Honeywell's Kitchen Computer: the 1969 behemoth that didn't sell a single unit Rolmonica "pocket player piano" from 1930s Johnson Smith Catalog (Video) Great gear for your favorite photog Be thankful for turkey cooking patents Realtor accused of stealing rival's signs Postcard arrives 69 years late Church tower holds tons of pigeon crap TV anchors quit on-air Jobs burglar pleads out 70-year old wartime cipher uncracked Staffers for millionaire/wrestling magnate/failed GOP Senate candidate say they were stiffed, got bad checks and condoms: "you're screwed" Caviar vending machines in LA malls Honeywell's Kitchen Computer: the 1969 behemoth that didn't sell a single unit
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 23, 2012 12:02 pm Wired's Daniela Hernandez has an in-depth history of the Honeywell Kitchen Computer, a minicomputer that could track recipes and offer meal plans, which was listed in the 1969 Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog, though none ever sold. Not only were the technical challenges associated with installing one of these were formidable, they were also pitched for solving ...
Read in browser Rolmonica "pocket player piano" from 1930s Johnson Smith Catalog (Video)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Nov 23, 2012 12:01 pm A harmonica that works like a player piano.
Read in browser Great gear for your favorite photog
By Advertiser on Nov 23, 2012 12:00 pm ADVERTISEMENT This post is sponsored by Best Buy. What will your gift do? You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams With that in mind, here is a fine collection of tools to make beautiful photographs. The rest is in the eye of the beholder. * Nikon D3100 14.2-Megapixel DSLR Camera with ...
Read in browser Be thankful for turkey cooking patents
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 23, 2012 10:50 am On TechDirt, Canadian Leigh Beadon helps Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with a roundup of all the weird patents the USPTO has granted for preparing turkey. Be thankful that deboning poultry is patentable (and has been repeatedly patented), otherwise, what would incentivize butchers and chefs to innovate? Luckily, there are plenty of open alternatives for the patent-savvy ...
Read in browser Realtor accused of stealing rival's signs
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 23, 2012 10:40 am A real estate agent in Trumbull, Conn., was charged Wednesday with third-degree larceny after a competitor's "for sale" signs disappeared from area lawns. [Connecticut Post]
Read in browser Postcard arrives 69 years late
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 23, 2012 10:22 am A postcard, mailed in 1943, arrived at its New York destination this week. [Elmira Star Gazette] The postcard, sent July 4, 1943, from Rockford, Ill., was intended for Pauline and Theresa Leisenring, who once lived in the home along Bridgman Street in Elmira [and] reads: "Dear Pauline and Theresa, We arrived safe, had a good ...
Read in browser Church tower holds tons of pigeon crap
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 23, 2012 10:19 am "A hatch on a Swedish church tower inadvertently left open for some three decades resulted in 2 tons of pigeon droppings amassing in the tower." [Yahoo News]
Read in browser TV anchors quit on-air
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 23, 2012 10:16 am Two local ABC news anchors, Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio, "shocked viewers and colleagues" by quitting on-air Tuesday. No reasons were given for their sudden departure beyond Consiglio saying "some recent developments have come to our attention, though, and departing together is the best alternative we can take." Their boss, however, was less mysterious: "Sometimes ...
Read in browser Jobs burglar pleads out
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 23, 2012 10:12 am CBS: "Kariem McFarlin, a California man accused of breaking into Steve Jobs' house and stealing computers and the Apple Inc. co-founder's wallet, has pleaded no contest to burglarizing homes across the San Francisco Bay area."
Read in browser 70-year old wartime cipher uncracked
By Rob Beschizza on Nov 23, 2012 10:10 am "A World War Two code found strapped to the leg of a dead pigeon stuck in a chimney for the last 70 years may never be broken, a British intelligence agency said on Friday."
Read in browser Staffers for millionaire/wrestling magnate/failed GOP Senate candidate say they were stiffed, got bad checks and condoms: "you're screwed"
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 23, 2012 09:45 am Linda McMahon (a wrestling magnate who built up the WWE with her husband Vince McMahon) is a failed Republican Senate candidate in Connecticut with a reported net worth of $500M, who has spent a reported $100M on a pair of failed Senate bids. She has also reportedly stiffed her staffers, who claim that they were ...
Read in browser Caviar vending machines in LA malls
By Cory Doctorow on Nov 23, 2012 09:00 am Caviar vending machines have been installed in three upscale malls in LA. In addition to $500/oz caviar, they also dispense blinis, mother of pearl spoons, and other caviar essentials. The vending machines (they're billed as "ATMs for caviar") can be found at Westfield Century City, Westfield Topanga, and the Burbank Towne Center. Apparently, these are ...
Read in browser Meet SparkTruck, an “educational build-mobile” for the twenty-first century.
Dreamed up by a group of Stanford d.school students and funded through Kickstarter, SparkTruck is a mobile maker space currently traveling across the United States. At schools and summer camps and libraries around the country, the SparkTruck team offers workshops to help kids “find their inner maker” as they design and build projects like stamps, stop-motion animation clips, and “vibrobots.”
[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmRKXqDwieY&feature=plcp]
This might seem all shiny and new. And it is—but only in part. What’s so striking (and exciting) about SparkTruck is the way it combines old and new. It does so in the tools it gets kids using, which range from pipe cleaners to laser cutters. It does so in its educational approach, which combines cutting-edge (get it?) STEM and design pedagogy with the fundamentals of an old-school shop class. And it does so in its method, which combines the iconic, century-old technology of the bookmobile with the hot new form of the maker space.
In doing so, SparkTruck joins a growing number of libraries which are combining time-tested principles (like equal access to information) with new technologies (like 3-D printers), putting in maker spaces and media production labs alongside bookshelves and meeting rooms. As I’ve argued over on bookmobility.org, these combinations make sense because reading and making actually have a lot in common. They’re both creative processes that take existing materials and combine them in new ways. Getting people engaged in those kinds of processes—through imaginative thinking, contemplation, hands-on problem-solving, and collaborative learning—is what both maker spaces and libraries are all about.
Taking that commitment on the road with scissors and hammers and 3-D printers and a great big bookmobile-like truck, SparkTruck serves as a laboratory for new approaches, as well as a reminder that trying new things doesn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t!) necessarily mean tossing old ones out.
After all, what would those vibrobots be without classically crafty pipe cleaners and tongue depressors? And what would a library be without the creative, participatory, straight-up awesome experience of reading?
SparkTruck schedule [sparktruck.org]
How to arrange a visit from SparkTruck [sparktruck.org]
SparkTruck YouTube channel [youtube.com]
Signature: --Derek Attig, bookmobility.org
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