I couldn’t pass this post up. Virgin America is holding a special with Diggnation – buy one flight to anywhere they fly and get one free. You have to use the DIGGNATION promo code and you have to book by December 7th… but what a deal!
Here is another great console application that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. This text based browser supports up to 256 colors (but due to the limitation of your console, it will most likely be 16 colors.) and displays web pages really well. In fact, on some non-large screen phones, I’d rather have this as my browser.
It also supports mouse clicks, which is great if you’re on a page with a large number of links. It even supports scrolling with the middle mouse wheel.
Some cool features that are rare in the console world are the ability to parse mild Java script, a download manager, and support for tables/frames.
It’s also extremely small and immune to shock sites. The browser’s most common use is to look up help information after an X server crash. I also use it a lot over ssh when I don’t want to download something locally and then upload it to my server. It is especially useful when the server requires authentication before getting the file.
Maybe not as useful as HTOP, but it’s still handy if your tired of white backgrounds that hurt your eyes. —Link
Best writeup ever.
LEDs are to hobby electronics what peppercorns are to cuisine: they can be sprinkled anywhere.
Read the whole article here. – Link
I recently had the opportunity to climb the mast at the new New York Times Headquarters. It’s a 120 foot climb above the 52nd floor of the new building. Check out the fun video, and special thanks to Bre Pettis for the great music. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO.
I’m at the Metalab in Vienna and the guys here are working with a CNC Router to cut out Invaders! They’re using CamBam, which is an open source program for Windows. – Link
Update: after seeing it work, I’m impressed with the fact that this software takes into account the size of your tool, the only downside is that it’s kinda clunky. If you get it to work, take lots of screenshots to use as notes!
Learn how to use shift registers as Dave explains his LED oscilloscope project at NYC Resistor’s bi-weekly Microcontroller Study Group.
UPDATE:
We’ve all gotten excited about this project, and Dave has agreed to open up his code and document everything, but needs a little help creating the schematics, etc. Zach ‘Hoeken’ Smith of RepRap will be giving a demo on Eagle at the next NYCResistor Microcontroller Study Group meeting so we can create the schematic, and get started documenting this whole project from start to finish!
Soon after that, we’re looking to create a kit for this project to make it easy for people to duplicate it at home. It’s a great project for learning audio processing, breadboarding using arduino, shift registers, and how to make and use an LED matrix. That, and it’s just cool. I want one of these for my desk.
Looking for some good sensors for a project? Try the SensorWiki. It’s a great collection of different sensors. From Inclinometers, Rotary potentiometers, Force-sensitive resistors (FSR) and other kinds of ‘ometers’.
photo credit: aoifejohanna
All I’m waiting for to begin work on my monome, are 64 red LEDs and so I’m thinking ahead about programming languages. I don’t speak a programming language, but I may be looking to get started soon to make music. Everyone seems to love the power of object oriented programming in MAX/MSP, but it’s expensive at $495.
New York’s own Peter Kirn may have the answer for me. He’s got an awesome site, Create Digital Music, where he reports on the best stuff going on in the diy electronic music world. He reports that Pure Data (PD) has had a bit of a facelift and is easier to work with.
Hans-Christoph Steiner has been working for a long time on “Pd-extendedâ€Â, adding a lot of that polish and documentation, and making the whole thing easier to install. There’s a major new, finished release that came out last week. “Easy†might not be the appropriate word  but “easierâ€Â, combined with “powerful†and “freeâ€Â, might get your attention.
I’ll keep you up to date as I start work on my little monome device and start seeking help to make it actually do something! – Link
Wired has a great post about Ann Smith, an artist who, as wired says; ‘transforms electronics and appliances destined for the dump into nifty gadgety animals’. Check out the post to see some of the pieces as stop motion animation. It doesn’t look like these are actual working, moving bots, but I’m sure with a little technical prowess, they could be. Either way they are very creative.
