Stupid Invention of the Day

Called the DI-wheel, this means of egress will have you throwing up in no time. Cool idea. No idea where this would fit into the real world, but who cares. Did I mention it runs on just batteries, yes its good for the earth, but I mean honestly what niche is this gonna fill other than a vom rocket. Anyways, I think the tech and construction of this vehicle? is really quite impressive and the physics that are behind it are very well developed as well. Bravo to the developers, but damn would I never go out and actually buy one of these.  Watch the video (warning you might get sick to your stomach). Sorry for the rant, its been a long week…..

-Stevo

Frickin Sweet LED Rave Glasses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found these bad boys on hackaday sometime ago before we started the blog. The premise of these is pretty simple make a sick pair of rave glasses. However, the engineering and inginuity that are behind them is very interesting as well. Using a Picaxe 20×2 micro-controller, and a slew of LED’s he ordered from china, he multiplexed each array so he control each LED with the limited number of pins on his IC. That in itself is pretty sweet and trying to keep this short I will not bore you with the wonder that is multiplexing. Anyways, after programming away for a while he came up with a few sweet animations to display across the two arrays. The instructables user has all the directions and required parts up on his article for you to view as well.  I’m thinking of attempting to make this sweet little diddys at some point, and will update you on my execution. Check out the video below (complete with some good dubstep)…

 

 

 

-DJ Stevie C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AdBloc: Google Chrome Extension

Just download it for your own good. Makes everything load faster, run better, etc….Its free too. All good things that are free are extra nice. I can’t believe I waited so long to do so. Here’s the link…LINK TO AD FREE HAPPINESS

Happy Friday Everyone…

-Steve

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook: Preventative Measures

Hey Ya’ll,

Just wanted to drop this gold nugget that was posted up on Gizmodo today becuase its definitley something you should take a look at if you’re a facebook user, we all are don’t lie. Follow the steps and you should do away with annoying spam and third party apps; as well as, the ocassional creeper or two. However, this will not block your parents from getting one, that comes with time(aka changing their password)…   Linkage

 

 

-Steve

 

 

 

 

 

GO BRUINS

I don’t even care if this is a tech blog. The Bruins are killing it right now. LETTTTSSSSS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Hack A Week: Wall-E Robot

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello world, just wanted to drop you a little article on a cute autonomous Wall-E bot that Dino from Hack-A-Week.com came up with. First off, I just want to give some quick props to Dino, week in and week out he comes out with fun, high-quality, interesting, and detailed hacks, which he posts on his website as well as hackaday.com.

Dino first started off with a little Wall-E toy he bought at a garage sale for $1; added an arduino, two motors, two h bridges to give the motors some juice, and set of ultrasonic ping sensors from Parralax. These all came together to form a sweet little autonomous dual tread robot that when confronted with an obstacle while find a clearer path to follow. This is all due to the ultrasonic sensor, which allows for the arduino to “see” by sending out a frequency sound wave and judging the distance when it “pings” back. The whole package is pretty neat and clean, as well as being one of the lengthier builds for Dino. I think he did a great job as always so check out the video below and definitely check out his site.

 

 

-Stevo

Most Important Smart Phone App: iOS/Android

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know about two apps that could potentially save your butt when you misplace your couple hundred dollar iPhone/Android smart phone. These apps are also super easy to use and take literally 2 minutes to set up, so read up folks.

Find My iPhone:

Whilst being free ( iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch) and saving your ass when you misplace the one belonging that gets you through the day, this app made by the good people of Apple takes you two minutes to set up. After signing up for a mobile me account, which constitutes you signing in with your apple ID, password and then verifying an email, you can start looking for your iPhone/iPad/iTouch immediately at your mobile me site. You can also make your device play annoying sounds and whatever message you would like it to. This is a great addition to my iPhone and I wish I had added this app sooner. Check it out, you won’t regret it.

Where’s My Droid:

This Android app, like all droid apps, is free and much like the iOS app it has the same features, which include gps location, ringer control, and the ability to send a message to your device. Check out the videos here…

 

-Steve

Japanese Ball Drone: Ball or Bust

Hey guys, just wanted to hit you with a goofy yet very very cool RC Recon sphere made by the Japanese Defense ministry. There isn’t a lot of info coming in right now on it, but I can tell you it tops out at about 40 mph, is spherical in nature, and the battery lasts a measly 8 minutes before it needs a recharge. The video says a lot about this guy; I was especially impressed by its agility and stability. It definitely reminds of the AR Parrot Drone, which has dominated the quad copter scene thus far. There is a lot of ingenuity involved here by the Japanese Engineers; nonetheless, 8 minutes of fly time is pretty awful and it isn’t super stealthy either. Definitely some serious work to be done to get this ready for the real world. Check out the video after the break…just a warning that its entirely in Japanese….

-Steve

Halo: Combat Evolved Remastered in HD

Just another awesome addition to the Halo series. Bungie is taking the original Halo and re-mastering it to full HD specs as well as opening it up to the xbox live experience. Definitely something to look forward to come next year. I know I’m excited for an all new campaign as well as online capability. Check out the teaser after the break.

-Steve

Disco Droid: ADK Dev Kit Awesomeness

 

Hey guys, just wanted to show you a cool hack with the new ADK Dev kit from Google.

 

This hack is a great example of the power that the ADK has to offer via real time control, I’m assuming with the use of Bluetooth wireless capability, of a sweet little android powered device. YouTube user chrisjrelliot hacked apart an Android figure and outfitted it with some LED eyes and four servos to control body movement. Chris can control the movement of this little dude via a few sweeps of some controls on his android powered tablet, which IMO is an awesome feature that I haven’t seen in the demos that people have been putting out. If you want to get your hands dirty with some sweet ADK hacks order one up from Google if you’ve got the cash [link]. Theres plenty of tutorials and all the software downloads you need to get started at the Android dev site so check that out as well.

Check the video after the break of Chris’ hack. Bravo sir, Bravo.

-Steve