flooring…
So how do you make one look nice? Here is a “well duh” answer: Get some prefessional help. No no, not a phsycologist… An artist or designer. My wife sat down and in 2 minutes schetched out an amazing design for a 4,000 sq ft container home (about 14 containers) that looks amazing. It also seems that container housing (while still not exactly “main stream”) has had a few successful implementations. Check out these videos:
A very very nice looking community built from containers.
A CNN Report on Shipping Containers for Homes
Modern Marvels -- Container City, (those colors, only in London).
How not to make it look good -- “The Atrocity”
This designer loves using them.
Unfortunately, there are no cheap lots availble in Tempe, so Katrina’s fabulous design will have to wait till after school before we consider building it ourselves.