Mar 03

Under pressure

Following a link from Instapundit, I read a Popular Mechanics article on Extreme Plumbing by Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters fame. Jamie makes the following point about pressure tanks:

The forces at play with high-pressure tanks can be huge. If the energy stored in a workshop air-compressor tank is released all at once, it can hurt or kill a person. I once complained to our insurers, “Why are you so fussy about the explosives we use on the show? Every day we make rigs using pressure tanks that are just as dangerous.” Big mistake. Now they fuss about pressure tanks, too.

As it happens, I was reading this shortly after I got home from Raleigh Little Theatre, where I spent all day working on the first technical rehearsal of House of Blue Leaves. I am assistant stage manager for this play, and one of my responsibilities is to handle the special effects that are used when, halfway through Act 2, a bomb explodes just offstage. One of those special effects is a compressed-air cannon that fires a load of fuller’s earth through a doorway onto the stage, simulating the cloud of dust and smoke produced by the explosion. The cannon fires when I open a valve that releases air from a pressure tank.
In fact, one of the last things I did at RLT before coming home was to repressurize that tank to 80 psi so that it’s ready for tomorrow’s dress rehearsal. Then I came home and read Jamie’s explanation that pressure tanks are dangerous and can kill you.
Actually, I’m not worried. If you read his entire article, you’ll see that that paragraph is scary only when taken out of context. Sure, pressure tanks can be dangerous if you use them in a reckless or irresponsible way, but the MythBusters don’t do that, and neither do theatre techies like me. Jamie’s article is really about how many of the challenges on MythBusters have been solved with plumbing and pressure tanks, and what that tells us about how useful and powerful that technology is. And fun, of course. I’m certainly going to be careful operating my cannon over the next several weeks, but I’d be lying if I said it won’t be a big thrill to set it off.

Mar 02

The power of Pong

Pong was one of the first video games, and it’s at least 35 years old (closer to 50 years if you consider Tennis for Two an early version of Pong). But even today, it inspires new variations and tributes. For example, Curveball is a Pong-based game that operates in three dimensions instead of two, and displays the action from a very different angle. Text-Pong shows us what Pong would be like if it were a text adventure game. And then there’s this video of a Pong game that uses people as pixels:

Mar 01

Bookplates

I’ve been known to lend a book to someone and then forget who I lent it to. And it’s conceivable that the borrower might forget who the owner is. This is one reason that bookplates are a good idea. You can buy them in stores and write your name on them, but personalized, preprinted bookplates are even better. If that’s what you want, go to Bookplate Ink, where you can choose from dozens of black-and-white or color designs. The bookplates are self-adhesive with a peel-off backing and are acid-free.

Feb 28

MegaPenny Project

Large numbers are hard to comprehend. It helps to visualize them in terms of a familiar, everyday object, like a U.S. penny. That’s what the MegaPenny Project does. It starts with a single penny and shows you visual representations of increasingly large numbers of pennies. For example, how big is a hundred thousand pennies? (It’s about two cubic feet.) What does a billion pennies look like? How many would it take to fill up the Sears Tower? If you could collect all the pennies that actually exist, how large a stack would that make?
For each big number, the MegaPenny project not only shows you a picture, but also lists statistics like the monetary value, the total weight, the height (if you stacked them in a single column, one penny on another), and the area covered (if you laid the pennies out edge-to-edge). The site takes you all the way to one quintillion pennies (a cube about five miles on a side).

Feb 24

DadGear

My children are all grown up now, but I still remember what it’s like to have a baby as a part of your everyday life. And mainly what it means is that there’s a lot of stuff to carry around. Back when I was changing diapers, that meant carrying a diaper bag everywhere. But today’s new parents have other options. A company called DadGear offers some interesting alternatives to the traditional rectangular shoulder bag. You can buy diaper bags shaped like sport bags, backpacks, or messenger bags (including Collegiate Series bags with university logos). My favorite DadGear item is the Diaper Vest, a fleece vest with pockets designed for diapers, wipes, bottles, and even a built-in changing pad. There’s also a Cargo Jacket with the same features. Why wasn’t this stuff available two decades ago when I could have used it?

Feb 23

Real Alternative

RealPlayer has made a lot of enemies. It’s a free media player, which is nice. But RealPlayer likes to display pop-up advertisements, and it has a history of collecting information about the media files you play with it, leading some critics to classify it as both adware and spyware. When PC World compiled a list of “The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time” last year, RealPlayer was number 2. (The top offender was AOL.)
But occasionally, you may need to play a file that uses one of the proprietary RealMedia formats, such as .rm or .ra. In that situation, are you forced to use RealPlayer? Not necessarily. On a Windows system, you can use Real Alternative instead. Real Alternative is a codec pack that enables you to play RealMedia formats with Media Player Classic. You can download both Real Alternative and Media Player Classic from the Real Alternative page of freecodecs.com.

Feb 20

Wheel of Food

Want to go out for lunch, but can’t decide where? Let the Wheel of Food decide for you! (Or maybe it’s the Wheel of Lunch; the site uses both names in different places.) How does it work? Simple. Enter your ZIP code, then click Proceed. The Wheel is automatically populated with restaurants in your neighborhood and given an initial spin. When it stops, you have a randomly-chosen lunch location, complete with street address (and maybe even a rating from previous diners). If that location doesn’t appeal to you, just grab the Wheel and spin it again.
Source: CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast