I've been tweaking the font colors for the site a little bit. I hope they look better to everyone now. They look pretty good to me, but i'm on chrome on a 12.1" laptop. I'll look at it from my work computer.
RFID and misconceptions
So, I just had a major run in with some conspiracy theorists on facebook about RFID implants. I did not think that i could become so heated about a group of people and their ignorant views of this technology. I've become very sick and tired of hearing about government tracking and the so called 'mark of the beast'. When my intelligent and reasonable suggestions that they do some actual research before mindlessly spewing out hatred failed, I petitioned for help from Amal Graafstra, RFID aficionado, and father to the DIY implant world. He pointed me to a post on his blog that helped me clear my mind. He was good enough to allow me to quote it directly here:
"An almost perfect analogy…
I was just reading about the mysteries of tin and came across this tidbit:
When tin is cooled below 13.2°C, it changes slowly from white to grey. This change is affected by impurities such as aluminium and zinc, and can be prevented by small additions of antimony or bismuth. The conversion was first noted as growths on organ pipes in European cathedrals, where it was thought to be the devils work.
I actually laughed out loud upon reading “the devil’s work” because it so perfectly illustrates how ignorance translates directly to fear… it’s frighteningly similar to the rantings I occasionally deal with regarding my RFID implants. It’s an almost perfect analogy in fact.
It all got me thinking about about the relationship between fear and ignorance, and why anyone would want to purposely avoid learning about a subject they were ignorant/fearful of. Could it have something to do with building their passionate opinions so fervently around their fears that all their blustering and any potentially immoral and possibly down right nasty, even deadly deeds committed in defense of their point of view and sense of righteous truth could all be turned upside down by simply learning a little bit and obtaining a better understanding of the subject? People will often commit the greatest evils fighting, what they consider to be, evil. If they then learn what they thought was evil simply isn’t, what are they left with? What is there left to condemn as evil? The painfully obvious answer is simple; only themselves.
1) ignorance creates fear (fear of the unknown)
2) fear incites action (fear directed is fear ablated)
3) action instigates response (the educated defend)
4) response suggests ignorance (the ignorant get a clue)
5) realization builds new fear (self = wrong/evil)
6) refuse to learn (the “i can’t see you, you can’t see me”approach)
7) repeat
Many people argue these people are stupid, but the truth is that most are just ignorant. Stupid refers to lack of ability, whereas ignorant refers to lack of knowledge. If you can successfully educate an ignorant person, they usually come around to either supporting a more complex “truth” than the one they had before, or at the very minimum they go silent. The trick of course is getting an ignorant person to understand that they are ignorant about which they speak, then getting them over the hump to actually learning about it… which is always difficult because understanding and education will already be a scarce commodity for them.
It is possible however. Just have a look at the comment thread on my door lock video. Somebody with the handle Alba12349 starts the comment conversation with “Wheter you belive in the bible or not. We can agree on that this RFID shit is just wrong. I will never take the chip” however by the end of the conversion he exits with “yes it is disturbing. ye I understand. I was just pissed off at first after watching all that verichip stuff.”, to which I offer to answer any further questions he might have if he just posts them to my RFID forum. I’m not holding my breath though."
So yeah, i'm still pissed that there are people out there that are going to ignorantly jump to wrong conclusions about this technology, but we will just have to humor them. After all, they don't know any better. And I can always still silently come up with interesting ways that they could die hideous, yet comical deaths.
RFID Implant - 6 month follow up
So, it has been 6 months since i had my implant put in. Aside from occasional irritation, usually due to nonstop typing all day, I am doing just fine. No cancer, rejection, or government tracking. Since i am a diabetic, i still have a small dot on my hand from the hole that was made, but it is almost invisible at this point. I've been using it to start my car for about as long and I have to say that it works flawlessly.
There really isn't much more to say than that. I had been so eager to get this post done, and highlight all of the wonderful things i have done with this technology so far, but I just haven't had the time or money to make those dreams a reality. I am hoping that soon enough, I will be able to proceed with my original plan of automating my home and workplace to show everyone what a great help this technology can actually be.
Do you want to help me with my projects? Email me or use the donate button on the right to help contribute. I can always use fresh ideas and fresh money to help things along!
Majestic Immensity
The farms seem to be comprised of 2 different types of turbines. The first are Vestas V80 turbines which kick out 2mW of power. The second are the behemoth Seimens SWT-2.3-93 that output 2.3mW of power. These turbines can be seen thrusting up from the ground like massive alien flowers spinning lazily in the wind to no ones tune but their own. Neither words or pictures can accurately describe how large these things really are. At some point we plan on going back on a day trip just to see the sights in the area, and I plan on getting as close to these as possible. If you are ever in the Goldendale/Biggs Jct area, you will see what I mean. If you don't plan on going that way anytime soon, I suggest you make plans to go see them. They are breathtaking.
I am disappointed.
Sony has new development in the works, as they always do. But for the multitudes of gamers out there to call this piece of hardware is a crock. The Go has a LOT of potential, just like the Sony Mylo had. To call this handheld dead is a bunch of crap. The psp homebrew community needs to pay more attention to this device and give it the same amount of attention as they have all the other versions of the Psp. The fact that this one has bluetooth integrated should be enough to entice developers to get some custom firmware developed already. Now, that is not to say that developing CFW is easy; I don't know the first thing about software development. However, there is no where NEAR as much following as the other models have. Sony will undoubtedly release the bigger better deal at some point, but what about those of us that have already sunk money into this version?
Get on it developers and don't let this handheld become another Mylo. I love my little buddy.
What we are about.
No.
All of our postings are hand written by us. We may quote what people have said or lay out press releases and such, but any post we make here has actually been researched by one of us. We then write it up how we see it and add our own thoughts and comments.
When I first started this site, I had intended on putting my own spin on the tech news i found and researched across the net, but that responsibility found its way over to Pat. The majority of my posts are intended to showcase my various acts of insanity where electronics are concerned. My hardware hacks/mods/creations are my own work and I take pride in them.
Pat seems to have a knack for finding news about cool technologies and advancements in electronics hardware and design. I don't think I've ever actually seen him hold a soldering iron (I might have to change that soon). He usually seems to defer to my lunacy where modifying something is concerned, although he has done his fair share in other areas.
We keep the site maintained because it is our hobby and our passion. Would I like to do this full time? Hell yes. I'd love to be a full time inventor and journalist (if you can call blogging on the scale we do it at journalism), but at this point we are rolling with what we have got.
I think I might actually backdate a copy of this post and link it up top so it's always viewable. Hrmm.
Voice changing for fun..... and ransom calls.
Here's a little something I've been working on for a bit. It's all concept at this point because i haven't had time to actually build the thing. I've been spending quite a bit of time with my car, trying to get some repairs done. At some point, I'm going to gut the underside of my center console and re-do all of the wiring for my stereo, CB, GPS, and RFID reader. If I have time this weekend, I'm going to build this thing though:
The way it works:
A voice changer from a toy (Optimus Prime helmet) is removed down to the board. The Mic is hooked up inside the project box with some holes to gather your voice. The board skews your voice into the sound of a robot. The wiring for the speaker is removed and instead goes to a bluetooth headset's mic wiring. The sound coming out of the board is then broadcasted through the phone to the caller. The reason i am doing it this way is to try to cut out as much of my actual voice as possible. There will be 2 wires going into the headset only, which shouldn't hinder your ability to wear it too much. I am planning on powering the box with the board by using a re-purposed cell phone battery. A call gets made, and your modified voice goes through the headset. The person on the other end's voice comes through the speaker on the headset.
Now, assuming i can make this work, I will be able to make hilarious calls to people without them knowing who i am. Hrmm... We shall see.
bionic eye
The human eye is a perceptual powerhouse. It can see millions of colors, adjust easily to shifting light conditions, and transmit information to the brain at a rate exceeding that of a high-speed Internet connection.
but why stop there?
want a h.u.d?
want to know everything the internet knows about a person just by looking at them?
want a gps overlay for geo-caching?
if its sounds far-fetched or if your thinking its a future concept.... think again.
Babak A. Parviz, bio-nanotechnology expert at the University of Washington, in Seattle has been testing special bionic contact lenses which have near-microscopic CPUs embedded in them to send and receive visual information on rabbits for over a year.
Parviz, says it is totally feasible to build an augmented reality interface to slip right atop your eyeball. Since the lens reads visual data (the direction and focus of your eye) as well as displays it, he doesn't think a command interface will be a problem. And since the amount of power needed is so small that it could be entirely provided by a microscopic solar array embedded right there in the lens, power supply is not an obstacle either.
Now, admittedly their current HUD is pretty basic: An 8 x 8 pixel LED field. But that's really only because the money isn't there to build a better prototype. The technology for a more complicated, human-usable display is completely viable, right now and at this very second. It's not "far-removed into the future," or "waiting for a breakthrough" in new technology;
you could have it tomorrow if somebody invested enough
RFID Car starter schematic
So yeah, I'm sorry this looks like crap, but it's the best i could do with my cell phone camera. I've been meaning to post this for a while. A sketch of my RFID starter layout. If you look at it, you will notice that it's actually pretty basic. Enjoy.
Back to business...
So I have Dr. appointments every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday now. They are about 2 hours before my shift starts at Costco, so I now have some time to work on the site. I plan on getting at least one or two posts up a week, but they may end up just being a story that i found from hack-a-day, gizmodo, or the like. I haven't had time to work on my own projects lately... But, I have had a bit of time with my sketchbook while i brainstorm things to build, mod, or destroy.
Mr. Patrick may be coming back up to my area soon (spaghetti monster willing) and may be able to help me.
Also, I may end up just scanning all of the pages in my sketchbook and releasing them on the site for others to look at and comment on. We'll see how this goes.
apple admits contracting with companys using child labor
At least eleven underage children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple.
Apple representatives say the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.
i love that part about "investigating how they gained employment"
as if to say "those willy children tricked us"!!!!
apple has in recent years been steadily accumulating quite a laundry list of complaints about it's subcontractors.........
Last week, it was reported that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight.
Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone.
Sun Danyong, 25, was a university graduate working in the logistics department when the prototype went missing. An investigation revealed that the factory's security staff had tortured him, and he subsequently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building.
foxconn. f.y.i has been accused by the Chinese labor dept of "inhumane and militant management"thats right ....apples biggest supplier has been called inhumane ......by...the....Chinese.
and if all that weren't bad enough ,there's this to consider.
in October of 2009, a new application from Apple landed in the U.S. Patent Office. Apple's idea was to program devices to periodically interrupt users with unskippable ads. The ads would temporarily halt performance of the device in order to "compel attention." That on its own is pretty nightmarish but, innovators that they are, Apple found a way to crank it up to that hard-to-reach "Lovecraftian" level.
here's the important part...in their own words
"Apple can further determine whether a user pays attention to the advertisement. The determination can include performing, while the advertisement is presented, an operation that urges the user to respond; and detecting whether the user responds to the performed operation. If the response is inappropriate or nonexistent, the system will go into lock down mode in some form or other until the user complies. In the case of an iPod, the sound could be disconnected rendering it useless until compliance is met. For the iPhone, no calls will be able to be made or received." here is the actual patent if your curious
Apple credits CEO Steven Jobs, Freddy Anzures, Mike Matas, Gregory Christie and Patrick Coffman for patent application 20090265214, originally filed in April 2008.
