In lieu of original verbiage, I found an old article via hackaday that links to a developers site with pictures of November’s Pandora development boards. Just in case someone finds it interesting!

Oh, and for a laugh, watch this video, and watch it clear to the end. I helped my roommate make it on a whim for his English class. Those under the age of 30 have a 40% higher chance of understanding what just happened. If confused, head over to google and do a search for the term displayed at 1:30!

Enough procrastinating for me! Time to study for my Java class!

A few years back a handheld called the GP32 was released. It was practically the first of its kind. While it ended its run with nearly 30 commercial games under it’s belt, It was hacker friendly. It ran linux and everyone was welcome, no, encouraged to code for it. Imagine trying to get Sony to do that with the PSP. This diy attitude is commonly known as homebrew. The GP32 was a homebrew game system. And it developed a relatively huge following.

The GP32 couldn’t be found in many regular stores, but they could be readily purchased off of the internet. It ended up selling 30,000 units or so.

But there was dissent among the ranks at Gamepark, the company that produced the GP32. Some of the employees wanted to keep the console open source, so to speak. They thought it was important to continue to create consoles that can be easily modified and coded for. The others didn’t. So they broke apart. The ones who wanted to create hacker friendly systems became Gamepark Holdings, and the employees who wanted to create a more commercial console found themselves out of a job when Gamepark went bankrupt.

Gamepark Holdings, however, seemed to prosper with their release of the GP2X.

The GP2X was quite a beast. Like its younger brother, it had a few commercial games released and a large homebrew following. *Personal Note. I have spent more hours playing with this handheld than any other PSP, DS, or Gameboy I have ever owned.* The ability to emulate older systems like the SNES, NEO GEO, and even computers kept it apart from the rest of the gaming world. Once again, you would never find this in your local Walmart, you would have to order it off of the internet. Incidentally, it was one of the best systems I have ever owned.

A minor revision saw the GP2X with a superficial makeover and a touch screen. It was called the GP2X f-200. It added touchscreen functionality to the built in operating system and any game that the developer would support. The handheld didn’t only let you play games. It could do practically everything the PSP could do, in many cases going above and beyond. Watching videos in various formats, listening to music, looking at pictures, even reading e-books.

As the GP2X ended its run, a few new systems from Gamepark have emerged. They have the potential to be a nice little series of handhelds, but their announcement has been over shadowed by the announcement of an even more monumental system.

The Pandora.

The Pandora is about to become all that the GP2X aspired to be. The basic story is that a group of hardware and software hackers got together on the GP2X and GP32 forums and started asking people what they want to see in their next gen handhelds. They came back with tons of input. Based on that input the team started designing and building the Pandora. The highlights are in the specs.

• Texas Instruments OMAP3530 processor at 600MHz (Manufacturer reports that it can be overclocked to 900MHz^[7])
• 256MB DDR-333 SDRAM
• 512MB NAND FLASH memory
• IVA2+ audio and video processor (based on the TMS320C64x+ DSP Core at 430MHz) using Texas Instruments’s DaVinci technology
• ARM Cortex-A8 superscalar microprocessor core
• PowerVR SGX 530 (110 MHz) OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant 3D hardware
• Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• Integrated Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (3Mbit/s) (Class 2, +4dBm)^[8]
• 800×480 resolution touchscreen LCD, 4.3″ widescreen, 16.7 million colors (300 cd/m2 brightness, 450:1 contrast ratio)
• Dual analog nubs; 15mm diameter, concave, 2mm travel from centre
• Full gamepad controls plus shoulder buttons
• Dual SDHC card slots (currently up to 64GB of storage, supports SDIO)
• Headphone output up to 150mW/channel into 16 ohms, 99dB SNR
• TV output (composite and S-Video)
• Internal microphone plus ability to connect external microphone through headset
• 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
• USB 2.0 OTG port (480Mb/s) with capability to charge the Pandora
• USB 2.0 HOST port (480Mb/s) capable of providing standard 500mA current to attached devices
• Externally accessible UART for hardware hacking and debugging
• Brick prevention with integrated bootloader for safe code experimentation
• Runs the Linux kernel (2.6.x)
• 4000mAH rechargeable lithium ion battery
• Estimated 10 hours of runtime for video / general applications and 100 hours for music playback
• Dimensions: 140×83x27mm^[8](5.51×3.27×1.06 in) (nearly the same as a DS Lite)

Preorders have been made, and the first batch has sold out with no more systems being produced until 2009. Out of the box, it is powerful enough to emulate the original Playstation console with striking clarity. To put it all together in one sentence; The combined processing power of the Pandora is twice that of the original Xbox system, and it can do so much more. The open source and homebrew following that this system has sold 2000 units in 6 hours, and sold out in much less than a week. As of Christmas 2008, this device is far superior to any other handheld on the market, and it comes in costing 330 USD.

This video is a Mark 0 Pandora, development version. The final product looks like the image pictured above. Ignore the commercial fanboys who talk down the Pandora and prefer their Nintendo DS. Tell them to look at the specs, and when they are blown away, just say “I told you so,” and walk away. For more detailed specs, check out this page on their wiki. When the next systems are being sold, I’ll be buying one, so keep an eye out for a review. I can’t wait!

Then, we’ll do some conferencing, file transfers, and video chatting. Before the day is done, you’ll see why it is just so amazing.

Maybe then we’ll do a follow up on everyone’s impressions. Looking forward to hearing from someone!

The Newsletter focuses mainly on the PBLs that the student are participating in. PBL stands for Problem Based Learning. Rather than just sit the students down in front of a text book and tell them to memorize, Problem Based Learning attempts to bring in engineering problems from an established base of business partners that will share problems and expertise with the students.

Enjoy!

The engine in this video ‘feeds’ off of the heat coming from a coffee cup full of hot water. The gas moves back and forth between the internal chambers, and moves (in this case) a vertical rod that turns the wheel. When the top of the engine cools the warm air, the cycle repeats. The faster this cycle takes place, the more mechanical work that will be done! Here’s another well built Stirling engine.

This one runs off of the heat of two torches. When the heat is removed, it takes time for the engines to slow down, because the residual heat has to ‘burn off’ .

While interesting and certainly useful as learning aides when studying engines and thermodynamics, such small engines don’t serve much of a practical purpose. Enter the big boys.

Engines this size and bigger are capable of generating a decent amount of energy, mechanical, electrical, you name it. And all they need is heat. Any kind of heat will do. Heat from a flame, be it natural gas, propane, or a really big can of sterno. Or maybe heat from the sun, shining through a concentrating lens and directed onto the ‘hot’ side of the engine. The possibilities are endless. Maybe that’s why the guy who invented the Segway is building Stirling Engines into electric cars.

Last but not least here’s proof that this nearly 200 year old technology could take us places.

That's one interesting fluid!

Ever heard of Neodymium [Nee-oh-deem-e-uhm] magnets? Also known as rare earth magnets, or just plain neo magnets, these little miracles have some series magnetic power to them. In some cases, it is even enough to break bones or cause other sometimes fatal injuries. (It isn’t the magnetic field doing the breaking, it’s the whole ‘being crushed between a magnet and a metal wall’  thing that does it.) There’s also a really cool mixture called ferrofluid that actually reacts to magnetic fields, as seen above.

But where to buy such dangerous magnets, or interesting things like ferro-fluid? This could pose a problem. That is, unless you have ever heard of United Nuclear before. For the sake of argument, let’s assume you haven’t. Head on over to their section on magnets and check it out. If you scroll about halfway down the page, you will come to the huge magnets. These things are monstrous. An excerpt from the item description is as follows:

Beware - you must think ahead when moving these magnets.


If carrying one into another room, carefully plan the route you will be taking. Sensitive instruments like computers & monitors will be affected in an entire room. Loose metallic objects and other magnets may become airborne and fly at great speed to attach themselves to these magnets. If you get caught in between the two, you can be severely injured. These magnets will crush bones in the blink of an eye.


Two of these magnets close together can create an almost unbelievable magnetic field that can be incredibly dangerous. Of all the unique items we offer for sale, we consider these items the most dangerous of all. Our normal packing & shipping personnel refuse to package these magnets - our engineers have to do it. This is no joke or exaggeration - and we cannot stress it strongly enough. You must be extremely careful - and know what you're doing with these magnets.


Two Supermagnets can very easily get out of control, crush fingers and instantly break ribs or even your arm if opposing poles fly at each other.

When you are done thinking of all of the amazing experiments you could carry out with such dangerous items, peruse the huge selection of hard to find chemicals, equipment, and other odds and ends that seemingly can only be found at United Nuclear. I know, it sounds like a sales pitch, but it’s not. I just love all of the cool stuff on that site!

Here’s a interesting video, showing off just what ferrofluid can do.

E-ink is a generic name for the revolutionary technology powering these devices. Using an electric field, particles of pigment that have been given a certain charge are brought to the top or bottom of its respective ‘environment’. When these minuscule points are duplicated, placing millions on a single page, you have a piece of e-paper!

Each ‘point’ is similar to the pixels found on a common day LCD screen.The primary difference is that these consume no power when displaying images. E-paper’s power consumption is relative to ‘page-turns’, not the time it can display an image. The electric field is applied to the millions of particles in a way that displays text or images on screen. They, the electric field is turned off, and the image stays there. So, ‘turn a page’ and the reader scrambles the small pixels into the new image. Once it’s there, it’s there. Very efficient!

For more information on what your textbooks will look like someday, check out Wikipedia’s entry on electronic paper.

Yes. I am a staunch supporter of Wikipedia, and proud of it. :]


The small specks that you saw were actually the tracking points made by PFHoe Pro. The camera tracking software determines how the camera recording the real footage moved, and then creates a 3d camera in Blender (or your other 3D app of choice) that matches that video footage. This means that I can slap an object on the table, and it stays there no matter how the camera moves. Like so:

So, any suggestions? What are your ideas for a video utilizing camera tracking?

In our mind, a prototypical model of the future of visual media was revolutionary. A white room, with a door that barely had a seam. No windows. Hidden holographic projectors would have locations which were impossible to discern. When the game or movie started, the projectors would kick in and the user would find him or herself surrounded by an entirely different world. The environment of a World War II combat game, the rich green grass and blue skies, as well as the rusting metal and thundering artillery cannons would materialize out of nowhere and surround us as if we had been transported back in time.

Complete immersion. We’re getting there. Really.

For even more detail and video, go here.

Here’s a more recent example:

This video records holographically, but lacks the ability to display in 3 dimensions. The reporter in the studio was most likely looking at nothing. Give it 5 more years.

This uses algorithms similar to those of motion and camera tracking software packages. By looking at specific points in the video and tracking them from one frame to the next, it can generate a basic 3d model from it. In camera tracking, it uses this information to drive the motion of a digital camera so that you can stick objects on a point and the video and it will stay there. (More about that later.)

It also uses interpolation. Who remembers the slow motion effect from The Matrix? To create that effect, over a hundred photo cameras were set up , all of them focusing on the same spot on a green screen stage. The cameras were then fired sequentially very quickly as the actor made his motions (in this case, the ‘bullet dodge’).

Something to think about. The video we are seeing is the perspective of each camera as it is fired sequentially. After the photos are taken they are stitched together into a video, as if from a moving camera’s perspective. See how it is jittery? Interpolation generates new frames in between each of the actual images that were taken! This results in a video that looks much more smooth, like this:

Neat stuff, huh?

Tell me that this doesn’t freak you out just a little?

Enjoy!

(Click for the amazing full size view)

I’m not sure that you realize how big this thing is. But let’s describe what it is before we get to that. This machine was meant to assist in removing overburden while coal mining. Basically, it is one of the world’s largest earth and coal movers, literally a mobile strip mining machine. Some of the more meaningful specifications:

• Consumes 16.56 Megawatts of electricity, and has to be tied to the grid.
• Moves from .06 to .37 miles per hour
• Took almost 3 weeks to move it 13.6 miles
• It is sweet. (Warning: This may be a personal opinion.)

And now, to give you an idea of just how big this monster is.

At 40 seconds, you can see a person standing next to the machine. It. Is. HUGE.

So here’s a goal you can shoot for. The following video is of a 608 Bearing. It was made using exact units, and is basically a great example of precision modeling. This .blend file could be output to a CNC machine and the parts could be made with very little human interaction. This is where the money is in the real world. The best part is, there is a tutorial you can read that will walk you through the entire process.

Here’s the link to the tutorial. If you can make it through this, awesome. It will help you in your 3d modeling coursework and will throw you right into the world of 3D. Enjoy!

IZation Labs wants you!

In other news, I made some changed to the About page, the link to which is on the top right corner of the screen. It’s a bit more descriptive and informative now!

When I look for new computer products I always look for a great deal, unique products, and the smallest size available. Two of my most recent purchases along these lines are the Super Talent Pico C 8Gb flash drive and the Acer Aspire One 150 Laptop.

A couple of months ago I was looking for a replacement for my old Patriot 1Gb flash drive. After a couple hours of shopping I found this; the Pico Series by Super Talent. It was the physically smallest flash drive in the market, and at 8Gb and only $27 with free shipping it was quite the deal. It runs warm to the touch after transferring files larger than 500mb, and I lose it in the couch frequently. I wear a lot of shirts with a pocket and I sometimes forget that I have it there. Well worth the buy and it run portable apps perfectly even though I have heard that this model can suddenly “die”.

(*Editors note: Mine did die. I’ve just been too lazy to get a refund yet. It really is an amazing little piece of equipment though.*)

I have been shopping for a laptop ever since my school laptop was given the ‘Deep Freeze’. As of this summer, net books caught my eye. Net books are laptops with no optical drive and really small screens and keyboards. Currently the company ASUS is charging $450 or more for their systems (Eee PC 901 series) with the brand new Intel Atom processor (1.6 GHz).

Acer had the hardware specs that I wanted and Windows XP for $350. The only trade off that I have was not getting a Solid State Drive. After messing around with my system for a day, I love it. It’s so small and dinky. Folded up the Acer One is smaller and lighter than most school textbooks. The keyboard is indeed smaller, but after a couple of sentences I had adapted to the news layout size. The screen is too small for gaming or serious photo editing, but just right for Open Office 3.0 and already ripped movies.  It’s also worth mentioning that through the VGA out plug you can run a extended desktop with another monitor. With a 1024 x 600 resolution LCD, a 1.6 GHz processor, 1Gb ram, and a 120 GB hard drive I think that I did good. And for all of those who call it too small, I typed almost 400 words and cropped/resized the photos with this machine.

For those of you interested in the technical aspects of the Powerpack and Air cannon, here’s some information.

• The sprinkler valve on the air cannon is a solenoid valve that costs around 40 dollars. It runs off of three 9-volt batteries in series, and is the device that cycles the air from the reservoir into the barrel, propelling the projectile. The air cannon in this video is the first I ever built, and is also the best one; It has never caused me any problems.

• The Powerpack started as a fancy looking battery pack for my 15 watt solar panel I purchased months ago. I realized that it was the perfect size to act as a ‘universal power supply’, and the Powerpack was born! Inside are two 12 volt 12 Ah Gel Cell sealed led acid batteries. They are wired in parallel, which means I should be able to draw about 12 Ah’s out of the battery pack before I should recharge it, for the sake of prolonged longevity.

• The mini air compressor was purchased from Harbor Freight for 25 dollars. Every time I go there I spend at least 3 times the amount I meant to. That store is just too amazing for words.

If I get the chance I might do a more complete write up someday so others can learn from my experience (and mistakes), though I bet that most people don’t need me to tell them what to do, there may be some who would be happy for a few guidelines. Cheers!

Click for more detail.

There it is; a Delorean. My favorite car in the world. Someday, I will own one.

And yes, this still ties in with steampunk. Who has seen the third Back to the Future movie? That’s Steampunk.

In my mind it's not "...if I ever own one...". It's "...when I own one..."