MetaFilter posts tagged with tools

Exploring Ingenuity in Iron ...

Mitheral — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:27:14 -0800

Alloy Artifacts an "online resource for 20th century hand tools and the companies that made them".

Primitive Mixology

IndigoJones — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:30:30 -0800

Aesop's tale of the clever crow just might be a case of astute observation. (Somehow, the story lacks the same panache when a great ape is the hero.)

Analog Art (mostly)

Miko — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:33:25 -0800

The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

Tools made in German Prisons

Rumple — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:21:31 -0800

Escape and other tools made by inmates in German prisons, from the photographer Marc Steinmetz. My favorite is the functional battery-powered shotgun, although the hand-made toaster is a testament to the love of a decent breakfast. via.

Web Building Tools

netbros — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:43:54 -0800

Fyrdility has been busy with useful web building tools. First, he has a jQuery plug-in to provide support for the CSS Template Layout Module. Template layout demos using the plug-in here. Then, there's the When can I use... browser compatibility tables that let you know when you can start using the latest web technologies, like CSS3, HTML5, SVG, etc.

Hacking the Sky

Upton O'Good — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:46:44 -0800

Hacking the Sky: Robert Simpson writes astronomy tools for use with Google Earth, Google Sky, and Twitter.

"It was like he was cross-dressing in private -- an old man out there sponging by himself."

kliuless — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:50:22 -0800

I, for one, welcome our new loner female, tool-using dolphin overlords. from the article:

As best the researchers can tell, a single dolphin may have invented the technique relatively recently and taught it to her kin. The simple innovation dramatically changed their behavior, hunting habits and social life, the researchers found. Those that adopted it became loners who spend much more time on the hunt than others and dive more deeply in search of prey. The sponging dolphins teach the technique to all their young, but only the females seem to grasp the idea.

altho another article sez the technique confers no advantages. more broadly, i wonder if self-awareness is a necessary condition for tool use?

Hammer Time

Mitheral — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:09:34 -0800

Hammer quiz. Identify the intended use of speciality (mostly vintage) hammers. A sister site of Puzzle Photos (previously). Answers after the last photo.

Notch tubing without a notcher.

Mitheral — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:19:34 -0800

Cope pipe without a jig. Enter a few parameters and get a pdf that will give you a printable pattern that will allow you to notch tubing for welding or brazing to another pipe.

quoting with image maps

nickyskye — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:48:50 -0800

Kwout, Use it to grab a quick quotation or other screen shot from a web site and embed it into a blog or other website (one click to Flickr and Tumblr).. [via/via] When you invoke Kwout (either from their web page, or from a bookmarklet…) a medium sized screen shot is taken of the page you are quoting. You can then click and drag the cursor to highlight the section of the page you want to quote. Once you have grabbed your selection you are then taken to a page where you are presented with a number of display options. Copy the associated code and you can then paste the Kwout image map into any web page.

Plans for simple plywood boats

LobsterMitten — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:19:03 -0800

Hannu's Boatyard is a site by a Finnish guy who offers free plans for two dozen simple plywood boats you can build, along with photos illustrating the build process of each. He also describes basic woodbending technique and some of the design process, in a pleasing writing style that makes me want to get off the internet and make things. My favorites: Portuguese style dinghy; tiny stubby halfpea; round, Welsh-style coracle -- if you click on no other link today, click on the coracle link and scroll down at least to the black and white photo.

The Superior Works

growabrain — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:37:52 -0800

A wonderfully told story about a guy's exciting find. C.A. Jewett's Patternmaking Chest. (Via)

Beauty And Function

sluglicker — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:18:23 -0800

Ichiro Hattori makes the finest knives in the world. Chef knives (gyuto KD series) start at $860 USD and top out at $1175. This hunting knife is priced at $2150. These are not collector knives. They are made for everyday use. Text and images of the process and a YouTube vid of same (23:40 mostly in English).

Free online photo editor: Picnik.com

loquacious — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:53:40 -0800

Picnik. Free, online photo editing tools.

A ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not why ships are built.

paulsc — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:53:25 -0800

Make Life Better with a Sailboat-in-a-Closet. A multi-section plywood meditation for overcoming life's vicissitudes through apartment woodworking.

Pennant Race Visualizer

brain_drain — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:38:29 -0800

Baseball Race. "[A]n online application that allows you to view any Major League Baseball season, split by league or division (even wild card races), as an animated, date-by-date race between the various teams you choose."

No, W is not on the list.

empath — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 08:28:46 -0800

The 20 Greatest Tools of All Time. As chosen by Forbes magazine.

Toys! Flickr Toys, that is.

FlamingBore — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 23:04:37 -0800

Toys! Flickr Toys, that is. Like any self respecting wannabe photographer, I've been using flickr. A lot. I just found Flickr Toys at FlagrantDisregard. While QOOP has the official hookup on the flickr site, there are more silly things that can be done with FlagrantDisregard's toys and you can upload your finished masterpiece directly to your flickr account to save for posterity. I've already ~~spent~~ wasted too much time making Magazine Covers, Mosaics and Naughty Motivational Posters.

A cold, calculating post

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 22:53:15 -0800

If this doesn't convert you... you may truly be lost.

Standup comedy cultural hot button Wikipedia hack.

basilwhite — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:34:17 -0800

Standup comedy cultural hot button Wikipedia hack. Standup comics! Need a cultural hot button topic for a joke? Check out Wikipedia articles with the most revisions. Comedy gold. Just pick a topic and start riffing.

A Kick Ass Guide to Doing Stuff on the Web

JPowers — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 22:06:23 -0800

A kick-ass guide to doing stuff on the web.

Wicked Web 2.0 resource!!!!11!1!

Rothko — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 07:28:08 -0800

A literal cornucopia of online web design resources to help you keep on top of specifications and sites related to CSS, accessibility, graphic design (color tables and theory), DOM, typography, and much, much more...

Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect, Review, Recapitulate

iffley — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 15:57:29 -0800

Note-taking methods for students. Includes the Cornell method (details in powerpoint), and a Mapping powerpoint. [via GoBinder]

What do you need to find, and what do you already know?

iffley — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 18:52:40 -0800

"Which search engine should I use?"

Tailed apprentices don't drink beer

Mitheral — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:44:38 -0800

Old Wood Working Machines. Covering only North American manufactures, the OWWM website (referred to as the mothership) has 1160 scans of manuals, flyers, catalogs, and sales literature dating back over 100 years. The FAQ is extensive and has exploded spinning off many pertinent articles. OWWM also has almost 2200 user submitted, machinery profiles showing machines as found and/or restored. One of the highlights is a write up on what appears to be the very first (PDF) Delta Unisaw which was built before WWII and aside from mostly cosmetic changes is still built today.