technology

Admittedly, £1000 was perhaps rather steep for a coffee table. Seemingly too steep for the residents of Hammersmith at least, where one rogue Daft Punk designed flashing disco table still lurks on the first floor of the Habitat store in King Street.

You read it here first: think of this as the launch of The Monobrow's own appeal for someone who is willing to give a poor lonely design classic a loving home. Is a grand really so much for an artefact which effortlessly straddles the twin camps of design and music history? See it in action on You Tube if you have yet to be convinced. And surely no other coffee table has been the subject of so many column inches...

Since making and doing is currently all the rage, The Monobrow's soldering department were recently pondering how much it might cost to make your own take on the flashing table concept. Conservative estimates came in at around a tenth of the price of Daft Punk's Very Important Product version. Which is fine, if you just got a junior electronics kit for Christmas.

But for the more cack-handed amongst us who haven't yet experienced that primal urge to purchase a soldering iron, Studio Spares have a cheap and cheerful variation on the theme: this brightly coloured LED Panel for just £25.38. At this price, you could fill a whole wall with them and still have change from your Daft Punk coffee table fund!

technology

In this age where cheap mass-produced crap abounds, making it for yourself is becoming quite the thing to do for those craving the personal touch.

Heading up the modern day arts and crafts movement are a pair of US-produced periodicals, the quarterly technology-centric Make (also set to launch a fluffy new Craft offshoot this Autumn), and the more domesticated bimonthly ReadyMade. The internet is of course a haven for this new breed of diy obsessive, and both physical publications have a supporting daily blog of projects, whilst dedicated DIY internet presences the rather geeky Hackaday and the collaborative user-generated step-by-step website Instructables have also gathered together more daily makes than you can shake a stick at.

It is easy to sneer at the Americans who have so much time on their hands that making this stuff (and then writing about it) rather than just buying what you need actually seems like a good idea. The ReadyMade recipe section and some of the tips and tricks from Make could be straight out of women's weekly Take a Break - you would have to be positively retarded to need a guide on using surface protectors to replace missing laptop feet, or tips on 'better shoelace tying' (you will have to buy volume 5 of Make to find those out, as that information proved too classified for online transmission).

But then I found this pixelated all-weather vinyl reclaimed billboard material for sale in the ReadyMade store ($20 if you scroll down towards the bottom of the page), and the making bug has well and truly kicked in. Although a UK source would be much appreciated.

technology

Your average synth shop is reserved strictly for the geeks: the obligatory aroma of teenage boy sweat ensures that any right-smelling person doesn't stand a chance of spending any length of time inside. (That is why they invented the odour-free Turnkey online store).

But Berlin's Schneiders Buero is a boutique synth shop which somehow manages to make the process of gazing at little boxes with knobs on more than a little cool. Located in the former East German 'Haus des Reisens' (the communist state's nominal 'travel agent') inside tower block number 5 in Berlin's fabled Alexanderplatz, several floors below the city's new in-crowd club Weekend, the compact shop operates suitably exclusive opening hours: strictly Thursday and Friday between 2pm and 6pm.

Catering to the technopolis' ample electronic music community, aswell as the weekly influx of touring technologists, Schneiders' speciality is synthesizers of the rare and the independently manufactured variety. Perhaps the inventor of one of the prototypes on show might even be present to personally demonstrate his creation.

A makeshift email mailorder service is available, but the in-shop service exudes such pure passion that a personal visit is definitely worth the effort - even if it will take you half an hour of goodbyes to leave! The translation on the Schneiders website may be a little ropey at times, but, like the rest of Berlin, face to face the Schneiders staff are fully Englished up.

technology

Spam is officially the bane of my life: I have one of those inboxes which I now accept will never be empty. (To all those people still waiting for a reply from me: please take this as a public apology).

But recently the spam motherload has been making me chuckle as well as curse. "Wiagra, Walium, Cialis" is a personal favourite, but the most exciting new development in spam emails is the trend for bizarre made-up names which show such a flair for comedy that you do have to wonder why they have to resort to spamming for a living.

Some of my favourites include:
Fetish R. Collage
Aquaplanes O. Pickett
Embarassed C. Rubinstein
Demigod F. Rung
Airedales F. Scallop
Inconsiderateness A. Duplex
Populated J. Titillate

technology

I have a friend who uses cigarette papers instead of post-it notes, and apparently he is not the only one to realise the mighty Rizla's novel other use. On the Rizla corporate website you'll find a downloadable PC program which creates virtual Rizla papers to attach to the inside of your screen, upon which you can write yourself those all-important reminders.

But what are Rizla trying to say with this - that their customers are prone to forgetfulness? Scandalous.

technology

Lifting someone else's ideas wholesale from another blog always feels a bit like stealing to me, but this panda TV is so darn cute that I'm sure you will forgive me. He was spotted by our resident tech-geek over on his favourite blog Gizmodo, although according to the website of manufacturer Changhong he doesn't seem to be available in Europe just yet. Sniffle.

technology

During November and December, Lektrolab in conjunction with Channel 4's Ideas Factory are hosting workshops in London and Liverpool on circuit bending, or "the art of inflicting various forms of sonic buggery on the carcass of a helpless musical toy". The theory is, you take a redundant yet noisy childs toy, more often than not the Speak and Spell, and rewire it to make a whole new set of equally noisy sounds for instant idm action. read more...

technology

Ever wondered what goes on inside the head of someone who stays up all night rummaging through other people’s hard drives?

The website of American public service broadcasting organisation PBS has an interesting interview on the minisite of their Hackers programme with Raphael Gray, aka Curador, the teenager from Wales who infamously brought the FBI to the door of his parents house in Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire.

After stealing thousands of credit card numbers from online stores and publishing them on the web, then dispatching a shipment of viagra to Bill Gates, Gray was eventually tracked down to his small village by FBI agents.

The Prince lookalike claimed his aim was to expose security flaws in the online stores he targetted, and was sentenced to three years of psychiatric treatment.