The Hipster Whiteboard

Combine my love of whiteboards, index cards, notepads and cramming stuff in my pockets and what do you end up with? The Hipster Whiteboard:

Inspired by the Hipster PDA, and specifically this keychain version I stumbled upon today.

Making a Hipster Whiteboard couldn't be any easier: simply cover a 3x5 index card in Scotch Packing Tape and you're done.

To complete the setup, I added a tiny whiteboard marker I picked up from Target recently for $1.00.

Will it be useful? Don't know. I can imagine it would be fun for a kid to play with. And I do love my whiteboards of all sizes. So it's a resounding maybe.

Perhaps I should apply a layer of tape to my tablet, so I can use it as a whiteboard? That may be useful for sketching ideas out at my desk.

Your Third Option For Shaving

For nearly all my life I assumed you had two choices when it came to shaving: a disposable razor, or an electric shaver. Sure, there were lots of razor options - from cheap CVS brand to battery operated, multi-bladed monstrosities, but they were all more or less the same. Many years ago I had a cheap electric razor, and quickly decided that an old school blade was better.

Sure, some time ago I heard rumblings of a third shaving option, but that involved far more than a new razor. To do shaving right, I was told, involved brushes and mugs and soap and aftershave and, most importantly, time. So while it was novel to consider, I never did anything about it.

A few weeks back I started an experiment. I splurged and purchased a $6.00 shaver and a few dollars worth of double sided safety blades at Rite Aid. After installing the blade in the shaver I realized what I was holding in my hand: it was exactly the same thing as the disposable / cartridge razors I'd been using for years, at a fraction of the price.

This last weekend I finally put the setup a to the real test. I shaved one side of my face with the new setup, and the other side with a multi bladed contraption. I asked Shira to guess which side was which. She got the answer right: she guessed the slightly smoother side, with a tiny cut was the new razor, and the side where I missed a spot was the multi blade one. Bottom line, the combination setup worked just as well, if not better, than what I had been using.

The economics are almost staggering. The same shaver I bought a few days ago, is now on sale for $3.45 (with free shipping!) and you can get 100 blades for $8.63. Figure you use a new blade a week, that's almost two *years* worth of razors for half the price of a 12 pack of fancy disposable razors.

I'm not saying that you're going to like the replaceable blade system more than your fancy 3 blade Gillette system. But you're a fool for not at least trying, right? And if you want to get fancy supplies, go ahead, but as I've learned they're hardly required.

Gillette and friends are truly marketing geniuses for convincing the likes of myself that a cartridge razor is my only option for shaving with a blade. Seriously, how did they pull that off?

The Grandpa Project, v1.0

A few weeks back I was mulling over what kind of surprise I could give me 92 year old grandpa. To make the matter trickier, he's effectively blind from macular degeneration. And then it hit me: music. Who doesn't love music? And there's no doubt, it can have amazing effects on us. I dashed off a quick e-mail to Shira with my half baked plan: I'd add a whole bunch of songs to an Apple iPod, box it, a pair of headphones and some basic instructions for an aid to follow, and ship it to my Grandpa. Once unpacked, all he'd have to do is put headphones on and hit play. Voilà! My Grandpa would be rocking out to tunes that I'd selected. To my surprise, Shira responded that she thought it was a good idea--an extremely rare occurrence when it comes to my hair brained schemes.

My plan was to keep this little project as simple as possible. I chose an iPod shuffle for a number of reasons. First off, without an LCD screen, it's essentially designed to be used without sight. Second of all, the iTunes integration means that I could trivially buy and install a playlist. Finally, there's something novel about my 92 year old grandpa sporting an iPod. Shira picked up a 1GB iPod shuffle on eBay for cheap, and I purchased a comfortable and cheap set of over the hear headphones. The hardware turned out to be easy enough.

Then came picking out music. This got tricky in a hurry. I'm hardly a music guru, and I wanted to give him some music that I thought he'd like as well as some music I enjoy. Most importantly, I wanted to avoid analysis paralysis. I didn't want to get stuck trying to make the perfect playlist, only to never get around to making anything. In the end I decided on a simple strategy: pick two songs from each of the following categories: classical, 40's music, country, rock, pop and electronic. Where possible, I picked drinking songs. With the exception of the 40's music, which I had no strong affinity, I wanted to pick songs that I relish listing to.

Here's what I arrived at:

• Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words) by Frank Sinatra
• I'll Be Seeing You (1944 Single) by Billie Holiday
• If I Were a Rich Man by John Williams
• William Tell Overture by London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Act 3: Duettino - Sull'aria (The Shawshank Redemption - 1994) by Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Victoria Anderson & Ivan Marinov
• Alcohol by Brad Paisley
• Friends In Low Places by Brooks Stars Garth
• Run by Collective Soul
• All I Want Is You by U2
• I'm Sexy and I Know It by DJ K.O.
• Born This Way by Lady GaGa
• Clarity (feat. Foxes) by Zedd
• Fine Without You (feat. Jennifer Rene) by Armin van Buuren

For the very first track, I created an audio introduction. You can listen to it here. It serves as pretty solid proof that I'm not quitting my day job to be the next Ira Glass.

I packed up the setup and sent it off. A few days later, I got an excited call from my Grandpa. He hadn't yet listened to the music, but was very much looking forward to giving it a try.

And yesterday I received another phone call, the verdict was in: he was absolutely elated with the music, the iPod and the sentiment.

The project was a success, and I can tell I'm going to have to think of a clever ways to get him more music. I'm also considering sharing some audio snippets from our travels. I can't show him photos of where we've been, but I can share the experience through sound.

You can find the instructions I put together explaining how to hook up the iPod here. Feel free to grab, customize and put them to work for yourself.

Making A Super Simple Alcohol Stove

I've fiddled a bit with alcohol stoves before, but I'd yet to find the right combination of stove, pot stand, and pot that I could put together effortlessly and cheaply (read: free). That is, until I found this stove idea, which couldn't be simpler. Here's how you make it:

1. Cut off the bottom of a soda can
2. Use a whole punch or scissors to cut vents in the top of the stove
3. There is no third step

Here's what the "stove" looks like when it's done:

To use the stove, you pour some fuel into the soda can, light the fuel, and plop a pot on top. There's no messing around with filling a mostly sealed stove, and best of all you don't need to bother with a pot stand. The stove is the stand.

I had no problem cranking two of these out, taking about 5 minutes each. For one I used a razor blade to slice open the can, for the other I used a scissors. I won't get any points for aesthetics, but it got the job done:

For the pot, I used a Blue Diamond Almond can, which will allow you to easily boil up a cup or so of water. Along with the pot, I used a mess of tin foil. Here's the whole setup in action:

HEET fuel really does burn almost completely clear, so yes, it's kind of hard to tell that the stove is working its magic. For my test, I couldn't have been any more unscientific: I put a splash of HEET fuel in the stove and in about 7 minutes I had an almost boiling cup of water. Unfortunately, I ran out of fuel before the small bubbles in the water turned into a rolling boil. I believe this estimate when it says:

With about .5 oz of Heet, this stove will simmer 2 cups of water in 5-6 minutes, and achieve a rolling boil in 8-9 minutes (and then go out).

The stove, a bunch of tin foil and a lighter fit neatly in a Blue Diamond pot and it weighs almost nothing. Here's the setup packed up:

As for fuel, I've re-purposed some TSA friendly 3oz containers. My plan is to store 3oz of HEET with each stove, along with 3oz of 91% isopropyl alcohol. The isopropyl alcohol burns a lot dirtier than the HEET, which means that it's not as efficient. On the other hand, it gives off quite a bit light and heat, turns the stove into more of a heater / signaling device. In the right context, that could be really handy.

My plan, for now, is to package all this up and chuck one into the trunk of each car. A few years back we had a nasty storm which left people stranded for hours, if not all night, in the cold. By being prepared for that scenario, I figure it will never happen.

Tips for Cutting Your Hair At Home

For over a year now, Shira's been cutting my hair at home. She uses a pair of the classic Wahl hair clippers to give me a basic, short cut. For me, the main attraction for getting a home hair cut was convenience. Getting back that hour plus of time on a Sunday was such a treat. Now she can spend 15 minutes trimming my hair, I jump in the shower, and I'm good to go.

Here's what I've learned during that time about cutting your hair at home:

• It's hard! Your barber makes it look easy because he's got tons of practice. But it most definitely is not. It took at least 5 haircuts before I felt comfortable going under the clippers. Sure, I told myself "it's just hair -- who cares how it looks." It turns out, I did. Whether you like it or not, your hair makes a statement about you, and having an awful haircut just isn't a statement you want to make. I'm glad I pushed through the learning stage, but it wasn't easy.
• Make a plan. You can't wing it. You can't combine a couple of different methods. The only sane approach I've found is to pick one hair cutting procedure you're going to follow, and then methodically do so. In the early days, the moment we cut the first bit of hair, panic would inevitably set in. A plan gets rid of that sensation (mostly).
• Make it longer than you expect. If you want a 2, start with a 6. Get comfortable with the tools, then go for that super tight haircut. I'm always amazed at the leap between the 1 and 2 guards - it's huge. Work up to that short length.
• Cleanup can be quick. Here's our standard setup: I take two kitchen garbage bags and pull them apart so they are open lengthwise. I lay these down in the bathroom to make a small square area. I put a kitchen stool in the center. I wear a pair of shorts and a hair cutting cape (I know, that's an image you need in your head) and sit my butt down on the stool. Shira cuts my hair, I shake out the cape, and roll the garbage bags up and put them in the trash. I jump in the shower. It took us a number of attempts to figure out this arrangement (we started in the kitchen, which is classic, right?), and now cleanup is a breeze.
• Use a trip to the barber's as a classroom. What does Shira know about cutting men's hair? When she started, nothing. She tagged along a few times to watch my hair get cut and that definitely pointed her in the right direction.
• Be patient. Remember, this is hard. Be patient, you'll get it.

Quickie Project: The Penny Stove

For years now, I've seen folks talking about lightweight alcohol stoves as an alternative to traditional backpacking stoves. While you can buy them, traditionally you can craft one yourself from various cans and items you can find lying around your house.

As projects go, it's a tempting one. But inevitably there's the need to seek out some random shaped can (like a can of cat food, or something like that) or some other item that I don't have lying around.

Which is why I really like this particular video that describes the process. The result may not be as sexy as a fancy version, but requires absolutely nothing special to build. Just two coke cans, a scissors and a thumb tack. Oh, and a Penny.

The fact that the video creator is figuring this out as he's doing it adds to the maybe-I-can-really-do-this factor.

Next time I get stumped on a problem, maybe I'll take 15 minutes and see if I can build this sucker. I just won't forget rule #1: keep the fire extinguisher nearby.

Incidentally, I'm not thinking of using a stove like this for backpacking. Nope, the Pocket Rocket stove we use works just fine and is super lightweight. First and foremost, I look at this as a fun hack to try. Next, I think it could be handy in a power outage when you shouldn't technically be using the gas stove. Finally, it might make sense to chuck this tiny stove, a bit of fuel, a pot and some hot coco and oatmeal into the back of the car. It's hard to believe, but even in the DC area, just miles from civilization folks can get stranded in their cars in blizzards for 8+ hours.

The Intertsection of Book Burning and Blogging Your Lunch

There's not much book burning and blogging your lunch have in common. One is both evil and vile, while the other is considered the ultimate waste of space on the Internet. Turns out, their both excellent ways to make change happen.

Check these stories out: Leo Burnett Detroit Saves Local Library by Threatening Book Burning and Nine-Year-Old's Cafeteria Food Blog Goes Viral.

Both are stories of small taking on, and winning against big. Brilliant, all around.

You don't even have to read the book burning story, you can catch it all on this 3 minute video right here:

And who would have ever thought a 9 year could have raised $134,000 in charity?

Sometimes the Internet is truly awesome.

Two Container Hacks

One small, one big.

The Small Container. While boiling up some hard boiled eggs for breakfast, I had a spark of a memory: I realized that as a kid I used to love eating soft boiled eggs, and hadn't had one in years. So, I checked the web for the proper timing. Sure enough, after 4 minutes of boiling, I had a candidate ready to eat. But then it hit me, as a kid we had these tiny plastic egg cups we used to mount the soft boiled egg in. And then you'd carefully tap, break and peal the top of the egg off of. Of course, I didn't have one of those egg cup thingies. But, I did have a shot glass. It worked perfectly.

The Big Container. While on our way to the bus stop, our little guy and myself noticed this clever use of a broken planter. Wedged in just so, it looked perfect. What an excellent way to upcycle a container destined for the trash.

Two Examples Of The Power of the Letter

Exhibit A: Jeff Greenwald tells the story of meeting Arthur C. Clarke. It's riveting radio with a most delightful story. And the catalyst behind it all is a simple letter.

Exhibit B: Want to have political influence? I mean, really be heard by a politician? Turns out, you don't need technology or money, what you need is the simple letter (well, probably lots of letters, but still).

At first glance, it's a crazy notion, but listening to Omar Ahmed's TED talk, it makes perfect sense. Letters are hard to ignore and carry a special sort of weight.

Makes me want to go out and buy a book of stamps.

Two kinds of Hospital Hacking

First the "people" kind: Make has an excellent article up about creating hackable medical devices:

Instead of trying to change the global supply chain for medical devices, we have learned to embrace the existing one for toys. Go to your toy store, and you’ll see the same $2 toy gun that a Nicaraguan nurse spotted and hacked into an alarm for an IV fluid bag, after harvesting the electronics and adding a simple trip mechanism. Lego blocks have very precise tolerances for creating modular microfluidic components. On the way out, toward the bicycle section, pick up a bike foot pump so you can power your nebulizer for $5 instead of paying $75 for the electric compressor sold in medical supply catalogs. Bonus feature: when there’s an asthma emergency in the middle of nowhere, you won’t need electricity to save the patient.

Read the entire article here. Powerful stuff, and an excellent reminder that even in a field like medical hardware entrepreneurial (aka hacker) efforts can succeed.

Second, the "computer" kind: In the comments from the Make article above was a link to this one:

Luckily: An 11 year old girl decided to open a laptop hospital [to fix a common issue with the local laptops]. Unfortunately the boys really missed out here, because in this part of Nigeria “everyone knows” only girls work at hospitals, she eventually recruited girls as young as 5 to help out in the hospital. This group of girls armed with screwdrivers starting taking apart the laptops and reseating the cables. Sometimes they’d change out a screen, or a speaker. They learned about the hardware of their laptops. They got to see what was inside. They got better and better at fixing things by learning as they went.

Again, an awesome example of the power of entrepreneurship. Read the entire post here.

See, there's no industry or topic off limits to the clever hacker.

Hacking Homelessness

There's something I find hopeful and appealing about these mostly outrageous homeless shelter ideas. For example, consider the WheelLY Recycled Homeless Shelter:

Portable and temporary, this unusual-looking design by Italian firm Zo-Loft provides a safe storage space for one’s belongings during the day, and expands into a tent at night. The ‘WheelLY’ is made of a rolling aluminum frame fitted with two polyester tents made of recyclable or recycled materials. The rolling design enables it to hold up to 250 pounds of personal items, and the push-handle also functions as a brake.

The ideas seem far from practical, but I so like the exercise in novel thinking. I also appreciate spending time on a population that is so often invisible.

Check out all the concepts here.

Music Source of the Day: SoundCloud.com

Looks like I'm going to get to continue my music related blog posting. Somehow I managed to trip over SoundCloud.com, and I'm quite impressed.

I managed to follow a link on the site to the tag tech house, clicked on the first song, and sat back while it continuously played "hot" songs from that category. As one song finishes, the next automatically starts up - it even takes me to the next page in the search results.

What I find most impressive is the quality and diversity of House music I've managed to listen to. No annoying commercials or other cruft to get in the way, just a seemingly endless supply of tunes.

For the songs that I found myself especially rock'n out to, I flagged as a favorite. Here, check them out.

SoundCloud.com is more than just a place to find content, they also offer extensive publishing/hosting facilities. Alas, I don't really much (anything?) to publish there. Though, I've downloaded the Android app just in case I do find some sound worth capturing and sharing.

The Lesson from The 440 sq. ft Garage House

I love stories like this: a guy takes a 440sq ft garage and turns it into a sweet little house.

Here's the before picture:

And here's the after:

The design is impressive to say the least.

What I love about these stories isn't just the massive make-over, it's the sense that cleverness can win out over conventional wisdom. More importantly, I think there's a natural pull to want more (a bigger house, bigger TV, more stuff, etc.) and stories like this remind me that maybe what I have, even if feels like less, can be perfect.

Another example: instead of pining after the latest Digital SLR camera for thousands of dollars, why not make your own camera that can do something remarkably, like capture a 6 month exposure. Resist the pull.

Here's more on the very cool garage house:

Arlington Library Tip: Accessing Consumer Reports Online for Free

Shira gave me another reason to love the Arlington Library today: their eCollection's Premium Sites.

By using your library card, you can access ConsumerReports.org and 78 other paid websites for free.

I love that the library keeps surprising me with what a wonderful resource it is.

Sources for Free Full Length Movies Online

Thanks, StumbleUpon for equipping me with yet another way to burn time online: 20 Places to Watch Free Movies Online.

From a quick glance, Crackle.com and YouTube.com/movies seem legit.

I mean seriously, I can just watch The Professional anytime I want, and for free?

This really isn't good.

Remind me again, why between Hulu.com, TV.com, these sites and the network sites themselves, I pay for FiosTV?

Recovery Through Retrofit - Smarter Government In Action?

I think the Recovery Through Retrofit is a really slick idea. You can watch an introduction of it here. But, to briefly summarize:

• The government is going to derive standards for energy efficiency of homes (like they do for cars and appliances)
• Neighborhoods are going to be encouraged to band together to have their homes upgraded for energy efficiency
• The upgrades will be paid for by the individuals via financing. The efficiency standards should insure that more money saved on a regular basis will be more than that which is spent in financing charges
• Local small businesses will do the the retrofitting, hiring and training as needed

From a green perspective, the outcome is equivalent to getting millions of cars off of the road; from a business perspective it's a boom to local entrepreneurs; from a financial perspective it's a stimulus for both the home owner and the community in general. And it's all done not through some big faceless government program, but through neighbors working together.

Obama has talked about how we don't need bigger government or smaller government - we need smarter government. And this kind of program strikes me as just that. I sure hope they can pull this one off.

Read more about it here.

Google's My Maps - A Protest Organizer's Best Friend

Ignoring the politics of the Tea Party Movement for a moment, I have to say, I'm really impressed with their use of Google's My Maps to help plan out their protests. See what I mean?

Their approach highlights some novel best practices:

• Use the description area to summarize and outline the event
• Highlight where the protest will start, stop and the route it will take inbtween. This is useful for planning, as well as for folks who show up late.
• Highlight places where folks can get food/drinks, which is a nice courtesy for out of towners
• Metro and bus stops are highlighted to make it easy to arrive and leave the event, again, assuming you don't know the area well^*
• Bus dropoff points are suggested to avoid traffic congestion and general confusion
• Multiple collaborators can manage the map, which means that there's not a single person responsible for maintaining it
• The high view count (299,000+!) helps to show the general interest in the event
• The comment section gives folks a chance to coordinate and psyche each other up (or, if you're an outsider, get just a bit scared)
• The map is embedded on your website, which means that it will be easy to find and makes the website look especially savvy.

Alas, I won't be able to actually attend the rally that day. I bet it's going to be really interesting one, though.

^*I think there's just a tiny bit ironic that people protesting the government and how inept and wasteful are using public transportation to get to and from said event.

Business Idea: Low Cost Video Editing Service

OK, ever since my last visit to see the twins, I've had this idea kicking around in my head. The best way to get out is to yammer on about it here a bit, so please excuse me.

---

When I was visiting with the twins, I shot gobs and gobs of still photos but almost no video. I held off on the video for a simple reason: it was going to be a hassle to edit it down into something reasonable. I can reduce 50 photos to 5, and post them to post on the blog in just a few minutes. To look through 20 minutes of video, and try to create a half-way viewable clip, would take significantly longer.

The same scenario comes up with vacations or pretty much any one attends.

Here's my solution: why not offer a low budget video editing service for the masses. You'd drop your raw footage in the mail, or upload it to them, and for a relatively low cost you'd get two services. First, you'd get a number of short films of the best footage. Second, they would tag (think: adding keywords like: yawn, crying, smiling, .etc) and index all the footage.

The short films wouldn't be high quality movies - they'd just be whatever the editor's judgment lead them to. Throw some stock audio on top, and you're good to go. The indexing and tagging would be helpful for going back through the footage easily, to say, find all cases with Dovid in yawning or some specific case like that.

I could see the service having an elaborate website where you can browse your raw footage and view your movies. I can also see starting the service really simply, by just posting the completed work to YouTube or another video site. For the right price, I wouldn't mind doing without the extras.

The whole arrangement wouldn't be about perfection, it would be about convenience and value. I could shoot a bunch of video knowing that for a reasonable price, I could have it turned into movies suitable for family and friends.

Now, for all I know there's already a low cost service out there like this. If there is, I'd love to know their URL. If there isn't, it seems like a small business a film student could start relatively painlessly. And when you do, let me know, so I can put you to work!

Recipe: Ben's 1 Minute Chili

Ingredients:
- 1 serving kidney beans
- 1 serving Morning Star Farms Sausage Flavored Crumbles
- Cholula

Recipe:
1. Combine beans and crumbles
2. Microwave on high for 1 minute
3. Douse in Cholula
4. Enjoy!

Feeds one very hungry, very rushed programmer.

This recipe won't win any contests, but when it's all you have around and no time to prepare it in, it'll do.

Kinder Than Robo Calling, Though More Illegal

I mentioned that I thought McCain was on the right track with robocalling. Well, sort of. He should be thinking non-traditional-guerrilla tactics, he just shouldn't be spamming in the process. And while making these comments I mentioned that a low tech solution, with say stickers, could be just as powerful as a fancy schmancy SMS/Facebook application.

At least one Obama fan agrees with me. Check out their approach to raising Obama awareness:

Hyping Obama in the "battleground state" of North Carolina, BooneOakley has launched a guerrilla campaign. The agency printed decals of the Obama sunrise logo, each, at a diameter of 9.25 inches, sized perfectly to fit over the green circle in a stoplight sign. Of course, it's all supposed to mean "GObama."

Here's their handy work:

I'd like this approach even more if it wasn't (a) illegal and (b) potentially dangerous. But, hey, at least it's not spam!