Author: John

Nixie Clock Project

Nixie Tube 

Fire up the soldering irons and grab your Nixie tubes! Time to heat up the cathode and bask in that cheerful glow of warm electronics. Before you ask what the heck a Nixe tube is let me tell you. Long ago back when ‘solid state’ meant frozen, if you wanted to have an indicator lamp you used a neon bulb. You pass electricity through a glass tube that has neon in it and you get light. Very nifty. Even more nifty is that the light tended to cling to one of the electrodes and some brilliant guy thought to make useful shapes with them and thus the neon multi display was born.

Some of the voltages here are a bit high, so if your not sure about your 733t electronics skillz you might want to get some help with this. Once you have the hang of getting these old gems to light up you can interface them to things other than clock circuits and add a bit of warmth to your projects. After all, it’s not a real electronics project unless something glows.

Nixie Clock Project

Doraemon Shop

Doraemon

Another Doraemon story for everyone.
"The Doraemon Shop in ShimoKitaZawa is one of those places, designers would die for to visit if they only knew it existed!
If you ever tried to find something in ShimoKita, you know how hard it is to find your way through this labyrinth of tiny back streets, which probably creates the strongest attributes of this area: adventure, discovery and surprise. In one of windy roads, slightly far from ShimoKita West Exit one can find this funky little shop all stuffed with Japanese dolls, characters, old style Japanese sweets, stickers, batches…. hundrets of boxes that are just waiting to be opened and rummaged out. This is where the Doraemon Uncle lives and he opens his little magic shop every night: from 6PM until 3AM!"

So, when in Japan make sure you take a trian to the north and visit ShimoKita. When your there make sure you see the Doraemon train too, it’s in the neighborhood.

[via core 77]

The Doraemon Shop 

Doraemon Undersea Train

Doraemon Train

My wife Tum told me about this very cool train in Japan. Situated in the north of Japan on the island of Hokkaido, the Doraemon Undersea World museum is actualy in the Yoshioka-kaitei undersea train station. The station and museum are actualy located under the ocean in a tunnel. How cool is that?

Doraemon – Ding Dong Info on the JR Doraemon Undersea World

 

***UPDATE***

It looks as if the Doreamon Undersea World trours have ended:

I’m afraid you are too late. The train made its last run last month. The undersea station tours have also been discontinued as engineering work will be starting connected with upgrading of the tunnel for shinkansen trains.

Japan Up Close

OK, Genius, fix this one!

 

This sounds like something I would do, in fact I once went in to an Apple store and asked if there was any hope for my beige G3. The first ‘Genius’ looked at me blankly and called a coworker over to see if he knew what the heck I was talking about. What do you know, turns out my G3 doesnt have an upgrade path at all and should be retired ASAP. Good thing I didn’t tell them about the G4 CPU card that I had installed and the fact the web page that I was browsing at the Apple store was being served up by it. OS X might not run fast on it but it does run.
Anyway, this is an amusing photo of a guy that brought in his old SE asking the counter help at the Genius bar of his local Apple store about if he could upgrade it. I’m with the Engadget guy, I bet they said he could add a bit of memory and that’s about it.

OK, Genius, fix this one!

Recharge Your Chi, Empty Your Pockets

 

‘Life Enery Apllifier"… I quote "Now you can create clear energetic fields in your home, work, spa and recreational environments. Release stress and increase your energy. Heighten awareness and support your creativity. Use the Environmental Energy Systems (EES) along with your spiritual practices to connect with your higher self, bringing inner harmony and accelerating personal growth. Many experience the energy generated by the EES System as being very thick, like love." Or the stuff that makes grass green.

[via Red Ferret Journal]

Enviromentalist