Piece of paper 2.0

With people rushing to buy all sorts of electrical gadgets and thingamajigs to organise their life, there are thousands of options. Blackberries link up to calendars and the iPhone has an application for just about everything. So spare a thought for the piece of paper, the analogue personal organiser, which started it all. It has now been given a facelift and been made a lot more user friendly with a bit of origami and some clean layout. Piece of paper 2.0 is here and it goes by the name of Pocket Mod. The big idea here is in the folding. An A4 piece of paper becomes a useful six page book. You can print off calendars, contacts, to do lists, Sudoku etc and then a bit of a fold, a snip with the scissors and you have a great tool. This will be very popular with all of those who like notes, but it could go further. There are tons of aps that could go on this, I for one would like to see a google maps link as I am always going places I have not been before. It is of course cheap, recyclable and very versatile. I don’t see it ever taking over as the electronic personal organisers are far too entrenched and can do so much, but it is useful and interesting addition for those who like the quirkier things in life.

Can clicks survive without bricks?

Clicks and mortar, the balance of online and real world. Chains of retail stores and the phenomena of online shopping, coupled with a global recession, means we are at real risk of loosing not just the shops we love, but also of decimating the high street. The 3/ 50 project is aiming to help save the independent shops that we love and the communities around them. The big idea is simple, look at three businesses you would miss if they went bankrupt and pop in, say hello and buy something. If half the population of the US spent $50 each month in local independent stores it would generate more than $42.6 Billion. More importantly, of $100 spent, $68 comes back into the local community, with a chain it is $43 and if it is online it is probably $0. Some villages in Devon have implemented their own currency to help keep local money local and this is another way to help keep the money flowing back home, rather than into the distance. So buy local, support your community and if there is a shop or service you would miss, support it. If you don’t, it might not be there next year.

Toys get grown up

There was always a certain creative childish charm about playing with Lego. The set that was meant to be a car becomes apart of a castle and the house becomes a space ship. The very fact that you had a selection of strange bits and never all the ones you wanted meant that you improvised, recreated and had to think on your toes. Now you can have all the Lego pieces you ever wanted online here The big idea is that you can design online and create some pretty advanced stuff. The bigger idea is that you can then order your bespoke product, so that you can design you r own toys. There will be those who complain that there was nothing like using the chassis from a broken toy car or part of another toy to take your Lego beyond the limitations of the original designers and into realms they could never have thought of. But you are being allowed to do that and make something that is slick and does not require amputating your little sister's toys. Besides, if you are not the creative type, you can order another users creation.