Slashdot Mirror

Make it into a death ray! Add mirrors all along the inside and they will focus to a point where the collector is. :) http://hackaday.com/2005/03/23/solar-death-ray/ link in the article is dead but it has a picture :)

Hack A Day has some useful info on this thing in the last 15 or so comments on this article. http://hackaday.com/2009/08/21/cbs-introduces-video-in-print-technology/#comments

or perhaps a home made SAM? (microcontroller, ir sensor, model rocket).

The beauty of the Internet is that anything anybody just thought of... has been done last week

My apologies if this was already posted.

I suggest creating a self destruct button... Something along the lines of: http://hackaday.com/2008/09/16/how-to-thermite-based-hard-drive-anti-forensic-destruction/

DIY baby monitor? Bad.

DIY Nursery Temp Monitor

It has begun.

This article on Hackaday late last year is about a project to make Homebrew Kodachrome: http://hackaday.com/2009/12/08/homebrew-kodachrome/

Or even this?

As a belt : http://www.monkeysandrobots.com/hapticcompass
As glasses : http://hackaday.com/2010/07/08/stylin-hmd/

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/07/heel-treads-make-shoes-go/ Similar concept, personally I'd rather have the moving sidewalks because there is less user input and therefore less possibility for things to go wrong (crashing into each other).

Here's a cheap build-it-yourself spectrum analyzer: http://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/im-me-spectrum-analyzer/ The IM-ME can be had for about $15 or so, and is purportedly very hackable.

Here's the hackaday entry about the feline facial recognition project. The actual project itself is located on a pretty slow server, so you'll have to just go with that, but the idea (from 2003) is what you say: it lets in cats that aren't carrying stuff in their mouths, but doesn't let in raccoons or skunks, and since he's captured pictures of them trying to get in, that's pretty useful.

Websites like http://www.tomshardware.com/ are interesting, but they are more interested in computers like PCs etc..

I think there is another way to look at this question of "figuring out how sound, graphics, and input devices worked along the way"

From the moment I saw this, i.e. "hobbyists intent on coding and understanding their machines down to the hardware" ... that sounds more like open hardware/software projects like Arduino. e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino
http://www.arduino.cc/

Also "banging in page after page of code line by line, and figuring out how sound, graphics, and input devices worked along the way" ... thats just like these smaller embedded CPU open hardware/software projects. These small embedded CPU projects are progressing just like the early 1980s computer era and once again the growth is driven by hobbyists. They are creating more advanced projects all the time. For example here's a 2D and 3D software rendering engine running on a small cheap embedded ARM processor where its even generating the video signal in software.
http://hackaday.com/2010/06/13/gaming-system-for-less-than-three-bucks/

Then moving up in scale even bigger, hobbyists have even created a remarkable games console called Pandora. Incredibly this is more powerful than any *mobile* console by Nintendo or Sony! (apparently its taken the hobbyists two years to design their Pandora hand held console. I think its very inspring work, but then its what hobbyists were doing in the early 1980s computer era when they were building their own high spec computers, to then sell to other hobbyists who were more interested in doing interesting things with the software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(console)

The hobbyists driven growth in open hardware/software projects I think is very much like the early 1980s computer era with the same kinds of interests for hobbyists.

If you're just looking for hobbyist information, try out HackADay.com It's a great jump-off point to sites where people hack all the way down to the metal -- and sometimes even design the metal itself.

While not technically a magazine Hackaday provides just that kind of interesting hobbyist resource. Unfortunately it's a bit hit and miss, and not really only geared towards computers as much as microcontroller projects and spud launchers. Some of the articles are stupidly basic, some prohibitively expensive (like a system for creating liquid nitrogen), but some really hit the mark for the hobbyist hacker like using LEDs as light sensors in between pulses.

Steven K. Roberts has a Facebook and Twitter.

Now, if you find a guy who in the eighties built a bike with an embedded computer, a packet data communication system for email via ham radio, a 20 watt solar panel, a speech synthesizer that could be triggered by security sensors or remote radio command, and then traveled 16 000 miles across the US typing with a binary (eight keys) keyboard his journal as "not interesting", I pity you.

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/18/vintage-video-computing-across-america/

(Yes, this is a far fetched example - I just find him awe-inspiring)

Just the monitors would be 1600-2500 depending on what you got plus the 500-1000 for the cards and cables. NEVER mind your powerbill...

Thinking of doing this to my laptop...
http://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/cramming-more-pixels-into-a-thinkpad/

http://hackaday.com/?s=obd-II

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/11/ps3-patch-allows-linux-installation/

I can see the appeal of having one of these. I always did prefer having a keyboard-nipple instead of a touchpad.

Now, if only someone would build a Wii-knunchuck-like trackball or pointing stick...

Go roll your own! It would be a fun weekend project.

But THIS is why I read slashdot. All that other news stuff is just fluff.

And if you read Hack A Day, you could have read about it 5 days ago...

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/15/mindstorm-plays-tetris-for-you/

-- Dave

They could require the deployment of chipped banking cards.

And this is where most of the problem has been caused. The belief that if we put those RFID chips in our bank cards, they must become safer. The problem is, it's the chip that is the biggest security issue since its RFID it's 'always on' and more then willing to send it's information to whomever asks. The banks and credit card companies have invested millions, if not in the billions, of dollars into the technology and its a flop. A massive, expensive flop. And now they have 2 options. Fess up that it's a failed experiment and have very pissed off investors. Or, censor/intimidate anyone who wishes to publicly expose this as the failure it truly is.

Beaten to the punch again!

That said. I think the lack of a decent field of view has much more to do with the difficulties. In a car, I can see just over 180. Most of that is motion sensitive. However, it's more sensitive than nothing at all!

There are development board that come with a ipod connector. http://hackaday.com/2010/03/29/microchips-pic-development-for-iphone-and-ipod/ Combine with some buttons and wood and it doesn't look like it would be that hard of a project.

You could probably ... put 2d barcodes on the bottom of your miniatures

These are called fiducials, and there are many examples of their use.

Does repeating a link in the summary really count as informative?
I know this article is only tangentially about CHDK but I've been looking into CHDK lately for a project so I thought I'd share some useful links.

Supported Cameras

Note that a higher number doesn't mean it's a newer model. The A710 was released before the A590.
Canon PowerShot A series info

CHDK Howto

Info on how to make a port

Info on implementing PTP in CHDK
This is still relatively new but it could allow using a computer to remotely control the camera, which isn't doable on many Canon cameras with the stock firmware. I'd love to see this mature so I can do remote capture in Linux.

His main site is down, all I can find is an article from Hack A Day. http://hackaday.com/2009/12/08/ledboy-super-pixel-brothers/ The last version I saw even had working Goomba and Bullet Bill style enemies.

I don't know how patents work, but I've seen similar ideas already. What's new here? I hope they don't get a patent on another fake "revolutionary" way of doing stuff.

Too late already done.

I saw this on hackaday.com a week or so ago. Maybe it's sort of what you're after, if a little bigger?

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/27/nanotouch-a-tiny-avr-media-thing/
http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/8-bit-device-quenches-iphone-envy/
Hackers are doing stuff (these are more of a showcase than a real product) but suck at selling it. But Please observe than open source / open hardware phones DO exist, but that in order for a phone to be useful, one needs an operator, and they are less than friendly with openness.

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/27/nanotouch-a-tiny-avr-media-thing/
http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/8-bit-device-quenches-iphone-envy/
Hackers are doing stuff (these are more of a showcase than a real product) but suck at selling it. But Please observe than open source / open hardware phones DO exist, but that in order for a phone to be useful, one needs an operator, and they are less than friendly with openness.

I remember seeing an article on a DIY car starter with a cellphone, here it is.

Cell phone based car starter, another take
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/19/cell-phone-based-car-starter-another-take/

GSM car starter
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/15/gsm-car-starter/

Start the car with a wave of your hand
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/14/start-the-car-with-a-wave-of-your-hand/

Better yet, you can signup for a Google Voice(Beta) account and route all the calls you want to where you want them to go.

A lot of phones these days with GPS have software where if you send it a text message it will respond with its GPS coordinates or you can lock down the phone, I know some guy who did this with some of his expensive construction equiptment when he didn't want to buy a LoJack system. I use the Android app 'Mobile Defense' and have found my phone once when I left it at a restaurant.

I remember seeing an article on a DIY car starter with a cellphone, here it is.

Cell phone based car starter, another take
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/19/cell-phone-based-car-starter-another-take/

GSM car starter
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/15/gsm-car-starter/

Start the car with a wave of your hand
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/14/start-the-car-with-a-wave-of-your-hand/

Better yet, you can signup for a Google Voice(Beta) account and route all the calls you want to where you want them to go.

A lot of phones these days with GPS have software where if you send it a text message it will respond with its GPS coordinates or you can lock down the phone, I know some guy who did this with some of his expensive construction equiptment when he didn't want to buy a LoJack system. I use the Android app 'Mobile Defense' and have found my phone once when I left it at a restaurant.

I remember seeing an article on a DIY car starter with a cellphone, here it is.

Cell phone based car starter, another take
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/19/cell-phone-based-car-starter-another-take/

GSM car starter
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/15/gsm-car-starter/

Start the car with a wave of your hand
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/14/start-the-car-with-a-wave-of-your-hand/

Better yet, you can signup for a Google Voice(Beta) account and route all the calls you want to where you want them to go.

A lot of phones these days with GPS have software where if you send it a text message it will respond with its GPS coordinates or you can lock down the phone, I know some guy who did this with some of his expensive construction equiptment when he didn't want to buy a LoJack system. I use the Android app 'Mobile Defense' and have found my phone once when I left it at a restaurant.

Android doesn't use X, and its provision for execution of native code isn't really optimal for running straight ports of standard Linux software.

There are some hacks that involve running stock applications on top of the same linux layer that Android's VM uses, with Xvnc as an X server and an Android VNC viewer; but that doesn't exactly scream "elegant".

After your reply I did do a bit of googling to see if I could find the camera you were talking about in the hope that it does exist, but couldn't find anything and neither during my several searches for information at various times on DIY thermal imaging never really turned up much more than people on forums confusing PIR (motion sensors), IR (remote controls/nightvision etc.) & IR long (thermal).

I've wanted to make my own using a readily available & interfacable thermopile array mounted on a couple of servos sat upon a tripod to take thermal image photos but after seeing someone have a go at this - http://hackaday.com/2009/09/25/arduino-thermoscanner/ - it looks like I'd have to source a very good thermopile with a very narrow FOV to get more detail, or save up a few thousand for a proper unit...

But we don't actually have true randomness

Sure we do, if you actually care and want it. All you need is a source of true entropy.

I have yet to see a true random number generator.

BAM! And as of clicking that link, you can no longer say that.

Note that the actual implementation doesn't use a lava lamp anymore. For a general discussion of sources of true randomness, see here. The number generated from these devices are as random as the physical processes behind them.

Our algorithms are VERY deterministic. Lets say there is a purple car, but in my memory I remember it as blue.

Not always. Genetic algorithms (and quite a few other heuristic algorithms) are based on randomness. Even a simple neural network with feedback will exhibit the behavior of "remembered" values changing over time. You can easily combine the two techniques as well to create a very potent "fuzzy logic" system that's only as deterministic as your random number stream, minus that you can be pretty sure that it will converge on a solution to your problem (much like natural selection driven by random changes converges on solutions to the problem of survival).

Lets say for the sake of arguement you put it in your algorithm to on occaison 'randomly' alter data when its transfered to long term memory, and/or when it sits in long term memory. How often do you execute this? Is that up to 'random' chance? And how much gets altered? Is that random too? Could not my entire memory become distorted? Would that be the same thing as a mental disease - the computer happens to get a bad long series of random?

Well that depends on the algorithm, now doesn't it? If it's some kind of genetic algorithm, then randomness is introduced in things like the mutation rate. In real life, mutations are random, but the mutation rate itself is not a random variable (though it does change depending on environment).

If we're talking about something like brute-force simulation of the brain, then the randomness would only be introduced at those points where it must in physics, like qm waveform collapses.

If your point is that we don't know the proper algorithms yet, then I'm in total agreement. But we're talking about why a computer can't be intelligent, not why we're unlikely to make one that is any time soon.

The way to achieve true randomness, (From the article): One measures some physical phenomenon that is expected to be random and then compensates for possible biases in the measurement process.

So you knew about these techniques, but for some reason think they're cheating or something? If the computer has a sensor reading thermal noise and it uses that to produce Intelligence, suddenly it doesn't count as the computer being intelligence? Like what, the little sensor or the hot piece of metal is intelligent but the computer isn't? Come on.

Okay, assume the computer has a source of true randomness. NOW why can't it be intelligent but chemicals can?

Problem solved.

Better yet- perhaps a sensor could be used to detect if the lamp was covered, perhaps by reflectivity

That's actually a pretty good idea. The LEDs themselves can be used as sensors. Since the LEDs are probably already running pulsed at some highish frequency, just skip some on cycles for some LEDs and measure how much light at the cycle rate of the other LEDs is seen by the "sensors". Example: LED buttons. There's no need to have a permanent LED on sensor duty, when switching it around, a map of snow coverage can be derived.

My suggestion would be convert it into a 3D printer (Known as a fabrication machine)

Granted, I don't know your skill set so this might not be a valid option, but you have to admit the results are nice!

Video of a 3d printer made from an old ink jet (Boring to watch straight through, best to watch the first few moments and jump ahead to the end imho):
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nbtZOolSIY

Here is a better video showing the output from a production 3d printer, to give you an idea of what is possible:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzooQQDWGg

Finally, some more basic info:

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/19/3d-printing-at-home/
http://homemade3dprinter.blogspot.com/

Google will have more detailed info if you are interested

Then you haven't been paying much attention. Billy Rios has discovered the GIFAR problem with Java. Of course they're only looking at things that affect their software, in much the same way that Google doesn't go looking for software bugs in Microsoft products.

Why is it so surprising that security researchers employed by a company only look at that company's software, and aren't credited in the security patch reports for just doing their jobs?

Making the rounds of the blogs and TV shows is the story of William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi who, at age 14, taught himself enough about electricity to build a windmill generator for his house. But what kills me is that he made a GFCI from ... nails, wire and a magnet. Look at this video of his appearance on The Daily Show last month, specifically starting 2 minutes in, and note his description of what it does. (here's a picture) He calls it a circuit breaker, but that is functionally actually a GFCI! Jesus H. Christ, that is brilliant!

Now that the methodology has been worked out, sending a camera up to 100kft is becoming a pretty common university and ham club team project. Provided care is taken during assembly, the biggest gotchas are while inflating the balloon, and hoping the winds keep the payload over an area with suitable roads.

It'd be neat to see more teams collect additional science, with live TM for extra points. A few years back, a few college students in Beautiful B.C. designed their own UAV, which flew home after release a 60kft. Nowadays, it's possible to take a crack at that without CS/EE-level knowledge of control logic, but would still be a neat challenge. Too bad FAA regs make it of iffy legality in the US.

Sorry, try again, but thank you for playing

http://hackaday.com/2004/11/14/hack-an-etch-a-sketch/

Between 1983 and 1986 Steve Roberts travelled around America on a bike with a laptop (Tandy) 5w solar panel and a packet radio. Used payphones for dial-up. May have been the 'inventor' of texting while driving.

and between 2002 and 2004 Teresa and Sterling were road warriors in a modified 2003 Lance 1121 on a 2004 Ford F-550 (they upgraded while on the road). Their primary network connection was a MotoSat DataStorm which seemed to work well when stationed.

As for VoIP while on the road - carry a cell or sat phone and use call forwarding when not in range of a decent Internet signal. With some verification of priorities (sacrifices) you can be mobile and the envy of geeks everywhere.

There's a few ways to restore or prevent the yellowing. I can't find the original page I saw before, but this has more information.

Actually rooting an Android phone is a single click affair these days. There is even an installer to do it for you. No "fairly involved hacking" required. Here: 1-click rooting. Works like a charm on my Magic.

You don't even need access to the BASIC interpreter to do that.

They have of course gone the other way. Kids now think controllers make music.