This is one of those cool “so-thats-how-it-works” projects that is an easy weekend activity to teach yourself (or your kids) the basics of how a battery operates. More

Turning the childhood invisible ink trick on its head, this mod from Make allows you to print out invisible messages with your inkjet printer. More

Just feet from a methadone clinic at a grimy crossroads in far east Portland, Ore., transit officials and police are hoping a touch of class will chase off the vagrants, vandals and ne’er-do-wells that loiter near a busy transit stop.

Visit site:
Oregon cops hope classical music deters loiterers

For the data nerds out there, the HTTP Archive is like The Internet Archive except instead of capturing just the pages of a website, it tracks the load sizes, times and attributes of websites on the internet. More

Renovo, no stranger to beautifully-crafted wooden bicycles, has partnered up with Audi, maker of beautiful automobiles, to create another sweet looking series of wooden bicycles. More

Oh, Jameson. You trendy, trendy trendsetter. After coercing the entire world of cinema to bow down and worship the art of 3D, it looks as if James Cameron will soon be spearheading the effort to back away from the tried-and-true 24fps shooting method in favor of far faster options. The Hollywood Reporter is claiming that Cameron copped to the idea of shooting Avatar 2 and 3 at higher frame rates, likely 48fps or 60fps. The reason? It’ll provide an “added sense of reality,” and it’ll probably create a wave of new camcorders, software and plug-ins to handle the dirty work. Onward and upward, we suppose.

James Cameron ponders 48 or 60fps shooting of future Avatar films, because he’s trendy like that originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Whether you’re on the side of good or evil, you must respect a sick lair. If there’s one thing that brings superheroes, supervillains, and intrepid government employees together, it’s an appreciation for a secure, well-equipped base of operations. More

The AP reports that two gigantic concrete pumps, the largest equipment of this type in the world, will be air-lifted to Japan to help pour water on damaged reactors at Fukushima.

The machines are designed to spray concrete for new skyscrapers, bridges and similarly large-scale construction projects, but they’re being modified to spray water for this use.

“But if a decision is made to encase a reactor in concrete — similar to a method used in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — the machines would be capable of doing that as well,” explained an executive from the company that made them.

They’ll be carried over on an Antonov 225, the world’s heaviest aircraft.
The company, and the devices: “Putzmeister.”

Read the full story here. (via Paul Saffo)

See the original post:
Giant pumps airlifted on Giant Planes to help with Giant Japan Nuke Crisis. Bonus: They’re “Putzmeisters”

Very soon (as in: in the next few days), I’ll become a father for the first time. And of course, as every existing parent seems to know, babies cost money. One of those unbearable things young parents need to purchase without further ado, is a baby monitoring system.

Me and my wife already bought one, but while we were evaluating existing systems I couldn’t help but notice that even the more advanced ones on the market today seem little more than glorified walkie-talkies.

A couple of weeks ago, knowing that I would soon become a dad, Jyri Engestrom nudged me and said he had stumbled upon a fledgling company, Evoz, that set out to build a baby monitoring system for the always-connected generation, and that I should check it out.

A couple of emails with the startup in question later, yesterday I finally got a live demo from the company’s founder Avishai Shoham. The verdict? It’s freaking amazing.

Imagine if you had an iPhone or iPod touch to spare, and that you’d simply install it in a charger in your young child’s room like you would any baby monitor.

Now imagine that an always-on application installed on the device would let you call in from anywhere in the world to hear how your baby is sleeping (or exactly how hard he or she is crying, or if you’re lucky, laughing or playing). Imagine that you could also opt to receive ‘quiet’ alerts by SMS or email whenever your kid cries for longer than, say, 5 minutes, so you can give the babysitter a quick call to see what’s up after e.g. a meeting or dinner.

Imagine that the app also automatically collects data on the sleeping and crying behavior of your child, and that you could analyze that data to see if he or she matches the behavior of children of the same age. And that you could just as easily get in touch with a network of baby health experts or sleep consultants if you have any questions or concerns.

Evoz lets you do all that, and more. The company isn’t quite ready to launch yet, but intends to roll out its service more broadly in the next few months. Shoham tells me the company will eventually support multiple mobile platforms. Also in the works: a proprietary hardware unit so you don’t necessarily need a spare iOS or Android device to monitor your baby (prototypes are already in the wild, however, and you can see what it looks like in the image above).

Early adopters with young children (aged 18 months or less) that own at least 2 iOS devices (iPod touch, iPhone, iPad) and don’t mind testing out an unpolished product and provide feedback to the team can apply for early access to Evoz Monitors here.

Please note that you’re required to fit the above criteria to get in – only 20 fast responders will be allowed access to the private beta service.

Investors, take note: Evoz is in the midst of raising a first round of funding, Shoham says, which will be led by Dave McClure and 500 Startups.

More here:
Evoz: Baby Monitoring 2.0 Comes Of Age