Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Toys

DIY USB Servo-Guided Water Gun 66

Posted by timothy
from the seasonally-inappropriate dept.
An anonymous reader writes "What better way is there to learn something than by making your own DIY gadget? Here's a new video showing how to use a common hobby servo, in conjunction with a small water pump, to create a USB controlled water gun! You can use your keyboard to aim and fire at an unsuspecting passerby. Both fun and educational, this project looks like a great DIY weekend project for any IT guy, wanting to make sure people think twice before asking a stupid question!"
Music

The Internet changes the music business->

Submitted by
Krishna Dagli
Krishna Dagli writes "After reading this slashdot story,the blog entry here makes quite good observation on how music industry should realign.
From the blog entry "Many experiments are afoot on rethinking business models in this age of the Internet. The essential opportunity lies in utilising the very computer technology — which has obsoleted the record / CD business — by linking up the ultimate artist to the ultimate consumer, so as to eliminate the overhead of various middlemen. Byrne writes that a large portion of the cost of a CD is in overheads; the payments by the buyer of the CD mostly don't reach the artist. The 15% of the overhead that's spent on marketing/promotion is in the interest of the artist, insofar as it is about raising publicity and awareness. And yet, a key change of the electronic world is that friends pass on music to friends, giving a powerful word-of-mouth phenomenon through which awareness can be increased. It is different from the marketing blitzkrieg of pop music of old, but that doesn't mean it's non-existent.""
Link to Original Source
Businesses

eBay and Tiffany lawsuit->

Submitted by
Krishna Dagli
Krishna Dagli writes "The outcome of this lawsuit can affect a lot of online (and probably offline businesses), it can even change how
online auction houses conduct their business online.

From the article "In a weeklong bench trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan that ended last Tuesday, lawyers for Tiffany & Company argued that the online auction house was far more than that: it is a distribution network that enables the trading of counterfeit Tiffany items."
Printer friendly
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/technology/27ebay.html?_r=1&ei=5090&en=ae1fc1ead104343d&ex=1353819600&oref=slogin&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print"
Link to Original Source
User Journal

Japan's melody roads play music as you drive->

Submitted by
Krishna Dagli
Krishna Dagli writes "What would be the sound like inside the vehicle? Does one also feel small speed bumps?

The concept works by using grooves, which are cut at very specific intervals in the road surface. Just as travelling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes."
Link to Original Source
Privacy

A small victory for the EFF: EFF, Telcos and NSA->

Submitted by
Krishna Dagli
Krishna Dagli writes "Well this is a good news for the EFF, but will the case move on to discovery? Will telcos cooperate for their own benefit?

From the article link:
"In a victory for the EFF, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled today that AT&T, Verizon, Cingular (now part of AT&T), Sprint, and BellSouth (also part of AT&T now) must all maintain any data or papers related to the NSA spying case that Walker is overseeing in California. The EFF had requested the ruling out of concern that documents would be destroyed as part of routine data deletion practices before the case could even progress to discovery.""
Link to Original Source
Security

Real Spiderman coming to a ceiling near you-> 1

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes "Italian researchers today said they have formulated a substance that mimics spider and Gecko sticking power that they claim are strong enough to suspend a person's full body weight against a wall or on a ceiling. University of California, Berkeley researchers are also developing sticky technology they say will support heavy weight on smooth surfaces. First, Italian researcher Nicola Pugno, an engineer and physicist at Polytechnic of Turin, Italy said he has come up with formulas for using carbon nanotubes to make superadhesive gloves and boots that could be used in the future to create a super sticky suit ala Spiderman. He said the same technology could be used to build invisible cables that could act as super-strong cobwebs. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18865"
Link to Original Source
Networking

Internet bandwidth to become a global currency->

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes "Internet bandwidth could become a global currency under a proposed model for the future of e-commerce that exploits a novel peer-to-peer video sharing application designed by a trans-Atlantic team of computer scientists. Sounds great, but it remains to be seen whether this is implementable in real life."
Link to Original Source

Make it myself? But I'm a physical organic chemist!