Posts from other blogs and news-sources are in smash's shared links. (check-it)

--- Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Magic Flashlights.... "take only what you need."

Permalink: 8/12/2008 12:53:00 PM

Incredible production, had to post.

Magic Flashlights from Mike Benson on Vimeo.

Labels: effects, snowboarding, video, vimeo

Link

--- Friday, July 11, 2008

Link: Breath controlled LED candles (Hack a Day)

Permalink: 7/11/2008 01:36:00 PM

Saw this and had to post it:
Instructables user [cedtlab] has posted an interesting LED project that simulates birthday candles. The circuit runs on an AVR ATTiny45, and is powered by 4 AA or AAA batteries. By using a Charliplexing technique, they are able to drive all 20 LEDs with only 5 pins of the ATTiny. A thermistor is used for detecting breath by measuring temperature changes, and then blocks of LEDs turn off depending on the change detected. They have provided schematics and source code for everything. Make sure to check out the video of the "ficticious birthday party" after the break.

http://www.hackaday.com/2008/07/11/breath-controlled-led-candles/

Labels: LEDs

Link

Thunder-cloud rainbow...

Permalink: 7/11/2008 12:48:00 PM

Thunder-cloud rainbow (2)
Originally uploaded by smashtheqube

My dad spotted this outside our house the other day, I grabbed a photo before it disappeared.

--- Monday, June 23, 2008

Comcast vs. Verizon FIOS Install jobs in Apartment Complex [HORROR]

Permalink: 6/23/2008 01:35:00 AM

Check out these install photos. Is Comcast joking, seriously? The door doesn't even close/lock to the juncture-box because the wiring is a "coaxial-mess!!" Clearly they just don't care!! I hope nobody opens their monthly bill to find their neighbors' On-Demand purchases, hah.

Verizon neatly routes and wires their fiber-optic lines to the premises, rather than tens if not hundreds of separate, bulky cable connections. What a disaster... I guess Comcast's TV-Commercials is really all they have to convince you that you're actually getting close to the fiber-opticness of a FIOS line. "America's Largest Fiber-Optic Network"... yeah right, check out the picture below to see how you're getting connected for real.

Thanks to my buddy Jared for not only posing in the photos, but also for bringing this to my attention!

Verizon FIOS, super-clean install:

Comcast:

Labels: cable, comcast, fios

--- Saturday, June 21, 2008

Paprika: Movie review

Permalink: 6/21/2008 03:49:00 PM

Haven't posted in a while, sorry guys. Figured I'd review a movie I'd seen recently.

Paprika is an anime-film about a therapist with a device to enter people's dreams. (It's called a "DC Mini".) However, we soon learn that the device was stolen from its development facility, along with two others. To make matters worse, each device was taken before they were protected for use on just-anyone for just-about-anything. No safeguards... but this is where the magic of the story begins.

You'll have to watch it to learn the rest, I won't spoil it. But you're probably thinking... "dude, I am not watching a movie about something like this and reading subtitles trying to understand what the hell they're talking about"... NOT TO WORRY. I felt the same way (obviously) and switched the Audio to 'English'. Problem solved, and it's also available in French, Spanish, and a few others.

The colors / scenes / and plot of this film are fantastic... not at all as inspiring as I'd initially expected. The film absolutely blew-my-mind, especially since I could watch it in high-definition... it's out on Blu-Ray disc! My PlayStation 3 had no problems playing back the DVD and navigating its features. It's one of those movies you'll always remember if you don't usually watch this sort of thing; contacting you on a subliminal level almost. Its editorial-reviews use words like "mesmerizing" and "dreamed".

Anyway, definitely check it out. I'll try to post more often about interesting stuff again. Also, here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for a better understanding and more information... but beware of plot spoilers!! Enjoy.

Labels: anime, blu-ray, dvd, movie, playstation 3

Link

--- Friday, March 21, 2008

Blackberry Curve (8310) Review

Permalink: 3/21/2008 12:34:00 AM

A while ago I switched to a Blackberry... without telling anyone. No posts, no blurbs. And since then I've never looked back... well, only a little bit! I do miss my Sony Ericsson W910i that I special-ordered but foregoing email-in-my-pocket-on-the-fly any longer just seemed impossible.

When asked on Flickr what I thought about it... I replied: "It's pretty solid. I unlocked all of the carriers' themes and ended up choosing the Vodafone one, it's pretty neat. Applications I installed are Facebook, Google Maps, Opera Mini, Instant Messenger (AIM/MSN/Yahoo!), and MusicID. (last two were downloaded from AT&T for free, others from their respective developers' websites)

I haven't used my iPhone in months... I really like how this has an actual keyboard, flash for the camera, regular headphone jack (not needing an adapter), expandable memory, expandable functionality, and it's a bit more rugged and less smooth (doesn't slip out of your pocket when standing up or sitting down). Oh, and you can tether Internet via Bluetooth (like a normal phone) which was a huge turn-off for me with the iPhone. I need emergency Internet from time-to-time and any phone I look-at has to have it."

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. I honestly really think it's an all-around good device -- not too flashy, not too thin... yet not too impractical or ill-equipped. The ONLY thing I wish it could do was use the camera to record short videos for YouTube or emailing. This is the only downfall I've found... that and the lack of a 3G-connection, which isn't a huge deal at least right-now.

When I bought this I had about a 50/50 chance of returning it (as I have with past Blackberry purchases) but this one I've been using and loving, so until the iPhone can catch-up to my standards this is my lovely new center of all being 'smash'... you can call me a crackberry.

Labels: 8310, blackberry, curve

--- Wednesday, March 19, 2008

DiggSuggest - Using the Digg API to find stories for you!

Permalink: 3/19/2008 02:44:00 PM

I wrote this script a few nights ago and have been playing with the results. It builds a local cache in a MySQL DB of stories then compares them to both your Digging history and their current popularity to give you great suggestions on what to Digg next! Feedback please, and Digg-it-up.

http://diggsuggest.smashsworld.com/

Labels: digg, diggsuggest

--- Wednesday, February 13, 2008

My new project... 73git.

Permalink: 2/13/2008 11:05:00 AM

I made this new site called 73git that literally posts a new story... every 10 minutes, and it actually ended-up looking pretty cool! I didn't think that it could be done, but I guess it ends up being an experiment, hopefully successful. Check it out!

Labels: 73git

Link

--- Monday, February 11, 2008

The "Err" sign I built with Peggy. (make yours today!)

Permalink: 2/11/2008 12:37:00 AM

EvilMadScientist sells a kit called "Peggy" that allows you to build all sorts of things... including a Mooninite-sign from the ATHF bomb-scare in Boston, if you're crafty-enough.

Disclaimer: I highly recommend you have a good amount of soldering and electrical experience before attempting this, though. It wasn't a difficult kit to build (although it's very time-consuming and requires exceptional attention to detail in certain areas), but it's also not something that would be easy to learn-on either.

I built this sign in about 4-hours on Friday night and gave it to my friend for his birthday afterward, but I'll have to fix it later since 100 Blue-LEDs turned out to NOT be enough to finish "Err's" arm... I had to use some of the leftover pink ones and that made the Volkswagen symbol in his hand look more like some sort of torch or whip... haha.

I will fix that later.

Anyway, the only other major complaint I had with the kit was that the photo-sensor that they include (at least right now) isn't sensitive-enough for indoor use. I bought one of those 5-Packs of Photocell sensors for like $4 at Radioshack and just used one of those instead... much better. (video attached below)

UPDATE ON THIS: Apparently you can program the IC to handle different levels of light, or even they can do it for you before they ship the kit to you. So this is no longer an issue.

Some of Err's features (like his eyebrows) aren't on the grid of LEDs that Peggy offers, either... you have to be a bit creative on bending the leads for each LED and this becomes quite time-consuming. However, it's still a lot of fun to build... and if you're mad-skilled you can reprogram the IC (integrated-circuit) to control the lights more specifically (to make Err's eyebrows blink... or something.) By default, all of the lights are on unless you have it set to turn-off with the lights or daytime are present.

"Peggy" isn't just for building Mooninite signs, though! You can make whatever you want in whatever color you want, and even program it to flash, blink, etc. as I hinted-at above. I won't be doing that, but I will definitely be working on some other designs for friends in the future. It's a great gift and makes anyone's home just a-bit-more cutting-edge. ;)

Instructions, initial soldering:

After about 1 and a 1/2 hours I had all of the components and the first, test LED mounted and soldered:

Then... continued mounting and soldering the rest over the next 2 hours:

The finished project is shown below for scale. As you can see, there are some leftover Pink LEDs being used in the right-arm, I'm going to swap them out at a later date so that you can really see the "VW" clearly! (we are all Volkswagen enthusiasts, haha)

Pretty awesome kit. Check out their website for more stuff they make with electronic-components and simple circuits.

Labels: ATHF, LEDs, mooninites, Peggy

--- Thursday, January 31, 2008

Over 10-Million Served!

Permalink: 1/31/2008 01:19:00 PM

This morning, Mobile17's odometer rolled-over to 10-Million pieces of mobile-content created. It is a big-day for the company and you all can expect many great things to come. :)