This stuff fascinates me – Scientists watch on the atomic level how individual molecules recognize each other – here is one guy’s list on amazon – maybe this Voet text is the place to start

* Cymat: Home – metallic foams. Because they just look cool. The resin coated version would be a cool desktop. * Intensity vacuum. The folding-up-ness is nice. * Kraft paper sofas. Because no one else will have one. Oh and their felt rocks look cool. * Floating Jellyfish pool lights * Highgear adventureplus – all the cool campers will snicker at you * A finger skateboard game. just strange. * Wallet optimized for cards. Why more of these don’t exist puzzles me. * Non contact infrared thermometer. Seems like a totally useless gadget to me. Will go in the drawer with my stud finders. * Rich on HD camcorders. OK I really need one of these. Really. * Clamp multimeter. nothing unique here, I just like these.

* College Football Forum: Florida Jab at OSU #684-#686 – Florida abuses OSU. OK this is still pretty painful, but funny. The beginnings of true hatred. * The ongoing Mustain saga – this is why SEC football is awesome. Using the FOIA to get coach’s cellphone records. Stalkers with video cameras. Overbearing parents. Hiring high school coaches just to get recruits. Just awesome.

Mitsubishi Electric Develops Camera that Refocuses Photos - Emerging Technology – man this is freaking huge. I don’t completely understand the physics of what these folks are doing but capturing enough info about the incident light to be able to change the focus at post-processing is freaking huge.

* Clear airport pass – OK actually I would be stupid not to get this. * A $209 hammer. I drive like 3 nails a year so clearly I need this * USB chess game. I have no patience for chess but clearly this would improve my game dramatically * The Cabestan watch. Gorgeous. * 1/9 scale V-8. * Obelisk chairs. I think the rest of the family would barf but these are awesome * Skycaddie GPS golf accessory. It is very important to my game that I know the exact position of my ball and the pin to the meter. I am pretty sure that my lack of this knowledge is why I have a 36+ handicap. * Marble machine. Anything like pachinko is cool. * A watch with built in slot machine. Where does it store all the coins? * Pipe lamp. Steam engine chic.

* 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.