Not a bad deal, 500Hhz Celeron, 128MB RAM, 4GB HD Ubuntu pre-installed, just add keyboard/mouse/monitor - Craigslist, eBay, free -- still might be better... [via] - Link.

I haven't tried this board yet, $30, looks sweet - "Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board and a development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP). The open-source IDE can be downloaded for free (currently for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux)." Link.

By David Ponce

Got five minutes? Check out this great video showing someone’s idea of what would happen should Microsoft have a go at redoing the iPod packaging.

It’s funny as hell, and very nicely done.

VIA [TUAW]

"You have to understand one thing about the American people. They are not interested in a politician that speaks smoothly or insists on using 'real words.'"

Adam @ Lifehacker's how to on installing linux on a Linksys WRT54GL - "Of all the great DIY projects at this year's Maker Faire, the one project that really caught my eye involved converting a regular old $60 router into a powerful, highly configurable $600 router. The router has an interesting history, but all you really need to know is that the special sauce lies in embedding Linux in your router. I found this project especially attractive because: 1) It's easy, and 2) it's totally free." - Link.

Ric Edelman, a financial planner, suggests a list of financial/legal documents that you need to keep and what you can shred. He categorizes into five groups: originals you rarely need, originals you sometimes need, other documents, tax documents and investment documents. He suggests for each document on What to Keep, Where to Store, and When to Shred. The list is pretty good reference, especially the “when to shred” column:

The financial services industry certainly produces a lot of paper! Here’s what you need to keep and when you can trash it.
Start by stacking all the paper in one big pile. Check your drawers (home and work), filing cabinets, folders, boxes, glove compartments, even your safe deposit box. Then separate the papers into these five group…

Documents: What to Keep - Where to Store - When to Shred - [Ric Edelman]

George writes "Spark it up for the Fourth with your own home brewed sparklers! United Nuclear has the goods you'll need." - Link & Wired has a geek fireworks guide, from detonators to taking photos - Link.

Peter writes "Here's a hands-on with Jaycar's DIY digital SLR cable release kit, for producing timelapse photography, with a first experiment in photographing dyed melting ice. This is first in a series by my friend Jaymis Loveday called "Timelapse Lab", and he's already learning some things the hard way by experimentation (so we don't have to)!" - Link.

We have a new category, Maker Meetups. Inspired by the great success of MAKE Philly, this is a place where local groups can post discussions related to their events and members. Don't forget to post your meeting information on our events page also! Link.

Here's a good origami project - "Need a water balloon but got no balloon? Regular old paper and skills of a fold-ist will have you drenching your foes in no time, with stile to boot." - Link.

Here's a *really* old guide to electronics (in web years that is) but there are a couple good starter items in there - "Are you a beginner in electronics? Have you been interested in electronics but never really taken the time to start learning? Are you just starting out but was unable to find any resources on the net that teaches the basics? Are you just curious about what electronics is? " - Link.

A process of relaying a story having a timeline and a unique plot involving characters comprises: indicating a character's desire at a first time in the timeline for at least one of the following: a) to remain asleep or unconscious until a particular event occurs; and b) to forget or be substantially unable to recall substantially all events during the time period from the first time until a particular event occurs; indicating the character's substantial inability at a time after the occurrence of the particular event to recall substantially all events during the time period from the first time to the occurrence of the particular event; and indicating that during the time period the character was an active participant in a plurality of events.

They have at last invented a way to destroy all cultural development forevermore. That's an achievement of a sort. (...) Remember, a published patent means it hasn't issued yet. But if you wish to throw up, read about the dreams being dreamed. They are willing to destroy the world's culture for $67,200. Here's Knight and Associates' legal analysis, which they are probably proud of. To me, it's like figuring out how to destroy the planet and all human life on it. What is your responsibility? To implement it, to even tell anyone what you cleverly invented? I know. Knight and Associates would advise patenting it first.

Reader comment: Jim's Polka says:

No patent has actually been granted. So far, he's filed a provisional application for a patent and a non-provisional application. Now that it's been 18 months since he filed the application, the PTO has published it, i.e. made it publicly available. Groklaw, like Slashdot did yesterday, made a mistake in their headline that implied that the patent had already been granted. She does, however, note in the third paragraph that the patent hasn't been granted yet.

As for me, I'm with Groklaw - I'm not persuaded by their legal analysis. But it's too early to get upset with the PTO or the patent system about this. The PTO hasn't even had the chance to reject it yet. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind smacking the idiot who filed the application.

Remember, this is all based off of this guy's press release. I think he's taken advantage of people's prejudices about the patent system to earn himself some easy publicity.

Most patent applications are published after 18 months. Knight & Assocs. want to make a business of filing "plot patents." This is their test case, which is why these crackpots are willing to waste a lot of money on it. If they do succeed (in my view, they certainly will not) it would certainly lead to Congressional action to cut back the patent system.

Since this was a provisional patent application, and according to the American Inventor's Protection Act (AIPA), Knight and his buddies can now -- as of yesterday -- extract reasonable royalties from any infringers. Right to Create has the details. Let the litigation begin!

Personally, I have no problem with Starbucks. While I love me some indie coffee, I'm an equal opportunity coffee purchaser. "Oh, you have coffee? I love you. What was this place's name again? Who am I?"

Still, it's funny as shit to see an indie coffee's folks dressing up as zombie Starbucks employees. Absolutely brilliant. I have yet to see somebody take me up on my zombie Smurf idea, but this will do in a pinch.

Found via Boing Boing.

This box made from two bills. The bills / box can be the gift itself, but it is also just about the right size for a ring box. (Perhaps a dollar-bill ring?)

LINK

It's odd that they claim that "Multiplayer Blackjack at The Gold Casino is without question the most honest possible Blackjack currently on the planet". The computer science literature has been interested for years in the possibility of making distributed card games fair without special hardware, using only cryptographic protocols.

Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman wrote a joint paper on mental poker, which is great reading, and the literature has continued from there with various improvements and enhancements. This was, as far as I know, the genesis of the cryptographic subfield of "security multiparty computation".

This casino's protocol is _not_ the most verifiably fair known; an enhanced cryptographic "mental poker" protocol would be fairer because it would also prevent deck-stacking. Here is just one random recent example via CiteSeer.

On the other hand, all of the crypto protocols for mental poker seem to require special software just to _play_. This casino requires only a normal web browser to play, but requires special software to audit.

A casino could create a Java applet that implements a fair gambling crypto protocol and lets you play in a regular Java-enabled web browser. They could publish the source code to the applet for audit and also show that the compiler the used produces the exact Java bytecode with the same source file as input. (Or, if players wanted to, they could compile the Java applet for themselves and use their locally-compiled versions.) The source could verifiably include features to detect if the house is cheating. The user interface can be precisely the same as that of the existing web-based casino.

A basic part of the original mental poker problem is how to let two people shuffle a deck so that both of them agree that the deck was fairly shuffled and not stacked. The fact that this casino does not address this problem (but still relies on fancy crypto) suggests that it didn't try too hard to investigate what's known in the literature...

Our private boat through the venerable Jungle Cruise revealed stagecraft secrets such as the hidden heaters used to warm the tropical plants and the actual words uttered by the animatronic cannibal ("I love disco," believe it or not).

And that doesn't even count such sworn-to-secrecy dish as how they keep the Safari Adventure lions on that viewing rock (air conditioning), what employees really think of certain daily performances ("Cinderellabration, the Loudest Show on Earth") and just who that is in the Mickey costume (a petite woman, most likely).

The cure is simple, so graceful that it will make you feel lighter and healthier and good the minute you start, and of course you can start right now and you don’t even need any drugs or wine or nudity, though those always, always help.

This is what you do: You throw stuff out. You go through your closets and you fill up garbage bags and you even grab stuff you’ve clung to for years for no apparent reason, and you haul it all down to Goodwill or Salvation Army or (in the case of San Francisco) leave the usable stuff out in the street overnight and let the urban recycling phenomenon work its magic, as some lucky passerby scores your old futon and the three grungy frying pans you haven’t used since 1987.

Link to photo gallery (Thanks, Siege!)

Trazy Anderson has an amazing photo @ 94x magnification of velcro, taken with Nikon SMZ1500 Stereomicroscope [via] - Link.

Related:

• More Microscopy photos - Link.
• Microscopy photo pool - Link.
• Poor man's macro - Link.
• Science pool - Link.

Nate and Jesse give some advice on how to make a Rube Goldberg contraption and Jesse walks us through the entire machine at Earth Sanctuary.

Click here to get the video (MP4) delivered automatically with iTunes. This video will play on PC/Mac/Linux/PSPs and iPod video devices - Link.

By David Ponce

There’s a bunch of reasons for Apple’s success these past few years, not the least of which being its clean, elegant designs. Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t poke a little fun at them now and then.

So, come inside for a three minute clip of Apple’s latest would-be product: the iBox. It’s hilarious, believe me.

VIA [TechEBlog]

Reader comment: Joshua Kidd says,

Chewbacca has been making the rounds lately. Here's a pic of him throwing out the first pitch at fenway park. Link

A few days ago, Lifehacker ran a nice Hack Attack about cleaning up all the cords in your work area. Based on all the comments we received about the USB cord, it seemed a good reason to go back and point people to this illustrated how-to on cleaning up the wires in your work area.

The Cordless Workspace - [Lifehacker]

SF IndieFest 2006 is hosting a premiere screening of the Survival Research Laboratories documentary from last April’s SRL show in Los Angeles. This special screening is a benefit for SRL and the money raised will help to offset costs associated with the reloaction of the SRL Shop.

IndieFest will present the public premiere of a version of the Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) documentary of the show that took place in Los Angeles on April 2, 2005. You will be treated to generous demonstrations of flame-throwing! Prepare to witness much manic machine mayhem! Thrill to the destruction of a Trojan Horse! Gaze in wonder at the unrehearsed special guest appearance of the Los Angeles Fire Department! The video shoot was directed by Dave Scardina and edited by Mark Pauline.

After the premiere screening, stick around for a conversation between V. Vale (RE/Search Publications founder), Dave Scardina (the director of the video) and Mark Pauline (founder of Survival Research Laboratories). This will be followed by an audience Q&A session with the panel.

Trebuchet03 writes "Using some waste heat in from your engine bay to cook a meal on your way home. After I showed this to a few people, I found out that there is a book called "Manifold Destiny" on this very subject. I have not read it yet, but I'm told that there are quite a few recipe's with locations and times (miles)." - Link.

I love music, movies, and books. I also love technology. I want to use technology to deliver the media I love anywhere, anywhen, with anyone.

This is fair use: I bought it, let me use it. I will tell all my friends about my favorite music. I might play it for them or even give them a digital version of a song. This is evangelism, not theft. This is advertising you cannot buy.

Restrictive copyright is like a vegetarian knife. You bought the knife, but if you cut meat with it, we'll sue you. Excuse me? Let's think again.

Will's DIY rackmount how-to on Engadget - "Our simple network rack is an easy project that can really clean up a home network installation. Just a few square feet of floor space now keeps our cable modem firewall, Ethernet switch, server, wireless AP, KVM, monitor, keyboard and UPS neatly tucked away -- in a (decently well ventilated) closet, for example. It's also built to support rack mount hardware of shallow depth, like a router (the real kind) or network switch, so if you want to clear off that folding table in the basement, check out today's how-to..." - Link.

Here's how to make an Alka-Seltzer version of a lava lamp from stuff around the house - "Have you ever caught yourself hypnotized by a lava lamp? You hold it in your hand, move it slightly while inside the liquid quivers and separates into different shapes, and colors. Then you look at the price tag, and put it back. Fortunately, you can make a simple home-spun version. It won't look exactly like one of those store bought ones, but it will be a fun project and you will learn a thing or two about chemistry while you're at it!" [via] - Link.

Bre Pettis with the latest MAKE video! - "In this video Pablos shows me two new materials that makers really need to be aware of. The first is shapelock, a material for making anything. The second material is neodymium, which is a rare earth magnet that defies gravity.

While talking with Pablos, I had a flashback to when I worked as an assistant at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. A mech named Flimsy and I would go troll the hardware stores looking for materials that we could apply to the animatronic gorillas we were making for the movie. One day, Flimsy turned to me in Home Depot and said, "There aren't many new things in the world. You've got to make new things by combining old things." I told this story to Pablos and he added, "And you always have to be on the lookout for new materials." A big thank you to Pablos for sharing his passion for innovation!"

Click here to get the video (MP4) delivered automatically with iTunes. This video will play on PC/Mac/Linux/PSPs and iPod video devices.

Update: Chad sez, "I noticed Pastafarianism was unrepresented in this study. I've remedied this."

Here's how to make a rubber band helicopter similar to toy that inspired the Wright brothers to build a plane - "It doesn't have a bearing and is therefore very simple to make, however you must have a long bit of split bamboo which must be thin and flexible enough to bend into a loop. Some window blinds are made of suitable material, some are made of bamboo which has been extruded into a round section, this isn't really sufficiently flexible." - Link.

Cape and Ray sent in their how-to on making a super simple and cheap dry erase board - Link.

A Picopad consists of 15 sticky notes and one tiny pen, that are designed to fit into the credit card slot of your wallet. The pads themselves are made from a cardboard-like material and come in a variety of colors. They feature two small push-out tabs to make it easier for you to pull it out of your wallet. There’s one on the long side, and one on the short side, making it possible to use with top and side loading wallets. See more details in this review by OhGizmo! or on the Picopad home page. They are priced at $3.99 each.

“PINNACLE/NUCFLASH” are the flagwords or header that presages an electronic transmission through the U.S. military's command and control structure that reports an actual or possible detonation of a nuclear weapon. Not only that, these code words mean that the explosion was not an accident and the risk of nuclear war is imminent.

As one might expect, “PINNACLE/NUCFLASH” has the highest precedence in the OPREP-3 reporting structure. Men and women train for months, years, in order to be able to coolly and efficiently handle the communications that follow an OPREP-3 PINNACLE level flagword. There are several OPREP-3 code word designators with a chilling cold war/Tom Clancy/John Lecarre ring to them. None of these foreshadow good news.

Will has a VoIP wiring guide for folks who went Vonage, etc.... "In today's How-To, we're taking the diagonal cutters to the Ma Bell umbilical cord and hooking up our voice over IP adapter so we can use our old phone jacks. No soldering irons or caustic acid required. This time." - Link.

Related:

VoIP Phone Wiring - Connecting multiple phones to a Vonage connection - MAKE 06 - Page 112.

What an apology we Rabbis owe Israel, Marx, Mao, all mankind, for not teaching Astronomy's great All-One-God-Faith, that with just 6 words eternally unites the human race! As teaches African-shepherd Astronomer Israel for 6000 years, "LISTEN CHILDREN ETERNAL FATHER ETERNALLY ONE!"

DC street artist and tape sculptor Mark Jenkins has recently converted a series of parking meters into lollipops resulting in a hilarious art installation/prank.

Mark’s previous street art includes tape sculptures in strange locations and positions throughout the city, specifically his Storker Project which involves a bizarre series of tape babies.

Maybe Mark should join forces with San Francisco’s Rebar, who recently converted a parking space into an actual park. I think the Meter Pops would make a nice addition to a future PARK(ing) space.

via: Boing Boing

From Japan comes this small but efficient plant. It's a bonsai for an indoor garden on a desktop or a windowsill. The tree can be repotted in a larger pot or outdoors for growing larger. They are $12 each from Branch.

Found via Ecofriend

Joel Makower in his blog ::Two Steps Forward, referring to an Inform report regarding the progressive move from diesel to natural gas, for garbage trucks. (QOTD = quote of the day).

A greater selection of mini-sized consumables then your local drug store is likely to stock. Itty-bitty bottles of shampoo, shaving cream, toothpaste, sunscreen, medicines and the like, for travel or camping. [Suggested by Mark Hurst]

-- KK

Minimus

Ever read the side of a tin of paint? Like where it says in bold red ink: Safety Advice. Bet it didn’t include the words “Not applicable, non-hazardous product. “ That’s the information provided by Kreidezeit for their line of Casein Full Colour Paints. They go on to say that “Dried residues can be disposed of with normal household litter.” Possibly because all you’ll find on the ingredients list is “various earth and mineral pigments, chalk, talcum, titanium white, casein, borax.” The paints, which come in powdered form, are for application on interior walls and ceilings and are classed as ‘wiping-resistant ’. The suggestion for a ‘washable’ version, known as Tempera, is simply to add 30% Safflower oil. And speaking of oils Kreidezeit do these too for timber finishes. In fact, they also offer Linseed Oil Putty, Lime Wall Finish, Carnauba Wax Emulsion and even Citric Acid. I was put onto them by a friend (thanks Grant), whose strawbale house has internal walls graced by their casein (milk based) paints. Although based in Germany, Kreidezeit export to various other locales, including Australia, Japan and Canada. ::Kreidezeit.

By Andrew Liszewski

Ok so this doesn’t exactly score high marks in the gadget department but in terms of design and innovation it definitely ranks up there on the list. From ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi this new take on the pizza flier is sure to get noticed as long as you glance out your peephole that is.

Looking at the second image there I can only assume that Papa John’s is hoping the novelty of the flier is enough to distract people from the sticker that has been semi-permanently adhered to their nicely finished front door. And thinking back to my many trips to Vegas and the ‘variety’ of fliers that were stuck to my motel door each night promoting local ‘freelancers’ I can only begin to imagine how this idea will be adopted by others.

[Papa John’s Innovative Pizza Flier VIA The Raw Feed]

TangMu writes "Recycle your used drinks cans into potential fire hazards!! A modern take on the paper lantern... now even shinier" -

You will need:
Any size or shape of drinks can (Preferably unopened as of yet as we need the flat top to balance the tea light on)
Something to put said contents of can in.
Our friend Mr Stanley the Knife.
Pliers (I find Snub nosed easier of this)

Also needed but not pictured:
A small length of wire ~10cm
A tea light (those lil lights in a metal pot)
Matches

Link to Instructable.

MAKE pal Todbot posted up his slides from Sketching with Hardware, it's good stuff, he writes - "My talk was "USB on Rails". The USB HID standard enables the sending and receiving of arbitrary data-structures ("objects") between a host PC and a device. All without any additional device drivers, since the HID driver is built in to all OSs. Many sketching tools or demos use USB, but introducing them to the unintiated means lots of reboots for driver installs. The title is a silly, but half-serious, take of applying the philosophy of Rails to hardware-to-computer interfacing: solve the common case simply, but allow deviations. More on this later, for now, here's my talk's slides" - Link.

Modern cryptographic systems are essentially unbreakable, particularly if an adversary is restricted to intercepts. We have argued for, designed, and built systems with 128 bits of security precisely because they are essentially unbreakable. It is very easy to underestimate the power of exponentials. 2^128 is a very big number. Burt Kaliski first came up with this characterization, and if he had a nickel for every time I tell it, he could buy a latte or three.

Imagine a computer that is the size of a grain of sand that can test keys against some encrypted data. Also imagine that it can test a key in the amount of time it takes light to cross it. Then consider a cluster of these computers, so many that if you covered the earth with them, they would cover the whole planet to the height of 1 meter. The cluster of computers would crack a 128-bit key on average in 1,000 years.

If you want to brute-force a key, it literally takes a planet-ful of computers. And of course, there are always 256-bit keys, if you worry about the possibility that government has a spare planet that they want to devote to key-cracking.

Reader comment: Alan Henry says: "Leander Kahney, Mac fanatic and author of Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, has been tracking this issue over at his blog, Cult of Mac for a few days now. He's uncovered a lot of interesting information (regardless of the annoying comments) and he's posted on the topic several times. He also plans to update with some more official information in the coming days! Just thought it might be worth letting you know!

"The links to Leander's posts (from oldest to newest) are here, starting on Wednesday Jan 11th, then Friday Jan 13th." Link, Link, Link

Reader comment: Leander Kahney reports that both the ad and the video used the same director. However, it seems that the Postal Service's label had no idea that the directors made a commercial based on the video:

Sarah Moody of Sub Pop Records, The Postal Service's Seattle record company, writes: "... the Apple commercial is indeed very similar, it wasn't licensed in any form, and was made by the same directors as the Postal Service video. We weren't alerted to the fact that it existed until the day it came out."

A full-scale Survival Research Labs show is scheduled to take place on August 11th in San Jose as part of ZeroOne San Jose & International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA2006) conference which runs August 7th through 13th. Tickets are now available for the show (the capacity is 2000) and funds raised from the show will help with the massive relocation of the SRL Shop. For more info, chec out Violet Blue’s blog.

From the ZeroOne San Jose website:

Some things are purely mythic like Survival Research Labs, which springs from the shell of abandoned buildings, monster robotic history, and fire. An interdisciplinary mash-up like no other, SRL, brings a newly conceived performance to ZeroOne San Jose full of its legendary machines, flame-throwers, and bombastic sound. Humans are only present as audience or operators; in this show it’s all about the machines. As described by founder Mark Pauline, an SRL performance is comprised of “ritualistic interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices.” Whatever else you call it, (and the title won’t be announced until just before the show), we call it big fun, exciting, and something you won’t want to miss. This one is definitely for more than the brainiac crowd – it’s monster machine, meets hovercraft, meets huge sculptural creatures, meets fire.

Sigg is a Swiss company with a reputation for producing quality, non-toxic containers. They makes these lightweight, durable boxes out of anodized aluminum. They have snap lock to keep the lid securely in place, and a rubber seal provides a leakproof closure.

Available from Amazon for $30 or from eBay for $18.99.

A Canadian investment firm , Sprott Asset Management, has produced a report studying the financial implications of climate change. Conclusions: Economic changes will be just as severe. Watch out for massive commodity price swings and a huge buildup of nuclear capacity. Prepare for hyperinflation and buy gold. Forget about biofuels. "As oil prices surge, the incentive to produce energy from vegetable oils heightens," the authors predict."This in turn is likely to result in the increased cultivation of plants like palm and soybeans, used to make biofuels. When we take into consideration the potential shortages of food crops that may result from an abrupt climate change, it is likely that governments will soon be facing a choice between feeding people and feeding SUVs." :: PDF: Investment Implications of Abrupt Climate Change and if that is too depressing, read ::The Onion.

Guerroloco's EL Wirte project is now up on Instructables, he writes - "This project uses electroluminescent wire (a.k.a. "EL wire") to create a glowing, flashing, spinning piece of eye candy that could be used as decoration, a disco light for a dance party, or just for taking cool photos. This is definitely a work in progress.... It started with some strands of EL wire that were leftovers from a project I took to Burning Man 2002 (the Jellyfish Bike -- but that's another story). I started to play around with this stuff to see what I could come up with. I ended up with some very interesting pictures. Folks on Make and Flickr started asking me how they were done, so here it is." - Link.

MAKE Flickr photo pool member Nicrosin writes - "Recently, for some reason the cats have refused to drink from standing water. They meow like crazy until a faucet is turned on. That got old fast. Solution? Build them a drinking fountain! " - Link.

Related:

• Save Gocco (Gocco is being discontinued by it's manufacturer) - Link.
• MAKE Blog - Printing with Gocco (Oct 2005) - Link.

Any oldschool Dungeons and Dragons readers get that reference? If not, here’s my basic premise: view your personal development like you would character development in role playing games.

• Capabilities- Some things you are born with, and others can be trained. For instance, strength can be developed to certain end points, but intelligence is something that one possesses a certain degree of, regardless of training. Training becomes more of a skill or toolset, taking advantage of your baseline intelligence. (Do we agree, or do you dispute my characterization of intelligence? - If you disagree, skip it and come back later). Other capabilities can be grown somewhat, like developing your endurance, etc.
• Skills- Skills are things you learn, such as communication, interpersonal relationship tactics, how to build a LAMP stack repeatably. Skills are an area where you can focus a lot of effort, because they often have a direct reward for advancing your abilities. Learning a second language adds to your potential revenue value. Learning how to appreciate and interact with your family builds emotional strength and good will. Skills are a great area to target.
• Equipment- Another constant in most role playing games (from paper and card-based games up into World of Warcraft) is the trusty old inventory concept. Do you have armor? Do you have a sword or a dagger? Would a lockpick be useful to you? Stretching this analogy out into personal development, equipment can become: laptops and smart phones for portability, special software to handle scheduling, budget, repeatable tasks, a portable media player to receive learning and information (like the Life Hack podcast).

What if you took your current situation and put it down on paper as if you were a character in a somewhat boring role-playing game? (Let’s face it: Office Wars isn’t a likely replacement title for City of Heroes). How would you characterize your capabilities? Are there any you should consider developing? What skills do you possess? What kind of equipment do you have to do the work at hand?

When you have it all written down, take a look at it. What kind of character are you? How do you stack up against other people in the same game? What capabilities, skills, or equipment could you further develop to build your success rates with your current game?
Expansion Pack

Write down a list of different “games” that you’d want to consider playing. Maybe you’re in software design, but believe you want to start up a company. Does your “character sheet” match the game? What skills should you add? How about in the crossover game of work-life balance? Do you have the skills required to make that all work?

Use this new list matched to your existing list as a framework for development. Do you need some basic business skills to augment your career track as a software developer? Would learning about financial models help you manage your new team of colleagues in Vietnam, Bangalore, and Oklahoma?

Viewing your statistics as if they belong to a character in a game is a way to try and expand our vision of the situation we’re in. It gives you a sense of your world in a somewhat more manageable shape. From here, you might be able to consider permutations and variations. You can consider whether your French language classes, while interesting, are relating in any way to the things you need to better navigate your life and your career.

Does this work for you? Should I roll a saving throw versus “bad analogy taken too far?” Choose your own adventure.

–Chris Brogan used to be a dungeon master. In ways, his project management career mimicked that experience. Now, he writes at [chrisbrogan.com] and develops content at GrasshopperFactory.com

Nickp writes - "The US military have a number of excellent manuals for the use of their machinists -- and the text is public domain. Your tax dollars at work! I've prepared some single-file PDF's which are a bit easier to deal with than the more usual single-chapter-per-file setup. " - Link.

This episode is hosted by P(?)NYB(?)Y and Elonka Dunin. The topic of the show is Cryptography and the Kryptos sculpture. In an obvious attempt to gain listeners, i feel obligated to tell you that this episode of BellCoreRadio contains clues, both to the Kryptos code as well as a code in Elonkas new book, that have
never before been released to the public!

LED flashlights are now available in the ultraviolet frequency range. These flashlights have the same longevity and durability of other LED lamps. Some of the ultraviolet flashlights on the market are the Inova X5 Ultraviolet (made with anodized aluminum) and the hefty Streamlight Twin Task. You can see many other types listed on this page.

Carefully pour the sebacoyl chloride solution on top of the hexamethylenediamine solution (both are available from chemical suppliers). If you have trouble keeping the chemicals in separate layers, ask a bartender for help.

The utility of radio-readable identifiers is undeniable. I've written stories about how people could use them to improve their quality of life; seniors' homes are incorporating them into the Alzheimer's ward, in Hong Kong, the contactless card has made public transit and other routine transactions into an act of graceful dance, where people gesture in a fluid motion at the turnstiles to present them with their "Octopus" cards.

Obviously, the supply-chain uses for these in retail and wholesale are many and interesting, as are the uses that arise after we bring stuff home -- everyone's favorite example is the washing machine that won't let you mix colors and whites.

But there's an ethical dimension that needs to be considered in engineering radio-readable products. These products are potential privacy-bombs, capable of wreaking great havoc in our personal lives and the body-politic. They have the potential to be systems of control, rather than empowerment. As Mitch Kapor says, "Architecture is politics." The way we design these systems will effect the way we live our lives: in freedom or in tyranny.

Greenfield has a recent book out on the subject, called Everyware, which attacks the promise and peril of ubicomp at great length and in depth. He surveys the ways in which RFIDs are being used today, the good and the bad, looks at the research that's being done for the next generation, and tackles these thorny ethical questions. (introduction, conclusion)

Here's an article that Greenfield wrote on the subject of ubicomp ethics, called "All watched over by machines of loving grace: Some ethical guidelines for user experience in ubiquitous-computing settings." It give you a good flavor for the talk I heard yesterday -- it's fascinating and thought-provoking.

Principle 1. Default to harmlessness. Ubiquitous systems must default to a mode that ensures their users' (physical, psychic and financial) safety.

We are familiar with the notion of "graceful degradation," the ideal that if a system fails, if at all possible it should fail gently in preference to catastrophically, with functionality being lost progressively rather than all at once.

Given the assumption of responsibility for users and their environments implied by the ubicomp rubric, such systems must take measures that go well beyond mere graceful degradation.

Slaved passenger vehicles, dosage settings for pharmaceutical-delivery systems, controls for sealed or denied environments are examples of situations where redundant interlocks must be provided to ensure user safety.

This software (donation-ware/freeware) let people take their movies from their digital cameras and turn them into old school style flip books. You can import the video, choose the exact scene you want to turn into a flipbook and the flipbook printer somehow magically turns the video into mini flipbook pages.

Here's a clever mod for any bag so you can carry a bike U-lock - Link.

"The shape and text was created by power-washing filthy sidewalks using a large stencil form. [..] Sidewalks are usually very filthy and just the thought you could make your point by creating a clean spot instead of a dirty one is one to cherish. This is a form of non-destructive guerrilla marketing in it’s purest form." What a good idea! Any readers from Chicago saw them? Via ::Coolz0r, ::Ads of the World

A new range of bamboo fiber T-shirts has been released. The brand is "Spun Bamboo" and the shirts are made with 70% bamboo fiber and 30% organic cotton.

Bamboo clothing will never stick to your body or skin, and they keep you cooler in warm weather. They have good moisture absorption with ventilation, and great breathability.

Available from: Bamboo Textile for $17 or eBay for $12.50.

Citrus degreasers are powerful and much safer to use than traditional petroleum-based solvents like gasoline or kerosene. Citrus solvents are non-flammable and 100% biodegradeable. They are also strongly aromatic — so use them in a well-ventilated area or your house will smell like oranges! Best if used on metal parts like chains, bearings and some components.

More non-toxic bike cleaning supplies can be found at Pedro's. Washing soda can also be used as a degreaser.

Available from: Bradford Bike

Update: Edward Burtynsky's photos are also a remarkable celebration of the beauty in giant quarries, dams, scrapheaps, and refineries. (Thanks, Kevin!)

I was skeptical at first but after some practice I've become very attached to my little MIOX purifier. Its about the size and weight of a mini-Mag Light. I've tried iodine and chlorine tablets in the past, but I've always ended up filtering my water a second time to a Nalgene bottle to get the taste out. I was initially turned off by the smell of the MIOX too. It's very strong for about 10 minutes as it off gases, but after the required 30 minutes of "dwell time" it's virtually undetectable in a 100 oz. reservoir.

I've been using the MIOX pen mostly as a backup. It runs on CR123 Lithium batteries and salt. It took some practice to get the water in the salt chamber filled and the solution to travel back through the screen to the diode. There are a couple screw caps and several ways the task can be done. But I can fill my reservoir, treat my water, and get my reservoir back in my pack in about a minute now. I pre-filter my water if it's really cloudy or stagnant.

The pen has multiple settings for different volumes of water. I use a 3L Nalgene bladder with the fist sized screw cap. Spare salt, test strips and a stuff sack come with it, but I carry none of them. A full salt chamber is good for about 12 doses. The rest is extra weight to me. The MIOX was developed for military applications with assistance from Darpa. Cascade Designs (parent company of MSR, Thermarest and others) partnered with the MIOX corporation to develop an entirely new type of portable water purification. I've been using one for 2 years now and have never encountered any problems. Thousands are in use by US and allied troops around the world. I'm convinced it's sound technology and a useful survival tool. When I'm not hiking it stays in my glovebox with a 2L reservoir.

-- Delian Scudder

MIOX Water Purifier
$130
Available from
REI
or from Amazon

James sent in an open source Linux program that does all the things we previously posted (the Windows based "Virtual Breadboarding") and much more (including PIC compilation, modeling, and programming - "KTechlab provides a powerful environment for electronic circuits and microcontrollers. This includes simulation of a variety of components (logic, integrated, linear, nonlinear and reactive), simulation and debugging of PIC microcontrollers via gpsim, and its own closely-linked and complementary high level languages: FlowCode and Microbe." Link.

My sister gave a MysticMaid cleaning cloth to me for a birthday present. Prejudging the gift (a towel?) I feigned a thanks and a fake smile. Then I tried it. I cleaned my glasses and then my monitor. Wow! I'd swear I got a new prescription.

One of the best uses I found for it, was cleaning up items for online auctions. I cleaned an older digital camera to a nearly brand new state. Cleans CDs and DVDs, too.

Machine washable.

-- Russ Taber

MysticMaid
$10
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by Mystic Maid

MAKE subscriber Bill has a great kite building blog along with a lot of resources and photos Link.

Kite Aerial Flickr photo set.

Kite building forums.

Pictured here, a geodesic dome that looks like a golf ball when photographed from up above.

Related: Kite Aerial Photography Puts Your Eye in the Sky by Charles C. Benton - To take pictures from a kite, you need three things: a kite, a camera, and a special rig that attaches the camera to the kiteline and activates the shutter button on the camera. Info & article for subscribers.

Want to paint your home the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge?

We did, in our kitchen, so I made a few calls, including one to the purchasing manager of the Golden Gate Bridge itself. Here's what I learned:

The official paint is called Golden Gate Bridge International Orange (of course), and it's manufactured by Sherwin Williams. Who knew? But there's a catch. It's a custom mix, and only sold in very large (ie: commercial) quantities. Need 500 gallons? You're in luck. Want less? Don't panic.

After visiting a Sherwin-Williams dealer in San Francisco, I was told that the consumer color called "Fireweed" (color code SW 6328) is a color equivalent to the paint used on the bridge.

I was skeptical. Fireweed looked waaaay too dark when I saw it on a paint sample, so I drove out to the bridge to see for myself. Turns out, it's true: If you allow for a little natural fading on the bridge railing shown here, Fireweed (the bottom sample shown above) is indeed the same color as the bridge.

Jerry Beck of Cartoon Brew (http://www.cartoonbrew.com) recently lent a copy of the extremely rare first edition of Preston Blair's landmark book, "Animation" to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive to digitize. It's totally different than the edition currently available in stores, because it uses characters from Tom & Jerry and Tex Avery cartoons to illustrate the various principles! You can find scans of this amazing book book at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive at...

Preston Blair's Animation 1st Edition Part One.

Preston Blair's Animation 1st Edition Part Two.

John Kricfalusi was so impressed with the beautiful drawings in this edition, he has decided to divide the book up into individual lessons and present his own advice along with each one on his blog, All Kinds of Stuff.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has posted a jump page for students who want to take this informal blog-based course. The jump page has links to all of the resources a student will need, and we will link from there to the web pages of students who have posted their completed assignment drawings on their own web pages or blogs.

The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course Jump Page.

It's time to pull out the paper and pencils and start cartooning!

Simon Perry of Digital-Lifestyles.info recently posted about Kernel Panic, who has uploaded an awesome collection of historical Apple.com screenshots to Flickr.

via: Factory Joe

The most ridiculous thing you will see this week: Ninjas vs. Pirates. Such unmitigated genius that I think I peed a little.

Found via MetaFilter.

Yesterday, I blogged about Benford's Law, which predicts that in a set of numbers, numbers that begin with the numeral 1 will appear more often than other numbers. This can be used to catch cheats by checking to see if the data they give in their tax-returns, research data-sets or homework have more numbers that start with 1 than other numerals.

William Fawcett, who made the Flash app, sez, "A couple of years ago I attended an excellent lecture by Simon Singh - he writes popular science and maths books like Fermat's Last Theorem and Big Bang - and this was one of the mathematical curiosities he mentioned. I was intrigued but sceptical, so built a quick Flash app to test it." Link (Thanks, William!)

Update: Gary sez, " If you use a close approximation of PI (say 3.14159265) as a factor, you can avoid getting numbers that start with 1 at all. Using a factor of 3.14159265 and a start number of 3, you get no numbers starting with 1. Change the start number to 6, you get only numbers starting with 1, 4, or 5. I don't know how the modeler is coded, so I wonder whether this is a quirk in the modeler or an exception to the rule."

“AfterBurn: Reflections on Burning Man” is a new book edited by longtime Burning Man participants/contributors Lee Gilmore and Mark Van Proyen. It was published last August by University of New Mexico Press and features an engaging collection of nine Burning Man essays that explore the sociological and cultural aspects of the event. AfterBurn can be ordered directly through Amazon.com.

AfterBurn contributor Erik Davis writes:

Ironic and blasphemous, intoxicated and lewd, Burning Man’s ADD theater of the absurd might even be said to embody the slap-happy nihilism of postmodern culture itself.

Both Lee and Mark were featured last month on KQED’s Forum, hosted by Michael Krasny. You can listen to the show online from KQED’s Archives.

The indoor plant that outputs the most humidity is the Areca Palm. It releases copious amount of moisture into the air, removes environmental toxins, and is tolerant of indoor spaces. Definitely one of the most useful houseplants out there!

See our post on How To Grow Fresh Air for more information.

Just amazing, the extremes some botanists go to in their horticultural enthusiasm. Sometimes when I read stuff like this, I pretend that tulips or orchids are illegal, and I imagine sneaky little elderly ladies constructing elaborate stealth-growing facilities -- all to feed their insatiable flower joneses. I'm not a marijuana smoker or an orchid-obsessive, but I think outlawing either of those plants makes about as much sense. Snip:

This was underneath a house in a cave. The entrance was through a secret hydraulic door in the garage that led to a concrete ramp that went about 50 yards into the ground. Inside the cave was living quarters and a secret escape hatch that led you through a tunnel that exited via another hydraulic door that opened up a rock on the outside. It was very elaborate. The set up allowed them to harvest every 60 days which resulted in multi-million dollar sales. One of the guys busted was living in a house on the water in FL and had a nice yacht. One of the agents here in Nashville worked on this for 5 years before the warrant was finally served in December.

Here's the first ever sensor workshop using Make Controller Kit - the intensive 4-day workshop offers a hands-on introduction to sensors, sensor interfaces and integration of software and hardware...

"Michael Shiloh, Margaret Schedel and Michael Zbyszynski will teach a workshop on how to use the Make Controller Kit to interface to a variety of sensors for musical performance, dance, video, sound, and art installations.

Students will learn electronics, how to solder, how to work with sensors, and how to use the Make Controller kit. Cycling '74's Max/MSP/Jitter programming environment will be used for manipulating music and images with the sensor data, and to create reactive environments.

In the course of the workshop participants will build a working system which they will take with them.

June 29 - July 2, 2006
Workshop Cost: $600
A $200 materials fee, due by June 19, includes the Make Controller Kit and sensors

Full details are at www.sensorworkshop.com

Margaret Schedel: Women's Audio Mission (www.womensaudiomission.org)
Michael Shiloh: MakingThings (www.makingthings.com)
Michael Zbyszynski (www.piratelemur.com)"

Related:

• MAKE Controller KIT - Link.
• The MAKE Controller. Announcing a just-maybe-revolutionary microcontroller for all things DIY. MAKE 06 - Page 164.

One more old book from Cpikas! - "The Chemical Formulary - about 15 volumes from 1933 to 1957 with recipes for everything from pyrotechnics to vegetable soup! Includes recipes for hair pomade and flares... Very, very cool...

The Chemical Formulary: Collection of Commercial Formulas for Making Thousands of Products in Many Fields - Amazon.

If you are interested in learning cartooning, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Here's a method to easily check your copies. Remember this word: PROPORTION

Part of what makes a character look like who it is, is its proportions. MANY characters can have the same construction, but they have different proportions-like Elmer Fudd and Coal Black and Peter Pan and Pinnochio-all those folks are the exact same construction! -THEY ARE MADE UP OF THE SAME TYPES OF FORMS-A BIG ROUND CRANIUM AND A SMALL BABY JAW.

1) Bring your drawings into Photoshop.
2) Bring Preston's drawings that you copied into the same Photoshop file.
3) Re-size the Preston drawings to match the size of yours.
4) Put the drawings next to each other.
5) Make notes of how your drawing differs from Preston's
6) Make a copy of the Preston drawing and lay it on top of yours on a layer
7) Make the layer transparent so you can see through it to yours.
8) Make more notes on where yours differs from Preston's.
9) Redraw your copy, this time trying to fix the mistakes you found.

This fella's copy is pretty good, so there isn't a lot to correct. Some other artists are less accurate.

MAKE Flickr photo pool member Jcoxon77's writes - "View from the side camera on Pegasus I at approx 66,000ft. The Pegasus High Altitude Balloon project is a UK based amateur student run project that involves launching payloads to "Near Space" (between an altitude of 60,000ft (20km) and 325,000ft (99km). This is achieved through the use of helium weather balloons which are designed to burst at a certain height and then the payload returns to earth via parachute. Based on a gumstix, gps, nokia 5110 and cameras." - Link and project details.

Drawings and more from one of the original Makers - Leonardo da Vinci. [via] Link.

Pictured here - drawing of a flying machine, 1488.

Matthew has a super LED lighting guide - "LED lighting is becoming increasingly popular in fish tanks, case mods, and even household lighting. This article intends to be a comprehensive guide to their advantages, powering them, and creating dimming solutions." Link.

Pictured here, LEDs from HOW TO - Build a 1,024,000 mcd portable light - Link.

Related:
Tons of LED projects and more - Link.
HOW TO - Make a LED Blinky - Make 04, page 165.

Reader comment: David says:

The same effect can be sustained for longer by attaching a chicken wire cage to a chain, filling it with wire wool and dipping it in paraffin. This is known by the much less macho name of "sparkle poi", and typically throws sparks about 30ft in every direction.

Open Circuits is a wiki for sharing electronics knowledge, schematics, board layouts, and parts libraries. So far 39 articles have been submitted - let's see if this takes off! Link.

Pictured here, circuit diagram from the 24" Wall Clock on the wiki.

Recovery 2.0 and Identity 2.0 are a couple of interesting open source concepts that have emerged recently.

Recovery 2.0 is Jeff Jarvis’ project to leverage web technology to help better prepare for the next disaster. He outlines his proposal on his post “Recovery 2.0: A call to convene”. If you want to help with this important project, check out the Recovery 2.0 wiki.

Our goal is to be ready for the next disaster so people can better use the internet — via any device — to better:

1. share information,
2. report and act on calls for help,
3. coordinate relief,
4. connect the missing,
5. provide connections for such necessities as housing and jobs,
6. match charitable assets to needs,
7. get people connected to these projects - and the world - sooner.

Identity 2.0 is Sxip CEO Dick Hardt’s suggestions for improving and simplifying the online identity verification process. Check out this video of Dick’s excellent keynote address on Identity 2.0 from OSCON 2005.

As the online world moves towards Web 2.0, the concept of digital identity is evolving, and existing identity systems are falling behind. New systems are emerging that place identity in the hands of users instead of directories. Simple, secure and open, these systems will provide the scalable, user-centric mechanism for authenticating and managing real-world identities online, enabling truly distinct and portable Internet identities.

- photo of Jeff Jarvis talking about Recovery 2.0 at Web 2.1 by Scott Beale

Neat, here's how to make your own fortune cookies, Annw writes - "Long the delicious denouement to a night of eating Chinese food, fortune cookies are surprisingly easy to make at home. Get creative with your words and create funny, silly, flirtatious, or hopeful fortunes. These cookies are good for parties and personalized gifts." - Link.

If you've ever traveled to Europe, you've taken or bought a plug converter. If you've traveled much at all, you've probably purchased a set of these things in a lovely (and huge) travel case. Equally likely is that you've either forgotten one or two or lost them somewhere along the road, forcing you to purchase spares that don't fit in the original case.

For this reason, I got tired of a bag of random adapters and went looking for a universal one. I found two or three of them and they all had one thing in common; they were the size of a baseball (I'm obsessive about size and weight when I travel). So when I stumbled across this adapter by APC, I fell in love. It's small (1x2x4 inches), it's packable, it has all the adapters I need, and it works. If you travel overseas and you're sick of a computer bag that weighs more than your luggage, you have to have this.

-- Keith Smith

APC Universal Plug Adapter
$16
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by APC

In medicine, cryopreservation involves preserving organs and tissues for transplantation or other uses. Only certain kinds of cells and tissues, including sperm and embryos, currently can be frozen and successfully rewarmed. A major problem hindering wider use of cryopreservation is formation of ice crystals, which damage cell structures...

"It may seem fantastic, but the fact that in aqueous solution, [the] water component can be slowly supercooled to the glassy state and warmed back without the crystallization implies that, in principle, if the suitable cryoprotectant is created, cells in plants and living matter could withstand a large supercooling and survive," Bogdan explained.

The BrainJams Unconference, Chris Heuer’s follow-up to October’s highly successful Web 2.1 event (here’s my Web 2.1 wrap-up), takes place this Saturday, December 3rd at SRI in Menlo Park. Laughing Squid is proud to once again be one of the sponsors of this excellent event. For more info, check out the BrainJams wiki and blog.

BrainJams Events are open spaces where the participants decide on the content of the event within a basic framework that includes one on one knowledge networking in the morning and open discussions on how to best use emerging technologies in the afternoon. The knowledge and information shared amongst participants will be gathered and redistributed online to further the discussions, learning and idea manifestation after the event and beyond.

Never seen Blue Man Group live. This is a nice taste of their stage show, it looks like. They're performing "Rods and Cones," my favorite song off their Audio album.

The full line, which I didn't use in the title lest the URL stretch from here to Cleveland, is "The hellawhack shiznit that happens inside your brizzle." Man, science rocks.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Found via VideoSift.

Yesterday I went over to the Survival Research Labs Shop in San Francisco for the SRL LA Show After Party and showed up a little early to take some photos of the outside and inside of this legendary location. The shop, were they create the robots and machines for their amazing shows, has been in this location since 1982, but soon it will have to move because SRL founder/director Mark Pauline is currently being forced to find a new location for the shop. This is a massive and expensive undertaking and there will probably be several fundraising events prior to the move, which I’ll be posting as they come up. If anyone has any good leads on a space, let Mark know.

Photos of the Survival Research Labs Shop

One of the oldest and best audio/video mashups...save this one for when you get back from lunch and the reality that you're trapped in the quagmire of another work week truly grabs hold. Snoopy dancing about exuberantly to the strains of OutKast cannot be denied.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Found via VideoSift.

Best.setup.ever from the gang at Plastk.net - "Here are some videos featuring Quake 3 Arena being played with a gyro mouse (the technology that the new Nintendo Revolution controller will be using) as well as a standard mouse. The resolution of the game is still 10240x3072 and runs on a 24-monitor Linux cluster here at Virginia Tech's HCI lab. As you can see from the videos, I was able to increase the frame-rate and the game is very playable and incredibly addicting." - [via] Link & videos.

A 1972 documentary on ARPAnet, the early internet. A very interesting look at the beginnings of what is now a huge part of most of our lives - [via] Link.

I haven't tried these, but Karl seems to like them, he writes - "Wireless USB to max modules (like Teleo, but than better!!) check out the I/O functions, up to 25 meters, perfect for small interactive projects. And not that expensive." - Link.

Yesterday, I blogged about The IT Crowd, and the fact that Channel 4 has the vision to put the first two episodes online in advance of the show as a promotion, and the foolishness to lock them in a proprietary streaming Microsoft format that meant that I couldn't watch them. I've now successfully downloaded the episodes through the Bittorrent tracker The Pirate Bay, and I can't remember when I've laughed so much.

Creator Graham Linehan has produced a cast of characters who exemplify everything I loved about Father Ted: complete, over-the-top silliness, likable villainy, and great comic foolishness. The setup for the show is as silly as Father Ted's: two IT geeks in the basement of a large, abusive corporation get a new boss, a woman who lied about her IT experience on her resume. What follows isn't funny because of its intricate plotting, but because of its willingness to lard absurdity on absurdity, so that each episode gets progressively weirder as it progresses (for example, in episode two, there's a screamingly funny running gag about a fire that's broken out in the basement, which has to be hidden from the abusive CEO when he comes down to check on everyone's morale).

I'm so glad that this show exists. I've waited all my life for a truly geeky comedy, and I think that this is it. Link

Pt 1 - Time Machine

20th Century Fox theme intro
Negativland - Downloading  (Seeland)
MCSleazy / Franzie Boys - Triple Take (Half Inch Recordings 12")
DJ BC - Surebladi (mp3)
Danger Mouse -  Encore (CD)
Wayne Butane - Elderly (Sucks Bigtime)
Big City Orchestra - Bulldog (The Beatlerape)
Jay-Z - Encore (accapella) (Roc A Fella)
The Beatles - Glass Onion (2 versions) (Apple LP)
Avril Plays The Beatles (mp3)
Loo and Placido - Safari Love (mp3)
Jrb - Busta vs Steptoe & Son (mp3)
Loo & Placido -  Kids Will Rock You (mp3)
Braces Tower - Special Child (mp3)
Exactshit - Crazy (CDR)
Cropstar - Crazy Prado (mp3)
Tacteel vs Britney - Overprotected (CD-R)
Will Smith vs Mr Trick - Nod Ya Head (Boot Camp 7")
Osymyso - Intro inspection (Radar 12")
fLeXuS - It Ain't Nothin' (CD-R)
unknown - Spandau Fillet (mp3)
Go Home Productions - Turn Out The Light Slave And Give Me Some Rhythm (mp3)
Go Home Productions - Work It Out With A Foxy Lady (mp3)
Beyonce - Crazy In Love (poj mix) (mp3)
Skkatter - Diddy (mp3)
Wobbly - Yo Yo Yo Yoyo, Hey... (Wild Why)
Frenchbloke & Son - Sound of da S Club (CD-R)
Lemon Jelly - Soft Rock (LJ 7")
dsico - Bille Jean Dancehall Edit (mp3)
People Like Us - Nobody Does (ubuweb mp3)
2 Many Djs - Smells Like Booty (mp3)
fLeXuS - White Love (CD - R)
Evil Twin - The Lady & The Lake (CD-R)
Justin Timberlake - Like I Love U (Ochre remix) (mp3)
Osymyso - Intro Expansion Pt 2 (mp3)
Go Home Productions. - Ray Of Gob (Half Inch Recordings 12")
Madonna - WTF? (mp3)
Player - Angel of Theft (Blood 12")
Osymyso - Wegoddim (mp3)
Flashbulb - Mama Said Knock You Out (mp3)

Update: Here's the official Raiding the 20th Century page, but they've taken the MP3 down.

We've tracked down a more efficient caulking compound — one that does not contain toxic VOCs (volatile organic compounds) such as toluene and hexane. These are present in conventional caulk because they are cheap to produce. One company, AFMSafeCoat, produces a caulking compound that is a water-resistant, flexible sealant with excellent adhesion.

It's true: Set is amazingly addictive, a nerdy game of great fascination, one that makes your brain reel and reconfigure itself, so the whole world starts to appear Set-like after a few hours' play.

The dealer puts down twelve cards, and players hunch over them, trying to find three-card sets. For three cards to form a set, each of their attributes must either match or diverge. There are four attributes with three possible configurations each: shading (solid, outline, grey); color (blue, red, green); number (one, two, three) and shape (rectangle, oval, squiggle). It's a little like Boggle in that the winning strategy is a combination of directed searching and general unfocusing of the eyes and trusting to intuition to make the sets pop out of the well. Players are penalized for calling out false sets, which happens all the time, since once you engage the pattern-matching centers of your brain, they can't help but see phantom sets in the cards.

Play this long enough and every bit of the world around you turns into Set -- the three chairs are matched as rectangles, unmatched in color, but, darn it, shaded the same. No set. Link

I wrote about US-VISIT in 2004, and back then I said that it was too expensive and a bad trade-off. The price tag for "the next phase" was $15B; I'm sure the total cost is much higher.

But take that $15B number. One thousand bad guys, most of them not very bad, caught through US-VISIT. That's $15M per bad guy caught.

Surely there's a more cost-effective way to catch bad guys?

Brokeback Mountain + Back to the Future = Link.

Produced by a group of Emerson College students known as "Chocolate Cake City" (thanks, Paul Simpson, and Ian W.)

Also, this Defamer post herds up some of the many examples of Brokeback-inspired fan-art roamin' around on these here cold, lonesome internets. Link

* Simple layout
* 3D effects, used sparingly
* Soft, neutral background colours
* Strong colour, used sparingly
* Cute icons, used sparingly
* Plenty of whitespace
* Nice big text

Iowahawk has an a great post about Turbonique Inc, a company from the 1960's who wanted to bring jet engines & rocket technology to the consumer market - for cars. "Once upon a time in the postwar, before the advent of EPA and OSHA and the Consumer Products Safety Commission and weenies in bike helmets and multilingual warning stickers on stepladders, crazy people walked this earth. Good, fun-loving Americans who knew that "instructions" were something you threw in the trash along with the empty Falstaff bottles. A halcyon era filled with manly men who savored the wholesome virtues of a rugged game of un-seatbelted automotive chicken." Thanks Mark! - Link.

Related:

• Mod Your Rod. James Bond depended on Q to trick out his cars. But with Make's guide to car hacking, you'll learn how to turn your ride into a fully loaded, grease-eating, MP3-blasting, Wi-Fi-transmitting monster machine. MAKE 03 - Page 49.
• The Jam Jar Jet. Don't think you can build a jet engine at home? Here's a simple jet engine--a pulsejet--that you can make out of a jam jar in an afternoon. All it takes is bending some wire and punching a few holes. MAKE 05 - Page 102.
• Lots of ways to get around, maybe - Link.

By Andrew Liszewski

Portable USB drives have become quite a lifesaver for me especially when I can tote around 100GB of data in my back pocket. However as technology shrinks in size the ability to lose said technology drastically increases. While I try to not carry sensitive data around with me at times it has happened and of course it’s during those times that I’m pretty paranoid about losing my drive.

LaCie, maker of some of the best external USB and Firewire drives around is now selling the SAFE Mobile Hard Drive which incorporates biometric access technology right on the drive enclosure. The stored data is encrypted using a 24-character pass phrase stored on the board which is unique to every drive making data corruption impossible. And if you intend to share this drive with others you can setup access for up to 5 different users with each person having different privileges such as read & write or limited to read-only.

The LaCie SAFE Mobile Hard Drive is available in a 40GB model for $179.99 or a 120GB model for $339.99.

[LaCie SAFE Mobile Hard Drive with Encryption] VIA [The Gadget Blog]

While in San Francisco, I was invited to videotape a walkthrough of the Survival Reasearch Labs. SRL has been making industrial sized remote control machines and performing with them around the world since 1978.

Violet Blue was my host and she showed me the workshop, machines and materials that are packed into this industrial building. There is a spirit of ingenuity in this place that is palpable. The raw creative potential here to make anything you can imagine made me giddy. Because all the machines were crammed into corners and stacked up and under tarps, you've really got to look at their website to see what the machines look like.

When we finished video-taping, Violet told me that they are being evicted from their workshop space. I'm thankful I had the opportunity to see it and make this video to share before it moves to a new location.

They have a performance coming up on August 11th in San Jose.

Click here to get the video (MP4) delivered automatically with iTunes. This video will play on PC/Mac/Linux/PSPs and iPod video devices - Link. Here's the teeny 3gp video for phone watchers. I'm trying out the blip.tv interface for it's ability to do widescreen 16x9 flash movies in native pixel size. For those hopelessly addicted to youtube, here's your fix.

By Bruce Eaton

Time to embrace your inner green thumb Buddha and grow some nirvana on your desk with the Bonzai Tree in a Can. Coming to you straight from Japan and just like the ones Mr. Miyagi grew, this tin opens up to reveal black sand soil and inside that are the bonzai black pine seeds. Perfect for desks, the office, or a window due to its small size of 3.5″ diameter x 1.25″ tall. Even in a cubicle, it will not be eating up space.

With some basic gardening rules, such as remembering to water it, you should be good to go. And $12 is a good price for those even just looking to see if they can grow a bonsai without the financial risk of say, killing off a 300 year old bonsai myrtle from Okinawa.

[Bonzai Tree In A Can] VIA [Uncrate]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sure everyone hates being indoors when the sun is shining but besides the light and warmth it brings it also has a dark side. The sun’s UV rays bring sunburns, can lead to cataracts and in the worst case scenario can cause skin cancer. As a result it’s important to be aware of how long that bright glowing star can safely be enjoyed.

This wearable UV meter takes the guess work out of how long it’s safe to be outside. It measures the strength of the sun’s UV rays and with an easy to read LCD screen lets you know what the current temperature is, your recommended sun exposure time, the recommended sun protection factor based on the current conditions, how long you’ve already been in the sun and most importantly when it’s time to head indoors. It has an ‘anti-splash’ design so while not completely waterproof it’s still usable at the beach or poolside.

The Wearable UV Meter is available from The GadgetStore.com for about $23.00 (after conversion.)

[Wearable UV Meter] VIA [Gadget Candy]

Yellowsheepriver is making a $149 computer, their slogan is "Say no to Wintel" - the machine runs pretty much all the software most folks need and sports some nice specs for the price - 40GB HDD, a 400mhz/800mhz Godson 2C processor, 256MB RAM, 4 USB2 ports, VGA-output, PS2 input, TV-output [via] - Link & video here.

The 22nd Chaos Communication Congress (22C3) is a four-day conference on technology, society and utopia. The Congress offers lectures and workshops on a multitude of topics including (but not limited to) information technology, IT-security, internet, cryptography and generally a critical-creative attitude towards technology and the discussion about the effects of technological advances on society.

The Chaos Communication Congress is the annual congress of the Chaos Computer Club e.V. (CCC). The Congress has established itself as the "European Hacker Conference" bringing in people from all over Europe and even further away.

Link, $35 plus shipping. (Thanks, Robb)

The International Space Station (ISS) was in position to view the umbral (ground) shadow cast by the Moon as it moved between the Sun and the Earth during the solar eclipse on March 29, 2006. This astronaut image captures the umbral shadow across southern Turkey, northern Cyprus, and the Mediterranean Sea. People living in these regions observed a total solar eclipse, in which the Moon completely covers the Sun’s disk. The astronaut photograph was taken at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time. The terminator of the eclipse—the line between the light and dark parts of the Sun’s disk— is visible as it passes across central Turkey. This total solar eclipse is the fourth to have occurred since 1999. The portion of the ISS visible at image top is the Space Station Remote Manipulator System.

It's just a teaser ....

Christophe writes "After reading your article "Work on your PC -fast- HighSpeed PC tech station", I decided to build my own. It is great for testing components. As you can see, no high tech materials here: mainly from scrap laminate boards, wood and aluminium profile and even a Tic Tac box ! It can be improved but this one cost me to build under $ 10.00 USD." - Link.

MAKE Flickr photo pool member Escher_47 has some great photos from Bruce Shapiro's sharpie-wielding programmable robot at Maker Faire 2006 - Link.

Build a Fuel Cell with a couple of Band Aids, an MEA and a few scraps of stainless steel bug screen by Gavin D. J. Harper.

The story as to how this design came into being is probably a little too much information, but worth sharing none the less. Having spent some time playing with Fuel Cells on the bench, I went to the bathroom with the quote from Lawrence Burns, the GM vice president for research and development ringing through my ears...

"The fuel cell, offers a cure, not a Band-Aid."

Looking around the room, my eyes clapped on a box of Band Aid, suddenly it dawned on me that the Fuel Cell could indeed offer a band aid.

This has got to be THE simplest way to build a fuel cell from scratch. The design is ridiculously simple, whilst being effective - it will allow you to explore the concepts of Fuel Cells in a ludicrously simple way.

It might sound preposterous, it might sound absurd, but it works!

The Internet of Things has evolved into a nascent conceptual framework for understanding how physical objects, once networked and imbued with informatic capabilities, will occupy space and occupy themselves in a world in which things were once quite passive.

This paper describes the Internet of Things as more than a world of RFID tags and networked sensors. Once “Things” are connected to the Internet, they can only but become enrolled as active, worldly participants by knitting together, facilitating and contributing to networks of social exchange and discourse, and rearranging the rules of occupancy and patterns of mobility within the physical world. “Things” in the pervasive Internet, will become first-class citizens with which we will interact and communicate. Things will have to be taken into account as they assume the role of socially relevant actors and strong-willed agents that create social capital and reconfigure the ways in which we live within and move about physical space.

Chris Campbell shares on his experience on his meeting with VCs and angels - What they ask and what they really want to know. This is good information to equip yourself with answers of all 10 questions before go and present your ideas:

• Who else have you spoken to?
• How will you make money?
• How will your company grow?
• What technologies do you use?
• How easily can you be copied?
• Can we see the demo?
• Who are your competitors and how are you better/different?
• Who are your customers?
• How will you spread the word about your product?
• What will your market penetration be?

Looking at the pattern of the questions, we see they are interested on the following topic: Ideas, management, revenue models, technology, competition, customer, marketing. Get them right with attractive answers, you will get your prize from investors.

The Top 10 Questions Investors Asked Us - [Paticletree]

Here's another homemade air conditioner using an old fan, copper tubing and cooler with ice water - Link.

Previous:
Other homemade air conditioners - Link.

What Farecast does is shift the power of information back into the consumer's hands, and that's why I like it. I remember when the web was young and the first car buying sites were up and running. Dealers scrambled for that early business, and I bought two cars off the web by forcing dealers in the Bay Area to compete for my business. It really felt like the web was going to change the dynamic of who was in charge in a car buying transaction - because I could force dealers to their best price, I was always going to get the best price. It felt like this would be the model in most large transactions, like travel, loans, etc. Price would stabilize, and folks would differentiate on service, relationship, and approach.

But something funny happened on our way to internet mediated bliss: the big companies figured out how to game our demand. Dealers realized they can make more profit if they cooperate and withhold pricing information from the aggregators, and the aggregators got into bed with the supply side of the equation (if you think AutoByTel or Expedia is on your side, you're kidding yourself). Nowhere is this more true that in how an airline prices its tickets.

I would like to suggest the Dexter-Russell S496 Dough Scraper as a cool tool for the kitchen. Although designed specifically for the bread baker, this is a low-tech tool that is absolutely indispensable in the
kitchen. In addition to using it to scrape bread dough off the counter, we use ours to transport all manner of chopped food from counter to bowl, counter to skillet...

There are other dough scrapers out there, but this one, with its wide wooden handle is the best (IMHO.) Don't take my word though--I was in a local Sur la Table (kitchen store) recently and they had various bins of Dough Scrapers--the Dexter bin was empty!

-- Mark D. Esswein

Dexter-Russell S496
$8
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Dexter-Russell

At first glance, this keyring tool looks just like any other key. When you open it up, you’ll find that it’s actually 6 tools in 1. Here’s what it contains:

• straight knife blade
• a serrated cutting surface
• a micro-sized screwdriver
• a Phillips screwdriver
• an eyeglass screwdriver
• bottle opener

The whole thing weighs in at only 0.5 oz, so you won’t notice it among your other keys. While well made, the Utili-Key is not suitable for heavy duty tasks. Swiss Tech also offers an 8 in 1 keyring tool.

It's available from Amazon for $6.29.

Via: Survival Today

There are ways to save your time on listening to podcast - either not listen to it at all, or make it play faster - Nev shares his tips on saving time on listening to podcast, by increasing the playback speed on Windows Media Player:

“So, how do you listen to podcasts faster?”

The answer: use software that can alter the speed of playback, along with pitch correction. The cool thing about pitch correction is that it enables you to speed up audio without everyone sounding like chipmunks on helium.

I’ve tried a bunch of things (detailed below) and the best software I’ve found for doing this so far is Windows Media Player. Since version 9, WMP has contained an option called “Play Speed Settings“. Go to the View menu, Enhancements submenu and select Play Speed Settings. You’ll now see a slider that can alter the playback speed. Simply slide it around to change the speed on the fly.

At first, and depending on the people speaking, you may only be able to handle a 1.4x speedup. Try that and then, as you listen, gradually ramp up the speed. In no time you should find listening at 2x is quite easily understandable! It only took me one 30 minute podcast to ramp up to this doubling in speed and find it comfortable.

Also iPod has similar option for audiobook in the option menu. You probably need to get used to the speed. Though after a while your ear and brain should get used to the brain and find it digestible and comfortable.

Listen to podcasts in half the time - [Nev’s blog]

Snip from Nigel Watson's Wired News interview with so-called "UFO hacker" Gary McKinnon, who faces 70 years in prison and a $2 million fine if convicted:

Gary McKinnon: A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.

My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn't look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture -- it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected.

I also got access to Excel spreadsheets. One was titled "Non-Terrestrial Officers." It contained names and ranks of U.S. Air Force personnel who are not registered anywhere else. It also contained information about ship-to-ship transfers, but I've never seen the names of these ships noted anywhere else.

WN: Could this have been some sort of military strategy game or outline of hypothetical situations?

McKinnon: The military want to have military dominance of space. What I found could be a game -- it's hard to know for certain.