In one of my posts about the financial crisis, I noted two important things: that if banks really did stop lending money, there would be opportunities for others to start lending (though, the question was whether or not widespread fear would stop that process) and that non-bank businesses might start adjusting their own "loans" in the form of changing the terms on deals. Of course, what we were talking about there was businesses decreasing the amount of credit they offer customers by doing things like shrinking the terms on a deal from payable at net 60 days to net 30 days.

What we didn't necessarily count on was that cash rich tech companies might go in the other direction -- and look to fill that opportunity to lend where banks had failed. Apparently vendor financing is suddenly a very hot business, with various tech companies suddenly finding a lot more interest in their leasing and vendor financing programs. Effectively, what's happening is that these tech firms with money are taking over the role of lenders from the banks. Assuming the loan risks are low, this could actually work out quite well for these tech companies in the long run. It's at least something worth watching. Valleywag worries that these sorts of deals almost always end badly -- but that's not necessarily true. It really depends on how the programs are run, and how well they measure the risk associated with certain companies.

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An anonymous reader writes "We've all heard Weird Al Yankovic's 'Don't Download This Song,' which came out a couple years ago, but did you know that MTV is apparently so afraid that kids listening to the song will discover for the first time that file sharing offerings exist that in its video of the song, MTV bleeps out their names? There's a line in the song that lists out Morpheus, Grokster, Kazaa and Limewire (most of whom don't really exist any more), but for some reason MTV considers those names to be bleep worthy." Unless this is all one grand inside joke from Weird Al.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "We've all heard Weird Al Yankovic's 'Don't Download This Song,' which came out a couple years ago, but did you know that MTV is apparently so afraid that kids listening to the song will discover for the first time that file sharing offerings exist that in its video of the song, MTV bleeps out their names? There's a line in the song that lists out Morpheus, Grokster, Kazaa and Limewire (most of whom don't really exist any more), but for some reason MTV considers those names to be bleep worthy." Unless this is all one grand inside joke from Weird Al.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wonkette posted this interesting photo of people worshipping the golden calf Wall Street bull in order to save the stock market.

Did you know that some Christian dingbat has dubbed today the “Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies?” Well here they are, at the Wall Street bull statue thing, praying to Jesus for money. The dingbat has explained, “We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems.”

Exodus 32:

8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

9And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

Jesus people pray that false idol will save God’s economy

Seen here is the magnificent cover of the new issue of MAKE:. The theme is, obviously, DIY spy tech. The cover and interior illustrations were created by none other than MAD Magazine art director Sam Viviano. Wow.
MAKE: Vol. 16, Spy Tech

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we learned that TiVo owners will get Netflix streaming, that Dell's making a new All-in-One desktop computer, and that people will go to any lengths in pursuit of gaming cake. Oh, and the eleventh commandment: Thou Shalt Not Use Caps Lock.

John found the Kangaroom gamer sofa saddlebag, a finger-mounted bolt tightener, and an awe-inspiring Russian speaker made from an old fire extinguisher. Mimes pretending to be Human vending machines did not please him, but the amazing Bickford, a razorblade robot, certainly did.

Rob spotted a shocking handheld game, a 3G Compaq netbook for Europe, and a nice bottle of USB Port. He donned a chainmail shirt from ThinkGeek, sat in a Hobart I-Cool supervillain chair, and throttled himself with a Papal USB Drive.

There was a handheld computer from Aigo; a gorgeous tech demo for a forthcoming Wii game; Lego halloween minifigs; and a crazy accordian refrigerator.

We read Lisa Katayama's explanation of why Japanese cell phones are no fun, listened to fantastic remixes of BBC theme tunes, and discovered Asus is making an Android phone.

Do you want to know what a rectal retractor is? Probably not.

Boing Boing Gadgets

Rob Harris, who wrote the wonderfully entertaining books Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy! and Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up A Woefully Incomplete Guide took a trip to the North Korean border area and send his photos and comments to friends. He was kind of enough to allow us to run them on Boing Boing.

En route from Seoul, there are numerous large war monuments, which is hardly surprising, since technically the war still hasn't ended. Fortunately, most of the major ones are collected in one big depressing park, great for your getting-dispirited-about-the-human-condition convenience.

Here's one commemorating the "Ten Human Bombs":

I probably don't need to explain how the Ten Human Bombs met their end.

I also hope you don't see any resemblance to the overwrought posing of 1980s power-rock bands. That would be disresectful. Humming anything by Night Ranger, Twisted Sister, or Whitesnake while looking at this picture would be just wrong.

When you get up close to the border, the first thing you hit is Imjingak, where the Freedom Bridge is located.

That old railroad bridge is where 13,000 POWs were released by N. Korea and allowed to walk south. Thus the name.

The walkway to the bridge is now closed off, for obvious reasons. But if you peek through the coin-operated tourist binoculars, you can actually make out patrols in huts on the far side of the bridge.

There's a goofy sculpture of an armed peacekeeper at the beginning of the walkway, so it seemed fun to get my picture with it. Little did I realize where I'd be posing shortly.

Imjingak is as as close to the North as most South Koreans have ever been. Beyond here, foreigners need to jump through a few minor hoops to continue; locals are generally forbidden.

As a result, numerous shrines and monuments have been built here dealing with the country's separation and the permanent ripping-in-half of families on both sides. This site and a corresponding one on the other side are often used for ceremonies to honor ancestors, lost loved ones, fallen soldiers, etc.

Which explains the scores of busses in the parking lot. (There are nearly 100 in this partial image alone.)

With so many people flooding in on tour busses, it feels weirdly almost like a tourist trap.

Wait. Skip the "almost."

Unless every international flash point has a giant swing in the shape of a pirate ship.

I almost started thinking maybe this whole deal was overblown. After all, pretty much anybody (except South Koreans, and people from a few dozen countries where you need to go through a bunch of paperwork) can sign up, fork over some cash, and go peek at the DMZ. How tense could it really be?

Ahem.

Next thing you know, after showing my passport at three checkpoints, I'm in a military briefing at Camp Bonifas at the edge of the DMZ, and handed a form to sign agreeing to (if I remember it all):

• No smoking, no gum chewing, etc.; you're now entering a military area, so you gotta abide.

• No heels, no sandals, no unconventional shoes; if shooting breaks out, you gotta be able to run.

• No baggy jeans, no sleeveless shirts, conservative attire only; we are about to be monitored by the North Koreans, and any remotely questionable clothing could give them useful propaganda footage; entry without proper clothing will be barred in advance.

• No photos for the vast majority of the trip into the DMZ. A sergeant wearing a sidearm will be with you at all times, and if you attempt an unauthorized photo, your camera will be confiscated on the spot. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• No gesturing of any kind, especially pointing at things. This could be mistaken through binoculars on the other side as the presence of an unagreed-upon weapon, and could provoke live fire. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• No smiling, attempts at communication, or even eye contact with North Korean soldiers. This can be misunderstood and provoke a confrontation. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• No unauthorized movements of any kind, including even turning around to look at something behind you you've already passed. This can also provoke conflict. Violation of this rule ends the tour.

• You do understand that you are entering a dangerous area, and that the possibility of injury or death is real.

Hokay then.

Next come tank traps, concertina wire, live exercises, and a whole bunch of highly active history.

Apparently North Koreans still violate the cease-fire and make small incursions into the DMZ on a surprisingly regular basis. A lot of this doesn't get much reported in the rest of the West because, well, for the same reason a lot of really important things just never get reported. TMZ gets higher ratings than DMZ any day of the week.

Then, finally, we reach the Joint Security Area (JSA), the only spot where the two countries connect -- ground zero of the DMZ.

So here's me being a tourist in front of the North Korean border, marked by the white posts. Those trees? In North Korea.

To the left of this spot, on the North Korean side, they've built the world's tallest flagpole, 160 meters high, over the propaganda village of Kijong-dong, whose name is fun to say over and over. You may have to make train noises and say "whooo-whooo!" after about six repetitions.

Why the gigondous flagpole? On the South Korean side, see, there's an actual village of about 200 farmers who chose not to abandom their ancestral homes, despite being inside the DMZ. South Korea eventually put up a 100m flagpole near the village. Look at the size of our pole, North Korea! Whoo-hoo! The North Koreans, in response, tried to prove their superiority by building an even bigger village on the other side and erecting an even bigger flagpole. South Korea, that's all you got? Bwah-HAH-ha-haha-haaa!

The North Korean village, however, seems to be entirely fake; there's no glass in many of the windows, the only people usually visible are a few soldiers creeping around, and the lights go on and off in the buildings at the same time every night.

Then again, that may also just be what an average North Korean village looks like these days. Sigh.

How tense can things get around here? One example:

Not far away, there's a marker where a yellow poplar tree used to grow. By 1976, it had gotten so big that the UN observation post at upper right couldn't quite see the goings-on at a checkpoint just out of the frame to the left.

At the time, soldiers from each side could move about the JSA freely.

So a group of UN soldiers, including U.S. Army Cpt. Arthur Bonifas, went to cut the tree down. The North Koreans took exception, and pretty soon, a bunch of them ax-murdered two of the UN guys, including Cpt. Bonifas.

Ever since, soldiers from each side can no longer move about the JSA freely.

And that's why the camp where we got our briefing is called Camp Bonifas.

Three days later, a complex raid ("Operation Paul Bunyan") involving a reported 813 men, 23 vehicles, 7 Cobra attack helicopters, a parade of B-52 bomber and F-4 and F-5 fighter planes, and a US Navy aircraft carrier placed into position offshore...

... and managed to cut down the tree.

Seriously.

So, yes. Kinda tense sometimes.

Nearby, the hauntingly named Bridge of No Return.

This bridge was used for prisoner exchanges once the cease fire was established in 1953. Since many families were split by the border, released prisoners didn't always want to cross; maybe their mom was on the side they'd been captured on, but their wife was on the other side. No matter -- the deal was simple: cross once if you like, but if you do, you can never return.

This is also the bridge that USN Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher and the crew of the captured U.S.S. Pueblo crossed when they were released in 1968. They were somewhat less conflicted about leaving.

At the very center of the JSA -- after passing through some more no-photo areas -- you reach a row of small huts painted UN blue and placed squaredly atop of the border, straddling it so that the north half of each building is on side and the south half is on the other.

The centermost is the one used for peace talks to this day.

The northern half of this small building is on North Korean soil. It has its own entry, just like the one we're looking at from the southern side.

Notice that the UN guards are facing our North Korean friends while sort of peeking around the building's corners, with half of their bodies shielded by the edge of the building. Not without reason. Gunfire has erupted here unpredictably over the years. Sometimes it's caused by an unexpected provocation, but on occasion it has also been the result of a sudden attempt to defect from the North, either by a patrolling soldier a visiting North Korean, Russian, or other dignitary.

The North Koreans are under strict orders to immediately shoot anyone who attempts to defect.

Since it's only a ten-second dash from one side to the other, things could freak out in a blink at any moment. Years can go by between incidents, and then instantly, without warning, bang bang bang bang bang. So it's one second to go-time here, 24/7.

Btw, this is a really good moment not to suddenly yell "Kim Jong-Il sucks!" and try to run for it.

For all my kidding around, I want to take a sec and make clear that I respect these guys a lot. They really are defending their country from one of the nuttiest systems ever devised by humankind.

Sadly, the North Korean soldiers probably think they're doing something similar.

Then again, I don't have a picture of it, but the North Korean guards stand their positions while facing each other -- supposedly so if one tries to defect, the other will have a better chance of killing him.

So what does it look like inside? There are three conference tables -- one on each side, plus the main one for face-to-face discussions. This main table is placed squarely atop the border, with the microphone jacks and little peacekeeper flag literally straddling the frontier, just so nobody gets pissy.

It looks, in fact, just like this:

The soldier on the far end of the table is actually straddling the border.

Say... doesn't that mean my right foot is in North Korea...?

Yup. And about five steps further to my right, behind the northern conference table, there's a door to the rest of North Korea. Vigorously guarded, of course.

I got my picture with the guard, because hell, I'm an American tourist, it's my job. But I was under strict instruction not to touch or interact in any way.

Looking at his body language, I wasn't exactly tempted. Notice the distinct lack of touching. Because I do not like sudden arm fractures.

I also did not hum anything by Quiet Riot. This would have been a bad idea.

Seriously, look at that guy's posture. I've only seen that before in comic books, just before the Rocketeer launches, or Wolverine sprouts adamantium claws and starts dishing out scars. Standing next to the guy, it felt like he was just waiting for someone to give him an opportunity. Which, in a sense, he has to be at all times, just to do the job.

I can't get over the clenched fists. You get the feeling they're not going to hug this out.

OK, back through more no-photo-land, which is surprisingly lovely: 55 years of near-zero human activity in the DMZ has created an ad hoc nature preserve. How odd.

And finally, back at Camp Bonifas... what else? A freakin' gift shop.

Camo in infant sizes. Nice touch.

Also sweet swag: sample bits of barbed wire, in case your sliver of the Berlin Wall doesn't carry the same frisson it used to.

Great for rounding up teeny-tiny cattle.

They get thousands of visitors through here, so I guess it's no surprise. And it adds to the level of surreality, so no complaints.

I wound up buying a replica armband, just like the about-to-berserk Rocketeers were wearing. Maybe if I wear it long enough I'll start getting superpowers when I'm angry.

Besides, it'll look really cool to wear when I'm hanging out with these guys.

We're not gonna take it! No, we ain't gonna take it! We're not gonna take it... anymore!

Announcing MAKE volume 16 - Spy tech with Spy vs Spy on the cover by Sam Viviano... No mission is impossible when makers put their minds to it. Make Volume 16 will help you get smart with a special section on spy tech. Learn how to build and use tiny surveillance devices, and how to know if a spy is using them on you. From tiny video cameras to sneaky recorders, this volume has enough cool stuff to make James Bond's inventor Q envious... If you've been on the fence about subscribing, now is a good time (click here for a discount) - this is by far my favorite issue, we're 4 years old now, with 16 volume total, wow!...

Oh, here are a few more images from the issue (click read more) we'll have a video and more soon up too. This is literally hot off the press!

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Last month, Slashdot readers contributed their own inquiries to the pool of questions for the Walden University Presidential Youth Debate. Two of those questions made the cut, and you can watch either the individual video responses to each of the questions presented to John McCain and Barack Obama (by scrolling down the just-linked debate home page), or the whole debate straight through. For something meatier, if you are weary of predictably slippery campaign-style answers, Ethan Rowe of End Point has a very interesting blog post about the technology background of the debate.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last month, Slashdot readers contributed their own inquiries to the pool of questions for the Walden University Presidential Youth Debate. Two of those questions made the cut, and you can watch either the individual video responses to each of the questions presented to John McCain and Barack Obama (by scrolling down the just-linked debate home page), or the whole debate straight through. For something meatier, if you are weary of predictably slippery campaign-style answers, Ethan Rowe of End Point has a very interesting blog post about the technology background of the debate.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In the past, we've pointed out how silly it was for various politicians to go about banning very specific actions for drivers. There are a ton of distractions for drivers, and you're never going to successfully outlaw all of them. But it doesn't stop politicians from trying. Earlier this year, we asked for suggestions on what else politicians might try to ban while driving (beyond earlier bills that were put forth in various legislatures trying to ban using a laptop, using OnStar, faxing and (everyone's favorite) having sex while driving.

The latest is up in Canada, where a bill on driver distractions includes a ban on playing portable video game systems. While my first thought was whether or not this means it would still be legal to hook up a console gaming system and play it, that thought was quickly erased by the most basic question of all: who doesn't already recognize that you should not be playing a handheld video game while driving? I mean, if we're going to start banning totally theoretical dangerous driving activities, I'd like to throw juggling while driving onto the list. That's gotta be distracting. We must ban it. To save our children, of course.

Of course, to highlight how ridiculous this law is, it says it's okay for you to change stations on the radio while driving -- but you would be fined for skipping a song on your iPod. Why the distinction? Who knows. Reporters, sensing the ridiculousness of the situation, questioned a supporter of the new bill, asking him if it would be illegal to change songs on your iPod if the iPod were taped to the dash, like a radio. His response? "I would have to look at that one," while then noting "the proposed law is fairly general with details to come." Ah, so let's rush into passing a law, and then we'll work out the details of what the law actually means later?

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Quite a commotion was caused at Tuesday's Dorkbot DC when a protester disrupted the proceedings to air her grievances over perceived geographical prejudice in Maker Faire locations. Actually, it was Dorkbot DC stalwartly member Katie Bechtold and it was all in good fun. Maker Media's Brian Jepson, who recently moved to DC and was attending his first meeting, explained what we *are* doing to get more Maker Faire-type experiences to other cities (mini Maker Faires/Maker Squares, Make: City groups, American Maker, etc.).

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One of the greatest videogames of all time becomes some of my favorite pumpkins this year:

More images on the (mini-)Instructable here. What's the best videogame-inspired pumpkin you've seen?

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fons writes "Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: 'The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

fons writes "Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: 'The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

Sheesh, I know laptops are getting a lot lighter these days, but this is ridiculous! Yosoyelger shows off what at first appears to be an iBook of divine power, alas it is an old shell repurposed as an Applelover's choice lighting fixture, which of course is still quite neato. - iLamp 2 on Flickr

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My friend Pat Roberts has created a new kid's craft show which features Pat's ingenious creations made from everyday stuff. Here's a teaser video with instructions for making a cute owl. Magpie Time

Zordak writes "The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just issued its much-anticipated opinion in In Re Bilski [PDF]. This was a re-visit of the State Street issue of what constitutes patentable subject matter (including whether software and business methods are patentable). In summary, the court has affirmed and strengthened the 'machine-or-transformation' test, upholding the patent office's rejection of claims on a method to hedging risk in the field of commodities trading. Although the court refused to categorically exclude software patents, it is likely that the reasoning of this decision will be used to reject many software patents (note that some of the dissenting judges would have completely overturned State Street and tossed out all software and business method patents). Although not as sweeping as some had hoped for, it is certain that this decision, along with the Supreme Court's KSR decision last year, will lay a difficult mine field for those who want to patent software and business methods."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zordak writes "The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just issued its much-anticipated opinion in In Re Bilski [PDF]. This was a re-visit of the State Street issue of what constitutes patentable subject matter (including whether software and business methods are patentable). In summary, the court has affirmed and strengthened the 'machine-or-transformation' test, upholding the patent office's rejection of claims on a method to hedging risk in the field of commodities trading. Although the court refused to categorically exclude software patents, it is likely that the reasoning of this decision will be used to reject many software patents (note that some of the dissenting judges would have completely overturned State Street and tossed out all software and business method patents). Although not as sweeping as some had hoped for, it is certain that this decision, along with the Supreme Court's KSR decision last year, will lay a difficult mine field for those who want to patent software and business methods."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The May 29, 1993 edition of The Onion has a preposterous fake story about a character named Roy the Forklift driver becoming a media darling of the conservative movement.

"Nation Eagerly awaits Ohio Man's Profound Insights into Current Events."

As if!

Roy the Forklift Driver

We blogged earlier about MAKE contributor Steve Lodefink's tunic for his Planet of the Apes costume. Here are further pieces to it.

More Ape Suit Progress

More:

• DIY Planet of the Apes tunic

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Reader Matthew Muro writes in to let us know of a rather insane bit of news. MTV's new video hosting site is apparently bleeping out the names of file sharing sites in Weird Al Yankovic's famous 2006 song "Don't Download This Song." The opening verse to the song goes as follows:

Once in a while maybe you will feel the urge
To break international copyright law
By downloading MP3s from file-sharing sites
Like Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA

Yet, in that new MTV version, the last line is "Like *BLEEP* or *BLEEP* or *BLEEP* or *BLEEP*" rather than naming the four file sharing programs. Watch it here:

You can see the original (unbleeped) video on Weird Al's own YouTube site, which (again, inexplicably) has embedding disabled, or we'd put it here for comparison purposes.

MTV's actions really have me scratching my head. Do they think that the names of file sharing programs are the equivalent of curse words? Or do they really think that, by bleeping them out, people won't be able to figure out what's in the song? Seems like yet another sign of how out of touch MTV has become from today's musically-inclined youth.

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Aris built a PIC chip based fraktalSynth from Catweazle's designs which have been making their way around the Synth DIY community of late. The project was first posted on circuitbenders.co.uk apparently generates sound sequences based on fractal math - and the results certainly are interesting. Listen to samples and read more about the project over @ Aris' blog - Shoebox Fractal synth

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I have a couple of hours this afternoon to push forward with Amazon EC2. I'm going to go ahead and commit to one EC2 instance to run the apps that are associated with various projects at Scripting News.

I've reserved an Elastic IP address, which is just a fancy name for an IP address.

The first app I ported is one of the easiest.

http://age.scripting.com/

Heh.

From the MAKER: Basically, I wanted to build some kind of LED matrix driven by an Arduino and laptop for some kind of Halloween costume this year. I ended up using Disney's Electrical Parade song as the inspiration for my costume. As you can see from the video, the matrix cycles through random animations but when I press a button on my wireless keypad, it starts to play the Electrical Parade song along with some (somewhat) synchronized visuals. I haven't had time to document it all yet, but I plan to after Halloween.

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cheezitmike writes "According to a story in the Washington Post, 'Maryland and Virginia are going old school after Tuesday's election. Maryland will scrap its $65 million electronic system and go back to paper ballots in time for the 2010 midterm elections. In Virginia, localities are moving to paper after the General Assembly voted last year to phase out electronic voting machines as they wear out. "The battle for the hearts and minds of voters on whether electronic systems are good or bad has been lost," Brace said. The academics and computer scientists who said they were unreliable "have won that battle."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

cheezitmike writes "According to a story in the Washington Post, 'Maryland and Virginia are going old school after Tuesday's election. Maryland will scrap its $65 million electronic system and go back to paper ballots in time for the 2010 midterm elections. In Virginia, localities are moving to paper after the General Assembly voted last year to phase out electronic voting machines as they wear out. "The battle for the hearts and minds of voters on whether electronic systems are good or bad has been lost," Brace said. The academics and computer scientists who said they were unreliable "have won that battle."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gareth blogged about Sashimi Tabernacle Choir a while back; seeing it in Austin was wonderful! I don't know what it says about me that, if I had the time, I could have watched this ridiculous thing for an hour, but it made me deliriously happy. My video doesn't do it justice - if you ever get a chance to see it in real life, do so!

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I don't say this often, but it looks like the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) -- or "the patent court" -- got a big one mostly right. In the rehearing of the Bilski case concerning the patentability of software and business method patents, CAFC just came out with its ruling that will significantly limit software and business method patents, bringing the rules way back towards what they were years ago, and effectively rolling back some of the earlier, dreadful, CAFC decisions that opened the barn doors towards tons and tons of software and business method patents.

The summary is that the court has said that there's a two-pronged test to determine whether a software of business method process patent is valid: (1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing. In other words, pure software or business method patents that are neither tied to a specific machine nor change something into a different state are not patentable. That means a significant number of software and business method patents are about to disappear, freeing up many industries to be much more innovative -- at a time when that's desperately needed.

Earlier this year, I laid out the arguments on both sides of the case, surprising some by pointing out that I did not think it was right for the courts to carve out a special "exemption" for software or business model patents, but that a single standard should be applied across all patents. From my first read of the ruling, it looks like CAFC may have gotten this right. It doesn't carve out an exception, but makes it clear what the rules are for patents, based on earlier Supreme Court rulings, and makes sure the same rules are applied across the board. Specifically, CAFC recognizes that without that two-pronged test, the patent system effectively allows the patenting of overall concepts, rather than specific applications. While patent system defenders always claim that "ideas are not patentable," in practice, that was not true over the past decade. This ruling brings things back into line.

The ruling does note that such rules may be changed in the future, as necessitated by changes in technology, but "we see no need for such a departure." This statement strikes me as a bit odd -- as it shouldn't be the court's determination for when there should be such a "departure," but that of the legislative body (and you can bet lobbyists are rushing to Capitol Hill with new legislation to expand the scope of the patent system as we speak).

The ruling specifically addresses the State Street ruling that opened the doors to the widespread patenting of software and business methods and found that the earlier ruling erred, somewhat, in creating an improper standard for determining patentability that did not agree with Supreme Court precedent.

There are some dissenting opinions, with one that freaks out and claims that the court is usurping the legislative role, in changing what is patentable based on their own beliefs rather than what the law says. But, in a separate concurring opinion, two of the judges rightly point out that this is incorrect, show how their ruling is consistent with the law, and suggest that the only ones going beyond what the law says are those who are aggressively trying to expand what is patentable.

However, there's another dissenting opinion, well worth reading, that goes even further and argues that the CAFC ruling doesn't go far enough in repudiating the State Street ruling, and even points out why the courts are wrong to claim that "anything under the sun invented by man" is patentable. This dissent, written by Judge Mayer, is highly worth reading, showing all of the unintended consequences and harm done by the vast expansion of patentable materials -- mainly focusing on the evils of business method patents. "Methods of doing business do not apply 'the law of nature to a new and useful end.' Because the innovative aspect of such methods is an entrepreneurial rather than a technological one, they should be deemed ineligible for patent protection." Mayer points out, as we have noted repeatedly, that the clause in the Constitution that allows patents does "not grant Congress unfettered authority to issue patents," but rather, only to issue patents that effectively promote the progress. The dissent goes on to show how so many patents do exactly the opposite. It's really a fantastic read.

So What Happens Now?

Well, it may take some time to digest, but it's likely this will be appealed to the Supreme Court, so that process may take a while. Given the Supreme Court's recent rulings on patents, however, if I had to take a guess, I think they would support this ruling. But, you never know until it's decided.

This ruling will, however, send serious shockwaves through pretty much every industry -- because software and business method patents are found just about everywhere. Companies that rely on such patents (such as patent hoarding companies) may have just found out their current business model is about to go away. An awful lot of patents are now about to be invalidated, and a lot of patent lawsuits may get thrown out as the patents do not meet the criteria set forth in this decision.

You can bet, however, that the supporters of widespread software and business method patents will not go down without quite a fight. Beyond appealing the decision, it's likely there will be a push for a different type of patent reform in Congress that will expand the patent system to allow software and business method patents. There will be ridiculous announcements from companies that have chosen to litigate rather than innovate, claiming that they cannot innovate (even though they weren't) without much broader patents that they were actually using to hinder innovation.

So, while this is a huge victory for freeing up the ability to innovate, those who have used bogus patents to profit for years cannot be expected to go along quietly.

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snydeq writes "Powering down servers to conserve energy is a controversial practice that, if undertaken wisely, could greatly benefit IT in its quest to rein in energy costs in the datacenter. Though power cycling's long-term effects on server hardware may be mythical, its effects on IT and business operations are certainly real and often detrimental. Yet, development, staging, batch processing, failover — several server environments seem like prime candidates for routine power cycling to reduce datacenter energy consumption. Under what conditions and in what environments does powering down servers seem to make the most economic and operational sense, and what tips do folks have to offer to those considering making use of the practice?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

snydeq writes "Powering down servers to conserve energy is a controversial practice that, if undertaken wisely, could greatly benefit IT in its quest to rein in energy costs in the datacenter. Though power cycling's long-term effects on server hardware may be mythical, its effects on IT and business operations are certainly real and often detrimental. Yet, development, staging, batch processing, failover — several server environments seem like prime candidates for routine power cycling to reduce datacenter energy consumption. Under what conditions and in what environments does powering down servers seem to make the most economic and operational sense, and what tips do folks have to offer to those considering making use of the practice?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dino writes -

Hi MAKE! I built this for fun and to see just how simple and cheap I could do it. All of the parts came from the hardware store and a thrift store where I found the flatbed scanner and toys to hack for parts. The whole project costs about $20 to make. The electronics are simple. 2 relays and three microswitches and a drive motor. The schematic is here... I plan on adding a treat/reward module that would deliver a treat right after the ball is dropped in the chute. That way the dog catches on to how it all is supposed to work. Lots of fun! I hope to see more of these from people like me! Go Make It! ARF!

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Artist John Knott, aka Bent Fabrication, created this baby carriage out of hand-shaped aluminum panels and antique baby stroller parts. You definitely would want to leave baby inside this thing on a hot day.

The Pramulator [via Finkbuilt]

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Roland Piquepaille writes "Some clever computer scientists at UC San Diego (UCSD) have developed a software that can perform key duplication with just a picture of the key — taken from up to 200 feet. One of the researchers said 'we built our key duplication software system to show people that their keys are not inherently secret.' He added that on sites like Flickr, you can find many photos of people's keys that can be used to easily make duplicates. Apparently, some people are blurring 'numbers on their credit cards and driver's licenses before putting those photos on-line,' but not their keys. This software project is quite interesting, but don't be too afraid. I don't think that many of you put a photo of their keys online — with their addresses." I wonder when I'll be able to order more ordinary duplicate keys by emailing in a couple of photos.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Some clever computer scientists at UC San Diego (UCSD) have developed a software that can perform key duplication with just a picture of the key — taken from up to 200 feet. One of the researchers said 'we built our key duplication software system to show people that their keys are not inherently secret.' He added that on sites like Flickr, you can find many photos of people's keys that can be used to easily make duplicates. Apparently, some people are blurring 'numbers on their credit cards and driver's licenses before putting those photos on-line,' but not their keys. This software project is quite interesting, but don't be too afraid. I don't think that many of you put a photo of their keys online — with their addresses." I wonder when I'll be able to order more ordinary duplicate keys by emailing in a couple of photos.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Matt_dk writes "Just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was brought back online, Hubble aimed its prime working camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), at a particularly intriguing target, a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147. The image demonstrated that the camera is working exactly as it was before going offline, thereby scoring a 'perfect 10 both for performance and beauty.' (Meanwhile, the slowly declining Mars Rover has now entered safe mode, according to reader CraftyJack.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Matt_dk writes "Just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was brought back online, Hubble aimed its prime working camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), at a particularly intriguing target, a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147. The image demonstrated that the camera is working exactly as it was before going offline, thereby scoring a 'perfect 10 both for performance and beauty.' (Meanwhile, the slowly declining Mars Rover has now entered safe mode, according to reader CraftyJack.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You may remember last month that we had a story about Google taking down a video on Google Video for copyright infringement, even though the video itself (a brief Christmas home movie) was set to private, and only 3 or 4 people had seen it. We were curious as to why Google would be scanning videos set to private and taking them down. At least in that case, Google admitted that it was an automated scanner (though never explained why it was reviewing private videos).

However, some friends of mine are now facing a similar, but more worrisome, situation with Facebook. A friend got married back in July, and some other friends who were in attendance filmed various parts of the wedding ceremony and reception. As is pretty common these days, they later took the best clips from those videos, set them to music and posted them to Facebook -- but set the videos to only be shared directly with friends. My friend Hersh used two songs dubbed over the video, one by a relatively unknown artist, Xavier Naidoo, and one by Kanye West. My friend Michael had an entirely different video, and used two different songs. One by the Deftones, and one by Jason Mraz.

Even though both videos were posted in July, and both were set to be only viewable to friends, rather than made public, both Hersh and Michael received DMCA takedown notices from Facebook with the videos taken down. The takedowns (which both sent me) don't specify that Facebook received a takedown, though they do point them to a "counter-notification" page, which is what the DMCA would offer. So, from what's been presented, it's unclear if Facebook actually received a DMCA or just decided on its own to take down two private videos of the same event on the same day.

While, technically, (and this point is arguable) these videos may be infringing, there's a good case to be made that they were fair use. They most certainly were not commercial in nature, and most clearly did not diminish the commercial potential of the works in question. In fact, Hersh named 3 of our friends who specifically had asked him who Xavier Naidoo was, so they could go find more of his music. Now Hersh can no longer promote Naidoo's music. That seems to go against everything that copyright is supposed to be about.

Neither is going to file a counternotice, because of the gray area concerning whether or not this is fair use (something Hersh understands quite well as a law student), and Facebook's form makes you swear under penalty of perjury that the content is legal. The whole incident raises a bunch of questions about how Facebook goes about taking down private videos, and why such videos are considered copyright infringement in the first place. In the meantime, if you have videos with backing music in them, apparently you're not welcome at Facebook.

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Wow, David sent me this link to what might be MAKE: TV 1956! TV Show Features “Wires and Pliers” Popular Electronics 1956.

THEY’RE trying a new experiment on TV in Los Angeles. Every Saturday, those who want to see popular electronics at work can watch Dr. Martin L. Klein on the “Wires and Pliers” show, Station KCOP. Dr. Klein, a well-known electronics designer, and Harry C. Morgan, another electronics engineer, have found a novel way to interest viewers in the subject. Morgan designed a complete series of simple useful circuits, each one costing less than five dollars to build. With the help of a super-fast electronics technician, Aram Solomo-nian, they have put together on the program a crystal radio (this took Solomonian five minutes), a transistor amplifier (seven minutes), and an electronic puzzle (eight minutes). What’s more, they then prove to the audience that the circuits really work. And the Electronic Engineering Company of California, sponsor of the show, is packaging the circuits in kit form at nominal cost.

Does anyone know anything about this? The makers? Is there any "tape" of this in existence? Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Retro | Digg this!

Joanna at the wonderful Morbid Anatomy blog posted this exquisite ivory anatomical manikin, circa 1500-1700. It's part of the National Library of Medicine's fantastic Dream Anatomy online exhibition. From the manikin description:

These manikins, between 6 to 7 inches in length, were made from solid pieces of ivory. The arms were carved separately and are moveable. The thoracic and abdominal walls can be removed, revealing the viscera. In some manikins the internal organs are carved in the original block and are not removable, while they are formed into separate pieces that can be removed.

Ivory anatomical manikin

Previously on BB:
• Antique ivory skull statuettes

RobertB-DC writes "Who could forget the :CueCat, the amazing device that would bring 'convergence' between the real world and the online marketing Utopia of the late '90s? Belo, the Dallas-based newspaper and TV conglomerate, spent millions of dollars on the project, only to be ridiculed from the start and eventually becoming a sort of poster kitty for the Dot-Com Bust. Well, the device's inventor and chief cheerleader, J. Jovan Philyaw, didn't forget. His patent application, in progress since 1998, has finally been granted. The story comes from a Dallas alternative weekly, since the local Belo paper is still smarting from its $40-million-dollar black eye."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

RobertB-DC writes "Who could forget the :CueCat, the amazing device that would bring 'convergence' between the real world and the online marketing Utopia of the late '90s? Belo, the Dallas-based newspaper and TV conglomerate, spent millions of dollars on the project, only to be ridiculed from the start and eventually becoming a sort of poster kitty for the Dot-Com Bust. Well, the device's inventor and chief cheerleader, J. Jovan Philyaw, didn't forget. His patent application, in progress since 1998, has finally been granted. The story comes from a Dallas alternative weekly, since the local Belo paper is still smarting from its $40-million-dollar black eye."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Oh, man, this is weird. How do we explain this? Okay. So, the Boing Boing tv team planned a series of episodes about Japanese monsters for Halloween, and for this purpose, we sent Sean Bonner to Tokyo, armed with a video camera. The plan was: meet up with Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, authors of the previosly-boinged book Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide, and hunt down the truth about mythical monstrous creatures from Japanese folklore.

We'd planned to start our Japanese monster series with a hunt for the Kappa, a water-dwelling, ninja-turtle-like, child-sized creature who is fond of cucumbers and human colon meat (I'm not making this up). Legend says the Kappa will reach into your butt to eat your colon, which is grosstastically awesome.

Anyway -- Sean made it to Tokyo, and shot evidence of the Kappa on Japan's urban streets (signs, blow-up Kappa dolls, stickers). But then, suddenly, the raw footage he was FTPing to us nightly just STOPPED. Bam. Just like that. And with it, all evidence we had of Sean's whereabouts and well-being.

Today's BBtv episode is part one of what we hope will be a two-part series on Kappa Hunting in Tokyo. IF HE SURVIVED. Sean, if you can read this, I sure hope you were armed with cucumbers. The alternative is too horrible to imagine.

---

Link to Boing Boing tv post with instructions on how to subscribe to our daily video podcast. Here's the direct MP4 link in case you can't deal with Flash video. Whatever you do, don't miss Sean dancing the Kappa Dance at 05:41.

---

Previously on Boing Boing:
Japanese monsters, and how to survive their wrath: YOKAI ATTACK

Hard to believe this is real, but it sure seems like it. Sporty Babysitter of the Year

Jeff Staple posted photos of his co-worker's simple but effective iPhone stand -- a binder clipper. Crafty iPhone Stand

Neat, here's a post a maker sent in about a hack to the headset of the new T-mobile G1. "Replace those crappy earbuds with just about whatever you want and retain the microphone and button features of the headset. Also no need for dumb usb-3.5mm adapters"... Purkolator writes -

I have been thoroughly enjoying my new G1 for the last week or so with one major exception. Music! After trying out the included headset for about 3 minutes, I swore it off. They felt just like the i-pod headphones to me and I hate those. Maybe I have big ears or something, but I always feel like they are about to fall out and I get zero bass response. I generally prefer earbuds with a tight fitting rubber or foam earpieces (like the Sony EX51s and EX71s or my favorites, Etymotics!).

Sooo, not wanting to have to hassle with adapters if at all possible, I figured I could perform a little surgery on the included headset and get what I wanted.

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I've heard this workshop provides a good overview of home efficiency upgrades, including lots of ideas for DIY projects:

Austin Energy Green Building™ holds its one-day Green by Design workshop four times a year. Austinites preparing to build, buy, or remodel a home can learn how to improve energy and water efficiency, increase comfort, and reduce maintenance.The Green by Design Workshop is currently full.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, November 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at The Commons Center, JJ Pickle Research Campus at 10100 Burnet Road.
...
What You Will Learn
This workshop will give you an overview of the green building process. You'll come away with a framework for making better design and building decisions, including:

• Assessing what your family needs in a home


• Choosing a designer and builder


• Selecting a lot or making the most of the one you have


• Increasing comfort and reducing utility bills


• Making smart material and appliance choices


• Developing a beautiful landscape that saves water, time, and money


• Creating a home that benefits your family and the planet

If you're in Austin, registration and more info here. If you're not, tell your local legislators that you're leaving and taking the community's creative class with you unless they start offering seminars and incentives better than those in the capital of the Lone Star state:)

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Veja magazine ran a series of advertisements featuring portraits of people composed of typographical characters. George Bush ads Flickr set (via Print)

The artful syringe photo from the United States Narcotic Farm that Mark posted earlier reminded Joel of this display at the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri. The museum holds memorabilia from the St. Joseph State Hospital, previously known as the State Lunatic Asylum #2. From Roadside America:

There is an imaginative arrangement of 1,446 items swallowed by a patient and removed from her intestines and stomach. She died during surgery from bleeding caused by 453 nails, 42 screws, safety pins, spoon tops, and salt and pepper shaker tops.

Glore Psychiatric Museum

This Cincinnati, Ohio gentleman snatched a cell phone from a lost, deaf woman who had gotten out of her car to look for a street sign. Later, Gary Walker, 24, took a phonecam shot of himself. A few weeks after the robbery, the victim, Ashlee Hutchens, downloaded her data from the phone network into a new handset and Walker's photo popped up. Police then sent it out to the media and subsequently arrested Walker. From Cincinnati Enquirer:

“All of a sudden his picture came up and (Ashlee) said, ‘Oh my god, Mom, that’s him and that’s the shirt he had on,’” Christine Hutchens said.

“I get very upset when the elderly, kids or handicapped people become victims of these offenses,” said Officer Tamar Skelly, who is with Crime Stoppers.

Cell phone suspect in cell (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)

Previously on BB:
• Guy who auto-uploaded pix of self turns in hot Mac
• Photo taken on stolen Nokia uploaded to Flickr

I know this may be more CRAFT related but I thought I would share some more creepy creatures from Maker Faire 2008 in Austin, TX. The process for making these little monsters involves stabbing wool...sounds like fun to me. Also I love her response to my last question.

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Creepy fake commercial for wrist cutting knives from the movie Tokyo Gore Police. (Via Japan Probe)

Scientific American has a slide show of old photos from the United States Narcotic Farm, a converted federal prison in Kentucky that housed thousands of drug addicts from 1935 to 1975, including Sonny Rollins, Peter Lorre and William S. Burroughs. I like this photo of syringes taken from volunteers admitted into the treatment facility.

Reaping a Sad Harvest: A "Narcotic Farm" That Tried to Grow Recovery (Via Mind Hacks)

An anonymous reader writes "CNET UK have run some very simple in-house tests comparing the T-Mobile G1's 3G connection against the iPhone 3G's. Result? The G1 loaded Web pages almost twice as fast as the iPhone's. Of course, the test only applies to the CNET UK offices if you're being scientific about it, as stated, but it's still impressive nevertheless."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "CNET UK have run some very simple in-house tests comparing the T-Mobile G1's 3G connection against the iPhone 3G's. Result? The G1 loaded Web pages almost twice as fast as the iPhone's. Of course, the test only applies to the CNET UK offices if you're being scientific about it, as stated, but it's still impressive nevertheless."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

People have been submitting this story nonstop, but I wanted to take some time to read the details before commenting on it. It's not the first time that folks have argued that the damages sought by the RIAA in various lawsuits against file sharers are unconstitutional. However, the few times it's been brought up in court, the arguments haven't been persuasive. However, this time around, it looks like the big legal guns are getting involved, and the argument seems a lot more comprehensive and compelling.

In the past, it's been noted that the RIAA has curiously avoided suing any Harvard students, with one of the theories being that Harvard had made it quite clear to the RIAA that it would fight back hard. And, with Harvard law school at its disposal, and various professors there indicating that they had serious legal problems with the RIAA's strategy, the RIAA simply decided to ignore any file sharing going on at that prestigious university.

However, for RIAA critic and well known law professor, Charles Neeson, waiting around for the RIAA to sue someone at Harvard was getting boring, so he went out and found a case to participate in. Along with two third year law students, Neeson has hit back hard on the RIAA's efforts in a court filing, where it's noted that the very basis for many of the RIAA's lawsuits is very likely unconstitutional.

He makes the argument that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is very much unconstitutional, in that its hefty fines for copyright infringement (misleadingly called "theft" in the title of the bill) show that the bill is effectively a criminal statute, yet for a civil crime. That's because it really focuses on punitive damages, rather than making private parties whole again. Even worse, it puts the act of enforcing the criminal statute in the hands of a private body (the RIAA) who uses it for profit motive in being able to get hefty fines:

Imagine a statute which, in the name of deterrence, provides for a $750 fine for each mile-per-hour that a driver exceeds the speed limit, with the fine escalating to $150,000 per mile over the limit if the driver knew he or she was speeding. Imagine that the fines are not publicized, and most drivers do not know they exist. Imagine that enforcement of the fines is put in the hands of a private, self-interested police force, that has no political accountability, that can pursue any defendant it chooses at its own whim, that can accept or reject payoffs in exchange for not prosecuting the tickets, and that pockets for itself all payoffs and fines. Imagine that a significant percentage of these fines were never contested, regardless of whether they had merit, because the individuals being fined have limited financial resources and little idea of whether they can prevail in front of an objective judicial body.

Beyond just questioning the constitutionality of the law, Neeson argues that the court ought to punish the RIAA for its abuses of the law.

This Court should exercise its inherent power to allow background image redress to Joel Tenenbaum for Plaintiffs' abuse of law and federal civil court process. As detailed throughout this brief, Plaintiffs are using any and all available avenues of federal process to pursue grossly disproportionate --? and unconstitutional --? punitive damages in the name of making an example of him to an entire generation of students. The case at hand warrants the use of inherent federal power not just because of what Plaintiffs are doing to Joel Tenenbaum in this Court, but because of the manner in which Plaintiffs are abusing the federal courts all across the country. Plaintiffs have pursued over 30,000 individuals in the same way they have pursued Joel.... For these 30,000 individuals, Plaintiffs have wielded federal process as a bludgeon, threatening legal action to such an extent that settlement remains the only viable option. Joel Tenenbaum is unique in his insistence, in the face of it all, on having his day in court. The federal courts have an inherent interest in deciding whether they will continue being used as the bludgeon in RIAA's campaign of sacrificing individuals in this way.

The filing goes on to describe in rather great detail just how this is an abuse of the law and the courts, noting that it is a "perversion of lawfully initiated process to illegitimate ends," and citing the case law that suggests such behavior should be punished by the courts: "One who uses a legal process ... against another primarily to accomplish a purpose for which it is not designed, is subject to liability to the other for harm caused by the abuse of process."

And this is where it gets good.

To prove the abuse of the process, the filing uses the RIAA's own words against it. First, the writers note (and cite the relevant cases) that even if there is a "proper purpose" behind the filing, it's an abuse of process if the primary purpose in filing the lawsuit is different than the "proper purpose" behind the lawsuit. And, then the authors point to multiple sources where the RIAA noted that the reason it was filing these lawsuits was not to punish these particular individuals for file sharing, but as part of its "deterrence" educational program. From deterrence, Neeson shows how it's actually used as more of a bludgeon to get students to settle, which is clearly not the "proper purpose" of the law:

In essence, Plaintiffs are using the prosecution of Joel Tenenbaum to extort other accused infringers: the accused are told to either pay the settlement, or else be exposed to the protracted litigation and potentially astronomical damages that Joel now faces. See Milford Power Ltd. Partnership by Milford Power Associates Inc. v. New England, 918 F.Supp. 471 (D. Mass. 1996) (holding that "the essence of the tort of abuse of process is the use of process as a threat to coerce or extort some collateral advantage not properly involved in the proceeding"). The intimidation tactics are working: of the 30,000 accusations the RIAA has leveled against individuals, only a single defendant has made her case in front of a judge and jury... (that sole defendant is now awaiting a new trial).

The RIAA intimidates and steamrolls accused infringers into settling before they have their day in court and before the courts can weigh the merits of their defenses. The inherent dangers in allowing a single interest group, desperate in the face of technological change, led by a voracious, cohesive, extraordinarily well-funded and deeply experienced legal team doing battle with pro se defendants, armed with a statute written by them and lobbied and quietly passed through a compliant congress, to march defendants through the federal courts to make examples out of them should lead this Court to say "stop."

This case is going to be worth watching closely. It looks like the RIAA failed in its efforts to tiptoe around the legal bees' nest of Harvard Law.

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Freebird Shears is launching a new line of hair dresser scissors influenced by tattoo art. The company's Dieter Scholtyssek tells me that the hammer-forged Japanese steel shears were "inspired by Elvis Crocker, a well known tattoo artist in Arlington, Texas (formerly of NYHC Tattoos)." Freebird Shears

Essay By Jasmina Tešanovi?; Photos by Bruce Sterling.

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson performed a poetry session in Kosmopolis Barcelona. She was big on the screen from somewhere in US, while he was small and live in front of us, on the black and red stage, with a bunch of loose sheets of paper from which he was reading verses.

It was a weird session from this recently married couple, who have always had a huge audience all over the world. They were not singing but speaking of Catalonia, to the Catalans, using the words of Catalonian poets. Transgressive, brave, underground. angry verses of poor, gay, wronged, talented, wild personas -- translated into English. The verses rang around the packed crowd as an electric wave on the spine.

The sleepy spoiled bourgeoisie of the new mainstream, who came to see a celebrity punk dancing and singing, were shaken to their bones. Some applauded, some left, but the emotive response was visible.

Video: Made in Catalunya with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson (YouTube)

in his press conference Lou Reed said he was fed up with being asked about his darkness, about his bad boy attitudes. The Velvet Underground rockstar was fed up with the press, but the press is not dismissing him or his new book, just published in Spain.

Barcelona is the center of Spanish publishing, it is multicultural and leftist, and yet it is also separatist and nationalist, as proud and touch as right-winged poor illiterate cities . The Catalans claim their own language, their own culture and they want to split away from the rest of the Spain.

Kosmopolis is a Barcelona festival of literature, new media and politics: it invites prominent artists, writers and political activists from all over the world. The city is proud of their culture and of their literary guests. The streets outside the venue are full of tourists, street artists, Catholic beggars, pick pockets , transvestites, émigrés, music bands, cafes, young desperadoes and old jet setters. Lou and Laurie performed their "Made in Catalonia" show as gypsy jet setters -- a crowd who make Catalonia a nationalist region with cosmopolitan principles. The new nationalism smells of cosmopolitan elitism -- splendid separatist islands, eluding a world in decay. If you don't want to be with them, you will have to do without them.

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Jasmina Tešanovi? is an author, filmmaker, and wandering thinker who shares her thoughts with BoingBoing from time to time. Email: politicalidiot at yahoo dot com. Her blog is here.

- - - - - - - - - -

Previous essays by Jasmina Tešanovi? on BoingBoing:

- Dragan Dabic Defeats Radovan Karadzic
- Who was Dragan David Dabic?
- My neighbor Radovan Karadzic
- The Day After / Kosovo
- State of Emergency
- Kosovo
- Christmas in Serbia
- Neonazism in Serbia
- Korea - South, not North.
- "I heard they are making a movie on her life."
- Serbia and the Flames
- Return to Srebenica
- Sagmeister in Belgrade
- What About the Russians?
- Milan Martic sentenced in Hague
- Mothers of Mass Graves
- Hope for Serbia
- Stelarc in Ritopek
- Sarajevo Mon Amour
- MBOs
- Killing Journalists
- Where Did Our History Go?
- Serbia Not Guilty of Genocide
- Carnival of Ruritania
- "Good Morning, Fascist Serbia!"
- Faking Bombings
- Dispatch from Amsterdam
- Where are your Americans now?
- Anna Politkovskaya Silenced
- Slaughter in the Monastery
- Mermaid's Trail
- A Burial in Srebenica
- Report from a concert by a Serbian war criminal
- To Hague, to Hague
- Preachers and Fascists, Out of My Panties
- Floods and Bombs
- Scorpions Trial, April 13
- The Muslim Women
- Belgrade: New Normality
- Serbia: An Underworld Journey
- Scorpions Trial, Day Three: March 15, 2006
- Scorpions Trial, Day Two: March 14, 2006
- Scorpions Trial, Day One: March 13, 2006
- The Long Goodbye
- Milosevic Arrives in Belgrade
- Slobodan Milosevic Died
- Milosevic Funeral

24 hour news cycle by Nick Georgiou, he writes -

The sculpture is called "24 Hour News Cycle" The piece was inspired by all that's happening right now- the printed words decline, the economic crisis, war, political uncertainty...OVERKILL /// I guess we stay sane by filtering through all this information, Controlling it. Recycling it. Making it into art. The sculpture is like an October 2008 time capsule SCARY haha. I used a few different New York papers to create - Village Voice, NYTimes, NYPost, Daily News. Looking forward to the Nov 5th papers ...

More: Rolled up newspaper sculpture. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!

Etsy seller almostfamous is selling these delightful original paintings of Harold and Maude. They're acrylic on canvas and $370.

Harold: I like you, Maude. Maude: I like you, Harold.

Harold and Maude paintings (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Along with those Doors shoes, the 100th anniversary Converse hi-tops line includes this Black Sabbath commemorative edition. And here's why the subject line is so clever. I guess the Gonzo ones never happened. (Thanks, Richard Metzger!)

Annalee Newitz from the science fiction blog io9 says,

We did a study (with related analytical chart!) of how many zombie movies got released every year since 1910, created a line graph of them, and correlated spikes in zombie movie production with social unrest. It was actually quite eerie, because wars and social upheavals always seem to be followed by a giant leap in numbers of zombie movies in theaters. Coincidence? You be the judge!

War and Social Upheaval Causes Spikes in Zombie Movies (io9)

SDen writes "Bang on target, the new version of Ubuntu Linux is available for our downloading pleasure. Amongst various changes it sports updates to the installer, improved networking, and a new 'Mobile USB' version geared towards the blossoming netbook market. Grab a copy from the Ubuntu website, and check out Linux Format's hands-on look at the Ibex."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SDen writes "Bang on target, the new version of Ubuntu Linux is available for our downloading pleasure. Amongst various changes it sports updates to the installer, improved networking, and a new 'Mobile USB' version geared towards the blossoming netbook market. Grab a copy from the Ubuntu website, and check out Linux Format's hands-on look at the Ibex."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Anyone know anything about these? via BuzzFeed...

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Researchers from Goldsmiths College in the UK have attempted to build a "haunted" room. When people say homes are haunted, they often describe strange smells, odd dizziness spells, and other unusual physical phenomena. Ghostbusters frequently associate those experiences with anomalous electromagnetic fields (EMF) and infrasound. To test out the reported connection, Chris French and colleagues in the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit built a room outfitted with EMF and infrasound generators. Then they sent test subjects into the "haunted room" and analyzed their reactions. Greg Taylor at The Daily Grail has more on The Haunt Project. From The Daily Grail:

Unfortunately, although most participants reported some unusual sensations, there seemed to be no correlation between feelings of being haunted and the presence of EMF/infrasound (or lack of, as the case may be). Despite such a kick-ass experimental setup, it would seem the unusual sensations were probably just a result of suggestion, with participants expecting to feel something after being told pre-experiment. The only significant predictor of unusual experiences in 'the haunt' was the temporal lobe lability of the participant. French and his team see this as simply being most likely due to the the psychological profile of these people (increased suggestibility, belief in paranormal events, seeing stimuli in noise). What would be nice to see considered is whether the causation runs the other way (yes, I am a trouble-maker)...

The "Haunt" Project

"The most amazing thing about them is that they're all made from real money — the Falcon alone is made from three individual dollar bills. That's $497 cheaper than the LEGO version, at least." (via) #

eldavojohn writes "Mark Shuttleworth, the millionaire bankroller who keeps Ubuntu going strong, has revealed 'Canonical is not cash-flow positive' just as version 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) of the popular Linux distribution is released today. In a call, he said he 'had no objection' in funding Canonical for another three to five years. He did say, however, that if they concentrated on the server edition of Ubuntu that they could be profitable in two years."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

eldavojohn writes "Mark Shuttleworth, the millionaire bankroller who keeps Ubuntu going strong, has revealed 'Canonical is not cash-flow positive' just as version 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) of the popular Linux distribution is released today. In a call, he said he 'had no objection' in funding Canonical for another three to five years. He did say, however, that if they concentrated on the server edition of Ubuntu that they could be profitable in two years."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

eldavojohn writes "Mark Shuttleworth, the millionaire bankroller that keeps Ubuntu going strong, has revealed "Canonical is not cash-flow positive" just as version 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) of the popular Linux distribution is set to be released today. In a call, he said he "had no objection" in funding Canonical for another three to five years. He did say, however, that if they concentrated on the server edition of Ubuntu that they could be profitable in two years."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We have a new MAKE intern, say hi folks - Peter spends his time thinking about life cycle assessment and designing green gadgets that utilize participatory sensor data. He's passionate about DIY solutions that leverage open source platforms and believes that hackers / tinkerers will one day inherit the planet. Peter is currently a master's candidate in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.

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Jim Ottaviani and Sean Bieri are doing a serialized zombie comic on the Tor site.

Join us for chills, thrills, and pulse-pounding scientific breakthroughs as we embark on a tour of the Quantum Zombie, Inc. facility, courtesy of a guy who bears a striking resemblance to famed scientist and cat-lover Erwin Schrödinger. Hijinks, hilarity, and an abundance of felines await you in "Better Zombies Through Physics."

The links for all the parts are here. The series wraps up Friday, but I have inside information there will be a surprising addition on Monday that has something to do with open-source, so be sure to check it out!

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Last time we checked in with UK law firm Davenport Lyons, they were trying to set up a shakedown process where they threatened to sue as many people as possible for allegedly sharing a video game. Despite some lofty talk by Davenport Lyons, it was quite clear from the beginning that this never had anything to do with copyright. It was just a straight up shakedown. The firm would send threatening letters claiming that it had evidence (even if it did not) and then demand a settlement fee be paid to avoid an actual lawsuit. It's difficult to see how or why that should be legal.

The firm was aided in its quest by drastically exaggerating a legal "win" in one of these cases. The win was because it was a default judgment. The woman that was accused of file sharing did not show up in court, and the court had no choice but to rule against her. Yet, to hear Davenport Lyons tell it, you might be lead to believe that a full blown court case occurred, with a full defense of the actions, and the woman lost.

A lawyer in the UK who was disgusted by this practice, Michael Coyle, has offered to defend as many innocent recipients of the shakedown letter as possible, and now the press is reporting he's already pursuing seventy cases of innocent people being falsely accused (and has heard from hundreds more). The article profiles one such case, where a couple (aged 54 and 66) were accused of sharing a car racing game. The only problem? They have no video games on their computer, nor any file sharing software (and they didn't even know what it was until they got the threatening letter).

Even more ridiculous? They wrote to Davenport Lyons three times without any response. It was only once a magazine picked up their story that Davenport Lyons and Atari dropped the threat. It's about time that the press shines a light on these practices, which clearly have little to do with protecting the rights of copyright holders, and plenty to do with a new, highly questionable, revenue stream that some might call "extortion."

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One of the best speaker mods I've ever seen... A "fire extinguisher" sound system via BBG.

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Pablo Martinez-Almeida writes "Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner confirms that new entrants in the browser market are raising awareness on the mainstream Internet community about the availability of alternatives to the ubiquitous Internet Explorer. 'How has the emergence of WebKit and Chrome changed the market for you? JvT: The effect of Chrome so far has been 20 percent more downloads every day. It's fairly logical when you think about it, because the biggest hurdle we have is all those people that don't realize there's an alternative in the market. Now, with the launch of Chrome there's focus on the choice of browsers in the market.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pablo Martinez-Almeida writes "Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner confirms that new entrants in the browser market are raising awareness on the mainstream Internet community about the availability of alternatives to the ubiquitous Internet Explorer. 'How has the emergence of WebKit and Chrome changed the market for you? JvT: The effect of Chrome so far has been 20 percent more downloads every day. It's fairly logical when you think about it, because the biggest hurdle we have is all those people that don't realize there's an alternative in the market. Now, with the launch of Chrome there's focus on the choice of browsers in the market.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The "Interactive Mirror" is an interesting research project that combines a mirror with a touchscreen interface to produce a novel way of interacting with your own image. Think "Minority Report" meets "Multi-Touch" mixed with a bit of fairy tale like interaction. This would probably be perfect for a halloween spook house.

Interactive Mirror

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Sebastian of Little-scale keeps churning out the excellent MIDI projects -

I love the sounds of the Atari 2600. I made a MIDI interface that gives you full control over the sound output of an Atari 2600. You can watch a quick demo here.

No project rundown as of yet but I'm guessing it won't be too far behind. - A26F: Atari 2600 Full MIDI interface

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eldavojohn writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that MTV's Rock Band has gained the licenses to an undetermined number of songs. Details are scant, but it would be nice to see a whole game based on just the evolution of The Beatles' music. According to Reuters, this has been in the works for months. Hopefully I can finally hide my strained vocals to so many beautiful songs within the privacy of my home instead of drunk off my ass at a bar."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

eldavojohn writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that MTV's Rock Band has gained the licenses to an undetermined number of songs. Details are scant, but it would be nice to see a whole game based on just the evolution of The Beatles' music. According to Reuters, this has been in the works for months. Hopefully I can finally hide my strained vocals to so many beautiful songs within the privacy of my home instead of drunk off my ass at a bar."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Igor writes-

Conway’s Game of Life has fascinated computer scientists for decades. Even though its rules are ridiculously simple, Conway’s universe gives rise to a variety of gliders, spaceships, oscillators, glider guns, and other forms of “life”. Self-printing programs are similarly curious, and - rather surprisingly - have an important place in the theory of computation.

What happens when you combine the two? You are about to find out, but one thing is for sure: the geekiness factor should be pretty high.

I wrote a little C# program that contains a Game-of-Life grid. The program advances the game grid to the next generation and prints out a copy of itself, with the grid updated. You can take the output, compile it with a C# compiler, run it, and you’ll get the next generation of the game. You can iterate the process, or change the initial grid state manually

When I first saw the title of this post I thought this might be a 3D printing thing that someone did with our Game of Life kit before I saw the C# part, but it's just as cool!

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"Loop" by artist Zoro Feigl is an appropriation of gravity and speed on a regular piece of rope. The loop is pulled by two motorized wheels that spin in an almost suspended animation. Check out the video for the full effect.

Loop by Zoro Feigl

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I'm almost afraid to post this because I worry that the comments will devolve into yet another totally wasted and pointless political battle. This post has nothing at all to do with the politics behind this ad, but about stuff that we actually do focus on around here: royalties and ownership rights of ideas and concepts. As you may have already seen (along with millions of others) the original actors behind the super famous Budweiser "Wassssssssssup!" commercials recently got back together to make a new political ad that's an update on the original Bud ad. The commercial makers make it quite clear that the message of the commercial is not in any way endorsed by or associated with Anheuser-Busch.

That raises some questions about both trademark and control over the concept. Luckily, Business Week got to the bottom of things and found out that, Charles Stone III, who created the whole Wassup concept, directed the first commercial and stars as the first guy who picks up the phone, never gave Anheuser-Busch full control over the concept. Rather, he sold them an exclusive on it for only 5 years for a grand total of $37,000. He admits that people laughed at him at the time for selling so "low," but he's quite happy with how it worked out:

"That I'm able to use an idea distributed by a huge company, who made a lot of money off it, so that now when I put out what I want to say, it's recognizable, and it sparks -- that's worth $1 million to me."

Now there's someone who recognizes long term value. Rather than focusing on pushing for more money upfront, he knew that there would be plenty of value down the road, so long as AB didn't take over control of the concept. Since no one knew how successful the commercials would be, $37,000 was probably quite a good deal at the time, and in the end it worked out well for both parties, with Stone recognizing plenty of additional value down the road, built on the success of the original commercials. Now, some traditional IP maximalists may whine that he's somehow unfairly profiting off of the success of the original commercial, but that's not true. AB got what they paid for and made their money. The fact that someone else can later take advantage of that themselves to gain value (whether monetarily or not) doesn't impact that earlier deal at all. In fact, the end result is greater overall value. The initial use increased value (for AB) and the new use increases value for Stone. It's a true win-win.

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With under a week to go, we're opening up discussions on the US Presidential Election. Yesterday we discussed the economy. Today we take on one of the other major election topics: The War. From the actual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to foreign policy issues related to potential threats like North Korea, Russia, and Iran, how do the candidates stack up?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Each time we have an opening at MAKE I usually send a tweet on Twitter and post here - we like to work with our makers as we grow our team and need help with new projects, many of the folks at MAKE came to us from just being a part of the maker community - so here's the latest. We're looking for someone who has worked with the the Volusion shopping cart system and is good at modding / designing templates. If you're awesome at this hit me up on email, send links and put Volusion in the subject line, my email is pt AT-THIS_SITE_D0TC0M.

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Justin wrote in to tell us about the new firmware he wrote for Arduino -

Breakfast is a firmware which runs on the Arduino allowing all of it’s functions to be accessed by a computer over a serial connection. I have implemented most Arduino functions ver batim, and I do plan on adding the rest soon. For now I have written a ruby “library” which allows you to access Breakfast, as a proof of concept, I have implemented an Arduino Shell using this library and Interactive Ruby IRB.

And who doesn't love serial for breakfast - this sounds very awesome, and could be a great way for beginners to get the hang of programming in small line-by-line pieces. Check out his site for the deets - Breakfast, serial for Arduino

Arduino Diecimila

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Just Posted! Canon EOS 50D in-depth review. Canon's EOS 50D is essentially a 40D body with a newly-developed 15 megapixel sensor, a 3.0 inch VGA screen and Canon's updated imaging processor, the DIGIC 4. Canon claims the new sensor's design (new manufacturing processes, redesigned photo diodes and micro lenses) means that despite the higher resolution image noise has improved. As you might imagine, we've had a closer look at this. Find out more after the link.

The "Walking House" is a modular dwelling system that can move itself around through a motorized system of feet. The moving structure gathers electricity from its surroundings through onboard solar cells and wind turbines. Water for the house comes through collecting rain, and is heated through the solar power system. Read more about this interesting project at the link below.

Walking House

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An anonymous reader writes "A guy at Lumenlab has created a way to carve his face on a pumpkin using his DIY CNC gantry robot. I think this demonstration says a lot about the future ubiquity of the technology. I'm really looking forward to the day that I have one of these machines in my garage."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

mæve installation @ University of Applied Sciences Potsdam -

The interactive installation “mæve” (MACE-Everyville) provides visual and tangible access to the social and intellectual networks behind architectural projects. The installation is part of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. It is on display from September 14th to November 23rd. The project is designed and developed by the Interface Design team of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. At the Biennale, mæve connects the entries of the Everyville student competition and puts them into the larger context of MACE content and metadata. By placing physical project cards on an interactive surface, users can explore the presented projects, embedded in an organic network of associated projects, people and media.

The installation consists of an interactive surface and a large projection area. While users are interacting with the contents of the installation on the interactive surface, the network and the media files are displayed on the large projection. The ten winning projects from the Everyville student competition are represented as physical cards. If a card is placed on the interactive surface, a contextual space is opened around the project. Within this space, media files, related projects and keywords are visualized. When a second card is placed on the surface, the space turns into a network displaying similarities between the projects. In addition to the Everyville cards, the installation also contains inspirational projects from the MACE repositories. These projects are also represented by project cards and enable the visitors to connect the Everyville projects to MACE contents. Furthermore, as the interaction with the cards is not limited to the one person, entire groups and teams can explore the content together.

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If you were at Maker Faire Austin 2008 you may have noticed a lot of great deals in the Maker Shed. If you weren't able to make it out to TX, you can still get in on the action. Our special Maker Faire promotion ends Friday, so hurry up and take advantage of these great deals!

Enter in MAKER to get 10% off any of these kits (or anything in the Maker Shed right now) if you spend more than $80 enter in FAIRE after and get free shipping on orders over $80.00 (Post discount of course), either of these codes will work independently from another as well as together.

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Best Of Instructables Instructables.com has become one of the most popular magnets for makers and DIY enthusiasts of all stripes. Now, with more than 10,000 projects to choose from, the Instructables staff, editors of MAKE: Magazine, and the Instructables community itself have put together a collection of technology how-to's from the site. The Best of Instructables Volume 1 includes plenty of clear, full-color photographs, complete step-by-step instructions, and tips, tricks, and new build techniques you won't find anywhere else. Over 300 pages!

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Danger Shield Arduino Add-On Kit The Danger Shield is an add-on for the Arduino micro controller board. It contains a variety of fun and useful electronic circuits that you can use to do fun and useful things. It is a fully self-contained shield. You plug it into your Arduino, and you can immediately start using it. No extra things to hook up, no external components. Just a really rad board ready to rock. Soldering required.

Features

• 3x Linear sliders w/ integrated LEDs (independently hooked up to PWM)
  
• 3x Pushbuttons
  
• 2x Indicator LEDs (each with a PWM)
  
• 1x Piezo buzzer (for making noise!)
  
• 1x Temperature sensor
  
• 1x Light sensor
  
• 1x Knock sensor
  
• 1x 7 segment LED (with shift register)
  
• Power LED and reset button
  

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NeedleFelt Animal Kits These kits are designed for needle felting beginners, or more experienced felters who love animals and new techniques.
3 to choose from: Penguin, Sea Turtle and Panda.

Kit Ingredients:

• One Felting Needle
  
• Photo Instruction Booklet
  
• Wood Skewer
  
• Beads & Enough Corriedale & Merino Roving To Make One Animal
  
• You will need a foam pad, not included.
  

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Solar Speeder Kit A quick Solaroller that can cover 3 meters (10 feet) in under 40 seconds in direct sunlight. Simple to construct and a great project for beginners!

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Arduino Mini BoardThis miniature Arduino board has an ATmega168 onboard, which offers twice as much program space as the ATmega8 on the older boards (16 KB vs. 8 KB).

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Remember - enter in MAKER to get 10% off any of these kits, if you spend more than $80 enter in FAIRE after and get free shipping on orders over $80.00 (Post discount of course), either of these codes will work independently from another as well as together.

Hopefully you liked my list of kits from the Maker SHED, I'll have another one tomorrow!

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Reader johnjac points us to a blog post from a guy who made some computer generated images of flocking birds, and was rather stunned when he discovered that a big time fashion designer had basically yanked one of his photos off of Flickr and put it on a sweatshirt. While we hear so many stories of people freaking out in such situations, this guy's reaction is quite refreshing:

The more we looked, the more the neighboring details fell into place. Smith's version was mirrored left to right so I loaded the image in Photoshop and flipped it. "Oh my god! He totally stole my work!" I was dancing around the room. "Paul Smith stole from me!" I will admit it was a strange reaction. I didn't realize this until later in the day. I was actually thrilled that someone had ripped me off. Someone I liked.

Later on in the post, the guy, Robert Hodgin, admits that his own works are built off of the works of others, as well. And, that's exactly how creativity works: you build on the works of others. It shouldn't be seen as a crime or something to get angry about. It's a way to provide more materials for more creativity going forward.

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Nat @ Radar writes -

Check out this perception altering post on the Ponoko blog. It really puts the current state of 3D printers in context: they're now cheaper than laser printers were in 1985. It almost dares you to think of when you first saw a laser printer, and when your company first got one, and when you first owned one, and .... The implicit trajectory is irresistible. Open questions: how will the natures of design, commerce, distribution, manufacturing, and recycling cope with widespread mass distributed manufacturing? (PS, surfing the Ponoko site I found this awesome Nerd Brain Necklace)

When the The Apple LaserWriter first hit the mass market in 1985, the desktop publishing revolution was born. With a starting price of $6995 the unit weighed a hefty 77 lb (35kg) and was 11.5 x 18.5 x 16.2 inches the first desktop printer was not the lightweight, disposable peripheral printers have become today, in every classroom, business and home.

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One of our readers sent in this interesting project. The Sun Gun is a device that allows you to see the sun without melting your retinas. This looks like a cool project to make for the kids.

I wanted a solar scope, safe and portable, for group sun spot viewing. The designs I looked at did not lend themselves to group viewing, or the safety I wanted, especially with children. After many hours at the hardware store I designed the SUN GUN.

More about how to make a Sun Gun

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Every wiki platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. There are tens of different wiki solutions out there, and it can be a daunting task to choose the wiki platform that will best suit your needs. What characteristics are most important when deciding on your wiki platform? Price? Storage? Content access control? Where do you even get started when comparing wikis? For that matter what is a wiki? In this guide to wikis, we have attempted to answer your questions, and make your search for a wiki platform much simpler. Photo credit: elmariachimud A wiki is a collection of workspaces shared among users who can add, edit and upload informations as well as files of all kinds. A wiki is very useful for those groups that need to work on the same document at different times. The first site ever called a wiki was WikiWikiWeb, created by the American programmer Howard G. Cunningham, considered the inventor of this form of sharing knowledge on the web. "Wiki" is originally a Hawaiian word that means "fast". Cunningham used this term to convey the idea of a document you can open and edit very fast. With time wikis have become a valuable instrument for classrooms, fan clubs or sport teams. People can edit documents in a snap. Members just login and do the changes. No more e-mails been sent back and forth with your team. And because you select who has the permission to edit a page, a wiki is also kind of protected: other people can't get in. In this guide you will find several tools and services to create a wiki. Intro by Daniele Bazzano and Andre Deutmeyer


In this guide to wiki tools, we have reviewed five key wiki creation tools providing the best user experience and feature set among the many available. Do you need to update your wiki via mobile? Do you want to receive updates in your email inbox, have a big amount of storage space to share content with your teammates? Then check these wiki tools we have tried for you and take advantage of the comparative table here below to evaluate which one is the best fit for your needs. And if you need a wider choice, we have scouted the Web for collections of wiki tools and I have selected the best ones for you. You can browse these selected wiki collections according to a number of different categories we have setup for you. Free or with payment? Hosted or OpenSource? You decide.

How To Create A Wiki Comparison Table

go to the table!

How To Create A Wiki Tool List

1. Google Docs Google Docs is a web-based solution to create documents, presentation, spreadsheets and forms. Even if not presented as a proper wiki, Google Docs indeed belongs to this sector of online collaboration tools. A document in Google Docs can be shared for collaborative work among up to 200 users, but just ten people can edit the document at the same time. Documents support embedded images while presentations support images and videos. Using Google Docs you can take advantage of the complete integration with other Google services, like Gmail, Groups or Calendar. A unique feature is the possibility to use the suite offline by downloading it on your Pc / Mac. Mozilla Firefox is required to have better performances on a Mac. No technical knowledge is required to use Google docs, and it's ads-free. Google Docs works on your mobile too (though just for viewing documents and not for editing purposes). Once your work is created, you can publish it on the Web by pasting the relevant HTML code, and you can receive notifications to your Gmail account when someone updates your shared document. Google Docs is free to use and the premium account that Google offers to pump up the other services, like Gmail, does not improve nor the storage space or adds any functionality. There is no storage space clearly specified, but every user can store a maximum of 5000 documents and presentations, along with 1000 spreadsheets. Unique features to Google Docs: Offline version available for full editing outside the Web. http://docs.google.com/




2. SocialText SocialText is a professional, web-based wiki service that lets you collaborate with other users on your projects. SocialText enables each user to access a shared document in a personalized way, because the layout of your wiki is made up of different modules re-arrangeable via drag&drop. The service works seamlessly on your mobile, and it's ads-free. SocialText allows you to do a side-by-side comparison between two different revisions of the wiki, to spot any difference in a very easy way. Almost any kind of file can be uploaded to SocialText, and images and videos can be embedded inside your wiki. SocialText wikis can be published on the Web by pasting the relevant HTML code inside a web page. Notifications via email or RSS can be set to notify you when someone edits your wiki. You can test all the functionalities of Socialtext for free for fourteen days, and then evaluate if sign up for a premium account (suitable for individuals and small business) at $10 per user / month. Every user gets unlimited storage space, and the possibility to invite as many people as needed. Unique features to SocialText: Side-by-side comparison between two different revisions of the wiki. http://www.socialtext.com/




3. MediaWiki MediaWiki is the only wiki reviewed that is not a hosted solution. Which means that if you want a wiki that you can just sign-up for and run with, this is not for you. MediaWiki is all software. So if you want it to work, you have to have your own server, and you need to set it up yourself. If you encounter difficulties, there is a very active community to help you out, however there is no 24/7 tech support desk - only volunteers. Furthermore if you want access control, MediaWiki won't give it to you. MediaWiki was not written to provide per-page access restrictions, and almost all hacks or patches promising to add them will likely have flaws somewhere, which could lead to exposure of confidential data. Additionally, MediaWiki does not include one click backup (though extensions do), rather you need to use MySQL for database dumps. With that said, however, because MediaWiki is open-source it is one of the most (if not the most) flexible wiki. What you sacrifice in ease of setup, you make up for in control. If you are confident in your PHP and MySQL skills then you can do amazing things with this platform. MediaWiki is the software that powers Wikipedia, so if you need something reliable and scalable, you might want to give MediaWiki a shot. You get some of the standard wiki features: excellent revision control, RSS / email notifications of page changes, HTML / CSS can be applied to templates. No native WYSIWYG editor for pages, however extensions are available. Pricing, Storage, Number of Users is not applicable because the MediaWiki is not a hosted solution. Unique features to MediaWiki: Not hosted, multilingual capability for UI, ever expanding extensions (addons) library. http://www.mediawiki.org




4. PBWiki You have access to the majority of PBWiki's features in its free service level for an unlimited period of time. The one downside is that you can have a maximum of three users who are allowed to edit the wiki, and the wiki is ad-supported. Furthermore certain goodies such as 'search' and 'analytics' are not available under its free service level. You must upgrade to one of its paid services for that. A large amount of personalization is available, though not as much as SocialText. Individual access can be controlled at multiple levels, from folder-level to page-level. You get all the standard wiki features: revision control, RSS / email notifications of page changes, HTML / CSS can be applied to templates, WYSIWYG editor for pages, easy backups in zip. PBWiki offers varying amounts of storage depending on how it will be used. For both Academic and Personal wikis, storage starts at 10 MB (free level) and goes up to a maximum of 5 GB (paid). The Business wiki does better and weighs in at 2 GB (free level) and 40 GB (most expensive level). Of the wikis reviewed here, PBWiki offers the least amount of available storage space. PBWiki pricing varies depending on how you plan to use it (Business, Academic, Personal). Free non-academic wikis are ad supported. As a Business solution, pricing is scaled so as you add more users, the price for user drops to as low as $4 dollars per user / month. For Academic and Personal wikis, pricing is fixed and paid annually. Academic Discounts are available for educational institutions. Unique features to PBWiki: Academic Discounts http://www.pbwiki.com




5. Wikispaces Wikispaces is probably the best beginner wiki and is a capable platform for larger organizations as well. It is intuitively easy to set up and customize. And if you have trouble the community offers a lot of support and the Wikispaces team is available via email. Unfortunately if you want to talk to somebody, you have to upgrade to their Private Label Premium setup. Like PBWiki, the free version is ad-supported. It does however lacks some of the flexibility of the others reviewed here. In both free and paid forms you get the standard wiki features: revision control, RSS / email notifications of page changes, WYSIWYG editor for pages, easy backups in zip. HTML / CSS customization of templates is only available for paid solutions. Wikispaces does not offer content access control features until you upgrade to one of the Private Labels. With storage space weighing in at 2 GB (free level) and 200 GB (most expensive level), Wikispaces provides plenty of space to store your wiki pages and media. Wikispaces pricing ranges from Free (ad supported) to $8000 per year for enterprise level organizations. Unique features to Wikispaces: All levels (free or paid) can have unlimited users, free wikis (not ad supported) for use by educators. http://www.wikispaces.com/

Learn More About Wiki Tools And Services

• WikiMatrix

  WikiMatrix is a great solution to compare multiple wiki services. You can choose from a comprehensive list or use the Wiki Choice Wizard to select rapidly the best one that suits your needs. The wiki list is open to addition from users.



• The Wiki Toolbox: 30+ Wiki Tools and Resources

  Mashable provides a list of the most common wiki tools and services ordered between hosted and open source solutions. Updated till last year, it remains a good source to have at a first glance all the best wiki solutions out there.



• List of Wiki Software

  Wikipedia offers a page where many wiki tools and services are ordered by programming language: Java-based, Perl-based, Python-bases, and so on. All wiki engines are provided with a brief description.



• Wiki Tools

  The big list provided by the e-Learning Centre enumerates both downloadable and hosted wiki tools and services in alphabetical order. Each tool is described by a very short review. Users can suggest valuable resources to be added to the list.



• Top Wiki Tools

  A clear and well-organized wiki tools list by the Centre for Learning & performance Technologies. At a first glance you can identify (among many) the wiki service you need and check whether it is free, at payment, hosted or open-source



• Wiki Resources

  This site, although a bit of an eye sore, provides a list of wiki related links that you can jump to. There are no reviews here, but to make up for that it lists not only links to wiki platforms, but also links to books, blog articles, screencasts, and wiki communities that will be helpful to learning how to take full advantage of your wiki, no matter which platform you choose.



• Wiki Directory

  This wiki list comes from the depths of PHP Directory. It ranks wiki platforms according to Google PageRank and offers short descriptions of each wiki. As of the time of this review, only thirteen wiki platforms were listed.



• Wiki Comparison Chart

  In this wiki comparison guide from Wikipedia, you get a mountain of information. No reviews are posted, rather what you get is four different comparison charts, each of which compares approximately 50 wiki platforms accross multiple criteria.



• Wiki Index Engine

  Wiki Index does exactly what it sounds like it does. It provides a comprehensive list of links to wiki articles. Each wiki article contains a short review of the wiki platform and provides a links to outside resources for further exploration.



• All the Wikis

  All The Wikis is a blog devoted to wiki reviews and resources. It provides a wiki FAQ section which is helpful, and each review provides an in-depth look at the wiki platform. However, some of the wiki reviews are dated, so don't take everything you read to heart. There is a chance that things have changed since the review was written, so keep that in mind as you browse All the Wikis.

If you know other wiki tools you feel should be included in this guide, please do not hesitate to add them via the Comments area here below.

Originally written and prepared by Daniele Bazzano and Andre Deutmeyer for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 30th 2008 as "Best Wiki Tools And Services: Sharewood Guide"

Every wiki platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. There are tens of different wiki solutions out there, and it can be a daunting task to choose the wiki platform that will best suit your needs. What characteristics are most important when deciding on your wiki platform? Price? Storage? Content access control? Where do you even get started when comparing wikis? For that matter what is a wiki? In this guide to wikis, we have attempted to answer your questions, and make your search for a wiki platform much simpler. Photo credit: elmariachimud A wiki is a collection of workspaces shared among users who can add, edit and upload informations as well as files of all kinds. A wiki is very useful for those groups that need to work on the same document at different times. The first site ever called a wiki was WikiWikiWeb, created by the American programmer Howard G. Cunningham, considered the inventor of this form of sharing knowledge on the web. "Wiki" is originally a Hawaiian word that means "fast". Cunningham used this term to convey the idea of a document you can open and edit very fast. With time wikis have become a valuable instrument for classrooms, fan clubs or sport teams. People can edit documents in a snap. Members just login and do the changes. No more e-mails been sent back and forth with your team. And because you select who has the permission to edit a page, a wiki is also kind of protected: other people can't get in. In this guide you will find several tools and services to create a wiki. Intro by Daniele Bazzano and Andre Deutmeyer


In this guide to wiki tools, I reviewed five key wiki creation tools providing the best user experience and feature set among the many available. Do you need to update your wiki via mobile? Do you want to receive updates in your email inbox, have a big amount of storage space to share content with your teammates? Then check these wiki tools I have tried for you and take advantage of the comparative table here below to evaluate which one is the best fit for your needs. And if you need a wider choice, I have scouted the Web for collections of wiki tools and I have selected the best ones for you. You can browse these selected wiki collections according to a number of different categories I have setup for you. Free or at payment? Hosted or OpenSource? You decide.

How To Create A Wiki Comparison Table

go to the table!

How To Create A Wiki Tool List

1. Google Docs Google Docs is a web-based solution to create documents, presentation, spreadsheets and forms. Even if not presented as a proper wiki, Google Docs indeed belongs to this sector of online collboration tools. A document in Google Docs can be shared for collaborative work among up to 200 users, but just ten people can edit the document at the same time. Documents support embedded images while presentations support images and videos. Using Google Docs you can take advantage of the complete integration with other Google services, like Gmail, Groups or Calendar. A unique feature is the possibility to use the suite offline by downloading it on your Pc / Mac. Mozilla Firefox is required to have better performances on a Mac. No technical knowledge is required to use Google docs, and it's ads-free. Google Docs works on your mobile too (though just for viewing documents and not for editing purposes). Once your work is created, you can publish it on the Web by pasting the relevant HTML code, and you can receive notifications to your Gmail account when someone updates your shared document. Google Docs is free to use and the premium account that Google offers to pump up the other services, like Gmail, does not improve nor the storage space or adds any functionality. There is no storage space clearly specified, but every user can store a maximum of 5000 documents and presentations, along with 1000 spreadsheets. Unique features to Google Docs: Offline version available for full editing outside the Web. http://docs.google.com/




2. SocialText SocialText is a professional, web-based wiki service that lets you collaborate with other users on your projects. SocialText enables each user to access a shared document in a personalized way, because the layout of your wiki is made up of different modules re-arrangeable via drag&drop. The service works seamlessly on your mobile, and it's ads-free. SocialText allows you to do a side-by-side comparison between two different revisions of the wiki, to spot any difference in a very easy way. Almost any kind of file can be uploaded to SocialText, and images and videos can be embedded inside your wiki. SocialText wikis can be published on the Web by pasting the relevant HTML code inside a web page. Notifications via email or RSS can be set to notify you when someone edits your wiki. You can test all the functionalities of Socialtext for free for fourteen days, and then evaluate if sign up for a premium account (suitable for individuals and small business) at $10 per user / month. Every user gets unlimited storage space, and the possibility to invite as many people as needed. Unique features to SocialText: Side-by-side comparison between two different revisions of the wiki. http://www.socialtext.com/




3. MediaWiki MediaWiki is the only wiki reviewed that is not a hosted solution. Which means that if you want a wiki that you can just sign-up for and run with, this is not for you. MediaWiki is all software. So if you want it to work, you have to have your own server, and you need to set it up yourself. If you encounter difficulties, there is a very active community to help you out, however there is no 24/7 tech support desk - only volunteers. Furthermore if you want access control, MediaWiki won't give it to you. MediaWiki was not written to provide per-page access restrictions, and almost all hacks or patches promising to add them will likely have flaws somewhere, which could lead to exposure of confidential data. Additionally, MediaWiki does not include one click backup (though extensions do), rather you need to use MySQL for database dumps. With that said, however, because MediaWiki is open-source it is one of the most (if not the most) flexible wiki. What you sacrifice in ease of setup, you make up for in control. If you are confident in your PHP and MySQL skills then you can do amazing things with this platform. MediaWiki is the software that powers Wikipedia, so if you need something reliable and scalable, you might want to give MediaWiki a shot. You get some of the standard wiki features: excellent revision control, RSS / email notifications of page changes, HTML / CSS can be applied to templates. No native WYSIWYG editor for pages, however extensions are available. Pricing, Storage, Number of Users is not applicable because the MediaWiki is not a hosted solution. Unique features to MediaWiki: Not hosted, multilingual capability for UI, ever expanding <a href="">extensions (addons) library. http://www.mediawiki.org




4. PBWiki You have access to the majority of PBWiki's features in its free service level for an unlimited period of time. The one downside is that you can have a maximum of three users who are allowed to edit the wiki, and the wiki is ad-supported. Furthermore certain goodies such as 'search' and 'analytics' are not available under its free service level. You must upgrade to one of its paid services for that. A large amount of personalization is available, though not as much as SocialText. Individual access can be controlled at multiple levels, from folder-level to page-level. You get all the standard wiki features: revision control, RSS / email notifications of page changes, HTML / CSS can be applied to templates, WYSIWYG editor for pages, easy backups in zip. PBWiki offers varying amounts of storage depending on how it will be used. For both Academic and Personal wikis, storage starts at 10 MB (free level) and goes up to a maximum of 5 GB (paid). The Business wiki does better and weighs in at 2 GB (free level) and 40 GB (most expensive level). Of the wikis reviewed here, PBWiki offers the least amount of available storage space. PBWiki pricing varies depending on how you plan to use it (Business, Academic, Personal). Free non-academic wikis are ad supported. As a Business solution, pricing is scaled so as you add more users, the price for user drops to as low as $4 dollars per user / month. For Academic and Personal wikis, pricing is fixed and paid annually. Academic Discounts are available for educational institutions. Unique features to PBWiki: Academic Discounts http://www.pbwiki.com




5. Wikispaces Wikispaces is probably the best beginner wiki and is a capable platform for larger organizations as well. It is intuitively easy to set up and customize. And if you have trouble the community offers a lot of support and the Wikispaces team is available via email. Unfortunately if you want to talk to somebody, you have to upgrade to their Private Label Premium setup. Like PBWiki, the free version is ad-supported. It does however lacks some of the flexibility of the others reviewed here. In both free and paid forms you get the standard wiki features: revision control, RSS / email notifications of page changes, WYSIWYG editor for pages, easy backups in zip. HTML / CSS customization of templates is only available for paid solutions. Wikispaces does not offer content access control features until you upgrade to one of the Private Labels. With storage space weighing in at 2 GB (free level) and 200 GB (most expensive level), Wikispaces provides plenty of space to store your wiki pages and media. Wikispaces pricing ranges from Free (ad supported) to $8000 per year for enterprise level organizations. Unique features to Wikispaces: All levels (free or paid) can have unlimited users, free wikis (not ad supported) for use by educators. http://www.wikispaces.com/

Learn More About Wiki Tools And Services

• WikiMatrix

  WikiMatrix is a great solution to compare multiple wiki services. You can choose from a comprehensive list or use the Wiki Choice Wizard to select rapidly the best one that suits your needs. The wiki list is open to addition from users.



• The Wiki Toolbox: 30+ Wiki Tools and Resources

  Mashable provides a list of the most common wiki tools and services ordered between hosted and open source solutions. Updated till last year, it remains a good source to have at a first glance all the best wiki solutions out there.



• List of Wiki Software

  Wikipedia offers a page where many wiki tools and services are ordered by programming language: Java-based, Perl-based, Python-bases, and so on. All wiki engines are provided with a brief description.



• Wiki Tools

  The big list provided by the e-Learning Centre enumerates both downloadable and hosted wiki tools and services in alphabetical order. Each tool is described by a very short review. Users can suggest valuable resources to be added to the list.



• Top Wiki Tools

  A clear and well-organized wiki tools list by the Centre for Learning & performance Technologies. At a first glance you can identify (among many) the wiki service you need and check whether it is free, at payment, hosted or open-source



• Wiki Resources

  This site, although a bit of an eye sore, provides a list of wiki related links that you can jump to. There are no reviews here, but to make up for that it lists not only links to wiki platforms, but also links to books, blog articles, screencasts, and wiki communities that will be helpful to learning how to take full advantage of your wiki, no matter which platform you choose.



• Wiki Directory

  This wiki list comes from the depths of PHP Directory. It ranks wiki platforms according to Google PageRank and offers short descriptions of each wiki. As of the time of this review, only thirteen wiki platforms were listed.



• Wiki Comparison Chart

  In this wiki comparison guide from Wikipedia, you get a mountain of information. No reviews are posted, rather what you get is four different comparison charts, each of which compares approximately 50 wiki platforms accross multiple criteria.



• Wiki Index Engine

  Wiki Index does exactly what it sounds like it does. It provides a comprehensive list of links to wiki articles. Each wiki article contains a short review of the wiki platform and provides a links to outside resources for further exploration.



• All the Wikis

  All the Wikis is a blog devoted to wiki reviews and resources. It provides a wiki FAQ section which is helpful, and each review provides an in-depth look at the wiki platform. However, some of the wiki reviews are dated, so don't take everything you read to heart. There is a chance that things have changed since the review was written, so keep that in mind as you browse All the Wikis.

If you know other wiki tools you feel should be included in this guide, please do not hesitate to add them via the Comments area here below.

Originally written and prepared by Daniele Bazzano and Andre Deutmeyer for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 30th 2008 as "Best Wiki Tools And Services: Sharewood Guide"

In the spirit of Halloween, and all things chocolate, I bring you DIY chocolate making. This is the real deal people, no microwaves here! It's a really interesting process that takes you from bean to bar. Check out the link for more details.

Read about DIY: Chocolate making from bean to bar [Thanks Lucky]

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alaederach writes "I run a lab in a non-profit academic life sciences research institute. Our IT recently decided it would be a good idea to use PGP whole disk encryption on all of our computers, laptops and servers and picked PGP's suite of software. The main reason is that a small subset of our researchers work with patient information which we obviously are mandated to keep confidential. My lab does a lot of high-performance computational work (on genes from Tetrahymena, no humans here) and I am concerned that the overhead of complying with our ITs new security policy will be quite detrimental to my research program. For example, dynamically reallocating a partition on a PGP encrypted disk is apparently not possible. Furthermore, there is some evidence that certain forms of compression are also incompatible with PGP whole disk encryption. Interestingly, it is hard to find any negative articles on PGP, probably because most of them are written by IT pros who are only focused on the security, and not usability. I therefore ask the Slashdot community, what are the disadvantages of PGP in terms of performance, Linux, and high-performance computational research?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The amazing Bickford, a disposable razor robot - over 8,000 hours of construction time, 219 drawings, 5 gearhead motors, 96 feet of copper wire, 2,120 disposable razors and weighing 43lbs. On display at Ripley' in Branson, Missouri.

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More product picks from the Maker Shed @ Maker Faire special prices. The week is winding down so if you've been pondering a purchase be sure not to miss out!

Here's the deal - Enter in MAKER to get 10% off any of these books (or anything in the Maker Shed right now) if you spend more than $80 enter in FAIRE after and get free shipping on orders over $80.00 (Post discount of course), either of these codes will work independently from another as well as together.

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Maker's Notebook - From the creators of Make & Craft Magazine comes the Maker's Notebook. Put your own ideas, diagrams, calculations & notes down in these 150 pages of engineering graph paper. We've also included 20 bonus pages of reference material, from useful stuff like electronics symbols, resistor codes, weights and measures, basic conversions and more, to really useful stuff like the amount of caffeine in different caffeinated beverages and how to say "Hello, World!" in various computer languages. The covers of this hardcover book are printed in cyan "Maker" blue with a white grid debossed front and back. Grab one today!

• Notebook are 1/8" engineering graph paper.
  
• Pages are numbered.
  
• Every page has a blank heading to list project name, date, sign or note, and a place to link project/related pages ("From Page___, to Page___).
  
• There's also a two-page ruled Table of Contents.
  
• Bonus for MakerShed customers only: every notebook comes with our custom stickers and band, created just for Maker Faire!

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Maker Faire Hoodie
Super heavyweight fleece pullover hoodie. This high quality SportTek sweatshirt from Port Authority is all you need to take the
edge off those cold nights and days. This sweatshirt rocked the Maker Faire!

• 12-ounce, cross grain, 80/20 ring spun combed cotton/poly
  
• 2 x 2 rib knit cuffs and waistband with spandex
  
• Rib knit side gussets
  
• Contrast twill tape in neck
  
• Front pouch pocket

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Maker Bundle #1
We've had several neat projects over the years, and we're proud that Solarbotics has created a cool bundle kit to provide parts for completing them. In this great bundle you'll find what you need to build the Mousey (Make Issue #02), Trimit (Issue #06), SolarRoller (Issue #06), and Beetlebot (#12). Get this bundle and save over $20 compared to buying these kits separately.

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Make: Project Tin - Perfect for many electronics projects, this mint tin is branded with our Make motto, "If You Can't Open It, You Don't Own It".
We even took out those pesky mints! Get 'em while they last and send us your project photos!

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MAKE: Void Your Warranty T-Shirt
New Colors - White - Olive Green - Royal Blue!
MAKE: Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out...
Available in 8 colors and more sizes! Also available in Womans.
Add $1 per each upsize.

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Don't forget, use the coupon code "MAKER" to get 10% off any of the above picks, if you spend more than $80 (after discount) enter the additional code "FAIRE" and score free shipping to boot, either of these codes will work by themselves or together.

Nothing here float yer boat? Check back tomorrow when we'll be showing off another roundup of fine Shed products.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in MAKE Store | Digg this!