{"id":22268,"date":"2014-08-11T16:52:01","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T23:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=22268"},"modified":"2018-05-23T14:18:16","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T21:18:16","slug":"founder-of-geek-squad-robert-stephens-cool-tools-show-008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/founder-of-geek-squad-robert-stephens-cool-tools-show-008\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Stephens, Founder of Geek Squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Stephens, founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geeksquad.com\/\">Geek Squad<\/a>, lets us know how his analog tools and hobbies even out the frantic pace of modern, wired life. His high-tech offerings are especially reflective of his desire to use cutting-edge inventions as tools for personal development. From the whimsical to practical, ancient technology to barely breaking innovations, there&#8217;s something in this week&#8217;s show for just about everyone.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/162741446&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/cool-tools-show-and-tell\/id605920446?mt=2\">Subscribe to the Cool Tools Podcast on iTunes<\/a>\u00a0|<a href=\"http:\/\/feedpress.me\/cooltoolsshow\">\u00a0RSS<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/197Hh10zQgikL2vBvRyJMibCJmWPBWiDNRMZLh2ykBvs\/edit?usp=sharing\">Transcript<\/a>\u00a0| <a href=\"http:\/\/tracking.feedpress.it\/link\/7810\/172781\/162741446-boing-boing-cooltools-008-founder-of-geek-squad-robert-stephens.mp3\">Download MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Show Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A book about building Cob ovens, recommended by Robert:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0967984602\/cooltools-20\">Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are Robert\u2019s tool picks, with quotes from the show:<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"color: #333333;font-style: normal\" src=\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41XYJREZp5L.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00FOWIABA\/cooltools-20\">Flower Press<\/a>\u00a0($17) or DIY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They say you should stop and smell the roses. I would add to that that I think you should grab them and press them between books for a while!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/yeQXLcy5IF_i8t2YKti_FD9u2KoAMMJGHlyZzPkB5jUtLCaBnz_WnNJYCY6XM95Fbu7fAG5dkwgCb2uhCo0q4KpKlGyJjMLI4NKAX-oBiVqtXRMFJ5hDT2rdtueev1Zeeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"299\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Watercolor Tin DIY\u00a0(prices vary) (Use <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00BXIXREY\/cooltools-20\">Fimo air-dry clay [$5]<\/a> for paint reservoirs)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People have started taking old Altoids mint tins and squirting tubes of watercolor in them and they sell these little paintbrushes at the art store. I was in London a few weeks ago and I was staying in a nice hotel with nice stationary. I pulled out my little tin and I painted a picture of The Ritz hotel while sitting having a coffee and popped a flower I had pressed in there and mailed it to my daughter who was back home.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/CVCboxF1kVT1LukruY9r9eZKCBQQHXSCKthWCA2JYwgmIlxfoIo_qH_wluYr7EwieVI1OEIfHk9-L_S8yYiMj8ojOzdXysFUuCQH8imb-UZW-dIJ1ZNMVHCLX53ZkH7iIQ\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"653\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cob Oven DIY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A Cob is a ten thousand year old technology&#8230;. And six feet under just about anywhere on earth is some mixture of sand and clay so it&#8217;s safe to use. Clay doesn\u2019t dry in thirty minutes like concrete so it&#8217;s very forgiving. And so it&#8217;s very natural and it&#8217;s all local materials.&#8221;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160219012944\/http:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0384\/6721\/t\/1\/assets\/001-copia-white.jpg?9622\" alt=\"\" width=\"496\" height=\"183\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hellonomad.com\/products\/nomadplus\">NomadPlus<\/a>\u00a0($39)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You do is you take your iPhone charging cube and it slides over it like a jacket and it gives you\u00a0a battery pack, making it about the size of the iPad cube. When you&#8217;re on the road you can plug your phone into this and it&#8217;s\u00a0a little battery juice pack.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.cultofmac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tile-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"381\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a style=\"font-style: normal\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thetileapp.com\/\">Tile<\/a>\u00a0($20)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Basically it\u2019s a Bluetooth low energy tracking device. I put on on my key-chain. I put one in my car, just toss it in the armrest, and I put one in my backpack. And \u00a0whenever it comes within range of my iPhone using Bluetooth low energy, they talk to each other and the phone records where the phone&#8217;s location is and therefore it\u00a0knows when the last time you saw your car.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/a2.mzstatic.com\/us\/r30\/Purple\/v4\/f5\/58\/6b\/f5586b50-c97a-575a-fe9e-fb6eef0fab7e\/screen568x568.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a style=\"font-style: normal\" href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/eidetic-learn-remember-anything\/id536240413?mt=8\">Eidetic<\/a>\u00a0(Free or $2 for Pro versi)on<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I really like it because I think this is the idea of augmentation. Using technology to help us be more human and personal and one of the things I&#8217;m trying to do is exercise that muscle of memory and this is the best one I&#8217;ve seen yet. &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Below are some of Robert&#8217;s bonus tool picks that we didn&#8217;t have time to discuss this time.\u00a0Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20141011025333\/https:\/\/www.blaze.cc\/content\/01-about\/01-mission\/principle_b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"486\" height=\"324\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blaze.cc\/\">Blaze<\/a>\u00a0$200<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.crofflr.com\/img\/title.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crofflr.com\/\">Crofflr<\/a>\u00a0$5<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/a2.mzstatic.com\/us\/r30\/Purple6\/v4\/21\/c4\/c8\/21c4c802-9f8e-2811-ae78-6e57ce3c053c\/screen568x568.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/genius-scan-pdf-scanner\/id377672876?mt=8\">Genius Scan<\/a>\u00a0(Free or $7 for Pro version)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/boing-boing\/sets\/cool-tools-show\">Listen to previous episodes of the Cool Tools Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cool Tools Podcast: Robert Stephens, Founder of Geek Squad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1559],"tags":[1555],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22268"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31516,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268\/revisions\/31516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}