snydeq writes "Microsoft's move to the cloud is certain to create a whole new kind of developer partner, Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister writes. But as much as Microsoft ISVs will likely go along with the shift to Windows Azure to keep revenue streams going, the kind of lock-in they will experience will be worlds away from what they face today. Rather than being able to ignore the new version of a key framework, developers will have no other option than to update their code to suit Microsoft's latest platform. That kind of lock-in will leave customers in the lurch, subject to their vendors' bottom lines, as ISVs that can't afford to rework code to keep up with Microsoft's latest platform will begin dropping services, and customers will have little choice but to accept the new terms of service their vendors send along."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Reader Ido alerts us to the news coming out of Israel, that the Senate there has moved forward on a bill that would create a huge biometric database including data on all Israelis, and refusing to provide such data could land anyone a year in jail. As the article notes, there's a rather loud uproar about this, as many Israelis fear not only for their own privacy and civil liberties, but wonder just how such a database will be abused -- either by gov't officials or by hackers. It sounds like the bill still has a ways to go before becoming law, but this appears to be yet another move by a government to mistakenly assert that taking away people's privacy somehow makes them more secure.

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From the Make: Flickr Pool comes the T.W.E.R.P., a ThingamaKIT housed in a 10" Mad*L vinyl toy.

Things I've Made

More:

• ThingamaHat
• ThingamaKIT build photos
• Hacking the ThingamaKIT

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Jupix writes "There's an interesting new community by ASUS and Intel called WePC. It enables anyone to post their dream PC including not only function, but form as well. You can draw up your dream and describe it in words, and also fiddle with some predetermined properties. No doubt the two companies are looking for common configurations so they can implement them in future products, but according to the press release, even individual designs may get the two companies' backing."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's a round up of all the items that have a discount which are part of our "Best of Maker Faire - Maker Shed" sale... A lot of folks who weren't in the Austin, TX area last week for Maker Faire Austin 2008 and wanted some of the deals we had at the Maker Shed Store, so - we put the most popular items out here with a nice discount or free shipping depending on what you order... Click read more below to get the big ole' list...

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GREETINGS. This is John Hodgman writing at the witching hour (5:48PM EST).

It is Hallowe'en, and thus time to CRACK THE CRYSTAL SKULL at last.

Please see the enclosed video.

That is all.

CDM points out this free Halloween themed effect for VST/AU compatible audio software. You can download the plugin from Solid State Logic's site (free reg required). Nice to see the neighbors aren't the only ones giving out free treats.

It's basically a pitch-shift + vibrato + wind noise + eco/reverb combo ... which means it's fun -
helpme.mp3

helpme.mp3

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This is a fun TED talk: "The Inventables guys, Zach Kaplan and Keith Schacht, demo some amazing new materials and how we might use them. Look for squishy magnets, odor-detecting ink, "dry" liquid and a very surprising 10-foot pole." Keith Schacht & Zach Kaplan: Products (and toys) from the future

Spider Robinson's Very Hard Choices delivers exactly the kind of snappy sf yarn that Robinson fans have come to expect over a career that has spanned decades. Robinson tells stories in the mold of the classic writers -- particularly his mentor and idol, Robert A Heinlein -- stories that rocket along on greased rails, moving so fast that you hardly even notice when the author slides in all kinds of grace-notes, tidbits about politics, spycraft and the oversimplification of the mythology of the 1960s.

Very Hard Choices is the sequel to Very Bad Deaths, a similarly rip-snorting tale that sets up the action: the narrator, Russell, was college roommies with a mysterious geek everyone called "Smelly." Smelly wouldn't bathe and did everything he could to keep people at arm's length. Turns out Smelly is telepathic, and is thrown into increasing agony by proximity to others (his telepathy has no off-switch). He "died" in the 1960s, but he resurfaces for his old roomie in the 2000s, filled with the dreadful knowledge that a savage murderer is plotting a terrible series of deaths in his back-yard.

Very Hard Choices can be read and enjoyed without reading Very Bad Deaths (though it is rife with spoilers of course!), and it continues Deaths's rigorous and thoroughgoing exploration of the special problems of telepathy, diving deep into its premise in a way that is quintessentially science fictional.

In Choices, Robinson takes up the story where he left off, turning the piece into a tense spy-thriller that pits Russell, his son, and the plucky lady cop against a relentless, aging Cold War super-spy who is hunting them as a means of getting to Smelly, for purposes that they can only guess at. Robinson dips in and out of the 1960s throughout the story, presenting us with a more nuanced, complex picture of campus life during the Vietnam War than is common in literature, all the while vividly capturing the flavor of the era in the manner of books like Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis.

This is science fiction in my favorite mode, the "What if?" and "What then?" mode of storybuilding, and Robinson's folksy, punny, style is the sure voice of a lifelong entertainer, the kind of folk-singer mode that gave us Alice's Restaurant and other improbable tales spun by a man with a guitar.

I've been a gigantic Robinson fan since I was a teenager and I've since been privileged to call him a colleague and friend. Among his many virtues, Robinson is also a stupendous reader, and produces DRM-free readings of his books through Blackstone Audio. Very Hard Choices

It seems that every few years we have some sort of story of a major internet provider cutting off another major internet provider over a disagreement concerning peering arrangements. More often than not, one of the companies involved in such disputes is Cogent, who seems to get on a lot of other firms nerves by (they claim) using more than their fair share. It's happening again, as Sprint has cut off Cogent, meaning that plenty of broadband users are having trouble reaching certain websites.

Every time this happens, it reminds us all how fragile the internet is, not because of any bandwidth crunch, but because the overall network really only works thanks to the fact that all of the big internet providers agree to share traffic across their networks through "peering" arrangements, some of which are more informal than others. The problem is that these peering arrangements are supposed to be just that: about "peers" agreeing to share traffic for the betterment of everyone. But, when you have a company like Cogent, who focuses on being just a dumb pipe that sells as much bandwidth as possible at very low levels, then the other peers start to feel that it's unfair. Cogent ends up dumping a lot more traffic on them than they do on Cogent. In this case, Sprint is claiming that Cogent failed to meet the terms of a signed agreement for peering, and has since refused to pay to keep connecting to its network, hence the shut off. Cogent, for its part, is using this mess as something of a PR opportunity, offering free internet connections to Sprint customers during this Sprint outage and saying that all other major carriers have full connectivity to Cogent.

In the end, like all of the other disputes, this one will get worked out and the internet will continue to function -- but it still is worrisome that much of the internet really is reliant on these companies agreeing to continue to play nice with each other.

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CWmike writes "Google this week took another step in its effort to shed light on the so-called Dark Web, announcing that its search engine can now search scanned documents in a PDF. In April, Google announced that it was looking for ways for its search engine to index HTML forms such as drop-down boxes or select menus that otherwise couldn't be found or indexed." An announcement is available at the official Google blog, and it contains some demonstration searches.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Are you willing to take on the responsibility that comes with bringing trillions of universes into existence, each teeming with sentient life? That's something to ponder before plunking down $20 for this make-your-own-universe kit, created by artist Jonathon Keats.

If two events are possible, quantum theory assumes that both occur simultaneously - until an observer determines the outcome. For example, in Schrödinger's famous thought experiment, in which his cat may have been killed with a 50 per cent probability, the cat is both alive and dead until someone checks. When the observation is made, the universe splits into two, one for each possible outcome. For example, Schrödinger's cat would be alive in one universe and dead in the other universe.

According to the theory, any kind of measurement causes the universe to split and this is the basis of Keats' new device. His universe creator uses a piece of uranium-doped glass to create a steam of alpha particles, which are then detected using a thin sliver of scintillating crystal. Each detection causes the creation of a new universe.

The make-your-own-universe kit

Here's an method for drawing/painting with water, then quickly rendering your image visible by adding ink - similar to some watercolor techniques. [via Neatorama]

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I'm here in Sunnyvale, CA to cover Steam Powered, the first dedicated steampunk convention. Set-up is now underway. The local San Jose freebie, Metro, ran a nice cover piece on the event and steampunk 101. That's Abney Park on the cover. The article emphasized the maker aspects of the genre and the non-serious roleplaying involved. I.e. it's fun to make beautifully-crafted, ornamented retro-futuristic gadgets and to pretend they came from some parallel universe that mashes up appealing aspects of past, present, and future.

Some things I'm looking forward to at the convention are Chris Garcia's talk on the replica of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, currently on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, presentations from the Weta Workshop folks (see their Moon Hater Death Ray below), learning more about Airship Ventures, and of course, seeing Abney Park perform on Saturday night at the San Jose Civic Auditorium (tickets for this show are still available). Also, MAKE pal and frequent blog-subject Jake von Slatt is delivering the keynote address at the con. Should be a fun weekend.

BTW: If you're at the convention, please look me up. I'm staying at the hotel where the convention is happening (The Domain).

Wired has a piece, Ray-Gun Maestro Zaps Steampunk Convention, on Greg Broadmore of Weta Workshop and his participation at Steam Powered.

More:

• Steam Powered - California Steampunk Convention

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Preedit writes "Apple plans to get into the business of designing microprocessors for handheld devices, according to legal papers that are part of a dispute between IBM and one of its top technology executives. IBM is suing Power chip expert Mark Papermaster for allegedly violating a non-compete agreement and accepting a job at Apple. In court papers, IBM claims Apple wants Papermaster 'to design microprocessors for incorporation in a variety of electronic devices, including handheld devices.' The suit, according Infoweek, also notes that Apple earlier this year bought out P.A. Semi. IBM thinks it knows why."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Famed Pumpkin Carver Patrick Moser shows the world how to carve the Huge Alantic Giant at Pumpkinville, 2007, with Susan Warren of the Wall Street Journal...

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Earlier this year, we pointed out that it was silly for companies to block Facebook at work, because it's merely a communications tool. It can be misused, but that would show up in the performance of the employee. Instead, embracing Facebook and recognizing that it's just a communications platform -- like the telephone or like email (both of which some companies wanted to ban when they first became popular), it can be a very valuable tool.

It's good to see a new study agreeing on that point and encouraging management execs to learn how to embrace social networking, rather than ban it completely:

They are part of the way in which people communicate which they find intuitive. Banning Facebook and the like goes against the grain of how people want to interact. Often people are friends with colleagues through these networks and it is how some develop their relationships.... Allowing workers to have more freedom and flexibility might seem counter-intuitive, but it appears to create businesses more capable of maintaining stability."

Now, of course, some people are going to show up here and start commenting about how much time they (or others they know) waste on Facebook during the workday. However, as we said, it's no secret that some people abuse access to those systems -- but the focus should be punishing for the abuse, not punishing everyone and throwing out the good with the bad. Others will (as they always do) say something along the lines of "if you're at work, you should be working -- using a social network should never ever be allowed." Again, similar things were said originally about the telephone and email, and those have turned out to be very productive tools. Letting people communicate in the way they find most efficient and effective is a huge part of making sure a business is functioning well -- even if it includes letting employees spend some time on Facebook.

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Phil O. writes "I work for a company with 30+ locations across North America. Some offices have hundreds of employees; some only a dozen. We're looking for a secure, multi-platform IM client we could implement across the organization. One group is pushing for Microsoft's solution, but it has a number of drawbacks (including cost). What other options are out there, and what has worked well in similar situations? Security is a big concern for the company."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Phil O. writes "I work for a company with 30+ locations across North America. Some offices have hundreds of employees; some only a dozen. We're looking for a secure, multi-platform IM client we could implement across the organization. One group is pushing for Microsoft's solution, but it has a number of drawbacks (including cost). What other options are out there, and what has worked well in similar situations? Security is a big concern for the company."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's an easy mod for all you folks who need to move around your heavy benches: the barrowbench by Rogier Martens, via Core77.

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Happy Halloween from Make: television.

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H4x0r Jim Duggan writes "For anyone curious about what the legal department in a free software organisation does, I spent some time with my co-worker in FSFE and have put a summary online with the status of the main projects: developing a legal network, producing documentation, GPL enforcement, copyright consolidation, and training courses."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Welsh portion of this sign reads, ""I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."" Email error on road sign

The best part about this video of an "escaped rhino drill" at a Japanese zoo is the fact that they had to construct that rhino costume entirely for the sole purpose of performing escaped-rhino drills. Via BB.

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The music collection society MCPS PRS in the UK apparently had three economists coming from different viewpoints work together on a paper concerning the economics of the music industry on the internet today. It includes an economist from the collection society, one from the internet industry and one from the music industry. While the resulting paper does have some good points -- such as being one of the few industry produced papers that doesn't try to ignore the fact that file sharing directly competes with things like iTunes -- it appears to have some weaknesses as well.

The paper basically tries to describe the overall landscape for music on the internet, dividing it into three units (reflecting the three people working on the report): Music Service Providers (MSPs) such as Kazaa or iTunes (and, yes, it's impressive that they directly lump the authorized and unauthorized players together), Music Rights Providers (MRPs) such as ASCAP or other collections societies, and ISPs. The paper then uses some basic game theory to note that the interactions between these three players will often lead to "sub-optimal outcomes." No, really?

Instead, they suggest that the entire incentive structure of the industry should be reconsidered -- which is something I clearly believe as well. However, from the article, it looks like the approaches they line up don't do enough of that reconsidering. Why? Because they don't even seem to take into account the idea that (a) there are other players in the market that should be considered in the ecosystem and (b) one of the three legs of the stool set forth in the premise (the collections societies) may not be needed. If you take them out of the equation, but plug in other components of the market (say, the musicians themselves) you can quite easily see the model working quite differently than what's described in the report. Indeed, the options for creating win-win solutions become much clearer. In ignoring the other aspects of the market, while not considering that these so-called MRPs may not be necessary in today's world, the report falls well short of actually laying out optimal solutions in the market.

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Today on Boing Boing Gadgets, there was the usual spurting of Halloween themed posts: a little boy dressed as Wall-E's Eve, a spinal cord beer funnel, some cute Pac-Man pumpkins and the awesomest little boy mech walker costume. Otherwise, we started the day by watching two robots box and do their best Lou Bega impression. We looked at a futuristic car straight out of an MGM cartoon, and as agony aunts cackled over Apple's blunders. There was a baby carriage for larval Slim Pickens, and an examination of a modern-day masturbation table for the treatment of "hysteria" / "stress." In realer tech news, Brownlee despaired that the new PSPs are hacker proof, while Rob looked at a joystick for sweaty gamers. Rob spotted a fax machine that can send and receive email, and a keyring that infinitely simulates the fun of popping bubble wrap. There was an expensive sudoku watch with only one puzzle, and Beschizza got all sweaty when looking at a tiny wireless router that plugs into any antenna. Otherwise, Asus threw a customer in jail for threatening to report their shitty tech support to the press, and we stole a tank as Barack Obama. And, as always, much more besides. Link

netbuzz writes "The Internet will mark an infamous anniversary Sunday, when the Morris worm turns 20. Considered the first major attack on the 'Net, Morris served as a wake-up call about the risk of software bugs, and it set the stage for network security to become an important area of computer science. It was also the first time many non-techies heard of the 'Net, as the mainstream media covered the story extensively." Reader maximus1 contributes a brief ITWorld story about Robert Morris himself.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It had to happen... iPhone shirt / costume.

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I love this child's mech walker costume built by one of his parents. Brownlee has more over at BB Gadgets. Beware the clomping of the candy-fueled Chicken Walker

Doug sent in these laser pumpkins made with a laser cutter - he says "Laser Pumpkins (tm): Smell bad, look great!"

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Do you have some extra orange vegetables (or are they fruits?) in your yard? Get in the halloween spirit without having to actually carve anything, thanks to the help of peanut butter and squirrels!

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waderoush writes "While James Gleick, Lawrence Lessig, and other pundits have reacted positively to this week's proposed settlement of the publishing industry's lawsuit against Google over the Google Book Search project, a deeper study of the agreement turns up some worrisome provisions that could make online access to books much more costly and difficult than it needs to be. Harvard University's libraries, for example, declined to endorse the settlement over concerns that it provides no mechanism for keeping the cost of access to books reasonable. And while the parties to the settlement have made much of the clause providing public libraries with free full-text access to Google's database of over 7 million out-of-print books, Xconomy has a post pointing out that this access is restricted to exactly one Google terminal per library. So, you can read books for free — as long as you're the first person to get to your public library's computer room in the morning."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I've been talking to plenty of people (mostly lawyers) about the Bilski ruling on software and business method patents while also having more time to reread the discussion in detail, and I'm going to backtrack on my original assessment. I should have known something was wrong when I wrote that CAFC may have gotten something right. They so rarely get it right, that I should have known better.

Some of the good news, I still stand by. The court clearly limited the scope of software and business method patents. It rejected using the standard set forth in State Street in most cases. Some people are saying that since the court didn't completely reject State Street that this is not the victory I thought it was. On that, I disagree. As I said in my long post about the filings in the case, I thought an outright rejection of State Street that carves out a special exemption for software and business method patents is a bad idea. Instead, I'm in favor of a much more stringent standard for anything to be patentable. So, I don't have a problem with the court keeping State Street, but establishing a more stringent standard -- exactly what it did. I recognize that many folks who are focused on software patents really wanted a carveout exemption, and to them, this is a loss -- but I'd argue that it's better to have a more general standard than trying to carve out exceptions.

The part that I'm a little more concerned about is the loopholes that appear to have been left by CAFC in the decision. I was on a conference call with some of the lawyers who filed briefs (in favor of stronger patent protection), and they were spinning the ruling to be in their favor as much as possible -- but it became clear they were only doing so via loopholes. Specifically, they seem to think that as long as the software works on any device it qualifies for patent protection under the new test. In other words, they seem to be saying that so long as you add the words "on a computer" to a claim, then you're all good. In fact, when one reporter on the call (Joe Mullin) asked what sorts of patents this would impact, and after a moment of silence one of the lawyers blurted out that it invalidated Bilski's patent (the patent at the heart of this case) and that would be about it. Other lawyers basically said that it would only eliminate poorly written patents, which they seemed to define as those that failed to include that sort of "on a computer" language.

I don't think this is the actual intention of the ruling, and it will be interesting to see this tested -- but it's troublesome that already there's this huge loophole that many lawyers see. It means the court didn't do a very good job in actually establishing what the rules are for patents, and that's a problem. It will also be interesting to see if the "and on a computer" claims still get thrown out thanks to the earlier Supreme Court KSR ruling which limited patent claims that simply combined two obvious things.

Still, in the short term, I stand by my assessment that this is a ruling in the right direction. It's not a full rejection of software or business model patents, but I think that's for the best in the long run. It's better to create proper overall rules, rather than trying to carve out exemptions and creating a patchwork of rules. However, I'm still worried about the loopholes, and how quickly lawyers with tons of patents seem ready to leap through those loopholes.

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eldavojohn writes "The BBC is planning to release some of its programmes to users of GNU & Linux. You won't see Doctor Who or Dragons' Den on there anytime soon, but they have been working with Canonical & Collabra on getting this out there for Totem users. The developer blog mentions that the sheer number of options in the open source world actually makes this difficult to accomplish."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Aaron Fotheringham, 16, earned a Guinness World Record last weekend as the first person to land a backflip in a wheelchair. (Click the image to see the full photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie/Special to the Home News.) From the Las Vegas Sun:

To achieve the trick, Fotheringham, rolled down a skatepark ramp to generate enough speed. He then went up another ramp and landed his flip on flat ground.

He first completed the trick in 2006, and has dozens of videos of his backflips, but had yet to make it official...

Aaron Fotheringham, who suffers from spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair since he was 13, came up short in his quest to set a record for most consecutive backflips in 45 seconds. His unofficial record is six back flips in a row, however, he could not get consecutive flips Oct. 25.

"I'm a little bit disappointed I didn't get the consecutive flips, but I guess I'm taking it for granted that I got in the book," Fotheringham said.

Wheelchair athlete's back flip lands him in record book (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

Anonymous writes "By now a lot has been reported on the new features and improvements in Ubuntu 8.10; it also looks like the OS is outperforming Vista in early benchmarking (Geekbench, boot times, etc.) At what point does this start to make a difference in the market place?" (And though there are lot of ways to benchmark computers, Ubuntu 8.10 with Compiz Fusion is certainly prettier on my Eee than the Windows XP that it came with.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

What does it mean to be truly evil? Cognitive scientist Selmer Bringsjord is developing a virtual human that embodies their evolving definition of "evil." In development for several years, the character, named "E," is designed to interact with humans in a way that sounds similar to a chatbot, albeit a really demented chatbot. Bringsjord is even considering the ethics and "danger" of making an evil software program. (Brett Leonard, your meme is ready.) From Scientific American:

To be truly evil, someone must have sought to do harm by planning to commit some morally wrong action with no prompting from others (whether this person successfully executes his or her plan is beside the point). The evil person must have tried to carry out this plan with the hope of "causing considerable harm to others," Bringsjord says. Finally, "and most importantly," he adds, if this evil person were willing to analyze his or her reasons for wanting to commit this morally wrong action, these reasons would either prove to be incoherent, or they would reveal that the evil person knew he or she was doing something wrong and regarded the harm caused as a good thing...

Following the path of a true logician, Bringsjord's interest in the portrayal of virtuousness and evil in literature led to his interest in software that helps writers develop ideas and create stories; this, in turn, spurred him to develop his own software for simulating human behavior, both good and odious, says Barry Smith, a distinguished professor of bioinformatics and ontology at the State University of New York at Buffalo who is familiar with Bringsjord's work. "He's known as someone on the fringe of philosophy and computer science."

Bringsjord and Smith both have an interest in finding ways to better understand human behavior, and their work has attracted the attention of the intelligence community, which is seeking ways to successfully analyze the information they gather on potential terrorists. "To solve problems in intelligence analysis, you need more accurate representations of people," Smith says. "Selmer is trying to build really good representations of human beings in all of their subtlety."

Are You Evil? Profiling That Which Is Truly Wicked

Underground film director Rodney Ascher, whose work we've featured on BB and BBtv many times before, just completed a new horror spoof called Visions of Terror. A collaboration with Josh Fadem and also starring Zoe Jarman, Visions of Terror is a real laff-riot that takes the piss out of B-movie horror buffs, which Ascher is himself. Visions of Terror

Previously on BB:
• Jack Chick, animated: "Somebody Goofed," by Syd and Rodney
• Rodney Ascher's short film about a freefalling parachutist
• Babylon 6 Jamaican vacation promo

Monkeys outfitted with neural implants have learned to control temporarily paralyzed muscles in their arms. So instead of controlling a robot arm with its mind, the monkey controls its own muscles that have become "disconnected" from its brain. The research, conducted by the University of Washington and the Washington National Primate Research Center, is a step forward in the development of technology that routes around a damaged spine, enabling a patient to once again manipulate paralyzed body parts. From IEEE Spectrum:

In exchange for a reward of applesauce, the monkeys had been conditioned to create just the right amount of torque in their wrists to move a cursor on a display so that it hit a target. To conduct the experiments, the researchers used anesthesia to block signals in a nerve just below the shoulder of a monkey’s arm, temporarily paralyzing the rest of the limb. The brain cells that control wrist movement were still firing in response to the monkey’s desire to hit the target and get the payoff, but with the neural connection shut down, the wrist remained limp. The scientists implanted electrodes into the monkey’s motor cortex and fed the electrical signals they received from the monkey’s brain into a computer. The computer then translated the signals into a stimulating current that was fed to electrodes implanted below the nerve block in the monkey’s wrist. The monkeys were able to learn to manipulate their own brains to get their wrists moving.

New Brain-Machine Interface Reactivates Monkey's Paralyzed Muscles

As you YouTuber put it: "Any simple task in Japan requires the effort of tens of aging men dressed in fluorescent jackets and hard hats." (Via Arbroath)

Today on Boing Boing tv we continue a series of transmissions from Tokyo by our monster-hunting comrade Sean Bonner, who vanished mysteriously while seeking a legendary shrine devoted to the Kappa, a water-dwelling, ninja-turtle-like, child-sized creature who is fond of cucumbers and human colon meat, which it may access by grabbing up your butt.

In yesterday's installment, Sean hooked up with Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, authors of the previosly-boinged book Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide, and the quest began. But the team vanished mysteriously, and we haven't been able to reach Sean for a week.

Today, he reappears, with proof that he has touched the mummified hand of the cucumber-loving amphibious prankster. He also brings us irrefutable proof that some of Japan's greatest manga artists found a source of inspiration in Kappa art. Also on the streets of Tokyo, just outside the shrine, BBtv's yokai squad discovered MONSTER KITTEH.

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Link to Boing Boing tv post with instructions on how to subscribe to our daily video podcast. Here's the direct MP4 link in case you can't deal with Flash video. Here are some photos from Sean.

Previously: Hunting for the Kappa Monster in Tokyo, part 1

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The UCLA Digital Library has a few interesting photos of Halloween in the 1940s. The caption for this one reads: "Stage and crowd at Halloween Slick Chick beauty contest in Anaheim, Calif., 1947." I wonder if Daisy Mae was the winner?

Here's another photo of the Slick Chick contestants, and here's one of children in costumes (including one girl in blackface). (Via Save vs. Death)

Barence writes "You may be aware of Donald Knuth, the creator of TeX and author of The Art of Computer Programming, who used to post checks to anyone who spotted an error in one of his books — one hexadecimal dollar, or $2.56. No one cashed them though. This blogger has two of them proudly on his wall, but the sad news is that modern day bank fraud has put a stop to Knuth's much-loved way of keeping his books free of errors." (Here's Knuth's own post about the sad change.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Barence writes "You may be aware of Donald Knuth, the creator of TeX and author of The Art of Computer Programming, who used to post checks to anyone who spotted an error in one of his books — one hexadecimal dollar, or $2.56. No one cashed them though. This blogger has two of them proudly on his wall, but the sad news is that modern day bank fraud has put a stop to Knuth's much-loved way of keeping his books free of errors." (Here's Knuth's own post about the sad change.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

So I already wrote about Andrew Keen's ridiculously laughable assertion that the economic downturn would spell the end of all unpaid activity online -- such as blogging, contributing to Wikipedia and developing open source software. The whole thing was so laughable, I asked Keen to put some money behind some of his predictions, though to date I have not heard from him. I'm guessing this means he really does not believe what he writes.

However, I have to bring this up again, because Jesse Walker over at Reason Magazine does such an amazing job demonstrating the basic logic fallacy in Keen's thinking that it's too good not to repeat:

Andrew Keen predicts an end to backyard gardens, playground basketball, basement jam sessions, amateur painting, and open mic nights for the duration of the economic hard times, because "the idea of free labor will suddenly become profoundly unpalatable to someone faced with their house being repossessed or their kids going hungry."

Oh, wait. Hold on. He only predicts an end to unpaid-but-pleasurable labor on the Internet

No one ever does anything that doesn't result in immediately getting paid, apparently.

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Erica tipped us off to this video tutorial for creating your own artificial vomit - handy! Though I think adding actual tuna fish to the recipe could incite some genuine regurgitation ... at least nausea.

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Short Attention Span Science Theater is a new Stanford University site that features "microdocs," two to four minute videos explaining scientific topics in a simple and engaging way. Groups of microdocs are packaged into "notebooks" on particular topics. From Stanford News Service:

The first Short Attention Span Science notebook demystifies ecological sustainability—the basis for the green movement around the world, (Marine Science professor Steve Palumbi) said: "What is sustainability? What promotes it? What threatens it? What are the tipping points that push an ecosystem into ruin or keep it functioning forever? The ecological sustainability notebook shows the elements of sustainability and explains how they apply to one of the most important and beautiful ecosystems on earth—coral reefs."

Palumbi serves as narrator and on-camera host of many of the microdocs, which were shot at research sites in Fiji, Samoa, the Caribbean, Micronesia and other coral reefs. "Navigating around the site is like a fast trip to the coral reefs of the world, with you in control of the journey," he said. "We present the problems facing reefs, and how they can recover and grow. We show the kinds of reefs, the species that live on them and efforts by local people all over the world to preserve them."

Short Attention Span Science Theater (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

Hey All,
We hope you have been having an amazing Halloween Season and learning a lot of neat new projects for your Haunted House or Halloween Party here at MAKE. I just wanted to take the chance to wish you all a Happy Halloween and let you know you can still enter our MAKE Halloween Contest.

Here are the deadlines:
ENTRY DEADLINE: Nov 9, 2008
VOTING STARTS: Nov 10, 2008
VOTING ENDS: Nov 16, 2008
JUDGING STARTS: Nov 17, 2008
JUDGING ENDS: Nov 24, 2008

Enjoy!

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Fun dancing hexabot via HAD.

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I like cute and I like creepy - I *really* like combined cute-and-creepy. Just Bento made this cute/creepy Halloween bento that's also healthy!

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Check out all the fun and excitement at this year's Maker Faire in Austin, Texas. People from all over the world came to experience this amazing event. Take a look at some of the highlights and make plans to attend the next Maker Faire.
To download Maker Faire Austin 2008 MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.

More Weekend Projects are on the way.

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An anonymous reader writes "Bruce Schneier and company have created a new hash function called Skein. From his blog entry: 'NIST is holding a competition to replace the SHA family of hash functions, which have been increasingly under attack. (I wrote about an early NIST hash workshop here.) Skein is our submission (myself and seven others: Niels Ferguson, Stefan Lucks, Doug Whiting, Mihir Bellare, Tadayoshi Kohno, Jon Callas, and Jesse Walker). Here's the paper."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From our 2006 contest, they somehow knew it would be a MAKE cover!

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I've finally gotten around to reading The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx, Stefan Kanfer 1990 book of fine grouchovian material that contains at least five guaranteed laughs on every page.

The book opens with a series of classic sketches from the radio plays, plays and films, lightly introduced with context about each release, but focusing mainly on the transcendant moments of pure Groucho -- the Tootsie Frootsie Ice-a-Cream, the address to the college administrators, the war council of Freedonia.

Then into the best of Groucho's correspondence, including the notorious and outrageous letter to Warner Brothers about "A Night in Casablanca" (including the ensuing volleys with the increasingly puzzled studio lawyers) and the warm and collegial letters between Groucho and TS Eliot (who was willing to make an exception to his anti-Semitism in Groucho's case).

The next section, Freelancing, is filled with newspaper editorials and articles written by (and sometimes about) Groucho, and it's here that I found myself reading a lot of material that I'd never seen before, placed in context by Kanfer's snappy little intros.

The book closes with a selection of howlers from You Bet Your Life (To a meteorologist: "Any little squalls running around at home with their barometers dropping?") -- starting with one-liners, then short excerpts, then long, sustained comic bits where Groucho seemed to catch fire.

I'm a huge Groucho fan, and I've been collecting books, video and audio of his performances since I was a teenager. He was a true blade when it came to verbal swordfighting, and The Essential Groucho is a fantastic little anthology of some truly impressive material, whether you're a Groucho novice or an old hand. The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx

Jonathan Carroll's latest novel, The Ghost in Love is the latest of thirteen genuinely magical fantasy novels in which the author makes magic the way Fred Astaire danced: effortless, simple, wondrous.

In the Ghost in Love, Ben and his girlfriend German have just broken up a long-term relationship that seems to have been as wonderful as love can be (Carroll has a special gift for bringing happy family relations to life). Now they are on the outs, and sharing custody of Pilot, their shelter-dog, and every time they meet to swap the dog, their hearts break anew.

Ben should have died the day he got the dog, when he slipped on ice and broke his head. But he didn't. So the Angel of Death sent Ben's ghost, Ling, to earth, to investigate why the universe has stopped obeying its divine destiny. Ling is hopelessly in love with German, and the ghost is also a fantastic cook (as is Ben), so whenever German is due to come over, Ling spends the whole day cooking elaborate, invisible meals for her, while chatting morosely with the dog (all ghosts speak Dog).

That's all in the first few pages. Then it gets weird.

Carroll's standard formula for his novels is to introduce us to wonderful people living magical blessed lives, lives so achingly rendered that you want to crawl into the page and snuggle under the covers with them. Then he smashes their lives like sand-castles, and his wonderful people fall apart while magic unmakes them, rewriting the rules of their world to reveal hidden truths about love, family, self-regard, self-loathing, and other emotionally charged subjects.

In Ghost in Love, Carroll does this again, but even moreso, using a kind of dreamlike fluidity to constantly rewrite the rules of his world and its magic as evil and good tear apart the lives of Ben, German, Pilot and Ling and the people around them. The story grows ever-more existential, allegorical and weird as the pages fly past.

But it's all handled so gracefully that the dream-logic never falters. Carroll is the omnipotent god of his characters and situations, and he is totally in control of every variable, so that we trust him throughout, even though he never plays fair.

And the message, the conclusion in the end? Without spoiling things, I'll say this: The Ghost in Love contains genuinely profound and illuminating truths about the way that we love others and ourselves, and about the power of owning up to your bad deeds, and about the danger and wonder of nostalgia for our simpler pasts.

I've read and enjoyed all thirteen of Carroll's novels, and this one is going right on the shelf with the others, and will occupy the same oft-visited part of my mental landscape wherein dwell his other magical books.

The Ghost in Love on Amazon, The Ghost in Love, author's site with free first chapter

The trend this year - chicken walkers! Chebosto writes -

For this year's costume I was going to do the new Takara R35 GTR Transformer Toy as a costume, but i wanted to change it up a bit this year... plus all my friends were like.. do something else.. i was watching Return of the Jedi on DVD during a recent business trip, and i'm like. whoa... bipedal vehicles.. i totally forgot about the Chicken walker.

i started doing some drawings.. and then bought a Lego AT-ST to get a scale model in front of me..

i intend on doing it semi puppet like. my feet/legs will be all in black, then 'slip' into the feet (or harnesses to the side of the feet) of the AT-ST so when i move my own legs it will move the legs of the AT-ST. the legs/torso of the AT-st will be mounted in a suspender like rigging so it will stay on my hips while i move. Rubber bands inside the legs near the hinges will return it to the neutral state and prevent it from sagging due to the multiple links in the ostrich legs... then my upper torso will be in the 'head' and i'll be able to move the cannons and lasers with my hands.. to mount the head to my body, i was thinking of using a backpack rigging similar to that of a hiking pack with a skeleton structure, and strapping the head to this rig so that i can move the head of the at-st to one side but still have my feet facing forward as i walk.. for the entry port at the top of the AT-st. i'll cut a hole, and have Chewbacca stick out at the top, which will be stuck to a hat that i'll be wearing so when i move my head, it'll look like Chewy will be moving around up there.

materials used (& planned to use): alot of cardboard, corrugated plastic, foam board, pop rivets, super duct tape, velcro, Kilz wood sealer, Rustoleum primer and paint, wooden dowels, pvc pipe, plastic water bottles, pop rivets, bolts, old backpack straps, big rubber bands.

Tools: uber sharp razor blade/box cutter, tape measure, straight edge, calculator, circle cutter, protractor, drill and bit set, saw

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Yesterday we discussed the war and how foreign policy will matter in your decision next Tuesday. Today our series of election discussion pieces continues with Health Care. With an obesity epidemic, a failing economy, and ballooning health care costs, which candidate has the best answers to making sure that Americans are able to stay healthy without America being bankrupted in the process?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's a nice DIY tutorial on building an AVR Synth from basic schematics. The author decided to build it with perfboard and turn each element into a discreet module. Check out the details and photo essay at the link below.

DIY AVR Synth via Electronics Lab

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Reader Terry Westley points us to yet another example of how companies are recognizing that content is advertising. Disney has apparently released a free iPhone game that's fun on its own, but which also serves to help promote an upcoming movie release. While some will dismiss this as just being a cheap way of advertising, you have to wonder what happens when movie makers start making these sorts of games really, really good. Then what happens to game developers who think they can get away with charging for their mobile phone games? Suddenly it becomes a lot harder to support that model if there are other businesses that are using a model where, the more games that are given away for free, the more it helps the rest of their business.

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Yesterday I read that Apple rejected the Opera browser for the iPhone. This is so wrong in so many ways. I think this is the end for me and my iPhone. I've been using it only as a phone since July when I got the Eee PC 901. When I need to bring a computer with me somewhere that's what I bring. The iPhone as a computer has become too unreliable, too many components just don't work, and the biggest bug in the whole thing is the company that makes it.

Apple keeps doing this, trying to take ownership of things they didn't invent. It doesn't work, they don't end up owning it, they just keep their users from getting the benefits of Apple having competition. It happened before when they rejected the iPhone podcatcher that worked the way podcatchers were always supposed to work, and now they want exclusivity on the web on iPhones.

The web was designed as an open system. That means the user has a choice of software he or she wants to use to browse the web. Even when it was at its peak of monopolism, Microsoft never went so far as to prohibit the installation of the competitive browser on Windows, they just bundled one with the OS.

Whatever. I'll vote with my dollars. I'm in the market for a new cell phone. I liked my old Blackberry. I want one with a camera. Voicemail that works. Not made by Apple.

pgoldtho writes "PC Mag has a story about why the 'white-space' spectrum that will be freed when TV broadcasts switch to digital should be available for unlicensed use. This would allow it to be used to deliver broadband connectivity in rural areas and create a 'third pipe' alternative to the cable/telco duopoly. The FCC is scheduled to vote on this November 4th. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has filed an emergency appeal to block this vote. If the NAB succeeds, the issue will be kicked into next year. Which would mean a new FCC, Congress, and Administration."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This sculpture by Canadian artist Julien Valle gives new meaning to the phrase "jumping right out of the page". Valle has sculpted the resulting spray from a typical can of spray paint into a spiky reality. Check out the link below for more of his work including a 24x100 inch hanging banner with hundreds of office supplies, tools, electronics, and other supplies attached to it.

Julien Vallee Works

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At the end of Oliver Stone's biopic, just before Nixon resigns in disgrace, he delivers a powerful line.

Standing in front of the White House portrait of John Kennedy, he says: "When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are."

We're at that summing up moment of the 2008 Presidential election, before we know the outcome, but probably most of it has already happened, and that seems to be the choice we have made in the last two elections, and the choice facing us in the next one. Vote for who we are or who we want to be?

I probably would enjoy having a coffee with either of the two candidates, but the conversation with Obama would be more interesting. I got an idea of what that would be like last night when he sat down for an extensive interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. She's singularly intelligent and thoughtful and earnest, and it was clear that Obama knew that and spoke to her intelligence, saying more than candidates usually say in interviews, I thought.

And the things he said were true, they weren't pandering. About deficits, he said the terrible thing about the Bush deficit is that we're not getting anything in return. No new industries, no updated roads, it hasn't been used to retrain the workforce for the 21st century, or convert our gasoline-based economy, or pay for health care.

There's no doubt we're going to be running a big deficit during the next four years, either way, but it's good to know that if Obama is elected, the money we borrow will be spent to upgrade the US economy and workforce. He's focused on the right things for the coming years. Whether it will work or not is another thing, but with Obama at least we have a chance.

During the Bush years the American traveler in Europe would hear that they don't understand why we elected and then re-elected Bush. I think it's because very few Europeans when they visit the US, go to the countryside of say Missouri or Ohio or Pennsylvania or rural Florida. The people who live here, as you now know, often choose our Presidents. To these people, we in the American cities seem foreign and its easy for Republican politicians to get them to blame us for their difficulties. I think this has happened in Europe too, btw. It's not a new thing or an American thing.

That's also why Obama, if he's elected, deserves a chance to try to heal the wounds between these two Americas.

Of course we're seeing more and more how interdependent our economies and societies are. The biggest problems facing each country actually face all countries equally. And like it or not, the American economy is still very important to the rest of the world. This is the saving grace for our country, and it's why it's in everyone's interest, I think, to see us get back on track. One way or another, that must happen.

Going back to the Nixon soliloquy -- when the people in rural America see Obama, they see who scares them, they see the future that one way or another, is coming. In that way Obama is like Nixon; when they look at him they see who they really are. When they look at McCain they see who they want to be. In urban America, it's exactly the opposite. We look at Obama and see who we want to be and look at McCain and worry that's who we really are.

xyz writes "A joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center has developed a highly modified Boeing-747SP aircraft to carry a 2.5-meter (98.4 inch) infrared telescope. The project SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) will observe radiation in the wavelengths from 0.3 microns to 1.0 millimeters, spanning the visible, infrared, and sub-millimeter portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The observations will be taken at an altitude of 40,000 to 45,000 feet (12 to 14 km) which is above 99.8 percent of the water vapor in Earth's atmosphere, thus giving it a greater range of observations." Update: 10/31 13:27 GMT by T : Mea culpa -- headline changed to reflect that this telescope is intended for looking out at space rather than down at the Earth.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

xyz writes "A joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center has developed a highly modified Boeing-747SP aircraft to carry a 2.5-meter (98.4 inch) infrared telescope. The project SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) will observe radiation in the wavelengths from 0.3 microns to 1.0 millimeters, spanning the visible, infrared, and sub-millimeter portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The observations will be taken at an altitude of 40,000 to 45,000 feet (12 to 14 km) which is above 99.8 percent of the water vapor in Earth's atmosphere, thus giving it a greater range of observations."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tetris on... an Arduino - the "open source GameBoy" has a game! Liquidware is now selling the "game pack" as well. This set up is pretty intense, the little Ardunio is doing more than I think anyone ever expected!

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Nice how-to at Hack-a-day from Ian on how to make a USB remote control receiver, he writes...

Now that we listen to MP3s, and watch XVIDs or x264s, a computer is the entertainment center in at least one room of most homes. Unless you have a special HTPC, though, you’re probably stuck using the keyboard to pause, change the volume, and fast-forward through annoying Mythbusters recaps. PC remote control receivers range from ancient serial port designs (who has one?) to USB devices not supported by popular software. In this how-to we design a USB infrared receiver that imitates a common protocol supported by software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. We’ve got a full guide to the protocol plus schematics and a parts list.

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A cool experiment called "the barking dog" using sulfur from The Periodic Table of Videos.

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"Wind Tree" by Elliot Montgomery connects a custom built turbine with a record player so that the blowing wind actually drove the turntable to spin causing the resulting sound to slow down or speed up depending on the available gusts. This project was built during a workshop at Solar One, "a New York-based center devoted to promoting "green energy, arts, and education which works to break down the barriers between energy users and energy makers."

Aeolian Electric: Wind-Powered Sculptures at Solar One, via InHabitat

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Gamasutra is running an article discussing the influence of games and gamers on the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections. The connection, while minor, is continuing to strengthen, from allowing people to register to vote through their consoles, to in-game advertising, to games about and involving the candidates. However, it may still be an uphill climb as media-sharing becomes easier. From Gamasutra: "There are reasons games have grown slowly compared to other technologies for political outreach. The most important one is also the most obvious: since 2004, online video and social networks have become the big thing, as blogs were four years ago. Instead of urging voters to 'play my game,' as Loftus and I surmised, candidates urged their constituents to 'watch my video.' Online video became the political totem of 2008, from James Kotecki's dorm room interviews to CNN's YouTube debates."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nick writes -

When we got the Lazor at NYCR, Adam discovered that Moleskin’s have PVC (not good) in the leather and lazering such a thing could be harmful to your health and might even harm small puppies! (Gasp!)

I wanted to Lazer the NYTimes “T” into my notebook so I had to take an alternate route. Very simply, I just cut out a “T” on the Epilog Lazor and then pressed it in a vice between a couple of pieces of wood for 20 mins or so. Looks pretty neat if I may say so myself. “Fire the lazzzzor!”

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During Maker Faire Austin 2008 we had some great deals in the Maker Shed. A lot of people were asking if they could get the same deals online. Well, the answer is...Yes! Just remember, this is the last day of our Best of Maker Faire promotion, so hurry up and take advantage of these great deals!

Enter in MAKER to get 10% off any of these kits in the Maker Shed right now if you spend more than $80 enter in FAIRE after and get free shipping on orders over $80.00 (Post discount of course), either of these codes will work independently from another as well as together.

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Magnet Sculpture Kit Experience the magic of rare earth magnets firsthand with this fun sculpture building kit.

A real attention-getting addition to any eccentric cubicle. Two powerful NdFeB magnets attract each other making it appear as if the cube on the cord is levitating.

High-strength woven Spectra cord and connectors are included. The wood components have been cut and drilled, and are ready for assembly. The degree of finishing is up to you, but the hardwood in this kit will reward even modest efforts. Use of walnut throughout gives the finished product a rich look and solid feel. Perfect for those who appreciate the beauty of wood, but don't have access to a shop full of tools.

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3rd Generation TV B Gone Turn ANY TV on or off with a click of the button! With the new and improved Gen 3 model, even those new big screen LCD TVs aren't safe anymore! New features include instant reactivation with the press of a button, bigger battery, Flashing LED indicates that the unit is sending out its signal. (If you don't want the flashing LED on, simply double-click at the beginning of a new sequence for "stealth mode") Check out our hat hack!

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Brain Machine Kit Hack your Brain! Get comfortable, put on the glasses and headphones, close your eyes (the LEDs are bright!), and flick the power switch. Enjoy the hallucinations as you drift into deep meditation, ponder your inner world, and then come out after the 14-minute program feeling fabulous. Sound and Light Machines (SLMs) produce sound and light pulses at brain wave frequencies, which help people sleep, wake up, meditate, or experience whatever state of consciousness the machine is programmed for.

Features

• Kit Contains:
  
• MiniPOV3 Kit
  
• Resistors
  
• Capacitors
  
• Stereo headphone jack
  
• Heatshrink tubing
  
• Blue & Yellow wire-wrap wire
  
• Safety glasses
  
• Graphix (color printout) with template for glasses
  
• Headphones
  
• AA Alkaline batteries (yes batteries are included!)
  
• Instructions
  

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Remember - enter in MAKER to get 10% off any of these kits, if you spend more than $80 enter in FAIRE after and get free shipping on orders over $80.00 (Post discount of course), either of these codes will work independently from another as well as together.

This is the last day of our store-wide sale, don't miss out on this great deal!

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With various politicians pushing the Justice Department to slam Google on antitrust charges (it's worth noting, of course, that Rep. Joe Barton, who seems to be leading the anti-Google charge, just so happens to have received an awful lot of campaign money from AT&T -- Google's arch nemesis), it appears that Google and Yahoo's attempt to broker a deal with the Justice Department may be falling through.

Reports are coming out that the two companies are ready to announce that they're walking away from their planned deal. This actually represents a bad end result for almost everyone involved. Yahoo will be hurt the most by this, and the last thing Yahoo needs right now is more trouble. For Google it's a loss, but not a huge loss. Microsoft comes out of it happy (and will gleefully watch Yahoo's stock continue to slide). It's still unclear what actual harm it would do to the marketplace to have Google running ads on Yahoo, but since when is politics about reason?

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Gmichaelorr's DIY Alien face hugger and chest burster costume! part of the DIY Halloween 2008 contest in the DIY Halloween 2008 photo pool!

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Sean sent us a link to a very cool project. It shows you how to cast these really nice flowerpots using Styrofoam packaging materials and plastic cups. The end results are really nice. [Thanks Sean]

More about How-to: Cast concrete planters using packing inserts

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Rick writes in -

A chicken walker mech costume - So my middle son asked to be a robot for Halloween. We had a great time building this but I believe he may be a bit too tired to eat candy. Then again perhaps not.

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Here are the most read articles in MAKE: Volume 15... We just announced MAKE 16 so it's a good time to see what everyone was reading in last volume.

If you're a MAKE subscriber, you get the digital edition for free - MAKE Digital Edition is a vivid replica of the print edition of MAKE, it offers an experience very much like the print magazine plus many additional benefits, such as online searching, embedded multimedia and printing. Please note that MAKE Digital Edition can be viewed from any web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.) and requires NO DOWNLOADING of software NO weird DRM'ed PDFs - you get instant access to your entire MAKE collection!

Click any of the links below and start reading MAKE now. Or subscribe and get started a little later! Use the code CMAKE to get $5 off (USA only).

Toolbox by Daniel Carter et al. Binoculars for beginners, über-accurate torque,?a tea-serving robot, and 100 monsters. Page 172. Read Toolbox in the MAKE digital edition.

Compressed Air Rocket by Rick Schertle. Page 104. Blow your friends away as you send this 25-cent rocket hundreds of feet in the air. You can build this easy launcher and rocket with common hardware store items in an afternoon. Read Compressed Air Rocket in the MAKE digital edition.

Vortex Cannons by Edwin Wise. These three cannons can throw chunks of air in the form of smoke rings across a room. Page 116. Read Vortex Cannons in the MAKE digital edition.

The Amazing Seeback Generator by Andrew Lewis. With no moving parts, this simple ?energy-recycling generator scavenges waste heat from a candle and turns?it into usable electricity. Page 126. Read The Amazing Seeback Generator in the MAKE digital edition.

Laser Harp by Stephen Hobley. Play strings of light, using laser pointers, rangefinders, photocells, and Arduino. Page 66. Read Laser Harp in the MAKE digital edition.

Reader Input. Makers tell their tales of mad boating experiments and childhood hijinks. Page 16. Read Reader Input in the MAKE digital edition.

Form and Functions. David Jones makes his own scientific calculator watch. Page 20. Read Form and Functions in the MAKE digital edition.

Solar-Powered Studio by Charles Platt. Bruce Baldwin's DIY desert dream. Page 38. Read Solar-Powered Studio in the MAKE digital edition.

Subscribe and get started use the code CMAKE to get $5 off (USA only).

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This is a really nice UV light box for making PCBs. It supports double sided boards, has a built in timer, and a safety switch to turn off the unit when opened. Looks like a great alternative to expensive commercial versions.

I'm just toying around with this idea at the moment. If I start using photo exposure PCB type production, I'm probably going to need a light box. I have tried using spray on photo-sensitive resist and exposure to the sun. It was a complete failure. Presensitised boards, and a light box seem the way to go. I haven't read much about this technique on the web, so I'm still a bit cautious.

More about DIY: UV Light Box

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The The End photo pool, the "end" frames of old moves - makes a great wall art / screen saver when you let it run... via NOTCOT.

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eldavojohn writes "It's a topic that a lot of game makers like Atari don't want the public hearing. Game makers wrongfully accusing clearly innocent people of piracy. From the article, 'According to Michael Coyle, an intellectual property solicitor with law firm Lawdit, more and more people are being wrongly identified as file-sharers. He is pursuing 70 cases of people who claim to be wrongly accused of piracy and has spoken to hundreds of others, he told the BBC.' If only a few are coming forward after receiving extortion letters ('Pay £500 OR ELSE!'), what's the actual number of those out there being wrongfully accused?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

eldavojohn writes "It's a topic that a lot of game makers like Atari don't want the public hearing. Game makers wrongfully accusing clearly innocent people of piracy. From the article, 'According to Michael Coyle, an intellectual property solicitor with law firm Lawdit, more and more people are being wrongly identified as file-sharers. He is pursuing 70 cases of people who claim to be wrongly accused of piracy and has spoken to hundreds of others, he told the BBC.' If only a few are coming forward after receiving extortion letters ('Pay £500 OR ELSE!'), what's the actual number of those out there being wrongfully accused?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Want to know how healthy Silicon Valley startups are at any moment in time? One good way to judge is to just look at the sort of press that Marty Pichinson is getting. We first wrote about Marty, the dot com cleanup guy, back in 2002 when he was the public face of all those dot coms that were shutting down, following the first dot com bubble burst. Throughout that year there were a few more profiles of Marty. Even through 2004, we were still reading about how the startup liquidation business was going strong. Yet, in 2007, as the whole Web 2.0 bubble was inflating, Marty wasn't looking so hot. Business was slow and he was laying off people and shutting down offices.

But with the new financial crisis in full swing, have no fear: Marty's back! He's out amongst the press again, providing interviews on the best ways for startups to deal with impending financial troubles. And, of course, in the worst case scenario, I'm sure he'd love to help liquidate your business for you.

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superbus1929 writes "I work as a security analyst at an internet security company. While troubleshooting an issue, we learned why our customer couldn't keep his site-to-site VPN going from any location that uses Sprint as its ISP: Sprint has decided not to route traffic to Cogent due to litigation. This has a chilling effect; already, this person I worked with cannot communicate between a few sites of his, and since Sprint is stopping the connections cold (my traceroutes showed as complete, and not as timing out), it means that there is no backup plan; anyone going to Cogent from a Sprint ISP is crap out of luck."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

superbus1929 writes "I work as a security analyst at an internet security company. While troubleshooting an issue, we learned why our customer couldn't keep his site-to-site VPN going from any location that uses Sprint as its ISP: Sprint has decided not to route traffic to Cogent due to litigation. This has a chilling effect; already, this person I worked with cannot communicate between a few sites of his, and since Sprint is stopping the connections cold (my traceroutes showed as complete, and not as timing out), it means that there is no backup plan; anyone going to Cogent from a Sprint ISP is crap out of luck."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MarsPhoenix twitter: Take care of that beautiful blue marble out there in space, our home planet. I'll be keeping an eye from here. Space exploration FTW!
about 8 hours ago from web

In case we don't get this chance again, thank you all so much for the questions, comments & good wishes over the mission. It's been awesome. about 9 hours ago from web

NASA news here.

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Just a week ago, we were laughing at Second Life's attempt to position its economy as being safe compared to the real economy. That seemed difficult to believe, as a variety of things have been conspiring against Second Life for quite some time, and much of its own economy was based on its own inflated hype-bubble that overstated how many users there were and misled companies concerning what people actually did in Second Life (hint: it wasn't visit virtual clothing stores). With that bubble rapidly deflating, it really was only a matter of time until the wider Second Life economy faced its own crisis, and apparently (despite claims to the contrary) that's manifesting itself in a real estate crash within Second Life. At least in the real world, the property is a physical thing that has some intrinsic value. We've pointed out in the past that betting your business model on an economy made up of virtual goods is quite dangerous, and it appears Second Life is discovering that fact pretty quickly.

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Here's a neat project by artist Nic Wiesinger:

The Van That Thought Out Loud is a roaming billboard for your ideas, expression, thoughts and intentions. It is yours, a vehicle for you the individual to rant or whine, be profound or idiotic, wild or lame. Just email a post to the vehicle along with your name and present location to: TheVanThatThoughtOutLoud@Gmail.com. Next, wait. The image of your thought spelled on the van will posted for all to see. All interactions involving the van are free.

You can also catch the van at local events, just check out his blog.

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An anonymous reader writes "A post on the EA Support Forums from APOC, online community manager for Electronic Arts, outlines a new policy for their new forums, saying users who earn a ban based on their behavior in the forums will be locked out of all of the EA games tied to that account: 'Well, its actually going to be a bit nastier for those who get banned. Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since it's all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act mature. All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but it's what we have to do.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "A post on the EA Support Forums from APOC, online community manager for Electronic Arts, outlines a new policy for their new forums, saying users who earn a ban based on their behavior in the forums will be locked out of all of the EA games tied to that account: 'Well, its actually going to be a bit nastier for those who get banned. Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since it's all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act mature. All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but it's what we have to do.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "A post on the EA Support Forums from APOC, online community manager for Electronic Arts, outlines a new policy for their new forums, saying users who earn a ban based on their behavior in the forums will be locked out of all of the EA games tied to that account: 'Well, its actually going to be a bit nastier for those who get banned. Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since it's all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act mature. All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but it's what we have to do.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Back in 2005, we wrote about Sun's doomed plans to offer an "open source DRM" solution. Not surprisingly, that went nowhere fast. Last year, Tim Lee took apart the claims of "Marlin," a supposedly new "open source DRM" solution. As Tim noted, open source and DRM are a contradiction in terms. So, it's not clear why last week some were celebrating the latest version of Marlin. As some pointed out, just because it's open source, doesn't mean that it should be "blessed" by the tech crowd. DRM is about destroying options for what you can do with bits. Open source is about multiplying the options. To mix them together makes no sense.

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In one of my posts about the financial crisis, I noted two important things: that if banks really did stop lending money, there would be opportunities for others to start lending (though, the question was whether or not widespread fear would stop that process) and that non-bank businesses might start adjusting their own "loans" in the form of changing the terms on deals. Of course, what we were talking about there was businesses decreasing the amount of credit they offer customers by doing things like shrinking the terms on a deal from payable at net 60 days to net 30 days.

What we didn't necessarily count on was that cash rich tech companies might go in the other direction -- and look to fill that opportunity to lend where banks had failed. Apparently vendor financing is suddenly a very hot business, with various tech companies suddenly finding a lot more interest in their leasing and vendor financing programs. Effectively, what's happening is that these tech firms with money are taking over the role of lenders from the banks. Assuming the loan risks are low, this could actually work out quite well for these tech companies in the long run. It's at least something worth watching. Valleywag worries that these sorts of deals almost always end badly -- but that's not necessarily true. It really depends on how the programs are run, and how well they measure the risk associated with certain companies.

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An anonymous reader writes "We've all heard Weird Al Yankovic's 'Don't Download This Song,' which came out a couple years ago, but did you know that MTV is apparently so afraid that kids listening to the song will discover for the first time that file sharing offerings exist that in its video of the song, MTV bleeps out their names? There's a line in the song that lists out Morpheus, Grokster, Kazaa and Limewire (most of whom don't really exist any more), but for some reason MTV considers those names to be bleep worthy." Unless this is all one grand inside joke from Weird Al.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "We've all heard Weird Al Yankovic's 'Don't Download This Song,' which came out a couple years ago, but did you know that MTV is apparently so afraid that kids listening to the song will discover for the first time that file sharing offerings exist that in its video of the song, MTV bleeps out their names? There's a line in the song that lists out Morpheus, Grokster, Kazaa and Limewire (most of whom don't really exist any more), but for some reason MTV considers those names to be bleep worthy." Unless this is all one grand inside joke from Weird Al.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

PZ Myers posted this interesting photo of people worshipping the golden calf Wall Street bull in order to save the stock market.

Did you know that some Christian dingbat has dubbed today the “Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies?” Well here they are, at the Wall Street bull statue thing, praying to Jesus for money. The dingbat has explained, “We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems.”

Exodus 32:

8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

9And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

Jesus people pray that false idol will save God’s economy

Seen here is the magnificent cover of the new issue of MAKE:. The theme is, obviously, DIY spy tech. The cover and interior illustrations were created by none other than MAD Magazine art director Sam Viviano. Wow.
MAKE: Vol. 16, Spy Tech

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we learned that TiVo owners will get Netflix streaming, that Dell's making a new All-in-One desktop computer, and that people will go to any lengths in pursuit of gaming cake. Oh, and the eleventh commandment: Thou Shalt Not Use Caps Lock.

John found the Kangaroom gamer sofa saddlebag, a finger-mounted bolt tightener, and an awe-inspiring Russian speaker made from an old fire extinguisher. Mimes pretending to be Human vending machines did not please him, but the amazing Bickford, a razorblade robot, certainly did.

Rob spotted a shocking handheld game, a 3G Compaq netbook for Europe, and a nice bottle of USB Port. He donned a chainmail shirt from ThinkGeek, sat in a Hobart I-Cool supervillain chair, and throttled himself with a Papal USB Drive.

There was a handheld computer from Aigo; a gorgeous tech demo for a forthcoming Wii game; Lego halloween minifigs; and a crazy accordian refrigerator.

We read Lisa Katayama's explanation of why Japanese cell phones are no fun, listened to fantastic remixes of BBC theme tunes, and discovered Asus is making an Android phone.

Do you want to know what a rectal retractor is? Probably not.

Boing Boing Gadgets

Rob Harris, who wrote the wonderfully entertaining books Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy! and Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up A Woefully Incomplete Guide took a trip to the North Korean border area and send his photos and comments to friends. He was kind of enough to allow us to run them on Boing Boing.

En route from Seoul, there are numerous large war monuments, which is hardly surprising, since technically the war still hasn't ended. Fortunately, most of the major ones are collected in one big depressing park, great for your getting-dispirited-about-the-human-condition convenience.

Here's one commemorating the "Ten Human Bombs":

I probably don't need to explain how the Ten Human Bombs met their end.

I also hope you don't see any resemblance to the overwrought posing of 1980s power-rock bands. That would be disresectful. Humming anything by Night Ranger, Twisted Sister, or Whitesnake while looking at this picture would be just wrong.

When you get up close to the border, the first thing you hit is Imjingak, where the Freedom Bridge is located.

That old railroad bridge is where 13,000 POWs were released by N. Korea and allowed to walk south. Thus the name.

The walkway to the bridge is now closed off, for obvious reasons. But if you peek through the coin-operated tourist binoculars, you can actually make out patrols in huts on the far side of the bridge.

There's a goofy sculpture of an armed peacekeeper at the beginning of the walkway, so it seemed fun to get my picture with it. Little did I realize where I'd be posing shortly.

Imjingak is as as close to the North as most South Koreans have ever been. Beyond here, foreigners need to jump through a few minor hoops to continue; locals are generally forbidden.

As a result, numerous shrines and monuments have been built here dealing with the country's separation and the permanent ripping-in-half of families on both sides. This site and a corresponding one on the other side are often used for ceremonies to honor ancestors, lost loved ones, fallen soldiers, etc.

Which explains the scores of busses in the parking lot. (There are nearly 100 in this partial image alone.)

With so many people flooding in on tour busses, it feels weirdly almost like a tourist trap.

Wait. Skip the "almost."

Unless every international flash point has a giant swing in the shape of a pirate ship.

I almost started thinking maybe this whole deal was overblown. After all, pretty much anybody (except South Koreans, and people from a few dozen countries where you need to go through a bunch of paperwork) can sign up, fork over some cash, and go peek at the DMZ. How tense could it really be?

Ahem.

Next thing you know, after showing my passport at three checkpoints, I'm in a military briefing at Camp Bonifas at the edge of the DMZ, and handed a form to sign agreeing to (if I remember it all):

• No smoking, no gum chewing, etc.; you're now entering a military area, so you gotta abide.

• No heels, no sandals, no unconventional shoes; if shooting breaks out, you gotta be able to run.

• No baggy jeans, no sleeveless shirts, conservative attire only; we are about to be monitored by the North Koreans, and any remotely questionable clothing could give them useful propaganda footage; entry without proper clothing will be barred in advance.

• No photos for the vast majority of the trip into the DMZ. A sergeant wearing a sidearm will be with you at all times, and if you attempt an unauthorized photo, your camera will be confiscated on the spot. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• No gesturing of any kind, especially pointing at things. This could be mistaken through binoculars on the other side as the presence of an unagreed-upon weapon, and could provoke live fire. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• No smiling, attempts at communication, or even eye contact with North Korean soldiers. This can be misunderstood and provoke a confrontation. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• No unauthorized movements of any kind, including even turning around to look at something behind you you've already passed. This can also provoke conflict. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• You do understand that you are entering a dangerous area, and that the possibility of injury or death is real.

Hokay then.

Next come tank traps, concertina wire, live exercises, and a whole bunch of highly active history.

Apparently North Koreans still violate the cease-fire and make small incursions into the DMZ on a surprisingly regular basis. A lot of this doesn't get much reported in the rest of the West because, well, for the same reason a lot of really important things just never get reported. TMZ gets higher ratings than DMZ any day of the week.

Then, finally, we reach the Joint Security Area (JSA), the only spot where the two countries connect -- ground zero of the DMZ.

So here's me being a tourist in front of the North Korean border, marked by the white posts. Those trees? In North Korea.

To the left of this spot, on the North Korean side, they've built the world's tallest flagpole, 160 meters high, over the propaganda village of Kijong-dong, whose name is fun to say over and over. You may have to make train noises and say "whooo-whooo!" after about six repetitions.

Why the gigondous flagpole? On the South Korean side, see, there's an actual village of about 200 farmers who chose not to abandom their ancestral homes, despite being inside the DMZ. South Korea eventually put up a 100m flagpole near the village. Look at the size of our pole, North Korea! Whoo-hoo! The North Koreans, in response, tried to prove their superiority by building an even bigger village on the other side and erecting an even bigger flagpole. South Korea, that's all you got? Bwah-HAH-ha-haha-haaa!

The North Korean village, however, seems to be entirely fake; there's no glass in many of the windows, the only people usually visible are a few soldiers creeping around, and the lights go on and off in the buildings at the same time every night.

Then again, that may also just be what an average North Korean village looks like these days. Sigh.

How tense can things get around here? One example:

Not far away, there's a marker where a yellow poplar tree used to grow. By 1976, it had gotten so big that the UN observation post at upper right couldn't quite see the goings-on at a checkpoint just out of the frame to the left.

At the time, soldiers from each side could move about the JSA freely.

So a group of UN soldiers, including U.S. Army Cpt. Arthur Bonifas, went to cut the tree down. The North Koreans took exception, and pretty soon, a bunch of them ax-murdered two of the UN guys, including Cpt. Bonifas.

Ever since, soldiers from each side can no longer move about the JSA freely.

And that's why the camp where we got our briefing is called Camp Bonifas.

Three days later, a complex raid ("Operation Paul Bunyan") involving a reported 813 men, 23 vehicles, 7 Cobra attack helicopters, a parade of B-52 bomber and F-4 and F-5 fighter planes, and a US Navy aircraft carrier placed into position offshore...

... and managed to cut down the tree.

Seriously.

So, yes. Kinda tense sometimes.

Nearby, the hauntingly named Bridge of No Return.

This bridge was used for prisoner exchanges once the cease fire was established in 1953. Since many families were split by the border, released prisoners didn't always want to cross; maybe their mom was on the side they'd been captured on, but their wife was on the other side. No matter -- the deal was simple: cross once if you like, but if you do, you can never return.

This is also the bridge that USN Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher and the crew of the captured U.S.S. Pueblo crossed when they were released in 1968. They were somewhat less conflicted about leaving.

At the very center of the JSA -- after passing through some more no-photo areas -- you reach a row of small huts painted UN blue and placed squaredly atop of the border, straddling it so that the north half of each building is on side and the south half is on the other.

The centermost is the one used for peace talks to this day.

The northern half of this small building is on North Korean soil. It has its own entry, just like the one we're looking at from the southern side.

Notice that the UN guards are facing our North Korean friends while sort of peeking around the building's corners, with half of their bodies shielded by the edge of the building. Not without reason. Gunfire has erupted here unpredictably over the years. Sometimes it's caused by an unexpected provocation, but on occasion it has also been the result of a sudden attempt to defect from the North, either by a patrolling soldier a visiting North Korean, Russian, or other dignitary.

The North Koreans are under strict orders to immediately shoot anyone who attempts to defect.

Since it's only a ten-second dash from one side to the other, things could freak out in a blink at any moment. Years can go by between incidents, and then instantly, without warning, bang bang bang bang bang. So it's one second to go-time here, 24/7.

Btw, this is a really good moment not to suddenly yell "Kim Jong-Il sucks!" and try to run for it.

For all my kidding around, I want to take a sec and make clear that I respect these guys a lot. They really are defending their country from one of the nuttiest systems ever devised by humankind.

Sadly, the North Korean soldiers probably think they're doing something similar.

Then again, I don't have a picture of it, but the North Korean guards stand their positions while facing each other -- supposedly so if one tries to defect, the other will have a better chance of killing him.

So what does it look like inside? There are three conference tables -- one on each side, plus the main one for face-to-face discussions. This main table is placed squarely atop the border, with the microphone jacks and little peacekeeper flag literally straddling the frontier, just so nobody gets pissy.

It looks, in fact, just like this:

The soldier on the far end of the table is actually straddling the border.

Say... doesn't that mean my right foot is in North Korea...?

Yup. And about five steps further to my right, behind the northern conference table, there's a door to the rest of North Korea. Vigorously guarded, of course.

I got my picture with the guard, because hell, I'm an American tourist, it's my job. But I was under strict instruction not to touch or interact in any way.

Looking at his body language, I wasn't exactly tempted. Notice the distinct lack of touching. Because I do not like sudden arm fractures.

I also did not hum anything by Quiet Riot. This would have been a bad idea.

Seriously, look at that guy's posture. I've only seen that before in comic books, just before the Rocketeer launches, or Wolverine sprouts adamantium claws and starts dishing out scars. Standing next to the guy, it felt like he was just waiting for someone to give him an opportunity. Which, in a sense, he has to be at all times, just to do the job.

I can't get over the clenched fists. You get the feeling they're not going to hug this out.

OK, back through more no-photo-land, which is surprisingly lovely: 55 years of near-zero human activity in the DMZ has created an ad hoc nature preserve. How odd.

And finally, back at Camp Bonifas... what else? A freakin' gift shop.

Camo in infant sizes. Nice touch.

Also sweet swag: sample bits of barbed wire, in case your sliver of the Berlin Wall doesn't carry the same frisson it used to.

Great for rounding up teeny-tiny cattle.

They get thousands of visitors through here, so I guess it's no surprise. And it adds to the level of surreality, so no complaints.

I wound up buying a replica armband, just like the about-to-berserk Rocketeers were wearing. Maybe if I wear it long enough I'll start getting superpowers when I'm angry.

Besides, it'll look really cool to wear when I'm hanging out with these guys.

We're not gonna take it! No, we ain't gonna take it! We're not gonna take it... anymore!

Announcing MAKE volume 16 - Spy tech with Spy vs Spy on the cover by Sam Viviano... No mission is impossible when makers put their minds to it. Make Volume 16 will help you get smart with a special section on spy tech. Learn how to build and use tiny surveillance devices, and how to know if a spy is using them on you. From tiny video cameras to sneaky recorders, this volume has enough cool stuff to make James Bond's inventor Q envious... If you've been on the fence about subscribing, now is a good time (click here for a discount) - this is by far my favorite issue, we're 4 years old now, with 16 volume total, wow!...

Oh, here are a few more images from the issue (click read more) we'll have a video and more soon up too. This is literally hot off the press!

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Last month, Slashdot readers contributed their own inquiries to the pool of questions for the Walden University Presidential Youth Debate. Two of those questions made the cut, and you can watch either the individual video responses to each of the questions presented to John McCain and Barack Obama (by scrolling down the just-linked debate home page), or the whole debate straight through. For something meatier, if you are weary of predictably slippery campaign-style answers, Ethan Rowe of End Point has a very interesting blog post about the technology background of the debate.

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