Monday, September 21, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The $150 Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget
The $150 Space Camera.
Bespoke is old hat. Off-the-shelf is in. Even Google runs the world’s biggest and scariest server farms on computers home-made from commodity parts. DIY is cheaper and often better, as Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh found out when they decided to send a camera into space.
The two students (from MIT, of course) put together a low-budget rig to fly a camera high enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth. Instead of rockets, boosters and expensive control systems, they filled a weather balloon with helium and hung a styrofoam beer cooler underneath to carry a cheap Canon A470 compact camera. Instant hand warmers kept things from freezing up and made sure the batteries stayed warm enough to work.
Of course, all this would be pointless if the guys couldn’t find the rig when it landed, so they dropped a prepaid GPS-equipped cellphone inside the box for tracking. Total cost, including duct tape? $148.
Launch
Two weeks ago, on September 2nd 2009, at the leisurely post-breakfast hour of 11:45AM, the balloon was launched from Sturbridge MA. Lee and Yeh took a road trip in order to stop prevailing winds from taking the balloon out onto the Atlantic, and checked in on the University of Wisconsin’s balloon trajectory website to estimate the landing site.
Because of spotty cellphone coverage in west Massachusetts, it was important to keep the rig in the center of the state so it could be found upon landing. Light winds meant the guys got lucky and, although the cellphone’s external antenna was buried upon landing, the fix they got as the balloon was coming down was close enough.
The Photographs
The balloon and camera made it up high enough to see the black sky curling around our blue planet. The Canon was hacked with the CHDK (Canon Hacker’s Development Kit) open-source firmware, which adds many features to Canon’s cameras. The intervalometer (interval timer) was set to shoot a picture every five seconds, and the 8GB memory card was enough to hold pictures for the five-hour duration of the flight.
The picture you see above was shot from around 93,000 feet, just shy of 18 miles high. To give you an idea of how high that is, when the balloon burst, the beer-cooler took forty minutes to come back to Earth.
What is most astonishing about this launch, named Project Icarus, is that anyone could do it. The budget is so small as to be almost non-existent (the guys slept in their car the night before the launch to save money), so that even if everything went wrong, a second, third or fourth attempt would be easy. All it took was a grand idea and an afternoon poking around the hardware store.
The project website has few details on how the balloon was put together — but the students say they will be selling step-by-step instructions for $150 soon. That means you will soon be able to launch your own balloon for just $300 — $150 for the instructions and $150 for the parts.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Why you should never drive into areas where water covers the road!!!
A Los Angeles firemen examine a fire truck stuck in a
sinkhole in the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles
Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009. Four firefighters escaped injury
early Tuesday after their fire engine sunk into a large hole
caused by a burst water main in the San Fernando Valley.
A Los Angeles firemen examine a fire truck stuck in a
sinkhole in the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles
Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009. Four firefighters escaped injury
early Tuesday after their fire engine sunk into a large hole
caused by a burst water main in the San Fernando Valley.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
WHAT COULD BE MORE ANNOYING THAN THIS? MAYBE IF IT WAS BOLD? AND RED?
OK, I can't actually make that text red due to the publishing system I'm on, but it would certainly be annoying, wouldn't it?
And if you worked for New Zealand's ProCare Health, it could even get you fired.
That's exactly what happened to Vicki Walker, who was abruptly kicked out of her job for sending "confrontational emails" with text formatted in a variety of red, bold, and all caps fonts. Walker had sent the emails to fellow workers within the company, usually with stern and detailed instructions on how forms should be properly filled out.
Someone at ProCare didn't like her approach, suggesting she caused "disharmony in the workplace" and was being too confrontational via email, eventually firing her without warning.
Walker, however, got the last laugh. She sued for wrongful termination and won the case, pocketing $17,000 in lost wages and for other unspecified harm caused due to the firing.
Quite a predicament. Is it actually possible to be confrontational in an email message? With instructions on how to fill out a form? By all accounts, Walker's emails sound rude and brusque, but did she cross a line? Just how angry would an email have to be in order to merit being fired from her job? I know I've sent a "confrontational" message or two to my co-workers in the past, and I've received more than my fair share of them, I think. I never recall anyone getting fired for it.
And if you worked for New Zealand's ProCare Health, it could even get you fired.
That's exactly what happened to Vicki Walker, who was abruptly kicked out of her job for sending "confrontational emails" with text formatted in a variety of red, bold, and all caps fonts. Walker had sent the emails to fellow workers within the company, usually with stern and detailed instructions on how forms should be properly filled out.
Someone at ProCare didn't like her approach, suggesting she caused "disharmony in the workplace" and was being too confrontational via email, eventually firing her without warning.
Walker, however, got the last laugh. She sued for wrongful termination and won the case, pocketing $17,000 in lost wages and for other unspecified harm caused due to the firing.
Quite a predicament. Is it actually possible to be confrontational in an email message? With instructions on how to fill out a form? By all accounts, Walker's emails sound rude and brusque, but did she cross a line? Just how angry would an email have to be in order to merit being fired from her job? I know I've sent a "confrontational" message or two to my co-workers in the past, and I've received more than my fair share of them, I think. I never recall anyone getting fired for it.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Saban releases statement on Deaderick shooting.
Brandon Deaderick was shot at about 10:15 Monday night in Tuscaloosa.
TUSCALOOSA University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban released a statement this morning about Brandon Deaderick, who was hospitalized for gunshot wounds Monday night.
"We feel very fortunate that Brandon is doing well and that this is not a more serious situation," Saban said. "We are hopeful that his condition will continue to improve as we expect him to be released from the hospital later in the day today.
"Our concern at this time is for Brandon's continued recovery as our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family, not about when he will return to football."
Deaderick remained hospitalized this morning, but hospital officials expect him to be released sometime today.
But law enforcement agents are still seeking help finding the robber who shot Deaderick in a Rice Mine Road apartment complex late Monday night, a shot that pierced his forearm and ricocheted into his hip.
He was taken by ambulance to DCH Regional Medical Center, where he remained this morning in good condition, said hospital spokesman Brad Fisher.
Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson is asking anyone with information to contact the Tuscaloosa Police Department, Crime Stoppers or the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit.
“[The suspect] is still a big question mark,” Anderson said.
The chief did say he wanted to put to rest a rumor that was circulating earlier this morning.
The notion that detectives are skeptical of Deaderick’s story is not true, Anderson said.
“We have no reason not to believe that what happened is the absolute truth,” he said, adding that he spoke with Deaderick briefly at the hospital following the shooting and had no reason to doubt Deaderick’s story.
Deaderick told police that he and a female companion arrived in the parking lot of Rivermont Apartments about 10 p.m. when he was approached by a man wearing dark clothes, a dark ball cap and a blue bandanna over his face.
He did not know the robber, who pointed a gun and said “Give it up,” authorities have said.
When he refused, the assailant fired the gun, sending the bullet into his arm and hip.
Police searched for the shooter in the Rice Mine Road area into the night, and located one man near Cypress Inn restaurant just before midnight.
Anderson said that suspect was taken into custody on outstanding warrants from the Tuscaloosa Police Department and Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, but that he was not connected to the Deaderick shooting.
“He was just an individual who happened to be in the area,” Anderson said.
Deaderick, a 6-foot-4, 306-pound defensive end from Elizabethtown, Ky., started all 14 games last season as a junior and was Alabama’s top returning pass rusher. He made 36 total tackles last season and was second on the team with four quarterback sacks and tied for the lead in quarterback hurries with seven. He won the team’s Up-Front Award as the outstanding lineman on defense.
As a sophomore, Deaderick played in all 13 games with seven starts.
"Our concern at this time is for Brandon's continued recovery as our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family, not about when he will return to football."
Deaderick remained hospitalized this morning, but hospital officials expect him to be released sometime today.
But law enforcement agents are still seeking help finding the robber who shot Deaderick in a Rice Mine Road apartment complex late Monday night, a shot that pierced his forearm and ricocheted into his hip.
He was taken by ambulance to DCH Regional Medical Center, where he remained this morning in good condition, said hospital spokesman Brad Fisher.
Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson is asking anyone with information to contact the Tuscaloosa Police Department, Crime Stoppers or the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit.
“[The suspect] is still a big question mark,” Anderson said.
The chief did say he wanted to put to rest a rumor that was circulating earlier this morning.
The notion that detectives are skeptical of Deaderick’s story is not true, Anderson said.
“We have no reason not to believe that what happened is the absolute truth,” he said, adding that he spoke with Deaderick briefly at the hospital following the shooting and had no reason to doubt Deaderick’s story.
Deaderick told police that he and a female companion arrived in the parking lot of Rivermont Apartments about 10 p.m. when he was approached by a man wearing dark clothes, a dark ball cap and a blue bandanna over his face.
He did not know the robber, who pointed a gun and said “Give it up,” authorities have said.
When he refused, the assailant fired the gun, sending the bullet into his arm and hip.
Police searched for the shooter in the Rice Mine Road area into the night, and located one man near Cypress Inn restaurant just before midnight.
Anderson said that suspect was taken into custody on outstanding warrants from the Tuscaloosa Police Department and Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, but that he was not connected to the Deaderick shooting.
“He was just an individual who happened to be in the area,” Anderson said.
Deaderick, a 6-foot-4, 306-pound defensive end from Elizabethtown, Ky., started all 14 games last season as a junior and was Alabama’s top returning pass rusher. He made 36 total tackles last season and was second on the team with four quarterback sacks and tied for the lead in quarterback hurries with seven. He won the team’s Up-Front Award as the outstanding lineman on defense.
As a sophomore, Deaderick played in all 13 games with seven starts.
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