OnlineArchive: Online

August 19, 2008

Project tracks its progress and location as it interacts

tagit.jpg

The "FOLKESTRONOMY" project consists of a mobile mapping device that connects to the Internet to update a map in realtime as participants interact with the project. The build consists of an Arduino connected to a GPS device that reads the coordinates and relays them to available wireless networks. This project is more complicated than this review merits, so I would suggest you to follow the link to read the excellent documentation of this project.

TagIt!

Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen | Aug 19, 2008 06:00 AM
Arts, Mobile, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

August 15, 2008

Calculate the solar potential of your roof

The RoofRay site allows you to specify location, size and slope of your roof via Google Maps. It then uses this info to estimate how much energy can be generated from your available exposure. Though perhaps not terribly precise, it's certainly helpful for familiarizing more people with some determining factors and maybe even making solar power planning a bit more fun (and viral!) - RoofRay [via Lifehacker]

Posted by Collin Cunningham | Aug 15, 2008 08:00 AM
Green, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

August 14, 2008

"Archaeologist" - See a MAKE timeline on DIGG

Make Pt0911
This is neat, you can see some of the top stories from MAKE that hit DIGG over the last couple years... (You can try out other sites and keywords too)...



Posted by Phillip Torrone | Aug 14, 2008 08:00 AM
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August 13, 2008

CircuitPeople - View and share printed circuit board files online

Gerber-Traces-And-Pads
CircuitPeople made a site where you can upload Gerbers in a zip file for easy viewing (PNG) via Ladyada. Also check out gerbv.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Aug 13, 2008 08:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

August 8, 2008

Chris Harrison's visualization projects

Biblevizarc7Small
Incredible collection of visualization projects by Chris Harrison -- I think I like the bible visualizer the most.

Bible Cross-References. This set of visualizations started as a collaboration between Christoph Römhild and myself. Christoph, a Lutheran Pastor, first emailed me in October of 2007. He described a data set he was putting together that defined textual cross references found in the Bible. He had already done considerable work visualizing the data before contacting me. Together, we struggled to find an elegant solution to render the data, more than 63,000 cross references in total. As work progressed, it became clear that an interactive visualization would be needed to properly explore the data, where users could zoom in and prune down the information to manageable levels. However, this was less interesting to us, as several Bible-exploration programs existed that offered similar functionality (and much more). Instead we set our sights on the other end of the spectrum –- something more beautiful than functional. At the same time, we wanted something that honored and revealed the complexity of the data at every level –- as one leans in, smaller details should become visible. This ultimately led us to the multi-colored arc diagram you see below.

The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc - the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.



Posted by Phillip Torrone | Aug 8, 2008 12:00 AM
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August 6, 2008

Online generative music … generator

Wolframtones

The WolframTones algorithmic composition generator creates a new multi-instrument sequence with every click -

WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music.
Includes options for style, instrumentation, pitch and time controls - you can even email each piece as a MIDI file
- Generate a Composition

Posted by Collin Cunningham | Aug 6, 2008 03:30 PM
Music, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

July 29, 2008

LegalTorrents - cool service

Make Pt0859
I was looking for a good and easy way to put up a torrent of a video. When you want to move a 500mb video file around it seems that eventually someone is going to need to pay a lot in bandwidth, some video services like Vimeo use Amazon's S3 but at some point if a video is popular (and high quality) it could end up costing someone thousands of dollars. This is where BitTorrent could come in, if something gets popular the burden of the download is shifted to the collection of downloaders. The problem torrents at the moment is that a lot of torrent sites are associated with copyright infringement, so LegalTorrents is a nice alternative that allows you to put your content up. It will be interesting to see what happens with video services in the next couple years.

For now, here's our test with LegalTorrents, a 500mb HD version of Citizen Engineer & torrent.

More:
Make Pt0858
Volume 12 - Remake Your Own Hollywood Movie (Page 76).

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jul 29, 2008 06:38 AM
Announcements, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

July 17, 2008

Immune Attack - 3D first-person shooter game... teaches immunology

Ct 2 400Pixels
Immune Attack is a shoot'em edu-game that teaches immunology! via /. . Available for PC, in vitro, in situ, and in vivo.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) presents Immune Attack™, an educational video game that introduces basic concepts of human immunology to high school and entry-level college students. Designed as a supplemental learning tool, Immune Attack aims to excite students about the subject, while also illuminating general principles and detailed concepts of immunology.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jul 17, 2008 10:00 AM
Computers, Online, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

July 15, 2008

HTML Color Name Generator

 3118 2670486902 1B86Bb20Ed O
 3076 2669664717 1073A2C35E
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

Funax built an HTML Color Name Generator to derive RGB hex code from a physical objects -

I can decide the HTML color name without looking at color charts.
[…]
PC side software was built with Processing. This stapler's color is Cadet Blue. Ok?
Ok! - HTML Color Name Generator on Flickr

Posted by Collin Cunningham | Jul 15, 2008 06:00 AM
Arduino, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

July 2, 2008

Noise generator ... generates noise (in your browser)

Noise

Load page, adjust filter, enjoy the isolating benefits of on demand noise. - Simplynoise

Posted by Collin Cunningham | Jul 2, 2008 02:30 PM
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June 30, 2008

Twitter Fail whale... a 3D sculpture from the MAKE Flickr photo pool

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MAKE Flickr photo pool member Hil writes -

[Here's] A little kinetic sculpture of the lovely Twitter Failwhale, based on the image by Yiying Lu that is used when Twitter.com is over-capacity. The image is called' Lifting up a Dreamer' I’ve wanted to make this since I first saw the image some weeks ago.

More:
Make Pt0766
You can follow MAKE on Twitter by simply here.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jun 30, 2008 08:00 AM
Arts, Computers, Crafts, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

June 24, 2008

How we made Google Apps Hacks

I've been using Google Docs more and more, especially for collaborative work, both at Dorkbot DC and Make: Books. At first, I did so reluctantly, but I've become a real convert. So I was thrilled when we (Make: Books) published Google Apps Hacks. I'm learning all sorts of useful and fun stuff from this book. If you're a regular Google Docs/Apps user, or you want to become one, you really should check out this title.

My cohort at Make: Books, Brian Jepson, and the book's author, Phillip Lenssen, have written a two-part piece on how they went about developing the book in, you guessed it, Google Docs. Here's Brian's recent post on Hackszine:

When Philipp Lenssen started writing Google Apps Hacks, we made up our minds that we'd develop the book in Google Docs. A while back, Philipp wrote up Part I of the story of how we made the book. From Writing a Book in Google Docs:

Currently, my editor Brian Jepson and I are collaboratively writing the book (tentatively titled) Google Office Hacks by O'Reilly using Google Docs. I wanted to outline the process we came up with, and maybe it's helpful for you too for certain needs.

I just wrote Part II of this story, and Philipp's posted it to the Google Blogoscoped blog. From From Google Docs to InDesign:

One of the tricky parts for us was getting the chapters into InDesign, the book layout program we use for our books and magazines. I know where we were coming from - Google Docs' HTML format - and where we were going to - InDesign's tagged text format.

From the Maker Shed:
googleAppsHacks_cover.jpg

Google Apps Hacks by Philipp Lenssen - all about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Presentations, and more!
Price: $29.99
Buy it in the Maker Shed

Posted by Gareth Branwyn | Jun 24, 2008 10:00 PM
MAKE Store, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

June 13, 2008

7 in 7: Day 4

7-in-7_day4.jpg

The fourth day of 7 in 7 at ITP revealed Seasonal Salad Dress, Spammed!, Face the Web and "Cheating" Book Cover. Click on a picture to read about each one-day project in the 7 in 7 blog.

Days: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Posted by Rob Faludi | Jun 13, 2008 10:00 PM
Arts, Crafts, Imaging, Online, Portable Audio and Video, Wearables | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

Realtime sensor network awaits your input ... or output

Pachube

Wow, this could grow into something quite awesome. Pachube is -

a web service that enables people to tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices and spaces around the world, facilitating interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual. The idea is to make it relatively simple to "plug" together interactive projects and buildings around the world, as well as to create embeddable graphs of sensor feeds.
Only eighteen feeds conected at the time of this post - but the datastreams are already quite interesting - from a Japanese living room to a swing in Sweden. Head over to the site to learn how to connect your own sensor/stream - Pachube Thanks, Chuckster!


Update: Interested Londoners can learn more about Pachube -

Extended Environments/Arduino/Networked sensors workshop

Using Arduino and Pachube, Usman will lead a 2-day workshop, June 21 & 22, at Arup's headquarters in London, kindly hosted by Tinker.it! The Extended Environments workshop will form a basic introduction to networked sensors, making particular use of Extended Environments Markup Language (EEML) and Pachube. Please join us if you would like to learn more about using Arduino to connect together remote environments across a network, share sensor data, or create interactive environments using Pachube, but you will need to register by June 15th!

- [ Only 3 days left to sign up! ] more info @ Tinker.it

Posted by Collin Cunningham | Jun 13, 2008 06:00 AM
Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

June 12, 2008

iPhone broadcasts live video


Wow, Flixwagon did what seemed impossible stream live video from an iPhone! Ken writes -

We're happy to announce that our development team at the Flixwagon lab has successfully streamed the first-ever live high-quality video from unlocked iPhones to the web, using Flixwagon's alpha client.

While we don't condone or recommend unlocking iPhones, as avid iPhone users ourselves we wanted to experiment with ways to enable flixwagon on the iPhone, until the official SDK supports video. We're going to continue working with the iPhone SDK in the future so we can offer this functionality to all users once video becomes a standard part of the iPhone.

After Flixwagon is installed on the phone, users can broadcast videos with one click to the flixwagon website. Videos can be watched live or saved for later. Also, videos can be embedded in blogs via our flixee widget or uploaded to the user's YouTube account. Users can also easily determine which of their contacts to share each video with.

We'll release the iPhone version to our Alpha testers in July. In the mean time, if you want to sign up for Flixwagon or get updates on future roll-outs and supported mobile devices, click here. Also, fell free to follow us on Twitter for continuous updates.




Update: Qik is going to have live streaming from the iPhone too, wow!


Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jun 12, 2008 11:30 AM
iPhone, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

June 10, 2008

Ebay data as music

Soundofebaylogo

The Sound of Ebay project generates an audio sequence from your auction history -

EBAY'S CONCEPT IS BASED ON TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN BUYERS AND SELLERS – TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN HUMAN BEINGS, NOT CONSUMERS AND COMPANIES. THE EBAY-GENERATOR SOFTWARE REFLECTS THIS CONCEPT IN A WAY THAT IT DOES NOT ONLY GENERATE YOUR FREE PERSONAL SONG, THE GENERATOR ITSELF SHALL BECOME A FREE APPLICATION THAT ANY USER CAN INSTALL ON HER/HIS COMPUTER TO PRODUCE AN ENDLESS STREAM OF BUBBLING EBAY-GROOVES.
(fyi - In addition to a lot of capitalization, the site features some NSFW pixel-art) - The Sound of Ebay [via Boing Boing]

Posted by Collin Cunningham | Jun 10, 2008 02:30 PM
Computers, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

June 4, 2008

YouTube has on-video annotations (demo!)


YouTube now has on-video annotations for content creators -- so this means if you own the video you can add notes, comments and hot spot areas to click to enhance a video (not URLs, just links to other YouTube videos). This could be very handy for electronic how-tos and "skill building" videos, from identifying parts to sending users to other videos for more information. Here's a quick example I put together, it's our Game of Life kit from the Maker Shed Store.

Note: YouTube doesn't seem to play the annotations all the time via an embedded player, if you don't see notes on the video visit the page directly here.

In 1970, John Conway came up with a 1-player game called Game of Life. The Game of Life is a mathematical game that simulates 'colonies' that grow or die based on how crowded or lonely they are and is known for the way it creates a beautiful organic display out of randomness. Here is a design for a simple electronic project that plays Conway's Game of Life. Make one kit and keep it on your desk, or attach multiple kit modules together to create a large display.
  • Each kit displays a 4x4 grid (16 LEDs)
  • Connect as many kits as youd like, in any configuration, to create a larger game board
  • Runs off of 2 AA batteries (not included), but can be easily modified to run off of USB or wall-wart power
  • On/Off button to save power, also for resetting the display
  • Automatically resets if the colony has died or stagnated (regeneration)
  • Backwards compatible with older versions

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jun 4, 2008 08:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Online | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email Entry

May 24, 2008

Add-Art replaces online ads with art

addart-demo.gif

From the Add-Art site:

Add-Art is a free FireFox add-on which replaces advertising on websites with curated art images. The art shows are updated every two weeks and feature contemporary artists and curators.

Spearheaded by Anti-Advertiser Steve Lambert, this open source project is being developed by Eyebeam. It works with AdBlockPlus, a Firefox extension that replaces online ads with blank space. This extension turns that blank space into art. Shows rotate every two weeks.

Posted by Becky Stern | May 24, 2008 04:00 AM
Arts, Online | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email Entry

May 20, 2008

Offline Oracle Ouija board

Andrew Salomone made this "Offline Oracle" take on a Ouija board. He made it as an "internet substitute" art piece. He writes:

The point of this piece is that access to information clearly does not make us smarter, if we are unable to figure out how to apply the information we have to some useful purpose, the internet itself is a perfect illustration of that. Every piece of useful information on the internet is also fodder for our own illogical arguments and opinions so in some cases it seems to me that a Ouija Board is just as acurate as the internet is at backing-up whatever it is that we want to believe in.

I think my subconscious is more in tune with the QWERTY keyboard layout than alphabetical order, and I love the giant cursor.


Posted by Becky Stern | May 20, 2008 07:00 PM
Arts, Online | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email Entry

May 18, 2008

CAPTCHA Paintings

lisp.jpg

qGphJD.jpg

I started making these acrylic recreations of CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) images late last year, and just came out with a new batch. These images are used by websites to prevent spam bots from creating accounts or posting content. Every time I find an attractive one online, I save it on a folder and then paint my favorites. They're for sale at my Etsy shop. Know a site with great CAPTCHAs? Post it up in the comments!

Related:

Posted by Becky Stern | May 18, 2008 02:00 PM
Arts, Online | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email Entry

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