Author: kenmay

This personal flamethrower is somehow legal in 49 states

The XM42 from Ion Productions is every pyromaniac’s dream come true: a personal, portable flamethrower that’s (amazingly still) legal everywhere except California. You’ll be able to get your own flame on for as little as $700 when the company launches its IndieGoGo campaign on March 23rd. The XM42 bills itself as the first “commercially-available handheld flamethrower.” It spews a column of 87 Octane flame up to 25 feet and, according to the product website, is suitable for everything from clearing snow and ice to insect control and pyrotechnic event displays (not to mention long-distance S’more baking, home defense, and showing those raccoons that keep knocking over your trash who’s boss). The XM42 will be available in three finishes: brushed aluminum for $699 and either a polished aluminum or colored powder coat for $799. Comments Via: The Awesomer Source: Ion Productions

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This personal flamethrower is somehow legal in 49 states

This Lighter Works Like a Taser To Start Fires Without a Flame

If you need more than ten fingers to count the number of times you’ve burned yourself while trying to light a candle at the bottom of a tall glass container, the Illume ArcLighter will probably seem like the greatest invention since the wheel. Instead of a flame, it produces a glowing electric arc that can light everything from candles, to gas burners, to even kindling. Read more…

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This Lighter Works Like a Taser To Start Fires Without a Flame

Feds Fine Verizon $3.4 Million Over 911 Service Outage Issues

itwbennett writes The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has fined Verizon $3.4 million over its failure to notify police and fire departments during a 911 service outage last year. Under the commission’s rules, Verizon and other carriers were required to notify emergency call centers of a six-hour outage that occurred in April. The outage involved multiple carriers and affected over 11 million people in seven states. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Feds Fine Verizon $3.4 Million Over 911 Service Outage Issues

The Pirate Party Now the Biggest Party In Iceland

jrepin writes The Pirate Party now measures as the largest political party in Iceland, according to a new servey from the Icelandic market and research company MMR which regularly surveyes the support for the political parties in Iceland. Support for political parties and the government was surveyed in the period between the 13thand 18th of March. The results show that The Pirate Party has gained increased support. Now, support for The Pirate Party totals 23.9%, compared to their previous 12.8% in the last MMR survey. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Pirate Party Now the Biggest Party In Iceland

"Open Well-Tempered Clavier" Project Complete; Score and Recording Online

rDouglass writes Open source music notation software MuseScore, and pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, have completed the Open Well-Tempered Clavier project and released a new studio recording and digital score online, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0, public domain) license. Their previous project, the Open Goldberg Variations (2012), has shown its cultural significance by greatly enhancing the Wikipedia.org article on J.S. Bach’s work, and by making great progress in supplying musical scores that are accessible to the visually impaired and the blind. The recording has also received very positive early reviews by music critics. Over 900 fans of J.S. Bach financed this project on Kickstarter.com, where a total of $44, 083 was raised. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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"Open Well-Tempered Clavier" Project Complete; Score and Recording Online

OneDrive link to Xbox Music puts your MP3s in the cloud for free

A few months ago info leaked out that OneDrive was getting ready for music storage, and now it’s here . Xbox Music and OneDrive are connected, so any music files (MP3, M4A, or WMA) you drop in your “Music” folder on Microsoft’s cloud storage are immediately playable via the web or Xbox Music apps on Windows 8, Windows Phone 8.1, Xbox 360 and Xbox One — for free. The initial leak suggested there would be 20GB of storage, but Xbox Music’s paying Music Pass subscribers will get an additional 100GB of space. Filed under: Gaming , HD , Microsoft Comments Source: Xbox Music Blog , OneDrive

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OneDrive link to Xbox Music puts your MP3s in the cloud for free

Full-Duplex Radio Integrated Circuit Could Double Radio Frequency Data Capacity

Zothecula writes Full-duplex radio communication usually involves transmitters and receivers operating at different frequencies. Simultaneous transmission and reception on the same frequency is the Holy Grail for researchers, but has proved difficult to achieve. Those that have been built have proven complex and bulky, but to be commercially useful in the ever-shrinking world of communications technology, miniaturization is key. To this end, engineers at Columbia University (CU) claim to have created a world-first, full-duplex radio transceiver, all on one miniature integrated circuit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Full-Duplex Radio Integrated Circuit Could Double Radio Frequency Data Capacity

Project an Interactive Game on Your Floor or Wall (Video)

Lumo is an interactive projector. You can use it to bore people with PowerPoint slides or you can use it as a game machine. It has a built-in (low res) camera that can detect a kick (as shown at the beginning of the video) and make a (virtual) ball move as a result of that action. ‘But, ‘ you ask, ‘do they have an Indiegogo campaign?’ Not yet. It launches on March 23. The Lumo projector was originally designed for commercial use at children’s museums and as a trade show attention-getter — at $10, 000 a pop. The consumer version is expected to cost less than $500, according to Lumo CEO (and Slashdot interviewee) Meghan Athavale. And while she doesn’t talk much about it in the interview, if you already have a computer, a projector, and a Kinect or webcam, you can buy the a stripped-down version of the company’s ‘interactive-floor-wall projection’ software for $39, plus games or customizable game templates. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Project an Interactive Game on Your Floor or Wall (Video)