Year: 2005

I am testing out a GHL-100XX 160mW+ green laser from LaserGlow.com. Laser power is measured in milliwatts, your standard red laser pointer is usually less than 5mW. This one is not only 30 times more powerful, our eyes are more sensitive to green light, so it appears even brighter. I really like using lasers for star pointing- Mark was telling me was helping his daughter with an astronomy project and needed to point out which stars in the sky were actually planets- this is where these lasers literally shine. Other uses- alignment (in day light) and doing really cool time lapse photos. With a laser like this one there are also some fun experiments- here’s a photo of the laser “burning” a hole through a red plastic cup. I’ll have some other photos soon, along with some projects. It goes without saying but I feel compelled to post this, never point a laser at people, cars, planes, robots, etc…

We’re getting very close to rolling out our first Make:Audio series- this week while visiting the Make Magazine compound I interview Kyle Rankin and Derrick Story. Kyle is the author of Knoppix Hacks. We talked about what it is, where to get it, how to run, some hacks and some cool things folks are doing with it. Later- all about digital photography. Derrick has authored numerous books on digital photography- we chatted about tips to take better pictures, iPhoto 5, favorite digital cameras and what’s ahead for digital photography in 2005. Stay tuned!

Dan, our Associate Publisher here at Make Magazine says “I’m about to tackle my wife’s vinyl LP collection. I just purchased a PowerWave from Griffin. Now I’m looking at software. I’m sort of leaning toward Peak LE 4.1 and SoundSoap from bias. Thought I’d check in with you. Know anything good/bad or otherwise of these products?”.

In the past I’ve only needed to record a couple things, so I used an Archos under the watchful eye(s) of a couple robots. Anyone have suggestions for Dan? Post them up in the comments!

On my flight today, I was chatting with a fellow who worked on CO2 lasers– since I happen to have my USB Radiation detector I figured this would be a good opportunity to detect the Cosmic rays coming in to the plane with interested parties. It worked (photo here). The detector picked up 80, 120 and 240 Muon Count Rate (cpm). I haven’t dumped all the data and looked it up yet- seems harmless of course, but it was really neat to detect stuff while high above the clouds at 20,000 feet. When I get time, I’ll map the data with GPS, Sat photos and altitude- kinda like war driving for radiation.

Last week I posted some photos on the iPod Shuffle waterproof case that I had pre-ordered. I’m working on a few DIY iPod cases and accessories, so it’s usually good to check out what the pros are doing. Today, my iPod Shuffle armband showed up (photos here). It’s pretty good, but I think it’s a little bulky for how small the Shuffle is. Expect a homemade version of this soon. Lastly, check out out these silicone Shuffle cases on iPodLounge, pretty spiffy.

I’ve been watching the Lexmark vs Static Control Components (SCC) pretty closely and it looks like Lexmark won’t be using the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to keep us from getting less expensive printer cartridges anytime soon. A little background- Lexmark tried using the DMCA to keep a company from making cartridges that would work with Lexmark printers. They did this by stating there were copyrights on the programs used on the printer and toner cartridge and if you made your own, you’re violating an anti-circumvention law. The reason this alarmed me is I think we’re going to see lots of manufacturers do this with cell phone and laptop batteries in addition to any “replaceable” accessory like power cords. The markup on these items are so high, some companies would love to only have us use their own “protected” versions. I tend to make my own chargers for any device I can, not being able to, or not being able to buy a less expensive alternative would be a drag. So- although this seems to be over, keep an eye out. Speaking of…next week I should have an “interesting” charger posted up, just waiting on the last part to ship.