Weekend Reading – Blog. by Next Thing https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com News & Notes. Process & Projects. No BS. Srsly. Thu, 09 Nov 2017 03:16:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.5 Links We Like: The Art of Collections and Collecting https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-the-art-of-collections-and-collecting/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-the-art-of-collections-and-collecting/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 22:23:59 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=989 The NTC shelves of interesting things

The NTC shelves of interesting things

This week’s installment of Links We Like gives hat-tip to the collectors of odd and interesting stuff that has attracted our attention. From Jar Gielens’ stockpile of retro video games, to Keith Clatworthy’s trove of Mattel View-Masters, to Collectors Weekly catalog of collections their histories, collections reveal our products’ cultural history and remind us of our past.

Collections help us to remember elements of our past and find order in the disarray of memory. They’re enjoyable to look at and reveal a lot about the collector. Here at NTC we have a large group collection packed with interesting things like uniquely designed consumer electronics and classic toys, musical instruments, skateboards, oh, and there are lot and lots of cameras too!

Collect all the Games

Donkey Kong 3, one of Nintendo's 2-player handhelds from 1984

Donkey Kong 3, one of Nintendo’s 2-player handhelds from 1984

Jaro Gielens collects handheld games that were common in the late 1970s and early 80s, years before the Nintendo Game Boy hit the scene in 1989. His collection stands at 800 different handhelds and even includes manuals and boxes. Talk about thorough!

Gielens’ tons of games are impressive in their own right, but he also built a fantastic site to share his passion for retro handhelds. The site offers the ability to search by color, display type, manufacturer, button style, and battery type.

There are tabletop style games that look like mini-arcade cabinets and wrist-wearable games. Each device has its own landing page with images of device, box art, and key features of the machine. And don’t miss the front and back toggle switch to the right of the images to see design details from different perspectives.

Most of our favorites from the collection are the more obscure titles like the pre-Game Boy Donkey Kong 3, released 5 years before their flagship handheld. Another personal fave is the Tennis Fan Thirty Love. The device is shaped like a tennis racquet, and even comes with an adorable racquet cover.

Make sure to share your experience with these pre-Game Boy personal gaming devices in the comments or forum. And don’t forget to mention your favorite game!
There are all sorts of devices — from the tabletop style that look like shrunken arcade cabinets to the handheld and wrist-wearable variety. Each gaming device has its own carefully collated landing page with images of device, box art, and key features of the machine. And don’t miss the front and back toggle switch to the right of the images, which changes the view.


Don’t Just Read About It, See it in 3D!

A classic View-Master with 14 frame slide reels

A classic View-Master with 14-frame slide reels

At the New York Toy Fair this past February, Mattel unveiled their latest iteration of the View-Master line of stereoscopic 3D viewers. Gone are the circular disks with thumbnail size images. Today’s View-Master customers get smartphone app and a partnership with Google.

While a lot has changed in the 77 years since the View-Master was first sold, the purpose of the device remains the same: show a 3D view of a distant place, fictional setting, or just something nice to look at.

Keith Clatworthy has been collecting View-Masters for quite a while, and documents his collection on ViewMaster.co.uk. The site highlights official View-Masters as well as copycat devices. The extensive collection is a must-visit for fans of the classic viewing device.


If Someone Collects It, You Can Read About it Here!

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Closing out the Links We Like this week is Collectors Weekly, a collection of collections and the collectors who maintain them.

The site covers a broad range of collections, from our favorites, like retro electronics, to more specialized collections like Scandinavian Art Glass . There’s even a page dedicated to bedpan collecting. No collection is too niche to get a bit of coverage and that’s the best thing about Collectors Weekly.

While bedpan collections might not be your thing, it’s a benefit to everyone that Collectors Weekly reveals them. In addition to the thematic sections, the site also features longform articles about individual collections and their collectors. For a deeper dive into their archives, here are a couple of suggestions we enjoyed:

It’s easy to get engrossed in the content at Collectors Weekly, but we believe you won’t regret it. You’ll likely come away knowing something more about the things you used to enjoy, or find collections of things you never expected.


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What’s your best memory of early handheld electronics? Share your story in the forum or comments below. And if you’ve got a cool collection share that with us too.

And, of course, if you’re working on any C.H.I.P. or PocketC.H.I.P. projects, make sure to tweet about them. Have a great weekend!

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Links We Like: Restoring a Xerox Alto, Reconsidering Cyberpunk, & Investigating the Sony PYXIS 360 https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-restoring-a-xerox-alto-reconsidering-cyberpunk-investigating-the-sony-pyxis-360/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-restoring-a-xerox-alto-reconsidering-cyberpunk-investigating-the-sony-pyxis-360/#respond Fri, 02 Sep 2016 17:37:10 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=973 Xerox Alto Photo by  Michael Hicks

Xerox Alto Photo by Michael Hicks

This week’s Links We Like follow Ken Shirriff restore a Xerox Alto, reconsider the future as told by cyberpunk fiction with Darran Anderson, and teardown the SONY PYXIS 360 portable GPS unit with Dave Jones.

If you’ve found any interesting links this week, make sure to share them in the comments below, or in our forum. We’re always on the hunt for new links to get lost in. Have a great weekend!

Restoring the Xerox Alto

In the 1970s, a computer never sold as a consumer product influenced everything that would come after. From Steve Jobs to the engineers at SUN, the Xerox Alto inspired an industry with its innovative design, features, and vision for how we could use a computer in daily life. Yet, only 2,000 of these machines were ever created!

Though rare, there are still a few Alto machines around, though not many that are operational. Recently, Ken Shirriff, a prolific blogger who covers everything electronic –from Arduino projects to tearing open and analyzing the innards of an Apple laptop power supply– was asked to restore one of the extant machines and document the process.

The startup incubator Ycombinator (YC) had received the Alto as a gift from one of the machines creators, Alan Kay. Though Alto’s were never sold, Kay happened to still have his and knew that YC was interested in obtaining one.

Developed by a research team at Xerox’s famous PARC laboratory, the Alto was the first computer designed from the start to have a graphical user interface. Not only that, it had a mouse, removable storage, was outfitted with networking, and had WYSIWYG word processing. There are 13 separate circuit boards that make up the Alto, 3 of which are dedicated to it’s central processing. These boards and the power supplies are housed in the cabinet below the monitor.

Here’s a quick table of contents for all of the blog posts Shirriff has published about the Alto restoration.

If you’d like to actually try using the Alto, there is a nifty simulator called SALTO that’s pretty easy to setup and run. Just follow the installation instructions here. And, if you’ve ever gotten to use the Alto, please share your story in the comments below!


What Cyberpunk was and What it Will Be

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When you hear the word cyberpunk, most people immediately think of the rainy streets of a dystopian city. Crime is rife, large companies have taken over every part of daily life, and uber high tech proliferates. Everyone in these worlds has advanced technology. And yet the most advanced tech, the tech that not everyone has access to askews morality in favor of tech for tech sake.

Contextualizing cyberpunk, Darran Anderson nails it, “Cyberpunk was, and remains, noir brought into the digital age; the black and white reinvented in neon and then LED.”* He sees the crime genre of the 1940s and 50s upcycled with technology. But despite the new duds, the moral ambiguity and fatalism of noir persist.

In What Cyberpunk was and What it Will Be, Anderson exhaustively looks at the cultural influences of the cyberpunk vision of the future. The article begins with Anderson’s own first brush with the genre, Hideo Kojima’s Snatcher for the SEGA CD.

As he sees it, the game borders on a complete ripoff of Blade Runner. Snatchers is a story of a trench coat wearing detective trying to stop bioroids from killing people. Basically Blade Runner on a console. But there’s something more than just sloppy acts of plagiarism going on here.

As Anderson continues to investigate the genre, he becomes increasingly aware that a key component of the cyberpunk aesthetic is reappropriating cultural artifacts. From the grit and drizzle of the noir genre to the infusion of technology and suffusion of pink. Cyberpunk recasts the old as the future. A conjuror’s sleight of hand.

Mondo 2000 Cyberpunk Checklist

Mondo 2000 Cyberpunk Checklist

Consider the image above from Mondo 2000, an edgier predicesor of WIRED magazine. Oozing with cool, the cyberpunk taxonomy is laid bare with a checklist for aspiring cyberpunks.

But look closely. Not only is there a checklist in Mondo 2000 to test your cyberpunk merits, the very magazine where the checklist is published is an item on the checklist. The inclusion is in once sense a joke, but it also blares another cyberpunk tenet and one that William Gibson, author of Neuromancer famously observed in The Economist, December 4, 2003: “The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”


Retro GPS Fit for the Future

Sony Pyxis via vcfed.org

Sony Pyxis via vcfed.org


This week while looking up cyberpunk images to include in the post, I stumbled on the Mondo 2000 cyberpunk checklist above. Looking closely at the page, mostly to gawk at the fun old technology, I spotted a Sony product that simply looked wild: the Sony PYXIS IPS-360.

The PYXIS IPS-300 is an early portable GPS unit sold in the 1990s primarily for use in small watercraft. What details you can still find of it are mostly in boating community forums asking for tips on obtaining replacement parts.

But there’s just something about the design of the PYXIS that seems to interest people. It’s most likely the crazy flipout circular receiver and SONY Walkman-like appearance.

In his most recent Mailbag installment, Dave Jones, who runs the EEVblog, a great website and video blog that covers all sorts of interesting electronics topics with a vibrant communit, received a PYXIS from a fan hoping he’d tear it open and explain the parts. (What a coincidence!)

In the teardown, Jones finds that the PYXIS uses the Zilog Z80, an enormously popular integrated circuit (IC). You can find these chips in everything from the Game Boy to a Texas Instrument graphing calculators. Apart from a few other specialized chips, Jones also found that some of the ICs were hand soldered!

In addition to Jones’ video, the VCFED community and Retro-GPS.info have nice teardowns too, though only still images.

While you can’t find the PYXIS at your local electronics shop, you can find a couple floating around online for a couple hundred dollars.


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Have you ever used a Xerox Alto or found a underappreciated cyberpunk novel? Do you own a SONY PYXIS? Share your story in the forums or comments below. And if you’ve got a cool Linux tip or are working on any C.H.I.P. or PocketC.H.I.P. projects, make sure to tweet about them. Have a great weekend!

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Links We Like: Restoring a NeXTstation, a History of Palm Computing, & Linux Turns 25 https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-restoring-a-nextstation-a-history-of-palm-computing-linux-turns-25/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-restoring-a-nextstation-a-history-of-palm-computing-linux-turns-25/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2016 18:00:48 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=937 The NeXT Cube

The NeXT Cube

This week’s Links We Like admires the clean design and innovative software of the NeXTstation, traces the history of the Palm personal digital assistant, and celebrates the 25th birthday of the Linux operating system.

If you’ve stumbled onto an interesting link or two, make sure to share them in the comments below, or in our forum. We’re always on the hunt for new links to get lost in. Have a great weekend! ᕙʕಠᴥಠʔᕗ

Restoring a Rare NeXT Machine

Running the NeXTSTEP operating system on a vintage NeXT machine.

Running the NeXTSTEP operating system on a vintage NeXT machine via Ken Fager

Ken Fager is living a retro computer fan’s dream. After a colleague tipped him off, he is now helping restore a rare NeXTstation.

Founded in 1985 by Steve Jobs, NeXT was an important, though short-lived company in the history of computing. These computers were not cheap and only about 50,000 units were shipped. A major reason for the modest sales was the $4,995 price tag for an entry level 1990 NeXTSTation. In today’s cash that’s about $9,369.09!

Designed for academic and research institutions*, it’s no big surprise the NeXT computer Fager is working on belongs to a University of Wisconsin professor. While at CERN, Sir Tim Berners Lee wrote the first web-browser and hosted the first web server using a NeXT machine.

Image of the NeXTSTEP desktop

The NeXTSTEP desktop

The NeXTSTEP OS was based on the Carnegie Mellon mach kernel and the graphical user interface anticipated much of what would come later with Apple’s OS X operating system –in 1997 Apple bought NeXT. There was even a precursor to an apps store!

While you’re waiting for Fager to post another update on the restoration process, take some time to browse through his NeXTstation photo gallery. And make sure to experience the NeXTSTEP desktop from the convenience of your browser!


A History of Palm Computing

Palm Pilot 5000

Palm Pilot 5000

Around the same time as NeXT released its first computer, Jeff Hawkins was building a portable digital assistant. The device had no physical keyboard and accepted a person’s handwriting as input. On January 2, 1992 Hawkins formalized his pursuit, creating Palm Computing.

Tom Hormby traces Hawkins’ quest in a five-part series documenting the ups and downs of building Palm.

In 1994, Palm released its Graffiti software handwriting translation software. Rather than require a physical or virtual keyboard, Graffiti enabled users to interact with devices as though they were paper note pads. It wasn’t perfect, but it was visionary.

Throughout the rest of the 90s, Palm continued to develop software and hardware, and was bought by US Robotics in 1995. And when 3COM bought US Robotics in 1998, Hawkins and many of the core team felt they no longer had control of the company and left to start Handspring, a rival hand-held company.

Whatever you think of Palm Computing’s corporate results, the company, its hardware, and its software strongly influence today’s handheld computing experience. Palm set the expectation that a handheld device should be inexpensive, intuitive, and able to do mundane scheduling, accounting, and documentation tasks with very little degree of difficulty. It wasn’t about the specs of the machine, portable computing was about what you could do and where you could do it.


Time flies, Linux is 25 years old

Dr. K swith Linus Torvalds and Richard

Dr. K and Richard with Linus Torvalds ☆*:. o(≧▽≦)o .:*☆

In the late 1980s and early 90s, Andrew Tanenbaum’s operating system Minix and accompanying book, Operating Systems: Design and Implementation were popular in academia. It was far cheaper than buying a license for UNIX, but modification and redistribution of Minix was prohibited under its license. A deal breaker for anyone who wanted to tinker with the OS code and share hacks with friends.

Linus Torvalds, lacking the freedom to legally share and modify Minix source code changes, set out to make his own operating system kernel. On August 25, 1991 Torvalds e-mailed the Minix Usenet list to share his progress.

Hello everybody out there using minix –
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things)…

Linus Torvalds

Twenty-five years later his hobby transformed into a profession, and Linus is a computing super-celebrity. To this day, Linux remains open source and completely legal to hack, modify, and share with the world.

Over the years, the operating system has matured and is widely seen as both stable and secure –many argue even more secure than proprietary alternatives. Linux powers everything from CERN and the New York Stock Exchange to C.H.I.P. and PocketC.H.I.P.. To get a sense of the steady rise of Linux from this timeline.

If you’re new to Linux, it’s worth taking this free Linux Foundation course to get your bearings.


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Have you ever owned a NeXTstation or used NeXTSTEP? What about a Palm device? Share your story in the forums or comments below. And if you’ve got a cool Linux tip or are working on any C.H.I.P. or PocketC.H.I.P. projects, make sure to tweet about them. Have a great weekend!

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Links We Like: the History of the Gopher Protocol, the Trackball, & the Super Soaker https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-the-history-of-the-gopher-protocol-the-trackball-the-super-soaker/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-the-history-of-the-gopher-protocol-the-trackball-the-super-soaker/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2016 19:23:32 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=893 trackball-exploded-min

This week’s Links We Like dig into the history of the internet Gopher protocol, reveal the secrets of the arcade trackball, and cool off with the history of the Super Soaker.

If you’ve stumbled onto an interesting link or two, make sure to share them in the comments below, or in our forum. We’re always on the hunt for new links to get lost in. Have a great weekend! ヽ(⌐■_■)ノ♪♬

Rise and Fall of the Gopher Protocol

The core Internet Gopher team

The core Internet Gopher team

In the late 1980s and early 90s, browsing the internet was a far different experience than today. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) ruled the wires. It allowed a client computer to connect to a server and download a particular file or two, but that’s about it. No hyperlinks. No searching. Just a remote directory structure. And certainly not an exciting, robust browsing experience. Even Tim Berners-Lee’s Hyper-Text Transport Protocol (HTTP), what would later in the decade become the foundational protocol for the world wide web and the online experience we know now, was an upstart that only a few users.

Working at the University of Minnesota, Mark McCahill, Farhad Anklesaria, Paul Lindner, Daniel Torrey, and Bob Alberti created the Gopher protocol. It expanded the potential of the internet by making it easier to use, share documents, and even search for content by letting computers interact in a new way and creating a more structured hierarchy of data.

Gopher quickly became popular, and in 1992 while attending a conference, McCahill and Anklesaria were surprised just how many of the event attendees were actively using their creation. In fact, Gopher was so popular that Berners-Lee used it to announce his creation of HTTP to the world. Gopher was simply the best way to get the news out at the time.

Surfing the internet with Gopher

Surfing the internet with Gopher

But by the spring of 1994, Gopher was eclipsed by Berners-Lee’s HTTP and infighting at the University of Minnesota caused additional setbacks for the project. The University wanted to charge certain high-volume users of the Gopher protocol, a move completely antithetical to what the Gopher team believed in. It was a sign of the beginning of the end.

Today, Gopher has been all but abaddoned, but if you want to try it out, browse over to Overbite for the scoop. And for the full story of Gopher, make sure you read Tim Gihring’s entire account of the rise and fall.


The Secret History of the Arcade Trackball

The DATAR trackball used a 5" blowing ball design

The DATAR trackball used a 5″ blowing ball design

Blackberry users and Golden Tee players know all about the trackball, but there’s a surprising history to the input device that even they might not know. In The Secret History of the Arcade Trackball, the Arcade Blog traces the origins of the device from military creation to common arcade controller.

Originally invented by Ralph Benjamin while working on a project for the British Royal Navy Scientific Service, manufacturing was ulitimately scrapped in favor of a joystick design.

In 1952, Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon Taylor revived the design for the battlefield computer DATAR they were building for the Royal Canadian Navy. Unlike the metal prototype of the British, the Canadian design used a 5-pin bowling ball which average about 5″ in diameter.

Essentially, DATAR was a system that allowed a fleet of ships to have a full view of the battlefield. The system took the input of ships positions, plotted them, and let other ships in the fleet to have access to this information. One ship was equipped with the main DATAR computer, which communicated the information over radio to ships with DATAR terminals, and each terminal operators could navigate the battlefield using a trackball input. For more on that system, read this exhaustive article or this shorter one.

It wasn’t until Atari’s Football that trackballs made the transition from the military to the arcade, though it’s a bit murky how that exactly happened. While trackballs are not as popular as they once were, they are particularly well suited for gaming owing to their precision of input. Make sure to read the full story on Arcade Blogger and let us know what your favorite trackball game is.


The Man Who Invented the Super Soaker

Lonnie Johnson, inventor of the Super Soaker

Lonnie Johnson with his invention, the Super Soaker

Growing up in the hot, muggy summers of Michigan, my trusty Super Soaker 50 and I took part in a lot water fights over the years. So it was with great delight to find that the BBC News had profiled Lonnie Johnson, the father of the Super Soaker.

Johnson grew up in Mobile, Alabama during the 1960s. At an early age he had an affinity to tinker with electronics and mechanical devices. He hacked together a go-kart with friends, and in high school Johnson built a propane powered robot named Linex that took first place in the school science fair.

After graduating from Tuskegee University, Johnson worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and then for NASA. In 1982, Johnson had the idea for a super water gun and made a few prototypes by milling out plastic stock. After a bit of testing, he gave his creation to his 7-year old daughter use in a water fight with friends. She was untouchable. Due to Johnson’s pressurised squirt gun, other kids simply couldn’t extrude water as far as she could.

Johnson spent 7-years trying to manufacture his water pistol, even filed a few patents, but was met with mostly frustrations. That changed in 1989 at the American International Toy Fair in New York when he ran into the Vice President of the Larami toy company, Al Davis. Though that encounter didn’t immediately pan out, two years later in the summer of 1991, he and Davis had 20 million squirt guns!

Check out the full story on the BBC.


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Have a great weekend! Share your favorite Super Soaker memory, as well as any cool links you stumble on in the forums or comments below. And if you’re working on any cool C.H.I.P. or PocketC.H.I.P. projects, make sure to tweet us about it!

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Links We Like: Minnesota by Design, Decades of Product History, and an Incredible Sci/Fi Site https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-minnesota-by-design-decades-of-product-history-and-an-incredible-scifi-site/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-minnesota-by-design-decades-of-product-history-and-an-incredible-scifi-site/#respond Fri, 12 Aug 2016 16:48:00 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=862 Rollerblades, the design of Minnesota native, Scott Olson

Rollerblades, the design of Minnesota native, Scott Olson

This week’s Links We Like admire the great design history produced by the people of Minnesota, browse the historical decades of consumer products, and aspire to read all of the articles on Michael Heilemann’s Star Wars and Sci/Fi themed site.

If you’ve stumbled onto an interesting link or two, make sure to share them in the comments below or in our forum. We’re always on the hunt for new links to get lost in. Have a great weekend! ໒( ͡ᵔ ▾ ͡ᵔ )७

Now this is Midwestern Nice

Gianni Pettena's Ice House

Gianni Pettena’s Ice House

The Minnesota by Design project from the Walker Art Center displays iconic designs created in Minnesota. You may not know this but Roller blades, poetry magnets, and the Nerf Ball are all products designed and made by Minnesotans.

The collection of designs is strengthened by the superb presentation of the website. Click on an item in the collection and up pops a split-screen showing information about the item’s history and a map marking exactly where in the state the design originates from.

Browsing the site leads to some surprisingly joyful moments. Trust me. You’ll not only find a lot of items you recognize, you’ll find the stories surrounding them. This is the strength of the collection — it reveals good design and fascinating history. The combination is powerful.

The Draw Me! turtle was a nostalgic find for me. I’ll always remember seeing the Art Instruction School’s infomercial during A-Team episodes, but I never knew the story. Now I do.

Working at a computer company, Minnesota’s own Cray-1 Supercomputer is of great interest to me, and the Ice Houses are simply sublime. But it’s really challenging to pick only three items to share. All of the collection is unique and will keep you curious.


Back in My Day…

Sticking with the theme of discovery, The People History presents a glimpse into the homelife of past decades. Documenting daily life in the decades from 1800 to the present day, the site catalogues appliances, music, fashion, furniture, and even toys. There are even weird factoids that encourage deeper investigation.

As a child of the 1980s, I naturally found myself reliving those early years while browsing the site. In 1982, TIME named “The Computer” Man of the Year (the award is now correctly called, Person of the Year). And in 1983, Motorola introduced the DynaTAC 8000X, the first mobile, cellular phone in the United States. That’s right, 1983.

The People History website gives just a glimpse at the important moments and objects of the past, and is great way to remember things forgotten.


Get Your Narrative Kitbashing Fix

Three of the great articles on kitbashed.com

Three of the great articles on kitbashed.com

For many of us, discovering Star Wars was a seminal moment in our lives. It was for Michael Heilemann. He has spent years writing essays on the intricacies of Star Wars and the inspirations behind them. Heilemann pays extra attention to two major themes: the filmography of George Lucas and the birth of space-heros.

Covering classics like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon, Heilemann connects these as early influenses on Lucas and Star Wars universe. The content is enjoyable and great to get lost in.

Honestly, even the URL kitbashed.com is cool. Kitbashing is a term from the world of model making, which describes the act of taking pieces from one model and combining them with parts from another. The goal is to make a scale model that’s entirely new. If you’ve watched Star Wars, then you’ve seen kitbashing done right. Most of the spacecrafts in the film are the result of heavy kitbashing.

My favorite article so far is the sprawlingly long Complete Conceptual History of the Millennium Falcon, which I wrote about several months ago. But the site is simply too good to only recommend one article. Point your browser there and make sure you’re in a comfy chair to spent a lot of time reading.


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Have a great weekend! Make sure to share your favorite Kitbashed article with us, as well as any cool links you stumble on. You can reach us in the forums or comments below. And if you’re working on any cool C.H.I.P. or PocketC.H.I.P. projects, make sure to tweet us about it!

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Links We Like: Apollo 11 in VR, a Guided Tour of Shenzhen, & 3D Printable Watch Parts https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-apollo-11-in-vr-a-guided-tour-of-shenzhen-3d-printable-watch-parts/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-apollo-11-in-vr-a-guided-tour-of-shenzhen-3d-printable-watch-parts/#respond Fri, 05 Aug 2016 18:01:13 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=787 3D rendering of the Apollo 11 command console interior via The Smithsonian

3D rendering of the Apollo 11 command console interior via The Smithsonian

Links We Like are back after a bit of a hiatus. This week’s links embark on a virtual tour of the Apollo 11 command module that went to the moon, learn about the history and rapid development of Shenzhen from the people who live and work there, and invite you to become mesmerized by a 3D printable mechanical watch mechanism.

As always, if you’ve stumbled into an interesting link or two, make sure to share them in the comments below or on the forum. We’re always on the hunt for new content and nothing beats a good, less trafficked link. Have a great weekend! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Embark on a Virtual Tour of the Apollo 11

For the 47th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. released a virtual tour of the command module nicknamed “Columbia.” Plus they made three types of the scans used for the VR tour available for download: files ready for 3D printing, files for rendering, and the much larger raw data files. There are some limitations to usage, but nothing too onerous.

Columbia is unquestionably a national treasure and has been on display in the museum since 1971. But the module has been shrouded in plexiglass, making it nearly impossible to get a good view of the interior. Thankfully, in creating the virtual tour the plexiglass was removed and high-resolution scans of the interior were taken. Along with these scans, the Smithsonian has put together a guided tour that calls out 27 points of interest within the cabin. This is a must take tour!

To begin the tour, start the rendering by clicking on this link and let the assets load. Even on a fast connection, this can take a moment or two. Once you feel enough of the rendering is ready, click on the globe icon in the top left corner of the screen. That starts the tour and will also enable forward and back icons to progress your way through the points of interest.

What’s really fascinating about the scans is that during the process, the team of researchers uncovered graffiti the astronauts scrawled on the interior of the module. It was known that Michael Collins wrote on the interior, but before the scans, few had seen the inscription near the ship’s sextant (stop 21 on the guided tour) or the mission calendar (stop 25) counting down the crews’ remaining days in space. Make sure to watch the video embedded above to learn about the scanning process from the team that undertook the project.

As you fly from one point of interest to the next, the VR tour has a weightless feeling to it and it’s easy to become disoriented. It’s as close to spaceflight as most of us will come (fingers crossed I’m wrong about that).

If you do end up printing out your own 3D copy of the command module, let the Simthsonian know about it on twitter.


Tour Shenzhen with Wired UK

In 2014, Dave, Gus, and Thomas went through in HAX, a hardware accelerator based in Shenzhen, China. They were busy making OTTO, an animated GIF camera that ultimately led to the creation of C.H.I.P.. While many people in the West know about Shenzhen as the heart of hardware manufacturing, not as many have actually visited the thriving city.

Now you can virtually visit from the comfort of your desktop. Let Wired UK take you on a tour of the booming city in Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware, an hour-long documentary tracing the early history of the city, its population explosion from 300,000 to 10 million (but the latter number is only a guesstimate, no one knows the actual population), and its current mantle as the world’s center for manufacturing electronics.

You’ll meet Andrew “Bunnie” Huang as he guides you through the Huaqiangbei markets. Bunnie first broke onto the hacking scene in the days of the Xbox. He was able to crack the encryption technology, which prevented people from running homebrew applications on the consoles that they bought. You can read all about his exploits in Hacking the Xbox, which is now a free, downloadable PDF.

Drop by Duncan Turner, the managing director of HAX hardware accelerator, for a tour of their facilities and get a peek into what goes on at a hardware accelerator. You’ll meet a startup working on a table tennis robot as well as get a brief glimpse at the old NTC haunts in the HAX office. Check out Gus’ visit to Shenzhen during the early days of C.H.I.P. manufacturing. Ah, the memories!

While this will give you a taste of the city, nothing beats actually going there yourself, or so I’m told. I still haven’t been, but sure hope one day to be writing a Links We Like post from Shenzhen, China and experience the city firsthand.


3D Printing Clockwerk

In 1801, Abraham-Louis Breguet a French horologists was granted a patent for the tourbillon. He claimed that his mechanism counteracted the forces of gravity on the movement and precision of the timekeeping mechanisms in a mechanical watch, thus making it a more accurate timepiece.

The idea of the tourbillon is fairly simple: house the escapement and balance wheel, the two main timekeeping components, inside of it. Then rotate the tourbillon inside the watch in such a way as to “cancel out” the faster and slower positions in a watch’s movement.

Since a wristwatch is never in a flat or fix position, it was thought by Breguet that the gears would experiencing different stresses depending on the angle of the watch on the wrist, and even the position of the wrist itself. The video below does a good job of explaining this, jump to the 00:30 mark.

Today, horologists have doubts that a tourbillon improves precision, yet some lavish watchmakers continue to build elaborate and fantastically expensive timepieces with them inside.

Adam Wrigley’s 3D printable Clockwerk is a DIY version of a tourbillon. Using 34 printed parts and a collection of ball bearings, shafts, and screws, Wrigley has managed to create a fully working triple-axis tourbillon. There are no dial hands on the device, rather the project is an expression of pure mechanical engineering, not timekeeping. Check out his site for a videos showing the tourbillon’s full build and background on how mechanical watches work. Best of all, if you have a 3D printer, you can print your own version.


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Have a great weekend, make sure to share any interesting links you find with us in the forums or comments below.

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Your Guide to the 80s Technology in The Netflix Original Series Stranger Things https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/your-guide-to-the-80s-technology-in-the-netflix-original-series-stranger-things/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/your-guide-to-the-80s-technology-in-the-netflix-original-series-stranger-things/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2016 23:16:55 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=786 strangethings1

Stranger Things is a new, 8-episode Netflix show that blends classic Stephen King (Constant Readers know what I mean) with Freaks and Geeks. And I’ll be binge watching it all over again this weekend.

Set in 1983 in Hawkings, Indiana, Stranger Things is about the disappearance of Will Byers and the search to find him. It’s an exciting, well-paced show that will pull you in and keep you nervous.

But what makes the series even more enjoyable for me is spotting the contemporary 80s technology that pops up throughout the series. From the second scene in episode one, where four friends are playing D&D, to the A/V club and their new Heathkit project, this series gets its period technology right and I love it!

And then there’s the sound track! Stranger Things nails the music and they’ve even released a mixtape that you should listen to while you read the rest of the post. It’ll give you a great sense of the show’s mood and aesthetic.

strangerthingsposter

Series poster in the style of Drew Struzan, who painted posters for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Thing, and countless more. (The Thing poster makes a cameo in the show in Mike Wheeler’s basement.) via Netflix

Excitement From the Start

The show opens with a scientist running down a hallway of what looks to be his lab. His face is strained and tense… something is pursuing him, but no one is behind him. Reaching the elevator, relief washes over his face and the music calms. He looks up. Panic. Loud noise. He is ripped upward from the elevator, but by what, we still don’t know.

(Warning: This might be a bit scary for little C.H.I.P.sters and Pocketeers!)

Now that you have a flavor for the show, here’s the 80s tech that I found while watching. I’ve done my best to keep the post focused on the tech and to avoid spoilers.


HeathKit As It Was Meant To Be

One of the first moments I realized this show is full of cool 80s tech is when Dustin, Mike, and Lucas stay after class for an impromptu A/V club meeting with Mr. Clarke. After days of waiting, their new Heathkit finally arrived!

Wait, what?! Honestly, I did a double-take when I heard Mr. Clarke say Heathkit. These kits were classics!

Heathkit manufactured educational electronics kits before it was trendy and popular. From 1947 to 2012 the company produced a range of kits from basic oscilloscopes to ham radios. Despite their contemporary troubles, Heathkit used to be a brand that you’d get excited about. In 1983, when Stranger Things takes place, Heathkit was still in its prime, making high quality, well documented kits that were approachable and fairly affordable.

Recent times have been tough for Heathkit. Adafruit attempted to figure out just what’s going on with the classic company, but came up with more questions than answers.

With a few false restarts and ownership changes, Heathkit no longer dominates the DIY electronic space. Certainly the $149 Pipetenna, which is basically just PVC pipe with wire, is not representative of the standard Heathkit kit.

There are only a few shots of the radio equipment, but if any sharp-eyed C.H.I.P.sters can identify the Heathkit models, I’d love to know.


Panasonic Boombox

Once Healthkit popped up in the show, I was determined to watch more closely for other interesting 30-year-old technology. It didn’t take too much effort to find more.

Staring me right in the face, the first frame of the show’s trailer features an iconic looking boombox. It screams 80s. But the camera never pans and I couldn’t make out any branding. Yet, it sure looks like the Panasonic RX-5090. As you can see from this overview of the boombox, it has some serious style and a surprising amount of features — including I/O for all your mixing pleasure.

Take a full tour of the boombox in the video below.


REALISTIC brand Walkie-Talkies

Throughout the series, the middle school kids looking for Will stay in touch using their REALISTIC radios. Yes, REALISTIC was a real brand name. Actually, it turns out that these handsets were the house brand of RadioShack and were sold in the 70s and 80s. In the 90s, RadioShack moved away from the REALISTIC name, which was probably a good idea given the confusion the name can cause. Ultimately, the brand was discontinued in 2000.

Fortunately, you can still find out a lot about this product line (thanks, Internet!). Check out this RadioShack catalog page from 1983. While it might not be the exact model, you can see the styling is spot on.

Realistic radio featured in a 1983 RadioShack caghttp://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1983/h078.html

Realistic radio featured in a 1983 RadioShack catologue

If you’ve got a better eye than me and can figure out the exact REALISTIC model, make sure to share your find in the comments below.


Shooting Film in Style with Pentax

The last bit of 80s tech I could find was Jonathan Byers Pentax K1000. It’s clear from the film that the camera is made by Pentax, but I had to ask our resident camera expert Dave for advice about the model. It makes sense Dave would know. He, Gus, and Thomas did started NTC as a camera company after all.

The K1000 is a 35mm film SLR that Pentax manufactured from 1976-1997, which is a heck of a long time for a consumer product. We’ve got a couple of these in the office and they are great little cameras. You can find them second-hand on the usual internet auction houses and they are great for beginners to use to get reaquainted with film photography.


It’s more than likely that I’ve missed a few 80s tech relics. I’m sure someone can figure out what T.V. sets were used, and the particular brand of holiday lights Joyce Byers hangs in her living room. If you do spot a new piece of 80s tech in the series, make sure to share it in the comments below.

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Links We Like: a Papercraft Boeing 777, a Mega Processor, and Electronic Sculpture https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-a-papercraft-boeing-777-a-mega-processor-and-electronic-sculpture/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-a-papercraft-boeing-777-a-mega-processor-and-electronic-sculpture/#respond Fri, 15 Jul 2016 18:05:20 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=763 Cabin work-in-progress via name

Papercraft 777 Cabin by Iaconi-Stewart

All three of the main Links We Like highlight people whose artistry and dedication to their craft is remarkable. This week’s links unfold the world of papercraft, enlarge the microprocessor, and appreciate the art of electronic sculptures.

We’re always looking for new links. Make sure you share any interesting ones you find this weekend with us on the forums or in the comments at the end of the post. Have a great weekend and remember to take your Pokédex… er… PocketC.H.I.P. out with you while you’re hunting those Pokémon!

Reverse Engineering & Papercraft

Papercraft Eevee

Papercraft Eevee

Papercraft, or Pepakura as it’s called in Japan, is the art of using little more than paper and glue to construct 3D models. It’s a diverse art form. There’s everything from pokenmon characters to super bikes, and Cannon Japan even has a dedicated section of their website to the art. It seems, if you can think of it, it’s been made in papercraft.

Engine cowling of the Boeing 777 via>L

Engine cowling of the Boeing 777 via Luca Iaconi-Stewart

For seven years, Luca Iaconi-Stewart worked on a staggeringly detailed papercraft project. By watching YouTube videos and consulting a training manual, he reverse engineered the Boeing 777, the world’s largest twin-jet airline which seats 314-451, and built an all paper replica. A student of architecture, his creation is so realistic that it got the attention and praise of GE, the manufacturer of the 777’s engines.

If you’re looking for a more approachable, less time demanding papercraft project, try your hand at making Eevee, shown above.


The Computer Room is Literally Back

Panorama of the megaprocessor via megaprocessor.com

Panorama of the megaprocessor via megaprocessor.com

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore famously characterized the march towards miniaturization of electronics. He noted that every year since the invention of the transistor, designers were able to pack in twice the number of transistors into the same area. He predicted this trend would continue for every subsequent year and saw no end-point. For decades Intel engineers backed up Moore’s prediction (commonly called Moore’s Law). Only within the last year have analyst’s reported this trend is slowing, if not altogether dead.

Mega Processor is a reaction to computer electronics shrinking size and the loss of ability to look at the entire circuit design. James Newman began working on his £40,000, 16-bit Mega Processor on 12 October 2014. He simply wanted to make the project and share his knowledge of processor design. On 22 June 2016, Newman put the finishing touches on the project, booted it up, and updated his blog chronicling the experience.

By using 42,400 through-hole transistors –about the size of a tic-tac– Newman was able to easily enlarge his processor. A Pentium microprocessor packs in a whopping 3.1 million transistors into a wafer the size of a quarter. Tiny, the Mega Processor is not. It stands 32′ long and 6’5″ tall.

To further reveal the processor’s operations, Newman installed light emitting diodes (LEDs) at any point in the design where data was passed from an output to an input. This allows anyone looking at the machine to see the precise flow of data in realtime.

It’s worth watching Newman’s video introduction to the project (embeded above), and keep a close eye on his video series, which provides more explantatory details of each part of the Mega Processor architecture.

At NTC, we’re always excited to see when people share their knowledge publicly, so our hats are off to Newman and his work.


Electronic Sculpture

gis06

Like the Mega Processor, Gislain Benoit’s creation The Tower hides nothing of its design. But for Benoit, using basic electronic components is also about sculpting and an intricate soldering technique known as point-to-point.

Tower weighs 60lbs, stands 5′ tall, and uses 2153 components — 1415 of which are LEDs. The sheer number of components is due to the fact that Benoit uses only basic electronic components: resistors, LEDs, and transistors. Had he used integrated circuits –small plastic rectangles with hundreds of miniscule components that somewhat resemble bugs– the sculpture would have required far fewer parts.

However, Benoit is not trying to create an optimized bill-of-materials or reduce his material cost. His goal is to design a beautiful electronic sculpture, which he has accomplished.

ft1

Unlike most circuits, the components in Tower are not soldered directly to a fiberglass board. Instead, each component lead (metal wire sticking out of the component) is soldered directly to another lead. This style of wiring is often called point-to-point soldering and is a niche skill that’s easy to underestimate its difficulty.

One challenge about this construction method is when heat is applied to one lead of a component the other leads will heat up too. Unless careful management and heatsinks are used during construction, you can end up desoldering component connections unintentionally. To design a work as large, complex, and thoughtfully designed as Tower is truly remarkable.

While you’re browsing Benoit’s site, make sure to check out his first sculpture, The Clock.


chipLogo64x64

Have a great weekend, make sure to share any interesting links you find with us in the forums or comments below.

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Links We Like: Founding Mothers of Silicon Valley, Seeing with Sound, and Rescuing Priceless Manuscripts https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-founding-mothers-of-silicon-valley-seeing-with-sound-and-rescuing-priceless-manuscripts/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-founding-mothers-of-silicon-valley-seeing-with-sound-and-rescuing-priceless-manuscripts/#respond Fri, 08 Jul 2016 18:51:20 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=733 Founding Mothers of Silicon Valley via Backchannel

Founding Mothers of Silicon Valley via Backchannel

This week’s Links We Like reconsiders the founders of Silicon Valley, uses sound to see, and documents the librarians who saved the great libraries of Timbuktu.

Last week’s post resulted in a few link recommendations, including Senkun‘s suggestion to check out How to Make Your Text Look Futuristic — a must read for any aspiring future typographers. Don’t forget to add a starfield to your background to make it more futuristic. Have a great weekend! ☆*:. (⌐■_■) .:*☆

subhed

Jessi Hempel of Backchannel recently wrote a response to Newsweek’s one-sided coverstory on the founders of Silicon Valley. Their article championed seven white men as the founders of an entire industry. Hempel disagreed and was rightly unconvinced by the Newsweek story. “Three words for you, Newsweek: What the hell?”

Founding Mothers of Silicon Valley is Hempel’s response and corrective. In it she presents six women who all shaped the early companies of Silicon Valley and continue to innovate in the industry –Judy Estrin, Lynn Conway, Sandy Kurtzig, Donna Dubinsky, Sandy Lerner, and Diane Greene. Hempel also includes an unnamed seventh woman that’s meant as a provocation for further discussion about the essential role of women in creating the technology industry.

  • Judy Estrin held the position of CTO at CISCO, the largest networking company in the world, and has gone on to launch 5 successful start-ups.
  • Lynn Conway, while at Xerox PARC labs, fundamentally changed how microprocessors are designed and co-wrote the authorotative text on the topic: Introduction to VLSI Systems. She left the Valley for academic life at the University of Michigan and has recently retired.
  • Sandy Kurtzig founded and sold ASK Computers Systems for $300 million. She now spends time on the board of Kenandy, an enterprise cloud-based company that she founded.
  • Donna Dubinsky served as the founding CEO of Palm, makers of a handheld personal organizer device that is remarkably similar to today’s smartphone. She is now busy reverse-engineer the brain’s neocortex at Numenta.
  • Sandy Lerner was part of a group at Stanford who designed the router. They subsequently formed CISCO, which she ran as CEO for three years before they took outside investor money.
  • Diane Greene, not only started and sold a streaming video company for $75 million, she also started VMWare with a group from Berkeley. Today VMWare is arguably the goto software suite for virtualization of operating systems.

Hempel’s article is an important one to not only read, but also to share. Hopefully Newsweek and other mainstream media outlets will avoid old tropes of a male dominated technical industry and share more nuanced and inclusive historical accounts of the people who built Silicon Valley.


Seeing with Sound

 Seeing with sound via Ribbonfarm.com

Seeing with sound via Ribbonfarm.com

In the Marvel comic book series Daredevil, Matt Murdock losses his sight due to an accident with radioactive chemicals. Sightless, Murdock develops a superior radar-like hearing and uses it to help him fight crime under the cover of darkness.

In the real life, Artem Litvinovich wanted to construct a computing device that mimicked Daredevil’s ability to see with sound, though he was not familiar with the comic book hero at the time he began the project. He simply wanted to make a cool DIY project that interested him.

Litvinovich’s plan was to wire a number of microphones as inputs to an field programmable gate array (FGPA), a specialized type of computer where the device logic can be reconfigured. The FPGA would run some advanced math on the input signals and prestso, Litvinovich would have an image created from the sound.

Unfortunately, for the circuit to work in this design, Litvinovich needed every microphone to have an amplifier and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). This would allow the analog sound waves to be converted into a digital signal that the FPGA could take as input. The downside of this approach was that it would simply cost too much money!

Then Litvinovich discovered the MEMS microphone. MEMS mics have an amplifier and an ADC built into the microphone as an integrated circuit. This meant that he could simply buy a handful of MEMs mics and wire them directly to the FPGA. Fewer parts, lower cost.

Early prototype using the MEMS microphone

Early prototype using the MEMS microphone

To test his design, Litvinovich created a 8×1 prototype using 8 MEMS sensors wired to an FPGA. With a bit of tinkering Litvinovich was able to confirm that his design worked and began working on a larger 16×16 array of mics.

The array of MEMS microphones used to create the animated GIF above

The array of MEMS microphones used to create the animated GIF above

This is an advanced DIY project, but fascinating to read about from afar. For a more detailed account of the project, including images from the final microphone array, check out the Ribbonfarm.com.


The Great Library Heist of Timbuktu

Abdel Kader Haidara organizes the manuscripts in the Mamma Haidara Library Photography By Alexandra Huddleston

Abdel Kader Haidara organizes the manuscripts in the Mamma Haidara Library Photography By Alexandra Huddleston

When you think of clandestine operations you probably don’t think of librarians or archivists. But these are the people who saved thousands of priceless manuscripts dating from the 14th and 15th century from Timbuktu libraries targeted by extremists. Moving by the cover of night, harrowing road trips, checkpoints are crossed with bribes backed by money from international foundations, this story is full of everything from a spy movie!

In the summer of 2012, Abdel Kader Haidara and his fellow scholars covertly relocated thousands of volumes ranging from studies of science to works of literature, the volumes they saved documented the rich tradition of learning in Timbuktu.

The small, secretive group told no one what they were doing, excluding even their close families from the secret. The risks were too high. Over the course of several nights, they collected the books, snuck them to safe houses for temporary storage, and ultimately transported them to Bamako, the capital city of Mali.

Joshua Hammer’s account of Haidara and his colleagues is astonishing. This article is a modified excerpt from Hammer’s book —The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts, which originally appeared in Mental Floss, a bimonthly print magazine. This is a book I’m definitely going to read.


Have a great weekend, make sure to share any interesting links you find with us in the forums.

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Links We Like: Space Auctions, Scientific Glassblowing, & Iconifying All the Things https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-space-auctions-scientific-glassblowing-iconifying-all-the-things/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/links-we-like-space-auctions-scientific-glassblowing-iconifying-all-the-things/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2016 13:26:17 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=703 Flown space navigation indicator via Bonhams

Gently used space navigation equipment via Bonhams

This week’s Links We Like explore the world of Space history auctions, appreciate the art of scientific glassblowing, and survey what it looks like to iconify all the nouns.

Last week’s post resulted in a few movie recommendations, including yeti’s suggestion of the John Carpenter movie, Dark Star. As always, make sure to share with us the links you’re reading. Have a great long weekend! ᕕ(⌐■_■)ᕗ ♪♬

Bidding on Space History

Original Gemmi training assembly via Bonhams

Original Gemmi training assembly via Bonhams

This year is the 47th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. For non-space exploration nuts, this is the mission where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins went to the moon. You know, the one where Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Cast hands for sizing gloves via Bonhams

Cast hands for sizing gloves via Bonhams

To celebrate the anniversary Bonhams –the storied British auction house– has assembled a collection of objects from the Apollo 11 period of NASA and artifacts from the 1957 Soviet Sputnik program (the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth). There are also a bunch of other space related pariphenalia such as photos, patches, and minature vehicle models in the auction.

NASA flight simulation chair via Bonhams

NASA flight simulation chair via Bonhams

There are also weird items. Take the set of cast astronaut hands you can bid on or the surprisingly utilitarian NASA flight simulation chair. No question that chair isn’t gonna be cheap, but you can be sure some fan of space exploration is going to pay good money for it!

image (3)

Almost all of the items up for auction are too pricey for most personal budgets. The voyage-worn spacesuit above is estimated at $25,000-35,000! But the large price tags don’t mean you can’t enjoy the auction catalog PDF (warning, large download) or even order a print copy of it. The layout is stunning and each item has a blurb explaining basic facts about the object.

What’s your favorite item up for auction?


The Art of Scientific Glassblowing

Rick Gerhart blowing glass bound for an experiment (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Rick Gerhart blowing glass bound for an experiment (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Unless you run a Fortune 500 company, are a famous celebrity, or a beloved athlete, most newspapers will not write about your retirement. Rick Gerhart is none of these. But he is elite. He’s one of the best scientific glassblower in the world.

Scientific glassblowing is the art of creating the tubes, beakers, a glass contraptions that are used in experiments. It’s a vital part of the scientific endeavor, it’s just not often talked about. WNPR has a nice video covering the field which is embedded below.

Recently, the LA Times ran a story about Gerhart’s retirement from being the sole scientific glassblower for CalTech. For over 23 years he has been working with professors and students to create specialized glass containers for their experiments. Experiments that would not be possible without his handmade glassware.

As glassblowers retire, there is a real concern about finding replacements. Salem Community College in New Jersey is the only school in the nation that teaches scientific glassblowing. On an average year they graduate 20 students. Even if this number increase –which the college projects that it will– these students will fill entry level positions, not those vacated by veterans like Gerhart.


Iconify All the Nouns

Search results for "chip" from The Noun Project

Search results for “chip” from The Noun Project

Imagine a world where every object, every single thing has a pictorial representation. That’s exactly what The Noun Project is aiming to accomplish. It’s easy to get lost in the massive number of icons. There’s always just one more set to peruse.

Apart from searching for “chip”, I’ve found it interesting to search for adjectives like pink and blue. Results range from what you’d expect, to ones that you’d absolutely wouldn’t. Pink yields flamingo icons and blue results in nautical themes.

When you need a break from browsing, try the blog. Articles range from interviews to explorations of icon collections focused on a single theme. There’s so much material to explore on this site, you’re sure to lose more than a lunch break browsing it all.


Have a great weekend, make sure to share any interesting links you find with us in the forums. And while you’re sharing, don’t forget to mention your favorite item up for auction and icon that you’ve discovered.

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