bookofjoe

The Triangle — Michael Moschen

The master juggler performs with three balls and a triangle.

[via Nuclear Toast]

What is it?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Hint: it's NOT a salt shaker. Heh.

Another?

OK.

Smaller than a breadbox.

In fact, you could keep yours in a breadbox if you were so inclined.

I wouldn't but hey, it's a big tent here....

MorphWorld: Lynda Erkiletian into Sandra Bullock

One of the "Real Housewives of D.C.," the 52-year-old Ms. Erkiletian (above) was recently involved in an online media dustup.

Ms. Bullock, 46, whose recent trials and tribulations on account of her former husband Jesse James have been well documented, needs no further introduction.

Limited-Edition Star Wars Bookends

"Each set of bookends is individually hand-numbered and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity."

Together, the two pieces measure 9.25" long x 4.25" high x 3" deep.

Limited to 5,000 sets.

$54.99.

[via Geeks Are Sexy and 9gag]

Mac Sleep Indicator Mimics Human Respiratory Cycle

From Geekosystem:

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On most models of modern Apple laptops, the little light that indicates when the computer is in sleep mode is actually tuned to the rate at which the average adult breathes.

Apple filed a patent for a "Breathing Status LED Indicator" in July 2002, an LED light that fades in and out in accordance with the average adult breathing rhythm, which is about 12-20 breaths per minute. So, if you’ve ever found yourself mindlessly staring at the little white pulsing light on a MacBook, it’s because Apple found displaying the human respiratory rhythm to be "psychologically appealing."

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From Flood Lite:

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In July 2002, Appled filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” (No. US 6,658,577 B2). They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”

The average respiratory rate for adults is 12-20 breaths per minute, which is the rate that the sleep-indicator light fades in and out on most Apple laptops. Older models such as the Macintosh PowerBook, however, use a blinking LED indicator, with discrete pulses in one-second intervals.

The other day, I noticed that my friend’s Dell laptop had a similar feature but with a shorter fade-in-fade-out period. Its rate was around 40 blinks per minute, or the average respiratory rate for adults during strenuous exercise — not very indicative of something in sleep-mode.

It’s interesting how a lot of companies try to copy Apple but never seem to get it right. This is yet another example of Apple’s obsessive attention to detail.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to stare at the gentle, soothing light on my Macbook Pro.

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[via Daring Fireball]

Instant Desk hides in plain sight

Can your desk do that?

From the website:

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Fold-out convertible desk creates an instant home office anywhere

No room for a conventional desk?

You’ll love this fold-out convertible desk that closes into a 6”-deep wall cabinet.

Opens into a desk with shelves for office supplies, slots for file folders and a corkboard for notes.

Perfect for small rooms, condos, apartments... anywhere space is limited.

Closes to 32" x 22" x 6".

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Black or Walnut veneer.

$199.

BehindTheMedspeak: Portable, cheap and highly functional microscope holds promise for the Third World

Here's Donald J. McNeil, Jr.'s August 23, 2010 New York Times story about a science project that became much more.

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A Rice University student has designed a microscope that costs only $240 to make, uses flashlight batteries and can fit in a lunchbox — but does nearly as well at detecting tuberculosis as top-quality laboratory instruments costing far more.

Such a device could prove useful in rural clinics lacking electricity and to doctors and biologists doing fieldwork.

Andrew R. Miller [top, with his microscope], who graduated last year and now works for a company designing heart pumps, built the microscope as his senior project at Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health Technologies, according to the university news office. This month, in a study published in the online journal PLOS One, it was blind-tested on 63 sputum samples and its results concurred with those from a standard hospital microscope in 98.4 percent of cases.

Mr. Miller’s microscope weighs less than three pounds and uses off-the-shelf lenses and mirrors; its light source is an LED flashlight. The only customized part was the plastic case, which was built on a three-dimensional “printer” at the university but could be cheaply made in plastic or aluminum on assembly lines.

Twenty more will be made so field-testing can begin, the university said. Zeiss, of Germany, makes a microscope intended for the same third world market, but it weighs 20 pounds and costs $1,875, the PLOS study said.

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The abstract of the PLOS One paper follows.

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Portable, Battery-Operated, Low-Cost, Bright Field and Fluorescence Microscope

This study describes the design and evaluation of a portable bright-field and fluorescence microscope that can be manufactured for $240 USD. The microscope uses a battery-operated LED-based flashlight as the light source and achieves a resolution of 0.8 µm at 1000× magnification in fluorescence mode. We tested the diagnostic capability of this new instrument to identify infections caused by the human pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Sixty-four direct, decontaminated, and serially diluted smears were prepared from sputa obtained from 19 patients suspected to have M. tuberculosis infection. Slides were stained with auramine orange and evaluated as being positive or negative for M. tuberculosis with both the new portable fluorescence microscope and a laboratory grade fluorescence microscope. Concordant results were obtained in 98.4% of cases. This highly portable, low cost, fluorescence microscope may be a useful diagnostic tool to expand the availability of M. tuberculosis testing at the point-of-care in low resource settings.

World's smallest wireless keyboard/mouse/touchpad/laser pointer/remote control

I can't vouch for the website's claim but it's an awful lot of tech crammed into an awfully small (4" x 2.4" x 0.4") and light (1.5 oz.) device.

$40.