#Ideas
230 postsA variation of the useless machine idea
ChatGPT pretends to be a useless machine and tries to stop you from flipping the switch.
Read postPCB Metro maps retrospective
Retrospective of the Vancouver skytrain and Washinton Metro PCB maps
Read postDodecahedron PCB Retrospective
Retrospective of the dodecahedron polyhedron lamp
Read postDodecahedron PCB Design
PCB design of a pentagon plate of a dodecahedron lamp
Read postUSB-C PD Power Bank to Resmed AirMini or Airsense CPAP
Is it cheaper to build your own solution to portable CPAP battery, or buy something off the shelf?
Read post100 ideas project retrospective (2023)
Looking back at 100 days of daily project ideas in 2023, what got built, what got scrapped, and why I burned out doing it.
Read postIdea 100 - Lavender Farm
Plans for a Gulf Islands lavender farm with distillery, beehives, chickens, and a hillside field for retirement.
Read postIdea 099 - Stevens projects club
Patreon subscription for people receive one of Steven’s projects twice a year
Read postIdea 098 - All that are lost
GeoHashing on a pendant for exploring the world
Read postIdea 097 - Modern decoder ring
A modern decoder ring that uses strong modern cryptography encryption methods
Read postIdea 096 - Boom numbers go up
Top down survival game where everything can be leveled up
Read postIdea 095a - Light Graffiti Projector
Cheap and easy way of projecting a message onto a building
Read postIdea 095b - Dot Matrix water printer bike carriage
A horizontal matrix of 16 water nozzles in a grid on bike carriage to draw with water on the sidewalk
Read postIdea 100 plus
All the rest of the ideas that did not make the cut
Read postIdea 094 - Quickest way to rank a list of ideas
Use a sorting algorithm to efficiently sort a list of things in order
Read postIdea 093 - Video Quotes and Truisms
A video series of puppets saying common quotes and truisms
Read postIdea 092 - Command line tools as desktop applications
Desktop application UI wrapped around common Windows Linux MacOS command line tools
Read postIdea 091 - Honeypot terrarium
Visualization of robots as they attack critical infrastructure using Conways Game of Life
Read postIdea 090 - Dead Bug electronic circuits jigs
Create a series of 3D printed jigs for making exploded electronic circuits without PCBs
Read postIdea 089 - Wheres Wren?
A Wheres Waldo hunt and search photo book that teaches people how to ID local species of birds.
Read postIdea 088 - Glass room of perspectives
A art installation where a user enters a room that looks like the inside of a kaleidoscope
Read postIdea 087 - Crowd sourced life planner
A website that uses flowcharts and other tools for helping with life choices all users submitted
Read postIdea 086 - Origami Terrarium Diorama
Paper sculptures in glass terrarium with flowers, house plants, and other nature things
Read postIdea 085 - Carved wooden postcards
Sending a Baltic birch plywood postcard via the Canadian post of every mammal in BC
Read postIdea 084 - Pressed lotus flower lamp
A lamp made of acrylic shards of pressed flowers in the shape of a lotus flower
Read postIdea 083 - Dried flower art installation
A staircase tunnel of glowing dried flowers in shards of glass
Read postIdea 082 - Classic video games maps posters
A poster of level maps for classic 80s and 90s video games nostalgia
Read postIdea 081 - Experience confidence scores
Allows people to assert their experience with a skill with 3rd parties confidence score
Read postIdea 080 - Real Identity provider
A identify provider for all digital platforms based on social trust
Read postIdea 079 - Gorilla water quality monitoring device
Citizen science water quality monitoring device
Read postIdea 078 - House to Tree house telephone system
Connect old style phones together in a point to point telephone network
Read postIdea 077 - Equilateral triangles LED panels
Create equilateral triangles LED panels to construct LED polyhedron shapes
Read postIdea 076 - The Vancouver Tone
Give Vancouver its own unique tone by installing wind chime like devices in the trees across the city
Read postIdea 075 - Birdnet festival mesh network
A mesh network of birdhouses that chirp messages to each other using audio for the physical layer of the network
Read postIdea 074 - Dandelion Galaxy
An art installation of a sphere of LEDS that show the night sky from outside earth
Read postIdea 073 - Glowing tentacle eyeball monster
Glowing tentacle monster made out of flexible vinyl ducting and LEDs
Read postIdea 072 - Reminders for basic body needs
A sensor that can tell you when you are hungry or dehydrated, and other basic human needs
Read postIdea 071 - Levitating 3D Mouse
Using magnets coils to levitate the mouse in the air, and 9 degrees of freedom sensors to detect motion
Read postIdea 070 - CNC Pointillism
Use a CNC to make paint dot paintings one dot at a time
Read postIdea 069 - One Liners
All the bad one liner ideas that wont get developed into anything
Read postIdea 068 - Talking Toy story teller
Connect ChatGPT to Text to Voice application inside a Furby/teady bear style robotic pet
Read postIdea 67 - Deadmans vault SAAS SafePassage
End-to-end encrypted digital vault for storing and sharing sensitive information after death
Read postIdea 066 - Tilt Pacman
Use a accelerometer to control pacman on a LED Matrix
Read postIdea 065 - Atari Space Invaders LED Matrix pendent
A necklace penchant that has a LED matrix that displays Atari Space Invaders animations
Read postIdea 064 - Inflatable crowd
A crowd of mini wacky inflatable arm man (Air Dancers) in a matrix controlled by sound
Read postIdea 063 - RootedIn
A generated a social media platform for trees in a city
Read postIdea 062 - Music festival dancing painting robotic marionettes in a million parts
A robotic marionettes that dances and makes generative art during a music festival
Read postIdea 061 - The Dark Side Of The Moon in a million parts
Generative line drawings in sand based on the album The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd
Read postIdea 060 - The Little Prince in a million parts
Layered paper craft light boxes of the different chapters of The Little Prince
Read postIdea 059 - Alices Adventures in Wonderland in a million parts
Stainedglass windows for each location in Alices Adventures in Wonderland
Read postIdea 058 - In a million parts
A series of small artworks, one per quotable line from a book, movie, or album, built and shared on a steady schedule.
Read postIdea 057 - Movie Mogul Mania
A fantasy movie league where players draft actors and films to earn points based on award nominations and wins, box office sales, and other movie statistics
Read postIdea 056 - Great people make great movies
A movie recommendation site based on the people who work on movies
Read postIdea 055 - Truchet tessellating bathroom tiles
Elevate your bathroom or kitchen with unique and meaningful ceramic tiles inspired by mathematical shapes and designs that are both visually stunning and tell a story
Read postIdea 054 - Digital Dices
A dice that when rolled shows a random number within a range on a screen
Read postIdea 053 - HTML and CSS photo book for Blurb
Instead of using Blurb publishing tools create the book using HTML and CSS
Read postIdea 052 - Landscape Table
A coffee table with a CNC topographical map with contour and elevation lines
Read postIdea 051 - Enigma machine kit
Recreate the German Enigma machine cipher device as a kit using PCBs
Read postIdea 050 - Tessellating Illuminated Origami Wall Sculpture
Origami Sacred Geometry + Individually addressable RGB LEDs + Wall Sculpture + interactive
Read postIdea 049 - Cheap meals if you follow directions
Betting against consumers on human nature
Read postIdea 048 - The beat of the crowd - badge
Radio badge that pulses when other badges are nearby
Read postIdea 047 - Weekly Scavenger Hunt
An automatically weekly generated global scavenger hunt with leaderboard
Read postIdea 046 - Cherry Blossom Timelapse
Take several time lapse videos of the Cherry Blossom park while its blooming
Read postIdea 045 - Spread your genes
A outdoor game that rewards you for spreading your DNA to as many other players as possible
Read postIdea 044 - Bio Punk Conference badge
A convention badge
Read postIdea 043 - BACnet MSTP Testing conference Badge
A convention badge for BACnet plugfest that is useful for testing
Read postIdea 042 - GPIO tester breakout board
A 8 position dip switches breakout board
Read postIdea 041 - BioPunks Garden
Youre a Biopunk building their garden by selectively breeding for DNA markers in plants
Read postIdea 040 - Growth Commander - Tower defense
Your incharge of mutations and creation of your army You send your army out to collect food and battle enemies Tower defense style game without towers.
Read postIdea 039 - Growth a game
A game where you start as the smallest living thing, then grow and evolve depending on what actions you do the most
Read postIdea 038 - Club House co-op
Membership owned club house that can be used for members use.
Read postIdea 037 - Chatbot Task Organizer
A chatbot that can organize simple tasks by date, location, or person
Read postIdea 036 - Kaleidoscope Chandler
Light shines through colored glass that rotates to produce washes of colors on the ceiling
Read postIdea 035 - Update your address book automatically
Get your contacts to update their information in your address book
Read postIdea 034 - 20 questions for people
A website that asks you 20 questions and tries to uniquely identify you in the world What are the optimal questions to ask?
Read postIdea 033 - AI Grant Writing
Use AI to help with labor intensive grant writing
Read postIdea 032 - Cistercian stained glass Swatch internet .beat clock
A segmented display that combines a forgotten numbering system and a method for telling time that no one uses
Read postIdea 031 - Fabric Floral Cyberpunk Armor
Following the pattern of a japanese cloth armor from the 1800s, make modern cyberpunk equivalent armor for raves
Read postIdea 030 - Chatbot Journaling
A chatbot that gives you writing prompts for daily journaling. Ask follow up questions for clarity. Builds a web of knowledge about you and gives feedback
Read postIdea 029 - SproutSwipe
Use cell phone sensors to create a filtered list of suitable plants for a space then show the plants using Augmented Reality. Dating app for plants
Read postIdea 028 - Finite Future Clock
An A2 LED panel that shows a progress bar of how much of your life has passed and how much time is left.
Read postIdea 027 - Print on demand Keyboard Keycaps
A website that lets users upload their own glyphs images for the top of keycaps
Read postIdea 026 - Digger game
Resource management, worker placement, exploration tile game.
Read postIdea 025 - Skull card game
Laser cut or PCB fancy versions of the Skull card game
Read postIdea 024 - Call to Adventure
A mystery letter is delivered filled with puzzles that need to be solved in order to give directions to a meeting place for the start of an adventure.
Read postIdea 023 - Light painting rod
A programmable strip of LEDs that can be attached on a rod for light painting.
Read postIdea 022 - Translink map PCB
A live interactive translink metro map of Vancouver using LEDs on a PCB
Read postIdea 021 - AI auto summarization / Auto cliffsnotes
Use AI to summarize large amounts of information into brief notes and key points
Read postIdea 020 - Many styles of Vancouver
A photo of Vancouver’s skyline with each building painted over in a different artistic style
Read postIdea 019 - Big Red Button
Create a series of buttons with labels, install them around the city, see what ones get pushed most
Read postIdea 018 - Just the tip skyscraper coffee table book
A photo book of just the tops of very tall buildings, just the top few flors, just the tip
Read postIdea 017 - Traveling 3D printed sculptures
Traveling art exhibit of all the sculptures from a single great master 3d printed in marble
Read postIdea 016 - Lego RGB Addressable LED blocks
Adding fully addressable RGB light to your lego creation, using lego as light pipes,
Read postIdea 015 - AI Create your own story book
AI generated a personalized story book that incorporates information that you provide, following the common story types. Hero's journey, etc, made for kids
Read postIdea 014 - AI Pictionary
Like, Pictionary but an AI draws the picture and you try and guess the prompt that was used to generate the picture
Read postIdea 013 - Speech to Text, always listening, ear badge
An ear-shaped electronic badge that records speech to text 24 hours a day using OpenAI Whisper, feeding a personal AI assistant.
Read postIdea 012 - LED Constellation Star map
Constellation map PCB made with overlapping LEDs
Read postIdea 011 - Birdhouse Crypto Puzzle
Homes for birds, and puzzles for humans
Read postIdea 010 - Polyhedron Papercraft Mobile
Create a mobile of regular polyhedrons and other geometry shapes using papercraft
Read postIdea 009 - Princess Peach castle stained glass window
Before the Mario movie release date, create a replica of the Princess Peach castle stained glass window using the digital stained glass method
Read postIdea 008 - Reconnect a postcard project
People are disconnected more than ever and need a reason to reconnect with each other. Create a series of postcards and send packs of them to friends and family, for them to send onwards
Read postIdea 007 - Emoji Macro Pad Keyboard
A macro pad keyboard with most commonly used Emoji as key caps for quick access when you want to respond to a message with an iconography.
Read postIdea 006 - Procedurally generated Glowing Mushroom PCB
Procedurally generated Art PCB of mushrooms for the GameOfShrooms art project. Backlit LEDs to add a nice glowing effect.
Read postIdea 005 - Scream Photo Booth
A photo booth where the camera is only triggered when you scream loud enough. Producing a photo with real emotions.
Read postIdea 004 - Universal Serial breakout board
A USB to Serial port board that supports many different physical layers. TTL 3.3v, 5v, RS232, RS485 2wire and 4 wire. DB9, DB25, Screw down terminals, etc
Read postIdea 003 - PCB Art of Every Mammal in BC
A series of PCB art badges, one for each of the 130 mammals in BC, with LED eyes and an SAO connector for an art show display.
Read postIdea 002 - Keyboard Flute
An electronic flute PCB the size of a ruler with hot-swappable keyboard switches, a MEMS mic for breath control, and an ESP32.
Read postIdea 001 - Cherry Blossom Profile Photo Booths
Set up a photo booth in a park when the cherry blossoms are blooming, offer to take free portrait photos to the public and use the experience to get better at portrait photography.
Read postKangaroo words
A python script that hunts kangaroo words, smaller words hidden inside larger ones, across the 20,000 most common English words.
Read postGoals for 2014
Three goals for 2014: meditate after every project, post to abluestar.com weekly, and add weight, meal, and sleep tracking.
Read postA response to Life tracking and Quantified Self movement.
My life-tracking setup: Google Calendar for every event, phone alarms for sleep, and a spreadsheet of daily habit points.
Read postVancouver Scavenger Hunts
A walking and transit-only scavenger hunt list built for exploring Vancouver with friends and family.
Read postFive Pirates
The classic five pirates and 100 gold coins puzzle, posted for readers to solve in the comments.
Read postPing and pong
A short note on why the ping and pong handshake is a quietly beautiful piece of network design.
Read postLED light bulb suit.
Bookmark of an LED light bulb suit to recreate for Burning Man.
Read postDrawing with water and ink
Idea for a short story narrated over footage of ink swirling through water.
Read postThey are made out of data
A Terry Bisson style rewrite where the aliens discover that humans inside Tron 2 are made out of data.
Read postYankee Grab
Rules for Yankee Grab, a three-dice game where players keep the highest die from each of three throws and total the score.
Read postYahtzee
A printable Roll the Dice score sheet plus the history, rules, and inherited grandfather strategies for winning Yahtzee.
Read postWishing Well
Rules for Wishing Well, also called Help Your Neighbor, a three-dice game where players race to empty their chips into the pot.
Read postWho Shit, What Shit
Rules for Who Shit What Shit, a memory drinking game where everyone gets a scatological nickname woven into a rambling story.
Read postWaterfall
Rules for Waterfall, a relay-style team drinking game where each player chugs a pint before tagging the next teammate.
Read postVegetable
Rules for Vegetable, a word drinking game where players hide their teeth while shouting vegetable names at each other.
Read postUp and Down the River
Rules for Up and Down the River, a card-based drinking game with escalating drinks and give-aways across multiple decks.
Read postUnderOver 7
Rules for UnderOver 7, a two-dice betting game where players wager on whether the total beats seven.
Read postTwenty-Six
Rules for Twenty-Six, a ten-dice banking game popular in mid-century Midwest taverns until anti-gambling laws killed it off.
Read postTwenty-One Aces
Rules for Twenty-One Aces, a five-dice drinking game where the 7th, 14th, and 21st ace pick, pay for, and drink the shot.
Read postTwenty One
Rules for Twenty One, a single-die jeopardy game where players roll to get as close to 21 as possible without busting.
Read postTwelve Up
Rules for Twelve Up, a single-die banker game where players bet on hitting a total between 14 and 18 without rolling 13.
Read postTractor Pull
Rules for Tractor Pull, a timed drinking game with six cups holding one through six shots of beer.
Read postThrees
Rules for Threes (Tripps), a five-dice gambling game where threes count as zero and the lowest total wins.
Read postThree Man
Rules for Three Man, a dice drinking game where rolling a 3 makes you the unlucky designated drinker.
Read postThe Three
Rules for The Three, also called Four-Five-Six, a three-dice banking game derived from the Chinese game Strung Flowers.
Read postThe Movies
Drinking rules for The Boondock Saints, Big Lebowski, Star Wars, Walker Texas Ranger, and other movies worth watching twice.
Read postTen Pins
Rules for Ten Pins, a two-dice version of ten-pin bowling scored over ten frames with strikes and spares.
Read postSwipe
Rules for Swipe, a Fundex elimination dice game where each die face tells you to take, lose, or steal chips and dice.
Read postSpoils of War
Rules for Spoils of War, a three-dice banking game where players bet the roll will total more than ten.
Read postSnakes and Ladders
History of Snakes and Ladders, from the 2nd-century Indian game Moksha-Patamu to its Victorian and Western versions.
Read postSix-Six-Six
Rules for Six-Six-Six, a three-dice bluffing game where players announce rolls they may or may not have made.
Read postSixes Bet
Rules for Sixes Bet, a single-die street gambling game with fixed 1-in-6 odds no matter how often you roll.
Read postSimplified Craps
Rules for Simplified Craps, a two-dice street version of craps with a 2.8% house edge.
Read postShut the Box
Shut the Box is an old French sailor dice game where players close numbered tiles 1 through 9 using two dice.
Read postShip
Ship is a five-dice game where players must roll 6, 5, and 4 in order before counting the remaining dice as crew points.
Read postInstructions on how to fix your computer, install windows applications on your mac, Hack someones Facebook, and make a million dollars from a World of warcraft clone.
A joke set of universal tech instructions involving a metal fork and your own face.
Read postSevens Out
Sevens Out is a two-dice game where players keep rolling and adding until they roll a seven, then pass the dice.
Read postSevens
Sevens is a six-dice game where pairs adding to seven are discarded and the rest of the dice count for your score.
Read postSettlers of Catan: Tricks and Tactics
Settlers of Catan: Tricks and Tactics
Read postSequences
Sequences is a six-dice game where players score points for consecutive runs starting at 1, racing to 100.
Read postScrew Your Neighbor
Screw Your Neighbor is a card elimination game where players hold one card and try to avoid being stuck with the lowest.
Read postRound The Clock
Round the Clock is a two-dice game where players race to roll the numbers 1 through 12 in sequence.
Read postQuestions
Questions is a drinking game where players take turns asking questions and drink for any hesitation, answer, or rule break.
Read postQualify
Qualify is a five-dice game where each player rolls five times, setting aside at least one die per turn for the highest total.
Read postIdeas on how to advertise your stories
A list of ways writers can promote a short story before and after publication, from blogs to social media to forums.
Read postPyramids
Pyramids is a bluffing card drinking game played with a pyramid of face-up cards and a hand of four hidden cards.
Read postPig
Rules and history of Pig, a single-die push-your-luck game used in classrooms to teach probability.
Read postPerverted Sounds
Rules for Perverted Sounds, a rhythm-and-recall drinking game where each player invents a sound and matching gesture.
Read postPassage
Rules for Passage, a two-dice game where the lowest opening roll sets the point and players race to hit it eleven times.
Read postPar
Rules for Par, a five-dice betting game where you try to beat 24 and pay or collect tokens based on the difference.
Read postPaper, Rock, Scissors Ultimate
A paper-rock-scissors variant where ties stack up extra shots for whoever loses next.
Read postOne-O-Five
Rules for One O Five, a five-dice race to roll five of a kind for every number from 1 through 6.
Read postOne Big Chicken
Rules for One Big Chicken, a tongue-twister drinking game where each round stacks one more absurd phrase onto the last.
Read postMexico
Rules for Mexico, a two-dice elimination game named after its highest roll of 2-1.
Read postLandmines
Rules for Landmines, a quarter-spinning shot game where empty cans pile up on the table as obstacles.
Read postKlondike
Rules for Klondike, a five-dice poker game from American frontier saloons where the dealer wins ties.
Read postKings Cup
Full rules for Kings Cup with every card assignment and a long list of house variations to mix in.
Read postJackpot
Rules for Jackpot, a medieval tavern dice game also called Dragon's Hoard, played on a board of nine numbered circles.
Read postWhy dont we have free phones yet?
A rant on Canadian carrier monopolies and a thought experiment about a mesh-networked open phone with no cell towers.
Read postI never
Rules for I Never, the drinking word game where you find out way too much about your friends.
Read postIndian Poker
A drinking card game where you lick a card to your forehead and bet drinks on whether yours is higher than everyone elses.
Read postIndian Dice
Rules for Indian Dice, a five-dice poker variant for when you want to play poker but cannot find the cards.
Read postIce Cube Raft Race
A drinking game where each player fills an ice cube tray with beer and races to suck every slot dry through a straw.
Read postHigh
Rules for High, the simplest two-dice game: each player rolls and the highest total takes the pot.
Read postGolf
Rules for Golf, a three-dice game also called Dragon Slayer where every non-double roll counts as a stroke over eighteen rounds.
Read postFourteens
Rules for Fourteens, a ten-dice tavern banking game from the 1930s Midwest paying eight-to-one on fourteen hits of the point.
Read postFifty
Rules for Fifty, a quick two-dice game where doubles score five, double sixes score twenty-five, and double threes wipe you out.
Read postDisarm The Bomb
A drinking game where four beer cans get taped into a cube, taped to your hands, and you have ten minutes to drink them.
Read postDirty Hearts
A card-flipping drinking game where every heart turns into a round of nosy questions and unwanted dares.
Read postDice 10,000
Rules and house variants for Dice 10,000, the five-dice push-your-luck game also called Zilch, Farkle, and Amish Dice.
Read postDice
A short history of dice, from divining sticks and pyramid dice at Ur to teetotums and medieval dice boards.
Read postDanger Dice
A drinking game where six numbered pint glasses get filled and downed based on what comes up on a single die.
Read postCutpurse
Rules for Cutpurse, a two-dice tavern game where the low roller sets the point and players race to eleven.
Read postCubilete
Rules for Cubilete, a traditional Cuban five-dice game scored by poker-style hands of kings, queens, jacks, and aces.
Read postCrokinole
Notes on Crokinole, the Ontario-born tabletop flicking game, with a bit of its 1876 history and the basic rules.
Read postCrazy Eights
Rules for Crazy Eights, the classic shedding card game where 8s are wild and let you change the called suit.
Read postChase The Ace
Rules for Chase The Ace, a circle drinking game with two dice where each face passes, drinks, or gives a drink.
Read postCenturians
Rules for Centurions, the Power Hour drinking game: one shot of beer every minute for 100 minutes, no chugging.
Read postCentennial
Rules for Centennial, a three-dice race game where you hit the numbers 1 through 12 and back down again in order.
Read postCaps
Rules for Caps, a circle drinking game where players fling bottle caps at the beer in front of each opponent.
Read postBoxing
Rules for Boxing, a two-team dice drinking game where the lowest roll takes the shot and a fall is a knockout.
Read postBoss Dice
Rules for Boss Dice, a two-player San Francisco bar game scored on five-dice poker hands with two rerolls each.
Read postBooray
Rules for Booray, a French-Louisiana trick-taking card game with a five-card draw and ante-and-pot scoring.
Read postBlack or Red
Rules for Black or Red, a card-based drinking game where guessing the next card wrong means you drink.
Read postBeat The Barman
Rules for Beat The Barman, a bar drinking game where you finish your shot before the bartender returns with change.
Read postBarbudi
Rules for Barbudi, a two-player Mexican casino dice game where shooter and fader bet on which doubles come up first.
Read postAces In The Pot
Rules for Aces In The Pot, a two-dice gambling game where 1s feed the pot and 6s pass coins to your neighbour.
Read postCoyote catches the road runner
A clip where Wile E. Coyote finally catches the Road Runner.
Read postFlower plug
A bathtub plug shaped like a flower that shifts from pink to deep purple once the water hits a safe temperature.
Read postWastbasket for the bathroom
A bathroom wastebasket from SnowTone with a lid you seal by dropping in a magazine, made for toilet readers.
Read postAPEX Holiday Subscription Drive
APEX magazine runs a November subscription drive promising pro-rate 5-cents-per-word pay if they hit 500 new subscribers.
Read postWork Smarter, Not Harder
In 1968 a man in a police uniform stole 294 million yen from a Toshiba bank car in Tokyo and was never caught.
Read postLee Krasnow - Puzzle box maker
Lee Krasnow's Barcode Burr puzzle, a six-piece burr whose notches force the pieces to move in a strict binary sequence.
Read postMaBeGroMo Rules
Joining MaBeGroMo, the November alternative to NaNoWriMo where you put the razor away and grow a beard until December.
Read postNot alowing comments
Warren Ellis turns off comments and asks readers to reply via trackback instead, boosting his inbound links and Google rank.
Read postProving that 3 + 2 = 0
A math paradox that proves 3 + 2 = 0 by quietly dividing both sides of an equation by zero.
Read postBoard Game design challenge
A board game design challenge happening in Vancouver, open to anyone who wants to prototype a game from scratch.
Read postTips for pulling an all nighter
Tips for pulling an all-nighter at the computer: showers, dark editor themes, fruit, a 4 a.m. meal, and loud music.
Read postOK to talk to
Ordering an OK Social button for Vancouver, a wearable signal that says strangers are welcome to start a conversation.
Read postWhen big people steal small guys ideas
Adobe Kuler looks a lot like ColourLovers.com, and small site owners have no real way to push back on big copycats.
Read postDefeat your Google twin
Plotting how to outrank my Google twin, the engine-casting Steven Smethurst, by Christmas.
Read postMistakes I have made
Ten blogging and web design mistakes I made over the years, from subdirectories and subdomains to too many RSS feeds.
Read postWhere I went wrong
Reflecting on my offline games niche blog and where the original niche-picking calculation went wrong.
Read postRemoving the Nofollow link
Why the WordPress DoFollow plugin and its public user list make blogs an easy target for comment spammers.
Read post5 MSN/Yahoo/GTtalk/AOL/IM Etiquette tips
Five etiquette tips for using MSN, Yahoo, GTalk and other IM clients without annoying the people on the other end.
Read postTimeless content
Notes on writing timeless blog content that stays useful 5 to 10 years after posting, with tips on dates and wording.
Read postPrint your own Yahtzee sheets
Printable Roll the Dice score sheets (Yahtzee clone) in PDF, with rules, history, and scoring strategy notes.
Read post12 Tips for creating a killer landing page.
Twelve rules for landing pages that convert, drawn from rebuilding a friend's AdWords campaign from 2 leads a day to 25.
Read post23 Tips for writing good blog posts and articles.
Twenty-three rules for writing readable blog posts, from snappy headlines to splitting long pieces and crediting sources.
Read postCard game - Munchkin - Kill monsters, steal the treasure, and stab your buddy
A writeup of Steve Jackson's card game Munchkin, with a list of every expansion in the Munchkin family.
Read postHow to make dice, and a brief history
A short history of dice from divining sticks to teetotums, plus printable origami paper dice for when yours go missing.
Read postRandom drinking game generator
A small script that pulls rules from a database of card-and-dice drinking games and spits out a random one.
Read postHouse maze
A backyard corn maze run as a paid attraction, with notes on why the right-hand rule beats most maze designs.
Read postFan works of Mario
A small roundup of dark and weird Mario fan art and flash animations including Communist Mario and Burly Mario.
Read postMore riddles
A second batch of lateral-thinking riddles with answers tucked below the cut.
Read postRiddles
A list of classic riddles I have been saving, with answers tucked below the cut.
Read postMy Ferrofluid Project
A failed attempt to build a Sachiko Kodama style ferrofluid sculpture with a 500lb electromagnet and a litre of fluid.
Read postThe Eden project - Artificial ecosystem
Design notes for an artificial ecosystem sim with creatures that age, mate, eat, and inherit traits from their parents.
Read postCreate a invisible book shelf
An invisible bookshelf made by hiding an L bracket behind the bottom book of a stack.
Read postA mini hydroelectric damn that runs a LED inside your shower head.
A forum project to put a tiny water-driven turbine inside a shower head so it powers an LED while you shower.
Read postThings to do in vancouver
A personal running list of Vancouver spots and events, from Treetops Adventure and La Casa Gelato to the Parade of Lost Souls.
Read postLego Ice cube Tray
A $7.99 silicone tray from the Lego online store that freezes water into stackable Lego brick ice cubes.
Read post