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Last post Author Topic: Gadget WEEKENDS  (Read 581304 times)

Renegade

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #325 on: August 16, 2014, 12:55 AM »
a cheap, small paint brush might be better, but yes - definitely an idea.

Please be sure not to buy anything synthetic for the job, and only those bristle types that are naturally anti-static (badger, black sable, boar). And don't reuse brushes that have been previously used for paint or other substances.

The calligraphy brush we have is natural hair. For paint brushes, I wasn't thinking of synthetic as they build up static charges, but good point to bring that up.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

app103

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #326 on: August 16, 2014, 01:23 AM »
a cheap, small paint brush might be better, but yes - definitely an idea.

Please be sure not to buy anything synthetic for the job, and only those bristle types that are naturally anti-static (badger, black sable, boar). And don't reuse brushes that have been previously used for paint or other substances.

The calligraphy brush we have is natural hair. For paint brushes, I wasn't thinking of synthetic as they build up static charges, but good point to bring that up.

Not all natural hair is anti-static, which was part of my point. Don't chance it if you don't know specifically what kind of hair it is.

ewemoa

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #327 on: August 16, 2014, 03:44 AM »
Thermomix. Totally insane. Just crazy what you can do with it. Off the hook. No words to describe it. I'd heard about it and thought, "Meh, whatever." No... It's simply mind-blowing.

So, how has this one been since your original post?

Simply. Amazing.

Thanks for sharing!

Dare I ask if there are any downsides you've noticed (you got yours as a gift IIRC -- but perhaps maintenance costs)?

Renegade

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #328 on: August 16, 2014, 04:33 AM »
Dare I ask if there are any downsides you've noticed (you got yours as a gift IIRC -- but perhaps maintenance costs)?

So far I can't see a downside to it. No maintenance so far, and I put it through the gears pretty hard sometimes.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

mouser

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #329 on: October 16, 2014, 10:15 PM »
Ok here's a gadget: YONANAS

Screenshot - 10_16_2014 , 10_01_34 PM_ver001.png

The price fluxtuates on amazon.com; i bought it for $29 which seems a good price for it.

What it is: It takes frozen bananas (and other frozen fruit), and mashes it up into a consistency that is like ice cream.

There are video reviews of it all over youtube, lots of people (who are on a diet) swear by it. it's certainly a healthy alternative.

Personally I did not particularly love the taste of the frozen banana results (which is bizarre since i have been eating whole frozen bananas for years; maybe just a bad batch of bananas; a friend here really liked the banana results) but frozen peaches were great.



As to whether you really need a dedicated tool to do this.. You couldn't really use a blender as it would either fail to pulverize or make soup out of it from the heat. Another major advantage to a tool like this is that it is built to be very easy to clean. There are now alternative product competitors to this product that sell for similar price; they probably all function similarly.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2014, 09:04 AM by mouser »

ewemoa

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #330 on: October 17, 2014, 03:05 AM »
Is it loud?

mouser

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #331 on: October 17, 2014, 03:34 AM »
They have a new much more expensive model that is supposed to be much quieter (with a more powerful motor), so if you use it frequently you might consider that.
This model didn't seem as loud as i feared though -- quieter than a loud blender.

TaoPhoenix

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #332 on: October 31, 2014, 11:42 PM »
Okay, I haven't visited gadget weekends much, but I figured I'd chime in this time.

In this age of planned obsolescence, it's nice when something gives you its money's worth!

Anyone have one of these circular perpetual calendars? (Mine is almost identical, but only has a 40 year range, not a 50 year one.)

220px-50yearcalendar.JPG

It astounds me that I somehow managed to hold onto it ... it's "just what it is", but through all my moves, my subconscious apparently kept telling me to keep it in that "box of special things at the top of the moving pile". Mine is from 1999, with a range of 1999-2038. Being the creaky old birdie I am now, as of this year I have managed to hold onto it for 40% of its rated value ... with 60% left! That's the best $20 I ever spent! (I got it at a gift store somewhere.)
:Thmbsup:

« Last Edit: October 31, 2014, 11:48 PM by TaoPhoenix »

ewemoa

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #333 on: November 01, 2014, 07:58 PM »
I guess it can also be a sort of countdown reminder for:

  https://en.wikipedia...ki/Year_2038_problem

TaoPhoenix

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #334 on: November 02, 2014, 11:17 AM »
I guess it can also be a sort of countdown reminder for:

  https://en.wikipedia...ki/Year_2038_problem

Haha good catch! I'd heard about that, but the odds of my getting one that happens to end on that exact scenario are ultra rare! (I mean, it was from 1999, I'd barely heard about the throes of Y2K - I was actually in a temp job assignment once doing some data checking about that!)


IainB

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #335 on: November 08, 2014, 11:36 PM »
I have been given an unwanted 1st generation Mac Mini with the DVI graphics port:

Mac-mini - 02 dvi back view (with notes) 750.png

I got this and other pix from Wikipedia - Mac Mini .
The question is. What good use could I put this device to, or is only good for scrap?
« Last Edit: November 08, 2014, 11:56 PM by IainB »

4wd

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #336 on: November 09, 2014, 12:55 AM »

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #337 on: November 09, 2014, 01:06 AM »
I have been given an unwanted 1st generation Mac Mini with the DVI graphics port:
 (see attachment in previous post)
I got this and other pix from Wikipedia - Mac Mini .
The question is. What good use could I put this device to, or is only good for scrap?



Doorstop?

IainB

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #338 on: November 09, 2014, 01:16 AM »
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And a sea anchor for a lightweight dingy.
So, no use at all, then, eh?

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #339 on: November 09, 2014, 01:38 AM »
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And a sea anchor for a lightweight dingy.
So, no use at all, then, eh?

I guess it could be useful for a home media center if you got rid of whatever Crapple OS it runs...then install Linux instead...use it for storing movies or whatever on it, connected up to your main home TV?

IainB

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #340 on: November 09, 2014, 02:00 AM »
...Install Linux on Mac Mini

That link says one requirement is "...A Mac mini late 2012 with OSX in a perfect state (if not you can reinstall OSX to start with, I did that)". That's a later model.
Even if I had that model, I'm not sure that installing Linux on it would be of any real use to me, anyway.

Pity. I hate throwing stuff away.

IainB

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #341 on: November 09, 2014, 02:06 AM »
...I guess it could be useful for a home media center if you got rid of whatever Crapple OS it runs...then install Linux instead...use it for storing movies or whatever on it, connected up to your main home TV?

Yes, I couldn't see anything much else of use for it except extending its original purpose. But Linux? Apparently not feasible or worthwhile with this model?

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #342 on: November 09, 2014, 02:11 AM »
...I guess it could be useful for a home media center if you got rid of whatever Crapple OS it runs...then install Linux instead...use it for storing movies or whatever on it, connected up to your main home TV?

Yes, I couldn't see anything much else of use for it except extending its original purpose. But Linux? Apparently not feasible or worthwhile with this model?

Meh, I just have a hatred for all things Apple...so for me...well, I would have declined to take it :P

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #343 on: November 09, 2014, 02:58 AM »
I just went back and read all 14 pages of this thread...at 8:30am on a Sunday...wtf am I doing with my life?

barney

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #344 on: November 09, 2014, 03:02 AM »
I just went back and read all 14 pages of this thread...at 8:30am on a Sunday...wtf am I doing with my life?

Develping eyestrain  :-\?

Renegade

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #345 on: November 09, 2014, 04:25 AM »
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

4wd

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #346 on: November 09, 2014, 04:56 AM »
Pity. I hate throwing stuff away.

If you have no use for it, stick it on ebay - that way you might get some use out of it.

Stoic Joker

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #347 on: November 09, 2014, 08:27 AM »
...I guess it could be useful for a home media center if you got rid of whatever Crapple OS it runs...then install Linux instead...use it for storing movies or whatever on it, connected up to your main home TV?

Yes, I couldn't see anything much else of use for it except extending its original purpose. But Linux? Apparently not feasible or worthwhile with this model?

Meh, I just have a hatred for all things Apple...so for me...well, I would have declined to take it :P

As do I, however we do occasionally run into a client that has one of the things. And it invariably turns into a flaming fiasco every time. So I've been after the office to buy one so we can use it for testing to avoid wasting so much time onsite trying to figure out how to contend with damn things.

Know Your Enemy... :)

IainB

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #348 on: November 09, 2014, 03:53 PM »
^^ I'm beginning to get the impression that actually the Mac mini is just a piece of junk - a technological dead-end - and that it was that sort of a piece of junk before it came off the production line. It's possibly even the sort of junk that used to be called "a white elephant":
white elephant
·n. a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of.
– ORIGIN from the story that the kings of Siam gifted such animals to courtiers they disliked, in order to ruin the recipient by the great expense incurred in maintaining the animal. - Concise Oxford Dictionary (10th Ed.)
The thing seems to have been cynically turned out with all the old tricks for throw-away product obsolescence - including, for example, well-sealed units (difficult to maintain), lock-in, and little or no forwards or backwards design compatibility. Just more "waste-making" (per Vance Packard's "The Waste Makers").
 
I say this after researching across the Internet for "uses for an old Mac mini", where most commenters seemed hard-pressed to think of a use for the thing (but many seemed to like to dream up daft uses for it anyway), and the most positive comment I came across was one that didn't actually declare a continuing use for the device: (my emphasis)
iFix Old Macs
You know the ones I mean: those Power Macs, PowerBooks, iMacs, iBooks, Mac minis, etc. based on the PowerPC processor that Apple sold a few years ago. Sadly, support for them is dwindling, but the software is still out there that would enable their continued use.

Maybe you still have one of these fine old machines. Resist the urge to throw it in the dumpster and buy a new computer. The addition of more RAM, a bigger hard drive, an updated graphics card, or a faster processor might be all it needs. It won't be sitting in your local landfill leaching heavy metals and other bad things into your drinking water. And, you won't be perpetuating the evil practice of assembling the "latest and greatest" in low-wage sweatshops around the world.
- which absurd statement rather begs the question "...all it needs" for what? For making it "look like a new one"? Why? It's already obsolete. A Spinning Jenny was "a fine old machine" too.

I don't have any kind of a dislike for "things Apple" - quite the reverse, in fact - mainly because:
  • (a) I had the opportunity to see first hand in 1984/5 how the Apple Macintosh technology could make for such an amazingly useful productivity tool at an early stage - for Project Planning (MacProject) and Desktop Publishing (Aldus Pagemaker). It was even good at games. So I gained a considerable respect for the Macintosh hardware and software and the Palo Alto ergonomics research that had been incorporated into its design. This pretty much pre-dated the advent of any corresponding particularly useful functionality on the IBM PC.

  • (b) In 1988 I was responsible for managing three small departments in a large insurance company. One was an Applications Development group (for IBM mainframe systems). One was an "Information Centre", which provided a service for corporate PC users (PCs, PC upgrades, network connection, and all kinds of PC-based software and training for use of same), and the third was a "Technology Research" group. Of the latter two groups, the people in the first group had no experience of using Macintoshes, the people in the second group did. I saw how both technologies - Mac and PC - had a suitable role to play, particularly as online distributed processors or smart terminals connected to and integrated with mainframe systems, but the Mac came at a premium price and generally was difficult to integrate or cost-justify.

    It was a no-brainer - a business decision. We eventually standardised on the use of the DOS-based (and the new Windows-based) IBM PC technology, because of its flexibility and especially because of the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). It was clearly easier to integrate, more cost-effective to buy and to support. It could do the job pretty well if you were able and prepared to support it by rolling your sleeves up and getting stuck into some of the guts of the motherboard, peripherals and operating system, whereas the Mac was more of a "black box" - notoriously difficult to support by opening it up and tinkering with it, by comparison.

But there were Mac bigots and PC bigots then, and there still are today (QED). Based on the foregoing, I would not usually consider investing my valuable cognitive surplus in Mac technology. I was only prepared to make an exception in this case because I didn't like to see a Mac mini consigned to the dumpster without at least exploring the possibilities of whether it could be useful. I rather like old bits of technology. For example, I can see a lot of potential use for extracting old Atari hardware and software from a landfill, but - after this exercise - Mac minis perhaps not so much.
Seems a waste, but there you are.

Actually, on reflection, this experience could probably support the argument that buying anything "Apple" might be largely a waste of good time/money - i.e., because of their apparently wasteful marketing strategy.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2014, 04:27 PM by IainB, Reason: Minor corrections. »

app103

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Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Reply #349 on: November 09, 2014, 06:17 PM »
This should give you an idea of what flavors of Linux you can install on that thing, complete with helpful links: http://penguinppc.or...out-2/distributions/

Yours would be a G4, 32-bit, New World ROM, so stick to the list at the top of the page.

As far as a useful purpose for it once you have it installed, if not using it as some sort of a HTPC, your guess is as good as mine. (And if you are going to use it for a HTPC, GeeXboX would probably be your best bet, and for that, v1.2.3 is last version supporting PPC)
« Last Edit: November 09, 2014, 06:50 PM by app103 »