Author: John

Arduino Micro

Arduino micro 

The blurb on the Arduno web page sums it up pretty well:

Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board and a development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP). The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased preassembled; the open-source IDE can be downloaded for free.

So, has anyone used one of these? Please tell me how you like it, if it worked and all that.

Arduino – HomePage

The Horizon Hydrogen Powered Car

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Toys 

Science should be fun. It’s just that simple. When you hear people talking about alternative fuel sources you are sure to hear the H word but just how can a lighter than air gas make a car move? Well it’s all because of fuel cells. What’s a fuel cell you ask? I guess your rock isn’t in a free wifi zone is it. Fuel cells convert hydrogen an oxygen (typical stuff that powers a fuel cell, but just about anything rich in hydrocarbons will do, like gasoline for example) into electricity by passing them across or through a material that produces electrons when these two gasses hit it. So what could be more fun than having on that runs a car? It comes with an water cracker to make the O2 and H for the car and instructions. If your looking for a fuel cell to play with this would be where to start.

HORIZONFUEL CELL

Blind Reading with Ray Kurzweil

THE KURZWEIL-NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND READERI received an email about this a few days ago:

Combining a state-of-the-art digital camera with a powerful personal data assistant, the "camera that talks" puts the best available character recognition software together with text-to-speech conversion technology–all in a single, handheld device. The Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader has the ability to dramatically enhance the lives of millions of people who have difficulty seeing or reading print by providing access like never before. Users need only hold the Reader over print-a restaurant menu, an airline ticket, a business card, a school assignment, an office memo-and in seconds they hear the contents of the printed document played back in clear synthetic speech.

Now this is what I call a life changing device. The price is a little up there ($3,600 US) but the doors it could open for a blind person are endless. If your ever in want of a place to donate your extra money to, there are few places that are better than National Federation of the Blind. Buy one of these and donate it to a local charity and you will be sure to change the lives of many people.

THE KURZWEIL-NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND READER

Flying Disk Camera

Frisbee camera 

You know, with a setup like this the sport of disc golf could be as interesting as Nascar. If I lost you with that one, lets start with the basics. Disc golf is where a small group of people try to land a thrown spinning disk into baskets made out of chains at some parks. I suppose they enjoy it, all I know is that whenever there is a group of ‘golfers’ in a park all the other people there had better head for the hills as their very lives are at stake. The players seldom announce their themselves before shooting at a ‘hole’. Even if you have been there long before the golfers arrived. Having a Frisbee land in your picnic is a bit of an upset. Anyway, that said I think we all know what Nascar is. I mean with the movie Cars and such its hard not to know what it is. Now I have a feeling that the entire televised racing thing hit big when some genius realized they having a live camera inside of a car was exactly what everyone wanted. That is entirely true. Now you not only watch the sport to see the cars crash and burn like you normally could if you were in the stands but now, if you were extra lucky, you could see it just the way the driver saw it. Ooo, I smell ratings! Now, if follow this path you could say that if you put a camera on anything and let the viewers experience a new point of view you have gold. See what I’m getting at here? The white fin on the Frisbee is a rudder that keeps a small video camera looking in the right direction when the disk is thrown. Genius! I expect this on The Ocho any day now.

The Frisbee Camera

Kids. With guns. They’re our future

Flickr - Kids With Guns

 

 

One of my photos (and its one of my daughter too!) has been give the honor of being drawn by the great Searcher: 

I’m not sure what the statistic is, but I think when you let your small child man the gun on your attack helicopter. you’re never going to have pinpoint accuracy.

but there’s the father/daughter bonding. 

‘kids. with guns. they’re our future’ on Flickr – Photo Sharing