MAKE explains LEDs

In honor of this being the first day of classes at PJC, I'm sharing this video from MAKE:



MAKE presents: The LED from make magazine on Vimeo.

My class tonight is called Digital Fundamentals. According to the online course description, the course's "Major Learning Outcomes" are:

At the end of the course the student will be able to:
Use basic trouble-shooting equipment such as the DVM, Logic
Probe, Logic Pulsar, Current Tracer, and the Oscilloscope.
Covert from decimal to octal, hexidecimal, BCD, and Gray Codes
and vice versa.
Analyze and develop a basic understanding of the basic logic
gates circuit operations and functions.
Design basic functional logic circuits given a Boolean equation
or truth table.
Define basic terms and terminology used in logic circuit
operations.
Identify logic symbols used in logic circuit diagrams.
Analyze the operation of a logic circuit diagram.
Identify the characteristics of the major logic families.

Sounds like fun! (Seriously.) Thanks to the electronics class I took last semester, I have at least some clue about what'll be going on.

micromachines

That's a grain of pollen and red blood cells sitting beside a nano-machine!

It's blowing my mind.

Micromachines

Not THESE Micro Machines!

The Business of Zune Musings

Came across this at Beyond Binary:

Why did Microsoft get in the Zune business? Why is it an important business to be in?
Belfiore: We think the possibilities for creating value for people around how they are entertained...is incredibly important. The potential for doing great things for people is huge. It can affect a wide range of devices, from portable devices that you carry around to devices that are hooked up to your TV to devices that look like what you think of as your PC or laptop today. We aspire to really making people's lives better in the way they are entertained. Being able to create those connections between people and get them content on whatever kind of device it is, we think is important and compelling and worth doing.

Joe Belfiore is apparently the guy in charge of the Zune for Microsoft. Whatever. I just want to pick at his words a bit.

His first response to the question of "Why is MS in this business?" is the stupendously obvious "To make money." Duh. That's what "creating value" means.

Then he says they want to do "great things". Wow. Walkmen...er iPods...er Zunes or whatever are now on the same level as feeding the poor and providing clean water for everybody. Those are great things.

The next sentence he's saying that they can defeat Apple by spreading the Microsoft...er Zune music experience across a wider and more popular selection of devices...and reach more people...and make more money. The Zune mission encompasses MP3 players, TVs, and computers. What about Zune theaters?

They want to improve people's entertainment experience. I'm all for that. Tough to pick on that one.

They want to connect people by the music they listen to and movies they watch. OK. He reiterates that their efforst are not limited to the Zune device itself. It's like Zune is Microsoft's codename for Entertainment. "We will entertain the people in every facet of their life and we will commodify it and connect people via their interests to create more profitable ad networks and virtual parties and we will call it Zune." Or is that XBox?

I'm confused.

the nobility of vcr repair

I just finished up my "Intro to Computers in Technology" course.  The book we used was called Computers are Your Future.  Hell, they're already my present so that potentially ominous-sounding title strikes me as just plain silly...like something out of the 80s.  It was a good course, a nice return to the ridiculous halls of academia.

I'm currently debating between the various emphases.  The main areas I'm thinking about are consumer electronics and medical electronics.  It seems to make sense for a number of reasons to focus on medical equipment.  I know I don't want to focus on computers and/or networking equipment.  I don't want to be a computer repair guy, I know that much.  But beyond that I'm not sure yet.  I could end up repairing industrial equipment.  Who knows?  I think I'd rather do something at least somewhat noble, though...and that takes me back to medical equipment.  The decision doesn't have to be made yet, though.  Maybe "noble" means fixing your TV.  That'd be cool.

Big ups to Ben at Homebrew Junkie for his AWESOME new winemaking videos.

Robot Apocalypse

Engadget recently brought to mine eyes the following disturbing/inspiring video of remote control robot laser battle madness:

What are those robots?  At least some of them are Kondo KHR Series robots.  You can have one for the low, low price of $1445 plus shipping from Sozbots.  It's cool that we have such toys but it's disturbing because that video is a glimpse of the future of warfare.

If you're not concerned, you need to see this video from the future:

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

Don't panic.

Priests of Vulcan say, US has bad breath

Yahoo! recently posted an article about CO2 emissions in the US, Where Global Warming Begins. The following, insanely interesting video is embedded in the article. Created by the Vulcan Project at Purdue University, the animations in the video bring to life the climate-altering mechanical breath of a nation.

For my Gulf Coast readers, check out how much CO2 emissions are coming from around our seemingly pristine beaches. Looks to me like the air and water of the Gulf of Mexico are an international dumping ground. Also notice that the graphic in the Yahoo! article show that the rapidly growing Southeast is increasing its CO2 output as the Northeast decreases. Great. Here in Pensacola we're right in the path of the growing plumes of pollutants coming from Southeast Texas, New Orleans, and Mobile. And it appears we're creating plenty ourselves.

Wouldn't it be nice if our region could grow responsibly, in a sustainable manner?

Oh, that's right...growth, as we know it, is unsustainable.

Is collapse inevitable?

Will we change our ways and be better citizens of Planet Earth? Videos like the one from the Vulcan Project go a long way towards educating people on the consequences of our technologies and reminding us that we are part of a global community.

Accept Fear but Do Not Submit

This is good stuff. It's a clip from G4TV about the Great Firewall of China. Xeni Jardin is a real-life cyberpunk chick. I found this video by way of BoingBoing, which Xeni coedits. The story fascinates me because it encompasses both technology and revolt. I support any person's or people's drive to greater self-determination. I really cannot comprehend what makes Person A want to kill Person B for not wanting to be subjected to Person A. Fuck that shit. Why don't more people see how messed up that is? Why do we allow our governments to behave this way? Fear? What else could it be?

I'm reminded of V for Vendetta.

God bless alliteration!

I am not wholly sympathetic with the Tibetan cause. I can't help seeing shadowy figures from the US government skulking in the background. I'm not a fan of theocracies, even a Buddhist one. And I can't trust what I see:

Question everything. Do not blindly accept what They tell you.

YouTube's Bubbly Video Discovery Device

Genocide ringtone? That was one of the AdSense ads which appeared last time I looked at my blog. For all I know it'll be there when you view this. Anyway, that cracks me up bigtime. It just seems so shameless and almost offensive. How'd it get there? Well, there are/were a bunch of Darfur-related ads popping up because of my Sudan reference:

Iraq gettin to be old news? Afghanistan and Pakistan are played out? Iran's repetitive? North Korea not all that interesting? Want to branch out from the only African country you care about, Sudan? How about Chad as your next Big Cause?

As you can see, mention Sudan and AdSense will serve up an ad for Genocide Ringtones. Amazing.

My original intent when creating this post was to share this awesome video of Mad Season playing November Hotel:

As I was sitting here soaking in the greatness of their performance, I decided to expand the video to a full screen. Then I could soak it in even more. While floating on the waves of the glorious music and watching the musicians as if they were angels come to transport me to a holy place, I noticed a button along the bottom-left of the screen.

I clicked it.

The music stopped and the video-still shrunk to a little bubble in the center of a black screen. When I hovered the mouse over the bubble, a window popped up giving the title and band. OK. Then a bubble appeared above it. I couldn't quite tell who was in it so I hovered over it and found that it was a link to a video for Kiss's Detroit Rock City. As I hovered over it, a bazillion more bubbles popped up linking to other videos.

It's an interesting interface and discovery device. I'd never seen it before. Anyone know more about YouTube's bubbly video discovery device?