DefectiveByDesign Tags on Amazon

Tagging DRM stuff on Amazon with DefectiveByDesign

Cory Doctorow:Gregory sez, "An anti-DRM activist group has initiated an effort to tag products on Amazon.com as DefectiveByDesign to warn Amazon's shoppers of the dangers of DRM. So far a few dozen Amazon users have tagged over 150 products containing DRM (Blu-ray, HD DVD, FairPlay, and more) as DefectiveByDesign using the e-retailer's own 'tagging' system."Link(Thanks, Gregory!)

technorati tags:DefectiveByDesign, DRM, Amazon

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Damn...

Stargate: LEGO

Stargate rocks(ed) well, the seasons with Lt. O'Neil/Gould... and so do LEGOs, so this is just perfect... Kelly writes - "This rotating Stargate is 19 inches tall with light-up chevrons. An RCX drives a treadmill, which spins the inner ring randomly for x seconds, then reverses direction, seven times. Won best medium space award and best brick mod at BrickFest 2005." Thanks edison142! - Link.

Related:

• LEGO projects @ MAKE - Link.

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technorati tags:Lego, Stargate, Working, Model, SG1

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I didn't realize A.S.S. had a website

American Science & Surplus - Chicago, IL

Niles sent one of his MAKE stops, he writes - "After seeing the post on Skycraft Parts & Surplus I just had to mention American Science and Surplus! They're located in the Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI area and are great stores to explore... Make sure to read the labels on the items, some of them can be really funny!" - Link.

Got a favorite Maker hangout? Let us know.

Related:

• More places to get stuff to MAKE @ the MAKE playlist... - Link.

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technorati tags:A.S.S., American+Science+Surplus, Parts, Random, Stuff

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New OK Go Video, and a Shrimp on a treadmill...

Shrimp on treadmill -- no, not a new OK Go song.

Xeni Jardin:

All you need to know about this link is that it contains video of shrimp on a treadmill, and that it is not the latest viral release from the band OK Go.

The shrimp treadmill, invented and built by [Pacific University biologist David Scholnick], allows researchers to measure the activity of an exercising shrimp for a set period of time at known speed and oxygen levels.

Link

technorati tags:OK+Go, Shrimp, Tredmill, Video

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Fiber Optic Lighting

Sunlight Direct Hybrid Lighting: Install It, Get a 30% Federal Tax Credit

In our quest to someday live off the grid, here's another device we've added to our list: Sunlight Direct hybrid solar lighting technology that collects sunlight on the roof and brings it inside with fiber optics. Once inside, that solar light automagically combines with your choice of the fluorescent lighting you see here, direct halogen lighting, or greenhouse lighting. On cloudy days, the electric lights are faded in, with a microprocessor monitoring the situation, keeping the light level steady whether you're using piped-in sunlight, electrical light or a combination of both.

This is a great hybrid system, and an especially nice idea for lights that might be situated in darker areas of your house. Weed growers will love this, where its reduced power usage won't be as likely to raise a red flag down at the government-supervised power company. Plus, you get a 30% federal tax credit if you install it this year or next. Can't beat that. – Charlie White

Take a look at the Discovery Channel video segment, after the jump.

Product page [Sunlight Direct, via SlashGear]

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Mmmm.... DS Porn

Japanese witch-hunting game prefers skirt lifting to dunking stool

SNK clearly thinks it knows its native Japanese market well, otherwise it would never have the cojones to pimp a game as twisted as Dokidoki Majosaiban (Exciting Witch Trial) for kiddies' favorite, the Nintendo DS.

The clever/totally screwed-up otaku behind the game have decided that using the touchscreen on the DS to fondle women (dressed as schoolgirls, naturally) is by far the best way to determine if they're witches. Errr.

I'd expect this kind of thing from a niche publisher – God knows there are enough stores that specialize in this stuff here – but SNK? Anyway, as the pic above suggests, there's also a Wii version in the works, which sounds doubly unpleasant given all the jigging about Wii owners are likely to dig. – Jonny Hiratsuka

[UK: Resistance]

technorati tags:Nintedo, DS, Porn, Game, Panties

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Mega Man Artwork: Quilt

Mega Man Quilt

I seriously need to get one of these. Maybe not Mega Man, but some kick-ass retro gaming quilt My mother in-law's visiting and she's an amazing seemstress, I think I'm going to start dropping hints. .Brian Crecente

technorati tags:Mega+Man, Quilt, Art

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Plane Take Off

Long exposure photo of a plane taking off...

Airliners.net has an incredible long exposure photo of a UPS plane taking off, it looks like a road in the sky... - "N306UP (cn 27759/622) Cleared for takeoff with a southbound turnout. Runway number and piano keys visible! [Canon 20D, 50mm f/1.8 MK-II] Taken @ Des Moines - International (DSM / KDSM)" [via] - Link.

Related:

• Escargot Grand Prix - DIY Time lapse snail races - Link.
• Time lapse plants - Link.
• Time lapse projects @ MAKE - Link.

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technorati tags:Airplane, Exposure, Photograph, Take+Off

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Cory Doctrow's Keynote from ToorCon 8

Cory Doctorow's keynote from ToorCon 8

BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow gave one of the keynote addresses at ToorCon. The video is 50 minutes and covers all the internet hot buttons like DRM, net neutrality, MPAA, RIAA, EFF, etc. Video on Netscape. Direct link to the 170MB mp4.

technorati tags:Cory+Doctrow, ToorCon, DRM, EULA, MPAA, RIAA, EFF

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Flame Visualization

Ruben's Tube - Sound visualization... with FIRE!

Here's a really neat way to see sound waves... With fire! I think if I ever make a fireplace, it'll have something like this. Twinrawk writes - "The classic physics experiment involving sound, a tube of propane and fire. Created for Flash Forward 2006, but useful in any case where you are not allowed to have fire. I push through the tube 449 Hz then higher frequencies, then some jazz and then some rock. This is real life sound visualization." [via] - Link.

Related:
Other things, with fire, on MAKE - Link.

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technorati tags:Flame, Visualization, Ruben's+Tube

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Writing Clockwork Automata

The Writer, and other Jaquet-Droz Automata

Mr A Samuel kindly drew my attention to some lovely YouTube videos of the quite amazing 18th Century automata that were created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his son - The Writer, The Drawer and The Musician.  Above you can see a French documentary on The Writer, and see for yourself the downright mindboggling complexity and finesse of a machine of cogs and springs, able to write with a goose feather quill.  Alas, my French is atrocious, but the images speak for themselves.  For more, see links for How the Writer Works, a video of The Writer in action, and some more about Pierre Jaquet-Droz himself.  It’s amazing that these things could be made, it’s amazing that they were made in the 18th Century and it’s even more amazing that they were created mostly as advertisements for music boxes and mechanical caged birds.  Quite boggling.

technorati tags:Clockwork, Automata, Writing, YouTube

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Diagram Simulation Project

MIT Research sketch program

Another cool research project by MIT.

technorati tags:MIT, Research, Diagram, Simulation, Realtime

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Ahh Discworld

Note to self: find a copy of Discworld, the books and the games.

Wedding cake inspired by Discworld's Great A'Tuin

Cory Doctorow:A talented cake-ist made this beautiful wedding cake in the form of the Great A'Tuin, the galactic turtle on whose back the four elephants that support Terry Pratchett's Discworld stand. The cake A'Tuin has marzipan elephants that support a rolled fondant icing Discworld with hand-painted landmasses and miniature cities.

The Discworld books are the most consistently funny genre fiction in the world, combining a wit as keen as Douglas Adams's with a fine sense of plotting and characterization.

The Disc landmasses are cut from rolled fondant icing, with topographical features moulded in marzipan. These are positioned on a round cake board.Landmasses are coloured, and the seas are added by "flooding" the low areas with blue liquid icing to produce the appropriate continent shapes. At the edge, a black marzipan bevel collar is attached so that the liquid icing produces the Rimfall effect.

Link(Thanks, Diane!)

technorati tags:Discworld, Cake, Great+A'Tuin

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I should find more music by these people.

Tetrominon by YMCK

What is a Tetris?

Hard To Perceive
Easy to Destroy
Just Like Your Life!

From the Tetronominon Ex Mortis (often abbreviated as Tetrominon), as sung by cheery Japanese chiptunes band, YMCK! Florian Eckhardt

technorati tags:Tetris, Tetrominion, YMCK, Flash

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Pot Ads: In Stores Now

NORML's grocery store ads

Mark Frauenfelder:NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) hired an ad agency to create some "shelf talker" ads to place in grocery stores next to brownie mix, cheetos, and Visine. Link

technorati tags:Pot, Marijuana, NORML, Ad, Cheetos, Visine, Brownies

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Silly Republicans

Just because he's a gay pedophile, doesn't make him a democrat...

Fox News identifies Foley as a Democrat

Mark Frauenfelder: Fox News has decided to start calling disgraced Congresscreep Mark Foley a Democrat.

Fox also reported that "we are at war with Eurasia; we have always been at war with Eurasia." Link

technorati tags:Foley, Republican, Congressman, Fox+News, O'Reilly

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