Nathan's Possibly Interesting web site
Commonsense design blog
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of everyday product design
While touring the Spreewald in Germany we came upon the strange device in the center of this photo. In fact we saw many of them while punting in the canals of this “Germany’s Venice”. This is a leaky wooden box hanging on chains with a mechanism to raise and lower it relative to the water … Read more
Learning what makes things tick is a major pleasure for a techie… read my opinionated view on how one should teach the structure and function of objects, whether natural or technological, in the latest article on my Possibly Interesting web site.
A major cause of accidents and frustration is trying to use the wrong tool for the job. Professionals usually know, and have available, the right tool. Amateurs and beginners may be blissfully unaware of it. When I was just starting into homebrew electronics in my teens, I actually used to drill holes in metal with … Read more
A gem I saw in a museum recently: this is a large cuneiform-inscribed cylinder, maybe 3-4 inches thick, which describes the building activities of king Nebuchadnezzar (better known in the bible for his opposite exploit when he destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BC). Anyway, in one of those moments of associative memory, it struck me how … Read more
I bought a screen protector for the LCD display on the back of my Nikon D40, and I just have to share the wonderful text on the back of the package, which reads: I’ve already expressed my incredulity at this sort of stuff; this one is just for your reading enjoyment. Incidentally, the product itself … Read more
I was visiting a hospital, and passed by a seminar room where my eye caught the items in the photo, sitting on a custom stand in the corner. Remember these? Used to be, they were so ubiquitous that they were instantly recognizable: an overhead foil projector and a circular magazine slide projector. These days, no … Read more
Photoshop rules, and gets more powerful and more useful with every new release… but it will never recreate the joy of using Deluxe Paint. Now, Electronic Arts’ Deluxe Paint was a raster graphics paint program released for the Commodore Amiga in 1985, which fast became the standard on that venerable 16-bit platform. It would typically … Read more
The first mass-produced toothbrush was made in England by William Addis in England, around 1780. His idea was to attach bristles to a stick, and make a little brush with a long handle, to allow one to brush one’s teeth. You’d think that’s all it takes; you’d think the toothbrush would remain just that, a … Read more
Electric car windows have become the norm these days; and one feature on them is “Auto”, where you can open or close a window all the way with only a momentary push on the actuator button. A useful feature, too. What I find strange is the stinginess with which this feature is applied. In most … Read more
Here is a box containing some medicine. As the law requires, it has the lot number and expiration date clearly marked. Well, OK, not clearly… in fact, the information is barely visible at all. The law, one can guess, says nothing about the information having to be Legible. It’s not like making the text visible … Read more