Wednesday, August 26, 2009

DIY fridge hack uses almost no electricity

An Australian guy hacked a freezer into a super-efficient refrigerator:

Nearly every household on Earth has a fridge that totally wastes at least 30 kwh of energy every month. Most of the energy is wasted every time you open the door. Cold air is heavier and falls out on the floor every time you open your fridge and warm air rises to fill the space it left. But with a top opening fridge; even if you leave the door wide open, gravity effortlessly leaves the heavy cold air inside. [...]

His home-made fridge uses much energy in 24 hours as a 100W light bulb gets through in just an hour.

Not only is it energy efficient; but it's absolutely silent too. The thing is only running for a minute or two every hour. At all other times it is perfectly quiet and consumes no power whatsoever.

Home Design Find: Green Fridge Invention Uses Almost No Electricity

(via Atom Jack)

I can see why this hasn't taken off - space constraints. It wouldn't fit in my kitchen, or in the kitchens of any of the apartments I've ever lived in. This may cause a problem for mass production. Still, it's a smart solution.

Related posts:

  1. Venice To Get Half Its Electricity From Algae By 2011
  2. Report: Spies hacked into U.S. electricity grid
  3. Deputies Raid Wrong Address, Kill Couple's Dog

Sunday, August 23, 2009

xkcd - A Webcomic - Height

They should have a new sim- game: sim-airline. You could choose the flight
routes, the more popular = more expensive, with real delays due to
weather, etc. It might even alert the untraveled public to the fact that
afternoon flights into the NY area are _probably_ going to be delayed, and
yes, it's due to weather which means the airline assumes no responsibility
for stranding you and/or your luggage anywhere between your origin and
your destination.

<http://xkcd.com/482/>

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Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

Friday, August 21, 2009

This Kilogram Has A Weight-Loss Problem

This Kilogram Has A Weight-Loss Problem:

More than a century ago, a small metal cylinder was forged in London and sent to a leafy suburb of Paris. The cylinder was about the size of a salt shaker and made of an alloy of platinum and iridium, an advanced material at the time.

Since 1889, the year the Eiffel Tower opened, that cylinder has been the standard against which every other kilogram on the planet has been judged. But that's creating problems. According to scientists, the cylinder's mass appears to be changing.

(Thanks, inky)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Beetle shell ceiling

1.6 million Buprestidae shells were glued to the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Brussels. The project is by artist Jan Fabre and his team of 30 beetle-gluers.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!

Monday, August 17, 2009

I thought the nightmare was over...

Last night I dreamed I went over to a friend's house I was looking forward
to seeing, but we watched a horror movie. I'm not a big fan of horror
movies just because I get scared. This one was anime about some characters
who had to escape some middle ages monster, but it seemed to have a happy
ending when everyone got away (if only in spirit). I was relieved when I
thought the movie was over, but then I got the worst sensation of
real-world implications to watching the movie, as in it continued and
physically hurt me to watch the end which was like "The Ring" in that it
seemed to happen after the movie. It was like "Suicide Club", which I'm
still trying to ignore just because I can't deal with it right now (<-
drama). Anyway, I think I overslept this morning just to deal with this
dream.. Just woke up now at 11!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Help I'm alive by Metric.. Feel like Boomer from Battlestar Galactica when she's having trouble deciding between the water and the trigger
Why does the universe have to be so finite all the time?

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

sicker than sickest dog

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Yay I received the iTunes giftcard I had won!

Friday, July 31, 2009

In related new I just heard my itunes GC is on its way!

the macopoly sucks

I know apple has a good product. I have a macbook myself, and I used to like the ease with which it would sync my itunes library. Now that I have an android phone, though, it's starting to seem like apple is a bit close-minded. Why can't they release an itunes authenticator to let me play my music and videos on my other devices? This is especially ironic in that I believe quite strongly that illegal downloading is hurting the industry and if you're going to have a song on your music player 1$ is nothing especially if you can pick and choose which songs from which albums you want.
I went on a hike to Prevost today. A little far but cute and I got to seee a friend from high school I hadn't seen *since* high school! Overall quite a nice day..


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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Just watched 'Suicide Club'.. So scary in that depressing way, now I can't stop acting all Hamlet-like

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Addled

Sometimes I think I go too fast in the direction of my goals and end up going too far past the mark and getting lost.
For example I was on track with the renovations on my day off and enjoying myself after the day when today I pushed further and got a little overwhelmed with all the changes all of the sudden.
With the listening to my dad and getting surprised by my much older cousin I haven't seen in a while, my step-mom who the building my new apartment belongs to coming back tomorrow on an already delayed overseas flight and drinking a very rare beer, it's been an odd day.

Add to that watching the scariest Japanese movie I've ever seen (Suicide Club) and you can imagine what kind of evening I've been having. I'm getting neurotic thinking about being down and the beer getting me down because alcohol is a depressant. Now I want tea but usually when I'm down I skip any treating myself since I think waiting the depression out is better.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Pish Posh

Where I'm landed now.. Well the new apartment certainly is pretty awesome even though it's not finished. I sometimes still feel bad about going against my parents' wishes to change companies but I like my job a lot more now. My finances are OK, still nowhere near debt even this year hasn't been very good savings-wise.
At least I have my health, I should be happy but sometimes it's hard when I get down about being lonely or something or other and feel like I don't want to talk to my parents or brother because I never really had to growing up and it seems I don't want to be the kind of person to only talk to someone when they need a friend, even if I hope I can count on my family to always be there for me.
In general I'm pretty much living the dream, I feel like I give myself a 'carte blanche' when it comes to having fun or splurging on something, even if it's something I wouldn't have done even a few months ago.
Living alone is so liberating! Of course I still can't justify any of the fun I have, and this is going to sound extremely crazy but it's the little things, they're at once easy to do anyway if I feel like it, but when I am trying to be on my best behavior it's annoying not to be able to do things I used to take for granted.
Take listening to the radio in the car for example. I like listening to a pop station or another, but over the couple of years I've had my car I somehow managed to work all these little reasons why I 'shouldn't' listen to the radio, like that it uses the battery and therefore gas, or the stuff that's on the radio doesn't have very good cultural merit anyway or that listening to the radio will change me in the direction I'm trying to change away from (if that makes any sense) in order to be more attractive to the people I want to be with.
So that's about it, besides that everything is fine and if I can somehow find a way to deal with the fact that all these tiny unreasonable reasons always seem to pop up at the worst times to impede me from enjoying the most ordinary of pleasures I'll be all set.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Really happy to have won that iTunes gift card!

Thursday, July 02, 2009

http://ping.fm/DJG2P
I love my new apartment (even though there's nothing in it yet).. Camping and being forced to eat out is fun!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

There's something fun about living in a half-empty, half-moved into apartment.. The furniture can be moved around so much, etc.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

is in France!
is in France!

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Now that I've gotten the hang of biking to Ikea for breakfast I'm looking for places to go to. Forest trails in parc angrignon, check. Both costcos, check. I think I'll go to Mont Royal via McGill campus next.
Android needs a market website where apks without country restrictions can be freely downloaded from any PC