ring

People lucky enough to be in Southeast Asia and the western U.S. this weekend will have the chance to view the first annular solar eclipse of its kind since 1994, according to NASA. Rather than a complete blocking out of the sun, as seen in a total eclipse, a "ring of fire" will radiate from behind the moon as it passes in front of the fiery globe.

The transformation will begin on Sunday as the moon makes its voyage across the sun; at one point, as much as 94 percent of the sun will be covered, according … Read more

A resourceful videographer, Parker Maimbourg, has managed to build a continuous ring light for just $20.

The setup consists of a cheap, circular LED lamp ($10), an AA battery holder ($1.99), and an unused hotshoe salvaged from an old flash unit. A continuous ring light is typically used to provide even illumination for portraits and closeups and usually costs at least a few hundred dollars.

Basically, Maimbourg rewired all the LEDs on the lamp to a separate battery holder, which will be mounted on the camera's hotshoe. Next, he cut a hole through the center of the circular lamp enclosure to fit his lens, spray-painted the whole setup black for that professional feel, and voila! … Read more

If your first idea is to diagram it (whatever it is), then Farshadoo's Diagram Ring may be for you. This versatile freeware helps you create and edit just about any kind of diagram you can think of: pie charts, flow charts, class diagrams, bar charts, ERDs, DRFs, and many more. Its predefined symbols and unique node-linking methods yield professional-quality diagrams that can be used anywhere a diagram is needed.

Diagram Ring's main interface opened with the program's Startup screen, which let us create a new diagram or open an existing one. A unique, graphic-intensive design gives the … Read more

Simpsons fans in Los Angeles are meeting up today to kick off the Ultimate Fan Marathon Challenge in an effort to beat the world record for consecutive TV watching currently set at 86 hours, 6 minutes, and 41 seconds. On today's show, we'll discuss the challenge and propose one of our own that may be a little more difficult to achieve.… Read more

Cast your eyes on the freshly unveiled set of Lego "Lord of the Rings" miniature figures.

All of the major characters from the first movie (and a handful of villains) are included in the collection, which debuts this summer. Lego unveiled 14 characters in total yesterday, and the brick maker has done an outstanding job re-creating the characters' iconic appearances. … Read more

These horn speakers from Ring Audio are both aesthetically pleasing and sonically efficient on paper.

They can easily pass as art pieces at a glance and are available in different finishes, ranging from natural wood grains to composite materials, as well as contrasting colors, such as piano black and white.

The German speakers are also capable of producing rumbling deep bass up to 35Hz despite their small 4-inch drivers. What's more, this level of performance can be achieved with only 10W of power making them compatible with tube amplifiers, whereas most non-horn-type models require many times more power.

However, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--As helpful as the original Cobra Tag was for a forgetful guy like me, it had one fatal flaw: I kept forgetting to recharge the darn thing!

The new Cobra Tag G5, set to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, now only needs charging twice per year. Cobra is claiming more than six months of monitoring between recharges of the new Tag G5 thanks to its implementation of Bluetooth 4.0 technology. However, in order to achieve this astronomic battery life, the phone the Tag G5 is paired with will also need to support Bluetooth … Read more

Lego plus "Lord of the Rings." Need we say more?

It's not at all clear exactly what Lego has planned, but the iconic toy company said today that it is launching in 2012 a new LOTR line of, well, something.

Still, it seems obvious that what we'll be seeing is a "Lord of the Rings" themed Lego set, or sets. And that's because the extremely cagey Web site for the project features what I can only presume is Frodo--a Lego version of him, that is--holding on to a very large shiny ring.

This … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--A holiday "tree" lot here at Levi Strauss & Company's headquarters is offering up a green alternative to live trees.

Antlre Creative, a San Francisco-based eco-conscious design company, created 100 percent recycled cardboard trees, which grew into a forest in Levi's buidling lobby (shown above).

The large trees sell for $35, and small ones for $25. Proceeds from the fundraiser go to Friends of the Urban Forest. These "greener" trees are produced and manufactured entirely with solar energy and are inspired by recycling.

And while we're in the holiday spirit, here's … Read more