Hardware Beyond the Hype
Eccentric gaming god Will Wright is going to be Stephen’s guest tonight on the Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 11:30PM Eastern). Should be fun. As Kotaku puts it:
That’s right, the industry’s recluse genius is going on the Colbert Report so Spore can be mocked for its ability to create creatures with three asses. Don’t miss it.
Thanks, Blake!
My entry today in the Federated Media Holiday Gadget Guide is on the Robosapien V2. Here’s a snippy-snip:
“Probably the most enthusiastic recipient of the Robosapien V2 would be the robot builder/hardware hacker, either teen or adult, who’d be anxious for the visiting holiday relatives to leave so that he or she could whip out the Dremel tool and soldering iron and get busy “improving” Robosapien. WowWee’s robot designer, well-known robotics engineer Mark Tilden, encourages aftermarket modding, and designs his toys with well-labeled circuit boards, plug-in connectors, and plenty of space inside for user-added tech…”
Read the rest of the piece here.
Jake von Slatt, who I’m profiling in the next issue of MAKE, has posted the details of his awesome “Clockwork Guitar” project a Strat he outfitted with a gorgeous brass etching he did for a pick guard that looks like it reveals the inner gears and clockworkings of the geetar.
This adorable kitty pic from the Machine Project site reminded me of something in Dave Hrynkiw’s Junkbots… book about how to remember the polarity of the cathode and anode sides of a diode. He said his Physics teacher used to say: “I fell very negative about cats.” (Cathode being the negative side.)
(And yes, I know this particular cat is looking at a capacitor not a diode, so don’t send me mail.)
Mark Allen’s awesome LA art space Machine Project will be teaching a solar robotics workshop on Dec 3rd using my BEAM articles from MAKE Vol. 6 and 8 as their guidebook. Cool. I hope they take lots of pics and post the results.
UPDATE: It looks like the workshop is already sold out. Bummer. I guess that’s what happens when Boing Boing announces your limited-seating workshop. But if you’re in LA, you still might be able to go to tomorrow night’s Dorkbot SoCal MAKE #8 release party, also at Machine Project.
Being reluctant to max major plastic on high-def technology yet, we’ve been fans here at Street Tech of Olevia’s more modestly-priced offerings. Last year, we had the Olevia 26″ HDTV-ready LCD TV in our gift guide. The 28″ JVC TV here at Chez Branwyn is nearly on its last cathode ray, so we were sorely tempted when we saw a Black Friday Circuit City deal for a 32″ Olevia HDTV for US$499. What we were NOT tempted to do was to get trampled in line at midnight. Maybe we should have not showered or brushed our teeth for a week (this time, on purpose) and taken our chances in line. This review of the set makes it sound like it’s way worth the five hundred bones and even a good deal at its regular retail price of $900.