Next Processor Develoupment: Marble Computing

Not Sure how I missed this one at first, but Make blog had a very interesting writeup on a 6 bit binary computer (powered only by marbles). It's amazing at how simple it really is (especially for those of you who think computers use nothing but electricity and magic). It'd be really interesting to see this implemented with 32/64 bits.

Workout with Pong

Hack-a-day has a post up about a guy who attached electrodes to his arms, and used to the electric impulses coming off his muscles to control a Pong game. I imagine you could increase the challenge quite a bit by trying to curl dumbbells and play at the same time. Link.

Is the Day of Silence Working

Wired has an interesting article about if the Internet Radio Day of Silence is working. The writer was able to get his hands on a few more figures than I could. For example, the new fees require a $500 minimum payment per month per station. With radios like Pandora, each user creates at least one station of their own. That means that it would be completely impossible for them to survive. Link.

The Death of Online Radio

Today marks the death of internet radio. Starting Midnight, this morning, thousands of internet radio site shut down. It is possible that they will eventually return, however, most will likely not. The reason for their death is the fee increases imposed by the RIAA. For example, "Pandora Radio" had their rates tripled (plus, those increases are 18 months retroactive). Thanks a lot Washington. Link

Can Gaming's Powerful Pull Get Kids Into Engineering?

In last months Electronic Design magazine the editorial was titled, "Can Gaming's Powerful Pull Get Kids Into Engineering?" It discusses weather or not products like the Hydra from Parallax can pull children gamers into the game development fields. Personally, I think it depends on the child. Link.

Who needs illegal immagrants to pick fruit?

With all the immigration debate going on, one company has decided to do away with laborers all together and build robots to do the work. They have announced that they are developing a fruit picking robot that can replace human fruit pickers completely. Somehow, I doubt it will work. Link.

C to D battery Adapter

Everyone has run into this problem: you need a D battery to power something and all you have are C cells. What do you do? Make blog has the answer. Link.