New Scientist has an update on the so-called "gigantic jets" first discovered in 2003 — these are lightning bolts that reach from cloud tops upward into the ionosphere, as high as 90 kilometers. (There's a video at the link.) What's new is that researchers from Duke University have managed to measure the electrical discharge from a gigantic jet and confirm that they carry as much energy skyward as ordinary lightning strikes carry to the ground. According to the article, "Gigantic jets are one of a host of new atmospheric phenomena discovered in recent years. Other examples are sprites and blue jets."

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Here are some of my favorites from CRAFT this week:

Happy 3rd Birthday Craftzine.com!

How-To: Basic Bar Essentials

Panda Bread

How-To: Food Branding Iron

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8-bit trip, 1500 hours of moving legobricks and taking photos... via waxy...

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The NY Times has a story and a blog backgrounder focusing on a weapon now being wielded by bad guys (most likely in Eastern Europe, according to the Times): Trojan horse keyloggers that report back in real-time. The capability came to light in a court filing (PDF) by Project Honey Pot against "John Doe" thieves. The case was filed in order to compel the banks — which are almost as secretive as the cyber-crooks — to reveal information such as IP addresses that could lead back to the miscreants. Or at least allow victims to be notified. Real-time keyloggers were first discovered in the wild last year, but the court filing and the Times article should bring new attention to the threat. The technique menaces the 2-factor authentication that some banks have instituted: "By going real time, hackers now can get around some of the roadblocks that companies have put in their way. Most significantly, they are now undeterred by systems that create temporary passwords, such as RSA's SecurID system, which involves a small gadget that displays a six-digit number that changes every minute based on a complex formula. If [your] computer is infected, the Trojan zaps your temporary password back to the waiting hacker who immediately uses it to log onto your account. Sometimes, the hacker logs on from his own computer, probably using tricks to hide its location. Other times, the Trojan allows the hacker to control your computer, opening a browser session that you can't see."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

8-Bit Trip is a stupendous stop-motion Lego tribute to classic video games (chiptune soundtrack, of course) filled with wicked in-jokes. It reportedly took 1500 hours to create. I believe it.

8-bit trip (via Waxy)

Rik van der Kroon writes "Major Dutch cable provider UPC has introduced a new network management system which, from noon to midnight, for certain services and providers, caps users' bandwidth at 1/3rd of their nominal bandwidth (Google translation; Dutch original here). After the consumer front for cable providers in The Netherlands received many complaints about network problems and slow speeds, UPC decided to take this as an excuse to introduce their new 'network management' protocol which slows down a large amount of traffic. All protocols but HTTP are capped to 1/3 speed, and within the HTTP realm some Web sites and services that use lots of upstream bandwidth are capped as well. So far UPC is hiding behind the usual excuse: 'We are protecting all the users against the 1% of the user base who abuse our network.'"

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The Wall Street Journal is running a piece about the growing momentum behind the idea of NASA outsourcing to private companies everything from transporting astronauts to ferrying cargo into orbit. Quoting: "Proposals gaining momentum in Washington call for contractors to build and run competing systems under commercial contracts, according to federal officials, aerospace-industry officials and others familiar with the discussions. While the Obama administration is still mulling options and hasn't made any final decisions, such a move would represent a major policy shift away from decades of government-run rocket and astronaut-transportation programs such as the current space-shuttle fleet. ... In the face of severe federal budget constraints and a burgeoning commercial-space industry eager to play a larger role in exploring the solar system and perhaps beyond, ...a consensus for the new approach seems to be building inside the White House as well as [NASA]. ... Under this scenario, a new breed of contractors would take over many of NASA's current responsibilities, freeing the agency to pursue longer-term, more ambitious goals such as new rocket-propulsion technology and manned missions to Mars. ...[T]hese contractors would take the lead in servicing the International Space Station from the shuttle's planned retirement around 2011 through at least the end of that decade."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've recently been following the FCC's inquiry into Apple's rejection of the Google Voice app. Apple, Google, and AT&T have all officially responded to the FCC's questions: Apple says they haven't actually rejected the app, they're just continuing to "study it," and that it may "alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging, and voicemail." The interesting bits of Google's response seem to have been redacted, but they talk a little about the approval process for the Android platform. AT&T claims it had "no role" in the app's rejection and notes that there are no contractual provisions between the two companies for the consideration of individual apps. Reader ZuchinniOne points out a report in The Consumerist analyzing some of the statements made in these filings, as well as TechCrunch's look into the veracity of their claims.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We keep hearing about all of these amazing devices and objects that other people are making with CNC tools like laser cutters, Shopbots, mills, and maybe you are feeling left out. You may be like the college student in the mid 1980's who didn't like completing papers on the typewriter and looking for a way to use the word processor. If today, you make a design for the part you need, how can you get it machined? You can leverage the power of 100 thousand garages.

You may be surprised to learn, that there are several thousand shops all over the world with tools for digital fabrication (sometimes called CNC tools) that can make exactly what you want (how can replicating parts be that easy?). There's probably even one near you. Some are regular businesses, some are part-timers, and some are small shops that have some spare production time: each has the capability to help you make all kinds of things. You know what a 'Copy Center' is for getting printed pages and projects made, 100kGarages is like a virtual 3D copy center for getting real parts and projects made.

Check out Bill Young's thoughts on the idea at 100k Garages.

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After Sony's announcement of the PS3 Slim earlier this week, CNet took a look back at size-reducing hardware revisions over the past couple decades in console design, noting that they're gradually arriving sooner and sooner after the initial release. "Does that mean it'll creep even lower, into two-year or even yearly cycles between major revisions? Quite possibly, yes. It's worked very well with handheld gaming devices, and even some consumer electronics devices like iPods. Apple has turned out slimmer, more powerful versions of the iPod every year since 2001, and yearly events like E3 put continued pressure on console makers to show off something big. In the case of the PS3 Slim though, it could just be that the PS3 had to be pushed out to meet its launch window, and that the Slim is what Sony was going for in the first place. Advances in the PlayStation 3's core technology, like the cell processor, also underwent changes since the console launched, including changes to fabrication that have taken the chip down from 90 nanometers to 65, then 45 — the size that can be found inside the Slim. These changes meant less power consumption, smaller components, and easier cooling."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ewhac writes "Back in June, the American Civil Liberties Union published an article describing Facebook's complete lack of meaningful security on your and your friends' information. The article went virtually unnoticed. Now, a developer has written a Facebook 'Quiz' based on the original article that graphically illustrates all the information a Facebook app can get its grubby little hands on by recursively sweeping through your friends list, pulling all their info and posts, and showing it to you. What's more, apps can get at your information even if you never run the app yourself. Facebook apps run with the access privileges of the user running it, so anything your friend can see, the app they're running can see, too. It is unclear whether the developer of the Facebook app did so 'officially' for the ACLU."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Noam.of.Doom writes "The Google Chrome developers announced on August 19th the immediate availability of a new version of the Google Chrome web browser for Linux, Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Google Chrome 4.0.202.2 is here to fix a lot of annoying bugs (see below for details) and it also adds a couple of features only for the Mac platform. However, the good news is that Dean McNamee, one of the Google Chrome engineers, announced yesterday on their mailing list that a working port of the Chrome browser for 64-bit platforms is now available: 'The v8 team did some amazing work this quarter building a working 64-bit port. After a handful of changes on the Chromium side, I've had Chromium Linux building on 64-bit for the last few weeks. I believe mmoss or tony is going to get a buildbot running, and working on packaging.' Until today, Google Chrome was available on both 32- and 64-bit architectures, but it appears that the latter was running based on the 32-bit libraries. Therefore, starting with Google Chrome 4.0.202.2, 64-bit users can enjoy a true x64 version!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

k33l0r writes "The BBC is reporting that the US Justice Department has approved Oracle's takeover of Sun Microsystems. The acquisition gives Oracle control over (or a leading role in), among other things, Java, MySQL, (Open)Solaris, ZFS, OpenOffice, and the NetBeans IDE. 'The European Commission has still to rule on the deal, a step that will be required before it can close. That body has indicated it will issue an initial opinion on Sept. 3, according to the Wall Street Journal. It may OK the deal at that time or launch a four-month probe of it. ... The Justice Department ruling came earlier than expected, a possible response to Sun's declining revenues and precarious business position in a steep recession, as the required reviews proceeded.' We first discussed the deal back when it was announced in April."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

phantomfive writes "Terry Childs, who was arrested nearly a year ago for refusing to turn over the passwords to San Francisco's FiberWAN network, has been cleared of three of the four charges against him. The dropped charges referred to the attachment of modems to the network; the remaining charge is for refusing to turn over the password. The prosecutor has vowed to appeal, to have the charges reinstated. We have the original story, and the story where Childs tells his side, for those who want a refresher."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As a whole bunch of you quickly let us know, someone hacked the site tonight. We got the site back together quickly, and have been working away on fixing some of the other vandalism -- such as a bunch of comments that got deleted. We'll get those restored shortly as well, but while we're working on it, we've turned off the ability to comment for the time being. Hang in there, and we'll have a more complete explanation soon enough. If you need to contact us in the meantime, please use the contact form. Thanks.

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Instructables user ChrysN has a sweet plush cell model HOWTO up on the site. ChrysN suggests that this would be a great project for students assigned to produce a cell model.

Plush Cell Model (via Neatorama)

The Times of India has a nice photogallery of Bollywood stars celebrating the Ganesha Festival, one of the busiest festivals in India.

Bollywood welcomes Lord Ganesha

Mary Robinette Kowal sez, "Last January, I tried using fundable.com to raise money to replace my computer. At the time, their rating online looked good and I didn't see anything to suggest they were a scam. They'd been covered by BBC and Marketplace, so seemed legit. Seven months and $1450 later, I'm ready to say that yes, yes they are a scam."

I've since challenged them for my paypal payment and got that money back. But My dad still hasn't gotten back the $700 he pledged and other people are waiting for theirs. I think they are still holding some $1410. It pisses me off no end. Oh, and yes, Rob and I wound up going into a bit of debt because I'd ordered the computer when the fundraiser completed. Funny thing, I started the fundraiser because we couldn't afford a new computer on our own.

My very bad experience with Fundable.com (Thanks, Mary!)

Update: The negative attention from Mary's post and the followups elsewhere have attracted Fundable's attention and they promise to fix things. Finally.

PhreakOfTime writes "According to Bill Livingston and Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, sunspot magnetic fields are waning. The two respected solar astronomers have been measuring solar magnetism since 1992. Their technique is based on Zeeman splitting of infrared spectral lines in radiation emitted by iron atoms in the vicinity of sunspots. Extrapolating their data (PDF) into the future suggests that sunspots could completely disappear within decades." To motivate their interest the researchers mention the Maunder Minimum, which occurred beginning in 1645 and coincided with the coldest part of the so-called "Little Ice Age." Sunspot counts during this period were as low as 1/1,000 of the numbers seen in modern times.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

PhreakOfTime writes "According to Bill Livingston and Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, sunspot magnetic fields are waning. The two respected solar astronomers have been measuring solar magnetism since 1992. Their technique is based on Zeeman splitting of infrared spectral lines in radiation emitted by iron atoms in the vicinity of sunspots. Extrapolating their data (PDF) into the future suggests that sunspots could completely disappear within decades." To motivate their interest the researchers mention the Maunder Minimum, which occurred beginning in 1645 and coincided with the coldest part of the so-called "Little Ice Age." Sunspot counts during this period were as low as 1/1,000 of the numbers seen in modern times.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A time-Arduino, nifty...

Wiseduino is an Arduino-compatible microcontroller board, which includes a DS1307 real time clock (RTC) with backup battery, a 24LC256 EEPROM chip and a connector for XBee adapter for wireless communication. Wiseduino is completely compatible with the Arduino project software and IDE, and also pin compatible with the existing shields.

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Professor_Quail notes an AP story that begins, "Mexico enacted a controversial law Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging free government treatment for drug dependency. The law sets out maximum 'personal use' amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution when the law goes into effect Friday." An official in the attorney general's office said, "This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty... for a practice that was already in place." In 2006, tht US criticized a similar bill that had no provisions for mandatory treatment, and the then-president sent it back to Congress for reconsideration.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ladyada's DIY boost converter calculator!

For many small projects, its cheaper and easier to DIY a boost converter than to buy a specialty chip. DIY converters are usually not as efficient but they're quick & cheap!

The above schematic section shows how I designed a 30-60V vacuum fluorescent tube display driven from a microcontroller pin.
Tubes such as VFDs, Nixies, Decatrons, etc require high voltage to light the gas in the tube. In order to reduce cost, we use a microconrtoller to make a boost converter and avoid paying $5 for a seperate chip. We can do this because we don't need a precision output and the current draw is mostly constant. The boost regulator is run open-loop there is no feedback resistor divider as it isn't necessary as long as the input voltage is within a reasonable range...

The microcontroller runs at 8MHz so the 8-bit PWM output is 31250 Hz. The inductor and output capacitor is calculated below. The diode is a standard Schottkey type. The switch just has to be able to handle the max voltage plus some for safety. Note that this design is meant for 'static' output currents, not for variable current draw designs. There is no feedback and its very approximate! This is not for precision electronics!
The boost circuit works by connecting the power inductor L1 to ground that current can flow through it by turning on Q2. After a little bit of time, we disconnect the from ground (by turning off Q2) this means that there is no longer a path for the current in L1 to flow to ground. When this happens, the voltage across the inductor increases (this is the electric property of inductors) and charges up C6 . When the voltage increases to the level we want it to be (30V+) we turn on Q2 again which allows the current in L1 to flow back to ground. If we do this fast enough, and C6 large enough, the voltage on C6 is smoothed out and we get a nice steady high voltage.

The timing of turning off/on Q2 allows us to modify the output voltage. Normally there is a feedback resistor to the microcontroller but it is not here because we are running it open-loop. To drive Q2 we use the PWM output from the microcontroller and adjust the duty cycle to vary brightness.

These sorts of designs can be easily made with a 555, once you have the PWM output, connect it up to Q2! For this simple calculator, enter in the freqency, voltage ranges and current ranges and the duty cycle, inductor and current requirements will be displayed!

More on the calc page!

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Even if you're not a Lego enthusiast, you have to give it up for Will Chapman's BrickArms business as a brilliant little bit of entrepreneurship. Although there have been notable recent policy changes, the Lego company has traditionally refused to produce guns for the mini-figures packaged with its playsets. Personally I think that's a laudable policy, but my opinion does nothing to diminish the very real demand for realistic mini-fig firearms among Lego enthusiasts, particularly in the US, and particularly among adults. Chapman recognized that demand, and went into the injection molding business himself to produce "Lego-esque" guns, grenades, and other weapons that are carefully dimensioned to be compatible with authentic Lego products. Because the parts he produces are very small, the tooling cost is relatively low, and because they're just bits of plastic, the per-unit production and shipping costs are very, very low. His catalog now includes more than 40 items, each of which sells for at least $1 per unit. He also sells custom, armed-to-the-teeth mini-figs that are avidly sought after by collectors.

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Hugh Pickens writes "Scientific American reports that a new device called 'BrainPort' aims to restore the experience of vision for the blind and visually impaired by relying on the nerves on the tongue's surface to send light signals to the brain. BrainPort collects visual data through a small digital video camera and converts the signal into electrical pulses sent to the tongue via a 'lollipop' that sits directly on the tongue, where densely packed nerves receive the incoming electrical signals. White pixels yield a strong electrical pulse and the electrodes spatially correlate with the pixels, so that if the camera detects light fixtures in the middle of a dark hallway, electrical stimulations will occur along the center of the tongue. Within 15 minutes of using the device, blind people can begin interpreting spatial information. 'At first, I was amazed at what the device could do,' says research director William Seiple. 'One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter.'" There is some indication that the signals from the tongue are processed by the visual cortex. The company developing the BrainPort will submit it to the FDA for approval later this month, and it could be on sale (for around $10,000) by the end of the year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jessica Floeh made this vitamin reminder dock as her final project in Yury Gitman's "making wireless toys" class at Parsons in NYC. It is red when you need to take your vitamin, and turns green when you remove the container from the dock. Slowly, over 24 hours, it changes back to red. It also has customizable sound messages.

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reporter alerts to a story up at the Wall Street Journal on the increasing prevalance in the US of formerly rare, 3rd-world diseases such as toxocariasis, chagas, and cysticercosis. Health-care legislation pending in the House calls for a full report to Congress about the threat from this cluster of diseases, termed "neglected infections of poverty." "Parasitic infections and other diseases usually associated with the developing world are cropping up with alarming frequency among US poor, especially in states along the US-Mexico border, the rural South, and in Appalachia, according to researchers. Government and private researchers are just beginning to assess the toll of the infections, which are a significant cause of heart disease, seizures and congenital birth defects among black and Hispanic populations. ... 'These are diseases that we know are ten-fold more important than swine flu,' said [one] leading researcher in this field. 'They're on no one's radar.' ... These diseases share a common thread. 'People who live in the suburbs are at very low risk,' Dr. Hotez said. But for the 37 million people in the US who live below the poverty line, he said, 'There is real suffering.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.