High school student builds fusion reactor

A Michigan high school senior uses parts and materials scrounged from the local hardware story and eBay to build a working fusion reactor. In Gadget Lab.

That is cool stuff. It looks like it would blow up if you looked at it, but surprisingly, it *says* it works.

More On the hPDA

Well, continuing on from where I left off last night…

The hPDA, or the Hipster PDA v3, is a sort of organizer/planner/thing that does everything a PDA does, but much more easily and transferably. You don’t have to boot it up, shut it down, or open any stupid folders. It can’t browse the web or listen to an iPod Shuffle, unless you get one of the newer ones and use it instead of a binder clip. Anyway…

It was thought up by the guy who writes 43Folders, and then expanded upon by the cool guys over at D*I*Y Planner. It’s now up-to-date with D*I*Y’s main attraction, the D*I*Y Planner (hence the site name), version 3.

The “Core Package” for the hPDA has more than 200 different sheets, each the size of a 3×5 index card. At the 43Folders site (HipsterPDA.com), you can see that it’s just a stack of index cards and a binder clip holding them together. What gives? Simple… it really is just a stack of 3×5s and a binder clip (or an iPod Shuffle if you so wish). But the forum members of D*I*Y came up with about 57 different templates for cards, like the GTD Reference Card, Agenda sheets, shopping lists, nowMap sheets, product designs, graph paper, horizontal lined sheets, vertical lined sheets, storyboards, character templates (story-wise), and about 47 other kinds of sheets.

There are two versions (download links provided): 1-Up, which prints to individual index cards, and the 4-Up, which prints 4 to a page of US Letter paper (cardstock is recommended). This one requires a guillotine or something close to it for good speed… scissors also work. They also provide the Graphic version, which has PNG/JPEG versions of every template, so you can set it up how you want it.

So that’s the hPDA. I also recommend the PigPogPDA. It’s technically a Moleskin hack, but the PigPog article doesn’t specify that it has to be… I’m using just one of those hardcover sketchbooks you see at Borders or wherever, and it’s working fine. However, he does recommend a Moleskin Pocket Reporter to use the system. Basically, you have three colors of tags, one each for Active, Processed, and Collection Point. Everything “behind” (above, if it’s lying flat on the desk) the Processed sticky has already been done/processed/used. Anything marked Active is, well, active. It can be behind the Processed area. And the Collection Point is the place you currently are. I suggest you don’t use Active tags, and just save a few pages at the front, and jot down the titles and page numbers of active pages, crossing them off once they’re inactive.

So that’s it for PDAs and whatnot. Look around PigPog, it’s a cool site, as is 43Folders. D*I*Y Planner is good, but mainly just for their Planner or the Hipster.

Chrismachanakwanzikaa!

Or just Christams. Take your pick. Anyway, Merry Christmas!!
I hope everybody is having a good time this holiday season. You know, enjoying your gifts and dinner and family and stuff. I’d post an awsome Christams drawing, but my tablet isn’t here at my aunt’s house. Oh well.

Anyway, in case you’ve never heard of it, Digg is a user-driven news site. I’m a member there, and it’s free, so you shoudl sign up too. The reason you should is because that way, you can keep track of your favorite stories, you can comment, and you can post stories/news. And if need be, you can have a fake mailbox, too. From Dodgeit… more on that later.
I’ve stumbled on some great stuff lately. First, podcasts. It turns out my Zen (like an iPod, but better) cannot play the OGG music files that I tried to load on to it, but most podcasts have MP3 versions anyway. So one major one that you guys have to listen to at least once is Diggnation. It’s just these two guys who sit in some room and discuss the front-page stories on Digg. It’s so funny… I know, I know, it doesn’t sound so good. But you seriously have to listen to it, even if just one. Each episode is about 40-60 minutes long, and it usually gets good at about the 25 minute mark. Another one that you guys might want to listen to is Linux Reality. It’ basically the best guide to getting started with or using Linux I’ve ever found. asiammyself, you should check out… I think it’s episode 5 or something, about PC Linux OS. It’s a live CD distro, so you only need a CD and no installation needed. Anyway, so that’s that for podcasts.
Now, about Dodgeit. It’s a free site that is made to avoid spam and stuff. You know, those “we just need to get your e-mail address for confirmation, we promise we won’t sell it to everybody else!” sites. Basically, in the e-mail field for that kind of thing, you just type in some phoney address @dodgeit.com, so, for example, “livejournal@dodgeit.com”. And then just go to the Dodgeit web page, www.dodgeit.com, and type in the same thing into the box, and there’s your “inbox.” Note, though, that anybody can access it. Lots of people share them, too. In Diggnation they were talking about the New York Times registration. In fact, if you type in to the box “nytimes”, you’ll get the mailbox for one of those. There are three registration confirmations in there right now, so like I said, you share them. Dodgeit addresses are in-only, so you can’t reply, only recieve.
Finally, I want to talk about a resident webcomic. I’m currently working on a webcomic, and with no hosting options other than Smack Jeeves or Drunk Duck, I was considering hosting it here. It would have its own tag for quick reference (“webcomic”), and I would just post a new one every now and then. Comment and tell me what you think!

Hm….

Try something, please. Hit CTRL+SHIFT and a number (or 5, it really doesn’t matter) from the top of your keyboard… You should get up to 6 numbers in a 2×2 or 2×3 box (letters go in, too if you try). I can’t post it because off something like UTF-8 or some junk like that. Anyway, if you add ALT to the mix, I even get freikin’ CHINESE! Anyway, weird stuff. Tell me if it works for you…