Proff sez, “Markus Kayser built a 3D printer that works with solar power to heat up sand and form objects like a regular 3D printer, by taking the energy and the raw material directly out of the desert. He also built a laser cutter working with solar energy and a lens.”

In mid-May the Solar Sinter was tested for a two week period in the deserts of Siwa, Egypt, resulting in the amazing footage above. It’s incredible to think that the solar energy generated for both machines is used only to power electronics, servos and the mechanism that tracks the sun, while the power used to cut wood and melt sand is just raw, concentrated sunlight. While I fully understand the mechanics and science at work in Kayser’s devices, there’s something about them that just seems magical. Definitely head over to his website to explore more photos and info.

Markus Kayser Builds a Solar-Powered 3D Printer that Prints Glass from Sand and a Sun-Powered Cutter

(Thanks, Proff!)

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Solar-powered 3D sand-printer

Visually editing audio files isn’t exactly a new idea, of course, but Divide Frame’s new Spectral Layers application looks to take things to an even more Photoshop-style extreme than other tools. While still in the alpha stage and not available to the public just yet (though both Windows and Mac versions are promised), the software does appear to be fairly complete, including the ability to use multiple layers, work with multi-channel audio, and extract individual voices, instruments, or any other noises. Perhaps just as notably, the actual process of editing seems to be a kind of weird mish-mash of otherworldly visuals and disjointed sounds– something that we could easily see leading to some unexpected and interesting results. See for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading Spectral Layers promises to let you edit audio Photoshop-style (video)

Spectral Layers promises to let you edit audio Photoshop-style (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jun 2011 02:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefighting is dangerous enough without your two-way radio failing behind collapsed walls or in smoke-filled buildings. That’s why the DoD has developed the a new disposable router system, dubbed WISPER, that may one day replace traditional radios. More

John “Doctor Hot Licks” Taylor prides himself on playing the guitar very well, very quickly. Back in April, he tried to break the world record as the fastest guitar player. In this video from the event, he started playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” at 170 beats per minute. Taylor gradually worked his way up until he played the piece at 600 bpm at 11 minutes, 30 seconds into the video. Guinness World Records confirmed this effort and declared that Taylor is the fastest guitar player in the world. Link -via Snowflakes in Hell

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The World’s Fastest Guitar Player

If you’re annoyed by the New York Times’ stupid paywall, here’s the secret trick to destroy it and read as many articles as you want. As this video shows, it only takes three seconds: More

There’s a terrific article in the Smithsonian today about “beer archaeologist” Patrick McGovern, a scholar who has unearthed millennia-old alcohol recipes by analyzing residues in ancient pottery. Now he’s working with a brewer, Sam Calagione, whose pub Dogfish Head serves up beers based on recipes that are thousands of years old. More

HP makes $52.00 in profit for every PC they sell. Apple makes $370.55. In short: Apple makes more money from the sale of one Mac than HP does from selling seven PCs. [Matt Richman] More

According to Apple’s new MobileMe site, most of MobileMe, including email, Find My iPhone, and everything from iSync, will remain intact. iDisk, iWeb, and Gallery, are gone, but they’ll be replaced by iCloud features with different names. More

chrb pointed out a story at BBC News about the discovery of a light-sensitive protein in the human eye that acts like a “compass” in a magnetic field. The molecule at the center of the study is called cryptochrome and is found in every animal on Earth. If removed from the eyes of flies, the flies lost the ability to respond to a magnetic field. From the article: “Despite much controversy, no conclusive evidence exists that humans can sense the Earth’s magnetic field, and the find may revive interest in the idea. Although humans, like migratory birds, are known to have cryptochrome in their eyes, the idea of human magnetoreception has remained largely unexplored since pioneering experiments by Robin Baker of the University of Manchester in the 1980s.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Human Eye Protein Senses Earth's Magnetism

maroberts writes “According to a research paper produced from a collaboration between the University of Texas and the Centre for European Economic Research, violent video games may induce aggressive behavior, but the incapacitation effect outweighs this and produces a genuine reduction in violent crime. This paper was referenced in a BBC news story giving reasons why the US crime rates are falling (at least outside the prisons!)”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Violent Games Credited With Reducing Crime Levels