Here’s a simple and fun project to do with Google maps and Flickr. Flickr member iDanSimpson has a step by step on taking a screenshot of a location, zooming out and using the build in slideshow to make a little view of just how small things are. It’s much like a DIY “Powers of 10”. Link.
More intrigue, suspense and a roller-coaster ride on the PEZ MP3 project it seems. The PEZ MP3 is project started by a stay at home day with the dream of bringing a PEZ MP3 player to market- the latest: PEZ won’t let go for “Candy for your Ears” and PEZ won’t allow the player to use the same heads as the normal candy filled ones. This might all sound like bad news, but Pat has some new ideas and some solutions.Link.
Here’s a great guide on making all the cool retroy pixel graphics. “Each separate IPA image is always going too made up of single computer generated blocks, known as pixels. Each pixel is the same size as any other pixel, but it can be any colour you can think of and it can fit together with other pixels, any way you can think of. You can think of a pixel-based image as you can a mosaic in real life that is made up of tiles to form an overall picture”.Link.
Every time I check in on what Casey @ Brains-n-Brawn is up to, it’s always over the top impressive. Adam on #joiito send me this latest gem- the latest project is a port of NASA’s WorldWind application for a Pocket PC. 1st cut at porting NASAs WorldWind desktop app (C# and Managed Direct3D) to run on a Pocket PC (C# and MD3DM). It currently does not work with the satellite imagery, but it does work with all the locally installed data, as well as handling some of the add-ons. Nicely done! Link.
Zunk writes “While traditional approaches essentially start with a “brain,” and attempt to build robots “downward” from that, BEAM robotics starts from simple reflexes, in a “bottoms-up” approach. The majority of BEAM robots are non-computerized (although simple CPUs can be used to drive them, in a “horse and rider” sort of way). Unlike many traditional processor-based robots, BEAM robots are cheap, simple, and can be built by a hobbyist with basic skills in a matter of hours. Because of this, BEAM is an excellent way of getting started in robotics, and of learning about electronics”. Link.
Wow, a Tablet Mac might be hitting the scene soon! Awhile back there were stories (2004) about a tablet Mac and today Mac Observer reports “Apple Computer was granted a patent for an enigmatically titled “Electronic device” Tuesday, May 10th, 2005. Illustrations for the device clearly indicate it to be a tablet-style Macintosh, and patent filings specifically compare it to the “HP Compaq Tablet PC” and several other tablet machines“. Of course if you’re jonesing for one now, you can always make your own.
Growing up as an only child, I spent a lot of time with an 8-track playing “robot” called 2XL. You’d get tapes and he’d ask you questions, to answer you’d press a button and then depending what you pressed it would play another portion of a track. It was pretty cool at the time and the Science tape was my favorite. Someone has made a Flash based one with many of the tapes you can try out and play. Memories! Link.
