Tanguy Ortolo

Untying a shoelace knot is easy, but sometimes, one end got through a loop, and you end up blocking the knot. I invented a way to safely untie such a knot, regardless of whether or not it has been messed up, all with a single hand!

Read more Safely untying a shoelace knot

A U-lock is, arguably, one of the best ways to secure a bicycle against theft. When you buy one, it comes with a holder to carry it on the bike frame. Now, while the lock, basically made of hardened steel, is very tough and will probably last more than ten years, the holder is made of plastic, and will fail after a couple of years. Then, like most cyclist, you will have to carry your lock on the rack, which is far less practical.

There are several ways to make a U-lock holder; here is mine, which I have never found documented, so I may have actually invented it. It requires very simple material, it is very easy to implement, and it is quite durable and practical to use.

Read more Homemade U-lock holder

So, today is Black Friday, and today, environmental and zero-waste organizations are promoting Green Friday, suggesting that people abstain from buying stuff, and to create and repair things instead.

Well, believe it or not, while I am in favour of reducing consumption and waste, and because of that, I am buying stuff on Black Friday, and doing so in order to repair things, namely, my bicycle.

I am an intensive bicyclist, commuting almost exclusively by bike every day, and guess what? A bicycle needs to be maintained, and for that, requires spare parts. As a bicyclist, I do not believe at all in zero waste, which is just an unrealistic goal, perfectly impossible to achieve. With the six thousands kilometres I ride every year, I am buying an average of two tires, one cassette, one or two chains and eight brake pads every year, and proudly dumping exactly the same, used ones.

So, for Black Friday, bike resellers are offering actual discount on spare parts, and, for the planet's greater good, I am buying some. This is not additional purchase, just stuff I need to maintain my environment-friendly attitude.

Let's Encrypt is a certificate authority (CA) that just left beta stage, that provides domain name-validated (DV) X.509 certificates for free and in an automated way: users just have to run a piece of software on their server to get and install a certificate, resulting in a valid TLS setup.

Read more Let's Encrypt: threat or opportunity to other certificate authorities?

Dear manufacturers of kitchen scales, could you please stop considering your clients as idiots, and start developing useful features?

Read more Scale manufacturers…