Awesome ideas for lamps!

Aren't lamps boring? I remember looking for some lamps for our house a few years ago and not finding anything that we wanted. Some of the designs are interesting enough, but far from practical. While others are practical, but they don't fit in anywhere. I found some lamps that are truely unique in their design and even in their function. I'm not saying that these necessarily fit in everywhere either, but at least they aren't boring. Click the image below to see the list.

One of my favorite lamp designs is the Alien Abduction Lamp. I'm not sure where I would put a lamp like this, but I can see it being used somewhere. That is probably one of the cooler ideas for a lamp that I've ever seen. Isn't that cool? What a concept! Click here to read all about where the idea came from and how it has gone from an idea to a reality.

The FlapFlap lamp is also a unique design. I can see making one of these lamps, actually. It wouldn't be too terribly difficult. All you would really have to do is get a stiff tube and make it look like a cord. Wind it up at the bottom like in that picture and attach it securely to a lamp. There are so many light weight lamps like that out there that I can see this one being a fun project to put together. I think I'll give it a shot. :) It would be a great gift for someone.

So I guess the moral of this story is to never underestimate the creativity that still exists out there. Just when you think that everything is boring and it all looks the same, someone will come out with a lamp that floats on its own cord. Brilliant!

150 best Flash games

I love Flash games. You can play them online and they are free. Not to mention that they are great time killers when you are either bored at work or bored of everything else about the internet in general. This is a list of 150 of the best Flash based games on the web. You know you want to play a game. Go ahead... Click the link. Nobody can tell you how to spend your time online. ;)

Living severed hand

Have you ever wanted to really impress people on October 31st? Imagine walking around with your kids wearing one of these and asking the home owners if they dropped this on the lawn. Bwaahahahahaha!! With a good glove and a few household items you can have a kick ass costume accessory for Halloween.

Click Here for full instructions on how to make this masterpiece!!

Two really nifty Powerpoint tools

I used to use Powerpoint all the time. As a trainer who had to do my own developing I would spend hours and hours playing with it. Two tools that are really good for people who use Powerpoint a lot are 280 Slides and iSpring.

280 Slides is like having access to Powerpoint anywhere you have an internet connection. It is missing a few tools that Powerpoint has, but you won't miss them. It is a great way of sharing presentations with others. You can either develop the presentation right there online, or you can upload your presentation and share it from there. Awesome tool.

iSpring converts your PowerPoint presentation to an interactive Flash video with the click of a button. Not only is iSpring a great way to make your PowerPoint presentation more portable (not everyone has PowerPoint, after all), but as Digital Inspiration points out, an exported movie even preserves all of your slide transitions, animations, and hyperlinks. iSpring is freeware, Windows only, works with PowerPoint 2000 through 2007. Alternately, you can upload any presentation directly to the SlideBoom web site (which appears to convert and host Flash movies made with iSpring) if you don't want to host the presentation yourself.

You have to love technology!!!

Ever wanted to save that YouTube video forever?

Well now you can! There are acutally several systems that allow you to do it, but I have found a really good one that is free and reliable. It is called TubeMaster and I think you will like it.

Frome LifeHacker.com:

Windows only: Free streaming media capture tool TubeMaster is a great all-in-one solution for grabbing and converting audio and video from nearly any web site that can stream it to you. The no-install app launches as its own application with a built-in, tabbed browser—simply launch it, head to Last.fm, YouTube, a site with proprietary Flash video, or nearly any other streaming media, and hit "Start Media Capture." The files you grab are lined up in a queue for you to decide how to convert and save, and TubeMaster's built-in media search tool covers nearly 100 video and audio-sharing sites. There are browser plug-ins and apps that do some of the same things, but none quite as comprehensively as TubeMaster Plus. TubeMaster Plus is a free download for Windows systems only; upgrading to a paid version unlocks downloads from adult sites.

What a fun tool!

Tesla in the news...

Remember the post about that fantastic Tesla electric car awhile back? I think it was like one of my first posts. Anyway, I find it interesting that they are back in the news again. It would appear that six figure electric sports cars just aren't selling like they hoped they would in this economy. Go figure... Tesla has had to do some pretty major reorganization because of it.

Tesla is creating a pretty interesting and more practical application for their high tech cars. It is sort of Dodge Magnum-esque, but if it will put down the power and speed of an internal combustion engine, then I'm sure it will sell. Right now all we know is that it is said to go 225 miles on a single charge and will cost upwards of $60,000.


One of the holdups in getting this car on the road is the fact that Tesla is waiting on a federal loan guarantee for their plant in San Diego. In fact, one of the reasons they have been mentioned again recently is because they just closed their Detroit location and told all their employees to move to San Jose if they want to continue working for Tesla. We're hearing that approximately 90% of the office was simply let go, and the remaining employees have to make their way to the San Jose headquarters with no moving costs covered, no increase in salary and no help getting rid of their old homes. Fortunately, the real estate market in Detroit is red-hot, and the cost of living is about the same in San Jose.... right?

The relevant section from the Tesla pink slip blog-post-of-death below:

"There will also be some headcount reduction due to consolidation of operations. In anticipation of moving vehicle engineering to our new HQ in San Jose, we are ramping down and will close our Rochester Hills office near Detroit. Good communication, tightly knit engineering and a common company culture are of paramount importance as Tesla grows."

That's right folks, "good communication" is key.

And do you want to know the real reason for the lcoation in California? Click here if you really want to read the whole press release, but the bottom line is that the Governator is giving a significant tax credit to anybody investing in zero emission vehicle technology in California. So since Tesla is creating entirely electric cars, this makes plenty of sense for them. Sure they would love to have their entire organization in one place, but that isn't the real reason they pulled out of Detroit. They left Detroit so they could get the tax credit for the work they were doing out there by doing it in California. Yes, that was a great way to stimulate the economy in California, but what about all of the jobs that are going to be lost in other places because those states aren't giving the tax credit. Wouldn't it make sense for all states to offer the same thing? Why wouldn't Michigan offer a tax credits for auto manufactuers investing in ZEVs? Crazy...

Dear God, I want this car.

This is the most amazing thing I've seen in awhile. Who needs a $1.5 Million dollar car when you can get this kind of performance at the smooth deal of $620K? I don't know that I'd like to fill the 30+ gallon gas tank every 7 minutes, but I think if I could afford this car then I wouldn't whine about fuel costs so much. What a car...