Ostracus writes "Companies should not dismiss staff who use social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo at work as merely time-wasters, a Demos study suggests. Attempts to control employees' use of such software could damage firms in the long run by limiting the way staff communicate, the think tank said."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's an hour-long explanation of Emotiv's mind-computer interface:

Here's a clip of the Prototype This team turning this into a car rage-monitoring system, and here's a Wired magazine (mini-)review from last issue. We've covered this before, but sounds like Emotiv is now finally close to a release.

Their developer section is here. Has anybody gotten their hands on one of these who would care to share?

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Marina Bychkova is an artist whose medium are dolls. Her work is absolutely stunning. Bychkova's lovely figures remind me of a Mark Ryden or Lori Earley painting brought into the 3D realm. Seen here is "Bride of Frankenstein" (2008, 13.5" tall). From the doll description:

I like to challenge conventional imagery of known literary characters, and provide an alternative view of how they might have looked. The reason my Bride is blonde, is to contrast the iconic image of the movie's version, and also to play on the idea of the body's low Melanin levels. I imagine that when she was alive she was bright and vibrant with dark eyes and raven hair, but the postmortem trauma to her body and the mechanical process of reanimating her corpse had changed its molecular composition. I think that being blasted with several thousand volts of electricity would contribute to that also. The metal helmet is her life support and what keeps her dead brain artificially alive by pumping oxygen into it and zapping it with small amounts of electricity to maintain its basic functions. It acts like a pump and a defibrillator.

The Enchanted Doll (Thanks, Kirsten Anderson!)

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Marina Bychkova "Mermaid Song" doll
• Marina Bychkova incredible dolls

In 1998 I worked with a company that was trying to deliver CDs and (eventually) DVDs via rental kiosks. At the time, the idea was hardly new. In fact we've detailed the long list of failed companies who got into the kiosk business over the last few decades. But, apparently, they all had the wrong strategy. What they should have been doing is suing over patent infringement. We were just talking about Redbox, one of the few companies that's made a successful go of DVD kiosks, and its lawsuit against Universal Studios, but it appears that the company is now being sued for patent infringement as well, by a company called DVDplay. The patent itself seems to cover a disc-based kiosk that's connected to the internet. Reading through the claims, it's difficult to see how there wasn't any prior art on this stuff or that it wasn't an obvious iteration on what had come before. But, really, what does that matter once you've got a patent and you can just sue away?

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Back in August, I posted about Gama-Go and Ningyoushi's development of a new Big Yeti designer toy. The Giant Yeti has finally been birthed and it is a big un'. The 9.5" high beast features posable arms and a light-up torch to guide him through the icy darkness of Nepal or your bedroom. For the next week, each Yeti figure ships with a free Yeti Ice Cave t-shirt.
Big Vinyl Yeti at Gama-Go (Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman loves the Big Yeti too!)

Previously on BB:
• Giant Yeti (real, not a hoax!)

dtjohnson writes "A Harvard law school professor has submitted arguments on behalf of Joel Tenenbaum in RIAA v. Tenenbaum in which Professor Charles Neeson claims that the underlying law that the RIAA uses is actually a criminal, rather than civil, statute and is therefore unconstitutional. According to this article, 'Neeson charges that the federal law is essentially a criminal statute in that it seeks to punish violators with minimum statutory penalties far in excess of actual damages. The market value of a song is 99 cents on iTunes; of seven songs, $6.93. Yet the statutory damages are a minimum of $750 per song, escalating to as much as $150,000 per song for infringement "committed willfully."' If the law is a criminal statute, Neeson then claims that it violates the 5th and 8th amendments and is therefore unconstitutional. Litigation will take a while but this may be the end for RIAA litigation, at least until they can persuade Congress to pass a new law."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This enterprising fellow turned a lifeless Wall-E toy into an actual Wall-E robot. He's written an Instructable documenting the process. I like the boneyard of Roomba parts in the second half of the video.

Build an autonomous Wall-E Robot

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Scott shares the steps he took to create a very awesome singing skull for Halloween enjoyment -

Gemmy skulls are great for hacking. Their jaws move, their eyes light up (and even move on some models), and best of all they’re cheap.

Right out of the box they’re not so impressive though. You trip the motion sensor and garbled noise comes out of the tiny speaker for a few seconds.
[…]
The best thing to do with these skulls is to rip their brains out and add MIDI control so you can sync them with your own soundtrack. This tutorial will show you how to do just that.

I'm guessing this one wouldn't be boxed up with the seasonal decorations - looks like year-round fun! - Gemmy Skull MIDI Hack

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An anonymous reader writes "Right on the heels of Microsoft's adoption of the OpenID protocol by announcing their intention to enable OpenID authentication against all Live IDs, Google has announced their intention to join the growing list of OpenID authentication providers. Except it turns out they're using their own version of OpenID that is incompatible with everyone else. It seems that Google will be using their own 'improved' version of OpenID (based upon research and user feedback of the OpenID system) which isn't backwards compatible with OpenID 1.0/2.0, in hopes of improving end-user experience at the cost of protocol compatibility and complexity."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We see various software companies and their representatives like the BSA complaining constantly about the damaging impact of piracy on their business, but reader Jon sent in an article that explores how piracy of proprietary software often does just as much, if not more, harm to open source alternatives. So, for example, when people make an unauthorized copy of Photoshop, doesn't that hurt open source providers of the GiMP just as much as Adobe? And an unauthorized copy of Microsoft Office hits the Open Office crew.

Of course, this inevitably raises the question: should proprietary software companies be more worried about piracy... or open source competitors? After all, if the proprietary companies crack down on piracy, it often leads potential buyers to simply switch to open source providers instead. So, cracking down on piracy actually helps open source providers, while piracy hurts them. So, wouldn't it make more sense for proprietary software companies to stop worrying about piracy and focus on competing with open source providers?

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Flaming Lips' art/noise-rock frontman Wayne Coyne showed off his take on the Guitar Hero controller in a recent interview @ EW.com . His musical hardware mashup combines a Guitar Hero controller's neck and a KORG Kaossilator pad on a double-neck Epiphone electric body. As inspiration, he cites the game controller's acceptance as by today's kids as "how you play guitar now". Well if they watch this thing in use they're sure to be confused ;) [via Hack a Day]

From the pages of MAKE:

21st-Century Keytars MAKE:15, p.56 - Subscribers, read this article now in our digital edition

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Here's a brief yet interesting video excerpt where TV icon Mr. Rogers meets with electronic musician/composer Bruce Haack and becomes captivated by a photo-sensitive synth-box. Fred Rogers displays that child-like fascination very well - a feeling many of us still experience while creating interactive devices today.
[via Synthtopia]

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The title kinda says it all. If you make your own Cannon let us know. Enjoy.

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kakapo writes "A couple of years ago, we dumped our cable TV, and don't have much luck getting old-fashioned broadcast where we live. That's fine — we can download or netflix almost anything we want to see, and it is great not to pay the Comcast tax every month. Problem is, now I want to watch the election live, complete with talking heads, pundits, glitzy graphics and all the rest, rather than reading about it on a website. So, is there any way to download network TV / CNN / MSNBC in real time — I don't mind paying. And yes, we could visit friends, but ideally our kids would watch the first part and then go to bed — and a sitter would be expensive if we have to wait until late for the result."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Josh Kopel will be teaching an Arduino workshop through Seattle's 911 Media Arts Center.

The Arduino is a small programmable device capable of big things. With it you can examine the world through various sensors and use the data to control motors, lights and just about any other electronic device. Come learn how to build kinetic sculpture, audio sequencers, home automation systems or whatever you can imagine. This class will focus on controlling motors using the Arduino, and we will be investigating how to recycle/re-use commonly discarded ink jet printers for their component parts. Bring your best ideas and wildest concepts and lets get them moving. Course fee is 255.00 plus 40.00 lab fee: total 295. The lab fee will over a motor control kit, some additional electronics, and a supply of printers to hack. You will need to have a laptop computer (win XP or Vista, OSX, or Linux*), and you should purchase your own Arduino Diecimila.

Class details are here.

The Arduino Diecimila is available in the Maker Shed.

And while you're in the Maker Shed, check out Make's own Getting Started with Arduino by Massimo Banzi, one of the co-founders of the Arduino project.

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MAKE man-muse, pal, and contributing editor Mister Jalopy has a show and talk coming up at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, CA. On Saturday (Nov 1) there's an opening reception from 1PM - 3PM and a talk at 2PM. The show will run until November 15th.

Mister Jalopy offers "possible reasons for attending my gallery show:"

* See Stuff - World's Largest Ipod, the Compact Childhood Museum and the Urban Guerilla Movie House will all be at the gallery. This is the first time that they have all left my shop.
* Eat- Cheese and crackers
* Talk - I will be presenting a new talk. Have you seen my talks before? Well, this one is different. My talks evolve and this is a brandy-newish talk that steals stuff from prior presentations - enhanced with new stuff.
* Meet - We can chat.
* New Stuff - I will have a couple new things at the show.
* Interesting Curios - See the geeked Japanese Mooks that visited my shop!
* Opinions - I have them.
* Interesting People - I know some; they may attend.
* Free - That should have been at the top!

Mister Jalopy Gallery Show - Talk and Opening
Info at College of the Canyons

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Roland Piquepaille writes "According to the Optical Society of America, U.S. researchers have been able to create a practical optical fiber with a silicon core. As they were able to use the same commercial methods that are used to develop all-glass fibers, this might pave the way for future silicon fibers as viable alternatives to glass fibers. The scientists note that this should help increase efficiency and decrease power consumption in computers and other systems that integrate photonic and electronic devices. Here is a good summary by the lead researcher: 'In the past, we've needed one structure to process light and another to carry it. With a silicon fiber, for the first time, we have the ability to greatly enhance the functionality in one fiber.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

TMCO manufactures metal products in Lincoln, Nebraska and had an open house where one of their robots poured beer for guests. Next time I need metal products I'm going to check these guys out first.

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The musician Prince has been quite fascinating to follow over the years from a business model perspective. He has aggressively experimented, and for a while seemed to be the perfect example of a musician who understood how to embrace new business models allowed by the internet. He was creating tons of new music, some of which he was giving away free in order to promote scarce aspects of his business model, such as concerts (he sold out 21 straight concerts in London after giving away his latest CD totally free), while also embracing the idea of getting people to pay him upfront to create music. He also experimented with things like having companies sponsor him, setting up a subscription fan club and even owning a dance club in Vegas where he would perform regularly. All were perfect examples of the sorts of business models that we talk about all the time. And the model was clearly quite successful for Prince, helping him to earn quite a bit of money off of those scarcities.

Yet, about a year ago, we all began to realize that, as successful as Prince had been in embracing these new business models, he had yet to realize why they worked, and started to attack the very tools that made them so successful. For example, he sued YouTube, eBay and The Pirate Bay. Then he went after fan sites and even a bunch of musicians who made a tribute album for his birthday. And, of course, he famously was involved in a few cases of demanding people take down YouTube videos that just happen to have Prince music playing in the background.

The problem is that he while he's benefited from these tools that made various scarcities (the creation of new music, concerts, etc.) more valuable, he seems to overvalue the content and undervalue (extremely) those tools. Thus, he seems totally against the idea of anyone else being able to profit from the music, even if it means he profits more from it. It's a common mistake, but Prince seems to have taken it to extremes. He's benefited so much from these models -- and in misunderstanding them, he risks destroying his legacy. He could have been a pioneer adored by fans, like Trent Reznor -- but, instead, he's been taking a very anti-fan approach. While there are still plenty of diehards, his views have turned off many former fans.

It's tragic, too, because you read interviews like one he just did where he expresses his disdain for the internet these days, and you just wish he would make the connection. He's right about music, by itself, not being a good product to sell online, but then misses the point that this isn't a bad thing if you use it (as he himself has done repeatedly) to drive more business to other parts of your business model:

"Today, it's not realistic to expect to put out new music and profit from it. There's no point in trying to put new music out there and keep it from being (exploited)."

And that's why you build business models (again, as he himself has done) where the musician benefits from that "exploitation."

It's really too bad that such a pioneer doesn't even realize how he was a pioneer, and is now trashing part of what made him so successful.

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carusoj writes "Squatting on domain names is nothing new, but Twitter has created a new opportunity for squatters, in the form of Twitter IDs. Writes Richard Stiennon: 'Is there evidence of Twitter squatting (squitting?) Let's check. Yup, every single-letter TwitID is taken ... How about common words? Garage, wow, war, warcraft, Crisco, Coke, Pepsi, Nike, and Chevrolet are all taken. My guess is that Twitter squatters have grabbed all of these in the hopes that they will be worth selling in the not too distant future. Of course the legitimate holders of brands can sue for them and Twitter can just turn them over if asked. But, because the investment and risk for the squatter is zero, you are going to see the rapid evaporation of available Twitter IDs.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lumenlab has a tutorial on using their DIY RoGR Robot CNC machine to carve pumpkins.

CNC Pumpkin Carving by Lumenlab's RoGR Robot [Thanks, Mister J!]

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John Swansburg, Associate Editor, Slate.com says: [I wrote about] the truly bizarre new HSBC ad running on TV (and on YouTube). Have you seen it? It's the one that features a violent confrontation between police and environmental protesters who protecting trees marked for clearing. But then it turns into a love story between one of the protesters and a logger -- complete with a soundtrack by Joanna Newsom, of all people. And this is all by way of selling the services of an international banking conglomerate. Very weird.

Anyway, thought the ad might be something BoingBoing readers would have seen and scratched their heads over. Here's my analysis:

HSBC's Bizarre Lumberjack Ad

narramissic writes "Late last week, ICANN put up for comment a new top-level domain (TLD) proposal that would open up the market for generic TLDs on the Internet, basically allowing anyone with $185,000 to buy a new TLD. ICANN has based the cost of a generic TLD on what it believes will be the cost to evaluate applications and protect the organization against risk, said Paul Levins, ICANN's executive officer and vice president for corporate affairs. Any excess money would be redistributed based on the wishes of the Internet community, he said. As of late Tuesday, there were only a couple of comments on the proposal."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Whenever we write about various business models around here that involve using free infinite goods to get people to buy some kind of scarce good, we always get some people who self-righteously exclaim that if they got content for free, they would never, ever buy those scarce goods, and somehow this disproves the model. This is similar to the common refrain that all of the "free riders" would destroy any such business model, to which I usually ask whether or not all those "free riders" who watched a BMW commercial and didn't buy a BMW somehow destroyed BMW's business.

In response to a similar question, concerning all of the "free riders" on Wikipedia, Tim Lee has done a fantastic job explaining why the whole concept of the "free rider" problem is a myth in most of these scenarios. In the case of Wikipedia, for example, all of those "free riders" who don't contribute are actually what makes it worthwhile for the smaller group of contributors to take part. Those "free riders" aren't a negative: they're the audience. If you set up the model right, then any free rider actually becomes a part of the solution, not the problem. The more "free riders" on Wikipedia, the more people want to contribute. The more "free riders" who listen to a band, the more other people want to hear it -- and the more some of those people will be willing to pay for scarce goods to associate themselves with that band. In other words, if you set up your model correctly, free riding isn't a bug, it's a feature that helps drive your model forward.

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Errol Morris created a series of interviews of Republicans and independents who are voting for Obama. He also wrote about long history of "real people" political ads for the NYT.

If you’re not going to put words in people’s mouths, if you’re really listening to what they have to say, you’re going to learn something. Admittedly, the evidence is anecdotal. I haven’t selected these people through some kind of statistical sampling. These people are self-selected. They wrote in and said that they were registered Republicans, Independents or switch-voters who were planning to vote for Obama. People in the middle. And I was interested in talking to them on film about why they were making the switch from voting for a Republican to voting for a Democrat. Was it linked with policy? With the personality of the candidate?

This time — as opposed to 2004 — the content of the interviews has been qualitatively different. The people I interviewed have embraced Obama. They are voting for a candidate, not against a candidate. Lissa Lucas, for example, tells the story of voting for someone for the first time in her life. There is a feeling of hopefulness. There is this optimism, even though the situation in the country is arguably much worse than four years ago. A failing economy. The continuing war in Iraq. A crumbling infrastructure. But there is the core belief that if we pull together, we can save the country.

Republicans and independents who are voting for Obama

Everyday this week we're having specials in the Maker Shed store for those who weren't able to make it out to Maker Faire Austin. Today we're featuring five of the best books people were picking up at the Faire.

Here's how it works - Enter in MAKER to get 10% off any of these books (or anything 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.

---

Getting Started with Arduino - This valuable little book offers a thorough introduction to the open
source electronics prototyping platform that's taking the design and
hobbyist world by storm. Getting Started with Arduino gives you lots
of ideas for projects and helps you get going on them right away. To
use the introductory examples in this book, all you need is a USB
Arduino, USB A-B cable, and an LED. By Massimo Banzi, co-founder of the Arduino Project.

• Interaction design and physical computing
  
• The Arduino hardware and software development environment
  
• Basics of electricity and electronics
  
• Prototyping on a solderless breadboard
  
• Drawing a schematic diagram

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Make Halloween Special Edition - Last fall we released a special Halloween edition of Make. We sold thousands. Our warehouse gang tell us we still have some remaining stock. Here's your chance to get this classic!

DIY HALLOWEEN from the editors of MAKE and CRAFT brings you 40-plus DIY projects for the holiday that's made for makers. From the craftiest costumes to amazing animated props and the latest in computer-controlled haunted house effects.

• Headless Marie Antoinette costume
  
• Mechanical ghosts and ghouls
  
• LED and laser jack-o'-lanterns
  
• Creature makeup and blood-spurting wounds
  
• DIY coffins and tombstones
  
• T. Rex rooftopper
  
• Flaming LED skulls Kid-tested haunted house tricks
  
• A special "Ghoulbox" section with Halloween kits, tools, and gadgets.
  
• Plus demonic decorations, hideous party snacks, and profiles of extraordinary makers and their creepy crafts.

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Making Things Talk - Programming microcontrollers used to require an expensive development environment costing thousands of dollars and requiring professional electrical engineering expertise. Open-source physical computing platforms with simple i/o boards and development environments have led to new options for hobbyists, hackers, and makers. This book contains a series of projects that teach you what you need to know to get your creations talking to each other, connecting to the web, and forming networks of smart devices. Read reviews here and here.

---

Best of Make - After two years, MAKE has become one of most celebrated new magazines to hit the newsstands, and certainly one of the hottest reads. If you're just catching on to the MAKE phenomenon and wonder what you've missed, this book contains the best DIY projects from the magazine's first ten volumes -- a surefire collection of fun and challenging activities going back to MAKE's launch in early 2005.

• Hack your gadgets and toys
  
• Program micontrollers to sense and react to things
  
• Take flight with rockets, planes, and other projectiles
  
• Make music from the most surprising of things
  
• Find new ways to take photos and make video
  
• Outfit yourself with the coolest tools

---

Fashioning Technology - Ready to take your craft projects to the next level? With "smart" materials, unorthodox assembly techniques, and the right tools, you can create accessories, housewares, and toys that light up, make sounds, or do even more. Fashioning Technology offers jargon-free primers and lots of how-to projects that will have you making -- and even wearing -- functional works of art.
This book demonstrates how to blend sewing and assembly techniques with traditional electronics to assemble simple circuits using conductive thread, solder joints for snaps, and switches for buttons. With the sewing machine as a viable substitute for the soldering iron, you can craft a new generation of objects that are interactive, quirky, and fashion-conscious.

• An invaluable reference section that breaks down the materials, components, and tools with clear, concise explanations and photos
  
• A wide range of projects, including electronic accessories, interactive plush toys, and color-changing blinds, all using diverse crafting techniques
  
• Techniques for seasoned crafters interested in incorporating simple electronics into their own projects
  
• Methods for makers proficient in electronics who are looking for unconventional ways to create novel projects

Each project encourages you to personalize and customize using your own designs, materials, and craft skills. Fashioning Technology translates traditional electronics into fun, fashionable interactive projects for the geek, fashionista, and the craft aficionado alike. Now you really can be the flashiest dresser in town.

---

Don't forget, use the coupon code "MAKER" to get 10% off any of these books, if you spend more than $80 (after discount) enter the additional code "FAIRE" and score free shipping to boot, either of these codes will work by themselves or together.

If you've already covered the above text topics, and long for different deals - be sure to check back in Thursday!

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Yesterday, Cory reviewed Emmanuel Guibert's graphic novel Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope. In the comments, J Meyers pointed to this video of Guibert's interesting drawing technique.

wooby writes "With the release of Android's source code, we may see iPhone and Nokia clone phones of Chinese origin capable of running Google Android. These phones, often available for less than $200 without a contract, are available on DealExtreme and elsewhere. But the software running on them is universally awful. Is the clone phone market a vast, nascent install-base for Android, and part of Google's end game? According to Google's Dave Bort [YouTube link], 'One of our goals would be, just to get Android all over the place.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

wooby writes "With the release of Android's source code, we may see iPhone and Nokia clone phones of Chinese origin capable of running Google Android. These phones, often available for less than $200 without a contract, are available on DealExtreme and elsewhere. But the software running on them is universally awful. Is the clone phone market a vast, nascent install-base for Android, and part of Google's end game? According to Google's Dave Bort [YouTube link], 'One of our goals would be, just to get Android all over the place.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Our guest blogger John Hodgman is too modest to pimp this, but there's a live chat session going on right now with him over at the Washington Post: John Hodgman Discusses 'More Information Than You Require' (WaPo). Snip:

New Orleans: What is the force of a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick?

John Hodgman: The force of a single roundhouse kick from Chuck Norris=one American Chuck.

In England, however, they use the old Imperial Chuck, which is the equivalents to 1.34 American Chucks.

That is all.

Lovely Fingerprint rings from Camille Hempel via Cool Hunting. Great idea if you're casting your own jewelry!

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Here are some impressive duct tape skills at work:

Via Gizmodo, where a commenter coined the excellent term Duct Knight:)

And, as an added bonus, you have a "lucha libre" mask halfway through the build:

It seems like you could have a pretty impressive halloween just with duct tape. Check out these other tape-based projects:

• Duct tape helmet
• Duct tape hat
• Duct tape body
• Duct tape tie

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I AM AWAITING word from Patrick Borelli to see if there is any high quality video of Grand Master Priest, breakdancer, Mason, available for posting here.

IN THE MEANTIME, here are some answers to your questions from the comments.

RE: MAJORD AND MADFIST'S DISCUSSION about the attainability of the 33rd Degree within Freemasonry, in this case you should consider the messenger before you blame the popper/locker. My conversation with Grand Master Priest regarding his Craft was brief, and I may have gotten some details wrong. I also think he may be somewhat older than he appears in the photograph, because breakdance and Masonry, in combination, make you immortal.

RE: ANONYMOUS, the answer is YES. The man I met is certainly the "Grand Master Priest" who is on staff at the Mystical Grand Masters School of Popping. But I must have gotten the name wrong somehow. The masked man in the video certainly has the moves. But according to his bio at the MGMSOP, that man was born in ancient Lemuria. So I cannot say for sure if that is also the man I met in Philadelphia.

[VIDEO; note, lyrics are explicit]

I WILL PROVIDE more information as it comes to me, as he really was a lovely and amazing person.

That is all.

An anonymous reader writes "After attending DEFCON in August and seeing the overwhelming interest in this book, I was eager to dive into The IDA Pro Book by Chris Eagle. Chris Eagle's team, School of Root, won the 'Capture the Flag' event at DEFCON this year and Chris gave a presentation on CollabREate, a tool that integrates with IDA Pro to allow collaboration in reverse engineering (RE). All of that — together with the fact that the book sold out — screamed that this book should quickly make it to the top of my list." Read below for the rest of Ryan's review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(Popular Mechanics editor-in-chief, Jim Meigs (left) and inventor Dean Kamen.)

Andrew Moseman says: Dean Kamen is famous for inventing the AutoSyringe, the portable dialysis machine, the iBOT self-balancing wheelchair, and, of course, the Segway human transporter. But he is most passionate when talking about his nonprofit organization, FIRST, which tries to get kids excited about science and technology by having them build 120-pound robots to slug it out on a rough-and-tumble field of play. "We're not competing with science fairs, we're competing with Britney Spears and Shaquille O'Neal" for the attention of teenagers, Kamen said. The FIRST game changes every year—in 2008, teams raced 40-in. balls around a track. Kamen spoke with Popular Mechanics editor-in-chief Jim Meigs and an audience of journalists and FIRST competitors at the magazine's headquarters, in New York City's Hearst Tower. Kamen's core message: American culture needs a geek overhaul.

What do you think is the most important science and technology issue to be addressed by the next president? What's the biggest issue he should take on?

Is it energy? Genomics? Is it bird flu? Is it the polar caps—are they really melting? Is it terrorism? You pick the crisis du jour: The answer to all these issues is going to be an educated, competent global society. This country ought to lead the world, for lots of reasons. And we ought to help the rest of the world get educated, because if they are educated, their impact on the environment is actually way less. If they are educated, they'll have better ideas than killing each other or killing you and me.

The next president should recognize the power of technology. Technology is how we create wealth, how we cure diseases, how we'll build an environment that's sustainable and also gives people the capacity to pull more out of this world and still leave it better than when they found it. You know, people always talk about rights in this country—I wish we had a bill of responsibilities. So I think the president has to stop thinking of the crisis du jour and say, "In this race between education and catastrophe, we need education to win." The next president better make sure that all kids are part of the solution, not part of the problem. And with 50 percent of the kids in the 20 largest school districts in the country not graduating high school, they're part of the problem. This is unsustainable. It has to change.

Read the rest here:

Dean Kamen on education

...is one of the more extensive and thoughtful analyses of what this presidential candidate's policies mean for those of us who make our living in technology. Snip from the introduction:

[W]e need a president who can harness the best and brightest our country has to offer, a president who is conversant with, and comfortable with, the power of technology to assist in solving these problems, a president who is good at listening, studying, and devising solutions based on the best insight available, rather than on narrow ideology. We need a president who can forge consensus, not just among the partisans in our own fractured democracy but around the world. We need a president who can inspire our citizens and our global partners to forgo narrow self interest and embrace the possibilities that we can achieve if we work together to build a better future.

I believe Barack Obama is that president. He is a man of intelligence, but also a man whose character and temperament seem suited to the problems of our age: unflappable, optimistic even in the face of adversity, willing to speak the truth about subjects that have long been taboo (I'm thinking of his speech on race, and his speech on fatherhood) and with unscripted reactions that show his fundamental decency (I'm thinking of his reaction to those who wanted to make a campaign issue of Sarah Palin's daughter's unplanned pregnancy.)

Because this is a tech blog, not a political blog, though, I primarily want to address the subject of why members of the technical community should join me in supporting Barack Obama. (The New York Times has made a compelling case based on the broader issues, as has Colin Powell.) I outline four principal reasons:

1. Connected, Transparent Government
2. The Financial Crisis
3. Climate Change
4. Net Neutrality

I will also discuss some important additional considerations, personal and political, that I hope Radar readers who don't want to see politics in these pages, will forgive.

Why I Support Barack Obama (O'Reilly Radar)

Ari Kuschnir of m ss ng p eces, an independent video producer who collaborated with Boing Boing tv on one of our favorite episodes ever, has produced this short spot about a working class guy from Michigan who sees the world differently than "Joe the (faux) Plumber." Watch: Dave The Fisherman (YouTube)

Mark Cuban blogs:

Transparency is key to the success of the Bailout and related loans and investments the government makes with our tax dollars. Without complete transparency, we will get from our government what we always get when it comes to finances, confusion. To do my part, I’ve worked with the folks at Sharesleuth.com to create Bailoutsleuth.com

Its job is simple, keep an eye on our taxpayer dollars and call Bullshit when necessary.

if you take a trip over to Bailoutsleuth you can see that its already time to call BS. In the first contract handed out, in this case to Bank of NY Mellon Corp, the compensation section is blacked out.

Sad. So very sad, that we couldnt make it a week without being afraid of the very taxpayers who are footing the tab for all of this.

Bailoutsleuth will try to publish every day in keeping up with how our taxdollars are spent and the people and companies that are impacted by this program. We are still a work in progress and look forward to your comments , feedback and tips.

Announcing BailoutSleuth.com (Blog Maverick), and here is BailoutSleuth.com.

If someone pitched a movie based on e-voting machines that work as bad as the ones being used in the current election, the story would be dumped as being unrealistic. But truth is, indeed, often stranger than fiction. You may recall on Friday that we had a post about problems with e-voting machines in West Virginia selecting the wrong candidate when voters touched the screen. Various officials rushed to insist that there was absolutely nothing wrong. One, the local county clerk, Jeff Waybright insisted that the problems were "the result of voter error."

Well, it appears that a group called Video The Vote went and visited with Mr. Waybright as he showed them how the e-voting machines work, and perhaps the "human error" is on Mr. Waybright's part. The beginning of the video is troubling enough, as he brushes aside concerns while he shows a miscalibrated machine. He demonstrates how he clicks on one candidate and another is highlighted, in a tone of voice that suggests why would anyone possibly be upset or annoyed if that happened? He then oddly thinks the fact that his wildly miscalibrated machine enhances his point because when he clicks on Barack Obama's name, the actual name highlighted isn't McCain (of course, it's not Obama either, but he doesn't seem troubled by this). Waybright seems to think that the only complaint people are making is the fact that some tried to vote for the Democratic ticket and saw the Republican ticket show up -- when the real concern is simply the fact that when you touch one name, someone else's name is highlighted. Democrat or Republican really isn't the issue here.

However, then things get worse. After mocking the idea that anyone clicking on a Democratic ticket vote would get the Republican ticket vote, he shows how to correctly calibrate the machine, showing how easy it is to fix the "problems" of the miscalibrated machine. When he's done, to prove it works, he touches the box to vote for a straight Republican ticket ticket... and, wouldn't you know it, Ralph Nader's name is highlighted as the voter's choice. His response? "Oh, that's out of calibration!" as if it was no big deal, apparently missing the fact that he had just calibrated the machine. He then seems to think none of this is a big deal, because voters will see the misvote before they submit it, apparently unaware of the idea that many people are already quite distrustful of these machines, and seeing them highlight the wrong name over and over again will make them seriously question the legitimacy of the election.

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Boing Boing tv pal Mark Day of YouTube has a fun video report up from the LOLarts show which took place last week in San Francisco. LOLarts - LOLcats art show! Kthx!

See also this related item on Scott Beale's Laughing Squid blog, LOL Arts Show, A Benefit For Partners in Reading.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Scariest Jack-o'-Lantern of 2008... A stock ticker pumpkin...

Jack-o'-Lanterns are supposed to be scary, right? So here is our new one: it's a mini pumpkin with a (tiny) scrolling LED stock ticker. Reprogrammable so you can update it every day with gloomy news from Wall Street.

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Today on Boing Boing tv, we reprise our ongoing SPAMasterpiece Theater series, featuring author, PC, and minor television personality John Hodgman, whose new book, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE, has just been released.

Hodgman himself describes this series as the dramatization of "true tale[s] of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you -- what we call SPAM."

Today's installment: The Stomatologist, in which we answer a lovelorn Russian woman's age-old question, "Why I cannot find my special the man?"

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Link to Boing Boing tv blog post with instructions on how to subscribe to our daily video podcast, and here is the direct MP4 download link.

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A note from our musical director: The adaptation of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735) which opens today's episode was remixed in flagrante 8-bit by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson.

Also: a special and hearty thanks to the talented and generous Ehrich Blackhound (previously boinged here) for creating our new, typographically-correct opening slates for this parody series.

Previously on Boing Boing tv:
* SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol. I
* SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol. II

whencanistop writes "Given that the new James Bond film is just about to be released, this is quite a nice summary of James Bond gadgets from past films. Tomorrow Never Dies was on telly last night and I was commenting on how the mobile phone that controlled the BMW was awesome, why they haven't done it in real life is beyond me (although there would probably be a few accidents if they ever did). Ridiculous to think that in 1963 the gadget of choice for Bond was a pager though." Of course, the best gadget in the Bond universe wasn't even 007's ... Jaws' teeth were the envy of every kid with braces.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Founded two years ago by Ian Inaba of Guerrilla News Network, John Ennis of Shoot First, Inc., and James Rucker of ColorOfChange.org, Video the Vote seeks to ensure "timely, complete, and accurate reporting of voter suppression and election irregularities by organizing citizen journalists to document elections and then using their footage to raise awareness about the ongoing challenges facing American voters." More:

Video the Vote operates through a simple three-step process.

1. Volunteers sign up online, giving us their email address, cell phone number, and video proficiency.
2. On election day, voters call in to national hotlines to report problems at the polls, Video the Vote dispatches our volunteers to get the story.We also obtain footage from roving videographers who are documenting the election process in their communities.
3. Volunteers then upload their footage to our web site where it is available for immediate viewing by the media and the public.

(Thanks, Melanie Cornwell)

I love this illustration from Popular Mechanics 1935. We don't do politics here on MAKE, but we do celebrate American ingenuity (as well as international of course). In a week we'll elect a new president, no matter what happens it's up to us, the people, to "make" our future better in the USA. Never before has there been a worldwide need to scientists and engineers, if we're going to make it - we're going to need to celebrate smarts. Uncle Sam the inventor shouldn't be a novelty from the 1930's but a reminder of who we are and where we came from. Go Sam go, we can do it!

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Aram Sinnreich says,

I just co-authored an article in Truthdig on what we call "e-speech" -- freedom of expression in digital media. The article attempts to pull several issues (e.g. net neutrality, electronic privacy, walled gardens, asymmetrical access) together under one umbrella, and to propose market- and technology-based solutions to these challenges.

His co-author, tech journalist Masha Zager, also happens to also be his mom. Says Aram, "It's the first thing we've written together since I was in grade school!" Snip from the piece:

Although no one is slowing down or opening your posted letters, spying on your face-to-face conversations or restricting your physical ability to make music, all of these barriers to free speech—and more—are becoming increasingly prevalent in the world of digital communications. And as tools like the Web, e-mail, voice over IP, Internet video, mobile phones and peer-to-peer file sharing become increasingly vital to our relationships with family, friends, colleagues, businesses and government institutions, these limitations on speech and threats to our privacy are becoming increasingly important civil rights issues.

When we talk about unequal access to computers and other digital communication technologies, we speak about the “digital divide.” When we talk about the concentrated ownership of the Internet access business, we can point to a simple, powerful statistic: Four companies control nearly 60 percent of the American ISP market, and four companies control nearly 90 percent of the American mobile phone market. But there’s no simple way to talk about the interrelated issues of electronic surveillance, network neutrality, asymmetry and “walled garden” technologies that collectively threaten free expression in the digital world.

Without a name for the big picture, it’s difficult to do anything about it. Imagine trying to reverse global warming, reduce pollution and save species from extinction without the umbrella of the word environmentalism connecting the issues. Therefore, we propose the term e-speech as a concept to unite these issues, and to discuss potential solutions to the problem they collectively pose.

E-Speech: The (Uncertain) Future of Free Expression (Thanks, Noah Shachtman)

David Gerard noted an interesting story going down with a relatively minor project that has interesting implications to any Open Source project. He writes "Ten years ago, Peter Thoeny started the TWiki wiki engine. It attracted many contributors at twiki.org. About a year ago, Thoeny founded the startup twiki.net. On 27th October, twiki.net locked all the other contributors out of twiki.org in an event Thoeny called "the twiki.org relaunch. Here's the IRC meeting log. All the other core developers have now moved to a new project, NextWiki. Is it a sensible move for a venture capital firm that depends on a healthy Open Source community to lock it out?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Unfinished Swan is a first-person painting game set in an entirely white world. Players can splatter paint to help them find their way through an unusual garden... I don't play many video games but this one looks amazing.

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Nice "food hacking" article featuring a lot of Makers - Dry-Ice Martini and electric cake @ The NY Times!

Two weeks ago, Mr. Buckley took gallons and gallons of liquid nitrogen to Austin, Texas, for Maker Faire, an annual gathering sponsored by Make magazine, one of the bibles of the do-it-yourself movement. Like tens of thousands of other craft types, they were there with a project: Microbatch Cryogenic Ice Cream. The mixture of heavy cream and liquid nitrogen freezes almost instantly at room temperature, so patrons can make up their own ice cream flavors, mix and eat them on the spot. (Most authorities recommend protective gear when working with liquid nitrogen.)

“What I learned at Maker Faire is that people never think that their own flavor creations are bad,” Mr. Buckley said last week at Ms. Binns’s apartment in Brooklyn, calmly splashing the smoking gas over his outstretched palm into a bowl of heavy cream, sugar, muddled mint leaves and rye whisky. “Even if everyone else thinks it’s disgusting.”

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Dave's Bug Bot @ Pop Sci...

Want to add some robots to your Halloween party plans? Even better, how about some robot "bugs" dancing around the candy bowl? Then Boo, the light-loving bug bot, might be for you.

Derived from Randy Sargent's LM386-based Herbie "photovore" robot, with some circuit enhancements supplied by Dave Hrynkiw and Mark Tilden, this bug robot can be easily built for less than ten bucks (or free if you have some spare parts in your workshop).

Self-contained within a discarded DB-9 serial hood, Boo waits passively until some bright light catches its eye. Then it's showtime. The illumination triggers a tiny vibrating motor embedded in this bot's abdomen, and it's off to the races. If the jig the bug dances is not your cup of tea, slip a rubber grommet over the hub of the motor's spinning weight to give Boo some cockroach speed..

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We saw this Craftsman tool skeleton ad while we watching Mythbusters on Discovery Channel - it's very clever! They have Halloween wallpaper and an email tool on their site, too.

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Over the years we've seen so many stories of the messengers being blamed for finding security holes that you would think that most folks would realize how dangerous it is to do so. After all, that just encourages those who find security holes to keep quiet resulting in huge security vulnerabilities left wide open for those with malicious intent to exploit. However, what happens in cases where someone alerts those responsible for the flaw, but also is exploiting the flaw in some way? Do the lines get blurry?

For example, there's a story making the rounds about a 15-year-old student who has been charged with various crimes after accessing data on school employees. Apparently the school misconfigured its servers, meaning that plenty of students could have gotten access to the file. What's unclear, however, is the student's motive. In the article linked above, it just says that one of the two students who accessed the data "alerted the principal" of the security hole, sending a semi-anonymous email singed from "a student." However, the kid was quickly tracked down and promptly arrested.

On reading that story, it certainly sounds like yet another case of "blame the messenger." But it's not clear if that's really accurate. A local newspaper's version of the story is somewhat different, where it's claimed that the "alert" to the principal was the student sending an email saying "look what I have" as if he were gloating -- rather than alerting the school to a security breach. The police officer involved in the case also claims that the kid "was looking to profit from his criminal act." There aren't any details provided to back that up, but it certainly sounds like there may be more to this story than just a kid alerting officials to a security breach.

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wertigon writes "Windows Live ID just became yet another OpenID-provider. While the cynical me wonders how long it'll be before Microsoft transforms OpenID to something proprietary, they have undoubtedly put even more weight behind the OpenID initiative. So, how long before I can use my OpenID to post on Slashdot?" Patches are always welcome wertigon ;)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

James @ Don't Panic has a great collection of works by Do-Ho Suh recently displayed at the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward... via NOTCOT.

In an otherwise empty room, Do-Ho had stretched sheer red nylon to create a false ceiling. Suspended from the centre was a fullsize set of fabric stairs, with a door at the bottom, looking like an entrance into an invisible attic. Up close, there were all sorts of neat details, like electrical fittings and a lamp shade. I love little intricacies like that. So here's a bit more of his work.

More - Psycho Buildings at the Hayward gallery (12 pictures)...

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Here's another interesting knit project by artist Ben Fino Radin. This particular object takes the shape of an old Macintosh 128k computer from the 1980s.

Ben Fino Radin

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A number of folks have been submitting topics that indicate that they want to have a serious discussion on the issues surrounding this election. Since we're under a week now, I've decided to run a series of discussion stories to give you guys a place to discuss the issue. So here's the first one: The Economy. It's the biggest topic these days, eclipsing even war as the most important issue to most Americans. But how will that affect your choice next week? And why?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A number of folks have been submitting topics that indicate that they want to have a serious discussion on the issues surrounding this election. Since we're under a week now, I've decided to run a series of discussion stories to give you guys a place to discuss the issue. So here's the first one: The Economy. It's the biggest topic these days, eclipsing even war as the most important issue to most Americans. But how will that affect your choice next week? And why?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

These cool newspaper chairs are built from tightly rolled up bundles of old newspapers. The project was inspired by the practice of shop owners placing old papers outside their shops on Saturday nights in urban spaces.

Sunday Papers, via InHabitat

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Ostracus writes "Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have signed a global a code of conduct promising to offer better protection for online free speech and against official intrusion." Anyone want to know what this means for China & Australia? I bet it means even less to all of us in America where every major data center has a secret room where the government sniffs our packets.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Early Tuesday, I saw the news that the venerable Christian Science Monitor newspaper was the first major mainstream daily newspaper to decide to shift away from print and focus mainly on the web. For the last few years there's been plenty of talk about how this day would come eventually, but it's still quite a surprise to see it actually happen. While I think it's the right move, I had expected most major newspapers to hang on until the bitter end. I didn't have a chance to write up a post on it immediately, so it gave me more of a chance to think through what this really means. The cost of producing, printing and distributing a physical newspaper each day is quite high. So, removing all of those costs is a big deal. The paper still is planning to do a print version weekly, which will function more as a weekly magazine, allowing the staff to dig deeper into various issues and provide a more complete summary reading for the week. Thus it will still need to do some printing and distribution, but at a vastly reduced rate and scale.

In a lot of ways, this setup probably makes a lot more sense for many people. Newspapers have long since lost their ability to be the source of "breaking news" in print. News breaks online, and by the time it's in the newspaper the next morning, it's old hat. The days of paperboys screaming "Extra! Extra!" are long gone. Still, many may question the timing of the move. Online advertising, while growing rapidly for many, still doesn't make up a huge percentage of revenue for most newspapers. Decreasing the costs significantly means that the revenue doesn't have to match, but there may still be quite a gap there, and I'd imagine some may have been more comfortable waiting for the gap to close before leaping out of the plane without much of a parachute.

However, in taking that plunge, it will force the CSMonitor to really focus in on making its website as good as it can be, both for readers and for advertisers. That sort of hyperfocus could be quite useful, as we've seen too many newspapers find themselves in a struggle for resources and attention between the (dwindling) cash cow print business, and the small, but growing, online markets. No matter what, you can bet that other big (and small) newspapers will be watching the CSM's leap with great interest as they plan their own strategies for a changing media world.

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From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

… in 38 seconds. Courtesy of Spikenzie

In honor of anyone who's ever done a bunch of soldering and then heard someone say - "that took how long?"

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An anonymous reader writes "MTV Music has just launched a website where they offer over 16,000 music videos — like YouTube, but with fewer notices and DMCA takedowns. They've also set up development tools for third parties to incorporate the content into their own creations. Users creating accounts at the site face other challenges, however, such as the six separate agreements and privacy statements that must be accepted via a single checkbox. Thankfully, at the time of writing the MTV Music website was making this process easier on its Firefox 3 visitors by automatically checking the accept box whenever any agreement is viewed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

He?re's an example of a simple way to make your Arduino greener. This setup is a Solio with an external USB cable connected up to Arduino to power a basic routine on the board. Check out the video of it in action at the link below.

SOLAR POWERED ARDUINO USING A SOLIO

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Olympus has announced firmware updates for several of its lenses to allow their use with the Panasonic DMC-G1. The updated lenses are the 35mm F3.5 Macro, 25mm F2.8 pancake, 35-100mm F4.0-5.6 and 40-150mm F4.0-5.6. Once upgraded, the lenses will be 'compatible' with the G1. It's unclear whether the 35mm Macro and 35-100mm lenses will be able to autofocus (we're looking into it), but the 25mm pancake and 40-150mm certainly will.

In 1966, manga prodigy Jiro Kuwata was commissioned to do a regular Japanese manga version of Bob Kane's Batman comics, to tie in with the Japanese launch of the Batman TV show. Kuwata quickly decided that Kane's scripts wouldn't play to a Japanese audience, so he remade the Dark Knight for the expectations of a mid-sixties, manga-familiarized audience. The result was stunning: a weird blend of genius suspense and gonzo weirdness, as villains turn into dinosaurs, commit strange crimes, rise from the dead, and rampage through a mangified Gotham City that has the streamlined wonderfulness of space-age Japanese pop culture.

These comics were lost for decades, but they have resurfaced now, recovered from private collections and reprinted in Bat-Manga, a new anthology from Pantheon edited by Chip Kidd. Kidd has supplemented the material with fantastic photo spreads (by Geoff Spear) of collectible Japanese Batman toys from the era. The reproductions themselves are only minimally cleaned up, leaving intact the yellowing paper, the wildly variable print-quality, the strange nostalgic quirks of printing from that era.

Kidd's also included a delightful interview with Kuwata, production notes, and plenty of trivia for those who are as besotted with this as I am. I've taken a bunch of photos of the spread and stuck 'em in my Flickr stream -- they don't really do the interiors justice, but I hope you'll be intrigued enough to track down a copy and see it for yourself.

Holding the book is weirdly dissonant. All these imperfections give it the feeling of a vintage piece, something rare, much-loved, and fragile. But the book is also superbly made, on beautiful paper, well-bound, with flourishes from the end-papers to the binding, and so it also feels thoroughly modern and secure.

Rarely have I held a book so fondle-able, a book that delights so much on any random page. This is not like any other Batman book you've seen. If I had to choose between this and the formidable Frank Miller collections, I'd give up the Millers in a heartbeat. And that's saying something.
Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan , Bat-Manga in my Flickr stream

This is a really cool looking quad-rotor flying vehicle. It uses a Parallax Propeller chip to handle all the complex tasks of flying and remote control. I really like the sound it makes when it lands at the end of the video.

More about the Spyder prototype [Parallax forums]

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You may recall that throughout 2007, the MPAA was on something of a worldwide campaign to get governments to pass new laws with stricter punishment for "camcording" movies. Of course, camcording is not really a big deal. The quality is bad, and DVD-quality releases find their way to pirates pretty quickly anyway. The "losses" from camcorded movies are minimal, though it didn't stop the MPAA from totally making up numbers that were clearly bogus. Each place they pressured to get new laws apparently represented some huge percentage of camcorded movies on the market, such that if you added them up, you were talking about well over 100%. Then, of course, there was the case where they claimed that anti-camcording laws in the US had wiped out piracy in the US. Of course, that was when they were pushing for such laws in Canada. Two months later when they were pushing for such laws in the US, suddenly New York represented 40% of all camcorded movies.

However, what was most disturbing was the idea existing laws weren't already enough to deal with whatever "problem" camcording represented. So, it's rather interesting to see that a guy who was caught camcording movies in Maryland was just sentenced to 21 months in prison under a 2005 law. So why did the MPAA scream bloody murder about needing new, more stringent laws in 2007? As for someone getting 21 months in prison for filming a movie that was probably already available online from a studio leak, well, that's a different issue for another day...

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Dug sent in another cool link from his Automata blog. This time it's a marble-climbing machine with plans. Looks like a fun project to make with, or for, the kids. [Thanks Dug]

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that Steve Good, proprietor of The Scrollsaw Workshop, has created downloadable plans and a three part video series to help you make the hand cranked marble machine shown here. What more could you ask for?

More about the Hand-crank marble-climbing machine and plans

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Riding with Robots writes "It's the beginning of the end for the Phoenix Mars Lander. As winter approaches in the Martian arctic, NASA says it's in a 'race against time and the elements' in its efforts to prolong the robotic spacecraft's life. Starting today, mission managers will begin to gradually shut the lander's systems down, hoping to conserve dwindling solar power and thereby extend the remaining systems' useful life. 'Originally scheduled to last 90 days, Phoenix has completed a fifth month of exploration in the Martian arctic. As expected, with the Martian northern hemisphere shifting from summer to fall, the lander is generating less power due to shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight reaching its solar panels. At the same time, the spacecraft requires more power to run several survival heaters that allow it to operate even as temperatures decline.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There are several different ways to make printed circuit boards. One of them is using a photo-plotter. What's a photo-plotter? Keep reading! The project isn't completed yet, but it's really interesting and well documented.

A photoplotter is a printing device that exposes light to a photo sensitive film to produce output. The film is then developed like traditional photos to get the result. There are 2 types of photoplotter, vector type and raster type. Vector plotters move the exposure light anywhere in 2D space to create the image. Need a line from point A to B? No problem, just move from A to B. These are similar to old style pen plotters. Raster plotters, are more like a dot matrix printer, sending out one line of dots, then moving to the next to create an image.

More about making a Micro-controller based photo-plotter [About Microcontroller]

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Here's a surprising study. A survey from a company called Paragon Media Strategies claims that people between the ages of 14 and 24 are listening to more radio than they were a year or two ago. This greatly contradicts the findings of Arbitron, which famously tracks radio listeners. Paragon suggests that radio stations may be doing a better job connecting with people and that "the music may simply be more interesting." Of course, all of this might depend on how you define "radio." I wouldn't be surprised if many folks in that age range are listening to streaming radio online or downloadable podcasts -- that they might consider to be radio. But that's quite different than actually listening to terrestrial radio.

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Some news on the the OpenCore open source hardware community, these are "digital modules called 'cores', since FPGAs have reduced the incremental cost of a core to approximately zero" a lot of interest has sparked --- OpenCores records 20,000 users and more @ EE Times....

OpenCores.org, a community developed around open-source hardware intellectual property (IP) blocks, announced it has passed the mark of 20,000 registered users, reflecting a growing interest for open-source hardware IP cores. OpenCores received a new impetus in November 2007 as ORSoC AB (Stockholm, Sweden), a design house that uses open hardware IP blocks, agreed to take over the OpenCores brand and website.

Launched in 1999 by Damjan Lampret, OpenCores said its website is now visited by about 70,000 engineers every month with everyone helping to contribute to the development and verification of the existing and new IP cores. The number of newly registered users is increasing by about 200 users a day, and OpenCores expects it will have over 50,000 registered users within the next six months.

Users, specified OpenCores, are FPGA and ASIC developers with many years of experience as well as users from major universities.

A redesigned website is due to be launched in November.

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kaip writes "Finland piloted a fully electronic voting system in municipal elections last weekend. Due to a usability glitch, 232 votes, or about 2% of all electronic votes were lost. The results of the election may have been affected, because the seats in municipal assemblies are often decided by margins of a few votes. Unfortunately, nobody knows for sure, because the Ministry of Justice didn't see any need to implement a voter-verified paper record. The ministry was, of course, duly warned about a fully electronic voting system, but the critique was debunked as 'science fiction.' There is now discussion about re-arranging the affected elections. Thanks go to the voting system providers, Scytl and TietoEnator, for the experience."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Kyle writes in about this simple arduino and bulldozer kit robot that follows a projected line:

A regular line follower robot consists one to three photodiodes that reads brightness (usually with IR lights) on the floor. Based on the readings, we program it in a way that the center photodiode always stays on the black line on the floor. If either side of the photodiodes reads black, that means the robot is off the track, turns the robot the other direction so that the robot will always stay in the center.

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We've pointed out in the past that whenever you hear warnings about a coming broadband crunch, it almost always comes from consultants and politicians. If it comes directly from companies, it's inevitably from the CEO or lobbyists. Yet, when you talk to execs who actually are technologists (even at telcos) they're quite willing to admit that the whole broadband crunch issue is something of a myth. All you need to do is regular upgrades to the network, and most recognize that there's no risk to a network getting overwhelmed. The latest to add their voice to this crew is cable company Cox's VP of technology, who admits that the company's latest upgrades mean that there shouldn't be any bandwidth problems for at least a decade. Yet, how much do you want to bet we'll be hearing that we're running out of bandwidth from a politician or a lobbyist well before a decade is up?

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coondoggie sends this excerpt from NetworkWorld: "The US Army Research Office and the National Security Agency (NSA) are together looking for some answers to their quantum physics questions. ... The Army said quantum algorithms that are developed should focus on constructive solutions [PDF] for specific tasks, and on general methodologies for expressing and analyzing algorithms tailored to specific problems — though they didn't say what those specific tasks were ... 'Investigators should presuppose the existence of a fully functional quantum computer and consider what algorithmic tasks are particularly well suited to such a machine. A necessary component of this research will be to compare the efficiency of the quantum algorithm to the best existing classical algorithm for the same problem.'"

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In response to International Caps Lock Day last week, Sean Ragan made this caps lock trainer key:

DOES SOMEONE YOU KNOW HAVE A SHOUTING PROBLEM? IF SO THEN THIS HANDY TRAINER KEY MAKES THE PERFECT GIFT. A standard 101-pattern caps lock key has had its lettering removed by wiping with a paper towel soaked in acetone, and has been augmented with two fourteen-gauge 10mm lebret spikes from the body jeweler's, which are threaded into appropriately sized holes drilled in the key with a pin vise, and then secured with epoxy. You only have to hit it once to be cured of using the caps lock key forever.

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There was plenty of news over the weekend about a security flaw found in Google's Android mobile operating system that could allow certain websites to run attack code and access sensitive data. The security researchers have said they won't reveal the details of the flaw, even though it's apparently a known flaw that is in some of the open source code in Android that Google did not update. However, that didn't stop Google from attacking the messenger, claiming that the security researcher who discovered the flaw broke some "unwritten rules" concerning disclosure. First of all, there is no widespread agreement on any such "unwritten rules" and many security researchers believe that revealing such flaws is an effective means of getting companies to patch software. Considering that Android's source code was revealed last week, it's quite reasonable to assume that many malicious hackers had already figured out this vulnerability, and making that news public seems to serve a valuable purpose. It's unfortunate that Google chose to point fingers, rather than thanking the researcher and focus on patching the security hole.

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Szentigrade writes "Popular Science is running a letter by Daniel Engber of the online Slate Magazine in which he offers the US Presidential nominees advice on using the full potential of the Internet upon their election into office. Some examples discussed in the letter include: a project already being developed that speeds up the patent approval process, a UK site that aims to improve government-citizen interactions, and perhaps most importantly, a call for government information to be 'presented in a standardized and widely used data format, like XML, so that anyone — in or out of government — could use and reconfigure it however they pleased.' Will 2009 be the first year of the E-President?"

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Earlier this year, we talked about getting beyond the "webpage" metaphor when setting up online shopping experiences, and noted how Borders was testing a virtual bookshelf system that seemed more gimmicky than useful. Well, now it appears that Amazon has one-upped Borders by offering WindowShop, a 3D shopping experience... and once again I find myself underwhelmed. While it also has something of a shelf metaphor, it has some advantages in that clicking on any individual "product" can bring up audio, video and text about the product. However, it still feels rather gimmicky rather than useful. For years people have tried to create 3D browsing systems online and they never seem more useful than just straight webpages. In fact, in trying to replicate a 3D environment, it often feels like they're more limited than what a single webpage could do.

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NOT ONLY IS THIS MAN A BREAKDANCER, he is also a Freemason of the 33rd Degree (I don't know which Rite; it was late), and a master of both Crafts.

HIS NAME is Grand Master Priest Faustus, and I had the honor of seeing him perform at the 215 Festival on Friday at the Society of Free Letts, where he appeared as part of Patrick Borelli and Douglas Gorenstein's "Holy Headshot" project.

HE IS, frankly, the poppingest, lockingest Freemason I have ever met, and also a contemporary of many of the men who invented things like popping and locking. (He did not invent Freemasonry, however. HE IS NOT IMMORTAL. But he did have an amazing square and compass belt buckle, which started our discussion of The Craft)

IF ANYONE has any video of this event, I would be very glad to see it.

That is all.

I AM IN DETROIT today, sitting in the lobby of WDET, stealing broadband from a student's room at Wayne State University. So I shall offer a few brief follow ups to your very welcome comments.

TWO COMMENTERS on my previous post on Gnomes pointed out that I might enjoy Brian Froud and Terry Jones's Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. Indeed I might and have. But not as much as I enjoyed Brian Froud's The World of the Dark Crystal.

IT IS, OF COURSE, beautiful. But what I found inspiring, even as a child, is that someone would take The Dark Crystal so seriously, and draw and describe the Ur-Skeks-iverse in such sincere and deranged details. I think it is fair to say that everything I know about Skeksis culture derives from this book.

IN OTHER COMMENTS SECTIONS, Brermatt noted that the Battle of Galactia Ride also appeared in the FIRST "Get Smart" movie, "The Nude Bomb." It is so, and I know, because I saw this movie on TV in Australia some years ago, and I was so surprised that I practically went down the drain the wrong way.

NOW, however, it is on DVD, and insanely, i09 has the relevant clip in WIDESCREEN.

I MUST NOW drive to Ann Arbor.

That is all

Here's the video for Mac Montandon's new book about the history of jetpacks, Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was. It's a delightful and engrossing story of the quest for one of humankind's greatest technological fantasies —- to strap on a device and fly like a bird.

Jetpack Dreams | Jetpack Dreams website

If you thought the three presidential debates were similar, here's proof you were right. This video show how eerily similar the candidates' canned arguments were. Synchronized Presidential Debating (Thanks, Joe Dolce!)

Andrew Keen wrote an unintentionally funny essay about how the bad economy is going to make people stop contributing content online unless they get paid for it.

So how will today's brutal economic climate change the Web 2.0 "free" economy? It will result in the rise of online media businesses that reward their contributors with cash; it will mean the success of Knol over Wikipedia, Mahalo over Google, TheAtlantic.com over the HuffingtonPost.com, iTunes over MySpace, Hulu over YouTube Inc. , Playboy.com over Voyeurweb.com, TechCrunch over the blogosphere, CNN’s professional journalism over CNN’s iReporter citizen-journalism... The hungry and cold unemployed masses aren’t going to continue giving away their intellectual labor on the Internet in the speculative hope that they might get some "back end" revenue. "Free" doesn’t fill anyone’s belly; it doesn’t warm anyone up.

(As Jesse Walker at Reason says, "Because that's why most people contribute to YouTube and Wikipedia. It's the reason why people post comments here at Hit & Run. 'Back end' revenue! It's the American dream!")

Keen doesn't realize the power of egoboo. Richard Eney wrote in his 1959 Fancyclopedia II that science fiction fandom "may be defined as an infinitely complex system for the production of pure egoboo." The same can be said for the Web, too.

Economy to Give Open-Source a Good Thumping