No April Fools here

April 1st, 2005 I've wanted to talk about so many things...

Let us start with Make, a new publication from O'Reilly Media. I believe that the magazine spawned from Spime wrangling, an idea from Bruce Sterling, although his idea goes further in that every ascpect of the object is searchable. I could classify Make as just another hobbist magazine, like Circuit Cellar, or maybe Nuts & Volts which is the only other magazine, besides Make, to which I subscribe. However, Make not only covers how to modify and create all manner of elctronic, mechanical and software devices, it goes deeper into the cultural impacts of technology and Remix Culture. O'Reilly real hit the high points of the remix trend at the O'Reilly 2005 Emerging Technology Conference (note: I did not personally attend.). Based on the inagural issue, which I recently received, I would suggest getting your own subscription to Make if you are any sort of Geek. (Read this page from the book if you have time: Definitions involving chicken heads no longer apply.) I must admit that the Gauss Rifle Article was a disapointment, and I wasn't even expecting weapons grade documentation. I also feel that the Niles Monorail blurb was dated. But other than that, and the Glowstick article, which doesn't apply to me, I've got to say O'Reilly has done an excellent job with Make. My favorite aspect is the clear photography. The step-by-step instructions associated with each photo are also a dream.

April 27th, 2005 Brain Dump: Yoda art, I don't know if it is a miniature or a sculpture or what, but it looks cool.

From the environmentalist wacko files comes: The problems of centralized power systems, which should be called the Problems of not actually reading the sources or just plain not understanding them. The report cited actually just says that the wind power systems have to be backed by other power sources. It has nothing to do with using more fossil fuels. In fact it is easy to see that less fossil fuel would be required as you only have to use a percentage of the power as backup, in the same way that banks only have to hold a portion of their assets in cash. Further I think the article grossly misrepresents the problems with power grids and transmission. Unfortunately these flaws make the article's message about decentralized power unpaltable to those who might have otherwise been persuaded.

If I ever buy a TI calculator, I will definetly be trying this method of enabling it to use Playstation Memory cards.

Unfortunately I have not posted the track back for this, I think it was Boing Boing, but India makes a great statement to the WIPO. India's Statement at WIPO. I quote:

The primary rationale for Intellectual Property protection is, first and foremost, to promote societal development by encouraging technological innovation. The legal monopoly granted to IP owners is an exceptional departure from the general principle of competitive markets as the best guarantee for securing the interest of society. The rationale for the exception is not that extraction of monopoly profits by the innovator is, of and in itself, good for society and so needs to be promoted. Rather, that properly controlled, such a monopoly, by providing an incentive for innovation, might produce sufficient benefits for society to compensate for the immediate loss to consumers as a result of the existence of a monopoly market instead of a competitive market. Monopoly rights, then, granted to IP holders is a special incentive that needs to be carefully calibrated...

Supposedly the NSA uses this for in-house security.

If you want to Make your own video game, this video game kit should help.

Maybe some day I'll participate in the Modern Seed Design Contest

Assuming that the RSS Feeds and download sites stay in business... you can make your own "morning after" tivo. Of course you might need a Zap2it account. Of course it could be used in your own PVR setup too. If you just need the feed go here.

You could possibly create a PVR with your PS2 using the ps2 memory card exploit .

PERSONAL FABRICATION now looks like it has a whole book dedicated to it. FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication, can be ordered at Amazon, although it doesn't seem to be published yet. Talk about on demand publishing.

Get your Ninja on with Dust-slaying Nano-shurikens of Doom.

I was going to mention a Gmail Bug, but it has been pulled, and the cached Google version mentions that it was fixed within an hour of puplication. Let's see microsoft provide that level of service. Of course I still do not understand a stock price of 219.78.

Hopefully none of you will obsess about this, but you can find out what the FDA Recalled this week. Just choose the year and you'll get a break down by month and week.

Thought provoking articles can be found at KurzweilAI.

I have yet to get any response to my posts on the Amazon Webservice Boards

I'm still waiting for the next generation of power/home networking. INSTEON should be available, but I am not hearing much about it.

And for the last post this minute. I am sad that the webstore selling Gunstar Models is not taking orders and maybe out of business for good. :(

I must say that work has been killing Random Mumblings and my Google rank keeps jumping around. Hopefully as I am able to update as often as I like Random Mumblings will pick up again.