Stuck Inside Apple's Glass Elevator

Ever wanted to know what it feels like to be inside of a cage, beging observed by onlookers like the long-tounged giraffes at the Africa: Summer on the Savanna exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo? A few people found out today when they were trapped for about 45 minutes in the glass elevator of Apple's new flagship store in New York. One of the trapped students blogged about their experience stuck in the elevator.

Cinema 2.0 - A Swarm of Angels

"We want to invent the future of film. Call it Cinema 2.0. A Swarm of Angels is a project to make a £1 million film and give it away to 1 million people in 1 year. The movie will be 'open source', using the flexible digital-age copyright of Creative Commons so people can freely download, share, and remix the feature film..."
-Eternal Gaze

Wave Energy Park

Oregon State University wants to plant direct drive, wave energy buoys off the coast of Oregon. How might this work? A permanent neodymium-iron-born magnet would be forced back and forth through an electric coil by the modulation of waves. The researchers suggest such buoys could power about 20% of Oregon’s electricity needs. Now that the prototypes buoys have demonstrated their potential, study is underway to consider impacts on sea birds and marine life from electromagnetic fields, construction, deployment, and servicing of undersea cable. TreeHugger

World's Largest iPod

Mille Lacs Memorial Wknd

There were lots of kiters out at Mille Lacs this weekend getting in some good riding. Denis was working on his handle passes and Heather even flew her trainer for about the 6th time.

SUNLINQ Folding Solar Panel

SUNLINQ Folding Solar Power Panel 6.5W
SUNLINQ is a flexible, foldable and durable solar product that produces enough power to charge rechargeable, flash lights, lanterns, cell phones, GPS units, satellite phones, MP3 players and portable games. Just about anything that is capable of being charged through a standard 12V cigarette lighter adapter (CLA - car charger). Comes with an accessory pack including female CLA, male CLA, SAE barrel connector plug, battery clamps and 8ft. extension cord with SAE connectors. Use in conjunction with the Uniross X-press 700 charger below to charge AA/AAA batteries.

Very durable and lightweight - folds to just 23 x 12 x 1.2cm (9 x 5 x .5 inches) and weighs 200g Unrolls to 75cm - tough enough to stand up to hiking, camping and general backpacking.

1972 Nature Rendez-Vous Cut

Watch the video

I edited Mom's movie down to a more user-friendly 4.5 minutes. Enjoy!

[My mom, Sue Mueller, tried her hand at iMovie and cut together some digitized Super 8 footage shot while fishing with some friends in central Minnesota around 1972. This clip is in narrow-screen format.]

1972 Nature Rendez-Vous

Watch the video
My mom, Sue Mueller, tried her hand at iMovie and cut together some digitized Super 8 footage shot while fishing with some friends in central Minnesota around 1972. This clip is in narrow-screen format.

Content Cartel Makes Backroom DRM Deal

Content Cartel Makes Backroom DRM Deal: "We're hearing rumblings of an informal behind-the-scenes agreement between Hollywood greedmeisters and consumer electronics manufacturers, where the tinseltown moviemakers are vowing to hold off on any broadcast flag bullshit until 2010. The hated image constraint token (ICT), that crippling DRM flag that will automatically downrez HD video if non-HDCP-compliant outputs are used, is a required part of the spec for both Blu-ray and HD DVD players. Some in the blogosphere see this as a trojan horse, where the content cartel will get the HD players into consumers hands en mass and then slam-dunk full copy control on them once they've all invested in the crippled players. But we're thinking that 2010 is a long way off in techno-years, and by then the whole concept of playing content on physical media will be a quaint notion. Heck, by then, even noobs will be BitTorrenting 1080p."

MVIX Wireless HD Media HDD Enclosure

"MVIX announced a wireless enclosure for a hard drive that will work as a video server using WiFi 802.11g...this MVIX unit is on its way to the US market in July or August for a yet undetermined price... That's plenty of bandwidth for HD clips compressed with DivX or XviD, but it might be dicey at that 19.2 megabit-per-second bandwidth required for a lot of MPEG-2 video. Still, it's nice to know someone's working on solving this problem of wirelessly serving HD video throughout the house." source

Add Touchscreen To Existing LCDs with USB Touchscreen

"Want a touch screen, but don't want to give up your Dell LCD? Compromise, with this USB touchscreen..." (source 1)

"ロジテックは5月24日、15インチ／17インチ液晶ディスプレイに設置可能なUSB接続タッチパネル「LTP-15UBK」「LTP-17U」「LTP-17UBK」の3製品を発表、6月下旬より発売する。価格はいずれもオープン。

LTP-15UBK、LTP-17UおよびLTP-17UBKは、任意の液晶ディスプレイに取り付け可能なタッチパネルで、LTP-15UBKは15インチ用、LTP-17U／LTP-17UBKは17インチ用となるモデル。USBバスパワーにて動作、マウスと同様のクリック／ダブルクリック／ドラッグ動作をタッチパネルにて操作可能となっている..."(source 2)

iBall Digital Camcorder Concept Design

iBall Digital Camcorder Concept Design: "While not officially an Apple product, the iBall certainly looks like something straight out of Cupertino. It's an otherwise ordinary video camera, but one with an ergonomically sound round, Apple-inspired design that's sure to draw some attention. All of the camera's electrical parts are hidden from view, lest they ruin the camera's aesthetics. For the lazy, or for those who want to record certain types of home movies, the iBall's handle can also be used as a stand so you can place the camera on a flat surface, leaving you free to star in the action. Whether or not the iBall will be for sale is as of now unknown."

DISH ViP 622 HDTV DVR Review

250GB hard drive | 25 hours of HD | 180 hours of SD programming.

"The unique feature of this box allows two rooms to watch TV through the device without having a separate receiver in the second room. How it works: connect the tuner in the first room, set the TV to a specific channel in the second room, and the tuner sends signals through your home's coax cable wire. The second room even gets its own remote so the two rooms don't need to be watching the same program. With this, you can watch one HD channel and record two separate standard definition channels." source

Malicious Messages for Female-Named Chat Users

"A study by the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering found that chat room participants with female usernames received 25 times more threatening and/or sexually explicit private messages than those with male or ambiguous usernames..."

[from the University of Maryland Newsdesk via Social Software]

HD Video Expo

The Minnesota Professional Videographers Association is hosting a High Definition Video Expo on Monday, May 22, 2006 from 12h00 - 21h00 at Broadview Studios in Edina, MN. Check out the MPVA site for more info.

Digital Divide: Kiva in Uganda

"In this video, not only are they being taught to use the Kiva website, they are being taught to use a computer. Before they learn how to type in their email address as their username, they need to be taught what an email address IS. Before you teach them how to upload a picture, they will need to hold a camera for the very first time. The video illustrates the incredible distance we live from most people in rural Uganda. It also shows how such people are just a few short steps from being totally connected to this world. " (Kiva Chronicles)

Pillow Fight Club MSP

San Francisco. Chicago. New York. London. Toronto. And now, with all due respect to those who've gone before, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul! Go to Logan Park, Minneapolis, at 2pm on May 20th to join the fun. Check out pillowfightmsp.com for rules, video and details.

Pillow Fight MSP via MN Stories

Global Warming - Just Hot Air?

I met Dr. David Chapman when he visited Carleton College to talk about scientific and practical approaches to the global warming debate.

He asks: What do we know? What do we not know? What can we do? What should we do?

If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, I'd recommend it.

Google is still about search

Yes, we are still all about search: Google's VP of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, says they are often asked what they are doing to improve regular web search. Four new products were released two days ago that answer that question. The new products (Co-op, Desktop 4, Notebook, and Trends) offer a wide range of services and capabilities, but they have one thing in common: They all enhance and improve the search experience for our users.

FedEx Thunderstorm Video

This a great video of time lapse radar tracking FedEx aircraft arriving into the Memphis hub during area thunderstorms.

Thanks Jeff and Denis!

Weblogs Inc.

Weblogs Inc. launches local/state blogs...

from Weblogs Inc. Takes Ohio

National Priority

May Day Celebration 2006

Watch the video

In the Heart of the Beast puppet and mask theatre held its 32nd annual May Day Parade and Festival on Sunday, May 7, 2006.

This years May Day theme was situated around the question "what do we want Minneapolis to look like in 50 years?" The envisioned future provides for the Common Good and cultivates the Common Wealth, where each person is an honored and responsible citizen.

Additions:
This video was featured on today's Minnesota Stories
Paul Olson put up a video of the May Day parade
My May Day celebration stills

Most Controversial Films of All Time

"Over at the Guardian Unlimited, there's a new piece detailing what Time Out's new book 1,000 Films that Changed Your Life calls the ten most controversial films of all time." What would you put on your most controversial top ten?

DIY Mobile Drive-In Theater

"MobMov, a drive-in theater that drives in: Participating in a mobmov is very similar to attending a drive-in from the days of old, except now the projector is located inside and powered by a car, and the audio is piped in stereo over the FM band to the attendees' cars. As a mobmov driver, you assemble the kit, decide on the movies, and announce your showings to friends and the community at large. Then everyone assembles in a dark place with a big wall, and you watch a movie...

Kennedy's put together a fairly comprehensive tutorial on starting your own MobMov, from how to choose a projector and FM transmitter and how to set them up in your car, to how to design the intermission and provide snacks, all the way to making sure what you're doing is actually legal."

The MobMov Manifesto [via Gizmodo]

Free WiFi in Austin

Austin Launches Free Downtown Wi-Fi Network As of April 28, the city now boasts a free wireless network courtesy of Cisco Systems. The network was specifically installed for the May 1-5 World Congress on Information Technology, but the system will remain in place for residents and visitors long after the event concludes.

DIY Video Revolution

The do-it-yourself video revolution talks about vlogs and online video and that although they are not like television, they are forms of personal expression that have captivated audiences worldwide.

Save the Internet

"Right now Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the First Amendment of the Internet -- a principle called "network neutrality" that preserves the free and open Internet. Congress needs to hear from you today or they will hand over control of what you do online to companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast."