Items of Interest

Podcast of the Week: Blindboy Interviews Brenda & John Romero

In his podcast this week, Blindboy played an excellent live interview with Brenda & John Romero, who are video game royalty. Brenda is a fullbright scholar and has been working in the games industry since 1981, and John was a game designer on Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein 3D. The interview is an enjoyable listen into the world of video game history, including the large role that women have played in computer programming history.

Thermoelectric Stoves

Low Tech Magazine published an interesting article on equipping a stove with a thermoelectrical generator (TEG). A TEG is about 5% efficient at generating electricity, however if the heat from the stove is being generated anyway for other reasons (heating, cooking etc), then adding a TEG would be a more reliable way to generate electricity than installing solar panels.

IKEA's Bee Home

IKEA's reasearch lab Space10 has collaborated with design studio Bakken & Bæck and industrial designer Tanita Klein to create Bee Home, an open source design for a wooden Bee Home that people can build and install at home. The Bee Home website allows you to customise the size and configuration of your Bee Home, and then download the instructions and CNC files to use to fabricate the wooden home.

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