crackblur

PodiPodi

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:03:11 -0400

PodiPodi: PodiPodi is an experimental project in Interaction Design born with the aim to give web designers a way to enhance their websites with two new levels of interaction: 1. an additional fast and easy to…

Starbuck & Starbuck @ Starbucks | via Fark.com

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:46:37 -0400

Starbuck & Starbuck @ Starbucks | via Fark.com

280 Slides

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:58:43 -0400

280 Slides: An excellent (and free) Keynote-like presentation app for your browser.

BeagleBoard

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:58:43 -0400

BeagleBoard: The Beagle Board is a low-cost, fan-less single-board computer based on Texas Instruments’ OMAP35x device family, with all of the expandability of today’s desktop machines, but without the bulk,…

PDF VersionMy final presentation for the HeadTrack (formerly...

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:13:11 -0400

PDF Version

My final presentation for the HeadTrack (formerly HeadJack) project.

Proximity Detection Perfection: Bluetooth + Asterisk + iPhone

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:56:55 -0400

Proximity Detection Perfection: Bluetooth + Asterisk + iPhone: Give your Asterisk server the ability to detect the presence of multiple mobile phones, and route calls directly to them when it has detected you are no longer present.

A brief history Internet Memes

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:17:14 -0400

A brief history Internet Memes: Here’s a fairly comprehensive timeline of the most popular internet memes since 1996. Well done.

SwiftLock - Conductive Velcro

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:14:31 -0400

Product: SwiftLock

Company:

Swift Textile Metalizing LLC
PO Box 66
23 Britton Drive
Bloomfield CT 06002
Tel: 860-243-1122
Fax: 860-243-0848
http://www.swift-textile.com/products.htm

Swift-Lock is a reusable electrically conductive hook and loop for grounding static electricity and closing shielding jackets. It can also be used as a soft switch to close conductive upholstery coverings, garments, or to piece together multiple fabrics as needed.

Alternate HeadJack Diagram

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:47:12 -0400

I think I like this one better.

SwiftLock - Conductive Velcro

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:07:19 -0400

Product: SwiftLock

Company:

Swift Textile Metalizing LLC
PO Box 66
23 Britton Drive
Bloomfield CT 06002
Tel: 860-243-1122
Fax: 860-243-0848
http://www.swift-textile.com/products.htm

Contact Juggling - I first saw this skill, like many other...

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:11:27 -0400

Contact Juggling - I first saw this skill, like many other geeks, in the movie Labyrinth. This guy blows that out of the water…

Current limiting Resistor calculator for LEDs

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:39:48 -0400

Current limiting Resistor calculator for LEDs

Final Project Sketch: HeadJack - An Alternative to Wireless Headphones

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:04:00 -0400

It has taken electronics companies years to release a decent pair of wireless headphones, and they still have not gotten it right. Yet people are sick are having a four foot cable dangling from their heads to their pockets.

Enter HeadJack.

HeadJack is a jacket that routes audio signals from the collar to a pocket, where the signal can be input via a standard 3.5mm headphone cable. The collar will contain two thin pairs of conductive fabric…one for the signal and one for common ground…that runs around half the perimeter of the collar. Behind the collar there are two sets of narrow & flexible strip magnets. HeadJack comes with a pair of earphones, each of whose conductors terminate in two magnets. These magnets are intended to snap onto the collar through attraction to the strip magnets. The poles of both the earphone magnets and the collar magnets will be positioned in such a way that the common ground and signal connections will always be attracted to the appropriate conductive fabric strip.

Here's an instructable on creating your own conductive glue, paint, and ink

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:24:21 -0400

Here's an instructable on creating your own conductive glue, paint, and ink

Instructable for making conductive glue, paint, and ink!

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:20:29 -0400

Here’s an instructable on creating your own conductive glue, paint, and ink:

http://www.instructables.com/id/SEOH3GFFABRWUOD/

SafetyCape - Documentation

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:20:00 -0400

As previously mentioned, for our Superhero midterm project, I created a cape for flying superheroes that afforded them with FAA-approved anti-collision lights…providing safety for aircraft passengers as well as the superheroes themselves. The SafetyCape!

The cape is made of satin, and I used Koln pressed conductive fabric as the electrical bus to power two red, two green, and two white superbright LED’s connected to a 555 timer circuit to make them flash every ~600 milliseconds. I also used some magnetic snaps to act as switches. (The superhero may want to disable the lights to sneak up on his enemies, ya know.)

I created a pattern on a piece of butcher paper and then cut around this pattern to create the cape shape.

I created an electrical bus around the outside of the cape using the Koln fabric and some iron-on fusing:

Then I sewed the red and green LEDs to the fabric using conductive thread.

For the rear flashing “tail” lights, I created a breadboard circuit with a 555 timer chip:

and then soldered it to a perfboard.

Then I sewed the perfboard to the cape’s bus, and sewed the LEDs ground pin to the output pin and the power pin to the positive side of the cape’s electrical bus. The final touch was to sew a battery holder and magnetic snaps switch to the cape, and create a clean hem using some doublesided tape.

Amazingly, it worked!

DestroyFlickr

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:34:51 -0400

DestroyFlickr: DestroyFlickr explores alternative methods for viewing and sharing Flickr content. Its user interface provides an environment that benefits photos rather than hindering them. With the ability to look…

John McCain being interviewed for some Christian fundamentalist...

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:05:10 -0400

John McCain being interviewed for some Christian fundamentalist network/show proclaiming that America was established as a Christian nation. While that alone is a bit disturbing (afaik most Founding Fathers were Deists and not exactly crazy about organized religion), he goes on to claim that the Founding Fathers used the phrase “In God We Trust” as part of their philosophy for creating the nation, which is patently untrue. That phrase was added to some coins for part of the mid nineteenth century, and again in the early 20th…but didn’t become the “National Motto” until 1956. Their real motto, which also appears on our currency and is far more accurate as our national motto, was “E Plurbus Unum”, or “From Many, One”.

SafetyCape - An FAA Approved Superhero Garment

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:27:28 -0400

A danger to other aircraft?!?!

Sure, flying superheroes are awesome. But we rarely consider the implications of their becoming another object in the already overcrowded air traffic patterns over major cities. The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System (ATC) works around the clock to ensure a safe and easy journey for thousands of flights a day, and pilots of all aircraft types must conform to specific air traffic patterns and airspace restrictions to maintain a safe and efficient sky for all. Unfortunately, not all aircraft are subject to ATC…and flying superheroes especially so. Aircraft flying in uncontrolled airspace, which is the majority of airspace over North America, must instead employ a number of safety features to prevent collisions with other aircraft in midair. Aircraft must be easily seen by other pilots to provide ample time to perform evasive maneuvers. Why is this not the case for superheroes?

The SafetyCape is designed to provide a flying superhero with the peace-of-mind that he or she will not be endangering the lives of airline passengers and private pilots with whom they must share the sky. The SafetyCape consists of a series of FAA approved running lights along the perimeter of the cape that help the average flying superhero conform to Federal Aviation Regulation Part 23 Sec. 23.1401 “Anticollision lighting system”:

Anticollision light system. [(a) General. The airplane must have an anticollision light system that—] (1) Consists of one or more approved anticollision lights located so that their light will not impair the flight crewmembers’ vision or detract from the conspicuity of the position lights; and (2) Meets the requirements of paragraphs (b) through (f) of this section. (b) Field of coverage. The system must consist of enough lights to illuminate the vital areas around the airplane, considering the physical configuration and flight characteristics of the airplane. The field of coverage must extend in each direction within at least 75° above and 75° below the horizontal plane of the airplane, except that there may be solid angles of obstructed visibility totaling not more than 0.5 steradians. (c) Flashing characteristics. The arrangement of the system, that is, the number of light sources, beam width, speed of rotation, and other characteristics, must give an effective flash frequency of not less than 40, nor more than 100, cycles per minute. The effective flash frequency is the frequency at which the airplane’s complete anticollision light system is observed from a distance, and applies to each sector of light including any overlaps that exist when the system consists of more than one light source. In overlaps, flash frequencies may exceed 100, but not 180, cycles per minute. (d) Color. Each anticollision light must be either aviation red or aviation white and must meet the applicable requirements of Sec. 23.1397. (e) Light intensity. The minimum light intensities in any vertical plane, measured with the red filter (if used) and expressed in terms of “effective” intensities, must meet the requirements of paragraph (f) of this section. The following relation must be assumed: Ie=; where: Ie = effective intensity (candles). I(t) = instantaneous intensity as a function of time. t2-t1 = flash time interval (seconds). Normally, the maximum value of effective intensity is obtained when t2 and t1 are chosen so that the effective intensity is equal to the instantaneous intensity at t2 and t1. (f) Minimum effective intensities for anticollision lights. Each anticollision light effective intensity must equal or exceed the applicable values in the following table.

In addition to increasing the safety for passengers and pilots, the SafetyCape can also ease the minds of superheroes by preventing accidental jet engine ingestion. Let us not forget the demise of poor Syndrome. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2mdFnO1uBI)

Due to the obvious demand the SafetyCape will create, technical drawings will not be posted to the Internet until they have been unveiled at a private briefing.

OK this is just insane. But still looks like fun!

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:09:00 -0400

OK this is just insane. But still looks like fun!