Henning M. Lederer took a bunch of my Geometry Daily graphics and turned them into this animation short with music by Joe Baker. I am a tad speechless. Watch for yourself!

Our family minivan came with a USB connector in the glove compartment, and so for years I’ve kept a 60GB fifth-generation iPod Classic1 iPod Classic in there, loaded up with as much music as I could fit. But lately it’s been showing signs of age that made me fear for the life of its internal spinning hard drive, and I haven’t been able to load our entire music library onto it for years.

But recently I got a chance to try out Other World Computing’s $49 iFlash, an upgrade that replaces the iPod’s hard drive (5th and 6th generation models only) with an SD card reader (with inserted SD card—I used a 128GB SDXC card that cost about $70). Now my old iPod has doubled in capacity, enough to fit every song I own. It’s also no longer relying on a spinning platter as a storage mechanism, which should extend its life dramatically.

Cracking open an iPod and replacing its hard drive isn’t for the timid. If you’re not comfortable poking around in the guts of electronics, you might want to find a friend to perform the installation for you. I’ve never cracked open an iPod before, and I managed to do it just fine, though the install process was a little harrowing at a few points. (It would’ve been much easier had I watched OWC’s how-to installation video, which hadn’t yet been posted when I installed the product in my iPod. I did use iFixit’s guide, which was helpful… up to the point when I needed to install the iFlash.) iPod.)

I don’t carry this particular iPod around anymore—like I said, it lives in the glove box—but every time I pick it up I’m also struck by how much lighter it is. It feels more like a movie prop than a real device, because that metal drive has been replaced by a very light card reader.

In any event, even with my troubles (I installed the product upside-down and so I had to disassemble and reassemble it), it took me less than a half hour from start to finish. It helped that I had some spudgers, but otherwise the installation didn’t require any tools that I didn’t have at hand.

Look, the iPod isn’t a cool product anymore. But if you’ve got an iPod Classic around—in your pocket or car or kid’s room—and want to keep it running (or return it to relevance), this is a relatively low cost way to do the job. Not everyone needs (or wants to pay for) streaming music—and now I’ve got 14,000 songs at my fingertips whenever I’m driving.

You can’t always trust what you see, but what you hear is less deceiving, right?

Maybe not.

Named for cognitive scientist Roger Shepard, a Shepard tone has ten sine waves with frequencies that are separated by octaves. When played in a sequence the tones comprise the Shepard scale and produce an effect that is like an audio version of the infinitely rising spiral of a barbershop pole.

The Shepard scale in this video is just 10 seconds long but when you replay the video, you’ll hear the intriguing and seemingly impossible illusion…

(The video will replay automatically.)

Related… These astounding audio illusions prove that you can’t trust your ears

“

I had been on the ground helping Al Jazeera America cover the protests and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., since this all started last week. After what I saw last night, I will not be returning. The behavior and number of journalists there is so appalling, that I cannot in good conscience continue to be a part of the spectacle.

Things I’ve seen:

-Cameramen yelling at residents in public meetings for standing in way of their cameras

-Cameramen yelling at community leaders for stepping away from podium microphones to better talk to residents

-TV crews making small talk and laughing at the spot where Mike Brown was killed, as residents prayed, mourned

-A TV crew of a to-be-left-unnamed major cable network taking pieces out of a Ferguson business retaining wall to weigh down their tent

-Another major TV network renting out a gated parking lot for their one camera, not letting people in. Safely reporting the news on the other side of a tall fence.

-Journalists making the story about them

-National news correspondents glossing over the context and depth of this story, focusing instead on the sexy images of tear gas, rubber bullets, etc.

-One reporter who, last night, said he came to Ferguson as a “networking opportunity.” He later asked me to take a picture of him with Anderson Cooper.

”

- I will not be returning to Ferguson | Ryan L. Schuessler

It appears Apple's most recent EFI update for mid-2011 Mac Book Air models contains a bug that in some cases fails to install, or more seriously creates system crashes.

Marvelously well-written by Ian Crouch:

At Slate, Jordan Weissmann has taken the position, twice, that Brown should give the money to charity, perhaps to a local food bank. While the symmetry of this is appealing—potato salad for everybody—it seems based on a basic misreading of this mini-phenomenon: that, essentially, the money itself is some kind of ill-gotten gain, an accidental and undeserved windfall that is tainted by its curious origins, and so should simply be given away.

Exactly.

Zack Brown performed a work of art and comedy on Kickstarter, and we’re all paying him, voluntarily, after his performance. Period. It’s art, comedy, and the internet at its best.

Anyone trying to make him feel guilty, or pressuring him to give away the money, is being unreasonable, cruel, and despicable, trying to ruin something that has brought delight to thousands of people with their own envy and misery.

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