The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
We just finished up with Ignite Sebastopol, part of Global Ignite Week. During the setup the camera we were going to use to stream the event ended up not working, so we cobbled together this live streaming video rig using a clamp, some duct tape, a light stand, and my Nexus One using the ustream app.
My friend Thomas Edwards gave a recent Ignite presentation in LA about his ideas for Phy2Phy (Physical interaction over IP). The MAKE Controller even gets a shout-out. Getting Physical over IP More: Breath-over-IP Physical Interactions over IP Review: MAKE Controller Kit v2
Last week was the Greener Gadgets conference in NYC. MAKE went and scoped it out, lots of cool ideas being discussed! We saw presentations from product designers, architects, and entrepreneurs. Pictured above is Robert Fabricant talking about biofeedback. Check out video from the event at the Greener Gadgets site. Above photo is by Joe Saavedra.
Thanks to the prodigious growth of computer storage media over the past couple of decades, most people have a pretty good command of the metric (SI) prefixes for big numbers: a kilobyte is a thousand bytes, a megabyte is a million, a gigabyte is a billion, and a terabyte is a trillion. Some folks are already making noises about “petabyte”–or one quadrillion byte–storage media. After that comes “exabyte,” which, of course, would be a quintillion bytes. And beyond that you get into “Marx brothers” country. More than one wag has suggested that the as-yet-unnamed metric prefix to denote one octillion somethings-or-other should be “groucho” or “harpo.”
Activity is picking up for the Nexus One. Among the hand full of hacks mentioned in this video is one that allows you to completely customize visual alerts using the LED trackball.
Project Noah is a free mobile application that nature lovers can use to explore and document local wildlife and a common technology platform that research groups can use to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere. Noah stands for networked organisms and habitats. Now available worldwide as an iPhone app in iTunes [iTunes link], Project […]
In case you didn’t believe Louie the Lightening Bug when he said “ya gotta stay away from power lines,” consider the fate of this gentle tree branch, who apparently never got to watch Saturday morning PSAs, or at least wasn’t paying attention if it did. It screams, literally, for about 14 seconds before bursting into flames like a vampire in a tanning booth.
