Gadgets

GeekBytes: 'Tis the Season to Be Geeky

Seeing as Christmas is approaching so fast, we thought we'd take a look at today's holiday-themed items in this installment of GeekBytes, ranging from a tree hack to a science-themed coloring book.

Water Sensor Helps Keep Your Christmas Tree Happy

Hate how quickly Christmas trees die? There's a possiblity that your tree is sucking up al the water without to really knowning, meaning it's waiting to long to get more. Here's where Eric Ayars's handy water sensor hack comes in--it's actually the evolution of a gadget we covered last year.

Once it's attached to the pot, an Arduino board will sense the water levels. If it get below a certain depth, an alarm will signal and the tree lights will flash the morse code for water. Thirsty tree no more! [via Hack A Day]

An Advert Calendar For The Biggest Kids

Who says only kids can have advent calendars to count down the days to Christmas? While there are plenty of cool online Advent calendars for geeks, such as 24 Ways, you could always make one for yourself.

Check out The Sassy Cratfer's homemade 3D Advent calendar for instance. The idea is pretty simple and uses a variety of household objects and leftovers to make--in essence, paint and stick some small tins onto some backing, and fill with any kind of treat. The instructions are on the Sassy Crafter blog.

Coloring Book helps Your Child Appreciate Science

If you want your kids to follow in your geeky footsteps, or at least appreciate science, get them the Nerdy Baby Coloring Book by children's artist Tiffany Ard. In addition to coloring atom models, scientists, or cells, kids can also learn some quick facts and do little quizzes, like trying to complete a circuit.

Even if the tikes don't like it, you'll be able to have plenty of fun with it anyway! [via Boing Boing]