Linkdump

Here’s a bunch of cool links I’ve been saving up:

The Case Of The 500-Mile Email
The statistics department at a certain college seems to be unable to send email more than “500 miles, or a bit more” away.  There actually is a valid reason.

MakerBot
This open-source machine can, when given a diagram and a load of raw plastic, ‘print’ three-dimensional objects, from eyeglass frames and wall brackets to action figures and 3D renderings of Walt Disney’s head.

Better Late Than Never
A Japanese man completes a marathon after 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes, and 20.3 seconds.

Road Lights
These towers use the wind of passing cars on a highway to generate electricity to power streetlights.  I bet that electricity could be used for other uses, too.

B-Headphones
These wireless earbuds, when clipped into their case, can fit into any AA battery charger to recharge.

DIVINA
This wireless hotspot finder is shaped like a dowsing rod and points toward the strongest spot.  It can also act as a repeater, to strengthen the signal.

Cube Jigger
This jigger is shaped like a cube and can measure liquids in six common measures.  Each side has gradients, also, so using the ‘Cup’ side you can measure out 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, and so on.

SWITCH Screwdriver
The handle on this screwdriver can swivel to form a ‘T’ shape, offering better grip for stubborn screws.

Proof That Girls Are Evil
While in fact most of them aren’t, it’s a good (and funny!)mathematical proof.

How To Get Your Camera Back
One man made a series of pictures on his camera to convince someone to give it back to him (and how to get in contact) in the event of loss.  He also compiled them together in .gif format just for the web.

Star Wars Status Updates
Hilarious.  Facebook status updates by Star Wars characters.   Nothing more needs be said.

Metal Pen
This pen has no ink.  It works because the nib is a special allow that slowly comes off onto the paper; when used on printer-paper-style paper, it looks similar to a pencil’s mark but does not smudge and cannot easily be rubbed of the paper.  For a full-length alternative, see the Beta Pen.

How To Change the Color of Office 2010

This is, in essence, an update to my previous post, How To Change The Color Of Office 2007.

If you’re running the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 (available free (as in beer!) from the Microsoft website), you can change the color scheme from blue (default) to black or silver, just like in Office 2007.  If you’ve already changed the color, I found that Office 2010 preserved that change upon install.  If you haven’t yet, or if you want to switch the color, or if it didn’t preserve that color change, here’s how to do it:

For pictures with each step, see this Instructable.

0.  Steps 1 – 3 detail how to download the Office 2010 Beta.  If you already have it, skip to step 4.

1.  Go to this site and click through the various Download Now buttons until you can actually download the installer.  You’ll need a Windows Live ID (if you don’t have one, click the link anyways; the site’ll tell you how to make one) and you’ll have to sign up (email, name, country) to use the beta. 

2. Save the installer to your Desktop or wherever you put installer downloads, DON’T CHANGE THE FILE NAME.

3. Once the download completes, run the uninstaller.  Follow the instruction in the subsequent window.

4.  Open any Office 2010 window (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc)

5. Click on ‘File.’  In different programs, this button will be different colors:  Red in PowerPoint, Blue in Word, Green in Excel, and so on.

6. Click Options, the second-to-last button.

7.  Make sure the subsequent window is set to the ‘General’ tab. 

8.  Under the dropdown list titled Color Scheme currently set to blue, choose either Black or Silver.  I personally prefer the black scheme.

9.  Click OK.

10.  You’re done!  Doing this affects the following Office 2010 windows: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, OneNote, and Publisher.  I do not have any other Office programs.

Screenshots!

Black

Silver

Rubik’s Cube

I recently went on a vacation to Japan (which I will be writing posts about at some point) where I, among other things, got a little Rubik’s Cube.  I can finally solve one! 

Also:  Some shameless self promotion:  If you like my blog, or even if you don’t really think much about it, I’d greatly appreciate you passing the like to it around to people you know (http://ramblingsrobert.wordpress.com).  Thank y’all kindly.