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It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Quickies

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the or-maybe-thats-just-the-cataracts dept.

It's been a long time coming, so lets start off the quickies with some acts of senseless damage. Old Wolf sent us a link to a bunch of pictures of someone Defrosting a Freezer in the best way ever, and an anonymous reader sent in a site that shows what happens if you put a CD in Microwave. Don't use AOL CDs., send them to this lady who collects them (from gr8fulnded). On to the sex! An anonymous reader submitted a story about the Robot Pet Vibrator which is I guess AIBO gone wrong. elkm discovered Computerized Contraception. And with all this digital doin' it going on, its good know that MITs Erotic Computation Group is here to research it (thanks Chris Moon) The world is full of strangeness, but little of it is as scary as MissNachos's link to the Hello Kitty laptop, srini's link to the Single Pixel Webcam, and aneanti's link to a collection of the strangest canned foods you'll ever see. Finally, since it is the holidays, check out mrv's link to LED Christmas Lights which sure beats the hell out of finding the broken bulb.

10 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. LED Christmas Lights by Aztech · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've had some since around 1992... but that's innovation for you.

  2. Freezer defrosting by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 5, Informative
    That link is probably slashdotted by now. It shows pics of someone using a flame torch to defrost the ice that builds up on the inside of the freezer.

    Contrary to that method, the traditional action involves putting a boiling kettle into the empty freezer. This removes the ice quite nicely. If you ever try to de-ice an upright freezer by any method, MAKE SURE you put some sort of vessel in the bottom to catch the water dripping, otherwise you'll turn around and see water flooding out of the freezer and ruining the floor. Yes, this is from experience ;-)

  3. Nomoreaolcds.com by brunes69 · · Score: 4, Informative

    May I suggest to you, and all you AOL CD haters, to save up your CD's and ship them to nomoreaolcds.com? They have over 7,000 already, but need alot more to reach their goal of one million!

  4. Pink Hello Kitty Laptop has **Moved** by TheMCP · · Score: 5, Informative

    The new URL is http://www.exonome.com/fj/phkl/.
    Please use the new URL. The owner of the site of the old URL would probably rather not be slashdotted.

    Incidentally I know the guy who did this, he's utterly cool. You should check out some of his other stuff at http://www.exonome.com/fj/ such as ToriAntiTori and Virginity At Last. (ObDisclaimer: I had a hand in the latter.)

  5. Erotic Computation archive by yoz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Slashdotted... so web.archive.org to the rescue!

    http://web.archive.org/web/20011201213554/http://e cg.media.mit.edu/

    -- Yoz

  6. Measuring the speed of light with marshmallows by Brant · · Score: 5, Informative
    I've actually done this with a first year physics class I taught. They thought I was a bit loony, but it worked.

    Take a bunch of mini-marshmallows and spread them out evenly on a plastic tray, covering the whole tray with a single layer. Put this inside a microwave, making sure that the tray doesn't rotate. Turn the microwave on for ~30 seconds on low.

    Now, take the tray out of the microwave. You'll see a repeating pattern in the marshmallows, going from puffy to flat and back to puffy again in an array. What you're seeing is the standing wave of the microwaves reflecting off of the sides of the microwave.

    Now, measure the average distance between peaks in the standing wave. This is the wavelength of the microwaves. Now, here's the cheating part. Look on the back of the microwave for the frequency of the microwaves. It's usually around 2540 MHz. Calculate the speed of light from

    c = frequency x wavelength

    Heh. Now that I've written that all out, I've found a link. Here's another, very similar method on : bowle's physics.

    Brant

  7. plasma ball in mw by SubtleNuance · · Score: 3, Informative

    Another neat MW trick is building a sustained plasma ball

    it is done w/ a pencil led and a microwave-safe glass ball... very cool, must try.

    see here also.

  8. He's answered this before by Galvatron · · Score: 3, Informative

    The approximate quote went something like "I actually really like the quickies too, but they take a lot of work. You need at least a half dozen links, and people just don't send in many interesting, small things for me to use. So send in more quickies, and I'll post them more often." I think it was in a Geeks in Space episode (which are highly entertaining, I listened to most of them while playing Half-life).

    --
    "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  9. Erotic Computation Group a Hoax by iReflect · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/technology/03ERO S.html?searchpv=nytToday

    or copy/paste:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/technology/03E RO S.html?searchpv=nytToday

  10. Re:Canned food? PORK BRAINS! by DaoudaW · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's one in every crowd, so here goes...
    5.5 oz times 28.4 grams per oz is 156 grams. Pure fat, the highest calorie food available, has 9 calories per gram, so 156 grams times 9 calories per gram is 1406 calories maximum.

    According to the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 14 Braised Pork brains have 138 calories per 100 grams or 215 calories in our 5.5 oz can.

    Yeah, I know, the satirical art by Mom and Pop artist Mandy Warhole makes a better story, but someone has to standup for the pork producers.

    Amazingly just last Saturday, I was discussing hog butchering with some of the old-timers and they said that they used to serve Pork Brains and Scrambled Eggs for lunch on Butchering Day. I'm not making this up...