
Will it lens? - alexandros
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/will-it-lens.html
======
PStamatiou
I love this insight into google culture. Really wish more companies did this
and dropped the strictly-business curtain. Do you know of any companies that
do this type of thing? I know Last.fm is pretty cool and blogged about their
ball pit..

~~~
yan
My ultimate dream in life is to have mine and a few others' office be next to
a home-built bouldering[1] cave. If I had to have just one goal to be self-
employed, I think that would be it.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouldering>

~~~
bmj
The first start-up I worked for allowed me and some friends to build a wall
and campus board in the space. It helped that one of the founders was a
climber.

~~~
diego
We built a small wall too, we didn't have a lot of space but we made it work.
Some problems start from the bottom of the staircase:

<http://flaptor.com/pictures/wall1.jpg>

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mechanical_fish
I had a friend in grad school who wanted to build a giant parabolic reflector
for Burning Man. The idea was to lay the thing out on the desert floor and
then be able to melt gold, or something, at the focal point so that they could
trade sun-melted trinkets with passersby.

Never made it to the prototype stage. After watching the Mythbusters try this
trick, I'm kinda glad the poor guy didn't spend the time.

Fresnel lenses. Better alignment. Much more reliable.

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trjordan
My friends and I at MIT did this once, and it's about as much fun as you'd
think it would be. My favorite trick is to try to melt a stack of pennies --
I'm not sure what actually happens, but the stack exploded, throwing half-
melted pennies and melted zinc everywhere. It's still there, on the sidewalk
outside my dorm.

Science is fun!

~~~
carterschonwald
where are these molten remnants on the mit campus?

~~~
trjordan
In the courtyard of Senior House...

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jonasvp
Looks a lot like what Rob over at Cockeyed did with his Light Sharpener:
<http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/solardish/dish01.shtml>

The Google version looks more professional, though...

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dangoldin
Looks as if this may be the lens they used:
[http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm/terms/13603/cartLogFro...](http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm/terms/13603/cartLogFrom/froogle)

~~~
anamax
It's probably cheaper to get one from a broken projection TV.

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budu3
Isn't it illegal to purposely destroy legal tender?

~~~
mhb
In general, no. Unless you do it with fraudulent intent:

 _Title 18 United States Code, Section 331

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes,
falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the
United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in
actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or Whoever
fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to
pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such
coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired,
diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened -

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or
both._

For an interesting explanation of why it is now illegal to melt pennies and
nickels see:

[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_owen?currentPage=1)

~~~
ojbyrne
I wonder if you can do this legally outside the US. I'm sure there's plenty of
tourists with bags of US change that they can't easily take to the bank. Seems
like it might be a loophole worth exploiting.

