Saturday, December 30, 2006

The New Yorker : fact : content

: "“After 9/11, when a lot of people were saying, ‘The problem is Islam,’ I was thinking, It’s something deeper than that. It’s about human social networks and the way that they operate.”

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Human Computation - Google Video

Human Computation - Google Video:
Simple games, broad implications

"This talk introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel approach: constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game -- many people play over 40 hours a week -- and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it.

I describe other examples of 'games with a purpose'... "

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Planetarium Project:

Planetarium Project:

Quoth Keith,

Photos of our new test setup including a 6 computer cluster, 6 projectors, and a relocated sphere. The cropped pictures of the spheres can be put directly into blender as angMap environments.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ksimmons/PlanetariumJobContinued

Picasa Web Albums - Keith - Planetarium J...

Picasa Web Albums - Keith - Planetarium J...: "Planetarium Job Continued
Rochester Institute of Technology

Photos: 9
Dec 22, 2006 - 931 KB
Public
Photos of our new test setup including a 6 computer cluster, 6 projectors, and a relocated sphere. The cropped pictures of the spheres can be put directly into blender as angMap environments.


Planetarium Job Continued
Rochester Institute of Technology

Photos: 9
Dec 22, 2006 - 931 KB
Public
Photos of our new test setup including a 6 computer cluster, 6 projectors, and a relocated sphere. The cropped pictures of the spheres can be put directly into blender as angMap environments.

Professor Jonathan Schull looks for space on our cluster cart. Note the flat wheel.

6 new projectors in cases.

Monday, December 18, 2006

NodeBox

Processing without brackets ...
Very beautiful, very powerful.

nodebox.net
NodeBox NodeBox
NodeBox is free open-source software and comes bundled with its source code.


Python Powered Python Powered

In NodeBox, you design with programming code, with language. NodeBox uses Python programming code which is easy to understand even for non-programmers.
Illustrator Import Illustrator Import

NodeBox integrates effortlessly with various document formats. In NodeBox, you can include your vector images from Adobe Illustrator.
  • PDF Export PDF Export
  • The visual output you create in NodeBox exports to a PDF-document. You can automatically export multiple PDF-documents from the same script, and control the layout of each page individually.
  • Quicktime Export QuickTime Export
  • Aside from PDF-documents you can create animation in NodeBox as well. Animations can be exported as QuickTime movies that can be displayed on web pages.

NodeBox comes well documented:

* a reference containing a detailed description of each NodeBox command
* a tutorial with various techniques and examples to get you started
* a library with a wealth of packages to extend NodeBox's capabilities
* a gallery of examples.

codeninja.de - codejutsu by mnt

codeninja.de - codejutsu by mnt

Gesture based control using a Laser pointer and Image Recognition

As my previous experiments were too simple ....

codeninja.de - codejutsu by mnt

codeninja.de - codejutsu by mnt

Gesture based control using a Laser pointer and Image Recognition

As my previous experiments were too simple ....


Potenco


Potenco has developed a patent-pending portable power generator that is always powered wherever you go. Simply pull a cord for a few minutes and generate electric power for up to several hours.

This portable green power keeps electronic devices working all the time. It can be used to power mobile phones, PDAs, lighting products, and digital cameras among many other possibilities

Our technology gives users freedom and independence from traditional power sources. It has been selected as a power provider for the $100 Laptop (One Laptop per Child)

It is the ideal power source for millions in developing countries that do not have access to dependable electricity. Potenco is developing a host of products that will change the way that power is delivered and utilized, both in developing and developed countries.



Potenco: "Potenco has developed a patent-pending portable power generator that is always powered wherever you go. Simply pull a cord for a few minutes and generate electric power for up to several hours.

This portable green power keeps electronic devices working all the time. It can be used to power mobile phones, PDAs, lighting products, and digital cameras among many other possibilities

Our technology gives users freedom and independence from traditional power sources. It has been selected as a power provider for the $100 Laptop (One Laptop per Child)

It is the ideal power source for millions in developing countries that do not have access to dependable electricity. Potenco is developing a host of products that will change the way that power is delivered and utilized, both in developing and developed countries.
"

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Ajax DNS

Ajax DNS: DNS tools for real people
lean mean clean fast.
about time

Flash Earth ...satellite and aerial imagery of the Earth in Flash

Flash Earth ...satellite and aerial imagery of the Earth in Flash

Compare, Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Microsoft Maps
Zoom in to see my house.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Energy-Harvesting Floors - New York Times

Energy-Harvesting Floors - New York Times: "Energy-Harvesting Floors

The average human being generates about eight watts of energy with each step, most of which is expended as vibration. It may not sound like much, but take the 30,000 or more people who pass through a major-city subway hub at rush hour, and suddenly you’ve got serious power. That’s usually a problem for architects and engineers, who have to design structures to withstand such small but persistent pressure. But the Facility, a London architecture firm, sees it as an opportunity. The company proposes putting small hydraulic generators in floors to capture vibration and convert it into electricity.

The Facility will roll out a prototype energy-harvesting staircase next year and ultimately use the technology, dubbed the Pacesetter, as part of a larger project to revamp London’s South Central subway stations. “For each footstep we can harvest three to five watts of energy,” says Claire Price, the director of the Facility. “In a rush-hour period in this country, some of the larger stations experience 34,000 people walking through it. At three to five watts, you’re generating a lot of kilowatt hours, enough to power all of the lighting and audio equipment within the building and beyond.” Price and her company are also developing a similar unit to be placed in train tunnels — essentially, as Price describes it, “a microgenerator that resonates in tune with passing trains and that will generate power that will then power a series of wire-free L.E.D. light units, such as street lamps.”

The Pacesetter is part of a growing body of devices that capture the diffuse energy emanating from human and natural activity, ranging from enormous ocean-borne floats that make use of wave energy to the devices in some tennis rackets that draw power from the impact with a ball and use it to counteract vibration, thus reducing strain on a player’s wrist. Someday, the Facility team speculates, systems like the Pacesetter will be everywhere — not just in the floor but anywhere small amounts of vibration or other ambient energy can be harvested efficiently: under roadbeds, at gyms, even inside fabric. “It goes on and on,” Price says. “The possibilities are endless.” "

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Wiimote - Wiiki

Wiimote - Wiiki:
"Wiimote From Wiiki
This page is intended to be a technical guide to the Wii Remote. For an excellent high-level overview of the Wii Remote (aka Wiimote), see the Wikipedia entry.
"

Wiimote

From Wiiki

Jump to: navigation, search

This page is intended to be a technical guide to the Wii Remote. For an excellent high-level overview of the Wii Remote (aka Wiimote), see the Wikipedia entry.

Contents

[hide]
o

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Zamzar - Free online file conversion

Zamzar - Free online file conversion

Have you ever wanted to
convert files without the need
to download software ?



Step 1

Select the files to convert
(up to 100MB in size):

Step 2

Choose the format to convert to:

Step 4

Convert (by clicking you agree to our Terms of Service)




Zamzar - Free online file conversion

Zamzar - Free online file conversion

Have you ever wanted to
convert files without the need
to download software ?



Step 1

Select the files to convert
(up to 100MB in size):

Step 2

Choose the format to convert to:

Step 3

Enter your email address to receive converted files:

Step 4

Convert (by clicking you agree to our Terms of Service)




Make Bluetooth Work for You: Build a Sample Chat Application

Make Bluetooth Work for You: Build a Sample Chat Application/assets/articlefigs/5267.gif /assets/articlefigs/5258.png

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Wii Exposed: Wiinternals, Wii-motes, and a Teardown Wiideo > The Teardown

Wii Exposed: Wiinternals, Wii-motes, and a Teardown Wiideo > The Teardown:

Figures 16—21 show various pieces and parts of the Wii for your amusement.

Figure 16

Figure 16

Broadcom 802.11B/G wireless card

Figure 17

Figure 17

Bluetooth and SD socket

Figure 18

Figure 18

Full motherboard

Figure 19

Figure 19

Hollywood graphic processing unit

Smoother Transistions Between Breadth-First-Spanning-Tree Based Drawings

Smoother Transitions Between Breadth-First-Spanning-Tree Based Drawings
Christopher Homan , Andrew Pavlo, Jonathan Schull
Rochester Institute of Technology and University of Wisconsin-Madison

Abstract
14th International Symposium on Graph Drawing





Friday, December 01, 2006

WiiLi.org Wii Linux - Wiimote

WiiLi.org Wii Linux - Wiimote: "This page is intended to be a technical guide to the Wii Remote. For an excellent high-level overview of the Wii Remote (aka Wiimote), see the Wikipedia entry. New information and status updates should be posted to the Wiimote driver page, and will eventually be digested and summarized here."

Contents

[hide]