Check this website out. This 21yo engineering student from WA has developed a motor bike with hand controls that can be used by a paraplegic or anyone without lower limb function. The thing I really like about this is the design parameter included aesthetics with the bikle having ‘minimal modification look’. He even ended upContinueContinue reading “Motor bike with hand controls”
Author Archives: dnw
A blog is like a garden
A wise man once told me a blog is like a garden. It needs to be regularly attended to and maintained to grow. These Egglings reminded me of that. via – romp
Rotary switch adaption
Was sitting here in my office on a 31C day thinking it feels a bit hot. Was just then I remembered I could turn the ceiling fan on thanks to a switch mod my father did recently. I’d had many similar mods on rotary switches of many types done previously and as I cannot gripContinueContinue reading “Rotary switch adaption”
Screenagers
LearnDog has a post that directed me to an interesting article in the New York Times about teenagers and the way they are interacting with the digital world. Here’s some thoughts I had on it. “These young kids are very sophisticated and phenomenally intuitive,” he said. “This is the first generation that’s been born intoContinueContinue reading “Screenagers”
Talking Remote Holder
This device is a remote control and holder. The difference between it and the rest of it’s ilk is the holder asks questions when the remote isn’t put back. Probing HAL-like questions such as: “Where’s the remote?” “Are you still using the remote?” Now this is cool, and maybe I could’ve used it for theContinueContinue reading “Talking Remote Holder”
Start ya Bastard
As my ‘about me’ page says, I used to be a mechanic. Before that I worked on a farm after leaving school. Back then I used to occassionally drive a variety of old, ancient Massey Fergusson, International Harvester or Fordson tractors. All open. Come rail, hain, sh*t or thunder. Anyway, they were all pains toContinueContinue reading “Start ya Bastard”
iSkype headset
This just cracks me up. This guy took an iSight camera and taped it to a pair of headphones. Reason? The iSight has a microphone and the iSight plugs into the Mac firewire port viz a digital mic input! Kludge-o-rama baby! iSkype – ReesesWiki – musing/2005-11-01 DIY Skype Headset
It’s all about the people!
My friend Mike’s been to Melbourne and made good connections. In a post titled CONNECTING to people behind the BLOGs he says: This was my first experience of meeting people I’ve been ‘reading’ (connected to via RSS). It was really quite empowering! I think I understand why people do, and write about ‘geek dinners’ andContinueContinue reading “It’s all about the people!”
Robot Arms for Art
I’m forever astounded at what people will try and make. Over at robot clothes blog they’re making DIY robotic arms! All it seems in the name of Art (shrug). I dunno about an artistic arm, but I can think of a few uses I could use a robotic arm for every day… Brushing teeth robotContinueContinue reading “Robot Arms for Art”
PDAs in the iPod era
There’s been an interesting discussion going on over at Slashdot titled “Why Have PDAs Failed In The iPod Era?” As you can imagine, opinions abound. As I’ve got a personl interest in why my PDA won’t do things I need it to the way I need it to that would make my life better, whichContinueContinue reading “PDAs in the iPod era”
The new blob
As you can see, I have blob up on my domain running on WordPress. I’ve modified the standard classic theme that WP installs to my liking. Thanks to a script that takes posts from Blogger and imports them into WordPress I found over at the Skeltoac blog, the process was less painfull than I’d anticipated.ContinueContinue reading “The new blob”
Wrist Wearable PC/PDA
Okay, here’s a spin on the ‘traditional’ PDA. This is a PDA you wear on your wrist. It has impressive specs including GPS, IrDA, Bluetooth and Wireless connectivity. Has 32 MB system ROM-Flash, 64 MB system SDRAM, and expands up to 1 GB through the built-in SD memory slot. Now, this I can’t see beingContinueContinue reading “Wrist Wearable PC/PDA”
There’s a Kludgemagazine
I just found out there is a kludge magazine. It’s a music related website and has nothing whatsoever to do with what lifekludger kludges. However, it did have an interesting quote on its front page that caught my attention. “If you could be told by what you can see or read then it follows thatContinueContinue reading “There’s a Kludgemagazine”
RSS to lyrics
I’ve been sitting on this post for a while. I spotted this article on converting a RSS feed into a Lyrics file and thought there’s something in this but din’t really know what. Surely the idea that RSS can be read on a portable device, especially some low-cost mp3 player with a screen, would beContinueContinue reading “RSS to lyrics”
Old Phones Made Mobile
Here’s a take on the idea of converting an old style land-line telephone by hooking it up to a mobile inside it. This article shows how it’s done. I thought what a neat idea for someone needing a mobile phone with big buttons! Article – http://www.tristanperich.com/Art/Telephone/ via make – http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/10/old_phone_to_new_phone.html
Podcast University
This article from Newsday outlines how over at Purdue University the students are gettig into using podcasts. Digital recordings of lectures allow college students with MP3 players to catch lessons or just catch up wherever and whenever they want. This is excellent example of lifekludging using existing (if not emerging) technology applied to a lifestyleContinueContinue reading “Podcast University”
Blob lives again!
Rumours of my demise are much over-rated!Yes, that’s right. Contrary to a couple posts (now deleted) this blog, called blob, is NOT going to disappear.Instead, it will continue as my personal blog to be filled with all those wonderfull things I get to say you just can’t live without!I will no doubt be moving whatContinueContinue reading “Blob lives again!”
What is a kludge?
Well may you ask “What is a kludge?” Different people have different definitions. Many times it’s very subjective. A bit like ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ or ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. I’ve outlined what I mean in my “About this blog” page, which you can get to as aContinueContinue reading “What is a kludge?”
Starting Another Blog
Hi folks (all 2 of you! :)) I’m starting ANOTHER blog! I’ve reached the limits of what Blogger can offer me so I’ll be using WordPress as the platform. Blob will still be used but as my personal blog for anything that catches my eye. The new blog will be called “Lifekludger” and generally beContinueContinue reading “Starting Another Blog”
RSS Alarm Clock
I saw this article on how to make a RSS Alarm clock and thought that could be usefull…for someone. In particular I thought someone who has a vision impairment could benefit. So I filed it away for another day. Well, today I found my ‘someone’. Darren over at ProBlogger has some visual problems at presentContinueContinue reading “RSS Alarm Clock”
Bluetooth Sewing Machine
I can’t believe it! This neat little portable sewing machine is a beautiful piece of design, engineering and technology. It’s also got a bluetooth equipped pedal. Boy, you can get a bluetooth equipped sewing machine and I still can’t get my PDA to play music over my bluetooth earpiece. What a wonderful world. Kludge pending.ContinueContinue reading “Bluetooth Sewing Machine”
Horizontal Reading
Following on from a previous post titled horizontal computing on my previous blog, here’s a spin on a reading in bed device. While this article from popgadget talks about the device called the Rainbow book stand from the perspective of being a help for aching muscles from copious reading in bed – it makes meContinueContinue reading “Horizontal Reading”
Windows Key Shortcuts
Funny how you get led around on the net. Reading Scoble I found that Sara Ford was once an accessibility tester who had a presentation on Channel 9 on Accessibility and Visual Studio. In the comments was a reference to a shortcut to the accessibility features on Windows XP. A search on other Windows KeyContinueContinue reading “Windows Key Shortcuts”
200 gig nono
Was checking out what Andy has been up to over at Sticky Notes. His latest find was reference to Apple and the 200gb iPod Nano (yes, two hundred gigs!). A ‘how-to’ slight mod on Apples iPod nano. After looking at the results, I’d have to rename it the iPod NoNo. This took me over toContinueContinue reading “200 gig nono”
disintermediation
It’s amazing how I know so little. I came across this word, disintermediation, while reading comments about what Mike’s trying to pull together over at LearnDog As I look around at what’s going on in what Mike terms this “Web 2.0 world of disintermediation”, it occurred to me to draw a comparison to a situationContinueContinue reading “disintermediation”
