I recently tried to buy bitcoins (BTC) through several different avenues, and found that it can be quite difficult if you look in the wrong places. I ended up managing to buy 20 BTC, but in the meantime the cost per bitcoin went up TWENTY CENTS, which meant I paid an extra $4 because I couldn't act quickly.
So, I asked myself how do you buy bitcoins anyways? Why is it so complicated? So, I made this site:
I hope it helps you out!
]]>I always wanted a wearable camera. Four years ago, I built one for Burning Man, and got some great video. I left it running for hours, just capturing everything, which was both fun and challenging. I had to wear a giant toolbelt with an Archos recorder in it, and a video camera on my head with a very precarious cord hanging down for the feed and battery.
Now in 2010, there's a camera that does most of what I originally wanted, and it's pretty damn comfortable considering.
It has neat features, like a button to capture the last thirty seconds. It looks sci-fi, and you use your Android phone to interact with it, both viewing clips you took, and to use your smartphone as a viewfinder.
There's a few things I could complain about, the app is hardly polished, but it works. It captures 15 frames a second, and again, works. I keep boggling at the fact that there's this wireless thing that's on my head, ready to save a video if anything extraordinary happens (or maybe just interesting).
Overall, it's neat, and if you have $200 to spare, and would like to pretend to be a gargoyle from Neil Stephenson's snowcrash (like I do), why not? This is about as comfortable a wearable camera as I've seen, and frankly, I would love for you to get one just so they can justify making an HD Looxcie in the not so distant future. I just hope Youtubers like Shaycarl or KassemG makes the Looxcie internet-famous.
Buy it here: Looxcie on Amazon ($199)
]]>I met Laszlo Kovacs, Director of C/Punk/Doc through the amazing forums @ Cyberpunk Review. He invited me to submit media just as they were wrapping production, so we have a 1.5 minute segment on my Wearable and Nomadic Computing work that begins Act 2. Narration is by Hawk from American Gladiators, over the song Teenage Hitman by Encephalon. Thank you Wood, Keypixel, and my other fellow Cyberpunks.
Reader Gerard Sequeira wrote in to tell us about his tutorial of how to disassemble Spy Gear's ATV-360, a remote control car with a video camera for spying on the dirty socks hiding under your bed. Ordaos and I did the same thing at the MAKER Fair last year with Spy Gear's Video Car and besides entertaining many with our antics, we also managed to pick up the signal of a robot transmitting on the same frequency. Talk about a fun weekend! Anyways, check out Gerard's dissasembly howto if you're interested in building an extremely low cost DIY wearable.
[Link via Machine Grid. Thanks Gerard!]
]]>Via Hackaday, the 25th Chaos Communication Congress's Wearable Computing and Solar Power presentations roused me from blog hibernation to say Happy Holidays and please don't text and drive. For abstracts, lecture notes, slides, and links, you too can veer off; About Cyborgs and Gargoyles:State of the Art in Wearable Computing, and Solar-powering your Geek Gear: Alternative and mobile power for all your little toys.
New Year's greetings from under a rock. No, I haven't been in the desert lately, but I have been in other realms. I've been getting into some high voltage shenanigans, the splendid forums at Cyberpunk Review, back into microcontrollers with the Seeeduino, interfacing it with Pure Data, and touring exhibition and interactive design. 2009 is looking to be hacktastic, but more on that next year.
]]>Found on Flickr.
]]>Many thanks to the organizer/presenters Alice Tseng-Planas and Syuzi Pakhchyan, Mark Allen for availing Machine Project, presenters JooYoun Payek and Gilad Lotan, and the assembly! I'd guess we had about 30 people at this first meet-up. Some were in town for SIGGRAPH 2008, some had met or come through advanced degree technology programs like Tisch ITP and Parsons CD&T, some were crafty, and some were just intrigued by the concept of the event. We began a contact list, shared information, and were proud to bolster LA's burgeoning tech-arts social scene with a wearable and materials technology special interest group.
More event images below:
]]>In the video link above, Sean Montgomery presents his EEG multicolored LED hat, ECG shirt, and GSR bracelet. Respectfully, they sense and visulize brainwave, heart rate, and skin conductivity.
]]>THE FORMAT:
contribute a tutorial introducing a single topic or technique
gather to make connections across disciplines
leave with tangible, usable techniques and patterns
From: the Machine Project mailing list:
"
Please join us from 1pm-3pm Sunday August 10th for a meeting of Tangible Exchange (tex), a sewing circle for people who like to sewing electronics into stuff. This casual meet up is for those seeking skills trade, collaboration, inspiration, techniques, and exposure to topics with an emphasis on fiber, physical computing, textiles, wearables, and all matters of materials. If you have experience in these topics and are interested in contributing a tutorial or presenting a topic, please email textopic@gmail.com with your idea. If you have no experience but are curious, come to meet other people who are interested in the same topic. If you have neither experience or interest, but are really thirsty or get confused and think something else is happening at Machine Sunday afternoon, come by anyway and we will give you a nice cool glass of water.
"
I was inspired to write about Pixar's Wall-E by the fantastic blog, wiki, and forums at http://www.cyberpunkreview.com. Therefore, this synopsis focuses on the Cyberpunk themes of Wall-E's secondary plot, which is the story of humanity. The primary plot of Wall-E is an animated romantic comedy between robots, who have the ability to learn and have emotions. The secondary plot has computers and robots with a similar suggestion of machine intelligence that is very reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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