The website for DenSheild contains a lot of information about the product, but I can't stop staring at the unusual photo of the model on its website.

I wonder how much they paid the designer for this? DenShield on Photoshop disasters

We've covered the long history of Australian politicians looking to set up their own censored internet "to protect the children" (of course). The plans have changed over time, but the end goal has always been the same: to force ISPs to block a list of sites provided by the government. In the latest incarnation, the plan supposedly included an "opt-out" option, where a web surfer could specifically ask to opt-out of the filters (effectively asking someone to sign up for a "porn-surfing license"). That, on its own, might scare some people off, but now it turns out that the opt-out isn't really an opt-out. Instead, it's just opting you in to a somewhat less restrictive blacklist. Once again, this idea of mandatory filtering out of "bad" sites on the internet sets a dangerous precedent. Whoever has control over that list has tremendous power, and it will be abused. On almost every "filter" list we've seen sites that certainly don't belong there, and this will be no different. If a site is doing something illegal, then charge whoever is responsible for the site. Trying to deal with it through filters and blocklists is both bound to fail and dangerous to free speech.

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John sent in this detailed video tour of the incarnation of The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk he received, aka "WOKING1". Wow - the box be brimmin' with electro-treasure!

More:

TGIMBOEJ withdrawal & deposit & TGIMBOEJ has a wiki

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When critics of our analysis of the economics of infinite and scarce goods want to mock our ideas or make fun of us, they often fall back on the false claim that the business model we advocate is "give away everything and make it up by selling t-shirts." Or, rather, if they're really in a mocking mood, they usually write "llllllloooooooooooooooooootttts of t-shirts." It's quite amusing, though, of course, it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what we mean by scarce goods.

That said, t-shirts can make up one part of the scarce goods that someone sells, though, it will almost always be a small part of it. And, there's no reason to mock the contribution that selling t-shirts can make as part of a larger business model. Reader Aaron de Oliveira points us to the interesting news that the super popular video game Rock Band is now letting players who have uploaded their own fake rock band logo order t-shirts, keychains and other merchandise from their fake band. As de Oliveira correctly notes, not only does this make some money, but it also makes the gaming experience better, connects fans more closely to the game and their own fake rock band in the game:

The company realizes it's not in the music business or in the t-shirt business. Its business model is the custom experience and it uses music (fun & free or cheap) and t-shirts to improve that experience in such a way that people are willing to pay for it.

Bingo. So go buy llllllooooooooottts of t-shirts to make it work.

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I just invented a new acronym: President Obama Of The United States.

Knock wood.

Okay it really looks like he's going to win, forgive me for saying that, I know it's not a good idea, and I don't really believe it but just in case...

I saw this picture on the wall in a scene in last night's 60 Minutes. Leslie Stahl is interviewing Ray Odierno, the new US commander in Iraq. He was showing off some new technique of hunting down the bad guys with drones, very impressive, except I just watched Generation Kill on HBO and I can't help but wondering if it's a fraud and a hoax. Anyway. On the wall is this portrait of President Bush superimposed on the American flag with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

Whuh?



That's pretty outrageously out there.

So when my guy Barack, POOTUS, is in the White House and the wingnuts are giving him shit about how he seems to be enjoying the trappings of the presidency, I'm going to ask them to have a look at this picture and see if Dubya wasn't just a teeeeeny bit over the top here.

This one is for all yard haunters out there. It's an oldie but a goodie. It seems every yard haunt has to have a graveyard scene and here is my favorite way to make those gravestones look real. Your going to need:

Styrofoam
A hot wire cuter
and lots of spray paint
Flat black latex paint

Also don't forget our huge MAKE Halloween Contest!

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Musician Mark Growden plays many instruments, but here he demonstrates a particularly unusual one - bicycle handlebars. Note there are no holes or other modification added to the tube - the voice is controlled simply by hand and mouth. With some dedication to practice, the handlebars could be a choice instrument for the bicycling busker - convenient!
[via Laughing Squid]

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I'm fascinated by "street tech," by how people actually use tools and technologies in ways their designers never intended. I'm also fascinated by improvisation, of all kinds. As a result, I'm slightly obsessed with tool tips, those funky, ingenious, and "why didn't I think of that?" ways that people use (and abuse) the tools in their lives.

One thing I love about tool tips is the disproportional impact a great tip or working technique can have on your work life. Like: it took me a while, in doing electronics, before it occurred to me that you could use tape or poster putty to hold components in place for soldering. It's now rare that I don't use this technique. Here a few tips from "SpikenzieLabs:"

Organize your projects:
The "tool" here is the blue plastic bucket. These buckets are re-used mushroom packaging. (Nice, that makes them free!) They are great at holding bits and pieces. When starting a new project, I'll often gather up all the parts needed and throw them into one of these bins. If the part is static sensitive then I'll leave it in it's protective package, otherwise I'll just put them in loose.

Fingers too big ?
Lots of people use breadboards to either make or prototype their electronics projects. Many people get frustrated by short circuits or knocking out parts as they add components or make changes.

When I started to use these tweezers, those problem were a thing of the past! These guys are not those ultra fine tweezers that you would use to pull out a splinter but nice big ones. Big, but still much smaller then my fingers. With these, I can get in-between almost anything on my breadboards without touching the parts next it it. (I still turn off the power, though.)

Hold it still:
How often do you put a part into a PCB then turn it over to solder it in place and have fall out? In cases where bending the pins to hold the part in is not an option I reach for my 3M Brand Blue painters masking tape. This love this stuff! It has a great balance between good tack, to hold things in place and releasability, without getting everything gummy.

Cool Tools @ SpikenzieLabs

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As we've been writing about the MPAA's odd lawsuit against RealNetworks for its RealDVD DVD ripping product, we've pointed out (multiple times) how it doesn't make much sense. The problem was that there are tons of much more effective DVD ripping products out there. Unlike RealDVD, they don't hobble the ripped copies. So, shutting down RealDVD doesn't do anything to stop piracy -- and if anything only increases it, as those who want to rip DVDs are more likely to just download one of those free products that don't encumber the resulting rip with more DRM. Thus, people will still be copying DVDs, and will do so in a way that is a lot more "piratable" than if the MPAA let RealDVD live.

So why is the MPAA doing what it's doing?

The EFF has stepped up with theory that makes a lot of sense: this has nothing to do with stopping piracy, and everything to do with controlling how innovation happens in the movie market. The movie studios that make up the MPAA believe that they own the movie business, and thus any innovation in the industry needs to come through them and get their approval. What Real is doing with RealDVD is ignoring the MPAA's "approval" process, and effectively taking the path of innovation out of the studios' hands.

If this sounds familiar, it's because this has what's been going on with almost all of the "anti-piracy" battles over the last decade. Napster wasn't so much about stopping piracy (which of course, didn't work in the slightest), but about the RIAA record labels freaking out that someone else (a college kid, no less) had established a much better and more efficient distribution mechanism without getting their approval and running it through their filter first.

Effectively, the Big Content players believe that they own their industries, and innovation should come from the top down through the paths that they choose. Thus, these sorts of lawsuits will continue until the management of these firms recognize that innovation is a bottom-up phenomenon. Or, the big firms go out of business. Whichever comes first.

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The "Road Kill Carpet" is gross, but since it's Halloween season it's a go! via Bre.

Do you know the feeling that you do not want to take a look at something, but you still do? The Road Kill carpet is a continues struggle between attraction and repulsion. It's a warm, soft, cuddly carpet that attracts you to take a nap on it. But at the same time its a repulsive image of a car-flattened, bloody fox.

Description: Handmade carpet from 100% wool
Dimensions: 165 x 240 cm / 65 x 94,5 inch
Design: Studio OOOMS

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Some impressive Austin Makers were interviewed on Fox this morning:

There are a lot of inventors in Central Texas and some are creating some pretty unusual things. If you want to get up close and play with some of the inventions then you won't want to miss the Maker Faire this upcoming weekend. FOX 7's Nike Ciccone gives us a preview of the Maker Faire while checking out a few of the inventions.

Check out the video here , and read more about the projects featured:

• Gothmartha's metal bats


• The Robot Group (Rick Abbott and the egg plotter featured in the video)

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The amazing "face paintings" James Kuhn.

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25 years of cell phone service... Pictured above, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X cost $3,995, was 13 inches long, and weighed 1.75 pounds...

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first commercial wireless call. It happened Oct. 13, 1983, at Soldier Field, where Ameritech Mobile, now part of Verizon Wireless, made the call from a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X known as the "brick" phone. The phone cost $3,995, was 13 inches long, and weighed 1.75 pounds.

Paul Gudonis, who was vice president of marketing for Ameritech Mobile Communications and who organized the launch, said 20 customers of the new cell phone service were invited to the event.

And to be fair, 25 years later a new industry has sprung up, cell phone jamming...

More:

Wave Bubble - Open source Wi-Fi, cellphone, GPS and RF jammer.

Modifying a cheap portable cellphone jammer.

Phone looks like pack of cigarettes and cell phone jammer that fits inside a pack of cigarettes...

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Every time there is a new technology, the makers figure out a way to cook food with it... Radio cooked toast, 1933.

RADIO cooking is the latest stunt developed by broadcast engineers. If a hot lunch is wanted by the operators in a transmitting station, all they have to do is place their food between the electrodes of the transmitter. In a few moments it will be done to a turn. Bread may be toasted in six seconds, but steak and potatoes take several minutes. Oddly enough, food overdone by cooking on the radio transmitter does not have a burned taste. Toast can be charred black without tasting in any way different from the kind a cook would be proud to serve. Engineers are not quite sure just why this is so, but believe it is because the cooking is done by the electric discharge and the electrodes get only slightly warm.

Laser cooked toast... Made :)

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Here's an update on the Escape from Berkeley, the non-petroleum road race from Berkeley to Vegas:

An interesting adventure had by all racers yesterday as we had to navigate around Tioga pass which had been temporarily closed (opening mid day yesterday, such is life). Some chose to go south over the 178 some chose to go north and try their luck with Ebbetts pass. At the end of the day we lost two more and had a surprise change in the ranks, with the Prisoners of Petroleum coming in First.

We followed the Neverwas crew with Judge Michael Michael North to go over one of the Northern passes. We even found Ol' Beth, in Angels Camp to show Kristie's Flyer what she could grow up to be some day. Going over Ebetts pass proved to be quite a challenge and Home School Heros and Kristie's Flyer stayed the night in Lee Vining planning to catch up with us later today.

Vegas is our destination today. We will update with highlights from the awards ceremony.

BTW: You can see a list of the competitors here.

More:

Escape from Berkeley

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A study by Entertainment Media Research claims that 72% of file sharers would stop file sharing, if sent a letter by their ISP threatening to cut them off the internet. This, obvious, supports the entertainment industry's effort over the past couple of years to get ISPs to act as their enforcers. It also ignores the fact that the EU has rejected such three strikes policies as a violation of users' rights. If someone puts a gun to your head and tells you to do something, plenty of people will probably do it, but that doesn't mean that it's right. Furthermore, what the study is really asking is, which of these two scenarios is preferable: no file sharing or no internet (which, by definition would mean no file sharing). Guess which people are going to say?

Unfortunately, results like this just mean that the industry will probably keep up its campaign to push for ISP enforcement, rather than actually coming up with better business models that embrace file sharing as promotion and a natural part of the market. They'll claim, of course, that this shows such an "educational campaign" will be effective -- ignoring the implicit "gun-to-head" part. However, as we recently discussed, there's little to indicate that the educational campaign has actually succeeded at all over the past decade, and there's little to believe that letters from ISPs will really be particularly effective in the long run. In a survey, of course people will say that they'll stop the activity to avoid getting cut off the internet. But that won't be because they think it's right or are comfortable with it. So the second a new, more secure or more underground method of file sharing comes along, they'll jump on that as well. If the entertainment industry wants to keep pursuing three strikes rules by promoting delusional studies like this one, that's it's choice, but it won't get the industry any closer to solving its business model problems.

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Ryan writes in about creating a handmade newspaper...

The complete paper - a four page publication not far off the Berliner size - was distributed this morning at select central London locations.

Every word and every image and every mark of any kind in The Manual was drawn by a team of volunteers - mostly illustrators. The printing was also by hand, silk screened at The Print Club in Dalston. Each copy of the paper has been numbered in a limited edition of around 100.

This one-off non-profit project was organized by Shakeup Media to make a point about the future of print. We hope to show that handmade qualities can transform newspapers from 'junk' to collectable. We also want to demonstrate the power of print as a medium by using ink and paper in a manner that emphasises their unique touch, smell and texture.

(We are using 100% recycled 170gsm B2 size sheets folded in half and Neptune water-based ink with 10% retarder).

The journalism in The Manual is a work in progress but we are aiming for a style that is more explanatory than simply factual - the motto of the paper is "Today Explained". And of course, being only four pages long, the paper must be extremely selective about the events that it covers.

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Nice Battlestar Galactica mod via the Giz!


If you want to make your own Cylon pumpkin this Halloween - we have a kit!!

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21 of the most amazing photos you'll ever see of the Sun @ Boston.com...

The Sun is now in the quietest phase of its 11-year activity cycle, the solar minumum - in fact, it has been unusually quiet this year - with over 200 days so far with no observed sunspots. The solar wind has also dropped to its lowest levels in 50 years. Scientists are unsure of the significance of this unusual calm, but are continually monitoring our closest star with an array of telescopes and satellites. Seen below are some recent images of the Sun in more active times.

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So, we were a little confused recently when Toyota sued a nude model for using the name Alexus, as it seemed difficult to believe there would be any "confusion" between the two. However, who knew that Lexus was getting into the entertainment business? We've talked in the past about BMW's famous BMW Films effort, as an example of how the future of advertising needs to recognize the blurring lines between content and advertising. In BMW's case, each film was directed by a famous filmmaker, starred actor Clive Owen, and included a BMW that tended to act as something of a co-star. The films were entertaining as pure content, rather than as traditional advertising.

Since then, we've seen plenty of other companies try similar things, with varying degrees of success. For example, the recent set of Microsoft ads involving Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates received a very mixed reaction -- in part because people expected them to be like traditional ads, pitching a specific product, rather than creating a story line that was entertaining in its own right.

Now, one of our readers, William Jackson, points us to an experiment apparently by the car company, Lexus (a part of Toyota). It's called L Studio, and appears to be something of a web video platform, showing a bunch of professionally produced videos. As Jackson notes, some of them do involve a Lexus, such as this documentary about an artist creating a piece of artwork out of a Lexus: However, others seem to have absolutely nothing to do with Lexus automobiles at all, and often star recognizable actors, such as this video starring Famke Janssen trying to juggle her dating life with her dog: I'm sure some will complain that these sorts of videos don't make any sense, as they do nothing to promote the vehicles -- but it may be worth seeing where this campaign goes from here. Some of the videos are entertaining and help put Lexus' brand around "lifestyle" content, and that could get people to start associating the Lexus brand with a certain type of lifestyle. Sure, it might not be as "in your face" as sponsoring a TV show or doing product placement, but if the content is good and gets people to seek it out rather than intrude on what they're doing, this could be a very effective branding campaign.

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Just Posted: Nikon D90 in-depth review. The D90 has some large shoes to step into, given that it replaces one of the most popular enthusiast-level cameras of recent times. We saw in our preview that it's had a feature boost and specification upgrade, but do those tweaks and changes result in a better camera (and images)? Has a fine camera been over-burdened with fripperies and video recording? We find out in our full, in depth review.

It's political silly season these days as we get closer and closer to election day, and with the various campaigns ratcheting up their attempts to win over voters, the inevitable campaign spin reaches the point where the connection between the message being pushed out and the truth often seems increasingly hazy. That is, politicians start lying about each other. Or, if you want to be generous, being extremely misleading in their characterizations. Some worse than others. This, in part, has resulted in the rise in popularity of various "fact checking" sites over the past few campaign seasons, as many people are fed up with campaigns lying and not being called on it.

Some challengers to an Indiana congressman have come up with an amusing suggestion for how to deal with this, with two challengers to the incumbent agreeing to wear lie detectors during a planned debate. The incumbent has refused, with his party chair calling it ridiculous.

Of course, it's all really a stunt to get some press coverage for the challengers. As polygraph experts well know, a polygraph in a debate setting would be useless. Beyond not always being perfectly reliable, polygraphs are designed to work under very specific circumstances, not in a public debate setting, where the results would be entirely meaningless.

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I'll admit that many years ago, when I first heard about people trying to sue spammers for profit, it sounded like a pretty cool idea. No one likes spammers, and being able to sue them and make some money off of it sounds good, right? But it appears that it's becoming a bigger business these days, and in a story about a specific case from one such person, Eric Goldman reasonably questions the tactics of some of these "anti-spam litigation entrepreneurs," noting that they often seek out spam, just to have more to sue over. That seems highly problematic. If they're purposely putting their email address out there just to get spam, with the intention of suing over it, it's difficult to see how they have much of a claim to complain about the spam received. Now, it appears that some judges are starting to fight back against clear profiteers, who are clearly not using the law as a way to fight spam, but just to profit.

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Olympus has released a limited edition model, the Stylus 1040 Crystal, embedded with 98 Swarovski crystals on the sliding lens barrier. The 10 MP super slim camera with a 2.7”LCD and 3x (38-114mm equiv) zoom lens includes features such as Advanced Face Detection, Shadow Adjustment and Intelligent Auto Mode. This Crystal edition is now available for an approximate price of £175.

Adobe Systems has released the full version of its Adobe Camera Raw 4.6 plug-in. This latest update extends support to the Pentax K2000 (K-m) and the latest cameras and backs from Leaf. In addition, the cameras given provisional support in the beta are now fully covered. The update will be the last expansion of coverage for Photoshop CS3.