a crank’s progress

MAKE magazine $5 amp project

Originally uploaded by paulbeard.

Took me a good deal more than $5, even with some donated parts, and it look way more than an afternoon. But I learned a lot in the process, and I get a toy out of the deal. [...]

Holgaroid

Originally uploaded by paulbeard.

I made a Holgaroid, from the guts of Polaroid EE100, and a Holga lens and a shutter. Some foam-core makes up the balance. More details here.

Charlie Stross explains “Why the commercial ebook market is broken” in detail. This has been percolating since I read it and I have been researching what the state of the hardware market is for this kind of thing.

I’m interested in something like this to gain access to a lot of the books on Project Gutenberg [...]

And who am I to argue?

iTunes Introduces Complete My Album:

Apple today announced Complete My Album, a groundbreaking new iTunes service that allows customers to turn their individual tracks into a complete album at a reduced price by giving them a full 99¢ credit for every track they have previously purchased from that album.

But no one wants — or ever wanted [...]

It’s been almost 5 years since My first weblog posting. Move along, nothing more to see here . . . . (Apr 12 2002) and I think I am as bored with this as, well, you.

This will probably become a repository for del.icio.us links and photos from Flickr. What little I know about anything I [...]

Eumerica
The 25%ers have marginalized themselves.
(tags: politics science culture values)

Why the commercial ebook market is broken
I was wondering just a week or so ago if the parts/tech for a home-brew ebook reader existed. MAKE magazine, pick up the white courtesy phone.
(tags: books technology howto diy markets)

Writing: 300 and Viewpoints
Rogers on the anti-Americanism of ‘300.’ Excerpts would be a disservice.
(tags: storytelling culture values film)

The Enemy Within
Rolling Stone: “[T]he Democrats’ most dangerous opponent in 2008 may be the political consultants they hire to run their campaigns.” Message discipline? Focus? Eh.
(tags: democrats politics)

The Plight of Newspapers
more like the “the future of newspaper” assuming [...]