"The gizmo alerts the user if it has broken down or needs a replacement part. The owner then dials the number of the Dyson call centre and holds the telephone receiver to the vacuum cleaner. The machine transmits a message telling engineers what's wrong and orders any new part it needs." [kottke.org remaindered links]

Ok, so this isn't revolutionary, but it's kind of a neat application of Furl that I really hadn't thought of. (One of those "Doh!" moments.)

The journalism 2 kids here have their own blogs and Bloglines and Furl accounts. As they write their stories, they're Furling all of the relevant pages they find. So, on each of their sites, we're pulling the RSS feed from their Furl archive into the right hand column, so anytime someone Furls something, it automatically shows up on the page. No biggie, I know. But the cool part is that as the kid Furls the site, he blogs it, meaning he annotates it, writing about what the potential use and relevance the information there has to his story. So, he's got a handy reference right in front of him as he plans the story.

Now, if we could just have them tag the pages in del.icio.us and then push those feeds to the left column while importing relevant feeds for photo tags from Flickr... [Weblogg-ed News]

While New York basks in the glow of "The Gates," some Colorado residents are idly wondering when Christo and Jeanne-Claude will go ahead with their next project. [NYT > Arts]

This is in Salida, where B's family is!

The Fontifier lets you add your own handwriting as a font on your own computer. Very cool. [via design*sponge]

Lance Armstrong has announced that he will ride for a seventh Tour win.

I have to agree with this post about Napster's attack ads aimed at Apple and how people will believe everything they hear without doing any research. I'm a recent iPod owner and plan to spread the word about why the Napster ads are garbage!

Cory Doctorow:

Sanrio commissioned Surface to Air to make an artwork commemorating Hello Kitty's 30th birthday -- so they created this Hello Kitty crop circle near Stonehenge that's half a football field long on each side.

Link

(via JWZ)

[Boing Boing]

Xeni Jardin:

The must-have trash accessory for those who suck down their MP3s in a doublewide: a pack of cigarettes transformed into an iPod holder, now for sale on eBay. Its creator says:"I'm a pretty heavy smoker so the idea was perfect. It is not precisely engineered, but it holds the player snug enough that it won't slip out, but not too tight that you can't remove it... Two or more cigarettes hold the player so you can listen and smoke when out and about."

Link (Thanks, Charles Moore). [Boing Boing]

Cory Doctorow:

b0bg0d sez "AbeVigodaStatus is a new Firefox extension that reports the living/dead status of Abe Vigoda in the status bar."

Link

(Thanks, b0bg0d!)

[Boing Boing]

Mark Frauenfelder:
Wired News reports that Actor Melanie Griffith threw a fit when she wasn't given the star treatment at an LA Apple retail store.

Apple has four retail stores in the Los Angeles area, which give the sales associates ample opportunity to rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities. It isn't always pleasant. Melanie Griffith threw a tantrum when she was unable to buy a pink iPod mini early last year, according to the sales associate who tried to serve her. The associate, who asked to remain anonymous, said Griffith came right up to him and "pretty much demanded" a pink iPod mini. The mini was in short supply, and the associate told her there were none in stock. "She then proceeded to get pissed off at me personally because we didn't have any in stock," the associate said. "She said we have a special stock of iPods for people like her.... I hadn't seen any celebrities there up until then, so at first I was like, 'Oh wow, cool, Melanie Griffith.' But then she opened her mouth and used me as a doormat, and I was like, 'What the fuck is this shit? Milk Money sucked.'"

UPDATE: A longtime friend of Boing Boing who asks to remain anonymous says: "It's a funny story, but I spent a fair amount of time working
professionally with Melanie back in the dotcom days... she was always really
gracious and dealt with 'public stress' very well. The uncorroborated
account of the store clerk in this piece is just that. The characterization
doesn't jive with what I witnessed. Maybe she freaked inappropriately, maybe
she didn't. But I'm sorry to see that lady trashed in the press, when she
was always SUPER accommodating to fans in our presence... I watched
strangers harass her beyond belief, and she was always very patient, very
cool, very generous. She's a really cool lady."

[Boing Boing]

Great article from Wired about iPods on the Microsoft campus.

If you’ve been wanting to make your own ribbon belts here are some great threads with tutorials:

by cameras4toys

by susank

by kdritter

And leave to Craftster members to even come up with a way to make the D-rings yourself! leentje came up with this idea of taking those Bollywood-style bangles, cutting them with wire cutters and reshaping them into D-rings:

Some places to buy cool ribbon:

http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/ribbons.html

http://www.lesbonribbon.com/

http://www.jcarolinecreative.com/

Great instructions to make a cool poster in iPhoto for about $29!