Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
Come tomorrow, November 8th, many people (check the link for locations) will have the chance to see the inner most planet of our solar system make an attempt to eclipse the sun. This transit is a some what rare occurrence, as only about 13 will happen in the next 100 years. So grab your approved solar viewing gear and have at it!
SPACE.com — Viewer’s Guide: Watch Mercury Cross the Sun (warning, popups)
Wikipedia – Transit of Mercury
This page fills my head with ideas! Steam engines, electrostatic generators, bi-metallic motors… Mumm.. Well if your not the tinkering kind of person then you should be happy to know that everything at Exergia is for sale. Yep, in kit form or a finished unit. So explore the wonders of science today! Or at lest by mid noon of next week. 🙂
A bit from the site:
Sophisticated demonstration models of alternative energy technologies for universities, schools and interested individuals: Stirling Engines and steam engines, fuel cells, photovoltaic objects, toys and more! Discover extraordinary ideas in energy related devices: Educational devices inspired by old and new concepts to demonstrate the physical principles of conventional and alternative energy conversion."
[via MAKE]
Humm, a laptop maker that was about to release a webcam enabled model but at the moment they decided to kill the idea and just painted over the lens to disable it? I’m not sure if I buy this… The placement is odd as well, it’s in the latch that keeps the laptop closed. You have a look at the video and tell me what you think. Is it a hoax or an undocumented feature?
[via Cryptolife]
I spotted this while checking out my contact photos on Flickr. Apparently this was part of the masquerade at the LAcon IV science fiction convention in Los Angles. You can see more photos from this convention here.
Ooo, an R/C plane with a cockpit mounted micro video camera/transmitter that’s slaved to a gyro on the pilots head. Lots of discussion here. Video here, here, and here (best by far, lots of close passes with the ground).
Pretty much the idea is that the camera is sending a cockpit point of view back to the pilot where he views it on a set of head mounted goggles. To add a bit of extra zing to the equation the camera pans and tilts in response to the wearers head movements. You can see the fun that could be had with this, eh? Telepresence is amazing!
Some specs and build notes from the discussion group: (prices in Canadian I think)
My equipment is old. New equipment:
Gyro:$425
headset:$699
cam: $99
video tx/rx: around $150
antenna: 8dbi patch (optional) around $60
amateur radio license is req’d because you need to exceed 10mw of power.(it’s not hard to get and inexpensive in Canada)
and also it’s easy to plug, but not easy to get good video link without video dropout. It’s not easy to explain everything for me to someone who don’t have good electronic skill, for now it’s not for everyone.
The cam in this setup is glue on a servo and allow 45 deg of panning, the servo is plug in the rudder channel if not use or on slider etc. The servo can be modified to 180 deg easily by adding two resistor on pot. lead or buying a special circuit.
