Funny debate between Palin and McCain.

An anonymous reader writes "The LHC is out of commission, but the Tevatron collider at Fermilab is still chugging along, and may have just discovered a new type of particle that would signal new physics. New Scientist reports that the Tevatron's CDF detector has found muons that seem to have been created outside of the beam pipe that confines the protons and anti-protons being smashed together. The standard model can't explain the muons, and some speculate that 'an unknown particle with a lifetime of about 20 picoseconds was produced in the collision, traveled about 1 centimeter, through the side of the beam pipe, and then decayed into muons.' The hypothetical particle even seems to have the right mass to account for one theory of dark matter."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've talked in the past about how one of the causes of the financial crisis was that many banks on Wall Street stopped acting like banks and started acting like hedge funds -- despite not really knowing how to do that. That is, they took on much greater risks and higher leverage, without having much of an understanding of how to really hedge that risk. That was fine when all was going well, but when the bubble burst, it started impacting everyone.

Now, in a combined effort between NPR's Planet Money (I know I've said this, but I'll say it again: if you're not listening to this every day, you're missing out, big time) and the NY Times, reports are coming out about how it went well beyond banks turning into hedge funds, to all sorts of other organizations as well. The scary example being described in the first article in this series is how a Wisconsin school board and the NYC subway system, both effectively became hedge funds, lending money out to various banks in exchange for CDOs (collateralized debt obligations). What a CDO is, effectively, is the mashing together of a variety of different debt instruments (loans) that pay out some sort of return. So, you could basically buy some of the return on a whole mess of loans, packaged in all different ways (some amazingly creatively).

If all of those debt instruments that you're buying into keep on paying, you're in good shape. If, however, there are defaults, you can be in an awful lot of trouble. However, while everything was going great, defaults weren't an issue and the folks sold on these CDOs often had no idea how risky they really were. In the article above, for example, the guy who sold the Wisconsin school district on investing $200 million of its pension money in CDOs had only taken a two hour course on them, and greatly downplayed the risks.

And, of course, to make matters even worse, in many cases, the actual risks of such CDOs were hidden through some games, and made worse by either clueless or complicit ratings agencies which rated seriously high risk CDOs as being extremely safe bets. To see a rather graphic (and easily understandable) example of this, I recommend the following Paddy Hirsch video comparing CDOs to pyramids of champagne glasses: The really scary part was that, effectively, you had numerous less than fully sophisticated investors, dumping hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars into incredibly complex investment vehicles that they were being falsely told were extremely safe, when the facts are that they were highly risky. Many pension funds and the like allocate a certain small percentage of their investments into high risk vehicles -- but the financial crisis is being caused in part by the realization that a much, much, much larger percentage of their investments actually turned out to be in seriously high risk vehicles, many of which have now defaulted.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Remain Calm has a nice little roundup of homebrew music applications for use with Nintendo DS - ds music apps [via Matrixsynth]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!

An anonymous reader writes "Phoronix has a new article out on Wayland: A New X Server For Linux. One of Red Hat's engineers has started writing a new X11 server around today's needs and to eliminate the cruft that has been in this critical piece of free software for more than a decade. This new server is called Wayland and it is designed with newer hardware features like kernel mode-setting and a kernel memory manager for graphics. Wayland is also dramatically simpler to target for in development. A compositing manager is embedded into the Wayland server and ensures 'every frame is perfect' according to the project's leader."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ever since I was little, I've always wanted an AMC Pacer. It has such a space mobile style. While trying to convince Joel that a Pacer is far cooler than a BMW 2002 he almost bought, I stumbled on this page chronicling the creation of a fleet of Electric Pacers. Called the "Change of Pacer," the EV Pacer was a 1970s oil crisis coup of maker culture. The cars were electrified by Electric Vehicle Associates (EVA), launched by a group of high school vocational education teachers as a student project in Cleveland, Ohio. From AMCPacer.com:

The Pacer was strong, large on the inside, and small on the outside (for the 1970's). The large interior volume was ideal for carrying the lead acid batteries, battery charger, and motor controller that was required for the vehicle. The Change of Pace was a stellar performer. Top speed was in excess of 55 mph, 0 to 30 mph was achieved in less than 12 seconds, and the range was 30 to 50 miles, per SAE J227A schedules...

The batteries required significant maintenance. The batteries had to be fully recharged after every use, or would be damaged. Recharging required several hours, depending upon how much the batteries were discharged. The batteries had to have water added every few weeks, depending upon use. The batteries posed the biggest problem for the Change of Pace. EVA stopped production of the Change of Pace, when the Pacer was no longer available from AMC, and EVA went out of business shortly thereafter.

The Electric Pacer

Our pal Coop is in the La Carrera Panamericana 2008 car race, and has been taking wonderful photos along the way. He says: "Folks have to reset their safe search filters since Flickr decided to censor all my photos, even the non-naughty ones." La Carrera Panamericana 2008

Our pals at GAMA-GO are holding their annual holiday sale this Saturday, November 8, at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. It's a great opportunity to get GAMA-GO goods at deep discounts. (For those of you in So Cal, the sale wagon heads down to L.A.'s Bigfoot Lodge on 11/15.) Go git ya some!
GAMA-GO Holiday Sale

Marc “Nostromo” Resibois wrote up a nice piece on Arduino for portable sound synthesis over @ CDM, referencing the Arduino Pocket Piano kit.

My first hands-on with hardware was when I started fiddling with the Arduino piano. You might argue that once it’s built, it’s still software platform, but I really enjoy working on this bit of kit. The interaction is even more straightforward than game consoles: press a button, turn a knob, and get sound. Although it might seem limited compared to software synths, it also has dimensions that a lot of virtual instruments lack. I’ll call these qualities depth and exclusivity.

- Software Programmer Dreams of New, Small Music Machines

Arduino Pocket Piano kit

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!

New Scientist reviews the possibility that the Cassini probe might be repurposed to look for signs of life on Saturn's enigmatic moon Enceladus. "[Enceladus' water vapor] plume's origin is still being debated, but some models suggest the moon holds an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface. This ocean could be a potential habitat for extraterrestrial life. ... Though the probe was never designed to look for life, it could do so by studying organic chemicals such as methane in the plume, the team says."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In discussing a recent ruling against a Chinese manufacturer of DVD players who wasn't implementing approved DVD DRM technologies, News.com notes in passing that the ruling allows the MPAA to review and test any new or re-engineered products that use CSS technology before going to market. It's difficult to see what sort of rationale there is for this. Once again, we see a situation where the MPAA seems to think that it gets to decide what innovations are allowed, and which are not. And, unfortunately, we have a court which has agreed, basically giving the MPAA full control over what kinds of DVD players can be sold in the US.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Spike Priggen has compiled a DVD of '60s and '70s bands playing bubblegum music.

WFMU's 2008 Record Fair is happening October 24, 25 and 26th at Manhattan's Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street!

Bedazzled! will be presenting our annual "Bedazzled Video Hour and a Half" Saturday, October 25 from 11:00am-12:30pm.

This years theme is "Bubblegum Music A-Z".
"ABC" - Jackson 5
"1-2-3 Red Light" - 1910 Fruitgum Company
"Bend Me, Shape Me" - The American Breed
"Come On Down To My Boat" - Every Mother's Son
"Come On, Get Happy" - The Partridge Family
"Dizzy" - Tommy Roe
"Goody Goody Gumdrops" - 1910 Fruitgum Company
"Green Tambourine" - The Lemon Pipers
"Hey Hey We're The Monkees" - The Monkees
"Hip Hip Hooray" - The Troggs
"Indian Giver" - 1910 Fruitgum Company
"I Think I Love You" - David Cassidy
"I Woke Up in Love This Morning" - The Partridge Family
"I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" - Boyce & Hart
"I'm A Believer" - The Monkees
"Little Bit of Soul" - The Music Explosion
"Mercy" - The Ohio Express
'Midnight Confession" - The Grass Roots
"Mony Mony" - Tommy James & The Shondells
"One Bad Apple" - The Osmonds
"Rice Is Nice" - The Lemon Pipers
"Rain, The Park & Other Things" - The Cowsills
"Shake" - Shadows of Knight
"Silver Threads & Golden Needles" - The Cowsills
"Simple Simon Says" - 1910 Fruitgum Company
"Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" - The Royal Guardsmen
"Stepping Stone" - The Monkees
"Sugar, Sugar' - The Archies
"The Train" - 1910 Fruitgum Company
"We Can Fly" - The Cowsills
"Wombles" - "The Wombles"
"Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" - The Ohio Express

Bonus Selections:
"Dizzy" - Tommy Roe ("Upbeat!") "Green Tambourine" - The Lemon Pipers ("Upbeat!") "Sugar, Sugar' - The Archies (Andy Kim video) "Sugar, Sugar' - The "Music Scene" Singers

If you can't make it to the show you can own your own copy of this program including groovy cover and disc art.

Bubblegum Music A-Z DVD

VOTE NERD I WAS GLAD TO CONTRIBUTE a quote to my friend Joel Stein's column on Hallowe'en, in which he fears that America is not ready to vote nerd, no matter what the polls currently say. THE FULL QUOTE I provided was typically longwinded, but atypical in its LACK OF CAPS.

IN ANY CASE, I knew it was more than Joel Stein could use.

YOU CAN put this election through a lot of filters, and no doubt many will disagree with my assessment. But for the record, IT NOW FOLLOWS:

Dear Joel.

I am not a nerd. I am a geek. The former is a subset of the latter, but don't be concerned if you don't know the difference. You will learn it all when the reeducation begins.

Far more than red vs. blue, or "real America" vs. Massachusetts, geeks vs. jocks is the culture war that defines our times.

Palin's winking attacks on intellect, science, and fruit flies represent pure jockdom: a suspicion of complexity and egg-headedness, a rejection of credentials and education in favor one's own personal gut instinct, and the conviction that, in the last quarter, hard realities may be denied, and a magical, come-from-behind victory is possible through inspiring cliches.

There is lots to be admired about jockdom: often the best decisions come from the gut; and some of history's worst crimes have been founded on the impersonality of science and pseudoscience.

But I do not believe that people will reject Obama due to his geek signifiers: his gangly frame, goofball ears, and har-dee-har-har insistence that we must live in the world that EXISTS, not in the world we WISH existed (on the left or the right.)

Rather, I think after 8 years of jock-like bluster and "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" reality-denying platitudes, Obama's pragmatism and technician's calm seems extra attractive.

But even if Obama loses, and this may well happen, I believe jockdom, which was rightly the dominant mode of being American back when we used our hands and brawn to fight and farm and build things, is necessarily on the wane. The world is now driven by knowledge economies. Certainly China and India and Dubai do not make "BIG BANG THEORY" sitcoms marginalizing THEIR geeks and engineers. (Unless they actually do, in which case: awesome).

Prepare to vote.

That is all.

I like Miles Thompson's painting, titled, "Cool Man, Cool."

From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

Lorier painted "Old Man Shifty" here and then added animated eyes recreating a classic haunted house prop. She employed a Parallax board plus sensors to track movement and trigger the animation - spot-on perfect!

- Painting with moving eyes

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!

Are you voting tomorrow? Why? That's the question being asked by the sayHear project, an experiment from Gershoni Design where you're invited to call a phone number tied to your candidate and record a message with your reason for voting. You can hear all of the messages on the sayHear Web site. sayHear

We've seen plenty of studies on the impacts of violent video games, whose results were later blown out of proportion in the media. When you looked at the actual details of the studies that were often purported to show a link between violent video games and real world violence, the so-called link almost always disappeared. Instead, what you found was that playing violent video games did make kids more emotional, which is what you would expect. While playing an exciting game, who wouldn't get caught up in the action? That doesn't mean they'd go out and hurt people, though. Some studies showed immediate aggressive behavior immediately after playing, but, again, that's rather reasonable as they probably have increased adrenalin flowing. But that's hardly a sign that they're going to go hurt people, and the effect doesn't last very long. Other studies have shown that kids who play such games get desensitized to images of violence -- which again makes sense, but still doesn't mean that they think violence is acceptable. It just means they're not shocked when they see it.

The latest study may be the most interesting (and, perhaps, controversial), however. It actually tries to account for much of this and tries to measure aggressive behavior of violent video game players months later. The study found that kids who spent more time playing more violent games, did in fact get more aggressive over time, even accounting for how aggressive they were at the beginning of the study. There are some questionable aspects to the study, such as using self-reporting to determine "violent acts," but on the whole this study does appear to be at least marginally more convincing than earlier studies, and, at the very least suggests further areas that should be studied.

Of course, nowhere does it explain why, if the study's findings are true, youth violence has decreased significantly over the same period of time that violent video games have become much more popular. If violent video games really made people consistently more violent, you'd expect to see that increase. And, if that number is not increasing, then you have to wonder if any reported increase in youth violence is even at a level that matters. If there's a marginal increase in aggressive behavior that doesn't lead to any increase in illegal behavior, is that really an issue? Also, when compared with another recent study that shows it's the small percentage of kids who don't play video games who are more likely to actually get in trouble, it makes you wonder if there are some completely independent factors at work here, rather than any direct correlation between violent video games and real world violence.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Apparently the UK ISP Karoo has changed its terms of service to note that it will disconnect customers if it discovers they have an open WiFi access point. This isn't all that surprising, though it isn't particularly reasonable. When WiFi first came on the scene a few years back, there were a few ISPs that claimed the same thing -- though their reasoning was that they were afraid people with open WiFi were illegally "sharing" the connection with neighbors. Hell, there were some ISPs that wanted to charge you per computer you connected to a broadband connection. However, as WiFi became common, most ISPs dropped those restrictions, so it is interesting to see them coming back. The reason for cutting off open WiFi users is unclear -- and it's likely that Karoo will claim security reasons -- but TorrentFreak wonders if it has anything to do with the entertainment industry, which is sick of losing cases after people point out that, thanks to an open WiFi, it could be anyone that had used the connection. Either way, it seems like a good reason to find a new ISP, if your ISP is going to get involved in how you set up your local network.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Datamancer was sorely missed at this weekend's Steampunk Convention, but he was anything but idle. Check out this lovely ergonomic keyboard he just uploaded to his site.

The M-15 Ergonomic Keyboard

More:

• "Maker" is what I do, "steampunk" describes the style

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!

What do Google Reader engineers read? by Mike Knapp @ Google (MAKE is on the list, woo!)... He writes...

We are all passionate feed readers on the Google Reader team. For us, working on Reader is a dream job. Why? Because we have the perfect excuse when we're caught browsing feeds at work! For a bit of fun, and to show you what we like reading, we've put together a bundle of our favorite feeds. After much deliberation, we've narrowed down our "Staff Picks" to the following:

• Cute Overload (view in Reader)
• Design Milk (view in Reader)
• Dinosaur Comics (view in Reader)
• Jake And Amir Dot Com (view in Reader)
• Just Bento (view in Reader)
• La Tartine Gourmande (view in Reader)
• MAKE Magazine (view in Reader) Yay!
• POPSUGAR (view in Reader)
• Rock, Paper, Shotgun (view in Reader)
• The Big Picture (view in Reader)
• The Kitchn (view in Reader)
• ThinkGeek (view in Reader)
• WebUrbanist (view in Reader)

Not only do these feeds capture the personalities on our team, they are mainly all "full text" feeds (i.e. containing the original pictures, videos and text).

If you want to subscribe to all of these feeds at once, head over to our discover page and subscribe to the "Staff Picks" bundle (English only).

If you haven't used Reader before, maybe these feeds might give you some ideas for websites you'd like to start tracking.

We hope you enjoy these feeds as much as we do!

If you use google reader you can add MAKE here...

And on a related note, if you work at google we have a special discount code for volume subscriptions, just email me (or anyone out there with a lot of employees that like MAKE & CRAFT).

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Announcements | Digg this!

Comic Book Resources has a fantastic first-hand account of ordering a live miniature monkey from a comic book advertisment. Jeff Tuthill ordered one for about $25 in the early 1970s. Not wanting his parents to know, he had it shipped to his friend's house:

It came in this little cardboard box. I mean, I’m saying small. It was probably the size of a shoebox, except it was higher. It had a little chicken wire screen window in it. There was a cut out. All you could see if you looked in there was his face. I brought it home, and I actually snuck it into the basement of the house.

...

No instructions [were included]. He had this waist belt on, a collar, if you will, on his waist, with an unattached leash inside the box. So I opened the box up inside the cage, the monkey jumped out, I withdrew the box and found the leash. I have no idea where it came from; I assumed it came from Florida. I figured, well, it’s probably near dehydration, so I opened up the cage to put some water in it. It leapt out of the cage when I opened it up the second time! I mean, it was eyeing the pipes that I was unaware of. As soon as I opened the cage, it leapt up and grabbed onto the plumbing up on the ceiling and started using them like monkey bars, and he was just shooting along in the basement, chirping pretty loud. It was heading towards the finished side of the basement, where there was a drop ceiling, and if it got into those channels, I never would have got it. It would have been days to get this thing out of there. I grabbed it by its tail, and it came down on, starting literally up by my shoulder, like a drill press it landed on my arm, and every bite was breaking flesh. It was literally like an unsewing machine. It was literally unsewing my arm coming down, and I was pouring blood. I grabbed it by its neck with both my wrists, threw it back in the cage. It’s screaming like a scalded cat. I’m pouring blood. My friend’s laughing uncontrollably, and my father finally comes in the basement door and goes, ‘Jeffery! What are you doing to that rabbit?’ And I go, ‘It’s not a rabbit, it’s a monkey, and it just bit the hell out of me.’ ‘A monkey? Bring it up here!’ I’m pouring, I wrapped a t-shirt around my arm to stave off the bleeding, carried the cage upstairs, and I don’t know why I bothered sneaking it in, because they fell in love with it, and it was like, there was no problem at all. They took me to the emergency room and I got 28 stitches on my arm.

MAIL-ORDER FRIENDS: THE COMIC BOOK SQUIRREL MONKEYS

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Small gallery of old comic book ads

Two articles about Sarah Palin, religion, and the internet; both interesting reads. First, a New York Times piece I'd been meaning to blog from a couple of weeks ago, YouTube Videos Draw Attention to Palin’s Faith, which references those YouTube videos with the Kenyan anti-witchcraft-preacher, blogged previously on Boing Boing. Snip from NYT piece:

Ms. Palin has had long associations with religious leaders who practice a particularly assertive and urgent brand of Pentecostalism known as “spiritual warfare.” Its adherents believe that demonic forces can colonize specific geographic areas and individuals, and that “spiritual warriors” must “battle” them to assert God’s control, using prayer and evangelism. The movement’s fixation on demons, its aggressiveness and its leaders’ claims to exalted spiritual authority have troubled even some Pentecostal Christians.

Second, an extensive Huffington Post item by Bruce Wilson with more background on other political figures involved in C. Peter Wagner's Spiritual Warfare movement, including Florida congresswoman Katherine Harris. Wagner is the guy grinning in the image above. Snip from HuffPo piece:

[Harris] became notorious for her role in the U.S. 2000 presidential election when Harris, then Florida's Secretary of State, ordered the Florida election vote recount shut down amidst numerous charges of election fraud and irregularity and with Al Gore trailing George W. Bush by only several hundred votes in the contest for Florida's electoral votes which ultimately went to George W. Bush and so determined the outcome of the 2000 presidential election.

A recording of an October 3, 2006 conference call [link to YouTube video with 3:26 segment from call] between Katherine Harris, then Florida U.S. Congressional Representative, and Florida evangelist Ken Malone [transcript of call], reported on in a November 4th, 2006 Tampa Tribune story because of remarks Harris made during the call which some took as anti-Jewish, indicates that Katherine Harris was then active in the same national Spiritual Warfare network which Sarah Palin has been associated with and may still be a member of.

Mounting evidence suggests John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin is deeply involved with a global religious movement bent on imposing theocracies around the world and whose top leader, C. Peter Wagner, has decreed to his followers it is God's will that a forcible, massive transfer of wealth, from the 'godless' to members of his movement, take place.

A recently released 36 page report (online / PDF / highlights) from an independent research team specializing Wagner's movement includes details on what appear to be virulently anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish statements from, and activities carried out by, top leaders of C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation.

Sarah Palin joined the Wasilla prayer group of C. Peter Wagner apostle Mary Glazier in 1989, Glazier told Wagner and his top New Apostolic Reformation leaders on July 13, 2008

Wilson's HuffPo piece includes embedded videos, including the one above featuring Glazier. Part of what I found interesting about Glazier was the appropriation of bits and pieces of Native American ritual (specifically Lakhota). For instance: the "HO!" she says at the beginning of her sermon, and imagery throughout her ministry website. That, combined with language encouraging politicians who follow this faith to use Pentecostalism to change American goverment -- "Local leaders can transform a region, a state, or a nation," the website intro reads. All that and gratuitous drop shadow with scifi fonts!

A note to BB commenters: I know things get heated around election season, but please note that this blog post does not amount to a suggestion that people should be prohibited from practicing any faith they wish in America.

Katherine Harris Was in Sarah Palin's Spiritual Warfare Network (Huffington Post, thanks Ned Sublette)

Michael Leddy of Orange Crate Art came upon this archive of USA Arts programs.

From WNET, NYC's Channel 13, streaming episodes of USA Arts: Willem de Kooning! Martha Graham! Vladimir Nabokov! Charles Olson! And many more.

USA Arts

The talented Cowsills really show their stuff on the Ed Sullivan Show. From Bedazzled:

"The Rain, the Park & Other Things" & Medley ("Monday, Monday,", "Sweet Taking Guy," "Lonesome Me," "Please Mr. Postman" & "Reach Out"). I love how they don't really get the vocal mics going till halfway through the first song. This is The Cowsills people! Turn on a freaking mic or two.

Video: The Cowsills on "The Ed Sullivan Show"

Previously on Boing Boing:
• The Cowsills perform "Folsom Prison Blues"

The above photo, titled "Deadlock," landed David Maitland a 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. The winners of the contest, run by the Natural History of London and BBC Wildlife Magazine, were announced last week. A photo of a snow leopard won best overall while Maitland's shot took the prize in the "Animal Behavior: All Other Animals" category. From National Geographic:

Maitland observed from midnight to 3 a.m. as a rare Morelet's tree frog doggedly refused to become supper for a cat-eyed snake--and still didn't see the conclusion.

"I would love to have seen them go their separate ways, but I was exhausted," the photographer said. "The frog was all the time trying to pull the snake off, but the snake just wouldn't let go.

Best Wild Animal Photos of 2008 Announced

Todd Lappin took some great photos of the 2008 Illegal Soapbox Derby

Well, turns out there's a reason why it's called the *Illegal* Soapbox Derby.

When we arrived at Bernal Speedway in San Francisco to take in the 2008 running of the Illegal Soapbox Derby, some unpleasantness ensued between the racers and several representatives of the San Francisco Police Department. It seems the Parks Department had received a pre-race complaint from someone in the Bernal Heights Temperance and Abstinence League, and the cops were under orders to put the kibosh on the event. (According to the police, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano had attempted to intervene on behalf of the Soapbox Derby, but to no avail -- Ammiano was overruled by the bureaucrats at the Parks Department. Thanks for trying, Tom!)

Major buzzkill.

After some futile and frustrating attempts at negotiation, the crowd dispersed peacefully and relocated (no less peacefully) to an another gravity-rich location elsewhere in the city.

Photos of the Really Really Illegal 2008 Illegal Soapbox Derby

Go Green! Special video effects are available to anyone with a cheap camcorder and $25 of software. Greenscreen is the most powerful of these, and is surprisingly easy to use. By Bill Barminski - MAKE 12 - Page 58.

Would you like to make a video of yourself standing on the moon? There are two ways to do it. You can build a rocket and fly there — expensive, not to mention dangerous. Or you can use a greenscreen to make it look as if you are there. Yes, a greenscreen. I hope I won’t be shattering too many illusions when I tell you that this is how they did a lot of that cool stuff in Star Wars. They placed an actor in front of a greenscreen and filmed the scene while he pretended to fight a giant space squid. A technique called chroma keying was then used to remove the green color, allowing a new piece of video to be placed behind the actor.

This is called a composite shot, and the process is called keying. In the past you needed high-end software costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars, but today you can do it for $25 plus some cheap paint and lights.

But just let me issue a word of caution: greenscreening can be tricky. There are many variables that can affect the outcome. Even professional filmmakers run into unexpected problems from time to time.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!

Here are some photos from last week's MAKE Out session, courtesy of Warren at Art Seen:

Basically, it looks like a bunch of makers showed up, tools of choice in hand, and transformed an otherwise-normal cafe into a massive work session. I'm excited for the next one!

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Events | Digg this!

We added a new section in MAKE a few volumes ago and I wanted to introduce it here... Here's Charles the section editor -

The projects in MAKE encourage us to transcend our default role as passive consumers. Armed with screwdrivers and soldering irons, we boldly go into basement workshops, creating new gadgets or ripping open old ones, sometimes achieving mixed results but always enjoying ourselves.

Earlier this year, it occurred to me that the magazine could extend its interests from the physical world into an area that I think of as "digital arts and crafts": photographs, videos, music, text, computer code, and animations. The snag is that the software involved is increasingly diverse and complex. Almost anyone knows how to use a hammer, but how many of us have the time and patience to enhance a video with Adobe After Effects -- and retrain ourselves each time an upgrade is published?

Numerous magazines are dedicated to specialty tasks such as photo retouching or sound synthesis, but what I want is a broader view of the whole digital-arts spectrum, featuring small-scale, specific projects that will be fun, quick, and easy to complete.

Because I was unable to find such an overview, I was excited by the opportunity to assemble it in this new section. Under the broad title of Upload (meaning anything digital that can be uploaded via email or to web pages) you'll find projects ranging from chroma key video to infrared photography to online book publishing. In the future I hope this section continues on a regular basis -- but this, of course, will depend on you. Do you have a new and clever application of a digital tool, to achieve an unexpectedly creative product? Be sure to let me know. Anyone interested in contributing should send a short summary of his or her idea to me at platt@makezine.com.

--Charles Platt, Upload Section Editor

And, here are some of the article to check out...

As a special treat we've published one of the articles here on the MAKE blog - Go Green! Greenscreen effects are available to anyone with a camcorder and $25 of software. By Bill Barminski. You can view it here or in your digital edition (subscribers).

Looking at the Low End by Richard Kadrey. Infrared photography reveals a world invisible to the naked eye. MAKE 12 Page 50.

Book Yourself by Kevin Kelly. Innovative options enable you to publish your own text and pictures. MAKE 12 Page 50.

Seeing Red by Charles Platt. Shifting the spectrum can transform a landscape and create dramatic artistic effects. MAKE 12 Page 50.

Go Green! by Bill Barminski. Special video effects are available to anyone with a cheap camcorder and $25 of software. Greenscreen is the most powerful of these. MAKE 12 Page 50.

Quick Bits by Mark Frauenfelder, Charles Platt. Tips and tools for digital diversions. MAKE 12 Page 50.

The Family Photo Archive by Brian O'Heir. Use simple, powerful tools to rescue your photos from stored obscurity and turn them into a DVD slideshow. MAKE 12 Page 50.

Gnarly CAs: Cellular Automata for Pattern Creation by Rudy Rucker. Autonomous software bots can create complex, colorful digital patterns. You just have to tell them what to do. MAKE 12 Page 50.

Remake Your Own Hollywood Movie by Richard Kadrey. Dissatisfied with the director's cut? Direct it yourself! MAKE 12 Page 50.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!

meridiangod writes "The Air Force is fed up with a seemingly endless barrage of attacks on its computer networks from stealthy adversaries whose motives and even locations are unclear. So now the service is looking to restore its advantage on the virtual battlefield by doing nothing less than the rewriting the 'laws of cyberspace.'" I'm sure that'll work out really well for them.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bruce Van Dyne of Charlotte, North Carolina found this mouse-shaped form in a bag of Arnold Bakers hotdog buns. The company released a statement claiming that it's "pan accumulation, a deposit of hardened dough, on a hot dog roll."
"Company says mouse in bun just dough"

A few years back, we discussed whether or not politicians would eventually try to tax virtual world winnings. After all, if there's an exchange rate to real money with fake virtual money (as there usually is), then wouldn't holding all your money in these virtual dollars be seen as something of a tax dodge? Indeed, Australia took the lead in this two years ago, with plans to tax virtual earnings. Now, it appears that China has signed up as well, and will begin taxing any virtual world earnings at 20%.

This actually follows on a failed attempt to ban earning any money on the trade of virtual currencies. That ban had been announced last year, basically as a way to avoid dealing with the taxation issue. When the Chinese government realized that people were ignoring the rules and still earning and trading money in virtual worlds, it reversed course and has now added the 20% tax. What's unclear, of course, is how they plan on enforcing it. Will China take some of its tens of thousands of Great Firewall employees and send them into World of Warcraft for an audit?

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

"Star Wars" - an a capella tribute to John Williams, from YouTube star Corey Vidal. (YouTube, thanks Mark Day!)

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the annual Alternative Press Expo 2008 in San Francisco. My roots (and Boing Boing's) are in the 'zine scene, so I'm always happy to see that the DIY media spirit still thrives on paper. I picked up quite a few cool items, but my favorite is this fantastic signed print by Kevin Dart of Fleet Street Scandal. Dart and his partner Chris Turnham are masters at faux movie posters and characters all digitally rendered in a hyperreal 1960s style. It was very difficult to pick just one signed print, especially when they're attractively priced at $20-$40. Every single piece is fantastic.
Fleet Street Scandal

Snip from a Nieman Journalism Lab blog post about an interesting application in this year's Knight News Challenge:

The pioneering investigative-reporting non-profit ProPublica and The New York Times are seeking $1 million from the Knight Foundation to launch an online repository of primary-source documents. The project could lead to greater information sharing among news organizations and their audience. As they put it in their grant application:

Documents are the foundation of investigative journalism, but today’s newsroom is a throwaway culture. Too often, reporters gather reams of information, do their stories, then chuck rich source documents into a dusty corner, never again to see the light of day.

The project, which is called DocumentCloud, would let news organizations upload their materials for public consumption and analysis. (”Readers will also be able to quickly search, annotate and bookmark documents — and for the first time link directly to specific pages or passages.”)

The proposal relies on a piece of software called DocViewer, which was developed by the Times’ Interactive Newsroom Technologies team. The head of that team, Aron Pilhofer, recently confirmed that the Times will release DocViewer as open source “sometime after the election.” Brian Boyer, the blogger who broke that news, said the software was created by the Times for its searchable database of Hillary Clinton’s 11,000-page public schedule as first lady, which was a journalistic marvel.

ProPublica and NYT seek $1M to put everyone’s documents online (Nieman Lab)

If you're from Ohio, as I am, you might appreciate this t-shirt. "Ohio, It's A Buckeye Leaf, Seriously"
(Thanks, Richard Metzger!)

The folks who developed Gender Analyzer say their web service uses artificial intelligence to determine if a website was written by a man or woman. According to the 'bot, the front page of boingboing.net was written by a dude, which is about 3/4 correct! Jokes aside, it looks like their rate of accuracy in general is pretty good. (thanks, @sandroalberti!)

In 1961, Yale University social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted incredibly provocative experiments in obedience in which subjects administered apparently painful and even lethal electric shocks to others just because an authority figure in a lab coat told them to. (The shocks were fake and the recipients were shills, but the subjects didn't know this.) More than four decades later, ABC Radio International's Gina Perry tracked down some of the victims subjects. Beyond The Shock Machine

Previously on BB:
• Virtual version of Stanley Milgram obedience experiment
• Stanley Milgram's shocking new biography
• Milgram Reenactment

A group of Egyptian bloggers who have been coming to the US throughout the past three months to cover the American elections were welcomed back to the US last night by getting arrested. Ironically, their trip was sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Snip:

[W]e've been blogging a bit about the folks over at Egypt Blogs America. It's a group of 8 Egyptian bloggers who have been brought to the US for a series of first-hand looks at the election campaigns as part of a project by the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at The American University in Cairo. The first trips they visited Washington, New York and other major cities. This week, after having returned briefly to Egypt, they are on their way back to visit journalism schools to which they've been assigned in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Austin, Texas, Syracuse, New York and Nebraska. (Disclosure: We'll be collaborating on a Second Life project with them in coming weeks.) The group has done an insightful and witty job of covering the 2008 US presidential election (including links to sites such as If the World Could Vote, where 90 percent of the 614,000 people from 207 countries have picked Obama over McCain).

In their own country these bloggers are fighting for freedom of speech and the press. Many of them have been actively harassed by their government for their efforts. Wael Abbas, for example, had his YouTube account shut down because of his anti-torture coverage.

Imagine their surprise last night when enroute back to the US, two of the bloggers were arrested and detained; one for four hours and the other for ten before being released to do what they came here to do -- observe and record.

(Ironically, they arrive in the US as the Egyptian government in recent weeks has launched a campaign of arrests and harassment of bloggers.)

Egypt Blogs America; Gets Arrested (Eureka Deja Vu, thanks Joshua Fouts). Above, a screengrab of Wael Abbas' blog.

Previously on Boing Boing:

* Egypt: blogger Kareem Amer gets 4 years for insulting Islam
* Egyptian blogger Alaa to be released from prison
* Egyptian anti-torture blogger Wael Abbas says YouTube shut his account.
* Egypt: worldwide rallies for jailed blogger Kareem Amer on Fri. Apr. 27
* Supporters work to free Egypt blogger Kareem (NPR "Xeni Tech")

LEMUR fall classes are starting off soon...

Have you ever wanted to build a robot or an interactive art installation? Have you ever wondered how LEDs, sensors and motors work? Through collaborative exercises and the development of in-class projects, you will learn how to program and prototype with an Arduino microcontroller. This class is geared towards beginners, and no prior knowledge of electronics or programming is required.

The class will demonstrate programming and electronics basics through hands-on microcontroller projects. You will learn digital and analog input and output techniques for controlling motors and interpreting sensors as well as the programming skills necessary to use these components effectively. By the end of the class, students will have a firm understanding of how microcontrollers, sensors and actuators work and how to utilize these tools in their own creative projects.

Microcontroller Progamming for Artists: Introduction to the Arduino System
Tuesdays 11/4, 11/11, 11/18, 6:30-9:30 pm

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!

We have some attendance numbers from Maker Faire Austin, TX - as well as from the past few Maker Faires...

But first we want to say that everyone at MAKE & CRAFT is so proud of everyone involved, it's hard work to put on these Maker Faires - from the team at MAKE & CRAFT to the hundreds makers that spend their time over 2 days talking to tens of thousands of people, the makers out there are amazing. It's stunning to see what has happened over the last few years, MAKE is just 4 years old, CRAFT just 2 year old and Maker Faire is also just 2 years in - we've seen a lot of good things come out of the world of making, from people starting businesses making things to schools/parents/communities working towards more science, engineering, arts and crafts in their daily lives.

It's like an investment in society, we're just starting to hear about some of the seeds sprouting up - parents telling us their kids picked up MAKE or went to a Maker Faire a few years ago and now they're going off to school to be engineers and scientists. Folks working full time on a business they started by selling their crafts at a Maker Faire. We have tons of work ahead and we're not letting up, the makers out there aren't slowing down either. So as 2008 comes to a close soon we wanted to personally thank everyone who has ever attended a Maker Faire and every single maker for helping create one of the best events and movements out there.

Maker Faire attendees
2006: Bay Area, CA - 22,000

2007: Bay Area, CA - 45,000
2007: Austin, TX - 20,000

2008: Bay Area, CA - 65,000
2008: Austin, TX - 32,000

So, what's next? We get asked about Maker Faire's in other cities and countries - we're working on that! If you know great companies that want to be part of changing the world through science, engineering, arts and crafts please let us know. A lot of where we go and what we can do will depend on the sponsors and partners we can work with. We're also working on smaller versions of Maker Faires, from events like "American Maker" to our teams working with events out there that are in the maker world. Everyone talks about the dire need for more math, science, engineering and art for the next generation - Maker Faire is just one of the ways we can accomplish this.

For the month of November we'll have a video each week on Friday with some highlights and fun from Maker Faire Austin, TX 2008. Here's the first one if you want to check it out...

Happy making!

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Announcements | Digg this!

lamaditx writes "The world of the .NET framework is taken to the next level by the release of .NET 3.5. The intended audience of this book are experienced .NET programmers. There are no sections that tell you details about C#, SQL servers or anything like that. I don't recommend this book if you never worked on a .NET project and don't know how to set up a SQL database. You should be aware that the code is written in C#. You might use one of the software code converters if you prefer Visual Basic instead. I think the code is still readable even if you do not know C#. I appreciate the fact that the authors decided to use one language only because it keeps the book smaller. The authors assume you are using Visual Studio 2008. You don't necessarily need to update to 2008 if you are working with an older edition because you can use the free Express Edition to get started." Keep reading for the rest of Adrian's review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

lamaditx writes "The world of the .NET framework is taken to the next level by the release of .NET 3.5. The intended audience of this book are experienced .NET programmers. There are no sections that tell you details about C#, SQL servers or anything like that. I don't recommend this book if you never worked on a .NET project and don't know how to set up a SQL database. You should be aware that the code is written in C#. You might use one of the software code converters if you prefer Visual Basic instead. I think the code is still readable even if you do not know C#. I appreciate the fact that the authors decided to use one language only because it keeps the book smaller. The authors assume you are using Visual Studio 2008. You don't necessarily need to update to 2008 if you are working with an older edition because you can use the free Express Edition to get started." Keep reading for the rest of Adrian's review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

lamaditx writes "The world of the .NET framework is taken to the next level by the release of .NET 3.5. The intended audience of this book are experienced .NET programmers. There are no sections that tell you details about C#, SQL servers or anything like that. I don't recommend this book if you never worked on a .NET project and don't know how to set up a SQL database. You should be aware that the code is written in C#. You might use one of the software code converters if you prefer Visual Basic instead. I think the code is still readable even if you do not know C#. I appreciate the fact that the authors decided to use one language only because it keeps the book smaller. The authors assume you are using Visual Studio 2008. You don't necessarily need to update to 2008 if you are working with an older edition because you can use the free Express Edition to get started." Keep reading for the rest of Adrian's review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

lamaditx writes "The world of the .NET framework is taken to the next level by the release of .NET 3.5. The intended audience of this book are experienced .NET programmers. There are no sections that tell you details about C#, SQL servers or anything like that. I don't recommend this book if you never worked on a .NET project and don't know how to set up a SQL database. You should be aware that the code is written in C#. You might use one of the software code converters if you prefer Visual Basic instead. I think the code is still readable even if you do not know C#. I appreciate the fact that the authors decided to use one language only because it keeps the book smaller. The authors assume you are using Visual Studio 2008. You don't necessarily need to update to 2008 if you are working with an older edition because you can use the free Express Edition to get started." Keep reading for the rest of Adrian's review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Noah Shachtman from Wired's DANGER ROOM blog writes:

The Air Force is fed up with a seemingly endless barrage of attacks on its computer networks from stealthy adversaries whose motives and even locations are unclear. So now the service is looking to restore its advantage on the virtual battlefield by doing nothing less than the "rewrit[ing]" the "laws of cyberspace."

Link to complete blog post.

Last week we broke the story of Weird Al Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song" video being bleeped on MTV when the names of file sharing apps were mentioned. The NY Times thankfully got to the bottom of the story after a conversation with Weird Al himself. Apparently, MTV had told him two years ago (when the video was released) that they would not play it on TV without the file sharing names taken out. Yankovic himself added the beeps and tried to make them as extreme as possible to highlight the ridiculousness of it all:

Instead of subtly removing or obscuring the words in the track, I made the creative decision to bleep them out as obnoxiously as possible, so that there would be no mistake I was being censored.

He doesn't know if the video ever actually aired on TV, so it's likely no one even saw the bleeped video until MTV launched their online video site. He points out, as we noted, that the uncensored version is available on YouTube, but doesn't explain why embedding that video is forbidden as well.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

the4thdimension writes "In a story that may bring out the "duh" in you, CNN is a story about how anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Citing various reasons, it attempts to explain why sites like MyBiggestComplaint and Just Rage exist and why anger via the web seems to be everywhere. Various reasons include: anonymity, lack of rules, and lack of immediate consequences. Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence and suggest methods for parents and teens to cope with e-aggression and to learn to be aware of it." I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web forums, or my video game playing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

the4thdimension writes "In a story that may bring out the "duh" in you, CNN is a story about how anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Citing various reasons, it attempts to explain why sites like MyBiggestComplaint and Just Rage exist and why anger via the web seems to be everywhere. Various reasons include: anonymity, lack of rules, and lack of immediate consequences. Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence and suggest methods for parents and teens to cope with e-aggression and to learn to be aware of it." I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web forums, or my video game playing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

the4thdimension writes "In a story that may bring out the "duh" in you, CNN is a story about how anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Citing various reasons, it attempts to explain why sites like MyBiggestComplaint and Just Rage exist and why anger via the web seems to be everywhere. Various reasons include: anonymity, lack of rules, and lack of immediate consequences. Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence and suggest methods for parents and teens to cope with e-aggression and to learn to be aware of it." I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web forums, or my video game playing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

the4thdimension writes "In a story that may bring out the "duh" in you, CNN is a story about how anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Citing various reasons, it attempts to explain why sites like MyBiggestComplaint and Just Rage exist and why anger via the web seems to be everywhere. Various reasons include: anonymity, lack of rules, and lack of immediate consequences. Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence and suggest methods for parents and teens to cope with e-aggression and to learn to be aware of it." I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web forums, or my video game playing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Inventor Mitch Altman explains why he open-sourced his TV-B-Gone kit - MAKE volume 12.

As an inventor, I was taught that patents encouraged creativity and entrepreneurship. So, after finishing my first TV-B-Gone universal remote control prototype, I naturally called my brother the patent attorney, and together we filed a patent application.

Was that the best move?
TV-B-Gone remote controls are key chains with one button that make it fun to turn off almost any TV in public places. Oddly enough, within weeks of the first day of sales, the TV-B-Gone story appeared in major and minor newspaper, magazine, radio, and even TV outlets throughout the planet. It was a hit!

With this vast popularity, what might have happened if my packaging had not displayed the words: “Patent Pending”? Maybe it stopped some large companies from copying TV-B-Gone remotes, since selling copies would open them up for being sued once my patent was granted.

Would it be different if my product were open source?
I knew about open source, of course, but never considered it viable for hardware until going to my first hacker convention. There I met people who are very critical of patents and other forms of intellectual property law. They see these laws as obsolete and obnoxious. Individuals who want to hack cool ideas to improve upon them and share their results are often preyed upon and silenced by corporate lawyers protecting their clients’ patents. Paradoxically, this stifles the creativity that patents were supposed to encourage. This point of view was an eye-opener for me.

I decided to go for it. Together with Limor Fried (who makes lots of great kits), we’re making open source kits available so anyone can build and hack TV-B-Gone remote controls (look for an upcoming MAKE article about this). The firmware source code will be available online, as well as the board layout, lots of TV power codes, and all documentation.

Even though my project was not open source, I benefited from the open source community. People hacked TV-B-Gone remote controls in wonderfully creative ways. (Search online for “TV-B-Gone hacks” and you’ll get the idea.) These hacks increased the product’s popularity, resulting in more sales and more people around the world experiencing the satisfaction of turning off TVs. Also, since there was an army of TV-B-Goners who emailed me with ideas on how to improve upon my initial design, the next versions of TV-B-Gone remotes were considerably better than the original. Everything added up for me to look seriously at Creative Commons, a form of open source licensing.

The added buzz will likely also help sales of ready-made TV-B-Gone key chains, since not everyone wants to build their own. Everybody wins. In the words of my brother the patent lawyer, “The old way of patent law is to think: ‘This is mine and I’m going to keep it.’ This may have some advantages, but with open source you can share and bring more creative minds to the process. What’s really nice is that you don’t have to give up all your rights. With open source you can have the best of all worlds.”

Mitch Altman’s next products, based on the “Brain Machine” article he wrote for MAKE, Volume 10, are also open source.

You can check out the TV-B-Gone assembled and kit versions at the Maker Shed store.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this!

the4thdimension writes "CNN is running a story this morning that explains new research showing a correlation between video games and aggression in children. The study monitored groups of US and Japanese children, asking them to rate their violent behavior over a period of several months while they played video games in their free time. The study concludes that it has "pretty good evidence" that there is a link between video games and childhood aggression." Stories like this make me want to smash things.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The first 16 presidents could have owned Barack Obama as property." -- Jonathan Alter, on MSNBC this morning.

Never thought of it that way, but it's true.

Watch out iPhone, here come the netbooks.

For some people, even today's relatively bulky netbook computers are replacements for iPhones. That's what happened for me. The day I got my Eee PC 901 in July was when I more or less stopped using my iPhone as a computer.

But a netbook with Skype and a service plan is a lot like a cell phone, but unlike Apple's offering, it runs an OS with a wealth of software and developer know-how that is wide open. There's no gatekeeper who gets to say who can and can't put whatever software they want on a netbook.

And watch out Google, it beats Android too -- again so many more people know how to program Windows, it runs everything. For that reason I'm not running out to buy an Android phone, but I already own two netbooks.

Another bet I'd make -- the netbooks are going to shrink to phone size. You can see the space being made in the Asus product line. They're dropping the 7-inch screens in favor of the 10-inch ones, the keyboards on the 7-inch models aren't very usable, but they'll surely have a netbook form factor the size of a cell phone that plugs into a USB port on my laptop-like netbook. And each will cost $99 with a service plan, and they've lovely computers.

This is the future.

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters were recently in Seattle for a live show - I got to hang out and ask them some questions before the show. I also passed on your suggestions - you guys were awesome, there were tons! They were great to interview; they're not bored by each other or jaded, or full of themselves - they were both very gracious and excited about ideas and very curious about everything, which makes them fascinating people to talk to. Both have a great appreciation of what an incredible opportunity they have with this show, and they're having an awesome time.

It's a long interview and I'm posting it in two parts - part two will go up tomorrow morning. Make sure you click, there's lots more behind the cut!

PS: How did you get started doing the show?

JH: Well, we'd both been working in effects for over a decade, for decades in my case, for almost as much for Adam, and some years ago an Australian documentary filmmaker had the idea to do a show about urban legends that did more than just talk about them, would actually have someone who could replicate them and he had the idea the people doing effect would be good at doing that because we build all sorts of crazy stuff for movies and television commercials.

AS: And one of the central ideas was that we're not scientists, that it's a couple of guys trying to figure out a problem in their garage type of approach.

JH: And that's pretty much it. He had run into us years before on an unrelated story with us - it was to do with Robot Wars and BattleBots. There was a robot that we had built that was notorious; he'd interviewed us about that and later on remembered us. He approached me and I thought about it and was like, I can do this, but I didn't think I could quite carry it myself, I needed someone who was more animated than I was to work with me, and it turned out to be a good call, because that's how the show seems to work, this interplay between Adam and I is an important part of it. So I brought Adam in and we did a demo tape and it turns out that was basically what the show became; it was us playing around in the shop, setting things on fire and blowing things up.

AS: That was the demo reel, and if you watch it now, it's shocking how much it looks almost exactly like the show - yeah, it was uncanny.

PS: So you guys had met through special effects?

AS: Yeah, Jamie had hired me to work in his shop around about 1993 or 1994, and I'd worked for him for a few years before moving up to ILM, to the toy business and other points.

JH: He eventually got sick of working for me, so he started working at other places. (Adam laughs) We'd kept in touch over the years, and occasionally we'd get involved in some crazy project or other, and when this came up, he was the first person who came to mind. He's very fast and very animated about his work, and so the rest is history.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Interviews | Digg this!

Despite the fact that the EU Parliament rejected the concept of a "three strikes" law for kicking people off the internet, and warned member countries that such laws interfered with civil rights and privacy rights of individuals, France is moving forward with such a law. The EU Parliament specifically had called on France to reconsider such a law, but the French Senate has approved the law by an overwhelming majority, 297 to 15. The law still needs approval from the lower house of Parliament as well, but it's disappointing that any government body would approve such a law after it's been shown to be both unnecessary and destructive.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

MojoKid writes "Today marks the official launch of Intel's new Core i7 processor, the most major overhaul of Intel's core processor architecture since the release of their Core 2 design. As has been reported, the Core i7 is a major departure from Intel's aging Front Side Bus architecture of old, now replaced by Intel's QPI (Quick Path Interconnect) serial links. This 20 lane bi-directional (40 lanes total) point-to-point connection provides 6.4 GT/s of bandwidth and scalability for future multi-socket designs as well. In addition, the Core i7 now has an integrated triple channel memory controller offering over 3X the bandwidth of the previous Core 2 architecture with DDR3 system memory. Though the product is set to ship in volume later this month, the early benchmark numbers show Intel's new chip is markedly faster clock-for-clock versus their previous generation CPU and much faster than anything AMD has out currently."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I don't think reporters should pass on misleading stories. It would be better to act as a firewall, a defense against obvious campaign lies. It should be especially easy when they charges are aimed at the media itself.

Example. Sarah Palin, in the last days of the campaign, is saying that the SF Chronicle withheld comments from Obama saying he would "bankrupt the coal industry."

CNN: Palin knocks Obama over months-old coal comments.

The statement she's referring to was made in January, when Obama was still pretty green, and spoke perhaps a little too directly, with too much of truth. I don't think he said he would or wanted to bankrupt the coal industry, rather that he wanted to do something to reverse global warming. Almost anything we do to keep this planet habitable by our species will make it harder for the coal industry, which by definition adds carbon to the atomosphere. Coal is carbon, pure and simple, and when you burn it, it goes into the atmosphere. That should be expensive. We should encourage development of technology that generates electricity without doing that.

Anyway, the Chronicle says it published the comments in print and as full video. I think MSNBC should check that out before passing through the Palin charge without comment. You don't have to call her a liar, you could just ignore the statement.

SF Chronicle: Palin suggests Chronicle withheld Obama remarks.

In any case, it's gratifying to see that in the final days of the campaign to see the media not getting totally obsessed with other obvious smears. It's just the extremes in the blogosphere that are focusing on the crazy stuff. Maybe that could be the norm in political coverage.

I don't think reporters should pass on misleading stories. It would be better to act as a firewall, a defense against obvious campaign lies. It should be especially easy when they charges are aimed at the media itself.

Example. Sarah Palin, in the last days of the campaign, is saying that the SF Chronicle withheld comments from Obama saying he would "bankrupt the coal industry."

CNN: Palin knocks Obama over months-old coal comments.

The statement she's referring to was made in January, when Obama was still pretty green, and spoke perhaps a little too directly, with too much of truth. I don't think he said he would or wanted to bankrupt the coal industry, rather that he wanted to do something to reverse global warming. Almost anything we do to keep this planet habitable by our species will make it harder for the coal industry, which by definition adds carbon to the atomosphere. Coal is carbon, pure and simple, and when you burn it, it goes into the atmosphere. That should be expensive. We should encourage development of technology that generates electricity without doing that.

Anyway, the Chronicle says it published the comments in print and as full video. I think MSNBC should check that out before passing through the Palin charge without comment. You don't have to call her a liar, you could just ignore the statement.

SF Chronicle: Palin suggests Chronicle withheld Obama remarks.

In any case, it's gratifying to see that in the final days of the campaign to see the media not getting totally obsessed with other obvious smears. It's just the extremes in the blogosphere that are focusing on the crazy stuff. Maybe that could be the norm in political coverage.

I don't think reporters should pass on misleading stories. It would be better to act as a firewall, a defense against obvious campaign lies. It should be especially easy when they charges are aimed at the media itself.

Example. Sarah Palin, in the last days of the campaign, is saying that the SF Chronicle withheld comments from Obama saying he would "bankrupt the coal industry."

CNN: Palin knocks Obama over months-old coal comments.

The statement she's referring to was made in January, when Obama was still pretty green, and spoke perhaps a little too directly, with too much of truth. I don't think he said he would or wanted to bankrupt the coal industry, rather that he wanted to do something to reverse global warming. Almost anything we do to keep this planet habitable by our species will make it harder for the coal industry, which by definition adds carbon to the atomosphere. Coal is carbon, pure and simple, and when you burn it, it goes into the atmosphere. That should be expensive. We should encourage development of technology that generates electricity without doing that.

Anyway, the Chronicle says it published the comments in print and as full video. I think MSNBC should check that out before passing through the Palin charge without comment. You don't have to call her a liar, you could just ignore the statement.

SF Chronicle: Palin suggests Chronicle withheld Obama remarks.

In any case, it's gratifying to see that in the final days of the campaign to see the media not getting totally obsessed with other obvious smears. It's just the extremes in the blogosphere that are focusing on the crazy stuff. Maybe that could be the norm in political coverage.

The "Gigapan" robot allows an ordinary digital camera to take a giga-pixel photo. Check out the video above to see it in action.

via Taiyoung Ryu

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!

Recalling talk of visuals embedded in a track by electronic experimentalist Aphex Twin, Bastwood decided to take a closer look -

First I needed to extract the track from the Windowlicker CD, which was easy with CDex. The extraction of the whole track was not really necessary because the "face" is situated at the very end of the track, starting from the 5:27 mark and lasting for about 10 seconds. There are other "audio images" on this particular track as well (and one at the end of the first track), but the face is certainly the most exciting of them all.

After I had the wav-file, I used a program called Spectrogram to visualize the file. To my amazement, it worked, and I was soon staring at the "demon" face

… and Aphex isn't the only one to use this technique - see spectrum visualizations from Plaid, Venetian Snares, and others along with more info here - The Aphex Face

You can also experiment with listening to images online using The vOICe Java Applet - good stuff.

[via EMSL]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!

In 24 hours, many of you will be able to vote. So as we come down to the wire, this is really our last chance to talk about the issues. We've already discussed Health Care, The War, and the Economy. Today I'm opening up the floor to discuss education. Perhaps no other issue will matter more in 50 years. Which candidate will make the next generation smarter?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

bmsleight writes "The Dutch Ministry of Finance organized an architecture competition to design not a building, but rather the new 5-Euro commemorative coin. The theme was 'Netherlands and Architecture'. The winning design was made 100% with free software, mainly Python, but also including The Gimp, Inkscape, Phatch, and Ubuntu. The design is amazing — the head of Queen Beatrix is made up of the names of architects based on their popularity in Yahoo searches (rendered in a font of the artist's own devising). In the end the artist, Stani Michiels, had to collaborate closely on location with technicians of the Royal Dutch Mint, so all the last bits were done on his Asus Eee PC. Soon, 350,000 Dutch people will use and enjoy the fruits of free software."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This video shows how to build your own USB powered fan to cool your laptop or other over-heating piece of electronics. This is especially useful for those of you with the lemon Macbooks with the faulty heatsinks that constantly overheat.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!

Matt shares this quick vid of the assembly of a Bare Bones Arduino board.
Hrrmmm … it usually takes me a fair bit longer :/

More:

MAKE Build: Mechamo Crab & Halloween Hack from make magazine on Vimeo.

Bare Bones Arduino Board Kit (Unassembled)

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!

While most people think of just the NTP lawsuit when they hear about RIM and patent infringement troubles, what's often left out of the discussion is that prior to the NTP suit, RIM was one of the more aggressive companies in filing patent infringement lawsuits against everyone else. In fact, it was news articles about RIM's aggressive patent enforcement strategy that convinced the guys behind NTP to file their lawsuit in the first place. Since paying $612.5 million to NTP to settle that battle, other patent holders have been lining up to sue RIM as well.

Earlier this year, we wrote about another aggressive patent enforcer, Wi-LAN, which sued RIM for infringement. RIM, once again, settled -- indicating a bit of an open season. If you happen to have a patent that RIM might sorta possibly infringe on, why not sue?

The latest to step up to bat is Mformation, who has sued RIM for two separate patents which are both about remote management of a wireless device (Patent 1 and Patent 2). Whatever the merits of the case, all of this has to make you wonder if RIM regrets its decision to kick off the process of suing lots of companies for patent infringement. It seems that the blowback was a lot worse than any benefit.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

This basic hack shows how to burn the bootloader onto the Atmel chips that the Arduino controller uses without the need for an external AVR Writer. Simple soldering skills required, but if you are using an Arduino, you are probably already a soldering pro.

Burning the Bootloader without external AVR-Writer

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!

Dror provides us with a video tour of his excellently thorough homemade electronic drumkit. It's a full performance system including sound synthesis and even the amplifier! Some good ideas here if you're considering a diy kit yourself -

In order to get the same feel with foot pedals i decide to use regular pedals and perform modification to each one of them, the modification include mechanical upgrade with aluminum plates, for the bass pedal i designed the trigger at the lower section and i change the position of the hammer, in the HI HAT i added variable resistor so when i push the pedal the resistant change and sent to the MIDI unit.

- Watch him demo the kit here.

[via Hacked Gadgets]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!

An anonymous reader tips a piece from the UK's Daily Mail that recounts another sad tale of the careless loss of massive amounts of private user data. "Ministers have been forced to order an emergency shutdown of a key Government computer system to protect millions of people's private details. The action was taken after a memory stick was found in a pub car park containing confidential passcodes to the online Government Gateway system, which covers everything from tax returns to parking tickets. An urgent investigation is now under way into how the stick, belonging to the company which runs the flagship system, came to be lost."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This looks like a really interesting way to make flexible circuits. It uses some specialty printers and materials, but the author does list alternative solutions. These circuits are ideal for applications where weight and/or size is critical. Check out the instructable for a nice step-by-step tutorial.

Produce your own single-sided flexible printed circuits using a solid ink printer, copper-coated polyimide film, and common circuit board etching chemicals. You will find flex PCBs inside most cellphones or similar miniaturized gadgets. Flex PCBs are useful for making tiny cables and extremely lightweight circuits. However, few shops yet make custom flex PCBs for reasonable prices in small volumes

More about DIY Flexible Printed Circuits

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Instructables | Digg this!

One of our readers sent in this project that uses a vintage record player as a base for an iPhone dock. I love adding new functionality to discarded antiques. Check out the link for more pictures of the build.

Umm... Yeah. So, about a month ago, I found an old Waters-Conley Phonola "portable" record player at the local Goodwill for $25. Peering through a screen on the back of the unit, I could just barely make out some tubes. Enough to make me bring it home without any further inspection. Though it appeared mechanically sound, the stylus was either smashed or rusted off- and even if it hadn't been, I a bit uptight about what I play my records on... My main intention from the get-go was to harvest the amp anyway.

More about the iPhonola

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in iPhone | Digg this!

For quite some time, YouTube has allowed copyright holders to "claim" videos that contain their content. Rather than demanding a takedown, these claims allow Google to place ads on the videos and share some of the revenue with the copyright holder. That seems a lot better than random takedowns, and in fact Google's program has been very successful. So it should come as no surprise that others, including MySpace and MTV are about to offer the same deal. What's unclear, though, is why some are claiming that this is revolutionary. Seeing as YouTube has been doing it for a year, it's difficult to see how there's much to get excited about here.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Dave sent in this really interesting YouTube video of sword-smithing in action. He makes these swords, along with a friend, from scratch. This is some really nice metal working. [Thanks Dave]

More about Forging a Pattern Welded Sword

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!

CNet is reporting that Netflix has opened up its "Watch Instantly" feature to Mac users (here is Netflix's blog entry). They accomplished this by using Microsoft's Silverlight technology on both platforms, abandoning the Windows Media Player solution that had been employed in the first, Windows-only, version. Silverlight's DRM capabilities meet Netflix's needs, apparently. Netflix warns that this is beta software. Mac users can opt in here, then watch instantly with Safari or Firefox 2+, with the Silverlight plugin in place. Movie selection is somewhat limited.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Elizabeth writes in -

When I was a kid, I remember using crayons on a map as the election returns came in, as we tallied the votes for each state. I wanted to do that again this year, so I mashed together a map and put it on flickr to share with my friends.

I put this together from a free map found at http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/usa.html, and the number of electoral votes for each state. You can watch the presidential election returns and keep track as they come in, or you can start coloring ahead of time as you imagine different scenarios.

The number of electoral college votes for each state is based on population figures from the 2000 census. There are 538 votes total. A majority of 270 is needed to win.

Happy coloring!

Full sized image here...

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Crafts | Digg this!

Bre writes-

For all of November, I’m going to be producing a video for every weekday! I’m kicking it off early with this video about Raphael Abrams probe thing!

Raphael Abrams of teuthis is one of those people who doesn’t sit around daydreaming projects up, he just does them. He was recently featured in Wired magazine and is a forerunner in the open source hardware movement.

We were recently chatting about digitizing human bodies and making 3D bodyscans and Raphael jumped into action, created a file to make some lasercut parts. Together with his acrylic bits and a stepper motor and an arcade button he made this probe.

Stay tuned for a follow up episode when he finishes the coffin sized XY platform and starts digitizing humans at an amazing 1 DPI!

For those of you who are in to MAKE trivial, Raphael is also the maker of the Daisy MP3 player and Twitchie.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!

Death Metal sends in a Scientific American article reporting that 2,000 of 6,000 amphibian species are endangered worldwide. A combination of environmental assaults, including global warming, seems to be responsible. "... national parks and other areas protected from pollution and development are providing no refuge. The frogs and salamanders of Yellowstone National Park have been declining since the 1980s, according to a Stanford University study, as global warming dries out seasonal ponds, leaving dried salamander corpses in their wake. Since the 1970s, nearly 75 percent of the frogs and other amphibians of La Selva Biological Station in Braulio Carrillo National Park in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica have died, perhaps due to global warming. But the really bad news is that amphibians may be just the first sign of other species in trouble. Biologists at the University of California, San Diego, have shown that amphibians are the first to respond to environmental changes, thanks to their sensitivity to both air and water. What goes for amphibians may soon be true of other classes of animal, including mammals."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

• Old iBook finds new life as lighting [top-left]

• 1.5 hours of wiring … [top-right]

• DIY super-bright LED video light [bottom-left]

• Meet T.W.E.R.P. [bottom-right]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Photography | Digg this!

theodp writes "The NYTimes reports that pre-wired home security installations by alarm companies are on the way out. Thanks to wireless window and door sensors and motion detectors, installing and maintaining one's own security system is becoming a do-it-yourself project, with kits available from companies like InGrid and LaserShield. Time to start cranking out some new iPhone and Android apps, kids?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A housekeeping note:

Our assistant moderator Antinous has noticed an increasing number of legit comments getting caught in the spam trap. Previously, it was only catching an innocent comment about once a month. Now he's fishing three or four comments a day out of it. We'll try to sort this out.

For now, Antinous says that having multiple links to the same domain seems to be the trigger, even if the links are to different pages in that domain. For example, a comment containing links to three different Wikipedia articles runs some risk of getting snagged. Avoiding that pattern isn't an absolute guarantee of safety, though; he's found a few comments in the spam trap where all the links were to different domains.

What we know for sure is that several commenters have complained that we unpublished their long, thoughtful, citation-filled comments, when in fact they'd been grabbed by the spam filter. If you have a comment go missing, let us know. In the meantime, Antinous will keep checking the trap.

An anonymous reader brings an update to Sprint's depeering with Cogent, which we discussed a few days back — namely, Sprint's side of the story. According to them, no free peering contract had ever existed, Cogent refused to pay the bills to exchange traffic, and after a year Sprint gave Cogent 30 days notice of their intent to disconnect. During this 30-day period, when one or two connections (out of ten) per week were shut down, Cogent made no alternate arrangements to alleviate the impact on their customers — but they had a press release ready when Sprint snipped the final wire. It will be interesting to see how Cogent responds.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This ad was produced by Progressive Future.

This ad was produced by Progressive Future.

This ad was produced by Progressive Future.

[Pics by Gary Mattingly]

The first California Steampunk Convention has drawn to a close. What a fantastic, inspiring event! Bowlers and top hats off to Ariane Wolfe, Tofa Borregaard, Richard Bottoms, and everyone else who made the con come off so well. I met tons of cool, friendly, and talented people, marveled at the most outrageous and lovingly-constructed costumes, and liberated far too much of the contents of my wallet to the service of fellow makers and craftspeople.

The highlight of the event for me was Jake von Slatt's keynote and the presentation of his Wimshurst Influence Machine. This gorgeous and impressive electrostatic generator will be the featured project in MAKE Volume 17, the Lost Knowledge (aka "Steampunk") issue. This event was something of a coming-out for the device.

Jake's plane was delayed and he arrived late to the convention and his talk. Overwhelmed with the rush, technical difficulties, and a video camera floating in his face, he was a little wobbly out of the gate, but nobody really cared. Herr von Slatt is much-beloved, a rockstar to this crowd, and his unpretentious charm and spot-on keynote quickly overcame any initial awkwardness (plus it only adds to that mad scientist mystique).

Jake started off with a laundry list of promised futures we've been teased (or threatened) with but have never seen (the '50s jet-packed future, the '60s geodesic-domed future, the '80s road warrior future, the cyberborged, downloadable you of the '90s), all the way to today, where the promise and timescale of our possible future seems to have been reduced to a corporate calendar of next-gen home theater and Bluetooth offerings and the next Steve Jobs keynote. Then Jake asked:

Is it any wonder then, that some of us have decided to take a step sideways? A step out of the corporate time stream and into one we've made for ourselves? A step into a world of adventure and romance where we each seek out our own futures, on our own terms, without having to wait for it to go on sale? A step sideways into a past that never was and a future that still could be.

He paused and declared:

I am a maker. "Maker" describes what I do and "Steampunk" describes the style in which I most commonly work. Thus calling me a "Steampunk Maker" is roughly equivalent to calling someone a "Jazz musician."

For the rest of his talk, he borrowed heavily from Institute for the Future's Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's "Reflections of Tinkering," something he wrote while attending a conference entitled "Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge: Production in the Digital Age." "Academics are studying tinkering!," exclaimed von Slatt. "And they actually get it!" As he read, he asked the audience to freely substitute the word "steampunk" for tinkerer, e.g.:

Tinkerers are also social animals. Their success depends in part on being able to tap into porous and ad-hoc communities. For most of what they do the manual is useless; other tinkerers are the only ones who are likely to have the information you need.

[You can read the rest of Alex's conference musings here.]

After Jake finished his talk, to rousing applause, he showed off his Wimshurst Machine. It's beautiful and elegant and made with hand tools (with the exception of an electric drill) and parts readily found at Home Depot. Even though it was very humid in the standing room-only conference space, he still managed to get a couple of pretty sobering sparks from it and some genuine "ohhhs" and "ahhhs" from the crowd. Jake also brought a set of "Franklin's Bells," and had no trouble getting them to ring with the charge stored in the Wimshurt's Leyden Jars.

During the questions and answers, someone asked him how he became such a technical virtuoso. How did he learn to use all of these tools and machines? "My parents were both librarians," he responded, deadpan, to a roar of enthusiasm. "They didn't answer questions, they pointed you to the relevant sources where you could look things up for yourself."

Somebody also asked him: "How does one become a maker? I don't even know where to start. I'm a unmaker." [Laughter] "Well that's where you start," he replied. "You start out as a breaker. Take stuff apart. Find out how it works. Break it. Eventually, you'll start to figure out how things work and how to make what you want."

And then it got weird. People started asking him what his visions were of our future, how he wanted history to remember him, and what he wanted his encyclopedia ("wikipedia," he corrected) reference to say. I was waiting for the pantaloons to start flying forward.

It really struck me -- as someone who's watched Jake's net-fame grow from the beginning (we published one of the first pieces about him in MAKE Volume 09) -- how amazing it is that someone can go from being a shy, reserved Linux IT guy to ascending geek stardom simply by posting some cool projects that thoroughly fire people's imagination and show them possibilities for themselves. I remember him telling me on the phone once how exciting it was when he put up his first few projects and started to get enthusiastic email. And that just egged him on to try to do better, cooler projects that would inspire more people and garner more attention. And on and on... It also doesn't hurt that Jake IS how he answered the question about how he wanted to be remembered: "He was a really nice guy." And so he is.

Here are a few costume pics from the con:

[More pics and favorite moments of the con tomorrow...]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Events | Digg this!