Arduino Workshop
London (Paddington Art)
25 November 2005

The idea of an open-source hardware might sound strange, but that is exactly the intention of Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles and David Mellis. The designers/programmers/mathemathicians (the list keeps going) wanted something simple but that could handle complex needs of new media creators and help in educational purposes. All of them where present in the London workshop, making it clear that the Arduino Klan was diverse, intense and, yes, fun.

Today, I received a mail from paypal.com presenting me their latest product, the PayPal Shop. Shops on the internet are nothing particularly new, however this one is slightly different: it is a products-comparison application and a shop in one. Networked media and inter-connected shops allow us not only to easily compare specifications amongst similar products, it also allows us to compare prices between different shops. (So does e.g. Kelkoo.) This has an impact on how we will do our shoppings in the future.

The renewable, vegetable oil-based fuel can be used in conventional diesel engines, which are found in about 2 percent of cars currently sold in the U.S. and in about 40 percent in Europe. Any vegetable oil can become fuel, but not until its fatty acids are converted to chemical compounds known as esters.

The breakthrough could provide cost savings on a massive scale, because the technique could fairly easily make the transition from the lab to the refinery—if interest warrants.
More here

Since 1998, Al Jessup has amassed a collection of 12 dishes around his home. He said he first just began subscribing to Direct TV and Dish Network, but he later learned that by purchasing special satellite receivers he could receive “free to air” programming from several different satellites around the world. The information on how to adjust a dish and set up a receiver to pick up programming from these stations such as Galaxy 10, AMC 2 and Telestar 5 is included with these receivers.

“Up in the sky, there’s lots of free stuff,” he said.

LINK

A partnership between London-based sustainable development firm Kolam and Singapore-based networking expert Nex-G Systems has yielded a solar-powered WiFi router/WiMax router/surveillance cam that can be situated atop a streetlight (which is also solar-powered).

The access point by StarSight uses a high gain omni antenna and a high gain parabolic antenna to provide access/security to both developed and developing regions; it is already in use in Cameroon, with plans for deployment to India, China, and Morocco.
Link

Scotland Tops List of Developed Worlds Most Violent Countries,

A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America.

England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest.

Nothing shapes our understanding and presception of how a computer works more than the metaphors that are being used in the graphical user interface (GUI).

Mozilla is preparing to use an "open source marketing" drive online to promote the next generation of Firefox, its free web browser.