Like most nerds, I love to read. I’ve amassed small towers of literature all around my room. Some new, some ancient, some in great shape, some literally falling apart. This guide is a great tutorial on how to get a little more life out of an old paperback book by turning it into a hardcover.

Be sure to checkout the guide here.

Apple has always experimented with different materials in their product pipeline, and it looks like they may stay ahead of their competitors a little longer. Earlier today it was announced that Apple purchased worldwide exclusive rights to LiquidMetal’s patent portfolio.

LiquidMetal’s video (seen above) of 3 balls bouncing on various metal surfaces recently went viral. For those wondering what they LiquidMetal actually does, checkout a quote from their site.

First, they have an “amorphous” atomic structure, which is unprecedented for structural metals. Second, they include a multi-component chemical composition, which can be optimized for various properties and processes. Finally, they lend themselves to process technology similar to that possessed by plastics.

I don’t think we’re going to be bouncing iPhones anytime soon, but this sort of engineering seems perfect for Jobs and company.

If you like Settlers of Catan, you’re probably a nerd. If you have Microsoft Surface, you are unquestionably one. This quickly explains why Settlers is one of my favorite games.

From the look of it, I would still prefer the board game. However, I love that they are trying to innovate such an “analog” space.

Ballmer tells analysts that Microsoft’s answer to the iPad is Windows 7 running on tablets (or, in his parlance, slates). On its face, if he means this in the obvious way, their efforts are doomed. The iPad would not be a phenomenon if it ran Mac OS X — and Mac OS X is better-suited than Windows for this sort of thing.

Excellent analysis by John Gruber. Make sure you read the whole article here.

On a related note, Engadget linked to this video today of a touch interfaced running on top of Windows 7.

Truth be told this doesn’t look terrible, but the UI does seem sluggish. More importantly, users are going to have to deal with the typical Windows headaches (Spyware, Viruses, etc). What makes the iPad a great computer is that it doesn’t act like a computer. You treat it exactly like you would a microwave. You press what you want, and out come the results you desire. You don’t have to fiddle with software screaming to get your attention, you just press and go.

I remember in the early days of browser innovation when “Tabs” was becoming the big thing. No longer were you confined to awkward windows cluttering your desktop. It was a productivity booster (“Cool, I can quickly compare two products!”), and distractor inhancement (“I’ll just keep me email open in this tab…”) all wrapped into one. “Productivity” and “distractions” are two of my favorite things, and so it makes sense I would love their love child “Tabs” immensely.

As time wore on and the novelty wore off, I found myself abusing tabs. Sometimes I would leave tabs opened for days, just chewing at my system memory. Coupled with memory leaks in older Firefox builds, my computer would grind to a halt quite frequently. I constantly found myself opening a bunch of tabs to “read later” and never going back to them.

Third party solutions such as Instapaper have filled the gap to a degree for me (especially in the mobile space). However it now looks like tabs are going to get some first party love with Firefox’s new vision.

I just counted. I have 17 tabs currently open. No one is more excited then me that Mozilla is innovating in this space then I am.

Do you have any tab horror stories? Let us know on twitter @codesketch or talk back on Hacker News.

Have you ever wondered how companies take pictures of their products in a seemingly white vacuum? Some people might photoshop the background out, but that’s a lot of work and there is no guarantee you will even get an even lit picture to work from. The majority of professionals would use a “Light Box”.

A light box keeps the background clean so you would only need to do a minimal amount of post work on the photos.

Make some free time to checkout the video tutorial over at tutsplus.com.

This is the kind of design work that I love. Clever, cute, and elegant. Unfortunately at the end of the day, you’re still buying Panasonic.

via ohgizmo.com.