I read the Onion’s RSS feed almost every day, and while there’s usually a couple chuckles, this article about RadioShack is pure gold:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/60924
It’s so true on so many levels. Anyone who has ever walked into a RadioShack can relate.
Here’s a YouTube clip of me on KGW, talking about the InvenTeam (see below article!)
This article ran about the Oregon Inventor’s Conference on Saturday:
High school inventors dream it, build it, show it
Science – Four Oregon teams display their inventions at PSU, then head for MIT in June
Sunday, April 22, 2007
RICHARD L. HILL
The Oregonian
The budding inventor beams as he describes a mobile device that one day may bring electricity to a remote village in a developing country.Jeff Lewis, a senior at Newberg High School, points to a 10-foot-wide dish that concentrates the sun’s rays onto a Sterling engine that operates on external heat.
“We keep fine-tuning it, and maybe it will be very useful to someone,” says Lewis, who is a member of a student team that is developing the “Solar Sterling Generator.”
The dozen-member Newberg group and teams from Hillsboro, Gresham and Westview high schools showed off prototypes of their inventions Saturday as part of the Oregon Inventor’s Showcase at Portland State University.
The four teams began work on their inventions last fall after their proposals won $10,000 grants from the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program, funded by the Portland-based Lemelson Foundation. A panel of faculty and alumni from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, professional inventors and engineers selected the four Oregon projects along with those from 16 other high schools nationwide. The InvenTeams will exhibit their inventions in June at MIT in Cambridge, Mass.
“This project has been challenging, but it gives you hands-on experience with how to create a useful product,” said Lewis, who plans to study mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.
At a table next to the Newberg squad, 17-year-old Reilly Hamilton of Hillsboro High described his team’s “Heads-Up Display” for autos. The easy-to-install device projects an image on the lower part of a car’s windshield that displays speed and fuel level so the driver doesn’t have to look down at the dashboard.
“We’re still working on a smaller device that you can fit in your car’s glove box or CD holder,” Hamilton said.
The Westview InventTeam is developing a tactile graphing calculator that enables visually impaired math students to feel the graphs they produce.
The Gresham team is creating a “Drip-Irrigation System” that can water houseplants automatically based on the soil’s moisture content.
“We’re also hoping to make this irrigation system a Web-based device so that people can water the plants in their house while they’re on vacation,” said James Lao, a 15-year-old junior.
The teachers who advise the teams say the students learn how to work together in designing and making their inventions.
“This is totally student-developed,” said Eric Walters, a physics teacher at Westview. “It’s fun to see what these kids can do when given the resources. You see them grow as individuals and as a team.”
Dorothy Lemelson, co-founder of the Lemelson Foundation that she started with her late husband, Jerome Lemelson, one of the nation’s most prolific inventors, said she was impressed with the student inventors’ enthusiasm.
“These young people become inspired about learning math and science when they create an invention,” Lemelson said. “This country needs this.”
Many of the students on the four InvenTeams work on their projects after school a couple of days a week.
“But we’ve found that the further we get with the invention, the more excited we become, and the more time we put into it,” Newberg’s Lewis said. “We want to just keep going.”
So, I finally got around to making a DVD out of the Hilhi state championship soccer game. If you’re interested, I’ll provide you with a copy for free!
The game can be seen on Google Video here:
For about a month now, Google Homepages has offered themes! Here are all the banner images from my choice theme, “Tea House”:
Woot is an internet closeout store. Each day, they put up a different product at a bargain price. They sell the product until either A) it sells out or B) the day ends. I’ve picked up some sweet (or so I think!) deals on Woot over the last few weeks:
2 Sandisk 256 mb mp3 players @ $10 each
1 Philips GoGear 2 GB mp3 player @ $30
3 Audiovox DC to AC power (for a car) @ $10 each
1 Logitech Curve headphones (2 pack) @ $5
No matter how many or whatever you buy, shipping is always $5. They even come in cool boxes that say Woot! on the side.
One of the coolest elements of Woot is the Woot off. Once every couple months, Woot engages in a Woot off. In a Woot off, Woot posts a new item each time an item sells out (as opposed to once a day). This usually lasts for 24-48 hours. It’s really exciting. Some items only last a fraction of a minute, while other, more expensive items sit for hours.
My beta of Windows Vista that I had been running on my Laptop was set to expire on May 1st, but I decided that I’d had enough of Vista before then. Vista, at lest in RC2 form, is crap. Hands down. I’ve reinstalled XP and I can’t believe the performance. And programs actually work! And configuring everything is easy! Vista is a nightmarish hell, especially for old hardware. Oh, and I also get to experience this nice thing called BATTERY LIFE. Good riddance, Windows Vista!
For a long time, I used WindowBlinds to skin my Windows UI. I even bought the program (the horror!). However, the new version has some performance quirks, especially when windows are moved over DirectX programs (read: WoW). Somehow I came across one of the few official skins for Windows, the Zune theme. It’s a simple theme, but much better than any of the builtins. It’s an orange on black theme, and I’ve always liked black themes. You can see a screenshot of it here:
http://zuneinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/Zune-Theme1.jpg
You can download the theme for yourself here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078
And here’s a nice, matching wallpaper:
I recently upgraded from an aging MX510 to the Microsoft Habu and I
really like it. 2000 DPI is really nice. It glides much smoother than
my MX510 did, and its more comfortable. The blue LEDs looks sweet in
the dark. It’s like a Razer mouse, but it doesn’t look like crap! I
like being able to shift DPI, not-so-much for WoW, but it’s real nice
for First-Person shooters when you change from sniping to assault to
vehicles.
While the Habu uses Razer’s sensor, the Habu is a full hand mouse
(like the MX510/8), unlike the rest of the Razer mice. It feels roughly
like the MX510/8. It’s got this quirky feature where you can replace
the side buttons with a different set, moving the location of the
buttons, but the default is fine for me.
The only thing I don’t like about it is the scroll wheel. It’s not
very smooth, and no matter how much I change the settings in the Habu
Utility and Windows, it still can’t scroll very fast. Also, the mouse
took a little getting used to since the laser is located closer to the
rear of the mouse. But it feels natural to me to move around now.
I’ve set up a pair of proxies on this webserver that you can use to evade the Websense filters.
Supports Javascript, but not SSL (working on that =p). Fine for Myspace. This one is also much prettier =).
http://backdoor.cuttlefishtech.com
Supports SSL, but not Javascript. Good for basic Gmail.
http://proxy.cuttlefishtech.com/
