Hasta La Ideas

William Yuan, 12, from Beaverton, Oregon, has impressed scientists and engineers with his innovative idea for a three dimensional solar panel for both visible and ultra violet light. His idea can absorb as much as 500 times the light of commercially available solar cells and up to nine times the light of advanced 3D cells. If his idea can be commercially produced it could produce twice the amount of electricity as the best existing solar panels. He has also developed an idea for at solar tower and software to simulate and optimize the performance of the towers. William Yuan has been awarded a USD 25,000:- scholarship by The Davidson Institute for Talent Development. He is also looking for a manufacturer for his new solar cells. brbr

Conceptual designer Danny Kuo has come up with this bookcase to help us use our wasted or unused space better. He calls it StairCASE and the idea (like most good ideas) is pretty simple. But with the StairCASE it’s clear we could use a lot of space that otherwise would be unused or littered with never-looked-in boxes. Click for a link to Danny Kuo’s own website.brbr

We couldn’t resist staying on the party theme a little bit longer. But instead of party plates, we have four different clips for resting your wine glass (works only with stemmed glasses) on the edge of your ordinary plate. Three are plastic and one is stainless steel, but they are all designed around the same basic idea. Prices, however, differ a bit. Number 1. From It’s All Wine. Plastic. Similar to number 3. USD 5:- for four. Number 2. From Waitstuff. Plastic. USD 0:98 a piece. Number 3. From The Wine Cellars. Plastic. Similar to number 1. USD 1:99 a piece. Number 4. From Handpicked Collection. Stainless steel. USD 19:95 for six. Which would you choose?

It’s made from a steel plate, a leather strap, a spirit burner and a tiny cutting board. You strap it to a tree and (presto!) you have a camping cooker with the right working height. Stefano Santilli has designed the field cooker to encourage the frying of freshly picked wild mushrooms right away in the field. And he’s right. There’s hardly anything tastier than freshly picked chanterelles fried in butter in the woods on a clear and mild autumn day. Besides, Stefano’s idea should be appreciated by everyone with a bad back. The operation of ordinary camping cookers often means a lot off kneeling and bending of one’s back. And, with the addition of a couple of portable sitting sticks, you are looking at a very nice day out, indeed.brbr

iFixit is an American web shop working out of Atascadero, CA. They sell spare parts and accessories for Apple’s laptops, iPods and Phones. And even though their purpose clearly is to sell more stuff, they have been kind enough to put up a bunch of very informative and free guides and instructions for different repairs and upgrades. But be warned, even though the instructions are clear, it does not always mean that the operation they describe (above changing the hard drive) is an easy one. No way. As tech-illiterates, we would probably not attempt any of them, except maybe battery change and AirPort card installation. But at least now we know the theory. If you have an Apple laptop, iPod or phone we recommend a look at the site. If not for anything else, it could be interesting to see how they look inside… Thanks to Laurence for the tip!brbr