Dollar ReDe$ign Project

Tired of looking at the same old dollar bills? What if currency could be rejuvenated and made a bit more modern - although not forgetting the American heritage?

That's the goal of the Dollar ReDe$ign Project.

The Dowling | Duncan winning proposition shows us new dollar bills with a vertical design (we actually do handle bills in vertical mode more than horizontally), each note has the same width but varies height according to its value and has its own distinctive color.

Also, each note motif is closely related to its actual value:

• $1 - Obama, the 1st Afro-american President
• $5 - The 5 biggest native american Tribes
• $10 - The 10 first amendments of the USA Bill of Rights
• $20 - 20th century events in the USA
• $50 - the 50 states (although they're actually more...)
• $100 - the first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt, to which every new President achievements are now compared.

A nice approach... but which will never see the light of day (highly unlikely).

What is Portugal like?

Beacuse many (most?) of you will have no idea of how Portugal is - or even where it is - today I decided to share with you a bit of how's Portugal like.

Hope you enjoy it - and come visit when you have a chance. :)

How to Understand Trigonometry

If trigonometry has always been a strange world you've never truly understood, maybe all you need is a little help... in a visual form.

That's exactly what you get in this interactive Touch Trigonometry site. A way to visualiza what all those trigonometry "badwords" mean. It shouldn't take you long to realize what sin, cos, tan, and all other trigonometric functions really mean.

Whether you're trying to understand trigonometry by yourself, or want a free tool to help you explain it to someone else, I'm sure you'll find this interactive touch trigonometry quite helpful.

Photo-Realistic Rendering in SketchUp

If your project renders in Google's SketchUp don't quite cut ir, how about taking it up a notch and create images like this one?

It looks so real you'd really have to take your time to figure out otherwise. And that's exactly what you can achieve with this Shaderlight SketchUp renderer.
If you just want to play around, you can use the free version. And while it is Windows-only for now, a Mac version is said to be coming soon.

Unread Count Icon in Gmail

Ever wished you could see, at a glance, your unread email count when you have dozens of tabs open in your browser? Look no further! You can now choose to have a customized unread message count icon in Gmail.

This allows you to quickly see how many unread messages you have - even with a cluttered tab bar.

As always, this experimental feature is available via Gmail Labs - which, thanks to its new and improved search box - can easily be found by starting to type Unread message icon.


For me, it won't be that helpful, as I usually keep several dozen "unread" emails in my inbox as reminders of what I need to do... and the icon just shows "20+". But for people with cleaner Gmail inboxes, I'm sure it will be quite useful.

Convert Photos to Legos

Ever wished to convert any image or photograph into a Lego version of it? Well, thanks to Brickify your task just got a lot easier.

It's no secret that making a logo out of Lego can be time consuming... but it's reasonably easy.
However, if you want to transform a full color photograph into a Lego artwork, things are quite different - as Lego pieces are available in just a handful of colors.

With Brickify, you just to provide an image URL, and within moments you'll have your brickified Lego picture.

You can edit the resulting image, get a detailed report of how many LEGO pieces you'll need, and even an assembly schematic to aid you in getting things done.

A valuable tool that will allow you to create a very unique and lovable gift for someone special.

Arduino The Documentary

You've probably already heard about the Arduino. This open-source electronics development platform is being used by thousands and thousand of people around the world.

I've shown you some projects using it: like photographing at the speed of sound, individually addressable LED strips, and a Portuguese made Arduino made of paper.

If you're into this kind of stuff, don't miss out the following video: Arduino The Documentary.


Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

Time Stretching Lunch Clock

Ever wished your lunch hour to pass slower, so you could calmly eat and enjoy your meal?
Other than having to deal with relativistic theories of time stretching, a much easier solution is to replace your work clock by one of these lunch time clock that allows you to add an extra 12 minutes of lunch time to your lunch hour!

How does it work? It's quite simple: in the hour preceding your lunch hour (11 to 12h) it speeds up time by 20% so that during your actua lunch hour (12-13h) it can slow down time by the same amount. Meaning, you'll have a 20% longer lunch hour (12 minutes).

What are you waiting for? Even if you use it just as a prank to your colleagues and co-workers, I'm sure no one will complain about it! :)

TV Shows Favs for Android

If you're tired of missing your favorite TV shows, here's an Android App that will make your life a lot easier: TV Show Favs

While still in development (still a beta version, so be ready to give it some latitude) this App is already a valuable tool to manage your TV viewing habits. And considering it's 12,000+ shows, it's highly likely it's got your tastes covered.
Besides all the info regarding each TV shows and individual episodes, the App also allows you to track which episodes you've already seen, get a personalized scheduled of your TV shows airing times, and even notifies you of upcoming shows so you will never miss one again. But it also does a lot more. Be sure to give it a try.

[Tv Shows Favs at AppBrain]

SwiftKey Keyboard for Android on Sale

Considered by many as the best touch keyboard for Android (although I personally still prefer the amazing Swype keyboard) thanks to its word prediction and auto-completion capabilities, SwiftKey is on sale until the end of January.

So, if you were thinking about, now it's the time to grab it. You can get SwiftKey for just 1,48€/$1.99.

I can assure you won't regret it. Before you know it you'll be typing faster than ever, and as many users report: SwiftKey will actually be doing all the "talking" for you... You'll just need to press space... space... space... :)

Awareness Test : Whodunnit

Here's another mesmerizing example that reminds us just how much we often see not what really is in front of us, but what we expect to see there.

Do the test... and be amazed by what you'll see happening in front of your eyes! :)

3D Printing in Titanium

If you completely dismissed 3D printing technologies because it was only able to produce cheap looking plastic pieces, what if I told you can now print 3D objects made of titanium?

Sure, the 3D printer costs a "little bit" more than Makerbot's Cupcake or the Thing-o-matic, kind of 1 million dollars more; but don't worry because thanks to i.materialise anyone can print their creations in titanium.

You're not restricted to printing in titanium (which can cost you about $100), as you have lots of other materials at hand, including different kinds of plastic, and even flexible, translucent, and transparent epoxy.

So, what are you waiting for to create your own amazing 3D pieces, like these ones?

It might take a couple more years (or decades), but the time will come when this type of technology will be as common and as cheap as inkjet printers are today. Just wait and see.

HTML5 Official Logo

If until now, talking about HTML5 was kind of an abstract thing... from now on we'll be able to put a face on it. Or better yet: a logo!

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has decided it's time for HTML5 to have an official logo, and this is the result:

There are several different logo versions for download, and as always, you can also get free stickers or buy T-Shirts showing your love for the future of the web standards.

Extreme Planet Makeover [NASA]

If you ever wondered what kind of variables make a planet be like it is, then you'll love NASA's Extreme Planet Makeover. An educational tool that allows you to play with different variables and see how your own planet turns out.

You can fool around with planet size, its age, the type of star it orbits and the distance from it.

I can't help but remember one of the first BASIC programs I ever wrote, that plotted the kepler orbit of an object orbiting a "sun". Which, as a matter of fact, is something I wish this NASA Planet Makeover also showed up.

3D Viewing Without 3D Glasses

While 3D is steaming full speed ahead - although sometimes I can't stop wondering ig that particular movie actually deserves being called 3D, or if it was just a ploy to make me pay the extra "3D tax" on an already expensive movie ticket - for most people the 3D glasses are still a very big nuisance.

One of the most common types of 3D glasses are the "active shutter" ones. Made of LCD lenses, they continuously block out the image, quickly alternating which eye can see what's on screen.
As this happens fast enough, your mind is tricked into believing it's seeing 3D images from a single 2D screen.

Well, you've probably already joked about this being basically the same as blinking your eyes very quickly... And now, Jonathan Post decided to prove that's exactly the case.
(Keep in mind, it's highly likely to be just an internet prank/hoax! :)

By connecting electrodes to his eyelids Jonathan claims to be able to reproduce the 3D effect without requiring any glasses, by making his eyelids blinks at high speed in sync with the screen.

I'm not really much in the mood to actually try it out myself, but the following video makes it look like it sure is a fun way to exercise your eyelid muscles! :)

Where Can I See UFOs?

Well, if you're looking for little green men, you can now follow this interactive map to find the counties where you're most likely to encounter  a UFO sighting.

Just keep in mind that UFO are simply unidentified flying objects, and not necessarily "extra-terrestrial space ships".

Whatever you see up in the air, for as long as it is unidentified... it's UFO! Whether it is simply a plastic bag floating in the air, a strange cloud formation, a balloon, comet, shooting star, or whatever... until you know what is is: it's officially an UFO.

Having said that, here are the top counties to look for UFOs:

• Petroleum County, Mont., 682 sightings per 100,000 residents,
• San Juan County, Colo., 541,;
• Esmeralda County, Nev., 479

How does a Black Box Work?

Ever wondered how a Black box is engineered in order to survive the most horrific situations and provide valuable data to investigators?

As you probably already know, a Black Box (which is actually called a flight data recorder)  is usually painted in a bright highly-visible color for obvious reasons.

Although we can now rely in more advanced and rugged digital data storage devices, how do you think they did it back when analog storage systems reigned supreme?
They actually "wrote" the info to Inconel, a superalloy steels that is used in furnaces and others extreme environments.

You can see it for yourself in the following video:

Trimensional 3D Scanner for iPhone

Not sure if this App qill ever be useful, but at least it will make your friends look to your iPhone as a truly amazing device. Trimensional is an iPhone App that allows you to scan your face (or other stuff) in 3D.

From what I could understand, it works based on the luminance level (brighter pixels are deemed closer, darker pixels are further away) to create a 3D map of the object. It won't be really accurate, but it's enough to show off to your friends.

But you can bet it's just a matter of time untile a "Kinnect-like" 3D camera will make its way to the mobile space, and then... things will get really interesting! :)

Electronic Order Menu Made in Portugal

No doubt everyone of us has already wished to have some form of automated ordering system when waiting for a waiter to come take your order at a restaurante, bar, or café. Well, a Portugues company - X64 - has decided to make something about it, and came up with the electronic menu.

It's a small menu with several pages and buttons that can transmit your order wirelessly to a receiving station. (They claim it has 1 year battery life - which should help clear out any worried about frequent battery replacement or recharging.)

You can keep track of your order on a small LCD screen, and each page is detected via magnetic detection (each page has its unique magnet)

It's a quite simple concept, that can already be found in some places in Portugal.

iPhone as WiFi Hotspot

This was probably the great reveal during Apple iPhone Verizon presentation in the US: the Verizon iPhone can act as a 3G/WiFi hotspot.

This "feature" was once even available at Apple's own App Store, thanks to an App that was promptly removed shortly after. So, we all know the iPhone could always do it. And, now that even low cost Android phones can do it as well, does it make any sense to keep it away from iPhone users?

(We're not talking about tethered Internet sharing, where you can use your iPhone as an internet "modem" when connected to a computer; but using the iPhone as a WiFi hotspot, for multiple simultaneous devices, without any need for proprietary drivers like those required for tethering.)

Sure, this delay has probably more to do with AT&T saturated 3G network than anything else (most of the world had tethering enabled iPhones one year sooner than AT&T customers), but again... the iPhone is a world phone, and lots of other countries have 3G networks that are perfectly capable of handling the extra mobile data an hotspot iPhone could provide. So... let's hope Apple doesn't make us wait too long for something that should have been there from the start!

Google Goggles solves Sudoku

If there's an App you absolutely have to have in your mobile device, its Google's own Google Goggles. This app allows you to do visual searches of book covers, bar codes, and even landmark photographs.

With the new Google Goggles 1.3 for Android, this App gets even better, allowing you to instantly recognize barcodes and QR codes without even having to snap a pictures.

It can also recognize newspapers and magazine ads, but the best part is: Google Goggles can now solve Sudoku math puzzles!



...  Though I still suspect Google will soon acquire Word Lens, and take Google Goggles to the "next level"! :)

Facebook Ends on March 15th?

You really shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet; and it still amazes me how many people still "panic" whenever a bombastic news pops up - without pausing for a second to think about it by themselves.

The latest one was: Facebook will end on March 15th, because Mark Zuckerberg would supposedly be too tired to keep it going and having "ruined his life".

Yeah right...

I guess I am expecting too much from all the people that keep forwarding emails stating that they'll win this or that if they send the email to 100 friends (not even bothering to use BCC instead of spamming every single person with all the emails of their friends and colleagues).

iPad 2 coming in February?

Kevin Rose (Digg's founder) says he has credible info that Apple will announce the iPad 2 in the next few weeks, possibly in the beginning of February.

Well, iPad 2 cases are popping up everywhere, and they all "match" which seems to indicate the iPad 2 is really close to completion. And some say Apple needs to start creating momentum for its launch, which might also happen sooner than expected.

As for what the iPad 2 will have: you can count on a new speedier CPU, more RAM memory, gyroscope, and its LCD screen should also get increased resolution mimicking the iPhone 4 retina display.

Whether it will actualy be a "Retina Display" or just a small resolution increase remains to be seen.Doubling the current iPad's resolution would be a monumental task, taking its current 9.7" LCD screen fom 1024x768 to a "hard-to-believe" 2048x1536!

But, if Apple settles for an intermediate resolution, then developers will have to handle yet this new screen format - unless Apple comes up with a way to create truly resolution independent Apps.

You might also find a microUSB port, for charging, as dictated by the latest EU regulations, and the last mystery will be the price.

Will they keep the "old" iPad around, at reduced prices? Will they sell the new iPad at even cheaper prices that might blow the competitors out of the water?
We've seen that other manufacturers have been having trouble creating affordable Tablets that can compete with the iPad... Let's see if the iPad 2 will make it even harder.

Car Trip OBD-II Interface for iPhone and Android

Griffin is looking for a way into your car, and their Car Trip OBD-II Bluetooth Interface might be just what you were looking for to keep a track of all the diagnostics you'll ever need in your iPhone or Android smartphone.

This compact OBD-II module sends all the data via Bluetooth to your smarpthone, where you can use a free App - CleanDrive - to make sense out of it.

The CarTrip module also has a SD card slot, so it can keep track of your data even when a smarpthone is not around; and has a power saving sleep mode when not in use, so your car battery won't die out on you.

It can be yours for just $89.99 - which, considering the rising prices of fuel, is not that expensive if it helps get better mileage by keeping your car running at 100%.

iPad Emulator in Your Browser

If you still haven't had the opportunity to check how the iPad actually works, nothing like visiting this amazing site offering you an iPad web emulator.

It doesn't even use Flash for the most part, and allows you to have a glimpse of how an iPad behaves and works - though you'd better try a real iPad to really get the hang of it.

On a completely unrelated note: for old-timers like me, you might want to go old-school and see how things worked back in the day, in this MS-Dos web emulator. :)

Samsung Series 7 Sliding PC

Presented yesterday at CES 2011, this Samsung Sliding PC brings back an interesting concept: a tablet with a ultra thin keyboard underneath that you can slide into place whenever needed.

It comes with Microsoft Windows 7 and is powered by Intel's latest generation Atom CPUs (Oak Trail). This Samsung Series 7 Sliding PC also comes with a 10.1" Multitouch LCD (1366x768) and is equipped with either 32 or 64GB of SSD storage space.

Depending on the price, they can have a winner here...

Eyes Relax to Protect Your Eye Sight

If you spend your day iin front of a computer screen, I urge you to install this Eye Relax right now, to protect your eye sight in the long run.

Human eyes weren't made to stare at the exact same spot in space for hours at t time, and that's exactly what Eye Relax reminds you - in case you forget it.

You can set up short and long breaks, for instance: 60 seconds each 15 minutes for a short break; 5 minutes every hour for the long break.
The program is highly customizable, allowing you to define your breaks, sound warnings, and even password protect your breaks.

Eye Relax is free and is available for Windows in both an install version as well as a portable version you can run anywhere.

Android Honeycomb [Video]

So you'd like to know how the next generarion Android for tablets will look like? It was a close kept secret, but finally Google gives us a glimpse of what's coming in the tablet oriented Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

In the following video you can see the improved interface, web browsing, Gmai, GTalk, YouTube access, Google Maps and more.

Can't wait to put my hands in one of these new Honeycomb Tablet devices! :)

Move Lockscreen to Unlock [iPhone]

If your iPhone is free from Apple's restrictive policies (jailbreak) and you don't particularly like the unlock gesture on the lockscreen, then you should give this Move Lockscreen to Unlock a try.

Besides allowing you to unlock your iPhone via the regular swipe gesture, you can also unlock it by moving the entire lockscreen in any direction you like. Just push it out of the way and you'll have unlocked your iPhone.

Pretty useful and intuitive to use, and at $1.99 in Cydia, it's not that expensive.

Power Balance - Is it a Scam?

I guess you can now stop worrying about Power Balance wristbands being a scam or not.

In fact, the actual brand was forced to clarify their claims and admit there is no scientific evidence that the wristbands provide what they used to claim.

Yes, they admit to misleading conduct, and hopefully that will help finally put to rest that these (and similar) power balance wristbands are indeed nothing but a scam.

I sincerely hope most of their customers ask for a refund - so they learn not to trick people into this sort of stuff. (Though I also think anyone believing such claims and paying for it would also deserve to learn this... by not having their money refunded!)

Emotional Satnav Driver Assistant

It's no secret a lot of nice people change completely when they sit behind a driver's wheel. Even the most calm driver can quickly become a furious almost manic-like monster when facing adverse road conditions and other crazy drivers.

That's exactly why Prof. Peter Robinson from Cambridge Univeristy decided to develop a emotion sensing satnav system that can act like an anti-road rage assistant.

By recognizing face expressions and the tone of the drivers voice, this system - currently in the form of a robotic head - can try to minimize the hungriness of the driver.
The system can correctly identify the driver's emotion 70% of the time, and in the future might also be able to interact with other car systems, allowing for the volume radio to be turned down, while minimizing repeated instructions - for those moments when "anything" can become annoying to the drivers.

Intel SSD 310 mSATA

The future of local storage is coming... fast. After the SSD modules used by Apple in their new MacBook Air models, here are the new Intel SSD 310. SSD drive modules that ditch the traditional and bulky enclosures (not needed any longer), and use a single PCIe-like connector which is, in fact, a micro SATA connector (mSATA).

This means that, before you know it, your "hard drive" will be pluggable just like a RAM memory module.
Lenovo has already show interest in using these SSD 310 modules - and while they'll only be available to OEMs at the moment; you can expect it to become commonly available in the near future, as board and computer start using this mSATA connectors.

These SSD Intel 310 will cost $99 and $179 (40/80GB) per 1000 units, with performance similar to the current equivalent Intel X25 drives.

How a Quartz Watch Works

In the fist day of the year, nothing better than to share with you how the now common quartz watches work.
This type of watch has become so simple that we rarely stop to think what makes it tick, and it's truly amazing how we can have these pieces of time-keeping technology in our wrists for just a few bucks.