Japanese artist Ei Wada, who was born in 1987, belongs to a generation that spent middle school feverishly poring over cassettes to make mix tapes—until, of course, they were quickly outmoded by CDs, and then MP3s. Now, Ei makes art using the outmoded technologies he grew up with.
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If there’s one animal that’s inspired endless scientific research—it’s the gecko. The lizard’s ability to seemingly defy gravity and walk on walls has resulted in robots that can repair spaceships in flight
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There’s probably very few of us who’ve put much thought into what kind of tape we use to wrap a gift—after all, choosing the paper is hard enough. But there’s a small subset of the population who couldn’t possibly consider giving a gift that wasn’t flawlessly wrapped. And it’s those folks who will be ecstatic to discover this Notchless dispenser that cuts clear adhesive tape without leaving that telltale zig-zag pattern on the edges.
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It’s joked that duct tape can be used to fix almost anything. But a new product called FiberFix might very well be the only tool you’ll ever need for emergency repairs. And the secret is its special resin adhesive that hardens stronger than steel as it cures.
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While Iran’s been busy bragging about mass producing the American ScanEagle drone that crash landed there last year—and giving the Russians a copy—some less than intimidating footage is trickling out of Tehran. It looks like Iran’s newest drones are pretty rickety.
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The Force is great and all, but if you have duct tape, why do we even need it anymore? Duct tape can do anything. And these days you can purchase duct tape in kinds of colors and themes. Now you can also get Star Wars duct tape. Use the tape, Luke!
Star Wars duct tape is great for everyday uses like fixing household items, making crafts like wallets, patching up damaged X-Wing fighters, AT-ATs, protocol droids, or even Death Stars. Facebook commenter Chris Bugher put it best: “It has a light side a dark side and it binds to the universe together.”
It comes from the Duck tape brand and will start hitting stores soon. The design includes Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, and the classic yellow Star Wars logo and Imperial symbol. How cool is that?
[via Geeks of Doom via Nerd Approved]
Forget the MP3 player, or even the Walkman — the real instigator of the portable audio revolution is the compact cassette, which just marked its 50th birthday. Philips formally launched the format on September 13th, 1963, bringing recorded sound to a truly portable (and more accessible) form factor. The technology didn’t just kickstart the markets for media players, field recorders and boomboxes; it led to bootlegs, mixtapes and other ways to shake up the audio status quo. The cassette has largely disappeared outside of nostalgic reissues and transforming robot toys, but its effects are still visible after half a century of progress.
[Image credit: Tony Unruh, Flickr]
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Storage
Source: Philips
Boy, I haven’t seen a reel-to-reel tape deck in years. After 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, MiniDiscs and MP3s, we’re at least five generations past the everyday use of these things. And dekstop calculators? I haven’t used one in a very long time either. Between my smartphone and my computer, I’ve had no reason to have one. But that hasn’t stopped somebody from mashing up these two obsolete technologies into one new device.
This retro-style LCD calculator combines these old-school gadgets into one – though it only works as a calculator and won’t play your old spools of magnetic tape, no matter how hard you try. On the plus side, you don’t need to worry about getting your tape tangled up.
If you actually have some use for this thing, it sells for £8.49 (~$13USD) over at I Want One of Those.
[via The Red Ferret]
Any task requiring the use of clear tape would be a lot easier if you could snatch a strip of the sticky stuff with just one hand. And while there have been many complicated contraptions that promise exactly that functionality, Black+Blum have found a simpler approach that takes advantage of that perpetual force known as gravity.
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Sure, watching YouTube videos in HD is great when you want clarity, but maybe you’ve been yearning for that grainy, tape-recorded look. Marking what’s apparently the 57th anniversary of cassette-based video recording, the YouTube team has snuck a VHS tape-shaped button on select videos. Clicking it will the throw a filter over the content, providing a highly distorted and nostalgic feast for the eyes. There’s no official list of compatible content, but the option seems to be available on most of the videos on YouTube’s native channel. We have a feeling at least one VCR enthusiast will be quite pleased.
Source: YouTube (Google+)
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