Month: July 2006

Dollar based shirts

(via MAKE ezine blog)

Money origami is what this is. The directions are a little funky-reading at the important step of adding sleeves to the creation, but the end result is a pretty slick looking folded bill that looks like a shirt. I’ve tried this, and am pleased with the results. I want to add a clarifying point to the original creator’s guide:

Gently unfold the previous two folds, keeping the creases. On the lateral fold furthest from the collar, refold it strait across as shown. (On the flatbed scanner, this made a bit of a mess of it, but it is fairly easy in 3D.)

At this step in the guide, the picture shows a bill with the entire top edge unfolded.  I couldn’t make a sharp fold in the bill and keep the whole thing flat.  After fiddling around a bit and reading the next step, I realized that at this point, the bill didn’t need to be pressed flat while doing the step.  So fold the entire top end of the bill so it is squared off as shown in the creator’s pictures without keeping the paper flat until after the following step.

And that is not clear, either.  Just work through with the pictures and the guide and keep in mind that at the step I’ve highlight, getting the bill squared off is necessary and means the paper won’t be flat until you finish the step that follows it.

[tags]Money origami, origami[/tags]

Run your own windmill

(via Engadget)

Wind Energy Goes Mainstream with New Residential Small Wind Generator

Skystream 3.7â„¢ uses new technology to help homeowners take control of skyrocketing energy costs with clean, renewable energy

FLAGSTAFF, Az., June 27 – A new small residential wind generator from Southwest Windpower will give homeowners a new weapon in the fight against rising electricity costs. Skystream 3.7™ is the first fully integrated wind generator designed specifically for the grid-connected residential market.

A combination of new technologies, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, resulted in a product that quietly produces electricity for a fraction of the cost of current technologies. Skystream’s low cost and low profile provides homeowners an affordable energy supplement that’s appropriate for installation in many residential areas around the country. With no batteries, Skystream 3.7 connects directly to the home to supply power. When the wind is not blowing, the home is powered by the electric utility. Depending on the local utility, excess electricity can be sold back to the utility or used at a later date.

Here’s your chance to save yourself some money on power bills.  According to the press release, typical payback is 5 to 12 years.  Of course, if you are thinking about getting one, you might want to check your local zoning codes before trying to set one up in the back yard.  And the company recommends at least an acre of land to install your new windmill  So those of you in major metropolitan areas might not want to buy one.  If you do get one, be sure to protect it from knights who might tilt your way.
[tags]Wind power, Windmills, Don Quixote[/tags]

On the importance of backups

This story at Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless offers insight into the value or good backups and the importance of testing everything that affects the backup routine.

A Toronto advertising firm had a really good systems administrator who was religious about backup. For years, they had been in good shape. He even tested the restore/recovery process from time to time as part of their disaster planning. Smart.
As part of their growth, the ad firm moved into new larger facilities a few blocks away. The architects coordinated with the techs to make sure wires were put in the right place, phones, VoIP, 1Gig backbone… all the stuff modern companies have when they do things right.

Then, the company moved. All the typical stuff that happens during a move happened. Testing was done on everything that was moved. All was good.

Continue reading “On the importance of backups”

Tunnel digging as a hobby

med_hobby_digging.jpgModern Mechanix so often puts up cool stories. I need to think more about this tunnel digging idea from the August 1932 issue of Modern Mechanix magazine. I could go for a few extra levels in my house.

ONE of the oddest hobbies in the world is that of Dr. H. G. Dyar, international authority on moths and butterflies of the Smithsonian Institution, who has found health and recreation in digging an amazing series of tunnels beneath his Washington home.

Almost a quarter of a mile of tunnels has been completed, lined with concrete. The deepest passage, illustrated in the accompanying diagram, extends 32 feet down.
Every bit of earth was removed unaided by Dr. Dyar, being carried out in pails. He found the tunnel-digging an appealing form of exercise to relieve the intense strain of his work day, which involved much close work with high-power microscopes.

The catacombs are constructed in three levels, with steps and iron pipe ladders leading between different tiers. The idea first came to Dr. Dyar when he sought to make an underground entrance to his furnace cellar.

I suspect I might have trouble convincing the wife that digging under the house is such a good idea, though.

[tags]Tunnel Digging, Modern Mechanix[/tags]

First US digital computer

More modern marvels from Modern Mechanix.  This time, it’s a nice little write-up on the first digital computer in the U.S.  Originally published in Popular Science in 1944, the write-up now is probably only of interest to really geeky people (like me).  Some interesting facts about the IBM ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator) from the site:

  • It cost $250,000 in 1944 dollars.
  • It could calculate using numbers with up to 23 signifigant digits. These were set with an array of 1,440 dials (check out the picture below)
  • It took 3/10 second for add/subtract, 5.8 for multiplication and 14.7 seconds for division.
  • It weighed 35 tons and was powered by a 2 horse-power motor. (With mhz, ghz, mb, gb, tb, dpi, ms, bps, etc don’t you think it’s time hp got back into the computer lexicon?)
  • It contained 500 miles of wire

And some of the article in question:

SOME boy may soon work his way through Harvard University by watching a 51-foot switchboard all night in an air-conditioned basement. Behind its polished panels, electricity will be solving the longest and most difficult mathematical problems ever conceived. It will be doing everything that is known to be mathematically possible with such numbers as 12,743,287,341,045,502,372,098.

Even Commander Howard H. Aiken, U.S.N.R., the professor in charge of this 35-ton calculating machine, says he does not know what you would call a number that long. It is billions of billions.

But the young man running this figure factory will not need to be a mathematician. If anything goes wrong, a red light will flash, he will make a few simple adjustments, and the mountain of machinery will go swiftly on with computations that professors have not lived long enough to complete.

We need to get that flashing red light thing back on computers for when things go wrong, though.  The only flashing red light on my system at home goes on whenever the hard drive lights up.  And the only warning light I get is that bright blue screen that comes up for those special Windows crashes.

[tags]Supercomputers, IBM, ASCC, Modern Mechanix[/tags]

Enermax’ new keyboard = t3h sexay!

(via Engadget)
crystal-keyboard2.jpgEnermax has just announced it’s Crystal keyboard, available for purchase in Japan beginning July 10th for the equivalent of $86. Made of aluminum and connecting to your system with USB port, the keyboard features a very-low profile make, 2 port USB hub, Audio control keys, Blue LEDs (because Blue LEDs are t3h sexi0rist), and extremely high duty cycle keys (rated at 10-million key presses). Keep in mind, however, that this sucker weighs nearly 2.5 pounds. That’s well over one-third the weight of my laptop. So carrying this will certainly be adding a bit of a load to your laptop bag.  It sure is pretty, though.  And Enermax warns the keyboard is “not safe to look at due to risk of hypnosis.”
[tags]Enermax, Keyboards[/tags]

Rumor: Assassin’s Creed coming to XBox360 and PC

(via Joystiq)
I’ve just finished reading the preview of Assassin’s Creed in a recent Game Informer magazine.  If the game works out to be as good as it sounds, this will be one of the best games in the coming year.  Of course, Trespasser sounded to be the same thing, and look how it turned out.  I hope this is available on the PC or XBox 360, since I never expect to buy a PS3 (or at least, not until the PS4 is released) – I can only afford one next gen box, and I guarantee it won’t be the most expensive one.

So, the Joystiq article in full:

A handful of European gaming sites (1, 2, 3), likely originating with French site Xbox-Gamer.net, have “confirmed” that the mystery of Assassin’s Creed’s exclusivity has been solved: it will be making it’s way to both the Xbox 360 and PC, as well as the previously announced PS3 …

… at least, according to an off the record comment (where’s the reps name?) made to Xbox-Gamer.net at the recent IDEF 2006 expo held in Cannes. There was no information regarding any timed exclusivity for Sony’s console. We all have our suspicions (hence the mystery) regarding Assassin’s Creed’s multi-platform prospects, but an unsourced comment made by a random Ubisoft representative is hardly confirmation (we’ve contacted Ubisoft for official confirmation). Until it shows up here (which it hasn’t) we’re enormously skeptical. And we dance …

I can’t track down good links for this game other than the final one listed above (dang firewall blocks lots of good stuff), but this is a game worth looking up on Google and reading about.
[tags]Assassin’s Creed, Consoles, PS3, XBox360, Gaming[/tags]

Senator Ted Stevens doesn’t get the ‘net

(via boingboing)

Any of you techies wondering who you have representing you? Have you thought about who it is kowtowing to the telecomm companies who are trying to make the Internet a communication structured controlled by big media and big business?

Sadly, it’s people like this who are “working for” citizens in this country.

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially…

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.

It’s a series of tubes.

And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Yes, you read that right. Senator Stevens (R-Alaska) received an internet which took 5 days to travel via the Internet to him. And the reason for this, he thinks, is because the tubes that make up the Internet were blocked by other companies pushing through things not of interest to him. Because of this, cable internet providers, DSL providers, and other such companies should be allowed to charge the companies which send internets over the Internet so they can assure the senders that their internet will be received promptly.

I have no complaints about people not understanding the technology I deal with every day. But to explain something of which you have no concept and use that as the justification for dry-raping consumers while deep-throating big business is just not right. Learn about something before spewing this crap, and then at least support bad law because you understand the implications.

[tags]Net Neutrality, Big business, Raping consumers[/tags]

17 mistakes Microsoft made in the XBox security system

Sometimes, I don’t even know why I read these things. First, the XBox is kinda old news to most folks. Second, I don’t know many people in real life who care about security. Third, this write-up of XBox security system problems is old anyway (late 2005). But some how, I still find and read these kinds of articles, almost always finding them fascinating, even when I don’t understand what the heck is being said (far too often for my tastes). And if you are like me, you’ll want to at least peek at it, and see how much you understand about security system design and testing.

Motivation for the Security System

The Xbox being a PC, it should be trivial to install Linux on it in order to have a cheap and, for that time, powerful PC. Even today, a small and silent 733 MHz PC with TV connectivity for 149 USD/EUR is still attractive. But this is not the only thing Microsoft wanted to prevent. There are three uses that should not have been possible:

  • Linux: The hardware is subsidized and money is gained with the games, therefore people should not be able to buy an Xbox without the intent to buy any games. Microsoft apparently feels that allowing the Xbox to be used as a (Linux) computer would be too expensive for them.
  • Homebrew/Unlicensed: Microsoft wants the software monopoly on the Xbox platform. Nobody should be able to publish unlicensed software, because Microsoft wants to gain money with the games to amortize the hardware losses, and because they do not want anyone to release non-Internet Explorer browsers and non-Windows Media Player multimedia software.
  • Copies: Obviously it is important to Microsoft that it is not possible to run copied games on the Xbox.

Microsoft decided to design a single security system that was supposed to make Linux, homebrew/unlicensed software and copies impossible. The idea to accomplish this was by simply locking out all software that is either not on the intended (original) medium or not by Microsoft.

On the one hand, this idea makes the security system easier and there are less possible points off attack. But on the other hand, 3 times more attackers have a single security system to hack: Although Open Source and Linux people, homebrew developers, game companies as well as crackers have little common interests, they could unite in this case and jointly hack the Xbox security system.

Then falls all the gory details of how the XBox boot system works, what security systems were put in place to protect the boot, how the systems *could* fail, how work-arounds were found to take advantage of those failures, and so on.  It’s a great bit insight into how hardware hacking can be done, but it’s also fairly technical at times.

[tags]XBox, Security, Microsoft[/tags]

Today in history – July 7th

Here’s a smattering of information about memorable events which have occurred in years past on this day.

  • A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death (1456). — Sure, it’s a bit late, but I’ll bet her family was happy to know that she shouldn’t really have been executed…
  • United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $100 (1863) — Hey, now there’s a good idea.  Sure, having money being the reason you get out of the draft has always been the case – but in this instance, it’s more clearly understandable how someone skipped facing the draft without the need for the cowardly run to another country.
  • In Memphis, Tennessee, WHBQ becomes the first radio station to air an Elvis Presley record. (1954) — If that’s not history, I don’t know what is.  And being that I live in Memphis now, I figure I need to point out the accomplishments of this fine city (aside from the political scandals which seem to keep the FBI coming here a lot recently, that is).
  • Some cowardly maggots blew up bombs on three trains and a bus in London, killing 52 innocent people.

[tags]Today in history[/tags]

Papercraft Pirates of the Caribbean ship

(via boingboing)
To celebrate today’s release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, we’ll highlight a cool pirate themed papercraft project. I love looking at papercraft projects, but never have time to do them. This one, I’d really like to work on. After all, who doesn’t love a pirate?

wickedwenchpapercraft.jpg

[tags]Pirates of the Caribbean, papercraft, Pirate ship, Disney[/tags]

Flipper Critters DS video

(via 4ColorRebellion)
Flipper_Critters_picture_00.jpgI love pinball. I want a pinball machine for home, but haven’t found a decent one at a price I can/will pay. While searching for that pinball deal, I resign myself to PC based pinball simluators. While this provides entertainment, it’s missing the tactile experience one gets with real pinball. Going the other way, however, is Flipper Critters – a Nintendo DS game coming out in Europe later this year. Sure, it too is missing the whole actual experience of pinball, but dang it, at least we get portability. I’ll probably pick up this game if it makes it to the US (or if I can find an importer with the game at a reasonable price). Wondering why? Well, check out the video. Looks good to me.

p.s. Video link originally from and screenshot stolen from NintendoGal.

[tags]Nintendo DS, pinball[/tags]