ORIGINALLY AIRED: 3/11/2005
Theodore Gray, $119 DIY PC, Simply Jeff
Episode #5041
| Propaganda Props: Check out this gallery of aerial propaganda leaflets.
Recycled Cube: Hey Macolytes—finally upgraded to a Mac mini? Don’t let that ol’ G4 Cube gather dust—make your own CubeQuarium. He-Man Adventures: Link looks quite manly in the new Legend of Zelda trailer. Perhaps he’s been hanging out with the Prince of Persia. |
| Theodore Gray, co founder of Wolfram Research, came by to demonstrate his Incredible Spoon Melting Trick. By mixing the right alloys—indium (used as a coating in LCD panels), bismuth (the stuff you drink in Pepto Bismol), and tin—he makes spoons that actually melt in hot water.
Trick your friends and reap much laughter! But, er, is it safe? “It’s essentially non-toxic, but these are industrial metals, so you never know what impurities are in them,” Theodore said. To learn how he did it, read his article at Popular Science, and visit his own site at TheodoreGray.com. (Be sure to take a look at his periodic table table.) |
| Started in 1991, the PXL THIS Festival celebrates a piece of defunct camera equipment that was actually intended for children: The Fisher-Price PXL 2000. Built between 1987 and ’89, the PXL 2000 recorded low-res video to audio cassettes, making it a cheap way to make short films. “The magical PXL 2000 restores a certain humanity to the overpowering technology of video,” say the organizers of the PXL THIS Festival, a showcase of movies made with the camera. Learn more at the official website. |
| Here are three lesser-known networks to fulfill your P2P needs: |
| Steve’s Going to be iPissed: LuxPro of Taiwan issues an absolutely shameless iPod shuffle clone.
Two Formats Go In, One Comes Out: Apple cozies up to Sony by opting to support its Blu-Ray high-definition DVD spec. Is There a Pimply Teenager Shortage? McDonald’s plans on outsourcing order-taking at its drive-through windows. P2P Oui? A French court rules for a file-sharer, setting a precedent for allowing downloads of copywritten material. |
| Used to be, $400 was considered the threshold for a low-budget PC. But cheapness marches on, and now you can almost hit the golden mark of $100 and still run Windows XP. Barely. We found our components via searches at PriceWatch.com, and Froogle; prices and links are always changing, so we advise you to make your own searches for the following items:
566 MHz Intel Celeron CPU: $14 Heatsink & fan: $3 ATX Socket 370 Mobo: $19.99 512MB PC133 RAM: $35 Case with 250W power supply: $16 6GB IDE Maxtor hard drive: $25 CD-ROM drive: $3 10/100 Ethernet card: $3.99 How good is this $119.98 computer? It’s awful! Do yourself a favor and spend another $100 or so at a computer fair and make something half-way decent. But, hey, we did it! |
| Another video game sure to upset Congress: Dope Farmer simulates the crazy world of growing medicinal herbs legal in some states with a doctor’s prescription. Grab the demo and live dangerously. |
| Andrew of Fort Worth, Texas wanted to know: is file sharing safer on a Mac or PC?
Most spyware, adware, and viruses are made for PCs, so Macs are indeed safer. |
| California native Simply Jeff is a DJ/producer extraordinaire who blends unique breakbeats into electronic dance music to create a sound all his own. Deemed a pioneer of the "Funky Breaks / West Coast Breakbeat House Sound" in Simon Reynold's novel Generation Ecstasy, Simply Jeff travels the world, bringing his west-coast sensibility to international clubs and raves, and brings the rest of the world back to his hometown via his residency at Tsunami Breaks in Costa Mesa, California. This multi-talented multi-tasker also writes for BPM magazine, runs the U.S. breaks label Phonomental Music, founded the acclaimed dance music record shop DJ Culture, and has his own streaming radio show on djculture.com. Simply Jeff’s full length debut album, a compilation of his Phonomental artists, is due out later this year. Learn more about Simply Jeff at SimplyJeff.com. |
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Keep It Simple... Simply Jeff, That Is!
DJ Simply Jeff Talks vinyl vs. CDs and hanging at Playboy: The Mansion. |