Category Archives: Gadgets

Gadgets, Projects

The Typewriter Project

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Last weekend I was down to my parent’s place outside Ulricehamn, and on Saturday we went to a huge second hand store/flee market.

There were a lot of things I wanted to buy but unfortunately I don’t have enough space in the apartment. These included a wonderful piano with a horizontaly placed frame (like a half-grand piano), an old Akai reel-to-reel tape recorder, a bureau with a built in radio and 78-rpm record player and lots of other stuff that i really don’t need but would just like to have.

What I did buy was a typewriter.

It’s an old Halda-Norden N.r 3 from 1931 in decent condition.

So what should I do with it? Well, my main plan is to rebuild it into a computer. Not that I need one, but it would be both fun and comfortable to have a dedicated HTPC/web/file server hidden in plain sight. Since Windows (probably XP) and Matroska with at least 720p (max resolution on my projector) is required, I’m thinking of either using an Intel DG45FC motherboard with a decent Core2Duo or P4 processor, something based on the Nvidia Ion platform (when available) or some mini-ITX solution based on Intel’s upcoming Atom Z500 processor. Any other ideas for a small, energy efficient and silent (preferably completely passively cooled) system are most welcome.

If possible, I would like a dual Raid 1 storage solution, probably using something from Western Digital’s Caviar Green series.

Anyway, there will be plenty of time for that later (like when I am trying to sleep). I can’t afford anything yet anyway, since in the coming month I will be going to both Iceland and Barcelona, followed by another tattoo session. But by summer I should have accumulated enough money to spend on this project.

Being as I am, I couldn’t resist to start pulling it apart, though. The mechanism was more complicated than I had expected, with a lot of little springs, bracers, levers and cogs.
Next project is to find a small enough keyboard (26,3 cm wide would be ideal) to use as a base. Original (or rather original-looking) keys will be used as far as possible, but it may also be completely keyboardless, keeping the original (non-functional) one if space allows.

Enough words. Time for pictures.

Blogging, Gadgets, Movies, News

Make your own 3D paper figurines

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Yesterday I discovered cubeecraft, a site with lots and lots of templates for making your own figurines out of paper. No glue or tape is required. All you do is print an image, cut along the edges and fold it together. I made a Bender from Futurama in about 20-30 minutes, and it was really fun seeing it come together!

There are a lot of characters to choose from; most are from movies or games, but there are also political ones (see the Obama figurine in the gallery below)

Oh, do yourself a favor: If you want it to survive cleaning and moving around, use thicker paper. The 80 gram paper I used worked, but was definitely on the limp side.

A few samples:

Lots more can be found on cubeecraft.com.

Another site with similar paper figurine templates is Toy-A-Day. A bit flatter, but also with a big selection.

Gadgets

Six weeks with the Asus Eee 1000H

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It is now six weeks since I first got my Asus Eee 1000H.

At the same time as i collected it I bought 2GB RAM, which is twice the amount of the original RAM.

Since then I have also bought a nice skin from laptopskins.net, making it look a little more original (can be seen briefly in the Einstein Tattoo gallery, next to a Mac Air).

So what do I think?

I think it’s lovely. The screen is great, the keyboard is good for a netbook (although the keys can be a little hard to read in a completely dark room), the performance is better than expected and the battery is absolutely fantastic, especially if you use the built-in under-/overclock button to lower the processor speed to 1.2Ghz (Normal mode is 1.6Ghz and Super Performance mode is 1.9Ghz).

Watching DivX/XviD movies while traveling, the battery lasts over six hours on a single charge. That’s at least three full movies. And the 160GB HDD is big enough to store 100+ movies if you want (I currently have around 70 movies on it and a few seasons of my favorite TV shows).

Playing older games like Sam & Max, the WarCraft series and Knights of the Old republic I & II, it handles very well. Photoshop CS4 starts in about 6 seconds. Sleep and Wake-up is pretty much instant.

What I probably have used it mostly for is reading comic books and ebooks. I just hold the Eee like an open book, with the screen to the left, and navigate with the arrow keys.

For comics (.cbr and .cbz), I use CDisplay Comic Reader (also called CDisplay Sequential Image Viewer).

You can set it to always rotate the screen in a certain direction when a comic is opened, and to also fill the screen to fit an entire page. The size of the screen is just perfect for this. Even if the resolution is the same as on the Eee 900, the screen size is bigger. Personally I find that the 900’s screen is a little bit to small for comics. Readable, but not without an effort (not that I didn’t manage to read the whole limited series of Watchmen on it). Not so for the 1000H.

For ebooks, Adobe Reader works just fine. I have set the icon panel to always show the Rotate and Fill icons, and there is also a setting that lets you remember where you last ended your reading without the need to manually bookmark. I am currently in the last quarter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, most of it being read while in bed.

For reading in this matter, I actually find it easier on the eyes reading on the screen than on a printed paper book. The text is very sharp, and the background brightness is usually set to the second lowest setting, giving an even light all over the screen.

So what’s bad about it?

Pretty much nothing. Compared to the Eee 900, if feels a little bulky and heavy, but compared to a regular laptop it is extremely light and portable.

Again compared to the Eee 900, the 1000H actually produces some noise. The fan is inactive 90% of the time or so, but in a silent room you can hear the drive spinning. When the prizes of SSDs gets lower, I will likely buy one to replace the mechanical one. But right now I don’t feel it’s worth spending more than 3000 SEK for a 128GB drive.

Summary:
I do not regret buying the Eee 1000H. Not in the slightest.

[Written on an Asus Eee 1000H]

Gadgets

Free Office 2007

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The other day when I was at Webhallen to pick up my Eee 1000H, there were signs posted all over the store. On the back of all registry terminals, on big buttons on all the staff saying “Oops! Did we forget to ask if you want Office 2007? If so, you get it for free when you buy a new computer“.

The guy serving me forgot. I even got a receipt for 990SEK (with a 990SEK discount) for it.

So it’s up for sale on Tradera now if anyone wants it. 🙂

Gadgets

Soon, my precious netbook

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After long wait I will finally get my own netbook this week.

Last christmas I gave M a voucher for a netbook of her choice. However, after several months (almost a year after the first international release of the Asus Eee 701) it was still not available in Sweden, so I had a Eee 900 imported from Hong Kong instead. So far it’s been very nice to her (and me), and was a lifesaver when in Tokyo this summer.

The reason for me wanting one of my own is mostly just want. Plus it has better battery, more storage, larger screen and faster processor than the 900.

Anyway. About a month ago the first pre-orders came up at various stores here for the Eee 1000H, and since I had read a lot about it previously, I placed an order at Webhallen. It is now scheduled to arrive in two days.

I have ordered many a gadget from international stores and sellers, but there are three nice thing about ordering this one locally:

  1. The HDD is 160GB instead of the 80GB version 99% of the sellers abroad carries.
  2. The keyboard is already in Swedish, saving me the trouble (and money) to buy a new one via Asusparts.
  3. Guarantees and replacements are so much easier. And the more complicated a machine is, the easier it tends to break. :p

Unfortunately, it is about 1000SEK more expensive than an import model. But then you have to add international shipping and risk paying customs and extra tax (which I recently did, having to add about 60% of the cost to an extra battery for M’s 900), and that would make it more expensive. But a whole lot faster. So in the end you have to choose between Time and Convenience.

Anyway, me happy. Me more happy when me have Eee in hands.