Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Each Monday, we’ll link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you. Be sure to check in each Monday morning for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite…

As a certified LEGO Master Model Builder at the LEGOLAND California Resort, Robbie McCarthy earns a living doing what most kids (and many adults) could only dream of. According to his job description, McCarthy frequently combines good old-fashioned brick building skills with proprietary software and custom fabrication to manage LEGO projects from creative conception through to installation at the popular LEGO-themed resort park. Along with fellow Master Model Builder Bill Gowdy, the two help lead some of the most impressive LEGO builds ever created inside of the ginormous LEGOLAND Model Shop – a workshop of dreams with more than 3 million bricks in 70 different colors. Unsurprisingly, many of the epic…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top ten stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too. This Headphone Tube Amp Brings That “Sweet Tube Sound” to the $25 Raspberry Pi “From arcade tables and streaming weather stations to a DIY Amazon Echo and even cat exercise wheels,…

Flipping along the line, high above the glassy churn, the wisps hit the wind before finding their way onto our arms. Being this high was never a problem. It’s when we neared the surface that the fear sunk in. They looked like glass, cut like glass, but their sound was much more like these links. Jeffrey Smith – Some incredible and brilliantly lit scenes of clouds and wave, with a dose of the surreal. Alien Acid – It’s rough having acidic blood. An oldie, but goodie from Robot Chicken. Skeleton Mosaic – A skeleton mosaic, 3rd century BC graphic design. Many assumptions. My guess is that it’s a logo for…

Between video games, spreadsheets, musical instruments, weather forecasts, cameras and more, the amount of life-changing things made possible on our smartphones is made possible thanks to over five decades of developing increasingly powerful – yet smaller – computer chips. Needless to say, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t that long ago when even the humble desktop PC was considered revolutionary. Since a number of these computers – such as the IBM 1401 and Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE – predated modern color photography, they weren’t able to receive the same treatment that goes into showcasing the design similar to Apple’s minimalist contemporary motifs. In his new Guide to Computing photograph…

With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw an innovative take on the simple handheld pencil sharpener, a super-handy new iOS keyboard from Google, an update to the Roger voice app, how to build Fallingwater in Minecraft, a virtual ride on one of the world’s tallest roller coasters and more… Ready? Let’s go! This week we look at: DESIGN ST-01 Side Table “ST-01 is a modern take on the three-legged side table. Made of ash and ribbon stripe sapele, the two contrasting colored woods seamlessly…