Boing Boing » Gadgets

Circus Galop: the bonkers, non-human-playable anthem used to stress-test automatic pianos

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:42:12 +0000

Here's a video of a mechanical piano performing Circus Galop (sic), a composition created to test the performance of automatic pianos and other instruments. It apparently can't be played by ~~humans.~~ a single, two-handed human.

Circus Galop is a piece for player piano written by Marc-André Hamelin. It was composed between 1991 and 1994 and it is dedicated to Beatrix and Jürgen Hocker, piano roll makers. Its duration is approximately 4–5 minutes.[1] Scores of this piece are available through the Sorabji Archive.[1] Piano rolls of this piece are available from Wolfgang Heisig and Jürgen Hocker, who have recorded all three of Hamelin's player piano pieces on the MDG label and were released in April 2008.[2][3]
It is not possible to be played by humans, as at some points all the piano staves are played at the same time, and up to 21 notes simultaneously. It is used to test MIDI software to drive it to its maximum potential, such as Synthesia, or PianoMIDI.[4]

The actual composition is pretty wild and amazing.

Circus Galop (Wikipedia) (via Reddit)

Test-tube chandeliers, named for Marie Curie

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:00:27 +0000

Named for Marie Curie, this line of Maria S.C. chandeliers from Poland's Gangdesign uses test-tubes as pendants that can be planted with sprigs or flowers. Here's the sell-copy, Google Translated from Polish to English:

This chandelier is made of tubes. It consists of two modules of different sizes, which can occur together or separately. Shape refers to the traditional forms of Art Deco, and the name is an allusion to the person of Maria Sklodowska Curie. "Maria" gives a wide field for the visual experiment. Version of the reel allows free lowering "Maria" to change the arrangement.

Maria SC. (via Craft)

Mechanical Elephants in America

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:57 +0000

Here's a fascinating history of Frank Stuart's Mechanical Elephants, a line of life-sized, rideable elephant automata that were sold to department stores and amusement parks in America in the 1950s. "Cybernetic animal and early robot" historian Reuben Hoggett has collected early print mentions of the Stuart elephants and traced their destiny through the rest of the century.

The Billboard 21 Jan 1956
WORKLOAD STILL HEAVY FOR SEARCHLIGHT FIRM
NEW YORK. Jan 14.- The huge mechanical elephant owned by Publicity Searchlight Company will earn a raft of publicity for the firm during the next two months, and possibly a $10,000 plum as well, if the plan of Macy's department store works out as envisioned.
Macy's gimmick campaign is to advertise the gasoline-powered contraption as the world's largest and most expensive toy, with a $10,000 price tag. A six-week program is chartered, and any $10,000 bids received will go to owner George Wendelken, who has a second mechanical elephant if the first one is bought up.
The elephants are one of Wendelken's two publicity elements which he leases or sells as the occasion demands (the market for mechanical elephants has been pretty slow in recent years). The backbone of the company is its fleet of 70 searchlights of which 20 are truck-mounted and the rest trailer-mounted......

1951 – Mechanical Elephants by Frank Stuart in America (Thanks, Frycook!)

Toy-sized quadrotors flying in formation

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:00:27 +0000

Researchers from GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania developed software to allow toy-sized nano quadrotors to fly in tight, precise and eerie formation. Gmoke sez, "William Gibson dreams of a mass of these things comprising a flying skyscraper. I imagine them as surveillance and policing drones ready to stop the OWS action or Arab Spring before it can start."

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors (Thanks, Gmoke!)

Clever wire-stripper design

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:52:16 +0000

Thingiverse user Brian Beebe has contributed this great design for an electrified wire-stripper that uses an LED to tell you the instant the razor-blades have penetrated the insulation, completing the circuit that lights it up.

Use:
* Sight down the blades.
* Align the blades with where the wire should be stripped.
* Move the wire into the blades having the blades cut into the insulation.
* When the blades cut through the insulation and contact the wire the LED will light.
* Spin the wire or the tool to cut the insulation completely around the wire.
* Remove the wire from the tool and pull off the insulation.

Electro Wire Stripper (via Make)

Junk-market door as a desk/table/streetdoor

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:12:36 +0000

This table, from Italy's Manoteca, is made from a junk-market door and a lot of style:

Made from a door found at a outdoor market in Modena, the table is outfitted with a custom steel frame and new hinges that enable the shutters to open and close at will. When flat, the table can accommodate up to 8 diners, while lifting the back panel open reveals an instant-work desk, complete with rawhide pockets to hold your empty leather-bound sketchbooks and drawers to keep that super 8 camera you’re planning to restore (never going to happen). In the words of the makers, “it’s a table, it’s a desk, it’s a streetdoor.” When it’s time for dinner just lower the top half and lock up.

A Table That’s Full of Surprises (via Crib Candy)

Papercraft Viewmaster and Etch-a-Sketch

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:11:13 +0000

Marshall Alexander made these free downloadable papercraft Etch-a-Sketch and Viewmaster models. He notes, "Instead of creating exact paper replica's I chose to do very simple interpretations that fit on a single page and are very easy to construct."

Bright Red 1 and 2

The human cost of technology

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:41:00 +0000

The New York Times on the human cost of industrial accidents at Apple's foreign suppliers:

Troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning.

Success brings with it responsibility, you could say, proportional to the buying power it represents. It's unfair to pin this endemic problem on Apple alone, but when Steve Jobs talked of "restaurants and movie theaters and hospitals and swimming pools", it invites a closer look at what happens outside of Foxconn's stage-managed tours.

In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad [NYT]

Wi-Fi deadzones more effective at engaging student attention than pole-dancing to Toto's Take My Hand from Dune: the official soundtrack

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:50:38 +0000

Yale professor Alexander Nemerov found a great way to get students to pay attention: lecturing in a Wi-Fi dead zone. Glenn Fleishman, writing for The Economist:

The good professor is no Luddite. He realises that a request to turn off the hall's Wi-Fi routers during a class may meddle with other nearby needs. (And it would in any case be useless in blocking mobile 3G and 4G signals.) Some students, he concedes, clearly use the internet to enhance his lectures, looking up artwork he discusses to get a closer or different view, or taking notes. But some engage in less pertinent online activities. Dr Nemerov debated with himself whether to note the signal blockage in his course syllabus but ultimately decided to leave students to discover this for themselves.

Mutant game controllers

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:27:39 +0000

Roger Ibars takes photographs of game controllers hooked up to inappropriate interfaces: "a research interest in how objects would be losing interest in interacting with the users ... where things take control of their functions and therefore use themselves." [via GamOvr]

HOWTO make a boombox out of a toolbox

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:03:30 +0000

Chicago's Floyd Davis demonstrates how to make a boombox out of any case, including a Craftsman toolbox.

Boombox in a Toolbox

Violist improvs response to ringing Nokia phone

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:56:54 +0000

In this 2011 YouTube upload, violist Lukáš Kmiť shows what to do when your playing is interrupted by a ringing phone, as happened to him during a beautiful performance at an orthodox synagogue in Presov, Slovakia. Kmiť broke off playing for an instant, regrouped, and then improvised a lovely aria based on the Nokia ringtone.

Nokia ringtone during concert of classical music (via Making Light)

What it's like at CES

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:54:53 +0000

A bunch of people sit and stand around at CES. Photo: REUTERS/Rick Wilking

This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was dull, giving reporters at the show time to write interesting offbeat coverage. Stars in the firmament of boredom included Mat Honan, Brian Lam, and the marvelous CESTrailer Twitter account.

Every year, however, readers ask about the nitty-gritty details of the show, beyond the gadgets but short of the existential despair. Having not attended this year and thereby being free of fresh scars, I thought I'd have a stab at describing the mundane details of how it goes.

If nothing else, you won't be curious anymore.

NO TOURISTS

CES is 100,000 anxious people pacing around Vegas in January, looking at electronics that are mostly under glass; attending meetings; and not getting enough done. Finding something to write about in The Forest of Televisions often seems impossible, but there are always gems to be found, deals to be cut, and copy desks to be fed. So off we go, every year.

If you're attending CES, you're probably in the trade or the press. It's wildly expensive to attend otherwise--a policy that keeps things focused and sane. The show's busy enough without tourists getting in the way.

Gaining access free of charge is easy if you've written about tech online or in print. Send off your credentials and some links to your work, and you will be rewarded with a packet of official literature; a map; and a cardboard show pass attached to a perforated stack of meal tickets. These may be redeemed for unappetizing salads and cellophane-wrapped rubbery buns.

If you write for an established media outlet or tell them you are an editor, you should get a "Press" pass. If you don't, you may get a "Blogger" pass instead, assuming they're still making the distinction. Bloggers got a different private lounge, rumored to contain cooler furniture and worse food.

CES enters one's awareness sometime in early fall, when spam from the organizers and exhibitors starts turning up. Arrangements for travel and hotels are best made at this time. Given that CES is in January, you might be tempted to think that prices would be cheap. They aren't! The hotels know you are coming and up the rates accordingly.

CES occurs mostly in the Venetian-Sands hotel complex and the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Venetian is the best home-base for the show, but it's pricey. Treasure Island, opposite the Venetian, is cheaper and also well-located. It's tempting to go to the hotels adjacent to the Convention Center, such as the Las Vegas Hilton or the Renaissance, but they're poorly located for anything else you might be doing on the Strip.

For reporters, the secret is to get as much "reporting" done as possible before the show begins, freeing oneself to look for interesting stories at the event itself. Many exhibitors are happy to provide details of new products under embargo, meaning that you agree not to publish until a certain date or until it becomes public knowledge some other way. You won't learn about everything, of course—everyone likes surprises!—but this is where you find out about 35 of the 36 cameras that Fujifilm will announce.

One trap for the enterprising writer is meetings. Exhibitors' PR people will try to rope you into them in the lead-up to the show. Refuse. Never agree to do meetings unless you know exactly what you're getting and can't get it any other way.

This is because it takes forever to get anywhere at CES: even a 10 minute handshake-'n'-coffee may require an hour of walking around Las Vegas's nightmare maze of interconnected back-halls. This wipes out essential time better spent on the show floor, writing, drinking or gambling. If you go to CES for the meetings, don't go there for anything else.

A bunch of people stand around waiting for something to happen at CES. Photo: REUTERS/Rick Wilking

DAY 0: PRESS CONFERENCES AND PRIVATE EVENTS

Smart writers arrive in Vegas a couple of days before the show starts, to ensure they're settled in and set up in time for Press Day. If you're with a big crew, you might have access to a trailer or communications room. There is Wi-Fi everywhere, but none of it works. The only reliable free internet is in the press and blogger lounges.

In any case, bring 3G/4G internet with you. Portable hotspots are neat, but the airwaves are crowded: USB dongles might work better. You know the guy who sits there scoffing at the broken Wi-Fi in a press conference with 2000 other laptop-toting reporters? Don't be that guy. That guy's a twerp.

The first order of business is to get an official lanyard, which identifies you as a legitimate attendee. These are dispensed from a row of stalls found in a particularly confusing expanse of the Venetian-Sands complex, to get you in the mood. Once secured, you may enter the private lounge for your class of journalist; therein awaits your official CES swag bag, which may include a t-shirt on a good year.

Press Day is the day before CES, and this is when most of the big companies do their main product announcements. If you spend only one day in Vegas, you'd do well to skip the show proper and hit these instead.

Most of these conferences are held in the Venetian's huge 3D grid of banquet halls. It's a bit like the movie "Cube", but with burgundy nylon carpet and hollow corinthian columns instead of color-coded deathtraps. Sony typically does theirs at some inconvenient offsite location.

At the outset of CES, private parties such as Showstoppers and Pepcom are must-see affairs. Like mini-CESes in themselves, these are invitation-only affairs where a smaller selection of companies let the press get more hands-on. Each usually occupies a single hall, with loads of free booze and food, and a more relaxed atmosphere. As these are unofficial peripheral events, they may take place somewhere strange and unsettling, such as The Wynn.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer kneads an invisible puppy at CES. Photo: REUTERS/Rick Wilking

THE KEYNOTE SPEECHES

At the end of Press Day, CES is officially launched with an evening keynote speech delivered by whoever is in charge of Microsoft. This used to be Bill Gates, but is now Steve Ballmer. Ballmer is effusive but boring. As a result, news reporters often write about the circumstances of his speech, or even its mere existence as a kind of annual industry punctuation mark, rather than its content. It's a bit like the Pope appearing at the balcony, only the pope suffers from hyperhydrosis and announces Tablet PCs.

There will be other keynotes spread through the week. Sony's brass can be relied upon to announce products and cavort with celebrities, but don't go to anything else unless you really like CPU power consumption charts.

This year is apparently Microsoft's last CES, due to a falling-out between the two organizations.

5 rules for attending CES

• Your plan will fail.
• Arrive a day earlier.
• Take an internet connection of your own.
• Enjoy the free buffets, the warm sweet bacon of ethical corruption.
• If you value your life, don't take photographs of Hello Kitty merch.

DAY 1: THE EVENT ITSELF

So you've attended the the Venetian-Sands's official pre-show press conferences and one of the splashy evening private events. You've endured Ballmer's keynote, drunk Sir Howard's brandy, and gotten a good night's sleep. It's time to head to the main event and its four enormous exhibition halls.

It's a mile east of the Strip, but getting there is easy thanks to the many free shuttles to and from each venue and the main hotels. But it's also slow, thanks to the long queues. Cabs are faster, but expensive, and the queues aren't any better. No, don't take a car to Vegas. Christ.

Even with road transport taken care of, getting around CES means long walks; a hidden time-tax ready to ruin even the most carefully-prepared schedule.

The central hall houses the most prestigious companies' booths. Cellphones, televisions, computers and other mainstays of techno-shopping are to be found here. The installations are often so huge as to be buildings inside the building; Panasonic likes to cut the hall in half with a 20,000 sq. ft. fortress.

It's crowded and noisy. Performers in bizarre costumes and orange-skinned marketing men loop through shows and presentations all day long. Clusters of hastily-assembled privacy cubicles (for the meetings!) wobble upon an ocean of carpet.

Adjacent to the central hall is the convention center's atrium, so obscenely busy that it typically ends up as the most widely-used photo in mainstream coverage. Dozens of news-media and private exhibitor rooms can be reached from here, down hallways and up staircases. Outside form the queues, hundreds of feet long, for taxis and shuttle buses.

From here, one may head into the slightly smaller North Hall, full of new automotive tech. This ranges from dashboard computers to self-driving technology, but mostly concern the latest advances in subwoofing.

A troop south from the atrium or central hall leads to another reporter/blogger lounge area, then to the inexpressibly vast South Hall.

Spread over two levels, this is where the second-tier firms exhibit, and it's oftentimes the most interesting part of the show. Oddities like obscure game controllers, boutique PC cases and audiophile-grade stereo equipment rest on reasonably-sized booths, laid out in neat rows, in contrast to the Central Hall's unbridled corporate egomania.

Concessions stands are in evidence at CES, but only a fool uses them. The queues are too long, and it's better to snack on the free food in the press and blogger lounges. Grab a big breakfast at your hotel before you set out.

Most PR people are helpful and nonintrusive, handing out literature and offering to fill your schedule with meetings with available executives. At large booths, there'll be reception desks to keep it all running smoothly; branded candy, pens and USB thumbdrives are everywhere for the taking.

At the far end of the South Hall (or back at the Venetian-Sands in yet another giant hall, if demand necessitates) is the final major attraction: a zone for companies in faraway places looking to attract western importers.

Away from the bustle and the more expensively-appointed booths, CES can take on a dreamlike quality. Here are walls of backlit electronic landscape paintings, and walnut burl-print iPhone cases arrayed by the hundred on pegboard screens. Here are mysteriously abandoned booths displaying nothing but the name of a company in Shenzhen.

Once, I saw a yuppie type angrily dressing down a lone foreign exhibitor here, for the crime of showing him products that he did not want to order. He stormed off, leaving the exhibitor in tears.

Another curiosity of CES is the abundance of scantily-dressed "booth babes". Challenged by a BBC reporter, CES's rather unchivalrous chief executive Gary Shapiro said that claims of sexism are "cute but it's frankly irrelevant". He did say it's a dying trend, though, so perhaps the show will one day be more welcoming to women.

The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo used to be attached to CES, but now occurs on different dates; stopping the CES hordes from overwhelming the relatively small and culturally-unique event seemed to be a major problem in recent years.

Photography is officially permitted, but some exhibitors take a dim view of it--especially merch licensees worried about their latest designs being cloned at light-speed.

When dusk falls, the parties begin, private events where the bars are open and the doors tightly shut. For reporters, these may be the only chance to interview key executives or check out new gadgets away from the show-floor hubbub. For the business people, a lot of CES wheeling and dealing happens likewise, the old-fashioned way, over blackjack and booze, and behind closed doors.

CES attendees walk around looking at CES stuff at CES. Photo: REUTERS/Steve Marcus

DAY 2: NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS

Day 2 of the show proper is the last day anyone really needs to be at CES, unless one absolutely must blog every last thing there. Mainstream news outlets will have caught up on anything important, so longer, more considered pieces should be on the cards. If you wanted to do meetings, this is when you should have scheduled them: after the hectic launch day, but before the free candy runs out.

If you came with a team, Day 2 is a good time to have some fun and get to know each other. If you're in charge of a team, this is a good day to show your appreciation by feeding them properly.

If you're still knocking around on Day 3, you're totally just taking a vacation. CES is a lot of fun if you hit it with the right attitude and make sure you have time to enjoy whatever you enjoy in Vegas.

If you simply don't like Vegas, though, CES is about as close to hell as life gets in the absence of physical pain.

Homebrew, 3D printed Fisher-Price record-player disc plays "Still Alive"

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:00:27 +0000

Pittance sez, "This is my brand new 3D printed Fisher-Price record player record (for the old clockwork music box one, not the new electronic one) playing "Still Alive" from Portal. It's entirely made using Processing and printed at Shapeways and, now I know how to do it, I really hope I can make more with different tunes - suggestions?"

3D Printed Record - 'Still Alive'

Jim Henson short explains "Data Communications" for Bell execs, 1963

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:00:21 +0000

Joly sez, "Jim Henson made this film in 1963 for The Bell System. Specifically, it was made for an elite seminar given for business owners, on the then-brand-new topic — Data Communications. The seminar itself involved a lot of films and multimedia presentations, and took place in Chicago. A lengthy description of the planning of the Bell Data Communications Seminar — sans a mention of the Henson involvement — is on the blog of Inpro co-founder Jack Byrne. It later was renamed the Bell Business Communications Seminar. The organizers of the seminar, Inpro, actually set the tone for the film in a three-page memo from one of Inpro's principals, Ted Mills to Henson. Mills outlined the nascent, but growing relationship between man and machine: a relationship not without tension and resentment: "He [the robot] is sure that All Men Basically Want to Play Golf, and not run businesses — if he can do it better." (Mills also later designed the ride for the Bell System at the 1964 World's Fair.) Henson's execution is not only true to Mills' vision, but he also puts his own unique, irreverent spin on the material. The robot narrator used in this film had previously starred in a skit for a food fair in Germany (video is silent), in 1961. It also may be the same robot that appeared on the Mike Douglas Show in 1966. Henson created a different — but similar — robot for the SKF Industries pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. This film was found in the AT&T Archives. Thanks go to Karen Falk of the Henson Archives for providing help and supporting documentation to prove that it was, indeed, a Henson production.." (Thanks, Joly!)

Vortex, a USB keytar

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:51:07 +0000

A $250 USB keytar with DAW automapping, MIDI-assignable motion sensitivity and an internal battery for optional use with an iPad? Yes. [Alesis]

Ornate Victorian typewriter

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:13:45 +0000

AntiqueTypewriters.com has a great section on the Crandall New Model, "one of the most beautiful typewriters ever made."

It has a wonderful curved and ornate Victorian design and is lavishly decorated with hand painted roses, accented with inlaid mother-of-pearl!
Lucien S. Crandall was born in Broome County New York in 1844. He would become one of the great early typewriter pioneers during the 1860s and 1870s. He patented perhaps ten typewriters with six or so being manufactured. All of his designs are very intriguing and brilliantly imagined machines. The Crandall - New Model was his third typewriter to be manufactured but the first to have some success in sales.
The Crandall was the first typewriter to print from a single element or "type-sleeve", well before IBM's 'Golf ball' of 1961. The Crandall's type-sleeve is a cylinder, about the size of your finger (see photo below), which rotates and rises up one or two positions before striking the roller, achieving 84 characters with only 28 keys. The type-sleeve is easy to remove, allowing for change of font style and character size.

Crandall, New Model (Thanks, Antique typewriter Collector!)

Split Decision pie-pan for baking two different half-pies in one go

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:10:11 +0000

The Split Decision pie-pan lets you bake two pies in the same receptacle, settling any arguments about which sort of pie should be had that day and generating handsome, smooth half-pies the like of which humanity was not meant to ken of.

I'm not enough of a baker to know if different sorts of pies have different cooking times/temperatures, but I'm assuming that they'll all be within a certain range that is determined by the need to cook (but not burn) the crust.

Chicago Metallic Non-Stick 9-Inch Split Decision Pie Pan (via Red Ferret)

Kodak bankrupt

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:16:28 +0000

The company that invented the hand-held camera filed for bankruptcy protection. [Reuters]

Crew of 170 people needed to keep Predator drone airborne for 24h

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:32:33 +0000

A Freedom of Information request reveals that aerial drones are rife with expensive technical problems.

The aerial disasters described draw attention not only to the technical limitations of drone warfare, but to larger conceptual flaws inherent in such operations. Launched and landed by aircrews close to battlefields in places like Afghanistan, the drones are controlled during missions by pilots and sensor operators—often multiple teams over many hours—from bases in places like Nevada and North Dakota. They are sometimes also monitored by “screeners” from private security contractors at stateside bases like Hurlburt Field in Florida. (A recent McClatchy report revealed that it takes nearly 170 people to keep a single Predator in the air for 24 hours.)

Nick Turse: The Crash and Burn Future of Robot Warfare (via Warren Ellis)

In praise of skeuomorphs

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:05:27 +0000

I reflected today on the fact that my four-year-old makes a "click" sound when she's playing with a toy camera because that's the MP3 that my phone plays when I take her picture. A number of people pointed out that this is an example of a skeuomorph, "a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original." The Wikipedia entry on the subject's fascinating in the extreme:

* Decorative stone features of Greek temples such as mutules, guttae, and modillions that are derived from true structural/functional features of the early wooden temples
* Ornamental pylons framing modern bridges, such as the twin 89 metre pylons at each end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They do not support anything, and are there only to frame the structure itself and make it look more like a traditional bridge.
* An early pottery butter churn, at the Jaffa Museum, shaped rather like an American football, imitating the shape of its predecessors, which were made of hide.
* Injection-molded plastic sandals that replicate woven strips of leather
* Artificial film grain added to digitally-shot movies to give a softer, more expensive effect and the expected "shimmer" of the grain pattern between successive frames
* Various spoke patterns in automobile hubcaps and wheels leftover from carriage wheel construction

Skeuomorph

(Image: Chevy Volt Skeuomorph, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from tylerbell's photostream)

Makerbot playsets: free, downloadable 3D files for dollhouses, dolls and accessories

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:27:09 +0000

MakerBot has announced "MakerBot Playsets," a series of freely downloadable dollhouses, furnishings and dolls for your 3D printer. Whip up as pieces as needed, on demand, and amaze the wee ones (and compulsive hoarders) in your life.

MakerBot’s own design superstar Michael “Skimbal” Curry, creator of such Thingiverse megahits as the Turtle Shell Racers and Gothic Cathedral playset, starts the ball rolling by architecting a pair of MakerBot Playset buildings. Introducing two new Thingiverse superstars: Cushwa and PrettyLittleThings are doing a tremendous job furnishing these playsets with their imaginations.1
So without further ado, straight from the soundstage backlot of Annelise’s Replicator music video, The Right Heart, we present you with the MakerBot Fairytale Castle Playset and the Damsels!

The collection has to be seen to be believed.

Introducing the MakerBot Playsets: MakerBot Fairytale Castle

NYC's Authorized Drone Strike Zone

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:24:16 +0000

@BaLueBolivar snapped this picture advising NYC residents that 26th and 11th was now an Authorized Drone Strike area.

The coming of drones to every neighborhood. NYC. 26th and 11th (via JWZ)

Room-sized computers, tended by labcoat priests, narrated in cheerful midwestern tones, with uptempo orchestral music

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:00:56 +0000

This short, unsourced video contains 100 percent of your daily allowance of nostalgic paper-tape, punchcard and patch-panel techno-nostalgia.

Classic old computers and machines (Thanks, Frycook!)

How USPTO's recklessness destroys business, innovation, and competition

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:22:12 +0000

Luma Labs is a small company that sells a camera sling with a sliding clip. When a competitor of theirs filed for a patent on the idea, they weren't concerned. After all, Luma knew of prior art for their mechanism stretching all the way back to 1885. So they were surprised when the USPTO recklessly granted the patent to their competitor. And they were aghast when their lawyers explained that getting the patent overturned in the course of a lawsuit would bankrupt their company.

So they're giving up.

In short, the idea of a sliding camera sling isn’t an amazing new invention. It’s just a really good idea that’s been around for a while and which has been iteratively developed. Neither we nor our lawyers believed that the USPTO would grant a patent for the claims related to this concept. It was a surprise, then, when our competitor was granted a patent covering the concept on November 1st, 2011. To say that we’re disappointed that the USPTO couldn’t find the prior art around the idea is an understatement.
Our disappointment doesn’t matter much in the scheme of things, however. Our competitor now has a legal tool and we’re pretty sure that they desire to use it. This is, as they say, a problem. We and our counsel are more than confident that we can defend ourselves, and will do so vigorously if necessary. On the other hand, we’re a very small company that sells our products in limited volumes and mounting such a defense would consume the majority of our resources. After all, it took three years to rescind a patent about a method of using a swing. In other words, we have a Hobson’s choice on our hands. We could very well lose everything even if we won.
Therefore, we’re acting unilaterally and conceding the market by immediately discontinuing the Loop and LoopIt. Full stop. We apologize for the sudden nature of this decision and our implementation of it, but we feel like our options on this matter are limited.

They've got another camera strap idea that they're hoping to bring to market. But of course, they'll only be able to sell it until the USPTO recklessly grants another ridiculous patent against it.

An open letter to our customers, past and future (via O'Reilly Radar)

VHS Cassette notebooks

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:43:57 +0000

Peleg Design's "Video Notebook" bears an uncanny resemblance to a VHS cassette, and comes with labels for extra verisimilitude.

Video Notebook (via Neatorama)

Burglars abandon CDs and DVDs

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:10:52 +0000

British burglars have stopped stealing CDs and DVDs because, yeah, who needs 'em? "...thefts of entertainment products like CDs and DVDs have collapsed in England and Wales, to the point that they are now taken in just 7% of all burglaries in which something is stolen..." (Thanks, Bruce!)

In former Soviet state of Georgia, an iPad knockoff for police

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:20:03 +0000

An employee demonstrates a "Police Pad" at the Algorithm factory in Tbilisi, Georgia, on January 11, 2012. Five thousand police officers will receive portable field computers, equipped with features that will assist them with their work, assembled at this factory, according to local media.

Update: An official response to this blog post from the government of Georgia is here. And a response from a Boing Boing reader who is a Georgian native is here.

From the Tbilisi-based Georgian language news organization Rustavi 2:

Five thousand police officers will be handed over portable computers. New police pads were produced in Georgia by the Algorithm Company. Minister of Interior Vano Merabishvili observe the process of police pad production in the factory personally. `I have an honor to inform Georgian society and the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, that in a few days five thousand police officers will be equipped with such field computers, which will allow the citizens and the police officers to provide services offered by the ministry to our citizens more comfortably,` Minister said adding Georgian police would soon become the most developed and modernized police in the world.

Says a friend who travels to the region often: "100% guaranteed those crooked, fat, lazy cops will be using these devices primarily for porn and russian gambling services."

Update: A counselor from the Georgian embassy to the United States has contacted Boing Boing to express disappointment that the quote above was included in this article. The remark is unfair, the official says, and it's something of a sore point for a country that has done so much to address the issue in recent years. They direct our attention to the Georgian government's efforts to reform police and fight corruption—with results, they say, that are a global example of success for an emerging democratic state. We've invited the government of Georgia to share those comments in longer form, and we'll gladly post them here as a guest opinion piece in entirety. It should also be noted that the source of the critical quote in this article loves Georgia, its people, and its culture, and travels there frequently to this day. Some who applaud the success of reforms still argue there's more work left to do.

(photo: REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili)

Sponsor Shout-Out: Watchismo

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:00:06 +0000

Our thanks to Watchismo for sponsoring Boing Boing Blast, our once-daily delivery of headlines by email.

Watchismo is announcing the newest and coolest "Diesel Super Bad Ass" watches today, now in solid gunmetal & bronzed stainless steel. Each has four watches in one substantial 65mm timepiece: timezones faces with full chronographs, two separate analog clocks and a digital display surrounded by a textured dial and etched, bolted casing. The Diesel DZ7247 & Diesel DZ7246 also feature gunmetal link & brown leather straps.

What it feels like to attend CES

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:51:47 +0000

Normally, the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show marks the season when I stop reading gadget blogs. It's when sites that do 12 interesting posts a day turn into a sites that publish 120 barely rewritten press releases a day as the writers struggle to "cover" a bunch of product announcements for stuff that mostly represents banal recombinations of earlier devices and "major releases" that are really minuscule, incremental changes to existing products.

But Gizmodo's Mat Honan has a stream-of-consciousness rant of the experience of being at CES really captures what it was like the years I attended -- and makes me glad I'm not there now.

People keep coughing on me. I try to listen politely, all the while wondering if I have the flu. I got my flu shot on December 29. I can't help but wonder if it has activated yet. They tell you that it takes 14 days for antibodies to become effective, but that can vary from person to person. I take the press release and wander away past walls and walls of blinking, humming, electronics.
I try to remember all the products I've talked about that I won't even bother to cover—and that nobody's going to buy. There were some Bluetooth speakers. Or maybe they were WiFi. But there was definitely a helmet cam. And a waterproof phone. And a tablet and an ultrabook and an OLED TV. There was ennui upon ennui upon ennui set in this amazing temple to technology.
I imagine tuning all the television sets to hardcore gay porn, just to see the spectacle of it all. I fantasize that I am the only one here, in a post-apocalyptic trade show. Alone among these elaborate booths. Free to scamper up on top of them. Free to grab what I want, and actually play with it, like a child. I want to see it all catch fire. I want to pour gasoline in the ducts and light a long fuse, and watch from the street as it burns and burns and burns. My guess is that the flames would be quite beautiful, colored by chemical washes and treated glass. My hangover is killing me.

Fever Dream of a Guilt-Ridden Gadget Reporter (via Andre Torrez)

(Image: Techsploder)