p2pnet view Cool:- Thank you, xkcd.

Once again.

Follow me on Twitter.

March, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

p2pnet view Cool:- Over the years, p2pnet has had the pleasure and fun of sharing quite a few xkcd webcomics, but I don’t think we’ve ever run an actual text post from its artist/writer, Randall Munroe.

We’re correcting that now with his Distraction Affliction Correction Extension. It’ll strike quite a few chords.

On February 18, “Lots of people have asked me for the system I used to implement the restriction in the alt-text of today’s comic“, he said, going on >>>

Follow me on Twitter.

Randall Munroe – Distraction Affliction Correction Extension, February 18, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

QUOTE There is as well a nice and cosy PDF of this document.

QUOTE Print it out and show to everyone.

QUOTE Post it at your blog, in forums, make translations of this text.

QUOTE Share the datalove <3

QUOTE Here you can see datalove. UNQUOTE

OK. >>>

Love data

Data is essential

The data must flow

Data must be used

Data is neither good nor bad

There is no illegal data

Data is free

Data can not be owned

No man, machine or system shall interrupt the flow of data

Locking data is a crime against datanity

Love data

Love data

Follow me on Twitter.

February, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

Under the name COMMStellation, they’ll circle the Earth at 1,000 km, “connecting remote regions of the Earth to the Internet”, it says in a statement.

“The influx of millions of data-hungry mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is causing unprecedented strain on mobile networks, which have already reached, or are nearing, capacity,” states David R. Cooper, president and CEO, MSCI, going on MSCI’s microsatellite technology could “potentially provide bandwidth to any of Earth’s 6.9 billion (estimate) population, not just the ‘other three billion’.”

The company says it’s partnering with satellite-communications technology companies to provide the antenna payload, and to integrate with its Multi Mission Microsatellite Bus (MMMB) architecture.

Now it’s looking for ISPs who “want to improve service to their customers”, as well as “technology partners who can bring complementary technologies to the COMMStellation initiative, military or industrial leaders who are looking for strategic communications to and from remote areas, and governments that want to improve the lives of all citizens – not only those who live in well served urban areas”.

Follow me on Twitter.

statement – COMMStellation Will Address Global Wireless Backhaul Demand, January 19, 2011

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

And just before that, “For those of you who are waiting for the real Pineapple CEO to be back from his medical leave, he is training his body now, he will fully recover with his ninja stars, and his body will get stronger from his ninja training, and he will be back!! If you miss him so much, you can head to M.I.C. store to purchase and shipping worldwide will take 2-3 weeks. The price? Just $89.90, plus $10 shipping. One more thing, it’s limited edition.”

It’s from a post on MIC Gadget, which kicks off >>>

Once upon a time, there is a “Pineapple” CEO in the tech industry. He is a phenomenal guy who likes to say ‘Boom!”. One day, he traveled to Japan for a vacation in Kyoto. As he was leaving Kyoto, airport security guards refused to let him bring ninja throwing stars onto his private jet. And today, he takes a medical leave. Everyone hopes he gets well, and if you want to see him in good shape, this is it, the Pineapple CEO action figure (ninja edition).

Many of you probably remember the phenomenal CEO figure which gets down to the detail and delivers an exceptionally well made sculpture of the rock-star in the tech industry. It shows the Pineapple CEO in his Levi’s jeans, black turtleneck, and NB sneakers. Everyone likes it, but due to copyrights and trademarks, it failed to made it to open market. Now, we would love to bring it back with extraordinary outfit. It looks super awesome.

But never mind, eh? Enter Pineapple CEO Mark II with “awesome upgrades”.

First, says the item, the ninja mask, going on >>>

This is bloody cool. By wearing the black mask, the Pineapple CEO really looks like a freaking ninja. Next, he has ninja stars. Don’t mess up with him or else you will get hurt by his plastic ninja stars.

Pineapple CEO now holds ninja stars on his left hand, not a smartphone anymore. And the ninja stars are fully attached to its hand, they are not removable. For more fun, the figure comes with two extra ninja stars. They are a little bit different with one side chopped off, this allows you to stick it on your gadgets, or anything else. We recommend to stick the ninja stars on the platform.

Some of you may notice the first gen. figurine was holding the “Pineapple” smartphone in the wrong way, the death grip. To fix it, there’s another left hand holding the phone in the right way. And as a bonus, the smartphone comes in a white version too.

The smartphones are not showing anything on the screen. People can get their own screenshots stickers to paste on the smartphone.

There are other minor changes too. He has a black belt, an enhanced version of glasses, and a wedding ring on his left hand.

The glasses has a great enhancement. The old glasses is too fragile and it may break when you are putting it on the CEO’s face. The new version is much more durable, the frame is firmly connected with the joining points, especially the middle part. Everything is in metal, except the lenses.

Another improvement is the transparency, the old glasses look “milky”, and the new version is shiny and clear.

Beautiful.

Stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter.

MIC Gadget – Hands-on With The Phenomenal Pineapple CEO Action Figure (Ninja Edition),  January 18, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

p2pnet view P2P:- First of the year.

xkcd.

Excellent.

Many more to come.

Follow me on Twitter.

January, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

“This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music — a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison’s 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.”

Says the Wikipedia: “The ‘Amen break’ was a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester ‘G. C.’ Coleman in the song ‘Amen, Brother’ performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons. It gained fame from the 1980s onwards when four bars (5.2 seconds) sampled from the drum-solo (or imitations thereof) became very widely used as sampled drum loops in hip hop, jungle, breakcore and drum and bass music.”

Enjoy.

(Cheers, Marshall)

Follow me on Twitter.

January, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

Like really.

When you woke up yesterday, you may have thought you were a Capricorn, or Aquarius, or maybe a Gemini.

But you weren’t.

As the Washington Post puts it, “So, you’ve spent your whole life happily smug in your star sign. You’re a fish! Swimming in two directions! You’re intuitive, imaginative, unworldly! And then today’s Web is aflame with the news: You are not a Pisces. You are an Aquarius.”

But “Your star sign has been wrong your whole life. All along, you’ve been a freaking water carrier. This is not cool.”

Not only but also, there’s a new Zodiac sign! Ophiuchus, aka Snake Man!

Says the Minnesota Star Tribune >>>

The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was “in” on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon’s gravitational pull has made the Earth “wobble” around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars’ alignment.

The result?

“When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces,” said Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society.

Indeed, most horoscope readers who consider themselves Pisces are actually Aquarians. So instead of being sensitive, humane and idealistic, they actually are friendly, loyal and inventive.

Or not.

New star dates >>>

• Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16
  
• Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11
  
• Pisces: March 11-April 18
  
• Aries: April 18-May 13
  
• Taurus: May 13-June 21
  
• Gemini: June 21-July 20
  
• Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10
  
• Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16
  
• Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30
  
• Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23
  
• Scorpio: Nov. 23-Dec. 17
• Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20

BUT —-

—- “Well, strike that, you don’t get to switch your sign”, says the Washington Post in an update, adding >>>

At least reader StarJack says so: “The stars are markers that drift, but our main points of reference are not directly the stars. They are the equinoxes (both spring and vernal) and the solstices which altogether make the four cardinal points of the zodiac which in turn determine the signs. The stars help us locate those points which define the SIGNS of the Zodiac which remain constant in relation to the equinox point. The CONSTELLATIONS do move about and we take that into consideration when locating planets.”

Update take 2: To address a couple issues readers have brought up: the purported “new” sign of Ophiuchus is not a new sign. According to the original constellation chart, Ophiuchus made the list. People born between Nov. 29-Dec. 17 now fall under the Ophiuchus sign, also known as the Serpent Holder sign (according to Time, you’d therefore be an interpreter of dreams and vivid premonitions and envied by your peers and favored by your father and authority figures).

However, the Babylonians discarded the 13th sign, to make for an even 12 signs two millennia ago.

Now you know.

Or do you?

(Cheers, Em)

Follow me on Twitter.

Washington Post – New Zodiac sign dates: Don’t switch horoscopes yet, January 13, 2011
Minnesota Star Tribune – The stars might not actually be aligned in your favor, January 9, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

OoooooK.

That’s Christopher O. Kidder who, with Sasha Walloch, is responsible for the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol in thIngan Hol, the language of the Klingon race, at a theatre in Chicago.

“The show features a miserly alien warrior named SQuja’, Klingon for Scrooge, who is visited by a trio of holiday ghosts who help him regain the festive spirit so that he can save sickly Tiny Tim”, says the Telegraph.

The story takes place on the Klingon planet of Kronos during the Feast of the Long Night.

Can three ghosts help Tiny Tim “to become the true warrior he ought to be” in time to save him from a horrible fate?” — asls the stopry, adding:

For non-thIngan Hol speakers, there’ll be English supertitles.

jIwuQ : jee-WOOKKH.

Follow me on Twitter.

Telegraph - Klingon Christmas Carol brought to the stage, December 21, 2010

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

Of course, the company’s entire business is predicated on taking without asking. So it was no big surprise when it finally emerged that for three years its Street View sneak view snoopmobiles had been secretly vacuuming up and storing unsecured WiFi data.

When it was caught, it strenuously denied it was doing this deliberately and knowingly. ‘Gosh, folks, it was just a mistake on the part of a lone engineer (or was it two?)!’ – it exclaimed, and still exclaims. ‘It was him (them?), not us.’

But there’s WiFi data gathering of another kind.

“Spotted. Per a post: all private wifi mapped! http://wigle.net/gps/gps/Map/onlinemap2/” – says a Reader’s Write, going on >>>

found this map of all wi-fi networks in north america, even mine is there.
You have to zoom out, scroll to where you live, then zoom in.

I see a lot of Bell SSID’s and MAC addresses in Ottawa :p

Seems to be some sort of google Android app collecting these, if I understood it correctly.

Further down another comment says “Also see: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25060031-all-private-wifi-mapped-” and over at dslreports, among other posts is this, from cpb >>>

Hmm, I was thinking….

If we re-program all the wireless routers everywhere, with a custom firmware that would allow P2P like connection, using a small percentage of wifi bandwidth, wouldn’t we be able to create a wireless internet of sorts?

Plug a booster here and there and voila, wireless P2P internet.

hmmmmm.

Meanwhile, here’s the FAQ

What is This Thing For?

We consolidate location and information of wireless networks world-wide to a central database, and have user-friendly java, windows, and web applications that can map, query and update the database via the web.

We currently accept files in any of NetStumbler’s exported file formats, DStumbler’s text output, Kismet’s CWGD, XML, CSV, or GPS formats, Pocket Warrior’s text output, as well as via our online form.

To have your record removed from our database, or if you have any questions or suggestions, send an email to: WiGLE-admin[at]WiGLE.net or irc chat on #wigle at wigle.net:6667

Who are you people?

• arkasha worked on the java client (JiGLE) and is writing the palm client (PRInGLE) and windows/linux native client
• bobzilla works on the web/db (WiGLE), map generation (RiGLE), and the java client (JiGLE)
• uhtu works on the java client (JiGLE)
• thuddwhir wrote the vector-based map generation (SquiGLE)
• wos wrote the Mac OSX native client (TinGLE)

All are members of Mimezine.

How does triangulation work?

The “triangulation” is actually just an average of the latitudes and longitudes gathered using the signal strength (squared) as a weight. This assumes that signal strength will change at the inverse square of the distance. This is reasonable as long is you don’t get a one sided view of the network (IE only sample it on the west side) since it will be skewed in that direction. Perhaps a better way would be choosing a signal of 70 as being the ultimate, and every other point being a radius from 70 and trying to find where all the circles intersect, but we’ll see. This should be good enough for the real world for now.

How do I Get Started?

WiGLE.net is a submission-based catalog of wireless networks. Submissions are not paired with actual people; rather name/password identities which people use to associate their data. It’s basically a “gee isn’t this neat” engine for learning about the spread of wireless computer usage.

WiGLE concerns itself entirely with 802.11b networks right now, since it’s REALLY hard to deal with cellular networks, 802.11a is so hard to catch, and everything else is so small-share. 802.11b appears to be experiencing an explosive growth, and it’s neat to see it cover cities.

the first step in using WiGLE is to create a username for yourself. You don’t have to submit anything other than a made-up name and password, validation is immediate, and we will not contact you (unless you wanna chat on our message boards). This will give you access to our query engine and software downloads.

once you’ve done this, you’re free to send us wireless network traces (in any of our listed formats, usually pairings of wireless sample, names and network hardware addresses (for uniqueness), data/SNR triples and GPS coordinates) or enter networks manually. Note, your username gets “credit” for these, but of course some people don’t want their networks listed (various reasons), so we delist these immediately upon request. If you’re visiting us to ask for removal, just make an ID and ask about your network through the query page. Once you make a user id, you can look at the submissions statistics page to see how users stack up.

To view networks, you can 1.) ask the website, 2.) download one of our clients. The clients are particularly fun to look at, but require either a java-1.3-and-up machine (windows, sunOS, MacOS-X, linux, mostly) or a windows box, for the new windows-native prototype. This will superimpose “points” from a live query onto a map of an area. Maps can be downloaded in “packs” from our mapping engine and are installed simply by unzipping them into your client installation directory. Mappacks are created and served by-state-by-county, or in the case of large cities, by-state-by-city. If we haven’t generated a map for your area of interest yet, ask for it, and come back after the rendering engine’s had a minute or 5 to think about it.

Overall, WiGLE aims to show people about wireless in a more-technical capacity then your average static map or newspaper article.

If your network is in WiGLE and you don’t like it, we’ll take it out immediately, but you should look into making your network harder to detect AND more secure; remember that you’re the one bombarding passers-by with your signal. We aren’t affiliated directly with any particular community or interest (other than our own), but we applaud the efforts of the people who wrote the stumbling software that feeds our project, the people looking to use wireless in innovative ways, and especially the community of people who just dig wireless network access and dig sharing it. (freenets)

What’s the license for all this?

The official legal End User License Agreement. We basically just offer no warranties on our software, and don’t want our software to be used for unlicensed commercial gain.

Commercial Use

To help fund WiGLE operations, we offer licenses to a subset of the data derived from postings that our users have permited us to use for commercial purposes. As a matter of policy, we will not comment on future, past, or hypothetical customers.

We additionally refuse to claim or disclaim any involvement with the alleged moon landings, area 51 and ‘bigfoot’.

Why Don’t You Offer Non US Maps?

We’d love to offer world-wide, street-level mapping information, but there’s nothing free for our use. WiGLE relies on the TIGER and VMAP0 mapping data sets for our current maps, which allows us to produce our maps without intellectual property entanglement or licensing fees. We’re certainly interested in hearing from you about candidate datasets which we can use under similar terms, but we’re not necessarily going to write a new parser for each country/city/neighborhood in the world. See The forums for an up-to-date status on our search and instructions for composing your own raster mappacks!

How Can I Change My Password?

The main site and forums use linked but seperate authentication systems. One of the problems this can cause is that if you use (or have used) forum tools to update your password, it may no longer match your main password for the site. We recommend you use the change password page to update both passwords simultaneously and avoid complication. If you’ve forgotten your password, we recommend you contact us via WiGLE-admin[at]WiGLE.net and include your registration information for proof of identity.

Very cool.

Stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter.

November, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

Aircraft rider, that is.

A doddery senior, complete with cheesecutter hat and wrinkles everywhere, stepped onto an Air Canada flight in Hong Kong, and landed in Canada as a young Asian man.

And it was all down to silicone.

Suspicion was triggered “because of the man’s young-looking hands”, says Jabber Lounge.

He boarded the aircraft “apparently without a passport or any other documents with a picture or date of birth”, says Reuters. “He carried the boarding pass of a U.S. citizen who was booked on the flight.”

The question now isn’t so much How did he manage it? Rather, Has anyone gone before him, and if so Who’s behind it?

And how many copycats will be inspired to try the same thing?

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

Jabber LounYoung Asian Disguised as Elderly Man Arrested, November 7, 2010
Reuters – Young Canada asylum-seeker was disguised as old man,  November 5, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

Adam Bartholl on Twitter.

Then on Aram Bartholl – Blog >>>

I am pleased to preview ‘Dead Drops’ a new project which I started off as part of my ongoing EYEBEAM residency in NYC the last couple weeks. ‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space.

I am ‘injecting’ USB flash drives into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. You are invited to go to these places (so far 5 in NYC) to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your files and date.

Each dead drop contains a readme.txt file explaining the project.

‘Dead Drops’ is still in progress, to be continued here and in more cities. Full documentation, movie, map and ‘How to make your own dead drop’ manual coming soon! Stay tuned.

Dead drop (Wikipedia)

In the meanwhile drop some files here!

87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Makerbot)
Empire Fulton Ferry Park, Brooklyn, NY (Dumbo)
235 Bowery, NY (New Museum)
Union Square, NY (Subway Station 14th St)
West 21st Street, NY (Eyebeam)

Definitely stay tuned.

[Note to the cartels: resistance is futile.]

(Cheers, Filip)

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

Aram Bartholl – Blog – “Dead Drops” preview, October29, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

Has Bruce Wayne moved here? – we wondered.

But nope. It’s a really beautifully made functional copy, the work of Morgan Lachmanuc.

He told me he started building it six years ago and hasn’t finished yet.

Meanwhile, “RM Auctions recently declared James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 to be ‘the world’s most famous car,’ but there’s no doubt that there is another contender for that title – the Batmobile”, says Electric Steve on Slashdot, going on:

“One thing that muddies the waters a bit is the fact that the term ‘Batmobile’ actually describes at least three different vehicles: the modified Lincoln Futura concept car from the 60s TV series, the vaguely Corvette-shaped 1989-and-beyond movie cars and now the car from the most recent two movies, the military-spec Tumbler.”

But “Michigan-based movie props artist Bob Dullam really likes the Tumbler, so he did what any of us would do in his position — he built one of his own from scratch”.

And that’s it under Morgan’s version.

“Every aspect of it was pulling a rabbit out of a hat,” Dullam told Gizmag. “You have to mount the engine in reverse, so now you’ve got a transmission that’s pointing towards the front of the car, how are going to get a drive shaft to go underneath it and drive it in reverse?”

The Tumbler is now running and next up is the interior, “along with parallel steering within the vehicle’s nose cone, so it can be driven from that area too, just like the car in the movies”, says the story.

There’s more to come. So stay tuned.

Jon

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

Slashdot – The Home-Built Dark Knight Batmobile, October 27, 2010
Gizmag – Kapow! The home-built Dark Knight Batmobile, October 26, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

Someone else wondered, “??? what on earth is that crap posted here for?”

“It’s a synthetic singer”, explained RadialSkid. “I’m sure the labels will be clamoring to give her a contract.”

heh

The three comments came in my Hatsune Miku story. I’d originally heard about her (it?) from my daughter, Emma. She and some of her friends think Hatsu (first) Ne (sound) Miku (future) is pretty funny.

They’re correct. Just My Two Cents describes it (her?) is a “voice synthesizer on steroids “.

“What it all comes down to, is the user of this software can program the music (much like MIDI music) and the words, and a ‘virtual girl’ will sing the song”, he says, going on >>>

The good part about it, is that as long as the music and/or words are original, then the music and words are owned by the writer/composer (for lack of better words).

The software was originaly created, to allow people who could compose music, a chance to create music with a voice, and not have to worry about the hassles and costs of a real musician. Think of it. If “A” created a song using this software, and promoted it over the net (using youtube, blogs, etc…) and the song is a hit, there isn’t any problems about who should get payed.

The concept itself, might have been a flop, if it wasn’t for the fact that Crypton (the company who developed the software), gave the voice a virtual persona (the base image of the charactor above). An Anime-like charactor with a voice to match, and will sing anything that you give her, made the software a instant hit in Japan (and later other SE ASIAN contries).

Added to this, Crypton declaired that the voice could be used royalty free (as long as you use their software to create it), and even said that the charactor could also be used royalty free (later on, they added that it must be used in good taste, but…).

This meant that people could create their own “virtual charactor” to sing a song that they created- and this lead to the creation of several very catch music pieces, as well as Music videos, which went viral.

Because Hatsune Miku could be used royalty free, many products (from hand towels to pillows, to life size posters) were created, and helped fuel the popularity. Added to this, many fun-created manga and 3D animations were created, and later went viral.

Crypton, responding to the popularity of the vocaliod (as they call it), continued to create several other vocaloids, from a boy/girl twin duet, to an older sister, and even a chactor based on a famous Japanese Rock artist Gackt. Each “vocaloid” had a different tone of voice, and it’s own persona, equipt with their own character design.

As mentioned earlier, many of the songs produced by everyday people have gone viral, to the point that they have had several concerts, with a 3D rendered charactor dancing on the screen, and a live orchestra playing in the back.

“Still sounds crazy?” – Just My Two Cents asks, suggesting:

“Maybe, but when you think about people who have made a fortune in selling the rights to perform music and lyrics that they created in front of a live audience … it makes you wonder.

“The best part about it, is that you could become famous, without leaving your room.”

Cheers!
Jon

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

Hatsune Miku – Hatsune Miku. Vocaloid., October 23, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

http://www.crypton.co.jp/mp/pages/prod/vocaloid/cv01_us.jsp

Hatsu (初, first)

Ne (音, sound)

Miku (未来, future)

“The first sound

from the future.”

http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/Miku_Hatsune

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Vocaloid

Say no more.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

October, 2010

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

(NOTE: Randall’s favourite astronomical entity is still The Pleiades.)

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

October, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

“I woke up this morning to discover that the The Independent newspaper in the UK had picked up on my desire to build Babbage’s Analytical Engine (see Plan 28) with not one, but two articles”, blogs John Graham-Cumming on JGC.org.

The first article, he says, begins:

“It may seem an anachronism in the era of the ever-shrinking digital gadget, but Charles Babbage’s [right] locomotive-size “Analytical Engine” remains one of the greatest inventions that never was.

“Babbage’s brainchild, first conceived in 1837, never wound into life. But now John Graham-Cumming, an influential programmer and science blogger, is leading a quest to build the Analytical Engine in all its 19th-century glory. He plans to use detailed blueprints which Babbage laid down in a series of notebooks held in the archives of London’s Science Museum.”

But, Graham-Cumming, author of the Geek Atlas, continues, “the real surprise was that they decided to talk about the Engine in a Leader titled Start the engine:

“John Graham-Cumming led the successful campaign last year to secure a pardon for Alan Turing. Now the science blogger intends to deliver a posthumous honour for another of the fathers of computing: Charles Babbage. Mr Graham-Cumming’s latest project is to build Babbage’s “Analytical Engine” – essentially a great steam-powered computer – based on the 19th-century inventor’s designs held by the Science Museum.”

“PS Amusingly”, he adds, “The Daily Mail has picked up the story here without speaking to me at all.”

Now the BBC has the news.

“A UK campaign to build a truck-sized, prototype computer first envisaged in 1837 is gathering steam”, it says, noting, “More than 1,600 people have pledged money and support to build Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.

“Although elements of the engine have been built over the last 173 years, a complete working model of the steam-powered machine has never been made.

“The campaign hopes to gather donations from 50,000 supporters to kick-start the project.”

Click here for the pledge page.

And stay tuned.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

JGC.org – Start The Engine, October 4, 2010
BBC – Campaign builds to construct Babbage Analytical Engine, October 14, 2010

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

So says Randall Munroe, creator of the web comic xkcd.

He’s a “CNU graduate with a degree in physics”, he wrote a couple of years back, going on, “Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. As of June 2007 I live in Massachusetts. In my spare time I climb things, open strange doors, and go to goth clubs dressed as a frat guy so I can stand around and look terribly uncomfortable. At frat parties I do the same thing, but the other way around.”

These days, “I’m just this guy, you know?”, he says, going on, “I’m a CNU graduate with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. As of June 2007 I live in Massachusetts. In my spare time I climb things, open strange doors, and go to goth clubs dressed as a frat guy so I can stand around and look terribly uncomfortable. At frat parties I do the same thing, but the other way around.”

And the Pleiades is still his favourite astronomical entity.

What does XKCD stand for?

Well, “It’s not actually an acronym. It’s just a word with no phonetic pronunciation — a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.”

The strip on the right is from Randall’s random choices.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

couple of years back – ‘Pirate something, it’s yours for life’, October 15, 2008

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

It really does.

Canadian PhD student Todd Reichert’s ornithopter is astounding– fluid and graceful as the wings move in an undulating motion, curling slightly forwards at their ends to provide ‘pull’.

“The human-powered aircraft with birdlike wings and its pilot, Todd Reichert, are garnering international attention since news broke of its record-breaking continuous flight”, says the Toronto Star, going on, “Now they’re popping up on newsites, blogs and tweets from Canada to India to Switzerland.

“Reichert, an engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto, piloted the first continuous flight of an ornithopter back in August. Using just his legs, Reichert powered the bird for about 20 seconds, covering 145 metres.”

For the technically inclined, here’s how Todd describes his birdcraft on his web page >>>

In an ornithopter the wings must produce both the lift to counteract the weight of the aircraft, and the thrust to counteract the body drag. Lift is produced in the conventional way, with the oncoming air striking the wing at a positive angle of attack; thus no feathers, valves or folding of the wing is required to produce lift. The key is to produce enough thrust with the wing to keep the aircraft flying at the required forward velocity. This thrust is produced by placing the wing at a lower angle of attack, relative to the local flow velocity, on the upstroke, and at a higher angle of attack on the downstroke. It can be seen in the figure below that this results in a large amount of lift and thrust on the downstroke and a small amount of lift and drag on the upstroke. The net result is positive lift and positive thrust.

Throughout the stroke the wing must twist with the proper magnitude and phase to produce the proper angles of attack. This is accomplished passively by designing the structure in such a way that the aerodynamic and inertial forces produce the proper twist. Achieving the right twist along the entirety of the span is one of the more difficult problems in building a successful ornithopter and has formed the basis of much of the past research at the University of Toronto.

Nor was he alone. The ornithopter could never have taken off without the help of the ground crew comprising >>>

Cameron Robertson, beginning his M.A.Sc. at UTIAS, having recently completed his B.A.Sc. at University of Toronto in the Engineering Science program, Aerospace option. Having become a volunteer with the engine-powered ornithopter during his third year, Cameron conducted research in the summer of 2007 on the HPO in the Subsonic Aerodynamics Lab at UTIAS under Dr. DeLaurier. Cameron’s primary interests are in advanced composites, ultralight structures, and their fabrication methods.

Carson Duek, who joined the team this June, coming all the way from Vancouver to be a part of the project! He is going into grade 11 this year and is already looking for Universities where he can expand on his love of flight and passion for engineering. Carson has been an avid ornithopter enthusiast for several years, building and flying small model ornithopters of his own design and testing different configurations in the wind tunnel he built in his basement.

Professor James DeLaurier, a Stanford University graduatde with a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics. His research and industry experience includes time at McDonnel Aircraft, NASA Ames Research Center, and Battelle Memorial Institute. Dr. DeLaurier’s focus has been on lighter-than-air and mechanical flapping-wing aircraft. A remotely-piloted proof-of-concept ornithopter designed by Dr. DeLaurier and Jeremy Harris (a research associate) flew successfully in 1991, and their full-scale engine-powered ornithopter was the first to achieve fight on July 8th, 2006.

Tom Veitch, working on his M.A.Sc. at UTIAS, having completed his B.A.Sc. at University of Toronto in the Engineering Science program, Aerospace option. After volunteering in third year on the engine-powered ornithopter, Thomas conducted summer research on the HPO in the Subsonic Aerodynamics Lab at UTIAS under Dr. DeLaurier. Tom has been a team leader in aerodynamics and has been instrumental in developing a vortex-panel code used in wing design. Tom finds the interactions between aircraft structures and aerodynamic forces particularly interesting.

David Godri joined the project in May 2009 as part of it’s summer internship program. He currently is a third-year civil engineering student whose interests are in renewable energy. He is the founder of Solar and Wind Initiatives Towards Change (SWITCH), a non-profit, youth-driven organization determined in making positive global environmental change. David brings relentless enthusiam and energy to the team, and a knack for picking things up quickly.

Dennis Trips is a student at T.U. Delft (Netherlands) who has started his thesis on aerodynamic 3D wing optimizations. In the 2007-2008 academic year, Dennis worked on an airfoil optimizer for the HPO team which lead to the current airfoil design for the main wing. The challenge was to design a robust wing for unsteady flow. Dennis also enjoys aircraft design, scuba diving, wood carving, and traveling.

Bruce Fenton graduated University of Toronto with a B.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 1996, and with an M.A.Sc. (again from U of T) in Aerospace Engineering in 1999. Bruce has worked on the engine-powered ornithopter for 10 years, with 2 of those years as chief engineer. Bruce has also been involved in several lighter-than-air projects, and has extensive experience in experimental work.

Patrick graduated with a B.A.Sc. from University of Alberta in 1999, and completed his M.A.Sc. at UTIAS in 2002 under Dr. DeLaurier developing a flapping-wing Micro Air Vehicle. Following his masters, Patrick co-founded Advanced Subsonics in 2002, now a world leader in small-scale flapping-wing flight. Patrick has worked on the engine-powered ornithopter since 1997, and was acting as chief field engineer during the aircraft’s first successful flight in 2006.

Riley Monsour is in his fourth year of studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Toronto. He has been responsible for much of the early structural testing of ornithopter components and has been an integral member of the wing design team. Also, Riley has been involved with other clubs at the University; acting as paddling coach for the concrete canoe team in 2008 and master carpenter for Skule Nite 0T8. Currently, Riley is taking a year doing engineering work in Switzerland before returning to complete his studies.

Maxime Moussou spent time with the project as an exchange student during the summer of 2007, based in the Energy Engineering program at the University of Poitiers in France. Maxime worked on a scale-model of the HPO used for configuration and stability studies, in addition to contributing primarily to the user interface to Todd Reichert’s aero-structural optimizer.

Aurelie Laely spent time with the project as an exchange student during the summer of 2007, based in the Energy Engineering program at the University of Poitiers in France. Aurelie worked on determining the suitability of potential structural configurations of the HPO, calculating preliminary stability derivatives, and estimating the parasite drag of the aircraft.

Florian Cliquot spent time with the project as an exchange student during the summer of 2007, based in the Energy Engineering program at the University of Poitiers in France. Florian worked with Cameron Robertson on determining the structural efficiency and suitability of several different advanced-fibre composite sandwich and beam structures.

Christophe Boulnois spent time with the project as an exchange student during the summer of 2007, based in the Energy Engineering program at the University of Poitiers in France. Christophe worked closely with Todd Reichert in developing and aero-structural optimizer currently used for the design of the HPO, as well as providing estimates of the characteristics of the aircraft’s primary structural components.

Elena Stumm is a fourth-year aerospace engineering student at the University of Toronto, Elena Stumm has been with the human-powered ornithopter project since January 2008. Elena has been working with the simulator team to develop methods to monitor power output and construct a training mechanism to model flight conditions. Elena has also been involved with the University of Toronto CASI Student Branch as treasurer this past year.

Kyle Dyroff, originally from Wilmington, DE, is a fourth-year aerospace engineering student at the University of Toronto. Kyle’s current involvement with the human-powered ornithopter project is focused around electronics for controls and stability. In June of this year, Kyle headed to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for a summer research position. He plans to return to the HPO project in the Fall, once his research is complete.
Laura Bradbury

Laura Bradbury is entering her fourth year of studies in aerospace engineering at the University of Toronto. She has been instrumental to the human powered ornithopter project by constructing a foam slicer for ribs and developing a method for attaching the wing skin. Laura is also an executive member of the University of Toronto Space Design Contest and vice-chair of the F!rosh engineering orientation. In the coming year Laura will be completing her undergraduate studies.

Tatiana Chiesa is a graduate of aerospace engineering at the University of Toronto. Through her work with the human-powered ornithopter project, Tatiana has developed a keen interest in composite materials and structures composed of them. Tatiana has been leading the mould construction for the fuselage fairing. Also, she has created computational tools to find the structural properties of the body components. Her undergraduate thesis work entailed developing a structural modelling program to aid in aircraft design for the HPO.

Rafik Chekiri is a fourth-year Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Toronto. He has been with HPO project since January 2008 and has contributed in the areas of design and analysis on the computer of structural joints. Rafik has also been working on the drive mechanisms and components including transmission and drive wires of the HPO. He plans to do his fourth-year thesis on in-flight attributes of highly flexible aircraft.

Henry Dang has been helping the team on the fundraising and sponsorship. Henry graduated from the University of Toronto in 2008 with a B.A. in Political Science, and has since spent time fundraising for charities such as the United Way.

Amazing stuff.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

Toronto Star – World interest soars over Canadian record-breaking flight, September 23, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

Smokin!

It’s the prototype of the four-passenger, zero-emission car from Calgary’s Motive Industries, “which announced recently it would introduce an electric car whose biocomposite body is made from hemp”, says the Montreal Gazette.

It’s built from hemp grown in Vegreville, near Edmonton, “and processed into an impact-resistant bio-composite material produced by the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures program”, a Crown corporation, it says.

Holding a driver and up to three passengers, it’ll have a top speed of 90 kilometres per hour and a range of 40 to 160 kilometres, depending on the type of battery, the company says, according to the CBC, which goes on:

“The Kestrel is one of five electric vehicles being developed by Project Eve, an automotive industry collaboration founded by Motive and Toronto Electric, an Ontario material handling and electric motor company, to boost the production of electric vehicles and electric vehicle components in Canada.”

Kestrels will be built “with the help of polytechnic schools in Alberta, Quebec and Toronto, and the first 20 cars are scheduled to be delivered next year to EnMax, a Calgary-based energy distribution, supply and service company that is taking part in Project Eve”, says the story.

1960s classic

But it should really be called the Kestrel II.

UK car firm BMC had a Kestrel (right).

In 1965 “BMC added a Riley badged version to its ever expanding 1100/1300 range”, says the motorbase.com, adding:

“Available in 1100 Kestrel and later 1300 forms the new cars were little more than ‘badge-engineered’ versions of the rest of the 1100/1300 family, being closely related to the MG variants”,

“Like the MG versions the Riley Kestrel and 1300 made use of the mildly tuned twin carb A-Series engines, the last 1300s were blessed with 70bhp which produced lively performance figures.

“All Riley 1100/1300 cars were well equipped and trimmed, featuring two-tone paint, leather seats and wood trim. Production disappeared along with the rest of the Riley marque in 1969.”

[The clip is borrowed from a pic on Old Classic Cars.]

Follow p2pnet on Twitter … ..

… and identi.ca

Montreal Gazette – Cheech & Chong would get off on this, August 24, 2010
CBC – Cannabis electric car to be made in Canada, August 23, 2010

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!

Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php