Exasperated Calculator

Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics

  • Oh, I say, Jolly Good Show

    [John Cleese to start podcasting](http://tpn.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/09/27/john-cleese-to-release-new-video-series-in-conjunction-with-the-podcast-network/). While I’m talking about The Podcast Network, I should mention that their [Napoleon 101](http://napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.com/) podcast is superb.

  • Election07: Roulette wheel edition

    *Annoucements*: The ALP [rolls out its tax policy](http://alp.org.au/media/1007/msloo190.php). $31 billion, plus $3 billion in education and health expenditure. *Polls*: Big day for polls. [Galaxy](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/20/woz120.xml) ALP 53-47, [AC Nielsen](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/19/2063636.htm?site=elections/federal/2007?WT.srch=1) ALP 54-46, [Morgan Telephone](http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4229) ALP 55.5-44.5. Thirty six days until we see where the roulette wheel lands.

  • How little things change

    [A film projector from 1958](http://www.shorpy.com/project-management-1958). Having been involved in a film society, I can tell you that it looks pretty much (with a few small things only) like the ones in the back of small cinemas today. Still, I suppose when you’ve basically just got a big lightbulb, a shutter and a lot of film…

  • Steganography or modern art

    [How to put an image into your histogram](http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/09/idea_the_histogram_as_the_imag.html). This is quite clever, although I’m not sure there are a lot of images that this would work very well for… But is this just ‘hidden art’, or is it actually starting to get in to the realm of cryptography?

  • Making a better fire drill

    [A laser based fire extinguisher training](http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/14/laser-fire-extinguisher-simulator-threatens-arsonists-livelihoo/). I think this would make the six-monthly fire drills around here a lot more interesting.

  • Portable vinyl

    [The most portable record player I’ve ever seen](http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/09/mister_disc.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890). I would, I have to admit, be a little bit worried about warpiing of the album from it not being supported at all points, but still a fairly clever idea.

  • Customer service

    Small, almost random observation: when calling my bank (Which Bank?) the other day I ended up doing the ‘on hold shuffle’ when they bounce you from department to department for bits of your query. And I noticed that *every single one* of the customer service reps started with ‘Hello, this is Glenda in Tamworth’ or…

  • Election07: Cool Hand Luke edition

    *Announcements*: No significant national announcements that I can find. *Other*: [Kevin Rudd agrees to turn up to the debate on Sunday](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/18/2063526.htm). 37 days to go, although [inmates won’t get to vote](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/37_%28number%29).

  • Not what I meant by takeaway

    [A cafe built into a shipping container](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/09/illys-shipping-conta.html). More a piece of art than a real cafe, but there’s a genuine business idea underneath this.

  • More caretaker period fun

    [Hole punch art](http://www.notcot.com/archives/2007/08/hole_punched.php). It may take a little practice, of course. But there’s still over five weeks to go.