Make: Live premieres TONIGHT! 9pm ET/ 6pm PT

Join us this evening for the premiere of Make: Live! We've been Windexing the gumball machine and flossing our teeth in preparation for the show. Matt and I wanted to remind you of a few housekeeping notes:

  • Head to makezine.com/live to watch or check out our UStream page.
  • We'll start the broadcast with a title slide and some music a few minutes before the show, so you'll be able to check that you're getting visuals and sound.
  • To join the chat, you must have a UStream account (free of course) and be signed in. We recommend you do this well before the show.
  • Twitter is ok for questions too, just use tag #makelive.
  • If you can't watch live, we'll be archiving the show to YouTube (in bite-sized segments) and our iTunes Podcast (episodes in their entirety). We hope to have this week's show up by Friday.
  • After the show, please send us your feedback! We set up live@makezine.com for your suggestions, comments, and for sending us projects you want to show off on the Make: Live, of course!

Here are the details for the show tonight:

Make: Live 01 - The Arduino Episode
Wednesday January 26th, 9pm ET/6pmPT
Watch at makezine.com/live or on UStream

Guests:

Steve Hoefer - The Secret Knock Gumball Machine dispenses candies when you know the secret rhythm.

Collin Cunningham - The MidiVox shield turns an Arduino board into a programmable MIDI synthesizer.

Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Make: Live | Digg this!

Source: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/01/make_live_premieres_tonight_9pm_et.html

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Planning Greener for the Holiday

These ideas are for what remains of this year and to put down on your to do list for next year to make your holiday a greener and more frugal holiday. On December 26th you will have the opportunity to get items at a clearance, here are a few things to pick up for next year.

? Recyclable Wrapping
- The paper gets ripped off the present 10x faster than it took for you to get it taped up. Next time look for and wrap with

  • holiday dishcloths or other fabric 
  • maps(found in old National Geographic magazines)
  • saved aluminum foil
  • comics section of the paper 
  • pages from a magazine 
  • sheet music
  • brown sack wrapped with twine and decorated with your imagination.
Flickr/CC - JaseMan
? Used but not Abused 
- There is re-gifting that can be done for next year, just put a post-it note on the item so you know who you got if from. But you can also make some wonderful, like new, purchases from antique stores and 2nd hand stores - Clean them well. Items to look for are napkin holders, handkerchiefs, canvas shopping bags, vintage containers and housewares.

Also scour Craigslist and Freecycle throughout the year for items that they may want. Craigslist allows you to follow alerts for items you are searching for. Look for the RSS at the bottom right for ways to track.

? Christmas Cards
- Clearance is a great way to stock up, but not only on the cards but you can use the ones you received or the left-overs from this year as gift tags, cut up in 2x3" rectangles and you are ready for next year.

Also send used  cards of all occasion to St. Jude's Ranch and they currently have an increased need for both Birthday and Thank You card submissions

? Consumable Gifts 
- Cut down on the cost of shipping or gas and pickup the ingredients while shopping for consumable gifts like jar cookies or a food gift basket.

? Give to the Heart
- Find out what memberships they may like or charitable causes they are interested in and give a gift in their name. With some charities you will get notification to give them, sometimes a small gift such as a bookmark or t-shirt and with programs like Kiva.org you get the money back to re-gift again or bank it after the lendee pays it back. A bonus: You get a tax write-off.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/IpRp/~3/jrLPjJz_mIE/planning-greener-for-holiday.html

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Markdown is a Skill Every Modern Communicator Should Learn


The US Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence in pen and ink but the true road to revolution was paved by the printing press. It cast the word far and wide that change harkened.

Flash forward to today. The presses still hum. However, just as during colonial times, information travels fastest over a newer medium; but this time it's entirely digital, social and mobile. Those who wish to inspire, teach, cajole, convey or simply express today use these means to do so. They default to digital first. They harmonize text, links, video, imagery and even apps. They're true transmedia storytellers.

It used to be that much of what we published was prepared for physical distribution. But with tablets and ereaders rising, the last stalwarts of physical distribution are in decline and an all-digital future is in sight.

Today anyone who wants to spread their ideas far and wide ? and that?s pretty much every modern communicator ? will focus first on digital means to do so. Markdown, to me, is becoming an essential lingua frança that makes writing and preparing digital-ready copy a snap. Above all, it makes it highly portable so that others can take what we've started and build on it. It?s also supported by many major platforms, including Posterous and Squarespace among others.

In short, it?s a skill every modern communicator should learn at least the basics.

The future is in text

Video and imagery are critical. But, still, nothing on the web flies the way text does. Words power the web. So it?s critical that every communicator know how to succinctly organize, convey and present ideas for the web and mobile so that they build up readers like nutrients do, rather than weigh them down like junk food.

This realization led me a few months ago to fall in love with text editors. I have since abandoned all proprietary systems for storing and managing what I write, in favor of using simple text editors that let me easily move my information around across platforms.

My favorite tools are WriteMonkey for Windows, WriteRoom for Mac OS X and Elements and PlainText on the iPad. None of them blink an eye when I try to edit a text file that I started elsewhere.

A good text editor is your friend. Befriend one.

Markdown is what?s next for text

Text alone, however, is not enough. It needs to contain references to links and formatting that guides a busy web reader?s eyes to where they want to go. Markdown makes it easy to mark up your text without any knowledge of HTML and without getting locked into a more complex editor that others might not use.

Markdown, developed by Jon Gruber half a decade ago, is a simple set of ?strings? that you add to text as you write it. It utilizes sets of characters that you already know like brackets, asterisks and dashes to format and add links to your copy once previewed in a browser. Both WriteMonkey for Windows and Elements on the iPad support integrated Markdown previewing and exporting.

The value here is that Markdown forces you to organize your content, but does not lock you into a system. What?s more, it makes it easier to not only create digital-ready content but also change it later. Your work can find its way into others' hands to build on.

To me, Markdown is what?s next for text, so therefore it?s an essential skill to learn. For more about Markdown visit this page on Wikipedia and then use Gruber?s syntax guide for more advanced formatting. (I even use Markdown to write my to do lists and notes.)

Long live text!

Image credit: Posterous

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Michael replied to Graham Dyer's discussion 'Code for changes wanted - APv2.7'

Michael replied to Graham Dyer's discussion 'Code for changes wanted - APv2.7'
Have you tested this? i dont believe it would start the loop. the reason being that the control channel is the only other thing that can change the mode. when it goes into failsafe the mode is changed in software, so long as the transmitter switch i?

Source: http://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:262073?xg_source=activity

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Bing Feature Update: FanSnap and Bing are your ticket to football playoffs

If you’re searching for sports tickets in the US, things just got easier.  You can now compare tickets from over 50 leading tickets sites, check out the view from the seat and quickly find a broad selection of tickets from multiple providers, directly in Bing. 

 

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As we mentioned last month, to help you make better ticket buying decisions we are incorporating FanSnap’s venue maps and comprehensive event catalogue into the Bing experience. With football play-offs in full swing, now you can quickly find ticket results for more than 15 million tickets.

You can see ticket selection and price ranges at a glance, and zoom into a row- level view to check out offers from multiple providers. The “Best Value" feature, quickly highlights tickets that are priced significantly lower than surrounding seats. If you want to confirm you’re getting a good ticket, use the "view-from-seat" feature to see the vantage.

Good luck in the playoffs!

Check it out and let us know what you think.

www.twitter.com/bing

www.facebook.com/bing

- The Bing Team

Source: http://www.bing.com/community/Site_Blogs/b/search/archive/2011/01/06/fansnap-and-bing-your-ticket-to-football-playoffs.aspx

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Undulating Fin Propels Robotic Fish

Modeled after the Black Ghost Knifefish using computational fluid dynamics simulation, Researchers at Northwestern University are exploring an interesting form of locomotion that could be useful for underwater robotic propulsion. Using precise control of counter-propagating waves along undulating fins just like the fish of the Amazon Basin rivers, the robot can control movement in 3d space.

Source: http://robots.net/article/3089.html

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The Next Media Disruptors are Mobile Pure-Plays

Every major advance in distribution technology over the last 100 years has spawned a class of media upstarts that focused on these emerging, mass platforms and, along the way, became giants.

For example, The Golden Age of Television and broadcasting gave rise to three powerful networks. Decades later, the emergence of the Internet as a mass medium, coupled with a sharp decline in the costs of distribution, catapulted nimble vertical blog-based media companies to the forefront. These include the likes of MashableGawkerThe Huffington Post,Sports Blog Nation and dozens of others.

Now a new era is under way.

The next wave of media disruptors are laser focused on being tailored, rather than retrofitted, for mobile devices. They start out sometimes just as apps, creating a strong beachhead in your pocket. Then they use these platforms to springboard into other ancillary media ventures. This means they're cut from a different cloth than older stalwarts that often need to retrofit themselves for mobile.

With Internet consumption on mobile devices set to surpass the same on PCs next year, according to Morgan Stanley, and US smart phone penetration to hit 50%, Nielsen says, mobile is no longer the tail on the media dog. For the next wave of media upstarts, it's the dog and the rest is the tail.

Here's a quick look at three mobile pure play media brands that have caught my eye, all of which are now expanding into other media ventures.

Lose It


Lose It is a disruptor in health and wellness media. It debuted in 2008 as a free iPhone app built around a simple premise. First, using their tools, you calculate the number of calories you need to survive. Then they provide a service to help track what you consume - a slightly lower number - and gain the support of your social network. The app, which is free, has millions of users and now FitNow, Inc. is bringing the Lose It brand to other platforms.

Amazingly, Lose It didn't have a web app when it launched. They since added one. But that's not all. This year the founders also published a brand new diet book as well. Android and other launches are in the works. And just today they linked up with Withings.

So, to recap, the transmedia arc here is: mobile first, then web, then books.

TWiT

Leo Laporte is no stranger to tech media. He's seen it bloom with ZDTV, which later became TechTV and then faded once it couldn't find an audience.

Since 2005, however, he has from the ground up built This Week in Tech (TWiT) into a tech media powerhouse, thanks to a suite of shows that have attracted strong following and advertiser loyalty.

The company to date has been focused on mobile. It started with audio podcasts, riding the coattails of the iPod wave. Later they added video (live and recorded) as more sophisticated devices gained in popularity. But now, however, Laporte is building out beyond mobile a significant position on set-top devices, like the Roku.

The transmedia arc here for TWiT: mobile audio, then mobile video, then the living room.

Angry Birds


In 2010 it was virtually impossible to miss Angry Birds. The mobile game - which is only a year old - was downloaded 50 million times last year and it's already become a global addiction. Every day Angry Birds is played an astounding 200 million minutes worldwide, according to Rovio - its publisher.

Angry Birds' roots maybe in mobile, but not for long. It was part of last week's release of the Mac App Store. What's more, given their status as a pop culture icon and their line of plus toys and forthcoming Mattel board game, it's no surprise that a movie and TV show could be next for the flying birds and pigs.

The transmedia arc here for Angry Birds: mobile gaming, then consumer products, PC/console games, then movies and TV.

Takeaways

The insight here - for me at least - is that we're at the very beginning of a new era in media; one where mobile is the primary distribution platform. What's more, we have a perfect storm of technologies coming together that combine local, social, photo and mobile (what we call "LoSoPhoMo") and this is sure to spur even more media companies that are pure-plays at least at the start. Instagram is a good example.

But I bet they will all eventually go transmedia.

With the market for smart phones startups significantly larger than PC-based models, mobile - particularly LoSoPhoMo - is where we'll see the greatest innovation in the years ahead. The question is will the pure-plays reign the way their predecessors did or will the traditional media companies use their brands to outmuscle everyone. Or will there be a grey area. The forthcoming launch of The Daily is certainly an entry to watch.

Regardless, this is an exciting time for media innovation - perhaps as exciting as the dawn of social media back in the mid-2000s. It will spur a lot of experimentation and give marketers lots of new ways to reach consumers on the most captivating platform of all, mobile devices.

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Laser-cut interlocking Settlers of Catan tiles