Findings of Guus Oosterbaan

Pin Lamp: PIMP

2011-11-02T07:03:00.000+01:00

Besides throwing heavy balls from a great distance at it, the probably second best thing you can do with a bowling pin is make a lamp out of it. My latest lamp is called "Pimp" (PIn + laMP = PIMP).

I know that it is a very obvious thing to do, but sometimes, it just is really nice to do the most obvious. It also brought me one step closer in my eternal quest for "Is-there-anything-sensible-you-can-get-out-of-an-energy-saving-bulb-?"

For people in the audience that still think it is not good enough for my standards, then I can comfort you with that this "let-me-do-this-it-only-takes-2-seconds" project turned out to be a rather epic journey along un-drillable wood, multi layered armored plastic pin wrapping, finding a bulb that fits that shape and blood sweat and tears....

Roller-Lamp

2011-10-29T08:52:00.002+02:00

There is something with roller-skate wheels that is very hard to beat; they run smoothly, feel heavy, are solid, are tough, carry cool text messages, are indestructible...

The tin can matches the size of the the energy saving spot light inside precisely

The chase for how-to-get-anything-sensible-out-of-energy-saving-bulbs continues...

Greenhouse

2011-08-26T19:57:00.000+02:00

Hooray! My greenhouse is finished. It allows us to lengthen a late-summer dinner with several hours!

I got all front windows from a friend that replaced his own. The windows are 80 years old and in perfect condition (just some new putty around the edges and paint). My neighbour found the windows on the side. He found them in the inner city of Copenhagen next to an appartment block that is renovated (ooooold windows, my best guess is 1890). The doors are made from scratch.

I like old glass, it deforms the things you see through it. According to my father in law, a light architect, the colour of the light is much better than modern double windows, so I think so too...

Lucerna non alcoholico

2011-08-09T19:30:00.001+02:00

I've had this plan for years, actually, since the first time I drunk Crodino ("aperitivo non alcoholico"). Extremely cute bottles deserve better than being thrown away. So finally, I turned 4 cuties into bitter-sweet lightning.

The stand is made of 2 layers of thick multiplex glued together

Greenhouse furniture

2011-08-09T07:34:00.000+02:00

Made of 3 old doors and a handfull of skrews; my new greenhouse furniture

Steaming Grill Starter Head

2011-08-02T11:21:00.000+02:00

Insecure Outlet

2011-08-02T10:53:00.001+02:00

Biting nails

20 Round Things

2011-08-02T10:49:00.000+02:00

During a walk to the local icecream cafe, my kids found 20 circular things.

We also saw a lizard but it wasn't round, so that didn't count.

POP POP THIS!

2011-05-09T20:10:00.001+02:00

Having the time of my life with my brand new "Pop Pop Boat" (another good reason to go to Berlin). I'll promise I'll buy an iPhone as soon as it can do this:

Check out the video below to see what it looks like without the cover (and I'll promise you, an iPhone without the cover is only half as fun at the most)

How it works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_pop_boat

Tip of the Week: Nail

2011-04-27T09:37:00.001+02:00

Do you also have those unused nails in your wall? Now take an example of what the guys above figured out! Get busy!

HeadLight

2011-04-11T20:52:00.003+02:00

It has been a while since I created a lamp, so here it is: Made of an old Volkswagen Beatle headlight, a halogen bulb that can be dimmed and some lovely red wire. The black rubber is a bicycle hose.

Monsters...

2011-03-19T19:35:00.000+01:00

Model "Apache"

ROBOX HAS LANDED

2011-02-07T09:33:00.002+01:00

Robox has landed on planet earth! (And with such lightning speed that, on this picture, his head is upside down ;-)

Time 's Ticking

2011-01-24T13:01:00.001+01:00

An alarm-clock I made for a friend that has trouble getting out of bed.

How to:

Take an old alarm clock apart, only keep the display, print board and power supply.
Make a heat proof casing for the power supply.
Extend the wiring from the print board to the power supply.
The cardboard tubes get an authentic look if you simply put them outside in rainy weather. I took old (used) fireworks that have been laying in water for several weeks. Obviously, make sure that any gun powder is removed.
Add some more wires to increase the authentic look
Tuck the power supply underneath the cardboard tubes
Surprise a friend on his birthday

DONE!

PREMAXTOR!

2010-08-27T15:44:00.000+02:00

NEW ROBOX bot released

2010-08-26T14:25:00.002+02:00

The 6th (and final) Robox bot: MoNoVox

FREE STUFF!

2010-08-20T20:06:00.001+02:00

Look what I found browsing some old hard disks. I made this place mat for a local kids cafe and decided to share it with the rest of the world. So download, print and laminate, and I would be most grateful to receive some pictures of happy kids with their place mats!

Boxbot

2010-08-20T19:33:00.000+02:00

The Tomato that Lived...

2010-07-14T15:28:00.001+02:00

Eat?

Stuff I hear...

2010-07-14T10:28:00.000+02:00

I sat in the garden and overheard my 5 year old nephew talking to his grandmother on the balcony: "Grandma, you did the little stick and the small ball incorrectly, the stick should sit upwards and the ball below, like this!"

Later, I found this piece of art on the table and all made sense

Universal Coffee Filter

2010-05-26T13:34:00.001+02:00

People on planet earth: the days of either too strong or too weak coffee ARE OVER! Making coffee at home is easy but as soon as you leave your house, coffee making is hard. Measuring spoons have different sizes, if there at all is a measuring spoon in the holiday home kitchen. You typically wastes half a package of coffee on getting the taste up to snuff, like you have your coffee at home. This coffee bag prevents potential piles of wasted coffee!

My Universal Coffee Filter not only solves the coffee issue, it might as well help you out measuring rice, sugar and flower on the campsite.

Fans Made Easy

2010-05-26T10:35:00.005+02:00

For some reason, Gizmodo republished this post, turning it into a DIY project. I have not submitted this project to Gizmodo and obviously, this project is not a DIY (as you can read below).

Sometimes, cool looking fans are cheaper than you might think. I found this PC power supply fan and ripped out all unnecessary bits and pieces, only leaving the fan inside. I replaced the power supply with an adapter that matches the fan. I own quite some design fans, but I have to admit that this is going to be my top piece for this summer; desk get ready, coolness is nearby!

My Online Portfolio

2010-05-18T21:28:00.001+02:00

Kaleidoscope Pattern Maker

2010-03-30T20:36:00.000+02:00

I recently got a new hobby: making kaleidoscopes. In my last kaleidoscope project, I used small bits of mirror in as "fill", creating ice crystals.

The patterns you can create with it are just fantastic. I therefore got the idea of being able to save those patterns; a kaleidoscope with an SD card or USB port, so I can print patterns.

Here you can see my first attempt:

Step 1: make a picture of a pattern

I used a standard webcam to take the pictures (fits neatly with the opening at the back of the kaleidoscope). The lamp increases the contrast in the picture.

Step 2: Crop the pattern and increase contrasts

I used Photoshop to crop the image so I have a single piece of the pattern. I increase the contrast by a simple automated action.

Step 3: Vectorize the bitmap image

I used Illustrator's standard "Live Trace" function, creating a vector version of the image. The vectorized image is tiled automatically

Step 4: Print

Ready to create an endless amount of unique patterns... Obviously, there is software that can create patterns without a problem, but generating patterns with a real kaleidoscope is just better ;-)

Brick Game; Pongcrete

2010-03-26T13:44:00.004+01:00

My third product in the cement- and "things-you-can-do-when-there-is-really-nothing-else-better-to-do" series: the Brick Game.

Main features: on and off (and two player bat controllers).

Backside: antenna and power connectors

When you put your ear on the brick, you can still hear cute Pong sounds from the far deep, cement is a good sound insulator.

Find a DIY guide on The Making of page

Crocus Luce

2010-03-20T17:50:00.005+01:00

My Crocus Luce lamps are made of a block of wood as a solid base, a thin aluminium tube and a plastic flower pot as a shade. The flower pots come in many colours. If you want to add some colour, you simply cut out the bottom of the flower pot and put it either inside or on top of the other, resulting in endless of combinations.

Camouflage

2010-03-13T17:36:00.001+01:00

I finally pulled myself together and bought a flat-screen TV. This only took me 4 years of doubting, going back and forward, asking friends what they would buy, etc. My main problem was that, believe it or not, I wouldn't know where to put it in my (not that large) living room. I don't like looking at a big black rectangular shapes when it is turned off.

To solve this problem, I decided to build a TV trolley that helps me hiding the TV as much as possible:
1. Buy nice casters (wheels); make it a joy to move your trolley around
2. Camouflage! I bought adhesive reflective film (3 meters for 75 kr) and stuck it on the outside of the trolley making it "invisible".

My invisible trolley in action:

Happy Easter!

2010-03-13T09:06:00.001+01:00

I got this home-made egg from my mother in law

Unimportant improvements are also improvements

2010-03-04T16:01:00.002+01:00

My latest invention: the DIY re-fillable kaleidoscope

Designing staircases

2010-02-23T12:42:00.000+01:00

Running up and down the stairs at work, I all at once came to this deeper insight:

When deciding what height a step of a staircase should be, only going down the stairs is of importance, not up (you can quote me on this)

You can easily go up the stairs skipping each second step, but going down, skipping a step is hardly possible. It is almost impossible to run down the stairs when steps are not high enough (only taking one step goes way too slow, skipping one step doesn't work for your brain). This probably all sounds obvious but for some reason, I when I have to build a staircase, I would concentrate on elevation; not depression.

Maybe this is applicable for for areas of industrial design; leaving something is more important than entering

SWITCH

2010-02-15T10:01:00.001+01:00

My latest lamp concept: SWITCH. A lamp and switch in one. SWITCH can both lay on the floor or hang from the ceiling.

Still looking for a producer...

Achievements

2010-02-07T07:05:00.001+01:00

I just posted this idea on the Google forum:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=08d51d4e6800715c&hl=en

What do you think?

Mighty Gaffer Bot

2010-01-27T09:10:00.003+01:00

My son in his new robot costume. Cardboard and gaffer-tape are underestimated on planet earth looking at the average costume you can buy in toy shops these days.

Wonderfuller Switch

2010-01-11T22:05:00.002+01:00

I created a "Wonderful Switch" lamp a while ago. Now I made a Wonderfuller Switch Lamp. Bigger is better...

Universal Stick-on Volume Slider

2009-12-30T17:10:00.000+01:00

Both my kids have exactly ONE toy that allows turning up and down the volume (and they own a lot of toys). Are volume sliders very expensive? Is there something wrong with the ears of the average kid? My son just became the proud owner of Bumbelbee. The yellow transformer can't transform. I know, "details" one would say, but I always thought the robot/car combo was the cool thing about transformers. Instead, it produces a sh*tload of rather incredible annoying sounds (my irritation muscles are all red and swollen after only two days) of which I only can recognize one to be the typical transformer sound (although rather distorted because of the insane volume, but then again, who cares, it can not transform anyway).

I don't really understand those toy producers. If they would add a volume slider to their noisy toy, it would be so much more appreciated by the parents and most likely live a longer life in (at least) our household. The thing is, as soon as the pile of batteries is drained, you'd rather tell your son that the robot is broken instead of re-powering it. The thought of buying a second robot in the series is the last thing that would come up in mind (which should be the most interesting thing for toy manufacturers).

I would like to give away the following cash-cow: a "universal stick-on volume slider". A volume slider that you can stick on any toy and then turn down the volume. Don't worry about cost, this device easily equals an iPhone...

In Memoriam

2009-12-21T15:21:00.003+01:00

My Last Bulb

1880 - 2010

Bulbs are forbidden in Denmark from 2010 so therefore, I made a bulb memoriam.

FINALLY!

2009-12-15T09:41:00.003+01:00

Finally a company that takes serious eco-friendly initiatives: ECO FRIENDLY BIRDHOUSES!

Birds, the days of living in eco-unfriendly birdhouses (e.g. a bird nest in a tree) are over!

Back to nature you bunch of spoiled feathery freaks! Why is it always the humans that have to point in the right direction?

And how about making some eco-friendly toxic waste barrels? The thought of having those un-eco-friendly barrels rusting on the bottom of the ocean is just terrible. It would be much better with barrels that leave no trails when being desintegrated by nature!

Bad news for trumpet owners

2009-12-14T11:49:00.000+01:00

Although progress is going very fast in China, it still is not allowed to play your trumpet on the motor highway...

NEW in China

2009-12-13T12:22:00.000+01:00

Seen in China 2009: Vertical trees!

Co-writers needed

2009-11-16T11:26:00.004+01:00

Normal bulbs are forbidden in quite some countries. In Denmark, we are forced to buy energy saving bulbs from now on. I guess it makes a lot of sense fighting global warming (although I really don't like the "forbidding" part; I'd rather pay (quite some) extra and buy a few "normal" bulbs since some lamps simply need one).

Having bought a few bulbs, I realize that there is going to be a potential huge waste of my life-time since it takes the average energy saving bulb quite some time to get up to strength. This book deals with that. I currently have thought of one way to deal with the waiting time: do 10 push-ups ("Save the planet and get in shape").

I'm looking for co-writers to help me out getting another 100 great ways to kill your waiting time. Anybody?

Nice...

2009-10-30T08:58:00.002+01:00

Urban carcass

2009-10-22T10:18:00.004+02:00

Two months ago, a scooter was parked in the ally next to my house. Since then, it has been eaten bit by bit by vultures. Since I took this picture, it has lost the wheel as well. Obviously I should have taken a picture every day, but sometimes, you just don't feel like turning everything in your life into a project. I'll promise though that the next time I steal a scooter, I will make a nice diary

Should I be worried?

2009-10-21T11:17:00.004+02:00

I made this picture on an exhibition on Sustainability (environmental friendly architecture) in the Louisiana museum. I sincerely hope this was a practical joke of the exhibitors to make people think...

Financial crisis Denmark over?

2009-10-21T09:21:00.004+02:00

The first time the financial crisis came really close to me personally when found an empty lego play corner in the Copenhagen airport. The Copenhagen airport won many prizes being the best airport and obviously, it should show all the good that Denmark has to offer in a nutshell. An empty Lego play corner told me that we were hitting the very bottom.

However last week, returning from a flight, I can bring good news: We are crawling out of the deep hole again; fresh bricks are piled up as never before!

Mobile Phone for the elderly

2009-10-09T09:01:00.004+02:00

There are quite some attempts to create mobile phones for the elderly of which I'm not especially impressed with. They are all about functionality, not about "having a nice chat".

Read the text between the *** if you want to know about my motivation to come up with my solution:

************************************

I recently have had the joy of actually borrowing such a phone, the Doro EasyHandle after my father in law simply had to give up. The number keys are big and easy to read and press and the volume of the ringtone is definitely loud enough. The display however is a mess. If you enter a phone number, it appears from the bottom right of the display. This obviously shouldn't be the case in a country where (especially old people) are used to write stuff from left to right. The rendering of the numbers is terrible (1 bit stuff, hard to read and poorly designed font; the only reason for doing this is cost, a good display is more expensive). When the phone number you enter exceeds 6 digits (which all numbers do) it moves the digits one line UP (this should have been down) and starts a new line from the bottom right again.

************************************

So here is my solution: use the interface that they have been using all their life. When you are 80 years old, you might have no interest in new functionalities; all you want is to have a cosy chat.

What you are looking at is a mobile phone adapter. It adepts the normal mobile phone interface to a known interface. Inside this phone, there is a normal Nokia mobile phone with a USB port. The dial dish can be used as normal. The normal power plug is used to charge the mobile phone inside. The reason to use this phone over a normal stationary phone is because it has become much cheaper to buy a mobile phone instead of a land-line. Another advantage is that it still easily can be moved around ("mobile"). And personally, I think this wonderfully designed phone might suit my design office pretty good! (and so it does)

Herb Table

2009-10-03T18:10:00.004+02:00

Another summer to its end and time to spend a day inside while it’s raining cats and dogs. I found these pictures I took from my herb table. It serves fresh thyme (two flavours), oregano and mint to my hungry guests on cosy grill dinners. The table is an old door from my basement (which keeps surprisingly well through rain and snow (it is its third year outside).

Coffee Balance

2009-09-04T09:13:00.006+02:00

This coffee table is a balance; it weighs anything that is placed on the blue surface. The arm on the back swings upwards accordingly, basically a giant letter-weight. This coffee table will be excellent in any lounge but currently, my kids are weighing all their toys, books and lemonade.

I used standard components only to create this prototype (and no, I can't weld)

It can carry up to 10 kilo's, when the weight gets too heavy, the mechanism hits the door-stop (at the bottom of this picture) so the able can carry any weight.

Next steps will be:

- Instead of the blue table surface, I'm planning to create a thick layer of glass

- The weight at the end of the arm has to look better

- Improve the foot

- Get in contact with a manufacturer that would like to produce the Weight-Table

Quiz

2009-09-01T10:34:00.004+02:00

Find the 2,645,436 differences

Bigger is Better

2009-08-28T18:28:00.015+02:00

Some games never grow old: Physics! (Gravity, friction, balance, action and reaction). In front my old marble game and in the back, my MEGA-Monster-Marble-Track!

Good preperation is key. The MEGA-Monster-Marble-Track allows for vast amounts of marbles being lined up. Amatures stay away, this is serious stuff...

Then a very steady hand is needed, pushing all marbles to the start point...

This is it...

Now it goes fast!

I have beaten a Nintendo DS with this killer toy many times.

ROBOX

2009-08-25T19:44:00.019+02:00

Robox is a series of 9 storage boxes for kids. My idea is to create storage boxes that are fun to look at. Instead of boxes with repetitive motives, Robox create big robots which can be part of kids play (my kids find it very amusing to build robots that are much taller than themselves and then knock them over while shouting super-hero stuff).

Each box is unique in print; each box has its own unique front, sides, backside, top and bottom.
The boxes can be stored on shelves. The shelves become "invisible" when all boxes are placed, creating a very decorative surface.

Man-Y-Man

2009-08-24T21:24:00.010+02:00

Here is (are) Man-Y-Man, or at least, a prototype of it. This toy consists of 20 unique shapes that can either be used as head or body, which can be flipped vertically (so each piece is 2 heads and 2 bodies). This makes 1520 men!
Each head and body has its own name:
So combining heads and bodies, you have 1520 unique names. An example:

Want to know more? Drop me a mail.

ROCK Radio

2009-08-19T17:24:00.007+02:00

My ROCK Radio. The number two in my cement-audio-series. It started of being a very nice rectangular brick shape. Then I found out that a thick layer of cement shields the radio from actually receiving radio waves. With my "Now it doesn't work anyway" philosophy, I took a big hammer and created this Flintstones look, and the radio works!

In my next attempt, I will leave the interface on the back open, see if that works...
Left entry = loudspeaker, middle = antenna, right= power (I found out that plugging the power in the loudspeaker entry didn't harm the radio, and I thought no icons to point out which plug should sit where was kind of cool)

My Financial Crisis Pie

2009-08-18T19:39:00.006+02:00

Very inspired the mirror lamp I decided to bake a cake. Currently on display in cafe Peber og Mynte.

Lunar Light

2009-06-10T20:14:00.012+02:00

Lunar Light
100% recycled materials:

Skateboard wheels, an old adapter with dimmer, 2 wooden sticks and a 12 Halogen spot light and a huge amount of luck! (since all the parts, for some unknown reason, turned out to fit together as if they were made for it).

Digital garbage collection

2009-06-09T10:44:00.004+02:00

What would it mean if there was a company that collects digital garbage? The internet counts numerous old websites, old ftp archives, etc. that populate big server parks consuming loads of energy, what a waste (e.g. http://www.2atoms.com/links/links_worst.htm). Besides the energy consumption, those old files also slow you down while surfing over the internet.

You could collect your own digital garbage and put it in a trashcan and place it at the side of the road each Thursday, just like your normal garbage but then digital. Obviously files should be separated (like paper, batteries, glass, biological stuff, etc.) because we don't want to just burn everything because that would be environment unfriendly.

Could old digital files be recycled? Can they be used for anything?

Wonderful switch

2009-06-05T09:26:00.005+02:00

User Experience, how to turn something invisible to a delight: old switches! I decided to make this lamp because of the switch. The lamp is basically a good-old-switch exhibition.

Old switches (this one from my former washing machine) are just better than new ones. They don't suffer from "as cheap as possible materials and no screws" production guidelines from current days models. They consist of many screws, solid and heavy plastics, small springs, proper joints, etc. Turning on this lamp is such a delight that I caught friends getting heavily addicted to turning it on and off continuously. When moving the button from the left to the right, you feel more resistance being built up because of the spring mechanism inside as going up a rollercoaster. And then it creates the most beautiful "c-l-a-c-k" sound (I'm considering to make a recording on put it on this blog) as closing the door of a very expensive BMW. When you reached this climax, the switch finnishes the moving-from-left-to-right travel by itself. DAMN THAT IS GOOD!
To celebrate the turning-on-the-lamp experience, I decided to spend a lot of money on a LED lamp that automatically changes colour, as fireworks on a happy new years eve.

Peg lamp

2009-03-05T23:09:00.008+01:00

My peg-lamp consists of 180 pegs and 6 coat-hangers.From underneath, it becomes a snowflake casting wacky shadows on the wall.

Adapt

2009-03-04T09:54:00.003+01:00

I bought a Denon midi set since I didn't feel like looking at a big surface of HIFi anymore. I found out that the better midi-sets indeed take up less space at the front, but they grow equally in depth. So basically, the machine has the same dimensions as "normal" HIFI, having swapped the front to the side.

My bookshelves are 30 cm deep (standard). I came to the following solution. I pulled out two shelves and added two sides. The sides are "fake", they don't continue in the shelves.

Hypnotic box

2009-03-02T21:18:00.008+01:00

12 LED lights in 3 different colours
Ikea keys are just wonderful hand-swings...
The MacGyver in me: security needle, a 1 kroner coin (has a hole in the middle), bended nails and an old flat cable. And now, get ready for box in action (and enjoy the sound)

Key-flame

2009-02-26T19:41:00.006+01:00

A lamp I made 10 years ago: turn the key to fire it up.

Fully illustrated?

2009-02-23T09:28:00.001+01:00

some graphic artist got an easy job...

Is there a word for this?

2009-01-14T12:40:00.001+01:00

What is a piece of a removed tree called that has been grown into a fence?

Cake

2008-12-30T11:33:00.000+01:00

Cake written with cake.

50% off

2008-12-22T09:34:00.002+01:00

Seen in Toronto Chinatown: 50 % off (but you have to be fast, these are the last ones)

Small improvements

2008-12-09T11:04:00.003+01:00

You might think: "Why bother making a hole in a bottle cap", but if you have kids that love making bubbles by blowing on a straw, you'll appreciate it.

Financial crisis hits Dutch schools

2008-12-08T09:59:00.002+01:00

"Food"

Wooden batteries

2008-12-01T10:49:00.005+01:00

Hereby I would like to introduce my latest toy concept: Wooden Batteries for kids on Rudolf Steiner schools ("Almost as cool as real batteries")

What's the difference

2008-11-30T20:28:00.002+01:00

Once in a while it happens: you buy the wrong razorblades. For some very bad reason, there are many different interfaces of Gilette razorblades, meaning that for some (probably very commercial) reason, Gilette blade A doesn't fit on Gilette system B.

I bought 10 blades that were not compatible with my Gilette razor set and therefore, I went back to the shop in order to buy me a new set that could use the blades. For some (probably very stupid (something to do with marketing)) reason, there are no shaving sets for sale in Denmark that can actually use the blades I bought (I have asked in 3 different shops!)

I gave up. I gave into the bitter taste of commerce: I found myself in a situation wanting to buy anything that could turn my hairy chin into the sweet chin of a young god. The only shaving sets on display in the last shop were both of Gilette. They both were very expensive and more or less looking the same (in the end, they both remove hair from chins). I asked the helpful lady to explain the difference to me. She clearly wasn't sure and after studying the packaging carefully for a while, she replied, "well, this one is called "Power" and the other one isn't". "Right", I replied understandingly. Obviously she wasn't a user herself and therefore I gave her a chance to make up for this rather obvious answer. "Yes I can read that, but what is the difference since "Power" seems to cost me an additional 50 kroner". After another close study the lady concluded that "power" had batteries. It was getting late and we clearly couldn't turn this dialogue in something constructive (especially since I really wouldn't know what a razor blade could do better with 1,5 Volts of electric power mounted on it) so I thought: SHE IS RIGHT! That is the difference; one has a battery, the other one doesn't. That's how it is, not everything needs to make sense in life.

I left the shop without a shaving set but with a deeper insight in life richer.

PS
Since even America seems to want to do something with the CO2 problem, COULD GILETTE STOP ADDING BATTERIES TO STUFF THAT DOESN'T NEED BATTERIES?!

Stuff you can do with a piece of wood (2)

2008-11-24T13:16:00.001+01:00

I'm considering adding "and tape" to this series...

Learn to read!

2008-11-23T11:15:00.002+01:00

How many people that couldn't read picked up this DVD and learned to read?

fake texture?

2008-11-21T09:57:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I saw this perfect hole in a brick wall. How was it made?

A party was here....

2008-11-10T12:57:00.001+01:00

...and then they went away

Anti-climax

2008-10-31T20:30:00.002+01:00

Champagne boobytrap

What does it do?

2008-10-29T13:05:00.003+01:00

I took this picture on a German railway station. This is the front panel of a ticket-machine. By pressing the left button I hoped for a little black flag to pop out the top of the machine, waving in the wind. Instead, the screen language changed. Bit of an anti-climax but at least the first time I encountered such a type of a machine with language selection.

The financial crisis hits Denmark

2008-10-28T11:53:00.005+01:00

Copenhagen Airport

Priorities...

2008-10-28T11:26:00.002+01:00

I appreciate the Munich airport being concerned with my safety when it comes down to people throwing fire extinguishers to my head...

Elevator improvement

2008-10-28T11:22:00.004+01:00

By sticking information about the various floors on the door of an elevator, one makes waiting on the elevator to arrive less annoying...

Nice detail: note that the black arrow on the left door actually points out where you are right now.

Sour Pickle face

2008-10-16T20:40:00.002+02:00

Spring is (was) comming!

2008-09-28T12:58:00.000+02:00

While cleaning up my mobile, I found this picture that I took in spring time. A fresh pin popping up through the asphalt.

Mission "Underwater"

2008-09-27T20:31:00.003+02:00

Today we made the third game (all graphics are made by 5 kids). Download it here (PC only)

Unsatisfied fire extinguisher

2008-09-24T20:12:00.001+02:00

Toilet Paper Franz

2008-09-21T09:29:00.001+02:00

Toilet face that has a mouth full of paper...

Games by Kids

2008-09-18T22:03:00.008+02:00

I'm running computer game workshops with kids aged 7-9. You can download some of the results here. The game is made in advance (Gamemaker), kids think of a theme and do all the drawing. Enjoy.

Good to know

2008-09-18T22:03:00.007+02:00

if you are in doubt, you can find the fire extinguisher on the right

Modern technology in its finest hour...

2008-09-06T11:44:00.004+02:00

If there was one thing that kept me from going to a church it was the hazardous candle-lightning business! The sound of dripping wax, I couldn't stand it. But now, there is good news! Modern technology enables us to light up to 20 candles at once and the high tech candles are behind bullet proof glass!
(I only had 50 euro cents in my pocket)

Hoorah Tuna!

2008-09-06T11:18:00.002+02:00

Sometimes, I'm so happy that time can stand still; the graphic design on cans with tuna luckily never developed after 1950...

Street-face

2008-07-30T17:16:00.000+02:00

Very nice faces in the streets of Horta.

Wonderful Icons

2008-07-30T14:09:00.002+02:00

I thought I more or less had seen the majority of toilet icons but I was wrong. I found those beauties in "Horta" (Azores). Without the letters "WC", they probably wouldn't look like a man, woman and a wheelchair. Quite fantastic.

Stuff you can do with a piece of wood (1)

2008-07-30T13:55:00.003+02:00

Hereby, I would like to introduce a new series on this blog: "Stuff you can do with a piece of wood". Everybody has been in this situation: you are at home, all goes well but then there is all at once this piece of wood in your garage or shed. It is too small to really do anything with it, but you don't feel like throwing it away; it is still too good for that.
I'm planning to collect inspiring examples of what you could do with these pieces of wood. I found the fabulous example above on the Azores: the mail-box-blocker.

You like it... it likes you!!

2008-07-29T23:00:00.002+02:00

I saw this on Pico (Acores). I have no clue what Tom-Maso is, but it made me feel really happy. I think I like it, so it likes me! Just to make sure you all are aware of this: it is a universal symbol of achievement (!)

SaSugar face

2008-07-29T22:39:00.006+02:00

Nice job!

I saw this box in an airport cafeteria. It contains bags of sugar. The front of the box shows a pretty face. When it is opened, it creates a new face with a huge mouth. I hope this design was done deliberately. I also enjoyed the extra hat-add-on by the employees.

Bicycle repairman

2008-04-08T12:57:00.002+02:00

I think this guy repairs bikes (at least 5 times) . . .
(cykelreparation = bicycle repairing in Danish)

Amstrad 2

2008-03-25T17:33:00.003+01:00

Showing the Amstrad I found (former post) to a colleague, we saw that the engineers at Amstrad actually chose to explain where the computer, tape deck and monitor were (or should be) located. I guess there wasn't enough red line left over to make it all the way from the word "tape" to the red square and the green monitor line seems to have the opposite problem; it is too long.

Another important detail for all people that think the Amstrad uses a tape deck I have some bad news: it uses a Micro Computer Software Datarecorder (not some ordinary tape deck).

Ready...

2008-03-22T11:56:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I found an Amstrad cpc 464 computer outside in a pile of junk. I guess the former owner has been using it intensively (remember all good reasons to buy a home computer in the 80's? Put all the addresses of friends in it so sending Christmas cards is a piece of cake, mom could enter her shopping lists, so you quickly understand: a must-have, how could we ever live without? What were we thinking?) I have a weakness for old 80's computers, I guess I'm getting old and missing the good old days of owning a computer for no good reason.

It had been snowing the night before, so the computer and monitor were covered in a thick layer of frosty ice. I couldn't resist and took it home. I put it down in my basement so it could catch a breath. The next day, I had to know whether I found a dead computer or not, so I plugged the power cable and with an extra set of fuses in my hand, I turned the machine on . . .

It took one or two seconds for it to boot and told me it was ready. It has been on its way for over twenty years through storm and snow to tell me, it is ready for me . . .

How an excitement! I found a website with some Locomotive Basic examples (thanks Sean). After writing

10 s=0: WHILE s<>2.77: READ s
20 SOUND 1,s,40,15
30 WEND
40 DATA 478,379,478,2.77my computer played three tones. The moody melody created tears in my eyes, I was emotionally worn out...

I guess I'll take it with me to work next Monday and give to one of the nerds through some lottery.

Naughty electronics

2008-03-02T13:13:00.006+01:00

A week ago, I organized my electronics drawer. All wires, headphones and adapters were left behind looking like a neat box of chocolates.
After one week, I opened the drawer again and it looked like this:
It's a known fact that wires move in the dark. Never keep your wires in a dark place. Just after only one week in the dark, my Barbie mouse (the naughty pink one on the left) got pretty familiar with my DAP radio (the muscular fellow on the right). God knows what I would have seen if I had waited another week...

Alternative pokemon 14

2008-01-03T20:42:00.001+01:00

Alternative pokemon 13

2008-01-03T20:41:00.000+01:00

The Pissing Crocodile 2

2008-01-03T20:33:00.001+01:00

The Xtreme Professional Karaoke Party Pack 3

2008-01-03T19:56:00.000+01:00

You have good designers and bad designers and finally designers-straight-from-the-ports-of-hell-and-back-again!
More fun-with-fonts at http://www.emkaraoke.com/en-gb/dept_204.html

Elevator

2008-01-02T20:39:00.001+01:00

A very ambitious designer designed this elevator panel for an appartment complex consisting of 4 floors... This means that there are only 6 buttons too many and what is the full-stop all about (can I go to the 3.44th floor?) We didn't dare pressing "9" since we might be launched through the roof.