My apologies

I am sorry for not putting anything new up in a while. I have recently moved and am currently without internet. I have been using my Optimus as a wifi AP to get the small bursts of connection i need to keep me from going insane. But never fear! dd-wrt and an linksys wrt54g router (or, i should say... my army of them) will help me figure out a way to get online. Even if i have to wire one up to my car battery and repeat an open signal from down the street. I'll git'r done.

You would think that I would have all this extra time to dream up some insanity that explodes, shocks, or unlocks things, but I actually haven't. The weather here has been terrible, so I cannot work on the remote controlled power wheels, and I have temporarily shelved my LITV project until i can get some stable internet to continue my research. That and the fact that I am very limited on fundings at the moment, makes it terribly hard to do any gadgeteering. All will become normal again soon, and then I will be able to sort out the madness in my head and weave it into the homespun cloth that is the basis for my ideas.

So a Jair wants another voice here...

First thing first. SNOW!!!! Woohoo!

Okay seriously. Jair wanted a post about something....and he'll probably go all hater on me later.

A Challenge for Jair!!

• Build a Bot that will find its way through a course, from start to finish and back.
• Upon returning to the start the first bot will transmit a route to a second bot.
• The second bot must then travel the course with only the route provided by the first bot.

Think you can do it?

--Xon

world's first transparent head-mounted display with Wi-Fi

It's got almost the same "dollar store sunglasses" look as most other head-mounted displays(although for my money it looks much cooler than sony's
hmz-t1 ,also droping this month in japan)
but What sets it apart, is the introduction of the first transparent lenses for see-through viewing. As such, you can enjoy your media in private while still maintaining an awareness of your surroundings.

The screen resolution is just 960 x 540 pixels, but it appears to the viewer as a giant 320-inch display positioned about 20 meters away. The mobile viewer is proportioned so it can fit over proscription glasses and it comes with a small control unit that runs Android 2.2(droid blaster on this thing should be very cool) and features Wi-Fi connectivity, six-hours of battery life, detachable headphones, and 1GB of internal storage augmented by a bundled 4GB SDHC card with support for 32GB
(why does no one ever ship the card you'll need with this stuff? honestly, why even bother with a 4gig?) .

The Moverio BT-100 will be on sale in Japan starting November 25th for a suggested price of ¥50,000 (about $643).

now for the obvious (to me anyway) question .....

will someone please make some augmented reality games for this,NOW?

We're Looking for Posters!

So for the most part, it has always just been Patrick and I posting on the site. Every time I've tried to get some help, it falls through on me. I've sent a couple requests to friends who may be interested in posting, I'm not sure if they will or not.

We could really use a couple more people to keep content fresh on the site. If your're interested, drop me an email at jair2k4@techno-holics.com and we'll set something up.Each of us has a specialty, so to speak. Let me know what yours is!

Being featured is fun!

I don't like RSS feeds. I don't. They are a convenient way to pad someone's website with other people's work, even if it spreads the word about something I've done. RSS feeds typically have a 'via X' link where 'X' is the site that the feed is coming from so that there is something to point to where the info originated, but when sites bounce RSS off each other, Google's webcrawler gets gummed up with a billion posts of the same thing.

What I like seeing is when other sites and their editors take the time to personally write something about me. No scripts, no RSS; an actual person typing something, just as I am right now.

I'd like to point out a few of those sites. Keep in mind, these are just posts that popped up about my gloves.

Gizmodo (Sorry about the harsh previous post. My opinion about your layout still stands though.)
Trendhunter
Hack a Day
Geekosystem
Right This Minute
Technabob
Growing Up Otaku

These are just a few. To whomever actually takes the time to sit down and write about one of my exploits: I thank you. I hope that I get to return the favor someday.

What happened to you, Gizmodo?

I used to have a specific way i started out my day:

1. Wake up
2. Get dressed
3. Caffeine in one form or another
4. Get on the laptop and look at my favorite blogs.


Something has changed. I don't like change.


I hadn't had the time to get on some of the sites that I normally frequent for a while, so I don't know how long this has been going on, but it would appear that one of my favorite, no nonsense all-tech websites has decided to whore itself out for sponsorship. After looking further into this, their new layout has been in effect since the Gawker network changed the layout of their entire blog lineup in February. They think it looks good. I think it looks like mashed ass. As soon as the page loads, you are smacked in the face with a giant ad by State Farm. After you spend a minute getting convinced that you haven't accidentally made it to the wrong site, you will notice State Farm ads everywhere.

If you can convince yourself to get past the ad(s), you will find one sort of 'splash' story in the main frame and over to the right will be a list of the latest stories.

It's cumbersome, and it's foul and it's ugly. I used to log in and see interesting posts with photos that were humorously edited with captions and a shameless lack of censorship. Now we get this 'new and improved' version that makes me want to immediately leave the site and then go throw up in a garbage can.

Sorry Giz, you had a good run. I'm taking you off my site's list of interested links. I think I will go vomit now.

Stun Gloves MKII

Finally!

Introducing, the second version of my now highly popular gloves!

These ones are much, MUCH more powerful than my first build. How much more you ask? My first set put out 330v per glove. This set puts out 2300 VOLTS!


I took as many pics of the build process as possible, as well as a couple videos with commentary. Take a look after the break for the entire run down.

*EDIT*

Spent last night hanging out with a friend. I gave him my original pair of gloves and we had a fun night of shocking the hell out of each other. A lot of people were wondering what this could do to a person. Well let me tell you, not only does it hurt, but there was smoke and burning hair as well (I'm a fairly hairy guy). Have a look:

On web TV!

So yea, I got an email yesterday from Christian over at rightthisminute.com asking me if i wanted to do an interview about my stun gloves. She wanted to know if they could use the video i put up on youtube and do a segment on it.

I had no problem with that, but they wanted me to skype in for an interview (which i probably should have done).

I don't know how well that would have went over for me, as i tend to stutter in public, so I declined the interview, but allowed them to use the footage, so long as they plugged the site - which they did.

I dont particularly care for the spin they put on it making me sound like a creep, but then again, my video was fairly short and I didn't speak in it. So maybe it was my fault.

Anyway, take a look and judge for yourself:

http://www.rightthisminute.com/story/homemade-taser-gloves

The tazer-gloves

So... we were having a conversation at
work about what your super power would be if you, a normal human, decided to try and fight crime like Phoenix Jones. I
had decided that I'd use my staff along with some home-made tech. First order of business would be gloves that could taze people. I got some laughs at that. So i decided to make a set that actually work.

**EDIT** Since posting this i have switched out the momentaries with SPST switches. Now i don't have to hold down a button to recharge. Plus, I am already working on plans for version 2. They will be more stable and less ghetto looking. Altoids tins are a gift from the Gods, but project boxes are better.

Dennis Ritchie, inventer of C and unix dies

last week wile everyone was talking about steve jobs dropping before his time......much like a phone call made on an iPhone(too soon?)
Dennis Ritchie, the creator of the C programming language and co-developer of the Unix operating system passed away on October 8 at the age of 70, leaving a legacy that casts a very long shadow.

Unix is the fundamental building block upon which much of what we consider to be the modern world was built.

C programming language, which he called “quirky, flawed, and an enormous success,” is the basis of nearly every programming and scripting tool, whether they use elements of C’s syntax or not. Java, JavaScript, Objective C and Cocoa, Python, Perl, and PHP would not exist without dmr’s C. Every bit of software that makes it possible for you to read this page has a trace of dmr’s DNA in it.

Ritchie has shaped our world in much more fundamental ways than Steve Jobs or Bill Gates have. What sets him apart from them is that he did it all not in a quest for wealth or fame, but just out of intellectual curiosity. Unix and C were the product of pure research—research that started as a side-project using equipment bought based on a promise that Ritchie would develop a word processor.

imagine how different our world would be if that was all he did?

Introducing: Boots.

My newest bot. I hadn't had time to build one recently, so I MADE time. Heh.

Not too much to say about the little guy. I scavenged the tracks/base off of a toy skid-loader. The base has a bay for 3 AA batteries, but i decided to add a 4-AA battery pack to get more speed out of him. I don't mind changing out the motors if I burn them out doing it. It's far more fun to watch him scoot around at the speed he does now.

I decided to name him Boots because 99% of the time I was working on him, my daughter had Dora blasting in the background and it stuck in my head.

His design is pretty basic:

Arduino Duemilanove

SN754410 Quad Half H-Bridge

Parallax Ping sensor

At this point he just drives around avoiding obstacles. My main hurdle was getting the code to work properly. Thanks go out to the guys over at letsmakerobots.com who helped with a lot of the problems i encountered.

F.C.C is finaly moving into the 20th century(now that everyone else is in the 21st)

for reasons i can't explain without violating jair's "keep it pg13" rule i have a deep seated hatred for the F.c.c but today..... I'm a fan(I'm sure I'll be over is soon)

The FCC on Tuesday will propose the first steps toward converting the $8 billion fund that subsidizes rural telephone service into one for helping pay to provide broadband to underserved areas, F.C.C. chairman, Julius Genachowski, is expected to outline the proposal in a speech on Monday.


now ,if we can just get them some therapy for their irrational fear of nipples....................

Happy Anniversary!

Well,

This weekend marked the 2 year anniversary of the site. To any of you who actively visit the site, Thank you. I don't make money off of this site; I help creative minds.

I started this site to blog about things i find interesting out there in technology. It has turned into a site mostly showcasing the various hacks and mods i have accomplished. I promise there will be many more to come. That you can be sure of. As for daily active posting... Once i find a viable way of posting with my blackberry without using up an hour, i will do so.

I am currently working on finding myself a nice, lightweight tablet, along with one of those nifty roll up keyboards, They will weigh half as much as my netbook and take up a flatter area in my bag... which i need to clean out soon. You'd be surprised how many gadgets can accumulate after a while.

Anyway, as far as the site is concerned, I plan on going the same route as before, I will however, work on bringing more content. I am going to re-start my quest to find a few people to help me actively keep news coming in. I could bow down to an RSS feed, but that is not original.

Again thanks, and Happy Birthday Techno-holics!