Synthetic biology: And man made life | The Economist

At  the Maker Faire this weekend, there were several 3D printing vendors on display. It's not quite mainstream yet. I think a killer app is yet to be seen. And when it comes, we'll all groan about how obvious it is.

This article out of the Economist explains where digital biology (numbiology?) is in its development. Relatively early compared to 3D printing.  But the pieces are there and life has been, and is being, created. Moore's law is being applied here with the cost of gene synthesis decreasing while the productivity increases.

They claim it will be at desktop level soon. This means the polloi will son be able to create life in much the way that iPhone app development became an industry unto itself. The supporting articles are worth reading as well.

Synthetic biology: And man made life | The Economist

Company offers iPad steering wheel mount - Fudzilla -

So much news and cool stuff in the world...

Here's a ridiculous idea, and if true, a sad and dangerous one. By the way, this site, Fudzilla is a great resource for referencing chips, processors, memory, etc - all you need to build electronic devices  and  PCs of course.

Fudzilla - Company offers iPad steering wheel mount

Nothing gets past Robokeeper

"I want to try it, " says my son, a 7 year old soccer fan. I thought of the fund raising possibilities if this was a t a school carnival/faire.

Nothing gets past Robokeeper

Bladeless wind turbine inspired by Tesla

"Further, the screen-enclosed turbine prevents injuries to birds and bats, avoids the visual pollution of spinning blades"

I never thought of a field of wind turbines as being unsightly. I thought of it as an outward reflection of change, progress, and the weaning from oil.

If you thought them ugly, then this highly efficient boxed fan design should help. I'd still like to have a few turbines around.

Bladeless wind turbine inspired by Tesla

Via:PhysOrg.com

Video: Is Steve Durnin's D-Drive the holy grail of infinitely variable transmissions?

 This is just awesome. Twenty years of tinkering. I hope it works, and I hope it commercializes fast enough for the inventor to see some fruit of his efforts. Be sure to watch the video.


Video: Is Steve Durnin's D-Drive the holy grail of infinitely variable transmissions?
Via:  Gizmag.com

The crash of 2:45pm, network theory, and the future of SoC design - Practical Chip Design - Blog on EDN - 1690000169

Great article. Would love to see this run in financial press and get their reactions.

I think as we get more and more complex systems, we're approaching life in a way. The brain is a massive network with many interrelations that we still don't understand. Yet those same interactions are the root of our human behavior. Love, reproduction, success, murder and some chaos as well.

Is this the path to AI? 


The crash of 2:45pm, network theory, and the future of SoC design - Practical Chip Design

"In other words, what we have here is a recipe for an unanalyzable—and almost certainly dynamically unstable—network."

Watch out for your privacy on Facebook

My dad removes the address labels from magazines he receives before he recycles them. At least he used to when I was a kid. (Not sure he gets any magazines anymore - all TV.) He told me he didn't want people to be able to find him. I thought if they find it in his trash, they have his address.


Anyway... I've always been pretty open about my online privacy. I have some paranoid friends who think the government is out to get them - and their guns. But with this graphic, you do have to wonder who has access to your stuff. And you have to actively monitor and watch your info. Check it out.



Infographic of the Day: Privacy on Facebook Is Vanishing
Via: Fast Company

Using the Golden Gate Bridge as a thermometer

 Metal expands as it heats up and contracts as it cools.  The Golden Gate Bridge does this as it's made of metal, and as it does, it sags when warm and rises when cool.

To measure this, folks from the Exploratorium made this scope that shows where in the 16 foot ranges it is. Cool, no?

QUEST Lab: Bridge Thermometer - KQED QUEST Television Story

Our Bodies, Our Quantified Selves | Fast Company

Here's another piece on Life blogging or quantifiable self. (See entry re: NY Times article here.) It's about collecting data about your behavior, food intake, mood, sleep, etc. The picture you get after collecting data for some time can reveal patterns that are not apparent in day to day life.

I singed up a free account at Daytum.com It takes a good bit of commitment to faithfully enter data.

Our Bodies, Our Quantified Selves | Fast Company

Sustainable, weird, wooden egg-house: the Fincube

I often think of the perfect summer getaway. Remote, warm, someplace to swim nearby. And a cozy living space. Perhaps raised up above the critters. Designed to look like it fits in the environment. That if left for a hundred years, it would simply meld back into the ground without harming a thing.


Live in a Fincube, the sustainable, weird, wooden egg-house | DVICE

Boeing’s Social-Media Lesson - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com

Need a case study on social media. Imagine big Boeing corp sending a form letter to an 8 year old kid about an idea he suggested - using crayons to sketch it. What's great about this is the response of Boeing. The Twitter team saw the issue arrise, found out about it and crafted a response.

Best line from Boeing

“We’re expert at airplanes but novices in social media. We’re learning as we go.”

 Boeing’s Social-Media Lesson - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com