The World’s Simplest Motor mated to the World’s Simplest 5-Speed Shifter. Watch me assemble a 5-speed manual shift homopolar motor…and go through the gears! This homopolar motor uses a neodymium magnet, a battery and a conductor. It works similar to the 150-year old electric homopolar motor invented by Michael Faraday, and works by the principle of the Lorentz force, discovered after Faraday died. The Lorenz force law states that a charge moving in a uniform magnetic field experiences a force at right angles to both the field and the direction of the current flow. For Homopolar Motor Kits, with 3 magnets and 6 feet of copper wire, order from the good folks at the American Stirling Engine website: www.stirlingengine.com Mrfixitrick buys neodymium magnets at K&J Magnetics: www.kjmagnetics.com Check out a new understanding of magnetism that will radically change our world, presented by nuclear engineer Mehran Keshe: www.youtube.com
GPS Gadget, GPS Receiver USB Adapter for Computers (Netbook, Laptop, UMPC)
The subject of Jeff’s bad cell phone luck has come up several times on The 404 Podcast already, but we’re coming back to it once again because he just received his NINTH Palm Pre from the good folks at Sprint, who are now offering a “trade nine, get one free frozen yogurt” stamp card in his honor.
We’d love to promise that this will be his last, but judging from the laundry list of parts that broke on the other eight units, it’s not looking good. The best we can hope for is that number nine won’t spontaneously combust before Jeff can cash in for a HTC Evo 4G…that is, unless Lenovo announces a ThinkPalm phone first.
Big thanks to Cheryl, aka The Official 404 Grandmother, for recommending this inspiring story about a 99-year-old woman in Oregon who’s rediscovered the joys of reading and writing poetry thanks to the zoom feature on her brand new Apple iPad. We’ve been vocalizing our frustration at the technological ineptitude of our elders for the past two weeks now, so it’s about time someone sets it straight!
Virginia Campbell was born in 1910 and a tough fight with glaucoma recently left her struggling to read fine print until her family bought her an iPad. As a result, pinch-to-zoom is her new best friend, even inspiring her to write a short poem that we’re proud to read over the air. Campbell had this to say to a reporter: “You’re never too old to take advantage of something that will help you.” +3!
We’ve also got a semi-SFW story about a kind-hearted film star that saved a man from a 20-year prison sentence in Puerto Rico, but you’ll have to download today’s episode to get the full story, because we want to address complaints about the iTunes feed.
We do our best to put the show on iTunes as soon as possible, but if you can’t wait to hear an episode, you can always visit this blog and click the “play” button down below to hear the audio podcast. Or, if you’re especially Web savvy, you can right click on “download,” copy the URL and edit the numbers to the current date. Thanks for being patient with us, and have a great weekend everyone!
Just when you thought it was safe to buy some nice VFFs for your wedding, Chinese pirates are creating knock-off five fingers with names like Mupuk Five Fingers. While I’d normally say live and let live when it comes to Chinese piracy – after all, what can we do about it? Cry? – I’d recommend avoiding these guys at all costs. It’s odd enough wearing VFFs running and wearing sub-par fakes could be delitirous to your health and well-being.
Generally, if it’s too good to be true it probably is. VFFs cost about $125 and are worth it if you have issues with your feet, ankles, or knees. These fakes could pull apart or hurt you in ways you don’t want. In short, anyone selling them below $80 is suspect right now.
Potentially huge news for Zune HD owners—that means Devin and I. It has been hacked~! Yes, the good folks over at ZuneBoards have hacked the Zune HD to pieces, giving homebrew developers full access to the hardware, access that otherwise lay behind the XNA development kit. The Zune HD isn’t too shabby, so I fully expect to see ports of popular emulators like FCEUX in no time at all.
Homebrew developers will be able to use the OpenZDK to create their wares. Seeing as though it just went live, there’s nothing available right now, but it’s only a matter of time till people start making fun little applications for Microsoft’s reasonably popular portable media player.
Something I’d like to request: can someone hook up a FLAC player? It doesn’t even have to use the fancy Zune HD UI, just something to play these files I have here.
If I’m not playing Super Mario Bros. on this thing before summertime I will be very disappointed.
Posted by othertech on Thursday, 18 February, 2010
Hand-held electronics are marvels of miniaturization. The ones that existed before I was born, even more so. Anyone who played Blip might be interested to know two things. First, despite being titled “The Digital Game”, it was in fact 100% mechanically driven. Second, the game was, as you may have claimed many times, actually impossible to beat.
The good folks over at Evil Mad Scientist Labs opened the Blip up to let us take a look at the gears inside. The game itself is played much like Pong. A red LED bounces across the screen, and it is up to you, the valiant player, to stop it. Interestingly, rather than having an LED screen, Blip operated with a single LED on a mechanical arm that would swing back and forth. The three buttons you would use the stop the “ball” would actually physically stop the arm from moving. In fact, the only electronics in this device at all are the circuits for the LED.
When in single player mode, the device effectively holds down all three buttons for the other player at once. Meaning there is no way it will ever miss the ball. How preposterous.
After the jump, you’ll find a much more detailed breakdown, the original TV commercial, the original patent, and a video of the deconstruction.
There’s so much to do on today’s episode of The 404 Podcast that I’m surprised we were able to fit it all into half an hour–we’ve got 404 listener Leopold’s take on our theme song, Back to the Future/The 404 mash up fan art, and a prize giveaway courtesy of Otterbox!
Before we get into all of that, we have to make fun of the new Karate Kid movie coming out next year starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Slashfilm just released four official photos from the next film in the franchise, and already we’re seeing glaringly obvious cultural mix-ups. For instance, one of the training scenes features the young Karate Kid practicing on the Great Wall of China. Karate = Japanese, Great Wall = Chinese. Come on!
And speaking of mistakes, the third installment of “Jackass: The Movie” will premiere in 3-D. Don’t get us wrong- The 404 is no stranger to the Jackass movies, but a 3-D view of Chris Pontius’ Speedo we do not need!
A big thanks goes out to 404 listener and music student Leopold, who sent in an amazing new theme song for The 404–we’ll definitely put it into the song rotation, great work, Leopold! Jim, another talented 404 listener, also deserves our appreciation for the Back To The Future hoverboard mash-up you see up there! Judging by the DeLorean in the background, Jim is obviously a big BTTF fan and so are we, so check out the slideshow for more pictures of The 404 hoverboard, and don’t worry–it’s got POWER.
width="90" height="90" />
Otterbox Defender case for iPhone 3G/S
(Credit:
Otterbox)
Finally, the good folks at OtterBox hooked it up with 10 of their Defender and Commuter cases, so if you have an iPhone and need a case, leave a comment on this blog and tell us why you deserve to win!
Here’s what you need to do:
Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the “Join CNET” link to start the registration process. If you’re already registered, there’s no need to register again.
Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it’s funny or insightful it won’t help you win, but we’re trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
Leave only one comment. You may enter this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive (1) Otter Box case for the iPhone 3G/S. Retail value is ~$50.
If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
Entries can be submitted until Friday, December 4, at 12 p.m. EST. Full rules after the jump.
width="270" height="182" />
width="270" height="203" />
width="610" height="457" />
width="90" height="90" />