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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Steve Jobs: Thinking through his CEO legacy




Should Banks be a Public Utility?




Should Banks be a Public Utility?

Yves Smith: Finance sector controls the regulatory process - there needs to be a publicly controlled alternative to the private banking system

To Heck With iPad Stands, Help Kickstart Some Handmade Pens For A Change





This is what I like to see: people Kickstarting some really amazing stuff. How amazing? Try a handmade pen made of multiple pieces of wood spliced together and top-of-the-line clips and gel-inks. The pen, called the Exemplar, is half-length and costs a mere $100 (relatively cheap for a handmade pen, but still). However, it’s made by two North Carolinian lads, Cass Baltz and Bart Creasman, which adds a certain bit of old country panache.

$50 gets you a handmade wooden letter opener.

The pair are calling their company Baltz Fine Writing Instruments and, while pens have gone the way of the 50-cent milkshake, human kindness, and the Dodo, it’s nice to see two fellows so dedicated to a rapidly dying art.




Introduction

Hello, and thank you for taking a look at our page on Kickstarter. We are introducing our Exemplar line of hand-turned, custom designed luxury pens. The conceptualization for these fine writing instruments emerged over a year ago. Since then, we have worked hard towards creating a product that we believe to be the finest wood-turned pen available. Currently, we are offering three versions from our Exemplar line of pens. This post will serve as a pre-sale for these pens.

Details of our project can be found in the video below. If you prefer to read about the pens and our project, information can be found below the video.




ABOUT THIS PROJECT




Introduction

Hello, and thank you for taking a look at our page on Kickstarter. We are introducing our Exemplar line of hand-turned, custom designed luxury pens. The conceptualization for these fine writing instruments emerged over a year ago. Since then, we have worked hard towards creating a product that we believe to be the finest wood-turned pen available. Currently, we are offering three versions from our Exemplar line of pens. This post will serve as a pre-sale for these pens.

Details of our project can be found in the video below. If you prefer to read about the pens and our project, information can be found below the video.



About Our Pens

Exotic woods combined into a unique design -- featuring Birdseye Maple, Paduk, and African Blackwood
Custom designed hardware -- clip and cap are cast like a ring -- finished in rhodium (a precious metal from the platinum family)
Curved clip and matching cap are distinct to our brand of fine writing instruments
SCHMIDT ink writing system (comes with both blue and black ink inserts)
Hand-made, by us, here in North Carolina

Manufacturing Process

Two species of exotic woods are combined through methods of cutting, drilling, doweling, and gluing
Blanks are roughly shaped by hand on a lathe using a gouge, then planing knife
We then sand from 220 grit to 400 grit in order to get a relatively smooth surface
A special finishing compound, known for great durability and clarity, is applied three separate times
Sanding then resumes from 600 grit to 12,000 grit -- which is essentially a polishing rag
Finishing touches are made with a buffing wax
Hardware is assembled to the pen body using a clamp and special glue

Why Kickstarter?

Test the general interest in our pens
Purchase better tools for a more consistent output of pen bodies
Cover the set-up costs involved in manufacturing the metal hardware pieces and purchasing the ink inserts

Monday, August 22, 2011

Kno Turns Textbooks 3D (Video)



How do you make a digital textbook more than just a glorified PDF on a tablet? Kno, the tablet textbook company started by Chegg co-founder Osman Rashid, is rolling out a variety of features to try to bring textbooks to life, including Facebook integration, automated quizes, an activity stream of notes. But an update to its iPad app today points to how digital textbooks can create entirely new experiences out of static notations. In the vido above, Rashid shows me Kno’s 3D modeling feature.


Below is a video of the QuizMe and Journal features, introduced earlier this month.



The Serial Sentence

Here is an example - a dialogue



If it has a dependent clause, it needs a comma!



Sunday, August 21, 2011

Robotic Pipe Organ




The story of a girl who steps into StudentRND. Intrigued and inspired by the possibilities, she explores the world of technology, and changes the world.


Change the World - StudentRND





ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Background

Music, science and mathematics have been closely linked since the dawn of time. There's no greater example of this than the pipe organ. Developed around the fifteenth or sixteenth century, they've been a staple in the Western classical music ever since.

But little has changed since then. They've made them smaller and easier to transport, but no one has attached a robot to one even once.

Goal

We want to build a robotic pipe organ that anyone can play and watch over the internet. We will build it out of 25 PVC pipes allowing a full two octaves of notes to be played. Becuase of its inexpensive design, we'll create a set of plans on Instructables.com as well so that anyone can build their own pipe organ as well. We expect to have this done by the end of summer.

What your money will be used for

We'll use the money to fund parts for the organ (including pipes, motors, and electronics), and live broadcast equipment (a netbook). Tools are provided by StudentRND and its volunteers.

Technical Details
The organ will be played with 25 servos opening and closing valves. They will be controlled with a Propeller microprocessor which will interpret input MIDI files. Files can be uploaded via a companion website that will also live-stream the organ playing music so the instrument will be truly accessible to all.

Air will be provided by a high volume centrifugal fan into a windchest, as is common in most pipe organs.

The size will be comparable to a standard upright grand piano, with a MIDI keyboard attached instead of a mechanical one.

Who We Are

We're StudentRND, a student-run nonprofit organization that inspires students to learn more about science and technology. During the summer, we run a workspace where students gather and work on cool science and technology projects. We also partner with local high school robotics teams to offer them a space to work over the summer.

Cane 2.0: The Tacit Is Hand-Mounted Sonar For The Vision Impaired

Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind from Grathio Labs on Vimeo.



Every once in a while you see an invention that seems a long time coming. The Tacit, a hand-mounted system that pings surroundings and transmits distance information to the user, is one of those. While the reliable white cane and occasional accommodations for the blind and vision impaired ameliorate the difficulty of navigating the world sans sight, technological advances that are both useful and ready for deployment are few and far between.

Jeff Bridges Maybe I Missed The Point



I know somebody whose life is tough.
I help a little, but it isn't enough
Cuz I go an' spend money on stupid stuff
When I know he's strugglin' to stay above.

An' I have so many chances to be
The hero I believe's inside of me
But I get busy and I get distracted
And I do nothin' when I could've acted

I laid low when I could've stood high.
I said nothin' when I should've asked why.
I saw somethin' that I might've done and I didn't,
A chance to speak my truth and I hid it.

Inside, I'd like to believe I'm cool,
Easy to love and hard to fool,
But I know there's more I could've enjoyed.
Sometimes I find myself thinkin'
Maybe I missed the point.

So many times I turned down love,
Stayed in the dark when I could've lit it up,
But every time I did take a chance
Makes me happy when I'm lookin' back

I'm not sayin' my whole life feels like a joke
But I've been a master of mirrors and smoke
And I don't wanna live
No mo' without you.

The Louvin brothers - My baby's gone

The Louvin brothers - My baby's gone

http://youtu.be/kizPITXG9Ag


CHORUS:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Hold back the rushing minutes
Make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine
Across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops
And hold back the sun
My world has ended
My baby's gone

The Milkman whistles softly
As he comes up to my door

The Mailman brings the letters by
Just like he did before
They seem so busy all day long
As though there's nothing wrong,
Don't they know the world has ended
My Baby's Gone

CHORUS

I wake up sometimes in the night
And realize you're gone
And then I toss upon my bed
And wait for day to come
I try to tell my lonely heart
It must go on alone
But it cries the world has ended
My Baby's Gone



If I Needed You By TOWNES VAN ZANDT (Cover)




If I needed you would you come to me,
Would you come to me, and ease my pain?
If you needed me
I would come to you
I'd swim the seas for to ease your pain

In the night forlorn the morning's born
And the morning shines with the lights of love
You will miss sunrise if you close your eyes
That would break my heart in two

The lady's with me now since I showed her how
To lay her lily hand in mine
Loop and Lil agree she's a sight to see
And a treasure for the poor to find

Once A Gambler Lyrics - Lightnin Hopkins




Yeah, you know I once was a gambler
But I lost my money roll
Yeah, you know I once was a gambler
Boy, but I lost my money roll
That's the reason I don't have no sweet woman
Now I done lost my happy home

You take it down when you lose that no good money
He sat around with his head hung down
When you lose that old dog gone money
You sit around with your head hung down
You will try to borrow you fifty dollars
To start all over again in another town

Too late you gonna lose
Your friends don't pay you no money

Baby, if you only will forgive me
I won't gamble no more
If you only will forgive me, baby
Lord, have mercy, poor Lightnin' won't gamble no more

She says I can't help you now
Sold out to the devil and that's no way to go
And I couldn't help but cry
I cried like I did

She said I didn't want you to gamble, Lightnin'
You know who I am, I'm your wife
She said I didn't want you to gamble, Lightnin'
You know who I am, I am your wife
She's looking at, brother, just like you lost your money
You had a good chance to lose your life

So go ahead on, Lightnin'

Yeah, you know I once was a gambler
But I lost my money roll
Yeah, you know I once was a gambler

Crazy Heart Jeff Bridges Somebody Else




I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else
2x
Who'm might be tomorrow is anybody's guess

What was thought to be the right way turned out the wrong way after all
2x
what I took to be the high road was only leading to a fall

I used to be a preacher, with women, fame, and wealth
2x
From a mighty congregation, to talking to myself

I was cleared of all the charges with money, women and my health
2x
Now that I'm a brand-new man, you belong with someone else

I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else
2x
Who I'll be tomorrow is anybody's guess