Most hackers can spend their whole careers creating amazing software without ever needing to write a compiler or design a programming language. Like many professions, a lot of useful work can be accomplished with the established tools, rather than focusing efforts on the invention and craft of the tools themselves. Most carpenters purchase their tools […]
You’ve heard of magnetic orientation in migrating birds, the theorized “sixth” sense that allows them to see the earth’s magnetic field using deposits of magnetite in their beaks. To see what this experience might be like for a human, you can build a north-sensing feedback device into a belt using some pager motors, an Arduino, […]
It’s no surprise that indoor plants help to reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen in the buildings they inhabit, but this TED presentation discusses a particular indoor planting strategy that is being used by a business park in New Delhi specifically to improve air quality above industry standards, while also sealing all external fresh air […]
Pure Data is an open source patch programming language, similar to Max/MSP, written by Miller Puckette. It’s a high-level visual programming environment, where you add input and data manipulation objects to a stage and drag connections between them to define how messages are passed through the system when it is running. With a minor amount […]
I recall being pretty impressed with this augmented reality demo created by Boffswana last November. The basic idea is that you can use a webcam to track the real-world location and rotation of a special printed symbol. With this information, you can overlay a virtual object on top of the video stream and render it […]
If you make a 3D surface plot in Excel 2007, there’s an extra option in the chart properties that allow you to adjust the view angle. Don Sauer noticed that you can use this property to enhance 3D plots by turning them into stereo images. It’s a simple matter of making two charts and tweaking […]
This spread from the Urban Camouflage article is a thing of sly beauty. Author Todd Lappin shares his knowledge that “With the right accessories, your vehicle can always be on ‘official business’.”
