Kevin Kelly's Blog, page 7

Bob Clagett, Maker

Our guest this week is Bob Clagett. Bob loves making stuff. He loves showing other people how he works to hopefully inspire them and empower them to make whatever is that they’re passionate about.

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Show notes:

AirTable + IFTTT

“So Airtable is, like it was mentioned before, it’s kind of an online spreadsheet. And that’s one way that people use it. But the thing that makes it different for me and the way that I use it is more of a relational database. I come from a software background, so when you’re programming you often have a database of tables, and those tables need to relate to each other. … The way that I use that in my business is I have what looks like a spreadsheet that is my project schedule, and then I have a separate one that is project ideas that I come up with all the time and I just dump into this big list, and I use IFTTT for that. … IFTTT is about taking multiple online services of all different types and connecting them together. So if something happens on one, it can cause something to happen on another. And I use that with Airtable. The IFTTT app, I’ve got a little thing set up where I can open an app on my phone that’s just a text field and a button, and that’s all it is. And if I type in a project idea, and I hit that button, it disappears. It’s gone. But in the background it’s sending that to Airtable. It’s putting in my list of project ideas, and it just keeps it there, and then I don’t have to remember it anymore, but I also don’t lose it.”

Nest Hello

“The Hello is a doorbell, which seems, for the price it sounds so unrealistic to actually get, because it’s several hundred dollars. But it’s an HD camera built into a tiny little doorbell, and it’s the same technology that they have in their security cameras … It’s small and kind of modern-looking and it hooks right up to the normal hookup for a doorbell. So you don’t have to really do anything special to get this in to place. And it’s got some really cool features. It’s very new, so I think some of the features that will be the coolest have yet to be added. But when you get it hooked up and someone walks up to your door, you get a notification on your phone or device or whatever that shows you video of the person who’s walked up to the door. And you can press a button onscreen, and you can talk to them remotely through the doorbell. It’s got some kind of canned responses that you can just press a button and this voice will say, “Just leave the package by the door,” there’s a few things like that. But one of the coolest things, I think, about it is that they’ve got some facial recognition stuff built in to it. So once it starts to take pictures, it gets this video of the people that come up to your door, and it keeps a log of all these pictures of the people.”

ISOtunes Bluetooth Headphones

“They have basically the same features as far as listening that every other headphone in the world. But they have an interesting phone insert on them that you roll it up and you kind of heat it with your finger, between your thumb and your finger, and it squishes it down. And then when you put it in your ear it expands and completely fills the ear canal. So it cuts out basically all the noise that can come in. And the guy that works with me is maybe 10 feet from me right now, and I’ve yelled at the top of my voice his name to try to get his attention with these things in, and it completely blocks it out. But one of the things that I think is even color about them is that they have a, I can’t remember exactly what they call it, but it’s like a consistent noise level suppression. So if there’s a noise in the background, like if you had a saw running that was kind of the same noise the whole time or like a lawn mower or something, it can actively cut that sound out. So you can take a phone call while you’re on a riding lawn mower, and the person on the other end doesn’t really even know that there’s a mower running. They just hear when your voice spikes and things like that. That’s the part that they hear. And I have not heard of any other Bluetooth headphone that does that.”

Prusa i3 MK3 3D printer

“I’ve had several different 3D printers. I use them a lot for my projects. And I’m in a position where a lot of companies will send me things, and I get to try out really expensive things that I wouldn’t ever justified buying myself. But I have a lot of people who ask me about a good first printer. And I think the problem with that question is a lot of people are looking for a good first cheap printer. And what you actually want is a good printer, not a cheap printer, because cheap printers that don’t work very well are gonna make you hate 3D printing and think that it doesn’t work. And so when I’ve looked at a bunch of different ones from the perspective of cost and functionality and tried to find something in the middle, and I got the Prusa I3 Mark 2 a couple of years ago when it came out, and it was fantastic. It was like $699 for a printer that worked almost perfectly every single time right out of the box. You didn’t have to do anything to it, and it was a great printer, I was really happy with it. And then they announced this Mark 3, which is an upgraded version of the same thing. But they added all these features that just make it awesome. It’s now one of my favorite printers just because of its features. And then when you look at the price compared to a lot of other printers, it’s very, very reasonably priced for what you’re getting out of it. … It’s got a panic thing built in to it. So if it loses power, it has a little bit of a battery or capacitor in it somewhere that if it senses power dropping it will write the state of the print to some sort of a memory. And then when power is reapplied it’ll ask you, “Do you want to continue to print?” And you hit yes, and then it re-homes the print head, just goes over to the corner, and then comes right back and starts printing. It’s amazing. I’m sure there are other printers that do that, but I’ve never seen one, and it works great.”

Also mentioned:

Making Time by Bob Clagett

 

 

We have hired professional editors to help create our weekly podcasts and video reviews. So far, Cool Tools listeners have pledged $346 a month. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. We have great rewards for people who contribute! – MF

Pocket magic trick/Minimalism notebooks/How to apologize

Imp bottle magic trick

I bought this $5 pocket trick in 2015. It’s a tiny plastic bottle with a spherical base. It has a weighted bottom to keep it from tipping over. I can make it lie on its side, but no one else can (unless they know the secret, and surprisingly few do). Drive your friends crazy with frustration. — MF

Minimalism notebooks

I’ve long been a fan of blank (no-lines) Moleskine notebooks, large and small. I recently switched to Minimalism Art notebooks which are very similar, maybe better, quality and half the price. They also come in bright cover colors. — KK

Apologize effectively

I often refer back to this Reddit LifeProTip that describes the three parts of an effective apology. (1) Acknowledge how your action affected the person; (2) Say you’re sorry; (3) Describe what you’re going to do to make it right or make sure it doesn’t happen again. Don’t excuse or explain. It’s amazing how easy this is to forget so I have it saved and pinned in my iCloud notes. — CD

Binge watch TV: Colony

I’m eagerly looking forward to season 3 of Colony, a science fiction thriller about a world under lockdown after aliens arrive and take over. We never see the aliens — the oppressors are the humans who have cut a deal with the aliens to administrate repressive and cruel martial law in exchange for better living conditions. The story centers on a family trying to survive in a militarized, walled-off Los Angeles, where the smallest infraction is punishable by death. — MF

Teleport around the world

Globe Genie is a relaxing respite from my daily routine. I randomly bounce around to remote places, imagine myself there and appreciate the hugeness of the world. — CD

Pinterest scrapbooks

A lot of folks, especially guys, kind of sneer at Pinterest, but I use it all the time. I have the Pinterest plugin activated on my web browsers, so anytime I come across an image or visual idea on a webpage I want to save, I simply click on the little red Pinterest bug that appears in the left corner of that image, and it is saved to a “pin board” of my choosing. The advantage of this method over say Evernote is that each image saved can unearth many more similar images from all the Pinterest boards. So say I am researching how to make a lumber rack, I can collect a few examples from Google Images, or from some online forum, and then Pinterest will generate many more similar that others have collected. I can then curate my own collection from those, which is better than just looking at pages of Google results. You can keep your collections private or make them public, as I do with some of mine. — KK

Michael Borys, Interactive Design Director

Our guest this week is Michael Borys. He is a designer who creates experiences for the entertainment industry. He is currently the Vice President of Interaction and Game Design at 42 Entertainment, a Magician Member of The Magic Castle and his immersive magic show is called The 49 Boxes — which is not to be missed.

Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page

Show notes:

The Book of Codes

“It is a treasure trove of every single type of language that is used for encryption from the dawn of man to now. Of course, you’ve got braille and Morse and things like that. There’s even Klingon. It sort of teaches your brain to look at the world differently and see language in everything. For example, the way that binary works, as you know, it’s all ones and zeroes, and binary isn’t just on-off like that. It can be birds sitting on a fence, and if a bird has his wings up that could be a one, and if he’s got his wings down it can be a zero … Even a hem of a dress, if it has stitching that changes from time to time, you can embed information even with stitching that way. … I’m looking at Page 19, for example. It gives you versions of how information was decoded in the hems in garments during times of war, for example. And so across enemy lines … This is called steganography, by the way, the hiding of information. Soldiers were given information that were kept in their jackets. And so when they would go across enemy lines, if they were captured their capturers wouldn’t know that they actually had this information, but if they did get to where they needed to go the information could then be parsed, and that could win a war or lose a war. … hundreds and hundreds of these different ways of thinking that just become part of your rote memory, and so it makes you, as you travel, as you work, as you meet people and see things in a curio shop, you’ll realize that information is being hidden everywhere without anybody knowing it. It’s exciting, actually.”

The Puzzle Keyring ($30)

“I wish I had this at every room escape that I tried to solve, because it’d be a tool to both to make puzzles, think about things differently, and to solve things really quickly. It’s great. … It is a plastic-coated booklet, so you can dump it in water, and it’d still be fine. Unrippable, and it’s on a metal keyring so that you can have it on your keys if you wanted to during the event. It’s too bulky to have it with you every day of your life, but, boy, is it convenient. It’s durable, and it’s very, very useful.”

BLACK+DECKER Impact Screwdriver ($60)

“Because my show travels, all my tools have to travel, and a lot of times I don’t have time to be delicate with the stuff that I have. This particular Black & Decker drill, I’ve charged it one time in two years, and darn it, it is great. Whenever I need it, it is ready. It had a light at the head of it. It seems unbreakable. I have a few different ones because I have a couple different sets of screws on many boxes that I have to undo and do during the show. This thing has been a lifesaver. You’re probably expecting, well, specialized tools, but this is the best drill I’ve ever had in my life. It was like 70 bucks, but again, it has fallen 20 feet to the ground and it’s never shattered, and it’s just always been there for me.”

Mag Hand Workstation

“That is the greatest for me because what this is is a platform that has magnetic trays — and it’s heavy, which is good — that I can keep the tiniest screws in and the tiniest washers, and because I’m always working with these tiny boxes and building things and making things tighter than what they probably were designed for, things fly all of the place, and how many times have you lost eyeglass screws? This thing, I can tip it upside down and all my screws and washers stay in one spot. I’ve knocked it on the ground and things have been fine. And there are also these posable arms with clips on the end of them, so if I’m ever painting something or I’m staining something that’s delicate, I don’t have the stain or the paint on my hands, because this thing will hold very objects in place for me so I won’t have to worry about that. It’s great. It’s a multipurpose thing that keeps me sane.”

Also mentioned:

Hidden Codes & Grand Designs

Locked by Jim Kleefeld

 

 

We have hired professional editors to help create our weekly podcasts and video reviews. So far, Cool Tools listeners have pledged $346 a month. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. We have great rewards for people who contribute! – MF

Mushrooms Demystified

Veterans of wild mushrooming quickly graduate to author David Arora’s masterpiece, Mushrooms Demystified, which is the undisputed bible of mushroom knowledge in North America. Where All That the Rain Promises and More… is breezy and succinct, Demystified is encyclopedic and exhaustive. You take Rains out to the mushrooms in the woods; you bring the mysterious ones back to the heavy Demystified tome at your kitchen table.

Mosquito Netting

I hate mosquitoes. Serious gut-tightening allergic aversion. One bite at night and I am awake for hours, and I’ll itch for days. They’ll always find me, too. I’ve learned to ignore what natives say; there are mosquitoes around, and they do bite. When I travel in any remotely warm place, I pack my own mosquito netting. It weighs only a few ounces and can scrunch up small. It’s cheap, and lasts forever. I’m still using one I bought 30 years ago for $2. I like the boxy four-cornered variety to fit over a bed or sleeping bag. I tie a 6-foot long string to each corner; that usually enables me to attach the string somewhere to keep the net elevated at night. I tie it to trees if I am camping without a tent.

I haven’t figured out why more people don’t pack their own. Mine has saved my life more than once. Mostly by allowing me to sleep soundly, but also because with it I avoid mosquito-borne diseases in areas they are common. Studies have shown that sleeping in a net is more effective at preventing malaria than taking prophylactic drugs. I insist my family use netting while we travel in the heat overseas. A quick search led me to Coleman as the least expensive source for a one-person camp-style box net.

There are new self-supporting varieties of mosquito netting, which would be useful where there is little outside support but lots of mosquitoes (tundra, everglades). They are more expensive, but still lightweight. I haven’t tried these. Let me know if you do.

Hazard Fraught Tools

Koichi, Tofugu

Our guest this week is Koichi. Koichi started Tofugu, a blog to help people get to Japan and have a good time once they get there, and WaniKani, a kanji learning program that uses mnemonics, SRS, and some morally ambiguous addiction strategies to teach you around 2,000 kanji and 6,000 Japanese vocabulary words up to 10x faster.

Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page

Show notes:

Magic

“Magic is kind of a concierge service. When they first started, I think their whole thing was like, ‘We can do anything,’ and then they had examples like renting you a helicopter or helping you meet a celebrity or things like that, things that I don’t think anyone would actually do. … I use them for less magical things, things like going through data and pulling things out, or even just making reservations at restaurants, really just all the time consuming things that I don’t want to do. I send it to them, and they have a bunch of people and I believe they’re all college graduates and it used to be everyone was in the U.S. … they just get things done very quickly and then I come back and it’s done. It’s magic, I guess, in that sense.”

Airtable

“Airtable is something we adopted at work, and then I started adopting it in my regular life. I had a lot of spreadsheets before in Google Drive … But I didn’t understand any of the math parts of it, so I just make pretty spreadsheets with colors in them and stuff like that. I was more interested in the text … Airtable is, I guess the quick way to pitch it is it’s spreadsheets minus most of the complicated math. You can still add stuff together and do other simple math things, but it’s a lot more tailored towards, of course, text and also things like images. You can upload images to cells and audio, different kind of files. It’s a lot more about that side of spreadsheets, the things that everyone tries to use spreadsheets for.”

Cornell Notes system

“The Cornell notes-taking system, it’s just like if you’re in a class or you’re reading a book and you just need to take notes … the way it’s set up is you have two columns … one column on the left side is a little bit shorter and it’s supposed to be kind of a keyword, or what the topic is. For example, if we’re just using it to take notes on the tools that I talked about before, maybe the left side would just be Magic or Airtable. It’s just something to help you trigger a memory. Then, on the right side, you’d put in the information about it, like, ‘Magic is a 24/7 text message-based concierge service that lets you do blah, blah, blah, blah.’ You have these two columns, one that’s the trigger and one that’s the thing that you want to remember. Then, at the very bottom, they have you put the summary, which is just kind of the basic theme of whatever that page is. That’s assuming you’re doing it by hand. It would be like Cool Tools Podcast would be the summary, and maybe something about what the podcast is about and why you’re doing it. … It’s a little bit like flash cards, but it’s all in your notebook. You can set it up on your computer too with tables. … You can just use that to help memorize things, because it triggers your memory and it forces you to recall something, which is really important, rather than just reading your notes over and over again and making yourself pull it out of your brain. It’s going to be the thing that helps you remember, and then this style of note-taking method, it really caters to that and helps you to memorize or remember whatever you want to remember. Even if it’s not really formal memorization of raw data, it’s just like reviewing notes, it’ll help you to remember things longer and just things keep organized pretty well too.”

 

 

We have hired professional editors to help create our weekly podcasts and video reviews. So far, Cool Tools listeners have pledged $369 a month. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. We have great rewards for people who contribute! – MF

Mobile Justice/Daily/Long-term thinking

Mobile justice

If you spot police officers doing something wrong, you can record them with the free Mobile Justice app from the ACLU. It sends the video directly to an ACLU server so even if the police illegally confiscate your phone they won’t be able to delete the incriminating video. — MF

No-frills To-Do app

I like to blame my To-Do List apps if things don’t get done. I get annoyed with reminders, then turn off notifications, and eventually delete. Daily – Zen Planner’s super simplistic design is non-threatening and easy to use. I type up tasks and move them to either the Today or Soon screen. — CD

Two Rooms and a BoomLong-term thinking

To encourage me to take a long-term view I’m a regular at the Seminars for Long-term Thinking hosted by the Long Now Foundation (where I am a founding board member). The hour-long talks (plus 30 minute Q&A) happen once a month in San Francisco. The topics are surprisingly diverse, ranging from ancient history to speculative futures, from food to nuclear power, from Silicon Valley to the Silk Road — all with a slant to the next 10,000 years. Several hundred past talks are archived and available to the public as free podcasts. For those outside San Francisco, or disinclined to travel unnecessarily, a membership to the Long Now gives you access to a real-time streaming version of each talk; you can even ask questions live. (Next up, next week, Steven Pinker.) — KK

I played this social deception/deduction game with about a dozen other people on the JoCo Cruise a few weeks ago. If you’ve played Werewolf or Mafia you’ll be familiar with this kind of game. In Two Rooms and a Boom, the goal is for team red to blow up the president, and the goal of team blue is to stop them. Each game takes about 15 minutes and if you’re like me, you’ll end up playing multiple rounds until way past your bedtime. It’s addictive — MF

Best scheduler

The best way to schedule a meeting for a bunch of busy people is via Doodle, a free easy website. No need to sign up. Just lay out all possible time slots and let everyone else go to the site, and click the times that work for them. The site sorts out the best time/date. No email tag. Quick, painless, I’ve been using the site for years. — KK

Get rid of frizz and flyaways

My favorite quick-fix hair product is Bumble and Bumble Brilliantine. The product description says it’s unique and hard to define, and it’s true. I use it when I don’t have enough time to heat style my hair. I rub a dime-size amount between my palms and pat it through out my hair to smooth it out, create shine and get rid of flyaways. — CD

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Madeline Ashby, Sci-fi Writer

We have hired professional editors to help create our weekly podcasts and video reviews. So far, Cool Tools listeners have pledged $365 a month. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. We have great rewards for people who contribute! – MF

Our guest this week is Madeline Ashby. Madeline is a science fiction writer and futurist living in Toronto. Her most recent novel, Company Town, was a finalist for the 2017 CBC Books Canada Reads prize. She has also developed science fiction prototypes for the Institute for the Future, SciFutures, Data & Society, Nesta, the Atlantic Council, NASA, and others.

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Show notes:

Clarisonic Mia ($169)

“The Clarisonic is a device that uses the same technology as something like a Sonicare toothbrush … and other sort of ultra sonic cleaning devices to wash your face. It’s a device that has a brush on one end of it and basically vibrates across your face at a certain frequency and vibrates the bristles on a brush head to exfoliate your face, and it works like a dream. And I’ve owned one for about four years now, and it has yet to die, which I suppose I’m jinxing myself. But all of those four years have been wonderful. … I bought it when I turned 30 as a gift to myself because I wanted to actually start taking my skin seriously, for once. And I’ve found that, much like a Sonicare Toothbrush, which I also have, having the device forced me to be more mindful about what I was doing and encouraged me in a good habit, which was washing my face in the morning and at night. The logic behind the Clarisonic is that, because you’ve exfoliated with this device, anything you put on your skin like serums, or sunscreen, or anything like that, will actually go deeper into your skin. I don’t know about the actual science of that, but I do think that anything that actually helps you wash your face is probably good for you in the long term.”

Women’s Girl on the Go Insulated Trench Coat ($140)

“This is the coat from Eddie Bauer that I recommend to everyone. The Girl on the Go Insulated Trench Coat is fully waterproof and has a button-in insulated lining that you can take in or take out. So you can wear it, and I wore mine all over the world. I’ve worn it in Toronto, in New York. It got me through a New York rainstorm. I wore it at the Gullfoss in Iceland. I’ve worn it through Scotland. It’s really perfect for days where you don’t quite know what’s gonna happen weather-wise. The lining is sort of thin enough that it’s pretty packable, and the coat itself is very light and easy to wear. And crucially, it comes in petite, tall, and plus sizes in a bunch of different colors. So, everyone can have one. It’s one of the things that I love and I carry with me everywhere.”

Travelon Set of 7 Packing Envelopes ($14)

“I use the Travelon Clear Packing Envelopes both for packing, both for travel, and for just everything in my house. There are clear packing envelopes all over my bedroom. I have a couple I carry with me in various bags that I might be using. I’m a big bag full of bags person ’cause it allows me to change bags really easily. It’s like “Oh, this is the cosmetics bag. It goes in here. This is the bag full of cables and dongles. It goes here. This is the bag that’s full of stickies, and stationary, and pens, and it goes here. And do I need the pens bag today? Yes. Do I need the cosmetics bag today? Yes, or no. And the clear packing envelopes really help with that, in that they can get you through security a bit faster and help you find stuff more quickly.”

Hamilton Beach Set ‘n Forget Programmable Slow Cooker With Temperature Probe ($37)

“The slow cooker that we have at home is the Set and Forget Slow Cooker with a built-in meat thermometer. And in the era of the Instant Pot, I recognize it’s probably passé to recommend a slower cooker, but I really like the meat thermometer function that it has because it means you can program the device to bring a piece of meat to temperature and it immediately just kicks off into the warming mode after. So, one of the problems that is endemic to slow cookers, or has been endemic to slow cookers, is that they overcook things. And this prevents you from doing that and works really well.”

Also mentioned:

Company Town

“Company Town is the story of Go Jung-Hwa. She’s a bodyguard for the United Sex Workers of Canada Union Local 314, on a city that floats around an oil rig, 500 kilometers Northeast of Saint John’s Newfoundland. And she is working for the Sex Worker’s Union when a new company buys the entire town and instantiates themselves as the new owners. They buy the entire city of New Arcadia, and they ask her to be the bodyguard for the heir to the throne, the heir to the company, a boy named Joel Lynch, who will one day inherit the company and who appears to be getting death threats from the future.”

Magnetic Drive Guide

Long ago a contractor friend of mine turned me onto a simple fixture for a power drill. It’s an inexpensive gizmo that allows anyone to drive long screws in straight and fast. That’s a huge plus now that sheetrock screws have replaced nails for most homestead projects. The guide fits into any chuck. You slip the screw head-first into the extended tube. A magnet at the bottom holds it. You place the loaded guide with the tip of the screw poking out over the place where you want to screw and the tube collapses as the screw goes in. The result: no muss, no-hands, quick, straight-in screw first time. Kids and newbies really love it. I keep one permanently affixed to my drivers. I use it for short as well as long screws. In fact I had forgotten how dependent I had become on the guide until I misplaced one recently and had to work without it. Now I have multiple backups. I don’t think the brand matters; I use a $5 one. Make your life easier: keep one on your driver.