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Month: November 2011

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Musical hard-drives take-two...

 
 

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via The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Slog by Mary Traverse on 11/29/11


Here's a cheerful way to start the day! Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" being performed on old floppy drives!

via.

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Won't be here in time to fit into a little stocking, but golly, what a stuffer!

 
 

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via Warren Ellis by Warren Ellis on 11/29/11


Years ago, I blogged some notes by Matt Webb & Jack Schulze, back when they were Schulze & Webb, on the notion of a “social letterbox.”  Later, Schulze & Webb and Matt Jones fused into the creature known as BERG, and became a company that did all kinds of interesting stuff, including publishing SVK.

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.

BERG Cloud, and The Little Printer. Or, as Jones put it to me last night, a node for the papernet. 

It ties together a bunch of ideas from the last few years: the social letterbox, BERG’s notion of the receipt as the “paper app", Tom Taylor’s microprinter. 

And in 2012 it’ll be a thing you can have in your house.  It comes with a cloud-based control system to allow you to precisely control what’s printed – therefore, what enters your home or office – and when.

Little Printer, a thing that makes the vague and numinous ideas of the papernet concrete, would appear to be just the start.  BERG Cloud, the thing that makes it go, is scaleable and adaptable:

Our technology means we can focus on great design for connected products, rather than programming chips to make them work. We have a list of products we’ll be making next, but if you have a need for anything from prototype Web-enabled clocks to smart infrastructure for a new city block, we’d love to hear from you.

And that is all kinds of interesting to me.

My friends amaze me.

 
 

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Our next at-home, rainy-day project?

 
 

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via Hack a Day by Mike Szczys on 11/25/11


When [Adr1an] wrote in to share a link to his PCB etching tutorial he mentioned that he knew we had already covered a ton of these guides. He’s absolutely right, not only have we featured a great number of them, but we also wrote our own quite a while ago. But that doesn’t mean we ignore them when they come in on the tips line. In fact, we read all of them that have something to offer and are pleased to feature the ones that are well presented… like this one!

[Adr1an] went all out with his writeup. He not only covers all of the elements that go into this, but discusses where to purchase them and his thoughts on how he arrived at the choice. He’s using the toner transfer method and prefers Brother branded toner for its coverage and resistance to over-etching. He prints on HP Everday Photopaper, then uses a laminator to transfer to the copper clad board. For this guide he used 2oz copper but prefers 1oz copper as it etches faster. His etchant of choice is Ferric Chloride, which can be ordered as a dry powder. He uses the direct etch method of loading etchant into a sponge an applying that to the board.

The board he makes in the guide looks great, and it only took him 28 minutes!

Filed under: tool hacks


 
 

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From: Alex M. Dunne | d i g i t t a n t e [mailto:alex@digittante.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 1:24 PM
To: Jeanne.Kohl-Welles@leg.wa.gov; marylou.dickerson@leg.wa.gov; reuven.carlyle@leg.wa.gov; phyllis.kenney@leg.wa.gov; david.frockt@leg.wa.gov; drivers@dol.wa.gov
Cc: bryan.bissell@leg.wa.gov; Opinion; Jennifer Sullivan
Subject: [ REQUEST ] How about "1 strike and you're out" for killer drivers?

Senators Kohl-Welles & Frockt, Representatives Dickerson, Carlyle, & Kenney,

I’m writing to you about public safety and the risk of licensed drivers who have killed on the road.

Senator Frockt and Representative Kenney:  You are likely aware of this weekend’s tragic accident in your district on Lake City Way NE and 110th street. An SUV slammed into a smaller car at high speed killing both occupants.

Senator Kohl-Welles and Representatives Carlyle and Dickerson: You may be aware that the driver of that SUV killed a woman on 15th Avenue West in your district in 2009 while also driving at high speed.

In the 2009 incident, the driver was initially charged with vehicular homicide but later pled guilty to only reckless driving and reckless endangerment. Lessening the charges didn’t lessen the impact. The victim remained dead. The driver was able to resume driving, and as of this Sunday, resume killing.

This driver has now had ‘3 strikes’ in two years, and I certainly hope he will be removed from the roads permanently. But could we make our roads even safer? Driving in Washington state is a privilege, and one that in some cases should be taken away more severely. What if, in Washington State, the law allowed only 1 strike for killer drivers?  Kill with your car just once, and no matter the severity of the conviction, you’re banned from driving for life. Implementing such a change would likely require RCW updates to the following sections as indicated:

My family and friends live in your districts and rely on these roads daily. I’d like to tell them you’ll include this proposal in your upcoming legislative work.

Please let me know if you’re able to, or if you have further questions.

All the best,

AMD
36th District
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Alex M. Dunne
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Who wants to watch me dissect/repair my 2006 iMac 20" on G+?I've got to replace the OEM Western Digital 250Gig harddrive in our main home computer. Five years of daily use seems like a pretty good run for one of these drives. Since Apple Care ...
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Who wants to watch me dissect/repair my 2006 iMac 20" on G+?

I've got to replace the OEM Western Digital 250Gig harddrive in our main home computer. Five years of daily use seems like a pretty good run for one of these drives. Since Apple Care on this iMac expired, I'm gonna replace it myself. This morning, live online if anyone wants to watch. As an added inducement for thrills and chills:

I've never done this before!

If you want to join in, join the huddle!

Attend #SIC2011 this week. Were you as un/impressed as I? Despite this being the "Seattle INTERACTIVE Conference" (emphasis mine), the interaction model followed the traditional television model: programmed spaces were dimly lit, passive, and...
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Attend #SIC2011 this week. Were you as un/impressed as I?

Despite this being the "Seattle INTERACTIVE Conference" (emphasis mine), the interaction model followed the traditional television model: programmed spaces were dimly lit, passive, and so large that looking at the big projection screen (instead of the speaker) was the only option from many seats.

This is experience is common to many conferences I've found. Here's the LP take on how to fix it...

10 Ways to design Professional Conferences like Adult learning experiences