This LEGO mousetrap by Jason Allemann is pure, classic simplicity made of bricks. Created with LEGO technic, the trap measures 30 x 16 x 24 studs, and captured two mice that had decided to live in his home (one in the picture above.) The mechanism itself is quite simple:

1) mice get inside to get food
2) mice step onto a pressure plate
3) pressure plate pulls an axle out of the door
4) door closes immediately caging mice inside
5) kill mice
6) skin mice
7) make furry coats and cool sneakers for a bunch of mini-figs
sell clothes to LEGO fans
9) grill mice meat slowly, applying multiple thin layers of teriyaki sauce
10) eat mice

So as you can see, it’s not only a perfect pest killer but also a great way to start a LEGO business (ok, Jason states he released the two captured mice in a “not-so-nearby wooded area.” Obviously, the guy doesn’t have a single idea about business or gourmet cooking.) [True Dimensions via Brothers Brick]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Leaky signals from badly-installed AT&T U-Verse systems are squeezing up into the cable network and degrading broadband performance for others on some nodes, according to Comcast. About 40 cases of the problem have been reported since AT&T began supplying U-Verse in the Chicago area, with about 17,000 Comcast customers being affected. And though at first it sounds a bit like a schoolyard tussle, AT&T’s lack of response has led Comcast to seek a restraining order from a court in Illinois.

While AT&T uses twisted pair cable to get to your front door, and Comcast uses coax, once they’re inside, the signals share cabling. This means if you use U-Verse TV and Comcast broadband, and “feedback” from the U-Verse system spills upstream, it can affect the service of everyone connected to the same Comcast node. Comcast alleges that poor installation by U-Verse engineers is letting these signals leak via poor filters or systems using similar frequencies, and that AT&T has not motivated itself to repair the problem.

Unsurprisingly, AT&T is highly skeptical that U-Verse is the source of the issue. This is AT&T’s position on the case: the “suit lacks merit,” said a spokesperson. It’s a bit of dirty work to try to keep them out of the Illinois cable Television market and AT&T will keep trying “to bring Illinois consumers a new choice for video services as we’ve in other states and will oppose Comcast’s efforts to thwart that.”

Comcast, however, is taking a holier-than-thou attitude: “AT&T should act like a good corporate citizen and work with Comcast to resolve this privately.” Because Comcast supposedly behaves like that themselves, yes? [Arstechnica]

Via [Gizmodo]

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I’d be willing to bet that there are very few people out there who don’t have an old Motorola StarTac in a kitchen drawer or a pale, yellowish 14-inch CRT monitor in the basement or a sticky, dusty keyboard under the bed. I’m just like you — probably worse. I’ve gadgets from the […]

I’d be willing to bet that there are very few people out there who don’t have an old Motorola StarTac in a kitchen drawer or a pale, yellowish 14-inch CRT monitor in the basement or a sticky, dusty keyboard under the bed. I’m just like you — probably worse. I’ve gadgets from the Reagan administration that are serving no good purpose other than to take up space in my already sorta-small apartment.

Time for some spring cleaning, no? The focus of this post will be to spotlight various ways to get rid of three types of gadgets; broken ones, working but worthless ones, and working but valuable ones. I’ll focus on programs that are available nationwide (or mostly nationwide) and aren’t brand- or product-specific.

Broken Gadgets

The temptation may be to either throw your broken doodads right into the trash or, if you’re like me, hold on to them forever while you wait for the day that you’re finally able to solder. I constantly find myself saying “Oh, that just needs to be re-soldered.” But do I even own a soldering gun? Absolutely not. And throwing electronics in the garbage is just poor form, like smoking at a day care center; some people still do it, but everyone knows it’s bad. Gadgets contain harmful chemicals like mercury and kryptonite, which wreak havoc on the environment.

E-cycling Central: www.eiae.org

Check out the E-cycling Central website for the location of your nearest electronics recycling center. Many are located near your city dump. Some take electronics for free, while others charge a small fee for certain items. I know that when I moved from Minneapolis to Boston, the recycling center in Bloomington, MN took five of each kind of item for free over a twelve month period, so I dropped off a bunch of CRT monitors, printers, and old personal.

1-800-Got-Junk: www.1800gotjunk.com

1-800-Got-Junk is, by far, the easiest and ideal way I’ve found to get rid of a LOT of crap quickly and without lifting a finger. It’s not cheap — a full truck can cost over $500 — but it’s a really great service. You basically call the number or go online and make an appointment, then two guys show up and you point at what you want thrown away. They do all the rest. Pricing is by the load, ranging from around $150 for 1/8 of a truck on up to maybe $700 or $800 depending upon where you live. In Minneapolis, a full truck was about $500 but here in Boston, it tops out at $628. There’s also a $15 surcharge for tube-based televisions and monitors, so keep that in mind.

Still, they take just about anything and if you’ve the money, it’s well worth it.

The Post Office: www.USPS.com

For smaller, broken electronics like cell phones and PDAs, try your local post office. The USPS announced a program back in March called “Mail Back,” which lets you drop off small electronic items at 1,500 participating branches for free.

Be sure to check out your local electronics stores, too, as most of them have drop buckets for old, broken cell phones and other various in-store recycling programs.

Working But Worthless Gadgets

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. For each busted, broken, cracked-screen gadget you own, there are probably hundreds of eager tinkerers out there willing to try to repair whatever needs fixing. Here are some good ways to unload this stuff.

The Freecycle Network: www.freecycle.org

It’s pretty much like it sounds. The Freecycle Network is made up of almost five million worldwide members with groups in just about every area. It’s free and non-profit, too. You basically sign up, post something you want to get rid of, and someone else in the group can come and pick it up. You can also post things that you want and if someone else in the group has what you’re looking for, they can contact you to come and get it.

Local factions use Yahoo! Groups and, again, sign-up is free. Might as well join, huh?

Craigslist “Free Stuff” Section: www.craigslist.org

Similar to Freecycle, but maybe even easier. Anything goes, too. You’ll see postings (and you can leave your own postings) saying stuff like “Free Canon Bubble Jet Printer: It’s on the curb outside my home. Come and get it any time. Don’t come anywhere near my home, though. Don’t knock. I don’t have any more stuff for you.”

Basically, you have to take into account whether or not you want strangers to know where you live and that you have a bunch of electronics in your home. This is where a members-only group like Freecycle seems a little less dicey.

Working Gadgets

I think that one of the best aspects of being a gadget freak is that, often times, you can sell your used items and use the money you make to buy newer ones. It’s the circle of life — the wheel of for-tune, if you’ll. Here are a few places to make a buck.

eBay: www.eBay.com

If you haven’t heard of eBay, then you probably aren’t reading this post either so what the hell do I care what you think? Go back to your cave or under your rock or inside your cave made of what basically amounts to a large, overhanging rock.

eBay’s gotten a current makeover and selling stuff has gotten a bit easier with its much more streamlined interface. You have a bit of control over when you’ll get your cash but not as much control over how much cash you’ll get, since you’re selling stuff at auction. There’s also a Buy-It-Now setting that grants you to sell stuff at a fixed rate, but I’ve found that if you set up a 5- to 7-day auction that ends on a Sunday night and has a starting price of 99 cents and no reserve price, you’ll get the best return on your stuff. I’ve sold a lot of stuff on eBay and this tactic seems to work ideal for me.

There are other auction sites out there and you can sell your stuff on sites like Amazon.com similar to how eBay works. Try eBay first, though.

Second Rotation: www.secondrotation.com

Second Rotation is a fairly popular site that grants you to look up gadgets you already own, and then rate them based on condition and whether or not you have all the included accessories and manuals. You’ll then get an estimated price and, if you accept, you’ll print out a free UPS shipping label, put your stuff in a box, and ship it off to Second Rotation. When your package is received, Second Rotation will review your items to make sure they’re in the same condition you said they were and then, once approved, they’ll drop some money in your Paypal account or cut you a check.

You won’t get quite as much for your stuff as you would on, say, eBay, but the process is a lot easier. You can ship all of your crap to the same place for free and you won’t have to chase buyers around for payments or worry about your seller rating. Downsides include that Second Rotation’s rating of your items’ condition is a bit subjective. What you may think is in mint condition, they might think is in fair condition.

Dealtree and EZTradein.com: www.eztradein.com

Speaking of which, there’s also EZTradein.com — which uses the Dealtree system. Many manufacturers and retailers use Dealtree, allowing you to trade in an old gadget for credit towards something from their store. Ideal Purchase uses it, Sony uses it, Gateway uses it, etc. Here’s a complete list.

But EZTradein.com uses Dealtree and offers cash instead of store credit. I recently tested out the service by sending in an old video camera (a Canon GL-1) and, although I thought was in excellent condition, EZTradein.com stated it had small scratches on the LCD screen and docked me over $100 from my take. Payment was a bit slow, too. I shipped the camera out on March 22, the company acknowledged receiving it on March 27, and I didn’t get paid until April 10. It was an okay experience but I don’t know if I’d use it again. However, there are a LOT of items that you can sell, which is a nice touch.

BuyMyTronics.com: www.buymytronics.com

For those of you who like to use truncated versions of longer words, there’s BuyMyTronics.com, which is very similar to Second Rotation. If I’m not mistaken, the site was initially started as BuyMyBrokeniPod.com and would accept used iPods — whether working or not — and then resell them. The site accepts a limited selection of cell phones, game consoles, and iPhone/iPod products and promises two-day payment once your product is received.

Other Ways

These are just a few methods you can use to get rid of your stuff for free or low cost (or high cost, in the case of 1-800 Got Junk) and even a few ways to make some money back on your old gadgets. There are undoubtedly hundreds of other ways to recycle your electronics responsibly so if you know of a good one, leave a comment!

Via [crunchgear]

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The problem with Chinese made vehicles in the year 2008 is that they’re complete shit. It’s true. Maybe in a few years they’ll catch up to the Koreans, the Japanese, the Americans and the Germans, but for now they’ll have to be satisfied with unlocking their vehicles with their watches. Who wouldn’t?

I’d definitely enjoy carrying around a watch and no keys, until the time I realized that I need my home keys too, which means I’m still carrying around some keys and this whole invention is only cool to show off to your friends from out of town who haven’t seen this on the internet. That’ll be the only thing to shield you from the derisive comments about you driving a Chinese vehicle in the year 2008. [The Tycho via Jalopnik]

Via [Gizmodo]

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ADVERTISEMENT: We’re not exactly sure how Smallville director David Nutter’s new series “Scarlet” will “change Television forever,” but whatever they have planned looks like it’s going to be huge. Like, really massive.

Via [Gizmodo]

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Shigeru Miyamoto told MTV News that there have been very few incidents of people being injured by the Wii Fit and that the platform will help stem the rising tide of obesity in the United Says. Har har. Actually, Miyamoto is pretty defeatist, saying that he knows the Fit won’t keep anyone slim: I think what’s more […]

Shigeru Miyamoto told MTV News that there have been very few incidents of people being hurt by the Wii Fit and that the platform will help stem the rising tide of obesity in the United States. Har har.

Actually, Miyamoto is pretty defeatist, saying that he knows the Fit won’t keep anyone slim:

I think what’s more important, though, is that rather than trying to have people try to exercise on “Wii Fit” every day, is the role that “Wii Fit” plays in trying to make people simply more aware of their own weight, their own health and their overall wellness. In that sense, I think “Wii Fit” does play a very important role and that even just by simply checking your body-mass index or your weight, even if you’re not checking on a daily basis, it really does help improve that awareness.

Here’s another gem:

And as you play the game, you’ll notice that we offer people plenty of direction and advice in making sure they’ve enough space around them. And if their balance isn’t that good, they have the ability to lean on somebody else for support.

That’s right: if you’re drunk, have a friend hold you on the Fit. You’ll thank us for it.

Via [crunchgear]

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