HycoSpeed, on June 16th, 2013
Welcome to the Extra Special* Father’s Day Edition of everybody’s favorite look at free stuff! This is the time of the week when you, our loyal commentariat, go out in the world of the wide web and take a look at the best of the best available on your favorite local online classifieds site. Last week we managed to garner some good comments, including a testimonial from the always lovely ZomBee Racer on the joys and happiness that can be found by bringing home a free motorhome!
The big win for the week goes to Maymar, who found a place to live down by the river, and as a bonus, a boat to go with it! Then instead of looking like a creeper who lives in a van, you can just be a salty sailor who lies by the water!
Continue reading Sometimes Free Stuff Isn’t Worth It
HycoSpeed, on June 15th, 2013
Today’s Q3 is a bit of a special one. This particular object, I do happen to own. I acquired it at an auction once upon a time, purely for its uniqueness. I have actually been holding on to the images of this one, but I think today is a good day to let you all take a look, and see if anyone knows the answer. Hit the jump to see the story and more images of this Quandary!
Continue reading Q³: Swap Meet
HycoSpeed, on June 9th, 2013
We all have heard, I am sure, the many versions of the story/joke about the fellow who sees an ad tacked up on a bulletin board for a ridiculously cheap Corvette/dream car, and thinking it is too good to be true, goes and buys it off a nice lady. As he completes the transaction, he asks her why she is selling it so cheap. The answer is that her husband ran off with a secretary and asked her to sell the car and send him the money, so that’s what she is going to do! Like the guy thought, entirely too good to be true, but still a fun story. Which is probably why is sticks around.
Well, thanks, to online classified ads, you now have the chance to share with us the cool stuff you find in the Free! section, that looks too good to be true, but in reality is just proof that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! See what you can find out there in the wide worlds of the web, and share with us in the comments. Technology related, semi-related, just plain funny, see what you can find, and as always, bonus points if you go pick the item in question up!
Hit the jump to see the big winner from last week!
Continue reading Sometimes Free Stuff Isn’t Worth It
HycoSpeed, on June 8th, 2013
My work has become afflicted with that terror of terrors, a summer cold. It seems that even in delicious warm weather you can’t escape the horror of a virus. This particular one has taken on such a form as to garner the name, “The Double Dragon”, which likely won’t take too much imagination to decipher. Now the workplace has turned into a war zone, with a hand sanitizing army on one side, and a melancholy bunch who insists they aren’t getting sick–until it is too late, and they have already kept the germ stream alive for a few more days. Luckily, this doesn’t seem to be a frequent occurrence, but living in fear at work is no place to be.
A far, far better place to be is here at Atomic Toasters, critically examining strange bits of technology! So, for your viewing pleasure, let me present to you this week’s Quixotic Quantum Quandary. In the event that some of our loyal followers have excellent memories, I will tell you that this particular idea is something that I own, and it was acquired in a manner such that it would be quite at home here on Sunday mornings. If that doesn’t ring any bells, don’t let it get you hot and bothered, just give us your best guess in the comments! The person who gets the closest, without going over, wins a week of interwebs fame!
Continue reading Q³: Dragon Slayer
HycoSpeed, on June 2nd, 2013
I think that it is fair to say that comics books oft times fit into the realm of science fiction. After all, Superman was from another planet, and it doesn’t get much more sci-fi than aliens. So when Devin found a fun super hero get up, complete with wonder boots, wonder outfit, and even conservative pants in case you need to rescue someone in a church or something, what better place to share that than here on Atomic Toasters? We start out every Sunday taking a look at the wondrous and copious items available free, completely free, each week on whatever your favorite online classifieds may be. You find the best free item that sort of, maybe fits with the Toasters theme of enjoying anything vaguely related to technology, and usually funny, and post it in the comments! As always, bonus points abound for old tech objects that you go out and acquire! It’s never too early to start planning for Hooniversal Ninja Claus, after all.
If you missed the wonder boots last week, hit the jump and check them out!
Continue reading Sometimes Free Stuff Isn’t Worth It
HycoSpeed, on June 1st, 2013
It is that time again, where I try to stump you all with mysteries technological objects. You, our lovely commentariat, have been fairly dominating this little game, despite my low quality camera phone and poor cropping skills. So today I tried to pick an object far in the background of an image that I took of a technology of the past, and zoom in on it like crazy! Will it make a difference? Doubtful, I have total faith in you guys, but the challenge is out there none the less!
Continue reading Q³: Zoomier
HycoSpeed, on June 1st, 2013
At my work, like probably at lot’s of people’s places of business, there are regular, non-cellular phones. At my house, there has not been a “land line” phone for years, and this seems to be a more and more frequent occurrence. One of the casualties of this change, something that I occasionally experience [...]
HycoSpeed, on May 26th, 2013
Here at Atomic Toasters, we celebrate the forgotten, the unloved, the missteps from our technological past. Exhibiting our own share of the duality of man, we also have embraced some parts of modern life, the internet being a case in point. And I don’t just mean our own little dark corner of the web, but I think it fair to say most of us enjoy perusing online classifieds to feed our various hobbies. Instead of finding stuff that will cost you money, why not dive into the FREE section? Find the coolest, most archaic bit of technology*, available free for the taking, and share it with us this week!
Last week’s big winner is none other than our fearless leader Deartháir, who picked up a chick! Hit the jump and see how he made out!
Continue reading Sometimes Free Stuff Isn’t Worth It
HycoSpeed, on May 25th, 2013
There are things that everyone likely remembers having to learn growing up–how to ride a bike, or how to drive a car for example. Other stuff, we know that we had to learn at some point, like simple how to walk as small children. So when I started having kids, these sorts of things I assumed I would have to either teach, or at least understand that they would just have to grow and develop and learn, like walking. But there are other things that I quite honestly never thought of how I learned how to do them, and that it never occurred to me I would have to describe to small children how to do them. One of those things is jumping; have you ever tried to explain to a toddler how to jump? It is harder that you might think!
Well, now that brings us to today’s Quixotic Quantum Quandary. It is a little piece of simple childhood technology, something that all of us probably used at some point. Being simple technology, it has not really changed much throughout the years, just minor tweaks in materials and assembly tech. But the activity that it is used in, while fairly entertaining, happened to be just such a basic skill that you wouldn’t think would involve teaching and explanation, and the challenge of that explanation does not really become apparent until it comes around to your turn to try and explain it to a small child.
Relive your childhood and give us your answer to this Quandary in the comments! And hit the jump to see who had all the answers last week!
Continue reading Q³: Harder Than It Looks
HycoSpeed, on May 25th, 2013
The other day at work, we got into a discussion of old computers. I don’t remember exactly how the conversation got off in the direction it did, discussing communication and the internet I think, and one of the young guys at work gets asked if he remembers a time without internet. He said no, and we digressed quickly from there to talking about modems and dial tones and paying for the web by the kilobyte. Of course, that led to a bit of reminiscing about the older equipment we remembered as well. When one of the other fellows brought up not only the 5 inch floppy disks, but the large lever on the disk drive that you had to flip to engage the drive, it got me thinking, where have such solid mechanical interfaces gone in our world of modern computers and devices?
Continue reading What Ever Became of…Mechanical Interfaces?
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