Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Home Power Monitoring

I've been wanting to install a string of shunts in my basement to then monitor current usage on all my circuits.

Bill Porter has another idea: Clamp sensor power monitoring. Interesting project.

Links for Net Neutrality


Cade Metz from the register: Feds please no one with first official net neut rules (22nd December 2010 00:39 GMT)

Friday, December 10, 2010

ASCII Art to png

Yea, probably thought you'd never need to do this, but just in case.... the folks over at ditaa.org (DIagrams Through Ascii Art) built a tool that will convert your ascii art into nice line drawings.

Not sure if it's really dumb or totally cool.....

Antikythera Mechanism + Legos

Engadget Points to a lego built replica of the Antikythera Mechanism, a computer to predict when solar ellipses would occur.
"Andrew Carol, who has lovingly pieced 1,500 Lego Technic blocks together, creating 110 gears and four gearboxes in total."

Monday, December 6, 2010

Consumer Reports: ATT Worst

Consumer Reports now rates ATT the worst carrier in the US. Not really earth shatering news, but worth noting.

Sky Lanterns

Got friends over, and want to do something cool at night? Get some of these "sky lanterns". It's basically a paper bag with a candle in them. Light them up and they take off in the sky. They go up really high, so by the time the candle goes out, so when they come back to earth, there's nothing hot. ... It is actually neat to watch...

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Free Schooling

Top Marks:
These are really great, high quality training m
Getto versions:
(more to come later...)

RC Goodness!

Much goodness in the remote controlled aircraft with movable video cockpit display and weponary department:

From the HackADay website:
"An unemployed electrical engineer can be a very dangerous thing. [Cybrown] has turned his skills toward darker, more awesome applications by building an armed unmanned aerial vehicle. This is a remote control airplane that has a movable camera mounted in the cockpit. Video and GPS data are sent back to the pilot who views the picture via a wearable display. "

Friday, October 29, 2010

Magic and science: Together again at last

Worthy 11 min video from Scientific American about "neuroscience and the art of illusion".

"Martinez-Conde, along with her husband and fellow scientist Stephen Macknik are the subject of our recent video on the neuroscience of magic. Joined by master pickpocket Apollo Robbins (who is not really a criminal, of course; he calls himself a "gentleman thief"), the trio gives us a new perspective on how the brain works as we watch the tricks and manipulations of the magician."
Along that note:
In the March 2012 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine, "Teller" reviles his basic methods for deceiving the human mind (and thus performing magic tricks). 

The Great Chemical Unknown

Scientific American has a nice diagram and summary of the # of restricted chemicals used in in production in the US, the number tested, and the number used.

"Chemicals used by the US consumers and industry: 50,000
Tested: 300
Restricted: 5"

"The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act does not require chemicals to be registered or proven safe before use. ....it has managed to require testing of only about 300 substances that have been in circulation for decades. ... Stricter scrutiny in Europe and Canada suggests that “10 to 30 percent of U.S. chemicals would need some additional level of control,”


oh... and then there's this:

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The joys of engineering leadership

Good Google I/O presentation from Brian W. Fitzpatrick, Ben Collins-Sussman : "How to loose friends and alienate people: The joys of engineering leadership". Good presentation on ways to be a good leader.


Guide to Greener Electronics

Greenpeace posted their list of the most environmentally responsible major electronics manufactures.
The guide ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. Last updated: October 2010.

Our three goals for this guide are to get companies to:

* Clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances.
* Take back and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.
* Reduce the climate impacts of their operations and products.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Guerrilla Trucks

Newsweek reporter Ravi Somaiya has an article on "Why rebels and insurgent groups the world over love the Toyota Hilux pickup as much as their AK-47s."

"It’s the vehicular equivalent of the AK-47. It’s ubiquitous to insurgent warfare. And actually, recently, also counterinsurgent warfare. It kicks the hell out of the Humvee.

[...]

An experiment conducted by British TV show Top Gear in 2006 offers one explanation. The show’s producers bought an 18-year-old Hilux diesel with 190,000 miles on the odometer for $1,500. They then crashed it into a tree, submerged it in the ocean for five hours, dropped it from about 10 feet, tried to crush it under an RV, drove it through a portable building, hit it with a wrecking ball, and set it on fire. Finally they placed it on top of a 240-foot tower block that was then destroyed in a controlled demolition. When they dug it out of the rubble, all it took to get it running again was hammers, wrenches, and WD-40. They didn’t even need spare parts."

Monday, October 25, 2010

John Sculley On Steve Jobs

The Cult of Mac has a great interview by Leander Kahney with John Sculley. Sculley talks about about running Apple, and about Steve Jobs.

"Here’s a full transcript of the interview with John Sculley on the subject of Steve Jobs.

It’s long but worth reading because there are some awesome insights into how Jobs does things.

It’s also one of the frankest CEO interviews you’ll ever read. Sculley talks openly about Jobs and Apple, admits it was a mistake to hire him to run the company and that he knows little about computers. It’s rare for anyone, never mind a big-time CEO, to make such frank assessment of their career in public."

2D Barcode Patch

P8TCH is a cool site that allows you to take 2D barcode, and make an actual fabric patch for your bookbag, etc, which points to a url.
"Think of it as a short URL you wear. Each 2x4-inch, velcro-backed p8tch has a Mysterious Commando Design on the top, and a QRCode on the bottom ....Each p8tch comes with a secret passkey that lets you set the redirect target of the URL as often as you like. So it really is like a TinyURL, except one that you can control."
Also note ZXing, where you can encode your name/address into a 2D barcode

Hack a Day has a note on "How to put your logo in a QR code"

and NPR (on 09.26.11) points out that "Few Consumers are cracking the QR Code"... except for well off, middle age, white men....

Courtney Love on Record Labels

Salon.com back in 2000 posted an article by Cortney Love about the recording industry. (good read)

"Today I want to talk about piracy and music. What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist's work without any intention of paying for it. I'm not talking about Napster-type software.

I'm talking about major label recording contracts"

Locals and Tourists (flickr)

Eric Fisher has an interesting idea: Analise all the geotagged photos in flickr, and map where the locals vs. tourists take pictures.

"Blue points on the map are pictures taken by locals (people who have taken pictures in this city dated over a range of a month or more).

Red points are pictures taken by tourists (people who seem to be a local of a different city and who took pictures in this city for less than a month).

Yellow points are pictures where it can't be determined whether or not the photographer was a tourist (because they haven't taken pictures anywhere for over a month). They are probably tourists but might just not post many pictures at all."

Clayton Boyer Gears & Clocks


I first stumbled across Clayton Boyer's youtube entries on odd shaped gears. But when I checked out his website, he has some fantastic wooden clocks (showing the gears), and some great sculptures.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

great places to live


American Planning Association has an interesting writeup on the great neighborhoods in America for 2010. Their great places section not only talks about what they like, but why they think "X" is important.

how related am I to my dog?

TimeTree.org is a cool...
public knowledge-base for information on the evolutionary timescale of life. A search utility allows exploration of the thousands of divergence times among organisms in the published literature.


So if you want to see how many years ago humans and dogs were the same, you can simply search this from the website.

See intro video:

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

100 Cats + IKEA = ?

What do you get when you stick 100 cats in an IKEA store?

A clever publicity stunt!


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Right vs. Left

In an 10/2009 posting, the informationisbeautiful website (a website you should spend a *LOT* of time browsing around) presented an interesting diagram of the differences between the American political system.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Raytheon XOS 2 exoskeleton

In a UPI article about the Raytheon XOS2, the authors want to compare it to Ironman, but I see more parallels to the "Aliens Powerloader".

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Water map shows billions at risk of 'water insecurity'


Interesting BBC article about a new study in the Journal Nature, about the fact that 80% of the population of the world live where an adequate supply of fresh water is NOT secure.

About 80% of the world's population lives in areas where the fresh water supply is not secure, according to a new global analysis.
Researchers compiled a composite index of "water threats" that includes issues such as scarcity and pollution.
The most severe threat category encompasses 3.4 billion people.
Writing in the journal Nature, they say that in western countries, conserving water for people through reservoirs and dams works for people, but not nature.
They urge developing countries not to follow the same path.
Instead, they say governments should to invest in water management strategies that combine infrastructure with "natural" options such as safeguarding watersheds, wetlands and flood plains
- BBC Sep 29, 2010

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

How popular is Apple’s iPhone [Infographic]


Bill Shrink, a "free cost savings tool" did a nice job of putting together an info graphic explaining the world vs. US cell phone market. Interesting to see the difference. Nice site too.

The Secret Powers of Time

Professor Philip Zimbardo (Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University) had a speech about how we perceive time, and the Royal Society of the Arts created a video to go along with, and highlight his talk.

good watch.



good quote on the video:
"you are missing the point. No one is "blaming technology." Zimbardo is just saying that because technology has made people less patient and created a need for kids to create and control, education and family values need to change as well. Technology is wonderful, but education needs to catch up. This lecture is more of an indictment on education and society than on technology"
-@1Beth11

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Lego Universe

New MMO game about to come out looks very cool: Lego Universe.
Also noted here. Looks like it will be released in Oct 2010. I wonder if they will enable you to not only build things, but also then buy items you build, like with Lego Digital Designer.

(update:)
Ugh! Looks like it wont be lasting very long.  LEGO announced that they will be shutting down the service at the end of January 2011.  In other news, there is rumored that there might be a new LEGO Minecraft

Friday, September 24, 2010

2009 Ig Nobel Prize for Public Health

2009 Ig Nobel Prize for Public Health was awarded to Dr. Elena Bodnar who created the "Emergency Bra".



And in that stream of thought, AMD VP Lislie Sobon, writes "Get a Geek in Five Easy Lessons".

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Death & Taxes


How do you explain how much of your taxes go to schools vs. bombs? The numbers are huge and far to complex to understand with a quick explanation. Hence the Death and Taxes Poster. Truly a piece of art. The kind of thing that Edward R. Tufte would highlight as "beautiful evidence".

Can't really do it justice. Just check out their site. They have an app that lets you zoom into the image to get a good idea of what everything is.

Worldmapper

WORLDMAPPER is a site that contains distorted maps that explain different characteristic of the globe. (ie: the map here shows internet usage.)
This website contains 696 maps, with associated information and PDF 'poster' file. Each map relates to a particular subject. Click on the 'Thumbnail Index' which gives thumbnail previews of the maps, 'Map Categories' which is classified to see the choice, or a new option 'A-Z Map Index', and view a map and associated information.

Robert Krulwich of NPR did a quick review of this site, and points out some of it's coolness.
Limited but interesting writeup in wired about Gottlieb Daimler's (as in Daimler and Benz) first "car".
The age of the automobile started exactly 125 years ago when Gottlieb Daimler filed a patent for his revolutionary “riding car,” a two-wheeled machine driven by an internal combustion engine.
The photos of the bike show one hell of an amazing piece of art. Would love to see a DIY doc on this, but unfortunately, its more of a "isn't this neat" article, rather then "lets build something cool' one.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Rubik's Cube

Was feeling a bit retro the other day and got a Rubik's Cube. Having a bit of a hard time figuring out how to solve, as I can't find any good instruction manuals online.
Did find a solver that works very well, but it doesn't do much on teaching you the process.

Well, I guess I can always fall back on a Lego Rubik's Cube solver.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Shoot The Bear!!!

Very clever way to advertise! Let's you "rewrite" the story...


Then again, I know it's some kind of "white out" company, but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you which one...

Friday, September 3, 2010

Clasic Videos....

Some of my favorite videos out there. ...Nothing new, just wanting to link to them.

Troops:
StarWars version of the TV Show Cops.


Sega Saturn:
"Urgent synapse on line two, it's the sphincter."


The Whale:
You know, the what not to do when you find a beached whale...

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Teleconference

Truly the reality of modern business.



Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I AM A BELIEVER!!!!

I now believe in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

To support the beliefs of this religion, the prophet Bobby Henderson, wrote an open letter to the Kansas School Board explaining how the FSM explanation on the creation of the universe must be taught in the science classroom along with any other intelligent design theories.
"I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (Pastafarianism), and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence." - BH

When commenting on the religion, the prophet has noted:
Some claim that the church is purely a thought experiment, satire, illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, but rather a pseudoscience manufactured by Christians to push Creationism into public schools. These people are mistaken. The Church of FSM is real, totally legit, and backed by hard science. Anything that comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental. - BH

Monday, August 16, 2010

Will the US make it?

Items on the US political front:

Opensource Map?

What do you get when you mix a wiki with a map?

You get OpenStreetMap. All the data on the map is free, and you can modify and add to it as you like. Just glancing over it shows much better hiking trail information then other maps out there. Not sure I would want to rely on it completely, as the idea of someone mucking it up might lead me on a wild goose chase, but it does look like a great resource.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Low-fibre western diets deter 'good bacteria'

Short article in NewScientist suggests that our western diets, with highly processed foods, could be one of the things contributing to our increase in allergies. (also in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences.)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Arguing with Non-Skeptics

Scientific American and the Journal Nature have a great podcast#1 , podcast#2 regarding how you discuss science with folks that simply don't get it. It's a good, thoughtful, and funny discussion about working strategics like finding common ground, and being friendly. (and also knowing when it's just not worth it.)
"A panel discussion on arguing with non-skeptics at the recent Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism in New York City featured James Randi, George Hrab, D. J. Grothe and podcast host Steve Mirsky. Julia Galef moderated." - Scientific American

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Nuances of a Veggie World

Food Inc. is a very fantastic movie, and one of those "must sees". Of it's issues, it shines the light on the entire industrialization of food and explains how the current solution is not in our best interest. The industrialization of livestock is the most vile subject, but they don't condone meat, only point out how the current system for producing it is very bad.

On that thread, NewScientist has a good article titled "Veggieworld: Why eating greens won't save the planet" about the boons to having livestock and how a purely vegan world would not be the ideal solution either. It points out how the industrialization of meats does not help us, but that a complete elimination is also not the right solution either.

Like the old adage reminds us, Everything in moderation, including moderation.

Monday, July 19, 2010

I want an iPhone

ok, so It' got a great ui, great apps, and it looks really slick. But what the hell is the big deal with the iphone4?



Saturday, July 10, 2010

Free Mickey


Nothing new, but realized that I never posted this....
Lawrence Lessing, who is a hero of mine, made this presentation about copyrights. It's about how our copyright laws have changed since the birth of the country, and how this change has affected our culture.

A presentation given by Stanford Law professor and founder of Creative Commons, Lawrence Lessig, about his book "Free Culture".
OSCON July 24, 2002


Very worth the time to watch.

Also a very good example of how to do a good presentation, not a death by powerpoint presentation.

Update: Jan 2018: ArsTechnia notes Why Mickey Mouse’s 1998 copyright extension probably won’t happen again.

"Guy in Clock" clock

This has got to be the coolest clock ever. Make has a piece on a "Clock [that] shows video of dude erasing and redrawing hands every minute" It is a great piece of art by artist Maarten Baas.



As a nice runner up, there is a clock that tells time with words.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Cool Business Cards

Stumbled across a metal business card for Kevin Mitnick that I thought was totally cool. did some googling on it and found a graphic artist who was doing something similar.

FYI: Lock Picking is a hobby/sport that has become popular among the DYI folks. Its fun to understand the mechanics of the lock, and then see how quick you can crack it.

Friday, June 25, 2010

House Work!

Just wouldn't be right to pass up on noting an article in the BBC about a study showing that "Woman who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer".

I'm not saying anything.... Just pointing this out.... 'Cause I'm thinking of others.....

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Unicorn, the other white meat!


Eating Bacon makes you stupid. Or maybe working for the National Pork Board does. Or maybe just being a lawyer does. Or most likely, a combination of all of the above would, as noted today at NPR:
It's official: The National Pork Board says it knows unicorns don't exist.

The industry group says it was only protecting its trademark when it issued cease-and-desist warning to online retailer ThinkGeek for calling a fake unicorn meat product "the new white meat."

The fictional canned meat, described as an "excellent source of sparkles," was an April Fool's prank.

But the 12-page letter from the board's law firm was no joke.
[.... read on for more hilarity...]
- NPR

BTW, Thinkgeek is one of the best online stores out there. You can get cool toys, t-shirts, lots of things you never knew that you desperately need for your computer, and caffeine.

It's so True.


Wilder Publication is under fire for putting warning labels on copies of historical US documents, including the Constitution. The label warns "This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today." From the article: "The disclaimer goes on to tell parents that they 'might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.'"
-Slashdot

Monday, June 21, 2010

Verizon Scams

More joy from the internet provider front....

"
Presto Vivace sends in a report from David Pogue at the New York Times, who learned from a Verizon customer service representative that the company has implemented a policy of punishing employees who suggest certain service blocks to customers looking to avoid unwanted or accidental fees. According to the representative, offering (for example) a web access block or premium SMS block without the customer asking for it can now lead to a reprimand or outright termination. The CSRs have also been directed to avoid issuing credits for such charges. "Essentially, we are to upsell customers on the $9.99 25mb/month or $29.99 unlimited packages for customers. Customers are not to be credited for charges unless they ask for the credit. And in cases such as data or premium SMS, where the occurrences may have gone months without the consumer noticing, only an initial credit can be issued.
" - Slashdot

Swarm Light


A guy by the name of Fredrik Petrini put together this cool swarm light artwork with strings of LED's.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

E8, Surfing, and the Theory of Everything


This needs some more digging.... (bogus? Could be...)

There's an interesting dude in California who thinks he might have a better idea then string theory, and it's based on E8.

"What makes E8 so exciting is that Nature also seems to have embedded it at the heart of many bits of physics. One interpretation of why we have such a quirky list of fundamental particles is because they all result from different facets of the strange symmetries of E8.

Lisi's breakthrough came when he noticed that some of the equations describing E8's structure matched his own. "My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," he tells New Scientist. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"

What Lisi had realised was that he could find a way to place the various elementary particles and forces on E8's 248 points. What remained was 20 gaps which he filled with notional particles, for example those that some physicists predict to be associated with gravity.

Physicists have long puzzled over why elementary particles appear to belong to families, but this arises naturally from the geometry of E8, he says. So far, all the interactions predicted by the complex geometrical relationships inside E8 match with observations in the real world. "How cool is that?" he says.

The crucial test of Lisi's work will come only when he has made testable predictions. Lisi is now calculating the masses that the 20 new particles should have, in the hope that they may be spotted when the Large Hadron Collider starts up." - Roger Highfield, UK Telegraph

solar nastyness


Cisco has an error code that basically says that the system failed because of sunspots. I've seen this twice, and both times it's been an eye roller. Well, word has it that that code might become very familiar in the near future. Bunch of folks are noting that starting 2013-ish, we are going to be getting into one heck or a solar flair season (with this "season" lasting a long time).

"In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning” and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.

Scientists believe it could damage everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to “everyday” items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs.

Due to humans’ heavy reliance on electronic devices, which are sensitive to magnetic energy, the storm could leave a multi-billion pound damage bill and “potentially devastating” problems for governments.
" - UK Telegraph


"What's special about this latest dip is that the sun is having trouble starting the next solar cycle. The sun began to calm down in late 2007, so no one expected many sunspots in 2008. But computer models predicted that when the spots did return, they would do so in force. Hathaway was reported as thinking the next solar cycle would be a "doozy": more sunspots, more solar storms and more energy blasted into space. Others predicted that it would be the most active solar cycle on record. The trouble was, no one told the sun." - NewScientist

"after-twenty-twelve-who-cares" - Slashdot

Monday, June 14, 2010

Worlds Slowest Porsche


German guy built a recumbent bike to look like a Porsche. Check out his webpage where he shows how he put it together.



Friday, June 4, 2010

Cops Get Privacy


Gizmodo, the folks who seem to be getting all the iphones of late, have a disturbing writeup by Wendy McElroy titled "Are Cameras the New Guns?" about how "a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer."

Some choice quotes include:
"A recent arrest in Maryland is both typical and disturbing.

On March 5, 24-year-old Anthony John Graber III's motorcycle was pulled over for speeding. He is currently facing criminal charges for a video he recorded on his helmet-mounted camera during the traffic stop.

The case is disturbing because:

1) Graber was not arrested immediately. Ten days after the encounter, he posted some of he material to YouTube, and it embarrassed Trooper J. D. Uhler. The trooper, who was in plainclothes and an unmarked car, jumped out waving a gun and screaming. Only later did Uhler identify himself as a police officer. When the YouTube video was discovered the police got a warrant against Graber, searched his parents' house (where he presumably lives), seized equipment, and charged him with a violation of wiretapping law.

2) Baltimore criminal defense attorney Steven D. Silverman said he had never heard of the Maryland wiretap law being used in this manner. In other words, Maryland has joined the expanding trend of criminalizing the act of recording police abuse. Silverman surmises, "It's more [about] ‘contempt of cop' than the violation of the wiretapping law."

3) Police spokesman Gregory M. Shipley is defending the pursuit of charges against Graber, denying that it is "some capricious retribution" and citing as justification the particularly egregious nature of Graber's traffic offenses. Oddly, however, the offenses were not so egregious as to cause his arrest before the video appeared."

Now more: