snitch writes "John Resig creator of the jQuery JavaScript library, has released Test Swarm, a platform for distributed continuous integration testing for client-side JavaScript. Frustrated with traditional JavaScript testing environments that don't scale, John's new project, which is currently is private alpha, aims to provide a systems for outsourcing browser related testing to large groups of people or communities."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An in-no-way-biased survey from a German broadband trade group says that 84 percent of German twentysomethings would rather give up their partner or a car than their internet connection. No word on the breakdown of that 84 percent between partner and car, but given the fantastic experiences I've had on German public transport, I've got to imagine cars are probably much easier to give up. Although if you ditch your partner, you can always find a new one online, though just eight percent of respondents said they'd done so. Don't buy it? Just check out the travails of recently split up celebrity couple Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer. Apparently she dumped him because Mayer would make time for Twitter, but not for her.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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CNETNate writes "Thomson, the company that licenses the MP3 patent, has released a new lossless MP3 format called mp3HD. It utilises both lossless and lossy audio contained inside a single .mp3 file, and the files will play on all existing MP3 players. The idea is simple: lossless files on your desktop that can be transferred without conversion to iPods and MP3 players. The issue, it transpires, is that although the full lossless/lossy hybrid MP3 file is transferred to players, only the lossy element can be played back. A command line encoder can be found on Thomson's Web site."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Richard Metzger is Boing Boing's current guest blogger.

Utterly astonishing clip of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at the BBC studios in 1968 performing a nine-minute workout of "King Kong."

I realize that the music of Frank Zappa tends to be what is called "an acquired taste" but in my never so humble opinion, this is one pretty darn tasty performance! I'm someone who considers him a genius, but I have reservations about the "smutty humor" aspect of his work. My own preference in Zappa's material tends to this era and the original Mothers of Invention. The collective "character" of the original Mothers can only really be compared to Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, if you ask me, where every musician was contributing an absolutely unique voice to the proceedings. It wasn't just the music, which was wonderful, but the personalities of the players themselves that made it so special. The Mothers came from diverse backgrounds, a bunch of SoCal n'er-do-wells who were tending bar, driving trucks and pumping gas by day, and by night, willing participants in Frank Zappa's quest to meld a bunch of wild men R-n-B freaks into a disciplined avant garde orchestra capable of playing Stravinsky-inspired free jazz on electronic instruments one minute, a sea shanty the next and then following that up with a little 50s doo wop sung in a helium falsetto. This performance of "King Kong " (taken from a BBC series called "Colour Me Pop" one of the first pop shows to be broadcast in color) and a second performance from French TV that same year show just how magnificently honed this group was. They stop and start on a dime. Watch for Zappa's idiosyncratic conductor's hand signals. Watch the duel drummers. AND TURN IT UP LOUD!!

Another clip of the original Mothers from French TV

Richard Metzger is Boing Boing's current guest blogger

From Fishbowl LA:

This is from the NYTimes from November, 1999. The article is titled, "Congress Passes Wide-Ranging Bill Easing Bank Laws" about the repeal of Glass-Steagall a Depression-Era law to separate bankers and brokers:

"'I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. "'I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.'"

Read the whole article. Go ahead. We're in the fetal position hoping the pills kick in sooner rather than later.

Via FBLA, via Reddit

langelgjm writes "The US Supreme Court has agreed to review a case involving the strip-searching of a 13 year-old girl who was accused of possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen on school grounds, in violation of the school's zero-tolerance drug policy. The case has gained national attention because of the defining role it will play in determining which, if any, parts of the Constitution apply on school grounds. In Morse v. Frederick, the Supreme Court has already upheld the right of school administrators to restrict students' free speech at school-sponsored events that take place off school property. The school described the strip-search as 'not excessively intrusive in light of [the student's] age and sex and the nature of her suspected infraction.' The Supreme Court's last decision about searches on school property dealt only with searching a student's purse. Incidentally, the girl was found not to be in possession of any drugs, illegal or otherwise."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The weekly Lost Knowledge column explores the possible technology of the future in the forgotten ideas of the past (and those slightly off to the side). Each Tuesday, we look at retro-tech, "lost" technology, and the make-do, improvised "street tech" of village artisans and tradespeople from around the globe. "Lost Knowledge" is also the theme of the current issue of MAKE, Volume 17 (on newsstands now)

With a crew of drunken pilots, We're the only Airship Pirates!
We're full of hot air and we're starting to rise
We're the Terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves now.
Airship Pirate, Abney Park

---

[Abney Park's H.M.S. Ophelia darkens the skies over Stockholm]

Zeppelins. Airships. Dirigibles. These words have fired my imagination since I was a child and put together my first Zeppelin scale model. And as a headbanging teen, my devotion to a Led Zeppelin meant that I was always surrounded by icons of these floating horizontal skyscrapers. Every decade or so, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in airships, with new material availability, an energy crisis, or some other motivating factor. Today is no different. So here's a sampling of some of the airships of the past, a few in the skies of the present, and some fantasies for the near-future.

So far, efforts to create a serious and sustained airship industry have fallen far short. It seems unlikely that airships will ever become common transportation, but it'd be nice to see them find some sustainable niche.

Wikipedia has a lot of great information and links related to airships. Here's an excerpt from the main Airship page:

"The Golden Age"

The "Golden Age of Airships" began in July 1900 with the launch of the Luftschiff Zeppelin LZ1. This led to the most successful airships of all time: the Zeppelins. These were named after Count von Zeppelin who began experimenting with rigid airship designs in the 1890s leading to the badly flawed LZ1 (1900) and the more successful LZ2 (1906). At the beginning of World War I the Zeppelin airships had a framework composed of triangular lattice girders, covered with fabric and containing separate gas cells. Multi-plane, later cruciform, tail fins were used for control and stability, and two engine/crew cars hung beneath the hull driving propellers attached to the sides of the frame by means of long drive shafts. Additionally there was a passenger compartment (later a bomb bay) located halfway between the two cars. Other airship builders were also active before the war: German firm Schütte-Lanz built the SL series from 1911; another German firm Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft built the Parseval-Luftschiff (PL) series from 1909, and Italian Enrico Forlanini's firm had built and flown the first two Forlanini airships.

Construction of the USS Shenandoah in Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1923

Navy blimps in hanger at Moffett Field, circa 1943

Gondola of U.S. Navy blimp J-4. Elevator operator sat on the left. Rudderman sat on the right.

Here KQED's Quest video documentary, Zeppelins Resurrected, about the crash of the USS Macon in the 30s and the return of airships to California:

The Hindenburg wasn't the only air ship to end in a catastrophic crash. In 1935, the USS Macon went down in 1000 feet of water off the coast of Monterey, California. Now, as scientists study the recently-discovered wreckage, dirigibles are returning to the Bay Area and are poised to rule the skies once again. But these aren't the same dirigibles - these are new and improved.

Zeppelin NT is a German company seeking to revive the airship industry. They currently have four ships and have flown over 60,000 passengers to date. Zeppelin NT made the Airship Ventures ship that now flies out of Moffett Field (see below).

The Airship Ventures Zeppelin NT arriving in the Bay Area in October 2008. They currently offers tours of the Bay Area (for $500/hour). You can keep up with their exploits via their blog, Up Ship!

Size comparison showing the new Zeppelin NTs and other flying craft (er... and a giant squid).

A Belgian engineer, Lieven Standaert, wants to develop self-sustaining air yachts that generate their own power:

The Aeromodeller II floats not on helium but on hydrogen, which has a dual function as fuel for the engines. The hydrogen is generated on board, while the ship hovers in the air and drops anchor at a height of 50 to 100 metres. This happens by means of a cable, similar to that of a kite. The zeppelin inverts its propellers, which then serve as windmills. They deliver the necessary energy to split water (coming from the ballast tanks and replenished by rain) into hydrogen and oxygen. Six hours of wind energy accumulate enough fuel for one hour of flying.

The Aeromodeller site is in Belgian, but Low Technology magazine has a nice piece about the project (from which the above excerpt was taken)

Jean-Marie Massaud is a French designer who's designed a 690-foot dirigible shaped like a whale and planned as a floating luxury hotel dubbed the Manned Cloud.

The Aerofeather is a one-person airship that you're strapped to the bottom of and fly by flapping your wings. Oh, you don't have wings? No problem. They'll provide you with a carbon-fiber and nylon pair. See a video of the Aerofeather in action here.

The site Girders and Gears has an excellent piece, Airship-Dirigible Model Designs, which looks at airship models that have appeared in mechanical toy building systems over the years (Erector Set, Mechano, etc.).

More:

• Lost Knowledge: The Catalog
• Lost Knowledge: The Antikythera Device
• Lost Knowledge: Village tech in West Papua, Indonesia
• Lost Knowledge: Neon lights
• Lost Knowledge: Reanimating Dead Media
• Lost Knowledge: Manual typewriters

From MAKE magazine:

Check out MAKE, Volume 17: The Lost Knowledge issue!

Buy your copy in the Maker Shed
Subscribe to MAKE
Access the Digital Edition (if you're already a subscriber)

In Volume 17, MAKE goes really old school with the Lost Knowledge issue, featuring projects and articles covering the steampunk scene -- makers creating their own alternative Victorian world through modified computers, phones, cars, costumes, and other fantastic creations. Projects include an elegant Wimshurst Influence Machine (an electrostatic generator built entirely from Home Depot parts), a Florence Siphon coffee brewer, and a teacup-powered Stirling engine. This special section also covers watchmaking, letterpress printing, the early multimedia art of William Blake, and other wondrous and lost (or fading) pre-20th-century technologies.

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With the news that Mississippi has passed a law banning traffic light cameras because it's an invasion of privacy, it's worth looking a bit to the east, where some cities in Georgia are taking down their red light cameras not because of privacy issues, but because a new law required them to increase the length of time that a light is yellow by one second -- and that's decreased red light violations so significantly, that red light cameras have become "too expensive" (thanks to Scott Cauthen for sending that story in). This is what critics of red light cameras have said from the beginning: it's always been about the revenue, rather than the safety. If you want safety, all you need to do is increase the length of yellow lights, and you have fewer people running red lights and significantly fewer accidents. But... if revenue is your goal, then you do things like decrease the yellow light timing -- which is what a few cities have been caught doing.

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destinyland writes "European researchers have discovered that chimpanzees have a built-in mental GPS, keeping 'a geometric mental map of their home range, moving from point to point in nearly straight lines.' Using GPS, two primatologists followed 15 chimpanzees for 217 days, and determined that the apes were 'using a mental map built around geometric coordinates.' They're not just identifying landmarks in their surroundings, and in fact, even when swinging through trees, the chimps planned out their route several trees in advance. Here's the paper in the journal Animal Behavior ."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Shepard Fairey has addressed the controversy surrounding the Associated Press photo of Barack Obama, and the famous poster he created which references that photograph.

I’m sure a lot of people are wondering about my case with the AP over the Obama HOPE poster. I can’t talk about every aspect of the case, but there are a few things I want to discuss and points I’d like to make.

Most importantly, I am fighting the AP to protect the rights of all artists, especially those with a desire to make art with social commentary. This is about artistic freedom and basic rights of free expression, which need to be available to all, whether they have money and lawyers or not. I created the Obama image as a grassroots tool solely to help Obama get elected president. The image worked due to many complex variables. If I could do it all over again, I would not change anything about the process, because that could change the outcome. I am glad to endure legal headaches if that is the trade-off for Obama being president.

No disrespect was intended to photographer Mannie Garcia, but I did not think (and do not think) I needed permission to make an art piece using a reference photo. From the beginning, I openly acknowledged that my illustration of Obama was based on a reference photograph. But the photograph is just a starting point. The illustration transforms it aesthetically in its stylization and idealization, and the poster has an altogether different purpose than the photograph does. The AP photo I used as a reference, which I found out much later was taken by Mannie Garcia, (which was actually this one, not the one being circulated in the press) was a news photo that showed George Clooney and Barack Obama attending a 2006 panel on the genocide in Darfur. My Obama poster variations of “HOPE” and “PROGRESS” were obviously not intended to report the news. I created them to generate support for Obama; the point was to capture and synthesize the qualities that made him a leader. The point of the poster is to convince and inspire. It’s a political statement. My Obama poster does not compete with the intent of, or the market for the reference photo.

The AP, OBAMA, & Referencing (obeygiant, thanks Sean Bonner!)

Have you seen the great work of Amy Smith? She operates D-lab nestled beneath the infinite corridor at MIT.

Fumes from indoor cooking fires kill more than 2 million children a year in the developing world. MIT engineer Amy Smith details an exciting but simple solution: a tool for turning farm waste into clean-burning charcoal.

Amy and her students are creating low-tech technologies to benefit people who have little access to the systems many of us expect.

Happy Ada Day!

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As most folks know, Metallica was an early "skeptic" of online music, with drummer Lars Ulrich leading the way -- suing Napster and complaining about iTunes. In many ways the band, and Ulrich specifically, became the face of the big anti-fan, anti-internet rockstar. More recently, the band has tried to change that image, working hard to embrace the internet a bit more, and even shrugging off the fact that the band's new album was leaked online. However, those early actions really hurt the band's reputation, leading many fans to boycott the band and refuse to buy any of its new music.

Still, even as the band (and Ulrich specifically) has been working over time to try to rebuild the band's online credibility, I didn't expect this: Ulrich is apparently excited to pick Trent Reznor's brain about music business models:

"We're doing a bunch of shows with Trent this summer in Europe. I look forward to sitting down and talking to him about what's on his radar."

That's certainly quite a shift, considering that Reznor has pretty fully embraced online distribution, including file sharing and things like BitTorrent. So, now we just have to see if Ulrich actually learns some of those lessons.

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Lulfas writes "Steam is implementing a new anti-piracy solution that, according to them, removes all DRM. Called Computer Executable Generation (CEG), this system creates a unique copy of the game when it is purchased through Steam, essentially using a 100% unique keygen system. It will be installable on any system, but only playable by one person at a time (hooked into the correct Steam account, of course). Will this be enough to satisfy anti-DRM players while at the same time giving the publishing companies what they require?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When confronted with the flight-or-fight choice, this young gentleman's reptilian brain selected the latter. (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

MAKE contributor Steve Lodefink has a new toy, the MicRo CNC robot kit, from Lumenlab:

The micRo is a 3-axis CNC robot being offered by Lumenlab, the same folks who made DIY video projection accessible to the world. Grayson Sigler, the Brainchild behind Lumenlab (brainchild is also his handle on the inter-tubes) describes micRo as a desktop manufacturing workstation. I have a hunch that Sigler has greater ambitions than simply enabling people to make things. I suspect that he is actually preparing to seed the planet with an army of self-replicating machines that will one day rise up and fulfill their destiny - but I'll save that for another post.

As the name implies, micRo is has a small footprint, but make no mistake it is not a toy or just a platform for learning about machine control (although it will do that) , but a solid base to which you can attach a tool to do whatever it is that you want to do. This is not your typical "MDF and all-thread" type DIY CNC, but a tough, high-tolerance machine.

Given how talented Steve is, we can't wait to see what sorts of things he makes with his MicRo. BTW: This is Steve making good on his Maker New Year's Resolution. Well, at least he's done the buyin' part. Now he needs to build it and make something.

MicRo CNC Robot Kit

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tboulay writes "The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation. The proposed curriculum change would prompt teachers to raise doubts that all life on Earth is descended from common ancestry. Texas is such a large textbook market that many publishers write to the state's standards, then market those books nationwide. 'This is the most specific assault I've seen against evolution and modern science,' said Steven Newton, a project director at the National Center for Science Education, which promotes teaching of evolution." Both sides are saying the issue it too close to call. Three Republicans on the school board who favor the teaching of evolution have come under enormous pressure to reform their ways.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You know how movies studios keep making the same movie over and over and over again with just slight changes? It seems that the entertainment industry simply has a problem recognizing that doing the same thing repeatedly won't lead to different outcomes. In particular, the entertainment companies continue to think that because they own the content, that they somehow have leverage against the new generation of distributors -- missing out on the fact that it was always the distribution side of things that gave them the leverage, rather than the content itself. That is, they're overvaluing the content and undervaluing the services that make that content useful. That's why the record labels were unable to realize that they handed Apple tremendous power over digital music sales. It's why the record labels still don't seem to realize that they need YouTube more than YouTube needs them.

Now it's the movie studios' turn.

Jeff Nolan points out that the movie studios are apparently pissed off at Netflix, saying that they're trying to renegotiate deals on tougher terms. As Nolan points out, those studios may discover they have a lot less leverage than they think. If a studio pulls its movies from Netflix, those studios may find that it hurts them a lot more than it hurts Netflix, which has increasingly built a dominant position in the movie distribution space. Yet, of course, because these firms overvalue the content, they don't seem to be able to see this coming, despite all the foreshadowing...

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---

The entire Boing Boing Video crew is in San Francisco this week, along with a number of the bloggers from Offworld, BB Gadgets, and Boing Boing, to cover the 2009 Game Developers Conference. And this time, for the first time ever, we're doing it with live video broadcasts on our new Ustream channel. Tune in for conversations in our BBV@GDC studio with hosts including Matty Kirsch from Killscreen TV,  Xeni and Joel from Boing Boing, visits from Brandon, Cory, and Pesco, and lots of game biz guests and happy mutants throughout the world, all week long!

For BB + Offworld's complete video and blog coverage of GDC09, visit offworld.com/gdc09.

(Special thanks to our live stream host Ustream TV, to Wayneco Heavy Industries, and to our transportation provider at Virgin America.)

Catalyst writes "SWFScan is a free Flash security tool (download here), released by HP Software, which decompiles all versions of Flash and scans them for over 60 security vulnerabilities. The scan detects things like XSS, SQL inside of the Flash app, hard-coded authentication credentials, weak encryption, insecure function calls, cross-domain privilege escalation, and violations of Adobe's security recommendations. There is also this video explaining a real, and amusing, attack against a Flash app. These issues are fairly widespread with over 35% of SWF applications violating Adobe security advice."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There's only a few days left to enter Inhabitat's Spring Greening contest. Deadline is midnight, March 27th.

Repair and reuse have been hot topics as of late, with everyone from technology renaissance man Saul Griffith to Worldchanging editor Alex Steffen advocating a shift towards repairable, long-lasting heirloom products. We've been covering reclaimed design for quite a while here on Inhabitat, and love to see objects given new life through smart reuse. Taking care of objects also makes good economic sense, and a little bit of TLC goes a long way towards producing a personalized object that you'll cherish for a lot longer than the cheap store-bought variety.

The winner of this year's contest will receive the fortune and fame of being showcased on Inhabitat in addition to a gift certificate for $200 in great green goods from the Inhabitat shop! Three runner ups will each receive an herb-sprouting eggling of your choice.

More details at their site.

SPRING GREENING CONTEST: 4 Days Left to Enter!

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Public Television networks in Ohio, Kentucky, and Wisconsin just started airing Make: television, and starting this weekend, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Virginia are hopping on the bandwagon!

Make: television will be premiering on:

• KETC St. Louis this Saturday at 10:00am.


• WVPT Harrisonburg, VA this Sunday at 10:30am. You can find a map of WVPT's coverage areas here.


• WSBE Rhode Island this Sunday at 2:00pm. And a note for Boston makers: WSBE will be premiering Make: television on Sunday on their primary channel, which is also carried by Comcast cable in the Boston area.

Makers in Missouri, Virginia, and Rhode Island (and Boston!), we'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you think about the show in the comments!

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snydeq writes "Non-relational upstarts — tools that tack the letters 'db' onto a 'pile of code that breaks with the traditional relational model' — have grabbed attention in large part because they willfully ignore many of the rules that codify the hard lessons learned by the old database masters. Doing away with JOINs and introducing phrases like 'eventual consistency,' these 'slacker DBs' offer greater simplicity and improved means of storing data for Web apps, yet remain toys in the eyes of old guard DB admins. 'This distinction between immediate and eventual consistency is deeply philosophical and depends on how important the data happens to be,' writes InfoWorld's Peter Wayner, who let down his old-guard leanings and tested slacker DBs — Amazon SimpleDB, Apache CouchDB, Google App Engine, and Persevere — to see how they are affecting the evolution of modern IT."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

snydeq writes "Non-relational upstarts — tools that tack the letters 'db' onto a 'pile of code that breaks with the traditional relational model' — have grabbed attention in large part because they willfully ignore many of the rules that codify the hard lessons learned by the old database masters. Doing away with JOINs and introducing phrases like 'eventual consistency,' these 'slacker DBs' offer greater simplicity and improved means of storing data for Web apps, yet remain toys in the eyes of old guard DB admins. 'This distinction between immediate and eventual consistency is deeply philosophical and depends on how important the data happens to be,' writes InfoWorld's Peter Wayner, who let down his old-guard leanings and tested slacker DBs — Amazon SimpleDB, Apache CouchDB, Google App Engine, and Persevere — to see how they are affecting the evolution of modern IT."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A real life Beavis and Butthead duo chuckle as they video tape a truck with its trailer raised smash into an overpass. (Via Arbroath)

As noted, I'm at the Leadership Music Digital Summit to give a keynote talk tomorrow. Today's keynote is from Rio Caraeff, the executive VP of the eLabs group of Universal Music Group. Listening to his talk, it's impressive to see that it appears someone within Universal Music Group actually seems to understand what's going on. That may seem a bit dismissive of Universal Music Group, but it's not my assessment, but what the CEO of Universal Music Group flat out said just a couple of years ago, in noting that he had absolutely no clue about digital music and didn't even know how to hire the right people.

Caraeff, however, seems focused on all the right things. He talked about how access to music is more important than possession. He talks about how it's the experience that has always made music valuable, noting "you can't steal experience." In fact, he points out that the concept of the album is dead, but that UMG (and others) need to build a true "living album" that goes beyond the music: adding a full experience that can update over time, that allows fans to access the music however they want, and that enables interaction with that music -- including fan participation and user-generated content associated with the music. And he wants it all built on open standards, to avoid a situation like the Blu-ray consortium where only a few companies have control of the system.

"How do we compete with piracy? It's creating a unique experience that can't be easily replicated through file sharing."

He then goes on to say that the business of "licensing music" is a dead end because it's just not scalable (whoo hoo!) noting that it's killing innovation. Even saying that they need to acknowledge that they need to enable letting a thousand innovators bloom.

He did admit that the team at UMG is still struggling to figure out the best way to make money in this new world -- but he recognizes this is where things are going:

"I'd rather have access to all my music, tv shows and movies anywhere on any device, rather than "own" 100 files. This is going to be a swift transition. It's taken us less than 10 years to go from plastic discs to digital files. It will take 5 years or less to go from digital files to cloud-based services, which will make the music even more valuable."

This is all good news. It's someone who clearly recognizes the shift that needs to be made by a major record label. But, the real question is how much influence he actually has at Universal Music Group. We've seen similar recognition among employees at other record labels, including Warner Music and EMI -- but the "top management" at both of those firms has continued to go in the opposite direction, focusing on stomping out innovation, rather than encouraging it.

Unfortunately, this may be a real issue. He did admit:

"Universal Music is a big company and not everyone there is on the same page, but I was put into this job to make these changes. Turning a big ship around is slow. It's not a lack of desire, but it's a question of when not if. A lot of what I do is talk and evangelize to others within UMG to try to raise the consciousness level about where our business is going, to bring us to a path to growth again. It's not about how do we stop the decline of our business, but to find another billion dollar business for us. I'm not interested in how to I sell more MP3s on Amazon or to create new competitors to iTunes. That's important, but that's not going to transform our business. It's difficult in the day-to-day grind to turn a big company around, but it starts with passion. Passion sells. This is how it works."

It's great to see some optimism coming from within one of the major labels, recognizing all of the opportunities out there. Hopefully, it actually leads to something useful.

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Over at Dinosaurs and Robots, I've posted my build notes for a musical instrument I made on Sunday called the Clubhouse Strummer.

Arto Stimms writes "The author of the e text editor is using the principles of open source to transform his company into an Open Company. Not only is he releasing the source, the company itself becomes totally open: no concept of bosses or employees. Anyone can join in at any time, doing whatever task they find interesting, for whatever time they find appropriate. This is in service of the idea of 'the real freedom zero': the freedom to decide for yourself what you want to work on."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Arto Stimms writes "The author of the e text editor is using the principles of open source to transform his company into an Open Company. Not only is he releasing the source, the company itself becomes totally open: no concept of bosses or employees. Anyone can join in at any time, doing whatever task they find interesting, for whatever time they find appropriate. This is in service of the idea of 'the real freedom zero': the freedom to decide for yourself what you want to work on."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This past weekend, Make: television premiered on networks in Ohio, Kentucky, and Wisconsin!

Make: television now airs on WGTE in Toledo on Fridays at 3:30pm, on WKYU in Bowling Green on Saturdays at 2:30pm, and on Wisconsin Public Television on Sundays at 4:30pm.

MAKE fans in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kentucky: we're happy to have you aboard! Let us know what you're up to and what you're making.

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TRNick writes "TechRadar talks to Windows 7's Senior User Experience Designer and discovers the interface ideas the Windows 7 team almost, but didn't put into Windows 7, and the stages various UI features went through to their final form. Quoting: '... The next prototype, in February 2007, was called the Bat Signal; when you moved your mouse over an icon in the taskbar, the full window would pop up on screen, highlighted by beams of light (a little like the Batman signal projected over Gotham City). Bat Signal made it easy to find the right window but it caused other problems: 'sometimes people toss the mouse down to the bottom of the screen when they're typing because they don't care where the mouse is and the Bat Signal pops up and that's really intrusive in their flow.' Bat Signal evolved into Aero Peek in Windows 7; you can hover over an icon to get thumbnails and hover over a thumbnail to get a preview of the window."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There's a myth out there among some newspapers folks that "if only" the newspapers hadn't committed the "original sin" of putting content online for free, the newspapers wouldn't be facing difficulties these days. It's the kind of story that sounds good if you don't look too closely at the details. Plenty of newspapers did try to charge and almost all of them failed. People were never that interested in paying for news online, and plenty of new sources of news were popping up for free online anyway. Charging was a dead-end model from the beginning -- and to understand why, all you need to do is understand a little basic economics concerning the difference between infinite and scarce goods.

However, it looks like Mark Cuban believes in that "original sin" concept, and is posting a series of blog posts to try to prevent TV networks from making the same "mistake." It started with the claim that anyone who thinks TV is going a la carte online is crazy, because the "content companies" will never give up the fees they earn from the networks. After a bunch of folks challenged him on this, Cuban added a second post asking a bunch of questions, but which did little to actually answer his critics. He (like NBC Universal execs) laughs off the "threat" of people switching to all online access to TV content, noting that very few people have done so. This surprises me, since you'd think that Cuban would be familiar enough with Clayton Christensen's work to know that just because there are only a few early adopters (and the quality isn't as good) that it doesn't mean that it's not a potential threat. In fact, those questions are basically the de facto list of questions that an "incumbent" player tends to ask when facing a Christensen-style "innovator's dilemma" just before the upstart technology really begins to hurt the legacy business.

From there, however, it just gets silly. Cuban tries to stir up some sort of moral outrage among cable subscribers, exhorting them to call their cable companies and satellite providers demanding that they not allow any TV content online for free (as if it's their choice). His reasoning?

Those of us who enjoy this matter of life should be completely outraged that there are those who are leeching off the money we pay to enjoy tv. Our check goes to pay our bill. The money then goes to pay for the tv network, which in turn goes to pay for the content. Its a system that works.

Like any good system, there are those that want to have their cake and eat it to. The content we pay for ? They want it for free. We pay for it, they want it for free.

How is that fair ? Where is the justice ?

We pay for the content. We should be able to get it where we want it, and when we want it. Those who want it for free ? They should pay too.

Yes, and newspapers shouldn't be online for free. And music shouldn't be online for free. But they are and they will continue to be. Why? Because of those basic economics. As Saul Hansell at the NY Times points out, this is the nature of competition. Sure, everyone would love to keep getting paid, but some enterprising content company is going to recognize that getting more attention is a lot more valuable in the long run than keeping its content locked up on cable networks. Those content providers are going to realize that by breaking free and getting the content out there, they're able to stand out against those who lock up their content. They're going to be able to score more viewers and from that, more advertising dollars. And that will hurt those who keep their content locked up -- so, they'll be forced to free up their content as well. It's just basic economics.

Oh, and as for the whole "moral outrage" bit -- it's difficult to see how people who are already pretty pissed off about constantly rising cable TV prices are suddenly going to rise up and tell the cable companies to keep on charging them higher prices by locking up content. No. It seems likely that most of those folks are pretty excited about the idea that some of that content might go free, and can actually push down cable TV rates.

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This stately Ram's Skull Lamp, resin on acrylic base, would look fantastic in my living room. Alas, it's $675.
Ram's Skull Lamp

Richard Metzger is Boing Boing's current guest blogger.

The LA Times reports on the release of Tata Motors' Nano, a car that costs as much as a nice notebook computer. A million people have applied, but because Tata is only making about 60,000 this year, they'll only receive a Nano if they're chosen in a lottery.

The Nano will start at $2,200 after taxes and dealer costs, while the more expensive CX and LX models with heat, air conditioning and power brakes will go for as much as $3,800.

The Nano is about the size of a Smart Car, which it closely resembles. The four-door vehicle has the smallest footprint and turning radius of any car in India, the company said. At just 10 feet long and less than 5 feet wide, it has a single windshield wiper and gets about 47 miles to the gallon from a two-cylinder engine that is hardly bigger than an outboard motor. With its limited power and top speed of about 65 mph, analysts said, it will be largely limited to city driving.

India's Tata Motors unveils the world's cheapest car

LoneAdminOK writes "I started working for a small company in the middle of January as their IT Manager. I am the first actual 'IT Guy' that they have had; before me it was someone that performed another job within the company and just handled the IT on the side. The problem that I am running into is that most of the software I am finding on the network and on people's computers isn't owned by the company. The person before me would just get it from 'somewhere' and install it on the computers as needed. This is putting me in a bad position when I have to reinstall the program or find it to install on someone else's computer. Often, I am telling people that we don't have it or we have to buy another license, and they get mad at me because the other guy said that we had it. I can't even tell where the versions of Windows Server that they are running came from. The only one I know is legit is the one that is installed on an HP server with the OEM sticker on it. How have any of you handled a situation like this? I don't install 'borrowed programs' in a production environment because I know that if the BSA got wind of this, it would all fall on me when they stormed in."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Marc De Vinck shows how to make the teacup Stirling engine we presented in Make Vol. 17, the "Lost Knowledge" issue. It uses the heat from a hot cup of water to run the engine. Teacup Stirling engine

A few weeks ago Gareth had asked me to check out an article from an upcomming issue of MAKE. It was the Teacup Stirling Engine from Volume 17. Recently, I made the Gakken Stirling Engine Kit from the Maker Shed, which was really cool. However, I have never made one from scratch, and this was my opportunity to give it a try.

I'm not going to go over every last detail of the build since it is really well documented in MAKE, Volume 17 and you can even check out the digital edition here.

It's a fairly finicky machine, but as you can see, it really does run, and it runs well. It's a great project to try and tackle over the weekend.

Here are a few highlights from my build. I followed the instructions from the magazine and it ran great. I did make a few changes, but you don't have to for it to work. I just like to experiment. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I will respond. Thanks!

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ruphus13 writes "Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz continues to promote the use of Open Source, and says the downturn in the economy will only boost the momentum behind FOSS. From his post, 'Free and open source software is sweeping across the vast majority of the Fortune 500. When you see the world's most conservative companies starting to deploy open source, you know momentum is on your side. That's creating massive opportunity for those of us who have pioneered the market, to drive commercial opportunities... We announced just last week that we're building the Sun Cloud, atop open source platforms — from ZFS and Crossbow, to MySQL and Glassfish. By building on open source, we're able to avoid proprietary storage and networking products, alongside proprietary software.'" In related news, the Sun-IBM deal proposed last week has been called "anti-competitive" by a tech industry group, while others are speculating on how it could affect Linux and Java.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Check out the 1mW XBee wireless module with 802.15.4 protocol . It's really good for point-to-point, and multipoint networks. It really is the easiest way to add wireless communications to your next project.

Features

• Low cost, low-power point-to-multipoint/peer-to-peer networking
• Fast 250 kbps RF data rate
• No configuration needed for out-of-the-box RF communications
• 128-bit AES encryption
• DigiMesh 2.4 protocol available with firmware change

More about XBee in the Maker Shed

The XBee adapter kit from the Maker Shed is designed to make adding wireless point-to-point or mesh networking easy. The kit includes a PCB and all components necessary to build the adapter. This kit is really easy to build, even if you've never soldered before. The XBee module is not included.

Features

• Onboard 3.3V regulator to cleanly power your XBee, up to 250mA
• Level shifting circuitry means that its trivial to connect it to 5V circuitry such as an Arduino without risk of damage
• Two LEDs, one for activity (RSSI), the other for power (Associate)
• 10-pin 2mm sockets included to protect the modem and allow easy swapping, upgrading or recycling
• All the commonly used pins are brought out along the edge, making it easy to breadboard or wire up
• Specifically created for use with an FTDI cable to connect to a computer via USB.
• For use with any XBee/Pro pin-compatible module

More about XBee Adapter kit

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When it comes to newspaper business models, we've been saying over and over again that the problem has never been about "free" vs. "paid" but the fact that newspapers have never done a very good job enabling their communities. It comes from the fact that many newspapers incorrectly think they're in the business of selling news to people. That's never really been true. They've always been in the business of selling their community to advertisers. And if they do things to drive that community away (or to fail to keep up with other, competing communities) they shouldn't be surprised that their business disappears as well.

As evidence of how focusing on the community can work wonders for newspapers, just check out this recent column by David Carr (who just a week or so ago had jumped on board the "all newspapers should collude to start charging" bandwagon). In it, Carr talks about the success of the Austin Chronicle, the local newspaper in Texas that has been able to weather the "newspaper business model crisis" just fine while (get this!) giving away its newspapers for free. But, it's also built up the famous South by Southwest event that just happened in Austin, and has become a huge community builder for Austin. In fact, many now identify the city with SxSW -- and that only helps the Chronicle. While others are shutting down, the Austin Chronicle isn't looking to lay anyone off. Business is off a bit due to the general downturn, but the paper doesn't have massive debts and seems to have a really loyal following among locals who recognize the overall value it adds to the community. Meanwhile, it's the newspapers that haven't bothered to really connect with their communities that are suddenly demanding those community members pay -- and are suddenly offended when people tell them "no thanks"?

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Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a day for celebrating women in technology:

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was born on 10th December 1815, the only child of Lord Byron and his wife, Annabella. Born Augusta Ada Byron, but now known simply as Ada Lovelace, she wrote the world's first computer programmes for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine that Charles Babbage had invented.

Ada had been taught mathematics from a very young age by her mother and met Babbage in 1833. Ten years later she translated Luigi Menabrea's memoir on Babbage's Analytical Engine, appending notes that included a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the machine - the first computer programme. The calculations were never carried out, as the machine was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.

Understanding that computers could do a lot more than just crunch numbers, Ada suggested that the Analytical Engine "might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent." She never had the chance to fully explore the possibilities of either Babbage's inventions or her own understanding of computing. She died, aged only 36, on 27th November 1852, of cancer and bloodletting by her physicians.

Sometimes it's hard being of the female persuasion in tech-oriented fields, but I've found the least gender-bias in the maker community. There may be fewer ladies, but it doesn't feel male-dominated at all and I'm happy about that! Here are some of my favorite lady-makers from around these parts:

Limor Fried - Adafruit Industries (photo by Flickr user Joi)

Limor has her own DIY electronics kits business and it's doing really well. She's talented at electronics design and fabrication, and I've seen her out-geek even the L337357 H4x0rs. Popular projects include the TV-B-Gone Kit, WaveBubble RF jammer, and MintyBoost battery pack.

Lenore Edman - Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

Lenore effortlessly flows between foods, crafts, and electronics on the EMSL site she shares with her son and husband, remaining one of the forerunners of the American maker movement. Popular projects include the Peggy LED Display, Edible Googly Eyes, and CandyFab.

Leah Buechley - Creator of the LilyPad Arduino

Leah is a computer scientist, crafter, and a new professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she directs the High-Low Tech Group. She created the LilyPad Arduino, the iconic sewable flower-shaped version of the popular microcontroller. She has hosted countless workshops with youngsters aiming to help get girls interested in engineering and electronics. Popular projects (besides the LilyPad) include the Electric Tank Top, Turn Signal Bike Jacket, and E-Sewing Kit.

Please share with us your stories of women in technology in the comments!

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DaGoatSpanka writes with news that Mississippi Governer Haley Barbour signed a bill into law on Friday which instituted a ban on automated cameras that would snap pictures of motorists when they ran red lights. "The new law says the two cities that already have the cameras, Jackson and Columbus, must take them down by Oct. 1. Other cities and counties are banned from starting to use them." We've discussed situations in the past where cities looked at such cameras as "profit centers," and even tampered with their traffic light timing to catch more motorists. Now, in Mississippi, the contractors who installed the cameras are unhappy, since they received a cut of the ticket revenue generated by the cameras. However, lawmakers overwhelming voted to get rid of them (117-3 in the House, 42-9 in the Senate), because "the cameras were an invasion of privacy and their constituents thought they had been unfairly ticketed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mr. Rigsby shares his design for an LED flashlight using two 220 farad(!) capacitors in place of all-too-familiar disposable batteries -

In this project, you will make a flashlight that works without batteries. Even more amazing, you can recharge it in three minutes and it will run for more than 24 hours. Because the ultra capacitors can be recharged thousands of times, you may save the environment from ever receiving an old flashlight in the trash system.

Very cool. It's worth mentioning that the lengthy operating time from one charge wouldn't provide constant illumination. In the Instructable's comments, the author notes that after 2-3 hours the LED's brightness would drop to "night light" levels. Others point out that this could be remedied to some extent by using a driver circuit to keep voltage levels up. Still, imagine fully charging a portable device in about 3 minutes - I smell future!

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MJackson writes "The Open Rights Group (ORG) has issued a public letter to the Chief Privacy Officers (or the nearest equivalent) for seven of the world's largest website giants (including Microsoft and Google), asking them to boycott Phorm. The controversial Phorm system works with broadband ISPs to monitor what websites you visit for use in targeted advertising campaigns. Meanwhile, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust has issued a new report slamming the UK government's plans for a Communications Database. This would be designed to intercept and log every UK ISP user's e-mail headers, website accesses and telephone history. The report warns that the public are often, 'neither served nor protected by the increasingly complex and intrusive holdings of personal information invading every aspect of our lives.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After temporarily backing down from the controversial 3 strikes provision that was put into a bill in a sneaky way (after it had been rejected by legislators, the country's copyright minister simply added it back in), it looks like New Zealand has decided to start again completely. Officials in New Zealand note that no agreement was reached in the month allotted to work out a new plan, so they're going to scrap the entire provision -- and look to start over from scratch with no specific timeline in place. Hopefully, this means that when it comes to a new law, the considerations of all parties will be considered, rather than just those of the entertainment industry.

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The London police have bested their own impressive record for insane and stupid anti-terrorism posters with a new range of signs advising Londoners to go through each others' trash-bins looking for "suspicious" chemical bottles, and to report on one another for "studying CCTV cameras."

It's hard to imagine a worse, more socially corrosive campaign. Telling people to rummage in one another's trash and report on anything they don't understand is a recipe for flooding the police with bad reports from ignorant people who end up bringing down anti-terror cops on their neighbors who keep tropical fish, paint in oils, are amateur chemists, or who just do something outside of the narrow experience of the least adventurous person on their street. Essentially, this redefines "suspicious" as anything outside of the direct experience of the most frightened, ignorant and foolish people in any neighborhood.

Even worse, though, is the idea that you should report your neighbors to the police for looking at the creepy surveillance technology around them. This is the first step in making it illegal to debate whether the surveillance state is a good or bad thing. It's the extension of the ridiculous airport rule that prohibits discussing the security measures ("Exactly how does 101 ml of liquid endanger a plane?"), conflating it with "making jokes about bombs."

The British authorities are bent on driving fear into the hearts of Britons: fear of terrorists, immigrants, pedophiles, children, knives... And once people are afraid enough, they'll write government a blank check to expand its authority without sense or limit.

What an embarrassment from the country whose level-headed response to the Blitz was "Keep Calm and Carry On" -- how has that sensible motto been replaced with "When in trouble or in doubt/Run in circles scream and shout"?

New campaign to urge Londoners to report suspicious activity

Here's a three-part video-lecture by Bruce Sterling on the subject of "generative art" -- art that is created by a process that is in turn created by an artist. These are the artistic progeny of the spirograph and the kaleidoscope, and Bruce has an acerbic, thoughtful and skeptical approach to the subject.

Designing Processes Rather Than Art (via Beyond the Beyond)

ThinSkin writes "Imagine playing bleeding-edge games, yet never again upgrading your hardware. That's the ambitious goal of OnLive's Internet delivered gaming service. Using cloud computing, OnLive's goal is to 'make all modern games playable on any system,' thanks in large part to OnLive's remote servers that do all the heavy lifting. With a fast enough Internet connection, gamers can effectively stream and play games using a PC, Mac, or a 'MicroConsole,' 'a dedicated gaming client provided by OnLive that includes a game controller.' Without ever having to worry about costly hardware upgrades or the cost of a next-gen console, gamers can expect to fork over about $50 yearly just for the service. If this thing takes off, this can spell trouble for gaming consoles down the road, especially if already-established services like Steam and Impulse join the fray."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Behold! MAKE subscriber Mike Cook brings us the Arduinocaster -

Arduinocaster is a an Arduino based MIDI instrument modelled on a guitar sometimes called a keytar. It uses switches and LEDs to control six "strings" which are held down in guitar like chords. Triggering the strings is through an opto reflective switch for a continuous repeating strum and four touch sensitive switches for a one off sequence. There are three banks of four picking / strumming / arpeggio styles and a three octave capo. Voice change information can also be sent.

A definite departure from the familiar keytar design, the Arduinocaster was in attendance at the recent Maker Faire UK. Hmmmm ... I could swear I saw this axe in an old Buck Rogers episode ... or maybe it was Peter Davison-era Doctor Who? Either way - Sweet!

More:

MIDI Library for Arduino

In the Maker Shed:


Make: Arduino

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Germano-Ukranian specialist lens maker Hartblei has announced that its range of Superrotator tilt-shift lenses have now been approved to carry the Carl Zeiss name. The 'Hartblei-Optics by Carl Zeiss' range of Tilt-Shift lenses includes a 40mm F4, 80mm F2.8 and 120mm F4 Macro. All three lenses are available in a variety of mounts, including Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony A and Pentax K.

Just Posted: Our full review of the Olympus E-30. The E-30 is the long-awaited 'tweener' model that fills the gap in the E-system range between the entry-level models and the flagship E-3. With a new 12 megapixel sensor, a selection of unique in-camera creative options and a wealth of features, the E-30 looks very promising on paper, but does it deliver in use? Find out in our in-depth review after the link.

German specialist lens maker Hartblei has announced that its range of Superrotator tilt-shift lenses have now been approved to carry the Carl Zeiss name. The 'Hartblei-Optics by Carl Zeiss' range of Tilt-Shift lenses includes a 40mm F4, 80mm F2.8 and 120mm F4 Macro. All three lenses are available in a variety of mounts, including Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony A and Pentax K.

Just Posted: Our full review of the Olympus E-30. The E-30 is the long-awaited 'tweener' model that fills the gap in the E-system range between the entry-level models and the flagship E-3. With a new 12 megapixel sensor, a selection of unique in-camera creative options and a wealth of features, the E-30 looks very promising on paper, but does it deliver in use? Find out in our in-depth review after the link.

[pic of David Brooks' photometer kit]

In following up on his discussion, on the last episode on Make: Talk, of building Sun Photometers and measuring total column water vapor, Forrest Mims sent me the following info:

The instrument that measures total column water vapor is a sun photometer with LEDs that detect at 940 nm (water vapor absorption band) and 820 nm (reference band). I've never published the circuit for this specific instrument, which I first developed in 1989, for it is identical to a standard LED sun photometer. Here is some online material:

1. My initial paper on using LEDs for sun photometry is here [PDF]

2. Detailed construction plans for an NSF-sponsored version of my LED sun photometer (1-channel) can be found here.

3. Detailed assembly steps for building a GLOBE sun photometer available as a kit from David Brooks.

4. Detailed protocol on the operation and use of the GLOBE near-infrared sun photometer for measuring total column water vapor can be found here.

[Thanks, Forrest!]

More:
Make: Talk episode #003 show notes and next episode

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bizwriter writes "Many large companies have been closely monitoring the Tafas v. Doll lawsuit over whether the US Patent and Trademark Office has the power to change the patent application process in significant ways, so as to restrict the scope of patents and the chances of getting one. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has finally spoken, with a split court ruling that the USPTO does have the necessary authority. The case stems from a court challenge to four new rules the USPTO put in place in 2007. A number of tech companies including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Apple, and Intel have supported the rule changes, which would strengthen their positions and make it more difficult for small companies to create, protect, and bring to market disruptive technology. These companies didn't have it all their way, as the appeals court said that one of the four rules conflicts with existing patent law and sent the other three back to a lower court for further review. If the decision is sustained by a full review of all 12 Federal Circuit appeals judges, it could be a blow to biotech and pharmaceutical companies, which depend on being able to obtain large numbers of patents. Expect further appeals on this one, and for the only beneficiaries in the short run to be the lawyers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Matth3w's Swiss AVR Knife conveniently packs several microcontroller projects into a single ATtiny84 chip -

Because of the flexibility afforded by microcontroller programming, it also provides a starting point for any number of projects based on LEDs and sound output. The SAK can contain as many programs as the 8K of memory permits and maintains eight states for each program. The current program and states for all programs are preserved in EEPROM between uses. The projects currently implemented in the SAK include the following.

• MiniMenorah -- Evil Mad Scientists
  
• Brain Machine -- Mitch Altman
  
• MiniPOV -- Adafruit Industries
  
• Noise Toy -- Loud Objects
  
• LED Running lights
  
• LED Candle
  
• LED Flashlight

Dang - that's quite a lineup! The project runs off of just one AA battery thanks to the inclusion of a Minty Boost in the parts list. If you're looking for a jumpstart with your first AVR/microcontroller project, the S.A.K. sure seems an interesting and economical route to take. Keep in mind this one could be assembled on basic perfboard without the gum tin, should the PCB & compact assembly seem a bit daunting.

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Our pals at Oomlout are looking for some open dev love for their robotic arm project. They write on their blog:

Its time to take open source hardware to the people who can make it really awesome, you.

Part of what makes open source software so powerful is the, varied skill sets of the people who work on it. While we at .:oomlout:. think everything we produce is awesome the depth of skill around our offices is admittedly rather limited. We can handle laser cutting and bolt counting but when it comes to math or programming or art we are quickly out of our depth.

Perhaps your an animator with a desire to bring your inverse kinematics knowledge into the physical world, or a researcher in need of an arm to move your beakers, or a puppeteer looking to produce an all robotic arm play, or a teacher looking to excite students, or something completely unrelated.   

We would like you to bring your expertise to this project. What we have is a five axis robotic arm design controlled by rather inexpensive hobby servos. (material and cutting cost about USD$150)

We can guarantee it is loads of fun to play with, and we think potentially very useful for more serious pursuits.

How to get started?

We have posted the design files up on Thingiverse along with the parts required to assemble your own (here). There are also photos from different angles to aid in the assembly (3D models to come). If you don't have access to a laser cutter you can download the file for free and have the pieces laser cut at Ponoko  (here).

Who knows if we get enough people on board attendance at our developer meetings may grow beyond the oomlout'ers and our cat (and need more than a kitchen table).

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Controlled Servo Robot Kit Our Price: $175.00 The Arduino Controlled Servo Robot Kit, also know as SERB, is a great open source project that includes everything you need to begin experimenting with robots and Arduino microcontrollers. Just assemble the precision laser-cut parts and you're off and running, no additional hardware is needed. It even comes with a demo program pre-loaded onto the Arduino.

The SERB has a built-in breadboard that sits on the top of the robot. This allows easy access for additional sensors and electronics. It couldn't be simpler to prototype on the fly with this amazing robot.

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We wondered a couple of months ago if eBay was warming up the Skype Billion-Dollar Buyout Plan, a hype-driven business model aimed at inflating the perceived value of the unit to would-be buyers. But Skype's emerged with a real business plan to try and boost its business by targeting small- and medium-sized businesses with a version of its service that can connect to their PBX phone systems using the popular SIP standard. Skype is selling one major benefit of the service as the ability for companies to accept inbound Skype calls to their PBX system, but aside from that, it's just trying to undercut other providers' rates for outgoing calls. But perhaps the bigger issue for Skype will be the high level of reliability and support business users will demand. Few will be willing to sacrifice those metrics on something as critical as voice telephony, and Skype's 2007 outage -- and subsequent lame explanation -- may not help in this regard. Also, as a company that thrives on taking away customers from more expensive services, Skype should realize that it, too, can be undercut. If all it's offering is cheaper prices, it won't have a very strong hold on its customers when the next cheaper solution comes along.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Leica has released a firmware update for the the D-Lux 4 digital compact camera. Version 1.20 improves performance of the auto white balance and auto focus functions of the camera. The latest firmware is available for immediate download from Leica's website.

Leica has released a firmware update for the the D-Lux 4 digital compact camera. Version 1.20 improves performance of the auto white balance and auto focus functions of the camera. The latest firmware is available for immediate download from Leica's website.

There are a lot of services and datasets that provide IP address geolocation, allowing you to detect a web user's city of origin based on their incoming IP. Unfortunately, most of these services cost quite a bit of money, impose limits on how many lookups you can do over a period of time, or aren't kept up to date with accurate information.

I came across a great resource today, put together by Marc-Andre Caron. He's done all the necessary legwork to solve this problem, putting together a free, monthly-updated MySQL dataset that will allow you to derive country, region, city, zip, latitude, and longitude from an IP address.

The IP addresses are listed in table ip_group_city. The data is not in the 1.1.1.1 format since it would need to be stored as text and we dont want that for obvious reasons.

Let say for ip A.B.C.D, the formula is
ip = (A*256+B)*256+C
(I assume A.B.C.0 is at the same location than A.B.C.255)

For example, if you have an ip of 74.125.45.100 (google.com)

The formula would give a result of :
ip = (74*256+125)*256+45 = 4881709

You would search for the IP address using MySQL by doing :
SELECT * FROM `ip_group_city` where `ip_start` <= 4881709 order by ip_start desc limit 1;

Keep in mind that the accuracy of the data is usually down to the location of a user's ISP. Don't expect this to get you down to a street address, but if you want to display relevant content at a city, state, or country level, this will do the trick the vast majority of the time.

IP address geolocation SQL database

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WSOGMM sends in an arXiv blog post about reflecting gravity waves. The speculation is that reflected gravity could go some ways toward explaining the odd readings being returned by Gravity Probe B. "In the couple of weeks since he introduced the idea that superconducting sheets can reflect gravity waves, Raymond Chiao from the University of California, Merced, has been busy with a couple of buddies working out how big this effect is... Chiao and co. ask how big the effect of a gravitational wave on a thin superconducting sheet is compared to the effect on an ordinary conducting sheet. The answer? 42 orders of magnitude bigger."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tamron has announced the development of a 60mm F2 macro lens that provides 1:1 magnification for APS-C sensors. The lens, called the SP AF60mm F/2.0 Di II Macro 1:1, will be available in Canon, Sony and Nikon mounts (with a built-in autofocus motor to allow AF to operate on the D40, D40X and D60). Its design, which incorporates two low dispersion elements to to compensate for various aberrations, lets you achieve 1:1 magnification at a working distance of 100mm. The F2 maximum aperture makes it a whole stop faster than other lenses in the same class. Price and availability will be announced later.

Tamron has announced the development of a 60mm F2 macro lens that provides 1:1 magnification for APS-C sensors. The lens, called the SP AF60mm F/2.0 Di II Macro 1:1, will be available in Canon, Sony and Nikon mounts (with a built-in autofocus motor to allow AF to operate on the D40, D40X and D60). Its design, which incorporates two low dispersion elements to to compensate for various aberrations, lets you achieve 1:1 magnification at a working distance of 100mm. The F2 maximum aperture makes it a whole stop faster than other lenses in the same class. Price and availability will be announced later.

Last week, we wrote about how, in a filing over the proposed three strikes rule in New Zealand, Google had filed a report pointing to widespread abuse of the DMCA takedown process. Plenty of others have noted the same thing, but some of the entertainment industry's lawyers are claiming my original report was false (it's great to feel loved). It's worth looking more closely at the numbers. Thankfully, one of our readers, Chris Brand, sends in the details of where Google's numbers came from. They did not -- as implied by the original report, on which I based my post -- come from Google's internal review, but from a report from two academics who studied the takedown process (pdf file).

From that report, we learn that the original letter from Google (and the subsequent reporting in PC World) was a bit misleading, but the actual point remains largely the same. This is why the entertainment industry is nitpicking around the margins. They think that if they can raise doubts about the fact that someone reports 37% instead of 30%, the rest of their argument is incorrect. But, the analysis by the academics clearly demonstrates the point that Google is making clear with its filing with the New Zealand government: when you grant the power to commercial parties to "take down" content or disconnect someone because they feel "wronged," they will undoubtedly abuse that process. That's quite clear from the nature of the numbers in the report -- even if the original Google filing and resultant PC World article were a bit off on the specific numbers. So, from the actual report, we see:

On DMCA notices:


• Thirty percent of notices demanded takedown for claims that presented an obvious question for a court (a clear fair use argument, complaints about uncopyrightable material, and the like);
• Notices to traditional ISP's included a substantial number of demands to remove files from peer-to-peer networks (which are not actually covered under the takedown statute, and which an ISP can only honor by terminating the target's Internet access entirely);


On link removal notices:


• Over half--57%--of notices sent to Google to demand removal of links in the index were sent by businesses targeting apparent competitors;
• Over a third--37%--of the notices sent to Google targeted sites apparently outside the United States.

As you can see, some of the numbers in the original PC World report (and Google's letter) were attributed to the wrong thing -- it wasn't about DMCA takedown notices specifically, but about link removal requests. However, link removal requests certainly would seem to represent a good proxy for DMCA takedowns. So, the overall point that Google is raising is still quite valid: these sorts of processes, whereby you allow a private entity to demand takedown, are wide open to abuse by those who want to take down things they have no legal right to take down. The entertainment industry lawyers will play a fun game where they pretend that because the numbers were slightly mixed up, the whole thing is fine to ignore -- but that's because they don't have any real argument concerning the fact that the DMCA (and other takedown) processes are widely abused. Furthermore, those same defenders of Hollywood's monopoly system will have great fun with the fact that these numbers are from academics rather than Google itself -- but since Google was using them in its filing with the government, it makes sense that the numbers are, in fact, consistent with what Google sees internally.

In the meantime, it's great to see yet another validation of what I've said in the past: when I post something, it's part of the conversation, and it's great to see the comments go back and forth to bring out how the original numbers were slightly off, allowing us to continue this conversation and clarify those numbers. You don't see that in the traditional press very much, do you?

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Did you know the Maker Shed is on Twitter? It's a great place to see what's new in the Maker Shed. It's also a great place to find exclusive deals, sales, and coupon codes for our Twitter friends. Follow us out on Twitter, it's worth it....[hint,hint].

Follow the Maker Shed on Twitter

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Via the Parallax site comes this project to build an automated wooden-nickel printing machine that's sort of an homage to coin-op penny arcade machines.

Nickel-O-Matic Robot

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Iddo Genuth writes "NASA and the US Air Force have successfully tested a new super-chute system aimed at reclaiming reusable Ares booster rockets. On February 28, 2009 a 50,000-pound dummy rocket booster was dropped in the Arizona desert and slowed by a system of five parachutes before it crashed to the ground. The booster landed softly without any damage. This was possibly the heaviest parachute drop ever, and NASA is planning to perform even heavier drops of up to 90,000 pounds in the next few months."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After the highly questionable claim that the US Trade Representative couldn't release details over the secretive negotiations concerning the ACTA proposal because it somehow involved state secrets (though plenty of industry lobbyists were given access), it looks like the USTR has agreed to review its policies on transparency. It's definitely a good thing, but the USTR also says that the process will take a few months. It's unclear how that may impact ACTA, but it seems like the USTR could easily review just that particular decision before reviewing the entire process.

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Ball chain is useful stuff, and even moreso when you find out there's a way to connect offshoots from the middle of another strand! Sean Ragan has a helpful guide to the different types of connections possible and used them to create a number of hanging plant suspension devices.

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Here's a nice homage to the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, from the early 1950s.

This was the most elaborate Atomic Energy educational set ever produced, but it was only only available from 1951 to 1952. Its relatively high price for the time ($50.00) and its sophistication were the explanation Gilbert gave for the set's short lifespan. Today, it is so highly prized by collectors that a complete set can go for more than 100 times the original price.

The set came with four types of uranium ore, a beta-alpha source (Pb-210), a pure beta source (Ru-106), a gamma source (Zn-65?), a spinthariscope, a cloud chamber with its own short-lived alpha source (Po-210), an electroscope, a geiger counter, a manual, a comic book (Dagwood Splits the Atom) and a government manual "Prospecting for Uranium."

John Swansburg, Culture Editor of Slate told me about a new project Slate launched in which they've asked its readers to document the recession in photos. It has over 200 images in its Flickr pool so far.

Great Shots of Tough Times: Slate readers share their photographs of the economic crisis.

George Maschke writes "I recently received a takedown notice from a corporate lawyer demanding that I remove a post on my Web site's message board. It purportedly lists the first 75 of 567 questions on the MMPI-2 paper-and-pencil psychological test. It seems to me that such posting of a limited amount copyrighted material for discussion purposes on a public-interest, non-profit Web site falls within the scope of the fair use exemption of US copyright law. I have thus declined to remove the post. I believe that the corporation in question is seeking to chill public discussion of its test, which applicants for employment with many governmental agencies are required to complete. I would be interested in this community's thoughts on the matter."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

On the New Yorker movie blog, Richard Brody tears into “Neo-Neo Realism,” A. O. Scott’s piece in the Sunday New York Times Magazine about the new crop of American independent films, saying it "rests on questionable premises and reaches dubious conclusions."

What Scott praises is, in effect, granola cinema, abstemious films that are made to look good for you but are no less sweetened than mass-market products, that cut off a wide range of aesthetic possibilities and experiences on ostensible grounds of virtue. It’s not new; it’s self-consciously, fashionably old-fashioned. Many of these films have a whiff of the sermon about them. “Gran Torino,” in which Clint Eastwood portrays an old bastard who becomes something of a liberal despite—not in the absence of—his worst prejudices and most bilious emotions—is far more politically sophisticated and daring than any of the films Scott names.

About “Neo-Neo Realism”

There's been a lot of talk over the years about the various studies and statistics used to measure broadband in the US. Very often the figures don't tell a completely accurate story, so there's been a push for the government to get better data as a part of the formation of a national broadband plan. It's clear, though, that wireless access will play a big part of the broadband future of the country, but it has to be handled a little differently. Wired networks can always have more capacity added, but wireless networks have the constraint of a finite amount of radio spectrum. A big part of regulators' work in enabling mobile broadband to blossom is in ensuring that spectrum is being used efficiently. This is part of the drive behind plans like the digital TV transition and the white spaces spectrum, which seek to wring more productivity out of the airwaves. But for more of these types of efforts to move forward, it's crucial to get a better handle on just how the entire spectrum is being used, so a couple of senators have introduced legislation that would have the FCC and NTIA undertake a "spectrum inventory" detailing the usage of spectrum between 300 MHz and 3.5 GHz. Hopefully this will make it clearer how much valuable spectrum is being mismanaged or hoarded, and open the door to some new licensing policies, like spectrum markets, or even just the opening of more spectrum to unlicensed use to take advantage of new technologies.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Richard Metzger is Boing Boing's current guest blogger

A few hours ago I was interviewed by Douglas Rushkoff on his new WFMU radio show, The Media Squat. Also on the program was Miriam Raymon from The Financial Times. Topics include the financial crisis (is there anything else to talk about?), local currencies, Karl Marx being trendy again, Crass, punk rock, counter culture, Boing Boing being the most successful underground publication in history, socialism in the US and of course, we end with the financial crisis.

iTunes link, Stream from WFMU.org

Richard Metzger is guest blogger

Richard Metzger is Boing Boing's current guest blogger.

It's hard to believe that this jaw-dropping series of videos of Royce Reed and Marilyn Hoggatt isn't a massive YouTube sensation... but it will be. Take one (huge) part "Grey Gardens" and add a hefty dollop of Peter and Raymond from "Shut Up Little Man!" and you kind of get into the Royce and Marilyn territory. But not quite, it's as unique as either and yes, it totally deserves to be spoken of in such esteemed context with these aforementioned FREAKS. Royce and Marilyn are two elderly ladies from "another era" and these videos document their lives in a SRO hotel in Los Angele's downtown "skid row" area (where they share a bed). One of them is happy-go-lucky and content with her life, the other is totally haughty with delusions of grandeur and an ever present glass of bubbly. It's one of the most tweaked things I've seen in some time.

Werner Herzog will plotz when he sees this! These videos are the best thing since medical marijuana.

1999 LA Weekly article about Royce and Marilyn

Marilyn, Mr. Bunny and Royce!

Quando, Quando

We've joked in the past that judges and politicians should be required to pass some sort of "class" on certain basic technology issues before they'll allowed to rule on lawsuits or create regulations having to do with technology. All too often we find that many of the problems created in the courts and legislatures are due to politicians simply not understanding technology. It looks like that's true around the world as well. Over in France, where politicians are pushing hard for a three strikes law, a reporter went and asked some politicians some basic questions to gauge their understanding of the technology in question -- and found that most had absolutely no clue. Combined with the fact that approximately 90% of people in a recent survey were against the law, and that the European Parliament has said any such law would be a violation of a user's civil rights, you have to wonder how politicians can possibly justify such a draconian law.

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Richard Metzger is Boing Boing's current guest blogger.

"There is no group more mythical than Faust." --Julian Cope.

Along with Can and Kraftwerk, art rock terrorists Faust are the prime exemplars of German rock music or "Krautrock." Until recently I'd never seen any film footage of them playing live in their early 70s prime, but someone kind uploaded this amazing clip to YouTube.

If you've not heard Faust's music before, I recommend visiting their MySpace page and starting off with "It's A Rainy Day (Sunshine Girl)" and playing it f**ing LOUD. Faust on Myspace, Julian Cope on Faust IV, Official Faust site, Faust perform "Krautrock" in London during 2008 reunion tour

diegocgteleline.es writes "Linus Torvalds has released Linux 2.6.29. The new features include the inclusion of kernel graphic modesetting, WiMAX, access point Wi-Fi support, inclusion of squashfs and a preliminary version of btrfs, a more scalable version of RCU, eCryptfs filename encryption, ext4 no journal mode, OCFS2 metadata checksums, improvements to the memory controller, support for filesystem freeze, and other features. Here is the full list of changes."

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Hello again, Boing Boing readers. It was BIG FUN being guest blogger last year and I am very excited to be back. It's a rare and special thrill be be able to communicate with so many people from the comforts of my office whilst still wearing pajamas and slippers! Many thanks to Mark, Xeni, David and Cory for hosting me again. This time around, I'll be posting a mixture of more whimsical pop cult recommendations, mixed in with some serious fare, stuff about, you know, THE ECONOMY, the big story of our times. Later in the week I'll be taping some interviews with Douglas Rushkoff about his upcoming book, Life Inc., (pre-order now and support Doug!) and I'll also be talking to Charles Hugh Smith about his new (free) E-book, Survival+, which he begins serializing today at his Of Two Minds blog. Still working out the production details, but that should appear here later during my Boing Boing tenure.

--Richard Metzger

Photo of Richard Metzger and Tara McGinley by Kendra Miller

Nearly a year ago, we were surprised, but hopeful when it was announced that Doug Merrill, former CIO of Google was joining EMI to head up its digital initiatives. It definitely seemed like the big record labels could use a nice injection of Google-style thinking -- though, we were worried that Merrill would be pigeonholed as a "techie" rather than someone integrated into the wider strategy. And, indeed, watching EMI continue to make a series of self-destructive moves left us wondering how much influence, if any, Merrill had on the firm. Just a few weeks ago, we pointed out that Merrill should be ashamed to be associated with a company that is actively stomping out innovation left and right.

Who knows what the real reason is, but it looks like Merrill didn't work out at EMI. Less than a year after taking the job, Merrill is no longer employed by EMI. Neither side is talking about why -- though EMI said something about how it's unnecessary to have a separate "digital division." That goes back to our original fears: suggesting Merrill was limited just to digital issues, rather than overall strategy. But, the fact that he's totally gone from the company so quickly suggests that perhaps he tried to shift the direction of the company and was unable to get very far. That's a loss for EMI and the big record labels, who never seem to miss an opportunity to make things worse for themselves.

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The entire Boing Boing Video crew is in San Francisco this week, along with a number of the bloggers from Offworld, BB Gadgets, and Boing Boing, to cover the 2009 Game Developers Conference. And this time, for the first time ever, we're doing it with live video broadcasts on our new Ustream channel.

Tune in for conversations in our BBV@GDC studio with special guests from the gaming biz, Tuesday through Friday.

Above, a little segment we shot en route to GDC, aboard a Virgin America flight -- because if you're flying to a gamer con, you really do need to be able to play DOOM on the way, on the inflight entertainment system. In this episode, we climb way inside the guts of the plane, beneath the seats, and actually get our hands on the little servers where they store the DOOM cheat codes.

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Our live video stream and all of the video episodes we're cranking out this week will all live at offworld.com/gdc09.

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Flash video embed above, click "full" icon inside the player to view it large. You can download the MP4 here. Our YouTube channel is here, you can subscribe to our daily video podcast on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are the archives for Boing Boing Video.

(Special thanks to Boing Boing video's hosting partner Episodic, and to Wayneco Heavy Industries, and to the kind folks at Virgin America who let us goof off on their planes.)

CoreDuo writes "The people who bring you the DroneBL DNS Blacklist services, while investigating an ongoing DDoS incident, have discovered a botnet composed of exploited DSL modems and routers. OpenWRT/DD-WRT devices all appear to be vulnerable. What makes this worm impressive is the sophisticated nature of the bot, and the potential damage it can do not only to an unknowing end user, but to small businesses using non-commercial Internet connections, and to the unknowing public taking advantage of free Wi-Fi services. The botnet is believed to have infected 100,000 hosts." A followup to the article notes that the bot's IRC control channel now claims that it has been shut down, though the ongoing DDoS attack on DroneBL suggests otherwise.

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