The other day I found this DIY music box kit over at Think Geek, but they were out of stock. So I found a supplier in the UK, called Grand Illusions. They actually carry two models, including one with a larger number of tines (20 tines covering a 2 1/2 octave diatonic range ). Naturally […]

The music box disc I’m getting prepared, mentioned in the previous post, looks something like this. Here’s a simulation of what it would sound like, played on an antique Stella music box, assuming the box’s spring-wound mechanism has the strength to play the first chord, in which every tine sounds at the same time. It […]

Oh, I’ve been bitten by this mechanical music bug big time. I’m now working on composing some new music for an orchestrion. This will be no mere weekend-long project (as most of mine tend to be), and hopefully I can share some audio snippets with you as work progresses. I imagine most of you don’t […]

On Twitter, there are a lot of bots that will auto-follow you if you say certain magic words. This is easily accomplished using the Twitter API – I’ve done it for fun (try saying “Beetlejuice” on twitter), and I’m definitely not the first. I’m sure some of you have experienced being mysteriously followed on twitter […]

I’ve added a new collection of Slitherlink puzzles to the site, which feature six-different tile layouts. Enjoy!

Today, on the spur of the moment, I decided to visit the Nethercutt museum in Sylmar, which I had heard about a couple of years ago when I was researching automatic music instruments. The museum, an unexpected display of wealth that sits on the corner of an industrial park in an economically depressed area — […]

Whoever made this had too much time on his/her hands. — Truth-lover Some people have way too much free time on their hands. —

Today, I accidentally discovered the game of Facebook-whacking (remember Googlewhacks?), in which you find various search phrases for which your friends are the number one result, when you search on Facebook. You can accomplish this by stringing out-of-context words from the “Info” section of someone’s facebook profile. The more TV shows, bands, and movies they […]

My company, Topspin (which I dearly love), is currently hiring for two positions. A sys admin in Santa Monica, and a SQL DB admin in San Francisco. You can find out more about these positions, and our awesome startup, here.