MuzGadgets

Project Loon - balloon powered internet for everyone

2013-06-15T22:58:00.000+12:00

In a few hours time, thirty balloons will launch from the South Island in New Zealand as the pilot of Google's Project Loon. The balloons are equipped with solar powered transceivers that communicate with each other and the ground to provide a network in the sky. New Zealanders can join the pilot project. Learn more at http://www.google.com/loon/where/.

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Music that is out of this world

2013-05-21T07:38:00.000+12:00

Commander Chris Hadfield recently returned from 6 months aboard the International Space Station. An astronaut and guitarist, just before returning to earth, he made this amazing music video with his version of David Bowie's Space Oddity: Chris also explains some of the challenges in playing a guitar in space: And here is Jewel in the Night, an original Christmas carol written by Chris and recorded on the space station:

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Happy birthday WWW

2013-05-03T09:33:00.000+12:00

To celebrate the WWW turning 20 years old on Tuesday 30 April, CERN republished the first website. See it at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html and learn more about the restoration project at http://info.cern.ch/

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Technicity

2013-04-30T09:17:00.000+12:00

I am starting another Coursera course: TechniCity This 4 week course explores how sensors and networks are transforming our cities, how to engage in city building through social networking and crowdsourcing platforms, some experiments with analyzing city data and how open data initiatives, hack-a-thons, and urban prototyping festivals are creatively innovating our cities.

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iBeetle

2013-04-24T07:20:00.000+12:00

Just the other day I was imagining what an Apple designed car would look like. This week Volkswagen is showing off their new iBeetle at the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show. Available in 2014 as Coupe and Convertible models in various iPhone inspired color schemes, the iBeetle integrates with the iPhone for navigation, hands-free calling, listening to music and location based applications and more both wirelessly or through the docking station. The iBeetle is first Volkswagen with newly developed docking station and a special iPhone® application I was expecting a little bit more from Apple. Where is the aluminum unibody chassis? Slide to unlock? Still has windows. Will it be available in the iStore? Read more at Volkswagen.

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Visionary projects

2013-03-24T10:56:00.003+13:00

Engineer and entrepreneur, Elon Musk is building electric cars, ubiquitous solar and reuseable rockets. See more in this engaging video.

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Good bugs

2013-03-12T04:35:00.000+13:00

The first computer bug was a moth trapped in a relay. In this video, Snapdragon harnesses the energy of some bugs to power something useful. Spotted by MuzGadgets Bro Nigel.

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Playing catch

2013-02-24T00:19:00.000+13:00

Some amazing quadrocopter acrobatics.

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Happy Shrove Tuesday

2013-02-12T08:53:00.001+13:00

Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent is traditionally the day to make pancakes. Enjoy these pancake inspired gadget videos:

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Impressive braking system

2013-01-22T11:03:00.001+13:00

Volvo Trucks is introducing a collision warning with emergency brake system. If the system detects an imminent collision situation it will alert the driver and if there is no response automatically apply the emergency brakes to avoid a crash. It combines a radar and a camera that work together to identify and monitor vehicles in front. The system is designed to deal with both stationary and moving vehicles and can prevent a collision with a moving target at relative speeds of up to 70 km/h. When the system detects a vehicle that the truck will hit at its current speed, the warning system activates a constant red light in the windscreen in order to bring the driver's attention back to the road. If the truck fails to detect any reaction from the driver, such as steering or braking, the system upgrades to a flashing red light and a beeping sound. If there is still no reaction, the system applies the brakes gently. When all this fails, the system activates the emergency braking system and does everything possible to bring the truck to a complete stop. Further info on Volvo Trucks website.

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Super Simple Raspberry Pi Case

2013-01-13T04:52:00.000+13:00

My Raspberry Pi arrived from RS in a pink plastic box. After some simple measuring and cutting with a craft knife, it provides a great semi permanent case for the Raspberry Pi. I initially cut a trapezoid for the HDMI port, but the connection was a little loose so I enlarged this to snugly fit the rectangular part of the HDMI plug. If I need to plug in GPIO, video, sound or ethernet I can cut more holes. With the Pi running at 100% CPU the case is not noticeably warm but if overheating becomes a problem I can add some more holes for airflow. Box with holes cut for power, USB and HDMI The Pi fits snugly in the plastic molding Closed case with HDMI connected

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Xi3: Ushering In the post PC Era

2013-01-09T05:27:00.000+13:00

Two things I like in the design of computers: small form factor and multiple configurations/expandability. The new Xi3 modular computers do really well at this with a small robust strong chassis that is configurable with different swappable modules. Learn more about these innovative computers in the following video and on the Xi3 website.

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Raspberry Pi finally arrived

2012-12-31T12:41:00.001+13:00

I first signed up to order a Raspberry Pi in February. The huge demand and delays meant my order did not get processed until July 27 - two months after my credit card had expired. I ordered again through a different company and paid by bank transfer. Now 5 months later, I have a Raspberry Pi and it is plugged into our TVwith HDMI and has a wireless keyboard/mouse and Wifi connection. I have configured it so I can access it remotely from anywhere and the next step is to learn some Python programming on Codecademy or find some software for it.

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Have a Safe Merry Christmas Nerds

2012-12-25T04:37:00.000+13:00

Today's Computer History Daily Quote by The Printed Owl says: The term "nerd" comes from an original spelling "knurd." The term is originated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the late 1940s. Students who party and rarely study are called "drunks," while students who are always studying are known as "knurds" (drunks spelled backwards). The TV show Happy Days gives the phrase its national popularity. So following this curious snippet of computer history is our Public Service Announcement: Nerds, have a safe and responsible Christmas, because a "Drunk Knurd" may cause some sort of self-annihilation space-time paradox and we have only just recovered from the recent Mayan Calendar Apocalypse.

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Are you a Geek or Nerd?

2012-12-18T11:54:00.002+13:00

Last month the BBC featured an article: Are 'geek' and 'nerd' now positive terms? telling how Swedish campaigners are trying to force changes to the derogatory dictionary definitions of geek and nerd: geek noun /gēk/ geeks, plural An unfashionable or socially inept person A person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest - a computer geek A carnival performer who does wild or disgusting acts nerd noun /nərd/ nurds, plural A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious - one of those nerds who never asked a girl to dance An intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession - he single-handedly changed the Zero image of the computer nerd into one of savvy Hero When I was at school in the 80's, the definitions were a good fit. The "nerd" was the guy who spent his lunchtimes in the library studying. He lacked social skills, was boringly studious and went on to become a pathologist. Personal computers were new then and us "geeks" hung out in the computer lab whenever we could. We were a little unfashionable and eccentric and did not get invited to parties. From xkcd: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language Now many (rich and) famous geeks and nerds are almost worshipped by the masses hungry for their latest electronic creations. A lot of the top rating movies and television shows feature geeks and nerds as heroes. The terms now have more positive meaning. New Zealand geeks got their own second level domain .geek.nz in 2003. Geekli.st is "a place for geeks to share what they've done, who they did it with and connect with great companies and communities". From: MastersInIt.org My "Geekly" playlist on GrooveShark: Geekly by Peter Murray on Grooveshark More reading: How to tell the difference between Geeks and Nerds: 7 steps. Essential Nerd Movies

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Rugged ultraportable 2.1 speaker

2012-12-14T10:47:00.001+13:00

The Boombot is a smart ultraportable 2.1 sound system in a ruggedized industrial package. Designed as a headset replacement for on-the-go quality sound the Boombot wirelessly connects to mobile devices. The steel reinforced belt clip and water resistant shell encourage the user to pick it up, clip it on and add a soundtrack to their life in motion. With the built-in microphone and three simple buttons the Siri-compatible Boombot offers speakerphone functionality too. Find out more on the Kickstarter Project and Boombotix website.

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Gravity defying Rube Goldberg machine

2012-12-07T10:32:00.001+13:00

I am intrigued with how this Rube Goldberg machine works.

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Pinokio - lamp, robot, friend?

2012-12-03T12:12:00.000+13:00

Pinokio is a humble anglepoise lamp created by Shanshan Zhou, Adam Ben-Dror, Joss Doggett with the ability to be aware of its surroundings and behave in an attention seeking manner. Pinokio from Adam Ben-Dror on Vimeo. Read more at http://www.behance.net/gallery/Pinokio/5914541

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Extreme sport Rube Goldberg machine

2012-11-13T09:36:00.000+13:00

Red Bull takes a simple task to the extreme in this video.

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Luxury pop-up camper

2012-11-07T10:32:00.000+13:00

When I was 10 years old, I had a surprise holiday at Waingaro Hot Springs with my grandparents in a pop-up camper. It had a solid roof over the main living area in the trailer with pop out canvas sections for the beds at each end and an awning on the side. It was great fun and probably looked similar to this: Pop-up camper design has come a long way over the years as this video of the Opera (inspired by the Sydney Opera House) shows: More about the Opera at http://thedesignerpad.com/blog/2011/9/29/a-private-suite-on-wheels.html

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Solve Puzzles for Science

2012-11-04T09:49:00.001+13:00

Protein structure prediction is one of the hardest problems in biology today. If we can predict how the amino acids in proteins fold to form their structure, we can then use that information to design drugs to target diseases or design new proteins that help prevent or treat diseases like HIV, Cancer and Alzheimer's. Foldit is a computer game that uses our pattern recognition skills and puzzle solving abilities to fold proteins and use these for training the artificial intelligence programs.

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Custom one man band

2012-10-27T01:36:00.000+13:00

An amazing one man custom built orchestra. In this video, Diego Stocco not only builds his own instruments, but composes and plays the full orchestral piece. Diego Stocco - Custom Built Orchestra from Diego Stocco on Vimeo. As seen on ada fruit industries blog.

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Learning to Code

2012-10-12T11:40:00.000+13:00

I'm proud of my 10 year old son who has completed the JavaScript Fundamentals Track on Codecademy as part of Code Year. He has also completed 99% of the Web Fundamentals Track, 36% of the Python Track and 11% of the JQuery Track. I am lagging behind him with only 86% of the JavaScript Fundamentals Track complete and none of the other topics started yet.

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Caine's Arcade Global Cardboard Challenge

2012-09-16T02:35:00.002+12:00

Last year Nirvan Mullick discovered Caine's Arcade - a cardboard game arcade built by Caine Monroy during the summer holidays in his dad's auto parts shop in East LA. Nirvan was Caine's first customer and he invited heaps of people to a flash mob to play and Caine's Arcade went viral. This year to follow up, Nirvan and the Imagination Foundation are following up with the Caine's Arcade Global Cardboard Challenge on October 6. Go play!

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How monsters are made

2012-06-28T21:06:00.000+12:00

During our travels in New Zealand we visited the How to make a Monster exhibit at the Waikato Museum. Featuring animatronics, props and special effects from movies such as Inspector Gadget 2, George of the Jungle 2, Peter Pan and Pitch Black, the display highlighted some of John Cox's Creature Workshop's work. Inspector Gadget hands George of the Jungle gorillas Animatronic head

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