Fresh-Out-the-Box!

Rubber Band Limit Mod February 25, 2007

Filed under: Mixed bag — chilsta @ 9:01 pm

Rubber Band Limit Mod

Originally uploaded by chilsta.

Put a rubber band around the neck of pump bottles to limit the amount that comes out.

Handy when kids are involved as they tend to use as much of anything as they can (I know I used to when I was young anyway). You can always give it a couple of pumps if you need more than usual, although we find this gives just the right amount 99% of the time.

(We get a lot of post office rubber bands littering the pavements and paths of England. They were brown until a couple of years ago, when they were changed to red, apparently so the post persons could see them easier and not drop them all over the country. Evidently it’s made no difference.)

2nd in a series of reuse posts.

4hero’s Marc Mac Podcasts

Filed under: Music,urban — chilsta @ 8:55 pm

A great ongoing collection of full length mixes from Marc Mac of 4hero.

The Mizell Brothers show is exceptionally good and I now know things I never knew about them (like Mizell is pronounced My-zel and not Mi-zel as I’ve always thought & only ever heard other people say).

They’re here: Marc Mac podcast on Podomatic (click the Download links)

My Old Camper- GOT 198D February 24, 2007

Filed under: VW Buses — chilsta @ 2:54 am

So I finally got to see what my old bus, a 1967 Canterbury Pitt split screen VW camper, looked like after it had been restored. Last time I saw it was in 1995/6 leaving my parent’s house on a trailer. I had restored the mechanics (including IRS conversion and adjustable front beam) and it had an MoT, but most of the windows were out, it still had the green and brown hand painted look that it had when I bought it and it generally looked a mess.

I was really glad to see that it had been tastefully and lovingly restored. Now it is in Ireland, with Irish plates, so GOT 198D doesn’t really exist any more. Amazing what the interwebnet can do- all I did was put a note on my flickr set of VW buses asking if anyone knew what happened to it, and my call was answered!

It ended up looking pretty similar to the ’67 Microbus that I bought in New Mexico, had restored and drove around Texas for a couple of years:

My Radio Station February 23, 2007

Filed under: Internet,Music — chilsta @ 12:01 pm

This plays tracks based on music I’ve listened to on my computer since November 2004. Provided by last.fm. You can see my profile here.

Laser Tagging February 22, 2007

Filed under: Tech,urban,Video — chilsta @ 12:07 am

Fresh from Rotterdam.

Australia pulls plug on light bulbs February 21, 2007

Filed under: LEDs,Politics — chilsta @ 11:58 pm

About time there was movement to rid the world of the evil wasteful light bulbs…

An election’s looming so there’s movement in Australia- the phasing out of incandescent bulbs should be made law worldwide straight away: Bright idea? Australia pulls plug on light bulbs.

LED light bulbs would be even better- they’re nearly ready for prime time- the cost needs to go down, light output up (and dissipated) and the colour temperature moved towards red from blue, but they’re not major hurdles considering the huge advances in LEDs in the last few years. We’re not too far off with products like this and this already available for fairly modest prices.