AWSOME! A collection of very clever Japanese Rube Goldberg machines... (be prepared to set aside about 12 minutes.) --AM

Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals, Wireless

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Our pals at Popular Science have a write up of a low cost way to do your own cell phone tracking - "...Jen, is tracking me. Using a $100 kit from Mologogo (with a $6-a-month data plan), I've turned a prepaid cellphone into a GPS tracking device. Every few minutes, the phone transmits my location within 100 meters to mologogo.com, which posts it to a Google map that Jen can access from any computer. She can view my most recent spot or my past 100 recorded locations as little pushpins stamped with date and time." - Link.

Related:
DIY GPS tracking with Mologogo - review - Link.

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This wave is about to break... (or if you prefer, we are reaching the tipping point) -AM

MAKE reader Al sent in this fm signal boosting mod for the nano iTrip - "If your like me you have purchased an fm transmitter for you ipod with dreams of wirelessly transmit your tunes to your car stereo or home stereo. Well these things do work, but generally reception is a problem,.. you end up having to have the unit close to the receiver or will sound like garbage, or not even pick up at all. This hack is for the Griffin Itrip Nano version. The concept of this hack will work on any of these FM transmitters, but this is for the nano version because it offers a hand way to connect the antenna extension... usb." [via] - Link.

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Cool... all I need now is a car. --AM

Mikey writes - "What if you could control the intensity of a nearby fire while jumping on a trampoline? Sounds dangerous right? It might help if a RFID reader were included to require sign in by someone who knows how to deal with such a device. This project is a complete misuse of common backyard items such as trampolines and BBQ tanks. See how big a fire ball you can make at Maker Faire next week." - Link.

A major goal has been reached "post about a RFID secured fire trampoline" - check.

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Great interface... no blinking button grids here! --AM

Nice... go opensource! --AM

This is happening much faster than I expected. Buckel up it's going to be a wild ride!

We Will Destroy You is a video installation by Chris Evans. Participants play a normal game of space invaders, but hidden inside the arcade cabinet is a video camera, filming their reactions and facial expressions. The video is then projected on the wall of a bar, where customers get the evil destroying stares looking right at them.

A machine that acknowledges the presence user. --AM

Interesting approach... --AM

OK so this is all the rage, but 'cmon people... it's a grid of buttons! This speaks volumes about easy to produce and easy to make... but is it easy to use? How much less ergonomic could it be? Sure if my hands were a grid of fingertips it might be ideal, but this is totally out of context to the human form. I give it 60 days before we all forget about it. --AM

Yay! Technology will save the world! (somebody keep an eye on these guys) --AM

A depressing reality check. --AM

Oh... fun.--AM

Today FedEx Kinko's announced a nationwide upgrade to a new brighter version of its standard white recycled paper at Office and Print Centers. The upgraded paper which has 30% recycled content, will have an increased brightness rating from 84 to 92, displays sharper text and images. They also offer 100-percent post-consumer recycled paper upon request at no additional cost. This stock is also being upgraded to a 92 brightness rating. No word on whether the paper is chlorine bleached or not. The company uses paper made of 30-percent post-consumer recycled content for standard black-and-white copy and print orders. :: Via: Houston Chronicle

Yay! Reduce, reuse, recycle!--AM

Colin sent in this how-to on making your own Ferrofluid - "Ferrofluids are a stable (meaning inseparable) suspension of nanometer sized solid magnetic particles in a carrier fluid. The particles are coated with a surfactant; a chemical which prevents the particles from clumping together and forming a solid mass. The most common type of ferrofluid, presented here, is an oil based fluid consisting of magnetite as the magnetic solid, and oleic acid as the surfactant. The final component is a carrier fluid, which suspends the particles; in this experiment the carrier will be kerosene.
" - [via] Link.

Related:
Sci-Spot (lots of goodness) - Link.

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Sweet! Just watch out for stains... the stuff does not clean up easily.--AM

Rob writes - "Pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) are really fun to make. You need a special tool, the kistka, which you can get from Ukrainian stores, but you could probably make your own relatively easily- maybe a bit of brass shim stock rolled into a little funnel, and attached to a stick. The moment when you wipe off the layers of wax and dye and reveal the egg after hours of work is usually a thrill, unless you messed up...If you don't want to do the traditional designs, I'm thinking schematics or hot-rod pinstripe designs would work well too. " - Link.

Pictured here, Roy's Pysanky gallery - Link.

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I've done this... it's pretty cool. I wonder how hard it would be to make a robotic wax plotter. --AM

At last, the sequel!

Yikes. --AM

Newoz writes - "Having a lot of CDs around with only a few words labeled on a silver faceplate is painful for the eyes. I have come up with an idea, for the last 2 years, of making your own CD cover by using only a few tools, a walkman, a couple of water-based or permanent marking pens and a clip." - Link.

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Funky... reminds me of those spinner paintings I used to do at fairs. --AM

Freier

DIY audio tours of MOMA... cool --AM

Dan sent in this fun how-to on Steve Spangler Science on building an Alka-Seltzer rocket - "What happens when you have a build-up of gas? Don't answer that question! The gas in question is carbon dioxide and the explosion is nothing short of fun. Warning: It's impossible to do this activity just once. It is addicting and habit-forming. Proceed at your own risk!" - Link.

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Cool... I wonder if anyone has done match rockets... I'll have to look for that. --AM

Good stuff. --AM

"Art by committee" taken to the nth degree. Extended research shows up what every country's favorite (and least favorite) art looks like. This sort of explains why Thomas Kinkade is rolling on dough while "compromised artists" starve.

Oldie but a goodie

Abandoned architecture... wonder if they visited Harlem? --AM

They forgot http://www.nosepilot.com/ --AM

Just a cool photo. --AM

Just tried out the new Google Calendar - Link. Here's a quick list of features that were interesting...

• XML/ICAL feeds for public and private calendars.
• Share your calendar (and it will show up in Google calendar search).
• Auto-add invitations.
• Notifications via email, SMS and Pop-up (No GTalk notification?).
• Import iCal or CSV (MS Outlook).
• Quick add - seems like a natural language entry.

Here's my public calendar RSS feed if you want to check it out - Link. [Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Maybe someone someday will finally figure out how to email events so that they end up in your calendar... why is it so hard? --AM

Great book. (Disclosure... it was designed by a friend of mine.) --AM

Portable gadgets are tons of fun, but hauling all those gizmos poses a style and comfort conundrum. Luckily, some contraptions let real men tote their gear without jeopardizing their masculinity. Commentary by Lore Sjöberg. This column is available as a .

Hmmm where to put it all. --AM

Manufacturers and mobile carriers are preparing to link standard cell service with Wi-Fi hotspots, designing phones that will switch over as people move around. But don't expect them to be on the U.S. market anytime soon.

Wake up and smell the WiFi VOIP. --AM

The walls dividing the game universe are coming down.

I'm waiting for the virtual world financial markets to go totally mainstream. But this is an important first step. --AM

American soldiers in Iraq can send the wrong message without ever opening their mouths. A new video game teaches them how to prevent inadvertently giving locals the finger. By Gretchen Cuda.

Yay... we can always use more tools to reduce American cultural ignorance! --AM

via Sivacracy, April 9, 2006:
Lessig on 'Who Owns Culture' [Link]                                        

This is a great lecture Larry gave at the New York Public Library last year.
[View on Google Video]

via PR Newswire:
Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig to Speak at New York Public Library on April 7 (2005)

Pair to Explore the Topics of Copyright, Downloading and File-Sharing in Who Owns Culture?

SAN FRANCISCO, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 7, the New York Public Library and Wired Magazine will present musician, songwriter and author Jeff Tweedy and Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig in a discussion moderated by Wired Magazine contributing editor Steven Johnson. The engagement Who Owns Culture? will explore the artistic, commercial and legal issues that surround the Internet-enabled freeing of culture. It is part of the new series Live From the NYPL.

Jeff Tweedy, whose band Wilco recently earned two Grammy awards for their current Nonesuch Records release A ghost is born has openly embraced the culture of digital downloading and file-sharing by routinely offering free
downloads of live music and new music on the Wilco Web site wilcoworld.net. "A piece of art is not a loaf of bread," explains Tweedy. "When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that's it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it's just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience."

"We need to listen more to those who teach by what they do," says Lawrence Lessig. "Jeff Tweedy, and Wilco, have done a great deal to teach all of us  something important about creativity." [...]

 

Great lecture... check it out. --AM

Having made millions investing in the early days of the dot-com boom, venture capitalist John Doerr is plowing $100 million into what he calls "green technology" in the hope that there might still be a planet worth investing in down the road.

I can only hope... let's see some better solar!--AM

Thanks to restrictive stem-cell regulations, one of the United State's top medical researchers is leaving for a job with a private biotech company. Kristen Philipkoski quizzes scientist Mahendra Rao.

Great... when are they going to realize that there are scientists in other countries? If we don't do the research someone else will, and they patent the work and well end up buying from overseas. Silly George!

Wired on geek graffiti - "The group of 12 graffiti artists surrounds its target, a sculpture in Manhattan known as The Cube, and waits for the signal to begin tagging it up. It's a daunting task -- the 15-foot sculpture in Astor Place was recently coated with anti-graffiti paint. But within seconds, The Cube is covered in LED Throwies, the latest innovation from the Graffiti Research Lab, or GRL, an open-source think tank dedicated to developing new methods and tools for street artists." - Link.

Related:

• HOW TO - Make LED Throwies (pictured here) - Link.
• Embedded conductive, magnetic paint driven LEDs - - Link.
• Graffiti Research Lab: Geek Mural - Link.
• Graffiti Research Lab - Link.

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GRL w/image...

Tara Donovan
Untitled (Plastic Cups)
2006
PaceWildenstein

an amazingly cool installation; here are some comments:

Jerry Saltz, via artnet, 4/3/06, HEAPS AND CONSEQUENCES:

Occasionally, however, accumulation and multiplication -- both of which may be hard-wired into us -- overcome convention and carry you away. Multiplication connects us to infinity which connects us to our desire for it; repetition is reassuring, terrifying and mysterious all at once -- it is a field of dreams and a comfortable prison, part of the cosmic continuum, something that's been there since the beginning. Repetition is difference repeated within such narrow strictures that it opens new possibilities. At its best repetition conjures what Baudelaire called the "sacred machinery." That's why sometimes when rooms are filled with arrangements of objects, when configurations are fashioned from hundreds, thousands or even millions of similar things, repetition turns metaphysical, obsession and process become transcendental, and magic happens. [...]

an excerpt from an interview, MATERIAL SEDUCTION, Tara Donavan in conversation with Oriane Stender, also on artnet:

OS: You have said that you are inspired by Robert Irwin, James Turrell and Sol LeWitt. How about Eva Hesse?

TD: Eva Hesse is someone I have always studied and respected. The idiosyncratic nature of her processes has certainly informed aspects of my own practice. LeWitt’s articulation of rules for constructing work is a methodology I have incorporated into my practice. I do, however, feel indebted to artists such as Robert Irwin or James Turrell, who attempt to construct an evolving phenomenological experience in time and space with their work.

OS: Do you also feel an affinity with other younger artists who use accumulation as a major part of their practice, people such as Tom Friedman, Sarah Sze and Tim Hawkinson?

TD: Many artists working today are part of a conversation that clearly extends back to the 1960s, artists with whom I feel a certain affinity. The breadth and diversity of the consumer landscape has expanded to such a degree that the materials which can be adapted to the artistic context are in seemingly limitless supply. The idea that art can be manufactured or that art can radically complicate notions of value attached to mass-produced objects is no longer a point of serious contention in contemporary debates. I think the new fertile territory encompasses a range of practices that capitalize on the iconic identities of commercial and industrial materials by pressing them further into the realm of seduction.

This is something I try to accomplish with my own work, but I also see this tendency in other artists such as the three you mention. The focus on craft that I believe we all share separates us from the strictly conceptual or minimal concerns that preoccupied previous generations of artists. Certainly my work has relationships to any number of contingent practices, but I believe it is the challenge of figuring out how a particular material can perform its own act of sublimation that lends my work its distinct identity.
[read on...]

Tara Donovan, "New Work," Mar. 11-Apr. 22, 2006, at PaceWildenstein, 545 W. 22nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10011

More plastic cup art! --AM

GLR in the news... Bright ideas that stick. --AM

Fabulous

Girls with guns... --AM

Josef in the haus!!! --AM

With wordwide shipping surging, the Panal canal fnds itself operating at full capacity, and is now set for a major relift. $7.5 billion will add "two new 3-chamber locks are to be built at the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the canal, creating a third lane of traffic capable of handling large container ships and tankers that have previously been too wide." BBC

That's a big toll booth. --AM

Open Source TiVo!! Rock on! --AM

Digital picture frames... everbody's doing it. --AM

$25 for a WiFi Router... Free access to the other people with "Fon" routers, and the ISPs are happy because they get $2/day from outsiders. It's like Nycwireless, but without pissing off those who footed the bill for the pipes. --AM

From my collection... this is a fantastic infographic! --AM

[seen on the platform of the 8th Avenue Canal Street station]

Yay, lo-tech pixels. --AM

As viewers watch less TV in primetime and go for tech that lets them see shows when and where they want, the networks scurry to get downloadable content online.

Down with prime time! Long live timeshifting! --AM

Funky meets Funkier... I wonder what they talk about over dinner. --AM

I love a good sculpture park!--AM

Several audience-measurement companies are developing tools to better gauge the connection between media exposure and consumer behavior, writes The Wall Street Journal [via MIT Advertising Lab.] A dark horse in the race is Integrated Media Measurement Inc. that is using...

Nice idea, but exposure does not equal attention. --AM

Declan McCullagh on how the U.S. government is again skirting our own laws and crossing the line of individual privacy:

But the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have seized on the ability to locate a cellular customer and are using it to track Americans' whereabouts surreptitiously--even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

...

This is an unfortunate outcome, not least because it shows that some judges are reluctant to hold federal agents and prosecutors to the letter of the law.

It's also unfortunate because it demonstrates that the FBI swore never to use a 1994 surveillance law to track cellular phones--but then, secretly, went ahead and did it, anyway.

Link to the CNet article.

Update: 3.2.2006: The Justice Department's surveillance requests were denied in both cases (News.com, Declan McCullagh)

The end of innocence... more news on surveillance--AM

Fun with analog image capture distortion... --AM

Another stamen project--tracking the cabs of sf.

Location Based Systems... (LBS) Where is it, where was it, what can you learn from tracking...--AM

Earth is cool... --AM

Reuters - Researchers trying to make tiny machines have turned to the power of nature, engineering a virus to attract metals and then using it to build minute wires for microscopic batteries.

One step closer to GNR taking over the universe... --AM

WORD! --AM

Another interest of mine are these WiFi frame things... soon someone will get it right and we'll be buying them at KMart as DVR/Video devices for $29.95. You heard it here (probably not first) --AM

alphabet fractal zooming thingy, cool!

Nice... check it out.--AM

Whadya get when geek diva (and Defense Tech shooting partner) Xeni Jardin meets up with exotic weapons godfather Sid Heal? Well, that's when then drones start flying over L.A.

For years, Sid, a commander in the L.A. Sheriff's Department, has been pushing novel means for fighting crime and controlling crowds. We're talking everything from super sonic blasters to slippery foams. Naturally, he's into UAVs, too. "Just this week, the [LASD] began using a drone called SkySeer for rescue operations and tracking 'persons of interest' during foot pursuits," Xeni writes.

On board the SkySeer's four-pound body is a GPS tracking system and tiny cameras that shoot digital video, then send it wirelessly back to the ground. Heal says the plan is to send that footage back to a networked command and control center, where deputies can monitor the footage remotely. Video may also be introduced as evidence in criminal trials.

Check out Xeni's pics from the scene, and her radio report of the meet-up, too.

UAVs are one of my interests... so I share this with y'all. --AM

Mark Frauenfelder: Spike Priggen of Bedazzled has kindly made available a video of the Sex Pistols performing "Anarchy in the UK" on a 1976 television show. Gee, have the last 30 years flown by as quickly for you as they have for me?
Link

The Sex Pistols always give me a warm fuzzy feeling. --AM

This is a really cool art project. Click through the images.

It's cheap, it's interactive, it's public art. And I'm a sucker for any project that uses plastic cups. This just kicks ass... --AM

Mark Frauenfelder: As any junior high school student knows, steel wool burns. These guys took this demonstration to a new level by attaching a piece of steel wool to a wire, lighting it, and swinging it around wildly. Very pretty!
Link (Thanks, Gopher Boy!)

I'm partial to a circular saw with an abrasive blade cutting though hard steel, but this is pretty cool too. (I would suggest saftey goggles.) --AM

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

personal media player (pictured), the YM-P1 (the absence of the "D" refers to the lack of a DMB over-the-air DTV receiver). Since we've been following this model for some time, you'll no doubt recall that it features a 4-inch widescreen TFT display, sports in-line recording to a 20GB hard drive, and supports a gaggle of formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, AC3, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, AVI, WMV, JPEG, and BMP. You can also jack up the memory a bit via the SDIO slot, listen to and record FM radio, and even play some videogames (although the controls don't look all that well-suited for serious gaming). SamsungHQ spotted the P1 available for pre-order on Datavision's website at $370 (where "Our prices are too low to advertise!"), although there is no mention of when the devices will actually be shipping, so don't toss your Archos aside just yet.

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The state of Chhattisgarh in the east of India is striving to be the country’s first biofuel self-sufficient state by the year 2015. Of the 160 million jatropha saplings scheduled to be planted across all sixteen of its districts, half of those will be planted in wasteland areas. To encourage farmers to cultivate the hearty fuel crop, the government has decided to give away packages of up to 500 saplings to farmers. Last year, Chief Minister Raman Singh, a key promoter of the program, became the first official to use biodiesel in his government vehicle. The state of Chhattisgarh has ambitious plans to run all state owned vehicles on jatropha biodiesel by 2007. :: Green Car Congress and NewKerala. com (Image credit Daimler Chrysler)

Who knows, maybe someday the US will catch up to India (Or Brazil) when it comes to Biodiesel... Nah! --AM

Rio writes "The Walt Disney Company unveiled a new wireless phone service that allows parents to track their children on a map using Global Positioning System technology, according to Local 6 News. The new "family friendly" service, called Disney Mobile, allows parents to decide who their children can call and when, the report said. The phone service will launch in June and has not been priced yet."

From -> Lauren Cornell
------ Forwarded Message From: Magda Sawon Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 13:11:38 -0500 To: magda@thing.net Subject: Postmasters Gallery announces The4thScreen: a global fest of art and innovation for mobile phones The4thScreen: a global fest of art and innovation for mobile phones FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 1, 2006 Contact: Tamas ... [more]

This is just a really great free music streaming program. It uses the Music Genome Project. --AM

“It is what it says, simply, fabric in a can,” states

Fabrican's no-nonsense website.

The London-based company has developed spray-on cotton fabric. While initially it's quite thin, you can spray on more coats making it thicker. The potential is wide for many uses from industrial purposes, medical sectors, and of course fashion applications.

The technology was developed in 2003 by Dr. Manel Torres and Professor Paul Luckham at Imperial College London. It’s a private venture, and they’re looking to partner up to mass produce the product.

The fabric itself can be designed to be “soft as silk” or as “durable as hemp” the manufacturer says. We’re keeping our eye on this one.

I mean, imagine if during Janet Jackson’s NFL Superbowl “wardrobe malfunction” last year, she had been carrying Fabrican. After a quick squirt, all could’ve been mended and perhaps CBS Television wouldn’t have been fined that $3.6 million by the FCC.

via

We Make Money Not Art TAGS: Design, Fashion, Future, London, UK,

Ah, wearable technology... actually, this could be used to spray over a wearable computer/wires to allow it to blend in to a garment without having to stich it in place. --AM

“It is what it says, simply, fabric in a can,” states

Fabrican's no-nonsense website.

The London-based company has developed spray-on cotton fabric. While initially it's quite thin, you can spray on more coats making it thicker. The potential is wide for many uses from industrial purposes, medical sectors, and of course fashion applications.

The technology was developed in 2003 by Dr. Manel Torres and Professor Paul Luckham at Imperial College London. It’s a private venture, and they’re looking to partner up to mass produce the product.

The fabric itself can be designed to be “soft as silk” or as “durable as hemp” the manufacturer says. We’re keeping our eye on this one.

I mean, imagine if during Janet Jackson’s NFL Superbowl “wardrobe malfunction” last year, she had been carrying Fabrican. After a quick squirt, all could’ve been mended and perhaps CBS Television wouldn’t have been fined that $3.6 million by the FCC.

via

We Make Money Not Art TAGS: Design, Fashion, Future, London, UK,

Ah, wearable technology... actually, this could be used to spray over a wearable computer/wires to allow it to blend in to a garment without having to stich it in place. --AM

Boot Camp download makes installation more easy

Apple has formally given its thumbs-up to attempts to install and run Windows XP on Intel-based Macs. It has posted a tool called Boot Camp that allows iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini owners to run the Microsoft OS more easily. The company also confirmed the next major Mac OS X release, Leopard, will integrate the twin-OS technology.…

Now it's going to get really interesting... --AM

Boot Camp download makes installation more easy

Apple has formally given its thumbs-up to attempts to install and run Windows XP on Intel-based Macs. It has posted a tool called Boot Camp that allows iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini owners to run the Microsoft OS more easily. The company also confirmed the next major Mac OS X release, Leopard, will integrate the twin-OS technology.…

Now it's going to get really interesting... --AM

Last week, i spent an hour at the Next Level - Art, Games & Reality exhibition at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam. There was no catalogue, and the information printed on the boards next to the works was not particularly generous. Nevertheless i quite enjoyed the show, it had no pretention to be the bestbiggestwildest ever and i was surprised to see that mums, dads and grannies seemed to have as much fun watching the works as the kids.