A pretty good idea

I wonder how they deal with copyright issues ....

Make your own cookbook with TasteBook

Posted Oct 25th 2007 5:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Internet, Web services, Beta

Say you've got a few dozen recipes bookmarked from various websites. Then there's that stack of recipes you inherited from mom. You could print out your online recipes and slap them in a binder along with your index card collection. Or you could use TasteBook to create a professional-looking cookbook.

The site just launched a public beta. You can save recipes from partner sites including Epicurious and add your own. When you're done, you can order a printed copy of a 100-recipe book for $35. If you have fewer than 100 recipes, you still have to pay $35, but you get a credit toward future recipe books. 

http://tinyurl.com/yqx2pj

More on home automation

It just seems smart to me to put your home thermostat and other power hungry items onto some sort of automated system:

http://tinyurl.com/ysdetk

1-wire thermostat control

posted oct 24th 2007 10:10pm by will o'brien
filed under: home hacks

for some reason, computer controllable thermostats are pretty freakin' expensive. i found a reference to a 1-wire thermostat in this(mirror) sample senior project on home automation. it turns out that dallas semiconductor put one together a while back as an application for their tini platform. (web-application server on a chip). the write-up has since vanished from their site, but i found it thatnks to archive.org. the thermostat used to run about $50, and a similar model still seems to be produced. the 1-wire interface is pretty simple - maxim's tini board to control it: not so much. just using the 1-wire interface with an inexpensive thermostat and controlling from a pc seems pretty viable to me. just in case, i mirrored the 1-wire interface schematics here.

How To Clean Up

4 Decluttering Techniques

http://tinyurl.com/2houjd

Organized Home has a few great ways to get rid of clutter in your home or at work. For most of us, clutter is just the result of bad habits and indecision.

The first method described attempts to force decision making in a very simple way:

The Four-Box method forces a decision, item by item. To apply it, gather three boxes and a large trash can. Label the boxes, "Put Away", "Give Away/Sell" and "Storage." Items to be thrown away belong in the trash can.

What I like about having these 'clutter destinations' is that you can keep them in your work area and use as immediate inboxes. Instead of just the one IN box, you have the three [plus trash] where you place items that come in.

This is very similar to GTD's system where you take items from your inbox and put them into reference, projects or someday/maybe items. However, the latter would be the equivalent of keeping clutter in your home.

Instead of just one inbox, for your growing clutter, you keep a series that force action immediately:

- Storage/Reference
- Work/Prokects
- Trash
etc.

Organized Home has 3 other strategies that should help.

Declutter 101: Strategies To Cut Clutter - [OrganizedHome]

25 manly skills

Popular Mechanics has a list of 25 items that every man should be
able to do... I disagree a bit, but whatever.
http://tinyurl.com/3dlg4o

Re: Torrent search thingy

I actually want to find a good torrent site for music and stuff,
anyone have suggestions?
Limewire is so-so (I was about to coutn it dead, but theyahve a new
"junk rating" which filters out the crap stuff)

On 10/23/07, Joshua Bierman <josh.bierman@gmail.com> wrote:
> doubt its safe though, better off with google
> http://www.completorrent.com/
>

list of useful apps and the like

http://www.andrewsellick.com/73/100-great-free-and-open-source-tools-

for-web-developers

Torrent search thingy

doubt its safe though, better off with google
http://www.completorrent.com/

getting real answers to tough questions

Google Answers was a great service I used and recommended. Sadly it was closed. Many of the free-lance researches from Google Answers moved to a new independently owned site, Uclue, that offers a similar service. You ask a question, announce a price you think an answer is worth, and if a top-notch researcher thinks your fee is fair, they will research your question. Questions can be quickies worth $5, or more complicated queries costing $200.

In my experience their answers are solid and reliable. You can always ask for clarifications. As with Google Answers, the results are public. That means it pays to search the site for previous similar questions. It also means that your answer won't be confidential. (Indeed. The answer to a question I commissioned on Uclue was Slashdotted.)

If you want advice, go to the free and free-wheeling Yahoo Answers. You'll get your money's worth. If you want help on a particular question that the exact right person can answer quickly, I think Ask Metafilter is by far the best guru (and it is free for members). But if what you need is some real research and serious sleuthing, the kind of answer that is not just sitting in someone's head, I believe your best bet will be Uclue.

Figure how long it might take you to answer your own question -- if you could at all -- and you'll see that Uclue answers are a real bargain.

-- KK

Uclue

http://tinyurl.com/3czjf

soylent green, the lego edition

http://picasaweb.google.com/bmibeck/GreenMachine

FOR JACK - HOME BREWERY

home brewing beer brewery

posted oct 16th 2007 10:16pm by will o'brien
filed under: misc hacks

i saw this last month in popular science, but it wasn't online for a while. this (nearly) all-in-one brewery was built by [john carnett]. it does everything but requires malt extract for now. it boils wort, cools it for fermenting, delivers the brew to the kegs and most interestingly to me - uses cold plate cooling to cool the beer just before it exits the tap. i'm pretty sure they're using peltier junctions, but i'd like to know for sure. props to [nate] for inadvertently reminding me of the thing when he sent in this effort to brew beer inside a pumpkin!

http://tinyurl.com/2v7u56

When looking for where to live, the apt edition

Hubbuzz, the neighborhood apartment finder

Posted Oct 17th 2007 8:00AM by Chris Gilmer
Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Search

Finding a neighborhood to live in which suits your individual taste is sometimes a huge challenge. After all is said and done, you must be happy with the place you call home. Hubbuzz helps find an ideal apartment for you, with the amenities you're looking for, in an area which you'll enjoy living.

Other websites like apartments.com and rent.com provide the same type of apartment searching with many more listings, but are much more complex to navigate than Hubbuzz. Further, those traditional sites don't offer an in depth look at what neighborhoods are truly about. 

Current cities to choose from in the Hubbuzz neighborhood database include Los Angeles, Denver, San Diego, Colorado Springs, Northern Colorado and Dallas-FortWorth. When selected areas are chosen, an event calendar, featured neighborhoods, and area facilities like parks, shopping and restaurants are pinpointed to get a better idea and feel for the area in question so you can make a more informed decision about your new abode.

It's great having all of this information in one single location. Previously, it's been a pain to search multiple sources to grab all details on an area in which you want to live. Plus, when you use Hubbuzz to find an apartment, they'll give you $100 bucks back when you sign a lease at a complex listed in their database.

http://tinyurl.com/2owrry

Top Ten Inventions of 2007

um....the year aint over.... oh well.

R&D Magazine has sponsored the "Oscars of Inventions" for 45 years. These research and design awards are coveted by government as well as private industry inventors. The 100 winners selected by R&D Magazine for 2007 are stunning innovations - resourceful, effective, inspiring. A significant portion of the 2007 awards are homeland security/military innovations; others are environmental, health, and there's even innovations for kids, like a must-have-Holiday-toy robot!

http://tinyurl.com/2ngs6m

My favorite so far:

2. No More Blood Tests!

 

Electro Needle Biomedical Sensor Array

Some of the 2007 awards have gone to inventions that seem just short of miraculous and the Electro Needle Biomedical Sensor Array comes close. This is a small patch device with electro-chemically treated probes. When the patch is applied to the skin, it has the ability to ascertain chemical readings present in a patient's blood without having to withdraw any blood. Thus, readings such as "carbohydrates, electrolytes, lipids, enzymes, toxins, proteins, viruses, and can be detected in a patient's blood or interstitial cellular fluid." No more for "good" veins? You mean no more vials and vials and vials taken? One great step for medicine; 15 great steps for the sick folks in the emergency room. Developed by the Sandia National Laboratories.

Always wanted a heads up display

$25 head mounted display

posted oct 7th 2007 9:47pm by will o'brien
filed under: misc hacks, portable video hacks