nzeldes 
Some designs never change… Consider this one: Two instances of the same product exactly – but separated in time by two millennia. The die on the left is one of a collection of bone dice I saw in the archeological museum of Pompeii. The design worked then, and it works now. Nothing to improve… … Read more
A century ago Gilbert Small, of Waltham, Massachusetts, invented a compact pocket calculator that is small, effective, and designed with special attention to usability. Read the new article on my History of Computing site to see what he’d crafted!
We’re all familiar with the spring-loaded paper napkin dispenser to the right. Every low-priced restaurant and diner has these; you’d think it has hit a sweet spot of stable cost and performance. After all, it works, doesn’t it? And yet, recently I’ve run into a major improvement on the theme: a competing design that has … Read more
See this product which I found at a hardware superstore. Looks useful enough for organizing stray cables in the home. But it has another unexpected function. As you see in the close up, this device has an added benefit beyond storing extra cord length, and the packaging clearly states it: Helps prevent children. You don’t … Read more
Something caught my attention in this children’s playground in our neighborhood, where my kids used to play long years ago. Back then the slide was made of metal, but the new one works just fine. However, back then the slide ended in a large sandbox, which was a major attraction in its own right. Kids … Read more
Most cafeterias sell water to their thirsty customers in plastic bottles full of mineral water. The water is no better than the tap water in most countries, its environmental impact is dubious, and of course it turns a tidy profit for the business. As a customer I find it annoying to pay for one of … Read more
Check out this humble black marker pen. What about it, you ask? Well, look at the close up: this marker marks most surfaces, is waterproof, practically odorless, safe… and has a cap off time of up to two weeks without drying up. What about it, you ask? Just think of the hi-tech perfection that this … Read more
I’ve written before about the use of tactile sidewalk strips to help the blind, as seen in Japan. Well, now we have them in Israel too! I was walking under the Calatrava bridge in Jerusalem, and saw this: At first I was puzzled, but then I noticed this led towards the Jewish institute for the … Read more
Here is the Physics and Mathematics faculty building in Bashkir State University, in the city of Ufa, capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. See what it looks like? Depends on your age or your affection for the history of computing, I suppose. This building looks like a logarithmic slide rule, the icon of the … Read more
I happened to look up and noticed this against the evening sky: These skewed towers with the broken antennas on top used to densely decorate every city rooftop when we were kids; every apartment needed an antenna, and the taller its tower, the better the reception – less “snow” and other interference in receiving … Read more
