Author: Matt Maldre

Yes, this oversized popcorn popper with wheels actually walked on the Moon. It was launched in 1970 even though it looks like something from the 1950s. And it was created by the Soviets. Ah those Soviets, they know how to…

Imagine you are an alien. You are approaching planet earth for the first time. You could totally end up approaching earth from any direction. What if you approached earth from what we call the bottom, and you see Antarctica first?…

Yahoo was talking about How did the phrase “out of whack” come about? and they mentioned that the phrase “in fine whack” had previously been used to describe something fit and sturdy. As John Hale describes Abraham Lincoln in 1863:…

The library seems even more quiet than my apartment by myself. Even though there’s more noise at the library–constant hum of the escalators, copy machine beeps, people walking. The fact that the people at the library do these activities quietly…

Have you ever noticed how vector shapes in a pdf file tend to look bitmappy? This makes no sense, because vector shapes should be super smooth. Here we will get to the bottom of this problem. Here are the things…

In December I bought a used vertical file cabinet at a thrift store for ten dollars. What a find! It was literally an answer to a prayer (the filing cabinets we looked at other places were $75 and up). The…

mmmmhmmmm looks like a herd of animals, and one of them is sticking its head out to see what’s going on.

CNN reports that the new largest prime number was discovered on January 4, 2006. It is 9.1 million digits long. (thanks Tom for the link) If you were to print this number out on 8.5×11″ sheets of paper, one-sided with…

There’s this clever “KERN” sweatshirt being sold on veer.com. You unzip the sweatshirt to demonstrate how kerning works. neat. I want to make a shirt that says “LEADING” and pants that also say “LEADING.” To demonstrate how leading works, you…

McDonald’s current tray liner promotes their new Arch Card. It very cutely lists what all the things the Arch Card can be. Some are very nice like “grandpa’s morning coffee” or “my night away from the kitchen.” And then some…

Metra conductors are on their feet all day long. Yet the majority of them are quite… thick. How is that? They walk and walk all day long. They should be in prime shape, right? It’s because they are doing the…

You can now export your Yahoo Address Book into a vCard format that can be used for the Address Book in Mac OS X. Some people suggest that you export the Yahoo Address Book as LDIF format, but the thing…

In the comments of the previous post we were talking about how static cling happens more in the winter. But has anyone noticed that you get more boogers in the winter? WINTER BOOGERS!

Is it just me or does static cling seem so 80s?

Definition: Dorkingdom noun The land of the highest dorks.

Definition: Dorkiful adj Akin to beautiful, but in a dorky endearing way.

The website for the book “Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life,” an Amazon Top 10 book in 2005. This site was designed using PHP and MySQL, so the author could easily make updates to the site without knowing html. Readers can…

The strategies of the “Deal or No Deal” producers used to make the game show more dramatic: 1) Dramatic Stage Host Howie Mandel stands in a quiet back room with 26 sealed suitcases numbered 1 to 26. One of those…

Walking behind someone who is smoking is like walking behind someone who is urinating in public. Who wants to walk behind a trail of smoke? There are many similarities between smoking in public and peeing in public: ‚Ä¢ Both ends…

In a recent email, the Baseball Hall of Fame called me a “friend.” So here’s an email I sent to them: ============ I like how you called me “friend.” So friends, like, let each other into their home for free,…

This is for the designers out there: Walking on the right side of the street is like being a part of right justified type. Walking on the left side of the street is like being a part of left justified…

Just a few weeks ago, I discovered that “dumpster diving” has a bad connotation. It’s associated with people who pilfer garbage to find financial information. I always thought of dumpster diving as a way of finding art materials. I’m gonna…

To increase your ranking in search engines, use use words like “the secret to…” or “Advice on…” People love to search these terms. In fact here’s the results from the Overture Keyword Selector Tool 90,817 advice 66,008 secrets 43,352 classified…

People like to order french fries because it’s an easy no-brainer snack food. You can easily pick up a french fry and eat it. You don’t have to look at it or set anything back down. Eating a salad with…

If you have a car or a large price item, and decide to sell it, you should ask for payment in two-dollar bills only. Imagine that, a lifetime supply of two dollar bills. Anytime you pay for something, you can…

One of my friends is a designing his first webpage, and he’s not a designer. He says he wants “some neat little animated buttons here and there just to get some movement on the page.” And I said, “oh dear.”…

Because it starts with an “A” it starts off the list of bookstores. Top of the list baby! I realized this while looking at a site I designed last year for Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life.

It’s quite surprising that nobody has made an ical calendar that lists all the fun and goofy holidays, like World Hello Day on November 21. Hmmm, i’ll add that to my to do list.

Going out for all-you-can-eat sushi with 12 people will take some time for the chefs to keep up with your order, but it’s lots of fun to order whatever sushi you wish without worrying about price. Sushi Para II in…

I have a 30% employee discount at the Tribune Tower store during Monday, November 28 through Saturday, December 3. Does anybody want anything?

When riding in an elevator going up by yourself, stand exactly in the middle of the car. By doing so, you will be able to better imagine the feeling of being lifted up. For some reason, this just doesn’t work…