Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Build

Video Maker Joe is a 'Maker' Sculptor (Video) 16

Posted by Roblimo from the I-sculpt,-therefore-I-am dept.
Joe Gilmore was showing some of his work at Maker Faire Atlanta when Timothy Lord pointed his camera at him. Joe may never create a Mars colony or build the tallest skyscraper in North America, but what he does is fun to the point of whimsy, and seems to bring smiles to a lot of faces. (Alternate Video Link)

Comment Let's sing! (Score 3, Interesting) 47

Two boosters for every boy!

I bought a 67 Soyuz and we call it a capsule
(Space City, here we come)
You know it's not very cherry, it's an oldie but a goody
(Space City, here we come)
Well, it ain't got a back seat or a rear window
But it gets me in orbit where I wanna go
And we're goin' to Space City, 'cause it's two to one
You know we're goin' to Space City, gonna have some fun
Ya, we're goin' to Space City, 'cause it's two to one
You know we're goin' to Space City, gonna have some fun, now
SpaceX is hiring every girl and boy...

And if my Soyuz breaks down on me somewhere out in orbit
(Space City, here we come)
I'll strap my oxy tanks to my back and hitch a ride in my spacesuit
(Space City, here we come)
And when I get to Space City I'll be shootin' the horizon
And checkin' out the parties for a surfer girl
And we're goin' to Space City, 'cause it's two to one
You know we're goin' to Space City, gonna have some fun
Ya, we're goin' to Space City, 'cause it's two to one
Ya, we're goin' to Space City, gonna have some fun, now
Two boosters for every
Two SpaceX launches for every girl and boy...

Tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Ignore the lyrics on that one. They're WRONG!
Build

Video HYREL 3-D Printers Were Developed by 3-D Printer Users (Video) 55

Posted by Roblimo from the we-aren't-going-to-excited-by-a-printer-again-until-we-see-a-4d-one dept.
HYREL 3-D had a display Timothy spotted at last month's Maker Faire Atlanta. They're not trying to hustle Kickstarter donors; they exceeded their $50,000 goal by over $100,000. Their main pitch was (and still is) that they are making high-reliability 3-D printers that can run many hours without breaking. Project spokesperson Daniel Hutchison says he and other people he knows who were making prototypes and short-run parts in the Atlanta area were continually disappointed by the poor reliability of available 3-D printers, which is why they decided to make their own. Open Source? Somewhat, partially, kind of... but they have a bunch of proprietary secret sauce in their software, too. Daniel goes into this in more detail in the video, so there's no need for us to repeat his words when you can hear them (or read them in the transcript) for yourself. (Alternate Video Link)
The Internet

Video LibraryBox is an Open Source Server That Runs on Low-Cost Hardware (Video) 47

Posted by Roblimo from the share-thousands-of-books-no-matter-how-far-you-are-out-in-the-boonies dept.
The world is full of wireless servers -- or at least some of it is. There are still many places, including parts of the United States, where you can have all the laptops, smart phones, and other wireless-capable devices you want, but there's no server that caters to them. Enter LibraryBox. It's open source and it runs on a variety of low-cost, low-power hardware. The project's website calls it "portable private digital distribution."

A lot of people obviously like this project and wish it well. LibraryBox ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, hoping for $3000, and raised $33,119. But today's interviewee, Jason Griffey, can explain his project better than we can, so please watch the video (or read the transcript) if you want to learn more about LibraryBox -- including the story behind the project's name. (Alternate Video Link)

Comment Re: Well (Score 1) 594

by Roblimo (#48320925) Attached to: Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For

Think of a Formula One race car. It's a toy for the rich, not useful in the sense that a car should be. But developments that start in race cars often find their way into passenger cars. Like the rear view mirror. And the seat belt. And practical fuel injection. This list could be hundreds of items long.
Sci-Fi

Video Michelle Sleeper Creates 'Gaming, Comics, and Pop Culture Based Props' 35

Posted by Roblimo from the add-one-part-3-d-printing-to-three-parts-imagination-and-you're-good-to-go dept.
If you go to a sci-fi or gaming convention you'll see people in exotic "character" costumes, often holding exotic props, with some of the most popular being futuristic firearm mockups of one sort or another. Who makes all these cool fannish items? A whole bunch of artists and artisans, including Michelle Sleeper (who says she got tired of jokes about her name many years ago). She's not only one of these artisans, but is also a committed 3-D printer user, since 3-D printing is how she forms a high percentage of her props (with the word "props" being used here in the theatrical rather than the nautical sense). To keep up with what Michelle is making, you should check her blog. One of her most interesting posts, titled Atlanta Mini Maker Faire: On missing deadlines, failure, and triage, is about preparing for the event where Timothy Lord met and interviewed Michelle.

Even if gamer gatherings and SF conventions aren't your thing, the interview (along with the links above) gives a nice glimpse into the life of an independent artisan who uses technology to create a lot of her art. (Alternate Video Link)

Comment New and interesting failure methods? (Score 5, Insightful) 150

by TheBrez (#48303723) Attached to: Smartphone App To Be Used As Hotel Room Keys
I was at a hotel chain about 10 years ago that was using magstripe cards for room entry. Checked in, walked up to my room, swiped my card, and got no green light. Tried it again, no light. Just out of curiosity, I tried the handle and the door opened. Called down to the front desk to let them know my card wasn't working right, and they sent a maintenance guy up to fix it. The fix, a torx screwdriver and 4 AA batteries. When the batteries went dead, the door defaulted to open. With insecurity by default, what's to stop someone from walking up to a door with a small power screwdriver, pulling a battery, and walking into your room in about the same time as it takes you to swipe a card and get in?

Comment Re:What system d really is (Score 1) 928

by TheBrez (#48280997) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Can You Say Something Nice About Systemd?
Wrong. Redhat's first release was October 1994. RPM didn't come along until 1997. Debian's first release was August 1993. Their history doesn't indicate the date that the first release of dpkg was unleashed, but it was prior to 1.1, which was in June 1996. apt is a more recent addition, dselect was the package management tool of choice prior to that, and was around since 0.93R6 in November 1995.
https://www.debian.org/doc/man...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

I've been a Debian user since sometime in 1996, was a RH user from 3.0.3 until around the 6.X days, and was a Slackware user before that (back in the pre-kernel 1.0 days when a distro was 50+ floppies for a full install)
Technology

Video Remote Vision Through a Virtual Reality Headset (Video) 44

Posted by Roblimo from the it-looks-much-better-over-there-than-it-does-here dept.
Add some material-handling devices and you'd have software-controlled Waldos, first described by Robert A. Heinlein in the 1942 short story titled Waldo. So while the idea of a pair of artificial eyes you control by moving your head (while looking at the area around the artificial eyes, even if it's in orbit), sounds like futuristic fun, especially if you use an Oculus Virtual Reality device instead of an LED screen, it not only hasn't caught up with science fiction, but is a fair ways behind science fact. Still, the idea of being able to control a vision system deep under the sea or in orbit around Saturn is certainly interesting in and of itself. (Alternate Video Link)
Build

Video A Low Cost, Open Source Geiger Counter (Video) 46

Posted by Roblimo from the be-sure-to-take-one-of-these-on-your-next-trip-to-chernobyl dept.
Sawaiz Syed's LinkedIn page says he's a "Hardware Developer at GSU [Georgia State University], Department of Physics." That's a great workplace for someone who designs low cost radiation detectors that can be air-dropped into an area where there has been a nuclear accident (or a nuclear attack; or a nuclear terrorist act) and read remotely by a flying drone or a robot ground vehicle. This isn't Sawaiz's only project; it's just the one Timothy asked him about most at the recent Maker Faire Atlanta. (Alternate Video Link)

Comment Re:Um... okay...? (Score 1) 44

by Roblimo (#48199847) Attached to: The Bogus Batoid Submarine is Wooden, not Yellow (Video)

i kan(t) read:

You know very well that Tim hits various events and videotapes whomever or whatever he considers interesting. If we were paid for running "video ads," each one would be clearly marked "ad" or "sponsored content."

Should we interview you? Know someone else we should interview? Email me with contact info. Maybe we will.
Build

Video The Bogus Batoid Submarine is Wooden, not Yellow (Video) 44

Posted by Roblimo from the some-people-build-ornithopters-and-some-build-machines-that-flap-their-wings-underwater dept.
This is a "wet" submarine. It doesn't try to keep water out. You wear SCUBA gear while pedaling it. And yes, it is powered by a person pushing pedals. That motion, through a drive train, makes manta-style wings flap. This explains the name, since rays are Batoids, and this sub is a fake Batoid, not a real one. It's a beautiful piece of work, and Martin Plazyk is obviously proud to show it off. He and his father, Bruce, operate as Faux Fish Technologies. Follow that link and you'll see many photos, along with a nice selection of videos showing their creations not just in static above-water displays, but in their natural (underwater) element. Meanwhile, here on Slashdot, Martin tells how Faux Fish subs are made. (Alternate Video Link)
Social Networks

Video Eggcyte is Making a Pocket-Sized Personal Web Server (Video) 94

Posted by Roblimo from the my-data-belongs-to-me-and-no-one-else dept.
Eggcyte has been working on this for two years. It's on Kickstarter now; a personal server you can use to share music, video, text, and just about anything else without resorting to cloud-based services where one weak password can put your private celebrity photos (you are a celebrity, right?) into the wrong hands. If you suddenly decide you don't want to share the information on your Egg any more, turn it off. If you suddenly have something new to share, like a video you just shot of the Loch Ness Monster capturing an alien spaceship, you can connect your Egg to the Internet anywhere you find a wireless access point. The main thing, say the Eggcyte people, is that your data is yours and should stay that way. Facebook and other cloud-based "sharing" companies use your data to learn about you. Here in the U.S. their primary purpose may be to show you ads for things you might want to buy. In more repressive countries, cloud-based sharing services may use your private data in ways that could be hazardous to your health. Of course, our government people would never keep track of what we post on Twitter and other online services... or would they? (Alternate Video Link)

Slashdot Top Deals

This restaurant was advertising breakfast any time. So I ordered french toast in the renaissance. - Steven Wright, comedian

Close