Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
FML
http://www.fmylife.com/miscellaneous/3154627
Today, my five year old daughter was watching cartoons on TV. Then a Barbie commercial came on. My daughter sang along with the theme song "Be who you want to be, B-A-R-B-I-E." She then turned to me and said "Mom, I want to be a hooker." FML
http://www.fmylife.com/kids/3146320
Today, my boyfriend and I took a late night drive, and after a while he stopped at a gas station and asked if I wanted anything I replied "guess". He came out and gave me a box of tampons. Apparently I've been bitchy. FML
http://www.fmylife.com/miscellaneous/3112345
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
This Day in 1868, Technology Changed.
June 23, 1868: Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap … Ding!
By Tony Long, June 23, 2009, Wired.com
1868: U.S. Patent No. 79,265 is issued for a type-writing machine. Surely, we have now reached the pinnacle of human communication. Christopher Latham Sholes’ machine was not the first typewriter. It wasn’t even the first typewriter to receive a patent. 
But it was the first typewriter to have actual practical value for the individual, so it became the first machine to be mass-produced.
With the help of two partners, Sholes, a printer-publisher from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, perfected his typewriter in 1867. After receiving his patent, Sholes licensed it to Remington & Sons, the famous gunmaker. The first commercial typewriter, the Remington Model 1, hit the shelves in 1873.
The idea was based on the principle of Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press, arguably the most important invention in the history of mass communications. As with the printing press, ink was applied to paper using pressure. While the typewriter couldn’t make multiple copies of an entire page, it simplified — and democratized — the typesetting process for a single copy with a system of reusable keys that inked the paper by striking a ribbon.
Within a couple of decades of the first Remington typewriter, big-press operations would begin using a modified, more sophisticated keyboard system, known as Linotype, for their typesetting needs. That little tweak helped make the mass production of newspapers possible.
The notion of devising a machine for the individual writer had been around long before Sholes arrived on the scene. The first typewriter patent known to have been issued went to an Englishman, Henry Mill, in 1714. His typewriter, if that’s what it was, apparently didn’t resemble the modern machine at all. Alas, no example of Mill’s machine exists, and the blueprints — if there were any — have been lost, too.
An American, William Burt, patented a “typographer machine” in 1829, but it was cumbersome to use and ultimately didn’t go anywhere, either. Sholes’ patent was the decisive one.
You’ll find the fingerprints of Thomas Edison, whose name seems to appear on practically everything invented during the latter part of the 19th century, on the typewriter, too. Edison is credited with building the first electric typewriter, in 1872. The idea was not popular. In fact, electric typewriters didn’t come into widespread use until the 1950s.
Christopher Sholes‘ other great contribution to mass communications? He developed the QWERTY keyboard in the 1870s to minimize the rapidly moving typebars getting tangled with one another. That need is long gone, but it’s likely the same keyboard arrangement on which you are, even now, preparing to type your snarky comment on this blog.
Source: Ideafinder.comImage: Inventor Christopher Sholes sits at an early typewriter. Show this to your office ergonomics expert.
Credit: Bettmann/Corbis
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/06/dayintech_0623/
Monday, June 22, 2009
Nighthawks, By Edward Hopper
Friday, June 5, 2009
Use Big Balls to Crack Your Nuts
This nutcracker uses the simple physics of gravity to crack the tough nuts; it drops a heavy ball on your nuts to break the shell. Fettucini, linguini, martini, bikini, you’re gonna like my nuts. It’s simple, yet modern and looks fun to use. I can picture my nuts in this thing. Costs around $55.http://craziestgadgets.com/2009/06/04/use-big-balls-to-crack-your-nuts/
