Posts

Posted on

Mousey the Robot Video

While perusing the lovely new Make site, I discovered this video of my Mousey the Robot project, as demo’d by Phillip Torrone. It shows his dog chasing the bot around his kitchen. Pets and miniature robots — always a good time.

Other Mousey items posted here:
Mousebot Revisited – Monday, January 30, 2006
Robots – Update to Street Tech’s Robot Project Pages – Thursday, December 08, 2005
Make in the Boston Globe – Friday, November 11, 2005
Me and Mousey on G4TV – Monday, July 25, 2005
Mousey’s Papa Found! – Sunday, May 29, 2005
Mousey the Junkbot Sample Pages from Make – Thursday, May 19, 2005
Make Vol. 2 is Out! – Thursday, May 19, 2005
Robot Book Parts Bundles – Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Posted on

EFF: Google Desktop? Just say NO.

The EFF is recommending that users not install Google Desktop, citing increase risk of privacy violation:

“If a consumer chooses to use it, the new “Search Across Computers” feature will store copies of the user’s Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google’s own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user’s computers. EFF urges consumers not to use this feature, because it will make their personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who’ve obtained a user’s Google password. ‘Coming on the heels of serious consumer concern about government snooping into Google’s search logs, it’s shocking that Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers,’ said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.”

Full statement here.

Posted on

More Squid-Inspired Cable Solutions

We love the squidtech here at ST Labs. As far as we’re concerned, flexibility is almost always better. Of course, these hyrda-headed cable solutions only add to the obscene cable-clutter, but we threw up our hands on that fight a long time ago. This is a new USB Hub series from Japan’s Elecom. No word on US availability.

[Via Akihabara News]

Posted on

CableCARD Demystified

The CableCARD has got to be one of the most misundertood and under-the-radar consumer technologies ever developed. It’s been talked about for years, but most consumers, even reasonably tech-savvy ones, aren’t exactly sure what it is or how the technology will work. Well, scratch your pointy head no longer. Ars Technica has put together an excellent, straight-forward primer on this next-gen cable TV technology.

Posted on

Where No Apartment Has Gone Before

Some days, the comedy just writes itself (from Gear Factor):

“…Tony Alleyne, a British man…converted his entire apartment into a replica of the starship Voyager. What began as a simple weekend project converting his refrigerator into a faux warp coil became an all-out compulsion to create a totally immersive Star Trek environment after his wife left him (apparently because of the refrigerator thing)…Unfortunately, starships ain’t cheap. Alleyne racked up 100,000 pounds of credit card debt financing his endeavor and has now filed for bankruptcy.”

Posted on

Make Vol. 5 Available

Issue No. 5 of the amazing and wonderful Make magazine is now out. The theme is “Science, Weather, and Outdoors.” I have a number of pieces in here, including one on garage model kit makers, a look at GTD Tiddlywiki, and a profile of Ky Michealson, a.k.a. Rocketman. Check out the Table of Contents here.

Posted on

The Big Bamboo

Ah. Bamboo. Takes me back to my charmed (or was it accursed?) youth, where my best friend and I made bamboo bongs and sold them to the local headshop. We became obsessed with the stuff. Our teen lair in the woods looked like Gilligan’s Island for awhile. We made everything out of bamboo.

21st century teens might want something a little more wired in their castaway hut. So how about a keyboard made out of bamboo? At least it’s “encased” in bamboo. We think it’d be a lot cooler if the keys where bamboo as well, but it’s a start. I can’t imagine there aren’t bamboo casemods out there as well.

After the jump, see the equally Gilligan-esque peripheral that’s just dyin’ to be plugged into the bamboo ‘board.

Posted on

PDF Mag for Podcast Fans

Podcast User is a new, free PDF magazine dedicated to podcasting. It covers the medium from both a listener’s and a producer’s point of view, with news, reviews, how-tos, opinion pieces, etc. All very professionally presented. Overall, a nice job. Hope they can keep it up. Issue 2 is scheduled for March 1st.

Posted on

Roving Mars – The IMAX Film

I went with friends last night to catch the new IMAX film, “Roving Mars.” Wow, what a ride!

The film’s based on the book, “Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet,” by Steve Squyers, and presents the dual missions of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which were launched in June and July of 2003. It combines interviews with mission scientists, scenes from the the trip to Mars, and the fascinating discoveries that the rovers have been beaming back to us during their unexpectedly long lives.

From the triumphs and setbacks during the mission’s development, to launch and arrival, to sweeping Martian panoramas, to the incredible machinic origami of the rovers, there’s so much exquisite geekery to savor here!