Cardboard isn't only for the homeless.

I came across the itbed futon on productdose the other day, and I am completely in love. If you have ever had the burning desire to sleep in or on a cardboard box? If so, then this is the perfect product for you.

It is a collapsable futon bed made completely out of 7mm thick cardboard. Throw on a slim mattress and some linens and your are ready to go!

This product caters to those "casual" hobos; those not willing to give up their yuppie lifestyle, but desperately yearning for a life of freedom that only a life on the streets can bring. It's the perfect fusion of ikea and soup-kitchen.

Read more about this "futon" on tarabox.com.

Tagged as : cardboard • hobo • yuppie

Silent Alarm by the Bloc Party has been sitting on my digital shelf (I pretty much only exclusively listen to mp3s, so there is no real shelf to speak of) for the last year or so. I instantly liked the obvious standout tracks (Like Eating Glass, Banquet) upon first listen, but, for some reason, wasn't intrigued enough to give it much more attention.

Now, come mid-April 2006 and I'm sick of my music collection yet again. There is only so much Sufjan Stevens, Grandaddy, and the Faint you can listen to, and that's where this album has come in. It has saved the day.

Simply danceable, upbeat, intelligent music.

Tagged as : Bloc Party • Silent Alarm • Music

Highway 69 and the CBC

I drive the stretch of road between Waterloo, ON and Sudbury, ON quite regularly, and on this four-and-a-half hour drive I keep my radio regularly tuned to the CBC, and much of the drive takes place on the (in)famous Highway 69. You never really know what you're going to get from this truly Canadian radio station. You might be lucky enough to hear a program dedicated to the wonders of mustard, a documentary about pirated dvds, or a four hour program dedicated to fear and it's place in rock and roll.

This weekend I was treated to a program called A Propos in which Jim Corcoran features francophone artists. He first translates the lyrics into spoken-word english, then plays the song. Take a listen to Borderline by Katerine for a an example of what you might hear.

Filed as : CBC | Radio

I invented it for the children!

I'm just going to say it. I am a sucker for American Inventor.

Last night, there was a special 2-hour episode of American Inventor (think American Idol for inventors) where they cut down the field to the final 12. Each of these 12 people will get $50,000 to pursue their inventions, and the winner will receive one .... million......... dollars! BWAH - HAH - HAH -HAH - HAH- HAH-HAH.

In reality, however, I don't really think any of the inventions are that good. To me, inventions are products that create simple and/or elegant solutions to common problems. Many of the inventions on the show are far too niche or simply not very good products.

One thing that you have to give credit to these people is their passion (pronounced PAH-SHUN). It's something that no one will ever let you forget. These people have sold all of their belongings, given up their marriages, lost jobs, and sold kidneys, all to follow their dreams to invent the portable pee suit. WHA??

Filed as : American Inventor | Reality TV

Build your own DVR : the Lifehacker guide

If you want to step into the DVR market, but don't want to be a slave to TiVo, then you can build your own. Lifehacker has a pretty good guide how to setup your PC as a DVR. The guide is nicely laid out, and contains screenshots.

I've been seriously looking into a way to extend this sort of DVR setup to be compatible with digital set-top boxes and a Windows Media Center extender (Xbox 360). Imagine recording HDTV with your Xbox 360? So far my only snag is Rogers Cable here in Southern Ontario who won't upgrade my firmware so that I can record via the available firewire port. I think it's ridiculous that Rogers has the control over this piece of hardware that I purchased in full.

digg story

Filed as : DVR | DIY

FIFA Fridays

This game has the ability to take over my life - I have played the last few generations of EA's FIFA series, and am completely in love with this game. I keep thinking that FIFA cannot be improved, but it has. I love the new commentary, and the improvements to the gameplay. You have to be a lot more careful with your passes than you had to in previous generations and this makes the game much more realistic.

The best is the four-player mode with 2-on-2 challenges that have created a FIFA Friday tradition in my house.

Filed as : FIFA | Soccer

Can't stop the rock!

Last night was my first experience with the NLL (National Lacrosse League) as I watched the Toronto Rock play the Philadelphia Wings at the ACC in downtown Toronto in front of 18,400 fans. I went in skeptical and came out a fan. I could not believe the excitement of this sport and specifically this game. Toronto came back from a 14-8 deficit in the 4th quarter to win 15-14 in overtime.

The fans are amazing. The first thing that blew me away was the enthusiasm of the kids. As soon as the camera comes on them, their shirts are instantly ripped off and they are waving them around like mad. As a fan, you feel like you can really make a difference in the game.

I had such a great time at the game that afterwards my friends and I formed "Les Roches". Die-hard fans, without the violence. We have been converted over night. The only problem is that back in society the excitement faded as reality set in that Lacrosse is not popular, and, really, nobody cares. Les Roches are here to change that. We will be attending playoff games with tearaway shirts and possible temporary tattoos.

Filed as : The Rock | Lacrosse

I hope it's a PFLOP!

We just released an update to ProductWiki last night that included a lot of design clean ups, as well as some new features. Now, as well as being able to retrieve PW content as RSS feeds, you can also publish them to your blog or website by embedding some HTML.

The parts for a pretty sweet, yet inexpensive, computer:

What's cool is that this will update in real time as I tag more stuff on the site. This feature is just in its infancy but we are hoping that it will catch and become popular amongst the blogging community. Heck, I think it's it pretty cool.

Filed as : productwiki | social shopping

The difference between 12 and 27

I was out on a mountain bike ride yesterday, and there is this dirt course that some kids have set up behind the house. Huge jumps, banked corners, steep embankments, and pitfalls. I'm pretty amazed by the whole mountain biking/dirt jumping/BMX phenomenom, and I am impressed with what these kids have done.


The problem is that I'm 27 and I've realized that I don't know if I'll get the courage/stupidity to take my new bike off one of those huge ramps. I remember being 12 years old and jumping bikes off of anything I saw. I would make jumps and hit them full speed with no warm-up or practice. Something has changed in the last 15 years (duh), but I think I still might give it a go...

Filed as : mountain bikes | growing up