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• Commented on Broke-ass band cuts an album by borrowing a giant music store's facilities and gear
  If they're anything like any music store I've been in, they probably have $50,000-100,000 worth of recording equipment on the floor as demonstration units. Stores occasionally sell their demonstration units at discount, when the new model comes in....
• Commented on Robert Heinlein's minimalist home of the future from 1952
  The cork floor is rather clever. I doubt the quality of cork paneling you can buy today can hold a candle to what you used to be able to buy. Most cork paneling today is ground up, glued together, MDF-like...
• Commented on Winter gear guide: packing warm and light for a month in the Himalayas
  I'm about to leave for a 5 week trip through central and south america. I looked real hard at a sterilite pen, but in the end went with a good old fashioned ceramic filter by MSR. I've used them before...
• Commented on Salvation Army and other charities require proof of immigration status before needy kids can have toys -- UPDATED!
  "Young said she makes an exception if parents can show they have applied for legal status or that a child is enrolled in school." Even if the parents are here illegally, if the child was born here, the child gets...
• Commented on Cactus flowers: an intro to the indie game mind warps of Jonatan Söderström
  still waiting for air pirates to be released. hopefully on steam! they're becoming much more indy-friendly (see also: zero gear)...
• Commented on Sophie Madeleine plays "Don't Think Twice It's All Right" on ukulele
  @#13, $150 for a decent condenser mic isn't a whole lot when you consider that it captures 100% of the sound coming out of your $300+ uke. There's no point in recording a $300 uke when your $10 walmart mic...
• Commented on Turkey wants universal email surveillance from birth
  Free email from birth is a pretty neat idea. To use it for censorship, not so much. But imagine getting mom or grandma to use state owned email! "Oh hey mom, you've got problems with your email? Yeah? Have you...
• Commented on Record exec arrested for refusing to send a tweet asking Bieber-maddened crowd to disperse
  This doesnt reek of a publicity stunt to anyone else? Has balloon boy taught you NOTHING? :)...
• Commented on Pathways of Desire: Detroiters carve their own streets out of the snow
  Here in Texas we call those "texas offramps", or as the internet likes to call it, "texas exits" http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/texas_exit_traffic_term/ Not too common in urban areas, but 10-20 miles outside of the city they're pretty common. People get fed up sitting...
• Commented on Technology to generate power from slow moving river and ocean currents
  This isn't a half-bad idea actually. Anyone who's been sailing can tell you if you get anything (seaweed, loose line) stuck on your rudder, you'll know it immediately due to the vibration in the tiller/wheel. Most sailboats move between 3...
• Commented on Mishap at the Electrical Substation
  @#12 yeah this video was making the rounds in at least 2004. The neat thing here is the fractal patterns created by the arc. I'd like a better explanation of that....
• Commented on Invasive Slugs Run Amok in Canada (Relatively Speaking)
  Thirty posts and not one of them mentions salting the suckers? As a kid salting those big, gooey 4"ers was one of the happiest moments of my childhood, and I had a pretty good childhood by most measures. I left...
• Commented on Replacing a switch on an electric shaver
  A momentary pushbutton switch probably would have worked better, and cost about half what a metal flip switch does....
• Commented on World's most awesome cheap Chinese toy
  I'm pretty sure the "distorion" effect is a result of the Doppler effect. I was marveling over my $12 DVD-ROM drive I bought on sale the other day. The technology in that $12 box of parts contains more computing power...
• Commented on Color film of 1927 London
  The world looked a lot different prior to the invention of cheap, brightly colored pigments. Between Black and White, you pretty much have brown and blue, and apparently some women wore creme or beige according to this film. The red...
• Commented on Rupert Murdoch vows to take all of Newscorp's websites out of Google, abolish fair use, tear heads off of adorable baby animals
  Not only is the title editorialized, but the whole thing reeks of sensationalism. I realize you can get away with a little more of that than some of the people below you on the masthead, but wow. Take a deep...
• Commented on Stealthy anti-whaling powerboat
  I thought the point of protesting was to make yourself *HIGHLY VISIBLE*, not_invisible_...
• Commented on Car Finder app for iPhone
  Accuracy: +/- 47 meters (150 feet) Source: Screen shot...
• Commented on Please release me: <em>Borderlands</em> and <em>Bomberlands</em>, <em>Hook Champ</em> and <em>Earth Dragon</em>s
  Borderlands is a great game, but the PC "port" is severely lacking in terms of polish. I'll parrot what other people said and that I had to setup my PC as a DMZ to be able to host games. Singleplayer...
• Commented on Bike outfited with one-cylinder engine
  As of September 30th, 2009 it's legal to drive these sorts of contraptions on roads up to 45mph(!) without registration no less; they're treated basically like a bicycle, but you have to drive them on the road, not the sidewalk....
• Commented on Improvising a car fuse
  Keep up updated on any lawsuits you get slapped with should anyone follow this advice and have their car catch on fire!...
• Commented on The Demons' Night-Parade: Splendid Japanese yokai (mythic monster) scroll found on eBay
  The first image is interesting, because the eye is in the same style as the pacific northwest native American Indians. http://images.google.com/images?q=pacific northwest indian art...
• Commented on Another impossibly skinny Ralph Lauren model
  Any press is good press! My guess is that someone invested in this new "style" of 'shopping models, and they've got quite an arsenal/"photo" campaign they want to cycle through before moving on to their next one. You watch "Mad...
• Commented on Media centers: the exciting, the boring; the solved, the unsolved
  Yeah, it was from this blog post. Back in July, it seems. http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/07/13/competition-write-ga.html...
• Commented on Media centers: the exciting, the boring; the solved, the unsolved
  Speaking of media centers, you had a short story competition for a media center maybe six weeks back, did you ever announce the winner(s) of that?...
• Commented on Report: Woman paralyzed by E. coli-tainted hamburger
  Cook burger properly, eat, repeat. "Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner" The correct person to sue would be her mother, for negligence. But she doesn't have money (and/or is family), and...
• Commented on Storm-sewer dwellers of Las Vegas
  What happens to all their stuff when the once a year storm hits? I guess mattresses will dry out, eventually, but most of their crap is getting broken/flushed out. Note their stuff is all on top of those purple eggcrates...
• Commented on After the big LA fires, terrain looks like a post-war moonscape: death, charred remains.
  This looks exactly like Mt. St Helens did after it went nuclear back in the 80's. It's shocking how quickly plants (as mentioned above, the root system is probably fully intact still) resume growth after what seems like a catastrophic...
• Commented on 1917 Beekman Street Subway collapse
  I can't get over that lumber. Throwaway construction lumber - 10"x10" LOGS - you'd pay a pretty penny for wood like that today. You just can't find lumber like that anymore - well, you can, but it's very, very expensive....
• Commented on Infographic: Hierarchy of Digital Distractions
  List of requirements (or at least, list of don'ts) for great memes: 1. Does not require a legend at the bottom to explain itself 2. Includes humor 3. Prints well on a standard, crappy work B&W laser printer 4. Consumes...