Corrugated Steel Fallout Shelter Protects Against Most Mild Rainstorms, Probably [Retromodo]
This fallout shelter plan, from 1962, only cost $150 in raw materials, and if properly made, had a “protection factor greater than 500.” 500 what? No idea! [Mayor's Office via Boing Boing]
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Skyfire acquires kolbysoft, hybrid browser to spawn
February 12, 2010 - 05:30
Tags: apps, Browsers, skyfire, Steel, Uncategorized
Posted in 1 | No comments
Skyfire, creators of the browser of the same name designed to offer “full Internet” with rich media to phones at virtually every point of the smart/dumb spectrum have acquired kolbysoft – the start-up that brought us Steel, which was the first browser to really take over as a mainstream alternative to the stock Android browser. [...]
Skyfire Browser Coming to Android?
February 11, 2010 - 21:33
Tags: android, browser, skyfire, Steel, Uncategorized, webkit
Posted in Mobile | No comments
Thanks to a recent acquisition, Android owners might be seeing the Skyfire web browser on their handset before too long. Kolbysoft, the makers of the popular Steel browser, were just purchased by Skyfire for an undisclosed sum. For those of you not in the know, Skyfire makes it possible to replicate a PC web browsing [...]
Eat Your Old Gadgets to Gain Their Powers and Pounds [Retromodo]
October 30, 2009 - 12:20
Tags: Anna Jane Grossman, cakes, commodore 64, Retromodo
Posted in Coolhunting, Gadgets | 1 comment
I used Commodore 64s at school. We did BASIC programming, played Star Wars… It was such a fun machine that I wanted to eat it. Instead, I licked it. Now I can digest it and get its command line powers.
There is something cathartic about eating an old gadget or any other object that tickles your fancy. It may be a freaky tauntaun or a giant Wiimote. Perhaps a bunch of iPhone icons or an R2-D2. Whatever it is, the moment you sink your teeth in a perfect piece of frosted tech is like stepping into fresh snow, or watching the birds shine under the chirping sun after the rain is gone.
It just feels good.
Myself? I like to stuff my face with giant Lego brick cakes. Especially Lego carrot cakes. Call me crazy, but the cake tastes better thanks to its iconic power. Like cannibal tribes who ate their enemies to absorb their qualities, eating a frosted brick makes me absorb bites of good memories. They make me go back in time as I crush keys with my molars, downing sugar, egg, and flour memories through my gastrointestinal tract. And then pooping them out.
See? I’m already back at 13 just by looking at all the photos that Obsolete author, Giz collaborator, and retrogadget wizard Anna Jane Grossman would eat herself. The objects, not the photos. She would eat the photos if they were Polaroids made of pierogies, though.
The only thing I am missing is a Sinclair ZX Spectrum or a Sega Master System. Someone get me that cake and I will be complete. [Obsolete]
Man Spends $50,000 to Recreate a First-Class Pan Am Cabin in His Garage [Retromodo]
October 27, 2009 - 17:00
Tags: Airplanes, Anthony tosh, cabin, First-class, Pan Am, Pan am recreation, Retromodo
Posted in Coolhunting | No comments
Anthony Toth is so obsessed with perfectly recreating a vintage Pan Am first-class cabin in his garage that he once traveled to Thailand for—wait for it—original Pan Am branded headphones. And his obsession goes much deeper than that.
Anthony began his obsession with Pan Am as a child, when he and his parents frequently flew to Europe to visit family. Pan Am’s service seems decadent and almost silly today, when Southwest and JetBlue achieve success with a budget mentality, but to Anthony, Pan Am was the epitome of class and style.
Pan Am was once synonymous with international jet-setting, with upper-deck dining rooms and flight attendants decked out in crisp blue uniforms, high heels and white gloves. First-class travelers were served out of silver-plated martini pitchers. A parade of linen-covered food carts made its way down the aisle at dinnertime.
Anthony saved things like the cardboard linings on food trays and recorded his trips with multiple rolls of film and extensive tape recordings of the radio selection on board. “This consumed my world,” said Tosh. As an adult, he works for United Airlines, and two years ago bought a home with an oversized garage in which he could build a faithful replica of Pan Am’s first-class cabin. The project has taken him, in total, 20 years.
Construction required multiple visits out to a spot in Death Valley where airplane carcasses are dumped, but the details of his project are unnervingly precise: The replica isn’t open to the public, but if you visit (Tosh hosts executive meetings sometimes, appropriately enough), you’ll be offered drink service and given a perfectly-crafted souvenir boarding pass designed to match those used by the airline in the late ’70s and early ’80s. He’s got authentic Pan Am swizzle sticks and glasses. The overhead compartments are original Pan Am construction. Hell, he’s even got sealed packages of salted almonds (we have no evidence regarding the taste of 30-year-old almonds, but they’re probably not for eating anyway).
The one concession he’s made to the modern age? A flat-screen TV in place of the old-school projection Pan Am used. Everything else (save the stewardesses) is either original Pan Am or a custom-made replica. He’s hoping to open his obsessive ode to Pan Am as a museum, but he seems perfectly content to just hang out in first class. [WSJ, images also WSJ]
Kids’ Guide to the Internet is Educational, NSFW [Retromodo]
October 23, 2009 - 08:20
Tags: Kids guide, Kids guide to the internet, Nsfw, Retromodo, video
Posted in Internet | No comments
This video, a vintage “introduction to the internet” from the early ’90s or thereabouts, features the line “What’s a webpage? Something ducks walk on?” If that doesn’t convince you to watch this hilarious, mysteriously-filled-with-pixelated-porno masterpiece, I don’t know what will.
I have preserved the lyrics of the opening song for posterity’s sake:
On your mark, get set!
We’re riding on the internet!
Cyberspace, set free, hello virtual reality!
Interactive appetite! Searchin’ for a website!
A window to the world, got to get online!
Take a spin, now you’re in with the techno-set!
You’re goin’ surfin’ on the internet!
Elmore Leonard once said that a writer only gets ten exclamation points to use in his life, so he’d better use them wisely. I just used eight and I am 100% confident that it was the right decision. I love this video more than Steve Jobs loves turtlenecks. The world is a sunnier and happier place with this video in it. Enjoy your night. [Videogum]
Ten Really Dumb Old Inventions and Their Really Dumb Modern Counterparts [Wrongmodo]
October 22, 2009 - 14:00
Tags: 30 dumb inventions, Dumb, Feature, Inventions, Retromodo, Top, Wrongmodo
Posted in Coolhunting | 1 comment
Hookay. So, you think that this M3 sub-machine gun—with a shoot-first-and-ask-later curved barrel—is a really stupid, really dumb invention, right? I don’t blame you. But, trust me, you don’t know what really stupid, really dumb inventions are. Yet.
I just saw a selection of 30 dumb inventions in Life, and I couldn’t resist picking my favorite ten. These things are so damn stupid they became obsolete before even becoming real products. It was hard to choose. After all, how could I leave out scientology nutcase L. Ron Hubbard and his Hubbard Electrometer, which in 1968 made him reach the conclusion that tomatoes “scream when sliced”? See? Really hard.
Then I thought that these all looked weirdly familiar. I searched in Gizmodo, and instantly found their modern counterparts. Some of them make sense now, with current technology. Others, as you will see in the gallery, seem equally goofy. All of them, however, we can live without. Enjoy:
Clearly, humans are the only animals that trip twice over the same stone.