Sex and Blinky LEDs At Burning Man

[Bunnie] was at Burning Man this year, and to illuminate his camp members in the dark and dusty nights of the playa, he created a blinky badge. This isn’t just any badge stuffed with RGB LEDs; each of the badges were unique by the end of Burning Man. These badges were made unique not by twiddling dials or pressing buttons; all the color patterns were bred with badge sex.

This social experiment to replicate nature’s most popular means of creating more nature is built around a peer to peer radio. Each badge is equipped with a radio, a circle of …read more

via Hackaday http://ift.tt/1Jzh8Qj

Gear generator tool allows you to design full gear trains and see them in action!

This new online Gear Generator tool can be used to simulate sets of spur gears. You can plug in all kinds of a parameters, and then animate the gears at various speed to demonstrate working mechanism. You can also download the final results in SVG format. The tool allows you compose full gear layouts with connected gears to design multiple gears system with control of the input/output ratio and rotation speed. The gears are of the involute type which is what most of the world wants -- except perhaps for the clockmakers. This tool is fantastically useful and very well designed too!

Here is where you can check out and use the free online Gear Generator tool.

To learn more about gear design, check out these great reference books such as Dudley's Handbook of Practical Gear Design and Manufacture, which provides comprehensive information on the design and manufacture of gears for the expert and novice alike. Topics include: Gear Types and Nomenclature, Gear Tooth Design, Gear Reactions and Mountings, Gear Vibration, and The Evolution of the Gear Art.

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via The Automata Blog http://ift.tt/1xQGJjd

Biting off more

I am really really really really really really really really really really excited. It’s a lovely feeling, and not one you’re treated to very often as a grown-up. Even though my life is, by some people’s standards, a lot more exciting than the average, it’s often difficult to see it that way from the inside. [...]



via That Emily Chappell http://ift.tt/1wrjtvW

The Queen dressed as a cat purring down the phone to David...

The Queen dressed as a cat purring down the phone to David Cameron

As requested by Michael Gibb



Following yesterday’s purr-gate, here’s how I envisage it went down.

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