The gadget orgy of CES, and the angry kerfuffle over the SparkFun Free Day, made me think of this viral video from an appearance of comedian Louis CK on Conan O’Brien. We take so much of our modern technology and modern services for granted. They seem to almost instantaneously become birthrights to us
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Alt.CES: Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy
All the buzz about the movie Avatar has me reminiscing about the Optics issue of MAKE. In Volume 14 , award-winning filmmaker and digital artist Eric Kurland showed us how to build a 3D dual-camera rig, and make a live 3D video monitor and PSP stereoscope to go with it
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Flashback: Homebrew Digital 3D Movies
One of the CES hardware announcements that looks interesting to us is D-Link’s Boxee Box, a media player built around the open/closed source Boxee application (Boxee is a “fork” of the open source XBMC media center software, with some closed, proprietary code bolted on). The Boxee Box will play Adobe Flash 10.1, H.264 (MKV, MOV), MPEG-4, Xvid, Divx, and other video formats, and will feature built-in 802.11n wireless. The Box can play 1080p video from locally-stored content and stream HD video content over the net
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Alt.CES: D-Link announces Boxee Box, now in Dali-esque form-factor
Maker-about-town Matthew Borgatti , who brought us MST3Shades , printable handcuffs , and Bokode @ Home (among other awesome projects) has been nominated for a $25,000 grant from Volkswagen’s The Fun Theory initiative, whom you may remember as the sponsors of the Staircase Piano , the Bottle Recyling Arcade Game , and the World’s Deepest Rubbish Bin installations. If he wins, Matt will use the grant money to build his “Anywhere Organ,” a demountable, portable pipe organ which he hopes to take on a tour of public installations across the country.
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Matthew Borgatti’s Anywhere Organ up for Fun Theory award
As I write this (11am CST) I’m repeatedly hitting Apple-R on my keyboard to refresh my browser. That’s right, I’m one of the thousands of giddy electronics fans trying to cash in on SparkFun’s Free Day. Last I saw, almost 92% of the funds remain, mainly due to people DDOSing the server with their frantic reloads.
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SparkFun Free Day aftermath
Pardon me while I go chemistry geek. It has recently come to my attention that Leo Gross and co-workers at IBM Research in Switzerland have developed a special atomic-force microscopy technique that can image actual molecules with enough resolution to “see” individual bonds and hydrogen atoms
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Atomic-bond resolution microscopy
While at the MIT Media Lab earlier this week, I met David Cranor , a student in the Object-Based Media group, who showed me his LilyPad Arduino secret handshake project he made with Amanda Peyton , Arlene Persaud , Rajiv Bhatia , and Sinbae Kim for their Tangible Interfaces class last semester.
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Secret handshake of the future
Emotiv’s EPOC neurosensor headset offers the ability to convert brainwave signals to keystrokes on a PC. Tron of Illuminated Sounds recently acquired an EPOC and posted this quick demo of the interface triggering beats in Ableton Live – It should be interesting to see how much the response time can be improved given a bit more practice/experience with the device
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Alt.CES: EPOC neuroheadset as a loop controller
Lenovo Android LePhone Has Gesture Support and Snapdragon Chip [Phones] Lenovo has really impressed at CES this year, with the UI hybrid and Skylight , and now its first smartphone, called LePhone. Despite its French-sounding name, this baby is destined for China only. Interestingly, the 3.7-inch touchscreen Android phone comes with a dock, which then gives it a QWERTY keyboard, long-life battery and inbuilt speakers.
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Lenovo Android LePhone Has Gesture Support and Snapdragon Chip [Phones]
For most of us, life consists of a daily cycle of work – and very little play. Hence, getting away from it all for a weekend or two will certainly be a welcome treat. Trouble is that we are more often than not limited by our finances against going all out when recreational travel is concerned
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Travel on a Budget by Exploring the Web
Don’t forget: Tomorrow is SparkFun’s day of free merch (from 9am – 11pm MST). Here’s Becky’s original post from November: Sparkfun is giving away things for free on January 7! You can blame it on Chris Anderson’s book Free. After reading his book, I started kicking around the idea of what we can do that’s ‘free’
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Reminder: SparkFun’s free day, tomorrow!
The Lost Knowledge column explores the possible technology of the future in the forgotten ideas of the past (and those just slightly off to the side). Every other Wednesday, we look at retro-tech, “lost” technology, and the make-do, improvised “street tech” of village artisans and tradespeople from around the globe. “Lost Knowledge” was also the theme of MAKE, Volume 17 Sorry we haven’t run a Lost Knowledge column recently
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Lost Knowledge: "Artistic printing"
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas will feature more than just the latest and coolest gadgets . Top brass from Washington will also be making appearances – proof that Washington is interested in tech policy. Consumer Electronics Show (2008) CES will begin on Thursday in Nevada, and the top technology advisers, regulators and lawmakers of the Obama administration will be there, rubbing shoulders with the top honchos of Silicon Valley
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CES 2010: Tech Geeks Meet Tech Policy Leaders
Many people are agog over the possibility of an Apple tablet (the iSlate or iTablet or whatever it ends up being called, if something like it will ever be released at all). One would not be too surprised to find that with all this expectation and hullabaloo, manufacturers other than Apple may want to jump into the craze. HP Mini 5102 It does not seem like it will be that way for HP .
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HP Keeps Focus on Touch Computing
Nexus One Image from Google Website Google Inc has finally presented the new smartphone, which will be sold directly to consumers. The phone, dubbed the Nexus One, is the fist hardware device which is designed and sold by the 11-year-old Internet giant. The plan is to challenge the iPhone from Apple Inc., which has been considered a revolutionary innovation when it was launched back in 2007
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Google Presents Nexus One Smartphone
Who would’ve thought renaming your WiFi network could be so useful? Leave it to PassiveAggressiveNotes.com to state truth: “folks with wireless networks still named “linksys” or “trendnet” are clearly missing out on a priceless opportunity to piss off your neighbors.” That’s because, instead of leaving a potentially offensive note on your neighbors doorstep, wasting your to tell them off, you can do so through the magic of WiFi, without getting up from your computer.
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Why You Need to Rename Your Home WiFi
Tom’s Hardware forum member tecmo34 has struck again! Not only does he provide useful info on what PC parts to get on a budget (something also done well by the TH staff ), he wrote what’s probably the best step-by-step guide to building a PC from scratch. Unlike other PC-building guides that are borderline, tecmo34’s guide fleshes out the details of each step
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The Best Damn PC Building Guide Ever
Printer News: Epson Stylus Pro 3880 Offers Two Black and Nine Color Inks for Professional Results Photographers and design professionals often find printing black-and-white photos a nightmare. Because most inkjet printers only offer one black ink, subtle grays get lost and unwanted tinting can ruin a black-and-white print
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Epson Stylus Pro 3880 Inkjet Printer for Professionals
Nominated in search 5 Golden Globes and 7 Academy Awards, including Nicest Motion Envisage of the Year, Million Dollar Coddle opened to widespread critical acclaim and excellent audience reviews. Director Clint Eastwood, whose pursuit spans multiple decades in Hollywood, creates perhaps his greatest film to meeting, and co-stars Morgan Freeman (Shawshank Redemption) and Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Shed tears) find up the screen with their deft type portrayals and unique charisma. Combining all the inspiration of Stony with all the theatrical piece of a Greek disaster, Million Dollar Baby is well-deserved of its Best Duplicate victory (in defiance of the divers protests of competing directors who about Eastwood won based on nostalgia in search his heralded occupation and his adverse likeability)..
The Canon Pixma MP990 is a wireless photo printer that doubles as an all-in-one printer (with no fax, purists take note). I haven’t had the chance to review it yet but have the full specs online ; also, this printer usually retails for about $299 but I’ve seen it for about $219 through TriState (with free shipping), and Staples had a deal on it that brought it below $200–unfortunately, last I checked they were out of stock. Still, it’s worth checking back now and then to see if they’ve got it back in stock, and if their promo is still around
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Great Deal: Canon Pixma MP990 Wireless Photo Printer