Welcome to

Tom Igoe’s Networked Objects class created a whole bunch of networked pong controllers for their midterm project. Pictured is the bra controller with embedded force-sensing resistors (photo by doryexmachina). The controllers are attached to Arduino boards that communicate with a networked pong server that projects the game on a big screen - Link.

Related:

• Networked Objects at ITP | Syllabus / Assignments - Link
• Arduino Projects @ MAKE - Link

://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/03/networked_pong_controller.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890″ />Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine on March 24, 2007, 12:28pm

Instant laser coffee, I’m not sure if a 35W laser would work (this is a 2Kw) but I’ll try and experiment later - [via] Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine on March 24, 2007, 5:23pm

This photo blog has an amazing view in to what it was like 100 years ago, a lot of the backgrounds have the machinery and what people (in these photos, children) made back then…

Shorpy.com is a photo blog about what life a hundred years ago was like: How people looked and what they did for a living, back when not having a job usually meant not eating. We’re starting with a collection of photographs taken in the early 1900s by Lewis Wickes Hine as part of a decade-long field survey for the National Child Labor Committee, which lobbied Congress to end the practice. One of his subjects, a young coal miner named Shorpy Higginbotham, is the site’s namesake.

Pictured here—

Boy Sweeper and Carding Machines, Lincoln Cotton Mills, Evansville, Indiana. October 1908. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Shorpy | The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog - [via] Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine on March 21, 2007, 5:18am

MisterB sent in this video on how to convert a simple toy microphone into a hydrophone to listen to underwater sounds - Link & kit on eBay.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine on March 21, 2007, 12:48pm

Alex writes -

I have always found it a challenge to make things at virtually no hardware cost, using old parts in innovative combinations. Whilst such projects are usually quite time consuming, they do give you the pleasure of “being independent of the industry” and their picture of the state of the art of technology. Although I wouldn’t claim any state of the art for the project described below, I still think it is of value for many an “independent technerd” or even an “independent artist”, of which there seem to be a growing number.

ctical. The text …describes how I went about making a real cheap glove interface, that still achieves considerable accuracy while improving the comfortability. Essentially, I purchased a bunch of PowerGloves (PG’s), took out the flex sensors, inserted them in sheaths on a lycra glove and suit, hooked them up with a multi-channel serial A/D converter and had a host computer sequentially query the serial interface for the value of each sensor in real-time. These values then were used to control various electronic musical devices.Make your own instrumented glove - Link.

Related:

• PowerGlove Mouse- Link.
• PowerGlove mouse mod continued - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine on March 21, 2007, 11:41am

Sam writes -

In this video instructable, I will show you how to make an infrared filter for your digital camera out of bits and pieces such as cardboard rolls, electrical tape, and some black processed photographic film (old negatives). The vid also shows you how to test your camera for IR capability, suggests some of the settings you should use, and shows some IR photographs. Enjoy!

Take Infrared Pictures With Your Digital Camera - Link.

Related:

• HOW TO - Make a digital toy infrared camera - Link.
• Make an Infrared Webcam - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine on March 21, 2007, 1:53pm

Cory Doctorow:
The Buddha Machine from Chinese manufacturer FM3 looks like a cheap transistor radio. Turn the single dial, and it starts making crazy-ass, generative ambient music. Press the single button and a different kind of crazy-ass music emanates from the single small speaker. That’s it — one button, one dial, one speaker. There’s also an LED to let you know it’s on.

It is the single most interesting gadget I’ve held all month. It doesn’t feel like something manufactured this decade. It feels like something from the first blush of Walkman knockoffs, the JiLs and the like. And the sounds are really soothing and kind of haunting. There’s nothing on the box that tells you how the sound is generated — maybe it’s analog, but I’m guessing digital.

At $35, it’s a little steep, given that it has the hand-feel of a Happy Meal toy. But I bought one and I don’t regret it. It’s going in my keeper pile — it will be no less anachronistic, weird and interesting in an age of nanocomputers than it is today.

The Buddha Machine is a modified version of a device used in Buddhist temples throughout Asia, which feature repeating loops of chanting monks or nuns. This particular incarnation is the brainchild of the musical duo FM3. It contains nine preset loops which which play individually and run continuously. The sounds can be played from the built in speaker, or by connecting headphones to the built in jack.

If you are aware of ambient music such as the works of Brian Eno (Music for Airports, Discreet Music) then this is of a similar vein. Whereas music on a CD, Record or tape inherrently has to end before being restarted, the loops of the Buddha Machine will continue for as long as the AA batteries work (or forever if you connect a 4.5v supply).

t color=”red”>Update:
Sonny sez, “GM3 is not a manufacturer but a group formed in 1999 consisting of
Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian. They have released full CDs under
that band name and have also done some CDs for the excellent Sublime
Frequencies record label which I suggest
you check out. Also a album was released of remixes of all the loops by various
artists called ‘Jukebox Buddha.’”

Update 2: FM3’s Christiaan sez, “Here’s the official English site. The Buddha machine is available in the USA for only $23 from our
distributor Forced Exposure, and in the UK at Boomkat.”

Update 3: Simon sez, “All nine Buddha Machine loops in uncompressed .WAV format are available for download.”

Update 4:
John sez, “Sonic musician Robert Henke, aka Monolake, has a great album of Buddha Machine remixes available.” and Michael sez, “I live in Taiwan and have my own B-box that I bought at the NT$10 (33 cents) store down the road.”

Update 5: Rob

sez, “Your readers in toronto may want to head to a ring *today* in Toronto’s Allen Gardens, also, Buddha Machine pool on Flickr.”

Update 6: Mark sez, “I thought you might be interested in this (video) interview I conducted with FM3 for flasher.com at Montreal’s MUTEK festival in 2005. We talked mostly about the conception and creation of the Buddha Machine and I think it’s a pretty interesting look at their process. You can find it here.”

Originally by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing on March 25, 2007, 2:34am

David Pescovitz:
Alcohol and tobacco are more “harmful” than LSD and ecstasy, according to a new study published in scientific medical journal the Lancet. Researchers from Bristol University and the UK’s Medical Research Council came up with “a systematic framework and process” to assess the harm of certain drugs. They developed a “matrix of harm” to classify 20 different drugs. From Bristol University:

Professor David Nutt from the University of Bristol, Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, and colleagues, identified three main factors that together determine the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse:

1. the physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug
2. the tendency of the drug to induce dependence
3. the effect of drug use on families, communities, and society…

Professor Colin Blakemore added: “Drug policy is primarily aimed at reducing the harm to individual users, their families and society. But at present there is no rational, evidence-based method for assessing the harm of drugs. We have tried to develop such a method. We hope that policy makers will take note of the fact that the resulting ranking of drugs differs substantially from their classification in the Misuse of Drugs Act and that alcohol and tobacco are judged more harmful than many illegal substances.”

Link (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

Originally by David Pescovitz from Boing Boing on March 23, 2007, 4:13pm

Cory Doctorow:
Singapore is building this crazy housing block with four towers kind of hanging off the sides of another, central tower.

The 153 meter tall tower will be located at the intersection of Scotts Road and Cairnhill Road, in close proximity to Orchard Road, Singapore’s famous shopping and lifestyle street. With 20,000m² of built floor area, the building will provide 68 high-end apartment units with panoramic views. The design strategically maneuvers within the highly regulated building environment to maximize the full potential of the site: Four individual apartment towers are vertically offset from one another and suspended from a central core.

Link

(via We Make Money Not Art)

Originally by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing on March 24, 2007, 10:01am

Mark Frauenfelder:
A couple of weeks ago I posted a couple of entries about people who refused to give up their homes to new development and ended up being surround by a parking lot, freeway, or airport. Many readers offered stories of other holdouts. Here they are.

Here’s a long interview with 40-year-old Mrs Wuping, the owner of the “nail house” (called that because it sticks out of the pit around it like a nail).

Wuping: until present I haven’t received a single bit of monetary compensation or a resettlement. According to the pertinent regulations, at the minimum they have to give us temporary housing, and you’ve seen in the picture there aren’t any, we can’t even get up to the building. This absolutely is the government and businessmen working together; there is nothing we can do. Jiulong Hills is completely managed by the district party committee and government. At the hearing yesterday I cited several laws and regulations, all are explicit, the city cannot force people to leave their homes for demolition.

Kurt Randall says:

Hey, there is another guy like this in Hamilton Ontario, whose house is surrounded by a mall parking lot. I’ve admired the guy for years every time I drive by for not giving up. I’ve always wondered what is going to happen to these sorts of places once the homeowner finally moves or dies. Sadly, I can’t imagine that most of these holdout houses will survive their owners.

Destin says:

All these stories about companies building around homeowners who wouldn’t sell out in the face of “progress,” and no link to arguably the most famous example? I refer, of course, to the case of one Mr. B. Bunny, who successfully defended the sanctity of his American home against an *extremely* aggressive developer. His brave struggle was documented in this 1950 film by historian Charles M. Jones.

Nathan says:

http://
In response to the article about the Chinese leaving a house standing in the midst of a construction site, I’d like to point out that this isn’t the first time this has been done.

Around 100 years ago, in Seattle Washington, they undertook a project and washed away and entire large hill before this sort of thing would have been illegal for environmental reasons. Anyone who didn’t sell their land and go along with the regrading was left on what is known as a “Spite Mound“. There are various photos of these, including on the page linked.

Shad says:

www.boingboing.net/runwayfarmhouse.jpg” height=”169″ width=”224″ border=”0″ align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”4″ alt=”Picture 3-27″ />
I love the farmhouse at the end of the runway at the Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, Montana. There is a high barbwire security fence that runs along the highway, then cuts in and around the house, then back out along the highway. It’s great.

Andrew Webb says:

Mark, I’m late to the party with my favorite homeowner holdout, but here
she is.

The two houses on a quarter acre, surrounded by a parking lot, belong to
the family of Adele Martinez, who, in the mid-1990s, fought efforts by
the state to buy her property for $119k for its planned, $16.5 million
National Hispanic Cultural Center. As you can see, she prevailed, and
they built around her. Adele has since died, but her family still lives
there, where they have a beautiful view of a parking lot.

Chris says:

www.boingboing.net/dcholdout5-24.jpg” height=”169″ width=”191″ border=”0″ align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”4″ alt=”Picture 5-24″ />Last May, the Washington Post profiled a man who refused to sell his hundred year old house to developers who had purchased the entire block. At the time of the article, the house jutted out into a 40 ft deep chasm buttressed by a rather precarious-looking system of boards constructed by the developers. Photo here.

Justin says:

Here is another holdout. (In Harrisburg, PA) Link

Maury says:

A similar case but with a twist. When my former company, Microsoft,
was building their Redmond West campus, they purchased an old chicken
farm a mile or so from the main campus. The owner didn’t want to move
his parents however, so part of the deal was that their house could
stay intact at the same location until they died. It’s circled in red
in the attached pic. As far as I know, it’s the only private residence
on any MS property.

Steve says:

Here are two
guys who won’t sell to Marist College in Poughkeepsie,
NY.

Xon says:

This house not only borders a major artery in northern Delaware it actually sits on the entrance ramp besides a GM plant. Probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Originally by Mark Frauenfelder from Boing Boing on March 23, 2007, 2:57pm

David Pescovitz:

Over at the Virtual China blog, my Institute for the Future colleague Lyn Jeffery posts about this “nail house” in Chongqing. From Lyn’s post:

(”Nail houses”) are the residences of urbanites whose neighborhoods have been “moved” 动迁 and who are the last hold-outs–they stick out like nails in an otherwise modernized environment.

On March 19 the China Legal Daily published what it claims is the first interview with the woman who owns the house. Her demand? To be given an apartment in the new building that is going up on the same spot, with comparable square footage to the house she now lives in. This will be impossible, says the developer. According to Chongqing law, says the article, there are three possible ways to compensate owners in this type of situation: 1) provide housing on the same spot; 2) provide housing in another spot; 3) provide a sum of money. The city is only willing to provide Ms. Wu, the resident, with the third option, but she is not willing to accept a sum of money.

Link

Originally posted by David Pescovitz from Boing Boing, ReBlogged by Joanna on Mar 22, 2007 at 09:14 AM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on March 22, 2007, 9:14am

What’s more righteous, more holy, and somewhat more fanatical than the stuff on YouTube? Why, it’s GodTube, of course. A window into the world of bad Christian rock, really painful parodies, and bizarre moments of belief, the video sharing site features some of the favorites that Beware of the Blog has already tuned in to: Christian Clown Training, Baby Got Bible, and the infamous Atheist vs Banana speech. But unlike the heathens on YouTube, the content of GodTube is carefully monitored. You won’t find the real crazies like the Pentecostal Holy Laughers, Donnie "totally fake" Davies, Rev. Ricky, and the likes of Gene Scott and the Cursing Preacher here. In fact, cursing in general is carefully guarded against on GodTube, as you can tell when you run across automatically censored words like embar!#ing and har^@!.

Still, the site is relatively new, and based on some of the clips I’ve already found, the future looks promising (other than the whole fact that the end of the world is coming). Here is a short article on how it all got started, and here are some of my favorite GodTube finds:

• Chatting With Charlie lamely attempts to argue against evolution and geography. He is totally blinded with Science, and about as convincing as this nervous teen.
• However, this terrifying masked man makes a truly heated case against logic that you could never refute. Update: He’s gone from "featured" status to being 86′d, but you can still find him on YouTube, including his back and forth discussions GodTube. Charges of hoax have been vehemently denied, but I dunno…
• Holy not fun! Christian Youth Camp slingshots. Thiiis close to becoming a Faces of Death video.
• As expected, a completely misinformed history of Satanism.
• Whew - a truly exciting young firecracker of a preacher. "I’m paraphrasin’ y’all!"
• Drugs! A moving rock ballad.
• A sample of a cheesy Christian video game. But one commentator complains, "LB games Management is 70% jewish.. so b!#*icaly.. this is a jewish game". Creeps.
• Pastor Al challenges the Easter Bunny. He’s trying sooo hard to be funny that it just hurts.
• "Terrifyingly joyous dread" is better than sex. Honestly I have no idea what this guy is talking about, except that we are all dogs in heat. You hear that, Amanda?
• You can never get too much Power Team.
• Doctor: "I’ll cut your heart open!". Young patient: "You’ll find Jesus in there." A  touching story.
• And if you think the users of GodTube aren’t as exploitative as the YouTubers, check out how they are laughing at this crazy guy.
• Or head into the living room with these kids recreating Narnia.

Originally posted by Clinton McClung from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, ReBlogged by Joanna on Mar 23, 2007 at 10:34 AM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on March 23, 2007, 10:34am

a set of 6 different themes, based on a city, a teahouse, a winter scene, a sky, a beach & a bus stop, as a new ‘personality’ feature of Google Homepage. these themes are examples of ambient visualization / informative art, because they are dynamic & informative, changing according to local time of day, current weather conditions or season. for instance, the beach theme adjusts itself to match the local sunrise & sunset times.

see also ambient widgets

update: related stories & visuals at blog.outer-court.com & ap.org & dopeman.org.

[link: googleblog.blogspot.com|via appscout.com|thnkx Andrea]

Originally from information aesthetics on March 20, 2007, 9:13pm

Here’s a great video presskit for De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising LP, circa 1989. Too bad this phenom didn’t catch on with more bands, we might’ve saved a cool billion on glossy folders and Kinko’s fees. With cameos from Prince Paul, DJ Red Alert, KRS-One, Vernon Reid, and more. Via Soul-Sides and Mo-Ski-Luv.

Originally posted by Mike Lupica from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, ReBlogged by Joanna on Mar 23, 2007 at 10:37 AM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on March 23, 2007, 10:37am

Originally from Tinselman on March 20, 2007, 1:15pm

an ambient weather widget that applies the current wind conditions to any user-chosen website. it uses a United States ZIP Code to grab local conditions from the Yahoo Weather RSS feed, & animates individual pieces of the website, such as text blocks & images, according to the strength of the wind.

see also informative google themes & unseen weather video & voloce weather visualization & weather datacloud.

[link: stewdio.org & stewdio.org|thnkx Alistair]

Originally from information aesthetics on March 22, 2007, 10:10pm

a novel method for visualizing compound graphs, which typically show hierarchical relations between items. hierarchical edge bundling is based on the principle of visually bundling adjacency edges together analogous to the way electrical wires & network cables are merged into bundles along their joint paths & fanned out again at the end, in order to make an otherwise tangled web of wires & cables more manageable. it reduces visual clutter & can be used in conjunction with existing tree visualization techniques.

this academic work received the best paper award at the Infovis 2006 conference.

reminds me a bit of thinking machine & pivotgraph.

[links: tue.nl (pdf) & tue.nl|thnkx Danny]

Originally from information aesthetics on March 22, 2007, 1:04am

Like your Gmail? Of course you do. Techie love site MakeUseOf.com has come up with thirty different Gmail-related tools and hacks, from “seen that already” to “Oh. My. God.”

I admit that I haven’t put Gmail to work as much as I really could, so this is a good way for me (and anyone else who’s looking for some Gmail love) to get up to superhero productivity speed quickly. Well, at least for Gmail, anyway. See anything that should be on this list and isn’t? Let us know in the comments. — Wendy Boswell

Originally from Lifehacker on March 24, 2007, 9:00am

Originally from Pruned on March 25, 2007, 3:16pm

Originally from Pruned on March 25, 2007, 3:16pm