Regine Ramseier apparently sprayed 2,000 blooming dandelions with some substance which caused them to retain their seeds. Then she stuck them in straws and attached them to panels, which she hung from the ceiling of a room. Click on the link to see more photos of this gorgeous installation.
Link (Google Translate) -via Colossal
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Dandelion Ceiling
You ditched your landline years ago. Smart! Because the one thing it was good at—buzzing people into your building—can be done better with your smartphone anyway. Here's how to have that buzzer ring any phone you want. More
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In May Linux finally saw the release of kernel version 3.0, an evolutionary update to the popular open-source platform that was nearly 15 years in the making. Today, version 3.1 is making its debut, once again primarily offering small tweaks like better support for Intel’s Ivy Bridge and Cedar Trail chips and improved power management. But there are some new features getting baked in, including support for NFC and drivers for Wiimotes. The brave amongst you can download the sources from Git now (it hasn’t been posted to Kernel.org just yet), but we suggest you hold out until your distro of choice releases an official update.
Linux kernel hits 3.1, adds support for NFC and Wiimotes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Amped Wireless gives your WiFi 1.5-mile range: never lose signal in the garden again originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Amiga, Amiga… why does that name sound familiar?
Ah yes, that Amiga. A strong early competitor in the PC wars, Commodore’s influential and graphics-heavy OS was unfortunately more or less made extinct by Windows by the early 90s. Yet a core group of enthusiasts has kept a candle burning, and here and there you can still find a functioning machine, zealously maintained by someone who insists that the file system or multitasking kernel are still worth admiring. But would you expect a brand new PC with modern accoutrements and a price tag over $2000?
That’s just what’s being put out by Amigakit, which has secured the distribution rights to the long-awaited (by some) X1000 desktop system. It’s actually quite a powerhouse. Check out the specs:
The rest of the specs are here at OS News, with some supplementary info as well. Okay, so when I say powerhouse, I mean compared to the other Amiga machines out there. But it is, as A-EON (the system designer) says, “powerful, modern desktop hardware,” though spec-wise it can’t stand up to Windows boxes a quarter its price. There’s supposedly going to be an Amiga-based netbook arriving in mid-2012 as well if that’s more your style.
Should you buy one and take Amiga lessons? Probably not. But I think it’s great that this community is still dedicated enough to produce something like this. It’s hardware-software experiments and devices like this that act as a spice in the soup of consumer electronics. There are original ideas here in practice, outdated ones as well, and perhaps they will form a permutation that creates the next Photoshop, or a revolution in multithreading, or who knows what.
Unfortunately this quirk of the computing world comes in at £1699 in the UK before VAT. There’s no US pricing, and I doubt it’s any more lenient. But godspeed, Amiga-lovers.
View the original here:
Amigakit Brings The Amiga Into The 21st Century With New X1000
Removing Orbital Debris with Lasers. How’s that for a great research paper title?
Most of you are probably aware of the existence of space trash—that collection of disused satellites, lost tools, spent rocket boosters, and various other flotsam that is starting to become a physical hazard to the objects we actually want circling the globe in Low Earth Orbit. Currently, we get around the problem (mostly) by attaching bumpers to spacecraft and to the ISS. But there are lots of different ideas for how we could deal with the problem of space junk in a more proactive way.
The team of private and government scientists who wrote this paper want to aim lasers at space junk. But not like you’re thinking. Instead of blowing up our trash in a life-size game of Asteroid (something that would really only succeed in creating a lot more, smaller pieces of space junk) the team wants to use laser pulses to alter the momentum of large pieces of junk, slowing those pieces enough that they fall out of orbit and back to Earth.
Such a system could be used to precisely time the reentry of dead satellites and other junk, ensuring that when chunks of metal fall out of the sky they won’t be falling on any densely populated regions. That’s one of the major benefits to this proposal.
The major detriment: Politics. How do you build a laser big enough to knock space junk out of orbit without convincing half the world that what you’ve really built is a giant death ray? That’s something the authors hope to avoid through international cooperation.
Image: Goddard Celebrates International Observe the Moon Night with Laser Show, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from gsfc’s photostream
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Square makes a larger mark on the brick-and-mortar scene, available in more outlets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
As far as product launches go, Dell didn’t exactly rip the Band-Aid off the XPS 14z. After teasing it back in September, the company let all the specs out of the bag, but stopped short of naming a price and ship date for the United States. Well, now we know: this 14-incher will be available in the US and Canada November 1, and will start at $1,000 — a price that puts it in direct competition with the likes of the HP Envy 14 and Sony VAIO SA series.
Like these other laptops, the 14z commands a premium over cheaper models, with beefier specs and a (supposedly) more luxurious design. With Core i5 and i7 processor options, discrete graphics, USB 3.0 and an optional solid-state drive, it offers a lot of the same specs as its peers, though it manages to stand out in a couple key ways. One, it sports an LG Shuriken display, which crams a 14-inch screen into a chassis normally reserved for 13-inch systems (translation: its bezels are super narrow). And with a starting weight of 4.36 pounds, it’s lighter than a lot of the other laptops you’re probably considering. But are these bullet points enough to make it a smart buy? Read on to find out.
Gallery: Dell XPS 14z
Gallery: Dell XPS 14z review
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Dell XPS 14z review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Westone gained plenty of respect for their quad-driver Westone 4 earbuds. Now they’re inching further into audiophile territory with their updated Westone 4 R-Series buds. More