• steps:
1. grab a pencil and split open
2. take out the pencil lead and break it into 1 inch sections
3. split some speaker wire and attach to lead
4. split other end and attach to your car battery



Turn A PENCIL Into A LIGHT ! - video powered by Metacafe

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“Google has just announced on their Google Lat-Long blog that they have acquired ImageAmerica - a company that builds high resolution cameras for the collection of aerial imagery.”

• Google previously used imagery from ImageAmerica in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

• Google states:

We’re excited about how ImageAmerica’s technology will contribute to our mapping services down the road. Since we’re in the research and development phase right now it may be some time before you see any of this imagery in Google Maps or Earth — we’ll keep you posted on this blog!

• ImageAmerica was based in Clayton, Missouri and reportedly had patented camera technology and automatic image processing technologies for producing orthographic photography, perfect for Google Earth and Maps

read more at
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/07/google_acquires_imag.html

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“Amidst the frenzy to unlock the iPhone to run on networks other that AT&T, lone hacker “Nightwatch” has been working away to run third party applications on the device.”

• from the wiki:

After many, many hours of intense work from “Nightwatch”, the first independent “Hello World”* application has been compiled and launched on the iPhone. This was made possible using the “ARM/Mach-O Toolchain”, Nightwatch’s “special project”, that he has been working on so carefully over the past few weeks. Certain parts of the toolchain (such as the assembler) are being refined and tested and these will be released as soon as possible.

It should be noted that Nightwatch has been instrumental in creating these tools, working in near isolation to get them finished. Nightwatch was also responsible for the “jail exploit” that he developed from information he and other members of the the dev team discovered.

• the “ARM/Mach-O Toolchain” is built using free and open source software.
• while unlocking the iPhone might never happen, this hack means that full, third party applications can be written, not just the janky web based ones.

read more at
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/07/hello-world-app.html

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“Getting things done isn’t easy. In fact, it’s incredibly tough. In this article, we look at four ways to get through your work faster: running your life online, mastering RSS news feeds, aggregating your social networks and using keyboard shortcuts to save precious seconds.”

• Word Processing Services
• Google Docs - A way to create your documents and share them too.
• Zoho Writer - Serious competition to Google Docs. There are some options present that Google Docs lacks and of course vice-versa.
• ThinkFree - Think Microsoft Office, except this is the online equivalent.
• Buzzword - A recently discovered service that is still in private beta. It has many offerings and a slick interface to boot! (Private Beta)

• Web Portals
• Netvibes - Generally considered to be the first successful, independent startpage.
• Pageflakes - Pageflakes could be considered the brother-in-law to Netvibes and both have very similar offerings in customization and content.
• iGoogle - If you have a Google account, then the iGoogle comes part of the package deal, and since many of us have Google as our home page anyways, why not give iGoogle a trial?
• My Yahoo - The offerings are somewhat more customizable than iGoogle, but essentially the same concept from a different provider.

• Calendar Services
• Google Calendar - I personally use Google Calendar on a daily basis. It is just that freaking awesome!
• Yahoo! Calendar - Yahoo provides a pretty good, but basic, calendar application for organizing your life
• 30 Boxes - Has a lightning fast interface that is really easy to navigate makes this a good contender.
• Kiko - A very nice calendar application with a drag & drop interface.

• Contact Management Services
• Plaxo - One of the best known services which allow you to keep track of contacts. Other services that can tap into your Plaxo account and utilize your contacts with your permission.
• Tabber - was created with the notion of linking together friends from many social sites and services, but it still serves very well as an address book and contact management application.
• Highrise - A premium option to manage your business contacts. If you are more serious about keeping your contacts and have hundreds of them, this could be a cost efficient solution depending on your needs.
• HyperOffice - Another premium service that offers control of your contacts. This is for more serious contact management.

• to see literally hundreds or more resources from other categories including Communication Services, Charting & Diagram Services, Mapping Services, File Storage Services, and RSS readers read more at…

http://mashable.com/2007/07/20/online-productivity-god/

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“Google said today that it would bid at least $4.6 billion on wireless airwaves being auctioned off by the federal government - if certain conditions are met…”

• google wants the FCC to mandate that any winners lease a certain portion of the airwaves to other companies seeking to offer high-speed Internet and other services
• google argues this will give consumers - who traditionally get high-speed Internet access via cable or telephone lines - a third option for service

• FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, last week previewed draft rules for the auction that did not include this so-called wholesale provision
• Mr. Martin’s draft proposal did contain a rule on open access that seems to be favored by all potential bidders, and google’s conditions would be at least partially met.
• open network access would allow consumers to buy the wireless device and software of their choice and use it on the new network.

• google’s position puts it at odds with major carriers like AT&T and Verizon Communications, which favor the current auction draft rules and plan to bid as well

• the auction could raise as much as $20 billion for the Treasury

read more at
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/apeegoogle.html?_r=2&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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“After 18-and-a-half years and sifting through 500 billion billion (a five followed by 20 zeroes) checkers positions, Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer and colleagues have built a checkers-playing computer program that cannot be beaten. Completed in late April this year, the program, Chinook, may be played to a draw but will never be defeated.”

• Schaeffer created Chinook to exploit the superior processing and memory capabilities of computers and determine the best way to incorporate artificial intelligence principals in order to play checkers

• how Schaeffer did it:
1. programmed heuristics (”rules of thumb”) into a computer software program that captured knowledge of successful and unsuccessful checkers moves
2. let the program run, while painstakingly monitoring, fixing, tweaking, and updating it as it went
3. an average of 50 computers, with more than 200 running at peak times, were used everyday to compute the knowledge necessary to complete Chinook
4. a database of information that “knows” the best move to play in every situation of a game is created

• Schaeffer started the Chinook project in 1989, with the initial goal of winning the human world checkers championship
• in 1994 it won, becoming the first computer program to win a human world championship in any game - a feat recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.

read more at
http://www.physorg.com/news104073048.html

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“The Möbius strip, obtained by taking a rectangular strip of plastic or paper, twisting one end through 180°, and then joining the ends, is the canonical example of a one-sided surface. Finding its characteristic developable shape has been an open problem ever since its first formulation…”

• how to solve one of math’s oldest problems:
1. use the invariant variational bicomplex formalism to derive the first equilibrium equations for a wide developable strip undergoing large deformations
2. formulate the boundary-value problem for the Möbius strip and solve it numerically
3. solutions for increasing width show the formation of creases bounding nearly flat triangular regions

• why it’s significant:
• could give new insight into energy localization phenomena in unstretchable sheets, which might help to predict points of onset of tearing
• could also aid our understanding of the relationship between geometry and physical properties of nano and microscopic Möbius strip structures

read more at
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nmat1929.html

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“A life-size, robotic fly has taken flight at Harvard University. Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot’s movements are modeled on those of a real fly….”

• other researchers have built robots that mimic insects, but this is the first two-winged robot built on such a small scale that can take off using the same motions as a real fly

• the researchers say that such small flying machines could one day be used as spies, or for detecting harmful chemicals

• U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding the research in the hope that it will lead to stealth surveillance robots

• how it’s made:
  • the team developed its own fabrication process
  • researchers cut thin sheets of carbon fiber and polymer into two-dimensional patterns that are accurate to a couple of micrometers
  • by carefully arranging the sheets of carbon fiber and polymer, the researchers are able to create functional parts
  • to make parts that will move in response to electrical signals, the researchers incorporate electroactive polymers, which change shape when exposed to voltage

read more at http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19068

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“It has been possible for several years now for Americans to dump their landline phone companies and pay much less with services that route calls over the Internet instead of over the regular phone network…the leader in this business, Vonage, charges just $25 a month for unlimited local and long-distance calling in the U.S. and Canada…”

• pros:
  • cheaper than traditional landlines
• cons:
  • services can’t connect to 911 emergency call centers in the traditional manner, and must use workarounds
  • others worry that if their Internet service goes out, so does their phone service
  • the stability of the VoIP providers isn’t certain

• a new type of VOIP option will go on sale in September from a Silicon Valley start-up called Ooma, whose product goes by the same name

• differs from traditional VoIP in two ways:
  1. Ooma is a $399 piece of hardware that you pay for only once, there are no monthly bills
  2. you can easily keep your regular phone service as an integrated backup, for 911 calls, and in case the Internet service in your home goes out

• international calls are routed through the Internet by Ooma and the company says they will cost roughly what Internet phone services like Skype charge for nonmember calls, which is well below traditional landline rates

• Ooma also delivers some added benefits
  • gives you a virtual second line: if a call comes in when you are already on the line, the second call can be answered from another extension.
  • has a built-in answering machine, and allows you to check your messages and call logs online

read more at
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20070719/ooma-puts-out-a-call-to-ditch-landlines-for-web-based-service/

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