This sounds like one of our News from Future topics– The Federal Aviation Administration proposed on Thursday to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits “obtrusive” advertising in zero gravity. “Objects placed in orbit, if large enough, could be seen by people around the world for long periods of time,” the FAA said in a regulatory filing. [via] Link.
I watch the daily news vlog (video blog) called RocketBoom with Amanda Congdon and today MAKE appeared on there! I had shot a video about our 2nd issue for a friend about our podcast article and it was automatically downloaded via ANT, then played. More about ANT here. And go check out the RocketBoom video here.
Leaving for another day the question of whether consumers have the right to modify video-game software they’ve legally purchased, a federal judge last week dismissed a lawsuit by California game maker Tecmo against the proprietors and users of a game-hacking website, after the company quietly settled with the two main defendants. Not sure what the settlement was so this might not be over yet. Link.
Zippo has some hardcore lobbyists! You can now bring empty Zippos on planes, at least in checked luggage that is. I’ve been following this Zippo thing pretty closely since I use a Zippo shaped camera and those aren’t allowed. The little camera has a cool mode that will take photos on a timed basis so when I travel I like to have it take time-lapse pictures out the window while I am gone. Link.
A long time ago you could modify a RadioShack dialer so it would play tones that simulate money was dropped into a payphone. Well, now it’s time for the old to meet the new. Here’s a How-to for doing this with an iPod- the ability to do this has been turned off on payphone for years now but it’s a fun thing reminisce about. I think the iTalk would be the best way to do this for playback if it were to work. Link.
If you can’t get enough of DIY R2-D2 building, here’s another from Italy– … taller (1.5 mt) but walks (with 2 or 3 legs) and beeps like the original, and flees from people holding light sabres! Oh, and comes with bluetooth and usb…The robot actually is the resulting prototype of a research project in creating a kind of slave or companion robot with a friendly interface. Link.
