Archive for the ‘robots’ Category

Mars Science Labratory Animation

Animation of entry/descent/landing sequence of the JPL Mars Science Laboratory, which will launch in fall 2011 and arrive at Mars in 2012.

The Single Helix Produced by Armando

Electronic dance and breakbeat instrumentals from young Chicago composer, Armando Perez from Belmont Electric Studios on the DILLIGAF Label print. Eclectic, experimental and memorable. This album is the soundtrack to a house party or even an ambiant afternoon to yourself.

Feel free to the download the album here and leave feedback if you could….

If you dig it, please buy the album at CD Baby and look for it on iTunes in the near future!

Virtual handbags

Working through a social lens, there seems to be a shift in options for entertainment and web services. Virtual goods are are now extending their reach in becoming virtual handbags; goods that could double as cash redemptions or coupons in the real world.

"People don’t want to click on an ad while playing a game. They don’t want to be thrown out of the application (to view the ad)," said Netanel Jacobsson, a former Facebook executive who now advises the online social gaming firm Crowdstar. U.S. Internet ad revenue fell 5.3 percent to $10.9 billion in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.

: reuters :

Analogue Hybrid Public Spaces

Cement-lined canal and cross-flow system in the Chiregad irrigation system in Nepal (image)

Juan Freire gives his seven observations on hybrid public spaces and analogue commons at the Visualizer Workshop in Medialab Prado, Madrid.

1. What are the commons?, What is the pro-common?
2. Do public spaces suffer from a Tragedy of the Commons or from a Tragedy of the Anti-Commons?
3. Post-modern public space
4. Do public spaces still exist?
5. The hybrid public spaces of the net society
6. The future of hyperlocal networks
7. The hidden face of the hybrid public spaces.

: we-make-money-not-art :

Akinator, the Web Genius

MNP has a small challenge. Think of somebody famous real or unreal…. OK got it?

Test your regimen with Akinator, the Web Genius, if he does not guess your character correctly MNP will serve you with a coupon worth a couple of G’s at the nearest Grey Poupon restaurant. Not really, but check the site and challenge your wits!

MakerBeam

Over on Kickstarter there’s a project called MakerBeam to make an open-source building kit. Something like Meccano, but open-source, and based on a T-slot aluminum profile. They promise us it will be good for robots. Open-source fire-breathing robot spiders? We can only hope.

On the Kickstarter project site you can view in an informative video of the kit.

As they say, "We’ve never seen a hammer company go broke because hammers aren’t patented; we think we’ll do okay."

They aim to go public with kits at Maker Faire 2010.

Check it out.

::all text and images courtesy of Sam Putman at Makerbeam

Advertising…On the Moon

While obviously ridiculous for any number of reasons, a company called Moon Publicity is insisting that they are developing what they call ‘shadow shaping’ technology - which would allow them to place your advertisement on the Lunar surface. A robotic rover would basically leave impressions on the Moon’s surface with it’s wheels, which are designed to be visible from the Earth due to the shadow cast. The rover drives around, creates your ad or logo, and terrestrial viewers run out to buy your product. When time is up on your ad, I assume, things raked smooth somehow and the space is sold again.

Somewhere, a true ninja is crying at the mere thought of this.

.:via -> Fast Company

Bruce Willis, Futuristic Sex0r

Now…I’m fully aware of these pics being real strange… but the photo spread is dope in a weird fifth element kind of way.  What I wasn’t aware of was that Bruce was such a sex symbol, but apparently he is.  In the spirit of ART FRIDAY, if the Rob0t Bunz is what you’re into - check out the link below.  [Ed. Note:  this is for all the moms out there who read myninjaplease!]

::[ Peep the semi-NSFW slideshow ]::

Musical Tesla Coils at Burning Flipside

Robotron at Robot Ninja introduced to the masses the tesla coil; here they go again with a not-as gangsterish DJ tesla coil sound system..