Monday, November 13, 2006

stuff 11-13-06

(FOR JACK)make a badass cnc mill

http://snipurl.com/122ig

The perfect gamer housewarming gift: Halo Stained Glass Window


Halo's Master Chief has been immortalized in stained glass. The
creator put it up for auction on eBay. Unfortunately, the sale just
ended, but that shouldn't stop us from admiring it in all its glory.
Hopefully, more will be on their way, because it really is the
perfect gift for any gamer's home.

http://snipurl.com/122hg

Shoeparking


ShoeParking is designer Felix de Pass' elegant solution to “store”
your shoes. Simply attach the ShoeParking sticker onto the floor and
define each pair’s parking space. I wonder if this could finally
inspire my husband to “park” his shoes instead of just leaving
them wherever he decides to take them off.

You can see more Felix de Pass design projects on his site.

http://snipurl.com/122hk

Google chief sez: "Your mobile phone should be free"
Posted Nov 13th 2006 9:03AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Cellphones
In the beginning...we had Burma Shave, then there was Google. They've
been tiptoeing around the cellphone interface for awhile now, but if
you think they're just testing the waters, think again. With the
introduction of AdWords for Google's mobile search service, the
cellphone has become Google's next platform for growth. As hand-held
computers coax their owners into spending 8 to 10 hours a day
watching TV, surfing the web, listening to music, shopping, texting,
navigating GPS, snapping pictures, and streaming videos, Google
expects cellphone advertising to one day match their computer-based
ad revenue which already generated about $10 billion for the year.
Indeed, ads are expected to become so prevalent that "your mobile
phone should be free," as Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, told Reuters.
While he conceded that phones may never become totally free for the
consumer -- at least outside of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong --
advertising will drive down the costs substantially as it has for
newspapers. Oh fun.
http://snipurl.com/122hn

Japanese Inventor Develops Water Powered Battery
Japanese inventor Susumu Suzuki has developed innovative water-
powered batteries, “which have an electric current as powerful as
that of a standard manganese dioxide battery.” Video after the jump.
Suzuki says these batteries would be cheap to produce and can be
recycled several times, making them an essential tool for the future
http://snipurl.com/122hv

JimiX Wallet
STYLE | WALLETS | 
The original Jimi Wallet has been one of the most talked about items
we've ever featured here on Uncrate. We had just one complaint —
unless you roll with Benjamins instead of twenties, the old model
just didn't hold enough loot. Now, with the JimiX Wallet ($16), that
problem is solved, by simply moving the money clip to the outside of
the wallet. Same affordability, more utility. [via]

http://snipurl.com/122hw

A DATA’s SD Card with Embedded Display
A DATA has just announced that it will unveil — at CES 2007 — the
world’s first SD card with an embedded bi-stable display, enabling
users to easily check and see just how much space is available at any
given time. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.
Bi-stable is just geekspeak to say that the display will work without
the need to have electricity applied: it’s updated once its inserted
in a device, and retains its value when removed
http://snipurl.com/122hz

Steam-Powered Rolling Ball Game


CrabFu unveils his latest project, a steam-powered rolling ball game,
which consists of a Jensen #5 electrically heated steam engine and a
Bandai Spacewarp. See it in action after the jump.
Spacewarp is a rolling ball coaster toy [game] first made in the
1980’s. Six ball bearings roll around the track and on to an
elevator that takes them to the top to start all over again.
Additional accessories include lighting kits, a staircase, bell
ringer, escalator and more
[via Make - CrabFu]
http://snipurl.com/122i1

Radical boat design
from On the Water (151 articles)

November 13, 2006 The Urban Legends and Folklore section of About.com
has some fascinating images of an extremely unconventional watercraft
which will keep your brain active for hours just looking at them.
Don’t let the inappropriate section title fool you – they’re
real, and the craft is believed to be this Experimental 100'
Inflatable Power Cat based on an original concept by Ugo Conti of
Marine Advanced Research. The cabin is suspended on flexible legs
about 15 feet above and between the hulls, allowing them to glide
independently over the surface of the water. The vessel is 50 feet
wide and powered by twin diesel engines mounted in the rear of the
inflatable pontoon hulls.

http://snipurl.com/122i6

'Nanorust' cleans arsenic from drinking water and promises 'no-
energy' solution for global problem
from Health and Wellbeing (197 articles)

Page: 1 2

November 12, 2006 The discovery of unexpected magnetic interactions
between ultrasmall specks of rust is leading scientists at Rice
University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology
(CBEN) to develop a revolutionary, low-cost technology for cleaning
arsenic from drinking water. The technology holds promise for
millions of people in India, Bangladesh and other developing
countries where thousands of cases of arsenic poisoning each year are
linked to poisoned wells. "Arsenic contamination in drinking water is
a global problem, and while there are ways to remove arsenic, they
require extensive hardware and high-pressure pumps that run on
electricity," said center director and lead author Vicki Colvin. "Our
approach is simple and requires no electricity. While the
nanoparticles used in the publication are expensive, we are working
on new approaches to their production that use rust and olive oil,
and require no more facilities than a kitchen with a gas cooktop."

CBEN's technology is based on a newly discovered magnetic interaction
that takes place between particles of rust that are smaller than
viruses.

"Magnetic particles this small were thought to only interact with a
strong magnetic field," Colvin said. "Because we had just figured out
how to make these particles in different sizes, we decided to study
just how big of magnetic field we needed to pull the particles out of
suspension. We were surprised to find that we didn’t need large
electromagnets to move our nanoparticles, and that in some cases hand-
held magnets could do the trick."

The experiments involved suspending pure samples of uniform-sized
iron oxide particles in water. A magnetic field was used to pull the
particles to out of solution, leaving only the purified water.
Colvin's team measured the tiny particles after they were removed
from the water and ruled out the most obvious explanation: the
particles were not clumping together after being tractored by the
magnetic field.

Colvin, professor of chemistry, said the experimental evidence
instead points to a magnetic interaction between the nanoparticles
themselves.

http://snipurl.com/122i9

Share designs and get feedback with ConceptShare
Posted Nov 13th 2006 8:00AM by Chris Gilmer
Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Social Software
ConceptShare is still getting ready for the big launch. What it is,
exactly, is a place where designs by designers, marketers, and
creative firms can be shared across multiple channels. These designs
will also be able to capture feedback so that innovative improvements
can be made. Customer insight is a must when designing, and through
ConceptShare, customers get a say in designs with a web based
application that helps the whole creative process by saving time and
money. Submitted designs in the system can be anything from user
interfaces, logo designs, web designs, and new product mockups.
ConceptShare's process sounds pretty smooth as well. Simply sign up
and create a workplace where projects will be outlined. Uploaded
concepts will be stored in the system with tags relating to the
project. Participants are then invited through email, or with system
experts. Then interaction will take place with users to gather
feedback. No news yet on the launch of this reviewing tool, but it's
going to make a lot of people happy with the possibilities of
speeding up and streamlining new design processes.

http://snipurl.com/122ic

Photosynth tech preview is impressive
Posted Nov 11th 2006 2:20PM by Jason Clarke
Filed under: Design, Fun, Internet, Photo, News, Windows, Web
services, Microsoft, Freeware, Time-Wasters


Microsoft Research has pushed out some questionable stuff in the
past, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Microsoft
maintaining a world-renowned R&D group that hearkens back to the days
when Xerox did the same thing. And even if not everything they
generate is a gem, sometimes they produce something that you can't
help but look at, and say "wow". Photosynth is that sort of product.

Not yet commercially available, this is simply a technical preview,
but one that is well worth your time to play with. The basic idea
behind Photosynth is that it can take a set of photographs and
analyze them for graphical similarities, then use the resulting data
set to reconstruct a 3-dimensional space with the images mapped onto
it. While that's a relatively decent description of what it does, you
really can't understand Photosynth until you see it (and play with
it) in action.

The technical preview site offers four locations to explore: Gary
Faigin Studio, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Grassi Lakes in the
Canadian Rocky Mountains, and Piazza San Pietro in Rome. While the
outdoor locations are impressive as expected, I was pleasantly
surprised by the experience of wandering through an art studio using
this software.

It might not be immediately apparent, but the photographs used for
this project are extremely high-resolution, so you will find that you
can zoom way in and see some pretty impressive details. Zooming out
provides you with the context of the entire environment, which is
somehow reassuring. In some ways, it reminds me of the incredible
demonstration given by Jeff Han at TedTalks - when I imagine
exploring Photosynth with a user interface like the one Jeff has
developed, I want the future to be now.

One disclaimer - to play with Photosynth, you'll need to use Internet
Explorer 6 or 7 and install the ActiveX component that does the heavy
lifting. It's not clear to me that this needed to be done in a
browser, but at the same time it doesn't take anything away from the
experience having it there.
http://snipurl.com/122if

Skull Bike
by Alan Parekh @ 5:45 am. Filed under Insane Equipment

http://snipurl.com/122ik

HBO SPECIAL - Hacking Democracy - Diebold Vote Manipulation
by Alan Parekh @ 4:33 am. Filed under Computer Hacks, Crazy Hacks,
Complex Hacks

This is a series of 9 videos that show an amazing HBO documentary
about how non-secure the Diebold voting system is and how easy it is
to hack. Click on the “more” link if you only see the first video
on this page. HBO may take this content off YouTube but I think if
their intent is to share their message with the world they will allow
for it to remain. Big thanks to 911 Revolution for getting this
content up.

“Electronic voting machines count about 87% of the votes cast in
America today. But are they reliable? Are they safe from tampering?
From a current congressional hearing to persistent media reports
that suggest misuse of data and even outright fraud, concerns over
the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the day. And if the
voting process is not secure, neither is America’s democracy. The
timely, cautionary documentary HACKING DEMOCRACY exposes gaping holes
in the security of America’s electronic voting system. ”

http://snipurl.com/122ir

Teach Your Kids on the Value of Money

J.D. at Get Rich Slowlyfound a great story on a dad teaching his kid
the value of money.

There are reason behind all those overspending by teenagers or young
adult with their credit cards - they do not know the actual value of
money. Training them in the young age on how to use the money wisely
can develop their sense of value and financial management skills:

The big problem I see with either of these methods is that most
parents don’t teach any lessons beyond this and their kids learn
that money is for spending on stuff, period. There are no lessons
about making money earn more money. There are no lessons about the
actual value of money.

Money is not everything, but good to be smart on it.

http://snipurl.com/122it

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