PerlJedi - Slashdot User

Submission + - Man made Lightning (makezine.com)

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PerlJedi

on Thursday November 17, 2011 @09:54AM

PerlJedi writes: "There is a very cool write up on the Make blog on an effort to build the world's largest tesla coils.

“Somehow lightning can generate huge discharges with only about a fifth of the voltage per foot that lab discharges require,” Leyh explains. “The part that especially fascinates me is that this mysterious ability kicks in around 200 in length, which is right at the edge of what we can produce with a practical machine.”
"

Submission + - Laser Tennis (hackaday.com)

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PerlJedi

on Friday November 11, 2011 @08:44PM

PerlJedi writes: "Very cool write up of hack-a-day about a laser filled tennis ball... In case a laser filled tennis ball is not cool enought, this one is also remote controlled.
"While the laser ball was pretty awesome already, [Matt] decided that it wasn’t finished just yet. Using an IR remote package from Adafruit, he added the ability to trigger the Laser Ball’s light patterns from afar. You know, just for kicks.""

Submission + - Laser powered cars (txchnologist.com)

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PerlJedi

on Thursday November 03, 2011 @01:57PM

PerlJedi writes: "There is an interesting story on txchnologist about using Thorium powered lasers to power everything from the reqular electric power grid, to cars of the future. I'm not sure if this is actually plausible, but at least the concept car shown above the article is damn cool looking.
"A 250-kilowatt unit (equivalent to about 335 horsepower) weighing about 500 pounds would be small and light enough to put under the hood of a car, Stevens claims. And because a gram of thorium has the equivalent potential energy content of 7,500 gallons of gasoline, LPS calculates that using just 8 grams of thorium in the unit could power an average car for 5,000 hours, or about 300,000 miles of normal driving.""

Submission + - Bank of America, Goldman, Sachs, Citigroup are che (rollingstone.com)

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PerlJedi

on Tuesday October 25, 2011 @08:21PM

PerlJedi writes: "There is a fun editoral piece on Rolling Stones political blog. The premise is that the big banks and wall street fat cats want to believe that the OWS protesters are just "jellous" of their success, but the problem is not jealousy, its otrage that the banks aren't playing by the same rules.
"All weekend I was thinking about this “jealousy” question, and I just kept coming back to all the different ways the game is rigged. People aren't jealous and they don’t want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes, things like:""

Submission + - I for one welcome our new robotic overlords (concentratemedia.com)

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PerlJedi

on Thursday October 20, 2011 @09:48AM

PerlJedi writes: "Local Area hacker/maker spaces may not be new, but that are gain popularity. I for one love having a cost effective and easy access to the types of tools and equipment that are simply too expensive for hobby makers like me to afford.
"It's hard to differentiate between what Maker Works IS and what Maker Works MEANS. What Maker Works IS is 11,000 square feet full of incredibly cool and expensive machinery catering to four kinds of making: metal, circuits, wood and craft. It works like a gym — a large space packed with expensive equipment that patrons can access with daily, monthly or yearly memberships. ""

Submission + - local maker/hacker spaces (maker-works.com)

Submitted by

PerlJedi

on Monday October 03, 2011 @09:39AM

PerlJedi writes: "As the maker movement picks up speed and becomes more visible, "Maker Spaces" are popping up in towns across the country. Some are franchises with multiple locations, others are community supported. I visited an new space in Ann Arbor last week called Maker Works. I was impressed with the array of tools they already have available, and those they are planning to bring on-line soon. Being a hobby electronics/robotics geek, I was impressed enough to sign up for a membership of my own. I have many tools at home already for my projects, but their are a variety of tools that are not practical/affordable for any individual to own, especially for hobby purposes, such as the 50 Watt laser cutter I was trained on this weekend.
Personally, I am hopeful and excited to see what my generation, and the next will be able to create if such community supported shops continue to become more available around the world."

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