Posts about a variety of topics which are not news and are not reviews.
ARTICLE – Several weeks ago I was listening to the Stationery Orbit Podcast (because I’m a journal, pen, and stationery fanatic) and they mentioned that you can send a self-addressed stamped postcard to Blue Origin and it will be added to the payload of a future space mission and afterward, it will be mailed back […]
I got a postcard from space and you can too! Read More
ARTICLE – The year 2020 was a difficult one for pretty much everyone on the planet. We saw some seriously major catastrophes, some planetwide, some more localized. There were also innumerable minor personal tragedies, things like missed graduations, weddings, birthday parties, etc. For me, the cancellation of an in-person 2020 New York Comic Con, while
New York Comic Con 2021 trip report Read More
ARTICLE – Do you remember my article on microswimmers? Well, now engineers have developed microfliers – electronic microchips with wings! I first discovered this fascinating news on Jalopnik and dove further into the details on Northwestern University’s website. According to the Northwestern Now article, engineers John A. Rogers, Yonggang Huang, and others from Northwestern University
Check it out – “flying” microchips! Read More
ARTICLE – I’ve discovered a real fondness for leather products, but it is so very difficult to find high-quality well-made leather goods. That’s where companies like Saddleback Leather (Dave Munson and his wife, Suzette’s company) and Love41 (which features Suzette’s designs for women) come into the picture. They make some of the best-made leather goods
HOW TO – My home office tends to be a bit too warm, probably due to the heat generated by the routers, computers, and various gadgets that I have running. The best way I’ve found to solve this problem is to turn on a fan that sits in the hallway just outside my office so
How to – Turn on a fan with a motion sensor Read More
ARTICLE – Several months ago I noticed an article (PC Gamer) about scientists from Leiden University (Soft Matter) having printed a 15 micrometer-sized starship Voyager using a 3D microprinter (Photonic Professional GT, Nanoscribe GmbH). They did this to study how synthetic microswimmers move through a viscous substance. Synthetic microswimmers propel themselves through a substance by
ARTICLE – My sister and I have recently become obsessed with birds when she opened her curtains one morning and saw two Baltimore Orioles on her suet feeders. She was so excited to see a new bird that she’d never seen before that it made me start birdwatching too. I began keeping an eye on
How I repurposed a Blink camera to create the ultimate birdwatching camera Read More
ARTICLE – If you’ve been keeping up with the news lately, you know that this spring is all abuzz (ha!) with the emergence of Brood X (pronounced Brood “10”) cicadas. A brood is a mass emergence of cicadas which are the deafeningly loud insects (males trying to attract females) that you hear in the trees.
Help entomologists track the range of Brood X cicadas using the Cicada Safari app Read More
ARTICLE – Do you ever have a problem with laundry pods not fully dissolving? Or liquid detergent leaving behind marks, stains, or discoloration on your clothes? I did. And I thought I was the only one, figuring it was a user error on my part. But then I read in one of my online parenting
Detergent sheets bring minimalism to your laundry room Read More
ARTICLE – I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes back in 2004 but I have never taken insulin injections or other meds for it. With a few modifications to my lifestyle and diet, I have been able to get into the pre-diabetes range and stay there for the past 17 years. Here are some tips
ARTICLE – For years I had this idea to decorate my garage with all the tail lights of all the cars I’ve owned. Not the originals, of course, but junkyard specials, eBay finds, etc. I finally had some free time over the holidays so I finally assembled my collection and wired it up for some
My garage has an awesome feature that yours does not Read More
ARTICLE – Like so many others, COVID has changed our daily routines in a big way. For me, I’ve been working from home since the middle of March 2020. Before then, I rarely worked from home during the 33 years that I’ve worked for Cummins Inc. After a few months it started to feel like
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Julie Strietelmeier Read More
ARTICLE – I was already working from home at the beginning of last year (and had been off and on over the last decade) so there wasn’t a big shift as the stay at home recommendations began to roll in. The big shift came in March when I was laid off and my wife’s company
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Alex Birch Read More
ARTICLE – When COVID hit, we knew we were in for the long haul when it came to the work at home situation. So I redid my home office. Here’s my desk setup. If you look closely you’ll see find a number of my past review items that are still in service including my Vertex
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Bob Patterson Read More
ARTICLE – Having spent the majority of my life living and working in NYC, I’ve gotten pretty adept at making the best of small spaces. From the tiny one-room apartments I used to live in, to the slightly less tiny studios and startups I’ve worked for, space in NYC is always at a premium. Now
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Joe Porletto Read More
ARTICLE – For years, employees at our office have been asking to work from home—to deaf ears. Covid changed all that. If anything good can come from this god-awful pandemic, it’s that we discovered that working from home is not only doable, but preferable. So much so, that my employer is now selling the building.
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Bill Henderson Read More
ARTICLE – About a decade ago, the government agency I work for declared they were going “paperless”. Haven’t we heard that since electronics were invented? Just before the pandemic hit, our office was starting to have an all-electronic option for nearly every kind work we do- then we were told to Work From Home. Good
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Andy Chen Read More
How It Started ARTICLE – Back in March of 2020 when Central Pennsylvania closed schools for two weeks in a “Stop the Spread” initiative, I wasn’t sure how long I’d have to work from home. I set up my own personal laptop — an aging 11” MacBook Air — and downloaded Adobe Creative Cloud and
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Jacob Haas Read More
ARTICLE – My work-from-home setup is fairly simple. I work at the bar area in my home (first photo above) since my husband needs the space in our den/home office area (last photo above). I use a Lenovo Yoga 730 13″ laptop, a Logitech M585 Multi-device wireless mouse, Jaybird Tarah Pro earbuds for Zoom meetings,
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Kathleen Chapman Read More
ARTICLE – When my family started our work-from-home/school-from-home adventure, our set-up was loosey-goosey. My husband started in the already-established basement office but quickly found it too dark and depressing. So he moved to the sunroom. However, lounging on the couch with his laptop was awkward and uncomfortable. My boys mostly hid in their rooms. And
Gadgeteer team’s work from home (WFH) setups – Brooke Miller Hall Read More