Month: December 2005

Survival Kit: A Not-Only-Geek Must-Have

 

Years ago I used to carry a kit a little like this but I stopped after only using it to fix paper cuts and other minor things. Now days, with a perceived greater possibility of  terrorists and whatnot I might start carrying again.  

The smallest yet most useful tools and multi-purpose (think dual-use) implements are the stuff to hunt for. Put your — sometimes expensive — and in any case highly valuable items in an Altoids Mint Tin. The one with the most tools packed and crammed into the standard size — wins. It’s the low-probability, high-impact scenarios that you are preparing for, it doesn’t happen anyway but what if…

The SAS Survival Kit: A Not-Only-Geek Must-Have

Pet Tree Mini Cactus

Cactus key chain 

Almost a year ago I blogged about these little critters but at the time there was no place in the US that you could buy them. That is not the case any longer! Compact Impact is now selling them for $10 so you too can have a cute pet cactus in your pocket. Just remember to water once in a while and give it some sun, after all it is a living thing.

[via Cool Hunting]

Pet Tree Mini Cactus

DIY Paper CD Case

Paper CD Case

I was burning some photos from a friend of mine tonight and I realized that I was fresh out of cases. Not wanting to go through my junk to find an empty case or at lest the next CD/DVD to get all scratched up and die a slow death, I thought I’d have a look to see if anyone has a nifty origami solution. Sure enough, no less than three people have thought of how to do this and decided to share.
The first and easiest one for me was the one by Tom Hull. The ‘American CD Case‘ was easy to make without resorting to running paper through my printer.
Two others, Paper CD case and R&OS origami CD wallet are cool if you want to print titles, track lists, text on the spine, and a few other things. If you want some fancy fonts on your case then go with the one from R&OS. Both will produce an easy to follow PDF file but remember not to have it scale when you print because that will screw things up. Could be good if your doing a mini CD though. Go try it out and tell me if it works.
This should be a handy resource for anyone out there who has a naked CD/DVD that needs to be taken somewhere. Lets all sit back and appreciate the amazing power of paper.

Augmented Reality: Neon Racer

Neon Racer 

Yes, if you set your coffee mug down on the display you can halt the forward progress of your opponent. For added hazards small animals could also be used. I’m thinking that a small sleeping cat could be the perfect obstacle in this game. How long will the cat sleep? Will you be flying by it when it awakes and causes you to crash?

Neon Racer is a multi-user Augmented Reality (AR) racing game adapting the simple and powerful gameplay of racing games to an AR tabletop setting. The game combines an intuitive and tangible interface with quality content. In this demo we explore how a rich gaming experience can be created by using only a limited amount of virtual information. The game compacts the use of virtual elements to a minimum, displaying only the players’ racing vehicles and lap checkpoints. The active setting for the game is provided by the physical world, and all its parts can influence gameplay. Physical objects act as collision obstacles and influence the course of the race itself. Participants have to interact with both the virtual and real objects to succeed.

[via we-make-money-not-art]

Neon Racers