January 2009 Archives

I recently came across the flash drive you can see above on the left - the one that looks like the sort of memory that sits inside most computers. It appealed to me as I enjoy messing around with the innards of gadgets and devices.

And I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind students that a flash drive is really a necessity these days. It makes it easy to keep your own copies of files - or transfer data between school and home - although you can use Remote Access for this as well.

They are so cheap - a 2GB one for about £5 from Argos or about £3 from Amazon - that there isn't an excuse.

And as the pictures here show - you can get various novelty versions ..... at a price.

from this	to this

Earlier this month Philip Broucom posted a video showing a "toy" he'd bought at the MOMA store in New York. It became quite a popular item to link to for a while because it shows off the rather amazing properties of a Yoshimoto cube.

Sadly, there does not seem to be anywhere in this country - on the Web - that sells this item. But there are several sites that show how you can make your own - like this one

A few other links I've visited include :

• forgetomori.com - where I first saw the video
• polyhedral toy - a simple page with basic animation and some photos
• unfolding cubes - good animations and a pattern for cutting out

Look carefully at the picture above.

Can you spot anything interesting about it? Try looking at it upside down.

I first saw this one here at 'Justinsomnia' - if you follow the link the answer should be obvious if you didn't spot it for yourself.

Read more about ambigrams here and there's a whole gallery here from Kevin Pease.

Last week the Royal Mail decided to commemorate British design with a set of stamps featuring various icons from over the years. The full set can be seen here at De Zeen.

The WMD PC by Peter Dickison is just fantastic.

As you can see from the "pledge" on the right it going to be marked by people writing about notable women in technology on their weblogs. I'll be writing here on that day - come back and see who I have chosen.

Originally saw this item on BoingBoing.

January 4^th was the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille.

A remarkable young man who, at the age of 15, invented the system of reading and writing that now bears his name - Braille. The Wikipedia article about him shows how his idea is based upon a system developed by someone else but his genius was in refining it so that it became a truly useful mechanism to help blind people read and write.

An article by David Blunkett at the BBC site illuminates the subject further.

Visit the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind people) site to learn more or even learn how to read Braille.

Did you get a new console for Christmas? Maybe perhaps some new games?

If you're struggling to learn the various button combinations then you might find this article interesting. It shows how console controllers have changed over the years. There's also a link to another graphic for portable console systems too.

Back to school today and so you'll need to put away the gum to avoid trouble in the classroom for a while at least - especially if you try doing this.

Perhaps chewing bubblegum takes some skill after all.

The after-school sessions are intended to extend and help with GCSE practical coursework for Year 10 & 11 students. If there are spare workstations then other students are welcome too.

Location : B25 - Time : 3 pm to 4:30 pm

15. Friday, 9^th January 2009
16. Wednesday, 14^th January 2009
17. Thursday, 22^nd January 2009
18. Friday, 30^th January 2009
19. Thursday, 5^th February 2009
20. Wednesday, 11^th February 2009
     
     - HALF TERM -
     
    
21. Friday, 27^th February 2009
22. Thursday, 5^th March 2009
23. Wednesday, 11^th March 2009
24. Friday, 20^th March 2009
25. Wednesday, 25^th March 2009
26. Thursday, 2^nd April 2009

The day of the week changes to avoid 'clashing' with regular events like homework clubs or sport practice.