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+ - Glowing Chuck Taylor All Star Sneakers

Submitted by coop0030
coop0030 writes "Becky Stern, at Adafruit, has created a tutorial on how to modify a pair of Chuck Taylor All Star Sneakers to make them glow. All you need is EL panel and an inverter tucked into the tongue of your shoe to get the stars in your Chuck Taylors glowing. Two styles! Watch the video on YouTube (please subscribe!), and catch the complete tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System."

+ - Makerbot and Adafruit team up for a special limited edition MakerBot->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "MakerBot and Adafruit have joined together to bring the latest technology to electronic and 3D printing enthusiasts with a partnership offering a Limited Edition MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer with special Adafruit kits inside. It will come with three of Adafruit’s most popular kits – the Timesquare DIY Watch Kit, the MintyBoost Kit, and Adafruit’s most popular Raspberry Pi. The Limited Edition Adafruit MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer will be available beginning March 14, 2013, online at Adafruit.com and the MakerBot Store in New York City will offer the three Adafruit kits as companion accessories."
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+ - Wearable open-source VU meter LED tie->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "Becky Stern, of Adafruit Industries, has created a necktie that lights up like a VU meter. A Volume Unit (VU) meter or Standard Volume Indicator (SVI) is a device displaying a representation of the signal level in audio equipment. The project that uses an Electret Microphone Amplifier to trigger 16 Flora NeoPixels sewn with conductive thread along the length of a tie. The NeoPixels are controlled by a Flora running an Atmega32u4 chip."
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+ - Hardware Hacker Ladyada to talk with the President today at 4:50pm EST->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "Open source hardware hacker, Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries, was selected to join President Obama in a Fireside Hangout this Thursday 2/14 at 4:50pm EST on Google+. Limor will be talking to the President live about manufacturing and education. You can submit your questions to youtube.com/whitehouse and the President will answer questions that are voted to the top."
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+ - Announcing Adafruit Gemma – Miniature wearable electronic platform->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "Open source hardware company, Adafruit, has announced a new tiny wearable electronics platform board called the Gemma. The Gemma is a tiny 1 inch diameter, and 4mm thick package. It's powered by an Attiny85 and programmable with an Arduino IDE over USB. There are 3 available I/O pins, one of which is also an analog input and two which can do PWM output. Gemma is currently wrapping up development, but should be available soon."
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+ - Circuit Playground plushies a perfect post-Xmas toy for hacker kids->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "CNET writes: It's a little late for Christmas presents, but if you throw a little time-machine action into the mix, this might be the perfect gift for the hacker kid in your life: Circuit Playground plushies. The plushies are the newest product from Adafruit Industries, a leader in the open-source hardware world and the maker of a wide range of products for hackers young and old. As Adafruit wrote about the new plushies on its Web site, "We know it's hard to figure exactly what will spark a young mind on to the journey towards science, technology, engineering, art, math and more — we wish we had these when were young.""
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+ - Adafruit to Teach Electronics Through Puppets in New Kids' Show->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "Wired has an article up about how Adafruit, the kit-based electronics retailer and promoter of hobbyist engineering, is aiming to teach electronics to a younger demographic. So young that they’re enlisting the help of puppets. Their new online show, titled Circuit Playground, will teach the essentials of electronics and circuitry to children through kid-friendly dolls with names like Cappy the Capacitor and Hans the 555 Timer Chip. Limor “Ladyada” Fried, Adafruit’s founder and chief engineer (and 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year), will host the episodes, with her team assisting with onscreen and puppeteering duties. Episodes will premiere this March, and Fried holds hope for them to help inspire the next generation of designers and builders."
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Open Source

+ - Open-source hardware hacker Ladyada awarded Entrepreneur of the Year->

Submitted by
ptorrone
ptorrone writes "Limor "Ladyada" Fried of open-source hardware company Adafruit Industries was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine. From the article — "Recognizable by her signature vivid-pink locks, Fried (or Ladyada, as she is known on the internet) is one of the dominant forces behind the maker movement--a legion of do-it-yourself-minded folks who create cool things by tweaking everyday technology. Last year New York City-based Adafruit did a booming $10 million trade in sales of DIY open-source electronic hardware kits"."
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+ - Raspberry Pi Model A, First Photos and Video->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "The first photos and videos of the Model A production samples are now available. The Raspberry Pi Model A is the newest low-cost computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Compared to the popular Model B, the Model A forgoes the Ethernet Controller, has 256MB of RAM, and has a single USB port. A benefit of the missing Ethernet controller is that power consumption is reduced. This allowed them to reach their goals of a low-cost $25 computer. The release date is for sometime early in 2013."
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+ - USB NeXT Keyboard with an Arduino Micro->

Submitted by
coop0030
coop0030 writes "Ladyada and pt had an old NeXT keyboard with a strong desire to get it running on a modern computer. These keyboards are durable, super clicky, and very satisfying to use! However, they are very old designs, specifically made for NeXT hardware:, pre PS/2 and definately pre-USB. That means you can't just plug the keyboard into a PS/2 port (even though it looks similar). There is no existing adapter for sale, and no code out there for getting these working, so we spent a few days and with a little research we got it working perfectly using an Arduino Micro as the go between."
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Comment: Re:This was stupid the first time... (Score 4, Interesting) 26

by coop0030 (#41564117) Attached to: Open Source Raspberry Pi WebIDE Alpha Released

This kind of response was certainly expected, thank you for the feedback though!

We built this because we thought that we could help people start quickly to get up and running with programs to blink LED's with their Raspberry Pi, or read temperatures with sensors attached to the GPIO pins (oh, and learn a little python, ruby or what have you, in the process!). We want it to be the easiest editing environment to use and setup on the Raspberry PI (low barrier to entry). We haven't built the guided experience yet, but you can kind of see which area of programming we're focusing on by looking at the following github repository:
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Raspberry-Pi-Python-Code

Also, you have to start somewhere with someone just starting out in this quite complex, and layered environment. What better way than to have an editor that is pre-loaded with some basic scripts that will blink an LED, or read temperature and humidity off a sensor breakout, on their Raspberry Pi with little effort in an environment they're already comfortable with (a browser)?

Sure, they could start by first learning basic unix command line, then their editor of choice, and git, and python, and then interfacing with the RPi's GPIO pins, and on and on. We're just trying to remove some of these barriers.

An expert developer with loads of experience may not need this editor (but it is pretty convenient to just plug the pi into an ethernet port, and start hacking away in your browser...). But for someone that isn't sure how to navigate directories in a command line environment...well, this might help them out a bit (we even include a pretty powerful terminal emulator that may help them learn this!).

We're hoping to keep adding more advanced features as we go. We're releasing quite early in order to gather feedback to make it better suited for more people earlier in the process.

Comment: Re:The cliche practically coined for this occasion (Score 2, Insightful) 271

by coop0030 (#37469444) Attached to: Samsung May Try To Block Next iPhone In Europe Too
And yet Apple's competitors are having a difficult time matching the price of the iPad, and the Macbook Air (with comparable quality). Maybe they're just a much more efficient company? Maybe it's a better run business to generate higher profits than their competitors? Nah, has to be 'fanbois' giving away their money...
Networking

Comcast Launches Broadband Meter 199

Posted by kdawson
from the cap-and-do-not-trade dept.
nlawalker writes "Beginning on Tuesday, January 12, Comcast high-speed internet users in Washington state will have access to an online tool that displays their bandwidth usage for the most recent three calendar (not billing) months of usage, including the current month. Washington is the second market to receive access to the tool, following its introduction in Portland. 'For the fraction of less than 1 percent of our customers who are concerned about exceeding our excessive use threshold, we believe this meter will help them monitor and calibrate their usage,' said spokesman Steve Kipp. Perhaps those who aren't using 250GB a month should take it as a challenge."

+ - Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget->

Submitted by coop0030
coop0030 writes "President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft."
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