This is the coolest thing ever!

Apple just announced their new product the iPad (click on the image to go their site). As everyone has probably heard it was one of the most anticipated releases of a new gadget in quite some time. And it turns out it was worth the wait. I can't wait to own one of these. It will be great for browsing the web, email, organizing photos, watching movies, listening to music, reading books, navigating, taking notes, and maintaining your calendar and contacts.

It has a 9.7" LED backlit IPS display with a 178 degree viewing angle.

It weighs 1.5 pounds is 0.5" thick.

It has a 10 hour batter life.

It will come with either Wi-Fi 802.11n or 3G for fast internet connectivity

The interface has an onscreen keyboard for typing or you can buy an external keyboard dock.

Comes with either a 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

Price

16GB 32GB 64GB

Wi-Fi $499 $599 $699

Wi-Fi+3G $629 $729 $829

I can use this to surf the web and check email on the couch or while traveling. I can watch a movie almost anywhere. It is a ebook reader and so much more.

They start shipping the Wi-Fi versions late March and the 3G in April. I'll probably wait a year if I can stand it just to see what kinds of issues they have and get them worked out first and let the price drop.

Robots, Spaceships, and Ray Guns, Oh my!

This blog post is the coolest collection of Robots, Space ships and Ray Guns I've ever seen.

I am so inspired and envious.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/02/chrome-delicious-robot-art-ray-guns.htmlrobot-art-ray-guns.html

The Future

Well, its 2010 and everyone's talking about where's their flying car and robot maid, even me. This year seems so futuristic. But the Jetsons, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon that we base all future expectation on, was made in 1962-1963 based on a future in 2062. So we have a while to wait for our car and maid.

The other image that comes to mind with this milestone of a year is Arthur C. Clark's 2010 the sequel to 2001 in which the US and Soviets send the Discovery 2 to Jupiter to find out what happened to David Bowman and the Discovery 1. The book came out in 1982 and the movie was made in 1984 which does seem like a long time ago. But we haven't sent any maned spaceships to anything further away than the moon. And although we have a space shuttle named Discovery which is about to retire and a International space station we are no where as close to the type of space travel that the movie and book describe. We are still thinking about going to Mars and that's still in the early planning stages. Plus, our relationship with the Solviets is so different today than the early 80's the storyline hardly makes sense now.

And of course we have not colonized the moon or found any large black monoliths. Nor have we found any new life on other planets. So even though 2010 sounds very futuristic I still feel we are in the stone ages.

I'm Mr. October 2010

OK not really a photo of me but I'm mentioned in a Calendar. My good friend Jon Williams as EFX TEK asked me if I wanted to have one of our Halloween props that uses their controller in the Parallax annual product catalog and calendar for 2010. I suggested the gravedigger project might be a good one so I said yes and sent Parallax some info and pictures and they used it for their October page. I just got a package yesterday with a stack of them in it. Kind of humbling having my silly little project listed with 11 others.

You can download the whole catalog/calendar here or if you want one mailed to you for some reason go here.

I like rockets

I was 6 when we landed on the moon. I spent my elementary years during the Apollo program watching men walk on the moon on a regular basis. The toys of my childhood all had to do with spacesuits, rockets, moon landings and anything having to do with the Apollo program. So it's no wonder that I love anything to do with space and rockets.

I've always been a big fan of the space shuttles and have always wanted to go to Florida not to see Disney World or Universal Studios but to watch a launch and tour the Space Center and see the original Apollo memorabilia. But since I live on the west coast this will probably never happen.

So the other day I was thrilled when I was reading my daily Google news bites and saw that the Shuttle Atlantis was going to launch in about 30 minutes. I quickly jumped onto the NASA site and launched the live video feed. Then as the count down started at T-minus 9 minutes I thought, "hey I have a high def LCD TV and I get the NASA channel on DirectTV?". So I sat and watched the launch live as it was happening on my TV Set. I got to see it take off and then drop its boosters and then reach orbit and drop the main fuel tank. Traveling at over 8000 mph at 67 miles high it begins its trip to join up with the space station. I had never watched a launch live before and it was pretty thrilling just thinking about how routine they make such a complex achievement take place.

Tools

Hum...haven't posted here for 4 months! Really haven't been doing anything that extrodinary and haven't had anything to post about. But I thought of something today worth talking about.

So I have been spending a lot of time out in my shop recently building halloween props. And I have been giving a lot of thought to what tools I'd like to purchase first. I have had a long list of tools that I want for some time but I started thinking about what do I REALLY want the most. And I thought of 3 very important ones.

First on my list is a new Band Saw. I own a small table top version that to put it plainly SUCKS. It isn't big enough to cut anything large and it is cheap and won't cut straight to save it's life. I am a big fan of Delta so I want the 28-276 14" 3/4HP open stand band saw. This puppy runs about $400.

Next on my list of tools is a table saw. I own a simple right tilt 10" contractor saw with a VERY cheap fence that can't cut a square line to save it's life. It also has cheap pressed metal wings that are not smooth or worth much of anything. I probably counldn't even sell the saw for $50 on craigslist because thats about how much a new one would cost. I replaced the motor in it after a few years so I've paid more for it than its worth.

So what I want instead is a Delta 36-982 10" left tilt contractors saw with a 30" Biesemeyer commercial fence. This new version comes with cast iron wings and a nice mobile base. It has a 1.5HP induction motor. The left tilt blade makes cutting angles MUCH easier. It costs a mere $1000.

Something else that is on my list is a Delta 50-875 3-Speed Air Filtration system with remote. I have no doors or windows in my woodshop and I'm sure I've probably cut years off my life with the amount of junk I have inhaled. This bad boy can go through 1200 cubic feet per minute of air capable of filtering the air in a 20 by 20 foot room 13 to 18 times an hour. Not really high on my list but probably a must have. This one costs about $500.

Well, all of these are nice but I've decided what my first purchase is going to be. I've always wanted a CNC machine. My main idea for one is to carve really complex tombstones out of foam and other foam based products using a rotary tool. I've looked at the shopbot but that puppy is $8000 which is WAY beyond my reach. So I have discovered the DIY CNC sites and found that I can build my own CNC machine by purchasing kits and following some plans and using free software and my own laptop for about $600. I'm thinking that it would be fun to make my own. It will be sort of like a hobby kit that I can put together this winter. I'm quite confident that my computing skills will come in handy to understand the software side. It might take a little more effort to build the actual machine. I'll probably find a plan that is simple enough to meet my needs. More to come on this...

Shopbot for $8000 DIY CNC for about $600

Animated Skull V2

I have been working all month on a revised version of the animated skull I built last year which was something that took me 2 years to complete. I am building a new skull for a seminar I am doing the beginning of May. I thought I'd make a few improvements over the first one while I was at it.

1. Use 1/8" instead of 1/4" plexiglas for the plate. It is easier to cut and lighter weight.

2. Use 60lb fishing line for the Jaw connection instead of wire or rod. Reduces the stress on the jaw servo and creates a more life like movement.

3. Use rare earth magnets instead of zip ties to hold the plate down. Much easier to take the plate on and off with.

4. Use 2-56 sized ball and socket linkages instead of 4-40 ball swivels. You can easily pop them on and off and they are much smaller

5. Use RJ-45 ethernet jacks for wiring connectors. Easier to organize the wires and less obvious.


I am working on a design for moving eyes but it hasn't worked out yet. I think for my seminar I'll probably use the same fixed LED eyes but for this halloween I'll figure out the eyes.