Hasta La Gadget!

It’s that time of year again! The colorful lights go up, the snow comes down, and there’s a bit of that indescribable magic in the air. Like most people, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Christmas is, of course, Slayer. Yes, even that most evil of thrash bands can’t help but get into the season’s spirit of giving and brotherhood.

That’s why one enterprising lad has created this choreographed Christmas light extravaganza to the soundtrack of the classic holiday diddy “Raining Blood.”

This blast of yuletide fury was from 2009, and creator lacycute20 (who posted the video to his daughter’s YouTube account, so there’s lots of Justin Bieber and Ke$ha videos sharing space on the account) promises to have an all new choreography up for this year.

But for now, enjoy the Christmas wrath.

Are you a bicycling enthusiast? Do you own a special pair of specially-designed biking gloves? Do you hold a vehement hatred towards people who drive cars to destinations two blocks away, and also towards pedestrians who dare tread upon your clearly-demarcated bike lane? Do you feel a sense of accomplishment at having biked through a cold winter night even when public transportation could have cut your travel time in half?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then you my friend, are a biker. And we would like to put you and your protective gear to work saving the planet.

One green-minded biker has created a way to convert all that wind passing over his helmet into electricity. This mobile skull-adorned windmills utilize propellers in order to charge embedded batteries (it takes a two-hour ride to fully-charge). The batteries can then be connected to other devices by USB.

However, this isn’t meant to be just another green gadget, but rather [sic]:

We want to use it as a medium to sensibilise the public for environmental topics and to integrate sustainability topics into the lifestye of young people by creating a positive experience.

via vimeo

This sounds like a far more horrible idea than it actually is. Read on.

Researchers recently presented their work on a robo-chair for infants that was fitted with a Wii balance board. The chair would allow rugrats to move about by simply leaning to where they want to go. Collisions were avoided via a sonar system built into the chair.

Sounds like a recipe for injured babies protected only by their own rolls of sloth-borne blubber, right? But actually it’s a techno-hack that could do a lot of good for special needs children.

The chair was developed for infants with mobility issues such as spina bifida or cerebral palsy by allowing them to explore surroundings that would otherwise be off-limits to them. The paper presented at the recent RESNA conference (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America) states that “Children with physical disabilities and restricted mobility have been
found to demonstrate increased dependence, frustration, depressed
motivation, lack of curiosity, and a lack of confidence.” Giving these ankle-biters the ability to explore may help with these emotional issues that can stem from physical shortcomings.

via PopSci

Note: this is not a practical hack. It’s something to file under “mountain climbing,” as in the only reason to do it
is because you can.

All you need to do is completely fill a piece of paper with graphite pencil. This turns any sheet into a conductive surface. Then you ground your hand with an anti-static strap and allow an Arduino to convert the data into mouse coordinates.

Like I said, not the world’s most useful trackpad (in addition, it is also a bit messy). But it is a cool concept and a minor accomplishment of basement engineering. It’s also a concept that, if taken a few steps further, could create the basis for turning nearly any object into a computer interface.

Video after the jump.

via hack-a-day, afrotechmods

Everyone hates Apple products. That’s why there’s so much documentation of people going to great lengths to torture and destroy them.

While I don’t have any hard data, I imagine the vast majority of Apple products are purchased for the express purpose of destroying them as soon as they are unboxed.

Some might think this is a waste of time and a not-inconsequential amount of recession-era money. But those people would be wrong, I can think of very little that would be more important.

That’s why I would like to personally nominate giving a Congressional Medal of Honor to graphic artist Michael Tompert for his collaboration with photographer Paul Fairchild who wisely chose to purchase various forms of Apple gadgetry in order to (artistically) eviscerate them.

The end results are actually pretty striking and strangely beautiful. If the point of art is to create something that’s captivating while making choices no one else has thought to do before, then these guys are winners at the game of art.

The series was part of a display of large briefly shown at San Francisco’s Live Worms Gallery.

More images after the jump.

via Cult of Mac, Fubiz; images via both