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New Electronics Series from Becky Stern
My old Make: colleague, Becky Stern, has a new video series that she’s doing for the electronics component company, Digi-Key. Becky has always done an impressive job of explaining what can be intimidating technical information in an entertaining and digestible way. If this first installment, an introduction to LEDs, is any indication, this series looks to deliver more of her welcome brand of accessible tech education.
How to Get Clearer and Stronger Transparent FDM Prints
In this CNC Kitchen video, Stefan shows the special settings you can use to create superior-looking clear prints using an FDM (Fused deposition modeling)printer and clear filament. He also looks at how these parameters make your parts super strong.
Making Your Own Vinyl Stickers
If you’ve been attracted to the idea of creating your own custom vinyl stickers, this video shows you how. All you basically need is a crafting vinyl cutter (a few hundred dollars) and some sheets or rolls of vinyl material.
CA Glue Accelerator from Baking Soda and Water
One of the best takeaways from this Bill Making Stuff video (where he celebrates his 50th episode) is his tip for creating your own accelerator for CA glue. As you likely know, there are commercial accelerators, but they smell funny, have nasty stuff in them, and are combustible. You’re even supposed to wear eye protection when using them, though nobody does. You may also know about using baking soda as an accelerator. It works great, but it leaves a dusty powder on everything that you have to clean off. Bill mixes his baking soda with water in a spray bottle and has found that it works great and creates less mess. I will definitely be trying this.
How a Gas Pump Knows When to Turn Itself Off
If you’ve ever wondered how a gas pump nozzle knows when to shut off when your tank is full, this video reveals the clever design. Venturi tubes, Bernoulli principle, negative pressure — it turns out the design is far more complicated that you might expect. I always assumed it was some sort of an electronic sensor, but it’s purely mechanical.
“I was surprised to see a recommendation for the OXO sink strainer. I love OXO products, but that strainer is a disappointment to me. I do like the inversion feature, but stuff still gets stuck in and around the holes. The silicone gets slimy. I have black slime after a week in my kitchen drain, probably from teensy bits of lettuce and herbs and salad dressing. UGH. (Cleaning out the bowl with a paper towel before washing it seems to help.) I don’t know that a standard issue strainer would make me any happier (though I’d love to quit using so many paper towels). I’m glad yours pleases you; my experience is just different.”
This is a great example of that adage made popular by early hacker culture: “Your mileage may vary” (YMMV). When I posted my review of the strainer on Boing Boing, the first few responses were similar to Candy’s and I got nervous, thinking I had prematurely decided a tool was a winner without giving it an honest testing myself. But then the positive reviews came and they were the overwhelming sentiment. And on Amazon, it has 17.5K reviews at 4.7 stars. After a month, we are more than happy with ours, but, as in all things, YMMV. Thanks for sharing your experience, Candy!
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Recently I wrote a short piece on my Substack that got a lot of attention. Many found it helpful, and to some it was news: Six Selfish Reasons to Have Kids. A better title might have been Six Selfish Reasons Why I Had Kids. — KK
Visual archive on verticality
On Verticality is an architect’s research blog devoted to his theory of verticality and how our innate desire to ascend developed through human evolution and found expression in architecture, flight, religion, art, and stories. It’s a vast visual archive organized around one question: “Why do humans have an innate need to escape the surface of the earth?” This has definitely been an existential crisis for me, so I’m fascinated by this entire body of research and will take my time exploring it. — CD
A timer for Zoom
Zoom’s Timer app is a countdown clock you can keep private or make visible to everyone in the meeting. You can silence the alarm, choose a sound, and set one timer or queue up several for different speakers or parts of a meeting. I facilitate online groups, and this spares me from using my phone timer, which is distracting when I need to stay present and on screen. — CD
Easy screen protector
Whenever I get a new phone, I buy a case and a screen protector. But attaching a screen protector is finicky and nerve-racking: one tiny bubble or dust speck can ruin it. This screen protector from TOCOL comes with a plastic frame that prevents misalignment, plus wet wipes, dust-remover stickers, and a squeegee to remove bubbles. Tip: buy it before you get your phone, then use it as soon as you remove the plastic sheet the manufacturer puts on the screen, so you don’t have to deal with dust and smudges. Wearing nitrile gloves is a good idea, too. A kit costs about $10 and comes with two protectors. — MF
Siri gets smart
Apple released OS 27 for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac, and it comes with an AI version of Siri. It’s a vast improvement over the earlier versions, which were almost unusable. The new Siri works with all of the Apple apps, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Calendar, Photos, and Music. Your personal data stays on your phone, and even Apple can’t access it.
In David Pogue’s latest newsletter, he shows you 125 different things you can tell Siri to do. I’m using a lot of them already. Here are a few examples:
(Highlight a folder of files on the Mac, right-click:) What’s the total of these invoices? What’s the average? (“The total for the six invoices found in your Receipts folder is $4,692.79. The average amount is $782.13.”)
What are people waiting on me for? (Generates list from Mail, Messages, and Reminders. Incredible. Everything I did for this column was supposed to be for testing purposes only, but this one actually found stuff I’d forgotten I was supposed to do!)
(Running late to a party:) What’s the apartment number!? (“The apartment number for the Bynum party tonight is 10-F.” Note: I never said what party or what day!)
Change pickle to nickel. (You can use this when you’ve dictated a text message, and realize that there’s a mistranscription. Now you can correct it by voice! So much simpler than fussing around with the insertion-point cursor.) — MF
Sketchbook journal artists
I’ve been keeping a sketchbook journal, where I visually record each day’s events, moods, or environment – as a way of making a diary. For inspiration on Instagram I follow a bunch of artists who are also prolific sketchbook creators. A few I return to:
If you shy from Instagram and want the appropriate analog, Danny Gregory also wrote/edited the best printed book on private sketchbook journaling. An Illustrated Life showcases the pages of 50 different sketchbook artists. You are allowed to do whatever you want on your pages. — KK
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