Super compact 9V USB charger

(via MAKEzine blog)

I’ve seen a lot of 9V battery based USB chargers.  Most seem built around an Altoids mint container.  This one is far smaller, and doesn’t have room to actually hold the 9V battery.  Basically, you plug the battery in on one side and the USB device which needs charged in the other.  I’ve skipped all the other 9V USB guides, but I may try to put one of these together just for those occasions when I have something which charges or runs off a USB connection.  It even has a cool little LED so you can tell when it’s working.

One of the really cool things about this is the charger itself is built from the shell of a 9V battery.  Instructions and images are given for disassembling one battery to build the charger.  Obviously, then, you need a non-disassembled battery to hook up and provide power for the USB port.

[tags]9V USB charger, YAN9VUSBC (Yet another 9 volt USB charger)[/tags]

More guitar playing madness

If you just haven’t learned enough about playing guitar, then try getting in on this offer, from the February 1968 issue of Popular Mechanics.

PLAY GUITAR IN 7 DAYS OR MONEY BACK

TOP GUITARIST ED SALE’S famous 66 page secret system worth $3.00 teaches you to play a beautiful song the first day and any song by ear or note in seven days. Contains 52 photos, 87 finger placing charts, etc. plus 110 popular and western songs, (words and music); a $1.00 Chord Finder of all the chords used in popular music; and a $3.00 Guitarist Book of Knowledge.

TOTAL VALUE $7.00 —ALL FOR ONLY $2.98

SEND NO MONEY! Just your name and address, pay postman: $2.98 plus CO.D. postage. Or send $3.00 with order and I pay postage. (Sorry, no C.O.D. outside Continental U.S.A.—please remit with order) .
10-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
ED SALE, Studio 154-B, Avon By The Sea, N.J. 07717

[tags]Play guitar, Modern Mechanix[/tags]

On the effectiveness of aluminum foil hats

(via Neatorama)

Time for all the nutjobs to pay attention! Some of the fine thinkers at MIT have taken the time to do an empirical study on the effectiveness of, well, like the headline says – aluminum foil hats. Since I know some folks use these fancy hats to block the UFO mind-reading rays (and probably the President Bush mind reading rays, the use of which was instituted shortly before he started using the weather controlling hurricane creating rays), you should probably spend some time finding out what protection they provide.
Here’s the abstract:

Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government’s invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

Well, can you really trust them now? Maybe those hats work, and these guys are just part of the conspiracy? And why aluminum foil and not tin foil? Things that make you go hmmmmmm?

[tags]Aluminum foil hats, Protecting the brain from the UFO mind-reading rays[/tags]