Monthly Archives: January 2014

Now this is a running jacket

The author wrote up a nice tutorial on adding LED strips to a jacket that can change color and pulse based on your pulse.  It can do other patterns as well.  My take, this is very bright and would be … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, Cheap, Misc-Life, Teaching and Learning | Comments Off on Now this is a running jacket

Audit of Xerox cameras should go farther

Article brings up a good point.  The speed cameras that where found to be faulty in Baltimore had an audit done on them (that found the problem was bigger than originally thought).  Anyways, more of these audits should be done … Continue reading

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Getting started guide for ROS

The Robot Operating System now has a starting guide.  It looks pretty good at first glance.  Myself, I haven’t tried using ROS yet so I can’t really tell. http://www.clearpathrobotics.com/blog/how-to-guide-ros-101/ http://hackaday.com/2014/01/29/the-robot-operating-system-ros-101/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+hackaday%2FLgoM+%28Hack+a+Day%29

Posted in robots | Comments Off on Getting started guide for ROS

Cheap Laser-based 3D printers could be coming soon.

There is a key patent expiring (along with some other ones this year) that could cause a change in 3D printing, to the point that the cost of a 3D printer, and the quality could drop quite a bit.  Kindof … Continue reading

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A robot that can bury itself

All I can think of is tranformers for some reason, or the movie screamers(sp?). http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/self-burying-robot-could-be-hiding-in-your-backyard-right-now?utm_source=feedburner-robotics&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrumRobotics+%28IEEE+Spectrum%3A+Robotics%29

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Xerox gets Downgraded

Just by the Street sofar.  It seems to have affected the stock some already. http://www.thestreet.com/story/12274911/1/xerox-xrx-receives-downgrade.html

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Pilot Project To Replace Hotel Keys With Your Smartphone Using Bluetooth

Interesting idea, I’m actually surprised its hasn’t been done before.  I will be interested to see how secure this is (and the app it uses). http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/pilot-project-begins-to-replace-your-hotel-key-with-your-smartphone-using-bluetooth/

Posted in Security | Comments Off on Pilot Project To Replace Hotel Keys With Your Smartphone Using Bluetooth

Personal Evaporator Cooler

Yes I know summer isn’t here yet.  But I am just getting ready. http://www.philippinestuffs.com/mini-desktop-aircon/

Posted in Tinkering | Comments Off on Personal Evaporator Cooler

Make a cheap sheet on a a bottle of coke

I got a kick out of this.  I saw folks in my day do this by hand.  But now to basically “photoshop” the answers onto the drink wrapper…gotta wonder if studying would have been better use of the time. http://hackedgadgets.com/2014/01/26/coke-bottle-test-cheat/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HackedGadgets+%28Hacked+Gadgets%29

Posted in Misc-Life, Security | Comments Off on Make a cheap sheet on a a bottle of coke

A light for last weeks stocks. XEROX

Interesting as everything else seems to have not so good reports in the stock market last week. Xerox and several other “print” based companies seem to have done OK. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/xerox-reports-fourth-quarter-earnings-2014-01-24?reflink=MW_news_stmp

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