July 02, 2009
June 24, 2009
Forbes - The AI Report

Mixed bag of articles on Artificial Intelligence.

The AI Report - Forbes.com

Posted by Dave at 05:29 AM
June 23, 2009
One word for you Benjamin...Graphene

Next100 - A Dialogue on the Next Century of Energy

Posted by Dave at 12:23 AM
June 21, 2009
40 Arduino Projects

Top 40 Arduino Projects of the Web | Hack N Mod

Posted by Dave at 10:52 PM
June 20, 2009
Wolfram Polyhedra Demonstrations

Polyhedra - Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Posted by Dave at 11:26 AM
June 19, 2009
Hemisphere geometry

Considering building a small hemisphere for projection, I wondered about the geometry of the sections of a dome. This tutorial, while applying to parachutes, has the formulas for the sections of the hemisphere - a triangle from the pole to the equator has more than 180 degrees total in its angles. I knew that, but not the formulas.

Hemisphere Parachute Design

And here's someone who tried to do the same thing for a dome.

Building an inexpensive usable projection dome. - Observatory Central

His numbers for a 10' dome are below.

MORE...
Posted by Dave at 06:09 PM
June 18, 2009
Ruby Scripts for Sketchup

Ruby Library Depot GEOMETRY - DRAWING Section

Posted by Dave at 09:58 PM
Open Source Building Management

Are Commercial Buildings Ready for Open-Source Energy Management?

Posted by Dave at 08:23 PM
Rethinking Trucking

Studies to update and return to train frieight systems.

Aggies rethinking truck freight with electric train | Planetary Gear - CNET News

Posted by Dave at 01:55 PM
150 families leave Sierra del Lacandon

Some of the illegal settlers in the Sierra del Lacandon Park, Guatemala, have left peacefully. Few details are available so far.

Prensa Libre - Edición electrónica - Portada

Posted by Dave at 03:37 AM
June 17, 2009
Sketchup - using CAD files

Back on the Sketchup track, to update the model.

Three tutorials on bringing CAD drawings into Sketchup, grouped together:

How to use SketchUp with CAD files to create structures | Wonder How To

Main Sketchup video site on YouTube:

YouTube - SketchUpVideo's Channel

And the YouTube site for "Sketchup for Dummies" - excellent.

YouTube - aidanchopra's Channel

Posted by Dave at 09:57 PM
June 16, 2009
Embed 3D Warehouse models - examples

An example of an embedded model - let's see how it works.

Lower Eastside Girls Club - Volumetric Model by DaveP - Google 3D Warehouse

Click and then drag side to side.

UPDATE: I had some issues with getting the embed to work and Google folks were quick with help. Here's their first response, which may help other users:

******

First off, there are some models that still don't load properly in the Google Earth Plugin. We're looking at those issues and hope to resolve them soon. Please post links to 3D Warehouse models where there are problems - in the group please! - so we can look at specific examples.

Secondly, the embed functionality has a bit of smarts in it that will intelligently revert embed types depending upon what's available. So if you ask for a Google Earth Plugin embed for a non-geo model, you'll get a 3D View. If you ask for a 3D View for a model where for some reason we don't have the generated images (as in the example posted above), we'll revert to the image type.

Finally, some sites don't allow embedding via the IFRAME technique. Google Sites is an example. In this case, you'll need to create a Google Gadget to do the embed. I slapped something together that I'm happy to share in a thread on the group.

*******

Another version, without as many neighboring buildings:

Posted by Dave at 09:55 PM
Embed Google 3D in a webpage

Put any Google 3D Warehouse model in a webpage. Upload a Sketchup model to the Warehouse and place in a page.

Good tool for 3D blogging in a visualization class. Hmmm...

Official Google SketchUp Blog: Take your 3D with you

Posted by Dave at 07:16 PM
June 02, 2009
Remote solution - Timbuktu

An old standby, now for Leopard. It costs, but the free solutions we have tried won't work.

Netopia Timbuktu® Pro For Mac OS - Remote Control Desktop for Mac - Remote Computer Access

Posted by Dave at 12:28 PM
June 01, 2009
Still looking for a remote solution

For remote screensharing. Other approaches.

BTMM
Mac OS X 10.5: About Back to My Mac security

SSH
macosxhints.com - 10.5: How to use screen sharing remotely and securely

Posted by Dave at 12:03 AM
May 28, 2009
May 26, 2009
Kindle formatting for geeks

I read John August's "The Variant" last week, a first for self-publishing on Kindle. In this post he tells how to format your work for Kindle.

johnaugust.com » Kindle formatting for web geeks

Posted by Dave at 05:20 PM
Most popular Wordpress plugins

In some cases may equal most useful.

Top 18 most downloaded WordPress plugins ever

Posted by Dave at 04:35 PM
May 23, 2009
Where2009 bookmarks

Mapping - Links to sites from presentations at the recent Where2.0 conference. One guy's notes, well done.

Hairyegg's where2009 Bookmarks on Delicious

Posted by Dave at 10:08 AM
May 20, 2009
Google Maps API

Google Launches Maps Data API - O'Reilly Radar

Posted by Dave at 02:56 PM
Quikmaps

Easy tool for doodling on Google Maps.

quikmaps.com :: maps for the masses

Posted by Dave at 12:10 PM
Interactive Math Activities

For teaching math, K-12.

Illuminations: Activities

Posted by Dave at 11:42 AM
Current Cost + Arduino for energy monitoring

Still looking at energy monitoring devices, I got a preview U.S. version of the Current Cost meter. It works well with a Pachube widget that displays temp and power on the Mac, and sends it to Pachube. But I had to go back to the work that was done last year in the UK to find a way to make an Arduino with ethernet shield do the reporting - freeing up the Mac.

CurrentCostuino « knolleary

Posted by Dave at 10:47 AM
Spacehack

"a directory of ways to participate in space exploration. interact + connect with the space community."

Looks like a terrific site to watch for our new planetarium/science center.

Spacehack

Posted by Dave at 01:00 AM
May 19, 2009
Google Latitude

Share your location publicly on a blog or web site. Interesting (like most of this location-aware stuff) and profoundly creepy.

Google includes this warning on the page:

Privacy Notice

You may choose to share only your city-level location or the best available one.

If enabled, your location will be publicly available to everyone. You will not be able to limit where and with whom you share your location through the badge.

Google Latitude

Posted by Dave at 11:41 PM
Mobile Pachube feeds

Take a look - nice mobile graphing app from Pachube.

Mobile Pachube feeds: new mapping app | pachube.community

Posted by Dave at 08:04 PM
May 18, 2009
Air pollution sensor net

Project in UK using Zigbees.

Mapping Out Traffic Pollution

Posted by Dave at 05:18 PM
May 16, 2009
Update: Guatemala Twitter arrest

96 characters on the Rosenberg assassination video and he was arrested in Guatemala.

Guatemala: "El Efecto Streisand," Update on Twitter User Arrested For One Tweet On Political/Financial Crisis - Boing Boing

Posted by Dave at 02:34 PM