Whether or not you liked Tron: Legacy, you can't deny that it served up some tasty eye candy. So, rejoice, my fellow programs and data junkies — this online version of the awesome Encom boardroom projection screen is configured to visualize live updates from Github and Wikipedia, with more streams to come.
This is the only film in the trilogy where Bugs does not crossdress.[1]
Link (thanks, so-called-classics!)
Everybody knows that US student debt is rising sharply. (We’ve covered it quite a bit.)
But it’s worth pointing out that it’s not just the posh, private colleges and universities that are leaving students heavily in hock.
The trend also extends to those who make the seemingly prudent decision to go to more affordable US public colleges and universities.
And there’s a simple reason. Public financial support for public colleges and universities has dropped off sharply in recent years, amid a spike in interest in going back to school. Goldman Sachs analysts just sent out this chart recently, which makes the case pretty clearly.
Some of this is to be expected. With state governments stressed over the last few years, cutbacks at public universities were to be expected. But as you can see from the chart above, the decline of public support for public colleges and universities is nothing new. States have been backing away from funding their colleges and universities for decades, and that means that student debt loads are likely to keep climbing. As Goldman Sachs notes:
While there is certainly a cyclical element to the decline in the share of education expenses covered by the public sector, there has been a general downward trend in the share of the cost of public universities funded by state governments, leaving a greater share to be covered by students (Exhibit 3, right panel). Second, with such a high share of students from higher-income families attending college already, incremental enrollment will come from students from lower-income families who are more likely to borrow (though they will usually also qualify for greater financial assistance). If incremental enrollment comes from students with fewer resources, it seems likely that the share of students borrowing will continue to rise.
firehosetl;dw: adorable, but boring; "It's not a bad game for teaching people how to play games, but when you get to the end of playing a game of this, you might not get them to play any more. ... It's not a fun game. Takenoko doesn't merit a second game." Biggest complaint is that each player's objectives are hidden from each other, so you end up helping or hurting others without realizing it, eliminating conflict or strategy.
It's not hard to catch SU&SD's eye. An award on your box will do it. Or a panda! Or the colour pink. Or three-dimensional components. Or an inlay with phallic slots. In offering all five at once, though, Takenoko could have been made for us.
Is it a good Opener, though? The perfect game to open a friend's mind to the wonders of board gaming like you were opening a cheap tin of brain-beans? Tell us, Matt! We have to know.
firehose#soundstudies
Artist Scott Garner posted his awesome project on his blog Scott Made This.
Description
The Watchmen are a pair of interactive sculptures that generate sound based on changes in their surrounding environment. Heimdallr, inspired by a Norse god, monitors wifi signals while Argus, inspired by a Greek mythological figure, observes light.
Concept
For several years I’ve imagined a sculpture with a massive array of different sensors that processes the incoming data and then generates an abstract representation of it. In other words, a machine that simply observes the world with no use or function beyond that. This led to a series of explorations based on sensing and interpreting the world and finally to the two sculptures displayed here.
Argus
In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes was an “all-seeing” giant, often represented with a hundred eyes. He was tasked by Hera to guard Io (in the form of a heifer) from Zeus who wanted to mate with her and establish a new order. Hermes, acting on orders from Zeus, lulled Argus to sleep and murdered him. In honor of her faithful servant, Hera adorned the peacock’s tail with one hundred eyes as an eternal memorial…
Fabrication
The upper panels were laser-cut from thin sheets of solid birdseye maple. The painted plywood connectors were a compromise because solid wood at that scale and shape wasn’t strong enough to hold the sculpture together.
The bases were built by hand out of solid maple and the central posts were created by hollowing out segments of a maple dowel on a lathe. This was necessary to hide the wires in Argus and the antenna in Heimdallr.
Hardware and Software
Both sculptures are powered by an external Raspberry Pi. I had originally planned to house the Pi internally along with sound hardware and speakers, but ultimately went for the more flexible option of having it on the outside.
Argus consists of a simple array of eleven photoresistors connected to an Arduino. The Arduino then sends data serially to a Pd patch that generates five tones based on the input.
Heimdallr houses only a USB wifi adapter with a 13 dBi antenna, which connects directly to the Pi. A node.js script running on the Pi monitors wifi signals and produces nine tones based on the input.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
firehose'Virginian Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty or give me death”; boldface mine):
“If the country be invaded, a state may go to war, but cannot suppress [slave] insurrections [under this new Constitution]. If there should happen an insurrection of slaves, the country cannot be said to be invaded. They cannot, therefore, suppress it without the interposition of Congress . . . . Congress, and Congress only [under this new Constitution], can call forth the militia.”'
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The Second Amendment was born out of the need to maintain slavery. It had nothing to do with a supposed right to own your own Polaris missile. That was the ‘original intent’ of the Second Amendment. It is as odious as it is lethal.
firehosevia Bunker.jordan
Oscar-winner Jim Rash
this is how false information on tumblr works
Literally
oh hey it’s jim rash and paula newsome
This project combines two of our favorite things: cats and raspberry pi projects. Using a Raspberry Pi, John Shovic developed MouseAir to entertain his cat Panther while he’s away from home. MouseAir uses RFID to know when to launch toy mice for Panther to play with. The device also uses a pi cam to take photos of all the action, via RaspberryPi.org.
But MouseAir is much more than just a launcher. As well as RFID detection of Panther’s tag (with a hand-built antenna) and ultrasonic detection, there’s a Raspberry Pi Camera Module on a pan/tilt base for capturing still images at critical moments, examining the launcher for jams, detecting motion and streaming video. Happily there’s a system diagram to help us keep track of all this.
A custom Python program running on the Raspberry Pi ties everything together. A fan of elaborate control panels, John wasn’t about to leave MouseAir without one, so he’s using the RasPiConnect app to allow him to control the system from his iPad via WiFi, using a satisfying number of buttons, graphs and pictures:
He’s already been working on a redesign! Check it out here:
Goals
The goals for the redesign are:
Reduced Cost – eliminate unnecessary parts and reduce cost of current parts
Single Power Supply – original design had two 5V supplies and one 12V supply
Improved Reliability – Mouse loading was only about 50% effective. Cat detection was about 30% from the RFID and too short range for effective detection (requiring strategically placed treats to trigger – We will be publishing that video!).
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
Last weekend, my family and I spent our time with Rapiro, an adorable, easy to assemble robot designed for Raspberry Pi. The kit is meant for ages 15 and up, however, with adult supervision, younger kids can have fun building and coding Rapiro as well!
My boys are ages nine and six and they took interest in different parts of the building process. It was definitely a tag-team effort.
My six-year-old enjoyed assisting in assembling the robot.
With some help from his programmer dad, my nine-year-old enjoyed the programming piece. Here he is programming Rapiro to change eye color and walk.
We found Rapiro to be a fun learning and teaching tool — perfect for a home or educational environment. We look forward to seeing what else we can program Rapiro to do!
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
firehosevia Bunker.jordan
firehosesometimes I enjoy tutorials that take a roundabout way of implementing something simple in order to teach something fundamental
and then there are these, which take a roundabout approach to re-implement something simple by fucking it through an Arduino and a specially designed Arduino shield because the library and hardware already exist for Arduino
so what you learn is how to use a PS2 controller with an Arduino and a specific piece of hardware, and how to use an Arduino with a Pi, when https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/gamecon_gpio_rpi already exists, cuts out half the steps, gives you more direct control through the Pi, and is already supported by Pi-native (and Linux-native) software designed for game controllers
In this tutorial, Instructables user dexter_industries shows us how he uses a playstation 2 controller with his Raspberry Pi:
This tutorial will show how to use the Playstation 2 Controller (PS2) with the Raspberry Pi. We use the Arduberry to adapt the shield to the Raspberry Pi.
Hardware Required
1. Raspberry Pi
2. Arduberry
4. A Playstation 2 controller or a similar clone (Please Check the wiki for the compatible clones)
firehose'Makerbot's patents are still dangerous, though. Patents endure for 20 years, which is a lot longer than many tech companies -- even very successful, publicly traded ones -- last. Even if Makerbot or Stratasys never have a change in management that results in abuse of this patent, it could easily land in the hands of a troll someday if the company fails altogether. And, of course, if all the Thingiverse users (and other people who work on extruders) had filed patents on their art, the thicket surrounding extruders would be so impenetrable that Makerbot's own innovation in US20140120196 would sink in a quagmire of litigation.
But even if you stipulate that the patents are an inevitable characteristic of publicly traded companies, there's room for Makerbot to take a leadership role and do more to minimize the potential harm from their patents. They could, for example, publicly commit to eschewing the universal practice of making broad claims on things that they haven't invented, narrowing to their actual invention. They could pledge to always include Thingiverse items in the prior art disclosures for their patents (this would be an especially reassuring move in that it would make putting things in Thingiverse a guarantee that Makerbot, at least, could never claim a patent on them).'
BUT
THEY
HAVEN'T
What’s the story with the Makerbot patent? @ Boing Boing.
The 3D printing world is all a-seethe with the story that Makerbot supposedly filed a patent on a design from its Thingiverse community. As Cory Doctorow discovered, the reality is a little more complicated: if Makerbot has committed a sin, it is not the sin of which it stands accused.
Adding Heat Sinks To A Raspberry Pi. via Average Man VS Raspberry Pi
Temperature, temperature temperature – it’s been a bit of a theme for me over the last couple of weeks – it must be something to do with the incoming summer weather. A few days ago I finished my temperature monitor display board to allow me to keep an eye on the Pi’s temperature at a glance, and today I’m fitting some fancy heat sinks from AlienSpec.
AlienSpec offer a smart option for those wishing to trick out their Pi with some heat sinks, giving you 3 matching units to cover different components of the Pi that can generate heat.
Before I start, I must declare that I’m ‘pro’ heat sinks. I think they add value, but that ‘value’ is a specific thing for different people.
See the thing is, there are some old school technology types out there that question the use of heat sinks on the Pi due to the reasonably cool and calm nature of the board and its components. Other groups, such as PC gamers and overclocking enthusiasts, can see no reason not to add heat sinks as the general rule of ‘cold is gold’ is assumed.
Then, there are the the people like me, taking all those views in and turning it all into any reason possible to buy another part for my Raspberry Pi.
From my days with Windows adding bigger and better heat sinks, more and more fans and constantly monitoring components, I have a slight OCD streak in me around temperature that I just can’t shrug off. Then there’s the aesthetic side as well – a bit of solid machined metal is just one of those things I struggle to resist.
I like to think that heat sinks are worthwhile for any heat-generating component, and that if all else fails – they just simply look cool. I imagine a lot of people buy them just for the look – but if that makes you happy and doesn’t damage your Pi – why not? Go for it, enjoy it, and carry on learning.
With that debate out of the way (until the comments section at least), let’s take a look at the heat sinks I got from AlienSpec on eBay:
Yes you’re right – there are 3 heat sinks there…
Unlike some of the other offerings that only cover the SoC, AlienSpec want you to stay cool – cooler than Will Smith in the freezer. To do this, they also include a matching heat sink for the regulator and the LAN chip. This improves the look of the board whilst helping to keep other parts cool at the same time – win win.
Fitting is simple and just requires a bit of thermal tape cutting. If you used to follow Blue Peter and Art Attack as a child, you won’t have any problems with this – although I was a bit of a plonker and nearly used the LAN heat sink on my Model A (the Model A has no LAN chip!).
The two smaller heat sinks require you to cut the provided thermal tape to size, then apply and stick on the Pi. This is as simple as using the heat sink as a template and tracing around it with a knife.
Once you’ve finished, step back and admire your new upgraded Pi. I’m not sure what this feeling is, but everything feels extra-cool now – I have a somewhat ‘manly’ Raspberry Pi. The little green board has acquired street cred to rival even the most established rap artists from around the globe…kind of…
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
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from  The ToastThe Toast.
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“You’re a wizard, Harry,” Hagrid said. “And you’re coming to Hogwarts.”
“What’s Hogwarts?” Harry asked.
“It’s wizard school.”
“It’s not a public school, is it?”
“No, it’s privately run.”
“Good. Then I accept. Children are not the property of the state; everyone who wishes to do so has the right to offer educational goods or services at a fair market rate. Let us leave at once.”
***
“Malfoy bought the whole team brand-new Nimbus Cleansweeps!” Ron said, like a poor person. “That’s not fair!”
“Everything that is possible is fair,” Harry reminded him gently. “If he is able to purchase better equipment, that is his right as an individual. How is Draco’s superior purchasing ability qualitatively different from my superior Snitch-catching ability?”
“I guess it isn’t,” Ron said crossly.
Harry laughed, cool and remote, like if a mountain were to laugh. “Someday you’ll understand, Ron.”
***
Professor Snape stood at the front of the room, sort of Jewishly. “There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don’t expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few who possess, the predisposition…I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.”
Harry’s hand shot up.
“What is it, Potter?” Snape asked, irritated.
“What’s the value of these potions on the open market?”
“What?”
“Why are you teaching children how to make these valuable products for ourselves at a schoolteacher’s salary instead of creating products to meet modern demand?”
“You impertinent boy–”
“Conversely, what’s to stop me from selling these potions myself after you teach us how to master them?”
“I–”
“This is really more of a question for the Economics of Potion-Making, I guess. What time are econ lessons here?”
“We have no economics lessons in this school, you ridiculous boy.”
Harry Potter stood up bravely. “We do now. Come with me if you want to learn about market forces!”
The students poured into the hallway after him. They had a leader at last.
***
Harry and Ron stood before the Mirror of Erised. “My God,” Ron said. “Harry, it’s your dead parents.”
Harry’s eyes flicked momentarily over to the mirror. “So it is. This information is neither useful nor productive. Let us leave at once, to assist Hagrid in his noble enterprise of raising as many dragon eggs as he sees fit, in spite of our country’s unjust dragon-trading restrictions.”
“But it’s your parents, Harry,” Ron said. Ron never really got it.
Harry sighed. “The fundamental standard for all relationships is the trader principle, Ron.”
“I don’t understand,” Ron said.
“Of course you don’t,” said Harry affectionately. “This principle holds that we should interact with people on the basis of the values we can trade with them – values of all sorts, including common interests in art, sports or music, similar philosophical outlooks, political beliefs, sense of life, and more. Dead people have no value according to the trader principle.”
“But they gave birth to y–”
“I made myself, Ron,” Harry said firmly.
***
“Give me your wand, boy,” Voldemort hissed.
“I cannot do that. This wand represents my wealth, which is itself a tangible result of my achievements. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think,” Harry said bravely.
Voldemort gasped.
“There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.”
Voldemort began to melt. Harry lit a cigarette, because he was the master of fire.
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. The minimum wage is a tax on the successful. The market will naturally dictate the minimum wage without the government stepping in to determine arbitrary limits.”
Voldemort howled.
“I’m going to sell copies of my wand at an enormous markup,” Harry said, “and you can buy one like everyone else.”
Voldemort had been defeated.
“He hated us for our freedom,” Ron said.
“No, Ron,” Harry said. “He hated us for our free markets.”
Hermione ached with desire for the both of them to master her, but nobody paid her any attention. They had empires to build.
Artwork by Amy Collier, who once saw Fabio at an airport. Fabio is an Italian model who has appeared on many classic romance novels, such as Love Me with Fury, Lovestorm, and More Than a Feeling. He is 6’3” barefoot; usually in cowboy boots.
Read more Ayn Rand’s Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone at The Toast.
Get pumped, get excited... he's heeeeere!
firehoselol
Another NBA team sold for bonkers money this week. Just three years after a lockout, some players are understandably confused by this situation.
The bizarre saga of Donald Sterling and the Los Angeles Clippers appears to be nearing its conclusion with a sale to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, but some NBA players aren't celebrating the occasion.
Given Sterling's incredible return -- he bought the team for $12.5 million in 1981, will reportedly sell for $2 billion -- just three years after a lockout, some players are wondering exactly why owners were crying poor in 2011. The fact that Sterling's got such an ugly reputation and still came away with bags of cash isn't leaving anyone thrilled.
RT @darrenrovell: @latimes: Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to buy the Clippers for $2 Billion ( I thought owners was losing money lol)
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) May 29, 2014
12.5 mill to 2 bill in 33 years. #foolmeonce #losingmoney #lockout
— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) May 30, 2014
2 billion for the clippers??? Hmm I thought the owners were losing money??? The next collective bargaining agreement is gonna be crazy
— Ty Lawson (@TyLawson3) May 30, 2014
Back in 2011, the league locked out players for a portion of the season to hammer out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, one that most would consider a clear victory for the owners. Since then, several teams have sold for record-breaking amounts, including small-market franchises like the Bucks and Kings.
That understandably makes it easy for players to wonder why the league initiated the 2011 lockout, and a perception of greed could have interesting implications when the next round of CBA negotiations start up later this decade. But for now, everyone will probably just need to accept that any owner who purchased their team before the TV rights boom will be able to walk away a much, much wealthier person.
firehose“I knocked over your bike & broke the bell. I’m very sorry” pic.twitter.com/chrIXEX0tA
firehoseIan Bogost, and not as I first suspected an Ian Bogost parody impersonator
firehosevia Lori
'Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions -- Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). ... While I'm not thrilled that Pixar's first female protagonist, Brave's Merida, was a princess and that this second girl-centric movie is premised on how emotional girls are, Inside Out definitely represents progress. And to be fair, Pixar does strive to make Riley's emotionality part of a universal experience in the description above; by being guided by her feelings, she is "like all of us." Pixar also has another (kinda) woman-centric film scheduled for 2016: Finding Dory, framed around Ellen DeGeneres' amnesiac fish.
These more inclusive projects don't erase the fact that it took Pixar 17 years to release a movie with a female protagonist, or that the only female director (Brenda Chapman) in the company's history was fired midway through a film she based partly on her daughter, but at least they're proving receptive to change.'
firehosevia otters
Remember the time Steve Rogers had a gay BFF? Canon! In the early 80s, no less. I often get the feeling this is an overlooked part of Captain America’s history, so let’s review.
— vol. 1 #276Warnings for: homophobia, stereotypes, a tragically dead gay boyfriend, and (other) character death. Also, the 90s Cap armor makes an appearance. (I’m just saying.) All panels are from Captain America.
firehosevia Toaster Strudel
I have no idea what's going on with TrueCrypt. There's a good summary of the story at ArsTechnica, and Slashdot, Hacker News, and Reddit all have long comment threads. See also Brian Krebs and Cory Doctorow.
Speculations include a massive hack of the TrueCrypt developers, some Lavabit-like forced shutdown, and an internal power struggle within TrueCrypt. I suppose we'll have to wait and see what develops.
firehosestretch goal: fly thrice as high
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
firehosethis is pretty much how I imagine multitasksuicide decided to get out of private law practice
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THOR HAS TWO MOVIES AND NAMOR HAS ZERO MOVIES WHO DO I SPEAK TO IN ORDER TO CORRECT THIS SEVERE INJUSTICE?
firehosevia multitasksuicide
Russian-born comedian Ben Rosenfeld is kickstarting a book of gruesome, real Russian nursery rhymes, illustrated by Dov Smiley (example: "A little boy found a machine-gun, nothing lives in the woods anymore"). $25 gets you the book and the ebook. Read the rest
