* Toolmonger ? Blog Archive ? Dremel’s Workstation: A Micro Drill Press For $40 – this actually seems like a pretty cool way to get more out of a dremel * Active Crystals – you can never have enough Swarovski. * Load-thing – cool looking but is this really a problem? * Another USB turntable and high torque so you can really drag the needle thru the vinyl * Belkin grommet shaped usb hubs – this actually seems somewhat brilliant. * Diamond-tipped screwdriver bits * Bosch miter saw – this thing seems to have infinite degrees of freedom * and a howto for making your own plastic vacuum former

A Sack of Seattle: Seattle Open Coffee Club Trial – Andy is organizing this at Louisa’s next week. Good work Andy!

Hate the feel of softened water. Didn’t really understand the chemistry of water softening until I poked around a little tonight – how does a water softener work, wikipedia topic – apparently water softeners replace the Ca and Mg ions with Na which is less damaging to pipes, etc. But it still makes the water feel slippery. I’d like something that removes the Ca and Mg and leaves nothing behind. A lot of systems claim to do this, some below:

* Water Softener - Water Filter - Water Softners * Advanced Water Filters * GMX -- this looks way too low capacity * The Aquafer * The ScaleBlaster. Also probably too low capacity but I love the name.

I wonder if any of these work. And are cost effective.

Vintage Porch gliders – a childhood memory.

* Tabblo - Postcards at Tabblo – I could see making postcards * How to find your 64-bit Vista product key * Ballhype. Sports, good. Another site that will let me know that Oden is gone :( * No idea really what CakePHP is but I should learn

* Roche-Bobois > Contemporary & Modern European Furniture - French Country Furniture – ok their website is a broken disaster, but if you search for the legend bookcase in the contemporary collection, it is a pretty nice bookcase * A foldable bookshelf that can turn into a bench – great for transporting. * A bookshelf made of …books. previously blogged but thematic.

Oh and cool book sculptures

* 1-800-GOOG-411: the mobile walled garden crumbles ? Bogle’s Blog – Phil on Google’s 411 service – “All of these applications are signs of the coming collapse of the walled garden that carriers have traditionally enacted around voice and data services” * Rich reminds me of the sustainable seafood guides * Rahul and Dave point with pride to the launch of couponlooker – congrats guys! * Phil talks about the new Jobster blog buddy which is pretty cool * Dave is undoubtedly driving coworkers crazy with his new indoor copter * Rahul discovers Raymond – Deciding what not to do

Please please please – pretend you are a student and go out and attend a week’s worth of college visits at other institutions. I think you will find that there is a lot of mind numbing repetition across the presentations and tours. You all have study abroad programs, intern programs, food service, blue light security on campus, etc etc etc.

What is far more interesting to hear about is the unique aspects of your institution and the community you are in. And maybe a direct compare/contrast between your institution and your most direct “competitors”. And consider doing something different in your presentation than every other college; one school brought in a professor to talk with the kids, this was memorable; another school gave away ice cream sandwiches at the end of the tour, a simple gesture but the kids loved it.

I’d consider running two different info sessions and tours – one for first time college visitors, and one for people who have seen 2 or more schools already.

I guess what I’m saying is think a little more deeply about your audience and what they are going thru, and tune the presentation to them.

Spark Fires - Products ~ Fire Ribbon - Vent Free – trying to decide if this is a good idea or not. Not sure how much heat it actually puts into the room. Kind of freaks me out to think you don’t need any sort of venting at all.

Stumbled across this story recently, I always loved it – meat.rtf – “You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.”

* “Sunstroke”:amazon by Jesse Kellerman. Great story of a woman searching in northern Mexico for the truth about her missing boss. Great protagonist. Great supporting cast – I love the stonecutter. Very atmospheric. * “A Wicked Snow”:amazon by Gregg Olsen. Really choppy. Not a terrible story but uncomfortable to read. Where was the editor? Great cover blurb by lee child but I can’t fully recommend. * “Mission Flats”:amazon by William Landay. Police mystery set in Boston and Maine. A smalltime Maine chief of police gets involved over his head in a Boston murder conspiracy. Nice twisted ending tho I did anticipate it a little. * “Without Fail”:amazon by Lee Child. Reacher seems a little more fallible in this tale. Misses obvious clues early and often. And the bad guys show up way too late in the book, bad form for a mystery. So not the best reacher but still entertaining. * “Blue Light”:amazon by Walter Mosley. Twisty tale of alien consciousness, drugs, psychosis. Hard to tell what really happened and what was imagined. I found myself liking the characters more than I expected. * “Killing Floot”:amazon by Lee Child. Another slam bang jack reacher tale. Reacher rips the covers off a southern town conspiracy leaving a wake of bodies behind. Don’t screw with reacher. This series continues to be the best airplane books. * “From Fatigued to Fantastic!”:amazon by Teitelbaum. Good overview of chronic fatigue and potential causes and treatments. Not a cookbook, more of a collection of all the ideas around fatigue.

* Kant Slam – Stop Annoying Slamming Of Doors And Gates – OK this seems pretty useful * Arctic Cat biodiesel ATV via Martin – I have absolutely nowhere to use this * Venerable Bead Pendants – I’m a sucker for all things glass * HomeJoule – if I lived in NYC this’d be cool * Pocket Hole Joinery Made Easy – I’m not much of a woodworker * Really big duct tape – this is my kind of tool * Socket wrenches with universal joints - the joint thingy seems pretty useful. * luggable shopvac. who doesn’t love shopvacs. * Chain mail gloves -- chain mail still has a purpose in 2007 * Garden Rock cum Spotlight – and who doesn’t need more things embedded in rocks. * Swiss Bikeboard – looks like huge fun * azimuth watches – awesome looking. * Relativity Watch – I had a Goofy watch that ran backwards as a kid and loved it. * Gelaskins ipod skins – better looking than your standard skin

I can accept the US losing its lead but…Denmark??? Did Bluetooth wipe out the Internet when I wasn’t looking?

* circle fire pc multimedia bay – awesome, turn my office into a disco * self rewinding pneuma hose reel – another one i could actually use, at halloween time my garage is a mess of pneuma hoses * the worst flashlight ever to take to a hotel room * Wi-spy spectrum analyzer * pico projector not available yet but awesomely small. * Bosch impacter – another thing I actually could use * Bloomframe -- the window that turns into a balcony. Just because. * usb ipod mixer – another just because. i am not actually sure what all this thing does. * The viewtainer – stupid name but useful actually * hdmi switch – another one i bet i could actually use