Categories
Hardware

Raspberry Pi Base Station

Several months ago when I first received my Raspberry Pi boards I said these tiny ARM boards could potentially change the world. Now I feel this is even more likely to be the case, and here’s some evidence.

Researchers put together a mobile phone base station running off a Raspberry Pi. This is a very low cost way of putting together something like this. It’s also just a prototype showing what this generic hardware is capable of. As time goes on specs will improve and costs will drop. What these little boards can do for us will become even more impressive.

Small capable computers in/around our environment could revolutionize the way we live, work and interact. These are low power, low cost, and highly flexible machines in a very small package.

Categories
Tech (General)

Will Touch Screens Ever Take Over?

I tend to agree with David Pogue in his latest Scientific American piece on why touch screens will not take over. Perhaps it is possible for touch screens to solve for all these problems, but I think the energy could be better spent on something superior to touch screens.

It’s not that I think touch screens are going away, I just don’t think it’s the ideal medium for larger touch screen interfaces. In my mind, the Iron Man J.A.R.V.I.S. is the perfect example of where we will eventually get. Where AI (Siri’s mature brother) and touch interfaces have merged to become a more intuitive and usable user experience.

Touch does have it’s place in interaction, both in the physical world as well as the cyber world. However just as we don’t feel our way through the world, I don’t think touch screens will ever be a solid solution for interacting with technology. We’ll find a hybrid that lets the user decide what method works for them at a given moment and a given task.

Categories
Networking

You’re A Sack Of Potatoes

Ends up, we are all like a lazy sack of potatoes, at least when it comes to RF. Boeing calls it Project SPUDS or rather Synthetic Personnel Using Dielectric Substitution. Apparently they are good substitute for real human bodies when testing wireless networks on planes. Fill the seats with sacks of potatoes and test away.

Nice to know there’s actually a little truth to that old cliché.

Categories
Photos

Christmas At Rockefeller Center

2012 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

As I do every year, a short detour through Rockefeller Center before Christmas to see what’s going on after work. Next year I think I’ll take something more than my cell phone and make some more proper photos. Should have thought of that earlier. This year a few minutes in the LEGO store, since LEGO is awesome.

Categories
Around The Web Internet

The Big Internet Museum

The Big Internet Museum is exactly what it sounds like, a museum for the internet, of course on the internet. It’s quite interesting to read through. Many of the items on there, especially the later half, I can recall the day they launched or occurred. It’s amazing to think how these things have impacted society and how much we’ve experienced in just a few years.

Categories
Around The Web

Paper Airplane Hovering Between Two Fans

Hovering Paper Airplane Between Fans

I hope this isn’t a fake, I suspect it isn’t. Here’s a paper airplane hovering between two fans. If I had two identical fans handy, I’d totally try this.

Edit: Confirmed fake, see comments.

Categories
Funny Politics

Petition To Build Death Star To Get White House Response

Death Star

The internet has succeeded in getting 25,000 signatures in the petition to build a Death Star. By practice the White House must now respond to the petition. I am very much amused.

It’s worth noting some Debbie Downer figured out it would cost $852,000,000,000,000,000 in steel alone to build.

I for one look forward to the White House response. If the president were wise, he’d respond himself with a web video.

Categories
General

NASA’s Rubber Room

NASA Rubber Room

Under Pad 39A and 39B at Kennedy Space Center NASA built a complex of tunnels and bunkers for in case the Saturn V rocket that would bring Apollo astronauts to the moon exploded. Obviously the rooms were never used. They are rarely seen. This is an awesome gallery of photos taken from inside the rubber room.

Categories
In The News

Inventor Of The Bar Code Dies

N. Joseph Woodland, notable for inventing the bar code has died. On how his famous invention came about:

“I poked my four fingers into the sand and for whatever reason — I didn’t know — I pulled my hand toward me and drew four lines. I said: ‘Golly! Now I have four lines, and they could be wide lines and narrow lines instead of dots and dashes.’ ”

He was a former boyscout so he knew Morse code. You gotta love inventions that are thought of like that. It’s a pure eureka moment. Even more impressive is it wasn’t until years later that technology caught up and made his idea practical and prone to widespread adoption. He really was ahead of his time.

It’s a really cool story, well worth a read.

Categories
Apple Google

Google To Release iOS Maps

It sounds like it’s going to become a reality in a few hours: Google Maps for iOS 6.

My experience so far with Apple maps hasn’t been terrible. Data quality issues never actually affected me. I have missed the lack of public transit. That is the primary reason I plan to switch over. Public transit integration is critical in NYC.

I’m hoping it’s just a refreshed UI of what was in iOS 5 with as lean of a UI or leaner.